TENNIS

1) Nishikori wins thriller

NEW YORK: Second-ranked Jelena Jankovic moved closer to her first Grand Slam title and reclaiming the World No. 1 ranking with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 triumph on Sunday over Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki at the U.S. Open.

The 23-year-old Serbian advanced to the quarterfinals of the year’s final major tennis tournament, rallying in blustery conditions at Arthur Ashe Stadium to defeat a Danish 18-year-old who had won 10 of her past 11 matches.
“I had to really play a lot more aggressive than I did in the first set,” Jankovic said. “It was windy out there and if you just tried to put the ball in there it floats.
“She was stronger in the first set so I had to pick it up in the second set and especially in the third.”

2) Double for Nidhi Rahul

HYDERABAD: Nidhi Surapaneni and A. Rahul Gupta bagged a ‘double’ each in the Sports Coaching Foundation’s sub-junior tennis tournament here on Sunday.
Nidhi won the girls’ under-eight and under-10 crowns while Rahul picked up the boys’ under-10 and under-12 titles.
Former Ranji cricketer Dr. Abdul Hai gave away the prizes.
The results:
Girls: Under-8: Sama Sathvika bt Shajiha Ali 6-2; Under-10: Nidhi Surapaneni bt Snikita Chinnam 6-2; Under-12: A. Nidhi Surapaneni bt G. Mounika 6-5.
Boys: Under-10: A. Rahul Gupta bt V. V. S. Rahul 6-3; Under-12: A. Rahul Gupta bt T. Varun 6-3.

CRICKET

1) Good spell by Shakthi Yadhav

HYDERABAD: Good spell by medium-pacer Shakti Yadav (six for 38) helped Cheerful Chums to a three-wicket win over Young Masters in an A-Division (one-day) league cricket match here on Sunday.
The scores: A-Division (one-day) league: Young Masters 83 (Shakti Yadav six for 38) lost to Cheerful Chums 84 for seven (Vijay Krishna 40, Ibrahim Baig five for 31).

2) England thrashes a haples India

Bath (England): Skipper Mithali Raj’s grim battle went in vain as the English women thumped India by eight wickets with 14 overs to spare in the first of the five-match ODI cricket series at the Bath Cricket Club ground, here.
Isa Guha (three for 30), the medium-pacer with Kolkata roots, mowed down India’s top order and then Jenny Gunn (three for 13) polished the tail as the visitor was shot out for a meagre 124 in 43.4 overs.
Chasing the target, the host cruised to 125 for two in 36 overs to complete the formalities.
Guha removed the scoreless Jaya Sharma and Asha Rawat off successive deliveries to reduce India to four for two. Opener Sulakshana Naik (five) fell soon to Katherine Brunt to leave India gasping at six for three.
Amita Sharma (34) and Mithali (44) then joined hands to stem the rot with a 48-run stand before Isa struck again, claiming her third victim in Amita. Amita’s brisk 34 came off 38 balls and included seven hits to the fence.
Hemlata Kala (10) joined Mithali in the middle and though runs didn’t exactly flow from her blade, her dogged defiance ensured there was no immediate setback for the side.
Kala eventually returned with the team score at 99.
One run later, Mithali too joined her in the pavilion after a 75-ball 44 that included seven boundaries.
It triggered another batting collapse and in fact none of the last five batters could reach double figures.
England got off to a decent start with openers Caroline Atkins (45) and Sarah Taylor (16) putting on 37 runs before ODI debutante Niranjana Nagarajan removed the latter.
Caroline was run out five shot of her half-century.
But Clair Taylor (40 not out) and captain Charlotte Edwards (14 not out) had little problem in guiding the side home.
Gunn won the Player of the Match award for her impressive figure of three for 13 off eight overs.

The scores: India 124 in 43.4 overs (Mithali Raj 44) lost to England 125 for two in 36 overs (Caroline Atkins 45, Sarah Taylor 40)

3) "India gave up easily"

Colombo: Sri Lanka lost its first ever home ODI series against India but its skipper Mahela Jayawardene said his side could not be nailed for lacking fighting spirit.
Jayawaredene even went on to say that his boys were better than the Indians when it came to handling pressure.
“I don’t think we could be criticised for lacking fighting spirit. Even when we were losing we were fighting. I think the Indians tend to probably give up a bit too easily,” Jayawardene said.
“We want to develop in our team that we don’t give up to the last minute. You can go through tough situations and tend to give in quite easily. We have to keep having belief in your ability,” he said.
The Lankan skipper said his team wanted to win the last game for the home crowd which was supporting them in all matches even after losing the series to India.

