Roger Federer finished the group stage at the ATP World Tour Finals with a perfect record after beating Mardy Fish 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 Thursday for his third win at the season-ending tournament.

Federer started the match with the same kind of ruthless efficiency that helped him beat Rafael Nadal in just one hour on Tuesday, breaking Fish three times in the first set.

Spain coach Vicente del Bosque says disappointing recent friendly results have helped improve relations between Barcelona and Real Madrid players.

The world champions followed a 1-0 loss to England by salvaging a 2-2 draw at Costa Rica, with Spain appearing affected by another trans-Atlantic flight.

Amid rumors that AC Milan vice president Adriano Galliani is meeting with Carlos Tevez's agent to discuss a possible move for the unhappy Manchester City striker, the Italian club is refusing to comment.

Italian TV station Sky Sports says Kia Joorabchian is in Milan to meet with Galliani on Thursday

The Formula One season comes to an end at the Brazilian Grand Prix with drivers raving about the rule changes that were aimed at encouraging passing and improving racing.

Although Sebastian Vettel dominated the season and easily won the title with four races to spare, there was plenty of excitement on the track throughout the year, with a significant increase in passing in nearly all races.

World stock markets edged higher Thursday as speculation that China might ease its monetary policy soothed fears that the German economy — Europe's strongest — may be succumbing to the continent's debt crisis.

Benchmark oil hovered above $96 per barrel while the dollar fell against the euro and the yen.

His body already aching after a season of almost unceasing success, Novak Djokovic ran into a brick wall in David Ferrer.

The fifth-seeded Spaniard's relentless hitting proved too much for Djokovic on Wednesday as Ferrer won 6-3, 6-1 to qualify for the semifinals of the ATP World Tour Finals.

Barcelona clinched top spot in Group H by beating AC Milan 3-2 on Wednesday despite twice losing the lead in a pulsating Champions League match and allowing Zlatan Ibrahimovic to score against his former club.

Xavi Hernandez ran onto Lionel Messi's perfect pass into the area to slot in the winning goal in the 63rd minute, sealing the group win with one game remaining.

Robin van Persie guided Arsenal through to the next round of the Champions League on Wednesday, scoring his 20th and 21st goals of the season in a 2-1 win over Borussia Dortmund.

Dortmund dominated the opening exchanges and had Arsenal under pressure even after injuries to Sven Bender and Mario Goetze midway through the first half robbed the German champions of arguably their two key players.

Like Santa Claus on that one foggy Christmas Eve, Microsoft has summoned Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to guide some precious cargo — a holiday marketing campaign for its Bing search engine.

The advertisements, debuting online and on TV this week, star Rudolph and other characters from the animated story about the most famous reindeer of all. The campaign is part of Microsoft's attempt to trip up Google Inc., an Internet search rival as imposing as the Abominable Snowman was before Yukon Cornelius tamed the monster.

Manuel Friedrich sent Bayer Leverkusen into the knockout round of the Champions League with an injury-time header Wednesday that secured a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Chelsea and left the London club in real danger of missing out on the next stage.

Friedrich — a defender — managed to beat Alex to the ball and score with a header from a corner that went in off the underside of the crossbar in the 91st minute.