Archers assure India a medal in World Cup
Kolkata: Rajat Chouhan and Manjudha Soy stormed into the final of compound mixed section to assure India of a minimum silver medal as top archers came a cropper at the World Cup Stage II being held at Antalya, Turkey. According to information received here, the duo who qualified third behind Korea, defeated Great Britain 151-149, Russia 156-154 and Canada 154-147 en route to the final. Chouhan and Manjudha will look to win a first-ever gold medal for India in the compound section when they face Italian pair Sergio Pagni and Marcella Tonioli in the mixed team final on Saturday.
Bhupathi-Bopanna in quarters
london: Indian pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna entered the men’s doubles quarterfinals of the Aegon Championships after receiving a walkover from French combo of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Nicolas Mahut. Both Tsonga and Mahut decided not to take part in the second round doubles tie after playing their respective singles matches on the grass courts of the Queen’s Club. The third seeded Indian duo will take on the fifth seeded British pair of Colin Fleming and Jonathan Marray in quarterfinals.
Mickelson leads at US Open
ARDMORE: Phil Mickelson's 3-under 67 was the top score in a delayed first round that was completed Friday morning at US Open. He was one shot of ahead of luke Donald and Mathew Goggin, who played in a cool drizzle that was far gentler than the storms that interrupted play twice on Thursday. Woods completed a round of 73, but not before pulling out his driver and putting his first tee shot of the day well right of the fairway into the high grass. On Thursday, he would wince and shake his left arm, particularly his wrist, when playing out of the rough, but there was no obvious sign of discomfort when he played his second shot at the long par-4 No. 12.
Anand shocked by Caruana at Tal Memorial
Moscow: World champion Viswanathan Anand was off to a disappointing start, suffering a rare defeat as white against Fabiano Caruana of Italy in the first round of the Tal Memorial Chess Tournament here. On what turned out to be a tough day for the world champion, Caruana did everything right after sacrificing a pawn in the middle game and Anand had little clues to better the judgement of the young Italian genius. World number one Magnus Carlsen of Norway got off to a flying start defeating arch-rival Vladimir Kramnik of Russia to find himself in early lead in the 10-player round-robin tournament.
NBA star Chris Bosh to visit India
Mumbai: NBA star Chris Bosh, currently representing defending champions Miami Heat in the basketball league’s ongoing finals against San Antonio Spurs, is to visit India next month to conduct a series of events to popularise the hoop game and NBA’s fan base in India. The eight-time NBA All-Star Bosh would also conduct an elite development clinic for the top hoopsters of the country, including members of the national team, among other activities, a media release said on Friday. Bosh is scheduled to take part in an NBA Cares event and basketball clinic.
Indian campaign ends in China Super Series
New Delhi: India’s campaign ended at the China Open Super Series after paddler Neha Aggarwal lost to Viktoria Pavlovich of Belarus 0-4 in the women’s singles on Friday. Aggarwal proved no match for Viktoria and lost 7-11, 7-11, 1-11, 6-11 in the first round encounter of the main draw. She was the only Indian entrant into the top-32 women’s singles competition. Earlier in the day, the pair of Achanta Sharath Kamal and Sanil Shetty was beaten by Ning Gao and Hu li of Singapore 5-11, 11-6, 3-11, 10-12. PNS/Agencies