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| Monday, September 4, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Sampras survives to enter 4th round
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Atherton hits century Anand overpowers Khalifman Korean qualifier extends dream run
Show-cause notice to IM Vijayan Germany begin on winning note ITF women’s meet begins today Castillo sinks Chile with bicycle kick
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Sampras
survives to enter 4th round NEW YORK, Sept 3 (AFP) — Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras withstood a test by a big-serving rival to reach the fourth round of the US Open but two-time Grand Slam winner Yevgeny Kafelnikov and 11th seed Tim Henman were eliminated. Fourth seed Sampras outlasted 72nd-ranked Agustin Calleri of Argentina 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/3), 6-3 in muggy conditions yesterday at the $ 15 million event. Each fired 17 aces and won 88 per cent of their first-serve points. Calleri figured out why Sampras has won a record 13 Grand Slam titles. “I came out thinking I was at the same level as Sampras, that I was equal,” Calleri said. “But then I saw Sampras serve. It’s impossible. He’s No. 1.” Dominik Hrbaty ousted Russian fifth seed Kafelnikov 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 6-1. Kafelnikov, 1-6 lifetime against the 36th-ranked Slovakian, joined top-seeded 1999 winner Andre Agassi and second seed Gustavo Kuerten on the sidelines. Hard-serving Dutchman Richard Krajicek broke Britain’s Henman in the final games of the fourth and fifth sets to advance 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 in three hours and 24 minutes. Krajicek served 25 aces to four for Henman, who hit 17 double faults to just seven by the 1996 Wimbledon winner, who next plays Hrbaty. Henman double faulted three times in the last game of the fourth set and twice in the final game of the fifth, including netting a second serve on match point to crash out after what he had called his best-ever US Open preparation. Krajicek and Sampras are each one victory from a quarterfinal matchup. The Dutchman owns a 6-3 career edge on Sampras and his 1996 quarterfinal victory at Wimbledon is Sampras’ only loss since 1992 at the All-England Club where he has won seven of his 13 Slam titles. Defending women’s champion Serena Williams ousted Italy’s Giulia Casoni 6-4, 6-2 to set a fourth-round date with 17-year-old Wimbledon semifinalist Jelena Dokic of Australia. Australian Open champion Lindsay Davenport, the second seed, dispatched Thailand’s Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-2, 6-1 and French Open champion Mary Pierce, the fourth seed from France, beat American Lisa Raymond 6-4, 7-6 (8/6). Two women’s seeds were ousted. Russia’s Elena Dementieva eliminated No 7 Conchita Martinez 6-4, 6-1 and 18-year-old Belgian Justine Henin ensured No 12 Anna Kournikova would not win her first title with a 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) Triumph. Sampras, the only man left with more than one Slam crown, next faces South Korean qualifier Lee Hyung-Taik, a Slam debutante who beat Germany’s Rainer Schuttler 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 and extend his win streak to 11 matches. Australian ninth seed Lleyton Hewitt bounced Czech Jiri Novak 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 and 15th seed Mark Philippoussis fell 4-6, 4-6, 4-6 to US star Jan-Michael Gambill in a second-round match postponed from Friday due to rain. France’s Arnaud Clement, who ousted Agassi, and Romania’s Andrei Pavel both advanced when rivals retired. France’s Jerome Golmard bowed to Pavel with a second-set back injury. Morocco’s Hicham Arazi pulled out in the fifth against Clement, who served 23 aces but admitted, ‘‘If it had gone another five minutes, I would have been the one to retire.’’ Williams served 12 aces and allowed Casoni only one winner in each set to advance in 60 minutes. She appreciates how Dokic has handled the banishment of her father Damir from the open and Wimbledon due to abusive behaviour. Dokic, ranked 43rd, sees Serena and sister Venus, the Wimbledon champion, as the ones to beat for the title here. Martinez had five double
