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Monday,
September 8, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Roddick, Ferrero to clash for title Harmison, Bicknell raise England hopes
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Pak skipper Latif banned for 5 ODIs
NAYUDU CRICKET TOURNAMENT
Hockey camp
begins today
Afro-Asian Games top priority
for Sunita INTER-STATE ATHLETICS Shloka declared best swimmer
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Henin-Hardenne lifts crown
New York, September 7 That she was even able to compete in the final of the last Grand Slam of the year was a minor miracle in itself. That she played near-perfect tennis to win 7-5 6-1 is the stuff of folklore. It was a performance that won the 21-year-old a cool $1 million but, to Henin-Hardenne, it was priceless. “It is such a great feeling. I am so happy right now ... two Grand Slams in the same year I can’t believe it,” she said. “I tell you, I am the happiest woman in the world right now. It has been a terrific two weeks.” Never mind that a representative of sponsor JP Morgan Chase blundered by asking the crowd to congratulate “Christine” Henin-Hardenne before the trophy presentation. This victory puts her name up there with some of the sport’s greatest comeback artists and installs her as world number two on Monday - still behind Clijsters but closing fast. It was an incredible achievement considering just hours earlier she lay exhausted on a bed in the Flushing Meadows infirmary with an intravenous drip in her arm, suffering cramps and dehydration. While Clijsters had been tucked up in bed on Friday night, Henin had been locked in battle with a tigerish Jennifer Capriati in a three-hour semifinal stretching into the early hours of the finals day. Such was the state of Henin-Hardenne as she limped off court to a standing ovation that there were very real fears she would not be able to take her place on court for the Super Saturday showdown. The determination she showed comes as no surprise to anyone who knows her, for her sublime God-given talent is backed by a steely temperament. It is a temperament that steered her to beat Clijsters in the final of the French Open earlier this year and one which on Saturday made Clijsters’ world number one ranking appear little more than an arithmetical error. Clijsters had looked unstoppable throughout the tournament. She had not lost a set on her way to the final. In fact she had not lost more than six games in any match over the fortnight. But under the floodlights on Arthur Ashe Stadium Court, Henin-Hardenne made her look clumsy and inept. In fairness, though, there are few players in the history of the sport who could share a spotlight with Henin-Hardenne when she is on form. On Saturday, she was on fire. The Henin-Hardenne backhand has always been a thing of beauty. From the moment she stepped on to centre court it was jaw-dropping. Rolling the ball crosscourt or down the line with equal grace and power, Henin-Hardenne raced into a 3-0 lead. There was little sign of the exhaustion that had all-but scuppered her chances earlier in the day as she scampered around the court. — Reuters
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Roddick, Ferrero to clash for title
New York, September 7 On the same Arthur Ashe Stadium court where Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras played the last match of their epic series in last year’s final, two rising stars seeking a breakthrough Grand Slam triumph will begin a new rivalry. “If Andy has a great serving day, it’s going to be tough for anybody to beat him,” Agassi said. “But if he’s a little off and Juan Carlos gets into some of the points, Andy is going to feel him.” Third seed Ferrero, the French Open champion, took the top ranking from Agassi by beating him 6-4 6-3 3-6 6-4 here yesterday in the semifinals. “To be number one, it’s a special day for me,” Ferrero said. “I worked a lot for this number one. I’m really happy to be number one. It’s my first time and I’m going to work really hard to stay number one.” Ferrero became only the second Spaniard to reach number one, after Carlos Moya owned the spot for two weeks in March of 1999, and reached his first Grand Slam final outside the red clay of Roland Garros. Roddick, 21, fired a career-best 38 aces to win his 18th match in a row and first Slam semifinal after earlier semi losses at Wimbledon and the Australian Open. He found maturity helped keep him from panic when he faced defeat. Ferrero will be playing for the fourth day in a row after an unprecedented Grand Slam match jam that four days of rain forced upon organisers. “I feel a little bit tired but I think I’m going to