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Sunday,
June 8, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Henin first-ever Belgian Grand
Bhupathi-Elena
lose in final
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India held by Pak, enter final
India strike it rich in Asian wrestling
Punjab lads survive a scare Navandeep shoots into lead Haryana lads move into semis Indian shooters
disappoint Under-13
cricket tournament Una defeat
Hamirpur
by 20 runs Tributes paid to Shivnath Singh
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Henin first-ever Belgian Grand Slam champ
Paris, June 7 She picked up a winner’s cheque of $ 967,000 whereas Clijsters as finalist received half that sum. French speaker Henin, who received the trophy from King Albert II and who dedicated her success to her late mother Francoise, the inspiration behind her career, was almost speechless at the end. "I really don’t know what to say. I played with a lot of heart and really gave it everything. I had to fight very hard. I feel so happy," said the slender blonde from Liege. Clijsters, runner up two years ago, said she believed in her chances even after the opening set having also lost her opening set in the fourth round 0-6 to Bulgarian Magdalena Maleeva. "I was playing a lot better in the second set. But Justin didn’t give me anything for free. The lost first set didn’t mean anything — but I wasn’t even close to playing my best tennis today. "I hope I’ll get another chance to do better next time. I’m just happy for Justine to have won," Clijsters said. Her loss will somewhat spoil her 20th birthday tomorrow. Henin-Hardenne, who won on her first match point after a Clijsters forehand just failed to clear the tape, eclipsed her Flemish-speaking rival after twice coming back on serve from triple break point down in the second and fourth games of the opening set. Clijsters, 20, conceded her own service in the opening game by driving long and that set the pattern. She made many early unforced errors to give herself a mountain to climb whereas Henin-Hardenne, who turned 21 last Saturday, was all business from the outset. After twice firing way long to give Clijsters a triple break point in the second game, Henin-Hardenne roared back and an ace completed a recovery for a 2-0 lead. Already super-confident after seeing off top seed and world number one Serena Williams in a thrilling three-set semi-final, Henin-Hardenne went from strength to strength. A nervy Clijsters, watched by increasingly agitated boyfriend and men’s number one Lleyton Hewitt, was having trouble with her range on her forehand in particular and drove long to drop serve a second time. A double fault which left her 0-5 adrift was indicative of a player for whom things just weren’t going her way. Henin, serving for the set, then enjoyed a slice of luck as a midcourt drive flicked over off the tape while Clijsters’ riposte also clipped the net — only to land millimetres wide. A tremendous drop shot gave Henin-Hardenne, roared on courtside by husband Pierre-Yves Hardenne, the set in just 26 minutes. In the second set, Clijsters admirably dug her heels in and broke for the first and only time on her ninth break point but a brilliantly bludgeoned forehand meant Henin-Hardenne immediately broke back and she served out for the title. Today’s encounter between the two Fed Cup team-mates was the fifth all-Belgian trophy match on the women’s Tour — and Clijsters had featured in four of them. Henin-Hardenne won in Rosmalen in 2001 and then barely a month ago in the German Open final in Berlin. The two stars’ careers have progressed in close parallel with both making their Grand Slam debuts in 1999. Clijsters beat the then world number 10 Amanda Coetzer of South Africa at Wimbledon while Henin-Hardenne came close to shocking Lindsay Davenport on centre court at Roland Garros. In 2001, both reached their first Grand Slam final, Clijsters bowing 12-10 in the final set of a thriller to Jennifer Capriati in the longest ever final set in the women’s trophy match. Henin-Hardenne reached the Wimbledon final but was well-beaten by Venus Williams. Here, however, she broke her duck — and that of her nation — after seeing off the first and second seeds back to back, only the ninth woman to perform that feat in the Open Era. AFP
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Bhupathi-Elena
lose in final
New Delhi, June 7 Bhupathi — the winner of four men’s doubles and three mixed doubles Grand Slam titles — and
Likhovtseva, the second-seeded pair, lost 4-6, 3-6 to the third-seeds team of Mike Bryan and Lisa Raymond of the USA. The defeat of
Bhupathi, who has triumphed here twice in men’s doubles with Leander Peas in 1999 and 2001, and with Rika Hiraki in mixed doubles in 1997, brought an end to India’s challenge in the French Open. Earlier, Sanis Mirza and Saana Bhambri crashed out of the girls’ doubles event after suffering a crushing defeat in the
semifinals. Mirza and Bhambri, the first Indian team to come thus far in the girls’ doubles at a Grand Slam, were beaten 0-6, 2-6 by Katerina Bohmova of the Czech Republic and Michaela Krajicek of Holland.
