Arsenal's Robert Pires (l) is tackled by Manchester United's Mikael Silvestre during their Premiership football match at Highbury in London, Tuesday.(AFP Photo)

LONDON, Feb. 2--Portuguese winger Cristiano Ronaldo scored two goals in four minutes to guide Manchester United to a thrilling 4-2 comeback victory over champions Arsenal at Highbury on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
United had to play the last 21 minutes with 10 men after a red card for French defender Mikael Silvestre, but were not to be denied a famous victory that propelled them into second place in the Premier League behind runaway leaders Chelsea.
Victory left United with 53 points, eight behind a Chelsea side who face Blackburn Rovers on Wednesday, and dealt a massive blow to Arsenal's already faint hopes of retaining their title.
Arsenal slip to third, on 51 points, and must now look to leapfrog United at the end of the season to claim the other automatic slot in next season's Champions League.
Captain Patrick Vieira headed Arsenal into an eighth-minute lead, Ryan Giggs levelled for United 10 minutes later with a deflected shot and Dennis Bergkamp, in outstanding form, restored Arsenal's lead before the break.
But Ronaldo's goals in the 54th and 58th minutes, along with an 88th-minute strike by substitute John O'Shea, completed a United double over the champions after Arsenal's record 49-match unbeaten league run ended in a 2-0 defeat at Old Trafford in October.
In the night's other games, Liverpool won 2-1 at Charlton Athletic, Bolton Wanderers beat Tottenham Hotspur 3-1, Portsmouth were 2-1 winners against Middlesbrough and 10-man Crystal Palace drew 2-2 at West Bromwich Albion.
The showcase game though was at Highbury, where a rampant United had both the determination and the finishing needed to inflict another defeat on their bitter rivals.
Tottenham were drawing 1-1 at Bolton when their Mali international striker Frederic Kanoute was dismissed in the 68th minute. Bolton capitalized with goals from Tal Ben Haim and Kevin Davies in the last four minutes. Palace lost Uruguayan defender Gonzalo Sorondo to a red card after 12 minutes but still took the lead through striker Andrew Johnson and then, having fallen 2-1 behind, equalized in stoppage time through Finnish midfielder Aki Riihilahti.
Spanish striker Fernando Morientes scored his first goal for Liverpool since joining last month from Real Madrid, getting the equalizer in their win at Charlton.

DELRAY BEACH, USA, Feb. 2--Jan-Michael Gambill used a one-handed forehand for the first time on the ATP Tour, and defeated fourth-seeded Cyril Saulnier 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 to advance to the second round of the Millennium International Tennis Championships on Tuesday, AFP said.
Gambill served 21 of the match's 31 aces and eliminated Saulnier in two hours.
"I'm starting to play better again," said Gambill, who won his ITC-record 14th match at the Delray Beach Tennis Center. "Sometimes you go through a time where you lose a little confidence, and I had injuries that lasted for a long, long time. When I came back and felt like I was 100 percent, I had lost a lot of confidence."
Two of Gambill's three career titles have come at the ITC, including a win in 2003. Last year, the 27-year-old Gambill lost to big-serving Mario Ancic in the first round.
Gambill, ranked 103rd, entered the ITC winless in two matches this year. But he played strong from the outset against Saulnier.
Fellow American James Blake didn't fare as well as Gambill, continuing to struggle in his comeback bid with a 6-4, 2-6, 2-6 to 19-year-old Russian qualifier Teimuraz Gabashvili.
Blake, who entered the ITC ranked 135th, rose to No. 22 in 2003 before fracturing his neck during a training session at the Italian Open last May. He is 3-6 since his return.
The 25-year-old won the first set against Gabashvili, but lost nine of the next 11 games. Gabashvili broke Blake's serve five straight times in the run.
It was the first ATP tour win for Gabashvili, who entered the ITC ranked 262nd with a 0-2 career match record.
Second-seeded Jiri Novak, a seven-time ATP winner playing his first match of the season, beat Amer Delic 6-4, 6-3.

