Melbourne, january 23
Stanislas Wawrinka edged Tomas Berdych in the tightest of duels to reach his first Grand Slam final at the 36th attempt on Thursday and set up a possible all-Swiss Australian Open title showdown against Roger Federer.

Federer will have to get past world number one Rafa Nadal in the second semifinal on Friday first, but 28-year-old Wawrinka did his part by the narrowest of margins with a 6-3 6-7(1) 7-6(3) 7-6(4) victory over the tall Czech.

The earlier women’s s were one-sided affairs with China’s Li Na beating teenager Genie Bouchard 6-2 6-4 to get to her third Melbourne final and diminutive dynamo Dominika Cibulkova downing Agnieszka Radwanska 6-1 6-2 to reach her first.

There was nothing uneven about the battle between the seventh seed Berdych and eighth seed Wawrinka that followed on Rod Laver Arena in which three of the four sets were decided by tiebreaks.

While Wawrinka’s victory over defending champion Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals was all about guts and shotmaking, the arm-wrestle with Berdych was a study in big serving and heavy hitting.

Wawrinka grabbed the only break of serve in the contest to take the first set and exactly three hours later he clinched the fourth-set tiebreak on his second match point, a thumping unreturnable serve providing a fitting climax.

Finalists: First timer Cibulkova will meet three-time finalist Li Na.

“It’s amazing. I didn’t expect to make a Grand Slam final in my career,” Wawrinka said before turning his mind to the possibility of facing Federer. “To play a Swiss final will be amazing, first for Switzerland, for the country. He is the best player ever. For me it’s my first final. To imagine to play against Roger would be amazing.”

The bald statistics showed the Swiss won 143 points to Berdych’s 142, the Czech edged the ace count 21-18 and had more winners (60-57), while there were 49 unforced errors apiece.

“It was one point and one break, that’s it,” said a crestfallen Berdych, who earned just one break point at 4-4 in the third set but failed to convert it. “If I could tell what was the difference then I would be nearly a genius.”

Cibulkova lay down on the court and kicked her legs in the air in delight after the quickfire victory over fifth seed Radwanska that made her the first Slovakian woman to reach a Grand Slam final. The 24-year-old has been on fire at Melbourne Park this year, belying her lowly seeding by upsetting Sharapova and doling out a string of thrashings as she made her way to the last four.

She grabbed three breaks of serve to take the first set with a crunching backhand winner and was celebrating her victory just 33 minutes later when Radwanska netted. “It’s like a dream. It’s something so unbelievable,” she said. “I was 100 percent ready for it and I was just doing what I had to do. That’s why I won.”

Sania in mixed doubles semis, Paes out

The possibility of two Indians clashing for the mixed doubles title ended today as Sania Mirza advanced to the s while Leander Paes crashed out. Sania and her Romanian partner Horia Tecau prevailed over the unseeded pair of Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Julia Georges 6-3 6-4 in their quarterfinal clash which lasted just 63 minutes.

In another quarterfinal, Paes and his Slovakian partner Daniela Hantuchova lost 3-6 3-6 to Kristina Mladenovic and Daniel Nestor. — Agencies

Melbourne, january 23
Rafa Nadal has suffered a number of career-threatening injuries in the past yet a bad blister on the Spaniard’s hand could be all Roger Federer needs to gain a vital advantage in their Australian Open semifinal on Friday.

The 27-year-old Nadal has been forced to play the season opening grand slam with strapping across his left hand due to the sore, which is painful enough to compromise his aggressive style of play. Holding the racket is not a problem and he remains able to hit his powerful topspin forehand but the world number one has found it increasingly difficult to control his serve as the tournament has progressed.

“Serving with this injury leads to problems with the rest of my game,” he said.

“When you lose confidence with one shot, an important shot, then you are not able to feel comfortable about the rest of your shots. I will try to improve that. If not, I won’t have a chance of being in the final.”

That Nadal has identified such an innocuous injury, given his creaky knees have been bothering his scampering play for years, as a potential key to winning his semifinal shows how aware he is that Federer may be playing as well as ever.

In the past 10 days, Federer has appeared to be close to his free flowing best, none more so in his fourth round win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and then in the quarterfinal against Murray. “It’s an amazing result to be in the semis again. This one feels different because of the tougher times I’ve had in slams, Wimbledon, at the US Open,” Federer said.

