* Russia is currently in first place in the unofficial team standings at the IX Paralympic Winter Games in Turin, with a total of 26 medals, including 11 gold, 10 silver, and five bronze. Germany (6-5-3) overtook Ukraine (5-8-6) in second place. The competitions will run through March 19.
* At the Pacific Life Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells, USA:
- Russian tennis player Yelena Dementyeva, seeded 4, advanced to the women's singles semifinals by defeating Ana Ivanovic (8) from Serbia, 2:6, 6:4, 6:2, to take on top-seeded Justine Henin-Hardenne from Belgium. Former world no.1s, Russian Maria Sharapova (3) and Martina Hingis (19) from Switzerland will meet in the other semifinal
* Zenit St. Petersburg, Russia's lone survivor in this season's European soccer club competitions, advanced to the UEFA Cup quarterfinals by defeating Olympique Marseille, 2-1 on aggregate, with a narrow victory, 1:0 in the first-leg away match at the Velodrome Arena and a 1:1 draw at home Thursday. Zenit will meet Spain's Sevilla in quarterfinal after the UEFA draw conducted Friday in the Dutch city of Eindhoven.
The rest of the draw is as follows:
Basel (Switzerland) - Middlesbrough (England)
Steaua (Romania) - Rapid (Romania)
Schalke (Germany) - Levski (Bulgaria)
The first legs will be played on March 30 and the second legs on April 6. The final is set for Eindhoven on May 10.
* Russian men's basketball team Ural-Great Perm beat Khimik Yuzhny from Ukraine in the first leg of the Challenge Cup two-way finals series, 80:67 away. The second leg is set for Perm on March 23
* Russia's national hockey championships, the SuperLeague, second-leg of best-of-five play-off series results (host teams listed first):
Metallurg Novokuznetsk - Metallurg Magnitogorsk - 2:3 (Metallurg wins the series 3-0)
Spartak Moscow - Salavat Yulayev Ufa - 4:5 (Salavat wins the series 3-0)
SKA St. Petersburg - Avangard Omsk - 1:3 (Avangard wins the series 3-0)
HK MVD Tver - Ak Bars Kazan - 3:2 (Ak Bars leads in the series 2-1)
Lada Tolyatti - Dinamo Moscow - 0:2 (Lada leads 2-1)
Severstal Cherepovets - CSKA Moscow - 0:1 (CSKA leads 2-1)
Sibir Novosibirsk - Lokomotiv Yaroslavl - 3:1 (Lokomotiv leads 2-1)
Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk - Khimik Voskresensk - 0:2 (Khimik leads 2-1)
* Russian soccer's 16-team Premier League starts today
