 |
|
|
Maria stages great escape
Junior pugilists on a roll
Dempo bow out of AFC Cup
Kumble almost pulled it off for RCB
Wily Anil Kumble, who replaced Kevin Pietersen as skipper of Royal Challengers, made an instant impression with his bold and innovative brand of captaincy. — Reuters
photo |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
Maria stages great escape
Paris, May 27 The duo have never felt at home in the heartland of claycourt tennis and after Murray was forced to change tactics to tame Italian Potito Starace 6-3, 2-6, 7-5, 6-4, Sharapova maintained an aura of calm despite being five points from defeat to subdue 11th-seeded fellow Russian Nadia Petrova 6-2, 1-6, 8-6. World number one Rafael Nadal continued his bid for a fifth consecutive French Open title with a 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 crushing of Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili in the second round. The four-times champion wrapped up a straightforward win on his first match point for a record 30th consecutive victory at Roland Garros, eclipsing Chris Evert’s mark of 29 set between 1974-81. The American did not compete at Roland Garros between 1976-78. World number one Dinara Safina followed up her 6-0, 6-0 walloping of Britain’s Anne Keothavong in the first round with a 6-1, 6-1 demolition of luckless fellow Russian Vitalia Diatchenko and holder Ana Ivanovic discovered her sweet spot to crush Thai Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-1, 6-2. Like Safina, Murray is also chasing a maiden Grand Slam title but the third seed’s hopes of equaling his best performance in Paris blew hot and cold on a chilly day on Philippe Chatrier Court. After losing the second set, Murray ran around aimlessly chasing shadows and looked in danger of going two-sets-to-one down to a player ranked 101 places below him as Starace streaked 5-1 ahead. A combination of guile and deft shot-making allowed the Briton to save two set points as he dug himself out of a hole. The words “fear”, “terror” or “panic” do not feature in Sharapova’s dictionary and on Wednesday she again showed why. On a comeback trail following a nine-month layoff because of a career-threatening shoulder injury, she hung tough for two hours 12 minutes before forcing Petrova to smack a forehand wide on match point. Sharapova beat an opponent ranked 91 places above her despite winning one point less than Petrova’s total of 94. For Fabrice Santoro, however, there was no great escape. The sentimental French favourite, aka the Magician, took just eight minutes to perform his final vanishing act on Wednesday. Santoro’s 20th and final Roland Garros singles appearance ended in an emotional 6-3, 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 first round defeat by Belgium’s Christophe Rochus. “My game style was out of date when I arrived on tour. I got on the tour in the ‘90s, and my style dated back to the ‘70s. So managing to get good performances for 20 years when you’re 20 years late ... that’s the beauty of my career,” said Santoro. French seventh seed Gilles Simon gave home fans something to cheer about as he overwhelmed American Robert Kendrick 7-5, 6-0, 6-1 to reach the third round, while Spanish eighth seed Fernando Verdasco beat Germany’s Philipp Petzschner 6-1, 6-2, 6-3. — Reuters
|
|
India Scope
New Delhi, May 27 After the troika of Sandeep (46kg), Namit Bahadur (50kg) and Shiva Thapa (52kg) advanced with contrasting wins in the first session, Vikas Khatri joined them in the semi-finals after winning his bantam weight bout in the evening session. Vikas defeated Yang Zhang of China 8-6 to set up a tough clash with Yunior Ernesto Valdes Boleri of Cuba. India had won two gold and a silver medal in the last edition, which was the country’s best-ever performance in the event. However, there were a couple of disappointments as well with Kuldeep (57kg) and Gaurav Bidhuri (48kg) ending up on the losing side. While Gaurav lost 4-8 to Bagdat Uaidayev of Kazakhstan, Kuldeep went down 11-8 to Aleko Chadashvili of Georgia. Earlier, Sandeep was the first to take the ring for India against Aliaksei Hohleu of Belarus. He started off cautiously with the opening round ending 1-1. Sandeep went on the offensive in the second round and notched up eight points. With a cushion of seven points, Sandeep didn’t have to toil much in the third round and secured the bout 11-3. Bhambri sisters
crash out
In what proved to be a disastrous day for India, three of its seeded players, including top seed Ankita Bhambri, were knocked out of the $ 10,000 ITF women’s Futures tournament here today. Apart from Ankita, her fourth seeded sister Sanaa, third seed Isha Lakhani and Rashmi Teltumbde also bit the dust in their second round matches. It was Rushmi Chakravarthi and Parija Maloo who kept the hosts interest alive by advancing to the quarterfinals. Sixth seeded Rushmi though ensured that India remained in challenge as she carved out a hard fought 6-7(4), 7-5, 6-4 win over Korean Seo-Kyung Kang. Also advancing was Parija, who beat compatriot Treta Bhattacharya 6-3, 7-5 to set up a quarter-final clash with Binnie. Rushmi will take on Ying-Ying Duan in the last-eight stage. Shooters off target
Promising shooter Lajja Gauswami finished eighth in the women’s rifle three position event in the ISSF World Cup at Milan, Italy. The 20-year-old shooter, who made her second consecutive finals, shot 677.7 (581+96.7) on MOnday. She shot scores of 196 in prone, 189 in standing and 196 in kneeling to find herself tied with another shooter for the last berth in the finals. She, however, sealed the final berth by firing 48.3 in a nerve wrecking shoot off. Lajja had shot 682.4 (587+95.4) to finish sixth in the previous World Cup at Munich, Germany. Another Indian, Tejaswini Sawant, who won a bronze in the Munich World Cup, finished 18th in Milan. She shot a score of 576 (Prone 193, Standing 191, Kneeling 192), 12 points less than what she shot in Munich. The third Indian in the fray, Meena Kumari improved her Munich performance by seven points to finish at the 19th spot with a score of 576 (Prone 197, Standing 188, Kneeling 191).
