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Sharapova, Pierce enter last eight
Fast bowlers kickstart conditioning camp
It would not be a standard one-day game: Tendulkar
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Asia-Africa cricket series
Bermuda, Canada top contenders for World Cup places
Gatlin completes sprint double
Rlys steamroll Air India
Junior hockey team in great shape, says Dr Joginder
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Sharapova, Pierce enter last eight
London, June 27 French pair Amelie Mauresmo and Mary Pierce, together with a vengeful Venus Williams, all blazed through, too, but Australian men’s third seed Lleyton Hewitt had to work a little harder, taken to four sets by American Taylor Dent. Second seed Sharapova prevented Nathalie Dechy joining her French compatriots with a 6-4, 6-2 victory on Court One. “I’m playing better and better,”said the 18-year-old after her fourth consecutive straight sets win of a so-far untroubled title defence. “The matches from now on are going to get even tougher you’ve got to be ready.” Awaiting Sharapova in the quarterfinal is Russian eighth seed Nadia Petrova, who fought back to beat Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic 6-7, 7-6, 6-3. A third Russian, gutsy ninth seed Anastasia Myskina, joined them in the last eight with a dramatic 1-6, 7-6, 7-5 victory over compatriot Elena Dementieva, the sixth seed whom she beat in the 2004 French Open final. Myskina’s next opponent is third seed Mauresmo. A semifinalist on her last two Wimbledon visits, the French number one overcame a wobbly start to beat yet another Russian Elena Likhovtseva 6-4, 6-0. Top seed Lindsay Davenport beat Belgian 15th seed Kim Clijsters 6-3, 6-7, 6-3. Pierce was a surprise French Open finalist earlier this month and she brushed aside Italian Flavia Pennetta 6-3, 6-1 to reach her first Wimbledon quarterfinal since 1996. She will next face Venus, who avenged her sister Serena’s shock third-round loss to fellow American Jill Craybas by thrashing the 30-year-old 6-0, 6-2 on court two, the scene of Craybas’ upset in dwindling light on Saturday. Despite losing a third-set tiebreak, Lleyton Hewitt employed his raking service returns to quell the square-shouldered Dent in a tight Centre Court duel. He won 6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-3 to set up an intriguing last-eight meeting with Feliciano Lopez, who upset last year’s semifinalist Mario Ancic of Croatia, the 10th seed, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 to reach the last eight at a Grand Slam for the first time. Ancic, the last player to beat world number one Roger Federer on grass, back in 2002, was looking to reach the Wimbledon semifinals for the second year in a row. Lopez became the first Spaniard to reach the men’s quarterfinals at Wimbledon since Manuel Orantes in 1972. Second seed Andy Roddick of the USA beat Argentine claycourter Guillermo Coria 6-3, 7-6, 6-4. An ill-tempered David Nalbandian charged into the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 7-6, 6-0 victory over France’s hot prospect Richard Gasquet. Two days after ending the challenge of 18-year-old British hopeful Andrew Murray, Nalbandian captured the scalp of the last teenager in the men’s draw en route to the last eight for the first time since 2002, when he lost in the final. Despite running away with the final set, Nalbandian did not have it all his way against the talented young Frenchman, who had claimed his first ATP tour title on grass at Nottingham. Midway through the second set, trailing 3-1 and attempting to gain a break back in the fifth game, he was embroiled in a heated exchange with umpire Wayne McKewen. Nalbandian marched up to the Australian and shouted: “You cannot tell me you did not see that (ball) fall on the line?” McKewen retorted: “Be careful with what you are saying.” Nalbandian then appeared to calm down and swiftly broke Gasquet to get back on to level terms. Gasquet matched Nalbandian’s tenacious baseline play with some blistering shots of his own during the first two sets, but once the Argentine clinched the tie-breaker 7-3, the 27th seed simply wilted on a baking court two. The Argentine 18th seed’s victory set up a last eight meeting with former Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson of Sweden. The 30-year-old 12th seed reached the quarterfinals here for the first time, taming Max Mirnyi of Belarus 6-4, 7-5, 6-4. The Swede, the oldest man left in the men’s singles, dropped serve just once and on his way to victory in two hours and 12 minutes. Mirnyi cracked down 15 aces, taking his tally to a tournament-leading 89, but 2002 Australian Open Johansson had too much craft, seizing his chances in ruthless fashion.
