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A Japanese court has handed down a suspended sentence to Australian golfer Wayne Perske for possessing and using cocaine.

Masaaki Ono, an official at the Chiba District Court, said the 36-year-old golfer received a year and six months in prison, suspended for three years.

Perske was arrested in October after inhaling cocaine at a bar in Chiba, east of Tokyo, and carrying some 1.25 grams of cocaine in his pocket. A customer at the bar alerted police, leading officers to search and arrest him.

Japan has strict anti-drug laws. Possession of banned drugs can carry a penalty of up to seven years imprisonment.

Roger Federer rallied from a set down to beat Robin Soderling 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-3 Friday and reach the final of the World Tennis Championships.

Federer, who lost to the fifth-ranked Swede in the exhibition last year, gave Soderling the lead when he hit a forehand long on set point in the tiebreaker.

But Federer took control in the second set, hitting several of his 16 aces to take a 5-3 lead and breaking Soderling to even the match. Using his powerful forehand and dominant service game, Federer went up 4-3 in the third and 5-3 when Soderling missed an easy forehand. Federer closed out the match with an ace.

Tennis player Chanda Rubins house burned down during an intense thunderstorm, and lightning was a likely cause, Lafayette fire officials said Thursday.

The 1990s tennis star was home but got out safely when the fire broke out shortly after 9 p.m. Wednesday, and nobody was hurt, Assistant Chief Jerry Delhomme said.

He said lightning may have touched off the fire, which started in the attic. Investigators were to return in daylight.

Numerous calls from Rubins alarm system, neighbors and Rubin herself came in within a few minutes of each other, starting at 9:07 p.m., he said.

Delhomme said trucks were at the house within minutes, and firefighters stayed for two hours.

Rubin won seven singles titles on the WTA Tour and reached as high as No. 6 in the rankings in 1996. Her deepest run at a Grand Slam came that year, when she reached the semifinals at the Australian Open.

She was unseeded but won the Eastbourne International tournament in 2002. Her last singles titles were in Eastbourne and Madrid in 2003, according to the WTA website.

It said the 34-year-old withdrew from a half-dozen tournaments this year because of a variety of injuries. She won only one match in the seven events she did appear in.

American tennis star Andy Roddick says he feels fit for the first time in more than six months after winning his battle against the strength-sapping illness mononucleosis.

World No. 8 Roddick said he fought against the illness for most of last year when he failed to reach the quarterfinals at Wimbledon and the French and U.S. Opens.

He said on Wednesday he had worked hard to regain his fitness during the recent offseason and would look to next weeks Brisbane Invitational tournament as a springboard into a better 2011.

“For me its just a matter of getting right, getting healthy,” Roddick said. “I battled sickness for a big part of last year and from there I just felt like I was playing catch-up.

“You train hard and you get hurt in training coming back. You dont train, you rest and you try and come back and your body is not right and it shows.

A former world No.1, Roddicks ranking dropped as low as 13 in August last year before getting back into single figures, but he now felt ready to push for the worlds top five.

“Its the first time Ive felt right since last May so when you are fit it takes a lot of the mental pressure off,” Roddick said.

“You feel like you can play any way you want so I feel fresh and I feel enthused and ready.”

Roddick beat Czech Radek Stepanek to win last years final at Brisbane and said he was looking to the Jan. 2 to 9 tournament for a similar show of early season form as he builds up for next months Australian Open.

“I came in last year and hadnt been playing much so this was a really good springboard into the year for me,” he said.

“I like being in the same country but also I like this event. My wife enjoys coming here so lets not pretend I make any decisions.”

Roddick is second seed for Brisbane, behind world No.4 Robin Soderling of Sweden.

The Australian Open will precede the Presidents Cup next November, a decision that will almost certainly prompt Tiger Woods to skip the Australian Masters.

The PGA of Australia announced Sunday that the Open, likely to be held at a Sydney-area course, will be held from Nov. 10-13. The Australian PGA at Coolum will be played Nov. 24-27, a week after the Presidents Cup between the United States and an International team at Royal Melbourne.

The PGA also said that the Australian Masters was tentatively scheduled for Dec. 1-4, but that was still to be confirmed. Tiger Woods has played the Masters the last two years, winning in 2009, and has said hed prefer to see it played the week before the Presidents Cup.

The Masters is scheduled to be played at Kingston Heath, another sandbelt course near Royal Melbourne and one which would have given Woods and other Presidents Cup players an ideal preparation for the team event.

IMG, which manages Woods, also runs the Australian Masters and had hoped to get the prime slot before the Presidents Cup to boost its field. The Australian Open in Sydney will now have that opportunity, although the likely course, The Lakes, doesnt have as much in common with Royal Melbourne as Kingston Heath does.

“We would like this date. Its critical to us,” Mark Steinberg, head of IMGs global golf division, said in November during the Masters.

“We feel like we took on the risk by moving to this date a few years ago, going up against some big events, and we made it successful. We feel we deserve to keep the date, now that its a coveted date for next year.”

Woods received a $3 million appearance fee - half of that paid by the Victorian state government - but in his first year, a government study showed the economic return was more than $30 million.

