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.

Tendulkar closes in on another Lara's record

Tendulkar has now top-scored on 40 occasions in completed innings for India. Only Brian Lara is ahead of him.

Tendulkar has now been India’s highest scorer on 63 occasions in 266 innings in which he batted. Only Brian Lara has been the number 1 scorer on more occasions – 65.

This was only the fourth time that Tendulkar remained unbeaten when India were bowled out.

Tendulkar has now aggregated 661 runs in 7 innings of 6 Tests against Bangladesh at an average of 165.25. His batting average is the fifth highest by any batsman against a particular opponent.

Shahadat Hossain and Shakib Al Hasan became second and third bowler respectively for Bangladesh to claim a five-wicket haul against India. The only other bowler to do so is Naimur Rahman, who captured 6 for 132 in Bangladesh’s inaugural Test at Dhaka in 2000-01.

Shahadat Hossain (5-71) and Shakib Al Hasan (5-62) provided the first instance of two Bangladesh bowlers capturing five wickets in the same innings.

This was the 11th instance when two bowlers captured five-wicket hauls against India in the same innings. The last such occasion was way back in 1987, when Iqbal Qasim (5-48) and Tauseef Ahmed (5-54) dismissed India for 145 in their first innings of Bangalore Test.

India’s total of 243 is their lowest ever all-out against Bangladesh. Interestingly India’s previous lowest against Bangladesh was 429 at Dhaka in 2000!

India’s total is the second lowest total by any side in the first innings of match against Bangladesh after West Indies’ 237 at St.George’s in 2009.

The opening partnership of 53 runs between Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes is Bangladesh’s best against India. The pair obliterated the 48-run stand between Nafis Iqbal and Javed Omar at Chittagong MA in 2005.

The wicket of Imrul Kayes was the 150th for Zaheer Khan outside India. He became only the third Indian to do so after Anil Kumble and Kapil Dev.

Mohammad Ashraful was playing his 51st Test – most by a Bangladesh player. He was previously at level with former skipper Habibul Bashar with 50 appearances.

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.

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.