 | Tsonga, M Pato spoils onfils into quarters DOHA JO-WILFRIED Tsonga, the third seed from France, shook off some more new season rust and scripted a 7-6(8) 6-3 victory against Flavio Cipolla to reach the quarter-finals of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open Tennis Tournament on Wednesday.
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| | Clarke, Ponting pummel Indian bowlers |  SYDNEY MICHAEL Clarke posted the highest score by an Australian at the Sydney Cricket Ground and Ricky Ponting struck his first Test century in two years as the hosts pounded India in the second Test Wednesday.
Captain Clarke scored an unbeaten double-century and Ponting broke through for his first hundred in 34 Test innings in dramatic style to put Australia a commanding 291 runs in front with six wickets left and three days to go.
The pair shared the biggest partnership — 288 runs — for any Australian wicket against India to leave the dispirited tourists with a mountain to climb to save the four- Test series after going down by 122 runs in last week's opener in Melbourne.
At the close on the second day, Australia were 482 for four with Clarke unconquered on 251 off 342 balls and Mike Hussey on 55. The pair had put on an unfinished 157 for the fifth wicket.
Ponting, 37, gave the perfect riposte to those calling for his retirement with a dogged 134, while Clarke basked in the adulation of his home crowd by surpassing Doug Walters' previous highest SCG score by an Australian of 242 set in 1969.
... | | | Serena withdraws from Brisbane with injury |  BRISBANE (AUSTRALIA) FIVE-TIME champion Serena Williams is in doubt for the Australian Open after injuring her left ankle and withdrawing from the Brisbane International on Wednesday.
In her first tournament since losing the US Open final in September, Williams was serving for the match with a 6-2, 5- 3 lead against Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia when she twisted her ankle and crashed heavily to the court.
The 13-time Grand Slam winner lay near the baseline for several minutes while getting medical attention. She was helped to a courtside chair and had the ankle re-taped before resuming the second-round match and losing the next point to surrender a service break to Jovanovski.
Williams limped through the next game, wincing in pain after at least two points, before securing a 6-2, 6-4 win to advance to the Brisbane quarterfinals in her first trip Down Under since winning the 2010 Australian Open title.She withdrew from the Brisbane tournament later Wednesday after having medical scans which "confirmed that I have a left ankle sprain (and) that I probably shouldn't play on." "I'm going to take a couple of days off not too many ‚ and see how I feel," Williams said in a statement.
... | | | Madrid rallies to edge Malaga in Copa del Rey |  MADRID DEFENDING champion Real Madrid staged a second-half fightback to beat Malaga 3-2 on Tuesday in the first leg of their Copa del Rey round-of- 16 match.
Sergio Sanchez and Martin Demichelis gave visitors Malaga a surprise early lead with almost identical headers inside the first half-hour but Sami Khedira got Madrid's comeback started with a goal in the 68th minute and Gonzalo Higuain hauled Madrid level two minutes later.
After relentless pressure, Karim Benzema slid home the winner in the 78th.
"The team didn't start the game as it should have," said Madrid coach Jose Mourinho. "The second half was completely the opposite.
The team wanted to clean out the trash it had made in the first half. The attitude, the concentration of the team changed." Malaga coach Manuel Pellegrini, Mourinho's predecessor at Madrid, was disappointed at his side's collapse.
"Giving goals away to Madrid on their own pitch makes it very difficult," he said. "The tie is still open, but we deserved more." Madrid could meet archrival Barcelona in the quarterfinals if both teams win their last 16 ties. Barcelona plays its first leg at home to Osasuna.
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