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Black Wednesday: Day of upsets & injuries
Seeing red in orange shoes
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Bhupathi, Knowle win
Wimbledon court comes under the scanner
Bindra takes IPL rot to the ICC meeting
Lack of consistency our bane: Sardar
Man city striker Tevez set to join Juventus
Indian male lifters finish runners-up at Asian meet
Punjab women national fencing champions
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Black Wednesday: Day of upsets & injuries
London, June 26 Federer’s 6-7(5) 7-6(5) 7-5 7-6(5) loss in exactly three hours rocked Wimbledon to its core on a day that already seemed surreal after seven players withdrew or retired injured. The last time Federer failed to reach at least the last eight was in the 2004 French Open. Earlier, Former Wimbledon champion and third seed Maria Sharapova slid to a shock second-round exit when she was beaten 6-3, 6-4 by Portuguese qualifier Michelle Larcher de Brito. The tall Russian, who won the grasscourt Grand Slam in 2004 as a 17-year-old, slipped over a couple of times during the match and received lengthy treatment after a particularly nasty fall in the seventh game of the second set. Even before the tumble, which was very similar to the one that ended up forcing second seed Victoria Azarenka to withdraw with a knee injury, Sharapova was outplayed by the world number 131 who sealed victory on her fifth match point when her opponent netted a forehand. Sharapova's exit came hours after the withdrawal of second seed Azarenka, who called for Wimbledon officials to investigate why the courts were so slippery after several players suffered falls, and their departure opens up the bottom half of the draw. Wozniacki stumbles Caroline Wozniacki too took a tumble after skidding over while chasing down a backhand in the fourth game of the match. After applying some spray and strapping to her ankle and foot, a grimacing Wozniacki hesitantly returned to the baseline and promptly dropped her serve. What was clear was that the Dane wanted the ordeal to be over sooner rather than later and World No. 196 Cetkovska obliged by finishing off the match in 75 minutes. Ivanovic stunned Another big name to exit Wimbledon was former world number one Ivanovic, who fell 6-3 6-3 to inspired teenage Canadian Eugenie Bouchard. Bouchard's win means she is the first Canadian in over a decade to reach the third round at Wimbledon. All over for Tsonga French sixth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga retired injured in his second round match against Latvia's Ernests Gulbis. Tsonga, who was a potential quarterfinal opponent for British number one Andy Murray, withdrew while trailing two sets to one down on Centre Court. He called on a trainer at the end of the second set to get treatment on his knee but threw in the towel a set later. Murray on course Andy Murray despatched Taiwan's Lu Yen-Hsun 6-3 6-3 7-5 with maximum efficiency to reach the third round. Britain's second seed came into the match having suffered a chastening defeat by the 75th ranked Lu at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and for the first handful of games it looked like he might be in for a testing afternoon. Any potential for an upset was realistically quashed, however, when Murray broke in the sixth game of the first set. He then broke twice more in the second and came out on top in a nip and tuck third. Former champion Lleyton Hewitt lost to German qualifier Dustin Brown 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-2 in the second round. Bhupathi-Knowle win Eighth-seeded Indo-Austrian pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Julian Knowle advanced to the men’s doubles second round, beating Argentine-Spanish duo Leonardo Mayer and Albert Ramos. Bhupathi-Knowle won 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-2 in two hours and 37 minutes in the first round clash.— Agencies
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London, June 26 Wimbledon, the world’s oldest tennis tournament, has the strictest dress code in tennis, stating for the past 40 years that players must wear “predominantly” white. The rules stipulate no solid mass of colour, no fluorescent colours, little or no dark and bold colours, and preferably all white shirts, shorts and skirts. The tournament’s clothing police allow no exceptions, even for top players like Federer, the seven-times champion ranked the world’s eighth most powerful celebrity by Forbes magazine this week. “He has been asked to change his shoes,” said a Wimbledon spokesman. He said several other players had also been asked to change their shoes to abide by the rules but no other warnings had been issued for other violations of the dress code. — Reuters ...but coloured knickers are fine! The sight of coloured knickers emerging as women rivals Maria Sharapova from Russia and American Serena Williams serve failed to make organisers see red and the coloured nails sported by a list of women players on court have not been ruled out. Knickers have caused a stir at Wimbledon in the past, dating back to 1949 when American Gussie Moran was accused of "putting sin and vulgarity into tennis" by wearing lace-trimmed knickers at the All England Club in south London. Six years ago Frenchwoman Tatiana Golovin shocked organisers by wearing a pair of crimson underpants beneath her white outfit which had officials reaching for the rule book but to no avail. "The rules state that players can wear any colour underwear they like provided it is no longer than their shorts or skirt. Anything else must be white," said a Wimbledon spokesman.
