Snooker
No sexing up or razzmatazz was needed to take the snooze out of snooker at Wembley Arena when Ronnie O'Sullivan defeated MarkWilliams 6-5 in a Masters semi-final of dramatic brilliance.
O'Sullivan's quality was to be expected, but the revelation was Williams, who reproduced the form that brought him two world titles, in 2000 and 2003. For several years, he has been in the doldrums and being an instinctive player was unable to work out why or how to arrest his decline. He is back to his scintillating best.
O'Sullivan, who later admitted he was 'petrified every time I go out to play, worried that I'll make a fool of myself', soon realised he was in for a hard match.Williams took the first frame with a century break.
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Seizing on a careless error byWilliams, O'Sullivan, who will now play Scotland's Stephen Maguire or England's Mark Selby, took the third and from that point, frames and substantial breaks were exchanged.
When Williams fell behind at 3-2, he made a fabulous break of132, which was one of the best of tournament, so unpromising was the lie of the balls when he came to the table.
Soon, Williams was ahead 5-4 and O'Sullivan needed to dig deep to win the two remaining frames. He did so and the two left the arena together to a standing ovation.
Golf
South Africa's Charl Schwartzel has a second successive victory in his sights after flawless display in the Joburg Open. A third-round 64 takes Schwartzel, won the Africa Open last Sunday, into the final day on 18 under par, four ahead of Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke.
There were 21changes at the top of the leaderboard before Schwartzel, who was one behind England's David Lynn at halfway, took control over the final stretch.
Tennis
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Marcos Baghdatis overcame Richard Gasquet to win the Sydney International final. Baghdatis took the fourth ATP Tour singles title of his career with a 6-4 7-6 victory, despite a delay of 75minutes because of a rainstorm. The Cypriot went 5-2 behind in the second before breaking back twice to pull level at 5-5, and going on to win.
Meanwhile America's John Isner won his first ATP Tour title, beating Arnaud Clement 6-3 5-7 7-6 at the Auckland Open. Isner said he would donate part of his prize money to the Red Cross to help the rescue effort in Haiti. 'It's a small contribution to help the victims in Haiti. What happened there makes us realise how lucky we are,' he said.
Cricket
Australia gambled on day three of the final Test in Hobart as they chose not to enforce the follow-on against Pakistan.
Three wickets by Simon Katich, including the top scorer Salman Butt (102), left Pakistan all out for 301 and a first innings deficit of 218. But despite a forecast of rain for the final two days, captain Ricky Ponting chose to bat again. Australia ended the day 59 for one, an overall lead of 277 runs.
Winter Sports
British sliders Adam Pengilly and Chris Type won medals at the penultimate round of the Skeleton Intercontinental Cup in Calgary, Canada. Pengilly took silver-his second in successive days-with Type winning bronze. Gold went to John Daly of the USA, while Britain's Ant Sawyer finished 13th.
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In the women's race, Britain's Donna Creighton was 10th with Sarah Sydney 15th.
Carlo Janka returned to the top of the World Cup rankings with victory in the Lauberhorn downhill in Switzerland. The Swiss beat Manuel Osborne-Paradis, of Canada, and Liechtenstein's Marco Buechel.
Kathrin Zettel recorded her first World Cup victory of the season at the giant slalom in Maribor, Slovenia. Maria Riesch and Anja Paerson were second and third.
Rallying
Spain's Carlos Sainz won the Dakar Rally despite a late challenge from his teammate Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar, who won the final stage from Santa Rosa to Buenos Aires. In the bike section, Cyril Despres took the title.