Americans Huber, King on opposite sides of women's doubles final

Americans Huber, King on opposite sides of women's doubles final

An American will be crowned one-half of the women's doubles championship team after Liezel Huber teamed with Russian Nadia Petrova to defeat Yung-Jan Chan and Jie Zheng, 6-3, 6-2, in the semifinals Friday.

Huber, a 34-year-old who was born in South Africa and became an American citizen in 2007, is a four-time Grand Slam champion with former partner Cara Black. Petrova will be playing her first major final of any kind.

Their opponents will be 21-year-old Californian Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan. King and Shvedova are the reigning Wimbledon champions, eliminating both of their opponents in Sunday's final along the way.

The teams of Huber & Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Petrova & Samantha Stosur each lost to King and Shvedova, 6-4, 6-4, at Wimbledon.

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Zvonareva beats top seed Wozniacki and reach final

Zvonareva beats top seed Wozniacki and reach final

Vera Zvonareva, the lowest seed of the four women in the semifinals, overcame broken strings in five racquets and took advantage of an error-riddled performance by the top seed, Caroline Wozniacki, to advance to her second consecutive major final, 6-4, 6-3, in under 90 minutes.

"I was patient and aggressive," said Zvonareva, who celebrated her 26th birthday on Tuesday. "With those windy conditions you have to play sometimes ugly, you know. You don't have to expect to play your best tennis."

"I made some mistakes today that I usually don't do," said Wozniacki. "It was a tough day for me in the office. That's the way tennis is sometimes."

"I framed a few shots that -- usually maybe I do one or two frames in the match; today maybe I made, I don't know, ten," continued Wozniacki.

"Tomorrow is another day, and I will have to go out there and try my best again. That's it," said Zvonareva.

"I know if I'm doing it, if I'm playing well, I can beat anyone."

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Clijsters comes back to defeat Venus and reach final

Clijsters comes back to defeat Venus and reach final

"It obviously means a lot to be in the final and to give myself a chance to defend my title from last year. It's a great opportunity," Clijsters said. "But obviously beating Venus here last year and this year, it's a good feeling. I think today was probably one of the best matches that I've played throughout the tournament."

"I was able to raise my level, and that's probably what I'm most pleased about, is obviously that I was able to win a close match like this, but that I was able to kind of rise to the occasion when I had to," Clijsters said.

"I think I played a lot of big points, but I think obviously in the tiebreak I wasn't able to play as well as I wanted. I had too many errors, and she played some good tennis," Williams said. "Obviously extremely disappointing not to be able to win this match today. I feel like the last few times I've played her I haven't been at my top, I haven't been very healthy. So knowing that I can still obviously almost win, you know, I'm just looking forward to the last time, where I can be a lot closer to 100 percent and play even better."

"I mean, it's instinct when you decide to do that, and it worked," Clijsters said of the great lob. "I mean, it worked. It was an important point, and I'm happy to get through."

"She's a very tough opponent," Clijsters said of Zvonareva. "Obviously, I've lost my last two matches against her that we've played against each other, so it's gonna be a tough battle. She's a player who doesn't give you much. She's always there, hangs in there. It's not that she has a game that's very unpredictable, but what she does she does extremely well."

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Guyana ready to face Kumble's Challengers

Guyana ready to face Kumble's Challengers

Anil Kumble's Royal Challengers Bangalore will be the only IPL side in action in the Champions League Twenty20 on Sunday when it squares off against West Indian underdogs Guyana in the second of the two matches here.

Kumble's Bangalore, which made the Champions League after winning the third-place playoff of the IPL, will be the favourites against Ramnaresh Sarwan's Guyana.

Well aware of the enormity of the task ahead of him, Sarwan has said that the team is banking on talented youngsters such as pacer Devendra Bishoo and all-rounder Jonathan Foo to give Guyana an opportunity to surprise their rivals.

Guyana's passage to CLT20 wasn't the easiest of affairs. Playing in the semi-final of the Caribbean T20 2010, they beat Trinidad and Tobago, the defending champions, in a closely contested match and then snatched victory after very nearly courting defeat against Barbados in the final.

In contrast, Kumble's Bangalore have established names such as Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis, Ross Taylor and Robin Uthappa in their batting line-up.

On the bowling front, they have the pace of Dale Steyn and Praveen Kumar while Kumble himself leads the slower bowling department. All-rounder Cameron White adds variety to the team.

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Lions defeat Mumbai in Champions League opener

Lions defeat Mumbai in Champions League opener

The Champions League Twenty20 tournament got off a thrilling and surprise start Friday with local outfit Highveld Lions of South Africa defeating star-studded Mumbai Indians by nine runs.

Chasing 187 runs for victory, the Indians looked good for a long time with openers Sachin Tenduklar and Shikhar Dhawan scoring briskly but the Lions bowlers finally clicked with Shane Burger capturing two wickets.

Having cruised to 83 without loss, Mumbai surrendered two wickets while adding just six to their total midway through the innings as opener Shikhar Dhawan exited after amassing 32 and Ambati Rayudu was run out for three.

Tendulkar, with 69, finally fell after 14.3 overs as he drifted to the leg side only to be clean bowled as Burger sent the stumps flying amid much relief among his team-mates.

Anil Kumble-skippered Royal Challengers Bangalore of India, South Australia Redbacks led by Cullen Bailey and Ramnaresh Sarwan-captained Guyana from the West Indies complete the group with the top two qualifying for the semi-finals.

Read more at: http://cricket.ndtv.com/clt202010/news_story.aspx?ID=SPOEN20100152831&keyword=news&cp

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Indo-Pak tennis duo look to promote peace

Indo-Pak tennis duo look to promote peace

Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, the new face of Indo-Pak solidarity, may have lost in the US Open 2010 finals, but their ability to close rifts between the neighbours is being hailed by many.

"These things are not meant to achieve anything directly but these will embellish the peace process," Abduallah Hussain Haroon, Pakistan's envoy to the UN, said.

Urging people to think "out of the box", he said: "Some people say this is a 'romantic vision' but it is better to have this vision than to fall prey to the status quo."

The pair, seeded 16th, however, lost to the Bryan brothers in straight sets 6-7, 6-7.

In an interview with media at the US Open earlier this week, Qureshi revealed that Bopanna was a big hit in Pakistan.

"He probably doesn't know, but he is very popular in Pakistan," he said.

"We're just trying to promote peace through sports...we are not looking into any political part," said Bopanna.

"If even like 2 per cent or 3 per cent people change their minds of saying, you know, if we can both get along why can't they," he said.

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Hamilton planning to lead the F1 championship

Hamilton planning to lead the F1 championship

McLaren Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton is confident that he would win Sunday's Italian Grand Prix to up the pressure in the championship fight.

Hamilton, who won last month's Grand Prix in Belgium, said: "This race is a really good opportunity for me. I will be going all out for the win."I am looking for every point I can get now," The Sun quoted Hamilton, as saying.

The 25-year-old further said that he is relishing being in the thick of the action as the five-way championship title battle enters its closing stages.

Hamilton currently holds a three-point lead in the drivers' championship over Red Bull's Mark Webber.

Webber is followed teammate Sebastian Vettel, McLaren's Jenson Button and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.

"The gap at the top of the championship is nothing. I've not been in this position before, where so many drivers are in the hunt," Hamilton said.It's a world championship, the most intense competition I've ever experienced, and I love it," he added.

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