S P O R T S

Federer, Serena enter final
Melbourne, January 29 Roger Federer moved one win away from a record-equalling 14th grand slam title on Thursday, blasting Andy Roddick off court as Melbourne sweltered through a once-in-a-century heatwave. Cool and collected as all around him wilted, the Swiss maestro notched up his 16th victory over the American 6-2, 7-5, 7-5 to reach his 18th grand slam final and fourth one here.
Roger Federer celebrates beating Andy Roddick on Thursday. — Reuters photo

Duleep Trophy semis
Badrinath, Dravid feast on North attack
Rajkot, January 29
South Zone captain S Badrinath's maiden double ton and Rahul Dravid's breezy century helped them to pile up 442 for six wickets against North Zone on the first day of the four-day Duleep Trophy semi-final match, being played at the Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Stadium here today.

Dist bodies up in arms against Modi
Jaipur, January 29
With most of the district cricket associations up in arms and a few court cases lodged against him, Lalit Modi is in danger of being stripped of absolute powers he was enjoying as the Rajasthan Cricket Association President.

114 players for IPL auction
New Delhi, January 29
The second player’s auction of the DLF Indian Premier League will witness 114 cricketers from abroad under the hammer in Goa on February 6.

Jayawardene fears Mendis’ tricks over
Dambulla, January 29 Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene believes that the mystery around Ajantha Mendis’ spinning ability has subsided as the batsmen have started picking the tweaker’s bag of tricks. In yesterday’s six-wicket loss against India, Mendis returned wicketless as the visitors chased down the 247-run target with ease. Ajantha Mendis (L) and Mahela Jayawardene

DD to telecast Punjab Gold Cup Hockey Chandigarh, January 29 Doordarshan will telecast live the matches of the Four-Nation Punjab Gold Cup Invitational Hockey Tournament being organised by the Punjab Government at Sector 42 Hockey Stadium here from January 31 to February 9. New Zealand players practice at hockey stadium in sector 42, Chandigarh, on Thursday. Tribune photo: Pradeep Tewari

Halappa, Ignace included
Chandigarh, January 29
Drag flicker Sandeep Singh will lead an 18-member squad which will take part in the Four-Nation Punjab Gold Cup Hockey Tournament being organised the Punjab Government at the Sector 42 Hockey Stadium here from January 31 to February 9.

Federer, Serena enter final

Melbourne, January 29
Roger Federer moved one win away from a record-equalling 14th grand slam title on Thursday, blasting Andy Roddick off court as Melbourne sweltered through a once-in-a-century heatwave. Cool and collected as all around him wilted, the Swiss maestro notched up his 16th victory over the American 6-2, 7-5, 7-5 to reach his 18th grand slam final and fourth one here.

Earlier, Serena Williams also reached her fourth Australian Open final, slamming the brakes on Elena Dementieva's 15-match winning streak. She faces Dinara Safina in Saturday's final. Federer set up Sunday's showdown against either top seed Rafa Nadal or Fernando Verdasco with a sublime performance under the stars.

Organisers opened the centre court roof for the night session, having closed it during the day to fend off the sun which had been turning the arena into a cauldron. Federer put on a masterclass of power and precision tennis to reach his 18th grand slam final -- one short of Ivan Lendl’s record.

“Look, if I am completely honest, you dream of playing the big tournaments, your dream is to win Wimbledon and then if number one comes around its too good to be true. But to dominate to this extent ... I guess I am living the dream."

Williams was also in dreamland after sweeping aside Dementieva, although she was in no doubt that she could improve. “A perfect match for me? Oh, no, no, no. But it was definitely better,” the American second seed smiled after her 6-3, 6-4 win. Another Russian stands between Williams and a fourth title at Melbourne Park after Safina ousted Vera Zvonareva 6-3, 7-6. Fourth seed Dementieva had not lost on court this year but was no match for Williams on a centre court covered by a roof to keep out the heatwave.

Williams kept her cool, though, and cruised past an opponent who had won their previous three meetings. “I definitely served better,” Williams said. “It’s so important to serve well against her. She's a really good returner. I moved better and I was definitely more consistent and I kept my cool.”

