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Chela shocks Hewitt
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Inzamam throws a challenge to Sehwag
Lions go past Warriors
I have nothing left to prove: Pillay
Punjab Police, JCT (B) to clash for title
Chandigarh girls win hockey title
NRIs chip in to run Punjab’s oldest soccer tournament
Railways surge ahead
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Double blow for Sania
Melbourne, January 19 Playing her first Grand Slam of the year and seeded 32nd in singles, Sania served five double faults and made 35 unforced errors to go down 3-6, 5-7 to 17-year-old Dutch Michaella, thus failing to match her third round appearance here 12 months ago when she lost to eventual winner Serena Williams. World No.32 Sania struggled throughout the match against the Dutch, ranked 43rd, and could not time her shots. She started the match on a disappointing note, broken by Michaella, in the first game of the match. Michaela, sister of former
Wimbledon champion Richard and junior US Open winner in 2004, broke Sania four times in the first set and took just 29 minutes to win the set. Sania tried to come back in the second set, but the day did not belong to her as her famed forehand deserted her and the Hyderabadi teenager was broken twice by her opponent who won the set 7-5 in 52 minutes. And as if her exit from the singles was not enough, Sania crashed out of the doubles event as well after she and her American partner Corina Morariu were thrashed 6-2, 6-1 by 14th seeds Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) and Amelie Mauresmo (France). Sania and Corina had no clue at all and the Indo-American pair was struggling right from the beginning in court no 18. Kuznetsova, who had lost to Sania in Dubai Open last year, and Mauresmo were in command and it took them 26 minutes to bag the first set dropping just two games. The second set was clearly a one-sided show as Kuznetsova and Mauresmo broke their rivals twice and raced to a 5-0 lead before the Sania-Corina pair tried to salvage some honour by holding their serve to make it 5-1. It was, however, merely an effort to delay the inevitable and the Kuznetsova-Mauresmo duo held their serve to win the match in about an hour to show the door to their rivals. Sania’s chances look dim in mixed doubles as well where the Indian teenager, teaming up with Australian Stephen Huss, take on third seeds Bob Bryan of the United States and Vera Zvonareva of Russia in the first round. Bhupathi-Moodie advance
Mahesh Bhupathi and Wesley Moodie today advanced to the second round of the men’s doubles at the Australian Open with a straight set victory over unseeded Daniele Bracciali of Italy and Australia’s Oliver Marach. The Indo-South African pair, seeded 11th, won their first round match 7-5 6-3 in one hour and 16 minutes at the Melbourne Park. Bhupathi and Moodie will now face the French pair of Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra who beat the German pair of Philipp Kohlschreiber and Florian Mayer 6-4, 6-3. In the mixed doubles, Bhupathi partnering Martina Hingis, will face Taipei’s Yen Tzuoo Wang and Na Li of China in the first round tomorrow. Paes and Martin Damm were also set to take on the Czech pair of Lukas Dlouhy and Pavel Vizner in the second round.
