Italy's Valentino Rossi cruised past title holder Casey Stoner at the Motegi circuit in Japan to seal the championship race in style. The Yamaha rider won his 6th Moto GP world title and 8th in all categories.

Britain's Nicole Cooke added the world road race title to her Olympic gold at the world cycling championships on Saturday, becoming one of the great women cyclists of modern times.

Jurgen Klinsmann's Bayern Munich dropped to ninth in the table as they suffered their second consecutive league defeat with a 1-0 reverse at Hanover on Saturday as Hamburg regained top spot.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa snatched pole position ahead of title rival McLaren's Lewis Hamilton at the Singapore Grand Prix on Saturday. It was the fifth pole position of the season for the Brazilian driver.

Andy Roddick was forced to dig deep to beat his unfancied opponent in his China Open semi-final Saturday as women's top seed Jelena Jankovic continued her march towards the title.

Unsettled Barcelona striker Thierry Henry was on Saturday tipped by the Spanish media for a winter return to the English Premier League.

Spanish MotoGP rookie Jorge Lorenzo shattered the course record to take pole position here Saturday for the Japanese Grand Prix.

The towering Jo-Wilfried Tsonga thrashed fellow Frenchman Gael Monfils 6-0, 6-3 in the semi-final of the Thailand Open to set up a replay of the Australian Open final against world number three Novak Djokovic.

A new name, a new logo and more teams: the European football governing body has decided the UEFA cup will be named Europa League starting in 2009/2010. The competition will have 48 teams in the group stage.

Two of France's best tennis hopes, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gaël Monfils, will play against each other at the Bangkok ATP Open for a ticket to the final. It will be the first encounter between the two players in an ATP competition.

The Astana leader, Alberto Contador, has expressed doubts about Lance Armstrong returning to competition in his team. The Spaniard will leave unless he is "doubly sure" that he will remain team leader.

Valencia supplanted Villarreal at the summit of the Spanish first division with David Villa scoring both goals in a 2-0 win against Malaga. Defending champions Real Madrid rank third, just one point behind the leaders.

Several Formula one drivers have praised the design of the Singapore circuit, where the country's inaugural grand prix will take place this weekend. They will race down the city's floodlit streets at night time.

World football's ruling body FIFA on Thursday fined the Croatian Football Federation 30,000 Swiss francs after Croat fans racially abused England striker Emile Heskey during a World Cup qualifier.

The European football championships in 2016 will be expanded from 16 teams to 24, senior UEFA committee member and former Germany World Cup-winning captain and coach Franz Beckenbauer said Thursday.

France's Dominique Bathenay, the assistant of previous United Arab Emirates coach Bruno Metsu who resigned, was named the new boss by the UAE football federation on Thursday.

Germany Bert Grabsch won the rainbow jersey as he clocked the fastest time at the world championship time trial in Varese (Italy), ahead of Canada’s Svein Tuft and American David Zabriskie. The race’s favourite, Levi Leipheimer, finished fourth.

Spain's David Ferrer, top seed at the Beijing ATP Open and world number five, was easily defeated by Israeli player Dudi Sela, ranked 92, in the 23-year-old Israeli's second time in an ATP open quarter final.

At the Bangkok ATP Open, French second-seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated Czech Lukas Dlouhy, and fellow Frenchman Gael Monfils won against US player Robert Kendrick.

French League Cup holders Paris St Germain qualified for the last sixteen by beating Monaco 1-0. The French capital's club was excluded then reinstated for this season's event after its fans displayed an insulting banner in last year's final.