— PTI |
|
New Delhi, May 27 Dempo, without key defender Mahesh Gawli - booked out of the match - were the second best team for most part of the single-leg pre-quarter final match at the Kuwait SC Stadium late last night. Syria international midfielder Jehad Al Hussien exposed the weakness of the Dempo with a hat-trick to take the former AFC Champions League side to the quarter-finals of the continent’s second tier club competition. Al Hussien opened scoring in the 22nd minute before adding a second in the 58th. Dempo’s Brazilian midfielder Roberto Mendes Silva pulled one back in the 73rd minute but Al Hussien sealed victory with his hat-trick in the third minute of stoppage-time with another penalty. Dempo, had the first chance to score but Silva’s shot from the edge of the area went just wide after 12 minutes. The Kuwaiti side continued to dominate in the second-half and should have doubled their advantage five minutes after the break but with only Dempo goalkeeper Abhijit Mondal to beat, Al Hussien failed to find the target. Two minutes later, Ranti could have equalised but his long range effort was saved by Khaled Al Fadhli. Kuwait SC doubled their lead just before the hour mark when Al Ateeqi’s corner found the head of Al Hussien and he netted at the far post. Down by two goals, Dempo pressed hard and they were rewarded 17 minutes before regulation time as John Dias’ cross was connected by da Silva’s first time shot which beat Al Fadhli. — PTI
|
|
Kumble almost pulled it off for RCB
Chandigarh, May 27 A bit of chopping and pruning and the induction of Kevin Pietersen by owner Vijay Mallaya as the captain bought at a whopping $1.55 million (making KP the most expensive player of the IPL-2 along with team-mate Andrew Flintoff) meant that the “Test side” tag was rendered meaningless. The early flourish resulting in a thumping 75-run win over the defending champions Rajasthan Royals under Pietersen made one believe that the RCB had found a messiah and the team had turned the corner. Four defeats, in as many games, meant the RCB were back to square one. Pietersen was soon packing his bags after scoring 93 runs in six matches (15.5 runs per match!). An interesting calculation found out that KP earned Rs 350,000 for every run he scored for the RCB. Wily Anil Kumble, who replaced Pietersen as skipper, made an instant impression with his bold and innovative brand of captaincy. Suddenly, the RCB were a reborn and rejuvenated side brushing aside opponents one after the other, the high point being the five victories on a trot that put their campaign firmly back on the track. Though Rahul Dravid, Ross Taylor, Jacques Kallis, R van der Merwe, Praveen Kumar and Virat Kohli contributed in the fruitful RCB campaign, it was Kumble who was always breathing down the necks of the opponents. The old fox stunned one and all with 5\5 against Shane Warne-led Rajasthan Royals, paving the way for a decisive win. The introduction of Manish Pandey who clobbered a century, the first and the only one by an Indian and the second overall in this edition, provided the late thrust to the RCB campaign. It was this sterling knock that booked a semifinal berth for the RCB. Even though his side lost to Chargers in the title race, Kumble is sure to cherish the moments when he castled rival skipper and perhaps the most destructive batsman of the League, Gilchrist, off the very third delivery of the final. Kumble again did the trick for his side. Returning for the second spell, he again jolted Chargers, clean bowling burly Andrew Symonds. The wickets of in-form Rohit Sharma and Venugopal Rao also in the kitty to finish with an astonishing spell of 4-0-16-4 restricting Deccan to a sub-150 (143 for 6) total meant Challengers had a real chance to emerge champions. But batting failure and the continuation of the lean patch of Robin Uthappa saw the RCB finish second best in the competition. Though they finished at the bottom last year, man-to-man Deccan surely were a stronger team between the two. With a destructive opening combination in Gilchrist and Gibbs, one of the finest young batting talent Rohit Sharma, the most successful seam bowler in RP Singh, a talented left-arm spinner in Pragyan Ojha and then Symonds in the ranks, the success gained by Deccan looks hardly surprising. RCB, on the other hand, did not have hard-hitting batsmen or big names in the bowling department to boast of. Non-too-impressive display by Mark Boucher, Uthappa or Jessy Rider added to the skipper’s misery. But Kumble, the second most successful bowler with an amazing 21 scalps in his kitty, proved what can be achieved through discipline and determination. After the team lost four matches out of six under the captaincy of Pietersen, Kumble inspired the team to victory in seven matches out of 10 bringing his team within in sniffing distance of title triumph. The legend has proved that despite advancing years what he is capable of. No wonder, Gilchrist was effusive in his praise of the leg-spinner dubbing him a “natural leader”.
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Paris, May 27
contenders. Labelled the “Test side”, largely due to the absence of flamboyant stroke makers, Royal Challengers Bangalore finished just a step behind bottom-placed Deccan Chargers in the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League last year.
