London, July 7
American Serena Williams powered her way to a fifth Wimbledon title with an explosive start and a fighting finish to beat Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 on Saturday.

Serena Williams celebrates with her trophy after winning the Wimbledon women’s final on Saturday. — AFP

The 30-year-old, contesting her seventh Wimbledon singles final, blew her nervous opponent off court in the first set but after a short rain interruption was then forced to go toe-to-toe with the Pole before winning the last five games.

After pounding away a backhand winner after just over two hours to end Radwanska's brave resistance and secure a 14th grand slam singles title, Williams collapsed backwards to the court before climbing through the crowd to celebrate with her family and friends.

"I can't even describe it," an emotional Williams, who suffered serious health issues after cutting her foot and was out for a year since winning her fourth title in 2010, said in an on-court interview after collecting the trophy her older sister Venus has also lifted five times.

"I almost didn't make it a few years ago. I was in hospital but now I'm here again and it was so worth it. I'm so happy. "Just never give up, you can continue. Thank you, guys in the box today, daddy, mum - I can't name everyone one but thank you from the bottom of my heart."

Victory made her the oldest women's singles winner since Martina Navratilova won the title in 1990, aged 33. It looked like being a breeze for Williams as she took the opening five games and romped through the first set in 36 minutes against a clearly nervous Radwanska, who was contesting her first grand slam final.

Radwanska finally got on the scoreboard in the sixth game to sympathetic applause from the Centre Court crowd. A short rain delay interrupted the match but whe the player returned, Williams moved a break ahead in the second set before Radwanska suddenly came to the party.

With Williams looking anxious, Radwanska broke back to level at 4-4 and then moved 6-5 ahead on serve. Williams sent a backhand long to give Radwanska two set points and another error allowed the Pole to take the match into a deciding set - an achievement in itself after looking completely overwhelmed early on.

As dark clouds closed in on Centre Court, Williams looked in trouble at 1-2 in the final set but she regained her composure, breaking in the fifth game when Radwanska sent a backhand long and again two games later with a delicate forehand drop shot.

Serving for the match at 5-2 she cracked down yet another ace, her 102nd of the tournament, then powered in another unreturnable serve before finishing off with a backhand winner.

Radwanska, who will rise to number two in the WTA rankings, was almost overcome with emotion at the end. "I think I had the best two weeks of my life," Radwanska, who had been suffering with illness before the match, said on court. "She was too good today but I'm just so happy to be here in the final. "I think it was not my day but I'll try again next year." — Reuters

Mumbai, July 7
Batting great Rahul Dravid, who announced his international retirement recently, is being recommended for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award by the BCCI which has also nominated Yuvraj Singh for the Arjuna award. The names of Dravid, a former Indian captain, and Yuvraj Singh, the player of the World Cup who has now started training again after recovering from cancer, will be forwarded to the Sports Ministry next week.

"We will be forwarding the names of Rahul Dravid for Khel Ratna Award and Yuvraj Singh for the Arjuna Award next week (to the government)," BCCI's CAO Prof Ratnakar Shetty told PTI today. The Government had recently extended the deadline for the nominations till July 20.

The 39-year-old Dravid retired from all forms of the game at the international level following the Test series in Australia last year after having accumulated over 23,000 runs in Tests and ODIs combined since making a spectacular debut at Lord's in 1996. If awarded the highest sports award in the country that was instituted in 1991-92, former India captain Dravid would follow the footsteps of his illustrious ex-teammates Sachin Tendulkar (1997-98) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (2007-08) as the third cricketer to win the coveted award.

So far 20 sportspersons have been bestowed the award. Yuvraj, who has started practising at the nets at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore after his battle with a rare form of germ cell cancer between his lungs, was India's hero in the 2011 World Cup triumph.

"It's an honour that BCCI has nominated my name for the Arjuna Award. This is the second time that my name has been nominated and I hope that I am lucky enough to get it," Yuvraj told reporters in New Delhi.

