Good week/Bad week

Skysports.com picks out the winners and losers from a momentous seven days of sport.

Meanwhile there were mixed fortunes for two Britons in the world of golf, and a particularly painful experience for one young American....

GOOD WEEK

Robert Rock

The likeable Midlander was playing in his 227th European Tour event in Abu Dhabi and the former teaching assistant was ranked 117 in the world after winning his first title in Italy last year.

But what happened in the Middle East will remain with the 34-year-old for the rest of his days as he went head-to-head with none other than Tiger Woods in the final round.

Rock held a two-stroke lead going down the final hole after outplaying the former world number one from tee to green, lifting the title to join an elite group of players and open up a host of new opportunities.

Liverpool

Cup mania is alive and well on Merseyside after the Reds knocked Manchester City out of the Carling Cup and their neighbours United out of the FA Cup.

Liverpool led City after the opening leg of their semi-final clash but the teams were all-square before Craig Bellamy got the winner to send his team to Wembley.

Even better was to follow after Daniel Agger's opener was cancelled out by Park Ji-sung on Saturday, only for Dirk Kuyt to rifle home the winner two minutes from time.

Novak Djokovic

Life at the top just gets better and better for the joker they cale 'Nole'.

The world number one and defending champion took five hours to overcome Andy Murray in the semi-final of the Australian Open, and had to gird himself for Rafa Nadal in the final.

After a quite start, the match came alive as Djokovic raced through the third set before Nadal hit back to take it into a decider.

As the clock ticked past one record and then another, it looked as though the tough exhausted warriors could not be separated.

But, from 4-2 down, the popular Serb hit back to win the fifth set 7-5 and beat the Spaniard for a seventh successive time in a match lasting almost six hours.

Victoria Azarenka

Remaining in the world of tennis, mention must be made of the Belarusian whoi has overcome physical and mental issues to become the best in the world.

Starting the championship ranked third, Azarenka crsuied through the first week in Melbourne before battling past defending champion Kim Clijsters to reach her first Grand Slam final.

Defying early nerves, the 23-year-old completely overpowered the more experienced Maria Sharapova to win convincingly 6-3 6-0 and claim the top ranking in the process.

BAD WEEK

Kyle Stanley

On just his second year on the PGA Tour young Stanley found himself six shots clear midway through the final round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.

That advantage had shrunk by the time he teed up on the 18th but he still had a three-shot cushion over second-placed Brandt Snedeker.

A seven would have sufficed, but having dumped his third in the greenside lake he then three-putted to slip into a play-off, where he missed from four feet at the second extra hole to hand Snedeker the win.

England batsmen

Things have gone from bad to worse for the world's number one Test team on their 'tour' of Pakistan in the UAE.

After losing the first Test when they were dismissed for 192 and 160, things started to look up when Alistair Cook, Jonathan Trott and Stuart all bagged half-centuries as England took a first innings lead of 70 in the second match.

But after being set a target of just 145 to tie the series England collapsed again, this time making just 72 with Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell and Eoin Morgan all exposed by the spinners.

They have one more match in Dubai to prove themselves in the conditions before heading off to Sri Lanka.

Rory McIlroy

When young Rory picked up a two-shot penalty for absent-mindedly brushing some sand away from his ball while off the green, many thought it would come back to haunt him later in the Abu Dhabi Championship.

How right they proved to be. McIlroy, playing his tournament of the year, brushed off some early cobwebs to playing himself into contention on the final day.

And after a closing birdie he ended up just one shot behind winner Robert Rock - without that momentary lapse earlier in the week he would have chalked up yet another big win.

Racing punter

Not many eight-horse accumulators come off - but when the first seven go in it's time to start reaching for the calculator.

Horse number eight, Strike Force, would have bagged one £1 each-way punter a £850,000 windfall had he done the business at Wolverhampton on Monday.

Alas, it was not be. And to add insult to injury, the beast lost third place in a photo - a position that would have given the hapless punter in question a tidy £450 consolation prize.