For someone with precious little match conditioning heading into the Australian Open, Maria Sharapova didn't look like someone concerned about any supposed imbalance Wednesday.

The second-seeded Sharapova beat Japan's Misaki Doi 6-0, 6-0 in just 47 minutes, her second consecutive match at Melbourne Park where her opponent failed to win a game. Doi won only 15 points.

France striker Karim Benzema helped Real Madrid to a 2-0 victory over Valencia in the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey on Tuesday.

Benzema opened the scoring in the 37th minute of the first leg match, finishing off a rapid counterattack after Michael Essien had picked out Sami Khedira on the left flank.

The Los Angeles Clippers won again in the absence of the injured Chris Paul on Tuesday as Jamal Crawford scored a season-high 30 points, including 12 straight to start the fourth quarter, in a 117-109 victory over the struggling Houston Rockets.

Los Angeles used a big third quarter to take the lead, and Crawford extended the advantage to 20 by outscoring Houston 12-7 in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter.

Queens Park Rangers is signing Marseille striker Loic Remy and midfielder Yann M'Vila is also set to join from Rennes to help the Premier League club's struggle against relegation.

The 26-year-old Remy was poised to join Newcastle at the weekend, but QPR manager Harry Redknapp said he had a medical examination and agreed personal terms with the west London club on Wednesday.

Premier League struggler Sunderland was eliminated from the FA Cup by second-tier club Bolton on Tuesday as Fulham, Stoke and Wigan beat lower-league opposition in the third-round replays.

Marvin Sordell scored twice in the second half at Sunderland — the first from the penalty spot after Jack Colback fouled Darren Pratley — to give Bolton a 2-0 victory and fourth round meeting with Everton.

Cuba's Public Health Ministry on Tuesday acknowledged 51 new cases of cholera in the capital amid growing concerns about the illness' spread and disappointment in the diplomatic community over the government's lack of transparency.

The ministry said nobody had died from the latest outbreak, which began Jan. 6, and stressed that preventive measures already taken had put the disease "on the way to extinction." It said cholera was first detected in the capital's Cerro neighborhood, and then spread elsewhere. No other areas of the capital were mentioned, but there have been unconfirmed reports of cases in the leafy Playa neighborhood that is home to many foreign embassies.

Prince Albert of Monaco has accepted an apology and damages from Britain's Sunday Times newspaper over an article suggesting his wife Princess Charlene was reluctant to marry him, lawyers said Tuesday.

The prince had launched libel action over a July 2011 article that suggested Charlene agreed to a sham marriage in exchange for payment, and that Albert had confiscated her passport to prevent her from fleeing Monaco so she would stay and marry him for appearance's sake.

Britain's National Health Service may soon offer women at high risk of developing breast cancer drugs normally used to treat the disease as a prevention strategy.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence Tuesday announced draft guidelines that would make the drugs available.

Facebook on Tuesday launched a search engine for shared content described as a way to find things liked by friends on the huge social network.

"We look at Facebook as a big social database," chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in announcing the so-called "graph search" function. "Just like any database, you should be able to query it."

Select "Downton Abbey" fans are in for an early viewing treat and bragging rights.

Apple said Monday that people in North America who hold iTunes season passes will be able to see this season's last three episodes of "Downton" before they air.