Davari to Wear Iran’s No. 1 Shirt

Iranian-German keeper Daniel Davari will be invited to the Iran football team, coach Carlos Queiroz said.
After Mehdi Rahmati pulled out of the national team due to personal problems, the Portuguese coach said that Rahmati will never be invited to the team as long as he is in charge of the Iran football team, Mehr News Agency wrote.
The Iranian Football Federation (IFF) has recently opened an inquiry into German-Iranian keeper, who currently plays for Eintracht Braunschweig in the 2. Bundesliga.
Davari will most likely be in Carlos Queiroz’s first-choice starting XI for the 2014 World Cup qualifier against Qatar, which will be held in Doha in June 4.
The 25-year-old keeper was born in Giessen, Germany, from an Iranian father and a polish mother.
Davari will be Iran’s fourth European-based player along with Ashkan Dejagah, Omid Nazari and Reza Ghochannejad.

2 Matches Ban
Meanwhile, FIFA banned Iran football coach Queiroz for two matches for insulting South Korean captain during Iran’s 1-0 win over South Korea in October.
The Portuguese was accused of insulting the South Korean skipper in Tehran’s Azadi Stadium during the 2014 World Cup qualifier.
Queiroz was sent off in the match after he attacked the referee. He believed that the Singaporean referee Abdul Malik bin Abdul Bashir had to show card to the Koreans for elbowing the Iranian players.
The Iranian Football Federation (IFF) has lodged an appeal against the two-match ban awarded to Queiroz, ISNA reported.

Iran Overwhelms Philippines With 20 Goals

Iran’s national beach soccer team has trounced Philippine 20-0 in the opening match of Asia qualifying for the 2013 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.
On Tuesday, the Iranians finished the first period at the Katara Beach in the Qatari capital Doha with a 3-0 lead before pulling away with a 10-0 edge after the second period, Press TV wrote.
The Filipinos’ woes continued in the third period, allowing Iran to hit 10 more goals to settle the final score.
The Asian qualifiers started in Doha on January 22 and will wrap up on January 26.
Continental heavyweights like Japan and Iran are widely expected to fill one of the region’s berths for the 2013 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, which will be held from September 18 to 28 in Papeete on the southern Pacific island of Tahiti.
Qatar and Afghanistan are taking part in the Asian qualifiers for the first time.
The first-place teams from each of the four groups advance to the semifinals.
The two finalists and the third-place playoff winner will qualify for the 2013 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.

Kubica to Drive DTM Car

Polish driver Robert Kubica will test a Mercedes DTM touring car in Spain this week but any Formula One return remains a long way off as he continues his rehabilitation from a near-fatal rally accident.
New Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff told reporters on Tuesday that the former BMW-Sauber and Renault driver would be testing with the HWA team at the Valencia circuit.
“We all obviously like Robert, he’s a very special chap and what we want to do with Mercedes-Benz is give him a chance doing a proper test in a proper race car and seeing how he goes on and how he feels,” he said.
“This is what we will be doing in the next days and I’m very glad that he’s able to do that. He’s very much looking forward to it and he’s very excited. Let’s see how it goes.”
Wolff said Kubica was not yet 100 percent fit and had not driven a car with such downforce since he suffered severe arm and hand injuries while competing in a minor rally in Italy in February 2011.
Asked whether Mercedes might give him a run in a Formula One car if the test was successful, the Austrian said that was not on the horizon.
“If the DTM test goes well and we see that he is doing well in a proper race car with downforce, I think there are still some physical constraints to drive a monocoque (single seater) chassis with his elbow and arm,” he said.
“I think we all would love to see Robert doing well in a Formula One car in the future but that is definitely too early at this stage.”

Stephens Stuns Serena

American teenager Sloane Stephens stunned her compatriot Serena Williams on Wednesday, beating the 15-time grand slam winner 3-6 7-5 6-4 to reach the Australian Open semifinals.
The 29th seed, playing in her first grand slam quarterfinal, came from once set down to overcome third seed Williams who suffered a back injury having already rolled an ankle earlier in the tournament, CNN wrote.
Despite Williams’ fitness problems, few had given Stephens a chance of beating the five-time Melbourne champion.
“Someone asked me, ‘Do you think you can win?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I think so, but I wasn’t like too clear about it,’’” the 19-year-old told reporters after advancing to a tie with world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka on Thursday.
“Then this morning when I got up, I was like, ‘Look, dude, like, you can do this, go out and play and do your best.’”
Stephens did not make the best possible start as Williams went one set and a break of serve ahead, before the 19-year-old American dug deep to pull out an unlikely triumph.
“You just fight and just get every ball back, run every ball down, and just get a lot of balls in play,” said Stephens, explaining her strategy after the loss of that first set.
“From then on I got aggressive, started coming to the net more, and just got a lot more comfortable.”
Stephens becomes the first U.S. teenager to reach a grand slam semifinal since Serena at the 2001 U.S. Open, and the first to achieve the feat outside of the Williams sisters since Alexandra Stevenson at Wimbledon in 1999.
Read: Martina - “Serena can break all of the records”
For Williams, it marked the end of a campaign which had pushed her body to the limit.
“I’m almost relieved that it’s over because there’s only so much I felt I could do,” said the 31-year-old.

