Andy Roddick and Serena Williams led a super-powered United States surge at Wimbledon on Wednesday as American players continued to salvage a reputation so badly damaged at the French Open.
   American men suffered their worst ever performance on the Roland Garros clay, making the grass of the All England Club even more of a welcome sight this year.
   Roddick, beaten in the first round in Paris, has twice been a Wimbledon runner-up, and he eased into the third round on Wednesday with a 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 over Thailand’s Asian Games champion Danai Udomchoke.
   Williams, the women’s champion in 2002 and 2003 and a quarter-finalist at the French Open, also made the third round with a 7-6, 6-3 win over Australia’s Alicia Molik.
   Veteran American Laura Granville put out Austrian 20th seed Sybille Bammer 6-1, 6-4 to reach the third round while compatriot Meilen Tu booked her place in the second round with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 win over Romania’s Edina Gallovits.
   Tu now faces French Open runner-up Ana Ivanovic, the sixth seed, who beat Melinda Czink 6-0, 7-6.
   Despite her defeat in Paris, Ivanovic said the reception she received in Belgrade, along with fellow Serbian semi-finalists Jelena Jankovic and Novak Djokovic after the tournament, had been outstanding.
   ‘After Paris, we were treated really well. In Belgrade, we were taken to the parliament building and it was a great honour,’ said Ivanovic.
   ‘Usually it’s the Serbian teams like the basketball players who are invited so for individual sportsmen to be invited was a great honour.’
   Meanwhile, China’s hopes in the women’s singles came to an end when Yan Zi, half of the women’s doubles winning team here in 2006, lost 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 to Italian 21st seed Tathiana Garbin.
   The result meant all three Chinese women had been eliminated in the first round, 12 months after Li Na had made history by becoming the first player from her country to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final.

South Africa captain Jacques Kallis’s unbeaten 91 saw his side to a four-wicket win over India at Stormont here on Tuesday in the first of three one-day internationals.
   Kallis’s well-paced innings saw South Africa overhaul an India total of 242 for eight built around a third wicket stand of 158 between Sachin Tendulkar (99) and Rahul Dravid (74).
   South Africa needed four off the last over, bowled by part-time left-arm spinner Yuvraj Singh.
   But 22-year-old all-rounder Vernon Philander (17 not out), in only his second match at this level, settled any lingering nerves by lofting Singh for four with three balls to spare as the Proteas finished on 245 for six.
   ‘When we lost a few wickets it became my job to bat through the innings with a few youngsters down the order and I knew it was vital I stayed there to help them through,’ said man-of-the-match Kallis.
   ‘It’s easy talking to a guy and telling him how to do it, but to actually do it is the hard job,’ added Kallis, who shared an unbroken seventh-wicket stand of 55 with Philander.
   India captain Dravid was pleased by the way his side, several of whom were playing with the effects of a flu virus that had swept through the squad since Saturday’s nine-wicket win here against Ireland, had competed.
   ‘A lot of guys today were still not 100 per cent right. But they came out there, tried their best and really fought hard,’ Dravid said.
   ‘I thought Kallis’s innings was really good. We kept getting wickets at regular intervals but his was the one we needed and we couldn’t get it.’
   Tendulkar was left just 50 runs away from becoming the first batsman in history to score 15,000 one-day international runs.
   In sight of what would have been his 42nd hundred at this level, the 34-year-old was run out, going for an ill-judged second, by cover sweeper Morne van Wyk’s throw to wicket-keeper Mark Boucher.
   Tendulkar and Dravid repaired the innings after Sourav Ganguly and Gautam Gambhir had fallen cheaply to fast bowler Andre Nel, who led the attack with three wickets for 47 runs.
   In reply, AB de Villiers and van Wyk shared a first-wicket stand of 56 as conditions became increasingly cold and overcast.
   That ended when de Villiers, four balls after being dropped by Tendulkar at first slip off RP Singh, edged a square-drive off the backfoot against the left-arm quick and was well caught by diving wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik.
   Teenage leg-spinner Piyush Chawla struck with his 11th ball when van Wyk, who’d made 44, played across the line to give Rohit Sharma a simple catch in the covers.
   And the 18-year-old had his second wicket when dangerman Herschelle Gibbs, trying to dab the ball down on five, was bowled by a ball that didn’t turn as much as he expected.
   The Proteas needed under a run-a-ball when Mark Boucher was lbw for 23 to left-arm quick Zaheer Khan despite the ball pitching outside leg stump.
   However, Kallis was still in, his fifty up in 65 balls with three fours.
   But at the other end Andrew Hall drove Chawla to Dravid at extra-cover and South Africa, with 10 overs left, needed 51 to win with four wickets standing.
   South Africa, despite Kallis saying on Monday they wanted to bring on a spin bowler in a bid to remedy a longstanding weakness, had omitted off-break specialist Thandi Tshabala from their side.

Fit-again fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar wants to lead Pakistan’s attack against Australia later this year, saying that the world champions bring out the best in him.
   The injury-prone 31-year-old paceman is back in the Pakistan team after missing the World Cup in the Caribbean earlier this year due to knee problems.
   ‘My best comes against Australia. I am confident that I will keep fit and help my team beat Australia,’ Akhtar told AFP late Tuesday as a 14-man Pakistan squad left for Scotland.
   Pakistan play hosts Scotland in Edinburgh on July 1 before taking on arch-rivals India in Glasgow two days later.
   The mercurial bowler, who played just one Test this year due to nagging injury problems, said he enjoyed facing India but added that playing Australia boosted his performances.
   ‘It is always exciting to play against India.
   ‘But Australia bring out the best in me,’ said Akhtar, whose last full series was against the traditional rivals last year.
   Pakistan are also due to travel to India later this year.
   ‘I am gearing up for the full season. I hope I keep fit and play a lead role, especially in our home series against Australia,’ he added.
   Pakistan host Ricky Ponting’s men early next year. They have not beaten Australia in a Test series since their 1-0 win at home in 1994.
   Akhtar’s three appearances against Australia 1999, 2002 and 2004 each ended with Pakistan losing 3-0.
   ‘I know my fitness will play a major part, but I am confident that I will play my role this season as we have three very important series,’ said Akhtar, who was also at the centre of a doping scandal last year.
   He and fellow paceman Mohammad Asif were banned for two years and one year respectively after they tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone. The bans were controversially lifted a month later.
   An appeal by the World Anti-Doping Agency against the overturning of the ban is still pending in the Court of Arbitration of Sport in Switzerland.
   But Akhtar said he had put last year’s problems behind him, adding that a stint at a Pakistan army training camp earlier this month had worked wonders.
   ‘This is the best I have felt in my entire career,’ said Akhtar, who had twin knee operations last year. He then damaged his hamstring on a tour of South Africa, where he was sent in as a reinforcement.
   ‘I hope this is a new start for me and I will do my best to play continuous cricket. I know what is required of me in Tests as well as in one-day internationals and I am ready to play my part.’

The Bangladesh Olympic Association will go slow about deciding any disciplinary action against SA Games 110-metre gold winning hurdler Mahfuzur Rahman Mithu who went into hiding while in Italy.
   Mithu was in Italy as part of his training at the Malaysia High Performance Sports Centre.
   A nine-member team including two Bangladeshi hurdlers — Mithu and Sumita Rani — from the Malaysian sport centre went to Italy and were due to travel to France. But Mithu and three athletes — one each from Yemen, Sri Lanka and Pakistan — did not make the tour to France.
   The BOA confirmed that Mithu had gone missing from Italy. After his SA Games success he was awarded a non commissioned job in the Bangladesh Air Force.
   BOA chief operative officer Col (retd) Waliullah however still hopes that Mithu will come back. ‘His Italian visa expires in July and he has another couple of months in hand to complete his training in Malaysia. We have decided that if he returns within the time limit then we may excuse him. He is a defence personnel and he has some commitments to fulfill,’ he said.
   Bangladesh athletes have bad reputation of fleeing in training or during the course of Games. Star athletes Saidur Rahman Don, Bimal Chandra Tarafder and swimmer Karar Mizanur Rahman fled to different countries. Another swimmer Karar Samedul Islam escaped from the national camp of the 2002 Commonwealth Games but eventually returned.

