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Federer
scrapes past Kiefer
Henin-Hardenne
vows to bounce back Lehmann sees Aussies through
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Evidence
against Jones flawed, claims lawyer Humpy
stuns Kosintseva
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Paris, May 27 The world number one had never won a match on the Parisian centre stage before but so enthralled was the crowd by his 6-3 6-4 7-6 victory, it will be hard for organisers to schedule him anywhere else other than the main arena in future. While far from his best today — against Kiefer he never had to be — Federer showed enough class for the fans to realise they were witnessing a very special player. Next up for the Wimbledon and Australian Open champion is a player who made centre court his own, three-times former champion Gustavo Kuerten. The Brazilian stormed into the third round with a 6-2 6-0 6-3 win over Belgian Gilles Elseneer. Federer and Kuerten were joined in the third round by another former world number one, Lleyton Hewitt, after the Australian beat Austrian Juergen Melzer 6-4 6-4 4-6 6-2. American seventh seed Jennifer Capriati brushed aside Czech qualifier Kveta Peschke 7-5 6-3 in the French second round. Capriati, the 2001 Roland Garros champion, was taken to three sets in her first round win over Ukraine’s Yulia Beygelzimer and she needed a timely break at 4-5 to avoid losing the opening set against Peschke. The 28-year-old dominated the second set, however, and wrapped up victory after 73 minutes on centre court when Peschke netted a backhand volley having saved two match points. Capriati, who is on course for a quarter-final showdown with second seed Serena Williams, will play either Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany or Australia’s Samantha Stosur in the third round. The USA men suffered their worst Grand Slam showing yesterday when outsider Olivier Mutis dumped second seed Andy Roddick out of the French Open in their second round tie. Roddick’s 3-6, 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 6-2 defeat to world 125th-ranked Mutis follows that of former champion Andre Agassi, the American losing in the first round to French qualifier Jerome Haehnal on Monday. Fellow American Vincent Spadea, the 27th seed, also fell to a French opponent. The defeats leave the US without a player in the men’s singles at this stage of the tournament for the first time ever. After saving nine match points to get past a French qualifier in the first round, Spadea was toppled by another French qualifier, Julien Jeanpierre, who scored a straightforward 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 victory. But Haehnel’s moment in the sun was short lived when he went down in four sets to fellow Frenchman Michael Llodra 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1. Showing his ease on the red clay of the Philippe Chatrier Centre court, Fabrice Santoro showed no ill effects of his historic six hour 33min opening round match when he defeated Georgia’s Irakli Labadze 6-4, 3-6, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 in their second round match in 3hr 22min. Nicolas Escude booked his spot in the third round when he defeated Germany’s Florian Mayer 6-4, 6-3, 6-4.
— AP, AFP
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Henin-Hardenne vows to bounce back Paris, May 27 The 21-year-old top seed — playing only her second match in six weeks after being laid low by a virus — crashed out of the French Open yesterday, losing 5-7, 4-6 to the 86th ranked Tathiana Garbin of Italy. “I don’t know what to expect now but in the next few days I will take a rest and then start practice when I feel better,” said the Belgian who suffered the worst exit of a defending champion at the
tournament, equalling the second round defeat of Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in 1989. “But Wimbledon is in my calendar. What happened here doesn’t change anything on my schedule.” However, the Belgian knows there are hard hours ahead on the practice courts if she is to have any chance of adding the Wimbledon title to her collection of US and Australian Open crowns. “The health problems I have had are going to go away. I have to be at 100 per cent physical fitness to prepare the best I can because I didn’t have the greatest preparation coming here.” Despite her desperate lack of match sharpness coming into Paris, Henin-Hardenne believes she made the right decision to play. “I did it for me, nobody else. I have no regrets about it. Maybe I went too far. Maybe my goals were too high. Maybe that was a mistake. “But I had to come back one day. I know what I have to do to get to 100 per cent. I have come through many situations in the past and I am sure I will do it again. Life continues. It’s a bad day. Tomorrow will be better.” Although she is optimistic about restoring her health for Wimbledon, which starts in three weeks’ time, she will face lingering doubts over whether her comparatively small frame will match up to the powers of the Williams sisters on a fast, grass court.