Loeb Firm on Retirement Despite Monte Carlo Win

Monte Carlo Rally winner Sebastien Loeb says he has no regrets over his decision to retire from the World Rally Championship despite starting his part-time season with a victory.
He also dismissed any suggestion that he could return for Monte Carlo again next season, AutoSportreported.
Loeb dominated the Valence-based event to win from Sebastien Ogier by more than a minute, collecting his seventh success on the WRC’s opening round of the season.
Throughout last week’s rally, Loeb was questioned about whether this year really would be his last Monte, one of his favorite rallies on the calendar.
“It’s a choice I made, to do something else [and move away from the WRC] and I didn’t make this choice to miss what I am doing now,” he insisted.
“I have been in the rally for 10 years and this will be a change when I do something else. Maybe I will come back and watch next year and it’s only then that I’ll know if I miss this rally.”
Without a championship to aim for this season, there were also questions raised about Loeb’s motivation coming into the event. Ahead of the rally, he had admitted he was not sure how motivated he would be on round one.
“It made no difference,” he said. “The motivation was just the same once we got into the stages and started driving. And these are such fantastic stages with the snow, I had a lot of fun.”
Loeb’s co-driver Daniel Elena - who has previously competed on his home rally as a driver – joked that he would be back even if his partner was not.

Ivory Coast, Tunisia Take the Spoils

Ivory Coast, the perennial underachiever of the Africa Cup of Nations, began the 2013 tournament with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Togo on Tuesday.
After suffering a shock defeat in last year’s final by Zambia, “Les Elephants” are hoping to finally end a 21-year wait for the title in this month’s competition in South Africa.
Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure put Ivory Coast ahead in front of a small crowd in Rustenberg to ensure he has now scored in four successive Africa Cup of Nations tournaments, CNN wrote.
Jonathan Ayite leveled for Togo just before the break, but Arsenal forward Gervinho fired home a dramatic late winner to seal the points.
Although happy with the result, Ivory Coast coach Sabri Lamouchi was left disappointed with his team’s showing and has urged his players to learn from the contest.
“I was expecting something better from us--it wasn’t our best performance,” Lamouchi told reporters.
“I thought the first match was going to be difficult, but it was much harder than I was envisaging.
“I’m happy with the win, but we made too many mistakes, and will have to use this game as a lesson.”
Togo coach Didier Six was still fuming at the decision of the referee to disallow his side’s effort with the scores level at 1-1 and made a hasty exit from the press conference.
“I think my team deserved something else than that. It wasn’t right, the rules weren’t respected,” He told reporters.
Togo, ranked 63 places below Ivory Coast, should have taken an early lead when Tottenham striker Emmanuel Adebayor raced clear on goal only to miss his kick and let Boubacar Barry save.
It was a mistake which was to be punished as Toure lashed home via a deflection to give Ivory Coast an eighth-minute lead.

Dekker to Co-Operate With Dutch Anti-Doping Agency

Thomas Dekker, who was suspended for two years for doping, will give the Dutch Anti-Doping Agency the full extent of his knowledge about cheating.
“As a member of Team Garmin-Sharp and their policy and values, as a Dutch rider and member of the Dutch federation, as an ex-doper who served a two-year suspension and as a supporter of clean cycling I announce that I will testify and fully cooperate with the Dutch Anti-Doping Authority to help further clean the world of cycling,” Dekker said in a statement, Reuters reported.
“Therefore I choose to give the full extent of my knowledge, names, dates and details.
Dekker, who rode for the Rabobank and Silence-Lotto teams, returned from a doping suspension in 2011.
“There are many details and people involved with my doping past. All of that, including the names of people who helped me will be given to the Anti-Doping Authority,” he added.
Dekker will meet the Dutch authorities in two weeks and said he would not make any public comment on the matter.

Thunder Beat Clippers To Extend West Lead

Coming off a loss two nights earlier in Denver, the Oklahoma City Thunder were more interested in bouncing back with a win than making any statements against the Clippers.
Kevin Durant scored 32 points, Russell Westbrook added 26 and the Thunder won 109-97 on Tuesday night in a matchup of teams with the two best records in the NBA, AP wrote.
‘’We’ve got 82 games and we want to play well every night,’’ Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. ‘’We don’t put more emphasis on any one game. We know the Clippers are one of the best teams, and with Chris Paul in or out, they’ve still got a great team.’’
Serge Ibaka added 17 points before fouling out late while helping the Thunder improve to a league-best 33-9 and expand their lead in the Western Conference standings to one game over the Clippers, who were without All-Star Paul. They fell to 32-11.
‘’They were missing Chris Paul, which is a huge piece, but they were still good in his absence,’’ Durant said. ‘’We wanted to come in here and get a good road win.’’
Blake Griffin had 31 points and 11 rebounds, and Jamal Crawford added 14 points off the bench. Eric Bledsoe scored 12 points starting in place of Paul, who missed his fourth game because of a bruised right kneecap. He missed three road wins last week, then played the next two games but it was obvious Paul wasn’t himself so he was held out Tuesday.
After the game, coach Vinny Del Negro said, ‘’Chris is going to be out. Hopefully, we get him back soon. It’s a day-to-day thing.’’
The Clippers play 10 of their next 11 on the road.
‘’Chris is the orchestrator. He’ll organize everything out there,’’ Crawford said. ‘’There’s no way to replace him, but collectively we’ll get it together.’’
The Clippers had won four straight at home against the Thunder, and they led much of the first quarter before giving up the lead for good early in the second.
‘’They’re a good team at home, and right now we’re two of the best teams in the NBA,’’ Westbrook said. ‘’It was a big win for us. We made some big shots and guys made the right plays.’’

Aoyama Fractures Wrist in Accident

MotoGP returnee Hiroshi Aoyama has sustained a fractured wrist in a motocross accident.