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July 2, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Anand wins duel of champs
Sachin examined
by Madhavan |
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Jeev finishes joint
second Ashish Ballal hopes
to be back in hockey team Uzbekistan lift
Merdeka Cup Vijaylakshmi
suffers shock defeat Indian duo felicitated Pugilist Qamar
posts fluent win Squad denied
permission UP push
Punjab to 2nd spot Saqlain’s
haul
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Hewitt scrapes through
London, July 1 Second seed Agassi was his usual majestic self as the 1992 champion steamrollered Nicolas Massu of Chile 6-3 6-1 6-1 to book a meeting with either Nicolas Kiefer of Germany or Andrei Stoliarov of Russia. And Hewitt was all fist-pumping adrenaline in outhitting Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco 7-5 5-7 6-4 7-6 (7/4). Hewitt, who thus moves into the fourth round for the first time, will now take on Frenchman Nicolas Escude, who shocked compatriot and ninth seed Sebastien Grosjean 5-7 6-4 6-3 6-4. If the Aussie wins that one Agassi is set to be his next opponent in the quarters. Third seed and last year’s beaten finalist Pat Rafter made it an Aussie double as he saw off another Moroccan in the shape of Hicham Arazi, closing out an entertaining encounter 7-6 (7/3) 6-4 7-5 with his tenth ace. Rafter now faces Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny, who beat Fabrice Santoro when the Frenchman withdrew with an injured right shoulder when Youzhny was leading 7-5 6-0 2-0, for a place in the quarters. Seventh seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia failed to clear the third round hurdle as Argentina’s Guillermo Canas shocked him 3-6 6-1 6-3 7-6 (7/2), prompting the 27-year-old former world number one to express doubts about ever winning the event. Canas, a 23-year-old from Buenos Aires, now meets tenth seed Thomas Enqvist of Sweden, who hammered Wayne Black of Zimbabwe 7-5 6-4 6-2. Agassi said he was getting more confident with each match knowing he has the experience to draw on of his 1992 victory and his run to the 1999 final which only serial champion Pete Sampras could stop. “I feel good about my game. I feel ready for the challenge,” said the Las Vegan. “I think Wimbledon is a different tournament in the second week (when) the grass plays differently. “You’re playing the best in the world for the biggest title in the world. I’m looking forward to it.” Agassi, (31) paid the 20-year-old Hewitt the compliment of playing in many ways like a younger version of himself. “I found my game on grass very early and I think Lleyton has as well,” said Agassi, who praised the Aussie gunslinger’s “determined business approach.” Hewitt’s weeks of physical toil to prepare for the grasscourt season following his Roland Garros quarter-final loss to Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero have paid off handsomely as he came here after retaining his title at Queens’ Club where he beat both Pete Sampras and Tim Henman. He then won at Den Bosch and is now staking a genuine claim to become the first Australian champion here since Pat Cash in 1987. Hewitt had to fight hard to counter some superb service games from El Aynaoui but he was able to up his game a notch when it really mattered. “Maybe I could’ve taken a few more risks on his serve,” he reflected afterwards. But he said he was happy with his form and enjoying the event after failing to produce his best on Centre Courts in previous visits. “I’ve never felt intimidated out there. I’ve just been myself and that’s paid off in the last couple of matches.” Hewitt emphatically denied Agassi had been preying on his mind as the rival who might well end his challenge. “I haven’t seen one of Andre’s matches — that’s how much he’s been on my mind! “My goal was to get through to the second week and here I am. It’s a great feeling to get through to the last 16. This is when the tour starts all over again. “I’m feeling strong. I feel like I’m in a bit of a groove.” The tournament’s new policy of having 32 seeds in the men’s and women’s draws as opposed to the old 16 has produced an event so far almost bereft of shocks, one major exception being the loss of women’s top seed Martina Hingis, knocked out in the opening round by Spaniard Virginia Ruano Pascual. Seven of the top 16 men have gone with 13 of the bottom 16 crashing out. Among the women, six of the top 16 have bowed out and 18 of the 32 seeds overall have been beaten.
