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T20 vs NZ likely to be a run-feast
‘Ready to coach India if given a chance’
‘Armstrong shockingly casual about drugs’
HI should manage game in India: IOA committee
Freddie aims to be a pro boxer
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‘It’s just not happening’
Federer was unable to conjure up any of his old magic as Berdych stormed to a surprise victory, 7-6 6-4 3-6 6-3, handing the world number one his earliest exit from Flushing Meadows in nine years. “It couldn't be better,” Berdych said in a courtside interview. “There is no better feeling.” Roddick made his final appearance at Arthur Ashe Stadium when he lost to Juan Martin del Potro in the fourth round, while Andy Murray and Maria Sharapova both dug themselves out of trouble to stay alive on a drama-charged day at the last grand slam of the year. Only Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic had an easy time, both romping to comfortable victories to enhance their status as the favourites for the singles titles. “He served well, he played well, but you could see that he didn't feel great on the court.” Sharapova needed all her fighting qualities to come from behind and beat Marion Bartoli of France 3-6 6-3 6-4 and reach the semi-finals for the first time since she won in New York in 2006. Bartoli led 4-0 overnight and wrapped up the first set when play finally resumed after another morning shower but Sharapova regained her composure to win the next two and book a semi-final against world number one Victoria Azarenka. “It's so long since I've been back to this stage at the U.S. Open. A little bit of luck always helps,” the Russian said. Williams, full of confidence and self-belief, demolished Serbia's Ana Ivanovic in less than an hour to raise hopes of an American winner after Roddick departed. “I feel like I'm going to get more focused and serious and start playing Serena tennis in the next couple of rounds, if I get to play two rounds. That's my goal,” she said. Williams will play Italian Sara Errani in Friday's semis after she defeated her doubles partner Roberta Vinci 6-2 6-4. “A quarter-final with your best friend, of course, is difficult,” said Errani. “We know each other very well, we've played together many times, so it was strange to see her on the other side of the net.” Olympic champion Murray produced an extraordinary turnaround to beat Croatia's Marin Cilic 3-6 7-6 6-2 6-0 on a gusty Louis Armstrong court. The Scot lost the opening set then fell two service breaks down at 5-1 in the second, before rallying back to win, reeling off the last 11 games in a row. Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic beat Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3 7-6 6-2 and will face Spain's David Ferrer in quarters. Djokovic will square off on Thursday night with the towering Argentine Del Potro, the 2009 U.S. Open champion, while Murray faces Berdych, who has been a thorn in Federer's side before, most famously in 2010 when he beat the Swiss master at Wimbledon. “There is something in my game that he doesn't like and it makes him struggle a bit, I would say, and maybe bring him out of his comfort zone that he always likes to be on court,” Berdych said. Roddick, the face of U.S. men's tennis for most of the past decade, was reduced to tears after losing 6-7 7-6 6-2 6-4 to Del Potro. With his parents and wife watching from the stands, the 2003 champion said he was leaving the game with no regrets after 13 years as a pro. Did not play a solid game: Federer
Federer has said he is deeply disappointed after losing against Berdych, and believes he let himself down during the game by not playing a solid game, which he anticipated. Berdych, who had shocked Roger Federer at the Wimbledon quarterfinals two years ago, teased the top-seeded Federer with thumping forehands and timely volleys ultimately upsetting him again at a major tournament. “I'm disappointed you know. I really expected myself to play better. Such an amazing summer I had, I really thought I was going to come out and play a solid match. I didn't do that. Obviously there is a bit of a letdown now,” Federer said. “So many moments I thought, 'Man, it's just not happening for me.' It was just a very disappointing match,” he added. — Agencies |
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Deccan Chargers invite bids from prospective buyers
New Delhi, September 6 The Indian cricket board's (BCCI) working committee on Monday decided to allow DCHL to go ahead and issue tender notice in the leading national dailies. According to the tender notice, “under this invitation to tender issued by DCHL, the winning bidder will acquire from the DCHL on an “as is where is” basis the right to own and operate the IPL team currently known as Deccan Chargers, which is and will continue to be based in Hyderabad and which competes in the Indian Premier League and which has the opportunity (if applicable and subject to qualification) to compete in each and any CLT20 which is staged from 2013 onwards”. The term “as is where is” means that the new buyer will have to use the name Deccan Chargers and will have to clear the liabilities of the current owner. The invitation to tender and the bid document can be acquired from the BCCI office in Mumbai from September 7 upon a payment of Rs 5 lakh by demand draft or pay order favouring DCHL. According to the IPL constitution, 5 per cent of the bidding amount will be acquired by the BCCI. The deadline for submitting the bid is 12 noon on September 13 and the winning bid will be announced on the same day. The potential buyer may have to pay the salary of the Deccan Chargers' players for the fifth edition of the IPL. The move will also the help consortium of banks which had loaned out significant amount to DCHL, to recover their money since the name of the team will remain Deccan Chargers. Earlier in June, DCHL had appointed investment banking institution, Religare, to find a potential buyer but they were unable to find one who could readily buy the team with its financial liabilities.
