Fra, eng, col advance
Ottawa: France and England both advanced to the last 16 of the Women’s World Cup with wins as Colombia booked their spot as one of the best third-placed finishers. Third-ranked France bounced back from a shock defeat to Colombia by whipping Mexico 5-0 in Ottawa to finish top of Group F with six points. England, also on six points, but behind France on goal difference, beat Colombia 2-1 in Montreal and advance second from the group. The 28th-ranked South Americans also advance past the group stage for the first time with four points from three games as 15th-ranked Mexico are on their way home with one point.
Prannoy No. 12 in rankings
New Delhi: HS Prannoy grabbed his career-best world number 12 spot after improving a place in the latest men’s singles ranking, announced by BWF on Thursday. The 22-year-old Kerala shuttler has been on the sidelines for sometime as he is still recovering from his swollen foot, which saw him hand a walkover in Singapore Open Superseries quarterfinals in April. Indonesian Masters winner Prannoy is now the third best-placed Indian after K Srikanth (World No. 3) and Parupalli Kashyap (World No.10). In women’s singles, Saina Nehwal retained her World No. 2 position, while P V Sindhu held on to her 14th place. Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa are placed at No.15 in the women’s doubles ranking, while no Indians features in the top-25 of the men’s and mixed doubles rankings.
Bopanna wins, Sania loses
Halle/Birmingham: Second seeds Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea struggled past Marin Draganja and Henri Kontinen in two tight sets to make it to the semifinals of the Gerry Weber Open on Thursday. The Indo-Romanian pair won 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3) after battling hard for one hour and 22 minutes against the Croat-Finn pair in the quarterfinals. Such was the quality and intensity of the match that there was no break of serve in the entire match. Bopanna and his partner next face the American pair of Eric Butorac and Scott lipsky. Meanwhile, playing with new partner Casey Dellacqua in the absence of Martina Hingis, India’s Sania Mirza crashed out of the WTA Aegon Classic following a straight set defeat. The top-seeded Indo-Australian pair lost 4-6, 2-6 to unseeded pair of Jie Zheng and Yung-Jan Chan in the opening round of the $731,000 grass court event in just 69 minutes. Hingis could not play in this tournament with Sania for some personal reasons but will be back for next week’s event in Eastbourne and then at the Wimbledon.
Chirag tied third in Thailand
Koi Samui: Chiragh Kumar sunk in five birdies, including two on the last two holes, to be placed tied third after the first round of the $300,000 Dollars Queen’s Cup, here on Thursday. Chiragh ended the day at three-under 68, two shots behind leader Thailand’s Atthaphon Sriboonkaew (66). Among other Indians, Khalin Joshi (71) was tied 22nd, while SSP Chawrasia, Digvijay Singh and Rashid Khan carded two-over 73 and were tied 42nd.
3 shuttlers in pre-quarters
New York: Indian shuttlers Ajay Jayaram, R M V Gurusaidutt and Sai Praneeth entered the pre-quarterfinals of the men’s singles event at the $120,000 US Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament after victories over their respective opponents here. While 14th seed Jayaram defeated Czech Republic’s Jan Frohlich 21-9, 21-7, 16th seed Praneeth rallied from one game down to beat Christian lind Thomsen of Denmark 13-21, 21-9, 21-10 in second round matches at the Suffolk County Community College ground. Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Gurusaidutt defeated compatriot Anand Pawar 18-21, 21-11, 22-20 in a closely-fought match, also to advance to the pre-quarterfinals. Jayaram now runs into top seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei, while Praneeth is up against Huang Yuxiang of China. Gurusaidutt will take on ninth seed Takuma Ueda of Japan. Meanwhile, women’s doubles fourth seeds Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa notched up a 21-16, 21-14 straight-game win over Japanese pair of Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara in 29 minutes to enter the to the pre-quarterfinals.
bility to run for fifa top job
london: The president of the liberia Football Association has announced he is running for the FIFA presidency. Musa Bility is the second candidate to emerge since Sepp Blatter announced on June 2 — four days after being re-elected to a fifth term — that he would step down amid the corruption scandal rocking FIFA. Former Brazil star Zico has already declared his interest in running for FIFA president. Announcing his candidacy Thursday on the BBC, Bility said: “If Africa doesn’t put up a candidate it says a lot about us. Candidates require the backing of five national associations to get on the ballot.