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French Open Super Series: Saina Nehwal suffers shock defeat in quarter-finals, India's campaign end

October 24, 2015

New Delhi, Oct 24: Indian badminton ace Saina Nehwal suffered a shock defeat to Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in the quarter-finals of 2015 French Open Super Series women's singles event in Paris on Friday.

FrenchThe 2012 finalist lost the match 9-21, 15-21 in straight sets in 39 minutes to the eighth-seeded player. A series of unforced errors and below par net play proved detrimental for the World no. 2 in her bid to win her maiden French Open title. Out of the total 66 points played, Saina won 24. With that, Indian challenge at the tournament also ended.

Nehwal, 25, lost the error-strewn first game 9-21, with her Thai opponent dictating the pace of the play. At one point, she was trailing by 12 points, at 6-18. The Indian shuttler somehow produced a strong cross-court smash to win a point at 7-18. The game ended with Saina sending long her return.

The second game too started in the similar fashion with Intanon taking a quick four point lead to love. Saina won her first point with an unforced error from her opponent at the net, but soon lost the next point failing to return a smash.

Trailing 5-11 in the second game, Saina won three points in succession to make it 8-11, but Intanon once again raced to a five point lead at 9-15. The Thai girl maintained the lead until the end, and won the game 21-15.

In their ten meetings so far, only two matches have been decided in three sets with Nehwal winning both, in Thailand (2012) and Malaysia (2009). But today, Nehwal seemed to have no answer to the all-round game from her opponent. Now, their overall head-to-head record stands 6-4, in favour of the Indian.

In the previous round, the Hyderabadi girl defeated Minatsu Mitani of Japan 21-19, 21-16 in a revenge of 2012 final, which she lost in straight sets 19-21, 11-21.

In the semi-finals, Intanon will play the winner between fourth-seed Wang Shixian of China and Nozomi Okuhara of Japan.

Fifth-seeded and Olympic Champion Li Xuerui of China -- who beat PV Sindhu in the Denmark Open final on Sunday -- takes on third seed Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei.

New World number one and reigning back-to-back World champion Carolina Marin of Spain faces Indonesian Maria Febe Kusumastuti in the last quarter-final later in the day.

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Agencies
August 3,2020

Silverstone, Aug 2: Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton on Sunday won his seventh British Grand Prix title after a dramatic last-lap at the Silverstone Circuit.

Hamilton and teammate Valtteri Bottas were at the first and second spot respectively until tyre drama struck.

Second-placed man Bottas was the first to suffer as his tyre deflated on lap 50, resulting in 11th place finish. Hamilton also suffered a similar issue before the final few seconds of the race.

However, with Max Verstappen having opted to pit a few laps from the end to try and claim the fastest lap, Hamilton had enough time in hand to just cross the line first, five seconds ahead of Verstappen and the third-placed Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.

McLaren's Carlos Sainz had been set to finish fourth, but his own last lap tyre issue saw him eventually come home P13, allowing Renault's Daniel Ricciardo to claim fourth, following a late pass on the sister McLaren of Lando Norris.

Renault's Esteban Ocon finished sixth, having enjoyed a race-long battle with Lance Stroll's Racing Point, with Pierre Gasly having enjoyed a fine race to finish seventh for AlphaTauri.

Alex Albon finished eighth for Red Bull, having recovered from a lap 1 tussle with the Haas of Kevin Magnussen that saw him fall to last, while Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel rounded out the top 10, Vettel holding off a late charge form the recovering Mercedes of Bottas.

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Agencies
July 20,2020

Vitoria, Jul 20: Lionel Messi won a record seventh top scoring title in the Spanish league after netting twice in Barcelona's 5-0 rout of Alav s in the final round.

Messi ended with 25 goals, four more than Karim Benzema, who did not score in Real Madrid's 2-2 draw at Legan s.

Messi is the first player to finish as the league's top scorer in seven different seasons. He reached the milestone despite missing games because of an injury early in the season. The Argentine's 25 goals came in 33 matches.

Messi was tied with Telmo Zarra with six scoring titles. He has also now equaled Hugo Sanchez's feat of four straight top-scorer trophies.

"Individual achievements are always secondary," Messi said on Sunday.

"I wished it could have come along with the league title."

This is also the third successive season that Messi finished with the most assists 21 in the league.

Ansu Fati, Luis Su rez and Nelson Semedo also scored Sunday for Barcelona, which had already secured second place behind Madrid.

Fati opened the scoring in the 24th minute, Messi added to the lead 10 minutes later and Su rez closed the first-half scoring in the 44th. Semedo got on the board in the 57th and Messi in the 75th to help Barcelona rebound from a 2-1 home loss to Osasuna.

"Today things were different," Messi said.

"The team showed better attitude and commitment. It was an important step forward for us ahead of what's left in the season."

Barcelona now turns its focus to its Aug. 8 home game against Napoli in the round of 16 of the Champions League. The first leg, played before the break, ended 1-1.

Barcelona coach Quique Seti n finished under pressure after the team relinquished a two-point lead over Madrid when the league resumed following the pandemic break. It was four points back before Madrid's match at Legan s.

Barcelona defender Cl ment Lenglet had to be substituted early in the second half because of an apparent muscle injury.

Alav s, sitting in 15th, had already done enough to stay up.

BAR A "B" TEAM

American winger Konrad de la Fuente scored twice as Barcelona's "B" team beat Valladolid B to keep alive its hopes of reaching the second division next season. The victory put Barcelona in the second round of the promotion playoffs.

The 19-year-old De la Fuente, who recently had his contract with Barcelona extended through the 2021-22 season, scored in each half.

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News Network
June 2,2020

Jun 2: Former West Indies captain Daren Sammy has spoken strongly against the killing if George Floyd in USA, and has now urged the ICC & all the other boards in the world to come together and fight the evil.

In a series of tweets Sammy wrote how the blacks have been suffering for a long time.

“For too long black people have suffered. I’m all the way in St Lucia and I’m frustrated If you see me as a teammate then you see #GeorgeFloyd Can you be part of the change by showing your support. #BlackLivesMatter,” Sammy wrote.

He also wrote, “@ICC and all the other boards are you guys not seeing what’s happening to ppl like me? Are you not gonna speak against the social injustice against my kind. This is not only about America. This happens everyday #BlackLivesMatter now is not the time to be silent. I wanna hear u.”

“Right now if the cricket world not standing against the injustice against people of color after seeing that last video of that foot down the next of my brother you are also part of the problem.”

Earlier, West Indies star batsman Chris Gayle has said racism exists in cricket too, saying he gets the 'end of the stick' even within teams.

"Black lives matter just like any other life. Black people matter, p***k all racist people, stop taking black people for fools, even our own black people wise the p***k up and stop bringing down your own! I have travelled the globe and experience racial remarks towards me because I am black, believe me, the list goes on," Gayle wrote in his Instagram story.

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