Slammers beat aces, win iptl title
Hyderabad: Indian Aces' hopes of regaining the IPTl crown went up in smoke after failing to win a single match as defending champions Singapore Slammers retained the title with a dominating 30-14 win in summit clash, here on Sunday. Former world number one, now retired, Carlos Moya was once in spectacular touch as the Spaniard beat Mark Philippoussis 6-4 to hand the initial advantage to his side. Kirsten Flipken has turned around matches with her solid game but on Sunday she could not do the job and together with Sania Mirza, lost the women's singles 3-6 to Kiki Bertens. Sania and Rohan Bopanna came a cropper in the Mixed doubles set, losing 1-6 to Marcelo Melo and Bertens. Nick Kyrgios joined Melo and both took over Feliciano lópez and Ivan Dodig and added on the misery of home team with a clinical 6-2 win. Marcos Baghdatis completed the win with a 6-4 win over Feliciano lópez.
Medals assured for Shiva, Devendro
Guwahati: World Championships bronze-medallist Shiva Thapa on Sunday fought through a bloodied forehead to assure himself of his maiden lightweight (60kg) medal but his campaign was thrown into jeopardy due to the injury on an otherwise predictable yet controversial quarterfinals day in the National Men's Boxing Championships here. Shiv was cruising along in his quarterfinal contest against All India Police's Ashok who head-butted the local favourite to slow him down in the final few seconds of the second round. The head butt resulted in a bleeding forehead for the 23-year-old Shiva, who still managed to win the bout 5-0 but had to be rushed to a doctor. Shiva insisted that he will compete on Monday. It was not an easy ride for other accomplished names either as former Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Manoj Kumar (69kg) and Asian Championships silver-medallist l Devendro Singh (52kg) staved off stiff challenge in their respective quarterfinal bouts to be assured of medals.
Chennai City FC, Minerva Punjab FC get AIFF nod
New Delhi: The AIFF Bid Evaluation Committee on Sunday awarded Chennai City FC and Minerva Punjab FC the right to field their teams in the I-league 2016-2017 season. The committee evaluated the five bids submitted after the retendering was initiated on November 25. The five clubs -- Neroca FC, Minerva Punjab FC, Sudeva FC, FC Bardez Goa and Chennai City FC -- submitted their bids and based on the evaluation of their proposals, the committee decided to award Chennai City FC and Minerva Punjab FC the right to field their teams in the league, which is slated to commence on January 7, 2017. "I, on the behalf of AIFF, welcome Chennai City FC & Minerva Punjab FC to the I-league family and we all hope that we will have a competitive I-league," AIFF secretary Kushal Das stated. Minerva Punjab FC have already plied their trade in the Second Division league 2015-16 having secured the second position.