PTI |
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Verkerk ready for final frontier
Paris, June 7 Only two other players from the Netherlands have reached singles finals in grand slam tournaments. Tom Okker lost to Arthur Ashe in the 1968 US Open while Richard Krajicek went one better by capturing the Wimbledon crown in 1996. The 24-year-old from Hilversum will start as underdog against an experienced claycourt specialist like Ferrero, but his journey to the final has been so surprising that it is impossible to tell when it will stop. The player ranked 46th in the world had never played at Roland Garros before, but he claimed the scalps of two of the world’s claycourt specialists in Spain’s Carlos Moya and Argentina’s Guillermo Coria in the two previous rounds. Now he is looking to pull off the biggest shock of all. “I have one big thing with me, on a big occasion with the crowd and everything, I don’t feel any pressure or nerves or anything,’’ he said. “I can beat Moya, I can beat Coria, why should I not beat Ferrero?’’ He may not have any fear, but he has a lot of respect for his opponent — a player who lost in the final last year and reached the semifinals the previous two. “You have to be honest, Ferrero is always doing well here,’’ said Verkerk, “so it will be really, really tough. “I also said that Coria would be tough. So let’s keep it this way.’’ Ferrero is sure to oblige, having gained revenge over 2002 champion Costa in yesterday’s semifinal.“He has a lot of confidence right now,’’ said the Spaniard. “But clay is not his surface, he’s just playing unbelievably well. “The key will be my returns. I will see when I go on court how I can return his serve,’’ he said, wary of the Dutchman’s most destructive weapon. The crowd on centre court could not have wished for a better contrast in styles. Verkerk has a huge serve — 112 aces to his name so far — and he does not hesitate to come to the net. Ferrero, on the other hand, is happy pounding away from the baseline. Ferrero also has experience of playing the final last year and is backed by the heritage of the Spanish in Paris. Nine Spaniards have reached the men’s singles final in the past decade. No Dutchman ever has. But perhaps this year’s Roland Garros will be one for firsts. Reuters
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Nothing
drives Williams’ more than losing Paris, June 7 At the French Open today, for the first time since January 2002, the scoreboard at a Grand Slam final won’t read Williams-Williams. Instead, the matchup will be Belgian vs Belgian (Justine Henin-Hardenne vs Kim Clijsters). Serena lost to Henin-Hardenne in the semifinals; Venus lost to Vera Zvonareva in the fourth round. Both siblings were booed as they brusquely walked off centre court. Henin-Hardenne was among the first players to say last year that it would be better for tennis if team Williams’ dominance was thwarted. Yesterday, she offered this observation: “Everybody’s happy today but the Williams sisters.” How’s that for bulletin-board material? It’s tough to tell whether being on the wrong side of the scores or the fans’ antipathy hurt the siblings more. It’s enough to know that they hurt. “I don’t try to console them,” said their mother and coach, Oracene Price. “They both hate to lose.” Who can forget Venus’ sullen expression in the stands as she watched little sis win the family’s first Grand Slam title at the 1999 US Open? Venus, beaten in the semifinals, appeared to be thinking: “Shouldn’t the older sister be the groundbreaker?” Venus responded by winning four of the next eight majors. When Serena lost to Venus in the 2001 US Open final, falling behind 1-4 in Grand Slam trophies, she responded by increasing her commitment and going on a 33-match winning streak at majors, with four titles. “I wanted to change,” Serena said. “I was tired of being at a certain level. When Venus became No 1, that motivated me.” Serena is now No 1, but Clijsters and Henin-Hardenne will be ahead of No 4 Venus in Monday’s rankings. That, more than anything, could prevent an all-in-the-family final at the All-England Club: The draw could put the sisters in the same half of the field. In any case, Venus has to work on her game to get back to the top. For Serena, this probably was a minor blip — her strokes, point construction and court coverage make her the class of the women’s game. At Roland Garros on Thursday, Serena allowed her veneer of invincibility to drop, on the court and off. She wiped away tears while talking about the way spectators clapped when she faulted during the 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 loss — a breach of tennis etiquette, certainly, and a breach of good sense, too. “Deep down, it kind of hurts,” Serena said. She and her mother discounted racism as a factor in the crowd’s
