Rafael Nadal speed up into 3rd round

DEFENDING champion Rafael Nadal secured his second straight-sets win to progress to the third round of the Australian Open.
The Spanish second seed needed one hour and 53 minutes to brush aside Slovakia's Lukas Lacko 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 on Rod Laver Arena.

It was a convincing display from Nadal, who showed no signs of the early nerves from his first-round match against Peter Luczak.

"I think I played the match that I needed to play," said Nadal. "I played more relaxed. The second round always is easier to play. I think I improved a little bit, but I can still play a little bit longer."

Nadal will meet a seed for the first time in the next round after Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber (27) defeated Wayne Odesnik 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Seventh seed Andy Roddick cruised past Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 and next in his way is Feliciano Lopez after the Spaniard beat 2003 finalist Rainer Schuettler 6-3, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Roddick continued his clashes with officialdom when he questioned an umpiring decision on match point. The seventh seed had clashed with a line umpire in his first round match. Yesterday, Roddick held match point at 40-15 when a ball from Bellucci was adjudged to be in after review by the Hawk-Eye replay system.

The big-serving American then produced what he thought was an ace to seal the victory, only for Bellucci to challenge the call. Hawk-Eye determined the ball to be 'out', forcing Roddick to make a second serve. However, Bellucci belted a forehand long in the subsequent rally to finally hand Roddick the 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 win.

The victor then argued with chair umpire Fergus Murphy afterwards. "There was just a disagreement about a rule I guess on a continuation of a call," Roddick explained.

"To be fair, I didn't come in here until I watched the video of it. I was more wrong than I thought I was out on court. That being said, it was very close."

In the last match of the day, 14th seed Marin Cilic was taken the distance by Australian teenager Bernard Tomic 6-7 (6/8), 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, with play not finishing until after 2am local time.

Federer drops set but wins opener at Australian Open

The last time Roger Federer played at Rod Laver Arena, he left in tears after losing the Australian Open final to Rafael Nadal a year ago.

There were no such waterworks Tuesday, just a few tense moments for the Swiss star seeking his 16th Grand Slam title in a 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-2), 6-0 win over Igor Andreev of Russia in the first round at Melbourne, Australia.

Federer lost the first set after leading by a break, then saved three set points in the 12th game of the third set before winning the tiebreaker and dominating the fourth set.

Last year, Federer shed tears after having missed his first chance to equal Pete Sampras' 14 Grand Slam titles -- a feat he later achieved and surpassed with wins at the French Open and Wimbledon.

No. 7 Andy Roddick had a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 win over Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci.

In women's matches, sixth-seeded Venus Williams beat Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic, 6-2, 6-2, and Melanie Oudin, the 18-year-old American who made a surprising run to last year's U.S. Open quarterfinals, lost her first-round match, 2-6, 7-5, 7-5, to Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia. Svetlana Kuznetsova became the first player into the third round with a 6-2, 6-2 win today over fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Auto racing: Tony George's separation from the management of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is complete. George, ousted as CEO in June, resigned from the board of directors that oversees the speedway and the family business, Hulman & Co. The move was announced in a statement by George's mother, Mari Hulman George, who chairs the board. The Hulman-George family has run the speedway, home of the Indy 500, for six decades. George, who was the speedway's president for 20 years and formed the IRL in 1994, was removed last year amid job cuts and concerns about his spending on upgrades at the speedway.

Phelps wins two medals at SoCal finale

Michael Phelps wrapped up his first meet of 2010 with a pair of medals Monday night.

The Baltimore native won the 100-yard butterfly final at the Southern California Grand Prix in Long Beach, and followed that with a bronze medal in the 100y backstroke. Phelps also competed in the 100y breaststroke final, in which he placed fifth.

Phelps swam the 100y butterfly in 48.09 seconds during his preliminary swim on Monday, but shaved over two seconds off that time in the finals en route to a 45.68 finish. The 100y backstroke, a relatively new race for Phelps, also yielded some improvement in his time. His finals finish of 46.67 was quicker than his prelim time of 48.37.

Matt Grevers, who won two races on Saturday and two more on Sunday, claimed victory in Monday's 100y backstroke after touching the wall in 45.97. Grevers finished third in the 100y butterfly.

Phelps also dropped nearly two seconds off his prelim time in the 100y breaststroke, but his result of 54.25 did not earn him a medal. Kosuke Kitajima of Japan took gold in that event after stopping the clock in 52.17.

Japan's Hidemasa Sano won the men's 200y individual medley in 1:43.79, while Zane Grothe took the men's 1650y freestyle title (15:11.89).

Phelps won the 400y IM on Sunday and the 500y freestyle Saturday.

Real striker Higuain out three weeks with leg muscle injury

MADRID, Spain — Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain will miss three weeks because of a leg muscle injury.

The Spanish club says medical tests Tuesday confirmed a tear in Higuain's left calf muscle.

The Argentina striker has been a regular despite the arrivals of Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Karim Benzema and leads the team with 11 goals in the league along with two in the Champions League. Higuain was also a starter in Argentina's final World Cup qualifying games.

With Higuain ruled out against Athletic Bilbao, Malaga and Deportivo La Coruna, Benzema is likely to take his place. Madrid is also without midfielder Rafael Van der Vaart for up to three weeks with a leg injury.