Max Garske, the chief executive of the PGA of Australia, said Sunday that the decision “was made in the best interest of both Australian golf and the PGA Tour of Australasia.”

“There were a number of factors that needed to be carefully considered in finalizing the scheduling for 2011, including the timing of a number of international events, the availability of certain venues and the domestic schedule that best serves the Australian golfing public,” Garske said.

“With the focus of the golfing world set to be firmly on Melbourne come mid-November 2011, it is a given that the Presidents Cup will offer up a number of benefits to events falling on either side. So with these factors in mind we feel we have made the decision in the best interest of the game.”

Tiger Woods had a cortisone shot in his right ankle 10 days ago to relieve lingering soreness. By Tuesday, he was back to work hitting balls and filming a commercial.

Mark Steinberg, his agent at IMG, said Woods had intended all along to have the shot after the Chevron World Challenge, which ended Dec. 5. Woods has nearly two months off before his next tournament at Torrey Pines.

“This was always the plan,” Steinberg said. “Hes looking at 2011 as a big year for him.”

At this years Masters, Woods revealed he ruptured the Achilles tendon in his right leg in December 2008 while recovering from knee surgery. Steinberg says it still causes soreness, prompting the cortisone shot.

Steinberg spoke in response to Internet chatter that Woods had torn his Achilles while skiing. He said Woods has not skied in more than three years.

Woods posted two tweets Tuesday of photos from his EA Sports shoot at Isleworth, referring to one as a “tough day at the office.”

Woods is coming off the first winless season of his career, although he showed strong signs of turning his game around at the Chevron World Challenge. He lost a four-shot lead on the final day and was beaten by U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell in a playoff.

Procter & Gamble Co. will not renew its endorsement deal with Tiger Woods at the end of the year, adding another name to the list of companies that cut ties with the golfer after last years revelations of marital infidelities.

The company used Woods, Roger Federer, Lionel Messi and dozens of other athletes as part of its three-year “Gillette Champions” marketing campaign. Gillette said Thursday it was phasing out that program and not renewing the contract with Woods and several other athletes. It stopped using Woods himself in the campaign months ago.

The golfer was once the most sought-after pitchman in sports and was the first athlete to earn $1 billion from endorsement agreements. However, many corporations cut ties or distanced themselves from Woods after the scandal that broke just over a year ago and dominated headlines for months.

Accenture LLP, AT&T Inc. and Gatorade all dropped Woods as an endorser. Companies such as Gillette and Tag Heuer didnt end their relationships outright but stopped featuring him in advertisements.

Nike Inc. and Electronic Arts, which had more invested in his skills as a golfer rather than a more general symbol of excellence, stuck with him. Woods is trying to rebuild his golf reputation after his first year as a pro golfer without a tournament victory and losing his ranking as the top player in the world.

Gillette is also letting its contracts with other athletes, including soccer players such as Messi, Thierry Henry, and Kaka end as part of the conclusion of the marketing program.

Gi such as Federer, NHL star Alex for new local marketing campaigns.

Jelena Dokic and Peter Luczak have been awarded wild-card entries into next months Australian Open, though both lost in the final in last weeks wild-card playoffs.

Dokic was beaten by Olivia Rogowska in a three-set, rain-interrupted match but says she is confident of repeating her 2009 effort, when she reached the Open quarterfinals on a wild card.

She says the wild-card playoff had been good practice and she was happy with her performance.

Luczak, who lost his playoff final to Marinko Matosevic, says he now plans to play the Brisbane and Sydney International tournaments next month.

Dokic and Luczak were awarded their wild-card entries on Thursday.

Tiger Woods had a cortisone shot in his right ankle 10 days ago to relieve lingering soreness. By Tuesday, he was back to work hitting balls and filming a commercial.

Mark Steinberg, his agent at IMG, said Woods had intended all along to have the shot after the Chevron World Challenge, which ended Dec. 5. Woods has nearly two months off before his next tournament at Torrey Pines.

“This was always the plan,” Steinberg said. “Hes looking at 2011 as a big year for him.”

At this years Masters, Woods revealed he ruptured the Achilles tendon in his right leg in December 2008 while recovering from knee surgery. Steinberg says it still causes soreness, prompting the cortisone shot.

Steinberg spoke in response to Internet chatter that Woods had torn his Achilles while skiing. He said Woods has not skied in more than three years.

Woods posted two tweets Tuesday of photos from his EA Sports shoot at Isleworth, referring to one as a “tough day at the office.”

Woods is coming off the first winless season of his career, although he showed strong signs of turning his game around at the Chevron World Challenge. He lost a four-shot lead on the final day and was beaten by U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell in a playoff.

The Austrian Tennis Federation says Austria will play France on a clay court in an aircraft hangar in the first round of the 2011 Davis Cup.

A hangar at Austrias main airport currently being used for airplane maintenance will be transformed into a 6,000-capacity tennis stadium for the March 4-6 match.

The federation had struggled to find a site since no suitable venue in the Vienna area was available for that week.

Austrian player Jurgen Melzer says he doesnt think airplane noise will create a disturbance. He said planes fly overhead all the time during the U.S. Open and doesnt seem to bother the players.

France was beaten by Serbia in the Davis Cup final earlier this month. Austria has not advanced past the first round since 1995.