Caroline Wozniacki rolled up her sleeves and battled back from a set down to defeat Francesca Schiavone of Italy 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 at the Doha WTA Championships on Thursday, sewing up the year-end world number one ranking.

Also in the Maroon Group, Australian Samantha Stosur lost 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 to Russian Elena Dementieva but by winning the first set booked her place in the last four alongside Wozniacki.

Wozniacki needed two wins at the $4.55 million tournament in the Qatari capital to ensure she could not be caught at the top of the rankings by Russia's Vera Zvonareva.

After blowing away Dementieva in her group opener, the Dane suffered a shock defeat to Stosur on Wednesday to give Zvonareva hope. However, the 20-year-old made no mistake against Schiavone.

The vote to decide the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups will go ahead as planned on December 2 in Zurich, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said on Friday.

Blatter, speaking at a news conference that followed a two-day meeting of FIFA's executive committee, said a delay had never been an option despite the problems that have dogged the process.

The bidding process has been hit by a corruption scandal, with allegations of vote-selling by two FIFA executive committee members and collusion by unnamed bidding nations.

Blatter, however, did admit that on reflection the decision to vote on the destinations of both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups on the same day was probably a mistake.

"I have said I assume the responsibility and I think it was not the right thing to do. I was convinced at the time it was the right decision," he said.

The Orlando Magic began life in their new Amway Center home with a dominating 112-83 victory over the Washington Wizards on Thursday.

Four-times All-Star Dwight Howard led the Magic with a double-double, scoring 23 points and 10 rebounds despite not playing in the final quarter of the season opener for the two sides. Vince Carter added 18 points and Jameer Nelson scored 16.

The Wizards were led by reserve Cartier Martin's 17 points while first-overall draft pick John Wall scored 14 points and nine assists on his NBA debut.

Tiger Woods too was there to watch the match between Orlando Magic and Washington Wizards in Orlando, Florida.

Orlando Magic came up with a dominant display, registering a dominating 112-83 victory over the Wizards.

Four-times All-Star Dwight Howard led Magic with a double-double, scoring 23 points and 10 rebounds despite not playing in the final quarter of the season opener for the two sides.

On Saturday, London will host a big air competition for the third consecutive time. The contest, which is right next to the famous Battersea Power Station marks the highlight of the three days lasting music and winter sport festival called London Freeze taking place in the British capital.

The three day FIS-sanctioned event features many of the world's best boarders and freestyle skiers, competing on a 32 metre high board covered in over 500 tonnes of snow at the iconic London landmark.

A freestyle skier practices ahead of the International Big Air event at Battersea power station in London.

Rain wreaked havoc as the first of two free practice sessions of the Portuguese Grand Prix was washed out.

Only four of the of the 17 riders decided to take their bikes out with rookie Hiroshi Aoyama the only rider to officially set the lap time.

Aoyama clocked two minutes 21.217 seconds, which compares with the dry lap record of 1min 36.937sec.