Sorenstam, the Australian Open champion, eagled the last for her 68 while Alison Nicholas erased two sixes with a run of three birdies in four holes from the 10th for her 71.. Johnson was certainly making the most of the conditions when she reached five-under following a birdie at the 12th hole. She completed her round with a drive and seven iron to the 447- yard 18th for her fifth birdie of the day.It left Davies alongside her Solheim Cup colleagues Trish Johnson, Annika Sorenstam and Catrin Nilsmark from Sweden, and Lisa Hackney, but one stroke behind Helen Wadsworth, from Wales, who leads on 67, a new course record.Wadsworth, who finished second in the South African Open earlier this year, only once exceeded par when a two-iron tee shot found sand at the short 14th hole before making birdies at two of the next three holes to come home in 33.Lake Geneva, overlooked by the course, was like a millpond on a benign hot day. GOLF

Laura Davies shrugged off a 10-day break from golf with yet another impressive display with a 68, four under par, in the opening round of the Evian Masters here yesterday, writes Bill Johnson from Evian.
“I am amazed how well I hit the ball after a rest,” said the swashbuckling Davies, whose only dropped shot was at the third where she drove into a bunker. He also has two mounts – the 11-year- old Loch Alan and Cosmopolitan, who is eight.Ian Stark, who was runner-up last year on Kilcoran, will attempt to go one better on the eight-year-old Forest Glen. The Scot is already short- listed for September’s European Open Championships.WORLD THREE-DAY EVENT RANKINGS (Standings in global section): 1 B Davidson (US) 311pts; 2 M Ryan (Aus) 181; 3 A Nicholson (NZ) 169; 4 M Thomson (GB) 146; 5 K Gifford (GB) 120; 6 K O’Connor (US) 108.. The New Zealander should get off the mark at Bramham, where he rode Aspyring to victory last year.

This time he has two nine-year-old mounts: Chesterfield and Darby.William Fox-Pitt, who was in the lead at Badminton until Chaka failed the last horse inspection, will be hoping for better fortune this weekend. Voinea, the 20-year-old Romanian qualifier who eliminated Boris Becker in the third round, had amused the crowd by waving his arms in the air in mock triumph, and they did not appreciate Chang’s reluctance to join in the fun.”I actually thought he was conceding the match,” Chang said, adding that he was not inclined to participate in antics which might break his concentration The result: 7-5, 6-0, 6-1.. EQUESTRIANISM

Blyth Tait, who won the global section of the Land Rover World Rankings last year, will be hoping to open his account for 1995 when he competes at the Toyota Bramham Three-Day Event which begins today in Yorkshire, writes Genevieve Murphy.
Having been forced to withdraw from the Badminton and Windsor three-day events because of problems with his horses, Tait has yet to acquire any points towards this year’s rankings. He declined to indulge in a handshake proffered by his opponent, Adrian Voinea, who had just halted a losing sequence of 13 consecutive games after failing to convert two set points at 5-4 in the opening set. “I thought he was going to default, so I stopped my legs, and he started playing well.”Chang also managed to fall foul of the crowd, by allowing professionalism to overrule a sense of humour.

If anything, the Italian’s physical problems had a bigger affect on Bruguera.”I saw he was hurt and I thought he couldn’t run any more, and then I relaxed too much,” the Spaniard said. “I thought he couldn’t run, and it was a sort of test,” he said.Furlan, who failed to convert seven break points in losing the opening five games, did not blame the nagging injury for his defeat. The Spaniard was greeted by boos from a section of the crowd, but the only other occasion he incurred further displeasure was when he played a drop-shot to win a point shortly after Norris had applied a support to Furlan’s injured left thigh.Bruguera explained that he simply wanted to explore the extent of his opponent’s problem, which seemed a sensible thing to do. Bruguera, the champion for the past two years, and Chang, who in 1989 here became the youngest winner of a Grand Slam men’s singles title (17 and three months), advanced yesterday to meet in the semi-finals, Muster and Kafelnikov having already made their appointment.Not least of their considerations is the mood of the spectators, who have become increasingly responsive to the behaviour of the players since Bruguera’s five-minute protest over a line call during his fourth round match against Magnus Larsson.Bruguera feared a hostile reception when he returned to the Centre Court yesterday, but he managed to negotiate a laborious win against the Italian Renzo Furlan, 6-2, 7-5, 6-2, with a minimum of jeering. “He told me, ‘I’m going to get back and ready for Wimbledon’. He’s really determined.”Determination is likely to be the deciding factor among the men Agassi left behind to finish the duelling here at Stade Roland Garros. “I don’t really know how fast his recovery time is from something like this.”A thoroughly depressed Agassi had an earnest conversation with Norris on leaving the court here after Kafelnikov had ended the American’s sequence of 18 consecutive Grand Slam wins from the start of last year’s United States Open through the Australian championships in January “He was close to tears,” Norris said.