lopez confirmed for Chennai
Chennai: World no. 14 Feliciano lopez has confirmed his participation in the 20th edition of the Aircel Chennai Open, scheduled to be held here from January 5-11 next year. The Madrid native reached the third round of the US Open for the fifth straight year, apart from defeating World No.2 Rafael Nadal at the Shanghai Rolex Masters. Speaking about his confirmation, lopez said, "As South Asia's only ATP World Tour tennis event, the Aircel Chennai Open presents a great platform to kick start the new season. I look forward to playing in the city of Chennai, and begin the year on a positive note. Can't wait to get there to play in front of my Indian fans!".
Sushil, six others to train in US
New Delhi: Ace Indian wrestler Sushil Kumar and six other national athletes will be heading for the US in the first week of November to train in the Ohio-based SPIRE Institute, an official Olympic Training Center, through a Sheru Classic initiative. "I am extremely excited, happy and confident of adding to India's pride at the global level. The training facilities, technological support, personalized training and guidance offered by the SPIRE will surely give us added boost to perform better and fetch great results at the global level," Sushil said. I am really excited to get training from Spire Institute. This training will help us in getting equipped with best in class techniques and skill-set for achieving best results in the Olympics.
Indonesia enter semifinals
New Dlehi: Indonesia's Ragunan Sports School became the first foreign team to move into the semifinals, beating NCC from the North Eastern Region 2-1, in the Under-17 boy's category at the 55th Subroto Cup here today. The Indonesians, who held to the lead until the end, emerged winners thanks to Fadel Ali and Egy Maulana Vikki, the goal-getters for them. Pressing hard from the very beginning, they put NCC under constant pressure and it was telling upon their attacking prowess. Reasonably a good side, NCC wilted under the sustained stress and left a few gaps in their defence which only helped the Raguanan Sports School's cause. Changing ends they simply fortified their defence and played long ball for their opponents to take all the risk.
India outclass Pakistan 6-0
Johor Bahru: Defending champions India bounced back from their loss to Great Britain in style with a 6-0 thrashing of arch-rivals Pakistan in their third match of the Under-21 Sultan of Johor Cup at the Taman Daya Stadium, here today. The two teams played traditional hockey in the first15 minutes but the Harjeet Singh-led side started its dominance soon after and the aggression paid off with a penalty-corner conversion by forward Imran Khan in the 22nd minute."It's good win but there's still lot of areas to improve," said Harendra. India, who beat New Zealand in their first league game, will take on hosts Malaysia on Friday.
Modi faction moves court
Jaipur: With mudslinging on the rise in the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA), lalit Modi faction has moved High court against BJP minority's cell leader Amin Pathan and few others. Mehmood Abdi, the Deputy President of RCA, and eleven others have filed a writ petition against State of Rajasthan through the Chief Secretary, Government of Rajasthan. We had backed Modi till was serving cricket but he has brought disrepute to Rajasthan Cricket by tweeting that RCA officials were having backing mafia kingpin Dawood Ibrahim. lalit Modi and his men have paid a whopping more than one crore of rupees to their RCA lawyers and had brought RCA to such a point where it was suspended by BCCI and teams weren't allowed to play in its name." said Pathan.
Saina, Sindhu, Kashyap advance
Odense: Top India shuttlers Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu cleared the first round hurdles in the women's singles by posting contrasting victories over their respective opponents in the Denmark Open Super Series Badminton Premier here today. It was a hard-fought contest for Saina, who had to stretch herself for a 12-21 21-10 21-12 win over Karin Schnaase of Germany in a match that lasted 49 minutes, while Sindhu took only 39 minutes to get the better of Hong Kong's Pui Yin Yip 21-13 22-20 at the Odense Sports Park here. Saina will next take on winner of the match between li Han and Minatsu Mitani. In another women's singles match, Sindhu was at her dominating best in the first game as she did not allow the Hong Kong shuttler to settle down.
West meet East in Duleep
Karachi: Shahid Afridi pledged full support to Misbah-ul-Haq declaring him best man to lead in World Cup. "let me state at the very outset, Misbah is the best choice as Pakistan captain for the ICC World Cup 2015. I have always backed him to the optimum whenever I have played under him, just as he had when I had the honour to captain the Pakistan team," Afridi stated in a media release.