Aranda brace boosts Morelia

Morelia survived a red card in the second period to beat Estudiantes Tecos 2-1 and take a three-point lead in the Clausura, with Lugo Aranda scoring both goals in the first half.

The entwined journeys of Ba and Cisse

Senegal strikers Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse may have been born in different countries, but they have followed surprisingly similar paths to Newcastle United. FIFA.com takes a closer look.

Marlos: It was very difficult to adapt

Marlos speaks to FIFA.com about what went wrong at Sao Paulo, the testing adaptation to freezing conditions in Ukraine, and Metalist Kharkiv’s UEFA Europa League tie against Sporting.

Chase for Manchester supremacy continues

The race for which side of Manchester the Premier League title will end up this season continues as United face Blackburn Rovers two days after seeing how City contend with Sunderland.

Ibra, Seedorf see chance in Barcelona

AC Milan pair Clarence Seedorf and Zlatan Ibrahimovic believe their team can get the result they need when they face Barcelona in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final next week.

Lacen: I owe my rise to luck

FIFA.com speaks to Getafe's Mehdi Lacen about his remarkable ascent to La Liga from the third tier in France, and his hopes for happier times on the international scene with Algeria.

Djokovic Reaches Fourth Sony Ericsson Open Final

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic is one win away from successfully defending his Sony Ericsson Open crown, after defeating 21st seed Juan Monaco 6-0, 7-6(5) in the semi-finals on Friday. In the final, Djokovic will square off against fourth-ranked Andy Murray for the third time at Crandon Park.

[[More Tennis News on ATPWorldTour.com]]

Djokovic beats Monaco to reach Key Biscayne final

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. (AP)â€"Top-ranked Novak Djokovic advanced to his first final since winning the Australian Open, beating Juan Monaco 6-0, 7-6 (5) Friday night at the Sony Ericsson Open.
 
Djokovic’s opponent Sunday will be 2009 champion Andy Murray, who advanced with a walkover when Rafael Nadal withdrew hours before their semifinal because of a left knee injury that has bothered him in recent weeks. Nadal said the injury has been getting worse, but he hopes for a quick recovery to avoid missing any of the upcoming clay-court season.

Djokovic won a quick first set and a 96-minute second set against Monaco, a dogged Argentine playing in only his second Masters 1000 semifinal. Djokovic took the lead for good in the tiebreaker when he won a 26-stroke rally to go up 4-3.

Broad ruled out of Colombo Test

Stuart Broad has been ruled out of the second Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo because of a right calf strain. The injury could prevent him joining the IPL for the second year running

Broad out of Sri Lanka tour

Stuart Broad has been ruled out of the second Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo because of a right calf strain. The injury could prevent him joining the IPL for the second year running

Stevens gloomy on Schalke's prospects

Schalke coach Huub Stevens has conceded that he doesn't believe it's realistic to expect his side to score three goals in Spain and advance after last night's 4-2 defeat at home to Athletic Bilbao.

A fond farewell to Birgit Prinz

FIFA.com says Auf Wiedersehen to Birgit Prinz, one of the most successful players ever to grace the women's game, who brought an end to her professional career on Tuesday.

Adams challenges Kent culture

Jimmy Adams' task is to raise the temperature among Kent supporters. Kent have slumped from title-contenders at the turn of the century to second-bottom of the pile last season: the third-worst finish in their history.

Van Hattum: A very public first step

After the meeting of the FIFA Executive Committee today, FIFA.com spoke with the chairman of the Task Force Transparency and Compliance, Frank van Hattum about his views on the progress made.

French GP deal not done, but, really, it’s done

Report from France today are that the French Prime Minister didn’t announce a big, final deal to bring Formula 1 back to the real home of grand prix racing. Of course, if you think that means that your beloved Spa is safe, Grace would like to ask you: “Are you new to F1?” Spa’s going

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Sulser: Two-chamber structure will clarify

Chair of both the FIFA Ethics Committee and the Task Force Ethics Committee, Claudio Sulser told FIFA.com about FIFA’s Executive Committee’s decision to adopt proposals made by the Ethics Committee.

