Saturday, January 23, 1999
today's calendar
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S P O R T | Saturday, January 23, 1999 |
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spotlight today's calendar |
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Rafter,
Henman crash out Kasparov
emerges sole leader Borgula,
Kaskak to clash |
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Bagan
take on buoyant Agragami
McEnroe
elected to hall of fame Indian
Bank face daunting task |
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MELBOURNE, Jan 22 (AP) — Women wept and men dropped their heads as the romance disappeared from the Australian Open for the host nation today. Patrick Rafter, two-time US Open champion and one of Australia's most popular athletes, couldn't cope with the steady tattoo of groundstrokes from Sweden's Thomas Enqvist and tumbled out of the tournament 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. "He played too big and too strong for me", Rafter said. "He never really gave me a chance". The departure of the No. three Rafter cut to six the number of seeded players left in the tournament midway through the fourth round, and left Andre Agassi as the highest seed remaining at No. five. Rafter represented more than just a chance for Australians to have one of their own win the men's title for the first time since Mark Edmondson beat compatriot John Newcombe in 1976. The pony-tailed Rafter is regarded like a rock star Down Under, and his photos appear in fashion magazines. Every time he changes his shirt on court, women and girls whistle. The match turned against Rafter at 3-3 in the fourth set when he double faulted trying to save a fifth break point. Enqvish never yielded after that, holding serve twice as he set up match point with an ace and put it away with a serve that Rafter slapped long. Though Rafter served 21 aces to Enqvist's 13, the Swede was more dangerous and took more chances with second serves. "I hit good second serves and kept him away from the net. That was the key," said Enqvist, who was cheered on every point by the small but loud contingent of Swedish fans. "I feel like I'm playing well enough to beat anybody in the draw". Enqvist, who has won all 11 of his matches so far this year and captured two tuneup titles, next meets Australia's other tennis hero, No. 14 Mark Philippoussis. Philippoussis served 17 aces in a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 victory over Jan Kroslak of Slovakia. In other men's third-round
matches, No. six Tim Henman of Britain fell to
Switzerland's Marc Rosset 7-6 (7-5), 6-3, 7-5 and No.
seven Karol Kucera of Slovakia beat Marat Safin of Russia
6-2, 6-3, 6-2. |
Paes-Bhupathi duo scrapes through MELBOURNE, Jan 22 (UNI) — Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi are still in running for their first Grand Slam doubles title. But only just. They came within a heartbeat of elimination in their second-round Australian Open match against Americans Doug Flack and Mark Merklein before winning 4-6, 6-4, 8-6 in two hours, nine minutes here today. It was a triumph of the top-seeded Indian pair's desire to win their grift and guts to hang on when everything seemed lost, not once but twice. It was all the more remarkable because Paes and Bhupathi, both, were playing far below their best. Twice in the final set, it all seemed over. First, when Bhupathi was broken in the ninth game, after saving two double-faults. Merklein then just had to hold serve to finish the top-ranked pair. But Paes-Bhupathi rose magnificently to the defence of their status and he was broken. Five-all. Incredibly, the Indians let the advantage slip and Paes dropped his next service game. Flach-Merklein were once again four points from an upset win. Surely, the Indians could not repeat their feat of two games ago. But indeed they did, much to the delight, and relief, of the usual cheering crowd of Indian expats of Melbourne Park. This time they broke Flach, and they continued with some magical play, both at the net and from behind. Bhupathi held at 30 for 7-6 and then Merklein was broken, for the second time in five games, when Paes volleyed away a winner with a leap and a scream. Said Paes after the match: "It's good to come through such a