Team New Zealand leads regatta with 6-1 record after first round-robin series

AUCKLAND, New Zealand - Team New Zealand held top spot with a 6-1 record at the end of the first round-robin stage at the Louis Vuitton Trophy sailing regatta for America's Cup teams.

The New Zealand squad beat Russia's Synergy team by one minute Tuesday to complete a seven-race round robin in which their only loss was to the French team Aleph.

Mascalzone Latino beat Britain's TeamOrigin, then Italian compatriots Azzurra on a day in which two flights of races were contested to complete the schedule, finishing in second with five wins and two losses. Standings after the round robin determine seedings for elimination races which are due to start Wednesday.

Azzurra, Sweden's Artemis and the French-German team All4One finished with 4-3 records while Britain's TeamOrigin was 3-4, Aleph 2-5 - with a point deducted by umpires - and Synergy was without a win.

Top-seeded Team New Zealand will race No. 8 Synergy in the first elimination round in which matchups are based on seeding. Mascalzone will race Aleph, Azzurra will race Artemis and All4One will race TeamOrigin.

The two highest-ranked teams which win elimination matches go directly to the semifinals while the two lowest-ranked losers are eliminated. The four other teams contest a further elimination round from which the two winners progress to the semifinals.