Serena Williams withdrew from the Italian Open with a lower back injury shortly before she was scheduled to meet Roland Garros champion Li Na in the semi-finals on Saturday.

West Ham striker Ricardo Vaz Te scored with three minutes remaining on Saturday to take his team into the English Premier League with a 2-1 win over Blackpool in the promotion play-off final.

Bayern Munich take on Chelsea in the Champions League final in Munich later on Saturday, with the Germans hoping to become European kings for the fifth time and the English attempting to reach the pinnacle of the game for the first time ever.

The Indian pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna upset top seeds Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Canada's Daniel Nestor in a hard-fought battle to enter the men's doubles semi-finals of the Italian Open on Friday.

Chess legend Garry Kasparov believes that reigning world champion Viswanathan Anand has lost motivation and the Indian, who is defending his title against Boris Gelfand right now, has been sliding downhill for the past few years.

David Beckham took center stage as the flame arrived in the United Kingdom from Greece on the eve of a 70-day relay.