— UNI, PTI |
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Chela shocks Hewitt
Melbourne, January 19 Unseeded Chela triumphed in an flat encounter against world number six Hewitt, who needed treatment, including painkillers, for a foot injury in the third set but was still able to fight back and force a tie-break, which he won 10-8. Chela dragged Hewitt into long rallies and benefited from points gifted by wild forehands from the Australian, who was last year’s losing finalist. Hewitt also struggled with his serve. The match failed to produce the expected fireworks after last year’s spiteful third-round clash between the pair, when Chela was later fined for spitting in Hewitt’s direction. World number one Roger Federer sailed through to the third round, hammering German Florian Mayer 6-1, 6-4, 6-0 in 72 minutes. “I think I can definitely improve little things,” he said ominously at a press conference. Fifth-seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko recovered from a slow start to beat American Kevin Kim 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, 6-2, while sixth seed Guillermo Coria wore down Italy’s Federico Luzzi 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 to become the third Argentine man through to the third round, joining David Nalbandian and Gaston Gaudio. In-form German Tommy Haas cruised into the third round with a thumping 6-0, 6-1, 6-2 win over American Paul Goldstein. Slovak Dominik Hrbaty and former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero also won five-set matches today to advance. Twelfth seed Hrbaty, playing in his 37th straight Grand Slam event, beat Belgian Dick Norman 6-2, 7-5, 5-7, 4-6, 10-8 after coming from two sets down to win his opening match against Olivier Marach. Ferrero, seeded 15th, beat Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia and Montenegro 6-3, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2. The Spaniard will play 21st seed Nicolas Kiefer next after the German beat Serb Boris Pasanski 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-1. Sebastien Grosjean of France, the 25th seed, was also in good touch, beating Argentine baseliner Juan Monaco 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, while Max Mirnyi, the 30th seed from Belarus, beat Davide Sanguinetti of Italy 7-5, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 for the dubious privilege of playing Federer next. Pierce bows out
Martina Hingis rolled back the years to reach the third round, while Mary Pierce was left feeling her age after being dumped from the first Grand Slam of the year. Hingis thrashed Finland’s Emma Laine 6-1, 6-1 to reach the third round of a draw starting to open up nicely after 31-year-old Pierce led a procession of seeded women to the exit door. Pierce was sent packing by unseeded Czech Iveta Benesova 6-3, 7-5, joining Dinara Safina, Ana Ivanovic, Sania Mirza, Gisela Dulko, Marion Bartoli and Anna-Lena Groenefeld on the seeded casualty list. World number two Kim Clijsters was lucky not to join them after battling a painful hip injury in her 6-4, 6-2 win over Chinese qualifier Yuan Meng.
— Reuters |
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Inzamam throws a challenge to Sehwag
Faisalabad, January 19 Inzamam said although he did give credit to the dashing Indian opener for his innings of 254 in the first Test at Lahore, he felt the placid track had a lot to do with his run-blazing there. “I am not belittling his marvellous innings but the bottomline is that he was batting on a perfect batting track. We will see how he bats on wickets that have something for the bowlers,” he told PTI shortly after arriving at the Iqbal Stadium for a training session ahead of the second Test beginning here on Saturday. Defending his bowlers for the whacking they got from Sehwag, the burly batsman said they were a little erratic because they were playing after a month’s lay-off. “We were playing after a month’s lay-off and the bowlers were thus erratic. They sprayed the ball all over and you just can’t get away with that stuff. “Naturally, we have worked on Sehwag but irrespective of all gameplans, we need to be disciplined in our bowling and that’s what we would be emphasising on in the future games.” Inzamam disagreed that Pakistan did not gain anything from the Lahore Test and promised more “intensity” from his boys in the second match. — PTI |
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Lions go past Warriors
Chandigarh, January 19 First quarter saw both sides playing even hockey and the ball remained mainly in the midfield. Dhanraj Pillay got applause from spectators in this quarter for displaying good stick-work. Second quarter proved to be more thrilling. Sandeep Michael of Bangalore Lions scored a brilliant goal in 26th minute. But the enthusiasm of Lions was short lived as just after a minute, umpires awarded a penalty corner to Warriors. Pakistan's Imran Warsi made no mistake in just pushing the ball to goal to level at 1-1. For about another 27 minutes both sides tried to outmanoeuvre each other but none could be successful. Few silly mistakes committed by Warriors
cost them a penalty corner and drag-flicker Len Aiyappa was at his best for converting it in 54th minute of the match to make the score 2-1. Once again in 63rd minute of the match, Lions surged ahead when Tushar Khandekar displayed his prowess and scored a field goal locking the score 3-1. Veerans win
Chennai Veerans got the better of Delhi Dazzlers 2-1 in a Tier II here today.
