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Jankovic battles on
Saina to lead Indian charge in Malaysian Open
Haryana celebrates Olympic Day
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AP orders probe against Chamundeswarnath
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Jankovic battles on
London, June 23 Venus cracked 14 winners as she raced through the opening set in just 32 minutes before the Swiss world number 97 found her form and made more of a game in it in the second. The American finally broke the resistance of Voegele, who cites her foe's sister Serena as her childhood hero, with a break in the seventh game of the second and she served out for a satisfying victory sealed with a forehand winner. Roger Federer once predicted that Juan Martin Del Potro would be "a great player in the future" and he looked spot on at Wimbledon on Tuesday. The Argentine man-mountain just kept firing off cannonballs from a great height. All Arnaud Clement could do was offer a Gallic shrug as he went down 6-3 6-1 6-2.
Playing his first game on grass since Wimbledon last year, the lanky 20-year-old Del Potro -- he is a towering 6 foot 6 inches — really found his length, showed off his speed and delivered ace after ace. Del Potro had taken Federer to five sets in an epic semi-final at the Paris Open earlier this month. This time the fifth seed delivered a cold-blooded execution to underline his position as one of the most improved players in the world. The sun-drenched crowd on Court One gasped at the sheer power of the Argentine. But there were few rallies for them to exhale the occasional "Ooh" and "Aah" of appreciation. In a battle of bandanas, the 31-year-old Frenchman, veteran of 13 Wimbledons, could do little against such firepower from on high. Del Potro does sometimes struggle to reach low balls from such a great height but his power tennis is a joy to watch. He sauntered through to the second round with nonchalant ease. In the year when the All England Club has built a roof over Centre Court to ensure rain does not stop play, the sun has been beating down on London with Clement and Del Potro shaded by giant Wimbledon umbrellas at each changeover. Del Potro has been climbing up the rankings with impressive speed. He enjoyed a 23-match winning streak last year. He now has five titles under his young belt. Federer knocked him out in the second round of Wimbledon two years ago. It could be a very different story this time. In another match of the day, Germany’s Tommy Haas beat Alexander Peya of Austria 6-7(5), 7-6(0), 6-3, 6-4. Haas started with some discomfort, and went a set down but came back strongly to take the next three sets and ensure a place in the next round. Also Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko defeated Daniel Evans of Britain 6-2, 6-3, 6-3 for a comfortable straight sets victory, much to the dismay of the local crowd who were cheering the local lad Evans.
The Serb had a medical timeout at the end of the first set for treatment to the soles of her feet and it seemed to hit her rhythm as her German opponent raced to a 5-2 lead. But Jankovic pulled level and raced away to win the tiebreak 7-0 and set up a second-round clash with either Britain's Katie O'Brien or Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic. — Reuters
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Saina to lead Indian charge in Malaysian Open
Second seed Saina, who beat world number three Chinese Lin Chang in the finals of the Indonesian Super Series last week, faces world number 39 Porntip Buranaprasertsuk of Thailand in her opening match in the women's singles category. Compatriot Aditi Mutatkar will take on Mingtian Fu of Singapore in the other singles match. Among the men, third seed Chetan Anand will lock horns with Malaysian Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin, while ninth seed Aravind Bhat will meet Dane Sune Gavnholt in their respective opening tie. 16th seed Anup Sridhar, who created a flutter defeating world number two Dane Peter Gade to reach the quarterfinals of the Singapore Open, will cross sword with Japanese Koichi Saeki. — PTI
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Haryana celebrates Olympic Day
Panipat, June 23 The day was marked by a number of events including a mass marathon and various competitions in wrestling and kabaddi in which a number of players participated. While speaking to the media persons, general secretary of the Haryana Olympic Association (HOA) Narinder Hooda, said that the association was putting in an all out effort to promote sports in the state and the Olympic Day was being observed to encourage the spirit of sports. He said that in order to ensure maximum participation of players in the upcoming National Games, which are scheduled to be held at Ranchi from November 21, the HOA had chalked out a special programme. Giving details of the programme, he said that state teams for National Games in various disciplines would be selected during the State Games to be held at Rohtak. The tentative date for the state games was September 20, but a final decision on the matter was awaited said the HOA general secretary. He said that after the teams were selected, the HOA would be holding training-cum-preparatory camps for the selected players so as to improve the standard od sports through out the state and also help the state bag the highest number of medals in the National Games. He also took the opportunity to hail the steps taken by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in creating a favorable atmosphere for sports to flourish in the state. He said that the state government was constructing 171 sports stadiums across the state to tap the sports talent at the grass root level which wouyld ultimately lead to betterment of the quality of sports played in the country. In the evening, HPCC president P C Mullana presided over the concluding ceremony of the Olympic Day during which he gave away the prizes to the winners of various competitions that were held earlier in the day. While speaking on the occasion, he said that the state government was committed to prop up sports culture at all levels and measures were being taken in this regard. Earlier in the morning Rajiv Sharma, commissioner Rohtak division flagged off the mass marathon in which a large number of people from different sections of the society participated.
