Port Elizabeth, June 26
Luis Suarez scored a goal in each half to give Uruguay a 2-1 win over South Korea on Saturday and take them to the World Cup quarter-finals for the first time in 40 years.

Suarez netted in the eighth and 80th minute of a match that looked to be headed for extra time to crush the Koreans’ dreams of reaching the last eight for the first time on foreign soil.

“Being young, this is the moment I have always dreamed of. This is an unrepeatable moment,” Suarez said.

“As a football player you always want things to work out, even more so in the World Cup.”

Park Chu-young almost drew first blood in a bright start for the Koreans when his 5th minute curling free-kick from 20 metres struck the upright with the keeper beaten.

However minutes later, Uruguay took the lead when Suarez capitalised on some horrendous Korean defending.

Edinson Cavani neatly curled the ball out wide to Diego Forlan, whose low cross cut through the sleeping Korean defence to the unmarked Suarez, who side-footed into an empty net.

South Korea came out fighting and created most of the chances, particularly after the break. They went close through Kim Jae-sung, Park Chu-young and close to the hour mark Park Ji-sung’s header forced a save from Fernando Muslera.

The pressure finally paid off on 68 minutes when Lee Chung-yong headed a poorly-cleared free kick into the net from close range.

Their celebrations were short-lived though. With just 10 minutes of normal time remaining, Suarez picked up a loose ball and curled in a superb shot off the post.

There was still time for the Koreans to almost force another equaliser when Lee Dong-guk’s shot went through the keeper’s legs but lacked the power to cross the line and the ball was hacked to safety. — Reuters

Pretoria, June 26
An inspired David Villa scored one sublime goal and created another for Andres Iniesta as European champions Spain beat 10-man Chile 2-1 and advanced to the last 16 of the World Cup on Friday.

Spain finished top of Group H and will now face Portugal in the second round in Cape Town on Tuesday. Chile qualified as runners-up and will play Brazil on Monday in Johannesburg.

Both sides created early chances at a noisy Loftus Versfeld stadium in Pretoria, before a combination of sublime skill and reckless goalkeeping led to the European champions’ opening goal in the 24th minute.

Striker Fernando Torres raced after a Xabi Alonso punt down the left and although keeper Claudio Bravo raced out and managed to make the clearance he found himself horribly stranded.

The ball fell straight to Villa wide on the left and he took one sight of goal and curled a stunning shot from 40 metres into the empty net.

Spain doubled their lead and Chile were reduced to 10 just under 10 minutes before the break. Iniesta played the ball wide to Villa, ran on to the striker’s return pass and slotted clinically beyond Bravo from just inside the penalty area.

As the Spanish players celebrated, Chilean midfielder Marco Estrada, who had already picked up a yellow card, was shown another and dismissed after he appeared to catch Torres’s heel off the ball, sending the striker tumbling to the ground.

The Chileans looked down and out at halftime but pulled a goal back two minutes after the break when a shot from substitute Rodrigo Millar looped up off Gerard Pique’s leg and over keeper Iker Casillas into the net.

As the clock ticked down, Spain dominated possession easily enough but showed little interest in adding to their lead with both sides content with a result that sent them both through to the knockout stage.

“The most important thing was to get these three points and qualify,” Spain coach Vicente del Bosque told reporters after the match, adding Portugal would provide difficult opposition in the last 16.

Chile face the daunting prospect of playing Brazil. “We know Brazil are candidates for the title but we have our qualities too,” Chile midfielder Arturo Vidal said. —Reuters

Bloemfontein, June 26
Switzerland’s World Cup campaign came to a shuddering halt on Friday after an uninspiring 0-0 draw with Honduras in Group H saw both teams eliminated at the Free State stadium.

Switzerland, who had excited everybody with a shock 1-0 opening win over European champions Spain, could have reached the second round with victory over the Central Americans but rarely looked like scoring.

In the end, they finished with just one goal scored and one conceded in their three games. Honduras came bottom of the group and failed to score in the tournament.

“We failed to deliver because we had too much pressure. We had to score twice,” Switzerland’s German coach Ottmar Hitzfeld told a news conference.

“We didn’t have the stamina, we didn’t have the perseverance... We are very disappointed, not just me, the players, everybody,” he added.

All week the Swiss had talked of their attacking intentions as they went in search of a second round place and promised to shed a defensive approach. They disappointed on both levels. They could have been trailing at the interval had Honduras found a better final ball on the occasions when they threatened.

