Soccer

Rodgers charged for comments

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has been charged by the FA for his comments about referee Lee Mason following his team's 2-1 Premier League loss at Manchester City last week. Rodgers described Mason's performance as "horrendous" and questioned whether the referee, who lives near Manchester, should have been selected for the match. In a statement, the FA said Rodgers' comments called into question the integrity of Mason and/or "implied that the match referee was motivated by bias".

Tennis

Ivanovic sinks Venus in final

Ana Ivanovic claimed her first WTA Tour title in more than two years when she completed a 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 victory over fellow former world No 1 Venus Williams to clinch the Auckland Classic on Saturday. The 26-year-old Serbian had not won a title since she completed a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues in Bali at the end of 2011. It was only the second time in 10 attempts that Ivanovic has beaten the 33-year-old Williams, who has not won a title since October 2012.

Wawrinka nails 300th win

Top seed Stanislas Wawrinka recorded his 300th victory on the ATP World Tour to advance to the Chennai Open semifinals with an emphatic win over Slovenia's Aljaz Bedene on Friday. The Swiss world No 8 avenged an embarrassing loss to Bedene on the same stage in the $450,000 event last year by winning 6-2, 6-1. He joined Roger Federer, Marc Rosset and Jakob Hlasek as the only Swiss players to secure 300 wins on the circuit and stayed on course for an early title in 2014.

Basketball

Turkoglu waived by Orlando

The Orlando Magic waived forward Hedo Turkoglu, the team announced on Friday. Turkoglu, 34, has not played in an NBA game since last February, and he was suspended 20 games last season for violating the terms of the league anti-drug program. Turkoglu was waived so the Magic could take the unguaranteed $6 million off his current $12 million deal.

NFL

Ex-Viking alleges wrongful release

The Minnesota Vikings said on Friday they have hired attorneys to help complete a review of allegations made by a former player who said he was wrongfully released by the NFL team due to his support of same-sex marriage. Eric Magnuson, a former chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, and Chris Madel, a former US Department of Justice trial attorney, will interview current and former members of the Vikings organization as part of the investigation.

- Agencies

(China Daily 01/05/2014 page11)