Melbourne - Marat Safin heads to the Australian Open with minimal preparation after withdrawing from the AAMI Classic tune-up event starting on Wednesday.

London  - The ATP has again stepped outside of tennis to find a leader, Monday appointing former Nike marketer Adam Helfant as ATP executive chairman and president.

The 44-year-old will take the dual positions formerly held by ex- Disney Europe boss Etienne de Villiers, who stepped down under player pressure at the end of December.

The ATP decision overlooks ATP Asia-Pacific executive Brad Drewett, a former player with close links to the players as tournament director of the Shanghai Masters Cup for the past five editions.

Helfant, an MIT and Harvard Law graduate, served for a dozen years at Nike, and before that at the National Hockey League in North America.

Madrid  - Arjen Robben is the great light shining on Real Madrid these days, as the club appears to take off in La Liga based on the performances of the Dutch midfielder who has set aside for a few weeks his reputation as a "glass player."

Real Madrid beat Mallorca away 3-0 Sunday, to get their third consecutive win and climb to second place in the Spanish championship, albeit still 12 points behind a brilliant Barcelona.

Robben again met the expectations that he has generated in recent times and paved the way for the win with his team's first goal, just three minutes into the game. The winger led a swift counter-attack and scored a quality goal after a run from the midfield.

Washington - President-elect Barack Obama met with Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Monday, keeping with the pre- inaugural tradition of sitting down with the leader of the United States' sout

Washington - US President George W Bush asked Congress Monday to sign off on the remaining 350 billion dollars of the finance bailout package after receiving a request to release the funds from president-elect Barack Obama.

Bush had said earlier Monday that he was willing to do so if Obama, who takes office in eight days, asked the president to move forward on the next phase of the
700-billion-dollar bailout for the embattled financial industry.

"President Bush agreed to the president-elect's request," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in a statement.

"We will continue our consultations with the president-elect's transition team, and with Congress, on how best to proceed in accordance with the requirements of the statute," she said.

Madrid - Educated at the best universities, young, brilliant, family-loving and convinced of the power of public relations: such is Adam Helfant, the new strongman of men's tennis.

Adam S Helfant, 44, a US citizen and a former employee of sports gear giant Nike, will have to push into oblivion the failed experiment around the South African Etienne de Villiers, who quarrelled with a large portion of the players, including the top ranking players, Spaniard Rafael Nadal and the Swiss Roger Federer.

"Both support him, and that is good," a man who often talks to Nadal and Federer told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa with reference to Helfant.