Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas said he had cleared the air with Fernando Torres after the Spanish striker helped set up a 2-0 Champions League victory over Bayer Leverkusen.

Torres had ruffled feathers following an interview he had given in Spain in which he appeared to criticize some of his team-mates as "old and very slow," drawing a frosty response from Villas-Boas.

Spain's Rafael Nadal arrived "a bit tired" in Spain for his country's Davis Cup semi-final against France after his US Open final loss to Novak Djokovic.

"I have played three weeks at the highest level possible. So I've arrived here a bit physically tired. We'll see in the coming days how I feel," he told a news conference on Wednesday.

Novak Djokovic wants more.

More of everything, on the tennis court and off.

Rafael Nadal was sent reeling to another bruising defeat by Novak Djokovic on Monday, but insisted his U.S. Open disappointment had only strengthened his resolve to reassert himself against the Serb.

"I go back home knowing that I am on the way," said Nadal, who beat Djokovic in the 2010 final at Flushing Meadows to complete a career Grand Slam but has had no answer for him in Djokovic's transcendant 2011 season.

Germany's seven-times Formula One champion Michael Schumacher admits he is motivated to work out by fear of a beer belly as much as trying to beat current champion and compatriot Sebastian Vettel.

"I am always going on about how I would look with a beer belly," the 42-year-old Mercedes driver told German fitness magazine Fit for Fun.

With seven goals in his last two games, Bayern Munich striker Mario Gomez insists his purple patch is due to his hard-working team-mates as they prepare for Wednesday's Champions League tie at Villarreal.

Gomez scored four goals in Bayern's crushing 7-0 win over Freiburg last Saturday in the German league having netted a hat-trick on his previous appearance at Kaiserslautern.

Actor David Walliams has battled diarrhea, polluted waters and strong tides to complete a 140 mile (225 kilometers) charity swim along the River Thames.

Walliams, best known for his role in the television comedy show "Little Britain," raised more than one million pounds ($1.58 million) for the charity Sport Relief with his grueling, eight-day challenge.

Triumphant Formule One outfit Red Bull dedicated Sebastian Vettel's victory in Sunday's Italian Grand Prix to former member of staff Erin Pezzella, who lost her battle against cancer earlier this week.

Team chief Christian Horner said: "Earlier this week we lost a young girl who worked for the team for five years in accounts.

Arsene Wenger will be looking for Arsenal to deliver a performance against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League on Tuesday which can lift the gloom surrounding the club.

Aside from Wenger's side taking on the German champions the pick of the opening round of group matches is holders Barcelona hosting Italian giants AC Milan while former German captain Michael Ballack is in the mix to play for Bayer Leverkusen against one of his former clubs Chelsea.

Serena Williams went into the U.S. Open final vowing to honor the victims of the September 11 attacks, but ended it in disgrace by refusing to apologize for an ugly tirade during her defeat to Samantha Stosur.

The American star had lost the first set 6-2 to the Australian and faced a break point in the opening game of the second when she unleashed a huge forehand which she greeted it with a loud "c'mon".