THOUSAND OAKS, USA : Golfer David Duval (right) joins Tiger Woods on the first tee at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, on Monday. — AP/PTI

Tiger Woods beats David Duval THOUSAND OAKS (California), Aug 3 — Tiger Woods went prime time last night, winning his showdown over David Duval under floodlights at Sherwood Country Club and the spotlight of a national television audience. Cuba beat USA to win baseball gold WINNIPEG (Canada), Aug 3 — Canada tried to get the focus back on the competitive side of the Pan American Games, but more defections and complaints from the Cubans and a doping scandal continued to cloud the 13th regional games.

Barua loses; Indian challenge ends
LAS VEGAS, Aug 3 — Indian grandmaster Dibyendu Barua fought a great battle against higher-rated Alexander Khalifman of Russia before losing in the second set of tie-breaks to tumble out of the FIDE World Chess Championship in the first round here.

Mixed luck for UT players
CHENNAI, Aug 3 — Seeded players fell like nine pins in the first round of the main draw of the National Junior Hardcourt Tennis Championship (U-18 boys and girls) here yesterday.

Courier recovers to down Schuttler
MONTREAL, Aug 3 — Jim Courier recovered from an early break then drained the fight out of Germany’s Rainer Schuttler in a 7-6 (7-2), 6-2 win, advancing into the second round of the $ 2.45-million Canadian Open.

National mark by Shakti
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Aug 3 — Male throwers Shakti Singh (shot put) and Ishtiyaque (hammer) along with Neelam J. Singh (discus) and Anju Markose (long jump) set new national records to share glory in the one-day national athletic meet here today.

Field day for Indians
SCARBOROUGH (England), Aug 3 — Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay led the charge on the opening day of the Smith and Williamson British Open Chess Championships which saw five Indians scoring impressive wins even as national champion Krishnan Sasikiran suffered a setback here.

Fazaluddin, Paes lose on opening day
NEW DELHI, Aug 3 — The India campaign in the Du Maurier Open men’s tennis tournament got off to a poor start in Montreal, Canada, last night with both Leander Paes and Syed Fazaluddin losing on the opening day.

Yashpal’s plea to change rally venue
NEW DELHI, Aug 3 — Former Test cricketer Yashpal Sharma today appealed to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to change the venue of his rally schedule to be held in Ludhiana on August 7.

Harbhajan replaces Dhillon
NEW DELHI, Aug 3 — Twentythree-year-old winger Harbhajan Singh was today named to replace the injured star striker Baljit Singh Dhillon for the forthcoming five Test hockey series against South Africa, commencing at Johannesburg on August 13.

BCCI to abide by govt’s policy

CALCUTTA Aug 3 (UNI) — Uncertainty prevails over India’s tour to Toronto and Australia as the country’s highest cricketing authority, Board of Control for Cricket in India, today chose to put the ball in the government’s court, saying it would abide by its policy on the matter of playing against Pakistan in view of the Kargil conflict.

The government on the other hand had left it to the discretion of the BCCI on whether to play against Pakistan.

After its working committee meeting here today, the BCCI in a statement said: “We have resolved to abide strictly by the government’s policy and decision regarding the Indian team’s visit to Toronto and Australia’’.

BCCI secretary J Y Lele said the board had already approached the government’s concerned ministries and sought their guidance and permission for the cricket team’s participation. But the board is yet to receive any note from the government, he added.

Yesterday, Union Deputy Sports Minister Uma Bharati in an interview to a private TV channel had categorically said that the government was not the cricketing authority of the country and the BCCI was to take the decisions regarding the tour in Australia and Canada.

When asked to comment on the government’s view, Mr Lele said: “Let the government write a letter to us”.

The board also dropped proceedings against three top cricketers —Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Robin Singh — for going to the media soon after India’s debacle in the World Cup.

Mr Lele said the board was satisfied with the written explanation of Ganguly and Dravid. Regarding Robin Singh, the board also dropped the case with a caution and advised him to refrain from making such statements in future.

The BCCI also condemned Sahara India, the sponsor of Toronto series between India and Pakistan, for allegedly interfering with their activities. The working committee has decided to ask the “sponsor concerned not to comment out of turn and restrict their role to sponsorship which they perform for commercial gains’’.

