Sports briefs 10/23/04

Golf

• Briny Baird shot a 6-under 66 for a one-shot lead over Tom Lehman after the second round of the Funai Classic at Disney on Friday.

Baird, at 13-under 131, had seven birdies, six par saves and only 23 putts on the Palm course. Winless for almost five years, Lehman put himself in contention for the third straight week with a 66 on the Magnolia course. Hank Kuehne had a 64 on the Palm and finished in a group at 11-under 133 that included Cameron Beckman (65), Kirk Triplett (67) and Skip Kendall (67).

England's Paul Broadhurst shot a 6-under 65 to take a one-stroke lead after the second round of the Madrid Open.

Broadhurst, who hasn't won on the European tour in nine years, finished 10-under 132, just ahead of Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez (63), South Africa's Darren Fichardt (66) and Johan Edfors of Sweden (67).

Tom Kite grinded out a 2-under 70 in the second round to maintain his one-stroke lead over Morris Hatalsky, Dana Quigley and Hale Irwin in the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, the Champions Tour's season-ending event at Sonoma Golf Club.

Motorsports

• Ryan Newman must be close to perfect the rest of the way to win the Nextel Cup championship, and he took a positive step by grabbing the pole Friday at Martinsville Speedway for Sunday's Subway 500.

Newman, ninth among the 10 drivers in the series chase, led the way on the newly resurfaced oval where 17 drivers broke the track qualifying record. He turned a lap at 97.043 mph to win his series-high seventh pole of the season, breaking Tony Stewart's 4-year-old mark of 95.371.

Newman's Dodge will be joined on the front row by that of teammate Rusty Wallace, who qualified at 96.234.

Soccer

• A Japanese investment bank is exploring ways of blocking a possible takeover of Manchester United by American businessman Malcolm Glazer. Nomura, Japan's biggest investment bank, said Friday it was working with British investment banker Keith Harris on a financing package for the world's richest soccer club.

Tennis

• Andre Agassi, seeded second, defeated Tommy Robredo, 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-2, and will play No. 3 Marat Safin of Russia in one of today's semifinals at the Madrid Masters. Safin beat Peru's Luis Horna 6-4, 6-4.

Ivan Ljubicic, an unseeded Croatian, and David Nalbandian of Argentina will meet in the other semifinal.

-- From wire reports