Sports briefs 1/6/06

Colleges

• The former football coach at the University of St. Mary has been indicted on child pornography charges.

Scott Frear, 42, of Leavenworth, was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Kan., on one count of sexually exploiting minors by possessing a visual depiction of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. He was also charged with two counts of sexually exploiting minors by sending, via computer, visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Frear, who previously was offensive coordinator at Avila University in Kansas City, Mo., began coaching at St. Mary in 2002 and was the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conferences coach of the year that season. He resigned Aug. 16, hours after university officials learned that he was being investigated.

Tennis

• Roger Federer advanced to the semifinals of the Qatar Open with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Marcos Baghdatis.

The top-ranked Federer will meet Tommy Haas for a spot in the final. Haas beat Mikhail Youzhny 6-4, 6-3.

In other matches, second-seeded Nikolay Davydenko was upset in the quarterfinals by Filippo Volandri 6-3, 6-4. Volandri will play seventh-seeded Gael Monfils in the semis after the French teenager defeated Dmitry Tursunov 6-2, 7-6 (4).

-- From wire reports