Victory over Safina in Saturday's final will vault Williams back to world number one but the ranking is secondary to her. “That would be just a bonus,” she said. “But my goal isn’t to be number one, my goal is to win one more match here at the Australian Open.” Williams has nine grand slam singles titles to her name and is desperate to hit double figures. “I have to go one more. I’m excited that I’m playing really consistent... at least making it to the finals of grand slams. Obviously I would love to leave a mark and do well but most of all enjoy myself and do the best that I can do.”

Safina will be bidding to join big brother Marat Safin as an Australian Open champion and a world number one -- a ranking she will attain if she beats Williams. On Thursday she also snapped a three-match losing streak against Zvonareva to advance to her second grand slam final after last year’s French Open. “Since I was growing up it has been my dream one day to be number one,” — Reuters

Bhupathi-Knowles in final; Paes-Dlouhy lose

Mahesh Bhupathi earned a shot at his first Australian Open title by reaching the men’s doubles final with Mark Knowles while Leander Paes’ wait continues after losing his semifinal alongside partner Lukas Dlouhy.

Bhupathi and his Bahamian partner Knowles, seeded third, thrashed Lukasz Kubot and Oliver Marach 6-3, 6-1 to make the finals of a Grand Slam event together for the first time since forging the partnership in 2008. In the other semifinal, the fourth seeded Paes-Dlouhy pair lost 3-6, 3-6 to American second seeds Mike and Bob Bryan.

Paes and his Czech partner’s fight against the formidable Bryan brothers was over in just 54 minutes, ending Indian hopes of seeing two of its best doubles players fighting for the title.

Among the juniors, Yuki Bhambri continued his sizzling run as he made the semifinals of both the singles and doubles events as top seed.

In singles, world number two Yuki quelled a late challenge from Germany’s Becker 6-1, 7-5 while in the doubles he and Chinese Taipei’s Liang-Chi Huang edged past French fifth seed pair of Adrien Puget and Julien Obry 7-6, 6-4 in the quarterfinals. The teen sensation had reached the semifinals last year as well. — PTI

Duleep Trophy semis
Badrinath, Dravid feast on North attack

Rajkot, January 29
South Zone captain S Badrinath's maiden double ton and Rahul Dravid's breezy century helped them to pile up 442 for six wickets against North Zone on the first day of the four-day Duleep Trophy semi-final match, being played at the Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Stadium here today.

S Badrinath (200) and Rahul Dravid (138) contributed 312 runs for the third wicket in 57.3 overs, after coming together when their team was reeling at two for 13. Of the duo, Dravid was more aggressive to complete his ton in just 127 deliveries with the help of 14 boundaries. While Badrinath finished his century in 143 balls, which was studded with fifteen fours and one six.

Dravid, who hit a century against Central Zone at Bangalore in the previous game, was in fine nick today and hit all around the ground before he was bowled by the spinner Amit Mishra in an attempt to cut, but missed completely. His innings was studded with eighteen fours and has faced 173 balls while spent 144 minutes on the pitch.

Brief Score : South Zone First Innings 442 for six in 90 overs (S Badrinath 200, Rahul Dravid 138, Arjun Yadav not out 43, M S Gony two for 71, V S Malik two for 98 and A Mishra two for 149).]

Pawar's 6-wkt haul wrecks East

Mumbai: Left-arm spinner Rajesh Pawar's six wicket haul put West Zone in command, after bowling out East Zone for a paltry 171 runs on the opening day of the four-day Duleep Trophy semi-final being played at the Brabourne stadium here today.

At close of play, West Zone had however, lost their skipper Wasim Jaffer for zero and Ajinkya Rahane for 23 before B Thaker and Cheteshwar Pujara took West to 102 for two. Thaker was on 42, while Pujara was on 34 when stumps were called. West Zone are still 69 runs behind with eight wickets in hand.

Put into bat by West Zone, East began on a disastrous note as they lost their captain S Das who was trapped plumb in front by an incoming ball from Dhawal Kulkarni on duck. Manoj Tewary, another person on whose shoulders a lot depended for East Zone, could not get going and finally holed up in the deep to Siddharth Trivedi of the bowling of Abhishek Nayar for 13 runs to leave East on 75 for three.

