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Minnesota’s Phil Loadholt checks on fallen teammate Brett Favre after the quarterback was hit by the Saints’ Remi Ayodele, right, during the NFC championship game Sunday. (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

They sure ain’t the Aints anymore.

The New Orleans Saints are heading to their first Super Bowl after battering Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings 31-28 in overtime Sunday on unheralded Garrett Hartley’s 40-yard field goal.

Favre threw away Minnesota’s best chance to win, tossing an interception deep in New Orleans territory in the closing seconds of regulation. Then the Saints won the coin toss and soon it was over.

The team that had no home five years ago after Hurricane Katrina ravaged its city and the Superdome overcame a slew of mistakes in the largest game the Huge Simple has ever seen.

“This is for everybody in this city,” said coach Sean Payton, the architect of the Saints’ turnaround. “This stadium used to have holes in it and used to be wet. It’s not wet anymore. This is for the city of New Orleans.”

Forget the paper bag masks and that long history of losing started in 1967. Moments after Hartley’s kick, they were toasting their hometown winners on Bourbon Street.

And in the Superdome, once a squalid refuge after Katrina, they boogied in the aisles as confetti covered the field.

“It’s a moment I’ve been waiting for for a long time and obviously we’re not done yet,” said Drew Brees, Payton’s hand-picked quarterback for the Saints’ renaissance.

The Saints (15-3) will meet Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts (16-2) in the Super Bowl in two weeks in Miami.

It’s the first time the top seeds in each conference made the huge game since the 1993 season.

“Brett prepared us, but now we’ve got another challenge in Peyton,” safety Darren Sharper said.

Favre’s mistake costs Vikings

The largest error was made by Favre. Flushed from the pocket, he seemed to have room to run to set up a field goal. Instead, the 40-year-ancient quarterback threw cross-field and was intercepted by Tracy Porter at the 22.

That finished Minnesota’s chance for its first Super Bowl trip in 33 years — and opportunity to win it for the first time.

The Vikings have lost five straight NFC title games.

“I’ve felt better,” said Favre, who looked every bit his 40 years. “It was a physical game. A lot of hits. You win that and you sure feel a lot better.”

New Orleans won the coin toss, Brees guided it to the Minnesota 22 and Hartley, suspended at the start of the season for using a banned stimulant, split the uprights 4:45 into OT.

“Just helping my team get to Miami,” Hartley said. “Just doing my part.”

The seesaw game saw All-Pro Adrian Peterson score three touchdowns for Minnesota and Saints running back Pierre Thomas get two.

The Vikings handily won the possession and yardage battles — Peterson rushed for 122 yards and Minnesota gained 475 overall. But the Vikings were undone by five turnovers, including three fumbles.

“We really gave those guys the game,” said Peterson, who peeked at the rousing celebrations on the Superdome floor. “Too many turnovers. It’s eating me up inside.”

The seemingly indestructible Favre was hurt on one of those turnovers, on a combination hit by Bobby McCray and Remi Ayodele while throwing his first interception. Despite being the closest Viking to the ball, he was helpless in the scramble to recover Percy Harvin’s fumble that seemingly turned the game in New Orleans’ favour early in the fourth period.

The Saints took over at the seven and, on third down, Reggie Bush caught Brees’ rollout pass by the right pylon. He was ruled out at the one, but Payton sprinted nearly to the goal line to throw the red flag.

The challenge was upheld, and the dome rocked like never before — until Hartley’s winning field goal.

But Favre has been in enough hostile environs to be able to shrug at such challenges. He hit tight end Visanthe Shiancoe for 16 yards, Peterson ripped off a 20-yard run, and a pass interference against Porter set up Peterson’s tying two-yard rush with 4:58 to go.

“I would have loved to represent the NFC,” said Favre, who grew up in Mississippi a Saints fan. “But, as I told Sean throughout the year when we talked, if it’s not us, I hope it’s you guys.”

Venus Williams of the United States plays a forehand in her fourth-round match against Italy’s Francesca Schiavone during day eight of the 2010 Australian Open. (Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

Venus Williams advanced to the Australian Open quarter-finals for the seventh time with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 win over Francesca Schiavone on Monday.

The sixth-seeded Williams, who lost the 2003 final to younger sister Serena in her best run so far at Melbourne Park, dropped a set to Schiavone for the first time in seven years but recovered to win a sixth consecutive match against the Italian player.

The Williams sisters are on track to meet in the semifinals, with top-ranked and defending champion Serena playing Australia’s Sam Stosur in a fourth-round match later Monday on Rod Laver Arena.

Venus struggled to hold serve in the first set but was in command by the end, when she won the last six games after Schiavone broke her to open the third.

“Francesca was playing so well. She was so tenacious, she has so much speed,” Williams said. “I had a small bit of a slow start.”

Williams’s win extends a streak in which at least one American woman has reached the Australian Open quarter-finals every year since 1977. She next plays the winner of Monday’s later match between No. 16 Li Na of China and U.S. Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark.

Roddick advances

Four days after an mad outburst over the rules relating to replays and line calls, Andy Roddick got a crucial call in his favour in his fourth-round win over Fernando Gonzalez on Sunday.

Roddick held off the 2007 Australian Open finalist 6-3, 3-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 to reach the quarters for the sixth time in eight years. He’ll meet No. 14 Marin Cilic of Croatia, who ousted U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro in five sets.

Roddick bucked the trend on a day of upsets that also resulted in fourth-round exits for two of the top women: No. 2 Dinara Safina, last year’s runner-up, and No. 3 Svetlana Kuznetsova, the reigning French Open champion.