— AFP |
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French Open Diary Andy
Roddick’s exit from the French Open on Wednesday made him the last of 10 Americans to leave the tournament. “This hasn’t been our place for a couple of years now,” Roddick said after his 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 2-6 loss to Frenchman Olivier
Mutis. In the Open era, the only other Grand Slams tournaments where no American men made it to the third round where the 1972 and 1973 Australian Opens, which no Americans entered. Number six Andre Agassi’s shock first-round loss to 271st-ranked Jerome Haehnel on Monday set the tone. Haehnel, who had never won a tour match before, couldn’t keep the momentum. The Frenchman lost in the second round to countryman Michael Llodra 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 1-6. Other American losers were: Vince Spadea, Kevin Kim, Taylor Dent, Jeff Salzenstein, Alex Bogomolov Jr., Jan-Michael Gambill, Robby Ginepri and Todd Martin. Partisan crowd:
Irakli Labadze wagged his finger at the partisan crowd on centre court and then tapped it on
his temple as if to say: “You’re all crazy!” The Georgian lost his composure - and the match, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 1-6, 2-6 - to marathon man Fabrice Santoro. Opening up a 3-0 lead in the first set, Labadze lost three straight games and faced break point on serve. He screamed in frustration, prompting a chorus of whistles and boos from the crowd. Saving break point, Labadze shouted “Yeesss!” and bowed mockingly to the stands. They cheered — and cheered even harder when he put his next shot into the net. Labadze shook his head in disbelief and then hugged the net judge for comfort. In a first-round match at Roland Garros ending on Tuesday, Santoro completed his six hour, 33 minute match (stretched over two days) against Arnaud Clement. It was the longest in the Open era by time. Santoro’s win took his total court time so far at Roland Garros to nine hours, 54 minutes and he has now played 113 games. French response:
Nicolas Escude had strong words in response to accusations that French players lacked ambition. “There hasn’t been a day where we haven’t been criticised,” he said after beating Florian Mayer 6-4, 6-3, 6-4. “What we’ve been hearing is frankly a pain. It’s really lame.” In a recent interview with sports daily L’Equipe, Henri Leconte slammed the work ethic of French players. He reached the final in Roland Garros in 1988. “They don’t lack talent. But talent has to be cultivated,” said
Leconte, adding that some players “content themselves with being the 10th or 15th ranked player in the world.” Noisy kids:
Umpire Cedric Mourier snapped in the third set of Tim Henman’s victory over Lars
Burgsmuller. “Children, please don’t make any noise during rallies!” Mourier shouted. With Britain’s Henman serving for the match Mourier intervened again. “Children, please stop running around,” he said, his voice decidedly strained. Henman won 6-0, 6-3, 6-3 in a little over 90 minutes. Wednesday was Kids Day at Roland Garros. Hundreds of youngsters ran around the stands of Court No 1 shouting, screaming and clambering over seats as Henman closed in on a routine victory. “I was just sitting there listening to the crowd during a changeover,” Henman said. “I thought: ‘God, it’s noisy.’”
— AP |
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Porto complete historic double Gelsenkirchen, Germany, May 27 Minutes after the Champions League final Porto coach Jose Mourinho said he was leaving the club after guiding them to their fourth — and greatest — prize in just over two years in charge. A curling volley by 19-year-old Brazilian Carlos Alberto after 39 minutes, a well-drilled shot from Deco Souza (71) and a powerfully struck pile-driver from Russian substitute Dmitri Alenichev (75) buried Monaco, who never recovered from losing captain Ludovic Giuly to injury midway through the first half. Porto’s victory, just a year after Mourinho guided them to victory in the UEFA Cup, was, as ever, based on tireless team-work and a rock solid defence. Monaco striker Fernando Morientes never remotely had a chance of adding to the 11 Champions League goals he has scored this season. Porto became the first team since Liverpool in 1976 and 1977 to be crowned European champions the year after winning the UEFA Cup, and apart from a brief spell when they lost concentration at the start of the second half, they always looked the more likely winners. In the end Porto came out on top of an ultimately entertaining match but the omens did not look good after both sides made ultra-cautious starts. Following last year’s tedious final between AC Milan and Juventus which was decided on penalties after a 0-0 draw, this game looked in danger of developing along similar lines. That changed six minutes before the break, however, when some South American magic from Carlos Alberto put Porto ahead. He was the first to react to a ball that took a deflection off a defender, curling home a superbly-taken volley which gave goalkeeper Flavio Roma no chance and made him the third youngest scorer in the final’s history after Patrick Kluivert in 1995 and Brian Kidd in 1968.
— Reuters |
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Lehmann sees Aussies through
Harare, May 27 Australia clinched the three-match series 2-0 as expected, after winning the first match on Tuesday by seven wickets. The final match is also at Harare Sports Club on Saturday. After scoring 323 for eight wickets at leisure, Australia dismissed Zimbabwe for 184, but the home batsmen took some dislodging at first. Zimbabwe was 163 for two in the 36th over then lost four wickets for five runs and the collapse was complete in the 45th. Significant, perhaps, was that Zimbabwe’s new and basically second-string team has twice held Australia at bay for long periods and batted well at times against the world’s top-ranked side. But captain Tatenda Taibu’s plea to give the emerging side two years to become truly competitive will probably be brushed aside when the International Cricket Council meet in July and review Zimbabwe’s status in Tests and one-dayers. Since 15 of Zimbabwe’s leading players went on strike in protest at the national selection panel’s policies almost two months ago, the national team has lost nine consecutive matches by humbling margins.