Scoreboard

East Zone (1st innings): D Chakrabarty c C Pujara b S Trivedi 36 SS Das lbw b D Kulkarni 0 Rashmi Parida lbw b R Pawar 63 M Tiwary c S Trivedi b A Nayar 13 S Tiwary c K Jadhav b R Pawar 24 W Saha c W Jaffer b R Pawar 0 H Das not out 15 A Katti c W Jaffer b R Pawar 0 R Bose c A Rahane b R Pawar 1 B Mohanty c A Rahane b S Trivedi 0 A Dinda c D Kulkarni b R Pawar 12 Extras: (lb 5, nb 2) 7 Total (all out; 61.3 overs) 171 Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-51, 3-75, 4-136, 5-136, 6-151, 7-151, 8-153, 9-154, 10-171 Bowling: D Kulkarni 16-6-42-1 S Trivedi 19-5-49-2 S Fallah 10-5-19-0 A Nayar 7-0-22-1 R Pawar 9.3-3-34-6

West Zone: (1st innings): B Thaker batting 18 W Jaffer c R Parida b R Bose 0 A Rahane not out 23 Extras: (nb 1) 1 Total: (1 wicket; 12 overs) 42. Fall of wickets: 1-5. — UNI

Dist bodies up in arms against Modi

Jaipur, January 29
With most of the district cricket associations up in arms and a few court cases lodged against him, Lalit Modi is in danger of being stripped of absolute powers he was enjoying as the Rajasthan Cricket Association President.

About 24 of the 32 district units, including that of secretary Subhash Joshi, have handed a memorandum to Registrar of Societies and the move might result in clipping his powers.

The district associations are also pressing hard to revert to RCA's old constitution as Modi, with the backing of then Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, had managed to bring a 'Sports Ordinance' in the state in 2005.

Riding on the contentious clauses of the ordinance, Modi was able to rout the Kishore Rungta faction in the RCA elections in 2005. He had formulated a new constitution for RCA which provided absolute powers to the President.

The district associations could not dare speak against the might of Modi but now they are trying to revert back to the old constitution which has all powers invested in the complete executive.

In their efforts, about 24 units have joined the campaign and have signed a memorandum which would be given to the Registrar of Societies. The move was on after the RCA president denied to accede to their demands of early elections.

Reportedly, the representatives of these districts had a meeting with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and were assured of 'all cooperation' at the government level. Ironically, Modi too had taken the same course and the Sports Ordinance which paved way for his meteoritic rise might now prove a cause of his downfall. — PTI

114 players for IPL auction

New Delhi, January 29
The second player’s auction of the DLF Indian Premier League will witness 114 cricketers from abroad under the hammer in Goa on February 6.

List of players up for auction:

Australia: Brad Haddin, Michael Clarke, Nathan Hauritz, Stuart Clark, Brad Hogg, Beau Casson, Mark Cameron, Peter Forrest, Lee Carseldine, Doug Bollinger, Michael Dighton, Jason Krejza, Nathan Reardon, Chris Hartley, Shaun Tait, Ashley Noffke, Bryce McGain, George Bailey, Michael Hill, Travis Birt, Chris Swan, Michael Klinger, Ben Edmondson, Aiden Blizzard, Mark Cosgrove, Adam Voges, Shane Harwood.

England: Ravi Bopara, Monty Panesar, Robert Key, James Foster, Tyron Henderson, Sajid Mahmood, Matt Prior, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood, Owais Shah, Shaun Udal, Darren Gough, Ryan Sidebottom, Graeme Swan, Luke Wright, Kevin Peterson, Andrew Flintoff, Steve Harmison, James Anderson, Ed Joyce, Dominic Cork.

Sri Lanka: Thilina Thushara, Nuwan Kulasekera, Mahela Udawatte, Dammika Prasad, Thilina Kandamby, Kaushalya Weereratne, Jehan Mubarak, Dilhara Lokuhettige, Malinga Bandara, Malinda Warnapura, Michael Vandort, Prassanna Jayawardane, Upal Tharanga, Jeevantha Kulatunga, Kaushal Lokuarachchi.

South Africa: Gulam Bodi, Rory Kleinveld, Charles Langeveldt, Ashwell Prince, JP Duminy, Martin Van Jaarsveld, Roelof Van der Merwe, Andre Nel, Neil Mckanzee, Yusuf Abdullah, Paul Harris, Johan Botha, Morne Van Wyk.

Bangladesh: Tamim Iqbal, Junaid Siddique, Rajin Saleh, Mehrab Hossain Jr, Shakib Al Hasan, Mohammad Ashraful, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Mohammad Junaid Siddique, Ziaur Rahman, Mahumudullah Riyad, Nadif Chowdhury, Mohammad Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohammad Raqibul Hasan, Tamim Iqbal Khan.

