The downpour meant 45 players failed to complete their rounds after the resumption.The delay prevented Ernie Els joining Ian Woosnam in being honorary bartenders serving the Black Label at a charity do, but the South African will not have worried after producing a bogey-free 67 Woosnam, too, was probably unconcerned after an opening 69. This is the first time I have played a course blind in a tournament On Wednesday it was very doubtful whether I would play. Friends said I should go home to Australia to rest for the weekend, but I felt I was improving."Norman, like all the afternoon starters, was not helped by a thunder and lightning storm which suspended play for almost two hours. This time he found himself only five adrift of his fellow Australian Bradley Hughes and Sweden's Olle Karlsson "Two years ago, at least, I had been round in a buggy. Tony was glad to see me get mad because he said that means I care.

You have to get it off your chest."Two years ago, in Phuket, Norman won the title after missing his practice rounds Then he opened with a 75 to be nine shots behind the lead. You don't like to make stupid mistakes, especially when laying up on a par five. Some holes I didn't know where to go, like on the par-five 15th. I was told to hit it 200 yards and it went 200 yards, straight into the water. His caddie, Tony Navarro, got the blame for that, if not quite the club round his throat.

"The worst part," Norman said after a one-under-par 71, "was not having seen the course before. Mainly, it has been the infection which was picked up from his son before leaving home on Sunday. That he played at all in the first round of the Johnnie Walker Classic, so earning a reputed pounds 200,000 appearance fee, was a surprise after reports the previous day of his temperature soaring into the 100s.Then, there was the misclubbing at the 15th on Tanah Merah's Garden Course which landed in the water. Golf ANDY FARRELL reports from SingaporeGreg Norman has had a lot to get off his chest here this week. After losing the first set, she changed tactics and slowed down the pace of the match against the diminutive South African who was chasing down everything."I tried to hit too many winners," Huber said.

"In the second set I played a little bit smarter, some more topspins, some high balls, I changed the rhythm a little bit and that was the important thing."n Steffi Graf misses next week's Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo after an operation on a chipped bone in her left foot.Results, Sporting Digest, page 23. "I tried to stay aggressive and I think I did that pretty well. I gave myself chances but I didn't close it out."Seles, who has beaten Huber twice since coming back from her 28-month lay-off, predicted a hard-hitting final tomorrow The German lived dangerously against 16th-seeded Coetzer. "I just can't believe it, because at 5-2 I was pretty sure it was goodbye," she said. "I'm very lucky to be in the final."Rubin, who won a protracted standing ovation for her victory over Sanchez Vicario, said she tried to dominate Seles by going for her shots. But Seles - never beaten in Australia in 31 matches, 27 of them at the Australian Open - had other ideas.Seles held serve and at 5-3 she finally cracked Rubin's pounding serve for the first time in the set, and then broke again to set up a remarkable victory and bring the crowd to its feet.Seles, who won the event three years running before her stabbing in April 1993, said she felt lucky to have reached the final. Tennis Monica Seles produced one of the comebacks of her career to win a place in her fourth Australian Open final by beating the teenager Chanda Rubin in three sets in Melbourne yesterday. Seles faces the eighth seed, Anke Huber, after the German reached her first Grand Slam final with a three-set win over the South African Amanda Coetzer.The 22-year-old Seles, favourite to win her ninth Grand Slam title in the absence of the injured Steffi Graf, came back from 5-2 down in the third set to win an epic semi-final 6-7, 6-1, 7-5 against the talented American, who was facing Seles for the first time.Seles, the joint world No 1 who has suffered niggling injuries throughout the tournament, had to dig deep to level the match in the second set against an inspired Rubin after losing the first on a tie-break.Rubin, who had beaten the world No 3, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, in a three and a half hour quarter-final, followed the same do-or-die approach and at 5-2 in the deciding set the Centre Court crowd scented an upset.

The Uefa president Lennart Johansson, from whom many Italian clubs had expected guidance, told them that the path to follow was an agreement among themselves. Asked what Uefa would do if clubs ignored the rules, Johansson said: "We won't be able to issue judicial sanctions, only moral ones.Inter-Toto appeal, page 22. He will need experience of playing and managing in the top flight and must be willing to provide some continuity with the Venables regime. So far, so good, but the FA's real problems lie in satisfying other key aspects of good selection practice.A successful candidate must be sure that he has the support of the people with whom he must work. The FA, so far, have not performed badly against these criteria, despite the confusion created when a key employee announces he is leaving. The FA have already identified the main professional requirements of the new manager. It is important to know, in advance, what the job involves; its objectives, the skills needed, the responsibilities and any other requirements. How fair are the accusations that the FA hierarchy are "inept", "incompetent", "a shambles" or simply "unfit" to do the job of choosing the next coach or manager? The basic principles of selecting a manager of any enterprise are fairly straight- forward.