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Dominant india rise to podium
Sardar, Sunil in Sultan Azlan Shah’s XI
Kiwis prevail in final, lift Cup
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Top seed Azarenka out, Djokovic survives
Anand: No plans to retire yet
Danes complete warm-up with victory over Australia
Police raid casts shadow on Italian team’s fate
HI mulls Indo-Pak series between domestic teams
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Shivendra Singh (42nd minute), Sandeep Singh (52nd) and Tushar Khandekar (69th) scored for India after Ashley Jackson (35th) put Great Britain ahead at the stroke of half time. India had earlier lost 2-3 to Great Britain, world's fourth ranked side, in their round robin league encounter, but Michael Nobbs' boys seemed to have put that defeat behind. India's domination began in the first minute when they made the first foray into the rival circle from the left flank through Sarvanjit Singh, who sent a through pass for Shivendra, but the Indian striker failed to utilise the chance as he ran into a crowd of British defenders. In the seventh minute, Shivendra was slow in having a crack at the goal from close range after SV Sunil pushed in from the right. India were soon awarded their first penalty corner when Rupinder Pal Singh was obstructed on top of the circle by Dan Fox, but the opportunity was wasted as Danish Mujtaba could not stop the push. Shivendra again had a good look at the goal in the 15th minute when he had only the goalkeeper to beat, but his shot lacked power and was easily palmed away. Four minutes later SK Uthappa was unable to deflect in a diagonal ball from Shivendra. After a series of misses, the Indians conceded the lead to Great Britain in the final minute of the opening half when Jackson converted his team's first penalty corner with a rising flick into the net. Soon after the change of ends, Great Britain forced another penalty corner, but this time Jackson's shot was deflected out by the Indian defenders. India finally managed to draw parity in the 42nd minute when Shivendra pushed in a square-pass from Uthappa, who set up the goal with an impressive run from the right. Continuing to dominate, India forced their second penalty corner 10 minutes later, and this time Sandeep scored with a fierce drag flick high into the goal for a 2-1 lead. The Indian strikers created two more scoring opportunities, but failed to shoot past British goalkeeper James Fair. Trailing 1-2, Great Britain made a desperate move and pulled its custodian Fair out of the field in the 68th minute to add another player in search of the equaliser. The move backfired as it created the opening for India's third goal in the penultimate minute. Sandeep sent the ball to an unmarked Khandekar inside the rival circle, and the latter had to only control the ball and push it into an open goal, and he duly accomplished the task to seal India's victory. Earlier, South Korea secured the fifth position when they defeated hosts Malaysia 3-2 in a playoff. For the first time in the history of the tournament, Pakistan finished at the bottom of the table in the seventh position. — PTI
Sardar, Sunil in Sultan Azlan Shah’s XI
India's star midfielder Sardar Singh and striker SV Sunil have featured in the Sultan Azlan Shah XI, the best 11 players of this year's tournament.
New Zealand have three players in the lineup in goalkeeper Kyle Pontifex, Dean Couzins and Ryan Archibald while Argentina contribute two players in Pedro Ibarra and Lucas Vila. Great Britian's Ashley Jackson, South Korean Hyun Woo-Nam, Rashid Mehmood of Pakistan and Malaysia's young player Faizal Saari complete the team. |
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Kiwis prevail in final, lift Cup
Ipoh, June 3 This was the fifth penalty corner conversion for Hayward, who played a key role in New Zealand's campaign that saw them top the round-robin league after posting victories in their initial four matches. New Zealand have in past editions of the Azlan Shah Cup claimed the bronze medal four times, including consecutive podium finishes in 2008 and 2009. World number seven New Zealand were the third highest ranked team in the tournament, behind Great Britain (number four) and South Korea (number seven). Argentina did well to make it to the final after losing their first two matches, but were not able to breach the New Zealand defence led by goalkeeper Kyle Pontifex. — PTI
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Top seed Azarenka out, Djokovic survives
Paris, June 3 Belarussian Azarenka was beaten 6-2, 7-6 by Slovakian 15th seed Dominika Cibulkova and must wait to see if Russian Maria Sharapova will claim the top spot. Sharapova, who meets unseeded Czech Klara Zakopalova in the last 16 on Monday and has yet to drop a set here, must get to the Roland Garros final for the first time to become number one. Cibulkova, who reached the French semifinals three years ago and had lost seven times to Azarenka in eight previous meetings, collapsed on to her back, a big grin on her face, after winning the tiebreak 7-4 with a backhand crosscourt on her second matchpoint. The Slovakian will play either US Open champion Samantha Stosur of Australia or American teenager Sloane Stephens in the quarterfinals. Asked by a reporter how she would recover from the defeat, a stone-faced Azarenka said sarcastically: "I'm going to kill myself!" Azarenka, who had come within five points of defeat in the first round against Italy's Alberta Brianti, was also asked what had gone wrong on Sunday. Djokovic, the men's world number one, had to come back from two sets down to beat Italian Andreas Seppi and continue his quest to hold all four Grand Slam titles at once. The Serbian hit 77 unforced errors, 26 more than defending champion Rafa Nadal had racked up in three matches, before turning things around and managing to beat Seppi 4-6, 6-7, 6-3, 7-5, 6-3. He will now play either fifth-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or number 18 Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland. Italy's Sara Errani saw off her second French Open champion in two rounds when she beat Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-0, 7-5 to reach the quarterfinals of the claycourt grand slam for the first time. Kuznetsova's demise left Li Na as the only French Open champion still in the women's draw, after earlier-round defeats for Francesca Schiavone and Serena Williams. Meanwhile, Roger Federer surrendered one set against Belgian fan and newcomer David Goffin before beating the lucky loser 5-7 7-5 6-2 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals. Federer, seeking a record 17th Grand Slam title, will play either Argentine Juan Martin del Potro, the ninth seed, or number seven Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic in the last eight. The Swiss, who won the Roland Garros title in 2009, saved two breakpoints before surrendering a third on a forehand error to lose the first set. Bhupathi-Sania in last eight
Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza on Sunday advanced to the quarterfinals of the French Open mixed doubles event after notching up a straight-set victory in the second round of the Grand Slam event. The seventh seed Indian pair defeated their unseeded opponents from France, Virginie Razzano and Nicolas Devilder, 7-6, 6-3 in a contest lasting an hour and 20 minutes. They will now be facing the winner of the match between second seed Czech Republic-USA pair of Kveta Peschke/Mike Bryan and unseeded USA-Romanian duo of Bethanie Mattek Sands/Horia Tecau. —
PTI
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Chennai, June 3 "There are definitely no thoughts of retirement. In fact quite the opposite. It (winning a fifth world title) has been a huge boost to my morale and I really want to play chess. This is something I have enjoyed. As long as I enjoy, I don't see any reason to retire," Anand said. "I am still enjoying the game having just defended my title. I am looking forward to playing chess and winning tournaments. I am really happy as you can imagine that I had retained my title this time and this has been my biggest test so far," he told reporters during a felicitation function organised by his long-time sponsors NIIT here. The 42-year-old Indian defeated Israeli Boris Gelfand in the World Championship match in Moscow a few days ago to successfully defend his world title. Asked if there was anything left to prove to his detractors, Anand said, "I do not think I have anything more to prove. Winning in Moscow meant a lot emotionally. It's not only about records. For me when I went to this match I had no idea whether it was fourth or tenth (title). "It's just that you hate losing and you love winning. For me, the number has been irrelevant. Every title defence is special. I simply want to enjoy playing chess. There is no checklist," he said. Anand dismissed the suggestion that he did not defend the world championship title since he had won it on tie-breaker. "In the 60s, if a world champion drew the match he retained the title without a tie-break. There was a revenge match also as a bonus. In that perspective, the current system is fair and much more legitimate," he said. — PTI
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Danes complete warm-up with victory over Australia
Liverpool's Daniel Agger opened the scoring, converting a first-half penalty after being felled in the box while chasing Christian Eriksen's sublime pass. Andreas Bjelland, Agger's partner at centre back, scored midway through the second half to put Denmark two up as the Australian defence failed to deal with a corner. Bjelland was one of three players from newly-crowned Danish champions FC Nordsjaelland to take the field, along with Jores Okore and Tobias Mikkelsen. All came on as second-half substitutes. The Australians did threaten on occasion, but Stephan Andersen, first-choice goalkeeper since Thomas Sorensen suffered a back injury against Brazil and withdrew from the squad, was up to the task. For Denmark, the result will restore some of the self-confidence dented by recent friendly losses, even if the level of opposition offered by Australia fell far short of what the Danes can expect in Poland and Ukraine. Denmark open their group B campaign against Netherlands in Kharkiv on June 9, before facing Portugal and Germany in their bid to reach the knockout stages. — Reuters
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Police raid casts shadow on Italian team’s fate Rome: Days away from the Euro 2012 opener, a police raid on Italy's pre-tournament training camp has cast a shadow on the team's fate. Well-known defender Domenico Criscito was handed a search warrant as part of an investigation into the latest match-fixing scandal to engulf Italian football. Criscito was then confirmed out of the Italian 23-man squad for the Euro 2012.So far, the scandal has touched 22 clubs, 52 players and 33 matches, Xinhua reported. However, it doesn't mean that Italy are doomed to collapse in the upcoming Euro 2012. On the contrary, Italy had been crowned twice in the World Cup (1980, 2006) in the same situation. It would be fair to say that the jury is still out on the Italian side which will take part in the European Championships this June. The side coached by Cesare Prandelli had few problems qualifying for the finals, producing a series of displays which were solid rather than inspiring in a group where Estonia (who were then comfortably beaten by the Republic of Ireland) finished in second place. — IANS
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HI mulls Indo-Pak series between domestic teams
New Delhi, June 3 HI is all set to invite its Pakistani counterparts for a meeting later this month to fix the modalities of the event, to be called the Indo-Pak Champions Cup. According to HI Secretary-General Narinder Batra, the resumption of bilateral Test series between the two countries will also be a topic of discussion during the meeting. "We will send an invitation to PHF President Qasim Zia and Secretary General Asif Bajwa next week to visit India for a detailed discussion on the bilateral calender for the next three years," Batra told PTI. "The bilateral hockey series between India and Pakistan may resume this year but everything will depend on how the talks progress. "We also plan to organise a bilateral tournament between the top four domestic teams of India and Pakistan. The tournament will be an annual affair and the proposed name is Indo-Pak Champions Cup," he said. — PTI |
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Five-time champions India came from behind to stun Great Britain 3-1 and clinch the bronze medal in the Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament here on Sunday.
New Zealand today clinched the title of 21st Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament in their maiden final appearance, defeating Argentina 1-0 in the summit clash here.
Denmark beat Australia 2-0 to finish their Euro 2012 preparations with a flourish in front of their home fans in Copenhagen on Saturday.
After shaky displays in friendly defeats by Russia and Brazil, coach Morten Olsen will be pleased with his goalkeeper and defence for keeping a clean sheet while his centre backs even pitched in with the goals for good measure.
Ipoh, June 3
Stockholm, June 3