All-rounders should be worth a place in a side for their batting or bowling alone, according to the old cricket adage, and South Africa captain Jacques Kallis reckons Vernon Philander fits the bill.
   Philander, who marked his one-day international debut on his 22nd birthday on Sunday by taking four for 12 in the 42-run win over Ireland with his lively pace bowling, came to the fore second time out with some confident batting.
   Tuesday’s game, a four-wicket win against India at Stormont, was still in the balance when Philander arrived at the crease with South Africa 190 for six, still way short of their victory target of 242, and just the tail left.
   Kallis, who made a match-winning and unbeaten 91, needed someone to stay with him and keep their head.
   The Proteas still wanted four off the last over, bowled by occasional left-arm spinner Yuvraj Singh.
   But Philander, with two required, settled any lingering nerves by cleanly lofting Singh for four with three balls to spare as his side finished on 245 for six. It was the only boundary Philander, who shared an unbroken stand of 55 with Kallis, struck in his 22-ball 17 not out.
   ‘When we lost a few wickets it became my job to bat through the innings with a few youngsters down the order and I knew it was vital I stayed there to help them through,’ Kallis told reporters.
   ‘The guys did it unbelievably well. It’s easy talking to a guy and telling him how to do it, but to actually do it is the hard job and hats off to the young guys.’
   Turning to Philander, Kallis added: ‘To come in and perform the way he has shows big character. He’s done it back home in domestic cricket, finishing off a lot of games for the Cape Cobras and today (Tuesday) he did it at the highest level and he’ll gain a lot of confidence.
   ‘He’s setting himself some high standards to maintain,’ said Kallis, himself one of the world’s premier all-rounders, of a player he has tipped to fill Shaun Pollock’s boots when the former South Africa captain retires.
   Philander, is not the only novice in a squad with future development very much in mind following South Africa’s seven-wicket World Cup semi-final thrashing by eventual champions Australia in St Lucia in April.
   For example their 14-man party also includes Thandi Tshabalala, a 22-year-old off-spinner, who didn’t play on Tuesday but who did take one for 22 on his debut last weekend against Ireland.
   ‘We have a lot of youngsters on tour, it’s our first real tour since the World Cup and I think the guys have done superbly,’ said Kallis. We came in very cold and for the guys to play the type of cricket they did today (Tuesday) was very impressive.’

England’s new one-day captain Paul Collingwood says his men are relishing the chance to prove themselves in today’s Twenty20 game against West Indies.
   Collingwood, who replaced Michael Vaughan last Friday, leads a re-shuffled team who are anxious to turn the page on England’s disappointing World Cup.
   ‘We’ve done a lot of talking as a team — where we want to go and what we’ve done well in the past,’ the Durham batsman told a news conference at the Oval on Wednesday.
   ‘We want to move forward now and we’re looking forward to being on the park.
   ‘The word ‘intent’ is a massive thing for our team. ‘Intent as a team’, ‘hunting in packs’...these are the big buzz words in the dressing room at the moment. There’s been a lot of good talk but we have to put that on to the pitch.
   ‘What you want out there is 11 leaders, that when it gets feisty you’ve got 11 people going for each other.’

The chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board is to become the next head of the game’s world governing body, the BBC understands.
   Welshman David Morgan will take over from acting International Cricket Council president Ray Mali next year.
   There had been a stand-off over whether Morgan or India’s Sharad Pawar should take over the top job.
   But BBC sport editor Mihir Bose said a compromise would see Morgan in charge until 2010, with Pawar succeeding him.
   ‘Both of them will become vice-president, in effect president elect,’ Bose told Five Live.
   ICC officials are currently in London for a series of meetings ahead of the council’s annual conference in the Long Room at Lord’s on Friday.
   And a formal announcement of the Morgan-Pawar decision is expected later in the week.
   Morgan, 69, has been ECB chairman since January 2003, having previously held a similar role with county side Glamorgan following a career in the steel industry.
   When elected to succeed Lord MacLaurin, he was seen as a safe pair of hands and has certainly been a conciliatory figure for most of his time in charge.
   But he has not always been able to avoid controversy, attracting criticism for his handling of England’s 2004 tour to Zimbabwe and for approving the sale of live TV rights to BSkyB in a £220m deal which runs until the end of the 2009 season.
   And the impasse over whether he or Pawar should become ICC president has lasted since February when a nominations committee was unable to agree whose name to put forward.
   It prompted a decision to extend then president Percy Sonn’s term of office by a year until 2009. But when Mali was appointed following Sonn’s death in May, the search for a compromise was stepped up with a view to a permanent replacement taking over next year.

Sachin Tendulkar’s 99 against South Africa at Stormont was the first time he missed an international hundred by a solitary run. It was the 26th instance in ODIs, and the fourth by an Indian batsman - Krishnamachari Srikkanth, VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid being the others to be dismissed for 99.
   Tendulkar already has 41 centuries in one-day internationals, but that figure could have been much closer to 50 had he moved on to a three-figure score every time he entered the nineties - he has now been dismissed 11 times when within ten or fewer runs of an ODI hundred, which is more than any other batsman. Nathan Astle, Aravinda de Silva and Grant Flower have scored nine nineties, while Mohammad Azharuddin and Jacques Kallis - who made an unbeaten 91 in the game - have seven.
   Tendulkar also became only the fifth batsman to be run out for 99 in ODIs. Adam Gilchrist, Sanath Jayasuriya, Ed Morgan and Graeme Smith are the others, which makes Tendulkar (and this is strictly for the trivia-inclined) the first right-hander to be run out for 99 in ODIs.
   The 158-run stand between Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid is easily the highest for the third wicket for India versus South Africa. The earlier record was a paltry 88 between Dravid and Sourav Ganguly at Jamshedpur in 2000. The stand was also the 11th time the two batsmen had put together a century partnership. In 89 stands, Tendulkar and Dravid have added 3902 runs at an average of 46.45. The only player with whom Dravid has scored more runs is Sourav Ganguly - 4227 runs in 85 innings at 50.32.
   South Africa, meanwhile, were led by Jacques Kallis yet again - his unbeaten 91 was his tenth 50-plus score in 29 ODIs against India - a team versus whom he averages 68.88. South Africa’s four-wicket win was also their fifth successive ODI victory against India.