— AP
Scoreboard
Australia: Gilchrist c Mwayenga b Hondo 20 Hayden c Vermeulen
b Mupariwa 87 Clarke b Panyangara 16 Lehmann b Matsikenyeri 67 Harvey c Mupariwa
b Matsikenyeri 22 Hogg c Matsikenyeri b Taylor 26 Martyn c Panyangara
b Mupariwa 20 Pointing st. Taibu b Mwayenga 10 Gillespie not out 33 Kasprowicz not out 2 Extras
(b-1, lb-7, nb-3, w-9). 20 Total (8 wkts, 50 overs) 323 Fall of wickets:
1-25, 2-43, 3-180, 4-219, 5-233, 6-277, 7-278, 8-314. Bowling:
Hondo 9.3-1-47-1 (nb-2, w-3), Panyangara 6-0-34-1 (nb-1, w-2), Mwayenga 9-1-61-1 (w-3), Mupariwa 8.3-0-64-2 (w-1), Matsikenyeri 10-0-43-2, Sibanda 2-0-24-0, Tayler 5-0-42-1. Zimbabwe Matsikenyeri c Hayden
b Kasprowicz 27 Taylor c Gillespie b Hogg 65 Sibanda c Lehmann b Kasprowicz 23 Vermeulen c McGrath
b Lehmann 25 Taibu run out (McGrath) 1 Maregwede not out 18 Ebrahim lbw b Hogg 1 Panyangara c &
b Lehmann 1 Mupariwa c McGrath b Lehmann 0 Mwayenga c McGrath b Lehmann 0 Hondo absent injured 0 Extras
(b-4 lb-8 nb-1 w-10) 23 Total (all out, 44.3 overs) 184 Fall of wickets:
1-48, 2-108, 3-163, 4-164, 5-164, 6-168, 7-179, 8-180, 9-184. Bowling:
McGrath 8-1-24-0, Gillespie 8-0-37-0 (w-3), Harvey 5-0-25-0 (w-3), Kasprowicz 9-1-23-2 (nb-1 w-2), Hogg 10-1-56-2 (w-2), Lehmann 4.3-1-7-4.
— AP, Reuters
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Hussain says goodbye
to cricket London, May 27 “Age has been catching up on me a little bit - the body, the mind, the fire in the stomach and the eyes a little bit have started to deteriorate,” the 36-year-old told a news conference. Saying he would retire from all forms of cricket, Hussain said: “It has been a major decision for me and not one that I have taken lightly, nor have I taken it in the last few days.” “It is a gradual thing that has happened over months. I wasn’t willing to fight against youth - I mean youth in the form of Andrew Strauss.” Hussain, who plays for Essex, scored 103 not out at Lord’s on Monday as England won the first of three Tests against the New Zealanders by seven wickets. He also ran out man-of-the match Strauss, one of the main challengers for Hussain’s team place, just when he seemed set to score a century in both innings of his debut.
— Reuters |
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Evidence against Jones flawed, claims lawyer San Jose (USA), May 27 “This reminds me of someone trying to take away your license for drunk driving, and they didn’t do a sobriety test, but a bartender kept a ledger with your name and the amount of alcohol supposedly given,” Joseph Burton, a lawyer for Jones, told The New York Times yesterday. Jones’ representatives showed The Times and the San Jose Mercury News some of the documents they were given on Monday in a meeting with representatives of the US Anti-Doping Agency. According to the newspapers, the documents included in part negative steroid test results, calendars and a ledger. Burton cited what he called flaws in the evidence — which included drug test sample collection on dates when Jones was en route to Sydney, Australia, for the 2000 Olympics. In another instance, two tests apparently conducted on the same day with consecutive identification numbers showed different results. And one item showing apparent track times on calendar pages that appear to outline a drug schedule said to be for Jones, reflect elite men’s times in the 100 metres — 9.84sec, 9.86 and 9.97 — rather than women’s times. Both newspapers said the evidence seen by their reporters was apparently not all of the evidence anti-doping officials possess. USADA’s Director of Legal Affairs, Travis Tygart, declined to detail any evidence the agency has against Jones. “I think the documents have some surface emotional appeal, but little evidentiary substance,” Burton told the San Jose Mercury News. Burton is trying to distance Jones from the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) steroid case. BALCO founder Victor Conte is among four men indicted on charges of providing illegal performance-enhancing drugs to elite athletes and other US sportsmen. Last week, 2003 double world sprint champion Kelli White was banned for two years for using illegal performance-enhancers, admitting her transgression after she was confronted with evidence collected in the BALCO investigation. But Jones, who won three gold medals at the Sydney Games, has steadfastly denied using illegal drugs and vowed to fight any attempt to sanction her in the absence of a positive drug test.