SYDNEY, Australia, Feb. 2--Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has been appointed chairman of a six-man panel to select a World XI to play Australia later this year, Reuters reported.
Also named on the selection panel were former test players Michael Atherton, Richard Hadlee, Jonty Rhodes, Aravinda de Silva and Clive Lloyd.
The panel will nominate a squad of 30 players at the end of April. The squad will be trimmed to 20 in June before the final 13 test players and 14 one-day players are announced in August.
They will play three limited-overs matches in Melbourne on October 5, 7 and 9 then a six-day Ôsuper testÕ in Sydney from October 13-18.
The International Cricket Council has rejected a proposal to award test status to the six-day match but said it would review the situation.
Australia are guaranteed to play the test against the World XI because of their unassailable lead in the ICC test championship standings.
They also hold a commanding lead in the one-day standings although New Zealand has a slim mathematical chance of overtaking them if Australia lose their next seven matches before the cut-off.
ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said the selectors' brief would be to choose the best team possible to take on Australia.
He said they would use the ICC player rankings as a guide but would not be bound to follow them.
"It needs to be a team that has balance, a team that's in form," Speed said in a statement released after Wednesday's launch in Melbourne.
"The only restriction will be that any player who is banned under the ICC Code of Conduct will not be eligible, but otherwise all players are eligible for selection."
"They will have to make some tough decisions."

Ruben Patterson (c) of Portland Trail Blazers tries a lay up as Theo Ratliff (l) of Trail Blazers and Caron Butler (r) of Los Angeles Lakers look on in the second half of their match at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, USA. (AFP Photo)

TORONTO, Feb. 2--Caron Butler and Chucky Atkins each scored 19 points as the Los Angeles Lakers overcame the absence of Kobe Bryant and coach Rudy Tomjanovich post a 92-79 win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
With scoring leader Bryant sidelined with an ankle injury, the Lakers received some unsettling news before the game when it was widely reported that Tomjanovich was considering stepping down due to health issues.
The Lakers confirmed before the tip-off at the Staples Center that Tomjanovich was at home with a stomach virus but had not made a decision about his future.
Earlier, ESPN.com reported Tomjanovich would step down following Tuesday night's game.
Tomjanovich, who guided the Houston Rockets to a pair of NBA titles before taking over the Lakers job left vacant by Phil Jackson, had just begun rebuilding a team dismantled following last season's loss to the Detroit Pistons in the NBA finals.
In Memphis, the Grizzlies got double figure efforts from seven players, led by 19 points from Jason Williams to cool off the Phoenix Suns 108-97.
Missing all-star forward and leading scorer Pau Gasol, the Grizzlies relied on a balance attack to get the job done, Dahntay Jones contributing a season-high 17 points to the Memphis cause.
In Orlando, Steve Francis had 30 points and 13 assists as the Magic slipped past the Cleveland Cavaliers 105-102, spoiling LeBron James' return from a two game injury layoff.
In Washington, Chauncey Billups nailed 28 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter, as the NBA champion Detroit Pistons eased past the Wizards 105-96 for their fourth consecutive win. In East Rutherford, Vince Carter poured in 31 points and Jason Kidd just missed the 62nd triple-double of his career guiding the streaking New Jersey Nets to a 107-97 decision over the Chicago Bulls and a season high fourth straight win.
In Dallas, Jerry Stackhouse sank 24 points and Dirk Nowitzki added 19 as the Mavericks stopped the Miami Heat 109-104. In Denver, Kenyon Martin nailed a season-high 27 points as the Nuggets pounded the slumping New York Knicks, to give new coach George Karl a third consecutive win.
In Milwaukee, Michael Redd scored 19 points and Toni Kukoc made the most of his first starting assignment in nearly three seasons adding nine points, six rebounds and five assists, helping the Bucks to a 91-86 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
In Salt Lake City, Gerald Wallace scored 28 points and Brevin Knight added 21 as the Charlotte Bobcats rallied to beat the Utah Jazz 109-105 and win on the road for just the second time this season.
In Sacramento, Rashard Wallace had 24 points and Ronald Murray had 23 helping Seattle SuperSonics to a 106-101 victory over the Kings.