behaviour. More likely, they said, it was a case of rooting for the underdog. Another element: Henin-Hardenne is from a
neighbouring country, and dozens of black-red-and-yellow Belgian flags flapped in the upper deck. One thing that turned fans against Williams was when she questioned calls, even if the chair umpire agreed with her and over-ruled line judges. Fans jeered Martin Verkerk and Guillermo Coria when they protested calls during their semifinal yesterday.
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India held by Pak, enter final
Sydney, June 7 Needing just a draw to make it to the final for the second time in a week, the Indians began with a flourish to race to a 2-0 lead within six minutes but their defensive blues in the fag end continued to haunt them as they conceded two dramatic goals in the last 15 minutes to allow a rejuvinated Pakistan restore parity in a surcharged encounter between the two regional giants. Baljit Singh Dhillon struck twice in the sixth minute of the contest while Prabhjot Singh (30th) and Jugraj Singh (54th) were the other Indian scorers while Ali Raza (10th), Mohammad Saqlain (39th) Kashish Jawad (55th) and Shabir Hussain (60th) sounded the board for Pakistan in a thrilling contest. The Indians, who had held Australia to a 3-3 draw in the first league match of the second leg, dominated the proceedings to be comfortably placed at 3-1 at half-time but the gutsy Pakistanis did well to bounce back capitalising on defensive lapses. The Indians, who lost 1-2 to Australia in the first-leg final at Perth, will now get the opportunity to avenge the defeat when the two teams clash in the final tomorrow. In a match marred by frayed tempers, India’s strategy to play attacking hockey from the word go paid rich dividends when the side scored two goals in the sixth minute through veteran striker Dhillon. Dhillon first converted a penalty stroke to give India a 1-0 lead soon after the start of the match and caught the Pakistan defenders napping when he scored a brilliant field goal within a few seconds of scoring the first one. Pakistan, desperate to win the match for a place in the final, stepped on the gas to reduce the margin through Ali Raza, who slotted home in the 10th minute. Despite intensifying their attack on the Indian goal for the equaliser, Pakistan failed to make much leeway into the rival territory due to some superb performance by the defenders, led by Jugraj Singh. India tightened their grip on the match when Prabhjot Singh, who had so far played second fiddle to Baljit Singh Dhillon, scored a field goal in the 30th minute to give his a side 3-1 lead just before the half time. The defenders negotiated the rampaging Pakistani strikers confidently before the breather as India went to half time looking pretty certain of putting it across their arch-rivals for the second time in a week’s time. However, the complexion of the game changed in the second session when the Indians were reduced to 10 players in the last 23 minutes after Dhillon was shown a red card for entering into an argument with Pakistani players. His departure brought about a drastic fall in India’s performance as they struggled to counter the increasing pressure from Pakistani strikers. Indians suffered an setback early in the second half when Mohammad Saqlain scored a goal in the 39th minute to rekindle Pakistan’s hopes of staging a recovery. Though India again extended the lead when Jugraj Singh converted a penalty corner, Pakistan pumped in two more goals within a space of five minutes to set the stage for a thrilling finish.