— Reuters |
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Paes-Zimonjic, Mahesh-Pierce in pre-quarters London, June 27 The fifth seeds took some time to settle down before beat the Americans 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) to set up a last-16 clash with Karol Beck of Slovakia and Jaroslav Levinsky of Czech Republic. Beck and Levinsky upset 10th seed Martin Damm of Czech Republic and Mariano Hood of Argentina 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (2/7), 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the second round. In mixed doubles, Mahesh Bhupathi and Mary Pierce of France upset second seed Wayne and Cara Black of USA in straight sets. The Indo-French pair won the second round tie 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the pre-quarterfinal stage. In the boy’s singles, Vivek Shokeen showed his grit by overcoming a stiff challenge from Robin Roshardt of Switzerland in the first round. The Indian played some solid tennis to beat Roshardt 3-6, 6-0, 6-3. He will now face 17th seed Thiemo De Bakker of Netherlands in the second round.
— PTI
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Fast bowlers kickstart conditioning camp
Bangalore, June 27 The camp had been designed to put the fast bowlers in top shape ahead of the hectic international schedule, starting with the triangular one-day series in Sri Lanka, also involving the West Indies, later this month. “We are obviously focusing on the fitness and conditioning for the fast bowlers,” said team’s trainer Gregory King, who had chalked out the programme in consultation with Chappell and physio John Gloster. The list announced by the BCCI last week is a mix of fringe bowlers and established ones. Irfan Pathan has been exempted from attending this camp as he is busy playing county cricket. Others attending the camp are Laxmipathy Balaji, Ajit Agarkar, Shib Shankar Paul, Ranadeb Bose, Sreeshant, Munaf Patel, R. Jesuraj, Amit Bhandari, Siddharth Trivedi, Joginder Sharma, Gagandeep Singh and Harvinder Singh. Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Jai Prakash Yadav had not arrived when the camp began this morning, but officials said they were expected later in the day. The camp would not be ‘very different’ from previous camps, King said. “Fitness is fitness. There will be a couple of new ideas. But generally the camp will be the same”. Yoga is also part of the fitness programme, which would see bowlers undergoing training in morning and afternoon sessions. “You will get injured from time to time. We will try to make sure that occurrence of injuries is minimised. There is no way we can control injuries,” King said.
—PTI |
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It would not be a standard one-day game: Tendulkar
Mumbai, June 27 “It will not be a standard one-day game with the introduction of the new rules,” the ace Indian batsman told reporters here. “I do not know how different it will be (following the introduction of new rules), but the captains and teams will have to sit down and chalk out plans to introduce an element of surprise. Plenty of planning will be needed,” Tendulkar said during a promotional campaign here. “We (the teams) will have to play a couple of games (before guaging the exact impact of the changes),” said the ace batsman, recuperating from an elbow surgery undergone late last month in London. The ICC had announced that as an experiment, it would allow a soccer-like substitution rule, by which a replacement could be introduced at any stage of a one-day game, who could bat and bowl, apart from field. Asked whether he would use a lighter bat once he returned to big-time cricket, Tendulkar indirectly hit out at critics who had written and said in the past that the tennis elbow injury he suffered was because of using a heavy bat. “People seem to have decided a lot of things for me. I will have to decide what is good for me. That is what I have done for 16 years. The physios are also backing me,” said Tendulkar. The batting maestro had been troubled by the tennis elbow since August last, which forced him to miss the entire tri-series in the Netherlands, the NatWest Series in England and the ICC Champions Trophy, besides the first two home Tests against Australia. He returned to play the third Test at Nagpur against Australia, played in the two-Test series against South Africa and then visited Bangladesh in December for a Test and one-day series. Tendulkar continued to struggle with his injury and took some rest from the domestic circuit before taking part in the high-profile home series of three Tests and six ODIs against Pakistan. At the end of the series, Tendulkar went to London and finally decided to undergo surgery on his elbow in May-end, following which he was ruled out of cricket for between 14 and 16 weeks. Tendulkar would miss the Indian team’s new season-opening tour to Sri Lanka for the tri-series in July and August and could return from his layoff for the tour of Zimbabwe in September.
