World number one Novak Djokovic successfully defended his Australian Open title by beating Rafael Nadal in an incredible five-set final in what was the longest match in the tournament’s history at five hours 53 minutes.

Djokovic won the match 5-7 6-4 6-2 6-7 (5-7) 7-5, just 48 hours after Andy Murray took him to five sets in Friday’s semi-final.

In the ladies final, Victoria Azarenka beat Maria Sharapova 6-3 6-0 to win her first grand slam title and displace Caroline Wozniacki as world number one.

In the weekend’s big FA Cup fourth round tie, Liverpool beat Manchester United 2-1 at Anfield. In a game of few chances, Dirk Kuyt evaded Patrice Evra to hit the winner with two minutes remaining after Park Ji-sung’s first-half strike had seen United draw level.

Arsenal came from two goals down to beat Aston Villa 3-2 at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday evening. Richard Dunne and Darren Bent had given Alex McCleish’s side a 2-0 lead at half-time but Robin van Persie scored two penalty’s either side of a Theo Walcott goal to see Arsenal through to the fifth round.

The biggest upset of the round came at the KC Stadium where Hull City crashed out to Crawley Town of League Two courtesy of a second-half goal from striker Matt Tubbs, his 18^th of the season.

The Amex Stadium was the scene of another upset as Brighton beat Newcastle to earn a fifth-round tie away at Liverpool. An own-goal from Mike Williamson was the difference.

A controversial second-half penalty from Juan Mata put Chelsea into the next round at the expense of West London rival QPR.

An embarrassing second innings batting collapse at the hands of Pakistan’s spinners saw England lose the second test to give Pakistan an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series.

England required 145 runs to win after dominating the first three days, but they managed less than half that total, posting just 74.

Celtic will face Kilmarnock in the final of the Scottish League Cup after a second-half Anthony Stokes brace against Falkirk. Jay Fulton levelled for Falkirk after Scott Brown gave Celtic the lead from the penalty spot but Stokes scored what would be the winner with a superb free-kick before settling the tie with an 86^th minute tap-in.

In the LV= Cup, Joel Tomkins scored two tries in an impressive debut for Saracens as they beat Worcester 41-14, having switched codes in October.

Bath beat fellow pool leaders Northampton 46-14 at the Recreation Ground to maintain their lead over Saracens at the top of Pool 1. Leicester and Scarlets beat Harlequins and London Irish respectively to maintain their leads in their respective pools.

The weekend’s football programme was dominated by Sunday’s fixtures as Tottenham and Arsenal sought revenge for embarrassing defeats inflicted on them by Manchester City and Manchester United respectively back in August.

Mario Balotelli’s late penalty gave Manchester City a 3-2 win at home to Tottenham, but not before a stamp on Scott Parker’s head while the Spurs midfielder was on the floor which went unnoticed by referee Howard Webb.

Danny Welbeck’s 81^st minute strike gave Manchester United all three points against Arsenal at the Emirates after Robin van Persie’s second-half strike had cancelled out Antonio Valencia’s opener.

Saturday’s Premier League results meant that defeat for Arsenal did little to dent their aspirations of Champions League qualification as their rivals slipped up – Liverpool lost 3-1 at Bolton while Chelsea could only manage a 0-0 draw at home to Norwich.

Andy Murray made it into the second week at the Australian Open after his opponent retired hurt in the third set after Murray had won the opening two 6-1, 6-1. He will face Kei Nishikori of Japan, who beat sixth-seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, in the quarter-final.

There were few other shocks in this morning’s men’s fourth-round matches. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Tomas Berdych all progressed.

In the women’s singles, Serena Williams crashed out in straight sets to the unseeded Ekaterina Makarova. Top seeds Caroline Wozniacki and Petra Kvitova beat Serbs Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic respectively in straight sets. Defending champion Kim Clijsters recovered from losing the first set against Li Na to win in three sets.

Neil Robertson won snooker’s Masters title for the first time as he beat Shaun Murphy 10-6 in yesterday’s final. Murphy had the better of the early frames but had only three of the first six frames to show for it and Robertson won fix of the next seven to storm into a 9-4 which proved too much for Murphy to claw back.

Saracens and Edinburgh both made it into the quarter finals of the Heineken Cup with wins over Treviso and Cardiff Blues respectively to top their pools. Saracens will host Clermont Auvergne while Edinburgh will play Toulouse at home. In the other quarter finals Munster will take on Ulster and Leinster will welcome Blues.