Tim Henman rolled back the years to emerge triumphant from an epic battle with Carlos Moya in the pick of the day’s action at Wimbledon on Tuesday.
   On a day when the only real surprise was the unexpected appearance of the sun, French Open champion Rafael Nadal tamed big-serving American Mardy Fish while 2004 winner Maria Sharapova and defending champion Amelie Mauresmo eased into the second round of the women’s singles.
   But even Sharapova’s eye-catching outfit - a layered dress inspired by the ballet Swan Lake - could not deprive Henman of the limelight after he finally overcame former world number one Moya in a 24-game fifth set after more than four hours of high-quality tennis.
   The two veterans had been interrupted by nightfall on Monday with the scores tied at 5-5 in the decisive set.
   Henman had failed to take four match points then and he was to put the legions of fans watching on ‘Henman hill’ through another hour of nail-biting before a double fault by Moya finally brought the match to a close.
   That offered the former British number one the opportunity to reflect with typically modest satisfaction on a 6-3, 1-6, 5-7, 6-2, 13-11 win that was the perfect riposte to those who had suggested it was time to hang up his racket.
   It was only the third match the former British number one has managed to win all year. But, having reached four semi-finals here over the years, he will now have his sights set on reaching the second week, although he has a tricky second round clash with Feliciano Lopez, a Spaniard who loves to get to the net.
   ‘Having played at that level, it is a fantastic start, but it is only a start and I want to build on that,’ Henman said.
   Nadal took a leaf out of Roger Federer’s book as he began his campaign to become the first man since Bjorn Borg to win back-to-back French Open and Wimbledon titles.
   The Spaniard believes Federer gains a crucial edge over his rivals from the ease with which he despatches opponents in the early rounds and Nadal made short work of Fish, swatting back his 130mph serves with almost contemptuous ease at times on his way to a 6-4, 7-6, 6-3 win.
   Lleyton Hewitt, the 2002 champion and the last man to win Wimbledon before Federer began his winning streak, was equally untroubled against British wildcard Richard Bloomfield, winning 7-5, 6-3, 7-5.
   There were also wins for fourth seed Novak Djokovic and sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko.
   Despite wearing a thigh support to avoid aggravating a slight groin injury, Mauresmo needed just over an hour to complete a 6-1, 6-3 defeat of American Jamea Jackson, who is in the early stages of a comeback following hip surgery at the end of last year.
   Sharapova did not have too much trouble compiling a 6-1, 7-5 win over Chan Yung-Jan of Taiwan but Venus Williams admitted she was short of match practice after squeezing past Russian teenager Alla Kudryavtseva 2-6, 6-3, 7-5.
   ‘The first set went so fast and my balls were just flying out and I didn’t have any answers,’ triple champion Williams said.
   ‘I eventually had to take something off the ball because I just couldn’t seem to get it in today. I haven’t played a match in a few weeks, so I think that could be a factor.’
   There was also a stirring display from veteran Australian Wayne Arthurs. The oldest man in the men’s singles at 36, Arthurs fought back from two sets down to eliminate an opponent half his age, last year’s Wimbledon juniors champion, Thiemo De Bakker.
   And in the women’s singles, Indian star Sania Mirza made light of a very late start by racing to a 6-0, 6-3 win over Russian Yaroslava Shvedova in just 55 minutes. Mirza now faces 11th seed Nadia Petrova for a place in the last 32.

India captain Rahul Dravid is confident Sachin Tendulkar has some great days ahead of him on the United Kingdom tour after seeing the ‘Little Master’ make 99 against South Africa at Stormont.
   Tendulkar’s innings - his first 99 in a one-day international career spanning 386 matches and featuring 41 hundreds - couldn’t prevent a four-wicket defeat in the opening fixture of a three-game series against the Proteas, all taking place at the Belfast venue.
   But Dravid, who helped Tendulkar add 158 for the third wicket while making 74 himself, was buoyed by his team-mate’s form.
   ‘He’s very keen to have a good tour of England,’ Dravid said of his fellow 34-year-old.
   ‘He does realise, along with a lot of us, that this probably will be the last time he will be touring in the UK.’
   Tendulkar’s innings left him 50 short of becoming the first batsman in history to score 15,000 one-day international runs - a landmark he could reach during the remaining games of this series.
   And if he doesn’t rewrite the record books in Belfast, there is every chance he’ll do it in the seven one-day internationals against England in August and September that follow a three-Test series due to start at Lord’s on July 19.
   This latest innings was not exactly vintage Tendulkar. For a start, it lasted 143 balls - only four times in his limited overs international career has he batted for longer.
   And on each of those occasions Tendulkar went onto a large century (the lowest was 141 not out against West Indies in Kuala Lumpur in September 2006).
   But there were signs with some of his 12 fours on Tuesday that Tendulkar, who as a 19-year-old scored his first Test hundred, against England, in 1990 at Old Trafford, had retained his touch despite the passing of the years.
   He struck Charl Langeveldt square through the offside off the backfoot and then drove the medium-pacer straight down the ground with the minimum amount of visible effort.
   However, age appared to be catching up with Tendulkar when, going for a risky second that would have given him his hundred, he was run out by a throw from Morne van Wyk to wicket-keeper Mark Boucher.
   Nevertheless, an upbeat Dravid said: ‘It’s a good start. It’s the early part of the tour. We are coming from 45 degrees (heat) and totally different wickets and I thought for the batsmen to hit some early form is a good sign.’
   At the other end of the age spectrum to Dravid and Tendulkar is 18-year-old leg-spinner Piyush Chawla who, in only his third one-day international, took an impressive three for 47 in 10 overs in conditions stacked against slow bowlers.
   His wickets included that of van Wyk, who made 44 before lobbing a catch to cover after getting a leading edge to a genuine leg-break while playing across the line, and star batsman Herschelle Gibbs, out for five when bowled by a ball of full length.
   Afterwards Dravid praised Chawla, the successor to Anil Kumble following the leg-spinner’s one-day international retirement after the World Cup.
   ‘I think he acquitted himself very well, considering the conditions. It’s not a track that really helps the spinners too much, it was really cold and for a leg-spinner it wasn’t easy to grip the ball.
   ‘But the more he can bowl in these conditions the more he is going to learn and it’s going to be good for his growth and development as a cricketer.’
   That India took Tuesday’s match into the last over said much for their resilience after more than half their 14-man squad were struck down with ‘flu.
   Wicket-keeper batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the first to fall ill, fast bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth and medium-pacer Ajit Agarkar, all of whom were among the worst affected, missed the series opener.

Mark Viduka says the pride of wearing the Australian shirt was behind his last-minute decision to play in the Asian Cup, insisting there was no pressure from new club Newcastle to miss the tournament.
   The 31-year-old, preparing with the Socceroos in Singapore ahead of their first match on July 8, shelved international retirement plans at the 11th hour because playing for his country meant too much.
   ‘Initially I was in two minds. I didn’t know whether to retire or not and I mentioned it to Arnie (coach Graham Arnold) and I said it looks like I will go that way,’ Viduka told Sydney’s Daily Telegraph newspaper here.
   ‘Then the next two days I had a good think about it and I just felt it meant too much for me to play for Australia and just to give it away like that.
   ‘I made the decision myself.’
   Viduka arrived here on Sunday after completing his move to Newcastle from Middlesbrough and taking a holiday in Croatia.
   He told the paper there was no pressure from Newcastle to miss the tournament to remain fresh for the new English Premier League season, adding that he was looking forward to playing with new teammate Michael Owen.
   ‘I’m not sure if he’s staying. I’ve been on holidays but what’s happening at Newcastle is exciting. We’ve got new owners and it looks very promising,’ Viduka said.
   ‘We have a good chance. I don’t want to be too cocky but we’re quietly confident,’ he said. ‘It’s no good us yelling and screaming how good we are, we’ve got to show it.
   ‘It’s different to the World Cup, you can’t compare it to the World Cup, that’s the biggest tournament in the world.
   ‘But for us there’s a big pride factor here. It’s our first time in Asia and hopefully we can show how good we are.’

