Sports

Cincinnati (Ohio), August 21: Roger Federer dropped only his second career set to Spain’s David Ferrer before fighting back Thursday for a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory into the quarter-finals of the Cincinnati Masters.

The victory in one hour, 42 minutes, puts Federer into a match against the winner between American Sam Querrey and two-time finalist Lleyton Hewitt of Australia.

“I’m happy with how I played,” said 15-time Grand Slam champion Federer.

New Delhi,August 20: Olympic bronze medal winner Vijender Singh achieved a career-high second spot in the International Boxing Association’s (AIBA) official rankings in which three other Indians made the top-10 of their respective categories.

The Khel Ratna awardee, who also won bronze medals at this year’s European Grand Prix event in Czech Republic and the Asian Championships in China, sits behind Olympic silver medallist Emilio Correa Bayeux of Cuba with 1700 points. Vijender (75kg) had lost to Bayeux (2500 points) in the Olympic semifinals.

Karachi, August 20: Senior Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi has dismissed reports about a possible rift within the national team and said in the eyes of captain Younis Khan every player is equal. He told a charity function in Manchester that Younis was like an elder brother to the players.

“It does not matter to him whether a player is from Sindh, Punjab or North West Frontier Province. He treats everyone the same and looks after us well,” said Afridi, who along with Younis are in the United Kingdom on a fund-raising trip for an Islamic charity organisation.

Washington, August 20: YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley is putting some of his fortune into Formula One as primary investor in the new U.S. F1 team due to enter the sport next season.

“I am thrilled to be a part of America’s first Formula One team in more than 40 years,” the multi-millionaire told the autosport.com website.

“Getting in on the ground floor of a project of this size and scope is a tremendous opportunity, and I look forward to helping shape the US F1 vision and corporate strategy for years to come.”

Melbourne, August 20: Australia need to play aggressive and positive cricket and wear out Andrew Flintoff in the first session of the final Test if they have to beat England at the Oval and retain the Ashes urn, reckons Shane Warne.

“With the Ashes up for grabs over the next five days, Australia need to play positive cricket from ball .. if we are to retain the famous little urn,” Warne wrote in his column in Daily Telegraph.

Alappuzha (Kerala), August 20: Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his four team-mates, are enjoying a holiday in the famous Punnamada backwaters here, shooting a commercial advertisement for a multi-national soft drink company.

Besides Dhoni, the other cricketers, who reached here on August 17, are Virender Sehwag, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar and Robin Uthappa.

The ad shooting involving the five cricketers on four snake boats were progressing in the Punnamada waters, managers of the tourism resorts hosting the cricketers said.

Karachi, August 20: Flamboyant Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi has turned down an offer from Australian state side Tasmania as he wants to concentrate on the coming series against New Zealand, followed by a tour of Australia.

“The former Sri Lankan player Russell Arnold spoke to me about the possibility of playing for Tasmania but I declined as Pakistan is already due to tour Australia in December,” Afridi said.

Pakistan is to play three Tests against New Zealand and then go to Australia for a three-match Test series and an ODI series in late December.

Karachi, August 20: The Pakistan selectors will have a tough task at hand when they sit to finalize the 15-member squad for the Champions Trophy tomorrow as they have to take the hard decision of either axing a promising young all-rounder or a senior player.

The seven-member selection committee headed by former Test spinner Iqbal Qasim also have to take a hard look at the fitness of pace bowler Muhammad Asif, who has not played any competitive cricket since last July.

London, August 20: England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff is all set to make a comeback in his farewell Test here at the Oval.

As the series is levelled, England and Australia will clash for the pride in the last Test of Ashes Series beginning today.

Flintoff’s return will definitely boost the morale of English team who faced humiliating defeat at Headingley in the fourth Test. Flintoff was dropped for the fourth Test due to injury.

Karachi, August 20: Pakistan Cricket Board is yet to take a call on the venue for the ODI series against New Zealand later this year as holding matches in the Dubai Sports City has proved to be an expensive proposition for the already cash strapped PCB.

Despite indications that the PCB was interested in hosting New Zealand for a one-day series in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, now it seems they are having second thoughts after the experience of their home series against Australia in the venue earlier this year.

New Delhi, August 20: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Yuvraj SinghIndian batsmen continued to lead the ICC ODI batsmen rankings as Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh have retained first and second position respectively in the latest ICC ODI rankings for batsmen released on Wednesday.

Indian aggressive opener Virender Sehwag is placed at seventh position, while master blaster Sachin Tendulkar is ranked 14th in the ICC ODI rankings. Gautam Gambhir also made into top 20 batsmen to be at 16th place.

Karachi, August 20: Pakistan pacer Mohammad Asif has said that the training session at the national camp he’s attending has done wonders for his mental and physical fitness and he is now fully prepared to take on new challenges at the upcoming Champions Trophy in South Africa.

Chennai, August 20: A stunning return to international cricket from quick bowler Shane Bond was the highlight of the day in a match between New Zealand A and a Combined Districts XI in the Buchi Babu All-India Invitation Tournament in Chennai.

Bond captured a wicket with his first ball in national colours since late 2007 – and went on to capture three wickets for an economical 26 runs.