match. And it's good coming together as a team. That's what will build us up for the future." Said Paes's Australian coach Bob Carmichael: "From the start they struggled. In the finish, it was all guts." Paes had no complaints with that assessment. "We both served poorly and our net play was bad," he said. That and some erratic returning, was what cost them the first set in just over 40 minutes with Paes getting broken twice, in the third and seventh games, the second time just after the Indians had broken Merklein's serve. It was strange seeing the Indians lose advantage immediately after regaining the initiative. In the second set, Paes-Bhupathi broke Flach in the second game. The Americans broke Paes once again, in the seventh game and caught up at 4-all. But the Indians broke Flach a second time in the 10th game, to push the match into a decider. They looked like having
got complete charge when they had Flach down 15-40 in the
fourth game but they wasted both those, and yet one more
breakpoint, to let Flach-Merklein off the hook. Then came
the dramatic final moments. |
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WIJK AAN ZEE (Holland), Jan 22 (PTI) — India’s Viswanathan Anand was held to a quick draw by Ivan Sokolov in the fifth round of Hoogovens International Chess Grandmasters Tournament, losing the lead to Russian world number one Gary Kasparov, who beat Dmitri Reinderman of Netherlands. Kasparov strode into sole lead with 4.5 points, with the Indian grandmaster following half a point behind. Vesselin Topalov, Alexy Shirov, Sassily Ivanchuk and Vladimir Kramnik were a further point behind the leader. Anand’s draw against Bosnian GM Gokolov took only one hour and 52 minutes of which the world number two Indian used up only 12 minutes. Sokolov may have walked into Anand’s opening perparation but the Bosnian grandmaster was obviously clear of what he was doing in the queen’s gambit accepted and reached a dead drawn position into the middle game. Realising that there was no possibility of any result, both players agreed to split the point after 23 moves. That put Kasparov, who was helped by mistakes by Reidman, - the Dutch not only erred a couple of times but also missed an opportunity to force a draw, clear into the lead over overnight joint leader Anand. Playing sicilian defence, at which he is strong, Kasparov did not seem to have any clear advantage till the 17th move. Reinderman, playing in this kind of company for the first time, made his first error on 18th move with his 18.g5 move - where playing 18 kb1 or 18 qg2 would have been a sound option. Kasparov pounced on the mistake and then capitalised on another error by Reidmann on the 23rd move - 23.Rf1. In the endgame the Dutch GM missed a draw position and it was all over for him though the end came only on the 48th move. Topalov, still being talked about after Kasparov’s brilliant win against him in the previous round, bounced back into contention with a victory over Dutchman Leok Van Wely. In a sicilian Sveshnikov variation, Topalov made a new move on the 21st, but Van Wely missed an excellent opportunity to turn the tables. Playing with black pieces, Van Wely overlooked a good combination which would have given him a strong position and allowed Topalov to execute a fine win. Van Wely’s compatriot Jan Timman, however, did not make any mistake in utilising the opportunity. Timman made good use of the time problems his opponent, Rustam Kasimdzhanov ran into in the opening itself and was further helped by a crucial error by the Uzbek. With the time about to run out, Kasimdzhanov committed a blunder on the 40th move which spelt the end for him. Ukraine’s Vassily Ivanchuk struggled before managing a draw against tailender Alex Yermolinsky (USA) in 59 moves of a kings Indian classical game. Vladimir Kramnik continued with his run of draws — his fourth in five games. Jeroen Piket held the Russian in just 26 moves of queen’s gambit declined while Alexi Shirov (Spain) shared the point with Peter Svidler in 41 moves of a sicilian-najdorf variation game where the Russian had black. Today is the second rest
day of the tournament and play will begin tomorrow
evening. |
Ardaman,
