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Venus, Safina in semifinal battle
Michael Vaughan calls it a day
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Astana look to Armstrong for redemption
‘Give Baldev Dronacharya Award’
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Venus, Safina in semifinal battle
Venus raced to the first set in 27 minutes and though the Pole broke early for a 2-0 lead in the second, the seven-times grand slam winner reeled off six straight games, clinching victory with a forehand winner after an hour and eight minutes. She will play top seed Dinara Safina of Russia for a place in Saturday’s final. Dinara Safina came from a set down to reach her first Wimbledon semifinal with an unconvincing 6-7, 6-4, 6-1 victory over Germany's unseeded Sabine Lisicki on Tuesday. Safina, whose tortured expressions suggest she is as much battling her own game as her opponent’s, remained on course for a first career grand slam title despite a flurry of double faults at crucial moments on Centre Court. The two shared a break of serve each in the opening set, which Lisicki clinched 7-5 in a tiebreak when the Russian ballooned a second serve long for her seventh double fault of the set. She restored order in the second with a single break enough to help her level the match and Safina raced through the third when a Lisicki mishit dropped wide. Olympic champion Elena Dementieva reached the semifinals for the second straight year with a crushing 6-2, 6-2 victory over unseeded Italian Francesca Schiavone. The 29-year-old Schiavone had never passed the third round here in eight previous visits and rarely looked like threatening the crisp-hitting of the fourth-seeded Dementieva. The Russian broke serve three times in the opening set and Schiavone's resistance proved equally ineffective in the second, and Dementieva progressed when the Italian veteran slapped a backhand over the baseline after 66 minutes. — Reuters
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Michael Vaughan calls it a day
Edgbaston, June 30 Vaughan departs leaving a rich legacy, having won 26 of the 51 Test matches he was in charge of. His achievements include leading England to their first Ashes victory against Australia in 18 years in 2005, something he described as the defining moment of his captaincy. “I’d like to wish Andrew Strauss success in this Ashes series. I know they have the drive, ambition and abilities to repeat the success from 2005. Winning that series was most definitely the highpoint of my career,” said Vaughan. Vaughan said time was ripe to leave the scene and pave way for the youngsters. “It has been an enormous privilege to have played for and captained my country and this is one of the hardest decisions I have had to make. Having played almost non-stop for sixteen seasons, I feel that the time is right for the focus to shift to the next generation,” Vaughan said. “We have some fantastic talent coming through the English counties and, with the next Ashes series upon us, now is the time for the younger players to rise to the challenge of building on the success achieved in English cricket in the last few years,” he added. As captain, Vaughan also led England to their first Test series win in South Africa in 40 years - also in 2005 - besides presiding over the team’s eight consecutive Test wins in 2004. He also played 86 one dayers, leading the side in 60 of those matches. Vaughan scored 18 Test hundreds following his 1999 debut and was ranked the number one batsman in the world following the 2002-03 Ashes Series in Australia in which he made 633 runs including three centuries. Overall, he scored 5,719 runs in 82 Tests at an average of 41.44 with 18 hundreds and a best of 197 against India at Trent Bridge in 2002. Vaughan’s one-day record, however, was less than impressive as he managed 1982 runs in 86 ODIs at an average of 27.15. — PTI
Learnt great deal from him: Strauss
England captain Andrew Strauss heaped praise on Michael Vaughan saying his predecessor’s ability to outwit opponents set him apart from the crowd. “I count Michael as a good friend as well as a team-mate and I know what a tough decision this will have been for him as he took so much pleasure and pride
in representing his country,” said Strauss.
“I learned a great deal from watching him captain the side for five years at close hand and his ability to identify a new strategy for outwitting the opposition or bring The England captain admitted that Vaughan’s presence would be missed in the dressing room. “But more than anything we as players will miss the enormous sense of fun and enjoyment that Michael brought to the dressing room. He will be missed by everyone connected with the team and we wish him every success in his future career.”
— PTI |
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Astana look to Armstrong for redemption
They certainly have the weapons, because the team roster includes seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong, making an unlikely comeback from retirement. Astana also have 2007 Tour champion Alberto Contador of Spain, who was prevented from defending his title last year, and two former Tour runners-up, Germany’s Andreas Kloeden and American Levi Leipheimer, as high-power lieutenants. In other words, Astana have four riders capable of winning the Tour de France. And the team is directed by the cycling Svengali who managed all seven of Armstrong’s Tour titles and Contador's one championship, Johan Bruyneel. It is therefore difficult, barring injury or some other unexpected occurrence, to imagine the victor in this year's Tour de France coming from any of the other 19 teams in the race. If form holds, the triumph will be the greatest in Astana’s short history - and may also be its last. The reason is money. The financial crisis has badly hit the Astana group, a coalition of Kazakh state-owned companies bankrolling the team, so badly that it failed to pay its riders in spring, provoking a brief mutiny during the Giro d’Italia. Armstrong publicly expressed his frustration with the owners then, and said that the licence should be transferred to Bruyneel. He also invited other investors to sponsor the team. The sport’s ruling body, the International Cycling Union (UCI), then demanded that the owners put into a special bank account the entire year’s salaries for the team’s employees or the team would be stripped of its licence, depriving Armstrong and Contador of a ride in the Tour. On June 23, the UCI announced that the licence-withdrawal process had been “provisionally suspended,” but that it could be taken up again at any time. A source with knowledge of the case said the suspension of the procedure was to last at least until the end of the Tour, leaving open the possibility that the race could be the team’s last under the Astana sponsorship. But if the team’s future looks cloudy, its past is downright sordid. Earlier this month, former team leader Alexander Vinokourov was told by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that he had to serve a two-year doping ban. — DPA
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‘Give Baldev Dronacharya Award’
Chandigarh, June 30 In a letter to DR Manohar Singh Gill, Tarlochan Singh said that Baldev Singh with his hard work has not only brought Shahbad on the international hockey horizon by producing 27 international players in 15 years but has also helped Indian women hockey team to record several title triumphs during this period. He said that six of his girls were members of the Indian team that won the gold in the inaugural eight-nation Champions Challenge II tournament at Kazan in Russia last week. Tarlochan Singh also wanted that deserving Shahbad girls should also be given Arjuna awards in recognition of their excellent performances in international hockey tournaments, both in India and abroad. |
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