New Zealand A were sent in to field on losing the toss, and Bond got batsman Thalaivan Sargunam with his first delivery, picking up another wicket soon after.

New Delhi, August 20: The second Indian Premier League held in South Africa was a “fantastic commercial and sporting success” but the global television viewership of the cash-rich event had dropped compared to the inaugural year, a report by an independent global sports consultancy firm said.

“Barring South Africa, there was an average 20 per cent fall in viewership across four other major cricket playing nations – India, Australia, New Zealand and Britain,” the Viewertrack report published by Futures Sport+Entertainment said.

London, August 20: Heavy rain delayed the start of play for the third successive day in the first cricket Test between New Zealand and Sri Lanka here on Thursday.

Just 146.4 overs of the stipulated 180 were bowled on the first two days due to bad weather and more rain was expected in this southern coastal town over the next three days.

New Zealand were due to resume at 87-2 in reply to Sri Lanka’s first innings total of 452.

New Zealand play two Tests, two Twenty20 internationals and a limited-overs tri-series also featuring India during the five-week tour.

—–Agencies

Melbourne, August 20: England’s Andrew Flintoff may be about to call time on his Test career but retirement is not on Ricky Ponting’s agenda.

This week’s fifth and final Ashes Test, which starts at the Oval on Thursday will Flintoff, has said, be the last of the injury-prone all-rounder’s career.

But Australia captain Ponting, whose side need only a draw in south London to retain the Ashes with the series all square at 1-1, is not thinking about departing the Test scene just yet.

Melbourne, August 20: Australia captain Ricky Ponting believes there will be “huge pressure” on Jonathan Trott when he makes his Test debut in the Ashes finale here at the Oval – and he wants his bowlers to keep it that way.

South Africa-born batsman Trott has been drafted in to bolster England’s middle-order after out-of-form Ravi Bopara was dropped after making just 107 runs in the first four Tests of this series.

London, August 20: Cricket’s world governing body said Wednesday it had “no evidence of any illegal activity” as a result of a betting-related approach to an unnamed Australian player during the Ashes series.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) praised the player involved and the Australian management for reporting the incident which it confirmed took place after the second Ashes Test last month.

New Delhi: The current crisis in the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) seems to have deepened further after more players reported to have joined the protest and did not show up on the second day of the conditioning camp currently underway at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground here on Thursday.

According to reports, there were just 14 of the 23 members present at the ground on Thursday. Strike bowler Ashish Nehra, who was present on the first day, did not show up on the second day.

Cincinnati, August 20: Roger Federer and Andy Murray led an all-star field Wednesday at the Cincinnati Masters with wins into the third round as Rafael Nadal aimed to join his rivals with an opening victory on the fast hard-court.

Top seed Federer, revelling in his new role as father of twins, burst out of the blocks to claim his fifth victory against Argentine Jose Acasuso 6-3, 7-5.

Federer said he got up to speed quickly on the extremely fast courts at the Midwest venue.

Cincinnati, August 20: Roger Federer charged out of the blocks to start the Cincinnati Masters with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Argentine Jose Acasuso Wednesday.

But seventh seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who defeated the Swiss five days ago in the Montreal quarter-finals, was dispatched under a barrage of 20 aces by Aussie qualifier Chris Guccione.

Fourth seed Novak Djokovic, last year’s losing finalist to Andy Murray, beat Croatian veteran Ivan Ljubicic 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.

London, August 19: Australia skipper Ricky Ponting today said his team was doing whatever it could to cooperate with the ICC”s Anti-Corruption Unit in it”s investigation into the alleged reports of illegal bookmakers approaching one of the team members during the on-going Ashes series. Ponting said the matter is under the supervision of the relevant authorities and their main concern at the moment is to focus on the final Test against England starting at the Brit Oval tomorrow.

New Delhi, August 19: Syria, runners-up last time, are the highest ranked team at the ONGC Nehru Cup 2009 and they will have to live up to their top billing when they face 160th ranked Kyrgyzstan in the second game of the ONGC Nehru Cup here Thursday.

Going by their recent track record, 96th-ranked Syria undoubtedly are the tournament favourites as they had beaten China and Lebanon in the Asian Cup qualifiers and currently are at the top of Group D.

Syria’s coach Fazer Ibrahim said for him the Nehru Cup is a preparation to qualify for the Asian Cup.

Karachi, August 19: Four-time champions Pakistan will be featuring in the World Cup hockey qualifiers for the first time and are aware that a failure will push their hockey to abysmal depths.

“We have no option but to win the World Cup qualifying tournament,” said Pakistan captain Zeeshan Ashraf, a seasoned defender.

“We will adopt a do-or-die strategy in the event because we have to qualify for the World Cup,” he added.

Germany, August 19: Former Germany ‘keeper Jens Lehmann, who will turn 40 in November, has decided to end his distinguished career at the end of the season.

Lehmann, who also enjoyed success with Arsenal from 2003 to 2008 before returning to Germany to play for Stuttgart, said he wanted to see one last year of Champions League action with his current club before retiring.

“Until the end of the season and then that is it,” he told reporters in Romania before Stuttgart’s 2-0 win against FC Timisoara for the Champions League qualification play-off on Tuesday.