The Dane found herself behind in both sets and had to save a set point in the opener at a sunny Devonshire Park but used all her experience to claim a 29th career title.

* South African caster Semenya romped to the fourth-fastest women's 800 metres ever and Qatari Abderrahman Samba produced the second-best 400 metres hurdles of all time in a sparkling Paris Diamond League meeting on Saturday. Olympic and world champion Semenya cruised home in a lifetime best 1:54.25 and the dominant Samba clocked 46.98 seconds for his fifth consecutive Diamond League win.

* Sweden coach Janne Andersson has been secretly spying on his players to assess their penalty-taking abilities and he might have to put the results to the test if their World Cup last-16 game against Switzerland ends in a draw. Captain Andreas Granqvist has netted twice from the spot to get Sweden into the last 16, and Andersson has been ranking the side's other spot-kick takers.

* England trained on Saturday with two players from their 23-man squad missing from the session as Ruben Loftus-Cheek did 'individual recovery' while Fabian Delph flew home for the birth of his child. Dele Alli, who missed England's 6-1 win over Panama due to a thigh injury and also sat out the Belgium game, took full part in the training and could be set to return to the side against Colombia.

* Argentine President Mauricio Macri on Saturday expressed his gratitude for the efforts of the national team after they were eliminated by France from the 2018 World Cup in Russia. "Sad though very grateful to the players who gave their all. Today the French beat us well," he said through Twitter.

* Argentina midfielder Javier Mascherano announced his retirement from international football on Saturday after his team's 4-3 loss to France in the World Cup round of 16. The result eliminated Argentina from football's showpiece tournament while France booked a place in the quarterfinals in Russia.

* Denmark coach Age Hareide promised on Saturday here at Nizhny Novgorod Stadium that his team will and need to play differently in the World Cup round of 16 clash against Croatia. The Danish coach emphasized that the reason for playing differently in Sunday's match is that a victory is needed for the Danes to advance to the quarterfinals. Hareide promised that his men "need to defend but also need to attack more than we have done in the previous matches".

* German fans have to wait until next week for a final decision about Joachim Loew's future as the national football association's president Reinhard Grindel announced that all parties would first analyze the disappointing departure from the World Cup after the group stage.