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Hewitt, Federer march into semis
Agony for Paes, ecstasy for Bhupathi
ICC allows appeal against Ganguly’s ban
Hayden-Jones standoff sets tone for Ashes
Bangladesh to retain Test status
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Ghavri is Mumbai coach
India beat Egypt
Popat, Anand spare India
the blushes
Paddlers lose
Delhi beat Pepsu
Argentina, Nigeria to clash in final
Mosley hits back at Michelin in tyre war
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Hewitt, Federer march into semis
London, June 29 The 2002 men’s title winner displayed his usual brand of gutsy tennis to end the surprise progress of his Spanish opponent and set up a last-four clash against the man who succeeded him as champion, world number one Roger Federer. Lopez broke the third seed early in the first set, but he gifted Hewitt a break back with a double fault. Two netted Lopez volleys at 5-6 allowed Hewitt to clinch the first set. The Australian was rock solid on serve in the next two sets, pressurising the left-hander. Federer swatted aside Fernando Gonzalez 7-5, 6-2, 7-6 on Centre Court, leaving only two players between the world number one and a hat-trick of Wimbledon titles. The 24-year-old Gonzalez, with his big forehand and useful serve, was the only man to reach the last eight without dropping a set. Mostly the pair traded punches from the back of the court. Gonzalez managed to break back in the seventh game of the first set after Federer took a 4-2 lead. The Swiss always had the advantage of serving first and he upped his pace, advancing to the net in the 12th game to take the set on his second set point when Gonzalez put the ball in the net. The second set was something of a formality. Gonzalez turned up the volume on his explosive sighs and grunts of exertion as Federer pushed him round the court, breaking his serve in the second and last games. The Chilean fought hard in the final set, staying with the Swiss until the tie-breaker. Federer wasted no time in the decider, winning 7-2. Former Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson reached the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time, downing a sluggish David Nalbandian 7-6, 6-2, 6-2. Against Nalbandian, he used his fine return to wear his opponent down and mixed up play intelligently from the back of the court. Johansson broke Nalbandian’s serve in the third game of the first set and after that, the Argentine always looked on the backfoot. The 23-year-old, seeded 18th here, levelled things in the seventh game, but errors let him down in the tie-breakers, which Johansson won with his fourth break point. The Swede waltzed through the second set after going 3-0 up, Nalbandian surrendering it tamely. Two breaks in the third set took Johansson to a showdown against Andy Roddick. The second seed was forced to battle through five sets to defeat Sebastien Grosjean 3-6, 6-2, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 and take his place in the Wimbledon semifinals for the third successive year. The 27-year-old Frenchman’s flamboyant game gave him an early lead, but the American then cranked up his formidable serve and took the second set with some ease. The 22-year-old Roddick looked to be strolling through to his fourth Grand Slam semifinal when he walked away with the third set, but he suffered a lapse of concentration and Grosjean claimed the fourth. An early break in the fifth set put Roddick on course for a place in the semifinals. He secured it with a huge serve on his first match point.
— Reuters |
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Agony for Paes, ecstasy for Bhupathi
London, June 29 Paes and Nenad Zemonjic of Serbia and Montenegro went down 5-7, 6-7 (8-10), 6-7 (8-10) against fourth-seeded Zimbabwean pair of Kevin Ullyett and Wayne Black in the quarterfinals. Bhupathi and French partner Mary Pierce defeated Martin Garcia of Argentina and Italian Mara Santangelo 7-3, 7-6 (7-5) to reach the quarterfinals. Vivek Shokeen and Abdullah Maqdas of Kuwait reached the second round of the boys’ doubles. Shokeen and Maqdas defeated Christoph Hodl of Autria and Jochen Schottler of Ger any 4-6, 6-3, 9-7 in the first round.