No Charleston for Wozniacki; Augusta doubtful

Caroline Wozniacki has decided not to try and defend her title in Charleston next week. The world No. 4, who lost to Maria Sharapova in the semifinals of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, is scheduled to play her home country tournament in Copenhagen the week after next. She is undecided as to whether she will spend any days next week at the Masters in Augusta, Georgia, which her boyfriend, golfer Rory McIlory, will be playing. "I won't play Charleston. I'll take the week off next week," she told reporters. "I'm not sure yet [about the Masters]. I don't think so, but I'm not sure."

No Charleston for Wozniacki, Augusta doubtful

Caroline Wozniacki has decided not to try and defend her title in Charleston next week. The world No. 4, who lost to Maria Sharapova in the semifinals of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, is scheduled to play her home country tournament in Copenhagen the week after next. She is undecided as to whether she will spend any days next week at golf’s Masters in Augusta, Georgia, which her boyfriend, Rory McIlory will be playing. "I won't play Charleston. I'll take the week off next week," she told reporters. "I'm not sure yet [about the Masters]. I don't think so, but I'm not sure."

Nadal pulls out of Miami semi with knee injury

Rafael Nadal has pulled out of his semifinal against Andy Murray at Miami's Sony Ericsson Open with a left knee injury, organizers announced. Nadal has been complaining about knee pain all week. Murray will meet the winner of the Novak Djokovic vs. Juan Monaco match in Sunday's final.

"Well, I have problems on my left knee," Nadal said after his three-set win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarterfinals. "That's the thing. I'm not feeling great. I don't know what's gonna happen in the next match, because gonna be a big match against one of the toughest opponents on tour, and probably I don't arrive in my perfect conditions to that match."

Few videotape sessions for Sharapova

Maria Sharapova says she rarely, if at all, watches videotapes of her matches, even her historic wins like the 2004 Wimbledon final, when she upset Serena Williams. "I haven't seen that one in a while, but I don't remember the last time where I sat down and watched a whole match of mine," she told reporters at Miami’s Sony Ericsson Open. "I know that's really disappointing, and I'm sure my coach thinks so, as well. You know, he'd love to see me in the video room watching and observing. I have patience for 10, 15 minutes, but then I'm outta there. Of course it's good to see those moments and to see, you know, the way you played, but I'm not so much of a person that likes to look back  I'll have all of that to appreciate when I'm retired."

Nadal Withdraws From Miami Semi-final

World No. 2 Rafael Nadal has withdrawn from the Sony Ericsson Open prior to his semi-final clash with 2009 Miami champion Andy Murray. The Spaniard cited a left knee injury on Friday in a press conference.

[[More Tennis News on ATPWorldTour.com]]

Nadal 'Not Ready To Compete'

World No. 2 Rafael Nadal has withdrawn from the Sony Ericsson Open prior to his semi-final clash with 2009 Miami champion Andy Murray. The Spaniard cited a left knee injury on Friday in a press conference.

[[More Tennis News on ATPWorldTour.com]]

Nadal withdraws from Miami semi with knee injury

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. (AP)â€"Rafael Nadal has withdrawn two hours before the start of his semifinal Friday at the Sony Ericsson Open because of a left knee injury that has bothered him in recent matches.

With his withdrawal, 2009 champion Andy Murray advanced to Sunday’s final. He’ll play the winner of Friday night’s match between top-ranked Novak Djokovic and No. 21-seeded Juan Monaco.

Nadal has had knee problems in recent years, and his left knee has bothered him since Indian Wells. He lost there to Roger Federer in the semifinals two weeks ago.

Nadal took a medical timeout for treatment of his knee during a fourth-round victory at Key Biscayne and said afterward he was in less-than-perfect health. The 10-time Grand Slam champion had hoped to claim his first Key Biscayne title.

Fish: Too many slow surfaces everywhere

Mardy Fish, who lost to Juan Monaco, 6-1, 6-3, in the Sony Ericsson Open quarterfinals yesterday, said that the conditions were slow, which has become a trend on tour.