New York Giants and New England Patriots both won their championship matches to set up a repeat of the 2008 Superbowl in this year’s showpiece match. The Giants needed a dramatic overtime field goal to get past San Francisco 49ers, while the Baltimore Ravens came close to forcing overtime with the Patriots but Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff pulled a 32-yard field goal wide.

A goal from returning hero Paul Scholes set Manchester United on the way to a comfortable 3-0 win over Bolton at Old Trafford as they continue to pursue league-leaders Manchester City, who play Wigan this evening.

North London rivals Arsenal and Tottenham both struggled: Tottenham lost ground on the Manchester clubs after only managing a draw against Wolves at White Hart Lane and Arsenal lost 3-2 away at Swansea.

Dutchman Christian Kist won the BDO World Darts Championships final against Tony O’Shea on Sunday. The unseeded qualifier who was making his first appearance in the competition knocked out two-time champion Ted Hankey in Saturday’s semi-final before winning Sunday’s final 7-5 to take home the title and £100,000 in prize money, reportedly 50 times his career earning to date.

Ronnie O’Sullivan knocked out defending champion Ding Junhui in the first round of the Masters at London’s Alexandra Palace while Mark Williams beat Stephen Maguire. O’Sullivan will face Judd Trump, who defeated Stuart Bingham this afternoon.

Both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer registered first round wins in the first round of the Australian Open, both winning in straight sets. Andy Murray begins his campaign against Ryan Harrison at midnight tonight.

The pick of the weekend’s FA Cup third round ties was played out at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium on Sunday where Manchester United progressed to the fourth round of the FA Cup at the expense of their city rivals.

United announced a new signing of sorts just before the game when they named the recently-retired Paul Scholes as a substitute having re-signed the 37 year-old until the end of the season.

Wayne Rooney scored the first of United’s three first-half goals with a powerful header before City captain Vincent Kompany was sent off in dubious circumstances for a two-footed tackle on Nani.

City mounted a valiant comeback after the break, though, and goals from Aleksandr Kolarov and Sergio Aguero set up a tense final quarter but United held on to register a 3-2 victory and they were rewarded with a fourth-round tie away at Liverpool, whose 5-1 win over Oldham on Friday evening was not without controversy.

Oldham’s Tom Adeyemi was visibly distressed after being the victim of racist abuse from a small section of Liverpool fans in the closing minutes of the game. A 20 year-old man from Aintree has been bailed following his arrest on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence.

Chelsea knocked four second-half goals past Portsmouth at Stamford Bridge, Tottenham strolled past Cheltenham 3-0 and Everton overcame Tamworth 2-0.

Macclesfield Town and MK Dons came closest to embarrassing Premier League opposition but both had to settle for a replay against Bolton and QPR respectively, having led for periods.

After the result against MK Dons, QPR manager Neil Warnock was sacked having failed to muster a win in nine games. Mark Hughes is the bookies favourite to replace him.

England’s cricketers struggled during the first two days of their warm-up match against an ICC Combined Associate and Affiliate XI in Dubai. After bowling out their opposition for 281 on Saturday, Alastair Cook (76) was the only English batsman to register a half-century.

The visiting side’s bowling performance was slightly better and Stuart Broad impressed, taking 2-15 from nine overs at the beginning of the ICC side’s second innings.

Harlequins’ lead at the top of the Aviva Premiership was cut to three points as Saracens capitalised on the league-leaders’ 24-3 slip-up away at Northampton on Friday evening with a 26-19 win at home to Bath.

Martin “Wolfie” Adams’ tilt at a record-equalling third-straight BDO World Dart Championship got off to a good start with a straightforward 3-0 win over Scott Mitchell. Former champion John Walton lost 3-1 to Martin Atkins.

Manchester City and Manchester United, level on points at the top of the Premier League, suffered shock defeats to Sunderland and Blackburn respectively over New Year’s weekend.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s 70^th birthday was spoiled as Rovers moved off the foot of the table with a 3-2 win at Old Trafford. Yakubu gave the visitors a surprise 2-0 lead, the first from the spot, but Dimitar Berbatov’s brace levelled proceedings midway through the second half. However, Grant Hanley headed a late winner.

Leaders City failed to take advantage on their rival’s slip-up the previous day as Ji Dong-won’s injury-time goal sealed a 1-0 victory at the Stadium of Light.

Third-placed Tottenham could not fully capitalise as they were held 1-1 at Swansea. Arsenal moved up to fourth with a 1-0 win at home to QPR while Cheslsea lost 3-1 at home to Aston Villa. Liverpool were level on points with Chelsea following a 3-1 defeat of Newcastle.