Australia draw Grant Schubert scored a brace as Australia ‘A’ held their senior team to a 3-3 draw. Australia, who were upset 2-7 by the second-string national team in the first leg of the tournament at Perth, were heading for a similar fate before prolific scorer Jamie Dwyer scored twice to save his team the blushes. Australia have already qualified for tomorrow’s final against India. Defender Seyi Ontiri scored the first goal for Australia ‘A’ while Adam Commens slotted home for the seniors.
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England
clinch series Chester-Le-Street (England), June 7 It is the first time since their 1985 home series against Australia that England have won back-to-back Tests by an innings. Defeat for Zimbabwe saw them lose their ninth successive Test. Somerset seamer Richard Johnson took six for 33 on his Test debut as Zimbabwe were bowled out for 94 in reply to England’s 416. When Zimbabwe followed on, Durham fast bowler Stephen Harmison did most damage with a Test-best four for 55 in front of his home crowd.
Scoreboard
England (1st innings): 416 Zimbabwe (1st innings): 94 Zimbabwe (2nd innings): Ebrahim lbw b Harmison 55 Vermeulen c McGrath
Carlisle c Key b Anderson 28 Flower b Anderson 16 Taibu c Butcher b Giles 14 Ervine b Harmison 34 Friend not out 65 Streak run out 3 Blignaut c Hussain
Price c Stewart b Harmison 6 Hondo b Harmison 4 Extras:
(b-6, lb-10) 16 Total: (all out in 93.4 overs) 253 Fall of wickets:
1-5, 2-65, 3-102, 4-113, 5-131, 6-185, 7-202, 8-223, 9-244. Bowling:
Anderson 23-8-55-4; Johnson 22-7-67-0; Harmison 21.4-4-55-4; Giles 25-9-51-1; Butcher 2-0-9-0.
AFP
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Sehwag’s poor form continues London, June 7 Leicestershire, with five second innings wickets in hand, need 59 runs to avoid an innings defeat against Lancashire. And they do not even have their overseas recruit Sehwag to look up to as the Indian opener was run out 30 minutes before close last evening when going for a non-existent second run. Sehwag had made 30 in Leicestershire's first innings score of 314 and much was expected of him in his second knock.
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India strike it rich in Asian wrestling New Delhi, June 7 Gurvinder Singh and Geetika Jhakar were expected to hit the golden jackpot, but were forced to settle for the silver. Both looked tired and shorn of stamina as the bouts wore on to cut a pathetic sight in the end. Gurvinder Singh was pitted against a powerfully built Zeid Vand Pariviz of Iran in the men’s 66kg Greco Roman final bout. The Iranian thrice lifted Gurvinder and pinned him down to the mat, to score a one-sided 8-1 points verdit. Gurvinder showed aggression only in patches, but it did not cut much ice with the power-packed grappling of the Iranian, as his leg holds came unstuch. Geetika Jhakar, too, failed to impress as she was overpowered by the tough and strong Ayako Shoda of Japan in the women’s 63kg title bout. Geetia seemed to have neither the strength nor the tactics to counter the panther-like grappling of the Japanese girl, who eventually scored a 11-0 verdict through a technical fall to dash the Indian hopes of a gold. In fact, after the first round, Geetika was down 0-7, and she was hopelessly cornered in the rest of the bout. But the afternoon’s final bouts had begun in style for India when Kamini Yadav went on a prowl to subdue Phyam Thimai of Vietnam to win the bronze in the 48kg bout with a one-sided 10-0 win. The gold in the 48kg was bagged by Mika Nuguchi of Japan who outpointed Kaowei Chien of Chinese Taipei. In the men’s 55kg free style bout for the bronze, India’s Kripa Shankar began sluggishly, but managed to take a 2-0 lead, only to concede it when his rival, Bau Yezhan of Kazakhastan pinned him down. With the scores even, both went on a defensive mode, but just before the final gong, Kripa Shankar, in a quicksilver action, took a vital point, which proved to be the clincher, to provide the second bronze for India. India now pin their hopes of winning more medals on Sujit Man in the 74kg free style, Palwinder Singh Cheema in the 120kg and Virender Singh in the 120kg Greco Roman event. Man disposed of Kajuya of Japan after a hard-fought bout when he scored a 4-0 points win. Palwinder Cheema, on the other hand, took just 20 seconds to cut short the pretensions of Mohd Asraful of Bangladesh as the Indian flung him on the mat to emerge victorious. Virender Singh, like Cheema, was business-like when he pinned down Hirokuza of Japan to win through fall. Iran and Japan are all poised to dominate the medals stake with some medals going to Korea, Kazakhastan and Mongolia as minor consolation. Ravinder Singh too is in line for a medal after he defeated Ubbkeev Moksat of Krigistan in a 60kg Greco Roman third round bout. However, in the 74kg, Sanjay Kumar lost to Choi Duk Hoon of Korea 0-7.