Pakistan on Wednesday celebrated a Wimbledon win by rising local star Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi, a rare tennis success in this cricket-obsessed South Asian nation.
   The 27-year-old—the first Pakistani to play in the Wimbledon men’s singles since Haroon Rahim in 1976 — outsmarted Britain’s Lee Childs 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 on his maiden Wimbledon singles appearance on Tuesday.
   Former great Khawaja Saeed Hai, who played the main rounds at Wimbledon for three consecutive years from 1954 to 1956, hailed Qureshi’s ‘brilliant’ performance.
   ‘I used to get the world’s top players in the first round but Qureshi got a lucky draw and won,’ said Hai, who also played the US and French Open in 1960s.
   ‘Now it is up to him to cash in and although Safin is not playing well these days the Russian would still be difficult to beat.’
   Qureshi’s only previous experience of Wimbledon was in the doubles in 2002, when he created a storm by opting to defy the Pakistani Tennis Federation and play with Israel’s Amir Hadad.
   The best performance by any Pakistani in a Wimbledon singles competition was by Haroon Rahim who reached the second round 31 years ago.
   Hai said Qureshi’s win must lift tennis in Pakistan, where it is overshadowed by cricket, hockey and squash.
   ‘In the old days even my wins over English champions in tournaments never made a line in the newspapers, but now the media has projected Aisam’s win and I hope that younger players will try to emulate his achievements,’ said Hai.
   Qureshi’s win in the first round was covered by all the leading television channels while newspapers also joined in saluting the gutsy player from Lahore.
   ‘It’s child’s play for Aisam as he sets up Safin date,’ wrote The News in its sports pages.
   Khalid Rehmani, president of the tennis federation of southern Sindh province, said Qureshi had not only done Pakistan proud but also given a boost to tennis across Asia.
   ‘Just four to five players from Asia play in the main rounds of a Grand Slam these days and Qureshi is among them. It will help tennis in Asia and I hope he extends his run by beating Safin which is not impossible,’ said Rehmani.
   Qureshi admitted he had fulfilled his life’s ambition after his first-round win.
   ‘It is going to be mad back home and I hope my win goes a long way in promoting tennis in Pakistan,’ Qureshi told a private television channel.

Maria Sharapova has a message for the thousands of love-struck young men who’d happily fall at her feet - she’s just a daddy’s girl at heart.
   The world’s most high-profile sportswoman paid tribute to father Yuri, who famously was side-by-side with her when they left their Russian home for Florida to build the platform for what has become a lucrative franchise and a Grand Slam winning career.
   ‘Both my mom and dad sacrificed so much and I’m very lucky because he probably loves me more than anyone else in the world,’ said the 20-year-old.
   ‘He’s a character but unfortunately you only get to see him when I’m playing tennis and he’s in the stands.
   ‘By himself, he’d make a really good reality show. That’s one of the things I have proposed to him once my career is over. He’s a really hilarious guy.
   ‘When I’m playing badly, he’s like: ‘Are you kidding me?’ That was not Maria. It’s your sister. Bring her back.’ Sharapova, the 2004 Wimbledon champion, opened her 2007 campaign on Tuesday with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Taiwan’s Chan Yung-Jan.
   But such is the global appeal of the Russian pin-up that she spends more time in her post-match news conferences discussing her family loyalties and fashion sense than she does her game.
   Tuesday was no exception.
   The topic of the day was not her serve or forehand, but her choice of dress, all white, as All England Club tradition demands, and based on a swan.
   ‘I wanted it to have more pleats in the back and the end result made it look like a swan,’ explained Sharapova to her mostly-male audience. On a hanger, it doesn’t look as swan-ish as it does on me. I just put a reference to it because a swan is usually white, right, unless it’s weird.’

Players’ chief Dinanath Ramnarine has questioned the decision of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) to reprimand Chris Gayle for a diary published on the CricInfo website, saying the opening batsman had received clearance for the June 21 article from team manager Michael Findlay.
   Ramnarine, chief executive of the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA), said Gayle had, as required, submitted his article to Findlay, who edited and approved it. It seems difficult to understand why Gordon and Findlay would ... demand an apology for comments approved by Findlay,’ Ramnarine was quoted as saying by CricInfo.
   Gayle, 27, angered officials by writing: ‘First and foremost I am very disappointed with the West Indies Cricket Board for not having the guys here in England already and ready to play. As the captain I have to say this is disappointing and it is not at all a good start.

Former West Germany national football team coach Josef ‘Jupp’ Derwall has died aged 80, the German football federation announced on Tuesday.
   Derwall, coached the team between 1978 and 1984, winning the 1980 European Football Championship and reaching the final of the 1982 World Cup.
   During his reign the team achieved 45 wins in 67 international matches.
   He later coached Galatasaray leading them to the Turkish title in 1987 before retiring in 1989.

Beleaguered Mexico coach Hugo Sanchez, already under fire after only six months in the job, pleaded on Tuesday to be given more time.
   Mexico go into the Copa America on the back of a series of bad performances and reports of a split in the camp.
   ‘As a player, the same thing happened to me, I needed time to triumph in Europe and now it’s the same, be patient,’ the former Real Madrid forward told reporters.
   ‘If you have put up with others who aren’t Mexican and who, in addition, have treated you badly, then I deserve a bit more,’ he added, apparently referring to his predecessor Ricardo La Volpe.
   Sanchez’s prestige took a knock when his side lost 2-1 to the United States in the Gold Cup final on Sunday.
   In previous matches, Mexico needed extra time to beat eight-man Costa Rica 1-0 and then struggled to a 1-0 win over the Caribbean islanders of Guadeloupe.
   Mexico’s performances have been a direct contrast to Sanchez’s rhetoric.
   Before he was given the job, he promised that his winning personality would rub off on the team.

A fine all-round performance from Marlon Samuels gave the West Indians a much needed boost with a comprehensive 56-run win over a PCA Masters XI at Arundel, ahead of their back-to-back Twenty20 matches against England on today and Friday.
   The victory came against a rag-bag of current and former stars - including Nathan Astle and Robin Smith - but West Indies at the moment are grateful for any small mercies.
   PCA crumbled to 142 chasing a daunting 199 with Samuels doing most of the damage with 4 for 19. After losing Rikki Clarke to the first ball, PCA’s run-chase got off to an electric start with Azhar Mahmood cracking 41 from 26 balls. But he became Samuels’ second wicket when he was bowled, prompting a slide where six wickets fell for 63.
   Samuels forged a bristling second-wicket stand of 87 with Devon Smith (75 from 53), but the most encouraging aspect of their innings was the return to form of Chris Gayle. In 34 balls he hammered 73, with eight fours and lifting four sixes.
   It was a comfortable win for West Indies, one which David Moores, their coach, will hope has massaged their brittle confidence which sunk on Sunday when Derbyshire humiliated them by 51 runs.

The ‘flu virus that has affected more than half of the India squad in Belfast is continuing to leave them with some difficult selection issues as they prepare for the second of three one-day internationals against South Africa at Stormont here Friday.
   India, despite their illness problems, still managed to take Tuesday’s series opener into the last over before South Africa, thanks mainly to captain Jacques Kallis’s 91 not out, won by four wickets with three balls to spare.
   Wicket-keeper batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the first to fall ill, fast bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth and medium-pacer Ajit Agarkar, all of whom were among the worst affected, missed that match.
   But off-spinner Ramesh Powar and left-arm fast bowler Rudra Pratap Singh did take the field as India raised an XI.
   Meanwhile Dravid, who made 74 in a stand of 158 with Sachin Tendulkar (99), did his best to lead from the front in a side where he said he himself, batsman Yuvraj Singh and left-arm quick Zaheer Khan were all ‘feeling a bit down’.
   Replacement seamers Ishant Sharma, 18, who has played one Test, and uncapped seamer Ranadeb Bose, who had both been scheduled to join the Test party later on the tour, were due to arrive in Belfast on Wednesday with a view to being available for selection for Friday’s match.
   Uncapped 28-year-old Baroda pace bowler Rakesh Patel, who has been playing club cricket in Liverpool, north-west England, was called up to India’s one-day squad on Monday.
   ‘The two quicks are quite bad, both Sreesanth and Agarkar. Dhoni should be okay for the next game but with the ‘flu you never know,’ said Dravid.