Incidentally, the BCCI's recommendations came after a miscommunication with the Sports Ministry regarding the last date for filing the nomination form. The BCCI had alleged that they did not have an intimation about the nomination like earlier years, a claim which was strongly refuted by the Sports Ministry.

However, a couple of days back, the Joint Secretary in the Sports Ministry Mukul Chatterjee called up at the BCCI office to inform about the date of nomination being extended till July 20. — PTI

New Delhi, July 7
Dreaming to play for India again, Yuvraj Singh is eyeing the T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka for a comeback but admits that he needs some serious match practice to get into the groove for the rigours of international cricket.

Yuvraj, who has started training after recovering from a rare germ cell cancer, said he was not thinking of playing Test cricket as yet and was focused on making a comebck in the shorter formats. "Ranji Trophy is after World T20. In any case, one can't prepare for T20 playing Ranji Trophy. The serious match practice that I can get ahead of World T20 is Mon-ud Dowla Trophy and Buchi Babu tournaments but I am still not aware about the dates of these tournaments," Yuvraj told mediapersons at the launch of the "YouWeCan" campaign — an initiative by the Yuvraj Singh Foundation to spread awareness about cancer detection.

Yuvraj did loosely refer that he might just contemplate making himself available for the limited overs version in the home series against New Zealand ahead of the World T20.

"May be I can play some matches during New Zealand's tour of India. I really felt very motivated when chairman of selectors Krishnamachari Srikkanth said that I am in their scheme of things for the World T20. I have been training for past one and half months and I will get better in the next two months," Yuvraj said.

Although he is thinking of making a comeback in the shorter versions, Yuvraj doesn't want to look too far ahead as far as playing in the Test matches are concerned. "Right now, I don't want to think about Test matches. For me, it's important to play any format whether T20 or limited overs. About Tests, it will depend on my form, time and fitness," he said.

The most touching moment of the interaction came when Yuvraj revealed that how his mother came to know about his illness before him. “When I met the doctor and he told me about my illness, the first thing that I said to him was that my mother shouldn't be informed about it. However the doctor told me that he has informed my mother before informing me. My mother has been like a pillar of strength for me. She has taken care of me just like any mother does it for a two-year-old.” — PTI

Kolkata, July 7
Turning 40 might club him in the league of veterans but Sourav Ganguly is not yet ready to throw in the towel as far as his participation in the next edition of IPL is concerned.

Sourav Ganguly turns 40 on Sunday

"I will take a call next season. As a matter of fact, I would not be even 41 when the IPL 6 would begin in 2013," Ganguly, who turns 40 tomorrow, said when asked about his plans for next year's IPL.

This despite a poor fifth season for Pune Warriors India as the team's skipper. Ganguly is a believer and 40 is just a number for him.

Talking to PTI on the eve of his birthday, Ganguly said: "40 is just a number to me. For me life is simple and consistent. It (the age) does not matter to me, it makes no difference at all.

Taking a dig at his detractors, India's most successful Test captain had earlier said: "I'm also a human and prone to failures. Somehow you have to deal with it. Many captains have failed (in the IPL) but it's Sourav Ganguly who always makes the headlines." Asked to pick his finest moment as a cricketer, the stylish left-hander, who guided India to the 2003 World Cup final, said his entire life has been satisfying.

"I cherish my entire life. I've been blessed with a life full of good memories," Ganguly, who has the most number of Test wins (21) as captain of India, said.

At the same time, he refused to talk about former coach Greg Chappell with whom he had a stormy relationship, leading to his ouster from the Indian team in 2005. “ As I’ve said earlier, I don't want to talk about Greg Chappell.” — PTI

Pasuruan, July 7
Sujjan Singh completed a start-to-finish victory with an even-par 72 at the Taman Dayu Championship and immediately dedicated his win to his new-born daughter on Saturday. Sujjan, starting the day with a 10-shot advantage was never threatened as he cruised to his first victory outside of India with a 22-under-par 266 total at the majestic Taman Dayu Golf and Resort here.