— PTI |
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Asia-Africa cricket series from Aug 15
Kolkata, June 27 The series had been planned following an agreement between the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) and the African Cricket Association (ACA) last month, after which a new body by the name of the Afro-Asian Cricket Co-operation was floated to organise these matches on an annual basis, with the venue alternating between Asia and Africa. It had been decided that the first series would be held in Africa. Under the agreement, 70 per cent of the net profit from the matches would go to the hosting continent and 20 per cent to the visiting side, while 10 per cent would go to a specially created charity for the promotion of cricket on the two continents. The ACC and the ACA would constitute their own selection committees to pick up the Asian and African teams for the series annually. The Afro-Asian Cricket Co-operation would be headed for the first three years by ACC chief Jagmohan Dalmiya, with the chairman of the ACA, Peter Chingoka, as its vice-chairman.
— PTI |
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Bermuda, Canada top contenders for World Cup places
London, June 27 The teams that finish third and fourth in the group will play against the third and fourth place finishers in Group B for the final ICC World Cup qualifying place. All group stage matches will be played in the north of Ireland while the knockout stages will be played in the south, with the final at Clontarf, near Dublin, on July 13, an ICC press note said here today. Bermuda skipper Clay Smith will be the man to look out for, with a record three centuries under his belt in the Cup Classic, the country’s biggest cricket event. Canada will be led by captain John Davison, who holds the ICC World Cup record for the fastest century in the tournament’s history. He reached his landmark hundred against the West Indies in South Africa two years ago off 67 balls. Canada are the only side participating in this year’s ICC Trophy to have won an ICC World Cup match, beating Bangladesh in the 2003 tournament. Group A: Bermuda, Denmark, Ireland, Uganda, United Arab Emirates and USA. Group B: Canada, Holland, Namibia, Oman, Papua New Guinea and Scotland.
— PTI |
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Gatlin completes sprint double
Carson (USA), June 27 The 19-year-old Clement, who broke Michael Johnson’s indoor 400 metres world record in March, pulled away from Bershawn Jackson approaching the final hurdle to cross the line in 47.24 seconds. The time was the fastest in the event in seven years. “It was perfect,” the Trinidad-born Clement said. “It was the first time this year I did not chop my steps.’’ Jackson finished second in 47.80 seconds and James Carter was third in 48.03 seconds in the meet, which served as the American trials for August’s world championships in Helsinki. Gatlin clocked 20.04 seconds into a headwind to win the 200 metres and become the first man to complete the sprint double at the US championships in 20 years. Gatlin had won the 100 metres in 10.08 seconds on Saturday, one day after officials reinstated him in the event following his disqualification for a false start in the preliminaries. Tyson Gay took second in 20.06 seconds and Olympic champion Shawn Crawford, experiencing foot problems, grabbed the final US team berth with a third-place finish in 20.12 seconds. Olympic silver medallist Allyson Felix won the women’s 200 metres in a life-time best of 22.13 seconds, also the fastest time in the world this year. Rachelle Smith was almost a 10th of a second behind in 22.22 seconds and US Olympic trials 100 metres champion LaTasha Colander was third in 22.34 seconds. Michelle Perry, a heptathlete who turned to the hurdles, defeated Olympic champion Joanna Hayes in the women’s 100 metres hurdles. Perry clocked 12.66 seconds for the victory with Hayes coming second in 12.77 seconds.