When George Bush showed up in Argentina in 2005, the usual protests against him were led by someone rather unusual: Diego Maradona. The little genius asked Argentines to march against the ‘human garbage’ Bush.
   Thousands did, though as it happened without Maradona, who cannily preferred to get a lift to the stadium where the anti-Bush rally was held.
   The rally’s other main voice was Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez, and it’s no coincidence that on 26 June, Maradona will kick off the opening match of the Copa America football tournament in Chavez’s country.
   Maradona captains our political footballers’ eleven, because few other great athletes are so political. Think, by contrast, of the human advertising billboards Pele or Michael Jordan.
   In 1990, Jordan wouldn’t even endorse the black civil-rights leader Harvey Gantt in his race for Senate in Jordan’s own state, North Carolina, even though Gantt’s opponent, the Republican Jesse Helms, was famously no friend of the black man. Jordan explained: ‘Republicans buy sneakers too.’
   Share Maradona’s politics or not, at least he has them. And his own political trajectory over the last 30 years is a case-study of Latin America’s trajectory in that period.
   Maradona entered professional football aged 15 in 1976, the year Argentina succumbed to a military junta. In those days, said Maradona, he had ‘no time’ for politics. But politics had time for him. The junta embraced the prodigy. In return Maradona once embraced General Galtieri, one of the junta’s leaders.
   After winning the World Youth Cup for Argentina in 1979 the kid appeared on the radio, and in the words of his biographer Jimmy Burns, ‘seemingly content with the drooling messages of support from a line of generals’. Today Maradona loathes that regime.
   In Argentina, politics is often not so much about the right or the left but more about nationalism. Whatever Maradona’s political shifts, he has always been a passionate nationalist. That was his common ground with a thug like Galtieri. ‘If one day our armed forces have to defend our country,’ Maradona said at this time, ‘there will be soldier Maradona, because first and foremost I am an Argentine.’
   However in 1982, when the armed forces invaded the Falklands Islands and fought a war with Britain, there was no soldier Maradona. He was preparing for the World Cup instead - but he shared the national sentiment.
   Four years later, when Argentina met England at the World Cup, he finally did his bit. He beat England, scoring once with the ‘Hand of God’, and later with a divine left foot.
   ‘It was as if we had beaten a country, not just a football team,’ Maradona wrote in his autobiography. ‘Although we had said before the game that football had nothing to do with the Malvinas war, we knew they had killed a lot of Argentine boys there, killed them like little birds. And this was revenge.’
   Because even as a footballer Maradona was a politician. Every time he touched the ball, the malnourished little boy from the slums incarnated the little man fighting great powers. He enhanced that image when he accused FIFA of conspiring against poor Argentina.
   The recent Argentine film, El Camino de San Diego, in which a poor woodcutter joins the mass pilgrimage to Buenos Aires after Maradona falls ill, presents Maradona as a sort of folk saint - ‘San Diego’ - protector of the little guy, of people who look like him.
   Hence Maradona’s identification with Che Guevara, whose face is tattooed on his arm. ‘It was time that the two greatest Argentines were united in the same body,’ he explained. Maradona’s mastery of the bon mot, if not quite up with Oscar Wilde’s, is distinctly ahead of David Beckham’s and is part of his political potency.
   In the 1990s, oddly, he was close to Argentina’s president Carlos Menem, a right-winger who didn’t represent the little guy at all. But Menem was a populist like Maradona, and Maradona sympathised over the leader’s son’s death in a helicopter crash.
   However, Maradona kept worrying about the poor. A man who once knew him well said his apparent craziness stemmed partly from guilt at his own wealth. He feels he has abandoned his own class.
   Recently Maradona, like much of Latin America, has travelled leftward. This may be his natural spiritual destination. Fidel Castro had initially invited him to Cuba to get off drugs, but Maradona really went there to find peace, on an island where the national sport is baseball and the leader supposedly spoke for the working classes rather than banging on about privatisations and the dollar-peso link.
   Cuba’s official anti-Americanism suited him so well that once on the island, on his birthday, he was spotted dressed as Osama bin Laden. He got a Castro tattoo, and proclaimed Fidel ‘a god.’ (In fact in his autobiography, where everyone has a nickname, Castro and God share the same one: ‘The Beard.’)
   Lately, like the rest of Latin America’s hard left, Maradona has been running after Chavez. After a two-hour meeting with the president, he said, ‘I like women, but I left in love with Chavez’ - which recalled the suggestion of the wife of fellow player Claudio Caniggia, who said that Maradona was in love with her husband.
   This late-model political Maradona is not really an Argentine phenomenon. Argentina’s hard-left is relatively small, and Argentinians tend to love Maradona without kidding themselves that he is a stable political thinker which is why Argentine parties seldom bother wooing him.
   Rather, he is an emblem of where much of his continent is now.
   — The Financial Times

Sir Alex Ferguson is due back behind his desk at Manchester United’s training ground this morning and, while his in-tray includes difficult decisions to make over several fringe players, his first duties will include welcoming Owen Hargreaves to the club. The England midfield player will fly in from Canada to put his signature to a four-year contract today, formalising the £17 million transfer from Bayern Munich that has been a year in the waiting.
   Hargreaves, whose contract takes effect from Sunday, will briefly return to Munich before joining his new teammates for the start of pre-season training a week today and he has declared himself fit to participate fully from the outset. The 25-year-old made only a handful of appearances for Bayern after breaking a leg last September and was forced to miss England’s matches against Brazil and Estonia this month, but he is understood to have informed United’s coaching staff that he is fully fit after a summer of recuperation in his native Canada.
   That would leave Hargreaves free to join his new team-mates on their pre-season tour to Asia next month, with matches scheduled in Tokyo, Seoul and Macau and a fourth game probably in Guangzhou, China. Nani, the 20-year-old winger signed from Sporting Lisbon, may appear for some of the tour, despite playing for Portugal in the European Under-21 Championship finals, but Anderson, his fellow newcomer, is unlikely to, given his participation for Brazil in the Copa America, which began in Venezuela on Tuesday.
   Professional Footballers’ Association rules entitle players to four weeks’ consecutive rest between seasons, but Anderson is likely to return in late July or early August to prepare for his first season in England.
   Kieran Richardson is another who may miss part of the Asia tour, having played for England in the Under-21 Championship finals, but he may return early in an attempt to fight for his future at the club. The 22-year-old’s prospects at Old Trafford appear bleak in view of Nani’s arrival and he is attracting interest from at least two other Barclays Premier League clubs.
   Ferguson also has decisions to make over several other players as he looks to raise funds to buy a new centre forward. He has accepted a £6 million bid from Middlesbrough for Alan Smith, who has yet to decide whether to move to Teesside. Smith returned from holiday in Florida but immediately jetted off to Dubai. He arrives back on Tuesday and will make a decision then. The United manager is also prepared to sell Gabriel Heinze, the Argentina defender, who is the subject of interest from several clubs in Spain. Heinze’s future will be decided after the Copa America.
   United also have a £6 million offer on the table from Parma for Giuseppe Rossi, the Italy Under-21 forward, who spent the second half of last season on loan to the Italian club. Rossi is highly rated at Old Trafford, but he has started only one league match for the club and, in view of Anderson’s arrival, may be sold if it enables Ferguson to bid for a centre forward to compete with Wayne Rooney, Louis Saha and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
   Fabio Quagliarella, the Udinese forward, is one player who has come under Ferguson’s microscope, but his agent, Silvio Pagliari, having talked of a bid from United, said yesterday: ‘I am convinced he will remain at Udinese.’

