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Sweet Serenade India fight off weather, Windies |
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Haryana honours its stars Sports to stay a State subject Pakistan
rattle Sri Lanka
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Sweet Serenade
London, July 4 The 27-year-old quickly got back up on her feet to embrace Venus and then turned to lap up the applause of the 15,000 fans who had packed into a sun-kissed Centre Court. “I feel so amazing. I’m so blessed... I can't believe I'm holding it,” said a beaming Serena as she clutched the large
Venus, who had been bidding to become the first woman to win a hat-trick of titles since Steffi Graf in 1993, paid tribute to her sister. “She had an answer to everything. She played the best tennis today so congratulations,” said the 29-year-old.
“I don’t think the loss has settled in yet so I’m still smiling. I’ve had so many great times here and of course I’m looking forward to next year and the doubles final.” There could hardly have been a better way to mark the Fourth of July. Yet Serena so nearly missed the party. In Thursday’s semi-final she had been match-point down against Elena Dementieva before mounting a remarkable comeback. That great escape appeared to have energised the younger of the Williams sister and she produced a superb display of power and aggression to win her 11th grand slam title. As has been the case in many contests between Venus and Serena, Saturday's showdown turned out to be a passionless affair and the crowd struggled to get involved during the 97-minute final. In a tight first set, Serena faced and saved two break points in the eighth game and the duo headed into a tiebreak, which the second seed raced away 7-3, clinching it with an exquisitely executed backhand lob.That appeared to take the fight out of Venus and she surrendered her serve in the sixth game of the second set with a double fault and from then on, there was only one winner. —
Reuters
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India fight off weather, Windies
Gros Islet, July 4 Needing 11 runs off the last over after the target was revised to 159 from 22 overs, Dhoni (46 not out) sent Jerome Taylor's second delivery for a six over mid-wicket as India won with a ball to spare. The one-dayer was almost reduced to a Twenty20 fixture as it witnessed as many as four stoppages due to rain during the West Indies innings -- including a two hour and five minutes delay at the start of the match. The interruptions forced the overs to be brought down to 27 per side. The West Indies, put into bat after Dhoni won the toss, rode on Ramnaresh Sarwan's 62 to post a competitive 185 for seven and India were set a revised target of 195 following the D/L method. The visitors needed a strong start and Dinesh Karthik (47 off 43 balls) and Gautam Gambhir (44 off 38) did just that. The duo put on 84 runs before a direct throw from Ravi Rampaul ended Karthik's innings. Gambhir and Dhoni took the score to 95 for one off 13.3 overs when rain intervened for the fifth time and following a 22-minute delay, the target was revised to 159 in 22 overs. — PTI Scoreboard West Indies India
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Haryana honours its stars Chandigarh, July 4 While honouring 13 outstanding sports persons of the state at a function organised by the state Sports and Youth Affairs Department here he also announced the appointment of Sandeep Singh, captain of Indian hockey team, who hails from Haryana, as DSP in recognition of his outstanding performance, which had brought laurels to the state and the country. The sports persons were presented with cash awards ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh, totaling to Rs 10.75
lakh.
Those who were honoured included seven members of the Indian women hockey team, which won gold medal at the recently held Champions Challenge Tournament at Kazan in Russia. The other six were boxers. One of them had won silver medal at the Senior Asian Boxing Championship. Four boxers had won bronze medals at Senior Asian Boxing Championship in China in June last and one player had won bronze medal at the Sub-Junior World Boxing Championship in Armenia in May last. Women hockey players were Jasdeep Kaur, Jeodeep Kaur, Rani Devi, Ritu, Surender Kaur, Mamta Kharab and Savita. They were presented with Rs 1 lakh each and a memento. Jai Bhagwan, who won silver medal at the Senior Asian Boxing Championship, was presented given Rs 75,000 and a memento. Vijender Singh, Dinesh Kumar, Jitender Kumar and Paramjit were given Rs 50,000 each for winning Bronze medal in Senior Asian Boxing Championship. Sandeep, who won bronze medal at the Sub-Junior World Boxing Championship, was honoured with Rs 1 lakh and a memento. Hooda also honoured hockey coach M.K. Kaushik and Deputy Director (Hockey) of the state Sports and Youth Affairs Department, Baldev, Singh in recognition of their services in grooming the sports persons. Hooda said there was ample potential of promising sports persons in the state, especially in rural areas. Therefore, sports stadia had been constructed in 168 villages to provide sports infrastructure. The budget for promotion of sports had been increased considerably. While congratulating the award winners, he reiterated the commitment of the state government to encourage sports persons and promote sports in a big way. Haryana Minister of State for Sports and Youth Affairs Kiran Choudhry described sports as an international language to brand a state. "We are proud to have promising children, but there is a need to groom them," she added. She said the state government’s sports policy would prove a boon for sports persons.
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Sports to stay a State subject New Delhi, July 4 Had the Bill been passed, it would have vested the Sports Ministry with the authority to discipline errant sports federations and State Governments, who took money from the Government for various sports activities, without accountability. Sports is presently a State subject, under entry No 33 of List-II (State list) of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India. Successive sports ministers at the Centre had tried to bring sports under the Concurrent List, and the move became strident during the tenure of Margaret Alva as the Sports Minister. The move was to make the federations accountable and fix tenures for the office-bearers so that the prevalence of vested interest could be eliminated. Union Sports Minister Dr MS Gill too could not get the matter resolved, and hence the Cabinet decision to withdraw the Bill. No surprise, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and the National Sports Federations “welcomed” the Cabinet decision. “At last, the Union Cabinet realised the importance of the IOA’s pleas and decided to allow the subject with the States”, IOA president Suresh Kalmadi said. He “congratulated” the Union Cabinet and Dr Gill “as this decision will cetainly encourage the States to give more emphasis on the development of sports”. |
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Pakistan
rattle Sri Lanka
Galle, July 4 Sri Lanka (1st innings) Warnapura b Aamer 2 Pakistan (1st innings) Manzoor lbw b Thushara 2 |
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London, July 4
Gros Islet, July 4
Venus Rosewater dish. “It's named for Venus and she always wins. It hasn’t settled in that I’ve won yet.”
Break Point!:
Yuki bags Delhi ITF crown
Sandeep appointed Haryana DSP
Bhutia’s counsel to attend meet