TOKYO, Feb. 2--Maria Sharapova overcame a slow start to beat Venezuela's Maria Vento-Kabchi 7-6 6-0 at the Pan Pacific Open on Wednesday, Reuters reported
It was the Russian's first match since losing to Serena Williams in last week's Australian Open semifinals.
Sharapova received a bye into the second round in Tokyo and the Wimbledon champion struggled in the first set, dropping serve twice before taking control.
The second seed converted her fourth set point to take the tiebreak 7-3 with a crunching forehand down the line.
A more focused Sharapova powered through the second set in just 20 minutes, the 17-year-old closing out the match with her ninth ace to reach the quarterfinals.
Sharapova squandered match point in a crushing 2-6 7-5 8-6 loss to Williams in Melbourne. Williams went on to beat Lindsay Davenport in the Australian Open final at the weekend.
World number one Davenport and Russians Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elena Dementieva also received byes into the second round of the $1.3 million Pan Pacific Open.
US Open champion Kuznetsova was playing Switzerland's Marie-Gayanay Mikaelian later on Wednesday.

MUMBAI, India, Feb. 2--For Narain Karthikeyan, the newest rookie on the Formula One circuit, the last three years have been long and arduous after a string of near misses, Reuters reported.
But the 28-year-old, who has secured an offer to drive for Jordan, says he never lost faith.
"I always thought it was going to happen, someday, somehow," Karthikeyan told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.
"Everyone in the motor racing world knows I'm fast. They say I'm erratic sometimes, but I've done well on different circuits against some very good drivers in tough conditions. I knew my chance would come, an opportunity would present itself."
Karthikeyan will become the first Indian to take part in the F1 championship when the 2005 season begins in Melbourne next month.
Having raced over the last eight years in British Formula Three and the Nissan World Series, he tested with Jaguar and Jordan in 2001 but failed to make the grade.
Karthikeyan again came agonizingly close in 2003, when he was offered a drive by Minardi, but failed to generate the huge sums of money needed by the cash-strapped team to secure his place.
The Minardi miss was the bitterest moment of his topsy-turvy career.
"At that time, sponsors were just not prepared. It was very frustrating to be so near my dream and not be able to fulfil it.
But this time, I guess sponsors realize I'm in a more competitive team and the return investment will be higher," he said.
Karthikeyan's sponsors, India's second-largest conglomerate, the Tata Group, and state-run refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp, have already agreed to back him. They will have their logos on his new Jordan at the beginning of the season.

PARIS, Feb. 2--A second-half goal by midfielder Alexander Farnerud put Strasbourg through to the French League Cup final with a 1-0 victory over in-form St Etienne on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
The Swede latched on to a cross from forward Mickael Pagis in the 55th minute to end St Etienne's unbeaten run. They had not lost a game since they were knocked out of the French Cup on October 30 by Nimes.
The final, which will earn the winners a UEFA Cup spot for next season, will be played at the Stade de France on April 30.

TOKYO, Feb. 2--With his cupboard already glittering with Olympic and world championship swimming gold medals, Kosuke Kitajima still gets up at 5:30 on a winter morning to train in the sport which may eventually tell on him, AFP reported.
"Honestly speaking, my knees are not so good. I have to be careful about the joints in training," the 22-year-old Japanese says, admitting the physical danger facing breaststroke specialists like himself.
"They say that the breaststroke requires unnatural human motions and is the discipline that induces the heaviest water resistance," he said in a dinner meeting Tuesday with the Foreign Sportswriters Association of Japan.
"So I may not be able to walk when I become an old man," the Tokyo native told the group which voted him the 2004 Japanese sportsman of the year.
But he doesn't want to hang up the style in which "I swam the fastest and I swam with most ease." Six months after he won the 100m and 200m at the Athens Olympics, as he did at the world championships a year earlier, Kitajima is all set to go for another worlds in July, hoping to
reclaim world records along the way.
In Athens, he saw off a challenge from world-record holder Brendan Hansen of the United States to become the first Japanese swimmer to grab two individual golds at one Olympics ? spearheading his country's resurgence in swimming.