Partizan name former player as Grant's replacement
Serbian soccer champions Partizan Belgrade have named the club's former coach Vladimir Vermezovic as successor to Avram Grant, who will step down at the end of the season despite winning a record fifth straight league title and the team's 24th overall. Vermezovic, a former Partizan defender who steered the club to the 2005 national title as coach, will take over next week after the champions play relegated Metalac Gornji Milanovac in Monday's season finale. "Our intention was to keep Grant for at least two years because he is an outstanding coach, but he decided to part company with us for personal reasons," Partizan president Dragan Djuric told reporters on Friday. (Reuters )
Sharapova to face Li in Rome tennis final
Defending champion Maria Sharapova will take on Li Na of China in the Italian Open final after a confident 6-3, 6-4 victory over Germany's Angelique Kerber on Sunday. The Russian world number two gained revenge on 12th seed Kerber for a defeat earlier this year, overpowering her opponent with heavy ground strokes. Li received a walkover into the final after title favorite Serena Williams withdrew with a lower back injury. A winner in Stuttgart last month, Sharapova broke early in both sets and was never headed as she reached her fifth final of the year. Williams said she expected to be 100 percent fit for next week's French Open despite pulling out of the Rome event "as a precaution." (Reuters )
Hammers win Premier League playoff nail-biter
West Ham United won a typically tense and scrappy Championship playoff final thanks to an 87th-minute goal from Ricardo Vaz Te, which put the Hammers back in English soccer's Premier League with a 2-1 win over Blackpool at Wembley Sunday. The London side took the lead after Carlton Cole deftly controlled Matt Taylor's diagonal pass and slotted the ball past Matt Gilks in the 34th minute. Thomas Ince drew Blackpool level after getting on the end of a cross-field pass and guiding the ball past Robert Green. But when a loose ball fell to Vaz Te in the 88th minute, he lashed the ball into the roof of the net to give the Hammers the win. (Reuters )