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TENNIS: LONDON: Yugoslav World number five Jelena Dokic (in picture above) is planning to move to London and apply for British citizenship, according to her volatile father Damir. Belgrade planning authorities have rejected an application for a large family mansion and tennis centre and Damir claims that a move to Britain is the only way to develop his teenage daughter's talents. ``She can't get the right location to build the mansion and tennis centre she wants, so we have decided to move to England,'' he told a Belgrade radio station. ``I'm fed up with all this mess and therefore I'm going to write Jelena off as a Belgrade citizen. I want her to become a U.K. citizen,'' said Damir Dokic in comments reported by the BBC. Dokic, 19, immigrated to Australia from Serbia with her family in 1994 but returned to Yugoslavia last year when her father fell out with the Australian press and public.

SYDNEY: Lleyton Hewitt will have to deal with being the world's number one and heal his tempestuous relationship with the media, says Australian Davis Cup teammate Wayne Arthurs. The feisty 21-year-old Australian faces a hefty fine by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for not fulfilling his media commitments at the Cincinnati Masters tournament on Tuesday. Hewitt said on Wednesday he would appeal any fine imposed on him and claims he never agreed to the interview with the Cincinnati tournament's host broadcaster ESPN. He said he had already completed his press commitments for the week. The penalty could be as much as half his prizemoney for the week, which would total $196,000 should he carry off the Masters Series tournament.

CRICKET: LONDON: Australian skipper Steve Waugh is to return to English county cricket as Kent's replacement overseas player for Andrew Symonds until the end of the season. Waugh, 37, will take over from his countryman after missing out on inclusion in the Australian one-day side for the forthcoming Morocco Cup. The former Australian skipper had been looking to join an English county side to gain match practice. ``I am looking forward to the opportunity to play some tough cricket and this stint will provide excellent preparation for the upcoming season,'' said Waugh who previously played for Somerset. ``It has been 15 years since I last played county cricket so it is quite exciting and I look forward to making a strong contribution at Kent.''

FOOTBALL: LONDON: Former Manchester United and Northern Ireland star George Best (in picture) was up and walking on Thursday just nine days after his life-saving liver transplant operation. Best, 56, underwent the liver transplant on July 30 after his physicians told him he had less than a year to live without one, the fallout of decades of alcoholism. ``He has now been able to leave his room and is walking unsupported to the end of the corridor,'' a spokesman for Cromwell Hospital in west London said on Thursday. ``Mr. Best is in very good spirits.'' The spokesman said it would be `some time yet' before Best left the hospital. He has been told he should begin to notice improvement in his health, including better skin and hair texture and should have more energy with the new liver.

CYCLING: RIGA (LATVIA): Lithuanian cyclist Raimondas Rumsas, whose wife has been detained in a doping enquiry in France, took a doping test in the Latvian capital Riga on Thursday before returning to Italy, said sports officials. Lampre rider Rumsas came third in the Tour de France recently but his surprise finish was marred by his wife being arrested while transporting a carload of doping substances from Chamonix to Italy. Rumsas was tested several times during the three-week race, and is therefore, officially, cleared. However, as his wife sits in a French jail, he has been urged to take measures to further prove his innocence.

SKATING: GENEVA: The International Skating Union (ISU) denied on Thursday that it had ignored evidence of a conspiracy to fix the results of skating events at the Olympic Games.

The body has never received `reasonable, verified and credible evidence,' said the ISU in a statement signed by President Ottavio Cinquanta and General Secretary Fredi Schmid. In a criminal complaint based on wiretaps, U.S. authorities last week charged reputed Russian mobster Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov with arranging a vote-swapping deal between French and Russian judges in pairs and ice dancing at last February's Winter Games in Salt Lake City. Prosecutors contend Tokhtakhounov cut a deal to obtain a visa to return to France. Italian police, who arrested Tokhtakhounov at a resort and are holding him in a Venice jail, said he might have contacted up to six judges to help secure a gold medal for the Russians in the pairs competition in exchange for a victory by the French ice dancing team.

GENERAL: ISLAMABAD: Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan is likely to contest the October polls in Pakistan from the Swat district constituency, the seat he lost in the 1997 general elections. The founder President of the Tehrik-e-Insaaf party is again planning to contest elections for the National Assembly from the Swat constituency, which has undergone changes following the delimitation, The News reported on Friday. Though Mr. Khan had lost the seat to Pakistan Muslim League's Adnan Aurangzeb, he had polled a respectable number of votes in the 1997 elections. He had also contested from Dera Ismail Khan in 1997 and fared very poorly. Mr. Khan is also planning to contest from his native place Mianwali and his adopted city, Lahore, two other seats he lost in the 1997 elections.

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