Paris, May 31
His back creaks these days and his shots lack bite but Lleyton Hewitt proved again today the value of guts when he hit back from two sets down to crush former champion Gaston Gaudio at the French Open.

The tenacious Aussie hustler, a former Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion, came through 4-6, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 to take his place in the third round along with two of the young guns of men’s tennis still waiting for Grand Slam glory.

Gaudio, who had triumphed in 2004 before Rafael Nadal began his reign, looked well on his way to stringing together back-to-back victories for only the second time this season.

But Hewitt’s famed resilience was back on show as he wore down his 72nd-ranked opponent in three hours 28 minutes and sealed victory with a thundering crosscourt winner.

Second seed Rafael Nadal, bidding to emulate Bjorn Borg’s hat-trick of titles here, eased past Italian qualifier Flavio Cipolla 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 while Serbian sixth seed Novak Djokovic, tipped to challenge the Federer-Nadal monopoly, breezed past French qualifier Laurent Recouderc 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Marcos Baghdatis, just a year older than Djokovic at 21, also put down an impressive mark on the Roland Garros clay when the Cypriot 16th seed reached the third round for the first time with a 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Dane Kristian Pless.

“Everybody expects me to be one of the guys who can actually hurt the best two players in the world and I’m aware of that,” Djokovic, who beat Nadal on the way to winning the Miami Masters series, told reporters. “There’s a lot of expectation and pressure but I’m trying not to think about it too much.”

World No. 2 Maria Sharapova, still trying to master the claycourt craft, was the main attraction in early women’s play.

The 20-year-old Russian, recently back from a shoulder injury, showed no ill effects from a second match in two days when she thrashed American Jill Craybas 6-2, 6-1.

Australian Open champion Serena Williams, winner here in 2002, also reached the third round, although she was made to work overtime in the second set, coming from 0-3 down to win 6-0 7-6. “I’m not really used to the clay, I was just kind of a little bit everywhere today,” eighth seed Williams said.

Experienced Swiss Patty Schnyder, playing here for the 12th consecutive year, also reached the third round with a 6-3, 6-2 defeat of Ukraine’s Kateryna Bondarenko.

Gaudio, winner of an extraordinary final here in 2004 against compatriot Guillermo Coria, said he felt like quitting earlier this year, but looked on course for a morale-boosting victory on Court Philippe Chatrier as he built a two-set lead.

Fourteenth seed Hewitt gritted his teeth and dug deep, however, and after levelling the match there was only ever going to be one winner.

It was the second time in consecutive grand slams he had recovered from a two-set deficit, having also achieved the feat in the first round of his home Australian Open.

Paris, May 31
French hopes of a first men’s singles title at Roland Garros since Yannick Noah nearly a quarter of a century ago lay in tatters after the defeat of their top players in the opening two rounds.

Veterans Sebastien Grosjean (28), Arnaud Clement (29) and Fabrice Santoro (34) all failed to make it past the first round to the dismay of the partisan Parisian crowds.

And matters got distinctly worse yesterday when French number one Richard Gasquet had a nightmare game on the centre court against Belgium’s Kristof Vliegen losing 7-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Much had been expected of the 11th seed who has long been regarded as one of the most precocious talents in the game but who has struggled with injuries and mental lapses.

The 20-year-old from the southern rugby town of Beziers was complaining of a bad blister on his racquet hand going in to the tournament, but he looked comfortable in his straight sets first round win over compatriot Nicolas Mahut.

Instead it was the mental side that let him down against Vliegen, a 24-year-old ranked world number 74.

“I’m shocked. It wasn’t great to say the least,” he said after trudging off court to scattered jeers from the dejected home fans.

“I sort of liquefied little by little after I lost the first set. The court was too big and the people were expecting too much of me.

“And I wanted to do things well and put too much pressure in myself and didn’t succeed. It was rubbish.”

That pressure may have started as soon as he rose from bed last morning to find his picture plastered over the front page of L’Equipe under the headline “The youngsters are taking over”. The highly-respected and read sports daily said that the times were changing, a new generation was taking over in French tennis and Gasquet was the pick of the new boys on the block.