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London, June 26 Bhupathi-Knowle won 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-2 in two hours and 37 minutes in the first round clash. The eighth seeds broke their opponents for the first time in the sixth game of the first set to take a 4-2 advantage, converting their third break point and won the next game to take a step closer to bagging the set. They again broke their opponents in the final game to clinch the set in half an hour. Mayer-Ramos returned the favour by breaking the Indo-Austrian duo in the first game of the second set and won on their serve to make it 2-0. Bhupathi and Knowle broke back to level the set 5-5. However, the decided did not go in their favour, losing 5-7. — IANS
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Wimbledon court comes under the scanner
London, June 26 The Belarussian took a bad fall in her first-round match on Monday on what she called a slippery Court One and her knee failed to recover in time for Wednesday's match against Flavia Pennetta as she became one of eight players to pull out so far. “I don't know if it’s the court or the weather I can’t figure it out it,” said Azarenka, who joined John Isner, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Marin Cilic, Radek Stepanek, Steve Darcis, Guido Pella, Philipp Kohlschreiber and Romina Oprandi in cutting short the Wimbledon campaign. “It would be great if the (All England) club or somebody who takes care of the court just would examine or try to find an issue so that wouldn't happen.”— Reuters John Isner, the No. 18 seed, pulled out from the middle of his second round match after hurting his left knee. He called a medical timeout and had his knee wrapped but the injury was bad enough and he had to withdraw. Victoria Azarenka, the No 2 seed, couldn’t recover from the knee injury she suffered during her first round win against Maria Joao. She hoped to get fit for the second-round match but it wasn’t to be and had to withdraw. Steve Darcis, who created a flutter by ousting Rafel Nadal in the first round, had to pull out barely a few minutes before his second round match against Lukasz Kubot. He reportedly hurt his shoudler in the opener.
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Bindra takes IPL rot to the ICC meeting
London, June 26 A couple of days ago, an ICC spokesperson had said that the ICC would have no objection to N Srinivasan -- the president of the BCCI who has “stepped aside”, an ambiguous and doubtful position in the BCCI constitution -- attending the conference as “director” or in any other capacity. The BCCI is being represented in the conference by Jagmohan Dalmiya, who could perhaps be termed the “stepped in” president of the BCCI, who had taken over in the wake of the IPL spot-fixing and betting controversy, in which Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan is allegedly involved. Though it’s Dalmiya who is attending the meetings on behalf of the BCCI, former BCCI president IS Bindra brought the IPL controversy to the doors of the ICC when he wrote to the directors of the Boards of the ICC against Srinivasan. Bindra said that while in the ICC’s opinion — as voiced by its spokesperson — Srinivasan was perfectly eligible to represent India, it was highly objectionable as “cricket enthusiasts in India and across the globe have strong reservations about his participation”. “It is not only an obligation but a sacrosanct responsibility to administer the application and implementation of the Ethics Code,” Bindra said. “The ICC Code of Ethics… contain a number of obligations imposed on ICC Directors to ensure that the reputation of the ICC is enhanced and to foster public confidence in the ICC’s governance and administration of the sport of cricket worldwide.” Bindra said that cricket, once a gentleman’s game, has now become a businessman’s game, and that it is no longer “played by the book but by the bookies”. “Previously the most despised three letter word used to be ‘tax’. Now it’s replaced by ‘bet’ or worse still ‘fix’,” Bindra said. “Unfortunately at the middle of this ugly crease is one of your high profile board members against whom much is said and written but very little done. It’s time then that somebody stands up, musters the courage and put the love of the game above everything else and present a complaint against the current N Srinivasan.” Among other allegations against Srinivasan, Bindra said that Srinivasan managed to handpick the inquiry panel set to look into the spot-fixing controversy. This, Bindra said, was “contrary to BCCI Rules and Regulations”. “One member of the committee, the secretary of the BCCI, Mr Sanjay Jagdale quit in disgust,” Bindra added. Srinivasan is not at the ICC meetings, Dalmiya is. Yet, Bindra has left the stinking IPL spot-fixing controversy at the doorstep of the ICC, though it would be too optimistic to expect the ICC take any note of it. The BCCI is the most powerful constituent of the ICC; the ICC board members are likely to go along with the forces that currently call the shots. The BCCI is likely to ignore Bindra’s letter as an attempt to “internationalise” an internal issue. Several cricket boards often go or are going through problems of their own. Their members would not be too keen to “internationalise” their internal disputes. Bindra could be flailing at windmills.
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Lack of consistency our bane: Sardar
New Delhi, June 26 India lost out on a golden chance to qualify for the next year’s World Cup in The Hague, Netherlands by finishing a lowly sixth in the just-concluded eight-nation World League Round 3. "We didn’t start well in any of the matches. We played well for 5 minutes and then allowed the opposition to dominate us for the next 10 minutes. We were inconsistent throughout the tournament. We didn’t play total hockey for the entire 70 minutes in any of the matches," a fuming Sardar told PTI in an interview today. The skipper was also upset with sudden dip in form of the drag-flick specialists. "With Sandeep Singh, Rupinderpal Singh and V R Raghunath in the side, we were rated as one of the strongest outfits when it comes to conversion of drag-flicks but we failed to covert chances in Rotterdam. In every match, we got 5-6 penalty corners but failed to utilise them," he sounded upset. “The entire team is very upset with the performance because were were in high spirits going into the tournament.”— PTI
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Spain ready for the Azzurri
Fortaleza, Brazil, June 26 The odds look heavily in Spain’s favour again. Unbeaten in their last 25 matches, Spain have only lost to Italy once in eight meetings since the 1994 World Cup finals, while Italy have also lost Mario Balotelli, their main attacking threat in this tournament. He has returned home with a thigh injury, but Ramos said Spain still expected a tough test on Thursday. “We are playing for the final of a very important trophy with the dream of appearing in a great stadium like the Maracana,” Ramos, a member of the team that crushed Italy a year ago in Kiev to retain the European title, said. “We don’t expect any surprises; we know them perfectly well and we know that they will make it very difficult for us. They have the experience, a very competitive spirit and they always show it even if their results against us recently have not been that good. I think it will be far more difficult than in the European final. We cannot relax for a moment; we want to win this Confederations Cup on Sunday, it is very important to us,” Ramos added. Fellow defender Jordi Alba, who has had a fine tournament and scored two excellent goals in Sunday’s 3-0 win over Nigeria which gave Spain their third successive win here added: “Last year in Kiev we played the perfect match against them, in every aspect of our play.” “They gave us a lot of room and I am not sure they will make that mistake again, but if we stick to our game-plan, which has brought us a lot of success recently, I think we will beat them again.” Spain’s preparations have been sullied by allegations made in the local media that a number of Spain players enjoyed a party with five girls after their opening 2-1 win over Uruguay on June 16. The Spanish FA, in a strongly worded official statement, denied the allegations on Tuesday, while Ramos said if the story was written to destabilise the squad, it had not worked. “To put our reputation in doubt by inventing a story like this is very bad and I hope the law does what is merited. It is in the hands of the police. Our consciences are clean, we are not here to talk about parties, we are here to play our game which has made us world champions and champions of Europe,” Ramos said. — Reuters
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Man city striker Tevez set to join Juventus
Manchester, June 26 The reports said the 29-year-old would sign a three-year contract with the 29-times Italian champions. Juventus did not immediately comment. Gazzetta dello Sport, Sky Sports Italia, Tuttosport and Corriere dello Sport all said an agreement had been reached following a meeting between officials from the clubs in Manchester, with Juventus expected to pay 12 million euros. Tevez spent four years at Manchester City after joining them from neighbours United, but it was far from plain sailing. Although he won a Premiership winner’s media in 2011/12, he was also fined and suspended by City after refusing to warm up during a Champions League match at Bayern Munich in 2011. He has also fallen out of favour with the Argentine national side. His signing would mark a change in direction by Juventus, who have won the Serie A twice in a row without a big name forward. Coach Antonio Conte has rotated between any two of Sebastian Giovinco, Alessandro Matri, Mirko Vucinic and Fabio Quagliarella, who have shared the goals evenly between them. Tevez began his career at Boca Juniors in Argentina and has also played for Corinthians in Brazil and West Ham United in England. — Reuters
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Indian male lifters finish runners-up at Asian meet
New Delhi, June 26 Among the men, Rustam Sarang finished sixth in the 62kg category, while D Senthamizh Selvan finished seventh in the same division. Sathish Kumar ended eighth in the 77kg category. — PTI
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Punjab women national fencing champions
Patiala, June 26 Kerela and Manipur finished second and third respectively. In the men’s section, Services lifted the trophy as Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir finished second and third, respectively. — TNS
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Roger Federer received orders from Wimbledon organisers on Wednesday to change his orange-soled shoes that breach an all-white rule.
