New Zealand's Danny Lee, still building on a confidence-boosting runner-up finish in Puerto Rico, seized a share of the first-round lead Thursday in the fog-delayed PGA Tour Texas Open.

Lee birdied four of his last five holes en route to a four-under par 68, joining American Pat Perez atop the leaderboard.

The Philadelphia 76ers tied the National Basketball Association record of 26 consecutive losses after being hammered 120-98 by the Houston Rockets on Thursday.

Philadelphia joins the 2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers for the longest single-season losing streak in history with 26 straight defeats.

World No. 1 Rafael Nadal advanced to the semi-finals of the ATP Tour's Miami Masters tournament Thursday by rallying to beat Canadian 12th seed Milos Raonic 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Spain's Nadal, who has lost three times in the Miami final, clinched the victory on the first match point in the third set when Raonic failed to reach a spinning serve out wide on hardcourts at the Crandon Park Tennis Center.

European football's governing body UEFA on Thursday unanimously adopted a resolution calling for "heavy sanctions" for those involved in match-fixing.

UEFA's 54 member associations, meeting in Astana adopted an 11-point resolution aiming to impose standard punishments across Europe.

Novak Djokovic eliminated defending champ Andy Murray in straight sets and while fifth seed Roger Federer was sent crashing out of the ATP Tour's Miami Masters tournament in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.

Federer lost 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 to Japanese 20th seed Kei Nishikori who booked a semi-final showdown with former world number one Djokovic who defeated Murray 7-5, 6-3 on the hardcourts at Crandon Park.

Olympic bronze medalists Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy won a fifth world pairs title Thursday in their final competition before retirement.

In the absence of Olympic champions and main rivals, Russia's Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov, the German pair scored 145.86 points in the free skate to finish with 224.88 points overall at the world championships in Saitama, near Tokyo.

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti believes his side can still win the La Liga title despite losing for a second time in four days as they slumped to a 2-1 defeat at Sevilla.

Two goals from Colombian striker Carlos Bacca was enough to hand Sevilla a sixth consecutive league win after Cristiano Ronaldo had put Madrid in front.

Birmingham City owner Carson Yeung has filed an appeal against a money-laundering conviction that saw him jailed for six years, an official said Thursday.

The Court of Appeal has received the filing from lawyers representing the barber-turned-tycoon, a court official said.

When David Moyes strode into Old Trafford for the first time as Manchester United's new manager, with its long red tunnel leading to the pitch where so much football history has been made, he knew the job of replacing Alex Ferguson would be, as he now says, "tough." Few imagined it would be this tough.

Ferguson, as well as Moyes, his underperforming millionaire players and club owners who spent too little to keep the team topped up with sufficient fresh talent, all share the blame for United's worst ever season in the Premier League. The championship-winning squad Ferguson left for Moyes after 26 years in charge at United has come to resemble a sweatshop-made toy: The packaging seemed OK, but it quickly fell apart after Moyes started to play with it.

Three-time Serie A champion Roma plans to build a new privately financed stadium inspired by the Colosseum on the outskirts of the Italian capital.

Labeled "Stadio della Roma" for now — until naming rights are awarded — the facility will seat 52,500 spectators and be able to expand to 60,000 for major matches.