Slotmachines » Bad decisions, bad penalties, getting out

SHENZHEN, China -- Alvaro Quiros and Simon Dyson each shot a 5-under 67 to share the lead after the first round of the China Open on Thursday. The pair were a stroke ahead of a group of six golfers that included defending champion Brett Rumford of Australia and Alexander Levy of France, who briefly moved into a tie with Quiros and Dyson in the growing darkness on his back nine but bogeyed the par-3 8th hole before play was suspended. He has one hole remaining to play. Englands Ian Poulter was in a group of 12 golfers just behind at 3-under on a crowded leaderboard. Henrik Stenson, who has a chance to take over the top ranking from Tiger Woods with a win here, had a 71. The Swede, currently ranked third, has been battling the flu this week and didnt get in any practice time on the course at Genzon Golf Club before the opening round. "Im not throwing up but Im not too keen on eating and my energy levels arent the best," he said. "Its not easy to play a golf course blind, and it definitely costs a couple of shots when you havent seen it, or havent played it." Chinese 15-year-old Guan Tianlang, who became the youngest player to make the cut at the Masters last year, was level with Stenson at 71. "I think today I played pretty consistently. My putting feels good, but needs a couple changes so if tomorrow I got more birdies, will keep me going," he said. Quiros has six wins on the European Tour, but hasnt had a top-3 finish in the past three seasons. The Spaniard said hes worked on improving his putting this year and the results are starting to come -- he finished tied for fifth at the Joburg Open in February and then joint 13th last week at the Malaysian Open. "You cant see it yet on the rankings, but I have been playing better," said the Spaniard, ranked a lowly 240th in the world. Dyson, who also has six wins on tour but none since 2011, said he played some of his best golf in a long time during his round, sinking six birdies to go with one bogey. "I really didnt miss a shot. I missed two fairways just, and didnt miss a green so gave myself a lot chances, which is always nice," he said. Stenson is coming off a banner year that saw him become the first golfer to win the European Tours Race to Dubai and the U.S. PGA Tours FedEx Cup in the same season. Hes gotten off to a slow start this season, however, with his best finish a tie for 14th at the Masters. According to the European Tour, Stenson can nudge Woods out of the top spot in the rankings this week only if wins the tournament and there are no withdrawals in the field to affect the maximum number of points hed receive. The Swede had back-to-back birdies on his first two holes, but then struggled to find the fairway and greens down the stretch, making four bogeys. He blamed the state of the rough for some "horrific lies." "I took a six on 13 by just being off the green -- you cant even get the ball hardly on the green to save par. I think its a course that when the rough gets that silly in certain areas, it kind of takes away a lot of skill," he said. Poulter is also looking for a boost, which he typically gets in Asia. Hes won three titles here, including the 2012 HSBC Champions at Mission Hills in Shenzhen. He had four birdies and narrowly missed a couple others, including a 6-footer on the 9th that would have moved him into a share of the lead. "Coming from Augusta National, where (the greens) are quite quick, you come here and the greens are very slow," he said. "Even the putts that look downhill, down grain, are just not very quick and it takes some adjusting to." Asics Clearance Canada .Boston beat the Nashville Predators 5-3 on Tuesday night and celebrated consecutive wins for the first time in more than a month. Wholesale Asics Shoes .C. -- The Steve Smith era in Carolina is over. http://www.discountasicscanada.com/. Top-seeded Djokovic, who is making only his second appearance this year after reaching the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, was a 6-3, 6-3 winner over 54th-ranked Istomin of Uzbekistan. "It wasnt as easy as the scoreline indicates," said Djokovic, who has won in Dubai on four occasions. Asics Shoes Clearance Canada . Top-seeded Djokovic swept to a 6-1, 6-3 win over 51st-ranked Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain in just 57 minutes, but fourth-seeded Federer had to see off a serious challenge from 