VALENCIA, Spain-- U.S. challenger BMW Oracle won the opening race of the 33rd America's Cup on Friday, beating Swiss holders Alinghi by more than 3 km (2 miles) in a stunning display of hi-tech sailing.
Software mogul Larry Ellison's BMW Oracle started badly but was clearly faster than Ernesto Bertarelli's Alinghi and opened a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series with surprising ease.
The American trimaran finished the 40 nautical mile course more than 15 minutes ahead of Alinghi, scything through the water at speeds of more than 20 knots with two of its three carbon-fibre hulls raised high in the air.
The second race between the two giant multi-hull yachts is scheduled for Sunday off the Spanish port city of Valencia, with Ellison having the chance to win the Cup for the United States for the first time since 1992.
"We've won one race and you have to win two. We're focused on just one thing and that's the race on Sunday," Ellison told a news conference.
Alinghi is better suited to lighter conditions but BMW Oracle showed a clear advantage over the Swiss catamaran both upwind and downwind, indicating Bertarelli's seven-year hold on the America's Cup may be slipping.
Bertarelli said a mistake in choosing the right sails for the conditions had cost his boat and that he had also been surprised by the strength of the wind, which gusted up to 17 knots.
"We have a number of options," biotechnology and banking billionaire Bertarelli said.
"The Cup is not over. Today it just happened that their boat was faster. They sailed a good race," he said.
BMW Oracle skipper James Spithill lured Alinghi into a penalty during aggressive pre-start manoeuvres, the Swiss boat with Bertarelli at the helm failing to give way just before the starting gun.
Australian Spithill then appeared to undo his good work, stalling at the start line because a winch used to raise and lower sails failed to engage properly.
What Spithill described as "a fumble" allowed Alinghi to open a lead of 650 metres soon after the start in 6-10 knot winds.
The error did not hold BMW Oracle back for long.
With its unique wing-shaped mast and mainsail configuration -- twice the size of a commercial jetliner's wing -- it soon overtook Alinghi and led by 450 metres halfway up the first leg.
"The piece of kit that we're most proud of is the wing," Ellison said.
The American boat was 3 minutes 21 seconds ahead at the halfway mark after the first upwind leg and widened its lead on the downwind leg, reaching speeds of about 25 knots. Spithill said he was surprised by the boat's speed downwind.
Alinghi's official losing margin was blown out to 15 minutes 28 seconds after the Swiss boat was forced to perform a penalty turn -- which it botched -- before crossing the finish line because of its pre-start transgression.
It was the biggest winning margin in America's Cup racing since Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes -- also a catamaran -- beat a New Zealand monohull in two races in 1988.
The race had been postponed twice this week because of unsuitable weather.
The regatta itself was delayed during more than two years of often bitter legal wrangling between the teams which Ellison's co-sponsor, German carmaker BMW, has described as a disaster.
The event had been scheduled for 2009 but was delayed by the legal battles over hosting rights and technology which led to a three-race series without the usual challengers regatta.
The legal battles over rules -- governed by a 19th century "Deed of Gift" -- resulted in two multi-hulls sailing against each other for the first time in the Cup's 159-year history.
MILAN-- AC Milan warmed up for next week's Champions League clash against Manchester United with a patchy 3-2 home win over Udinese in Serie A on Friday.
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, starting in place of the injured Marco Borriello, headed the opener on seven minutes from a Ronaldinho cross and the Dutch striker also made it 3-1 in the second half after poor Udinese defending.
Substitute Alexandre Pato netted Milan's second on his return from a thigh injury when he ran on to a long ball and appeared to have made a mess of rounding the goalkeeper before slotting home six minutes before the break.
Udinese, who had beaten Milan in the league and cup already this term, pulled one back on the stroke of halftime when shaky keeper Dida failed to keep out a header from Antonio Floro Flores.
Antonio Di Natale beat the offside trap to make it 3-2 four minutes from the end and give Milan some late jitters.
Milan moved back up to second spot, eight points behind leaders Inter Milan, but AS Roma can leapfrog Leonardo's side with a win over Palermo on Saturday.
Former United midfielder David Beckham started on the bench for the second straight match and will now be fretting over his place for Tuesday's Champions League last-16 first leg at home.