Everton won 1-0 at West Brom and the other games were drawn: Bottom side Bolton 1-1 with Wolves, Norwich 1-1 with Fulham and Stoke 2-2 with Wigan.

Harlequins extended their lead at the top of Rugby Union’s Premiership as they won 11-9 at Exeter and second-placed Saracens were held 15-15 at home to Gloucester.

Third-placed Northampton and Leicester were level on points following Saints’ 32-14 win at bottom side Newcastle and Tigers’ thrilling 28-23 victory at home to Sale. Bath thrashed London Irish 30-3 and Worcester won 6-0 at Wasps.

My son Curtis is 16-years-old and stands as tall as me. And every time I come home after being away for a week, he wants to wrestle. We both know not to fight in front of my wife, Shelly, because she cannot stand watching us play fight every week and has no idea why we would want to in the first place. I’ve tried to explain why my son and I feel the need to wrestle, but she still doesn’t understand it.

So, I’ve been thinking about it.

I can remember on numerous occasions fighting with my step dad when I was younger. It was just something we did. A bit like the family in the film ‘Police Academy’ where the dad and son are always trying to get one up on each other. I think it may be a way to masculinity and trying to find each other’s strengths and weaknesses through the process. I know with each time I fight with my son, he is getting stronger, and I have to come to terms with that. But we do have an unwritten code that we don’t punch each other in the face.

Lets be honest, its perfectly fine to have a man wrestle from time to time. And its probably very healthy to test each other. I love the story of how Jacob wrestled with God, and would not let go until he was blessed.

The fights between me and my son take place in a safe environment. I know that he isn’t going to start scrapping with Tom, Dick or Harry on the street, just as I didn’t when growing up, but I also know that he can defend himself when needed.

However, I need to tell you that as a Christian man, there is one fight I cannot avoid. Paul the Apostle called it the “Good Fight”. The fight for faith. The fight to discipline my own faith, and protect the faith of those around me.

So my challenge to you guys is simply this. In 2012, what will you be fighting for?

Manchester United moved level on points with Manchester City at the top of the Premier League thanks mainly to Dimitar Berbatov’s hat-trick in a 5-0 Boxing Day win at home to 10-man Wigan while the leaders could only manage a goalless draw at West Brom.

In the other Boxing Day games Fulham held Chelsea, who remained fourth, to a 1-1 draw and sixth-placed Liverpool were limited to the same scoreline by bottom side Blackburn.

Seventh-placed Newcastle moved a point behind Liverpool with a 2-0 win over Bolton, Stoke and Aston Villa drew 0-0 while Sunderland and Everton finished 1-1.

In the two Premiership Rugby Union fixtures on Boxing Day Sale went third in the table with a 27-19 victory over bottom side Newcastle and six-try Gloucester thrashed Wasps 39-10.

In Rugby League’s traditional Boxing Day friendlies Leeds beat Wakefield 26-10, Castleford saw off Bradford 28-18 and Warrington defeated Widnes 32-18.

In Racing Kauto Star sealed a historic fifth King George VI Chase victory at Kempton Park.

Manchester City regained their two-point lead at the top of the Premier League after rivals Manchester United briefly led the table on Sunday afternoon.

United won 2-0 at QPR in the lunchtime game but City restored their advantage with a 1-0 victory at home to fifth-placed Arsenal, David Silva netting a close-range effort.

Tottenham returned to third with a 1-0 defeat of Sunderland after Chelsea, who dropped to fourth, were held to a 1-1 draw at Wigan.

Sixth-placed Liverpool won 2-0 at Aston Villa, Newcastle drew 0-0 with visiting Swansea, Stoke were 2-1 winners at Wolves and Norwich took a 1-1 draw from their trip to Everton.

Fulham beat basement side Bolton 2-0 and second-from-bottom Blackburn lost 2-1 at home to West Brom.

In Rugby Union, Saracens remained the only English side to lead their European Cup group although Leicester and Harlequins boosted their quarter-final prospects with wins.

Visiting Saracens held off Ospreys 16-13, Leicester beat Clermont Auvergne 29-13 at home but the performance of the weekend came from Quins who won a stunning game at Toulouse 31-24.

In the same group Gloucester saw off Connacht 23-19 but will still struggle to progress, as will Bath who lost 52-27 at defending champions Leinster. Northampton thrashed Castres 45-0 but remained a long shot for the last eight.

