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Sania Soares at US Open
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Root hits ton, helps England avoid whitewash
BCCI slams Botham for hitting out at IPL
Hockey juniors stranded IOA misses out on an event in Incheon
Parimarjan Negi turns author
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Sania Soares at US Open
New York, September 5 Spears sent a backhand volley long after making it 9-9 from 4-9, as Sania and Soares heaved a sigh of relief. It was first time that Sania and Soares were playing together as a pair. "Playing with him is a lot of fun. He did not play with me all these years, not sure why?" Sania gushed after the win and confirmed that the pairing will continue for the Australian Open. Sania's previous titles came with compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi. They won Australian Open in 2009 and French Open in 2012. The 27-year old had reached the Australian Open mixed doubles final this year also but ended runners-up with Romanian partner Horea Tecau. Sania played well in the women's doubles also, making the semifinals with Zimbabwe's Cara Black. Federer scripts great escape into the semis Roger Federer pulled off a great escape by fighting off two match points to beat Frenchman Gael Monfils and reach the semifinals of the U.S. Open on Thursday, keeping his bid for an 18th grand slam on
track. Sixth seeded Tomas Berdych had no chance of conjuring a similar escape and lost 6-2 6-4 7-6(4) to big-serving Croat Cilic, who is making his return to Flushing Meadows after missing last year's grand slam due to a doping suspension. Federer, a near perfect 25-1 playing under the floodlights of Arthur Ashe Stadium court, must have wondered which Monfils would show up on Thursday. Labelled one of the game's great natural talents, Monfils can be wildly entertaining or maddening, depending on his mood and the near capacity crowd saw both sides of the 28-year-old Frenchman during a riveting the three hour, 20 minute encounter. Monfils added several highlight reel shots to his collection in winning the first two sets, and after Federer won the third he carved out two match points in the fourth. But with Federer on the ropes the 20th seeded Frenchman could not deliver the knockout punch. “When I was down two match points, I wasn't feeling so great ... I thought 'this is it, this is the last point, man,” said Federer. “Just go down fighting, don't miss an easy shot and let him have it.” Misfiring most of the night, Federer slowly began to find his mark and seized his chance when it arrived, holding serve for 5-5 to close out the fourth set and then breaking Monfils in the first game of the fifth. “It was one of those moments where you got the back against the wall and hope to get a bit lucky and you hope to play exactly the right shots that you need or that he completely just messes it up,” said the 33-year-old Swiss. “Either way works as long as you get out of it. “It's just unbelievable to win matches like this at slams. “I'm not sure I have ever saved match point before in a slam. If that hasn't happened, I'm unbelievably happy that it was today.”
— Reuters
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Root hits ton, helps England avoid whitewash
Leeds, September 5 After taking an unbeatable 3-0 lead following a thumping nine-wicket victory in the last match, world champions India struggled to adapt to the conditions and allowed England to score more than 230 runs for the first time in the
series. Man-of-the-match Root, who smashed 10 fours and three sixes, put on 108 runs with Buttler before Dhoni knocked off the bails to break the fifth-wicket partnership after Buttler set off for a non-existent run. Mohammed Shami ended Root's entertaining innings in the 46th over when the right-hander flicked the ball straight to Ravichandran Ashwin. India's hopes of completing a 4-0 rout got off to a rocky start when they lost Edgbaston centurion Ajinkya Rahane for a duck after he nonchalantly sliced a James Anderson delivery into the hands of Eoin Morgan in the first
over. Despite the defeat, India will be buoyed by their 50-overs performances in England as they look to fine-tune their game before beginning the defence of their World Cup title in February. England, however, face an uphill task if they are to get their hands on the 50-overs World Cup, a trophy they have never won. They have won only one series against another Test-playing nation since 2012 and have lost their last four at home. Their consolation victory has done little to paper over the cracks that run deep in England's approach to the limited-overs format which some former players have labelled as old-fashioned and out of date. — Reuters |
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BCCI slams Botham for hitting out at IPL
New Delhi, September 5 “Let him get his facts correct first. He has asked how the other boards have allowed the IPL to happen. The BCCI has distributed over ten million US dollars as compensation to the other cricket boards for allowing their players to play in the IPL,” said BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel. “How on earth did the IPL own the best players in the world for two months a year and not pay a penny to the boards who brought these players into the game?” Botham had queried during his lecture on Thursday. Patel wondered about the 'locus standi' of Botham to comment on the IPL and reminded the former England player of his dalliance with disgraced Texas financier Allen Stanford who promised to set up an IPL-type T20 League before he was put behind the bars in USA for defrauding investors through a Ponzi scheme. “I can still visualise the photo of Botham sitting in the front when Stanford went to England. And now he has the temerity to talk about the IPL. We don't want his advice. We have enough top players like Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, Kapil Dev and Rahul Dravid to advice us.”
