Paris, May 30
Maria Sharapova showed there was no room for sentiment today when she led a trio of Russian seeds into the second round of the French Open.

Playing under menacing clouds and in a rush to get off court before the heavens opened again over Roland Garros, the world No. 2 was in unforgiving mood as local darling Emilie Loit hobbled around court with a thigh strain.

Sharapova powered to a 6-3, 7-6 victory and was joined in the last 64 by 2006 runner-up Svetlana Kuznetsova and ninth seed Anna Chakvetadze, a 6-2, 6-3 winner over Australia’s Alicia Molik.

Kuznetsova avenged one of the most painful defeats of her career when she blew fellow Russian Ekaterina Bychkova off court 6-0, 6-3.

The third seed was humiliated by Bychkova at the 2005 US Open when she became the first defending champion to lose in the opening round. Fast forward two years and Bychkova felt the full force of Kuznetsova’s wrath. Kuznetsova won nine consecutive games before her 79th-ranked opponent got on the scoreboard.

Meanwhile, the roller-coaster career of former champion Anastasia Myskina took another nosedive.

Making her comeback after undergoing foot surgery in January, Myskina’s challenge lasted 38 forgettable minutes as she was embarrassed 6-1, 6-0 by American Meghann Shaughnessy.

Myskina, the first Russian woman to lift a Grand Slam title when she triumphed here in 2004, almost skipped the tournament due to injury.

She probably wished she had missed her flight out of Moscow after her painful experience on court 16, only her second competitive match of the year.

Myskina, once ranked second in the world, is now floundering at 51 and has not won a match since reaching the final in Stockholm last August.

Paris, May 30
Sania Mirza recorded her maiden singles win at the French Open by beating Italian Alberta Brianti in the first round here today.

The 20-year-old Indian, who had stumbled at the first hurdle in her earlier two attempts, thrashed Brianti 6-1, 6-1 to storm into the second round at the Roland Garros.

The Hyderabadi girl saved two breakpoints in the opening game but that was the only time she found herself in trouble in the match that last only 54 minutes.

The first Indian to win a WTA title slammed 54 winners, as against Brianti’s 30, and three aces.

Sania’s win was all the more credible as she came into the tournament with a 0-2 win-loss record since returning from a 2-1/2 month-long injury lay-off.

She got her first break by hitting an on-the-run forehand winner down the line to go up 3-0.

Brianti, who had a 1-0 head-to-head record against her rival before the game, held her serve then to register her name on the score sheet.

But it was a while before she tasted success again.

Sania was in scorching form, belting winners on both flanks and won the next seven consecutive games.

She next faces Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic who beat Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden 6-2, 6-0. — PTI

Paris, May 30
Once known as a powerhouse in the sport, US men’s tennis sunk to a new low today as for the first time in 40 years no American male reached the second round of the French Open.

Nine American men had walked through the gates of Roland Garros with hopes of ending their nation’s four-year wait for a Grand Slam title.

By day four, and even before first-round action had ended, they were hanging their heads in shame as they all trooped out of Paris.

For the first time since tennis turned professional in 1968, no American men survived the first round at the claycourt Grand Slam.

Robby Ginepri’s 6-4, 1-6, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 humbling by Argentina’s Diego Hartfield ended U.S. interest in the men's draw and marked the first time in 34 years that no American men have reached the second round of one of the four majors.

Reputations counted for nothing as 2003 US Open champion Andy Roddick was bounced out by Igor Andreev, ranked 125th in the world, and eighth seed James Blake suffered the same fate against towering Croatian Ivo Karlovic.

“It’s no secret we haven’t done that great on clay this year,” Blake said following his defeat yesterday.

“Andy got a terrible draw. Andreev is probably the toughest non-seed here. I got a tough draw on Karlovic.

“It’s frustrating but we’ll hopefully get it back on grass. I promise we won’t have all (nine) guys losing the first round at Wimbledon.”