4) BCCI for uniform tax structure

MUMBAI: A lower and uniform tax structure for independent sports federations has been mooted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
Sharad Pawar, president of the BCCI and Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA), informed the 330 odd clubs of the MCA on Saturday that he has taken up the matter with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
He said that he has been advised to constitute a committee comprising himself, another representative from the BCCI and the Revenue Secretary in the Finance Ministry to place a concrete proposal before the government.
The BCCI’s initiative has come following notices sent to the BCCI and some associations by the Service and Income Tax departments enquiring about the income received for staging the DLF-IPL matches.
“This was discussed at length during the last Working Committee meeting.
“I have taken up the matter at the highest level,” said Mr. Pawar.
As many as 27 member units of the BCCI, excluding the Services, Railways, All India Universities (AIU), Cricket Club of India and National Cricket Club (Kolkata), are likely to receive in excess of Rs. 15 crore each from a portion of money generated from the broadcasting rights and IPL.
The associations that staged Tests and ODIs in the 2007-08 season would receive a little more than the others.
The money that has to be disbursed to the 27 affiliated units from the broadcasting rights and IPL is estimated to be over Rs. 500 crore. — Special Correspondent

5) Showers curtail training schedules

Bangalore: Afternoon showers curtailed the training schedules of the India ‘A’ and Australia `A’ teams at the Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Sunday. Earlier in the morning both the teams had a stint of nets and fielding drills before the rains that swept across the stadium just before noon, forced the players to return to their rooms.
The Simon Katich-led Australia ‘A’ team was present at full strength while the Indian squad still awaits five players to join its ranks ranging from skipper S. Badrinath to Virat Kohli. The Indian camp is expected to gather steam from Monday.
Badrinath, who just returned from the ODI series in Sri Lanka, will join his team-mates here on Monday morning. Vice-captain Parthiv Patel, who was part of the Indian Test and ODI squads in Sri Lanka, has been given time till Monday evening by the coaching staff led by Dav Whatmore.
Meanwhile Virat Kohli, who stepped in as a last-minute replacement for injured Shikhar Dhawan, will be present on Monday and will be joined by Mohammad Kaif and Robin Uthappa, who were given a day’s break on Sunday as they had just come in straight after playing the KSCA All India invitation tournament.
India ‘A’ and Australia ‘A’ will clash in a three-day game that commences here on September 3 before shifting base to Hyderabad.

6) Naghmi rubbishes reports

Karachi: Pakistan Cricket Board Chief Operating Officer Shafqat Naghmi on Sunday rubbished reports that he had taken a unilateral decision to fix up a tri-series in South Africa without taking the International Cricket Committee into confidence.
Former cricketers and officials had questioned Naghmi’s authority to hold negotiations with Cricket South Africa after the resignation of Nasim Ashraf as Board Chairman but the PCB COO hit back by terming the accusations as baseless.
“These reports are completely untrue. The whole thing is in the knowledge of the Chairman of International Cricket Committee (of the PCB) Ali Raza,” he claimed.
“And before we started negotiations, the former Chairman Nasim Ashraf was also in office, he had not relinquished his post at that time. So absolutely no truth in this story.” Naghmi said the fixtures of the South Africa tri-series should be given final shape in the next few days but only after the ICC of the Board reviews the tentative dates and programme and approves them.

7) Lawson dissapointed

KARACHI: Pakistan coach Geoff Lawson has described as “very disappointing” the decision by some countries not to send their teams to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy leading to the postponement of the eight-nation competition last week.
Lawson had gone to Australia and New Zealand as a member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) task force to convince the officials and players that it was safe to play in Pakistan, but didn’t succeed.
Lawson said in Lahore that he and the task force did their best but the concerned teams had their own point of view.
“I don’t want to go into that, needless to say it is very disappointing to see the tournament postponed and I am hoping now we can get some cricket in South Africa in September,” Lawson said.
The PCB is trying to arrange a tri-series or a bilateral one-day rubber in South Africa to make up for the postponement, but nothing has been finalised.

8) Younis to play for South Australia

Karachi: Senior Pakistan batsman Younis Khan is all set to play for South Australia in the Sheffield Shield. Younis has started the process of getting a work permit and visa to play for South Australia. PCB has already given him permission.

9) Dinesh Karthik to lead

CHENNAI: Dinesh Karthik will lead the Tamil Nadu CA XI in the Buchi Babu all-India cricket tournament to be held here from September 2.

10) Portugal-Born player in Australian Cricket Team

DARWIN: Portugal-born all-rounder Moises Henriques has been included in the Australian cricket team as a replacement for Andrew Symonds. Henriques (21) is a former Australian under-19 captain.