Venus advances
Defending champion and second seed Venus Williams of the USA reached the last 16 of the Wimbledon women’s singles, defeating Elena Likhovtseva of Russia 6-2 6-2 in 57 minutes. Williams next plays Russia’s Nadia Petrova for a place in the last eight.
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Anand wins duel of champs Mainz, July 1 Anand seemed to have reserved his best chess for the tie-breaker to win the duel of the world champions, as he beat Vladimir Kramnik 1.5-0.5 in the two game blitz tie-breaker. But it could well have been 2-0 as Kramnik had virtually run out of time in the second game. Kramnik salvaged a face-saving half point for whatever it was worth with perpetual checks. Earlier Anand, who had enacted the Houdini act on a couple of occasions to escape with a draw, ultimately came out the winner. He won the first tie-breaker in 28 moves with white pieces to take the lead, which turned out to be decisive. The second tie-breaker game was drawn in 38 moves. Earlier the last two regulation games ended in quick draws lasting 26 and 19 moves. So after a week long of nail-biting chess, often riddled with a lot of errors it came down to the tie-breaker where Anand extended his score over Kramnik in blitz to win a match, that despite no title on offer had a lot of prestige at stake. “It is always nice to come out with a win,’’ said Anand, after the match, as he headed for the press conference. “There was a lot of pressure for obvious reason,’’ he said referring to the status of the two players as world champions. And he also admitted that there were times, when he seemed to be playing badly. “I just don’t know why,’’ he said when asked for a reason. But an unsaid reason could well have been that the players may have been holding back something for the upcoming Super GM tournament in Dortmund, which will played in the classical form of two hours for 40 moves and over seven hours in all. Kramnik for his part, said, “Anand played very well in the tie-breaker and I just couldn’t come up with the right replies.’’ In the second tie-breaker game, with Kramnik needing to win the next game to level the match and send it into in the sudden death, Anand opted for the Queen’s Gambit accepted once again with black, the sixth time he had done in as many games with the black. Kramnik’s troubles were not only on the board but also with the clock, as he had less than half a minute left when he resigned, while Anand had more than two and a half minutes. Once again Kramnik ran into problems with time and as Anand moved at a lightning speed, the BrainGames world champion as left shaking his head. His position crumbled and Anand assumed a huge winning advantage and then as the clock seemed to be running out on the Russian, he opted for a draw with perpetuals and the game was drawn in 38 moves. There was some confusion over whether it was a draw or a win for Anand. But the chief arbiter confirmed it as a draw. Anand had more than two minutes left on his clock, while Kramnik was virtually down to zero. Earlier in the first tie-breaker game, Kramnik playing with black went into the Sicilian and played the early qb6, just as he had in the eighth game on Saturday. On that occasion, he made Anand suffer and went two pawns up but was unable to get the win, which seemed so likely. This time, Anand was more solid, there were no errors and with his lightning style, he had Kramnik on the mat in next to no time. Kramnik was down to less than half a minute.
