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LAUSANNE, Switzerland - Double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius won his appeal Friday and can compete for a place in the Beijing Olympics.

LAS VEGAS - Charles Barkley acknowledged he owes a $400,000 gambling debt to a Las Vegas Strip casino and promised Thursday to repay it after a prosecutor said the retired NBA star faced criminal charges. "My mistake," Barkley said in an interview at a pro-am golf tournament in Hoover, Ala. "I'm not broke, and I'm going to take care of it."

ROME - Maria Sharapova will assume the No. 1 ranking in tennis because of Justine Henin's retirement.

BOSTON - New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick lashed out at the team's former video assistant Friday, saying in a televised interview that Matt Walsh was a low-level staffer who was fired for "poor job performance." "There's not a lot of credibility," Belichick said in an interview broadcast on "CBS Evening News."

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Eight Belles had no diseases or pre-existing bone abnormalities that caused the filly to break down after finishing second in the Kentucky Derby.

MILWAUKEE - Ryan Braun grinned. He had just agreed to the largest contract in Milwaukee Brewers' history.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland - Double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius has won an appeal to compete for a place in the Beijing Olympics.

MIAMI - One of five suspects charged in the slaying of Washington Redskins star Sean Taylor has pleaded guilty to charges of second-degree murder and burglary.

SAN ANTONIO - The San Antonio Spurs' Big Three came through. Now they have to win one on the road to keep their title defense alive. Manu Ginobili scored 25 points, Tim Duncan had 20 points and 15 rebounds, and Tony Parker added 15 points in the Spurs' 99-80 victory over the New Orleans Hornets in Game 6 on Thursday night.

BOSTON - The Boston Herald sports writer who reported the New England Patriots taped a pre-Super Bowl walkthrough by the St. Louis Rams in 2002 said he will regret the erroneous story for the rest of his life.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Penn State coach Joe Paterno spent several hours at a hospital being treated for dehydration before returning home late Thursday.

ROME - Serena Williams withdrew from her quarterfinal match at the Italian Open on Friday due to a back problem, and older sister Venus Williams was beaten by defending champion Jelena Jankovic. Serena Williams' back froze suddenly while she was warming up on a practice court for her match with French qualifier Alize Cornet.

PHILADELPHIA - The Pittsburgh Penguins' road to the Stanley Cup finals along the Pennsylvania Turnpike took an unexpected detour.

SAN FRANCISCO - Peter Magowan, the owner who brought Barry Bonds to San Francisco, built a new ballpark and kept major league baseball in the city, is stepping down as managing partner of the Giants. The 66-year-old Magowan will retire from his duties at the end of the season on Oct. 1 but maintain an ownership stake, the team said Friday.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A planned competitor to the National Football League has identified the eight markets it would like to open with next year, and hopes to unveil some of its West Coast teams in the next month.

WASHINGTON - Hold on, NFL. Spygate isn't over. Not if an "incensed" senator from Pennsylvania has anything to do with it.

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio - It's do or summertime for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

NEW YORK - NFL owners could opt out of their agreement with the players union next week, leaving open the possibility of a 2010 season without a salary cap. The labor agreement is on the agenda for the league meetings in Atlanta on Tuesday.

Big Brown, this year's Kentucky Derby winner, faces 12 probable challengers at Saturday's Preakness Stakes in Baltimore in his bid to become the first thoroughbred since Affirmed in 1978 to win horse racing's Triple Crown. Gayego, who finished 17th at Churchill Downs two weeks ago, is the only of Big Brown's defeated foes from the Derby to get another shot at him this weekend.

LIMELETTE, Belgium - The determination that helped Justine Henin beat bigger, stronger opponents time and again was fading. "I decided," the 25-year-old Belgian said, "to stop fooling myself and accept it." Henin retired from tennis Wednesday, an abrupt ending to a career in which she won seven Grand Slam singles titles and spent more than 100 weeks ranked No. 1.

NEW YORK - NFL investigators have met with a convicted steroids dealer, who has said he provided performance-enhancing drugs to professional football players, according to a newspaper report.

LIMELETTE, Belgium - The determination that helped Justine Henin beat bigger, stronger opponents time and again was fading.

CHICAGO - For nearly an hour Friday morning, Dwyane Wade was in constant motion, shooting jumper after jumper. His red tank top was dripping with sweat, his chest was heaving and fatigue was clearly starting to set in.