The BCCI working committee meeting presided over by Mr Raj Singh Dungarpur also approved the 1999-2000 domestic programme which will be released soon at the next meeting in Mumbai.

Regarding television rights for Indian cricket, Mr Lele said the board had decided to offer them to a channel which had adequate networks and large viewers.

Regarding fitness of former captain Mohammed Azharuddin, Mr Lele said he would soon produce fitness certificate to the board and after receiving it the committee would decide his selection in the team.

A cricketing academy at Bangalore with initial fund of Rs 3 crore would be established, Mr Lele said.

Meanwhile, in a statement, International Cricket Council (ICC) president Jagmohan Dalmiya said today he did not have any time to continue with the “useless debate’’ over a sponsor and its marketing agent.

Reacting to the fresh allegation made by Mr Subrata Roy, the Managing Director of Sahara India, Mr Dalmiya observed that it was a matter between Sahara India and their marketing agent on the issue of the Sahara Cup in Canada. Whatever Mr Roy was saying was neither relevant nor had any substance, he added.

He said it was the issue between the organisers and the board of the host country and the participating boards. The issue involved being sensitive he felt that it should be guided by the decisions of the concerned governments. “The sponsor has no role whatsoever to play and they should not try to create it as a platform for publicity’’ Mr Dalmiya said.

Barua loses; Indian challenge ends

LAS VEGAS, Aug 3 (PTI) — Indian grandmaster Dibyendu Barua fought a great battle against higher-rated Alexander Khalifman of Russia before losing in the second set of tie-breaks to tumble out of the FIDE World Chess Championship in the first round here.

In the first tie-break, a two game mini match in which each player had 25 minutes plus 10 seconds per move to complete a game, Barua lost the first game but bounced back to beat his opponent as the 72nd seeded Indian and the 36th ranked Russian were locked 1-1.

Barua, the lone Indian in the 100-player draw held Khalifman in the first game of the second set of tie-break — played over 15 minutes each plus 10 seconds per move to complete a game — but was knocked out when he lost the second game to the Russian.

Khalifman advanced to the second round with a 1.5-0.5 win for a meeting with fourth seeded American GM Gata Kamasky in the second round.

After Khalifman fought back to force a playoff by levelling the classical games 1-1, Barua showed glimpses of an upset when he fought back from losing the first tie-break game to win the second and level scores at 1-1, but could not complete the effort.

Barua beat Khalifman in 60 moves in the first of the two games played over the classical version but lost the second despite a valiant attempt to split the point and move up.

AP adds: Dibyendu Barua of India, Hannes Stefansson of Iceland, Aleksei Dreev of Russia and Nielsen all managed to come through with victories in the second game of this set while facing elimination after either a loss or a draw.

Barua was a huge underdog after losing the set’s first game against the higher seeded Alexander Khalifman of Russia. Barua’s fate seemed sealed when the Russian attained a solid, even position in the second game.

Khalifman decided to win a pawn however, and Barua used the opportunity to harass his opponent’s queen and conjure up a decisive attack.

In the second set of play-offs Khalifman managed a draw in his first game against Barua after the Indian player seemed to have the better position early in the game.

In the second game it was Khalifman who held the early advantage. But Barua managed to build a seemingly impregnable fortress. The commenting grandmaster, Larry Christiansen of the USA, believed the game was a lifeless draw. But the Russian player kept manoeuvring and somehow managed to weaken his opponent’s defences enough to break through with his king to force a win.

All but one of the 64 spots in the second round of the World Chess Championship have been determined after playoff matches. Two of the matches were decided by sudden death games.

Mixed luck for UT players

CHENNAI, Aug 3 (PTI) — Seeded players fell like nine pins in the first round of the main draw of the National Junior Hardcourt Tennis Championship (U-18 boys and girls) here yesterday.

The biggest upset of the day was notched up by local boy v. Kamala Kannan, who knocked out Kedar Shah of Maharasthra 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 in a boys first round match.

Top seed Kedar Tembe of Maharashtra had hard time before prevailing over a fighting C.S. Mohanty (Delhi) 6-0, 3-6, 6-1.