Two days after winning its second straight Gold Cup title, the US soccer team was on a field in Venezuela, practicing for Thursday night’s matchup with Argentina in the Copa America.
   Only it wasn’t the same US team. Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley, Clint Dempsey and Tim Howard were left behind. Among the American players who made the trip for South America’s championship, only two started in Sunday’s 2-1 victory over Mexico in Chicago. Two more were second-half subs.
   ‘To play in two tournaments is a big challenge,’ US coach Bob Bradley said following a light workout. ‘We had many discussions with our players and their clubs and we ended up with a younger team.’
   In 1995, the United States won 3-0 against Argentina in the Copa, but the South Americans didn’t include many of their regulars in the starting lineup. Thursday’s game is the first for the fifth-ranked Argentines, and the US team likely will have to deal with Europe-based stars such as Hernan Crespo of Internazionale of Milan and Lionel Messi of Barcelona.
   Bradley, who has led the Americans to a 10-0-1 record since replacing Bruce Arena, promised a similar approach to the offensive strategy the US team used in winning the Gold Cup for the second straight time.
   ‘Our tactics are the same,’ Bradley said. ‘We’ve worked to establish a strong mentality and we believe in our work.’
   The United States, which along with Mexico is an invited guest, is 2-5 against Argentina, playing its first official game since losing to Germany on penalty kicks in the quarterfinals of last year’s World Cup.
   ‘We all have great respect for Argentina, but we’re excited for the challenge,’ Bradley said. ‘A little respect for your opponent is good, but too much is bad.’
   The Copa America began Tuesday. The government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a critic of the United States, has spent over $1 billion building two stadiums, renovating seven more and modernizing airports.
   Goalkeeper Kasey Keller, the only veteran of the 1995 US Copa America roster, said politics shouldn’t interfere with the tournament.
   ‘We have a great respect for the people here,’ said Keller in Spanish. ‘And the people are very friendly with us.’

World football’s governing body FIFA on Wednesday eased its ban on international matches at high altitude, following an uproar among Latin American countries in recent weeks.
   FIFA President Sepp Blatter said that World Cup qualifying matches would be tolerated at altitudes up to 3,000 metres, instead of the 2,500 metres announced in May.
   The ban will also only apply to World Cup qualifiers, but not other international matches such as regional tournaments in Latin America or domestic matches, Blatter told journalists.
   ‘The message was to say let’s watch out and keep in mind the health of players,’ he said, underlining that the original decision was taken on the advice of FIFA’s medical committee.
   ‘The medical aspect was paramount when taking into account the limit of 2,500 metres, but with a tolerance, a limit, that may go up to under 3,000 metres.
   ‘We do have a margin concerning the medical issues,’ Blatter explained.
   ‘The situation should be simplified for Latin America in this context.’
   However, he underlined that fair play issues would also be examined, including whether other stadiums at lower altitudes were available in a country, and the time available for opponents to adapt to high altitudes.
   FIFA’s chief noted that Peru could use the stadium in the capital, Lima—which is at sea level—instead of Cuzco at 3,300 metres.
   ‘We will intervene when it comes to fait play and the ethics of the game,’ he insisted.
   The decision by FIFA’s executive committee would effectively allow Bogota (2,640m) in Colombia and Quito (2,800m) in Ecuador to host qualifying matches for the 2010 World Cup.
   But it still sidelined Cuzco and the Bolivian capital La Paz (3,577m), despite the most vehement protests from Bolivia’s President Evo Morales.
   Blatter is due to meet Morales in Zurich on Thursday, FIFA confirmed.
   FIFA’s fresh decision largely mirrors proposals from the South American football confederation (CONMEBOL) last week to find a solution to the dispute.
   A meeting will be held in Zurich on October 25 to 28 to examine the altitude issue in depth and finalise any rules, Blatter said.
   ‘Until we have this medical conference in October, we will have this flexibility,’ he added.

Barcelona’s new signing Yaya Toure, following Thierry Henry to the Spanish club, is a strong player similar to Henry’s former Arsenal team mate Patrick Vieira, a senior Barcelona official said on Tuesday.
   Ivory Coast midfielder Toure moved from French first division Monaco on a four-year contract in a deal which Barcelona president Joan Laporta said cost nine million euros ($12.11 million), with a further four million euros ($5.38 million) payable depending on results.
   The money would be split between Monaco and one of Toure’s previous clubs, Metalurg Donetsk of Ukraine.
   Toure is the Primera Liga club’s second signing after Monday’s arrival of French striker Henry from English Premier League Arsenal for 24 million euros ($32.30 million) and will help strengthen a midfield which looked lightweight at times last season.
   ‘He is a strong player with a great physical presence and an ability to distribute the ball well. He’s a ball-winner and is good in the air,’ Barca sports director Txiki Begiristain told a news conference presenting the new signing.
   ‘He is similar in style to Patrick Vieira but we shouldn’t put him under pressure always comparing the two.’
   Barca finished second in the league, losing out to arch-rivals Real Madrid on the final day.
   Toure admitted that Vieira, now with Inter Milan and a World Cup and European championship winner with France, was a role model for him.
   ‘Vieira has many good qualities but I think I do as well and I am keen to demonstrate them. I hope I can live up to the expectations,’ he said.
   Toure, younger brother of Arsenal defender Kolo Toure, was a member of the Ivory Coast squad at the World Cup finals in Germany last year. He has also played for Belgium’s Beveren and Metalurg Donetsk and joined Monaco from Olympiakos last year.
   Barca are also in talks with AS Roma over their Romanian international centre back Cristian Chivu.

Reports in Italy suggest that Inter are willing to sacrifice Adriano in a bid to lure Real Madrid midfielder Mahamadou Diarra. Roberto Mancini is likely to reinforce his midfield having lacked options last term when Olivier Dacourt, Esteban Cambiasso and Patrick Vieira spent long periods on the treatment table.
   Diarra was originally a target in the January transfer window, but he rejected the Beneamata’s advances. The Mali international commanded around £17.5m when he left Lyon for the Spanish champions last summer, but Inter are rumoured to be offering just £5m in cash with Adriano headed to the Bernabeu.
   L’Imperatore had been widely tipped to leave the San Siro after a troubled campaign blighted by indiscretions off the pitch, but revealed his desire to stay this week. However, with the Nerazzurri securing the signature of 14-goal Honduran marksman David Suazo yesterday, it seems the enigmatic Brazilian’s days may be numbered.

David Trezeguet has revealed why he chose to sign a new contract with Juventus despite previously insisting he would leave the club this summer.
   The ex-Monaco hitman looked certain to quit Turin this summer due to his acrimonious relationshp with Juve’s directors, but unexpectedly chose to sign a new four-year deal this week.
   ‘I had lots of offers, but I wanted to stay here,’ Trezeguet insisted in an interview with L’Equipe.
   ‘Apart from the wage issue I want the certainty of playing for a competitive side. I don’t want to wait four years to win something. I just needed to be reassurred and feel that I had the faith of the directors.
   ‘Didier Deschamps leaving made things complicated, but with the influx of new money and the new Coach everything became clearer and we found the grounds for an agreement.’
   In his seven seasons with the club, Trezeguet has a fearsome strike rate of 107 goals in 168 outings.
   But although the French ace was linked with Manchester United, Liverpool and Valencia, there is no evidence that any concrete offer was presented to Juventus.
   Meanwhile, the Old Lady are expected to continue preparations for their return to Serie A by persuading Mauro Camoranesi and Pavel Nedved to commit to contract extensions.

Sources in Italy suggest that Napoli are likely to table a bid for unsettled Real Madrid striker Antonio Cassano.
   Cassano has been regularly linked with a return to Italy after falling out of favour at the Bernabeu this term, with Napoli amongst several sides said to be tracking the Bari-born marksman.
   The Vesuviani reportedly lined up an offer in January, but were unable to meet Real or Cassano’s demands. Now, having returned to Serie A, it may be a different story.
   Recent whispers state that Paolo Cannavaro and Francesco Montervino have visited Madrid to talk to Cassano, while his agent Beppe Bozzo allegedly spoke to Napoli’s director of sport Pierpaolo Marino last week.
   International agent Ernesto Bronzetti believes that Cassano would enjoy playing at the Stadio San Paolo.
   ‘I think it would be an excellent move,’ he told Radio Incontro. ‘Cassano needs to feel valued by his public and Napoli have the kind of fans he needs.’
   The rumours gained some momentum yesterday when Stuttgart striker Daniel Ljuboja claimed the Azzurri want to pair him with Cassano next term.

