London, June 27
Former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic marched into the fourth round at Wimbledon with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Australian Samantha Stosur on Saturday. Breaking Stosur in the first game, the 13th-seeded Serbian got off to a strong start but her opponent refused to go down without a fight. She will play five-times champion Venus Williams for a place in the quarterfinals.

Holder Venus Williams powered into the Wimbledon fourth round by crushing Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro 6-0, 6-4 on Saturday. The 29-year-old American allowed the world number 34 a brief glimmer of hope in the second set when some uncharacteristic forehand errors crept into her game but she then pounced on her opponent’s slow serve to break for 5-4.

Former world number one Jelena Jankovic, battling in vain against heat exhaustion, was sent crashing out of Wimbledon by American qualifier Melanie Oudin in the third round on Saturday.

The statuesque Serb had been bidding to reach the last 16 at Wimbledon for the fourth year in a row but Oudin, ranked 124 in the world, refused to be denied in a fascinating seesaw contest which she finally won 6-7, 7-5, 6-2.

French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova was knocked out, losing her third round match to unseeded German Sabine Lisicki 6-2 7-5. The Russian broke Lisicki's serve to go ahead at the start but never really seemed to get into full flow, making a string of errors to gift the world number 41 the opener in 37 minutes.

Andy Roddick used his big serve to overcome Austrian Juergen Melzer 7-6 7-6 4-6 6-3 to reach the fourth round on Saturday. The American will face Czech 20th seed Tomas Berdych for a place in the quarter-finals.

Johannesburg, June 27
The United States are one victory away from claiming a major FIFA competition for the first time if they can produce another shock against Brazil when the Confederations Cup competition reaches its climax on Sunday.

Skipper Carlos Bocanegra, whose side were beaten 3-0 by Brazil in their Group A encounter on June 18, insists the U.S. will play without fear against their heavily favoured opponents and adopt an entirely different strategy for this match.

Unlike the U.S., Brazil know all about winning major trophies, crowned world champions five times and seeking a third Confederations Cup victory in attempting to retain the trophy they won in 2005.

“The first time we played Brazil we came out a bit timid,” Bocanegra said at a news briefing on Friday. “We gave them too much respect. We went out and sat back too much, but we changed it against Egypt, playing with a lot of energy from the start and we carried that into the Spain game. We had a go at them for 90 minutes rather than absorb pressure.”

The U.S. beat Egypt 3-0 to secure a surprise semifinal berth and then secured an even more unlikely place in the final with a stunning 2-0 win over Spain Now Brazil stand in the way of the U.S. scoring what would be a truly historic upset with coach Bob Bradley hinting his side would play another direct, physical game against a higher-ranked opponent.

Teams: Brazil: 1-Julio Cesar; 2-Maicon, 3-Lucio, 14-Luisao, 16-A Santos; 5-Felipe Melo, 8-Gilberto, 18-Ramires, 10-Kaka; 9-Luis Fabiano, 11-Robinho

United States: 1-T Howard; 21-J Spector, 15-Jay DeMerit, 5-Oguchi Onyewu, 3-C Bocanegra; 8-C Dempsey, 22-B Feilhaber, 13-R Clark, 10-Landon Donovan; 9-Charlie Davies, 17-Jozy Altidore. — Reuters

Kingston, June 27
Yuvraj Singh hit a rollicking 131-run knock as India pipped West Indies by 20 runs in the thrilling first cricket one-day international to take a 1-0 lead in the four-match series here on Friday.

Leaving behind their pathetic show in the Twenty20 World Cup, Indian batsmen came firing on all cylinders as they trampled the West Indies attack to reach an intimidating 339 for six after opting to bat at Sabina Park.

However defending even such a massive total proved quite a task for the Indians as they just about managed to bowl the hosts out for 319 in 48.1 overs. It was a spirited chase by the hosts, for whom Shivnarain Chanderpaul top scored with 63 and Denesh Ramdin played a sparkling 29-run knock down the order.

Earlier, Yuvraj treated the host bowlers with utter disdain and clobbered them for seven huge sixes and 10 boundaries apart from sharing a crucial 135-run stand with Dinesh Karthik (67) to shape the Indian innings. Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (41), Yusuf Pathan (40 unbeaten) and Harbhajan Singh (21 not out) also chipped in with useful contributions.

With the wicket of Chanderpaul in the 36th over it looked all over for the hosts but their lower order batted with steely resolve and made it an edge-of-the-seat contest. West Indies required 21 off the last two overs with one wicket in hand but Ashish Nehra removed Ramdin in the first ball of the 49th over to bring a huge relief for his side.