— AFP |
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Humpy stuns Kosintseva Elista (Russia), May 27 Humpy now needs draw to secure a quarterfinal berth. In one of the toughest matches in the tournament, Kosintseva kept control of the board for a long time but Humpy, who played black, took the risk of playing the modern defence which paid her good dividends in the end. From a fallen castle she rose to the
occasion and her brilliant attacks forced the Russian to surrender in 61 moves.
— UNI |
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National sub-junior wrestling results Jalandhar, May 27 Results: Free Style: 42kg:
Ashish (TN) b Keshu Pal (Raj) by fall, Surender (DAWA) b Sunil Kumar
(Bihar) by technical fall Vishal Sharma b Vipin Pawan (UP) by points,
Mahesh (SSCB) b Shabi (Pb) by points, Sada Shiv (KAR) b S.Wagh (MNP) by
fall, Ajit Kumar (HP) b Sandeep (DAWA) by technical fall, Yogesh (UTC) b
Sharif Khan (J&K) by fall, Dharminder (Nidani) b Manoj Kumar (NCR)
by fall, 50kg: J.P. Yadav (Bihar) b M.M. Khan (AP) by points,
Sumit (DAWA) b Sandeep (TN) by technical fall, Sukhwinder (Orissa) b
Satish Kumar (UTC) by fall, Manoj Kumar (PC) b P. Hindarjit (MNP) by
fall, Daljaj (HAR) b M.K. Dande (KAR) by fall, Shiv Shankar b Kamal (HP)
by technical fall, 58 kg: Dinesh (J&K) b Virinder (NCR) by
points Naresh Pratap (TN) b Nirmal (Gujarat) by technical fall, Sikander
(UTC) b Shivaji (Kerala) on points, Jagbeer (DAWA) b Nandu Yadav (Bihar)
by fall, Satinder (DAWA) b Sanjay (Chandigarh) by fall, Sushil (WB) b
Pant Kumar (SSCB) by fall, Amit (DAWA) b Mustek (J&K) by fall,
Shirdhar Rama (Orissa) b Manoj (UP) by points. 69 kg: Parvesh
(TN) b U.P. Yadav (Bihar) by fall, Naveen (Maha) b Md. Bilal (KAR) by
fall, Gurmail Singh (UTC) b Parveen (Haryana) by fall, Sandeep (Nidani)
b Mohan (NCR) by fall, Himent (Maha) b Sonu (Bihar) by fall, Bachiter
Singh (PC) b Tajinder Singh (Pb) by fall, Sachin (MP) b Krishan Kuty (SSCB)
by fall, Jaibir (Delhi) b M. Manikardan (Kerala) by fall, Raj Kumar (CHD)
b Anju Raja (UP) by fall.
Greco Roman Style 42 kg:
50 kg: Joginder
Singh (WB) b Vikrant Maina (MP) by fall, Pardeep (Pondi) b Anil (TN) on
points, Tushar (Maha) b Surjit (Orissa) by fall, Shri (Nadani) b Ashok
(Bihar) by fall, Jaivir (Haryana) b Manish (Rajasthan) by fall,
Parminder (UP) b Shree (Gujarat) on points, Sunil (DSAW) b Sandeep (NCR)
by fall, Sunil (Goa) b Manoj (DAWA) on points, Parishit (SSCB) b Manju (Karnataka)
on points, N. Joy Parkash (MNP) b Sumit (U’chal) by fall, Norender (Nidhani)
b Sachin (Goa) by fall, Vikash (Raj) b Suresh (SSCB) on points, Javed
(MP) b Akshey (CHG) by technical fall, Deepak (UP) b Surinder (Guj) by
technical fall. 58 kg: Muskesh (DSAW) b Vikram (Pb) by technical
fall, Manoj (K’tka) b Ajay (HP) by fall, Bajrang (Maha) b Vikas
(Orissa) on points, Parvesh (Har) b Bipin (Bihar) on points. 69kg:
Varinder (Pondi) b Sandeep (Maha) by fall, Shamsher (WA) b Rajinder
(J&K) by fall, Sonu (DSAW) b Narinder (Jharkhand) by fall, Rajbir
(Haryana) b Satwinder (UP) by fall, Abhijit (Goa) b Kesar (MP) by fall,
Jaideep (DAWA) b Pardeep (Nidani) on points, Anil (KAR) b Ravi Rana (HP)
by fall. |
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Sahil, Geetansh
score half tons Ludhiana, May 27 Brief scores: Ludhiana-217 all out in 85.4 overs (Sahil Arora 51, Geetansh 51, Lalit Malhotra 21 n.o., Harpeet 1 for 40, Haramanbir 2 for 26 and Rohit 2 for 53). Mohali-17 for 1 in 7 overs (Yuvraj Singh 11 n.o., Rahul Mankotia 2 n.o.). |
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