Australian Open final Brighton rock Newcastle, Robert ‘Rocks’ in Abu Dhabi and Novak retains title

FOOTBALL – There were two FA Cup 4th round upsets – Crawley won at Hull (45 League places below them) and Brighton ‘rocked’ Newcastle, both by 1-0.

Liverpool won the ‘crunch’ tie, 2-1 v Manchester United, Birmingham gained the biggest win, whipping Sheffield United 4-0 and Arsenal, 2-0 down, hit back to beat Aston Villa 3-2.

The 5th round draw produced banana skin ties for Spurs at Stevenage and Stoke at Crawley.

Other games are: Liverpool-Brighton, Everton-Blackpool/Sheffield Wednesday, Chelsea-Birmingham, Norwich-Leicester, Sunderland/Middlesbrough-Arsenal and Millwall/Southampton-Bolton.

Soccer Shorts – Seven-time winners Liverpool play Cardiff in the LC final at Wembley on Sunday, 26 February….

Celtic face Kilmarnock in Scotland’s equivalent…

Real Madrid beat Real Zaragoza 3-1 to go seven points clear in La Liga after Barcelona’s 0-0 draw with Villarreal…

There’s been a full PL programme this week and another will follow this weekend… The transfer window closed on Tuesday… Ex-England star Lee Hendrie, now with Kidderminster, has been declared bankrupt…

John Terry’s racial-court case takes place this week… and Ernie Gregory who kept goal 471 times for West Ham (1938-59) has died, aged 90.

TENNIS – Reigning champion Novak Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal in an epic Australian Open final – the longest in Grand Slam history (5 hours 53 minutes).

This was the Serb’s third victory down under. Earlier, new women’s number one Viktoria Azarenka (Belarus) defeated Russia’s Maria Sharapova to win her first Aussie Open.

I thought Andy Murray was terrific when losing his semi-final against Djokovic. Your time will come, AM.

CRICKET – On page 12 I talk about garbage and trash. Last Saturday England, the world’s top Test nation in 2011, were precisely that after another thumping by Pakistan, this time by 72 runs.

Despite Monty Panesar’s superb bowling (6-62) England, set 145 to win, capitulated to 72 all-out.

A banner in the crowd stated ‘We Want Vaughan’ and Geoff Boycott said ‘It’s the worst defeat I’ve ever witnessed.”

The final Test, if you’re interested, starts in Dubai tomorrow – expect changes! Elsewhere, Australia completed a 4-0 series whitewash over India.

GOLF – England’s Robert Rock (Staffs) won the Abu Dhabi Championship – only his second tournament victory in 228 starts. He received a cheque for almost £292,000. And New Zealander Lydia Ko, 14, has become the youngest winner of a major golf event.

The world’s top amateur won the NSW Open to break the men’s mark of 15 years, eight months, set by Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa’s.

OLYMPICS – Mo Farrah began his build up to the games by winning the 1500m at the Aviva indoor tournament in Glasgow. The cost of staging the London Summer Olympic & Paralympics will be £12b.

And just to let you know the opening ceremony will take place 26 weeks tomorrow.

RUGBY UNION – The Six Nations tournament starts this weekend when Scotland play England, France meet Italy and Wales visit Ireland.

QUESTIONS ANSWERED

• Robbie Keane (on loan to Aston Villa) is the seventh (not 17th) player to score for six different PL clubs, joining Nicky Barmby, Craig Bellamy, Marcus Bent, Andy Cole, Peter Crouch and Les Ferdinand. Keane has also scored for Inter Milan, Celtic, LA Galaxy and 53 times for the Republic of Ireland’s.

• The three undisputed world heavyweight boxing champions in the 1960s were: Floyd Patterson (1960), Sonny Liston (1962) and Mohammad Ali (1964 & 1967). Ali (1965) & Joe Frazier (1968) won the WBC title; Ernie Terrell (1965) & Jimmy Ellis (1968) were WBA champions.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Former Manchester City & England goalkeeper Frank Swift whose hand span was 12 inches, could throw a medicine ball a distance of 20 yards.

• Swimmer Duncan Goodhew was ten when he lost his hair. He had an operation after falling from a tree at his home in Sussex and it never grew back.

• Wrestler Giant Haystacks was 38 stone; his wife just 7½ stone!

• Tennis star Bjorn Borg’s pulse rate was 35 against a normal average of 72

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