"This surface is extremely slow. I would love just to have a couple tournaments that are quicker surfaces," Fish said. "It's not necessarily the surface per se but the balls. The balls get so big and so fluffy even after a warm-up that for an attacking, fast-court type player, it's extremely hard to play those guys. Sometimes you have to execute almost every shot.  You have to execute big time to beat those guys  playing on the slower surfaces.

"Indian Wells is extremely slow with the balls, especially at night when we play there. It's two different tournaments: during the day and during the night. Australia is extremely slow. Wimbledon's balls are unbelievably heavy.It's hard to find fast surfaces these days that I can get away with, and the first two that jump out are Montreal and Cincinnati. I don't think it was necessarily a coincidence of my results there, because I'm a fast court player. There's just not many surfaces like it anymore."

Radwanska's dad goes from coach to tourist

Agnieszka Radwanska says that no longer having her father as full-time traveling coach has given a boost to her game. Last July while in California, Radwanska asked her father to go home and she hired Polish Fed Cup captain Tomasz Wiktorowski full time. Her father is at the Sony Ericsson Open with her, but is not coaching her. Since Radwanska relieved her father of full-time coaching duties, she has won four WTA Premier hard court titles and has reached the Miami final for the first time. 

"My dad is also here but is like a tourist," No. 4 Radwanska told reporters. "But when I'm practicing, doing everything with Tomasz. It's good and nice just to separate those things like being a father, being a coach. But at home I'm still practicing with my dad.  So is not a really big change, to be honest…My dad was traveling with me all my life and we practice together for 17 years, almost actually 18. I'm 23 already.  So it's pretty long time.  It's always tough to change after those kind of times. But I think it's working, and he's happy that I'm playing well.  So I think this is the most important thing."

Heleno, Brazil’s first brilliant badboy

Heleno de Freitas was an outstanding marksman and controversy machine in equal measure – so much that his story has been made into a movie. FIFA.com recalls the career of the Botafogo legend.

Alguersuari, Pirelli team up for testing

Displaced driver Jaime Alguersuari has been named as Pirelli’s newest test/development driver for 2012. The Italian tire maker and sole supplier for Formula One has recently received approval from the teams to utilize a 2010 Renault F1 chassis for the testing at Jerez, Spa, Monza and Barcelona over the summer. Alguersuari said: “I’m very happy indeed

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Shakib intent on short break

Shakib Al Hasan, the Bangladesh allrounder, is intent on getting a bit of rest from competitive cricket after the upcoming IPL, as he has not taken any substantial time off the game for more than two years

Brazil announces WTA event for 2013

SAO PAULO (AP)â€"The Brazilian tennis federation says it will host a WTA event in 2013 after an 11-year absence.

The federation said Friday it reached a deal with the women’s tour without a tournament location and date, although negotiations were advanced.

Federation president Jorge Lacerda says Brazil “got the needed approval to give this gift to Brazil’s women’s tennis. One of our goals is to make women’s tennis grow, taking advantage of the 2016 Olympics in Rio.”

The federation says Brazil is taking over the tournament that was played in Marbella, Spain.

Brazil hosts an ATP clay-court event in Sao Paulo each February.

Sharapova tops Wozniacki in semis

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. (AP)â€"Maria Sharapova was confused and Caroline Wozniacki was mad. The linesman was wrong and the chair umpire was right.

Sharapova won the disputed final point after an overrule by the umpire, edging Wozniacki 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 Thursday in the semifinals at the Sony Ericsson Open.

“Obviously you don’t want it to end that way,” said Sharapova, who will meet Agnieszka Radwanska in Saturday’s final.

At 40-30 in the last game, Sharapova hit a second serve that the linesman called long, which would have been a double-fault, but umpire Kader Nouni immediately reversed the ruling and ordered the point replayed. The call couldn’t be reviewed because Wozniacki had no challenges left, although TV replays showed Nouni was correct to overrule.

Sharapova was awarded two serves and took advantage with a big first serve to set up an overhead slam for the victory.