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West Indies move into final Bulawayo, July 1 With both sides desperately needing a win, West Indies and Zimbabwe produced the best cricket of the tournament so far and the finish came only off the second last ball of the match. Chasing 256 to win, West Indies needed 14 runs from the last two overs and five from the last. Heath Streak, who bowled the last over, made a valiant attempt to snatch a win giving away just three runs off his first four balls. With two runs needed from two balls, Ridley Jacobs made a desperate swipe which cleared the inner fielders and sent Zimbabwe crashing out of the tournament. Zimbabwe lost all their four encounters in the series. A win here would have squared them with West Indies on two points each though the latter still have a game left against India, already through to the final, on Wednesday. The final is slated for July 7. Earlier, Zimbabwe made a determined effort to come back into the tournament and recovered from 27 for three in the 13th over to post a healthy 255 for five in their
allotted 50 overs. Grant Flower and Craig Wishart raised 126 runs for the fourth wicket after Zimbabwe, put in to bat by West Indies skipper Carl Hooper, had been reduced to 27 for three in the 13th over. Both Flower and Wishart displayed attacking cricket under trying circumstances and came up trumps against the West Indian bowling which, with the exception of Cameroon Cuffy and Colin Collymore, was quite wayward. Carl Hooper did bowl a couple of good overs in the end to somewhat restrict the Zimbabweans who were on course of a score in excess of 270 till Flower was present. Flower, who hit five fours and two sixes in his 107-ball knock, looked set to complete the first century of the tournament when he was caught by Mahendra Nagamootoo at the long-on boundary off Mervyn Dillon for 94. SCOREBOARD Zimbabwe: Campbell c Gayle b Cuffy 17 Ebrahim c Jacobs b Cuffy 1 Carlisle c Gayle b Collymore 4 Wishart c Collymore b Dillon 71 G. Flower c Nagamootoo b Whittall not out 39 Blignaut not out 12 Extras (b-4, lb-6, nb-2, w-5) 17 Total (for five wkts, 50 overs) 255 Fall of wickets:
1-4, 2-9, 3-27, 4-153, 5-234. Bowling: C. Cuffy 10-2-30-2, C. Collymore 9-0-42-1, M. Dillon 10-1-46-2, C. Hooper 9-0-48-0, M. Ngamootoo 5-0-32-0, M. Samuels 5-0-36-0, W. Hinds 1-0-11-0. West Indies: Ganga run out 34 Gayle c Blignaut b Flower 76 Hinds c Taibu b Streak 54 Chanderpaul HW b Campbell 24 Hooper c Carlisle b Flower 24 Jacobs not out 22 Samuels not out 6 Extras
(lb-8, w-9, nb-1) 18 Total (5 wkts, 49.5 overs) 258 Fall of wickets: 1-93, 2-137, 3-177, 4-205, 5-237. Bowling: Streak 8.5-0-52-1; Strang 10-0-40-0; Blignaut 10-1-51-0; Grant Flower 10-0-46-2; Campbell 9-0-48-1; Whittal 2-0-13-0.
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Sachin examined by Madhavan New Delhi, July 1 Sources in Mumbai today said Tendulkar was examined by Madhavan before the team left for Zimbabwe last month. They said Tendulkar was the third person to be questioned by Madhavan, who has been asked by the BCCI to probe into the controversial Test match, in which India, with a lead of 275 runs, could have easily asked New Zealand to follow-on. Tendulkar was leading the team in the controversial Test, which was even probed by the CBI during its investigations into the betting and match-fixing scandal. However, the sources said Tendulkar was “examined as a witness only” and his comments were necessary in the Madhavan probe as he was the captain of the team. Madhavan, a former Joint Director of the CBI, had already examined Ajit Wadekar (the then manager of the team) and Kapil Dev (the then coach of the team), the sources said. When approached for his confirmation, Madhavan, who investigated the famous bank security scam, refused to comment on the issue. However, he said he was probing the Ahmedabad Test and would be submitting his report by this month end after examining another person. The Ahmedabad Test sparked a serious controversy after the Indian side did not ask the Kiwis to follow on. The match, which ended in a draw, was played from October 29 to November two. About his finding in the Ahmedabad Test, Madhavan said: “My inquiries have revealed that the match was drawn due to certain factors and I cannot say anything beyond this.” He, however, added that since the Test match took place in 1999, it may not be possible to probe into all the aspects that led to the drawn result. Besides he said the BCCI had been referring to him for investigations some more cases including the recent “ticket scam” in Goa. Comparing his report to the one submitted by International Cricket Council’s Anti-Corruption Unit chief Sir Paul Condon, Madhavan said: “The terms of references of such inquiries aim at identifying betting. But this has to be tackled by the police and the CBI, who have been doing a commendable job.” Madhavan favoured making mandatory certain rules against carrying mobile phones to the match venues or inviting unknown persons to hotel room by players the world over. The BCCI Vigilance Commissioner commended ICC’s Condon report and said: “It was a well researched and definitely a step in the right direction.”
