''I think I was behaving like a really spoilt girl today,'' Safina told reporters.

''I have to learn from these things if I want to get better. If I want to make one step in front, I have to learn to handle my emotions better.'' 

Safina, runner-up at both the French Open and Olympics, led 2-0 in the opening set but said the windy conditions had contributed to her bad body language.

New York, September 6
Roger Federer battled past Serbian Novak Djokovic 6-3, 5-7, 7-5, 6-2 on Saturday to reach the final of the US Open for the fifth successive year. 

In a match that was a repeat of last year's final, the four-times champion hammered 20 aces in his best performance of the tournament to set up a final against either world number one Rafael Nadal or British sixth seed Andy Murray. 

"I am so excited to be back in the final again," the second seed said in a courtside interview. 

"I've worked hard all season to do well in the big ones. (To win) here at the Open would mean a hell of a lot to me." 

Having struggled en route to the semi-finals, Federer, chasing his first grand slam title of the year but 13th overall, played an almost perfect opening set. 

Third seed Djokovic, who beat Federer on his way to his first grand slam title at the Australian Open in January, looked flat early on but lifted his game to move ahead 4-1 in the second set. 

The Swiss hit back to be on even terms at 4-4 but Djokovic broke in the 12th game to level the match. 

Federer continued to exert more pressure on the Djokovic serve and one break, in the 11th game, helped him snatch the third set. 

Games stayed on serve at the start of the fourth set, but an unfortunate netcord by Djokovic landed out to give Federer the break in the fifth game. 

That seemed to knock the air out of Djokovic's lungs and after Federer won a tight service game to lead 4-2, he broke again in the next game before clinching victory with a forehand winner. — Reuters

Mumbai, September 6
A fit-again Sachin Tendulkar is all set to get back into his groove after a poor run with the bat in the three-Test series against Sri Lanka by taking part in the Irani Cup tie for Rest of India against Delhi at Vadodara later this month.

"I will be participating in the Irani Trophy. Just now I'm fine," declared the master batsman at a promotional event for Aviva Insurance of which he is a brand ambassador.

The selectors will choose on Monday a near-strength Test squad for the annual tie from September 24-28 between last season's Ranji Trophy champions (Delhi) and the Rest of India and are expected to name Tendulkar in the squad.

Tendulkar had to miss the five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka, after being a part of the Test squad under Anil Kumble that lost the series to the home team 1-2, after sustaining an elbow injury while fielding in the third and final match at Colombo.

He returned home and was replaced in the ODI squad by S Badrinath.

The champion batsman could muster only 95 runs at a very dismal average of 15.83 per innings with 31 in the second innings of the second Test at Galle, won by India, as his highest score in the three-match Test rubber.

Before the series, the ace batsman, who appeared in his 150th Test in Colombo, was only 172 runs adrift of overtaking West Indian great Brian Lara as the highest run getter in Tests, but fell way short of that target.

The Irani Cup tie is seen as a virtual selection trial by the selectors who want to pit the best players from the Rest of India to take on a strong Delhi team and prepare the Indian squad for the high-profile Test series against Australia starting in Bengaluru next month.

Tendulkar, who had played a stellar role in guiding India to its first-ever ODI tri-series win in Australia in March, was asked about the perceived divide between seniors and juniors in the team at the promotional event and replied that showing maturity was important. — PTI

Brussels, September 6
Triple Olympic champion Usain Bolt won the 100m at the Golden League meet here yesterday, beating compatriot Asafa Powell in a time of 9.77sec to bring the curtain down on his record-shattering season.

The Jamaican flyer's winning time was well outside his world record of 9.69sec set in Beijing last month, but was enough to see off the challenge of Powell, who on a wet and windy night, could only clock 9.83.

Nesta Carter made it a Jamaican clean sweep, placing third in 10.07sec.

"Asafa is a great guy and I warmed down with him after the race," said Bolt of his rival who sprang out of the blocks to take an early lead, which the fastest man in the world only wiped out in the last 10m.

"We are adversaries on the track but also the best of friends. It's great to finish the season with a victory. I had a bad start (his reaction time of 0.223sec was the worst of the nine runners) so I have to be satisfied with 9.77 especially in these wet conditions.

"Without doubt, I would have had the legs to have run faster had the conditions been better.

"Now I will go back to Jamaica. I'll rest and think about next season. I'm going to keep working harder and harder and improve my start, that's the most important thing."

Powell, who beat Bolt in Stockholm in July, added, "I had an excellent start, but Usain gives up nothing." The former world record holder, who ran the second-fastest 100m of all time in Lausanne on Tuesday, said he was already planning ahead to 2009 where winning gold at the world championships in Berlin would be a priority. — AFP 

Bilbao (Spain), September 6
World champion Viswanathan Anand was stunned by Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the fourth round of the Bilbao Grand Slam final chess tournament here.

On a day that provided all three decisive games in this category 22 event, 17-year old Magnus Carlsen of Norway became the unofficial world number one after beating Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan.

The other game of the day saw Armenian Levon Aronian striking form as he defeated Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine in a long drawn affair.

Former world champion Topalov retained his full point lead over Carlsen in the experimental football-like scoring system that gives three points for a win and one for a draw.

With six rounds remaining for the fight of Euros 150000 first prize, the Bulgarian has moved to 8 points.
Aronian stands third on 5, two points clear of nearest rivals Radjabov, Ivanchuk and Anand, all of whom yet to register a single victory.