faults and 36 unforced errors to ensure an unseeded
quarterfinalist by sending Dementieva through. |
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LONDON, Sept 3 (Reuters) — England were all out for 217 in their second innings on the fourth day of the fifth Test against the West Indies at The Oval today. A draw would be enough for England to win a series against the West Indies for the first time in 31 years. At tea England were 169 for seven. Atherton, who made the top score of 83 in the first innings of 281, was less fluent but equally stubborn today, grinding his way to 89 not out at tea. He needed all his technique, resolution and concentration to counter walsh, who will announce after his return to Jamaica whether he will join his comrade-in-arms Curtly Ambrose in retirement. Walsh bowled a wonderful 11-over spell before lunch, taking the wicket of Graham Thorpe for 10 while conceding only four runs. He beat Atherton three times in succession in one over and vented his frustration at the phlegmatic England opener in a rare verbal outburst. England added only 47 runs to their overnight 56 for two in the morning session, entirely due to the accuracy of Walsh and Ambrose with the latter bowling six overs for six runs. Atherton reached his 42nd Test half century in 246 minutes with five fours from 184 deliveries. It was the eighth time he had scored two 50s in the same Test. Runs were equally hard to come by after lunch, although Atherton and Alec Stewart were spared Walsh and Ambrose and instead faced the spin of Nagamootoo and Jimmy Adams. Stewart, one of three England players dismissed without scoring in the first innings, had compiled a hard-earned 25 when he cut Nagamootoo hard to Sherwin Campbell at slip who held the chance falling backwards. Michael Vaughan (8) fell lbw for the second time in the match then two balls later Graeme Hick steered a delivery to Campbell at second slip and was out without scoring. Craig White, whose five for 32 on Saturday was largely responsible for the West Indies’ inadequate 125, looked as composed as any of the senior England batsman. He hooked Walsh for four and drove another boundary through the covers. Adams brought Ambrose back with the new ball against Atherton, who sent the ball streaking to the boundary with his trademark back foot drive. Scoreboard England (1st
innings): 281 |
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SHENYANG (China), Sept 3 (PTI) — Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand of India strengthened his position in his group with a facile win over FIDE world champion GM Alexander Khalifman in the second round of the FIDE World Cup Chess Tournament here. This is the third straight win for Anand over the Russian Grandmaster this year. With a full one point lead in his group, Anand now seems well set to qualify for the quarter-final stage. The day saw a few upsets with Grandmasters Peter Svidler and Alexander Morozevich going down to Zhang Zhong of China and Alexei Aleksandrov of Belarus, respectively. Khalifman, who had employed his pet French defence on both his earlier losses to Anand this year, shifted to the sharper Sicilian defence to the English attack opening of Anand. The game went along expected lines till the 14th move when Anand decided to change tactics and produced a theoretical novelty after accpeting a pawn sacrifice. He gained a space advantage on the kingside with well-timed breakthrough on the king knight file. Complications arose after Khalifman decided to win back the pawn on his 23rd move and Anand gave a bishop sacrifice to initiate an attack against the centralised king. However, the dust cleared soon and Anand seized total control on the game. Khalifman’s ploy to trade his queen for rook and two minor pieces came to nought as Anand won a rook for knight and penetrated the opposition wing with his queen. Unable to avoid further material loss, Khalifman resigned on the 40th move. Anand was once again the only winner in his group as the other two matches ended in draws. Tissir Mohamed of Morocco held highly rated GM Pavel Tregubov of Russia when the