time now for all the sports news in sport today. hello, i'm nick marshall—mccormack and this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on the show: ecstatic scenes in syria as the country sets up a world cup qualification playoff with australia. busta busts—a—move — pablo carreno reaches the us open semi—finals for the first time. and a comeback queen in queens, sloane stephens keeps the home fans happy by advancing to the semis too. hi there wherever you are around the world, welcome to sport today. more on syria's heroics to come. first though — saudi arabia are through to the world cup in russia. they are the first arabic nation at football's showpiece event since 2006. the saudisjoin iran, japan, south korea, brazil, mexico, belgium and hosts russia in the 32—team tournament. substitute fa had al muwallad's second—half winner helped them beat

japani—o injeddah. it takes the saudis to their fifth world cup and sends australia to the play—offs. australia needed a big win over thailand in order to confirm their place in russia — tomi juric got them ahead. with eight minutes to go, pokkhao anan equalised for the thailand. hertha berlin's matthew leckie got the winner for the socceroos, but saudi arabia's win means australia were pushed down to third and will face syria in the playoffs. if we hadn't got one a bit earlier, then we would have opened them up a bit. but that's just... then we would have opened them up a bit. but that'sjust... like i said, it is heartbreaking for the players. they didn't get their rewards

tonight for a brilliant performance. syria drew 2—2 with iran in tehran to finish third in group a. they broke through iran's defence for the first time in the 13th minute — tamer haj mohamad heading home from close range. iran went ahead 2—1, but syria pushed for an equaliser and it arrived three minutes into stoppage time — al soma secured the fairytale comeback and a place in the playoffs. so syria now play australia over two legs with the winners playing someone from north and central america. that could still be the united states. syria's draw extinguished china's faint hopes of reaching only their second world cup — that despite snatching a 2—1 win over 2022 hosts qatar thanks to wu lei's late winner. wales struck twice in the final ten minutes to record a hard—fought 2—0 victory over moldova and boost their world cup qualification hopes. chris coleman's side dominated

for long periods but were missing the final touch to punish group d's whipping boys. hal robson—kanu headed wales in front before aaron ramsey's deflected strike in injury time sealed a 2—0 win. aleksandar kola rov hampered the republic of ireland's world cup dream as io—man serbia eased themselves to the brink of qualification in dublin. obviously we have a lot of disappointed players, particularly after that performance. it is not just one game, it is how they feel about both games, we must recover from the weekend and that is what we have to do. italy recovered from saturday's mauling by spain to beat israel i—o in their world cup qualifier. leaders spain stay three points clear after thrashing liechtenstein 8—0 away. the spanish are looking untouchable as they head towards the world cup finals. translation: to be close to the objective does not mean anything, we

have to finish it. we still have two matches left. the next one is against albania and we must face it with the same mentality we have shown in all our matches so far. being focused and playing good football, that is the only way of having more chances to beat our opponents. two points now separate the top four sides in group eye after leaders croatia fell to a 1—0 defeat to turkey. that lifts the turks to third place with two games in the group to go. iceland moved back into second place, only behind croatia on goal difference, after a 2—0 win over ukraine in reykjavik. new everton signing gylfi sigurdsson scored either side of half—time. there are 31 world cup qualifiers taking place across the globe on tuesday — for a full list and a look at all the tables, go to our website. pablo carreno busta believes that breaking through to a first grand slam semi—final at the us open

merits as much attention as the hype generated by compatriot rafael nadal. the 26—year—old spaniard made the last—four in new york by defeating argentine diego schwartzman. the 6—4, 6—4, 6—2 win is a big achievement, but it might not linger long in the spotlight as world number one nadal, a two—time champion at the us open, plays his quarter—final on wednesday against russian teenager andrey rublev. if nadal gets through that, he could face roger federer in the semi—finals. of course, for me, i am very excited to win the semifinals. i think that it was a very good opportunity to do it, to win the semifinals. ijust tried to do my best, and i think that the match today was very good. i played very solid. sloane stephens reached herfirst

grand slam semi—final since 2013 by beating anastasija sevastova in three sets. the american is making a comeback from an ii—month break with a foot injury. it was incredible. i couldn't hear anything, it was so loud in there. i think that's what tennis players play for. obviously as an american, playing at your home islam, to have a crowd like that behind you, i don't think there is any better feeling, a better moment you would get out of playing tennis. it was pretty awesome. it was my first match, so for me, i wasn't really sure what to expect. i wasn't used to the noise, so it was a bit of an adjustment. other than that... to the noise, so it was a bit of an adjustment. otherthan that... i mean, what do tennis players look for? so after her match stephens did speak to the media — but she was interrupted by a flying pest, too.