Fourth and fifth seeds, P. Ravikrishna (AP) and Sunil Kumar (Chandigarh) also tumbled out. Ravikrishna lost to wild card Benjamin Xavier (Maharashtra) 3-6, 2-6, while Sunil Kumar was outclassed by Chandigarh’s Gurmehar Singh 6-7 (6-8) 2-6.

In the girls, top seed G. Sheetal of Karnataka and Maharashtra’s Radhika Tulpule carved out impressive wins to make it to the pre-quarter finals. Sheetal crushed Alice Joy (TN) 6-1, 6-0, while Tulpule blitzed Vishnu Preetham (TN) 6-0, 6-1.

However, local girls Samrita Sekar and Nivedita Venkatesh drew cheers when they won against eight seed Nischella Reddy (AP) and fourth seed Nona Wagh (Maharashtra) 1-6, 6-2, 6-2 and 6-0, 4-6, 6-4, respectively.

Other seeded players made it to the pre-quarter finals without working up any sweat.

Other results; Boys singles Ist round:

Vinod K Sewa (WB) b Nirmit Shetty (Kar) 3-6, 7-5, 6-1; Mithun Murali (TN) b Punna Vishal (AP) 6-3, 1-6, 6-4; N. Mukundan (TN) b Amanjot Singh (Chandigarh) 7-5, 6-3; Ashutosh Singh (Del) b V. Chinna Kannan (TN) 6-0, 6-2; Anant Sitaram (AP) b Paranatap Chaturvedi (Del) 7-5, 6-3.

Girls singles Ist round:

Nandita C (TN) b Nandini Perumal (AP) 6-0, 6-2; Harsimran Kaur (Chd) b Ratikumar (Mah) 6-0, 6-0; Isha Chopra (Har) b Kameswari Vadali (AP) 6-1, 6-0; Sandya Kanuri (TN) b Vishika Chhetri (Dli) 6-3, 6-2; Shareen Yusuf (Kar) b T.Sricharanya (TN) 6-1, 6-1; Geeta Manohar (AP) b Saranya Pattabi (TN) 6-2, 6-0; Radha Devendrappa (Kar) b Vandana Murali (TN) 6-1, 6-3; Radhika Mandke (Mah) b Aparna Singh (MP) 6-1, 6-3; K.Italia (US) b Preeti Devendran (TN) 6-1, 7-5; T.Yamini (TN) b Preeti Rao (TN) 6-3, 6-3; Sai Rajalakshmi (TN) b M. Kamini 6-3, 6-4; Shalini Reddy (TN) b Rekha Mohan (TN) 2-6, 6-0, 6-2.

Cuba beat USA to win baseball gold

WINNIPEG (Canada), Aug 3 (AP) — Canada tried to get the focus back on the competitive side of the Pan American Games, but more defections and complaints from the Cubans and a doping scandal continued to cloud the 13th regional games.

With three gold medals in swimming, the host country tried to move beyond several distractions yesterday, especially the revocation of Canada’s gold medal in roller hockey due to the positive doping test of goalkeeper Steve Vezina.

However, Cuba’s delegation fired a broadside shot at organisers, saying security was lacking and that it would respond quickly to any insult.

“Cuban athletes will not permit anyone or anything to humiliate them ... if their dignity is at stake,” a statement from the Cuban delegation said. “From now on we will react with full energy to provocations.”

The release was specifically aimed at the protester who jumped out of the stands with a sign “Human rights first” during their baseball semifinal game on Sunday against Canada.

But it also followed reports of more defections from their delegation.

Nineteen-year-old pitcher Danys Baez was the latest to leave the Cuban team, supposedly heading to Miami with professional baseball agent Joe Cubas, who has helped many Cuban ballplayers to defect.

Baez was the eighth Cuban to defect after arriving for the games. According to sources close to the Cubans, 400-metre relay runner Michal Ortiz, a goalkeeper from the men’s soccer team and an artistic gymnast also abandoned their compatriots.

While not acknowledging anyone by name, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, however, said they knew nothing of the latter two seeking asylum. They were also unaware of an asylum petition by Baez.

