Phoenix closed within half a game of the Los Angeles Clippers for the NBA Pacific Division lead with an impressive 107-88 road win on Monday, with Goran Dragic having 26 points and eight assists before sitting out the fourth quarter.

Among the day's other games, LeBron James celebrated his birthday by returning to Miami's lineup in a narrow win over slumping Denver, New Orleans edged Portland thanks to Tyreke Evans last-gasp jump-shot, and Dallas also prevailed in a tight contest to beat Minnesota.

France's Thomas Voeckler will ride in next month's Tour Down Under as part of a cosmopolitan Europcar team, competing in a ProTour event for the first time.

Voeckler, one of cycling's top climbers, has worn the yellow jersey in the Tour de France twice and finished fourth in the 2011 race. His Europcar teammates include Germany's Bjorn Thurau and former Japan road race champion Yukiya Arashiro.

Fourth-seeded Tomas Berdych lost his first match of the season Monday, falling to Ivo Karlovic 7-6 (6), 7-6 (4) at the Qatar Open.

Karlovic served 25 aces and had 49 winners, while Berdych had eight aces and 28 winners. Neither player managed to break serve.

Successive-day bombings on a railway station and trolleybus in Russia's heartland expose the challenge President Vladimir Putin faces in ensuring a safe Olympics on the edge of the violence-plagued North Caucasus.

The Kremlin chief beat extreme odds in 2007 to bring the showcase winter event to the summer Black Sea retreat of Sochi after personally pledging before Olympic chiefs in Guatemala to make the Games into a "safe, enjoyable and memorable experience".

The 50-foot yacht Victoire was Monday named the overall winner of the Sydney to Hobart ocean race, after the only boat still at sea that could beat her ran out of time.

Supermaxi Wild Oats XI won line honors in the challenging 628 nautical mile race on Saturday night, storming home ahead of the fleet in a time of two days, six hours, seven minutes and 27 seconds.

Tottenham manager Tim Sherwood has vowed to continue his attacking philosophy against Manchester United at Old Trafford on Wednesday.

Sherwood tasted victory for the first time as the permanent successor to Andre Villas-Boas when Stoke were beaten 3-0 in the Premier League at White Hart Lane on Sunday.

French footballer Nicolas Anelka on Sunday strongly defended a controversial gesture he made during a weekend match, saying "I am neither anti-Semite nor racist", even as British football authorities mulled possible punishment.

The 34-year-old West Bromwich Albion striker and former member of France's national team issued a series of tweets rejecting claims that the gesture he made Saturday was anti-Semitic or a thinly veiled Nazi-like salute, as many have interpreted.

Michael Schumacher, the retired seven-time Formula One champion, was in a critical condition on Monday after suffering severe brain trauma in a skiing accident in the French Alps, doctors said.

The German racing legend, who turns 45 on Friday, had been skiing off-piste with his 14-year-old son in the upmarket Meribel resort when he fell and hit his head on a rock.

Arsene Wenger has challenged Arsenal to keep the critics off their backs by winning at Newcastle on Sunday to end the year as Premier League leaders.

Though the Gunners still haven't won a trophy since 2005, 2013 will nevertheless go down as one of their more successful years in recent memory.

Tim Sherwood will continue his crash-course introduction to management as he attempts to ensure Tottenham avoid another home disappointment when Stoke visit White Hart Lane on Sunday.

Sherwood marked his first game since agreeing an 18-month contract to succeed Andre Villas-Boas as Tottenham boss with a frustrating draw against struggling West Bromwich Albion on Boxing Day.