The NBA champion Dallas Mavericks were swept out of the first round of the playoffs on Saturday as the Oklahoma City Thunder wrapped up their Western Conference series with a 103-97 victory.

James Harden scored 15 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter as the Thunder won their fourth straight in the best-of-seven series to make the Mavericks the first defending champions to be swept in the first round since the Miami Heat in 2007.

More than 40,000 spectators watched as a cascade of white balloons was released to open London's Olympic stadium on Saturday, exactly 2,012 hours before the Games begin.

Capping off an evening of music, comedy and fun sports events, Paralympic gold medal-winning archer Danielle Brown shot arrows at spinning targets to select the name of a youngster in the audience to open the east London stadium.

Barcelona star Lionel Messi scored all four goals in a 4-0 rout of Espanyol to bring up his half century in La Liga and take his total goals tally for the season to a record-breaking 72 on Saturday.

In what was Pep Guardiola's last home match in charge at the Nou Camp, Messi made sure there was a happy ending to what was an emotional night for the home fans.

U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur got off to a winning start at the Madrid Masters Saturday, the Australian advancing to the second round with a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5) defeat of Croatian Petra Martic.

Stosur was joined by Romanian Sorana Cirstea, who upset French seventh seed Marion Bartoli 6-7 (6/8), 6-4, 6-3.

Chelsea withstood a late Liverpool onslaught to seal their fourth FA Cup final victory in six seasons here Saturday with a 2-1 win at Wembley.

A goal in each half from Brazilian midfielder Ramires and veteran striker Didier Drogba clinched a narrowly deserved win for Chelsea, with substitute Andy Carroll scoring for Liverpool.

The Philadelphia 76ers rallied to beat the top-seeded Chicago Bulls 79-74 on Friday and gain a 2-1 lead in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round NBA playoff series.

The battered Bulls, already without reigning league Most Valuable Player Derrick Rose, suffered another injury blow as French center Joakim Noah hurt his ankle in the third quarter of the defeat.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is confident Robin van Persie will remain at the club after a prolific season that has seen the Dutch striker crowned Footballer of the Year.

Van Persie declared he would "always be a Gunner" on Thursday after collecting his latest honor from the Footballer Writers' Association at a London awards ceremony.

A return home proved just what the Denver Nuggets needed on Friday as they downed the Los Angeles Lakers 99-84 to narrow the gap in their NBA Western Conference first-round playoff series.

The Nuggets, who had never led in losing the first two games of the series in Los Angeles, jumped out to a 16-point lead in the first quarter to put the Lakers on their heels and led by as many as 24 in the first half.

For the first time in history, Safa won its first ever league title Friday defeating Nejmeh 1-0 in a match attended by more than 11 thousand spectators in Sidon.

Although violence erupted in the stands between supporters of the two teams threating to mar the occasion, security forces were able to contain the chaos with one injury reported after sustained bottle throwing.

Venus Williams thinks it's a fashion statement. A Canadian player describes it as "Smurf clay." Rafael Nadal calls it a mistake.

The Madrid Open is receiving extra attention this year as the Masters Series event for men and women will be the first top-level tournament played on blue clay instead of the traditional red surface.