Sporting briefs

Robben: Bayern Munich winger Arjen Robben could miss the Champions League quarter-final first leg against Manchester United on Tuesday after pulling a calf muscle in his club's 2-1 defeat to VfB Stuttgart yesterday. "Maybe it will turn out not to be that bad but it looks difficult for the match against Manchester (in Munich)," Bayern coach Louis van Gaal said.

Kansas City: India striker Sunil Chhetri has signed for Major League Soccer (MLS) club Kansas City Wizards, the club's spokesman said. "We hope Sunil is with the Kansas City Wizards family for many years to come," club spokesman Greg Cotton said in a statement without giving details of the contract. Indian media said the 25-year-old had inked a four-year deal with the team after his successful trial with them earlier this month.

Garay: Argentine central defender Ezequiel Garay has joined Real Madrid's long injury list for today's derby at home to Atletico Madrid, the club said. Garay has a thigh muscle problem and will miss the game for the league leaders, who are also deprived of Brazil playmaker Kaka, Frenchmen Karim Benzema and Lassana Diarra, Dutch midfielder Royston Drenthe and Portugal defender Pepe.

Khedira: Germany midfielder Sami Khedira, who is hoping to play at the World Cup, injured his knee in VfB Stuttgart's 2-1 Bundesliga win at Bayern Munich yesterday. Khedira, who won his second cap against Argentina this month, had to be helped off after a clash with Bayern striker Miroslav Klose on the half hour.

Badminton: Malaysian world number one and all England champion Lee Chong Wei will skip next month's Asian championships in New Delhi, organisers told Reuters yesterday. However, world and Olympic champion Lin Dan of China has confirmed his participation and will lead a strong field that also includes Indonesian world number three Taufik Hidayat for the April 12-18 tournament.

Basketball: The Oklahoma City Thunder nullified Kobe Bryant to snap the Los Angeles Lakers' seven game winning streak with a 91-75 victory on Friday. Bryant had nine turnovers and scored just 11 points as the Lakers produced their lowest scoring total of the season. The win also ended the Thunder's 12-game losing streak to the Lakers. They had not beaten the Western Conference's top team since 2006.

Golf: Ernie Els got his feet wet on Friday to continue his run of impressive pre-Masters form by grabbing a share of the second round lead at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. The South African's solid three under-par round of 69 at Bay Hill was enough to move him in a tie for the lead on seven-under with American trio D.J Trahan, Ben Curtis and Davis Love III. It could have been very different for Els if he had not made a remarkable recovery from a water hazard on the sixth.

Tennis: Former champion and world number two Novak Djokovic was knocked out of the Sony Ericsson Open on Friday, falling 6-2 6-7 6-4 to Belgian Olivier Rochus in his opening match. After two rain delays that forced organisers to reschedule some matches to today, Rochus secured his biggest win since he beat then world number two Marat Safin at Wimbledon in 2002.

Sailing: The teams in last month's America's Cup have agreed to drop outstanding legal claims against each other. The Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC), under whose colours BMW Oracle sailed, said in a statement yesterday the agreement included its "breach of fiduciary duty" claim against the Societe Nautique de Geneve's (SNG) Alinghi team.

Boxing: Hard-hitting Thai Pongsaklek Wongjongkam regained the WBC flyweight title with a points victory over a blood-soaked Koki Kameda of Japan yesterday. Kameda, attempting his first defence of the belt he won from Daisuke Naito last November, entered the ring wearing a silver hooded top with purple fur trim to the theme tune from Rocky IV but he failed to live up to his own pre-fight hype. The 32-year-old Thai was awarded the fight 116-112 and 115-112 by two of the three judges with the third somewhat surprisingly scoring the contest even at 114-114.