TEHRAN, March 4--Zob Ahan came from three goals down to overcome visitor Shahid Qandi 4-3 in the 24th week of the fifth Iran Pro League in Fouladshahr Stadium, Isfahan, Friday.
Hamid-Reza Ebrahimi found the home side’s net in the 20th minute and his teammate Asghar Sadatzadeh converted a penalty eight minutes later, IRNA reported.
The situation for Zob Ahan went from bad to worse on 31 minutes, when Brazilian striker Carlos Santos celebrated the third.
However the home team made a surprise comeback as the goal spree started after 34 minutes, when Esmaeil Farhadi reduced the lead of the visitor.
Zob Ahan minimized the gap five minutes after the restart, with Mehdi Rajabzadeh firing home.
Mostafa Salehinejad leveled the match on 66 minutes and Mohammad Salsali stunned the Yazd-based Qandi seven minutes from normal time as he grabbed the winner.
Mohsen Qahremani refereed the match.
The dramatic victory helped Zob Ahan leapfrog Saba Battery and move up to fourth place provisionally on goal difference. Both sides have 36 points.
Meanwhile, the relegation-zone Shamoushak is once again in the spotlight as it left the field following a controversial penalty award for the home side Barq in the 24th week of the fifth Iran Pro League in the southern capital Shiraz Friday.
The northerners, who due to bad weather failed to travel to Abadan to play holder Foulad in the 23rd week, stole the limelight as they quit the pitch of Hafezieh Stadium 20 minutes from time as a gesture of opposition to judgment.
Shamoushak defender Esfandiar Mohseni was judged by the referee Hassan Noushevar to have brought down Mehdi Shiri.
Mohseni received his marching orders for his strong protest, followed by a seven-minute interruption as the northern players sat on the corner of the field.
Later manager Bahman Foroutan summoned his players to the locker room.
Malavan handed the visiting Fajr-e Sepassi a 2-0 defeat in an empty Takhti Stadium in the northern port city Bandar Anzali.
Sepahan snatched a 1-0 away victory over Abu Moslem in Thamen ul-A’emmeh Stadium in the northeastern capital Mashhad on a rainy day.
Esteqlal of the southern capital Ahvaz beat visitor Rah Ahan 3-2 in Takhti Stadium, Shoushtar.

Lleyton Hewitt of Australia plays a backhand against Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany during their quarterfinal match at the Tennis Channel Open at Darling Tennis Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, Friday. (AFP Photo)

LAS VEGAS, USA, March 4--Top seed Lleyton Hewitt breezed through to the last four of the Tennis Channel Open on Friday with a 6-2 6-0 demolition of German Philip Kohlschrieber.
Fifth seed James Blake beat Dane Kenneth Carlsen 6-4 6-4, but third seed Tommy Robredo was ousted 7-6 6-4 by big-serving Croat Ivo Karlovic on a cold, windy day.
The tournament lost another player to injury, Belgium’s Xavier Malisse retiring with an Achilles injury when he was down 6-2 2-0 to American Paul Goldstein.
Malisse joined Andy Roddick, Germany’s Tommy Haas and second seed Nicolas Kiefer among those who pulled out or retired.
Hewitt, who will play Goldstein in the semi-finals, played a smart, conservative contest against Kohlschrieber who couldn’t get to grips with the conditions, Reuters reported.
“It’s a matter of focusing on what you have to do,“ Hewitt said. “There’s balls going everywhere and papers were flying round. The person who is able to keep his focus will win the match.“
Kohlschrieber upset Hewitt earlier this year at Adelaide, but had trouble finding his rhythm on Friday.
“The biggest thing in the wind is to keep your game compact and not give cheap errors,“ Hewitt said.
“You need a high first serve percentage, but you are going to get double faults. It’s a matter of not getting negative and playing the percentages.“
Spain’s Robredo was equally frustrated with the conditions, as well as with Karlovic’s service bombs.
“I was lucky, but in the wind you have to be lucky,“ Karlovic said. “With the wind, it’s hard to play to my potential.“
By the time Blake and Carlsen got on court for the night match, the wind had died down and Blake was able to employ his sizzling all-court attack.
“I was expecting the worst, for it to stay windy and cold,“ said Blake, who will face Karlovic in the semifinals.
“Fortunately it didn’t and then I could play my game. I took care of my serves and returned well late in the sets to break him. That’s how I’ve been coming through as of late, going for my shots on the big points.“

SYDNEY, Australia, March 4--West Indies beat New Zealand by three wickets in a nail-biting fifth and final one-day international at Eden Park in Auckland on Saturday to avoid the humiliation of a series whitewash.
The tourists reached their target of 234 with just two balls to spare with Wavell Hinds steering them to victory with an unbeaten 40 off 41 balls, Reuters reported.
West Indies captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul top-scored with 41 while all rounder Dwayne Bravo and wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin both chipped in with identical scores of 38 after New Zealand had been bowled out for 233.
Scott Styris made 90 to rescue the home team from an early batting collapse, before seam bowler Dwayne Smith captured career-best figures of 5-45 to put the West Indies on course for their first win of the series.