Elsewhere, Winnipeg City police said federal officials had detained the protester from Sunday night’s game, who gave a Miami address, for possible immigration violations. He was taken into custody after getting into a scuffle with four members of the Cuban delegation, who came upon the protester outside Canadian Broadcast Corporation offices late on Sunday.

Cuba’s anger was eased somewhat by their 5-1 victory over the USA last night for its eighth straight baseball gold. Cuba takes the Pan American Games very seriously, and baseball is their most beloved sport.

The victory came after it had been beaten twice in the preliminary round, 10-5 by the USA and 8-1 by Canada, forcing them into a tough quarterfinal with Dominican Republic.

Cuba also got a lift from its men’s volleyball team, which outlasted Brazil 25-22, 14-25, 17-25, 25-23, 15-12 for the gold.

For Canada, despite their 9-2 victory over Mexico earlier in the day for the baseball bronze, much of the host country’s attention was still drawn to the doping scandal that wouldn’t completely die.

At a news conference in Saint-Adele, Quebec, Vezina apologised for costing his country the gold, but didn’t sound very apologetic.

Almost lost in all the distractions were the games themselves.

Joanne Malar led Canada’s gold haul in swimming, capturing the 400-metre individual medley in a games record of 4 minutes, 36.48 seconds and nearly half of a pool length in front of her closest rival.

Malar actually had two games records yesterday, returning to help the 800-metre freestyle relay team to a time of 8:05.56, while Canadian compatriot Laura Nicholls won the 100 free in 56.25.

A third Pan American record was set in the pool when Ed Moses broke the 100-metre breaststroke mark for the second time in less than 12 hours.

Moses’ gold was the last of four on the day for the USA, which increased their tally to 74.

Cuba swept all four judo titles and with their baseball and volleyball crowns remained in second with 39.

And Gustavo Borges won his fourth gold in his Pan American career, capturing the men’s 200 metre freestyle for the second consecutive time.

In early events, the Americans won both men’s and women’s mountain bike titles and the team three-day equestrian crown.

Bermuda’s Mary Jane Tumbridge finally ended the American streak, taking the individual three-day equestrian event, giving her Caribbean nation their first gold at the games.

In team play, the USA easily advanced to the women’s soccer final, beating Costa Rica 2-0 in a game that was nowhere near as close as the score indicated. They will take on Mexico, which in the other semifinal rallied from a two-goal deficit to tie Canada 2-2 and advance 5-3 on penalties.

Tiger Woods beats David Duval

THOUSAND OAKS (California), Aug 3 (AP) — Tiger Woods went prime time last night, winning his showdown over David Duval under floodlights at Sherwood Country Club and the spotlight of a national television audience.

Fittingly, Woods closed out a 2-and-1 victory on the par-3 17th with a two-putt par. He won the first four par-3s to take a commanding lead, and hung on when Duval made one mistake too many.

With the sun tucked behind the foothills, Duval conceded the match as the floodlights cast long shadows across the green. Whether the first golf event televised live in prime time by a network was a success won’t be clear until overnight ratings for ABC sports are released today.

“I hate to say it, but it’s basically up to the ratings,” Woods said. “How high the ratings are will determine how successful it was.”

Woods won $ 1.1 million, and Duval had to settle for $ 400,000. Each will donate $ 200,000 to charity, including 100,000 each to the PGA Tour-sponsored First Tee programme.

“My desire is that this brings more people to the game,” Duval said. “When Tiger turned pro in ’96, golf became cool -not a dorky game. This really is pretty cool.”

Woods, who has won three times, has finished no worse than seventh since his post-masters break.

That wasn’t at stake last night, in what essentially was an exhibition, a chance for the top two players in the world to finally go head-to-head.

“I didn’t approach the match that way,” Woods said. “I approach the match that David and I are good friends, and we’re going to come out here and put on a good show.”

It wasn’t a masterpiece by any stretch.

Two-up after the first two holes, Duval didn’t win another one until the 13th. He tried to push Woods down to the wire, but wound up in the rocks. Duval hit his drive into a cluster of stones and shrubs on No 16, making a tie the best he could hope for.

He then hit his tee shot on the 17th about 50 feet (15 metres) away, and Woods only had to two-putt for par from about 40 feet (12 metres) to win the match.