At the other end, Blaise Nkufo’s untidy first half chest down from half a metre with just the goalkeeper to beat summed up the lack of a cutting edge in the Swiss attack.

Hitzfeld replaced Gelson Fernandes with the more creative Hakan Yakin in midfield at halftime but it failed to pay off after he wasted numerous well-placed balls from set pieces.

Skipper Alexander Frei provided more spark in his 25 minute cameo than fellow forwards Nkufo and Eren Derdiyok combined.

He almost turned provider with six minutes to go but his superb ball was just missed by the onrushing Yakin and Derdiyok before rolling away to safety.

Honduras, with six changes to the side that lost 2-0 to Spain last time out, were lively and passionate from the outset and looking dangerous on the break.

Striker David Suazo failed to bury a diving header in the 52nd which would have given them a deserved lead and Edgard Alvarez was foiled by Diego Benaglio’s fine save in the 71st.

“The players knew what this game meant for the nation. They really showed their courage and brought everything they had,” Rueda told reporters.

The draw was a huge missed opportunity for the Swiss, with national media bemoaning the lack of urgency needed to unlock the Honduran defence and open up a route to the last 16. — Reuters

London, June 26
Defending champion and top seeded Serena Williams bombarded Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova with some venomous serves to reach the Wimbledon fourth round after a 6-0, 7-5 victory on Saturday.

The three-times winner, no doubt pleased to be back on Centre Court after grumbling about being banished to Court Two for her second round match, will next face Maria Sharapova. Meanwhile, Defending champion Roger Federer joined the party on Friday. The 28-year-old Swiss dined with the Queen on Thursday and returned to the All England Club looking like the player who has reigned at Wimbledon for most of the last decade.

Sachin Tendulkar waves as he is introduced to the crowd on Centre Court at Wimbledon on Saturday. — AP/PTI

Against Colombia’s Alejandro Falla, Federer looked awkward and error-prone and he was only slightly better against Serbia’s Ilija Bozoljac in round two.

Against experienced Frenchman Arnaud Clement on Centre Court Federer’s game clicked back into gear as he moved into the last 16 with a classy 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 victory.

“This felt much better,” the top seed, who faces Jurgen Melzer on Monday, told reporters.

The top half of the draw is now taking shape nicely with third seed Novak Djokovic, fifth seed Andy Roddick and French Open semi-finalist Tomas Berdych all into the fourth round.

Lleyton Hewitt, who beat Federer in the Halle final, is also in the mix after grinding down Frenchman Gael Monfils to set up an enticing clash with Djokovic.

In women’s third-round play Justine Henin and fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters set up a fourth-round collision of former world No 1s as they waltzed through against tricky Russians.

Clijsters, back at the tournament for the first time since 2006, crushed Maria Kirilenko 6-3 6-3 while Henin, whose last appearance was in 2007, beat 12th seed Nadia Petrova 6-1 6-4. Five-times champion Venus Williams steamed into the last 16 with a 6-4 6-2 defeat of another Russian, Alisa Kleybanova, while fourth seed Jelena Jankovic played her best tennis of the week to demolish Ukraine's Alona Bondarenko 6-0 6-3.

Hewitt has now reached the last 16 for the past seven years at Wimbledon and his performance against the unpredictable Monfils was one of the highlights of the day.

The Australian saved three set points in the second set tiebreak on his way to a 6-3 7-6 6-4 triumph.

Andy Roddick looked set for a struggle against Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber but the American’s serve was as reliable as ever as he completed a 7-5, 6-7, 6-3, 6-3 victory.

The sixth seed Robin Soderling, bidding to be the first Swede to reach the final here since Stefan Edberg in 1990, bulldozed his way into the second week of Wimbledon for the second year running with a 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 victory over 25th seed Thomaz Bellucci today.

Bhupathi, Bopanna keep hopes alive

India’s Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi of Belarus advanced to the doubles third round at Wimbledon with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Jamie Delgado and Joshua Goodall on Friday.

Bhupathi and Mirnyi, seeded fourth, will next play Robert

Lindstedt of Sweden and Horia Tecau of Romania.

Also advancing to the third round were India's Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan, who beat Philipp Marx of Germany and Igor Zelenay of Slovakia 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 13-11 in a gruelling contest.

The India-Pakistan pair will play the winner of the match between third seeds India's Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy of Czech Republic and Lukas Lacko of Slovakia and Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine.

Spit and walk-off scandal

Romanian tennis player Victor Hanescu left his match in between after a confrontation with four spectators, which led to him spit at the crowd and storm off court.