— PTI |
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ICC allows appeal against Ganguly’s ban
London, June 29 "The ICC, through its president Ehsan Mani, has agreed that should the BCCI wish to take this matter further it must write to the ICC which would then refer this to the ICC disputes resolution committee," the ICC said in a statement. ICC match referee Chris Broad had banned Ganguly for six one-day internationals for India's slow rate in two successive one-dayers against Pakistan. Ganguly, through the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), unsuccessfully appealed to the ICC for the overturn of the ban. The BCCI, backed by strong legal opinion, again approached the ICC during its ongoing annual meetings here to overturn or reduce the ban, to which the world body has now agreed. "The BCCI notified the ICC executive board that it intends to dispute the process that was used to deal with Sourav Ganguly's appeal under the ICC Code of Conduct," said the ICC statement. Ganguly has a history of breaching the ICC Code of Conduct, as he has been either penalised or reprimanded several times. He was banned for two Tests after India's slow over rate in the one-off one-day international against Pakistan at Kolkata in November last year. But following a successful appeal, the specially appointed appeals commissioner of the ICC rescinded the ban. If the ICC's disputes resolution committee upholds the ban, Ganguly, who had already sat out two one-day internationals against Pakistan in April, will miss all four league matches of the triangular one-day series in Sri Lanka in July-August. He will only be eligible to play the final, provided India qualify for that. In Ganguly's absence, long-standing vice-captain Rahul Dravid would almost certainly lead the side. The ICC executive board comprises the presidents/chairmen or designated nominees of the 10 Test-playing nations and three representatives from ICC associate members, or the second rung, cricket playing countries. The BCCI has been represented by former president Jagmohan Dalmiya — the first time that a non-BCCI president is attending an ICC annual meeting. The executive board is the ICC's ultimate policy-making body.
— IANS |
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Hayden-Jones standoff sets tone for Ashes
London, June 29 Jones apologised to Hayden after hitting him on the shoulder with the ball in a run-out attempt during yesterday’s day-night encounter at Edgbaston in Birmingham, but the Australian reacted angrily, squaring up to the bowler and exchanging words. Paul Collingwood, Australian captain Ricky Ponting and umpire Billy Bowden had to intervene to calm the pair. England captain Michael Vaughan and Ponting accepted such incidents would always occur in the heat of battle and readily agreed more of the same was likely in the five Ashes Tests. “We both play it pretty tough, so I will not say it will be the last time we have a few words,’’ Vaughan told reporters after England were left stranded by the rain on 37 for one in reply to Australia’s 262 for nine. “It is always like that when England play Australia. We try to play in the right spirit, but things will get heated at times.” “I am sure more words will be exchanged out in the middle between the sides and things will get heated again.’’ Ponting said: ‘’It was just something that happened in the heat of battle. I do not think there was any malice or that he meant to hit Matty (Hayden).” “You are entitled to try to run out a guy, but looking at it, the throw was not all that close to the stumps.’’ Jones dismissed Hayden leg before wicket for 14 soon after the spat but, although the match and tempers were eventually washed out by the rain, there had already been controversy. Before the start of play, Hayden and fellow opener Adam Gilchrist refused to walk on to the field via the guard of honour, a group of children holding St George flags at the request of match organisers. This year’s Ashes series is one of the most eagerly anticipated for years, with world champions Australia pitted against their nearest challengers. Although England have not got close to winning the Ashes since 1986-87, they have climbed to second in the world rankings. Bookmakers rate the home side 5-2 against winning with Australia at 1-2 and a drawn series at 5-1.
— Reuters |
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Bangladesh to retain Test status
London, June 29 “Clearly, the ICC does not wish to see gaps in standards resulting in mismatches on the field, but it also does not believe that punishing teams for performing poorly provides the necessary incentive to allow them to improve”, ICC President Ehsan Mani told reporters after the Business Forum meeting. He said the Bangladesh under-19 team which toured Australia recently, had performed very well beating the host teams in seven of the eight games. “The current Bangladesh Test team is not exposed to that type of experience and it will pick up”, he said. Mani said it was a matter that was considered carefully by the board, over the course of the year, through the “Review of the structure of cricket” project. There were several options that were put forward in this project that provided alternative playing programmes for all nations. “What was never contemplated was that any country would be punished for its playing performance by being stripped of its Test status. The ICC board is looking at ways to assist countries improve their playing standards.”
— PTI |
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India beat Egypt
Rotterdam, June 29 Sandeep Singh came up with solid conversions in the fifth, 26th and 56th minutes while V. Raja found the board from a goalmouth melee in the 60th. Egypt marked their presence with a strike in the 56th minute by Mahmoud Elbadry from a penalty corner. India’s performance in the first half was decidedly lackadaisical. Apart from the two penalty corner conversions by Sandeep Singh, the Indians made little impression. It was just as well that Egypt did not have it in them to apply more pressure than they did, though their defence was fairly well organised. The Indians enjoyed a distinctly better second half, during which they displayed cohesion and understanding to repeatedly trouble Egypt. But the forwards fumbled in front of the goal and the missed chances pegged the scoreline. Egypt played their hearts out, but it was obvious that they were out of depth against a team brimming with talent and experience. The Egyptians excelled individually and with a bit of combination, they could have troubled the Indians far more than they did. To an extent, the Indians appeared overconfident and it led to an Egyptian counter-attack, that resulted in a penalty corner goal.