be OK,” Ferrero said. Roddick is 26-1 since Wimbledon and 36-2 since firing France’s Tarik Benhabilies as his coach following a French Open first-round loss and joining forces with Agassi’s former coach, Brad Gilbert. That run includes titles at Queen’s, Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Montreal, semifinal losses at Washington and Wimbledon. Roddick broke his career record of aces in a match with his 38th on the penultimate point, surpassing by one the mark he set two years ago against Michael Chang at the French Open. Nalbandian had a match point in the third-set tie-breaker but Roddick saved it with a service winner and seized momentum, capturing the tie-break, winning the fourth set with ease and taking a 4-3 lead in the fifth. A controversial call spelled doom for Nalbandian in the eighth game, when Roddick broke him on a backhand that was ruled wide. Nalbandian protested to no avail, then went down to Roddick at love after three hours and 31 minutes. Roddick’s rally prevented the first American-less US Open singles finals since 1988, following the semifinal failures of Agassi, Jennifer Capriati and Lindsay Davenport. — AFP
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Harmison, Bicknell raise England hopes
London, September 7 At close, the Proteas were 185 for six in their second innings after Andrew Flintoff’s rapid 95 had propelled England to 604 for nine declared and a first innings lead of 120 earlier today. South Africa, 2-1 up, and looking for their first series win in England since 1965, were 93 for two when fast bowler Harmison took two wickets in four balls for no runs. Gritty left-hander Gary Kirsten, who made 190 runs in South Africa’s 191 run fourth Test win at Headingley, had made 29 when he edged a rare full length ball from Harmison to first slip Marcus Trescothick. And Harmison then had Jacques Kallis lbw for 35 after the all-rounder went back across his stumps leaving the tourists tottering on 93 for four. At tea, Neil McKenzie was three not out and Jacques Rudolph four not out. South Africa started the second session on 10 without loss, a deficit of 110 with captain Graeme Smith two not out and Herschelle Gibbs unbeaten on eight. South Africa (Ist innings):
484 England (Ist innings): Trescothick c Rudolph b Ntini 219 Vaughan c Gibbs b Pollock 23 Butcher lbw b Hall 32 Thorpe b Kallis 124 Smith lbw b Hall 16 Stewart lbw b Pollock 38 Flintoff b Adams 95 Giles c Hall b Kallis 2 Bicknell lbw b Pollock 0 Harmison not out 6 Anderson not out 0 Extras:
(b-11, lb-18, w-9 nb-11) 49 Total: (9 wkts dec,162 overs) 604 FoW:
1-28, 2-78, 3-346, 4-379, 5-480, 6-489, 7-502, 8-502, 9-601. Bowling:
Pollock 39-10-111-3, Ntini 31-4-129-1, Hall 35-5-111-2, Kallis 34-5-117-2, Adams 17-2-79-1, Rudolph 6-1-28-0. South Africa (2nd innings): Smith lbw b Bicknell 19 Gibbs c Stewart b Anderson 9 Kirsten c Trescothick b Harmison 29 Kallis lbw b Harmison 35 McKenzie lbw b Flintoff 38 Rudolph b Bicknell 8 Boucher not out 22 Pollock not out 19 Extras:
(b-1 lb-5) 6 Total: (6 wickets, 57 overs) 185 FoW:
1-24 2-34 3-92 4-93 5-118 6-150 Bowling: Bicknell 18-43-51-2, Anderson 10-1-55-1, Harmison 13-5-24-2, Giles 10-2-36-0, Flintoff 6-2-13-1.
— AFP
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Pak skipper Latif
banned for 5 ODIs Multan, September 7 Procter announced his verdict today after having a 45-minute hearing with Latif, Pakistan manager Haroon Rasheed, Bangladesh manager M.A. Latif Khan and the two umpires, Russell Tiffin of Zimbabwe and Asoka de Silva of Sri Lanka. Pakistan and Bangladesh played their third Test in Multan from Wednesday to Thursday. “It is a very serious offence. My decision is that Latif shall be banned for five ODIs,” Procter said. Procter said the TV replays “show it convincingly — without a shadow of doubt that certain things have happened. The replays revealed that in rolling over a couple of times, Latif picked the ball up from the ground.” “Even Latif is not saying he didn’t pick the ball off the ground. That was all in evidence for everybody to see. He is saying may be he held the ball long enough to constitute the catch.” Procter said Latif could appeal against the decision. Latif claimed to have caught Bangladesh batsman Alok Kapali off paceman Yasir Ali on the third day of the match on Friday. Pakistan won the match by a narrow one-wicket margin. The match-referee said though the Bangladesh management had asked for a level four punishment, which envisages ban from five Tests or 10 ODIs or a life ban, for Latif, he decided against it. The Pakistan Cricket Board promptly announced Inzamam-ul Haq as a replacement for Latif for the uncoming ODI series against Bangladesh beginning Tuesday.