“I am back physically. I’m explosive out there. I can get to balls. Last year I couldn’t do it, but the important thing is that I can do it now.”

Despite his blister, Nadal will enter the semi-final as the favourite having racked up an impressive 22-10 career record against Federer.

The Spaniard has won the last four times the pair have met and Nadal also triumphed in their Melbourne Park semi-final two years ago. — Reuters

Head to head

Overall Record
Nadal 22 Federer 10

All finals
Nadal 14 Federer 6

Grand Slam matches
Nadal 8 Federer 2

Australian Open
Nadal 2 Federer 0

• Live on Star Sport, 2pm

Chandigarh, January 23
The Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) today unanimously backed the plan for the structural overhaul of the International Cricket Council (ICC), which would cede executive decision-making in world cricket to India, Australia and England.

Interestingly, the BCCI also made a veiled threat about the Indian team’s participation in various ICC events in case the draft proposal for the ICC’s restructuring is not approved by the ICC Board.

The BCCI, in a press release today, said it had decided to authorise “the office-bearers to enter into agreements with the ICC for participating in the ICC events and host the ICC events, subject to the proposal being approved in the ICC Board”.

In this innocuous-sounding sentence, the operational part is “subject to”. So, what happens if the proposal is not approved by the ICC Board? Clearly, the implication is that the BCCI might not participate or host ICC events in that case.

The BCCI today reviewed the proposals of the ICC Commercial Rights Working Group, which have created quite a flutter in the world of cricket. “The committee discussed the proposals of the ICC Working Group and felt it was in the interest of cricket at large,” said BCCI Secretary Sanjay Patel.

The meeting was chaired by the board vice-president Shivlal Yadav as N Srinivasan, the president, skipped it because of his mother's death this morning. The BCCI unanimously agreed to approve the proposal of the Working Group of the ICC's Finance and Commercial Affairs (F&CA) committee in which the BCCI, CA and ECB are the key members.

The BCCI seems to be trying to lure Pakistan to support it at the ICC by dangling a carrot towards it. This is clear from what the BCCI media release added: “It authorised its office-bearers to discuss bilateral matches with other full members (including Pakistan) and sign formal Future Tours Programme agreements.”

In the lead-up to the negotiations for the next ICC commercial rights cycle — covering the period from 2015 to 2023 — the BCCI apparently wants its share from the ICC revenues to reflect the proportion of revenue the country generates.

— TNS/Agencies

New Delhi, January 23
India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni may have given a long rope to an erratic Ishant Sharma but his indifferent performances have come in for sharp criticism from former players, who felt it was time he was dropped as he has “stopped learning”.

They said Ishant had played more than 50 Tests, and hence such a poor display could no longer be accepted as it was affecting the team's performance. Former Indian seamer Madan Lal and noted fast bowling coach TA Sekar said there were “plenty of mistakes” that needed to be rectified if the Delhi speedster was to regain his form of 2007-08.

“I don't know whether it is pressure of performance, but he has stopped learning. He is not a kid anymore. He has played over 50 Test matches and he should have been a strike bowler and leader of the pace attack”, said Madan Lal, a former pacer.

“I think it's time the Indian team management tried out Ishwar Pandey. You have to pick bowlers who would win games for you. Look at Mohammed Shami. When he runs in, you feel he is going to get wickets for you. I don't get that feeling when I see Ishant bowling,” he said.

Asked about what was the problem with Ishant, the former India coach said the pacer was trying to stop runs which is not possible. “You can't stop runs in international cricket. You have to pick wickets and know the art of dismissing batsmen. Ishant is not trying to pick wickets. He is simply not pitching the ball in right area and is trying to bowl too fast.”

Sekar, who has been legendary Dennis Lillee's assistant for over two decades at India's pace bowling cradle, MRF Pace Foundation, feels the bowler is just “putting the ball rather than bowling it”.

“There are too many mistakes in his bowling. Firstly, he is just putting the ball rather than bowling it. His turnover timing while delivering the ball is wrong, and he doesn't have his wrist and fingers right behind the seam,” said Sekar.

“In order to get nip off the pitch, you need to have the seam position in between fingers. When you deliver the ball, then it would 'back-spin' in the air and after landing would show movement,” said Sekar, explaining why he doesn’t get any movement. — PTI

New Delhi, January 23
The impasse between the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and Hockey India (HI) over the participation of Roelant Oltmans and Terry Walsh as coaches in the upcoming HIL is finally over.