— PTI |
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Popat, Anand spare India
the blushes
New Delhi, June 29 Anand, who had to qualify for the main draw of this event, gave no chance to Sho Sasaki of Japan and emerged victorious 15-6, 15-5 in just 26 minutes. The world no 97 will now meet 15th seed Dicky Palyama of the Netherlands in the second round. In the women’s singles, Popat — returning from a six-month injury induced lay-off — took time to settle down before getting the better of Simone Prutsch of Austria 5-11, 13-11, 11-1 in 45 minutes to move into the second round. The Indian, who missed the Sudirman Cup mixed team championship in China last month, will now take on third seed Hongyan Pi of France in the second round. Earlier, top-ranked Indian Abhinn Shyam Gupta was the first to bow out when he went down to world No. 1 Lin Dan of China 4-15, 6-15. National champion Anup Sridhar was made to bite the dust by Vietnamese qualifier Tien Minh Nguyen 15-7, 15-11, while Nikhil Kanetkar showed his fighting spirit but could not overcome the challenge of Peter Mikkelsen of Denmark and lost 2-15, 15-7, 5-15.
— PTI |
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Paddlers lose
New Delhi, June 29 Both Indian teams — ‘A’ and ‘B’ — were thrashed 0-3 by Japan ‘A’ and Japan ‘B’ as they set up an all Japanese title clash. It was also not an happy outing for the boys as both India ‘A’ and India ‘B’ lost to Korea Republic ‘B’ and Korea Republic ‘A’ 1-3 respectively. Results: Girls (semifinals):
India ‘A’ lost to Japan ‘A’ 0-3: J Swarna lost to Yuri Yamanashi 9-11, 4-11, 9-11; K Shamini lost to Yuka Ishigaki 1-11, 4-11, 5-11; Swarna/Shamini lost to Yamanashi/Moemi Terui 11-8, 8-11, 8-11, 6-11. India ‘B’ lost to Japan ‘B’ 0-3: Pallabi Kundu lost to Shiho Ono 4-11, 4-11, 9-11; Madhurika Patkar lost to Yuko Fujii 3-11, 11-9, 3-11, 9-11; Salankara Mahalanobish/Ashlesha Bodas lost to Fujii/Miwako Ishizuka 5-11, 3-11, 6-11. Boys:
Korea Republic ‘B’ b India ‘A’ 3-1: Young Sik Jeoung b Soumyajit Sarkar 8-11, 11-8, 11-8, 13-11; Sang Su Lee lost to Aniket Koparkar 9-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-6, 7-11; Jeoung/Lee b Sarkar/Devesh Karia 11-3, 6-11, 11-6, 12-10; Lee b Sarkar 12-10, 5-11, 11-8, 11-4. Korea Republic ‘A’ b India ‘B’ 3-1: U Myeongjae b Sanil Shetty 11-3, 15-13, 11-6; Donghee Lee lost to R. Abhishek 11-9, 6-11, 3-11, 6-11; Myeongjae/Hoon Suk Yoo b Abhishek/Sayan Roy Paul 8-11, 11-5, 11-8, 8-11, 11-8; Myeongjae b Abhisek 11-5, 11-8, 11-5.