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Punjab
lads survive a scare Ludhiana, June 7 Punjab established a slender two-point (17-15) lead but were trailing by four points (38-42) at half time. It was midway through the third quarter that the reigning champions went into the lead at 48-47. Thereafter, though the Haryana boys tried hard to match their strong opponents but could not catch up with the hosts. For Punjab, captain Snehpal Singh scored 18 points, followed by Lakhwinder Pal Singh (15), Mandeep Singh (14) and Jagdeep (14). Amit (20), Sunil (19) and Surender (20) fought a spirited battle for the losers. Earlier in the day, the current champions (girls) Kerala began their title hunt on a strong foot by registering a facile victory (49-19) over West Bengal. The reigning champions with a tall girl Anjana in their ranks proved too good for their opponents. She was unstoppable, taking her team to hoist a 18-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter, Kerala girl’s casual approach cost them dearer as the WB girls managed to reduce the margin to 25-11. However, this did not deter Kerala coach to try the full bench and the Keralites netted 18 points against just two points by the WB eves in the last quarter to come out triumphant 49-19. For Kerala, Anjana and Geetu excelled with 14 and 9 points, respectively, while Rekha (6) and Paushali Dutta (5) of West Bengal tried to give some semblence of respectibilty to their score. Madhya Pradesh girls rolled over Uttaranchal 57-8. Khushboo and Nidhi scored 10 points each while Dolly chipped in with 8 points. For the losers, Ritika scored four points. In a low scoring match, Gujarat girls got the better of Pondicherry whom they outplayed 32-18 after establish a comfortable lead of 17 points (20-3) at the breather. In the boy’s section, Delhi rallied to outstage West Bengal 81-63. The bulk of the scoring for Delhi were Shiv Kumar and Sanjay who contributed 22 and 26 points, respectively. For West Bengal, Souran (12), Zulifkar (13) and Satvinder Singh (15) played well. In other matches (boys), Maharashtra boys prevailed over Chandigarh 65-45 and Karnataka defeated Gujarat 70-44.
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Navandeep
shoots into lead Chandigarh, June 7 In the air pistol junior men’s section, Manmeet Singh of Bathinda was in the lead while in the junior women’s section, Manmeet Kaur of Ludhiana was leading the fray. Dr S.K. Dhillon of Ranjitgarh Rifle Club, Phillaur, lead in three events, sports rifle prone (ISSF) individual section, the air pistol women individual section and in the sports pistol (NR) section. Gurminder Singh of the RRC was leading in the air pistol men’s individual section, while Bikramjeet Singh Dhillon of Jalandhar led in the centre fire men’s individual section. In the .177 open sight air rifle men’s section, Surinder Pal of Mansa was in the lead while in the women’s section of the same event, Pushpinder Kaur of Ferozepore was leading.