New Zealand: Mark Gillespie, Tim Southee, Jesse Ryder, Jeetan Patel, Kyle Mills, Chris Martin, Jamie How, Peter Fulton, James Franklin.

Pakistan: Asim Kamal, Yasir Hameed, Danish Kaneria, Mohd. Hafeez, Yasir Arafat.

West Indies: Sylvester Joseph, Darren Sammy, Kieron Pollard, Andre Fletcher, Kieron Powell, Fidel Edwards, Dwayne Smith, Kemar Roach.

Zimbabwe: Vusi Sibanda. — PTI

Jayawardene fears Mendis’ tricks over

Dambulla, January 29
Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene believes that the mystery around Ajantha Mendis’ spinning ability has subsided as the batsmen have started picking the tweaker’s bag of tricks.

In yesterday’s six-wicket loss against India, Mendis returned wicketless as the visitors chased down the 247-run target with ease. “All I can say is that Ajantha is doing his best. It’s our responsibility to develop him and he himself is learning. Teams are picking him as well and Ajantha needs to come up with variations against the batsmen,” Jayawardene told mediapersons here last evening.

Mendis rose to limelight when he picked up a world record 26 wickets on his debut Test series and became the fastest bowler to claim 50 ODI wickets.

Jayawardene admitted that the batsmen failed to make most of the batting powerplay and felt that a better fielding performance would have made things tougher for the Indians.

“We got a good start but we couldn’t go on from there. In between, we lost a couple of wickets and we failed to make use of the batting powerplay. Had we scored about 20 more runs it would have been good. We missed a couple of chances as well and had we taken them, we could have applied more pressure,” the Sri Lankan captain, who is himself struggling with his form, said. — UNI

DD to telecast Punjab Gold Cup Hockey
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 29
Doordarshan will telecast live the matches of the Four-Nation Punjab Gold Cup Invitational Hockey Tournament being organised by the Punjab Government at Sector 42 Hockey Stadium here from January 31 to February 9.

Accoding to Doordarshan sources eight cameras would be used for production and live telecast. Organising secretary Pargat Singh said the fixtures have been approved by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) and arrangements have been completed to conduct the first-ever Four-Nation Hockey Tournament smoothly in India.

Eight-time Olympics champions India will open their campaign with a match against New Zealand on January 31 at 4.45 p.m. The other match on the opening day will be played between Holland and Germany from 6.45 p.m. Punjab deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal will inaugurate the tournament.

Halappa, Ignace included
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 29
Drag flicker Sandeep Singh will lead an 18-member squad which will take part in the Four-Nation Punjab Gold Cup Hockey Tournament being organised the Punjab Government at the Sector 42 Hockey Stadium here from January 31 to February 9. The squad was announced by the Indian selectors - Ajit Pal Singh, Dhanraj Pillay, Zafar Iqbal and Ashok Kumar today.

Midfielder Sardar Singh has been ruled out as he is yet to fully recover from his hand injury. He was one of three players the ad hoc committee of the Indian Hockey Confederation had directed to report to Dr M S Dhillon (orthopaedics) of the PGI here.

Arjun Halappa and Ignace Tirkey were the other players on the injury list. Arjun Halappa and Ignace have been included in the Indian team after selection trials conducted this afternoon.

Besides the selectors, coach incharge Harendra Singh, Ramandeep Singh and Roneo James also attended the selectors’ meeting. The team was announced by chairman Ajit Pal Singh.

The team: Goalkeepers: Baljit Singh, Adrian D'Souza. Fullbacks: Dalip Tirky, Sandeep Singh, Raghu Nath. Midfielders: Gurbaj Singh, VS Vinay, Vikram Pillay, Prabhod Tirkey, Ignace Tirkey. Forwards: Deepak Thakur, Prabhjot Singh, Shivedra Singh, Rajpal Singh, Arjun Halappa, Tushar Khandekar, SV Sunil, Bharat Chhikara. Standbyes: Bharat Chetri, Ajitesh Roy, Sadar Singh, Sarwan jit Singh, Hari Prashad, Ravi Paul. Officials: Harindra Singh (coach incharge), Ramandeep Singh (coach), Romeo James (coach), Mithai MV (Trainder), Shrikant (physio) and Ashok Kumar (technical manager).