— PTI |
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Delhi beat Pepsu
New Delhi, June 29 Playing at a furious pace, Delhi forged ahead through Sushila in the 10th minute. They hung on to the slender lead till the 53rd minute when Manpreet Kaur converted a penalty corner to equalise for Pepsu. Delhi, desperate to regain the lead, mounted a series of attacks which fetched them another penalty corner—they had ten in all while Pepsu four—and off it, Sonia Yadav scored the match-winner. Haryana continued their winning run when they grounded Air India with a thumping 12-0 victory in Group A. The Haryana girls could not benefit from their penalty corners as they could convert only two of the eight they earned. The high point of the match was a hat-trick by Sarvjeet, who scored four goals, including the first three. Jasjeet Kaur scored four, while and Kamla Chanu and Kanu Priya scored two each. Railways crushed Kerala 14-0 in a Group A match. The Railway girls had the Kerala defence under seige but fumbled with their penalty corners, converting only five of the 17 they earned. Adline Kerala set the ball rolling for Railways by hitting the mark in the fourth minute. The goal scorers for Railways were Jyoti Sunita Kullu (4), Saba Anjum (1), Sangai Bemhal Chanu (2), Kanti Bala (1), Amrita Ming (2), Subhadra Pradhan (1) and Mamta Kharab (2). In another match Bombay defeated All-India Universities 4-0. |
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Argentina, Nigeria to clash in final
Utrecht, June 29 Argentina will be seeking its fourth in six tries having won in 1995, 1997 and 2001 and fifth overall. Messi, an FC Barcelona prodigy, scored his fourth goal in the seventh minute and was the architect of Argentina’s 93rd-minute winner by Pablo Zabaleta. Defender Taye Taiwo, Olubayo Adefemi and Chinedu Ogbuke scored for Nigeria, ending Morocco’s improbable run and putting the west African nation in the final for the first time since it lost to Portugal in 1989. Argentina will face Nigeria on Saturday in Utrecht. Messi’s goal came on Argentina’s first attack, eluding two defenders, and launching a powerful shot from outside the area which curled inside the right post. Brazil held an edge in possession, but its best chances were on set pieces, while Argentine was more dangerous on counters. The win came 24 hours before the countries’ senior teams meet in the Confederations Cup final in neighboring Germany. Brazil’s Renato nodded a free kick into the left corner to equalise in the 75th, and the game seemed headed for extra time. But three minutes into injury time, Messi stole a ball and dribbled deep into the goal box before crossing it into the middle. Brazil failed to clear, and Zabaleta pounced, hitting it in off a defender’s leg. Despite playing a goal down for most of the game, Brazil played with an unusual casualness, at times appearing overly patient to press its attack. In the other semifinal, Morocco tried to remain compact defensively, but were simply overwhelmed. Nigeria led in the 34th minute when Adefemi fed Taiwo, who was making a run from his left defensive position. The Olympique Marseille defender shook off a challenger, controlled the pass with one touch and unleashed a 25-m drive that beat Moroccan keeper Mohammed Bourkadi. It was the third straight game Taiwo had forced a decision for Nigeria. He converted the decisive penalty in the 24-shot shootout against the Netherlands in the quarterfinals and he tallied the late winner against Ukraine in the second round. With 20 minutes to go, Adefemi scored himself, latching on to a corner from John Obi Mikel to put the semifinal beyond doubt. Five minutes later, with Morocco’s defense in disarray, Promise Isaac rushed through the centre but his shot was deflected by Bourkadi into the path of Ogbuke, who headed in the third. Even though Nigeria always had been considered a contender for the title, Morocco was considered a long shot to advance at every stage in the tournament.
— AP |
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Mosley hits back at Michelin in tyre war
Paris, June 29 The French
tyre firm offered on Tuesday to refund the cost of tickets of all 160,000 spectators at the US Grand Prix, in a move to reduce tensions before the FIA disciplinary meeting. Seven teams contracted to Michelin withdrew from the June 19 race after the formation lap, having been advised that the tyres’ durability could not be guaranteed after Ralf Schumacher crashed in practice. With tickets at the Indianapolis motor speedway costing an average of $ 100 apiece, Michelin will face a bill of about $ 16 million. Michelin — which made a net profit of $ 769 million in the last financial year — has also offered to buy 20,000 tickets for the 2006 US Grand Prix which will be offered to this year’s customers as a promotional gesture. But FIA president Max Mosley has rebuffed the Michelin arguments that they did everything possible to try to put on a proper race. “You failed to bring a back-up tyre to the event and your representatives apparently refused to countenance any solution other than a chicane. Anyone with knowledge of the international sporting code or an
appreciation of the legal climate in the USA would know that a chicane was never an option,” Mosley said in a letter to Michelin chief executive. Mosley, in an earlier letter to Michelin Director of Competition Pierre Dupasquier, released on the federation’s website, claimed Michelin has had a problem with their Formula One tyres for two years. Renault team chief Flavio Briatore said the Michelin teams had offered to allow the Bridgestone teams to take the first three rows of the starting grid at Indianapolis and to race for no championship points if a chicane had been set up. The Indianapolis speedway is the only F1 circuit with banked curves and Michelin says a flaw only became apparent because this is the first year tyre types cannot be changed during the grand prix weekend.
— AFP |
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Australian Lleyton Hewitt reached the Wimbledon semifinals for the second time with a ruthless victory
on Centre Court here today.