if anyone ever asks anything, i always... oh my god! what is that? now her semi—final opponent knows what to do to get her. bangladesh's recent victory over australia wasn't the only big surprise in world cricket. west indies beating england in the second test to square their series was a shock too. so the decider is on friday and joe wilson looks ahead. here we are in the final test match of the english summer. september at lord's can be a cold and sometimes dismal scenario. we have a real sense of excitement and climax here. that is because of the west indies victory in the second test. players are practising with something new, a sense of confidence and self belief. that is very precious for any sporting coach to work with. i asked

stuart lorde to imagine the feeling if the west indies won the series by winning this test match. i've been involved in teams where if you think about winning, you end up losing. you have to think about the process. the process of the first series, edgbaston was hard to stick to. we stuck to it at headingley. it is about sticking to those processes. it is not about winning the game. if we stick to those processes, the victory, in the end, it might not be too far out of reach. the issues affecting england, number one is beating the west indies. jimmy anderson could get to 500 wickets in test matches very easily through the course of this test match. he thinks he could go even further, possibly even until a0 years of age. is that realistic? the outgoing bowling coach was asked if he could see

anderson playing in the ashes or coming back and playing more. ultimately, he is only playing one form of the game now anyway. he is only playing test match cricket. if you said to him, look, i want you to play ten games of cricket per year, lam sure play ten games of cricket per year, i am sure that was something he would snatch a hand—off. he enjoys going back to lancashire and contributing. he just loves the game. while he is still fit and strong, i think he will want to continue as long as he can. otis gibson is about to join south africa asa gibson is about to join south africa as a full—time coach. england have the ashes to think about. selection will be somewhere in the thinking during this test match. right now, they dare not look beyond the west indies. it gives this match a very different and important deal. ——

feel. chris froome has nearly doubled his lead after winning the individual time trial at the vuelta a espana. froome is aiming to complete the tour de france—vuelta double and obliterated the field over the a0 kilometre course today. he now heads his nearest rival vincenzo nibali by one minute and 50 nine seconds and is strong favourite to win the vuelta for the first time. thanks for your company. i'm nick marshall—mccormack — see you soon. bye bye. good morning. hot on the heals of hurricane harvey comes irma, and this has the potential of be a catastrophic hurricane. already a category 5, we have sustained winds of 185mph, potentially gusting to 220mph. you can see quite clearly the eye of the storm, here on the satellite picture. it is notjust the strength of the winds and the volume of the rain, it's also a significant storm surge that's heading towards the leeward isles. the storm surge is where, underneath this area of low pressure, it literally lifts the surface of the sea by as much as 9—1! feet, descending across these caribbean islands. so certainly, we will need to keep

you updated on developments of that storm. back closer to home, things are a little quieter. we have got more of a westerly direction to the source of our air now, that means so slightly fresher and it does mean that first thing in a morning we could actually see temperatures into single figures in more rural spots. so it will be a chilly start but potentially a dry one, with some sunshine coming through. there will be a scattering of showers into the far north—west with more of a significant breeze here. but the rest of the sheltered south—eastern area should see some sunshine and, as a consequence, we should get some warmth as well. highest values possibly up to 20 degrees, as supposed to ia to 17 further north and west. now, as we move out of wednesday, into thursday, the winds will strengthen again, and we will see more significant rain. an area of low pressure will move in from the atlantic. it is going to bring heavy rain to scotland and northern ireland, eventually moving through the borders into the north of england and north wales. further south of that, is a drier story, but it does mean a pretty disappointing day

on thursday afternoon, in scotland, underneath the cloud, with wind and the rain — 13—15 degrees at the very best. some of the rain quite heavy close to the lake district, and stretching over the higher ground of wales. sheltered eastern areas should cling on to some sunshine and, if this happens, we could see 19—20 degrees perhaps, across the southeast through london. further west, wit hmore of a fresher westerly breeze, a little more cloud and a slightly fresher feel. that low pressure, with its front, sweeps south and east, during thursday night, into friday. it takes a spell of significant rain with it as well. wrapped around that low, there will be some squally showers. so some rain to come for england and wales, for a time. some of the showers heavy, with some hail and some thunder into the far north—west. and temperatures, again, pretty disappointing. i can offer you something a little better as we move into the start of the weekend. drier through england and wales with a scattering of showers into the far north—west. take care. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america

and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: it's now a record—breaking category five storm, caribbean islands make final preparations before hurricane irma hits. four british soldiers are arrested on terror offences, accused of belonging to a banned neo—nazi group. more than 35,000 rohingya refugees flee myanmar in a single day, the un warns of a humanitarian disaster in bangladesh. growing protests as president trump scraps a scheme protecting undocumented child migrants from deportation.