— PTI |
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NAYUDU CRICKET TOURNAMENT
Srinagar, September 7 Chattisgarh finished the show in just 16.3 overs without losing any wicket to overhaul the 130 runs scored by Bihar at the Degree College Anantnag Ground. In other matches, hosts Jammu and Kashmir came closer to staging an upset but in the end lost steam to go down to Andhra Pradesh by 10 runs. Andhra Pradesh scored 166-6 in their alloted quota of 30 overs and bundled out the hosts for 156 runs in the last over. Punjab also continued its good show as they scored a four-wicket win over favourites Delhi. The latter scored 117 runs and were bowled out on the last ball of their innings but Punjab had to work hard for the win as they lost six wickets to reach 118 with just two overs to spare. Chandigarh defeated last year’s finalists Madhya Pradesh (MP) by a comfortable margin of 56 runs. Chandigarh scored 139 runs for the loss of eight wickets but its bowlers went on a demolition job, skittling the MP team for 83 runs in just 13.1 overs. West Bengal registered a huge 105-run win over Jharkhand. West Bengal put up 156 runs in 29.5 overs and then sent back the Jharkhand team for just 51 runs in 19.2 overs. Gujarat registered first win of the tournament by beating neighbours Rajas-than by 39 runs. — PTI
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Jugraj to be flown
abroad for treatment Ludhiana, September 7 This was informed by Mr Suresh K. Sharma, chief of protocol,
IHF, who along with Ramandeep Singh, former captain of the Indian hockey team, visited the injured hockey star who is recuperating here at the Dayanand Medical College and Hospital after an accident on September 2 near Jalandhar. Mr Sharma said Dr Rajoo Singh
Chhina, Medical Superintendent, DMC&H briefed him about the condition of the patient and said all the vital
parameters of Jugraj Singh were normal and the doctors attending on him were satisfied with the progress. Mr Sharma said he had collected copies of all the relevant reports of the patient and would despatch the same to experts in Germany, Australia and the USA for their opinion. Dr Chhina informed him that it would take between two to four weeks for Jugraj to be able to travel, Mr Sharma said. Mr Sharma further said that the IHF had received the green signal from the Central Government to expedite the process of shifting the penalty corner specialist, Jugraj Singh abroad for the best available medical assistance. The moment we get information from the hospital authorities to take the patient abroad, he would be taken out. Earlier in the day, Mr J.N. Tyagi and Mr R. Pandit, treasurer and member, respectively, of the IHF, called on Jugraj and wished him an early recovery. Meanwhile, the sports fraternity here is worried that the large number of visitors who continue to throng the hospital causing inconvenience to the patient as well as his family members, also pose a threat of infection to Jugraj. Mr Rajdeep Singh Gill, ADGP Punjab and president, Punjab Basketball Association
(PBA), Mr Teja Singh Dhaliwal, honorary general secretary, PBA, Mr H.S. Randhawa, vice-president, District Hockey Association, Ludhiana, Hardeep Singh Grewal, former hockey Olympian and Sajjan Singh Cheema, Arjuna awardee, have said that Jugraj is national property. They also urged that Jugraj shall be shifted to some other country so that he can recover soon to be active again to serve the country. |
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Hockey
camp begins today
New Delhi, September 7 The notable absentee in the camp, which will be attended by 21 players, will be penalty corner expert Jugraj Singh who is recovering after suffering multiple fractures in a road accident in Punjab earlier this week. The team will be selected on September 13 after which the members may be flown to Singapore to get acquainted to the playing conditions in Kuala Lumpur, venue for the September 21-28 Asia Cup where all the matches will be held under lights. The Indian Hockey Federation is yet to get the permission from the government for the five-day exposure trip to Singapore from where the players are scheduled to fly to Kuala Lumpur on September 20. The camp will witness the return of Sandeep Michael, who missed the Champions Trophy due to jaundice. Two more players — Baljit Singh Saini and Ignace Tirkey — have also been named as probables after they missed the bronze medal play-off against Pakistan in the elite six-nation tournament in Amstelveen due to injuries. “These two along with Sandeep Michael are doing fine and will join the camp tomorrow,” IHF sources told PTI here today. The team will be relying on senior players Dilip Tirkey and Baljit Singh Dhillon for short corner conversion as the IHF has not named a substitute for Jugraj Singh, ruled out of action for several months.