48th-ranked Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic before coming through 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-3. Asics Shoes Canada Online .com) - Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer were among the third-round winners Friday at the French Open.WASHINGTON -- The Washington Capitals found a way to tie a back-and-forth game with 3:27 left against Ottawa on Wednesday night. It lasted just 64 seconds before Zack Smith and the Senators retook the lead. Bobby Ryan scored two goals and the Senators topped the Capitals 6-4. "The big test for us was when they tied the game. We didnt handle momentum swings very well in the first period or in some previous games," said Ottawa coach Paul MacLean, whose team has dropped four of five coming in. Smith scored the go-ahead goal with 2:23 remaining when he took a pass from Chris Neil at centre ice, skated in against defenceman Nate Schmidt and beat goaltender Braden Holtby from the left circle. Smiths goal came after Washingtons John Carlson tied the game with Smith in the penalty box. Chris Phillips had a goal and an assist, and Mika Zibanejad and Colin Greening added goals for Ottawa. Erik Karlsson had two assists for the Senators, who trailed 3-1 after one period. "Obviously a huge two points for us tonight," Phillips said. "We need to build off this momentum and keep it going. We look at the standings and were not in a great spot right now. We need to get on a bit of a roll." It was Ottawas first win in regulation at the Verizon Center since March 12, 2006. Eric Fehr, Marcus Johansson and Brooks Laich also scored for Washington, which led 3-1 before dropping its fourth straight. "We played a solid game (losing Saturday) in Toronto; we played lousy tonight," Capitals coach Adam Oates said. "Not good decisions. We get a lead and we still dont do the right things." Zibanejad had given Ottawa a 4-3 lead at 6:05 of the third when he deflected a Jason Spezza shot past Holtby for Ottawas third power-play goal of the game. Craig Anderson stopped 29 shots for Ottawa. Holtby made 35 saves for Washington. Trailing 3-1 after one period, Ottawa tied it in the second as it outshot the Capitals 19-3. "A lot of angry guys in here," Anderson said of the Ottawa locker room after the first 20 minutes. "We werent happy with our effort that first periiod.dddddddddddd Obviously not happy with being down by two goals. But we held ourselves accountable. Each and every guy knew it wasnt good enough." With a man advantage, Phillips skated down the left side and blasted a shot from the circle over Holtbys glove to make it 3-2 at 6:36 of the second period. Exactly four minutes later, Greening tied it when he beat Holtby with a shot through traffic from the right circle. "We had them," Carlson said. "We were close to putting our stamp on it. But we let them back." After totalling three goals in its three previous games, Washington scored three in less than three minutes during the first period. They broke a 1-1 tie with two goals 47 seconds apart. During a power play, Alex Ovechkins shot was deflected in front and Johansson banged the puck home at the 14:06 mark. Washington made it 3-1 when Jason Chimeras pass deflected off Joel Wards skate behind the end line out in front to Laich, who beat Anderson with a backhand for his fourth goal. "We saw a very good hockey team in the first period with 18 shots and three goals and did a lot of things right," Laich said, "and for the rest of the game we saw a very bad hockey team. Bad decisions, bad penalties, getting outworked." The Capitals took a 1-0 lead at 12:10 on a delayed penalty call when Fehr wristed a shot home from the slot. Ottawa tied it on a power play just over a minute later as Ryan deflected Patrick Wierciochs shot from the point for his 12th goal. It was the first time this season the Capitals have allowed three power-play goals in a game, and the Washington penalty kill unit has given up at least one goal in the past six games. NOTES: Capitals F Martin Erat, who on Monday demanded a trade, was a healthy scratch for the second straight game. ... Washington recalled D Tyson Strachan from Hershey of the AHL. Strachan fought Neil after Neil levelled Schmidt late in the first period. ... Ottawas Mark Borowiecki (neck strain) was out of the lineup. The defenceman was rammed into the boards Sunday by Carolina F Kevin Westgarth, who received a two-game suspension for the hit. ' ' '