— PTI |
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T20 vs NZ likely to be a run-feast
Visakhapatnam, September 6 “We have the best outfield in the country. The pitch is full of runs and is prepared keeping the format in mind. We expect a score of around 170,” former India wicketkeeper MSK Prasad, who is also the director of operations. Prasad said,”It's always been batting friendly here. It has nicely been rolled and the ball will come nicely on to the bat. Both the teams will look to put up a good score,” Prasad said adding that dew would be there but would not play “huge difference”. He further said there would be little for the slow bowlers and “It would be the seamers who have to do the task.” The stadium is going to be packed with a sell-out crowd of 28,000. The stadium hosted the last match close to two years back in October, 2010. Prasad is keeping his fingers crossed about forecasts of a possible thundershowers. “We are keeping our fingers crossed. But the good sign is it's a clear weather forecast for Saturday,” Prasad added. Rain hampers T20 practice session
Heavy overnight rains in the city today hampered the practice sessions of the India and New Zealand teams. Both teams were scheduled to practice at the ACA-VDCA stadium in Pothinamallayyapalem but due to incessant rains the organisers cancelled the net sessions, forcing the players to remain confined to their hotel rooms. As per the original schedule, the Kiwis were scheduled to practice from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm, while the Indians were to hit the nets at 2:00pm. The Indian and New Zealand cricket teams had arrived here yesterday.
— PTI |
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‘Ready to coach India if given a chance’
“Obviously, I have interest in coaching but only time will tell what can happen in future. If the BCCI feels that I can be a good coach, I will be ready. I feel I can create a difference in terms of the ability of the players, their form and their development. That will be one way of my repaying the game,” Ganguly said. The left-hander maintained that captain is always the main man and coach can only be a back-up support. “I have always maintained that the captain is the most important link in the team and he has to take certain on-field decisions. When I was captain for 5-6 years, there were many occasions when I had to reverse whatever we had decided in the team meetings according to situations. The coach is just there to help the captain,” he observed. When asked if he was eyeing the World Cup 2015 as the timeframe for him to become the coach, Ganguly felt Duncan ought to be a frontrunner for that. “The World Cup is three years away and if the team does well in this season, obviously Duncan will be given an extended contract till the World Cup,” he said.
— PTI |
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‘Armstrong shockingly casual about drugs’
London, September 6 But of course you haven't seen the worst, because there is always something else around the corner if the rewards are high enough and the risks deemed acceptable. We are reminded of this in the most gut-wrenching way with the latest allegations against Lance Armstrong. Armstrong's decision to end his fight against accusations that he systematically doped his way to seven Tour de France titles, and the announcement of the US Anti-Doping Agency that it plans to strip the Texan of “all results” from 1 August 1998, are certainly given a still more shocking context by the charges of his former US Postal Service team-mate Tyler Hamilton in the first published extracts of his memoir from a version of sports hell, The Secret Race. Most haunting is the casual language of deceit. Hamilton claims that, after fretting over his need for performance-enhancing substances on a transatlantic flight into a new European season, he sought Armstrong’s help in his villa in Nice. “Hey dude,” Hamilton recalls saying to Armstrong, “have you got any Poe I can borrow?” Poe? It is the trade nickname for EPO or erythropoietin. Edgar Allan Poe, of course, was a great if somewhat macabre American poet. His name, Hamilton tells us, has become just another phrase in the language of cheating folk. According to Hamilton, who is just one of 10 witnesses the USADA arraigned against Armstrong before he made his No Mas declaration, his team-mate casually pointed to the fridge. There, lined up like so many cartons of milk, were the neatly wrapped supplies of EPO to be injected when the time was right. In the quaintest way, Hamilton was shocked by the sheer brazenness, reporting, “I was surprised that Lance would be so cavalier. On the occasions I had kept EPO in my fridge in Girona [his training base in Spain] I had taken it out of the cardboard packaging, wrapped it in foil and put it in the back, out of sight. But Lance seemed relaxed about it. I figured he knew what he was doing. I took a vial and thanked him.” What Armstrong was doing, it appeared to Hamilton, was making sure, in the wake of the Festina bust, when that team had a cache of drugs discovered by the police in a team vehicle, that he was guaranteed uninterrupted delivery of the right medicine. Along with the expletives, there were the routine obscenities of a sporting life shaped by a swaggering confidence that drug testing could be beaten. Hamilton reports that Armstrong, aware that the goods could no longer be carried by the team, was exultantly confident in his own supply system. His gardener and odd-jobs man had a new chore and some new tools — a motorbike and a cellphone. He could be summoned at any time day or night, he could be in and out and back tending the flowers in simply no time at all, and one neat way of removing the evidence was slipping the used syringes into a soft drinks can and dropping it into the back pack of the house disposer. This didn't remove all risk, of course, and Hamilton recounts the time he and his partner were obliged to crawl along the floor of their house while avoiding a dope tester. The most important safeguard of all, we are told, was to know your “glow-time” — or that period when you couldn't be sure the drugs had cleared your system. That was the difference between opening your door and crawling into a closet.
— The Independent
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HI should manage game in India: IOA committee
New Delhi, September 6 The power tussle between HI and IHF had prompted world governing body of the game (FIH) to instruct IOA to resolve the issue. IOA then formed a three-member committee comprising federation bosses. They have submitted a report to IOA and concluded that HI should manage the game. Incidentally, IHF had rejected the committee saying its members were biased against it and did not turn up for the personal hearing, though it has made written submissions.
— PTI |
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Freddie aims to be a pro boxer
Flintoff, who was forced to quit cricket due to a series of injuries, is set to fight in a heavyweight bout at Manchester's MEN Arena on November 30 and is being trained by former world featherweight champion Barry McGuigan and McGuigan's son Shane in preparation for the bout. The 34-year-old's experiences are being turned into a documentary called ‘The Gloves Are Off’.
— Agencies |
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New York, September 6
Djokovic was in complete control of his fourth round match against Stanislas Wawrinka, leading 6-4 6-1 3-1, when the Swiss called it quits in one of five matches that were held over from Tuesday because of rain. “I really don't know exactly what it was but by the look of it, I think it was probably a dizziness or something,” said Djokovic, the only man yet to drop a set in the tournament.
New Delhi, September 6
London, September 6