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Jeev finishes joint second Tochigi (Japan), July 1 Jeev aggregated eight-under 280 for the tournament. It was his best finish on the Japanese PGA Tour this season. Earlier, the Chandigarh golfer had finished runner-up in the 1999 Kirin Open after losing to Koreas Choi Kyoung-Ju in a playoff. A victory would have been a first by an Indian golfer outside the Asian PGA Tour. The tournament was won by overnight joint leader Katsumasa Miyamoto, who was one of only three players to break par on a blustery, rainy day. In fact, so poor were the scores that the average score of the 68 players was 4.78 over par. Miyamoto shot a three-under 69 to tally 15-under 273 for the tournament. That gave him a seven-stroke victory margin over Jeev and Eduardo Herrera of Colombia. Heerera shot a level-par 72 in the final round. “I am a bit disappointed that it finished this way. But it was so windy that one could hardly stand on the ball. Miyamoto played such a fantastic round under the conditions that he deserves to win,’’ said Jeev. “I look at it this way. Last week, I finished fourth in the Mizuno Open and this week I am second. Hopefully, I will win the Hiroshima Open next week,” added the Hero Honda-sponsored golfer. On the final day, Jeev started with a bogey on the par-4 first hole and was four-over after seven holes with further bogeys on the fourth, sixth and seventh holes. Birdies on the par-5 eighth and 10th help him recover somewhat, but he dropped shots again on the 14th and 15th. Jeev’s third and final birdie came on the par-5 16th and he signed off with a bogey on the 18th that denied him a lone second place finish. Daniel Chopra, the India-born Swede, collapsed on the final day to finish tied for the 60th place. Daniel could not recover from a bogey-triple bogey start and shot a 10-over 82. All other Asian PGA Tour regulars slipped in treacherous conditions. Reigning Wills Indian Open champion Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand, who was tied for the sixth place yesterday, shot an eight-over 80 to be tied for the 27th place at level-par 288. Result (after 72 holes): 273- Katsumasa Miyamoto (69,67,68,69); 280 — Jeev Milkha Singh (66,70,68,76), Eduardo Herrera (68,68,72,72); 281 — Hidemichi Tanaka (69,70,68,74), Dean Wilson (69,71,68,73); 282 — Kiyoshi Murota (72,69,67,74); 283 — Hajime Meshiai (65,72,73,73), Kazuhiro Takami (67,71,71,74); 284 — Toshikazu Sugihara (69,68,71), Kosaku Makisaka (66,72,70), Yoshinori Mizumaki (67,74,69,74).
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Ashish Ballal hopes to be back in hockey team Bangalore, July 1 “I am fully fit. I can even now play for India. I am confident of playing again for the country’’, 30-year-old Ashish, who earned the wrath of the IHF headed by Mr KPS Gill immediately after the Bangkok Asian Games gold, told UNI in an interview. Ashish virtually brought the Asiad gold for India as the country defeated South Korea 5-4 in a nail biting tie breaker in the finals in 1998. Ashish, who has combined with ace centre-forward Dhanraj Pillay to give back something to the game by launching academies in Mumbai and Bangalore in September next, said “I think I can play for another nine years. The present Dutch keeper is 39 years old. Unfortunately, people in India think that the player is unfit after 28 years. Many abroad make their debut at the age of 29 and I started playing for the country at the age of 16.’’ However, the custodian working as Commercial Manager with Indian Airlines refused to be drawn into discussions on matters concerning the IHF. On the academy, they would be consulting the IHF as it was aimed at promoting the hockey, he added. Ashish was one of the six players sacked by the IHF immediately after the Asiad. While a few like Sabu Varkey have come back, Ashish was yet to find favour with the federation. The decision had shocked the hockey afficianadoes but the federation seemed to be unmoved. The goalkeeper, who has won many an encounter for India, did not agree that reflexes slow down with the age. “Reflexes account for only 20 per cent of the performance. One need to analyse the game and anticipate the action. Even 10 per cent of the reflexes could be made up’’. He felt that even full backs should be experienced. Speaking at length about his dream project, Ashish said the academies in Bangalore and Mumbai should be in place by September. It was a ecofriendly project as they would be running them on the funds