Four spectators at Wimbledon were arrested after the confrontation with the player. Hanescu, who is ranked 38th, forfeited his third-round match against Daniel Brands with the score at 6-7, 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 3-0 in controversial circumstances tonight after appearing to spit in anger towards the crowd.

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said four men were being questioned under the Public Order Act after the Romanian complained to officers, The Sun reports. — Agencies

Jakarta, June 26
Defending champion Saina Nehwal dished out yet another dominating performance, routing Japan’s Eriko Hirose 21-9 21-10 to storm into the final of the Indonesian Open Super Series badminton tournament here today.

With this win, Saina has earned a shot at her second successive Super Series title, having won the trophy in Singapore last week.

The top seeded Indian was all over her fourth seeded rival as she collected points in heap and never allowed Hirose to come back.

It took her 27 minutes to finish on the right side of the result, which gives her a chance to notch up a hat-trick of titles.

Before winning the Singapore Open, Saina had won the Indian Open Grand Prix on home turf.

The world number three will now face off with another Japanese in Sayaka Sato, who ended the superb run of local qualifier Ana Rovita with a 21-19 21-14 win in the other semifinal.

Continuing her scorching form, Saina began to dismantle the challenge of Hirose right from the start as she opened up a huge lead in no time.

Merely nine minutes into the match and the scoreline was 17-8 in Saina’s favour and the Indian pocketed the opening game in just 12 minutes.

With such a superb start there was no stopping the Hyderabadi as she scored five points in a row to create a 9-2 lead in the second game.

Not even once, the Japanese could garner two consecutive points. The Indian took another four points to make it 15-5 and from there on, it was just a matter of time to complete the formalities. — PTI

Chennai, June 26
Out of favour in ODIs due to slump in form and fitness, middle-order batsman Yuvraj Singh today returned to the 16-member Indian Test squad, along with veteran Rahul Dravid for the three-match away series against Sri Lanka next month.

Both Yuvraj and Dravid had to miss India’s last Test assignment against South Africa at home due to injuries suffered during the Bangladesh Test series early in the year.

Yuvraj, who was dropped from the ODI side for the just-concluded Asia Cup, had missed out against the Proteas due to a ligament injury.

Senior batsman Dravid, who was hit by a rising Shahdat Hossain ball in the Mirpur Test and was advised three weeks’ rest, returned to the side at the expense of S Badrinath.

Meanwhile, wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha was preferred over Dinesh Karthik, who failed to get the Kris Srikkanth-led selection panel’s nod despite his decent ODI showing in the Asia Cup.

Saha had made his debut in Nagpur against South Africa but was left out for the Kolkata match.

Except for this minor shuffling, the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led squad is more or less the same that played against South Africa.

The pace attack comprises the troika of Zaheer Khan, S Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma, while the spin department has Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra and Pragyan Ojha.

Since Virender Sehwag is nursing a hamstring injury, the selectors have decided to keep Murali Vijay as a back-up opener.

The three-Test series would be played in Galle and Colombo. The first Test is between July 18 and 22 at Galle. The second and third are between July 26 and 30, and August 3 and 7 respectively in Colombo.

The squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (c), Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay, Wriddhiman Saha, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma, S Sreesanth. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Eng-Germany clash: Booze on on Sabbath
London: Bar owners in Bloemfontein are ready to flout religious rules and serve booze to fans during the England-Germany encounter on Sunday.England fans feared they would have to go without booze for the clash against Germany, as more than 80 per cent of bars and restaurants usually shut on Sundays. But local business owners said they would ignore the unwritten law and make sure fans were supplied with booze, The Mirror reports. — ANI

Brit F1 aces rooting for England
London: British Formula One aces Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton have backed England to win against Germany. The English F1 aces are eyeing British Grand Prix success on July 11 and also hope it will be followed by the Three Lions being crowned champions later that day.

"It's always exciting playing Germany - I'm looking forward to it," The Sun quoted Button. Hamilton said: "England are improving and I'll be rooting for them." — ANI

Psychic octopus predicts German win
London: A psychic octopus Paul, which has so far predicted all the German wins and defeats in this World Cup, has picked Germany as the winner against England in Sunday's knock out match, bringing bad news for Three Lions fans. Two plastic boxes, with the flag of each country on the front had been lowered into his tank. Each contained food inside. The box that Paul opens first is judged to be the predicted winner of the game, and this time it picked Germany.— ANI