Carter, Stoudemire take NBA weekly honors
NEW YORK, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- New Jersey's Vince Carter and Phoenix's Amare Stoudemire were selected the NBA players of the week Monday.
Carter, an explosive shooting guard, was picked as the NBA's Eastern Conference player of the week after averaging 37.3 points, 7.3 rebounds and 5 assists over three games. That included a 46-point effort in a loss to New Orleans and a 40-point game in a win over the New York Knicks. Stoudemire won the Western Conference honor after averaging 30 points and 12 rebounds over four Suns' victories last week. His efforts included a season-high 43 points in a game with Atlanta.
Rusty Federer takes opener in Dubai
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Roger Federer celebrated his record stay atop the world rankings with an opening-round victory at the $1.5 million Dubai Tennis Championships.
Monday marked the 161st week that Federer has been ranked No. 1, passing the record set by Jimmy Connors from July 29, 1974 until Aug. 22, 1977. Federer has been world No. 1 since Feb. 2, 2004.
Monday also marked the first return to play for Federer, 25, since he won the Australian Open. He ran his personal winning streak to 37 matches but showed some rust as he slipped past Kristian Pless, 7-6 (7-2), 3-6, 6-3. The second set marked the first lost set of the year for Federer.
In other first-round matches in Dubai, Fabrice Santoro knocked out fourth-seeded Tommy Robredo, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4, and sixth-seeded Tomas Berdych rallied for a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Mohammed Al Ghareeb. Other winners Monday were Olivier Rochus, Florent Serra, Dominik Hrbaty and Igor Andreev.
The tournament continues through the week with the eventual winner taking home $300,000.
Hantuchova opens with win in Qatar
DOHA, Qatar, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Sixth-seeded Daniela Hantuchova rolled to a straight-set victory Monday in the first round of the $1.34 million Qatar Open.
Hantuchova roared past Catalina Castano, 6-1, 6-0, to take her first match of the tournament. The only other seeded player to play Monday also won in straight sets. Eighth-seeded Francesca Schiavone was a 6-2, 6-4 winner over Tsvetana Pironkova.
Sania Mirza topped Romina Oprandi, 6-4, 6-3, and Mara Santangelo stopped Sandra Kloesel, 6-3, 7-6 (6-4), in other matches Monday.
The top seeded players in the tournament -- No. 1 Justine Henin, second-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova, No. 3 Martina Hingis and fourth-seeded Jelena Jankovic -- have first-round byes. The 2006 Qatar Open champion, Nadia Petrova, is not in the field this year.
The tournament champion will earn $222,000.
Stenson moves into golf's top five
PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Henrik Stenson, a two-time winner already this year, on Monday moved into the top five of the world's golf rankings.
Stenson paired his victory this past week at the Accenture Match Play Championship with an earlier European Tour win at the Dubai Desert Classic to jump to No. 5 in the world. He is the first Swedish-born golfer to be ranked so high.
The four golfers ahead of him remained the same with Tiger Woods still No. 1 followed by, in order, Jim Furyk, Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott.
Ernie Els was knocked down one spot to No. 6 but Geoff Ogilvy, who advanced to the finals of the Accenture match play only to lose to Stenson, leaped four slots to seventh.
Retief Goosen slipped two spots to No. 8 and Vijay Singh and Luke Donald each dropped one spot to ninth and 10th, respectively.