Sujjan, who hit the headlines with tied fifth at the Avantha Masters last year, became the first Indian to win on the Asian Development Tour, the second rung Tour in Asia. This year on Asian Tour, Sujjan has made four cuts in nine starts with tied 27th at the Panasonic Open as his best.

Ajeetesh Sandhu shot 71 in the final round to finish tied 31st at one-under 287. Australians Michael Moore and Anthony Choat battled to a 66 and 68 respectively to share second place with Filipino veteran Antonio Lascuna (68) on 272, six shots adrift of Sujjan, at the inaugural Asian Development Tour (ADT) event.

"I dedicate my win to my new born daughter Serena and also to my sister. I just welcomed a baby girl in May and you start to feel that golf is not everything. That kind of eases the pressure and it worked for me this week," said Sujjan, whose wife, Irina Brar, was a former India No. 1 woman golfer.

It was a relatively quiet final round for Sujjan compared to his previous days' scores of 64, 63 and 67 as he returned with two birdies and one double bogey on the par four 10th hole when his approach shot to the green got plugged in the greenside bunker.

"I had to concentrate on my own game which was much harder because I was struggling with my ball striking. I missed a lot of fairways and this course will get tougher when you do that. I was still happy with the way I hung in there. I think my short game was fantastic," said the 31-year-old Sujjan, who played on a sponsor's invitation.

"I've been working really hard for a long time. It is good to know my game is heading in a positive direction. I hope this is the first of many. I didn't make it easy on myself and I know it wasn't going to be easy winning outside of India. It is a little bit extra special when the win is abroad," Sujjan added.

Playing on the same flight as Sujjan, Choat, who has been playing on the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) for the last four years, admitted that it was a tough task of chasing Sujjan's lead.

"I wanted to make a lot of birdies but I got off to a slow start. When we started making birdies on the back nine, we could see that the pressure was getting to him (Sujjan). He still had a huge lead so it was in his advantage," said Choat. — PTI

Chandigarh, July 7
After serving the country for 16 years with his skill, powerful shots, unstoppable speed and great passion on-field, Baichung Bhutia is all set to play a new role,’ to uplift the standards of game at the grass root level’.

In Chandigarh to promote an initiative of Baichung Bhutia Soccer Schools, the veteran player was seen stressing upon the need to promote the game among youngsters. “After hanging my boots, I just wanted to promote soccer among young blood. The initiative is among the first steps to find real talent and nudge the young generation towards the game. My entire team is focusing on tasting success in our aim.” said Baichung.

When asked about the condition of soccer in North India, the former Indian skipper added, “The shutting down of JCT club was a real shock for me and for the soccer lovers of Punjab. It was the only club that was serving well, both at junior and senior levels. But in the end, the show must go on. I hope the state will come back again and produce as many players to the nation. Punjab has produced many players, I have a special bond with JCT and it will remain. After Chandigarh, we are planning to expand our initiative to Punjab also” said Baichung.

When asked about the infrastructure provided, he said, “The players are well equipped these days and somehow they need to be put in the right direction. Soccer is gaining popularity. Sunil Chettri, has made the country proud and his move will open way for others also” said Baichung.

Adding further, “Our nation is capable of doing every possible thing. The investment by foreign clubs and corporate world is essential but only if used for the welfare of player and nation. Many foreign clubs are targeting the nation but only to make profit. I hope the top officials will understand this and will also concentrate on the fact that the Indian football needs attention and not interference. One can’t become world champions in one go,” said Baichung.

New Delhi, July 7
India has been granted an Olympic berth in swimming with the world body FINA springing a surprise by choosing Karnataka swimmer Gagan AP Ulalmath in the men’s 1,500m freestyle. The surprise move, which gave Gagan a berth under the ‘Universality’ quota, shut the door on other more well-known swimmers Viradhwal Khade, Sandeep Sejwal, Aaron d’Souza and Saurabh Sangvekar.

SFI secretary-general Virendra Nanavati told PTI that it was the prerogative of the FINA to pick a swimmer from the country who could not have any representation. — PTI