DES MOINES, Iowa -- Mark Calcavecchia appeared to be off to yet another slow start after only two strokes.
[b]Don Wells Jersey Store[/b] . He managed to save par, and went on to put together his best opening round of the year. Calcavecchia and Wes Short Jr. shot 6-under 66 on Friday at Wakonda Club to share the lead in the Champions Tours Principal Charity Classic. Bobby Clampett, Peter Senior and Shane Lowery were a stroke back. Calcavecchia, who lived in nearby Laurel, Nebraska until he was 13, said the rolling hills of the Wakonda Club reminded him of the course he learned to play on. He finished third in Iowa last season, and four straight birdies on the back nine helped put him atop the leaderboard. "Im comfortable on the course," Calcavecchia said. "Its still tough, and you still have to execute under pressure and handle your nerves and stuff. But the course does suit me." It didnt look that way on the first hole. Calcavecchia sent his approach flying over the green. But he put his next shot within 10 feet and made the par putt for his first and perhaps best save of the day. Calcavecchia entered Friday ranked 63rd in opening-round scoring average, but fifth for final rounds. "It was looking like I was going to bogey the first hole right off the hop," Calcavecchia said. Short followed an eagle on the 15th hole with a bogey. But Short, who has been up and down since opening the season with 10th- and 11th-place finishes, made a birdie putt on No. 18 to tie Calcavecchia. Shorts 66 snapped a stretch of six straight rounds of 70 or higher. "Its been a long road for me. I was hurt for a number of years," said Short, who has long battled back issues. "I put a lot of work into it and its starting to pay off." Clampett, whose best finish was a tie for 29th in March, got stuck in the bunker on the par-4 12th and mishit his approach en route to a bogey. But when faced with a similar shot on the next hole, Clampett holed out from 40 feet for eagle. It was an encouraging start for Clampett, who shot his low round of the year. Jay Haas began his attempt to become just the third player to win the same tournament four times with a 69. But history isnt on Haass side, as no one has rallied from more than two strokes down to win in the 14-year history of the Iowa tournament. Defending champion Russ Cochran had the days worst round, shooting a 6-over 78.
[b]Will Herring Jersey Store[/b] . Jose Bautista homered for the fifth straight game in the sixth inning, following a two-out solo homer by Melky Cabrera. Edwin Encarnacion led off the seventh with a homer to tie the game 3-3 and, with two out in the seventh, Munenori Kawasaki came through with the two-out single to score pinch-runner Steve Tolleson with what proved to be the winning run.
[b]Dave Pacella Jersey Store[/b] ." One game is checked off, 15 remain and the next one to get crossed out could come Tuesday night when the defending champion Heat host the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference playoff series.LONDON -- Petra Kvitova beat fellow Czech left-hander Lucie Safarova 7-6
, 6-1 on Thursday to advance to the Wimbledon final and a chance to win her second title at the All England Club. Kvitova, the only player born in the 1990s to have won a major title -- here in 2011 -- improved her record to 25-5 on the Wimbledon grass and shes made at least the quarter-finals five years in a row. "I know how (it feels) when you hold the trophy so I really want to win my second title here and I will do everything I can," Kvitova said. She will play the winner of the later semifinal between French Open finalist and No. 3-seeded Simona Halep of Romania and Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que., the 13th-seeded player and only woman to have advanced to all three Grand Slam semifinals this year. It was the first Grand Slam semifinal between two Czech women. It marked No. 6-seeded Kvitovas 15th consecutive win against a left-hander and she beat 23rd-seeded Safarova -- who was playing on Centre Court for the first time -- for the sixth match in a row. "I dont have words to describe my feeling right now," Kvitova said. "It was a tough match mentally, as well, because Lucie is a good friend of mine. We know each (other) very well off the court and on the court, as well." Safarova, the oldest of the four semifinalists at 27, was broken in the first game, the final two points of the game coming with two Kvitova forehand winners to an open corner. But Safarova, who had only four unforced errors in the first set and seven for the match, broke back in the fourth game, and the two stayed on serve until the tiebreaker.
[b]Lew Reeve Jersey Store[/b]. With the score tied at 6-6 in the tiebreaker, Safarovas forehand error into the net gave Kvitova her second set point, and Kvitova converted it with a running cross-court winner, pumping her fist and yelling out. Kvitova broke Safarova, who beat five-time champion Venus Williams in the third round, in the second game of the second set on her third break-point chance, then consolidated it after two deuces in the next game to go up 3-0. She went ahead 4-1 after saving a break point in the fifth game, broke again in the sixth game and then held her serve at love in the final game. She set up match point with an ace and clinched it on a cross-court backhand in 1 hour, 20 minutes. Kvitova saved her best for last: up to 6-all in the tiebreaker, Safarova had won more total points, 40-39. From there, though, Kvitova won 31 of the last 48 points in the match. "I tried to be focused from the beginning of the second set when I won the tiebreak, and really I (broke) her when she was serving for the first time and I just kept it going," Kvitova said. Safarova was playing in her first major semifinal and had been 4-8 at Wimbledon in eight previous tournaments, never advancing beyond the third round. The men had the day off Thursday ahead of Fridays semifinals when seven-time champion Roger Federer plays Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., and top-seeded Novak Djokovic plays Bulgarias Grigor Dimitrov. The winners will play Sunday in the final. ' ' '
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