The current situation is in stark contrast to American fortunes during the 1990s.

For more than a decade, the all-American smile was a trademark on finals’ day at the Grand Slams as Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Jim Courier and Michael Chang won one major title after another.

From 1989 onwards, the quartet chalked up 27 titles between them and ensured that the United States won at least one slam a season.

When Roddick captured the 2003 US Open crown it appeared the changing of the guard had taken place as scripted.

The American juggernaut came to a shuddering halt in 2004, however, as, for the first time in 15 years, the men went home empty-handed from all four Grand Slam tournaments. That barren run has now lasted 14 consecutive slams and on current form, shows no sign of ending. — Reuters

Offshore Matches

New Delhi, May 30
Zee TV today cancelled its five-year contract with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) following a new law on sports broadcasting, putting a question mark on the three-match one-day series between India and South Africa in late June.

“We have cancelled our deal with the BCCI because of their step-motherly treatment towards us. While we are still open for discussions, it seems that the board is in no mood to discuss the issue with us,” Ashish Kaul, senior vice-president of Zee, told IANS.

The cancellation of the five-year deal, signed last year and covering only offshore matches, worth around $200 million comes after the sports channel asked the board for re-negotiation of the price.

“After the government passed the sports broadcasting signal bill, we will suffer huge losses. So we wrote to the BCCI to re-negotiate the original price, but they never responded. On the other hand, they have been negotiating with Nimbus on this issue as well. So this is clearly a case of step-motherly attitude towards us, which prompted us to take this step,” said Kaul.

According to the new act on sports broadcasting, it is mandatory for every broadcaster to share live feed without advertisements for all ties involving India with national broadcaster Doordarshan.

All sports channels in the country want encryption of the live feeds because un-encrypted signals of Doordarshan are also received in Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Malaysia and may result in loss of over Rs 10 billion for sports broadcasters. — IANS

New Delhi, May 30
The much-maligned Afro-Asia Cup cricket tournament today received a major setback with Nimbus threatening to pull the plug on the telecast of matches.

Nimbus, which had bagged the television rights for the inter-continental event from the Asian Cricket Council, has said that relevant terms of the contract would not apply anymore since the matches were originally scheduled for last year.

“We have been told (by Nimbus) that the terms have to be suitably changed because the financial figures mentioned in the contract were applicable only for last year and not this year,” an ACC source told PTI.

Coming with less than a week to go for the tournament, that was to be held from June 6 to 10 in Bangalore and Chennai, Nimbus’ ultimatum is sure to leave the ACC and the series in a major crisis.

The Afro-Asia Cup was first held in 2005 featuring three one-dayers in South Africa.

But the tournament has already lost its sheen with top names from both sides making themselves unavailable.

The matches have failed to generate any excitement among the cricketers who have already been complaining about the crammed scheduling.

India’s captain Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas, and South African skipper Graeme Smith are among those who will be missing from action next week. — PTI

Karachi, May 30
BCCI president Sharad Pawar is likely to be named as chairman of the 2011 World Cup organising committee when it is constituted formally next month.

The board officials of the four Asian Test playing nations - India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh - are to meet in summer of resort of Bhurban in Pakistan from June 17 to 19 to constitute the committee.

It is for the first time that all the four Asian Test playing nations would be hosting the World Cup.

Meanwhile, a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official said that they were yet to receive a formal itinerary from the BCCI for the team’s tour of India later this year to play three Tests and six or seven one-day internationals.

“They will now inform us off the venues and dates they want us to play on for final approval,” a PCB official told PTI.

Pakistan is due to tour India from early November but sources said it has already requested the Indian board to not schedule matches at venues that require a lot of travelling as was the case on the 2005 tour.

The official said Pakistan was expecting that its team would play majority of its matches at big venues.

He said more deliberations on the make up of the itinerary was likely to be held on the sidelines of the joint World Cup committee meeting in Bhurban.