latter missed a tactical shot from a winning position. The game lasted 58 moves. GMs Vladislav Tkachiev of France and Boris Gelfand of Israel played a quick 17-move draw in an English opening game to keep their qualifying hopes alive. In group C, GM Peter Svidler’s loss to Zhang Zhong came as a major surprise. Playing with white pieces, Svidler employed the extensively analysed Italian game but was unable to attain any advantage from the opening. Zhong deployed his pieces in and around the centre and gained some space on the kingside. Zhong tightened his grip and finished the game after 40 moves with an excellent manoeuvre to win an exchange. In the other upset of the day, Morozevich lost to Aleksandrov in a kings gambit game with white pieces. The piece sacrifice variation on the fifth move gave an illusionary attack to Morozevich and Aleksandrov romped home in the ensuing endgame. The women’s section too saw a few upsets with top seed and favourite Xie Jun of China losing to Hong Thanh Trang of Vietnam in a kings Indian defence game with white pieces. Trang appeared well-armed for the opening as she employed the Kings Fianchetto and gained a miniscule advantage in the middlegame. A tactical oversight on the 24th move cost dearly as she lost an exchange and the game soon after. Former world champion GM
Maya Chiburdanidze of Georgia bounced back after
yesterday’s loss to score a hard fought win over
Ansel Laubshner. |
Korean qualifier extends dream run NEW YORK, Sept 3 (AFP) — Against his mother’s wishes, Lee Hyung-Taik left behind their family farm in a small South Korean village two years after his father’s death to pursue the unlikely dream of playing professional tennis. That child has become the greatest man in Korean tennis history and made his dream a reality, advancing to a US Open fourth-round match with idol Pete Sampras on the game’s biggest stage — Arthur Ashe Stadium. “If I’m not in awe of the crowd and the stadium, I will put up a good fight,” Lee said through a translator. “My chances of winning are not even 50 per cent. But I’m not in awe. I respect his game. But I’m not in awe.” “The biggest thing I’m wary of is his great serve. I have to work on my returns. If I can return his serve it should be a good match.” The 182nd-ranked qualifier, making his Grand Slam debut, won his 11th consecutive match here yesterday, dispatching Germany’s 67th-ranked Rainer Schuttler 6-2 3-6 6-4 6-4 in two hours and 21 minutes. “This is to prove that South Koreans can play tennis,” Lee said. “I feel good about myself. It’s an honour to play at the US Open and to be playing Sampras next. I’m looking forward to a great match.” Lee is the first Korean man to win a match in a Grand Slam main draw, having beaten US Olympian Jeff Tarango and 13th seed Franco Squillari. They were his first two ATP matches of the year. Lee’s career ATP mark is only 5-4. “Everything I do now is a record,” Lee said. “I made history when I went to the second round. Everything I do now is brand new. Every day I make history for Korea.” The 24-year-old
right-hander smacked five aces, 33 winners and even his
44 unforfced errors were eight fewer than
Schuttler. |
Sydney countdown — 62 SYDNEY’S Olympics have been a long time coming. After exploring the feasibility of staging the Olympics in 1972 and 1988, Australian cities made official bids for the Games of 1992 (Brisbane) and 1996 (Melbourne) before the Sydney 2000 campaign succeeded. All these attempts reflect both positive memories left by the Melbourne Games in 1956 and ties to the Olympic movement that goes back even further than Australia’s history as a nation. Australia is one of few countries (the others being Switzerland, France, Great Britain and Greece) that has had representatives at every Olympic Games since 1896. It is stretching the truth to say that Australia had a team at each Games. And there is still debate about the nationality of some athletes. In 1904 and 1896 — when an accountant from Melbourne named Edwin Flack was successful in the 800m and 1500m running events, then entered (and almost won) his first-ever marathon — Australia had just a single competitor. In Sydney, Australia will have its biggest-ever