Harneet enter semis CHANDIGARH, Jan 22 — Ardaman Sidhu entered semifinal of the under 14 section, by upsetting third seed Tushar Liberhan in the quarterfinal of the PD Vashist Memorial Total Tennis Tournament being played here at the YMCA, Sector 11. Ardaman won at 8-6 after trailing at 2-5 in the beginning. Ardaman will now face second seed Gurmeet Singh who dethroned seventh seed Karan Patnaik at 8-1. The second semifinal will be played between top seed Chattvinder Singh and the fourth seed Harneet Singh Ahluwalia. Chattvinder outplayed fifth seed Yuvraj Chaudhary at 8-1 while Harneet got the better of Dhruv Sharan by 8-2. In under 16 boys section, all the seeded players namely Chattvinder Singh, Manish Chaufla, Harneet Singh and Tushar Liberhan moved into semifinal. In the girls, under 16, Sanya Judge, Inayat Khosla and Simar Singh easily won their first round matches. Sanam and Karan moved to
the semifinals of the under 12 section by scoring
victories over Dilpreet and Randeep, respectively. |
Our worst phase is behind us: Akram GWALIOR, Jan 22 (PTI) — "The three-day match against India ‘A’ starting here tomorrow, is very important as it will serve as a build up for my team ahead of the first Test in Chennai next week," Pakistan cricket captain Wasim Akram said here today. "We haven’t played for over a month after the Zimbabwe tour and apart from myself, Salim Malik and Ijaz Ahmed, others have not played Tests in India. So it is important for all those who will be figuring in the first Test to get a feel," he said at a press meet on arrival this evening from Delhi. Akram denied the India-Pakistan contest in a pressure cooker atmosphere could be too draining and was too close to the World Cup. "For me World Cup is too far away. This tour is ideal preparation and we look forward to it," the 32-year-old star all-rounder said in reply to questions. When asked why people in certain quarters grew restive only when Test series was planned between the two countries, the Pakistan skipper said he himself was at a loss to understand the reason. But he promised Indian team would receive a warm welcome like his team received on arrival in India despite the security concern. Akram also felt Pakistan players needed greater mental toughness. "Hopefully our worst phase (series loss at home to Australia and Zimbabwe) is behind us. I am not worried about anybody’s form. We’ll fully back them up. Asked how he viewed captaincy adding to his responsibilities as an all-rounder, Akram admitted it added to the pressure, but hoped to regain his best (form) in India. Team coach Javed Miandad said all those in line for a place in the Test would find place in the tour opener. He said the security environment had totally changed and relaxed overnight and appealed to Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray to extend his present one year postponement of protest against Pakistan tour for all time. India ‘A’
captain V.V.S. Laxman and opener S. Ramesh also reached
here by the Indian Airlines flight which brought the
Pakistan cricketers from Delhi. |
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UBEDA (Spain), Jan 22 (PTI) — IM Krishnan Sasikiran, C.S. Gokhale and IWM Vijayalakshmi Subburaman came out unscathed from the second round of the Ubeda International Chess Tournament which saw most of the Indians lose their matches. Sasikiran outclassed IM D. Sulipa (1) of Ukraine for his second win to be in lead with a host of players including Russian GMs Alexey Dreev and S. Tiviakov after the second round yesterday. Sasikiran opted for kings' Indian defence against Sulipa, who played the samiesch variation, and mated his opponent on the 37th move. Vijayalakshmi, who lost to GM Baguturov in the first round, bounced back with a fine win against Spain's F. Pareira as did Gokhale, who lost a stubborn battle to Russian GM S. Tirov, in scoring an easy win over D. Dongart of Denmark. R.B. Ramesh overcame a disadvantageous position against D. Kamlianovic with accurate play to force a draw in 52 moves. But former national champions Abhijit Kunte, P. Konguvel and D.V. Prasad, IM V. Saravanan and IWMs Mrunalini Kunte and Pallavi Shah went down to their opponents as the Indians had a poor day in the tournament, the second event of their Spanish sojourn. IM Kunte had a bad day
against third seed GM S. Tiviakov on the second board.