Anand was tamed by Topalov in a Queen's Indian defense game where the Indian played black. Topalov went for a popular set-up involving a pawn sacrifice early in the opening and the Indian's passive play resulted in a huge spatial advantage to white.

Topalov was a man on a mission after his previous round victory over Carlsen and guided his pieces quite well to launch a dangerous attack.

The position was already much inferior when Anand found his queen trapped on the first rank and called it a day.

Topalov needed just 25 moves to topple the reigning world champion. The loss proved costly for Anand as he temporarily lost his numero uno position in the rating list and for the first time ever, Carlsen became the number one. — PTI  

Bangalore, September 6
Defending champion Pankaj Advani basking in the glory of winning ONGC-IBSF's point format World Billiards championship yesterday, today began his title defence in style in the time format version of the tourney.

Pankaj, who had won the time format championship in 2005 and 2007, defeated compatriot Prem Prakash in the league opener defeating him 1735-703.

The 22-year-old Pankaj virtually had a flying start when he scored a break of 307 on his fourth visit.

Veteran Geet Sethi, who lost to Pankaj in points format, proved too good for his Ireland opponent Aidan Murray winning at 1939-167.

The other Indian cueists who won their opening league matches include Arvind Savur, Devendra Joshi and Sourav Kothari. Arvind Savur defeated Wayne Carey (New Zealand) 823-623, Devendra Joshi got past Darren Taylor of New Zealand 1477-332 and Sourav Kothari overcame Philip Mumford (England) 1113-432.

It was a mixed day for Vietnam's Thanh Binh Nguyen, who beat Calucm Hossack (Scotland) 1117-252 but lost to India's Dhruv Sitwala 1025-647.

Other results: Larry Drennan (Ireland) bt Mohammed Aslam (Sri Lanka) 781-485; Peter Gilchrist (Singapore) bt Raghoo Sinha (India) 1834-368; Shyam Jagtiani (India) bt Md Asim (India) 765-624; B Bhaskar (India) bt Brijesh Damani (India) 867-697; Praprut Chaithanasakun (Thailand) bt Gary Oliver (NZ) 1151-444; Rupesh Shah (India) bt Suriya Suwannasingh (Thai) 1299-462; Teik Chong Alan Puan (Sing) bt Gary Norman (EBOS) 957-301. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Akhtar leaves for India for TV show
Karachi: Controversial Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar on Saturday left for India from Lahore to participate in a television show, while insisting that his main priority was to play couple of end season matches for English county side Surrey. "I am going to India for a day to fulfil a commitment to take part in a television show and after that I will fly out to England to join Surrey," Akhtar told reporters at the airport. Akhtar, who went to London to play for Surrey, had to return home two days back from Heathrow airport after immigration officials did not allow him entry as his work permit and visa documents were not complete. "Everything is now in order and I will join Surrey by Sunday," he said. — PTI

Humpy through to quarters
Nalchik (Russia): Indian grandmaster Koneru Humpy crashed through the defence of Hoang Thanh Trang of Hungary to win her second game of the pre-quarterfinals and make it to the last eight stage of World Women's Chess Championship here. After conceding a draw in the first game, Humpy was in her peak form as she outclassed Trang in all departments of the game to win the two-game mini-match by 1.5-0.5 points. The other Indian in the fray, Dronavalli Harika was eliminated in the pre-quarters after she went down to Lilit Mkrtchian of Armenia in the return game. — PTI

No differences within team: Bracken
Sydney: Fast bowler Nathan Bracken believes a strong bond continues to exist between all his team players despite the Andrew Symonds saga which has created friction within the team. Bracken said despite the hostile nature of Andrew Symonds's departure from the camp in Darwin last week, harmony within the Australian team is not eroding and the left-arm pacer has offered to hear any of the all-rounder's concerns. “Whatever he is feeling, how he is, if he wants to give me a call I am happy to chat and talk about whatever he is going through,” Bracken said on Friday. “I have sent him a text this week and received a reply, as have a lot of other boys. I think that is the strength of our team, and what sets Australia apart from the other teams - we stick together no matter what. We can’t leave guys as individuals, we do it together.” Last week, Symonds was sent home after he missed a compulsory team meeting during the ongoing ODI series against Bangladesh and instead went out fishing. — UNI

‘England team has potential to be No 1’
London: After thumping South Africa 4-0 in the recently concluded series, England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff asserted that the current English team has all ingredients to become number one in world cricket. “Potentially it can be a very good side. If you look at the players and the talent they've got it's all there but I'm sure England sides of the past have thought that as well,” Flintoff told PA Sport . “If we are allowed to play together over a long period of time and allowed to grow together then this side has great potential,” he added. — UNI

Chargers to probe Afridi-Laxman spat
Hyderabad: Taking a serious note of the verbal spat between IPL teammates Shahid Afridi and VVS Laxman, Deccan Chargers on Saturday said they will enquire into the matter to establish the facts. Tim Wright, chief executive of Deccan Chargers said in a statement that necessary action will be taken after the inquiry. "In the interest of fairness and of thoroughness, both players have been advised of this process and have been invited to contribute to the inquiry.” Afridi, the flamboyant Pakistani all-rounder had questioned Laxman's leadership qualities and said that Australian Adam Gilchrist was a better choice to lead Chargers in the second edition of the Twenty20 tournament. Laxman, the wristy Hyderabadi, in retaliation had said that Afridi lacked team ethics. — PTI