Madrid trails Spanish leader Barcelona by two points in the standings.

The most greatest Tennis players put Tennis Rivalries Aside for Haiti Fundraiser

Jan.17(Bloomberg)-Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters put their Australian Open rivalries aside to raise funds for earthquake relief efforts in Haiti.
Nine players, led by top-ranked Federer and Williams, took to Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena on the eve of the season-opening tennis Grand Slam for an exhibition to raise money to help victims of the Jan. 12 temblor, which may have left as many as 100,000 people dead in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country.
The initiative, the brainchild of Federer, helped generate at least A$500,000 ($461,388), Tennis Australia said. Fans snapped up 17,000 A$10 tickets for the 90-minute event and the men’s and women’s tours, International Tennis Federation, Grand Slam Committee and Tennis Australia topped up the amount raised from collections at Melbourne Park.

“Yesterday morning I thought we should do something and within twenty four hours we were able to pull this off,” Federer said at a news conference. “I am happy it was such a successful event.”

With all the players wearing microphones, the crowd was treated to plenty of trick shots and banter. Federer retrieved several balls between his legs, while Nadal put so much back- spin on one drop shot it landed back on his side of the net.

Andy Roddick, who’s in first-round action at the No. 7 seed tomorrow, provided comic relief when he was foot faulted by a line judge during the match, which was umpired by four-time Grand Slam champion Jim Courier.

Williams Warning

“You realize Serena’s over there, right?” Roddick warned the linesman, a reference to Williams’s tirade at a lineswoman at September’s U.S. Open.

Williams, the defending champion in Melbourne, took the joke in good spirits and laughed her way through several games of mixed doubles across the net from Clijsters, whom bookmakers rate as her main rival for the women’s singles title.

Novak Djokovic and Nadal, who both beat Federer on the way to winning the past two men’s championships, clowned around with the world No. 1 as they gave up practice time to participate. Nadal starts his title defense tomorrow.

The players were split into two mixed doubles teams, with members rotating in and out throughout the match. Team Red, featuring Federer, Williams and local favorites Lleyton Hewitt and Sam Stosur, won 7-6.

“We rarely see exhibition matches on a relaxed basis but when the top guys come together and we know we have a rough two weeks ahead of ourselves, it’s more about the talking and the touch and the interaction with the crowd,” Federer added. “It was a lot of fun. It’s a great thing.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Baynes at Melbourne Park at dbaynes@bloomberg.net

Tony Romo faces on Brett Favre

MINNEAPOLIS - Brett Favre’s performance this season for Minnesota has defied much skepticism. He still has work to do.

When the Vikings take the field for today’s playoff game against the Dallas Cowboys, the pressure for Favre to deliver a victory will never be more clear.

“I know how difficult it is to get here. I know how difficult it is to go on,” Favre said. “I’m sure that’s one of the reasons why I’m here, is to help this team advance.

During a lifetime of watching Favre work, Tony Romo has also dealt with doubt about his ability.

The Cowboys just won their first playoff game in 13 years, and now they’ve got another goal of ending a streak: Their last postseason road victory was all the way back in the NFC Championship Game at San Francisco after the 1992 season.

That sent “The Triplets” - Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin and Emmitt Smith - to their first Super Bowl. This Dallas team is suddenly the trendy pick to get back there, with a rare December surge and two decisive victories against division rival Philadelphia behind the push. Just as with Favre, the focus will be on Romo.

“I think the standard just gets higher and higher for him,” tight end Jason Witten said. “He realizes that, and he doesn’t really worry about it.”

Earlier in the season, Favre described a startling depth of insecurity still present for him at age 40 as the uncertainty of his arm’s response to surgery complicated his decision about playing another year.

This week, Favre acknowledged he deals with that regularly despite a season that went better than everyone anticipated.

“I think it’s human nature,” he said. “For me, I know it’s always been a source of drive or a sense of always needing to prove myself, not ever being satisfied. I think it’s OK to be confident. I don’t think it’s OK to be overconfident. Doubt to me at times is a good thing. It makes you work harder. You never get complacent.”

Romo is from Wisconsin, raised in Burlington not far from Milwaukee, where it’s blasphemous for a boy to root for any team but Green Bay. Favre quickly caught his attention, but John Elway was a star in Denver then who also gave young Romo plenty to study and be awed by. That Broncos-Packers Super Bowl after the 1997 season? Tough to choose who to cheer for.

“I went back and forth throughout the game,” Romo said last week.

Perhaps out of respect for Favre, or simply because no two quarterbacks can truly be the same in such a complex game, Romo has publicly brushed off all the attempts at comparisons to a decade-ago Favre.

“Brett’s in a class by himself,” Romo said. “No one is really similar to him. A lot of people try to create some similarities, but when he’s done you’re not going to see a guy like him. That’s a testament to how great he’s been for so long.”

Clearly, despite Romo’s attempts to downplay his affection for Favre, this game will mean a lot to him.

“No question, that was Tony’s idol,” said Witten, a close friend. “I think he really got into football because of Brett Favre, but I think when you get to this level you really have to look at it from a different standpoint. I think Tony’s done a good job. That’s the opponent now. It’s a chess match between him and Brett.”

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.