generated from returning the used cartridges to Letscrop BV firm based in Amsterdam, he added. The company would pay them 1.25 Deutsche marks for every cartrdige returned. “Basically, we wanted to give back something to the game which had made us great. So me and dhanraj decided on the academy. We have plans to spread the tentacles to other parts. Hopefully, if everything goes well, we will have one in Hyderabad’’. Stressing that it was a dream project of the duo, he said there was no shortage of talented hockey players in the country. “We have abundant talent. We have huge population of hockey players. We have to give them right training to produce Olympic champions. We will be doing our job if we could give about three Olympic players in the next four to eight years’’, he added. “We will have our own schedule. A foreign model will not suit our needs. We will have a schedule which is best for us and suited our players’’, he added. Maintaining that Indian hockey was still the best, Ashish said “It is rubbish to say that in Holland and Germany hockey is better. We should follow our own hockey and stop imitating Europeans’’. On the plans, he said the boys need to be taught about certain basics and on conserving energy to last the full 70 minutes. It was wrong to say that Indians lacked physical fitness. “Our game is that we carry the ball too long and we lose energy. The
academy will concentrate on these aspects. We will be picking up about 21 to 50 boys in the age group of 14 to 20 purely on merit and mould them’’. Ashish, who had served as an assistant to Cedric d’Souza for some time coaching the Indian team, said they would be needing about Rs 15 to 20 lakh to run the academy for the year and were in dialogue with many people. However, he declined to name them. He said to begin with they would be utilising the facilities at the Karnataka State Hockey Association and Mumbai Hockey Association and later “we would like to have our own infrastructure. Down the line in a couple of years, we want to have our own Astro Turf’’. There were plans to call the Indian and foreign players to assist the trainees at the academies. The response from corporates for the project, where scientific training would be imparted, had been very encouraging. They had plans for having a tournament between the academies.
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Uzbekistan lift Merdeka Cup Kuala Lumpur, July 1 Just when the match appeared headed for a penalty shootout, Hamidullaev Bakhtiyor headed the all-important winner a minute from the end of extra-time. The goal was a huge relief for Uzbekistan who should have wrapped it up in normal time. They were leading by an 83rd minute goal from substitute Koshelev Leonid and had a hand on the trophy when Bosnia’s Velimir Brasnic hit the equaliser in the 90th minute. What made the goal all the more extraordinary was that Bosnia were down to nine men after skipper Mirsad Beslija and Srdan Pecelj were sent off in the 61st and 84th minutes respectively. The first 20 minutes were physical and Malaysian referee Halim Abdul Hamid had his hands full trying to maintain order. Uzbekistan had two players — Ashurmatov Bakhtiyor and Soliev Anvarjon — booked in the 10th and 17th minutes. Bosnia’s Almin Kulenovic was shown the yellow card in the 13th minute. The two sides went to the break all square and there were few goal scoring
opportunities when they came out for the second half with both sides struggling to string together decent attacks. While the goal attempts were limited, Halim’s work was far from over. Alikulov Asror picked up a booking in the 54th minute and in the 61st minute all hell almost broke loose when Beslija hacked down an Uzbek player. As the Uzbek players rushed at him, the referee took out the red card on Beslija. Bakhtiyor, however, was not satisfied and struck Beslija. Players from the Bosnian bench rushed in but officials managed to calm the situation. When the dust settled, Halim sent Bakhtiyor off. There was more to come. After a serving a yellow card on Safet Nadarevic for diving in the box, Hamid had to give Srdan Pecelj his marching orders for hacking Hamidullaev Bakhtiyor down in the 84th minute. A minute earlier, Uzbekistan stunned the Bosnians when Koshelev Leonid took advantage of a defensive slip to score the first goal of the game. Just when the match seemed over, Bosnia bounced back to score through Velimir Brasnic. Like Uzbekistan, the Bosnians found the goal courtesy a blunder at the back.