Courier recovers to down Schuttler

MONTREAL, Aug 3 (DPA) — Jim Courier recovered from an early break then drained the fight out of Germany’s Rainer Schuttler in a 7-6 (7-2), 6-2 win, advancing into the second round of the $ 2.45-million Canadian Open.

Courier, among a group of five former world No 1 players in the field of the sixth Mercedes Super Nine of the season, trailed 3-5 in the first set yesterday, but turned the tables against Schuttler, who won this year’s first ATP tour tournament.

Schuttler, who claimed the trophy in the opening week of January in Doha, was unable to recover after losing a first-set tie-breaker.

The 46th-ranked, two-time semifinalist Courier dominated in the second set. Schuttler was able to save a pair of match points in the sixth game to hold at 2-5.

Courier, one of six Grand Slam champions with an aggregate 14 major titles competing at the Stade Du Maurier this week, needed two more chances to finally advance, in 78 minutes, to a match against fourth seed Tim Henman.

That contest will be a replay of Davis Cup and Wimbledon battles between the two this year. Courier won in five-sets at the Davis Cup in April while losing to Henman at Wimbledon.

Ninth seed Nicolas Kiefer brightened the day for Germany with his 6-2, 7-5 victory in the first round over Czech Daniel Vacek.

The win came after Frenchman Fabrice Santoro knocked out 31-year-old German Bernd Karbacher 6-2, 7-5.

A pair of unknown Canadians were also beaten on the home hardcourts. Experienced Dutch journeyman Jan Siemerink eliminated No 378 Bobby Kokavec, playing in his first tour-level event of the year, 6-2, 6-4.

American Vince Spadea beat Frederic Niemeyer 7-6 (7-3), 6-4.

The event’s top seed, Pat Rafter, is waiting for an opponent before beginning the defence of his title.

The Australian held No 1 status last week, but was overtaken atop the table by Pete Sampras, who defeated Andre Agassi on Sunday for the title in Los Angeles.

Agassi, a three-time Canadian Open winner, is seeded second in Canada. The top eight seeds all received first-round byes.

Chilean Marcelo Rios, the seventh seed, withdrew with an injury yesterday afternoon. He pulled out before last week’s event in Los Angeles with hip problems.

The South American former world No 1 was to have opened the second round after a bye against Frenchman Fabrice Santoro, who beat German Bernd Karbacher yesterday.

Rios’ place in the 56-man field will be taken by qualifying round lucky loser Axel Pretsch of Germany.

The Chilean flew to New York last week for treatment by tour doctor David Altchek. He arrived in Montreal at the weekend and has been receiving twice-per-day treatment at the tournament site.

“It’s disappointing to have to pull out of another tournament,’’ said Rios. “I was hoping it would have improved enough to have let me play.

“I’ve never had a year with so many injuries, I hope to be able to play next week in Cincinnati.’’

Rios is expected to remain in Montreal for treatment for several days.

National mark by Shakti

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Aug 3 (PTI) — Male throwers Shakti Singh (shot put) and Ishtiyaque (hammer) along with Neelam J. Singh (discus) and Anju Markose (long jump) set new national records to share glory in the one-day national athletic meet here today.

Railway athletes came up with excellent performances, capturing eight titles in a card of 15 events at the Kerala University Stadium.

Burly Shakti Singh of Railways continued his ‘golden double’ performances by capturing the shot put and discus golds to earn a total prize money of Rs 50,000.

The 38-year-old Shakti Singh improved his own national shot put record twice, heaving the iron ball to 19.25 m in his opening throw before producing a massive final effort of 19.85 m. His old mark of 19.08 m was set in 1995 at Delhi.

His arch rival Bahadur Singh gave Shakti Singh stiff competition before finishing at 19.48 m while Jaiveer Singh (SSCB) settled for third place with 17.64 m.

Shakti Singh won the discus touching 57.66 m in his first attempt to push Bangkok silver medallist Anil Kumar (SSCB) (56.55 m) to second spot.

Undisputed national champion Neelam J. Singh raised her own national discus mark to 60.28 m, bettering her previous record of 59.44 set in Calcutta last year.