Hockey India secretary general Narinder Batra today said that the duo have been given the permission to coach in the league but they will not get paid for their month-long stint in the tournament.

“I have got letters from SAI, dated January 20, giving permission to both of them to coach HIL teams. But both Oltmans and Walsh won't get their salaries from SAI for the period they are with HIL,” he said.

SAI was on a collision course with HI after it issued a clear instruction to HI's High Performance Director Oltmans and chief coach Walsh to scrap their contracts with their HIL franchisees. Stating their association with HIL as “unethical”, SAI, the employer of the two coaches, said they will lose their salaries for the duration of the second edition of the event, commencing on Saturday in Mohali, if they continued their association with the high-profile FIH-sanctioned event.

Both Oltmans, who is the coach of Uttar Pradesh Wizards, and Walsh, the coach of Kalinga Lancers in HIL, are employed with the SAI and draw $15,000 (Rs 9.28 lakh) and $12,500 (Rs 7.73 lakh) every month. — PTI

COLOMBO, January 23
Sri Lanka Cricket today said it would oppose the proposed ICC draft paper prepared by its Finance and Commercial Affairs Committee, according to secretary Nishantha Ranatunga.

“The executive committee agreed to write to the ICC president and inform them the unanimous view of the SLC executive committee that the said paper needs to be deferred and reconsidered on a future date,” a SLC release said. Sri Lanka is the second board after Cricket South Africa to oppose the draft. The Sri Lankan sports minister has already rejected the draft. — PTI 

Chandigarh, january 23
Gaganjeet Bhullar is well placed going into the weekend with a total of seven-under 137 in the $2.5 million Commercial Bank Qatar Masters at the Doha Golf Club. "I am hitting the ball really good and have been doing that for the last two or three months now. It's all about taking good rhythm and positivity to the next round," Bhullar said.

Bhullar started out today with a par on the first followed by a bogey on the par-four second hole, his second in two days. He picked up a birdie on the next to get back to level par but dropped another stroke on the fourth hole and was one-over-par for the day at the turn.

However, he had an error-free back nine, holing a brilliant eagle on the par-five tenth hole and a birdie on the 17th for a 70 in the second round. This left the 25-year-old tied for 16th place, six strokes behind leader Rafa Bello-Caberrera.

Shiv Kapur was well placed in the middle of the pack after he carded a one-under 71 in the second round to take his halfway total to five-under 139. Jeev Milkha Singh maintained consistency with a second consecutive 71 to make the cut.

BRIEFLY

Indian GP: Saina, Sindhu advance; Kahsyap out
Lucknow: Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu marched into the women’s quarterfinals but all the top four seeds, including defending champion P. Kashyap, crashed out of the men’s event in the Syed Modi International India Grand Prix. Shubhakar Dey packed off second seed Ajay Jayaram 21-19, 21-17 and then 12th seed Zulfadli Zulkiffli of Malaysia accounted for top seed Kashyap 21-16, 21-12. While the top two seeds struggled, third seed R.M.V. Guru Sai Dutt and fourth seed Anand Pawar did put up a fight but suffered a similar fate. Pawar saved three game points in the first game but could not stop the march of Malaysia’s Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin as he lost 22-20, 21-11. B Sai Praneeth rallied after losing the first game to get the better of Guru Sai Dutt 15-21, 21-9, 21-16 to advance to the quarterfinals.

Sanjay Bangar is KXIP assistant coach
Chandigarh: Kings XI Punjab have roped in former India all-rounder Sanjay Bangar as their assistant coach for IPL-VII. Former Railways skipper Bangar has been instrumental in leading his Ranji team to victory at various platforms.

Warne to coach Australian spinners for World T20
Melbourne: Shane Warne was Thursday named as spin coach ahead of Australia’s World Twenty20 campaign starting in Bangladesh in March. Cricket Australia said the 44-year-old would support head coach Darren Lehmann as a consultant, providing specialist training for the squad’s spinners. The Australia T20 squad begins a three-match series against South Africa on March 9, before heading to compete in Bangladesh. “We believe our national teams can really benefit from more specific skill-based coaching as and when it is needed,” Lehmann said. “This will mean that from time to time we will enlist the support of experts in their craft to work with our players and share their experiences.” — Agencies