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Vijaylakshmi suffers shock defeat Nagpur, July 1 Enterprising Surinder Kumar Sharma of Delhi scored a thumping victory over International Master Shankar Roy of Railways while top seed R.B. Ramesh was held to a draw by former national junior champion Promod Kumar Singh of Bihar. In another upset, world under-12 champion Deep Sen Gupta accounted for IM Anup Deshmukh with white pieces. For Vijaylakshmi it was a tough outing against the veteran Neelakanthan. The opening concession was given to Vijayalakshmi and she enjoyed a dynamic equality in the early middlegame. Vijaylakshmi obtained the bishop pair to press for an advantage on the queenside. However, Neelakanthan came up with a surprising plan that involved the attack on the king side and caught Vijaylakshmi off guard in the complexities that ensued. Shankar faced the caro kann defence by Surinder and embarked on his pet panov botvinnik variation. Surinder cashed in on an oversight in the early middlegame and won a pawn to romp home easily in rooks and pawns endgame. Ramesh struggled against an original plan of Promod in the semi-slav defence game with black pieces. As the castling was done on opposite flanks, the centre onslaught by Ramesh did not yield the desirable position and Promod looked clearly on top in the middlegame. Ramesh, however, did not show any inclination to attack and Promod fumbled to strike upon the right plan. After exchanging a few pieces, Promod found himself in the rook and opposite colour bishops endgame. The draw was soon agreed to.
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Indian duo felicitated
London, July 1 The Indians, however, failed to make a mark at the Wimbledon Championships, currently underway, with unceremonious first round exit from the men’s doubles section. Bhupathi said they would try to move over from the “none-too happy performance at the Wimbledon. We had not been our best there....Tomorrow is a new day.” The function was attended among others by Lord Swraj Paul, Chairman of the 500-million pound Caparo Group, Lord Navnit Dholakia, President of the Liberal Democrats Party, Vijay Amritraj and brother Anand Amritraj, Tennis stars of yesteryears. Speaking on the occasion, Lord Paul, who is also the Co-Chairman of the Indo-British Round Table, congratulated Paes and Bhupathi for “making all Indians proud” by their performance and wished them “long career and great victories.” Referring to Vijay Amritraj, Lord Paul said: “You had made us proud for a very long time. We hear about you and the wonderful things you have been doing and certainly it enhances our image all over the world. We are very proud from where we come from.” PTI |
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Pugilist
Qamar posts fluent win Bangkok, July 1 The 19-year-old Qamar scored a 6-0 first round lead after he gave a deft left jab to Zafan to set up a vicious right hook. Qamar continued landing a series of jabs with his superior hand speed to take a 11-0 lead after the second round. The third round saw Qamar landing punches from the outside, forcing the referee to stop the contest with a 15-point rule after Zafan found it difficult to hit back. Qamar will now meet Thailand’s Nopphadol Kongchana in the next round. Indian coach Shiv Singh was optimistic and said Qamar had a good chance of getting the medal as two top boxing teams — the USA and Cuba — were not participating in the team. More than a hundred boxers are participating in the tournament from over 19 countries.
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Squad denied permission Patiala, July 1 As a result of this decision, all the five w’lifters — Krishana Veni, Renu Bala, Sumati Devi, P. Sailaja and P. Harita-hastily left the national camp, being held at the NIS here, yesterday. Both the junior and senior camps are simultaneously were being held at the NIS and at the SAI southern centre at Bangalore. The senior Indian team was slated to take part in the Senior Asian Weightlifting Championships to be held at Shenju (South Korea) from July 12 to 17. |
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UP push Punjab to 2nd spot Lucknow, July 1 The Chandigarh boys continued to remain at the third place. In the girls section, Tamil Nadu wrested the team championship from Punjab. Punjab failed to win any of the first three places. The host girls also improved their position from third to second this year. Assam got the third place in this category. Sanjeev Tomar of Maharshtra and Babita Rani of Punjab were declared as strong boy and strong girl of the championship, respectively. In today’s competitions, Rahul Kumar of UP created a record in 110-kg squat, lifting 210 kgs. Rahul also lifted 95 kgs in bench press, 210 kgs in deadlift and 515 kg in total. Tejwant Singh of Punjab and Prasoon P.S. of the IPF claimed second and third places, respectively, in this event.
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Saqlain’s haul London, July 1 His only real rival as the world’s best off-spinner, Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan, had already taken five for 81 as Lancashire dismissed Surrey for 248.
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