London - Newcastle United signed midfielder Kevin Nolan from Bolton for 4 million pounds on Friday.

The Bolton captain signed a four-and-a-half year contract with the north-east club.

"It was an opportunity which was impossible to turn down," Nolan told Newcastle's official website.

Manager Joe Kinnear was delighted with his new signing.

"He's got a good eye for goal and has got bags of Premier League experience.

Melbourne - Fernando Verdasco almost denied Rafael Nadal a first-ever final at the Australian Open, but the top seed survived to win the longest match ever played at Melbourne Park, 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 6-7 (2-7), 6-4 on Friday.

The 14th-seed Verdasco, munching on apples during changeovers instead of the customary bananas, came close to stunning the normally invincible Nadal in a record-breaking marathon match lasting five hours, 14 minutes.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany - Lindsey Vonn of the United States ended Maria Riesch's World Cup slalom winning streak Friday, beating her German friend into second place on a day Austria met disaster.

The World Cup leader Vonn won from third place after the first run in a combined total of 1 minute 47.17 seconds for her fourth season victory and 17th overall.

Riesch, who had won the previous four slaloms but then failed to finish in three of the last four races overall, fought from sixth to second place in 1:48.07 in front of a delighted home crowd.

Leverkusen, Germany - Bayer Leverkusen announced the

Innsbruck, Austria - Swiss skier Daniel Albrecht remained in an induced coma in an Innsbruck hospital on Friday, but doctors said his condition was improving more than a week after he crashed heavily in training for the Kitzbuehel downhill.

Doctors said there were no complications in the skier's treatment for head injuries and that bleeding of the lower lobes had stopped. But he was being kept in a coma in view of overall injuries to his lung.

Rybinsk, Russia - Marianna Longa claimed her first career World Cup win ahead of Arianna Follis in an Italian one-two finish on Friday in a women's mass start cross-country ski race.

Longa, 29, won the 10-kilometre freestyle race in 25 minutes 22.6 seconds as she proved the strongest in a 16-skier leader group.

Follis trailed by 0.4 seconds and German Stephanie Boehler got her first career podium in third place, 1.4 seconds off the pace.