MARSEILLE: Top seed Robin Soderling had to battle for almost two hours to overcome Ukraine's Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-4 and reach the quarterfinals of the Marseille Open this morning.

Swede Soderling only managed to create two break points, both of which he converted, against world No 69 Stakhovsky.

"I've always had good results in Marseille and I can remember I reached the final here in 2004," he added.

JEREZ: Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel was quickest in Formula 1 pre-season testing this morning but much of the session was again disrupted by rain. The German clocked a best lap of 1 minute 22.593 on an eventful day in Spain where new team Lotus started testing and Ferrari used elaborate means to keep improvements to the back end of Felipe Massa's car covered up.

PARIS: Germany's Andrea Petkovic ended French interest in the WTA Paris Indoor Open this morning by beating fifth-seeded Aravane Rezai to set up a quarterfinal clash with top seed Elena Dementieva of Russia.

PARIS: Eighth-seeded Elena Vesnina of Russia and Agnes Szavay of Hungary both reached the second round of the Open GDF Suez tournament this morning.

The 34th-ranked Agnes was leading 6-3, 1-0 against Olga Govortsova when the Belarus player retired, and the 29th-ranked Elena advanced 6-1, 6-4 against Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania.

MELBOURNE: Defending champion Serena Williams produced a remarkable fightback from a set and 4-0 down against Victoria Azarenka to reach the semifinals of the Australian Open this morning.

The world No 1, initially bullied by the seventh seed from Belarus in their quarterfinal, came through 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 and will meet China's Li Na for a place in the final.

BEIRUT: An Ethiopian airliner transporting 92 passengers and crew crashed in stormy weather following takeoff in Lebanon early yesterday, plunging into the Mediterranean sea, an airport official said.

"Ethiopian Airline Flight 409 crashed about five minutes after takeoff at 2.30am (local time) with 83 passengers and nine crew members," the airport official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

He said witnesses saw a ball of fire as the jet plunged into the sea. The official said rescuers were trying to reach the plane to determine whether there were any survivors.

MELBOURNE: Eighth seed Jelena Jankovic was bundled out of the Australian Open this morning by 31st seed Alona Bondarenko, crashing 6-2, 6-3 in the third round. It was a miserable end to the tournament for a player who was world No 1 this time last year.

MELBOURNE: Former French Open winner Ana Ivanovic was beaten in her second-round match at the Australian Open, losing 6-7 (6-8), 7-5, 6-4 to Gisela Dulko of Argentina this morning.

The former world No 1, seeded 20th this year at Melbourne Park after a mediocre 2009, lost the 2008 Australian Open final to Maria Sharapova.

MELBOURNE: World No 1 Serena Williams got her Australian Open title defence off to the best possible start when she beat Poland’s Urszula Radwanska in straight games 6-2, 6-1 this morning.

RUSSIAN Dinara Safina powered into the Australian Open second round with a hardfought straight sets win over the Slovak Republic's Magdalena Rybarikova this morning.

MELBOURNE: Novak Djokovic said this morning he would try to use his influence as a member of the ATP Player Council to work for a shorter schedule for the men's tour.

The world No 3 will start 2010 in a low-key fashion tomorrow, facing Tommy Haas on the opening day of the eight-man Kooyong Classic, considered the top tune-up event for the Australian Open.

LONDON: A 14-year-old math prodigy has been offered a place at Britain's prestigious Cambridge University — if he can pass just one more exam.

Arran Fernandez, who was homeschooled in southern England's Surrey county, was offered an undergraduate place at Cambridge's Fitzwilliam College after passing the university's entrance exam.

MILAN: Former Renault team boss Flavio Briatore said it would take time for wounds to heal after having his life ban from Formula 1 overturned this morning.

The flamboyant Italian was banned in September for a plot to rig the outcome of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix by staging a deliberate crash.

KANEOHE (Hawaii): President Barack Obama (pic) said yesterday that it was clear a "systemic failure" had occurred in connection with the failed attack on a Detroitbound passenger plane on Christmas Day.

BRUSSELS: US Open semifinalist Yanina Wickmayer and her Belgian compatriot Xavier Malisse had their one-year doping bans provisionally lifted by a Belgian court this morning.

Wickmayer, the world No 18, was suspended in November by the Flemish Doping Tribunal (VDT) for failing to fulfill the 'whereabouts' rule while Malisse was also punished for missing a drugs test.

MONACO: The FIA today hosted the first meeting of the F1 Commission in their new structure since the signing of the 2009 Concorde Agreement this morning.

Chaired by Commission President Bernie Ecclestone, and with FIA President Jean Todt in attendance, the F1 Commission is made up of key championship stakeholders from F1 teams, promoters, suppliers and sponsors.

The F1 Commission agreed that the Brawn team will be allowed to change their chassis name from Brawn to Mercedes. The team will continue to receive payments based on its historical performance.

WASHINGTON: The tabloid storm enveloping Tiger Woods gathered strength this morning with more lurid revelations from supposed mistresses and claims of million-dollar payoffs to cover up a string of alleged affairs.

LONDON: Russia's Nikolay Davydenko hopes his dazzling displays to win the ATP World Tour Finals title will finally allow him to step out of the shadow of compatriot Marat Safin who retired this month.

The slender 28-year-old could probably walk around the streets of Moscow or London unnoticed, even with the US$1.5 million (RM5.1m) cheque from yesterday's 6-3, 6-4 victory against Juan Martin del Potro burning a hole in his pocket.

LONDON: Andy Murray skipped the boat ride in and would have liked to have actually been able to see the 17,500 fans that crammed into the O2 Arena yesterday, but gave the thumbs up to the new venue for the ATP World Tour Finals.