Milan President Silvio Berlusconi has admitted that Ronaldinho will never join the club but remains confident they could capture Samuel Eto’o.
   The Rossoneri are looking to strengthen their attack after relinquishing their hold on David Suazo and have once again been paired with the Barcelona duo, but the Blaugrana do not seem willing to sell.
   ‘I have spoken with Barcelona President Joan Laporta and he told me that should he sell Ronaldinho, he would have to leave the country,’ Berlusconi told Sky Italia. Milan have always stated that they would be in pole position to sign the Brazilian should he ever leave Spain, but that possibility now seems remote.
   As for Eto’o, Vice-President Ferrer Soriano announced on Monday that there was no chance of the Cameroon international joining another club, but Berlusconi insists that there is still hope.
   ‘We don’t want to give limits for our transfer targets. We hope to find someone who can fit our needs,’ concluded the former Italian Prime Minister.

Peru produced a shock 3-0 win over Uruguay while Bolivia twice fought back to draw 2-2 with hosts Venezuela in a dramatic opening to the Copa America on Tuesday.
   Venezuela also had an injury-time penalty turned down as the tournament began under the watchful eye of President Hugo Chavez, the self-styled leftist revolutionary.
   Chavez, flanked by Diego Maradona on one side and his close ally President Evo Morales of Bolivia on the other, was in San Cristobal to watch the official opening ceremony and Venezuela’s first match.
   ‘Today, nobody will lose, we will all win, because this is the same country, our South America, our America,’ said Chavez, who has warned of a plot by his opponents to sabotage the tournament.
   Although the ceremony took place before the Venezuela-Bolivia game, the tournament had already kicked off with Peru’s upset win over Uruguay in Merida.
   Peru’s impressive attacking force of Jefferson Farfan, Claudio Pizarro and Paolo Guerrero belied the team’s reputation for ineffective football as they sliced through the Uruguayan defence in the Group A opener.
   The Peruvians also matched the Uruguayans for tenacity as the tackles flew in from both teams.
   Miguel Villalta headed Peru into the lead in the 27th minute from Farfan’s cross before substitute Juan Carlos Marino surprised Fabian Carini as he whipped in the second in the 73rd. Guerrero tapped in the third following good work by Andres Mendoza.
   That goal was missed by millions of television viewers as the Venezuelan networks transmitting the game had cut to the opening ceremony in San Cristobal without any warning.
   Venezuela twice led with goals from Giancarlo Maldonado in the 21st minute and Richard Paez in the 56th.
   But an own goal by Alejandro Cichero put Bolivia level at halftime and Juan Carlos Arce’s 84th-minute equaliser deprived Venezuela only their second win in the tournament’s history.
   The Venezuelans claimed a penalty when Jorge Vargas was upended by Gualberto Mojica in injury-time but a goal kick was awarded.

Brazilian pair Diego and Robinho promised on Tuesday that pranks such as their notorious shorts-dropping episode are now over.
   Diego, who has had an outstanding season for Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga, and Real Madrid forward Robinho are both expected to figure prominently in Brazil’s Copa America campaign.
   Both players have been given a chance to shine in the absence of Ronaldinho and Kaka, who said they were too tired to play.
   Robinho and Diego burst on to the scene as teenagers when they played for the Santos team who won the Brazilian championship in 2002 but two years later they were made the scapegoats when Brazil failed to qualify for the Olympic Games.
   At a qualifying tournament in Chile, the pair were accused of over-confidence after Diego was photographed pulling down Robinho’s shorts as they waited for their credentials.
   ‘I don’t think our generation has a debt with Brazil, but it was very negative for us,’ Diego told reporters after training on Tuesday.
   ‘We are stronger and more mature and we know about our responsibility.’
   Robinho agreed with his former club team mate.
   ‘It’s the time for our generation...I know that if Brazil don’t do well, the criticism will rain down upon me.
   ‘We are more mature and have more experience after playing for European teams.’

Fabio Capello is 24 hours away from being sacked by Real Madrid, according to reports in the Spanish press.
   Despite winning La Liga, relations between Capello and President Ramon Calderon are strained and it is widely believed that Getafe boss Bernd Schuster will replace the 61-year-old tactician.
   Capello has previously stated his desire to remain in Madrid and has refused to resign, leaving him to face the first sacking of his prestigious career.
   It would be a mystifying decision from the volatile Calderon, who begged Capello to stay in January after he offered his resignation.
   The ex-Roma tactician would have every right to feel aggrieved if he receives his marching orders having won the Spanish title in 1996-97 and repeated the feat last term.
   ‘Calderon signed me to win and we won – I think I did my duty,’ he rasped at a recent Press conference.
   It looks unlikely that Capello will hurry to find a new job if he finds himself unemployed and he has even suggested that he may quit the game.
   ‘The big sides in Italy all have bosses,’ he continued. ‘Only a national job abroad could change my mind.’
   An announcement is expected today at midday.
   Meanwhile, Capello has vowed not to leave Real Madrid without a fight, if the club attempt to replace him with Bernd Schuster during the summer break.
   The Italian has vowed to ensure that he is paid up in full for the remainder of his contract if the Bernabeu giants look to off-load him after winning the league title.
   Reports suggest that club president, Ramon Calderon, wants Schuster to take over and is busy negotiating with Getafe for his release, but Capello is prepared.
   ‘Calderon knows that I have two years left on my contract and that I am going to respect them,’ Capello told QN.
   ‘But if he has to pay me off, then I want to make it clear that it will have to be for every last cent.
   ‘The president is free to decide what he wants. Has he chosen Schuster? That is something for him to answer.’
   Even if Schuster does not move, Capello may still be axed as Calderon has hinted that he would like a different coach in charge.
   ‘That is a hypothetical thing,’ the former Milan, Roma and Juventus boss explained.
   ‘I am now going on a long holiday to China and Tibet and then to Pantelleria. I will have a lot of time to reflect and to decide my future.’
   If he returns from his vacation and is told to carry on at Madrid, Capello is ready to face the new season and already has some ideas about what changes will be needed.
   ‘Then we shall begin to think about the new Madrid,’ he said. ‘In the first place we will need a replacement for Beckham, a player with whom we made a mistake that I have had no difficulty admitting.’
   After clinching Madrid’s first major trophy in four seasons last term, Capello reflected on the self-belief that drove his team on to the league title.
   ‘That fact the players and I have always believed in it was the best thing, even when we were being torn to shreds by the media,’ he continued.
   ‘We went through some terrible months, but myself and my staff never gave in.
   ‘The criticism was unbearable at times. Now they are all jumping on the bandwagon and that has made me laugh.’
   While reports continue to link Kaka with a move to Real Madrid, the veteran trainer admitted that he is a big fan of the Milan forward. ‘The three best players I have worked with are Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi and Marco Van Basten, but the best player now is Kaka,’ he said. ‘He is an exemplary player in every way and can score goals from nothing.
   ‘With good reason because where else will you find another player that Brazilian magic and the practicality of Kaka?’