Twentytwo-year-old Ishtiyaque of Punjab State Electricity Board recorded a new hammer national mark, eventually pegging it at 69.58 metres in an absorbing competition with Pramod Tiwari that saw the mark bettered thrice during competition.

Ishtiyaque began the record-breaking spree by touching 67.58 metres in his second try, to improve upon the 67.43 m set by Tiwari, the Customs employee from UP at Chennai on July 15.

Tiwari responded with a splendid 67.79 m in his third try, but Ishtiyaque pushed it significantly higher with an effort of 69.58 m in his third attempt.

Star distance runner Gulab Chand completed an 800-1500 m double. The Bangkok Asian Games 10000 m bronze medallist won the 800 m in a slow time of 1:51.72 sec, before taking the longer distance untroubled at 3:53.14 sec.

Top quartermiler P. Ramachandran won the men’s 400 m. The tall runner, who won the 200 m in Sri Lanka a few days back, clocked a healthy 46.37 seconds.

Sanjay K. Rai of Railways claimed the men’s long jump leaping to 7.69 metres, ahead of Vinod of Kerala and Anil Kumar of Kerala State Electricity Board.

Punjab’s Ramandeep Singh won the men’s javelin at 75.14 m while Asian Games bronze medallist Gurmeet Kaur of LIC won the women’s event at 53.58 mts.

Veteran K.C. Rosa Kutty of Railways bagged the women’s 400 metres.

“Everything went all right for me. I am happy and thrilled at my performance,” said an elated Ishtiyaque. He was also all praise for Pramod Tiwari, whose record he had shattered today. “Pramod helps me a lot and gives me guidance.”

Both Tiwari and Ishtiyaque were training partners having been groomed at the Uttar Pradesh sports hostel under the same coach. “I am happy that my junior has done it. He is very talented and has a bright future,” Pramod said.

Saraswathy Dey of Railways emerged as the fastest woman of the meet by clinching the 100 metres, edging out veteran P.T. Usha, also of Railways, in a photo-finish. Both Dey and Usha clocked 11.72 seconds.

Star services sprinter Anil Kumar took the men’s 100 m clocking a superb 10.39 seconds. He had set the national mark of 10.33 at Chennai on July 15.

Nineteen year-old Sunita Rani of Railways comfortably won the women’s 1,500 metres.

Field day for Indians

SCARBOROUGH (England), Aug 3 (PTI) — Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay led the charge on the opening day of the Smith and Williamson British Open Chess Championships which saw five Indians scoring impressive wins even as national champion Krishnan Sasikiran suffered a setback here.

GM Thipsay, junior national champion Sundararajan Kidambi, Abhijit Kunte, Bhagyashree Thipsay, V. Saravanan all won their respective games to be joint leaders after the first round at the Spa complex in the seaside town of Scarborough in north-eastern England yesterday.

IM K. Sasikiran suffered a setback in his quest for a GM norm when he lost to IWM Jovanka Houska of England. Houska was a member of English women’s team at Elista Chess Olympiad 1998.

Playing with white pieces, Sasikiran faced the slav defence from Houska, and allowed black to form a pawn-chain on the centre squares.

Seven Indian players, who participated in the Biel International Open in Switzerland were joined by latest IWM Koneru Humpy and Bhagyashree Thipsay on the second leg of the European meet

World (under-12) girls champion Koneru Humpy lost her first round game to highly-rated IM Mathew Turner of England.

Thipsay showed excellent endgame technique against Graham Lilley, a blind player from England.

Playing with black pieces, Thipsay adopted neo-Grunfeld set-up and created a passer on the A file, which decided the game in his favour.

Double-GM norm holder Kunte thrashed Andrew Greet, Saravanan beat Neil Berry, Bhagyashree Thipsay prevailed over Lim Chin Lee while Kidambi defeated Edmund Player.

IWM Anupama Gokhale was held to a draw by IM Nicholas Pert of England.

Other GMs who their first round games included J. Hodgson, A. Baburin, J. Emms, S. Conquest, B. Lalic, and M. Hebden.

Fazaluddin, Paes lose on opening day

NEW DELHI, Aug 3 (PTI) — The India campaign in the Du Maurier Open men’s tennis tournament got off to a poor start in Montreal, Canada, last night with both Leander Paes and Syed Fazaluddin losing on the opening day.