Wozniacki, angry about the overrule, declined to shake Nouni’s hand and had words with him as she walked to the exit.

“It was a pretty crucial point,” she said. “When the ball is so close, I think he should give her a chance to challenge, at least when I don’t have any challenges.”

Sharapova said she didn’t realize Wozniacki had no challenges left, and added she would have challenged the call herself had it not been overruled.

“It’s obviously a tough situation to be in,” Sharapova said, “because it’s so close to the end of the match, and both of us had fought so hard for over two hours.”

Top-ranked Novak Djokovic advanced to the men’s semifinals without argument, beating No. 5 David Ferrer 6-2, 7-6 (1). Djokovic lost a remarkable 40-shot rally that had spectators gasping as it progressed, but he played a nearly flawless tiebreaker to seal the victory.

“Coming into this tournament, I was confident,” Djokovic said. “And I feel that I am playing better and better as the tournament goes on.”

Djokovic seeks his third Key Biscayne title and second in a row. His opponent Friday night will be No. 21 Juan Monaco, who advanced on his 28th birthday by eliminating the last American in either singles draw, No. 8 Mardy Fish. The scrappy Monaco dominated from the baseline and hit only eight second serves during the 6-1, 6-3 victory.

“This is the way to celebrate my birthday, playing like this,” Monaco said. “I feel proud and very happy.”

No. 2 Rafael Nadal, seeking his first Key Biscayne title, plays 2009 champion Andy Murray in the other semifinal.

Radwanska’s progress toward her first Key Biscayne final was interrupted briefly in the second set by a power outage that caused a delay of 20 minutes. She then closed out a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Marion Bartoli, who hurt her left thigh in the early going and limped through the rest of the match.

The No. 5-seeded Radwanska is 0-4 this year against top-ranked Victoria Azarenka and 25-0 against everyone else.

Sharapova, seeded second, improved to 4-0 in Key Biscayne semifinals. She’s 0-3 in finals at the event, losing every set.

“I’m happy that I gave myself another chance to go out there and try to change that,” said Sharapova, who attended the tournament several times as a fan when she was a youngster training in Florida.

Sharapova will play in her second successive final and third this year. She was runner-up at the Australian Open in January and at Indian Wells two weeks ago.

Wozniacki, a former No. 1 now ranked sixth, fell to 1-7 lifetime against opponents ranked in the top two.

Sharapova was in an attacking mode against the Dane, a relentless retriever whose defense helped her beat Serena Williams in the quarterfinals.

Sharapova went for winners at every opportunity and hit 55, but she also committed 46 unforced errors. Wozniacki totaled only 13 winners and 25 errors.

“Being aggressive is really the key,” Sharapova said. “If you let her play many, many balls, she’s such a great mover around the court and she can be out here for many hours, and that’s not really my game.”

Sharapova was a point away from a 5-1 lead in the opening set but then began overhitting her forehand, which allowed Wozniacki to sweep five consecutive games and take the set.

Shrieking with each shot, Sharapova regained her accuracy thereafter. By the time she led 4-love in the second set, she had a 27-4 advantage in winners.

She went ahead 5-2 in the final set before Wozniacki staged one last rally, which fell short amid the fuss at the finish.

“Maria started off really well and played aggressively,” Wozniacki said. “She played some good tennis out there. I tried to do my best, and it just wasn’t enough.”

Sharapova improved to 17-1 in three-set matches since the beginning of 2011.

Lights out in Zurich for WWF Earth Hour 2012

Saturday 31 March will see the WWF Earth Hour take place between 20.30 and 21.30 CET, when the whole world will be called upon to turn off the lights. During this time, the Home of FIFA and the Brazil 2014 Office will be plunged into darkness.

FIFA Executive Committee agrees major governance reforms & Ethics structure

The FIFA Executive Committee convened at the Home of FIFA in Zurich on 29 and 30 March for its first meeting of the year and agreed to major reforms of its governance, in particular relating to ethics, audit and compliance.

