Tim Donaghy, the disgraced former NBA referee, bet on far more games than previously disclosed and picked winners at a staggering 79 percent clip, according to professional gambler James Battista, who was charged as a co-conspirator in the 2007 case. Battista told HBO’s “Real Sports’’ that he and Donaghy bet on 47 games over four months and won 37 times. In his plea agreement with federal prosecutors, Donaghy admitted to gambling on 16 games that he officiated during the 2006-07 season . . . Geno Auriemma and the US women’s national team were placed in Group B at the world championships that begin next September. The draw pits the Americans against Greece, Senegal, and France in opening pool play, which begins Sept. 23 . . . Abe Pollin, 85, the Washington Wizards owner who brought an NBA championship to the nation’s capital in 1978 when his team was known as the Bullets, died yesterday. Obituary, Page B14.

Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, the reigning Olympic and world silver medalists in ice dance, have withdrawn from next week’s Grand Prix final in Tokyo. Belbin had surgery yesterday to treat an infected wisdom tooth and has been advised to avoid strenuous activity for a week. Agosto said the pair is confident it will be ready for the US championships in January. This is the second straight year Belbin and Agosto have withdrawn from the Grand Prix final. They were forced out last year by Agosto’s back injury, which also kept them out of nationals. Belbin and Agosto qualified for the Grand Prix final with wins at Skate America and Cup of China.

Denis Hamlett will not return to the Chicago Fire next year after leading the Major League Soccer franchise to the Eastern Conference finals in each of his two seasons as coach. Fire technical director Frank Klopas said the organization “has decided to take the team in a new direction in 2010.’’ . . . Longtime D.C. United and US team midfielder Ben Olsen retired, citing numerous ankle injuries that kept interrupting his career . . . Top soccer officials from nine countries embroiled in a match-fixing scandal will meet with the sport’s European governing body this week. UEFA spokesman Rob Faulkner said national associations and leagues were invited to a briefing because their domestic matches are among 200 suspected of being fixed by an organized betting operation. Games in Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Turkey are believed to have been manipulated . . . Swedish referee Martin Hansson, who failed to spot Thierry Henry’s hand ball in the World Cup playoff between France and Ireland last week, said he considered quitting because of the furor but changed his mind. He told the Swedish newspaper Sydostran, “I realize that it was not my fault. It was an unfortunate event that had big consequences for Ireland, but it wasn’t the fault of the refereeing team.’’

Roger Federer bounced back once again after losing the first set, rallying to beat Andy Murray, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, at the ATP World Tour Finals in London and ensuring he will have the year-end No. 1 ranking for the fifth time. Federer dominated Murray in the final two sets, finally controlling play from his serve and also getting his forehand on target. Federer, who has two wins from two matches in Group A and is favored to reach the semifinals at the season-ending tournament, still has to play Juan Martin del Potro, who beat Federer in the US Open final. Earlier, Del Potro held on to beat Fernando Verdasco, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-1) . . . Gretel Bergmann, who matched a German high jump record of 5 feet 3 inches in 1936 but was kicked off the team because she is Jewish, will have her mark restored by Germany’s track and field association. It also requested that Bergmann, 95, who later changed her name to Margaret Lambert after emigrating to the US in 1937, be included in Germany’s sports hall of fame . . . In San Francisco, solicitor general Elena Kagan asked for a reconsideration of an appeals court ruling that government agents illegally seized drug-testing samples and records of baseball players who allegedly tested positive for steroids in 2003. The players’ names leaked to the media were Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramírez, David Ortiz, and Sammy Sosa.