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Haryana
lads move into semis Chandigarh, June 7 Andhra Pradesh eves got
the better of Orissa 20-15 to enter the semi-finals. AP boys went down
to spirited Delhi 15-39 in another quarter-final tie. Results: League
matches; girls: Haryana beat Dadra Nagar Haveli 14-01; Andhra Pradesh
b Karnataka 18-16, Gujarat b J&K 11-04, Maharashtra b Goa 12-10,
Uttaranchal beat Manipur 16-10, Andhra Pradesh b Goa 17-05, Delhi b
Gujarat 21-09. Boys: J&K b Goa 28-17, Tamil Nadu b Himachal
Pradesh 22-01, Haryana b Chandigarh 18-12, Uttar Pradesh b Maharashtra
49-02, Delhi b Chandigarh 22-16, Andhra Pradesh tied with Jharkhand
14-14; West Bengal b Uttaranchal 22-09, Delhi b Madhya Pradesh 25-08,
Chandigarh tied with J& K 18-18, Uttar Pradesh b Chhatisgarh
19-09. |
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Indian
shooters disappoint New Delhi, June 7 Jung shot 557/600 to be placed 14th while Pandit scored 543 to finish at 47, national coach Prof Sunny Thomas told PTI from Zagreb today. In the rifle three-position events held yesterday, Anjali Vedpathak Bhagwat and Deepali Deshpande both fired 568 while Suma Shirur scored 566. None of them could make it to the finals. The Indians now move on to Munich World Cup which begins on Monday.
PTI |
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Under-13
cricket tournament Chandigarh, June 7 The teams have been divided into two pools as under: Pool A: Sec-16 Stadium ‘A’, Mohali Cricket Association, MES, Patiala, DAV Coaching Centre. Pool B: Sec-16 Stadium ‘B’, Chetan XI, Panchkula CC, Patiala Cricket Association. The inaugural match will be played between Chetan XI, Delhi, & Panchkula CC at Cricket Stadium, Sector 3, Panchkula, on June 9 at 7 a.m. |
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Una defeat
Hamirpur by 20 runs Chamba, June 7 In reply, Hamirpur were all out for 237. Neeraj Chauhan played well and scored 132 with two sixes and 18 fours, but could not take his team to victory. Brief scores: Una: 257 for 5 (Varun Sharma 113 not out, Ashish Diwan 48; Rohit 2 for 70). Hamirpur:
237 all out (Neeraj Chauhan 132, Ravi Kant 33, Ajay Mohan 27; Varun 2 for 47, Rakesh 2 for 54. |
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Tributes paid to Shivnath Singh Patiala, June 7 The athletics fraternity of the NIS received the news of the death of one of the country’s finest athletes with disbelief and a sense of grimness enveloped the institute. A condolence meeting was held in the lawns of the NIS. Among others, the Executive Director Col, B.S. Ahluwalia, the Regional Director, Mr G.S. Anand, chief coach of the junior Indian athletics squad, Mr J.S. Saini, in charge (national camps), Ms Kamaljit Kooner, athletes attending the ongoing junior national athletics camp and a number of eminent national and international sportspersons attended the meeting. Shivnath Singh, who bagged a gold in the 10,000 m event in the 1974 Tehran Asiad, died after a prolonged illness caused by hepatitis-B at Jamshedpur on Thursday. It was Mr J.S. Saini and Mr Ilyas Babbar who were instrumental in turning Shivnath Singh into a marathon runner. Shivnath Singh was quick to make an impact when he stood second in the 5000 m event in the inaugural edition of the Asian Athletics Championship in Manila in 1973. Two years later, at Seoul, he once again stole the limelight by winning silver medals in both the 5000 m and 10,000 m events. He met with little success in the 1978 Bangkok Asiad and by 1982, when the Asian Games were held in New Delhi, Shivnath was a forlorn figure of his former self and faded into oblivion soon after. He had developed a healthy rivalry with another top long-distance runner, Hari Chand, during his prime days. Old timers here recall with awe how both runners gave their best on the track. |
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