Stramaccioni begins, Juve face Napoli

Inter Milan's new coach Andrea Stramaccioni will make his Serie A coaching debut against Genoa today as he hopes to turn their season around, while Juventus host Napoli in the weekend's big fixture.

Mata confident of Chelsea trophy

Chelsea are capable of winning a trophy this season says midfielder Juan Mata, who was pleased with their performance in the UEFA Champions League at Benfica but warned there is still work to be done.

Massa: ‘I feel there is confidence around me’

Felipe Massa has a blog post up at the Ferrari website. Here it is, in full: I know I can count on a second family One day to be with the team, to analyse in detail every moment of these first two Grands Prix of 2012, to understand how and why things did not go

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Kagawa: Dortmund must keep improving

Borussia Dortmund must seek incremental improvement says their in-form Japan forward Shinji Kagawa as the leaders host Stuttgart on Friday aiming to maintain their five-point margin over Bayern Munich who play the following day.

Flu fly into last 16

Brazilian giants Fluminense became the first team to reach the last 16 of the Copa Libertadores with a 1-0 win over Venezuela's Zamora, while ten-man Boca Juniors kept their hopes alive by beating compatriots Arsenal.

Celtic's Rogne dismisses mentality doubts

Celtic defender Thomas Rogne has been speaking about criticism that the Bhoys often fail to shine in big games, while Rangers' Kyle Lafferty has expressed his belief that the Ibrox side are still Scotland's best.

Pirates title boost as Sundowns stumble

A brace from Tukelo Rantie lifted Orlando Pirates to a 3-1 win over Free State Stars and took the Soweto side within two points of leaders Mamelodi Sundowns who were held at Bloemfontein Celtic.

Milan frustrate Messi and co

AC Milan and holders Barcelona played out a tight and nervy 0-0 draw at the San Siro to leave their UEFA Champions League quarter-final finely in the balance ahead of next week's second leg

Alguersuari joins Pirelli testing line-up

Ex-Toro Rosso racer Jaime Alguersuari is to join Lucas di Grassi as an official test driver for Pirelli during the 2012 season, as the Italian firm enters its second year as Formula One tyre supplier. It's the first time Pirelli will have two permanent F1 testers, after former Virgin racer Di Grassi carried out the role single-handedly last year.

Pink ball could work in Tests - Stephenson

Lancashire displayed the determination and resolve that went a long way to securing their first championship title in 77 years last summer as they tore aside a lackadaisical MCC batting display in the season's opener in Abu Dhabi.

Felipe Massa: It's time to turn the page

Ferrari's Felipe Massa insists he is determined to put his bad start to the 2012 season behind him after a day spent at the team's Maranello headquarters analysing what went wrong for the Brazilian in the year's first two Grands Prix. In Australia, Massa qualified 16th and then retired from the race after a clash with compatriot Bruno Senna. And in Malaysia he finished 15th, almost a lap down on team mate and race winner Fernando Alonso.

Lancashire show championship touch

Lancashire displayed the determination and resolve that went a long way to securing their first championship title in 77 years last summer as they tore aside a lackadaisical MCC batting display in the season's opener in Abu Dhabi.

Oman triumph to reach Olympics play-off

Oman continued their "miracle" run by triumphing in the three-team Asian play-off, following a 2-1 victory over Uzbekistan today, to reach April's match with Senegal to decide who will take the final spot at the 2012 Olympics.

Anderson Boosts Strong Houston Field

The eight projected seeds for the 2012 US Men’s Clay Court Championship are all currently ranked in the Top 40 on the ATP World Tour after a wild card was awarded to No. 28 Kevin Anderson.

[[More Tennis News on ATPWorldTour.com]]

Wenger: We must focus on ourselves

Arsene Wenger has said his Arsenal side must focus on their own performances and ignore the results of others as they push to seal third place in the Premier League, which continues at Queens Park Rangers.

Barton: QPR livelihoods on the line

Joey Barton has said his Queens Park Rangers side's livelihoods are on the line when they face Arsenal on Saturday, having fallen into the Premier League relegation zone amidst a tight fight to dodge the drop.