In Brief

GOLF

Bubba Watson wins playoff
to claim Zurich Classic title

Bubba Watson won the Zurich Classic on Sunday for his second PGA Tour victory of the year and third overall, holing a 3-foot birdie putt on the second hole of a playoff with Webb Simpson in Avondale, La.

After his 329-yard drive narrowly stayed out of the water and landed in a fairway bunker, Watson hit his second shot 210 yards to the green on the 568-yard, par-5 18th.

Simpson's second shot landed in a bunker short of the green, and he blasted out to 12 feet.

After Simpson narrowly missed his birdie putt, Watson holed out for the win.

Simpson, winless on the PGA Tour, was assessed a one-stroke penalty on 15 when his ball moved as he was addressing it on the green.

Also: Maria Hjorth took advantage of Alexis Thompson's collapse in a failed bid to become the youngest LPGA Tour winner, rallying to win the Avnet LPGA Classic in Mobile, Ala., for her fifth tour title.

Hjorth shot her second straight 5-under 67 to finish at 10-under 278, two strokes ahead of Song-Hee Kim (71).

The 16-year-old Thompson, tied for the lead with Kim entering the round, shot 78 to drop into a tie for 19th at 1-under 287.

Top-ranked Lee Westwood rallied to win the Ballantine's Championship for his second straight victory, shooting 5-under 67 for a one-stroke victory over Miguel Angel Jimenez (71) in Seoul, South Korea.

Westwood, the English star who won the Asian Tour's Indonesian Masters last week to regain the No. 1 spot in the world, finished at 12-under 276.

TENNIS

Djokovic stays perfect in 2011
with win in Serbia Open final

Novak Djokovic defeated Feliciano Lopez 7-6 (4), 6-2 to win the Serbia Open in Belgrade, Serbia, for his fifth title and 27th straight victory this season.

The Australian Open champion was not always at his best, with six double faults in a match often played in rain.

Also: Nikolay Davydenko won his second BMW Open title by beating Florian Mayer of Germany 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in Munich, Germany.

Juan Martin del Potro beat Fernando Verdasco 6-2, 6-2 in the Estoril Open final at Oeiras, Portugal, winning his first clay-court event of the year.

It was the 2009 US Open champion's 10th career win and second title since coming back from wrist surgery last year.

MISCELLANEOUS

UNLV baseball team posts
sweep against New Mexico

The UNLV baseball team completed a three-game sweep of New Mexico with an 8-4 victory at Wilson Stadium.

Starter Max Javate got the win, allowing two hits and two runs, with three strikeouts and two walks.

Rance Roundy had a three-run homer in the fifth inning for the Rebels (28-18, 7-10 Mountain West Conference), and Hunter Beaty had two RBIs, on a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning and a triple in the eighth.

Also: A strong showing by Emily Blok helped the UNLV 4x100m and 4x400m relay teams to first-place finishes at the Steve Scott Invitational in Irvine, Calif.

Blok also ran in the 200m and 100m dashes and finished fourth (24.05) and fifth (11.92), respectively.

The original center court jump circle from UCLA's Pauley Pavilion netted $325,085 at auction. SCP Auctions said that it's the most someone has ever paid for any piece of college basketball memorabilia.

The 12-foot jump circle was used from 1965 to 1982 by the men's teams that won eight national championships and the women's team that won the 1978 national title. Former UCLA coach John Wooden and some of his greatest players, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton, signed the piece while it was in storage.

In the same online sports memorabilia auction, a mint-condition Wayne Gretzky NHL rookie card earned $94,163. SCP said that's the highest price ever paid for a hockey card.

Former heavyweight boxer Henry Cooper, one of Britain's most popular sportsmen who was best known for knocking down Muhammad Ali while he was still known as Cassius Clay, died at 76.

The first boxer to be knighted and receive the title "Sir" from a British monarch, Cooper died just two days before his 77th birthday, the British Boxing Board of Control said.

Arsenal threw open the title race with a 1-0 win over Manchester United that left the English Premier League leader vulnerable to a late charge by defending champion Chelsea.

Aaron Ramsey scored in the 56th minute to cap a dominant display by Arsenal and cut United's lead over Chelsea to three points with three games remaining. Arsenal is third, six points behind United.

NHL rookie of the year finalist Jeff Skinner scored twice for Canada, and the Olympic champions routed France 9-1 in Kosice, Slovakia, to earn a spot in the second round of the hockey world championship.