Sportshorts

Mancini’s farewell ROBERTO Mancini bade farewell to Manchester City fans by taking out a full-page ad in the local newspaper yesterday, thanking them for their support during his 3½ years in charge. In an ad in the Manchester Evening News featuring a picture of a waving Mancini above the three trophies won at the club, he wrote ‘‘You will always be in my heart’’ and signs off with ‘‘Ciao.’’ ................................................ Federer, Nadal final SECOND seed Roger Federer will meet six-time winner Rafael Nadal in the final of the ATP’s Rome Masters after a hard-fought 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 semi-final win over Frenchman Benoit Paire. The Spaniard accounted for Czech Tomas Berdych 6-2 6-4. ................................................ Williams on fire WORLD number one Serena Williams hopes to improve her game for the French Open after easing into the Rome WTAfinal with a 6-3 6-0 win over qualifier Simona Halep. Williams stretched her consecutive wins to 23 ahead of her first final meeting with Victoria Azarenka since her defeat to the Belarusian earlier this year in Doha. ................................................ Tour leader CADEL Evans’ teammate Tejay van Garderen is poised to claim his first professional stage race title in the Tour of California. Preparing to link up with Evans for the Tour de France, van Garderen (BMC Racing) held what should prove a winning overall lead of 1min 47secs from Australian Michael Rogers going into today’s final stage. ................................................ Phelps stays retired OLYMPIC swimming great Michael Phelps has thrown cold water on a report that he would come out of retirement with a view to swimming at the 2016 Rio Games. ‘‘Why do I keep getting texts about coming back?’’ Phelps said on Twitter yesterday after a Florida television station reported he planned to return to the pool. ................................................ Wrestling change THE ancient sport of wrestling yesterday agreed to a wholesale shake-up of its rules to make the sport more attractive for spectators, in a desperate last throw of the dice to stave off the threat of being axed from the Olympics in 2020. The decision of the International Olympic Committee’s executive committee in February to drop wrestling from the 2020 Games devastated the global wrestling community.