Serbs win first U-20 football title

Wellington - Serbia pulled off a historic 2-1 win in extra time to beat heavily favoured Brazil in the final of football's Under-20 men's World Cup in Auckland yesterday.

The scores were 1-1 at the end of regulation play and the creative Nemanja Maksimovic put away the winner with two minutes remaining in extra time to bring success for Serbia.

They were in the tournament for the first time as an independent nation, although their Yugoslavian predecessors had won in 1987.

AFP

Fed a step from 8th Halle crown

Halle (Germany) - Men's tennis No. 2 Roger Federer edged out Ivo Karlovic 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-4) yesterday to reach the Halle Open final and stay on course for his eighth title in the grass-court Wimbledon warm-up event.

In today's final, the Swiss top seed will meet Italy's Andreas Seppi, who was awarded the match when second seed Kei Nishikori retired at 1-4 down.

Reuters

Ronaldinho cuts short Mexico stay

Mexico City - Former Fifa world player of the year Ronaldinho has terminated his contract with Mexican football club Queretaro and said goodbye in a letter on his Facebook page.

The 35-year-old, a member of Brazil's 2002 World Cup-winning team, joined Queretaro last September amid much fanfare and high hopes and helped them to a surprise place in the Clausura championship final, which they lost to Santos Laguna last month.

Reuters

Froome's home has to be hotels

London - Team Sky's plan to put Chris Froome up in a private motorhome for the Tour de France was scuppered on Friday, when cycling's governing body ruled that riders must stay in official hotels during all road stage races.

The team wanted the 2013 champion to stay in a motorhome during next month's race to avoid having to adapt to different hotel conditions on a daily basis.

Reuters

Reds cough up $7.4m for Gomez

London - Liverpool have signed the highly-rated defender Joe Gomez from Charlton Athletic on a five-year deal.

The English Premier League football club reportedly paid £3.5 million (S$7.4 million) for the England Under-19 international, who can play in central defence or at full-back.

AFP

Massive demand for Euro 2016

Nantes (France) - Ticket requests for next year's European Championships in France have reached 3.7 million, the football tournament's French organisers said yesterday.

It means ticket applications are already oversubscribed by almost four times, despite having been open for only a month.

AFP