Norwegian driver Peter Solberg powers his Subaru Impreza during the third stage of the FIA World Rally Championship in Leon State, Mexico, Friday. (AFP Photo)

LEON, Mexico, March 4--Marcus Gronholm’s hopes of becoming the first driver to start a world championship season with three consecutive wins suffered a major setback on Friday when he crashed on the opening day of the Rally of Mexico.
While Subaru’s Norwegian Petter Solberg led from the start, championship leader Gronholm ran wide and rolled his Ford nine km into the fourth stage while in third.
The WRC’s Web site reported the driver and co-driver were unhurt but that the car had a broken driveshaft and could not be removed from a ditch, reported Reuters.
It was not immediately clear whether two-times world champion Gronholm, winner in Monte Carlo and Sweden, would be able to rejoin the event on Saturday with a time penalty under SuperRally regulations.
Gronholm’s exit left last year’s winner Solberg, who is still chasing his first points of the season, leading Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen by 3.6 seconds after six stages on the gravel mountain roads near the central city of Leon.
“It’s good, pretty much like we’d hoped it would be,“
Solberg told the Subaru Web site after the third stage. “We have a good start position and that helped us a lot.
“Physically I’m not feeling 100 percent well and that’s making it more difficult for me to get into a good driving rhythm, it was pretty untidy in a few places,“ added the Norwegian, who won the first four stages.
World champion Sebastien Loeb, driving a Citroen for the private Kronos team, moved up to third place, 11.7 seconds behind the leader, after winning stages five and six.
“The road is very difficult, very slippery,“ Frenchman Loeb told Rally Radio.
Solberg’s Australian team mate Chris Atkinson was sitting fourth until he hit a rock and rolled on stage five. His departure moved Austrian Manfred Stohl, in a privately-entered Peugeot, up to fourth place, 1:49.7 adrift of Solberg.

AMMAN, Jordan, March 4--Palestinian team defeated Singapore 1-0 Wednesday in an Asian Cup soccer qualifier at Amman International Stadium.
Fahd Al-Atal scored the only goal in the 33rd minute in the second half, but was ejected three minutes later for a foul after receiving a warning in the first half, AP reported.
The Palestinian team lost two opportunities to score in the first half, while Singapore blew a scoring chance in the second half. Only about 300 people attended the match.
The Palestinian side improved its tournament record to 1-1 after dropping a first-round match to China. Singapore, which defeated Iraq in the first round, is also 1-1.

DOHA, Qatar,
March 4--Top seed Amelie Mauresmo continued her relentless march towards the top of the world rankings with a scintillating 6-2, 6-2 victory over Martina Hingis in the semifinals of the WTA Qatar Open on Friday.
The Australian Open champion was tested in brief spells by the Swiss comeback queen but her overall superiority was never in doubt as she closed out the match in 63 minutes to set up a title clash with Russia’s Nadia Petrova, AFP reported.
Petrova had earlier survived a second set scare to down Japan’s Ai Sugiyama 6-1, 7-6 (7/2) and make her fifth career final of which she has only won one--in Linz last year.
Hingis, who is making a remarkable comeback after a three-year absence from the game due to a foot injury, was a clear crowd favorite having won the inaugural Qatar open in 2001, but in Mauresmo she ran into a thoroughly focused player eager to build on her first grand slam crown earlier this year.
Mauresmo broke Hingis in the fifth and seventh games unleashing a wide range of shots and preventing Hingis from finding her feet, although the former World No. 1 did manage to elicit loud cheers from the packed house with some deft play at the net.
The Frenchwoman maintained her grip on the match breaking Hingis in the first game of the second set but the former champion broke back in style as Mauresmo made a couple of unforced errors.
The players traded breaks again but Mauresmo broke again in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead and then held her serve to go ahead 4-2 from where she never looked back.
By this time Hingis had virtually given up hope and Mauresmo stepped up her game to secure another break and then served out the match, winning the last game to love.
Mauresmo was understandably pleased with her show. “I know what Martina is capable of so I had to be really at my best,“ said Mauresmo who will displace Belgian Kim Clijsters as the World No. 1 on Monday if she beats Petrova in Saturday’s final.