The Rossoneri, who have played the same number of games as Roma, lost new winger Mancini to a first-half injury and coach Leonardo opted to bring on Brazilian forward Pato for his first appearance this year rather than turn to Beckham.
The England player came on for the impressive Ronaldinho with 15 minutes left but played one dreadful pass which almost led to another goal for Di Natale.
Milan's Alessandro Nesta returned from injury but fellow centre back Thiago Silva was forced off with a knock.
United boss Alex Ferguson was watching in the San Siro stands and will not have been quaking in his boots despite Milan ending a four-match winless run.
MADRID-- Atletico Madrid set up a King's Cup final against Sevilla when they went through 6-3 on aggregate despite conceding two late goals to lose 3-2 at Racing Santander in their semi-final second leg on Thursday.
Atletico thrashed Racing 4-0 at the Calderon in last week's first leg but were rocked in only the second minute in Santander when defender Juan Valera headed into his own net from a corner.
Valera made amends six minutes later when he burst into the penalty area and pressured Jose Moraton into diverting a Jose Antonio Reyes freekick past goalkeeper Mario Fernandez.
Atletico midfielder Jurado snuffed out any hopes of an unlikely Racing comeback shortly after halftime when he exchanged passes with Sergio Aguero and curled the ball into the bottom corner with the outside of his right foot.
Christian Fernandez was shown a straight red card with just over 20 minutes left after catching Atletico substitute Ibrahima Balde in the face with a forearm and late goals from Racing strikers Xisco and Mohamed Tchite were mere consolations.
Sevilla, the 2007 King's Cup winners, won last week's first leg at home to Getafe 2-0 and hung on to clinch a 2-1 aggregate win after losing 1-0 in Madrid on Wednesday.
STOCKHOLM-- Finland's Mikko Hirvonen took charge of the season-opening Sweden Rally on Friday while debutant Kimi Raikkonen lost 25 minutes after becoming stuck in a snow bank.
Ford's Hirvonen, who lost the title to six-times champion Sebastien Loeb by a point last season, won three stages in the day after his French rival had seized the first two on the ice and snow covered roads around Karlstad.
"It's been good and since the last stage this morning we've found a good rhythm," Hirvonen told www.wrc.com. "We're not too far ahead yet though so we have to try and keep this up."
Hirvonen held a 6.2-second advantage over Loeb's Citroen ahead of Saturday's penultimate day, with Dani Sordo third after winning Thursday's super-special first stage. Raikkonen, making his world rally championship debut after switching from Formula One, was more than 30 minutes behind the leader following an accident near the end of stage six.
The Finn drove his Citroen Junior team C4 into a heavy snow drift and freed himself almost half an hour later.
PARIS-- American Melanie Oudin thrashed experienced Swiss Patty Schnyder 6-1 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals at the Paris Open on Thursday.
The teenager, who had dropped just three games in her first round annihilation of Romania's Sorana Cirstea, breezed past her 31-year-old opponent in just over an hour.
Oudin's return of serve was superb as she stormed through the first set losing just one game. The world number 53 was almost as impressive taking the second set.
The 18-year-old, who reached the last eight at the U.S. Open, now faces Hungary's Agnes Szavay who beat Croatian Petra Martic 6-2 6-4.
Oudin's win sets up the possibility of a semi-final meeting with top seed and world number seven Elena Dementieva.
The Russian must first get past Germany's Andrea Petkovic who dashed French hopes of a quarter-finalist when she battled past fifth seed Aravane Rezai 6-3 3-6 6-3.
On the other side of the draw, Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic booked her place in the last eight with a 7-5 6-2 win over fourth seed Francesca Schiavone.
Safarova broke the Italian at 5-5 in the first and then held to take the set. The Czech broke Schiavone immediately in the second set before going on to triumph 7-5 6-2.
"I wanted to push her back into the trenches," said Safarova. "I really had to give 100 percent to win this match. It was pretty tight and difficult, so I'm glad to have made it through."
Her next opponent will be sixth seed Shahar Peer of Israel who cruised through with a 6-4 6-3 win over Croatia's Karolina Sprem.
In Friday's other quarter-final, number two seed Flavia Pennetta will meet fellow Italian Tathiana Garbin.