While India number one Paes crashed out of the singles first round losing 4-6 2-6 to Australian Jason Stoltenberg, Fazaluddin and his German partner Jan Boruszewski went down 2-6 3-6 to Arnaud Clement and Sebastien Grosjean of France in the doubles first round, according to results provided by AP.

Fazaluddin-Boruszewski, who qualified for the main draw by beating local wild card entrants Tyson Parry and Mark Pellerin in three sets, 3-6 6-1 7-6 (7-1), failed to counter the experienced Frenchmen and lost without a fight.

Paes, who bowed out in the first round at the Mercedes Benz Cup last week, got a direct entry into the tournament but failed to utilise the opportunity to earn some valuable points as he went out without much of a fight.

World number one doubles player Paes’ hopes are still alive as he partners American Jared Palmer in the doubles.

Paes and Palmer are the top seeds and have received a bye into the second round where they will meet the winner of the first round clash between Czech pair of Jiri Novak and Riki and South African duo Piet Noval and Kevin Ullyett.

Earlier, Prahalad Srinath failed to make it to the tournament proper, losing to Boruszewski in the second and final round of the qualifiers.

Yashpal’s plea to change rally venue

NEW DELHI, Aug 3 (PTI) — Former Test cricketer Yashpal Sharma today appealed to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to change the venue of his rally schedule to be held in Ludhiana on August 7.

Reacting to a newspaper report that the Prime Minister’s rally was to be held at the Government College (Boys) ground. Yashpal Sharma said such functions were normally held at the Guru Nanak Stadium which is not only in the heart of the city but also the best from the security point of view.

The middle-order batsman who is now a qualified umpire, said staging the rally at the Government College ground would destroy the only proper cricket facility in the city.

This ground, according to him, was developed by the Ludhiana District Cricket Association without any help from the government.

Expressing his sentimental attachment to the ground, Yashpal Sharma said he learnt rudiments of the game there and played all his cricket there till he rose to become an international player.

“It is not just a ground for me, it is my mother, and this is my appeal, not a demand, to the sports loving Prime Minister not to allow its destruction,” he said.

Harbhajan replaces Dhillon

NEW DELHI, Aug 3 (UNI) — Twentythree-year-old winger Harbhajan Singh was today named to replace the injured star striker Baljit Singh Dhillon for the forthcoming five Test hockey series against South Africa, commencing at Johannesburg on August 13.

The Border Security Force left winger represented the country in the last junior World Cup at Milton Keynes in England in 1997, where India finished runners up to Australia. This was India’s best performance ever in the junior World Cup.

Harbhajan made the senior ranks last year when he played against Pakistan in the home and away series. He was again in the national squad this year in the Indo-Pakistan Test series.

The experienced forward also captained the Indian second string squad in the four-nation Akhbar-al-Yom Tournament at Cairo in February where India had finished second to Egypt, ahead of Canada and Kenya.

Swimming trials

JALANDHAR, Aug 3 (FOSR) — Trials for the selection of Jalandhar district swimming team for junior boys and girls will be held at Sports School on August 4, according to Mr Sushil Kohli, general secretary, Jalandhar Swimming Association.

The selected swimmers will participate in the 15th Sub-Junior and 25th Junior Punjab State Swimming Championship (boys and girls 1999) at Rupnagar from August 6 to 8.

Daljit, Silky declared best campers

PATIALA, Aug 3 (FOSR) — Daljit Singh of Guru Harkrishan Public School and Silky were adjudged the best campers in the boys and girls section, respectively, in the two-day taekwondo-cum-martial arts advance training camp, which concluded at the DCW Complex here today. The camp was organised by the Patiala District Taekwondo Association and more than 150 school children given training by the latest coaching techniques.

Shimla TT

SHIMLA, Aug 3 (TNS) — The Shimla Hot Weather Open Table Tennis Championship will be held here from August 6 to 9.

Entries for the tournament, being jointly organised by the state table tennis association and the Department of Youth Services and Sports, can be sent to Mr Yash Pal Rana, secretary of the Association, or Ms Suman Rawat, General Manager, Indira Gandhi Sports Complex, here by August 5.