—PTI
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EURO 2004
QUALIFIERS
Paris, September 7 England defeated Macedonia 2-1, defending champions France crushed Cyprus 5-0 while Italy brought the Welsh bandwagon crashing to a halt with a 4-0 win yesterday. However, Voller, who took Germany to the World Cup final last year, was as gloomy as the Reykjavik weather after his side struggled to a 0-0 draw with Iceland. In Skopje, Wayne Rooney became the youngest player to score for England as Sven-Goran Eriksson’s side came from behind to earn a 2-1 win over Macedonia that moves them to the brink of automatic qualification. The 17-year-old Everton striker’s 53rd-minute goal and a penalty from captain David Beckham cancelled out Georgi Hristov’s first half opener for the home side and left England as clear favourites to win group seven. “The talent is there, the quality is there. Of course he has a lot to learn but if things go to plan, he can go very, very far,” said Eriksson of Rooney. Group rivals Turkey beat Liechenstein 3-0 to keep the pressure on England. Meanwhile, Voller launched an angry tirade at his players and the German media after a dour 0-0 draw against Iceland in group five. “There was not enough from the players,” fumed the coach. “On Wednesday, when we play Scotland, the only players who will take part are ones who promise me 100 per cent.” There were no such complaints from either French coach Jacques Santini or Italian supremo Giovanni Trapattoni. The French thrashed Cyprus 5-0 in Paris thanks to two goals each from David Trezeguet and Sylvain Wiltord and one from Thierry Henry. The easy win means France, the only nation with a 100 per cent record, now need just a point in Slovenia on Wednesday to book their spot in the finals in Portugal as group one winners. Only the 10 group winners are guaranteed a place in the finals next summer with the runners-up forced into five play-offs. In Milan, Italy took a huge step towards the finals crushing Group nine rivals Wales 4-0. A stunning 11 minute second-half hat-trick by AC Milan striker Filippo Inzaghi put Italy in firm control before Alessandro Del Piero’s penalty completed the rout. The resounding victory saw Italy replace Wales at the top of the group with two matches to play. In Glasgow, James McFadden rounded off a memorable week following his move from Motherwell to Everton by scoring the third goal in an unconvincing 3-1 group five victory over the Faroe Islands. Neil McCann and Paul Dickov scored the other goals with Julian Johnsson netting for the part-timers from the Faroes. Ireland’s hopes of booking an automatic place in the finals suffered another setback when they were held to a 1-1 draw by Russia in Dublin. Damien Duff gave them the lead in the 36th minute, but Russian centre-back Sergei Ignashevich snatched an equaliser. The Irish now have 11 points with just one match to play in Group 10, but leaders Switzerland already have 12 with two games to play. Elsewhere, Romania went top of group two with a 4-0 defeat of Luxembourg while, in group three, the Czech Republic won 3-1 in Belarus to go top on goal difference from Holland who beat Austria by the same margin. Sweden have a three-point lead at the top of group four after a 5-0 win against San Marino, while Greece’s 1-0 win against Armenia keeps them four points ahead of Spain who were playing a friendly against Portugal. — AFP
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Afro-Asian Games top priority
for Sunita Jamshedpur, September 7 But now, months after her acquittal from doping charges, Sunita is back on the tracks with a vengeance, her mind focused on bringing more laurels to the country from the coming Afro-Asian Games as also next year’s Athens Olympics. “At present I am concentrating fully on the Afro-Asian Games where I’ll participate in both the 1500m and 5000m,” the Busan Asian Games gold medallist told newspersons here today. However, Sunita said that she was not very keen on taking part in the Asian Track and Field Meet to be held in Manila from September 20 to 23. “I’m not yet fully prepared for such an international meet. In fact, time is too short also for the Afro-Asian Games — they are less then two months away,” she said. “Moreover, I restarted training in Patiala only two months back. To succeed in an international competition you need at least six months of training,” she said.