Barcelona signing Thierry Henry claimed Tuesday that his new team will strike fear throughout Europe next season.
   Speaking just a day after he was officially unveiled, Henry gushed over the attacking riches at Barca’s disposal.
   As well as the French World Cup winner, the Catalan giants can call on former world player of the year Ronaldinho, Argentine starlet Lionel Messi and Cameroonian hot-shot Samuel Eto’o.
   ‘When you look at every name on the team-sheet, mine included, we are a fearsome prospect,’ Henry told the official Barca website.
   ‘I’m arriving at an incredible team and it would be pretentious to say what I can or can’t bring to the team.
   ‘When someone arrives at a new club he has to watch and listen a lot. I’m 29, soon to be 30, and I don’t know everything about the club.
   ‘I need to talk with the captain Carles Puyol and also with Eto’o, Ronaldinho, (Presas) Oleguer, (Andres) Iniesta, Xavi .... players that have been here for many years.’
   Another challenge facing Henry will be learning the language.
   Having spent eight years at Arsenal and a year before that at Juventus, Henry is accustomed to foreign fields but he does not yet speak Spanish.
   ‘For me it’s a priority to learn Castilian (Spanish) or Catalan as quickly as possible because it’s very important to communicate, not just in the dressing room but from day to day. I want to get to know the culture, the Catalans, the city.’
   Quite apart from the challenges ahead, Henry is looking forward to being a part of a team that plays some of the most fluid, enterprising football in Europe.
   But with the likes of Ronaldinho, Eto’o and Messi in the squad, Henry, who began his career as a winger, is not sure to be given a starting berth in his prefered central striking role.
   ‘In a team of Barca’s level, no-one can demand what position to play in. You think only about the group.
   ‘I think Barca is the only team in the world that has never changed its style of play.’
   That kind of talk is likely to further endear the Frenchman to the Catalan faithful, who have already taken him to their hearts.
   It is thought that 30,000 people turned out to watch his offical presentation, more than came to see Ronaldinho when he signed in 2003.
   ‘I will remember that day for the rest of my life. I thought there would be quite a few people but I have to admit that when I turned around and saw all those people, I was really impressed.’

David Beckham is being urged to cut short his holiday and rescue LA Galaxy.
   The England midfielder is due to begin his MLS career in Los Angeles at the end of next month.
   But Beckham — who helped Real Madrid to the La Liga title 10 days ago — will get an SOS call this week.
   Galaxy lost to Columbus Crew last weekend to leave them second-bottom of their division with just two victories all season.
   Former Middlesbrough defender Abel Xavier is already in LA.
   He told The Sun: ‘We really need Beckham’s help to get us up the table in the MLS. I am convinced his arrival will help us progress a great deal.’
   Xavier admits Beckham will face a big task pulling the team together and improving their spirit both on and off the pitch.
   He added: ‘The players need to communicate more and be more responsible during the game.
   ‘We are conceding goals from lack of concentration.
   ‘Things will get better when we get Beckham and all our injured players and those on international duty with America are back.’
   Meanwhile, for fans interested in seeing David Beckham play at RFK Stadium this summer, tickets probably won’t be available much longer, reports The Washingtonpost.
   DC United officials said on Tuesday that they have already sold approximately 30,000 to season ticket holders, groups and to fans who purchased multi-game packages for the Aug. 9 match against the Los Angeles Galaxy, leaving about 12,500 upper-deck seats for $35 apiece when the general sale begins Monday morning.
   Another 2,500 seats in premium areas of the stadium have been set aside for fans wanting to buy season tickets or a five-game plan, which includes MLS Cup in November. If unsold, those tickets will be released for general sale as the game approaches.
   ‘We had lofty expectations this game would sell out and we’re right on pace to meet that goal,’ United spokesman Doug Hicks said. The largest regular season crowd for a United game (which was not part of a doubleheader) was 35,167 in 1999.
   Beckham, who last week completed his season with Spanish champion Real Madrid, is expected to join the Galaxy in about two weeks and make his debut in a July 21 friendly against English club Chelsea at Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.
   His first league match will be August 5 at Toronto FC before he comes to Washington for the Galaxy’s only visit of the regular season.
   Tickets are available Monday through Ticketmaster’s online and telephone services. Groups of 20 or more can reserve seats at a discounted rate by contacting the team at its RFK offices.... United has cleared a spot on the senior roster by waiving veteran John Wilson, who started 11 games in 2005 and two last year but was sidelined much of this season with injuries and did not make any league appearances.

Liverpool’s record bid for Fernando Torres is being held up by the Atletico Madrid striker’s £2.5m pay-off clause.
   Anfield chief Rafa Benitez has agreed to pay £25m for the
   23-year-old Spanish international.
   But Torres is entitled to 10 per cent of any fee and Atletico insist Liverpool should pay it.
   The Premiership outfit are adamant the cash should come out of the transfer pot and want it knocked off the price.
   But Atletico president Enrique Cerezo wants Torres’ full valuation to be met.
   He told The Sun: ‘Every player has a price and if they pay the transfer clause there is nothing we can do to stop Torres leaving.
   ‘But at the moment what is certain is that there is nothing going on with Torres and any other club.’
   Benitez’ own agent Garcia Quilon is trying to broker a deal and Liverpool are confident they will get their man.
   Torres, who has hit 82 goals in 212 games, is keen to move to England and is ready to tell Atletico he wants out in a bid to break the deadlock.
   Liverpool would like to make it a players-plus-cash deal. They are ready to include Djibril Cisse and Luis Garcia in a bid to keep their financial outlay as low as possible.
   Cisse, 25, who has been on loan at Marseille and is still interesting the French club, has a holiday home in Spain.
   Garcia, 29, missed much of last season with a knee injury but was a huge hit in a spell at Atletico five years ago.

Former Brazilian star Zico says the team doctor inexplicably reversed his decision to bar Ronaldo from the 1998 World Cup final just hours after the player was hospitalised with convulsions.
   Zico, technical coordinator of the 1998 team, said Lidio Toledo was responsible for letting Ronaldo play in the final, in which favoured Brazil lost 3-0 to host France.
   ‘We held a meeting in the afternoon, and Dr. Lidio said Ronaldo wasn’t in condition to play,’ Zico said in an interview broadcast Monday by Sportv. ‘When I got to the locker room, Ronaldo was standing there in game shorts (and) socks, told Lidio that he had played the entire Cup, exams hadn’t proven anything, and he was going to play. In a case like this, only one person could veto the player—the doctor. There was no command.’
   Ronaldo played poorly in the final. Eight or nine players witnessed his unexplained convulsions hours before the match and were visibly shaken, Zico said.
   ‘If it had happened the day before, I think the team would have recovered. But as it was on the same day, the group was divided. Leonardo, for example, kept asking if Ronaldo was in danger of dying.’
   Zico, who played in the 1978, 1982 and 1986 World Cups, is considered an eventual candidate for coach of Brazil. He’s currently the coach of Turkey’s Fenerbahce club.

Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood has said he is hopeful that Arsene Wenger will stay on with the club as coach, but admitted that his future hung in the balance.
   The Frenchman has one year left to run on his contract and the transfer of star striker Thierry Henry to Barcelona has cast further doubts on whether he will sign a new deal.
   Henry had said that the departure of chairman David Dein and the uncertainty surrounding Wenger’s position were key factors in his decision to leave Arsenal, but Hill-Wood said he was doubtful.
   ‘I am not particularly worried about what Thierry said but whether it really influenced his decision or not we will have to wait and see,’ he told the Daily Telegraph.
   ‘We certainly don’t think Thierry Henry going and Arsene Wenger’s contract situation are in any way linked. That was just an excuse.’
   Hill-Wood said that he hoped Wenger would remain at Arsenal, even if he does not sign a new deal this summer.
   ‘I am really hopeful he will extend but at this moment I am only in a position of hoping,’ he said.
   ‘I’ve no reason to think that he won’t but at the same time I have no reason to believe he will say yes. Certainly we would like to see him sign a new contract - we have made no secret about that.
   ‘But we have not talked any details about anything with him or the board. We will wait and see what he wants to do. Then we can sit down and discuss things if he is positive about it. I am very relaxed. We are in good shape.’
   Hill-Wood also said that Arsenal were still keenly watching the transfer market and would be eager to sign a player or two.