Ramnaresh Sarwan (45) and Runako Morton (42) did well and got the starts for the West Indies but could not convert those into big knocks. Jerome Taylor (21) and David Bernard (19), batting at number seven and nine respectively did their best but their effort went in vain in the end. — PTI

Scoreboard
India:
Karthik c Ramdin b Bernard 67
Gambhir c D Bravo b Taylor 13
Rohit c D Bravo b Baker 4
Yuvraj c Ramdin b D Bravo 131
Dhoni run out 41
Jadeja c Ramdin b D Bravo 0
Yususf not out 40
Harbhajan not out 21
Extras (b 1, lb 8, w 10, nb 3) 22
Total (6 wickets; 50 overs) 339
FoW: 1-25, 2-32, 3-167, 4-253, 5-253, 6-298.
Bowling: Taylor 10-1-74-1, Baker 9-0-62-1, D Bravo 10-0-66-2, Bernard 8-0-50-1, Benn 10-0-50-0, Gayle 3-0-28-0.

West Indies
Gayle c Harbhajan b Nehra 37
Morton c Dhoni b Pathan 42
Sarwan run out 45
Chanderpaul c Jadeja b Pathan 63
DJ Bravo c Rohit b Ishant 8
DM Bravo c Singh b Harbhajan 19
Taylor lbw b Pathan 21
Ramdin c Harbhajan b Nehra 29
Bernard c Rohit b Nehra 19
Benn b Singh 7
Baker not out 0
Extras: (b 4, lb 4, w 19, nb 2) 29
Total: (all out; 48.1 overs) 319
FoW 1-65, 2-100, 3-151, 4-188, 5-224, 6-241, 7-250, 8-294, 9-318.
Bowling: RP Singh 7-0-44-1, Nehra 7.1-1-49-3, Ishant 5-0-38-1, Jadeja 7-1-34-0,Yusuf 8-0-56-3, Harbhajan 10-0-56-1, Yuvraj 4-0-34-0.

We are in the Opus store near Covent Garden, where Sachin Tendulkar has been the subject of an interminable photo shoots as part of the launch of his latest website. He is 36 now, and has been playing for more than 20 years. Is he beginning to contemplate life after cricket? "To be honest I haven't thought about that at all," he says. "I'm still enjoying it, my body is holding up nicely, and I have no plans to stop playing. When I do, I will do something connected with cricket. That's what I'm good at." Good at! It is like saying that Helen of Troy was a bit of a looker. But what will he do with all that talent when the curtain finally falls on one of the epic cricket careers? Will he coach? "I don't know," he says flatly. "This is not the right time to think about it." Perhaps, I venture provocatively, coaching won't come naturally.

How easy, for example, does he find it to instruct his young son in the batting arts? He smiles. "He is only nine and he just wants to smash the ball. I encourage him to do that, because above all he should love the sport. If he loves it, the rest will follow. I have not forced him into it. We hardly discussed cricket for the first four or five years of his life, but it seems to be in his heart. It is hard to judge how good he will be. Cricket is not just about physical ability, it is also about mental ability, adapting to different conditions and situations. It is hard to judge the mentality of a boy of nine."

Indeed, yet Tendulkar was only five years older when Dilip Vengsarkar, then the Indian captain, judged him ready to play first-class cricket. Of his subsequent 208 centuries in all forms of the game, can he single out one that has given him more satisfaction than any other? "I think the one against England in Chennai last year," he says, without hesitation. "After what happened in Mumbai (the terrorist attacks), the mood of the entire nation was low. Something was needed to put smiles on people's faces."

What must it be like to be Sachin Tendulkar in India? I ask the only man who knows. "It is difficult to move out and about, to do normal things, like going for a walk in the park. I sometimes take my car out at five o'clock in the morning, and drive 25 miles. It is nice to be alone. But I also enjoy the attention. My life has been fantastic and I have always had huge support from my family. My father was not a huge follower of cricket, but he was 100 per cent behind me every step of the way."

"You asked about important innings," Tendulkar continues, "and I would say that there were a couple in my schooldays that changed my life. In the semifinal of an Under-17s tournament I scored 326 not out, which is when everyone in Mumbai took notice of me. I then scored 346 not out in the final, with Dilip Vengsarkar and Sunil Gavaskar watching. I was only 14 at the time, but Vengsarkar wanted me to join the Mumbai first-class team, which contained nine Test players.He invited me to play in the India nets. After that session he gave a green signal to the selectors. He said 'I think he's ready, you can pick him'."

Two decades on, there are those who insist that Tendulkar is diminished as a batsman. I cite one of them, Ian Chappell. “If he says that then he's not watched enough cricket,” says Tendulkar. To have made the Don’s all-time XI must have been a notable thrill? “Oh, it was. Me and Warne sat with him for 45 minutes. He thought the standard of cricket, the field settings and planning, are much better today. We asked him what he would have averaged today, and he said 70. Naturally I asked why 70, why not 99? And he said ‘70 is not bad for a 90-year-old man’.” — By arrangement with The Independent