Cañas ends Federer's 41-match win streak

Guillermo Cañas snapped Roger Federer's 41-match winning streak Sunday, beating the top player 7-5, 6-2 in the third round of the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, Calif.

Federer had arrived at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden having won seven consecutive tournaments and was considered an odds-on favorite to break the record of 47 straight matches won by Guillermo Vilas 30 years ago.

Cañas only returned to the ATP tour in September after serving a 15-month drug suspension.

Top-ranked Maria Sharapova stayed on course to repeat as the tournament women's champion, with a 7-5, 6-2 third-round win against Nathalie Dechy.

Sharapova will face 15th-seeded Vera Zvonareva, who advanced with a 6-3, 6-3 win against Victoria Azarenko.

SIMON SUSPENDED 25 GAMES New York Islanders forward Chris Simon was suspended for the rest of the regular season and playoffs for his two-handed stick attack to the face of New York Rangers forward Ryan Hollweg.

Simon will miss at least 25 games - the Islanders' final 15 regular-season games and the postseason. If the Islanders play fewer than 10 playoff games this year, the suspension will continue next season.

"The National Hockey League will not accept the use of a stick in the manner and fashion in which Mr. Simon used his Thursday night," league disciplinarian Colin Campbell said in a statement.

NHLPA OFFICIALS SLAPPED National Hockey League Players' Association executive director Ted Saskin and senior director Ken Kim, accused of monitoring player e-mails, were placed on paid leaves Sunday night after a vote by the 30 player representatives, who also voted to seek an internal review of NHLPA procedures.

Saskin's troubles began his first day on the job, July 28, 2005. Instead of taking over on an interim basis and forming a search committee to interview other candidates, Saskin immediately replaced Bob Goodenow as executive director after negotiating a five-year contract with former players' president Trevor Linden, which led to dissent by other NHLPA officials.

BLUES FOR SALVADOR St. Louis Blues defenseman Bryce Salvador fractured his collarbone and will be sidelined the rest of the NHL season.

BUTCHER'S ASHES SCATTERED While four-time champions Jeff King and Martin Buser were fighting for the lead Sunday in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, a fourth champion was making a last stop at her favorite spot on the trail.

Dave Monson, husband of four-time champion Susan Butcher, who died in August of leukemia, said some of his wife's ashes were scattered on the trail at a spot called "Old Woman," between Kaltag and Unalakleet, Alaska.

King, the defending champion, was the first musher to reach the Unalakleet checkpoint about 261 miles from the finish line in Nome.

NEW TITLE FOR JACOBELLIS Lindsey Jacobellis added the World Cup snowboardcross title in Wilmington, N.Y., to her 2007 World Championships gold in the discipline.

The Olympic silver medalist from a year ago won the opening snowboardcross Thursday and dominated every run Sunday to clinch the World Cup title with one event remaining.

In the men's event, Canadian Drew Neilson stayed unbeaten after three World Cup contests but didn't clinch the title because American Nate Holland finished second for the third straight time.

UP AND ADAM Polish ski jumper Adam Malysz mastered tricky winds to win a World Cup event in Lahti, Finland, his 33rd World Cup victory.

BIATHLON RECORD Ole Einar Bjorndalen edged Raphael Poiree on the final sprint to win a 15-kilometer mass start for his record 74th victory in World Cup biathlon events. In the women's 12.5-kilometer race, Magdalena Neuner won her second in a row to lead a 1-2 German finish.

OHNO FIT TO BE BRONZED Five- time Olympic medalist Apolo Anton Ohno finished third in the 1,000 and 3,000 and started off the United States' bronze-medal performance in the 5,000- meter relay at the short-track speedskating world championships in Milan, Italy.

MILLAR TIME David Millar won a prologue to take the early overall lead at the Paris-Nice cycling race, which began despite threats of a boycott concerning the event's sanctioned status.

The Scottish rider finished in 6 minutes, 1 second in a 2.9-mile dash around the Paris suburb of Issy-Les-Moulineaux.

UNDER INVESTIGATION PGA Tour player Arjun Atwal is under investigation after what appeared to be a high-speed street race ended in a fatal crash near Orlando, Fla., police said.

Atwal was not injured in the Saturday evening accident. The other driver, John Noah Park, 48, died at a hospital, Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Kim Miller said. No charges have been filed against Atwal, the first player from India on the PGA Tour.

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