The Indian played the alapin varnation against the
Russian's sicilian but allowed Tiviakov to make the
important nb4-nd5 move and lost the advantage. The
Russian thereafter, did not face any problem in winning
the game. |
Borgula, Kaskak in title clash AHMEDABAD, Jan 22 (PTI) — An all-Slovakian affair will be seen when third seed Boris Borgula and unseeded Filipo Kaskak meet in the final of the ITF Gold Flake Aces Futures Tennis Tournament at Ageta Courts here tomorrow. Borgula defeated eighth seed Amir Hadad of Israel 6-3 6-7 6-4 in a marathon match lasting about two hours, while Kaskak had an easier tie against top seeded Filippo Messori of Italy, winning in 7-6 6-1, in the semifinals today. In the first match, Hadad, the champion in Chandigarh leg, led 2-0 in the first set but a doubtful line call upset him, and he had a long arguement with the chair umpire. This affected his game as the match progressed. He shouted, threw his racquet time and again as his returns either landed in the net or went wide. Borgula won the first set 6-3, but Hadad came back strongly in the second. The Slovak managed to stretch the set into tie-breaker but lost. In the third set, Hadad served well but could not fully capitalise on it. He lost some big points when it mattered the most and finally Borgula won it 6-4, and the match. In the second semifinal, topseed Messori was also involved in arguements with the chair umpire. Though he forced the first set to a tie-breaker, the Italian lost the second tamely after taking just one game. Kaskak, fully knowing that he was the underdog and had nothing to lose, played an adventurous game. He slowed down the pace of the match whenever Messori was on the attack and took an early 4-2 lead. The top seed, however, came back strongly into the game levelling the score at 4-4, at 5-5 and then at 6-6, thus taking the match into tie-breaker. The Italian took an early lead in the tie-breaker, but the Slovak rallied back to win the set 7-6. Messori looked tired in the second set. He had several arguments with the chair umpire over line calls. He did not put up much
resistence, allowing Kaskak to take a lead of 5-0. At
this point, Messori managed to break Kaskak, but only to
see his opponent replying in the same manner in the very
next game to take the set 6-1 and the tie 7-6, 6-1. |
Bagan take on buoyant Agragami CALCUTTA, Jan 22 (PTI) — Stung by a series of indifferent performances, defending champions Mohun Bagan have a battle in hand to keep their title hopes alive, as they take on a buoyant Tollygunge Agragami in a group A match of the third National Football League at the Salt Lake Stadium here tomorrow. With a solitary win from four outings, the fancied city club are struggling to find peak form and have no option but to play their hearts out to upstage their local rivals, who have already won plaudits for their disciplined showing in their maiden appearance in the high-profile league. For Tollygunge coach Amal Dutta, who was unceremoniously dumped as Bagan coach a few months back, the tie provides a golden opportunity to drive home a point or two to his former club. Sitting pretty at the top of the table with eight points from four matches, Dutta’s team are almost assured of a position in the super six round unless they play some inexplicably poor matches in the coming days. The veteran coach would be
hoping for another good performance from his in-form
strikers — Sri Lankan Roshan Pereira and Nigerian
Chibuzor Nwakama — to prick holes in the Bagan
defence, already weakened by the absence of Kenyan Samuel
Omollo who has been called for national duty. |
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MARGAO, Jan 22 (PTI) — Air-India, Mumbai, played their hearts out to end their victory draught with a 1-0 win over local team Dempo in the National Football League at the Nehru Stadium, Fatorda, here today. Godfrey Pereira scored the only goal of the match in the 78th minute of play to register the Mumbai team’s first win in five outings in this year’s league. Air-India pressed for a goal from the start and their efforts proved fruitful when the unmarked striker beat Dempo custodian Vikrant Sharma with a left-footer after accepting a pass from Abbas Ali Rizvi. Air-India now have three points, while Dempo have five from as many matches. Air-India were a completely transformed team today compared to the one that lost 1-5 to another Goan team Churchill Brothers, and played a well organised game. Unlike in their earlier matches, their defenders Henry Picardo, Khambiton Singh and Radhakrishna Dube played an outstanding game giving no room for the rivals to manouvere. Coach Bhimal Ghosh’s plan to push Khalid Jamil upfront from the defence and bringing Khambiton Singh in the defence from the midfield paid dividents as Jamil consistently piereced the rival defence with his immense speed. He was well supported by