“I got a small lucky, but sometimes it’s better to be lucky than excellent,” he said.

After wasting four set points in the 10th game of the fourth set, seventh-seeded Roddick rallied from 40-0 down in the 12th — Gonzalez’s next service game — to earn a fifth set point. Then he hit the contentious, dipping crosscourt forehand.

The ball was called out and Gonzalez didn’t take a swing. Roddick challenged the call immediately, and the evidence showed that the ball just caught the line, giving Roddick the set to level at two-all and igniting a protest from Gonzalez.

The Chilean argued that he could have had a play on the ball but chair umpire Enric Molina declined to replay the point.

The episode had a similar feel to the end of Roddick’s second-round win over Brazilian Thomasz Bellucci, when he angrily objected to a choice that went against him on a match point.

“I know he was pretty upset about the challenge and that rule no one seems to know about,” Roddick said of Gonzalez. “I can certainly sympathize with his frustrations.”

Gonzalez refused to blame one disputed call for turning the match.

“We played more than 200 points,” he said. “It was vital, for sure, but it wasn’t the key of the match.”

Roddick said the knee problem that sidelined him at the end of last season was bothering him a bit, but it didn’t affect the game.

Upsets in women’s draw

Safina had to retire because of the recurrence of a back injury when she was serving at 5-4 down and 30-40 against Maria Kirilenko, who had upset 2008 champion Maria Sharapova in the first round.

Kirilenko next plays 2008 Wimbledon semifinalist Zheng Jie, who became the first Chinese player to reach the quarter-finals at Melbourne Park with a 7-6 (6), 6-4 victory over Alona Bondarenko.

Kuznetsova lost 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 to Nadia Petrova, who went into the match after a 6-0, 6-1 third-round victory over U.S. Open champion Kim Clijsters.

While the seeded players dropped, former No. 1 Justine Henin continued her run in her first Grand Slam tournament in two years with a 7-6 (3), 1-6, 6-3 win over fellow Belgian Yanina Wickmayer, keeping her on track for a quarter-final meeting with Petrova.

Defending champion Nadal and No. 5 Andy Murray held off two of the tallest men and largest servers in tennis to set up a quarter-final match up.

Nadal, who beat Roger Federer in the 2009 final, had a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over 6-foot-10 Ivo Karlovic of Croatia, and Murray overcame 6-foot-9 American John Isner 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-2.

No. 1 Federer and No. 3 Djokovic were playing fourth-round matches Monday.

Nestor wins twice

Toronto’s Daniel Nestor had a productive day teaming with Serbian partner Nenad Zimonjic to win their third-round match in men’s doubles.

Then Nestor played with Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova to win their opening mixed doubles contest.

Pau Gasol (16) of the Los Angeles Lakers drives hard to the net, splitting defenders Andrea Bargnani (7) and Hedo Tukoglu (26) of the Toronto Raptors on Sunday in Toronto. (Ron Turenne/NBAE/Getty Images)

It’s what he was brought to Toronto to do.

With 1.2 seconds left in the game, Hedo Turkoglu nailed two clutch free throws to give the Raptors a 106-105 win over the Los Angeles Lakers.

Kobe Bryant missed the last-gasp attempt for his Lakers, and finished one help shy of a triple double (27 points, 16 rebounds, nine assists).

Andrea Bargnani led the Raptors with 22 points and eight rebounds and gave his team their first lead of the game with 7:33 to go in the fourth quarter.

Beating the best team in the Western Conference did not come simple for Toronto. Forced to play catch-up for most of the first half, the Raptors never held a lead but managed to tie the game at 50 with 1:08 left in the second off a nice drive by Bargnani.

Los Angeles, on the strength of three consecutive jumpers in the late stages of the second quarter from Bryant, took a 56-54 lead into the second half.

Bryant had 14 first-half points, joining Pau Gasol (14), and Andrew Bynum (17) in double digits.

Chris Bosh paced the Raptors through the early stages of the game with 12 points while Jarrett Jack dropped in nine. Both players finished with 18 while Bosh pulled down 13 boards.

The Lakers jumped on the perpetually third-quarter sleepy Raptors to start the second half, opening a nine-point lead thanks to a 7-0 run.

Another slow 3rd quarter start

Toronto coach Jay Triano called a timeout to regroup his squad, and it appeared to work as Turkoglu hit his first three-pointer of the game to place his team on the board.

Turkoglu finished 1-for-2 from beyond the arc with nine points, none larger than the final two of the game.

The Lakers pushed their lead to a game-high 10 through the midway point of the third but only took an 82-80 lead heading into the final quarter thanks to a late push from Marco Bellinelli.

The shooting guard had 15 points off the bench for the Raptors.

With less than two minutes to go in the third the Raptors lost Jose Calderon after colliding head-on with Derrick Fisher. The collision opened up a cut over the right eye of the Spanish guard and he had to go to the locker room. He returned to the bench in the fourth quarter.

With 8:24 to go in the game, Bargnani once again lifted his squad into a tie with a small jumper to make it 88-88 and soon after spotted Toronto to its first lead with a three-pointer to take a 93-90.

To keep the see-saw game going, L.A.’s Jordan Farmar answered with a three-ball of his own to knot the game back up with seven minutes to play.

With 15.3 seconds left, three seconds left on the shot clock and a slim one-point lead for the Lakers, Bryant missed a shot from beyond the arc and the Raptors gathered the rebound before calling a timeout of their own.

With 11.4 to go, Turkoglu took control, driving through the middle of the key before being fouled by Gasol with 1.2 seconds left.

With the two foul shots drained, it signalled the final of five lead changes in the final seven minutes of play.