—Reuters |
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Kim birdies to victory
Cherry Hills Village, June 27 It needed something special to clinch the third women’s major of the year, and the little-known 23-year-old pulled it off.
At the treacherous par-four 459-yard last, which had yielded only three birdies in the tournament, Kim holed out from a greenside bunker for a three, a round of one-over-par 72 and a three-over 287 total that earned her $560,000.
Two American teenage amateurs, 17-year-old Morgan Pressel and 19-year-old Brittany Lang, shared second place. Lang closed with a 71 early on while Pressel, joint third round leader, needed a birdie at the last to tie with Kim but dropped a shot for a 75. Once of the six Kims on the LPGA Tour, the triumphant South Korean played as Ju-Yun in her rookie year in 2004 before changing her name at the start of this season. She struggles with her English but managed to tell reporters: “This week was great fun, very exciting. I hit the ball pretty great today.” Few will forget her now after she joined 1998 champion Pak Se Ri as a Korean winner of the most coveted title in the women’s game. Kim, a 19-time winner on the Korean circuit, has a best finish of joint seventh on the LPGA Tour in a tournament in Atlanta in May and has missed seven cuts from 14 starts. This week, she made her debut in the US Open and her third major appearance. Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam, chasing the third leg of the calendar Grand Slam, started the day five shots off the lead but bogeyed the opening two holes on her way to a 77 and a 12-over total of 296. She tied for 23rd, her poorest finish since she missed the cut in the 2002 Women’s British Open at Turnberry.
— Reuters |
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Rlys steamroll Air India
New Delhi, June 27 In a lopsided match, Railways used the Air India goal for target practice, though the defending champions, too, put up a shoddy show with their penalty corner attempts as they could convert only five of the 14 they earned, including nine in the first half. Four goals came in either half. Railways, packed with India players, began their goal rush in the second minute when former India captain Sanggai Ibemacha Chanu tapped in after Asunta Lakra’s strike, off their very first penalty corner, rebounded off Air India custodian Nauri Mundu (1-0). Though Mundu brought off many good saves, the Railways forward line packed too many power to slot home at regular intervals. Railways earned penalty corners at regular intervals, but the second goal came only after they squandered five penalty corners. Saba Anjum hit the mark off a Mamta Kharab forward push in the 21st minute to enhance the tally (2-0). Amrita Ming shot in off Railway’s seventh penalty corner (3-0) while Chanu completed the first half scoring in the 26th minute (4-0). On resumption Pushpa Pradhan slotted in the fifth goal off the 12th penalty corner followed by two quick strikes by Asunata Lakhara, who hit home off the 13th penalty corner and then scored a field goal (7-0) to account for three goals (no hat-trick). Rajwinder Kaur hit the 14th penalty corner four minutes before the hooter, which was deflected in from the goal line by Gurpreet Kaur (8-0). |
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Junior hockey team in great shape, says Dr Joginder
Chandigarh, June 27 “All players are fighting fit and in great spirits,” says Dr Joginder Singh, an orthopaedician and sports medicine specialist. Based in Schweinfurt in Germany, Dr Joginder Singh played host to the team for a week. Besides training in gym and physiotherapy, Indian boys had some training sessions at a private hockey club there. “They played three matches against top clubs here. They won the first match 10-0 and the second and third 13-0 each,” he said. Dr Joginder Singh has been the doctor of Indian hockey teams, both juniors and seniors, not only in all international tournaments played in Europe, but also in Olympics and World Cups. |
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Chandigarh lift trophy
Mohali, June 27 Brief scores: Chandigarh 377 for 9 in 90 over; Amrisar 234 for 5 in 78 overs (Munish Bhatia 72, Mayank Sharma 68 not out, Baljit 39).
— TNS |
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Mumbai, June 27