team. The timing is perfect. Australian sportsmen and women are riding a wave of success. Australian teams have won World Cups in cricket, rugby union and rugby league. The Australian women’s hockey and netball teams are world champions. Australia’s men won the Davis Cup tennis trophy last year. Yet few of these are sports or competitions contested, or taken as seriously, by most of the world’s countries. In truly global games, such as soccer and basketball, Australians have been much less successful. This makes occasional victories in international events by golfer Karrie Webb, tennis player Patrick Rafter, or runner Cathy Freeman all the more remarkable. Yet no other sporting event attracts as much global attention as the Olympics. And Herb Elliott, a star in Rome in 1960 and one of the most famous of all Australian athletes, is convinced that overseas visitors to Sydney, plus TV viewers around the world, will take notice of Australian competitors. Speaking to this correspondent, he said Australian athletes will have an unmissable presence because of their numbers and distinctive green and gold uniforms. “And they will perform exceptionally well, so that people will go away in wonderment, very conscious of their excellence,” he says. Elliott, already a prominent junior athlete, was a spectator in the stands in 1956 at the Melbourne Olympics. So moved was he by the experience, and the feats of athletes like the Russian distance runner Vladimir Kuts, that he committed himself to the track in the years afterwards, culminating in his world record-shattering race in Rome. In this, an Olympic year, the question of just what was Australia’s greatest performance at an Olympic Games often arises. In pubs and clubs across the nation the arguments rage — was it Dawn Fraser’s win in the 100m freestyle in Tokyo in 1964, her third consecutive gold medal in the same event? What about Betty Cuthbert’s amazing comeback in Tokyo to win the 400m? And how about Kieren Perkins’s gutsy swim in Atlanta in 1996 to win his second 1,500m? All of these were tremendous performances but when Harry Gordon, the doyen of Olympic writers in Australia and the official historian of the Australian Olympic Committee, is consulted on this matter, he is quite unequivocal about his answer. Gordon is certain that Herb Elliott’s win over 1,500m on the track at Rome in 1960 was the greatest single performance by any Australian at any Olympic Games. It is not only that Elliott won by the amazing margin of 20 metres - almost three seconds, in fact. It’s not just because his time of 3min 5.6s created a new world record; but the fact remains that if someone runs that time in Sydney in September, there is every likelihood he will win the Olympic crown. It was a magnificent run, particularly as he was unchallenged, and the time was good enough to have won at Olympic Games since, with the exception of 1968 in Mexico City and 1984 in Los Angeles. Elliott was a phenomenal runner. Between 1954 and 1960 he won 44 consecutive races over 1,500m or a mile. He has been lauded as the greatest 1,500m runner of all time, this honour being given to him by his peers in track and field. Elliot believes that Melbourne in 1956 marked a turning-point for the modern Olympics. Held at a time of great international political tension, some of which spilled over in competition, the first Olympics ever held in the southern hemisphere still became known as the friendly Games. They also introduced the innovation of a closing ceremony in which athletes mingled instead of marching as separate teams. Olympic Games have their own flavour or feature. They are remembered not as years, but places. The Los Angeles Games, the Barcelona Games .... So what will Sydney bring to the Games? Elliott is sure that
these Olympics will be distinctively different and
distinctively Australian. But he finds it hard to explain
exactly what he means. “Look,” he says,
“you could take me blindfolded and take me in a
plane and put me in Australia somewhere and I would still
know for sure that I was in Australia. It’s not just
the accents, it’s the ambience of the place. Plus a
kind of frankness and honesty that can offend some.”