MADRID, Spain,
March 4--Real Madrid full back Roberto Carlos has defended himself and his team mates against criticism about their attitude from out-going president Florentino Perez and his successor Fernando Martin.
“I’ve been at this club 10 years and they have treated me very well but I haven’t been spoiled,“ the 32-year-old Brazilian international told Antena 3 television on Friday.
Perez said his decision to resign was because some of the club’s big name players, the “Galacticos“, had become spoiled.
Martin has criticized a lack of team spirit and commitment among some members of the squad, Reuters said.
Martin cracked the whip at his first news conference as president on Thursday, saying he was setting up an independent commission to assess the attitude of all squad members. He made it clear that anyone who did not come up to scratch would be discarded.
But Roberto Carlos said the new president, who has been given the backing of the rest of the board, was taking the wrong approach.
“For the players it would be better if the president did not speak so strongly,“ he said. “We play in the best club in the world, we are players who have a high-profile image and we make a lot of money for the club. I think I deserve what I earn.
“If they (the commission) want to follow me they will get very tired. I lead a normal life, I’m young and intelligent and am keen to have a good image. But we have to have our freedom because we are human beings.“ The main target of criticism from fans and Spanish media has been Roberto Carlos’s Brazilian team mate Ronaldo.
The striker has come under fire for failing to live up to expectations this season and he has responded by hinting that he might leave the club.

Washington Wizards forward Caron Butler (c) heads to the basket under pressure from the Philadelphia 76ers forward Andre Iguodala (l) as Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas follows the play during the third quarter of their NBA game in Philadelphia, Friday. (Reuters Photo)

NEW YORK, March 4--Allen Iverson scored 47 points and dished out 12 assists to lead the Philadelphia 76ers the to a 119-113 home victory over the Washington Wizards on Friday.
Iverson reached 40 points and 10 assists for the second consecutive game in helping the Sixers win for the fifth time in six contests since the All-Star break, Reuters reported. The point guard showed solid form throughout the game, going 17-for-29 from the floor and making 11 of his 12 free throws, including his first 10, Reuters said.
Scoring on 56 percent from the floor, Philadelphia were also buoyed by another strong performance from the re-vitalized Chris Webber, who had 30 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists.
Philadelphia moved into sixth place in the tight Eastern Conference standings after improving to 30-28 following the win, a half game ahead of the Wizards (29-28), who slipped to seventh.
The Milwaukee Bucks lie a further half game back in the eighth and final playoff spot in the East, 3 Ú games clear of the Chicago Bulls. Andre Iguodala added 19 points for Philadelphia, while Kyle Korver had 10 points, despite picking up five fouls.
Steven Hunter provided some solid rebounding while making his fifth straight start at center for the Sixers, hauling down 11 rebounds in just 22 minutes.
Gilbert Arenas led Washington with 33 points and eight assists, but the Wizards lost their third straight game despite out-rebounding Philadelphia 48-34.
Antawn Jamison had 24 points and 15 rebounds for the Wizards, who also got 18 points and 12 rebounds from Caron Butler.
Antonio Daniels chipped in 13 points for the Wizards, who trailed after every quarter.
In Atlanta, Brad Miller scored 24 points and had 10 rebounds as the Sacramento Kings beat the Hawks 102-93.
In New York, Kirk Henrich scored 33 points as the Bulls beat the Knicks 108-101. In Boston, Paul Pierce scored 31 points as the Celtics beat the Indiana Pacers 99-98. In Dallas, the Mavericks won their franchise record 16th straight home game with a 90-76 win over the Charlotte Bobacts.
In Phoenix, Shawn Marion had 24 points as the streaking Phoenix Suns won their ninth straight game, 123-118 over the Orlando Magic.

YONGPYONG,
South Korea, March 4--Italy’s Davide Simoncelli celebrated the second World Cup win of his career with victory in the giant slalom on Saturday.
Simoncelli, sitting second after the first leg, piped compatriot Massimiliano Blardone by 0.08 seconds after the two had raced to a dead heat in the second run.
Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal, who clocked the fastest time in the first run, finished 0.20 seconds behind the winner.
Simoncelli, who finished runner-up to Blardone at Alta Badia earlier this season, ended with an overall time of 2 minutes, 13.63 seconds over the two runs, Reuters said.
“It’s great to be back at the top after our disappointing Olympics,“ said Simoncelli, who failed to finish the first run of the Olympic giant slalom in Italy.
“The course conditions were just perfect, the snow was hard and the run quite challenging. It was windy too, so you need some luck to achieve a clean run.“
Hermann Maier, who won bronze at the Olympics, struggled with the wind and finished 23rd, almost three seconds off the pace, while double Olympic champion Benjamin Raich finished in fifth after a disappointing first leg.
“Some of us are quite tired, it’s not so easy to stay totally focused and motivated after our wonderful Olympics,“ Raich said.
“I caught a cold this week so I have to be happy with today’s performance. I had a strong second run this afternoon.
This morning I made a few mistakes but I found some momentum to improve my standings.“
Blardone’s second place put him top of the overall giant slalom standings, 13 points ahead of Raich.
Raich is the clear leader in the overall World Cup standings with 1110 points, 279 more than fellow Austrian Michael Walchhofer.