Basket, NBA: Steve Ballmer, the former head of Microsoft, has completed his $2 billion purchase of Los Angeles Clippers, ending a saga that began when former team owner Donald Sterling was heard making racist remarks to his girlfriend on a tape recording. The $2 billion price tag for the franchise was the highest paid for an NBA team. The team, which began in 1970 as the Buffalo Braves, has never won a NBA championship.

Tennis: Venus Williams failed to sustain the momentum from her run to last week’s Montreal final and ran out of gas in Cincinnati as she fell 6-7 6-3 6-4 to 16th seed Lucie Safarova in the first round of the Western and Southern Open. Williams looked like she might be ready to make another run in Cincinnati after taking the opening set in a tiebreak. However, the seven-times grand slam champion could not convert any of her four break chances in the second while Safarova converted her one and only opportunity to level. Czech Safarova stepped up the pressure in the third with two more breaks to clinch her first win against the 34-year-old American.

Rugby Union: Penalties and drop goals will be rewarded by two points rather than three as part of a raft of experimental laws to be trialled in Australia’s National Rugby Championship (NRC). The NRC launches next week with nine teams. The conversion after a try, which currently earns two points, will now be worth three points, while time limits set for scrum formation (30 seconds) and penalty kicks (45 seconds) are among the 12 changes to be tested. Rugby union in Australia lags behind rugby league in popularity.