“When the Indians are here obviously we will have discussions with them on the proposed venues and dates for the tour and perhaps even on the number of one-dayers to be included in the memorandum of understanding for the tour,” he said.

Pakistani players and officials had complained off fatigue and extensive travelling on their 2005 tour which the Indian board defended as a necessary evil as it had to rotate international matches among its member associations and states.

The issue of having offshore matches between Pakistan and India on a regular basis apart from the ICC future tours program calendar will also come up for talks.

Pakistan has already announced that it would be hosting the next Asia Cup from April 29, 2008, saying that India had confirmed its participation. — PTI

London, May 30
Former South African bowler Allan Donald believes that subcontinent cricketers “lack discipline” which often resulted in a rift with their coaches.

Citing the fall-out between the Indians and Australian Greg Chappell who guided them for two years till the World Cup, Donald said the players might have had their share of blame.

“From what I have seen, it looked like the Indian players enjoyed Greg Chappell’s company but there were some issues which got blown out of proportion ... It could have something to do with the role of the coach as most of the players just want to go their own way and play as they like to,” Donald wrote in a column on ‘Cricketnext.com’.

“At the highest level, the coach’s word should be taken as final but it seems that there is a lack of discipline here. The Indian and Pakistani players always seem to have some issue or the other with their coaches.”

Donald, who has been appointed as a short-term bowling consultant of the England team, urged the Indians to strike a good rapport with whoever was appointed to guide them in place of Australian Greg Chappell.

“For the coach to function smoothly, particularly if he is from some other country, the senior players should back him,” wrote the first South African to claim 300 Test scalps.

“In South Africa, too, when Bob Woolmer were the coach there were some problems initially, but the seniors backed him and soon everything was settled.” — PTI

Leeds, May 30
West Indies captain Ramnaresh Sarwan was ruled out of the remainder of his side’s Test and one-day series in England after injuring his shoulder in the second Test at Headingley, tour manager Michael Findlay announced.

Sarwan injured himself while chasing a ball to the boundary on the first day of the second Test against England here at Headingley and fell heavily on his right shoulder.

Sarwan was unable to bat in either innings as West Indies were beaten by an innings and 283 runs, their largest Test innings defeat of all-time.

“Unfortunately Sarwan’s injury will take approximately six weeks to heal and as a result he will not be able to take any further part in this tour,” Findlay said here yesterday at the squad’s hotel.

Sarwan said: “I am very disappointed that I would not be able to continue on tour. But I have spoken with the players and wished them well for the remainder of the Test series and the Twenty20 games and the one-day internationals.”

No decision has yet been taken on either a replacement skipper, although vice-captain Daren Ganga appears to be the leading candidate to take over, or a new batsman to replace Sarwan. — AFP

Jaipur, May 30
National champion Achanta Sharath Kamal rescued India from a one-match deficit to lead them to a 3-1 victory over Scotland in their opening league encounter of the 17th Commonwealth Table Tennis Championship, which began here today.

The Indian men made an ominous start to their title defence as Soumyadeep Roy went down in an unexpected loss to Rumgay Gavin in the opening singles despite being up 1-0.

Roy lost 6-11,12-10,7-11,10-12 and it was left to Sharath Kamal to draw parity by trouncing Stewart Crawford 11-1,13-11, 9-11, 11-7.

New Delhi, May 30
Despite her record feat of clinching a hat-trick of World titles, pugilist M.C. Mary Kom is surprisingly not in the race for this year’s Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna.

Sportspersons are required to send an application for the award to their respective federations, which in turn recommends it to the Sports Ministry. But Mary Kom has still not made any such request to the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) and the last date for submission of applications is tomorrow.

An IABF official said since the federation had not received the requisite application from Mary Kom, it could not recommend her for the country’s highest sporting honour.

“No boxer has been recommended for the Khel Ratna. As for Mary Kom, we did not receive the required application from her and tomorrow is the last day for submission of applications,” IABF Executive Director Colonel A.S. Dagar told PTI.