Sydney’s Games, he says, represent Australia’s
greatest opportunity to grab the world’s attention
for 16 days or so. He expects the world to be impressed
by Australian crowds, their passion, and the pleasure
they will take in the success of Australian competitors,
including perhaps, the women triathletes on the first day
of competition. But to Elliott the Olympics are more than
a sporting event. “If the weather is good the
atmosphere will be enormously festive. It will be an
enormous party. Boats on the harbour. Crowds of people on
the quay.” And all of it now 14 days away. — PMG |
Show-cause notice to IM Vijayan THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Sept 3 (UNI) — Indian football player IM Vijayan has been issued a show-cause notice by his employers — the Kerala Police — for his “unauthorised absence from duty and indiscipline.” Vijayan, an Assistant Sub-Inspector with the fifth Battalion of the Kerala Armed Police, has been asked to give a reply by September 15 on why action should not be initiated against him for his unauthorised absence from duty since August 20, 1991. The charges against
Vijayan, notified in the form of a Press advertisement,
include his refusal to receive the charge memo and
keeping himself away from the investigating officer when
he was playing for Mohun Bagan in West Bengal. Vijayan
was undergoing training under the Kerala Police Central
Sports Officer till August 1991. The show-cause notice
said Vijayan was indisciplined and had committed serious
dereliction of duty by abstaining without the knowledge
of his superiors and joining the Calcutta club . |
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HAMBURG, Sept 3 (AFP) — Germany began their fightback after reaching their all-time nadir at Euro 2000 by opening their World Cup qualification campaign here yesterday with a 2-0 win over Greece at a sold out Volkspark Stadium. Hertha Berlin winger Sebastian Deisler was overlooked by the Greek defence on 17 minutes and put the home side on the road to victory with a straightforward opener. Marco Bode headed a long Michael Ballack throw to him and Deisler hammered the ball home unchallenged from 11 metres. The Greeks tested Germany’s defence on a handful of occasions and came closest to an equaliser on 25 minutes when Vasilis Tsartas hit the post. Attentive goalkeeper Oliver Kahn had to keep alert as he was often called on to play a dashing last man in the absence of Germany’s usual sweeper, a position new coach Rudi Voller has abandoned for tactical reasons. Mehmet Scholl was pulling strings in midfield and single-handedly created the second goal on 75 minutes. His low shot was hooked
from right to left and seemingly covered by keeper
Dimitris Eleftheropoulos but defender Marinos Ouzounidis
stuck out a leg and deflected the ball into the net. |
ITF
women’s meet begins today NEW DELHI, Sept 3 — The second leg of the $ 10,000 ITF Women’s Circuit Tennis Tournament will be held at the synthetic courts of the Delhi Tennis Association here from tomorrow. Leanne Baker of New Zealand has been given the top billing while India’s Manisha Malhotra, who was beaten in the final of the first leg by Monique Adanczak of Australia in Jaipur yesterday, has been seeded second. Sai Jayalakshmi and Rushmi Chakravarthi are the other two Indians to get seedings at the number three and sixth positions. Twenty Indians figure in the 32-player main draw. Four players — Sai Swapana Ramakrishna, Olexandra Verkhnyatska of Ukraine, Smita Rani and Fichaya Laosirichon of Thailand — came through the qualifying rounds. The next few weeks will
witness a crowded tennis programme in Delhi as another
ITF circuit will be held in Delhi from October 23,
followed by a $ 25,000 tournament from October 30, DSCL
Hard Court National Championships from October 9 and the
Asia Cup for men and women from December 18. |
Castillo sinks Chile with bicycle kick SANTIAGO, Sept 3 (Reuters) — Rising Colombian star Jairo Castillo stunned Chile’s home fans with a spectacular overhead kick, which was enough to give his side a 1-0 victory in this World Cup qualifying match. Both teams came into this game keen to extend their rich vein of form, but Colombia looked more at ease on the ball. Fabian Estay, who was the star of Chile’s recent victory over Brazil, failed to find attackers Ivan Zamorano and Marcelo Salas with his usual regularity. Meanwhile, Colombian sweeper Pedro Reyes broke up many of the Chilean moves, and was at the heart of his team’s patient possession-building approach. Chile’s famed strike force was given little room although Salas nearly latched on to a loose back pass by Freddy Grisales before the break. However, the clearest chances of the first half went to Colombia, with Castillo almost slipping the ball past Tapias, then Jorge Bolano shaving the bar. The second half continued this chess-like pattern, as Chile struggled to find their rhythm and Colombia probed for an opening. It took an exceptional goal to separate the two sides. Juan Pablo Angel broked down Chile’s wing and sent a deep cross. An attempted clearance set up enough for the airborne Castillo to connect with one of his whirring feet, and the ball crashed past Tapias on 66 minutes. Chile’s efforts to
claw their way back were tainted by desperation, and an
equaliser never looked on the cards while Reyes continued
to deal with the Salas threat so impressively. Colombia
are yet to lose an away game in the current qualifying
tournament. Colombia’s victory leaves the team in
second place in the South American qualifying table on 15
points, one point ahead of Paraguay. |
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