11) Akthar for survey

The PCB has reportedly allowed fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar to play for English county Surrey on the condition that he would make himself available for his home country when required

GENERAL UPDATES

1) Vizhag storms into final

VIJAYAWADA: Vizag entered the final of the 25th Andhra senior inter-district hockey championship held at Adiseshaiah Reddy Stadium at Gudur (Nellore district) on Sunday, according to information reaching here.
In the first semifinal, Vizag defeated Kurnool 3-0 with K. Suresh, S. Ramesh and P. Ramesh Kumar doing the scoring.
East Godavari drew with Kadapa 1-1 to progress to the semifinal on goal average. It will clash with Nellore which registered a narrow 5-4 win over Chittoor.

2) Santhosh clinches title

CHENNAI: There wasn’t space to breathe leave alone run. Such was the response — the death of an Anna University student notwithstanding — to the Marg-Chennai Marathon here on Sunday that the chief guest, Mr. M.S. Gill, Union Minister for Sports, later called it “a river of people.”
Participants numbering more than 50,000 thronged the Island Ground for the run held in different categories. But Fr. Jegath Gasper Raj, one of the organisers of the Marathon said, “conservatively according to our estimate, the number is 1,70,000 plus.”
The surprising part of the half-marathon emerged in the form of Santhosh Kumar of Western Railways. The 24-year-old, in a sudden burst in the last two kilometres, overtook favourite Surendar Singh of the Army to bag the first prize and the winner’s purse of Rs. 10 lakh.
The two were neck and neck for the major part of the race; Surendar was even leading early on in the race.
“I feel really happy to win as this is the first time I am taking part in the event in Chennai. I practiced for 20 days in Bangalore and it paid off,” said Santosh, whose best finish has been a first place finish in the 10,000m at the South Asian championship in Kochi this year.
Born in Benares, Santosh has lived most of his life in Bangalore.
A specialist in 10,000m, Santosh said he’ll take part in the Delhi-Hutch Marathon next.
Surendar didn’t feel upset at having been pipped by his friend.
“I am not disappointed. This is my first event after the Beijing Games (he finished 26th in the 10,000m final in the Olympics). Anyways, he ran a better race,” said the 29-year-old.

3) Pavan, Ashitha triumph

BANGALORE: Pawan Kumar of Sacred Heart School (Sevapura) and Ashita Suresh of Carmel Convent emerged winners in the under-16 section of the KPMG Independence Day Road run, here on Sunday.
Pawan won the 4 km race in 13 minutes and 02.9 seconds, while Ashitha clocked 16 minutes and 55.0 seconds in the girls’ section.
The other winners were L. Shreyas of Carmel School (boys under-14), Harshith Gowda of Sacred Hearts (boyus under-11), Rashmitha of Mahila Seva Samaj (girls under-14) and S.H. Sahana (girls under-11).
About 200 children from various schools in the City participated in the meet. S. Nagarajan, co-founder, 24x7 Customer India, who was the chief guest, presided and gave away the prizes which also included cash awards.
The results (winners only): Boys: U-16: 4km: Pawan Kumar (Sacred Hearts HS, 13:02.9s). U-14: 2km: L. Shreyas (Carmel School, 7:2.1s). U-11: 1km: Harshit Gowda (Sacred Hearts, Sevapura, 3:31.1s).
Girls: U-16: 4km: Ashitha Suresh (Carmel Convent, 16:55.8s). U-14: 2km: S. Rashmitha (MSS, 7:09.9s). U-11: 1 km: S.H. Sahana (Sri Gnakshi Vidyaniketan, 3:45.4s).

4) Harendra's team emerges winner

CHENNAI: Harendra Gupta’s team (115 points) won the Pro-Am event of the Tamil Nadu Open golf championship at the Madras Gymkhana links, here on Sunday.
The three amateurs who made up Gupta’s team were R. Shivaraj, P. Mukherjee and Radhakrishnan.
Rahul Ganapathy’s team finished second with a score of 113 points. Ganapathy’s team comprised amateurs such as Abinav Suresh, S. Suryakumar and J.R.K. Rao.
Feroz Ali Mollah’s team comprising D. Nagaraj, Muthu Kumaran and P.S. Jagdish finished third with 110 points.
The prize for the closest shot to the pin on the second hole was won by S. Ramamirtham.
The prize for the longest drive on the seventh hole was bagged by Vinayak Krishna and R. Shivaraj won contest for the straightest drive on the 10th hole.