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AP orders probe against Chamundeswarnath
Hyderabad, June 23 Andhra Pradesh government today ordered probe into allegations that Chamundi, as he is known in cricketing circles, had sought “sexual favours” from women cricketers for selection and misbehaved with several of them. Last week, he was suspended as Secretary of the Andhra Cricket Association (ACA) on charges of corruption and misappropriation of funds. A group of six women cricketers from coastal Andhra region met Home Minister P Sabita Reddy and lodged a complaint against Chamundi. Alleging that the former batsman and cricket administrator had misbehaved with them, they demanded stern action. The Home Minister asked a senior officer to look into the complaints and submit a report to the government. "As ACA Secretary, he had no role in training camps but used to come there. He also made lewd comments," alleged Durga Bhavani, one of the cricketers who met the Home Minister and submitted a complaint. Former captain of Andhra women's cricket team Savita Kumari also lodged a complaint with the ACA accusing Chamundi of misbehaving with women players during training camps. Based on a report by a six-member probe committee, an executive committee meeting of ACA had last week suspended Chamundi from the body on charges of corruption and misuse of funds. Chamundi, who has been the Secretary of ACA since 2007, denied the allegations. The charge against him was that he was involved in a Rs4 crore scandal in the purchase of chairs, flood lights and gym equipment for the ACA cricket stadium in the port city of Visakhapatnam. Meanwhile, he sought police protection, saying he feared threat to his life from ACA president Gokaraju Gangaraju and other office-bearers of the association whom he had accused of hatching a conspiracy to defame him. A right-handed batsman, Chamundi represented Andhra in 44 first class matches.
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Kingston, June 23 After arriving here from England along with Ramnaresh Sarwan, Jerome Taylor and Xavier Marshall, Gayle said India maybe without some of the star players but West Indies would do well not to take them lightly. "It is never a walk over against India. There are a lot of guys still there to give us a lot of trouble, so we just have to stick to the game plan and make it a successful one," Gayle said. ‘No
Dhoni warning to players on injuries’
Indian team sources said they were not aware of Mahendra Singh Dhoni warning his players not to hide injuries or niggles ahead of the one-day series against the West Indies. Dhoni was reported to have given a dressing down to his teammates and had told them that they need to be truthful about injuries or any personal issues that could affect the team's performance. The reports said that Dhoni was forced to address this issue because of what happened to his deputy Virender Sehwag in England where the Delhi batsman had arrived for the Twenty20 World Cup carrying an injury. He was later withdrawn from the team after it was found that the injury had aggravated. Dhoni is reported to have told the players that if they wanted to take a break from the game they should tell him or the BCCI. Transit visa problem for Nayar, Badri
Mumbai: Transit visa problems have delayed the departure of three cricketers selected in the Indian squad for the four-match ODI series in the West Indies starting Friday. Mumbai's Abhishek Nayar, Tamil Nadu's Murali Vijay and Subramaniam Badrinath were the three cricketers awaiting their UK transit visas to proceed for the West Indies via London, according to BCCI sources.
— PTI |
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Holder Venus Williams launched her bid for a sixth Wimbledon title with a competitive 6-3 6-2 victory over Swiss teenager Stefanie Voegele on Tuesday. Venus, bidding for her third straight championship here, mixed fine athleticism and choice shot selection on Centre Court to book a place in the second round against Ukraine's Kateryna Bondarenko in an hour and 15 minutes.
Serbia's Jelena Jankovic overcame a medical timeout to get through her first-round match against Germany's Julia Goerges 6-4 7-6 at Wimbledon on Tuesday. Jankovic, the sixth seed who has never passed the fourth round here, stormed through the opening set in 45 minutes in her first meeting with the 20-year-old German.
New Delhi, June 23
Beckham wins damages
Pak PM to host reception for