In the Challenge Cup Exeter and Wasps led their groups after beating Bayonne and Newport-Gwent Dragons respectively. Worcester and Sale were second in their pools following wins, as were Newcastle who lost to a Toulon side featuring former player Jonny Wilkinson who last week retired from internationals.

In Golf there were wins for two Englishmen: Lee Westwood took the Thailand Open by seven shots and Ian Poulter the Australian Masters by three.

England’s Luke Donald became the first man to top Golf’s US and European money lists by finishing third in the Dubai World Championship.

Having sealed the American prize in October, Donald needed to finish in the top nine in Dubai to secure the European equivalent. He did so with a final-round 66 to end 16 under par, three shots behind the winner Alvaro Quiros of Spain.

Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy was the only player who could deny Donald the European title, if he won in Dubai and the Englishman finished outside the top nine. McIlroy’s challenge faded and he ended 10 shots adrift of Quiros.

An Englishman also held off a Northern Irishman in Snooker as Judd Trump beat Mark Allen 10-8 to win the UK Championship title in York.

Allen led 3-1 but Trump took the next seven frames. Allen won five of the next six but Trump, who took his first ranking title in China earlier this year, held on.

In Football’s Premier League, Manchester United closed the gap on leaders Manchester City to two points although it could be temporary with City playing at Chelsea on Monday evening.

United saw off Wolves 4-1 thanks to braces from Nani and Wayne Rooney. Third-placed Tottenham lost ground with a 2-1 defeat to Stoke, former Spurs winger Matthew Etherington scoring both City goals.

Arsenal broke into the top four, again possibly temporarily with Chelsea is action on Monday, thanks to a 1-0 win over Everton. Liverpool went sixth with a 1-0 victory against QPR and Newcastle losing 4-2 to Norwich.

Wigan moved off the bottom with a 2-1 defeat of West Brom and Bolton taking their place courtesy of a 2-1 loss to Aston Villa. Sunderland beat struggling Blackburn 2-1 in new boss Martin O’Neill’s first game in charge. Swansea saw off Fulham 2-0.

In Rugby Union’s European Cup Saracens beat Ospreys 31-26 at Wembley to stay top of their group, the only English side in such a position.

London Irish defeated Racing Metro 34-14, Northampton lost 41-22 to Castres, Bath were beaten 18-13 by Leinster and Leicester lost 30-12 to Clermont Auvergne. Gloucester and Harlequins, who are in the same group, respectively beat Connacht 14-10 and lost to Toulouse 21-10.

In the Challenge Cup there were wins for Worcester, Exeter, Sale and Newcastle but not Wasps.

Manchester City kept up their five-point lead in the Premier League table with a 5-1 thrashing of Norwich City thanks to five different scorers.

Manchester United stayed second courtesy of a 1-0 win at Aston Villa, defender Phil Jones getting the first goal of his senior career. Tottenham remained third via a 3-0 victory over Bolton.

Chelsea moved up to fourth by beating Newcastle, who dropped two places to sixth, 3-0 and Arsenal went fifth with a 4-0 triumph at Wigan, who went bottom. Blackburn moved off the foot of the table as Yakubu scored all four in a 4-2 defeat of Swansea.

Stoke beat Everton 1-0, Wolves defeated Sunderland, who named Martin O’Neill as Steve Bruce’s successor, 2-1 and Queens Park Rangers drew 1-1 with West Brom.

The draw for the third round of the FA Cup was made with Man City versus Man Utd the tie of the round to be played on January 7 and 8.

England Rugby Union hooker Steve Thompson has been forced to retire due to a neck injury. The 2003 World Cup winner did likewise in 2007 but returned to playing and featured in this year’s World Cup.

Shane Williams, as expected, played his last game for Wales and scored a try in the final move but could not prevent a 24-18 defeat to Australia in Cardiff.

In the English Premiership Harlequins kept up their 100% record courtesy of a 22-16 win at Wasps. Second-placed Saracens saw off London Irish 15-11.

Exeter went third with a 15-9 win over Worcester, Sale moved to fourth thanks to a 16-13 victory at Bath, Leicester beat Northampton 30-25 and bottom side Newcastle defeated Gloucester 26-25.

In Golf Rory McIlroy won the Hong Kong Open to keep alive the Race to Dubai contest with Luke Donald. The US Open champion shot a closing round of 65 to finish on 12 under par, two shots ahead of Gregory Havret.

England’s Lee Westwood defended his Nedbank Golf Challenge title at the Sun City resort in South Africa, finishing two shots clear of Robert Karlsson while world number one Donald was 10 shots behind.