Tennis: Former Wimbledon champion Jana Novotna retired from professional tennis after losing in the first round of the £325,000 WTA event in Filderstadt, Germany.

The 31-year-old Czech, who has captured 24 singles titles during her 13-year career, was outplayed 6-3 6-4 by Italian qualifier Silvia Farina in an hour and 25 minutes.

Novotna, the 1998 Wimbledon champion, elected to retire after the Filderstadt event after failing to make a full recovery from a right ankle sprain and torn ligament suffered at the French Open in May.

She managed to reach the quarter-finals at Wimbledon this year, but had only two victories in four events coming into this tournament.

Golf: Mark James and Peter Baker have been confirmed as England's team in the 45th World Cup of Golf in Kuala Lumpur next month.

Ryder Cup captain James and Baker will defend the title captured last year by Nick Faldo and David Carter in New Zealand.

Colin Montgomerie, the world number three and in his sixth World Cup, will play alongside Dean Robertson for Scotland.

Among the favourites will be the United States, represented by world number one Tiger Woods and Mark O'Meara (number 11).

Soccer: Christian Vieri has been voted player of the season for 1998-99 by members of the Association of Italian Footballers.

Fiorentina's Gabriel Batistuta was voted the top foreign player in Serie A, while Francesco Totti of Roma was named young player of the season.

Alberto Zaccheroni, who coached AC Milan to the title, was the players' coach of the season. Lazio were voted "team of the season".

Golf: Jean Van de Velde, who spectacularly threw away the British Open golf title, has been confirmed as a starter in next month's Australian Open at Royal Sydney.

Van de Velde has played the Australian Open in relative anonymity several times previously but events at Carnoustie in July earned him minor drawcard status this time.

Padraig Harrington's participation is also a possibility for the event to be held on November 25th-29th.