The former top junior was also resplendent on the front cover of the official French Open programme and he was given pride of place as second match up on the Philippe Chatrier centre court.

It all proved too much for him to cope with especially after the crowd started to jeer some of his efforts.

“When people feel you’re not playing your best tennis, they’re not happy. It’s quite natural,” he said.

“But then what you feel on the court is very difficult. You feel really lonely. You feel really on your own.

“I never felt more alone on a court than today. It was horrible.” Gasquet’s collapse evoked memories of the many Paris failures endured by top woman player Amelie Mauresmo who despite winning at Wimbledon and Australia has never gone beyond the quarterfinals here in 12 attempts.

Mauresmo had words of consolation for her countryman.

“People say you learn a lot from defeats and it’s true. It happened to me in the past. And the only thing I wish for him is to learn for this match he lost,” she said.

Zurich, May 31
Sepp Blatter was given a third term as president of world football’s governing body by acclamation after standing as the only candidate at today’s FIFA Congress. “I accept this mandate and I thank you for your continuing trust in me,” he told delegates from FIFA’s 208 member associations who gave him a four-year term until 2011.

Earlier the 71-year-old Swiss had told delegates football was facing four evils that had to be stopped - doping, corruption, cheating and racism.

He also said that the growing trend of football-related matters being taken to civil courts had to end with congress passing a resolution to its statutes designed to stop disputes being settled in ordinary courts of law. “We are strong enough ourselves to settle our own affairs,” he said.

He also confirmed that there was no doubt that South Africa would host the 2010 World Cup finals and repeated his widely-held belief that video technology would not be used to settle disputes in matches.

“The World Cup is staying in Africa, there is absolutely no problem about this. It is staying in South Africa. Plan A is South Africa, Plan B is South Africa, Plan C is South Africa and Plan D is South Africa” he said to loud applause from delegates.

He said, however, that football was at a crossroads and had to develop a greater social and cultural responsibility to deal with people who want to hijack the game and “the evils of doping, corruption, cheating and racism.” Blatter praised the Mexican FA for banning a player for life for two positive dope tests and for removing his club from its competitions.

He also congratulated the four British associations for swiftly replacing a vice-president who made disparaging remarks about African and Caribbean nations.

New Delhi, May 31
The Afro-Asia Cup cricket series involving teams from the two continents from June 6-12 will be telecast live on ESPN-Star Sports, which won the rights after the Asian Cricket Council scrapped an earlier deal with sports broadcaster Nimbus.

The deal includes exclusive global television broadcast rights of the tournament in addition to title, on-ground and commercial rights, it said. However, the company declined to reveal the value of the deal.

The ACC today said it ended a deal with Nimbus as it failed to fulfil contractual obligations. The telecast rights for the series hosted by India this year were awarded to ESPN-Star Sports (ESS).

“They (Nimbus) did not fulfil their contractual obligations... but it is always painful to terminate contracts,” ACC CEO Syed Ashraful Huq told PTI over phone from Kuala Lumpur.

He, however, declined to share details of the scrapped contract with Nimbus citing confidentiality clause. He also did not reveal financial details of ACC’s new deal with ESS.

Yesterday, Nimbus had said that it will not be part of the event, which starts on June 6 in Bangalore. Matches would also be played in Chennai.

“We will not be telecasting the event. Neither will we be producing nor bringing sponsorship for the matches,” Nimbus chief Harish Thawani said.

The tournament had lost its sheen due to pullout of big stars and industry insiders say this could be one of the reasons for Nimbus’ loss of interest in the event.

Huq, however, flatly denied it and said ACC was aiming for much higher viewership through its new partner ESS.

Lahore, May 31
Subcontinent’s cricket officials would send clear signals to ICC during their Bhurban meeting next month against a possible move by the game’s governing body to shorten the 2011 World Cup to be co-hosted by Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Following severe criticism of a long and dour World Cup in the West Indies, ICC CEO Malcolm Speed had said the 2011 edition could be shortened by seven or 10 days to finish it somewhere between five and six weeks instead of the 47-day affair in the Caribbean.

But, a report in The News said, quoting PCB sources, that Asian cricket officials would not agree with Speed as it would mean financial losses for the hosts to the tune of $500,000 per match.

