SPORTS WIRE: Mickelson wins in Shanghai

Thousands of fans caused a bottleneck at the entrance to the HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai, all of them eager to see the final-round showdown Sunday between Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods. The Shanghai surprise was that Woods turned out to be merely a spectator, too.

Mickelson built a six-shot lead over Woods on the front nine, then sank two clutch putts down the stretch to earn a one-shot victory over Ernie Els in the final World Golf Championship of the year. Mickelson closed with a 3-under-par 69 and won for the first time playing with Woods in the final group.

Even with Woods out of the picture -- he shot an even-par 72 and wound up five shots behind -- Mickelson provided his usual dose of entertainment. Trailing by one shot, Mickelson whiffed on a risky flop shot below the 16th green, only to save par by sinking an 18-foot slider that dropped on its final turn. He followed that with a 10-foot birdie putt on the 17th, which turned out to be the difference when Els -- who shot a 9-under 63 -- hit into the water on the 18th and made his only bogey of the day.

''We all expected that Tiger and myself would be shooting in the mid-60s and pull away a little bit,'' said Mickelson, who completed 72 holes at 17-under 271 and earned $1.2 million for his fourth victory of the year, matching his career best. ''And yet our group was not making any birdies. It was the groups in front of us. And I was very fortunate to come out on top by a shot. But this feels terrific because I had to fight very hard throughout the day. Nothing came easy.''

That was particularly true for Woods. He looked out of sorts from the start, missing birdie putts of four and 10 feet on the first three holes before making a double bogey on the fourth when he hit into a canal to the left of the green.

Hearing a series of camera shutters in the middle of his swing on the seventh caused Woods to hit his tee shot into a plugged lie in a bunker, and it took him three shots to cover the final 75 yards and reach the green for another bogey.

''Anything that could go wrong went wrong for me today,'' Woods said. ''Just one of those days.''

It ended with a wedge too strong that went down the bank and into the water on the 18th. Woods then had to wait for Mickelson to tap in for par and walk off the green to affectionate applause.

Top-seeded Roger Federer lost his hometown tournament, falling 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 to second-seeded Novak Djokovic in the final of the Swiss Indoors in Basel. Djokovic earned his fourth ATP Tour title of the season with a victory that ended Federer's run of three consecutive titles at the tournament where he was once a ballboy.

• Host Italy completed a 4-0 shutout of the United States to win its second Fed Cup title in four years. Flavia Pennetta topped Melanie Oudin 7-5, 6-2 to give Italy an insurmountable 3-0 lead in the best-of-five series. The other singles match was canceled before Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci topped Liezel Huber and Vania King in doubles.

Carolina Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward remained in a hospital in Columbus, Ohio, after his leg was cut by a skate in the first period of a game Saturday against the Blue Jackets. Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford said Ward is expected to return today to Raleigh, N.C., but might miss four weeks.

The Philadelphia Phillies declined their $5.5 million option on third baseman Pedro Feliz, who hit .266 with 12 home runs and 82 RBI this season, for 2010 and will pay him a $500,000 buyout. General manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said he won't rule out bringing back Feliz.

Chicago native Shani Davis won the 1,500 meters in a rink-record 1 minute, 44.47 seconds in the opening World Cup speedskating meet of the season in Berlin.

Sun-Times wires