The 25-year-old boxer was the star of an all-conquering Indian women’s team, which won the fourth World Women’s Boxing Championship in New Delhi last year after beating a 32-team field.

The light-flyweight pugilist was conferred on the Padma Shri last year for winning the world titles for consecutive two years and being the finalist in the inaugural edition.

So far only the All-India Tennis Association has recommended Mahesh Bhupathi for the prestigious award, won by world billiards champion Pankaj Advani last year.

IABF general secretary Col P.K. Muralidharan Raja also confirmed they have recommended only four boxers for Arjuna Awards. They are Doha Asian Games bronze medallists Varghese Johnson and Vijender and women world champions Lekha K C and L Sarita Devi.

“All four of them are deserving of the award as they have proved themselves in the international arena,” Raja said.

“Lekha and Sarita are world champions and both Vijender and Johnson won medals at the Asian and Commonwealth Games.

“Our process of forwarding the names for these awards is simple. We allow the boxers to send in their names to us through various channels like state bodies and we, in turn, forward them to the (Sports) ministry,” he added.

Vijender and Johnson had won bronze medals at last year’s Doha Asian Games in the 75kg and +91kg categories, respectively.

The duo had earlier made it to the podium at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games as well.

While Vijender clinched the silver medal in the 69 kg category, Johnson claimed the bronze in the super heavyweight category. Lekha and Sarita were a part of the world champion women’s team. Lekha won the gold in the 75kg category, while Sarita emerged champion in the 52kg category.

The IABF has also forwarded the names of two coaches for the Dronacharya award.

Jagdish Singh, who has coached Vijender and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Akhil Kumar, and assistant coach for the women’s team Chandra Lal have been nominated for the honour.

Lal was national coach Anup Kumar’s deputy during the world championship and was in charge of a mixed team which recently came back with five medals, a silver and four bronze, at an International Boxing Championship in Turkey. — PTI

Gilchrist knocks Advani out
New Delhi: Asian Games champion Pankaj Advani and compatriot Rupesh Shah were knocked out of the Asian Billiards Championships in Doha following their quarterfinals losses. Advani, the reigning world champion, lost 3-4 to two-time world champion Peter Gilchrist of Singapore, who had made to the knockout stage after defeating Shah in his last league encounter on Tuesday. Shah, who had already qualified for the quarterfinal after winning four preliminary round matches, was thrashed 1-4 by Aung Htay of Myanmar in another last four stage match at the Qatar Billiards and Snooker Federation hall. Htay had defeated Advani in their last league match. — PTI

Beach handball
Mumbai: The fifth National Beach Handball championship is being held here at the Mahim beach from Saturday. The three-day championship, for men and women, is being organised as a preparation for the Asian Beach Handball Championship, which will be held here next year. The nationals, have attracted 36 teams, including last year’s finalists Kerala and Chhattisgarh. Other teams who have confirmed their participation are Delhi, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Goa, Puducherry, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Orissa. — PTI

Australian Open
Melbourne: The Australian Open will introduce a new rubberised tennis surface next year that offers more consistent bounce and cooler court temperatures, organisers said on Wednesday. Tournament director Craig Tiley said the new Plexicushion surface had already proved a hit with Lleyton Hewitt, Australia’s top-ranked player and a frequent critic of the existing Rebound Ace courts. Tiley said the new hi-tech surface supplied by Melbourne firm W M Loud offered a number of advantages over Rebound Ace, which has been used at the season-opening Grand Slam since 1988. — PTI

Chess prodigy
New Delhi: Young Indian chess prodigy Gauri Shankar has notched up his career’s 25th title by emerging joint winner in the expert/adult section in the 16th Annual Chicago International Open. Fourteen-year-old Gauri shared the top spot with three others, collecting six points from a possible seven in the tournament which concluded on Tuesday. But as per US chess rules, there was no tie-break and all the four were declared joint winners and they shared the prize money of $11,000. — UNI