— PTI |
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Movie fails to record Mary’s life faithfully
Chandigarh, September 5 Till Friday morning, Mary Kom, the biopic, promised to tell the story of an unheralded five-time world champion boxer and a mother of three kids. That promise has been brutally broken. The movie does not record her life and times faithfully. A small caveat — saying 'Based on the life incidents of' rather than 'based on the life of’ — at the start of the movie leaves more questions than answers. After three hours, all it tells us about Mary Kom, the sportsperson, is that she is ziddi (stubborn) and has enormous will-power. It does not tell from where does an athlete — with crores awarded to her, and with the burden of three kids — gets the will-power to fight on. Her single-minded devotion to training, her exceptional counter movements and never-say-die spirit have been casually cast aside. At the very start of the movie, Mary joins the ‘Monnet Boxing Club’ in Imphal. In reality, Mary went to the state government-run Khuman Lampak Stadium in Imphal and trained under Manipur State Boxing coach M. Narjit Singh. Monnet has been ingeniously drafted in the script, as it is the sponsor of the Indian boxing federation. In reality, Monnet Steel stopped paying sponsorship money ever since the federation was banned by IOA. The film shows Mary wining two out of her five world titles by defeating the same opponent, Sasha Polonski of Germany, twice. The reality is: Mary Kom has never faced Sasha Polonski of Germany in any weight category in any World Boxing Championship. There are serious doubts if a pugilist called Sasha Polonski even exists. Mary, though, did twice beat Steluta Duta of Romania in 2008 (Ningbo, China) and 2006 (Talkatora Stadium, New Delhi). If the director was in search of drama in Mary’s life, it was here on November 23, 2006, at the World Championships at Talkatora Stadium in Delhi. She won the title for the third time and then broke into Thabal Chongba, a traditional Manipuri dance, in the boxing ring! It has been learnt that Mary was keen to incorporate the scene into the movie but the filmmakers chose otherwise, saying that the scene wouldn't look convincing to the audience. Mary Kom got married to K Onler on March 12, 2005, while the movie implies that it happened sometime in 2006. The Manipuri's biggest sporting achievement, the Olympics bronze medal in London, has been consigned to mere a photo caption at the end of the movie. An overwhelming majority of Indian sportspersons are already undergoing many hardships, and their lives are like an adventure, and there is no need to melodramatise them. The director of this biopic clearly has little insight into the lives of sportspersons. |
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Hockey juniors stranded
New Delhi, September
5 The Sports Authority of India (SAI) is yet to clear
the team for the October 10-18 event, in which, India are the defending
champions, despite repeated reminders for approval by Hockey
India. Hockey India secretary general Narinder Batra said the national
body could be fined Swiss francs 250000 (Rs1.61 cr) by the International
Hockey Federation (FIH) if it was forced to withdraw the team from the
tournament. “We have sent the request for approval to SAI on August 14
with all the necessary documents but we still haven't got the clearance.
India are defending champions and this event is a part of our
preparation for next year's junior World Cup,” Batra wrote in his
letter to Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, Sports Secretary Ajit M
Sharan and SAI DG Jiji Thomson. “It is an FIH-sanctioned event. For
withdrawal, India might end up paying penalty from Swiss Franc 1.00 up
to Swiss Francs 250000, depending upon decision of FIH Competitions
Committee. In all FIH-sanctioned event, a mandatory 45-day intimation is
needed to withdraw the team,” he said. Besides India, the other
participating countries are Australia, Great Britain, Pakistan, New
Zealand and Malaysia. Batra said the tournament was a part of Annual
Calendar for Training and Competition (ACTC) approved for this year by
the SAI till the Asian Games. “If as per your babu ego, you have
decided not to allow the Indian team to go and kill hockey in India,
then please let us know urgently so that the hosts can arrange for some
alternate team,” Batra further wrote. |
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IOA misses out on an event in Incheon New Delhi, September 5 Sonowal has to decide on whether India should field its teams in football, basketball, handball, table tennis and sepaktakraw in the Asian Games. He has to also take a call on the size of the Indian contingent after the IOA sent a jumbo list of 935 athletes and officials (662 athletes) to the ministry. Sonowal today said a decision on the final list of athletes and officials will be taken in the next couple of days. "The decision will be out in a day or two. Whoever we are going to send, the people of the country will have an expectation from them that they will bring more and more medal glory to the nation. This should be the criteria for sending the team to Incheon," Sonowal said. Sonowal has sought the PMO’s intervention to resolve the standoff on the strength of the Indian contingent. It has also been learnt that Sports Ministry is likely to clear the names of 604 athletes and officials in 26 disciplines after sports secretary Ajit M Sharan submitted his report.
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Parimarjan Negi turns author
New Delhi, September 5 The Delhi boy has become the youngest ever chess author to write the first part of his five-book series on ‘Opening Theories’ of the game, titled — Grandmaster Repertoire 1.e4 vs the French, Caro-Kann and Philidor. In the Grandmaster Repertoire — 1.e4 series, Negi has shared a wealth of his innovative analysis to chart a course towards an advantage for White. Negi has made the momentous decision to pursue four-year under-graduate course at Stanford University, USA to meet the annual expenses of USD70,000, Negi chose to pen a book to partly fund his education. He is already closing in on his second volume of the series on Sicilian Najdorf, which will hit the stands in this year. “I am going into academics, so I have to adjust my chess style accordingly so as to manage both. I wanted to make use of what I had been doing for many years. This was one way I could have probably reached the audience,” Negi said. |
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Leeds, September 5
Uncertainty over India’s participation in
Sultan of Johor Cup
The stirring 4-6 3-6 6-4 7-5 6-2 comeback win marks the ninth time in his career Federer has rallied from two sets down to snatch victory, setting up a final-four meeting with 14th seed Marin Cilic.
Root's well-judged 113 from 108 balls, his highest ODI score, lifted England to 294 for seven off their 50 overs. Captain Alastair Cook chipped in with 46 and Jos Buttler fell for a breezy 49 after being run out by Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
From then on the visitors struggled to build momentum and they lost wickets at regular intervals, leaving Ravindra Jadeja frustrated as his swashbuckling knock of 87 off 68 balls turned out to be in vain. The left-hander was last man out, clean bowled by Steven Finn in the penultimate over as he tried to score runs quickly in a bid to reach three figures in an international for the first time.