Veerans earned their first penalty corner in the first minute of the game. But drag-flicker Raghunath wasted the opportunity. They earned another penalty corner after three minutes but Raghunath could not live up to the expectations today and missed it again. To give a befitting response, the Dazzlers swung into action and released the pressure by making some good moves from both flanks. After the first quarter proved to be a barren affair, both teams scored one goal each in the next quarter. The first goal came in the 22 nd minute for Chennai Veerans through V. Raja. Dazzlers’ skipper Raju drew parity for the team in the 30th minute following the brilliant move created by Mukesh and Kulwinder. After the 1-1 score, both teams started attacking the D area of the opponents fiercely to get the lead. But it was the Veerans’ forward Jalloinder Singh, who scored the winning goal for Veerans by displaying excellent stick work. Jalloinder dribbled the ball to the striking circle dodging all rival defenders and netted the ball to a thunderous applause. |
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I have nothing left to prove: Pillay
Chandigarh, January 19 My biggest compliment came from none other than the chief guest at the inaugural ceremony of the PHL, General SF Rodrigues (retd), who in the presence of Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) chief KPS Gill, told me that he had come to watch me in action. “After playing the final of the Surjit tournament in Jalandhar against Indian Oil, I travelled about 140 km to Chandigarh to play my second match of the day against PHL defending champions Hyderabad Sultans. Ask all those who saw me in action in these games played within eight hours of each other. “Nehru hockey and Surjit hockey are two tough and prestigious events, featuring top players of the country. Interestingly, many of those who have been my contemporaries or juniors are here now as coaches of various teams participating in Tier I or Tier II of the PHL,” said Pillay during a conversation at an informal get-together at the residence of former Indian coach Sukhvir Grewal last night. “The standard of Indian hockey is on the decline. The PHL is a good step. But Tier II is not up to the mark. It would be better if the number of teams in Tier I is increased rather than continuing with Tier II. Maybe they can have 10 teams in Tier I in the next edition for better quality of competitive hockey,” suggests Pillay. He said the rumours related to Rajinder Singh Jr had dominated the first two weeks of the PHL. Some names, including those of Bhaskaran and Harmik Singh, were suggested in the media as “possible replacements” before Rajinder resumed his duty here after a visit to Jalandhar. “All this is unfortunate. I sometimes wonder at the wisdom of bringing back someone who last played international competitive hockey on synthetic surface more than 25 years ago. “Richard Charlesworth has a dream of coaching India. But I am certain they would either not appoint him or deny him the freedom he needs to rebuild the Indian team. We have only talent and nothing else,” rues 37-year-old Pillay, who thinks “I still have some good hockey left in me. The IHF dropped me and Baljit Dhillon citing age as the reason. What about the players who have been retiring within a year or two of playing in junior hockey?” Disappointed at the declining standard of Indian hockey, he says the public response to the PHL “is very encouraging”. |
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Punjab Police, JCT (B) to clash for title
Mahilpur, January 19 In the semifinals played today, Punjab Police prevailed over JCT Academy 2-0 while JCT (B) defeated Punjab State Electricity Board 4-2 via the tie-breaker after the two teams were locked goal-less in the stipulated period. The Punjab Police-JCT Academy tie seemed to be drifting towards a draw when a disputed penalty put Punjab Police ahead in the second half. The award of the spot kick drew protests from the JCT bench and coach Jagir Singh was seen vehemently protesting against the referee’s decision. Harshdeep’s neatly despatched the ball into the net sending the goalkeeper on the wrong side to put Punjab Police in the lead. A few minutes from the long whistle, Gurpreet charged into the box and found the net with a powerful grounder to make it 2-0 in favour of Punjab Police. In the second semifinal, JCT (B) edged out PSEB 4-2 through the tie- breaker. The two teams fought a pitched battle in the stipulated period but failed to break the deadlock. In the penalty shootout, Kuldip, Bimal Birua, Sunil and Charanjit Kumar converted the spot kicks. Incidentally, Charanjit also represented JCT Mills in the National Football League last year. Earlier, in the school category, Chandigarh Football Academy emerged deserving winners edging out local favourites Sports Wing, Mahilpur, through a solitary first-half goal. The Chandigarh outfit commenced the proceedings in whirlwind fashion when Sukhwinder bulged the net with a well-timed shot