Abbas Rizvi and Pereira who kept on feeding him time and
again. |
McEnroe elected to hall of fame NEW YORK, Jan 22 (Reuters) — John McEnroe, whose fiery temper often overshadowed his brilliant play, and Australian doubles specialist Ken McGregor were announced as the newest members of the international tennis hall of fame. "The ultimate honour for any athlete is to be inducted into one's respective hall of fame, "McEnroe said at a news conference. McEnroe, winner of seven grand slam singles titles, was the top-ranked player in the world from 1981 to 1984. McGregor teamed with
countryman Frank Sedgman to complete the only male grand
slam sweep in doubles in 1951. He also won the Australian
singles championship in 1952. |
Indian Bank face daunting task CHENNAI, Jan 22 (PTI) — Indian Bank will have the daunting task of containing the marauding forwards of star-studded East Bengal when the two teams meet in their National Football League group B match here tomorrow. The already depleted bankmen would be under tremendous pressure and it remains to be seen as to how it can take control from the nippy forwards of East Bengal, who have dependable players like Raman Vijayan, Baichung Bhutia, Dipendu Biswas, medio Bashudev Mondal and Saroj Das. East Bengal had finished third in the inaugural year and ended up runner-up last year. This year, East Bengal looks favourite for the title. Bhutia's brace helped it beat F.C. Kochi and its drawn encounter with Goa league champion, Salgaocar, have earned for it four points, while Indian Bank has three points from its lone victory in three matches. Indian Bank also boasts of
speedy Syed Sabir Pasha, a member of the Indian team to
the Bangkok Asian Games and brilliant attacking medio
Hamilton Bobby. However, its defence is weakened in the
absence of Satyan. It does not appear to have enoughl
power to stop Bhutia and Co. |
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Haryana medal winners honoured CHANDIGARH, Jan 22 (BOSR) — Haryana players, who won medals in the 13th Asiad at Bangkok were honoured by the Jat Sabha, Chandigarh, at a function here today. Ten players and three officials were given wrist watches and cash awards ranging from Rs 4100 to Rs 5100 for bringing laurels to Haryana. Mr Mani Ram Godara, Minister of Home, Haryana was the chief guest. Out of 11-member girls team which secured hockey silver medal at Asiad, five belonged to Haryana, Ms Pritam Thakren was the captain of Indian team, other members are Ms Suneeta Dalal, Ms Kamala Dalal, Ms Sandeep Kaur and Ms Surinder Kaur. The coach and manager of the gold medal victorious men hockey team, Maharaj Kaushik, who also hails from Haryana, was also honoured. In kabaddi the gold medal winners who were rewarded were Shamsher Singh, Ram Bir Singh and Ram Mehar Singh. The silver medalist athletes included (Anil K. Sangwan in discus throw) and Shakti Singh (shot-put). The coach of the Indian kabaddi team was also honoured. The players who could not make it to the function were Ram Mehar Singh and Kamala Dalal. |
Virk's death mourned CHANDIGARH, Jan 22 (TNS) — Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, president, and Mr Arvind Khanna, Secretary General of the Punjab Olympic Association, today mourned the death of Dr Devinder Singh Virk, hony. secretary, Punjab Weighlifting Association. Mr Khanna said Dr Virk's rich contribution to the growth and development of the sport particularly in Punjab was immense. Although he was a doctor by profession, he devoted more time and energy for the promotion of weightlifting. Mr Khanna said, Dr Virk remained associated with Punjab Weightlifting Association over four decades and his devotion to the game was unparalleled. Shooting squad CHANDIGARH, Jan 22 (TNS) — The following will represent Punjab in the on going 42nd National Shooting Championship in rifle/pistol events at Bangalore: In I.S.S.F. (International Sports Shooting Federation Rules): T.S. Dhillon captain, Santokh Singh, N.S. Bhogal, J.S. Dhaliwal, J.S. Chabbra, I.S. Jawanda, Jatinder Singh, Dashpreet Singh, Pawanjit Bhullar and Abhinav Bindra. In N.R. (National Rules):
Sewak Singh, Jasraman Grewal, H.S. Jakhar, Raja Bhullar,
Baljit Singh, Karan Sandhu, Mrs S.K. Dhillon and Nirmal
Kaur. |
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