Australian Open officials have amended the tournament’s heat policy so that matches in progress when extreme conditions are declared won’t have to be immediately finished. Players in the Jan. 14-27 tournament at Melbourne Park will no longer have to complete matches that are already under way once the extreme heat rule is invoked, instead only having to complete the current set.

Rafael Nadal’s foot injury should not keep him from performing at a high level, according to his doctor. The second-ranked Spaniard was diagnosed in 2004 with a stress fracture in his left foot. The injury has occasionally flared up. The foot “is not at all a handicap,” Dr. Angel Ruiz Cotorro said in a statement Thursday.

Andy Roddick expects some boisterous patriotic spirit when the United States hosts Russia this weekend for the Davis Cup. The United State has not hosted the final in the international team tennis competition since 1992. “I think we’re expecting a rowdy crowd just based solely on the fact that it sold out in about 17 minutes,” Roddick said.

Russian Davis Cup team captain Shamil Tarpischev was emphatic. Marat Safin wasn’t going to suddenly appear for the Davis Cup final. There were questions whether Tarpischev, known for his craftiness, might bring in Safin at the last minute. Safin is 29-18 in the Davis Cup, and he won the decisive point in Russia’s 3-2 win over Argentina in the final in Moscow last year.

His body not quite so limber anymore, Pete Sampras says retirement has taken a toll on his game. If he were looking for evidence, all he had to do was consider his exhibition match Tuesday against Roger Federer, a 6-4, 6-3 loss in South Korea. They’ll play again Thursday in Malaysia, with the last of their three Asian exhibitions in Macau on Saturday.

In an exhibition match between tennis greats past and present, Roger Federer defeated Pete Sampras 6-4, 6-3 on Tuesday. The match was the first of three Asian exhibitions, with their next meeting Thursday in Kuala Lumpur before a final get together in Macau on Saturday. If the top-ranked Swiss star expected an easy time against Sampras, he found out early Pistol Pete still has his powerful serve.

Tennis players must notify officials within 48 hours if they hear any information about gambling or match-fixing under a new ATP rule. The measure was approved during a three-day ATP board meeting during this week’s season-ending Masters Cup. “To us, nothing is more important than the integrity and honesty of the sport,” ATP president Etienne de Villiers told The Associated Press on Friday.

Novak Djokovic lost all three of his matches at the Masters Cup. He never lost his sense of humor. Along with the skills worthy of a No. 3 ranking, the 20-year-old Serbian gained a reputation for his quick quips and impersonations of top players such as Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova. His spoofs have drawn more than a million viewers on YouTube.

The ATP has dropped a $2,000 fine imposed on fourth-ranked Nikolay Davydenko for “lack of best effort” during a 1-6, 7-5, 6-1 loss to Marin Cilic at St. Petersburg last month. Davydenko, also at the center of an ongoing investigation into unusual betting patterns during a loss to Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina at the Poland Open in August, had appealed the fine for a code violation.

Martina Hingis is awaiting help from the WTA Tour in the fight to clear her name after a positive test for cocaine at Wimbledon. WTA Tour president Stacy Allaster said Sunday that the women’s tour will only get involved after doping authorities hand over a report on the case. “We let that process happen independently and then, depending on the findings of the tennis anti-doping committee, we’ll be…

Alessio Di Mauro believes his nine-month ban for betting on tennis is too severe and he’s a scapegoat for the match-fixing scandals surrounding the sport. “The sentence is too harsh,” Di Mauro said in Sunday editions of Gazzetta dello Sport. “I made a silly mistake and I’m being punished excessively. I could go down in history as the only player banned for betting in tennis.” Di Mauro became the…

Nikolay Davydenko says he’s angry and frustrated. Nearly every day, his name is in the newspapers and on TV — not because of his No. 4 ranking, but for a match three months ago that tennis’ governing body is investigating as part of a possible match-fixing scandal. Has it affected Davydenko’s game? Maybe.

Alessio di Mauro was suspended for nine months Saturday for betting on tennis matches, becoming the first player to be sanctioned under the ATP’s new anti-corruption rules. The 124th-ranked Italian was also fined $60,000 after being found guilty of making 120 bets with an online bookmaker from Nov. 2, 2006, to June 12 this year.

Nikolay Davydenko’s wife and brother have been questioned by ATP investigators looking into irregular betting patterns surrounding one of the Russian player’s matches. The lawyer for the fourth-ranked Davydenko said Friday he wasn’t authorized to give details on what the wife and brother were asked during Monday’s questioning by the former Scotland Yard investigators for men’s tennis governing…

Czech tennis player Jan Hernych says he was approached in Russia last year and asked to lose first-round matches at ATP tournaments in Moscow and St. Petersburg. “Someone called me from the (hotel’s) reception to my room, asking whether I wanted to sell a match, if I wanted to lose,” Hernych was quoted as saying in Friday’s editions of the Czech Republic’s biggest daily, Mlada Fronta Dnes.