“The ICC may be thinking about reducing the World Cup to five or six weeks but the Asian officials would not agree if any such idea does surface,” the newspaper quoted the source as saying.

The report said top Asian cricket officials would send a clear message to the ICC about their opposition to the idea of having a shorter World Cup when they meet in Bhurban from June 17-19.

During the meeting a Central Organising Committee of the 2011 World Cup would be constituted besides electing the chairman of the World Cup committee. — UNI

Jaipur, May 31
Indian eves fought back with vengeance to edge past Canada 3-2 in a thrilling encounter in stage two of the team competition of the 17th Commonwealth Table Tennis Championship here today.

Indian men also started their second stage league campaign in style, thrashing New Zealand 3-0 in group ‘F’.

The women’s team, who are ahead in rankings than their counterparts, started badly before bringing their campaign back to rails.

Mouma Das lost her first singles match to Zhang Mo 4-11, 6-11, 8-11 and things looked bleak for India when Poulomi Ghatak also went down to T. Huen Sara 10-12, 11-7, 7-11, 8-11.

It was Kumaresan Shamini who brought India back into the tie by overpowering Qi Tang 6-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-4.

National champion Poulomi then used all her experience to win a marathon against M Zhang 4-11, 11-7, 6-11, 11-7, 7-11, 11-7 to make it 2-2.

The onus was now on diminutive Mouma who lived up to her billing in the decider.

Without conceding an inch, Mouma pulled off a 11-4, 11-6, 11-8 victory over Yuen Sara to settle the issue.

The men’s team had a relatively easy outing against New Zealand. Shubhajit Saha gave India 1-0 lead with a 11-9 11-7 6-11 11-4 victory against Zhilong Brad Chen.

Achanta Sharath Kamal consolidated it by easing past 11-4, 11-8, 11-8 over Simon Wallace.

New Delhi, May 31
Hours before the end of the deadline, world champion M C Mary Kom was today recommended for this year’s Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, the country’s highest sporting honour.

The light-flyweight pugilist, who has a record of three straight world titles to her name, filed her application with the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation only today and the IABF forwarded the same to the Sports Ministry just before the deadline, IABF executive director Col A.S. Dagar told PTI.

“She (Mary) called us up this morning to inform that she would be sending her application and we received a fax from her by evening,” Colonel Dagar told PTI.

“We have recommended her name for the Khel Ratna to the Sports Ministry just hours before the end of the deadline,” he added.

On being asked about the last-minute submission, Colonel Dagar said Mary Kom had sent a letter to the federation saying that she was not aware of the formalities required for the submission of her name. — PTI

Inter-state transfer of soccer players
NEW DELHI: The first window of the All-India Football Federation’s inter-state transfer of players for the 2007-2008 season will be held from June 1 to 20. The transfer forms will be available at the offices of the state football associations from Friday.

The Delhi Soccer Association will hold its inter-club transfer of players from June 20 to 26. The transfer book will remain open at the DSA office, Ambedkar Stadium, Delhi Gate, from 5.30 pm to 7 pm every day. The transfer and withdrawal fees will be Rs 50 and Rs 100, respectively. — OSR

Yuvraj shines
New Delhi: Yuvraj Singh rolled his arms to claim three wickets and then came up with an unbeaten 21-run cameo against All India Public Sector (AIPS) to propel Indian Airlines to the final of the 31st Raghubir Singh Hot Weather Cricket Tournament here on Thursday.

After skittling out the defending champions for 179 runs in 37.5 overs, Indian Airlines cruised to 180 for one in just 26.5 overs, which now pits them against the star-studded ONGC, which has Virender Sehwag in the ranks, in the final on June 2. — PTI

Hockey trials
NEW DELHI: A selection trials-cum-coaching camp for the Delhi state hockey team (junior) will be held at the Dhyan Chand National Stadium on June 4 at 3 pm. The Delhi team will be selected to compete in the 34th Junior National Hockey Championship to be held in Chennai from June 20 to 30. Players born on or after January 1, 1988, can report to coach Ashok Mathur at the National Stadium on June 1 at 3 pm with proof of age. — OSR