Sports in brief: Choi fades, rallies for win at Samsung

Golf: Na Yeon Choi of South Korea lost her seven-stroke lead, then rallied to shoot 1-under-par 71 Sunday to win the Samsung World Championship, her first LPGA Tour victory.

Choi finished at 16-under-par 272 and held off runner-up Ai Miyazato of Japan, who shot a 69, the low round of the day at Torrey Pines in San Diego.

Choi faltered, making three consecutive bogeys starting at No. 9. She lost the lead on No. 14 when she three-putted for bogey. Miyazato made a bogey on the 18th to slip into a tie with Choi, who hit a 5-foot birdie putt for the win.

•Haas wins Greater Hickory Classic: Jay Haas overcame a slow start to shoot a 7-under 65, winning his second Greater Hickory Classic by two shots over Russ Cochran and Andy Bean in Conover, N.C.

Haas, who also won the Champions Tour event in 2005, set a tournament-record of 18-under 198 at Rock Barn Golf and Spa’s Robert Trent Jones course. His three-day total broke the mark set by R.W. Eaks in 2007 by one shot.

•American club pros win PGA Cup: Scott Hebert won all five of his matches, and the U.S. club pros dominated Great Britain & Ireland in singles for a 17 1/2 -8 1/2 victory in the PGA Cup in Luss, Scotland.

The Americans won 8 1/2 points from the 10 singles matches, beating by one point their largest margin of victory on foreign soil set in 1983 at Muirfield. The United States has twice won by 12 points playing at home.

The PGA Cup, which dates to 1973 and is patterned after the Ryder Cup, features club professionals. The Americans have a 16-5-3 lead in the series and have captured the cup 11 of the past 12 times.

Spain beats Israel 4-1 in Davis Cup

Tennis: Harel Levy of Israel beat Feliciano Lopez 7-5, 6-2 in the final reverse singles to avoid a 5-0 whitewash by defending champion Spain in the Davis Cup semifinals in Torre Pacheco, Spain.

Spain gained its seventh final and will host the Czech Republic, which defeated Croatia 4-1 in Porec, Croatia.

The Czechs had already secured a spot in the finals by taking a 3-0 lead over the first two days. Lovro Zovko gave Croatia its lone point with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Lukas Dlouhy.

For 2005 champion Croatia, it was only the second loss in 13 home matches in the Davis Cup.

•Peer wins Guangzhou Open: Shahar Peer of Israel has won her first WTA Tour title in three years, beating Alberta Brianti 6-3, 6-4 of Italy in the Guangzhou (China) Open final.

•Czink wins Bell Challenge: Melinda Czink won her first career singles title on the WTA Tour, beating Lucie Safarova 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 at the Bell Challenge in Quebec City.

In the doubles final, Vania King and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova defeated Sofia Arvidsson and Severine Bremond-Beltrame 6-1, 6-3.

Spain beats Serbia to win Eurobasket title

Miscellany: Pau Gasol had 18 points and 11 rebounds to lead world champion Spain to an 85-63 win over Serbia in the final of the European basketball championship in Katowice, Poland.

The victory gives Spain its first European title after six runner-up finishes, including a one-point loss two years ago to Russia in front of its home crowd. Earlier, Greece slipped past Slovenia 57-56 to win the bronze medal.

•Filly wins $1 million Woodbine Mile: Ventura has won the Woodbine Mile to become the first female to win the $1 million race at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto.

The 5-year-old mare rallied from well back in the field for her second victory of the year following a 4-year-old campaign in which she won the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint.

•Renault awaits decision in crash scandal: The Renault Formula One team will learn its fate today at a hearing into how its former driver Nelson Piquet Jr. was ordered by management to deliberately crash his car, a life-threatening move that further tarnishes a sport rocked by scandals and cheating.

F1 has been shaken by the news that Renault ordered its struggling Brazilian driver to plow his car into a concrete wall so that teammate Fernando Alonso could win the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

•Valverde wins Spanish Vuelta: Alejandro Valverde claimed the Spanish Vuelta by being the most consistent rider during the 21-stage race that began Aug. 29 in Assen, Netherlands, and ended in Madrid, Spain.

Samuel Sanchez of Spain was second overall, 55 seconds behind, while Australia’s Cadel Evans finished third, 1 minute, 32 seconds back.

•Liu Xiang nets second place in comeback race: Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang placed second at the Golden Grand Prix in Shanghai in his first race since a foot injury forced him to pull out of the Beijing Olympics.

Liu received boisterous applause from his hometown crowd and put his hand to his heart before collapsing on the track after finishing the 110-meter hurdles in 13.15 seconds. Terrance Trammell of the United States won the race in a photo finish.

•Gebrselassie wins Berlin Marathon: World-record holder Haile Gebrselassie won the Berlin Marathon for the fourth straight time despite struggling in the last third of a race run in sunny, warm weather.

The Ethiopian was on a pace to break his record for the first 18 miles but slowed once his last pacemaker dropped out. Gebrselassie was gritting his teeth by the time he finished under the Brandenburg Gate in 2 hours, 6 minutes, 8 seconds.