Briefly

Basketball

The United States bounced back from its embarrassing loss to Puerto Rico by beating Greece 77-71 and avoided dropping to 0-2.

Earlier, Milos Vujanic made two free throws with 5 seconds left to lift Serbia-Montenegro over Italy 74-72.

Pau Gasol had 26 points and eight rebounds to lead Spain over Argentina 87-76, while Ramunas Siskauskas scored 23 points to help Lithuania past Puerto Rico 98-90.

Yao Ming had 39 points and 13 rebounds in China’s 69-62 win over New Zealand, and Australia cruised past Angola 83-59 behind Shane Heal’s 18 points.

Women’s soccer

Joanne Peters’ 12-yard header in the 82nd minute gave Australia a 1-1 tie with the United States.

Sweden scored two goals in four minutes against Nigeria in a 2-1 win and earned a place in the quarterfinals. Germany beat Mexico 2-0 to top its group, while Cristiane scored three times as the Brazilians whipped Greece 7-0.

Men’s soccer

Mexico beat Greece, only to discover it had still been knocked out of the competition.

After celebrating a 3-2 victory over the host, the Mexicans heard the other group game had finished in a 3-3 tie between Mali and South Korea — eliminating them.

Argentina shut out Australia 1-0 on Andres D’Allesandro’s goal in the ninth minute.

Softball

Lori Harrigan allowed only a first-inning bunt single and Crystl Bustos homered as the U.S. posted its fourth straight shutout of the Games, 4-0 over China.

Stacy Porter and Natalie Titcume each hit two-run homers for Australia in an 8-0 win over Italy.

Lauren Bay pitched a shutout for Canada, and Jackie Lance scored in the eighth inning on an error in a 1-0 win over Japan.

Taiwan got its first win in the tournament, 2-0 over Greece.

Tennis

Venus Williams beat Maja Matevzic of Slovenia 6-0, 6-0 — the first shutout for a man or woman since tennis returned to the Olympics as a medal sport in 1988.

Two other major champions lost: Feliciano Lopez of Spain eliminated No. 9 Marat Safin 7-6 (4), 6-3, while Mardy Fish of the U.S. upset No. 5 Juan Carlos Ferrero 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4.

Baseball

Daisuke Matsuzaka shut out Cuba for eight innings, leading Japan to an impressive 6-3 victory.

Peter Orr, Pete Laforest and Stubby Clapp each homered to lead Canada to a 7-0 win over Netherlands.

Taiwan scored five times in the seventh in a 7-1 win over Greece, while Australia allowed just one hit against Italy in a 6-0 victory.

Volleyball

The U.S. men bounced back from their opening loss with a 26-24, 25-20, 25-18 straight-sets victory over the Netherlands.

Opposite-side hitter Clay Stanley led an all-around effort with 21 points, and the Americans ended a nine-match Olympic losing streak with few errors, strong defense and excellent serving.

The Italians and Brazilians played a five-set match that couldn’t have been any closer. Brazil moved alone into first place with a 25-21, 15-25, 25-16, 21-25, 33-31 win over the Italians.

Argentina topped Tunisia 3-2, Serbia-Montenegro swept France 3-0, Russia swept Australia 3-0 and Greece downed Poland 3-1.

Water polo

Wolf Wigo scored four goals as the United States rallied for a 9-6 win over Kazakhstan.

The Americans improved to 2-0, including a last-second 7-6 win over Croatia in their opener.

In other matches, Francesco Postiglione scored three goals as Italy topped Australia 8-4.

Germany led 9-0 at halftime and added two goals in the third period in a 13-3 victory over Egypt.

Serbia-Montenegro edged Sydney 2000 silver medalist Russia 4-3, and Greece upset 1996 Olympic champion Spain 8-5.

Hungary beat Croatia 10-8.

Boxing

Ron Siler opened his quest for a gold medal with a convincing 32-18 decision over Australia’s Bradley Hore in a flyweight fight.

The win kept American boxers undefeated in the Olympics.

Cuban and Russian boxers remained undefeated, too. Both are 6-0 in the first round, though that will change today when Cuba’s Odlanier Solis meets Alexander Alekseev of Russia in a rematch of the heavyweight final of the 2003 world championships.

Beach volleyball

Americans Misty May and Kerri Walsh beat Dutch duo Marrit Leenstra and Rebekka Kadijk 21-11, 21-13.

In the men’s draw, Norwegians Bjorn Maaseide and Iver Horrem beat Americans Daxton Holdren and Stein Metzger.

Judo

Ilias Iliadis of Greece thrilled the home crowd, beating Roman Gontyuk of Ukraine to win the gold medal in the 81-kilogram class.

Japan’s Ayumi Tanimoto beat Claudia Heill of Austria to win the 63-kilogram division. Japan has won four gold medals and a silver in the first eight judo events.

Rowing

Single sculler Jennifer Devine of the U.S. advanced to the semifinals by finishing second in a preliminary.

Devine must finish in the top three in her semifinal to advance to the six-boat final.

The U.S. men’s four also advanced to a semifinal by finishing second in its heat.

Americans Lisa Schlenker and Stacey Borgman advanced to the lightweight double scull semifinals.

Equestrian

The French three-day event team, leaders after the opening dressage competition, maintained its strong grip on the Olympic event after the cross-country portion.

Archery

Americans Jennifer Nichols and Vic Wunderle advanced to the quarterfinals.

Nichols beat Tetyana Berezhna of Ukraine 163-160, rallying with two 10s in her final three shots.

Wunderle, the No. 43 seed, upset No. 11 Ming Huang Liu of Taiwan 164-160.

Kayaking

Former whitewater kayaking world champion Rebecca Giddens used a clean first run through the first salt-water course in an Olympic Games to advance to the single kayak semifinals.

Giddens now moves into a 15-boat semifinal field today.

Table tennis

The last American was knocked out of Olympic table tennis when Gao Jun lost to Ai Fukuhara of Japan 4-0 in women’s singles.