in the third minute. Thereafter, the Chandigarh team, who recently put up a commendable show in the final of the Subroto Cup in New Delhi, went all out to bolster the lead but wayward shooting let them down. CFA also missed a penalty as Ravinder failed to do the needful with the spot kick. A brainchild of former Punjab Governor, Gen J.F.R. Jacob (retd), CFA were well served by goalkeeper Prabhjot Singh, who was declared the best goalkeeper in the Subroto Cup, and Gagan, who was adjudged the best player in the Subroto Cup. The Mahilpur team showed sparks of brilliance but found the going tough against their experienced rivals, coached by former national star Harjinder Singh, who incidentally played for glamour outfit East Bengal many years back. In the college category, Sri Guru Gobind Singh Khalsa College, Mahilpur, beat BAM Khalsa College, Garhshankar, 2-0 with goals through Ravi Judge and Satwinder Singh in the 9th and 33rd minutes. In the final of the college category tomorrow, the Mahilpur team will take on Football Academy, Hoshiarpur. This will be followed by the final of the club category. Punjab Cabinet Minister Jagmohan Singh Kang, who was the chief guest, announced a grant of Rs 51,000 for the organisers. |
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Chandigarh girls win hockey title
Nahan, January 19 Chandigarh captain Prakash was declared the best player of the tournament. She scored 10 goals in the five-day tournament. Two matches were played on the fifth and final day today. Punjab routed J&K 7-0, while HP defeated Pepsu 2-0. |
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NRIs chip in to run Punjab’s oldest soccer tournament
Mahilpur, January 19 The Principal Harbhajan Singh Memorial Sporting Club, headed by former Engineer-in-Chief of PSEB, Harbans Singh Bains, was established way back in 1962 to perpetuate the memory of the founder Principal, who not only established the college but also donated his life's earnings to the institute. Today, prize money is not the sole attraction. Mere participation in the state's oldest tournament is a satisfying experience. Old timers remember how ex-servicemen took leave to watch the now defunct Mango Tournament. Incidentally, Punjab's only football Olympian Jarnail Singh also honed his skill on this very ground. Now the Principal Harbhajan Singh Memorial Football Tournament attracts scores of NRIs who have their roots here. During this time every year, they visit Mahilpur and extend a helping hand. For instance, Mr Gurmail Singh Gill, a former footballer who played for Leaders Club, and is now settled in Norway, is a regular visitor. Hailing from the nearby Chhabewal village, he along with Daljit Singh from Canada, oversees the arrangements for smooth conduct of the tournament. The prize money is donated by Vancouver-based Principal Harbhajan Singh Memorial Educational and Sports Trust set up with the efforts of Mr Satwant Singh, former Joint Director, Sports, Punjab. This trust donates Rs 90,000 every year. Another Canada-based trust, Principal Harbhajan Singh Memorial Sports Trust donates Rs 80,000 for the tournament. Two other Toronto-based trusts donate Rs 1,20,000 and Rs 50,000, respectively. The history of the tournament dates back to 1962 when Principal Harbhajan Singh breathed his last on August 16. A meeting of his admirers having decided to perpetuate his memory, constituted a committee that decided to start the Principal Harbhajan Singh Memorial Football Tournament. The first edition of the tournament was organised in October-November, 1962 and the practice continued till 1965. In 1966 the Harbhajan Sporting Club came into existence that assumed responsibility of conducting the tournament. Dr Narinder Pal was the founder
president. Ever since there has been no interruption. Besides NRIs, local residents have also been contributing generously. Mr Harbans Rai, who retired from the PSEB, donates Rs 5,000 every year. "Football is a passion and I feel it is my duty to keep the tournament running," he says. |
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Railways surge ahead
Patiala, January 19 With Sukhjinder’s win, the Railways moved to the top of the table with 24 points, while defending champions Punjab Police slipped to the second spot with 21 points. During the 8km scratch race for men, a Karnataka cyclist staggered out of the track after he collided with another cyclist but he was quick to join the rest of the bunch, although he lost out on the time advantage. Results:
Individual pursuit (women): CH Romeshwari Devi (Manipur)-1, N.Chaoba Devi (Manipur)-2, Kulwinder Kaur (Punjab)-3. Individual pursuit (men): Sarabjit Singh (Punjab Police)-1, Rajinder Bishnoi (Rajasthan)-2, O. Bikram Singh (Railways)-3. Individual pursuit (girls, u-19): Amandeep Kaur-1, Deepa Chandran (Kerala)-2, Maninder Kaur (Punjab)-3.Individual pursuit (boys, u-19): Rajinder Bishnoi (Rajasthan)-1, Dayala Ram Jat (Rajasthan)-2, Sarpreet Singh (Punjab)-3. |
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