Rafael Nadal usually receives a trophy when he beats Roger Federer. This time, the reward is a chance to play Novak Djokovic in Sunday's final at the Sony Ericsson Open.

Nadal advanced with surprising ease Friday drubbing his old rival 6-3, 6-2 in the semifinals of the Sony Ericsson Open.

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini insists that Mario Balotelli has a big future at Eastlands despite his recent poor behavior.

Since joining City from Inter Milan last year, Balotelli has been the subject of several unsavory headlines relating to his personal life and his conduct both on and off the pitch at City.

World tennis number one Rafael Nadal will square off against Swiss rival Roger Federer in a rare semi-final showdown Friday that will be their first match on American soil in six years.

Spain's Nadal reached the last four at the $9 million WTA and ATP Masters tournament on Thursday by beating Czech Tomas Berdych 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

Bosnia and Hercegovina was suspended from international and European football Friday after failing to adopt statutes that would lead to a single-member presidency of the country's federation (NSBIH), UEFA and FIFA announced.

European and world footballing chiefs from UEFA and FIFA respectively had demanded that NSBIH's ethnic-based tripartite presidency -- consisting of a Croat, a Muslim and a Serb member -- be replaced by a single president.

Novak Djokovic reached the Miami semi-finals by beating Kevin Anderson, extending his winning streak and avenging a loss two years ago to the South African in the same city.

World number two Djokovic on Wednesday defeated unseeded Anderson 6-4, 6-2 in a quarter-final match at the $9 million ATP Masters 1000 hard-court tournament.

Germany's stars shouldered the blame in the wake of their shock 2-1 defeat here to Australia as the Socceroos claimed their maiden win over the hosts.

After forward Mario Gomez had put the hosts ahead with a first-half strike, two goals in two stunning second-half minutes by Blackpool midfielder David Carney and a penalty from Dynamo Moscow's Luke Wilkshire floored the Germans.

Roger Federer fought through a tough first set and turned it on in the second to beat Juan Monaco 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 as the Swiss clocked his 20th win of the season to advance at the Miami ATP Masters 1000.

The third seed, who won the event at Crandon Park twice, improved his record on the season to 20-3 in a campaign dominated so far by the 20-match winning streak of second-seeded Serb rival Novak Djokovic.

Novak Djokovic ran his phenomenal 2011 win streak to 20-0 Sunday, with a 6-2, 6-0 thrashing of former top 10 player James Blake at the $9 million Miami WTA and ATP Masters.

The second-seeded Serb, winner of all three events he has played this season, remains the only man in the top 125 not to have lost a match this year.

Not so many years ago this fixture would have been considered an away banker but it says much for the development of football in Slovenia recently that they are expecting to beat Italy.

The two face off on Friday in a Group C top of the table clash that could go some way to demonstrating which side is better equipped to take the one automatic place on offer for Euro 2012.

Tennis legend Martina Navratilova believes Roger Federer will struggle to regain his world number one ranking after being supplanted by Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

Speaking at a press event to promote this year's Liverpool International exhibition tournament, Navratilova said while Federer still had the ability to win a Grand Slam event, it was "difficult to see" him regaining top spot.