—PTI |
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INTER-STATE ATHLETICS Jamshedpur, September 7 The Punajb athletes picked up seven gold medals, 11 silver and three bronze to finish with 161 points. They secured the top spot in the men’s section culling 85 points, while West Bengal finished first in the women’s
category garnering 90 points. Kerala gathered six gold medals, seven silver and five bronze to emerge the overall runners up totalling 125 points. Long jump gold medallist Wyane Peppin of Tamil Nadu was adjudged the best athlete among the men while Andhra Pradesh’s 400m gold winner S Geetha was declared the best woman athlete of the meet. Twentysix-year-old Jasmin finished the long walk in 1::45:28.36 to eclipse West Bengal lass Y Baladevi’s mark of 1::47:18.4 set up in the last edition of the meet at Bangalore. It may be mentioned that Bala Devi had completed the distance in 1::43:06.03 s in the Federation Cup at Hyderabad in July which was better than the existing national record of 1::47:11 seconds which Jasmin had set up at the Lucknow senior national open in 2000. However, Bala Devi’s feat awaits a ratification by the AAFI. Jasmin, a Punjab Police ASI, faced little challenge and found herself unchallenged during the last 20 laps. Bala Devi won the silver clocking 1::50:21 seconds while Manipur’s L Deepmala Devi (1::57:59.8
seconds) got the bronze. The only meet record in the first two days of the competition was set up by V S Surekha of Tamil Nadu on Friday. The track and field events during the day also saw a number of top stars in action and almost all of them coasted to easy victories. The women’s heptathlon saw an upset result when G G Pramila of Karnataka picked the gold medal tallying 5787 points pushing favourite and national record holder Soma Biswas of West Bengal to the second spot (5427 points). P Bindu (4771) of Karnataka earned the bronze. The field for the meet was, however, depleted by the last minute withdrawal of J J Shobha. In men’s 200m, Anil Kumar of Kerala bagged the gold covering the distance in 21.46 seconds, while the silver went to Madhya Pradesh’s Sanjay Ghosh (21.54s). Amit Saha of West Bengal won the bronze completing the race in 21.83s.
— PTI |
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Shloka declared best swimmer Patiala, September 7 Youngsters of the
DPS, Mathura road, ruled the pool during the three-day meet. Anirudh GV and Shruti Gupta, both of the
DPS, Mathura road, were declared best swimmers in senior boys and senior girls sections, respectively. Yet another budding swimmer of the
DPS, Mathura road, S.M. Abil, was given best swimmer prize in junior boys category. Other results: Water polo (boys): Modern school-1,
DPS, Mathura road-2, YPS, Patiala-3; (girls); Modern school-1, Mayo college, Ajmer-2,
DPS, Mathura road-3. 1500m free style (senior boys): Anirudh GV (DPS, Mathura road)-1, Abhishek Vaishya
(DPS, Mathura road)-2, Ankit Jindal (Modern school)-3; 50m breast stroke (senior boys): Arjun Subramanium
(RIMC, Dehra Dun)-1, K. Rawat (DPS, Mathura road)-2, Kabir Aslam (Scindia school,
Gwalior)-3; 100m butterfly (senior girls): Mohini Dutta (DPS, Mathura road)-1, Apeksha Jain (Modern school)-2, Jazbaat Kaur (Mayo college, Ajmer)-3; 100m butterfly (junior girls): Shloka Joshi (Modern school)-1, Karima Anjam (DPS, Mathura road)-2, Anjali Singh (Mayo college)-3; 50m freestyle (junior boys); Navpreet Singh (YPS, Patiala)-1, Gagandeep Singh (YPS, Patiala)-2, Syed Azharudin (Daly college, Indore)-3; 100m butterfly (senior boys): Vishwarath Tomar (Modern school)-1, Akshaya (Doon school, Dehra Dun)-2, Divesh (Birla Public school)-3; 100m freestyle (senior girls): Isha Chawla (DPS, Mathura road)-1, Apeksha Jain (Modern school)-2, Amrit Kaur (Mayo college)-3; 100m back stroke (senior boys): Sameer Sarin (DPS, Mathura road)-1, Mohit Kohli (Modern school)-2, A.Sirkand (Doon school)-3.
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New York, September 7
EURO 2004
QUALIFIERS
Video
