Serena Williams pumped her fist after each important point and screamed as she smacked another emphatic shot. The defending Cincinnati champion wasn't going to ease into the tournament.

Williams put a lot of emotion into her opening match at the Western & Southern Open on Wednesday, a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Tsvetana Pironkova that made her the first of the top seeds to advance.

Valencia is close to completing its return to the Champions League after beating Monaco 3-1 Wednesday in their first leg playoff on a night full of late goals by teams fighting to reach the lucrative group stage of Europe's top club competition.

Sofiane Feghouli led two-time former finalist Valencia by assisting Rodrigo Moreno's opener and netting a third goal with four minutes to play to put his Spanish team in a strong position to advance.

Police in western Germany are looking for thieves who broke into a store selling alcohol and stole the caps off 1,200 bottles of beer — presumably to collect points for a prize contest — yet left the suds themselves untouched.

Essen police said Tuesday the thieves broke into the shop in Muelheim an der Ruhr overnight Sunday and stole the caps from the popular Koenig Pilsner. They kept those with points toward prizes like Bose speakers or a Black & Decker cordless drill, left dozens of "good luck try again" caps on the ground and didn't drink a single beer.

Scientists say they have found rare evidence of a prehistoric massacre in Europe after discovering a 7,000-year-old mass grave with skeletal remains from some of the continent's first farmers bearing terrible wounds.

Archaeologists who painstakingly examined the bones of some 26 men, women and children buried in the Stone Age grave site at Schoeneck-Kilianstaedten, near Frankfurt, say they found blunt force marks to the head, arrow wounds and deliberate efforts to smash at least half of the victims' shins — either to stop them from running away or as a grim message to survivors.

The U.S. lobster population has crashed to the lowest levels on record in southern New England region while climbing to heights never before seen in the cold waters off Maine and other northern reaches — a geographic shift that scientists attribute in large part to the warming of the ocean.

The trend is driving lobstermen in Connecticut and Rhode Island out of business, ending a centuries-old way of life.

Memphis Depay announced his arrival at Manchester United by scoring a first-half double and providing a late assist for Marouane Fellaini in a 3-1 win over Bruges in the first leg of their Champions League playoff on Tuesday.

Playing his third match in United's iconic No. 7 shirt since joining from PSV Eindhoven in the offseason, the 21-year-old Netherlands winger rescued his new club from potential embarrassment after the Belgian side took a surprise 8th-minute lead through an own goal by Michael Carrick.

Roger Federer took a first step toward a seventh Cincinnati title on Tuesday night, beating Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4, 6-4 in his opening match.

The Swiss star won the Western & Southern Open last year for his unprecedented sixth title at the longtime ATP Tour stop. He got a good start by easily handling the Spaniard, whom he has beaten in straight sets in all four of their matches.

All Blacks Liam Messam and Sonny Bill Williams have been named in the New Zealand rugby sevens squad for next year's Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Flanker Messam and center Williams, a convert from rugby league, were included in the 16-man squad named Wednesday by coach Gordon Tietjens.

The FBI is offering a reward of up to $20,000 for help in finding two N.C. Wyeth paintings stolen from a home in Portland, Maine.

A total of six Wyeth paintings were stolen from the home of a businessman in 2013, and FBI Special Agent Elizabeth Rivas in Los Angeles says the person responsible for taking the paintings remains a mystery.

Musicians Juanes, Cody Simpson and Inna Modja are headlining a special event at the United Nations for World Humanitarian Day — and the Colombian singer is introducing a new song he wrote just a few days ago for the occasion.

The stars lent their voices Tuesday to the world body's effort to draw attention to major humanitarian crises in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere.