London, July 5
Marathon man Novak Djokovic outlasted Juan Del Potro 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-7 (6-8), 6-3 on Friday to win the longest semi-final ever played at Wimbledon and reach his second final at the Championships. The world number one Serb, who won the 2011 title, will play the winner from second seed Andy Murray and Polish outsider Jerzy Janowicz.

Djokovic's match lasted four hours, 43 minutes, shattering the previous mark for a men's semi of four hours, one minute set in 1989 by Ivan Lendl and Boris Becker.

It was the longest time Del Potro, who came to the contest with a damaged left knee but showed no signs of discomfort, had ever spent on a court in the heat of battle. Djokovic was a veteran of a record five-hour, 53-minute struggle in the 2012 Australian Open final, in which he beat Rafael Nadal.

“This was one of the best matches I've been a part of,” said the winner and top seed. “It was one of the most exciting, it was so close, nothing could separate us.” Djokovic ended with 22 aces to four for his Argentine opponent, with the Serb producing 80 winners and breaking on three of 15 occasions against a ferocious Del Potro defence.

Del Potro saved a pair of match points in the fourth-set tiebreaker, the first a 34-stroke monster which left the South American leaning on his racquet and gasping for breath.

The match carried on into the deciding fifth, as afternoon turned into early evening. Djokovic secured a break for 5-3 from a Del Potro forehand that went wide, but then had to come from 0-30 as he tried to serve out the win. The top seed set up a third match point and came good with his backhand winner to end it.

“I played well except for maybe when I was up two sets to one and a break and dropped serve,” said Djokovic, who now leads the series with Del Potro 9-3. — Agencies

London, July 5
A clash of styles featuring an unorthodox Frenchwoman and a smooth powerful German will play out when Marion Bartoli and Sabine Lisicki bid to etch their names on to the Wimbledon honours board on Saturday.

Emerging unscathed from the chaos of a women's draw that scattered the favourites and opened the door for a new champion are two players who were 1,500-1 outsiders to contest the final two weeks ago.

Yet the unpredictability of either reaching the final at the outset is where any similarity between the two ends.

Lisicki, who has a near-permanent smile stretched across her face, has a gameplan that has become conventional on the nippy lawns of the All England Club — a hammerhead serve, backed up by walloping forehands. Bartoli, however, is one of the most unorthodox players on the tour.

A whirl of perpetual motion, she leaps from foot to foot practising air shots and has an odd repertoire of mannerisms. She is a bundle of nervous energy that frequently explodes through her double-fisted forehands and backhands.

While 23rd seed Lisicki has captured the hearts of the home fans, Bartoli is almost surly on court, in contrast to the cheery personality she displays when the action is done and dusted.— Agencies

Shikhar Dhawan plays a shot during the fourth match of the Tri-Nation series between India and West Indies at the Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain on Friday. — AFP

London, July 5
Skipper Virat Kohli scored his 14th ODI century to fire India to a daunting total of 311/7 against West Indies at Port of Spain.

In a must-win match for India, the batsmen came to the party with Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma too playing crucial knocks. Dhawan made a 77-ball 69 while Rohit made 46 off 78 balls as the pair added 123 for the first wicket.

The West Indies fought back through Kemar Roach and Tino Best as the former first removed Dhawan caught by Darren Bravo while the latter then accounted for Rohit right after caught by the keeper Denesh Ramdin.

The Men in Blue then faltered mid-way as Dinesh Karthik got a rough one from the umpire. Suresh Raina too fell in succession as India fell from 123 for no loss to 168/4. Short on confidence, Murali Vijay then came in to join his skipper.

The Tamil Nadu batsman then hit a few lusty blows to get India going. He scored 18-ball 27 as Kohli batted with authority. Ravindra Jadeja's run-out caused some panic but Kohli cut loose towards the end and scored his 102 in 83 balls with 13 boundaries and 2 sixes. — PTI

Scoreboard
India
Rohit c Ramdin b Best 46
Dhawan c Bravo b Roach 69
Kohli c Sammy b Bravo 102
Raina c Sammy b Samuels 10
Karthik c Ramdin b Best 6
Vijay c Charles b Pollard 27
Jadeja run out 2
Ashwin not out 25
Extras: (b 4, lb 7, w13) 24
Total: (7 wickets; 50 overs) 311
Fall of wickets: 1-123, 2-141, 3-156, 4-168, 5-210, 6-221, 7-311
Bowling
Sammy 8-1-28-0
Roach 10-2-69-1
Best 10-0-51-2
Bravo 7-0-57-1
Narine 5-1-35-0
Samuels 8-0-39-1
Pollard 2-0-21-1

Mumbai, July 5
Parvez Rasool on Friday became the first player from Jammu and Kashmir to be named in the Indian cricket team as the selectors opted to rest captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and four other top players for the five-match ODI series in Zimbabwe later this month. Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane were also recalled in the 15-man squad to be led by Virat Kohli. Jaydev Unadkat and Haryana speedster Mohit Sharma were also named in the squad. Apart from Dhoni, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav and Ravichandran Aswhin were also rested while Murali Vijay was dropped from the team. The selectors also decided to ignore Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar.

Teams

For Zimbabwe ODIs

Virat Kohli (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Cheteshwar Pujara, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra, Parvez Rasool, Mohammed Shami, Vinay Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohit Sharma.

For India A tour to SA

C Pujara (capt.), S Dhawan, M Vijay, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha, Parvez Rasool, Shahbaz Nadeem, Shami Ahmed, Stuart Binny, Ishwar Pandey, Jaydev Unadkat, Siddarth Kaul. — PTI

Mumbai, July 5
The legendary Bishan Singh Bedi, who has been instrumental in shaping young Parveez Rasool's career, feels the Jammu and Kashmir cricketer should play his natural game and not think about competing with a seasoned pro like Ravichandran Ashwin.

"Rasool deserved this call-up and he should utilize this opportunity to the fullest. He has the temperament which is key to succeed at the highest level," Bedi, a former Indian captain, told PTI reacting to Rasool's inclusion in the senior team for the tour of Zimbabwe.Since this is a second string squad, the question arises as to what happens when first-choice off-spinner Ashwin makes a comeback after a break.

“Why in the world should Rasool think about competing with Ashwin ? Ashwin has created his niche and it's Rasool's turn to impress the team management with his prowess. Just because Ashwin might come back tomorrow doesn't stop Rasool from grabbing this opportunity with both hands.

“God has given him an opportunity and he should be in proper physical and mental space to use this chance," Bedi explained.

Asked about Rasool's qualities, Bedi said, "He is technically very sound off-break bowler. I used to tell him that "tumhara pahla itna accha hain, tumhe doosre ki zarroorat kabhi nahi hogi (You bowl a beautiful off-break and you don't need to use the doosra)."

For Rasool, the priority will be to get a look in the playing XI. “He did well against visiting sides to show he belongs to the level. Now he has made the cut and most importantly he should get proper match time," the former left-arm spinner said. Former India glovesman Deep Dasgupta is equally excited at the news as he was instrumental in roping in Rasool in the Pune Warriors squad for the sixth edition of the IPL.

“It's an awesome news for me. What I liked about him was his ability to soak in information. Even our coach Allan Donald was impressed with his work ethics and sincerity. He is humble, always ready to learn.” — PTI

New Delhi, July 5
Jaydev Unadkat, who has earned a recall into the Indian squad for the tour of Zimbabwe, is thankful to Zaheer Khan for helping him improve as a cricketer during his stint with the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the sixth edition of IPL.

“Zak (Zaheer) had a big role to play during the last season of IPL. I believe that his contribution to my improvement as a cricketer has been immense. He would devote extra time on me at the nets. Having variations is not all. Zak taught me how and when to use variations. He told me ways to read a batsman's mind which is very important,” Unadkat said. The other aspect that has helped him is being a part of an extremely strong Saurashtra squad that has likes of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravindra Jadeja in it. “You look at the amount of runs that Cheteshwar and Jadeja have scored in Ranji Trophy. Once you regularly bowl to a batsman of Cheteshwar's calibre at nets, it automatically improves you. Both him and Jaddu have done well at the highest level and they would tell me about where I needed to improve. That helped a lot," Unadkat stated. The 21-year-old Unadkat had been confined to the sidelines after playing his only Test match against South Africa at the Centurion, back in 2010.

“I didn't have a lot of experience then. In the last three seasons, I have matured as a cricketer having toiled hard at the Ranji Trophy as well as in the IPL,” said Unadkat who got 13 wickets in 13 matches during the last edition of IPL. However, he expected the call-up into one of the two teams and he is in both squads (India team for Zimbabwe and India 'A' team to South Africa). “I thought that I would be picked up either in the India A squad to South Africa or for the Zimbabwe tour. I am proud of being a part of both squads,” Unadkat said.

For Unadkat, the most important thing will be to cement a place in the side.

“There is a lot of competition for a place in the team and one needs to give more than 200 hundred percent to get success.” — PTI 

London, July 5
Convinced that match-fixing is much more widespread than what is already in public domain, former Australian captain Ian Chappell says he uses his commentary to drop subtle hints of wrongdoing whenever he suspects anything fishy during a match.

Chappell, who captained an Australia team described as one of the best in history, said he had altered his cricket commentary in the past to hint at any “dodgy” practice during games.

“I don't want people to look back at me and say, 'Well, he was hot on fixing but he didn't do anything about it',” Chappell said.

“I've done what I think I have to do with the information that I've been given. If ever I go to court to talk about this and the judge says 'Well, you didn't say anything about it at the time,' I can say to the judge, 'You go back and listen to my commentary there, and if you listen very closely there's an indication there that I wasn't happy with what was going on',” he said. Chappell said the Pakistan-Australia Test match at Sydney in 2010, which was investigated and later cleared by the ICC, could have been fixed. He questioned the now-retired and the then Pakistan captain Mohammed Yousuf's tactics in the match which his team lost.

“Take your pick. That was either very, very bad captaincy or it was dodgy captaincy," he said.

Chappell said it would be naive to think that any team in the world has remained immune to the menace. “Fixing is much more widespread than what the public thinks," Chappell said.

“When all the fixing allegations have been going on in the cricket world, the first thing that people say to you in Australia is that 'none of our guys are involved are they?' think you're a very game person to say that any team is not involved. It's pretty widespread,” he added. A spokesman for Cricket Australia said, “Cricket Australia has an anti-corruption and security unit to oversee and maintain the integrity of domestic competitions.” — PTI

Albi (France), July 5
Slovakian rider Peter Sagan won the hilly seventh stage of the Tour de France in a sprint finish on Friday, and Daryl Impey kept the overall race lead.

Sagan held off a challenge from John Degenkolb of Germany to clinch his first stage victory in this year's Tour and extend his lead in the contest for the sprinters' green jersey. Italian sprinter Daniele Bennati was third.

Impey began the day as the first South African rider to wear the yellow jersey, but he will likely relinquish it after Saturday's first of two difficult days of climbing in the high mountains of the Pyrenees.

Keen to get Sagan in a good position to attack, the Cannondale team increased the pace considerably near the end.

Three of them almost fell near the end as they mistimed a corner and their bikes wobbled, but their expert handling and reflexes rescued them. Sagan's stage win moves him 94 points clear of German Andre Greipel and he is already more than 100 points ahead of his archrival Mark Cavendish (2011 green jersey winner). — Reuters

Results STAGE VII Peter Sagan (Svk/Cannondale) 4:54:12" 2. John Degenkolb (Ger/Argos Shimano) ST 3. Daniele Bennati (Ita/Saxo-Tinkoff) Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol/Omega Pharma - Quick-Step) Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor/Team Sky)

Mumbai, July 5
Legendary Indian athlete Milkha Singh was honoured for his services to sports at a special event at the House of Lords.House of Lords member and NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul presented the honour to ‘The Flying Sikh’, who is in London on a promotional tour for an upcoming movie based on his life story.

“We wanted to honour him and let him know that we are very proud of what he has achieved. I am very glad that Bollywood has decided to make a film on him. His story will inspire a new generation of young athletes who can see how a boy from an ordinary family went on to make global headlines," Lord Paul said.77-year-old Milkha Singh later visited the famous Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurudwara in Southall, the predominantly Sikh suburb of London. There he met Fauja Singh - the world’s oldest marathon runner at 102 years of age.

The local Sikh community turned out in full force to meet the sporting icon who inspired UK-based Fauja Singh to start his own exciting marathon career. ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’, which releases on July 12, traces the story of Milkha’s life through the vagaries of partition of India in 1947. — PTI

Pune, July 5
Asian Games gold medallist Sudha Singh failed to live up to expectations as India settled for two silver and two bronze medals on a disappointing third day of the 20th Asian Athletics Championships here today.

Having broken her own national record last month with an Asian leading time, Sudha was tipped to bag the women’s 3000 meters steeplechase gold but had to settle for silver, as she was beaten by Ruth Chebet of Bahrain, who ran her personal best of 9:40.84 seconds.

Sudha, who has already qualified for next month’s World Championships, could only clock 9:56.27, well below her personal best of 9:45.60 as the seizable crowd at the Shiv Chhatrapati Stadium at Balewadi here were stunned into silence.

“I felt tightness at the one kilometer mark after which I had to maintain for the silver spot. Our event was delayed and we were kept waiting at the track for a long time; that could be the reason for the tightness,” Sudha said.

Prem Kumar Kumaravel gave India the second silver, in long jump, while J Hemashree and Samarjeet Singh Malhi bagged a bronze each in women’s 100 meters hurdles and men’s javelin throw respectively.

After today’s four medals, India’s tally swelled to nine with one gold, three silver and five bronze medals, taking them to sixth spot in the standings. China lead the table with eight gold, three silver and two bronze medals.

Prem Kumar gave India its first medal in long jump in 13 years. In a tight three-way contest, Prem Kumar was in third position after the penultimate round behind Wang Jianan of China, who eventually won the gold with a jump of 7.95 meters, and Tang Gongchen of China. The Indian leapt to 7.92 in his final jump to bag the silver and push Gongchen, who jumped 7.89, to bronze.

In javeline throw, Samarjit Singh gave India a surprise bronze with a best throw of 75.03 meters from his second attempt. Ivan Zaysev of Uzbekistan won the gold with 79.76 while Sachith Madhuranga of Sri Lanka was second with 79.62.

In women’s 100 meters hurdles, Jayapal Hemashree clocked 14.01 seconds, behind Kimura Ayako (13.25) of Japan and Anastassiya Soprunov (13.44) of Kazakhstan to win another surprise bronze medal.

In men’s 110m hurdles, Siddhanth Thingalaya missed the bronze by one-hundreth of a second to Wataru Yazawa of Japan. — PTI

Pune, July 5
Athletics Federation of India`s plan to include dope-tainted Ashwini Akkunji in the women`s 4x400m relay team in the ongoing Asian Championships here was today nixed by the competition technical delegate on the ground that it would violate IAAF rules.

Plans were afoot to draft Akkunji, whose two-year ban for a doping offence committed in 2011 ended on Wednesday, into the women`s 4x400m relay team to raise hopes of a gold medal in the event.

An AFI top official had, however, denied yesterday that there was any plan to include Akkunji in the women`s 4x400m relay team.

Under a High Court order, Akkunji and some other dope-tainted athletes caught together two years back had been training at NIS Patiala and so would have been ready in any eventuality.

But, one of the two-member competition technical delegate, Yukio Seki from Japan told PTI that no athlete would be allowed to be included now as doing that would violate the IAAF and AAA competition rules as the final entries have been frozen on June 20.

“It is not possible to include any additional member from India or for that matter any other country after the deadline of final entries (on June 20). Doing that would be a violation of IAAF as well as AAA competition rules,” he said.

“The meeting of technical delegates of all the countries held before the Asian Championships also decided that no additional member from any country will be allowed after June 20 and once the competition starts,” he said. — PTI

Bangalore, July 5
Anirban Lahiri posted a determined three-under-69 in the final round to record an emphatic five-stroke victory at the PGTI - Eagleburg Open at his home course, the Eagleton Golf Resort, near Bangalore.

Lahiri totaled 20-under-268 for the tournament. Chikkarangappa S, another local lad from Eagleton, fired a 68 in the final round to finish runner-up with a total score of 15-under-273.

Lahiri (73-62-64-69), had an eventful start to the day. He birdied the first from 25 feet, dropped bogeys on the next two holes and came back with a birdie on the fourth where he found the par-5 green in two shots.

The crowd favourite then consolidated his position with birdies on the sixth, ninth and 10th. Lahiri holed a 15-footer on the ninth and chipped it from the bunker within three feet of the pin on the 10th.

Anirban then had a momentary downslide as he dropped bogeys on the 12th and 14th holes after finding the bunker and missing up and down on both occasions.

He finally sealed it with birdies on the 15th and 17th. The 26-year-old converted a 25-footer for his final birdie of the day on the 17th.

“It's great to win at my home course at last. I started well today but then a bad lie on the second and a wrong club selection on the third tee led to bogeys.”

“I came back well thereafter but got a little complacent in the early stages of the back-nine to drop two more bogeys. I was happy that I managed to close it out with two birdies at the end to ensure a big victory margin,” said Lahiri. — Agencies

BRIEFLY

Tyres behave as Vettel and Hamilton shine
Nuerburgring: There was no sign of the tyre blowouts which marred last weekend’s British Grand Prix in Friday’s two practice sessions in Germany with Lewis Hamilton and local hero Sebastian Vettel leading the way. Hamilton topped the timesheets in the first session ahead of Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg while championship leader Vettel was only eighth fastest. However, the German sped around the track with the day’s top time of one minute 30.416 in the afternoon session. Rosberg was second fastest again with a 1:30.651. Hamilton was only eighth fastest. Red Bull’s Mark Webber was third quickest in both practice runs.

Choudhary re-elected as ATTU treasurer
New Delhi: Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) secretary-general Dhanraj Choudhary was re-elected as the treasurer of the Asian Table Tennis Union (ATTU) at the General Council Meeting of the Asian body at Busan (Korea). Cai Zhenhua of China and Tony Yue of Hong were elected as president and secretary-general, respectively. Choudhary, who was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), will serve as treasurer, for a second successive term. The ATTU also took on board other TTFI representatives. P.C. Chaturvedi was elected to the General Council as a member while vice president Rajeev Boads was nominated as chairman of the Coaching and Junior Committee. Ganeshan Neelakant Iyer was nominated to the Technical Committee as a full member.

Lifters open with two medals at Asian meet
New Delhi: Indian weightlifters began their campaign on a positive note bagging a silver and a bronze medal on the opening day of the 20th Women and 27th Men’s Asian Junior Championships being held at Bishkek, Krygyzstan. The silver was won by Saikhom Mirabai Chanu in the women’s 48kg division as she lifted a total of 165kg. The bronze was clinched by Apurba Chetia in the 56kg category.

Shiva Thapa in Asian boxing C’ships quarters
New Delhi: Bantamweight boxer Shiva Thapa put up an impressive show against Chinese Taipei’s Li Lin Yen to book his place in the quarterfinals of the Asian Championships in Amman, Jordan today. Dinesh Kumar (91kg), however, lost in his quarterfinal to Mirzabek Hasanov of Uzbekistan on a split decision. — Agencies