Venus crashes, Djokovic, Sharapova untroubled

June 26, 2012

joko

London, June 26: Five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams suffered her worst All England Club defeat in 15 years on Monday, but draw cards Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova powered into the second round.

Williams lost 6-1, 6-3 to 79th-ranked Russian Elena Vesnina in what was the 32-year-old's first opening round loss since her 1997 debut.

But the former world number one -- the champion in 2000, 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2008 -- believes she can still compete at the top level despite her ranking having slipped to 58 after a six-month absence fighting serious illness.

"There's no way I will give up just because I have had a hard time in the first four or five friggin' tournaments back. That's not me," said a fiesty Williams at a post-match news conference.

When asked if she will play at Wimbledon in 2013, she was adamant.

"Sure," she said. "I don't have time to be sorry for myself."

Monday's defeat was just Williams' fourth loss at the first round stage of a Grand Slam against 52 wins.

Vesnina, who had lost in the first round of nine of her last 10 Grand Slam appearances, will next face Polish third seed Agnieszka Radwanska who enjoyed a 6-3, 6-3 win over Slovakia's Magdalena Rybarikova.

While Williams was heading for the exit, another crowd favourite, Kim Clijsters, was rolling back the years with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Serbian 18th seed Jelena Jankovic.

Clijsters, unseeded this year and playing her last Wimbledon before retirement, will face Andrea Hlavackova of the Czech Republic.

The 29-year-old Belgian, playing just her second event since March, was untroubled against the error-plagued, former world number one Jankovic who lost in the first round for a second successive year.

"When I saw the draw I knew it was going to be a tough one but at the same time I really looked forward to playing her," said Clijsters, after her eighth win in nine meetings with Jankovic.

Sharapova, who completed a career Grand Slam with victory at the French Open, eased past Australia's Anastasia Rodionova 6-2, 6-3.

Sharapova, the 2004 champion, will face Bulgaria's Tsvetana Pironkova, who reached the semi-finals in 2010.

Top seed Djokovic, opening business on Centre Court, reached the second round with a 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 win over Spanish veteran Juan Carlos Ferrero.

Djokovic, 25, playing for the first time since his French Open final defeat to Rafael Nadal, will next face America's Ryan Harrison.

"It's a very unique feeling to walk out first on Centre Court," said Djokovic, whose hopes of becoming just the third man to hold all four Grand Slam titles at once were shattered by Nadal in Paris.

"I think this is the only tournament that actually allows you to have information 12 months in advance when you're playing."

Third seed Federer beat Spain's Albert Ramos 6-1, 6-1, 6-1, taking just 79 minutes to kick off his bid for a record-equalling seventh title.

The six-time champion, and record 16-time Grand Slam title winner, will face colourful Italian Fabio Fognini for a place in the last 32.

Federer, shunted out on to Court One for his 2012 opener, fired down nine aces in his straightforward win over left-hander Albert Ramos, the world number 43 who has never won a match on grass.

Federer, without a Grand Slam title since the 2010 Australian Open, is bidding to equal Pete Sampras's record of seven Wimbledon titles.

But he has fallen in the quarter-finals in the last two years, losing from two sets to love up for the first time in his career in 2011 when he went down to France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Djokovic and Federer then saw two dangerous rivals knocked out of their section of the draw.

Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych, the 2010 runner-up, slumped to a 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/4) to Latvia's Ernests Gulbis, the world number 87.

Gulbis will tackle either Italy's Simone Bolelli or Jerzy Janowicz of Poland for a place in the last 32.

American 11th seed John Isner, who famously won the longest match in history at Wimbledon two years ago, went down 6-4, 6-7 (7/9), 3-6, 7-6 (9/7), 7-5 to Colombia's Alejandro Falla, the world 73.

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News Network
January 10,2020

Srinagar, Jan 10: Real Kashmir FC made a strong comeback in the second half to play out a 1-1 draw against former champions Punjab FC in their home I-League match here on Friday.

The 'Snow Leopards' equalised in the 62nd minute through Gnohere Krizo in front of a partisan crowd of 8,500 spectators after Makan Chothe had given Punjab FC the lead in the 21st minute at the TRC ground.

After Thursday's draw, Punjab FC is placed third on the table with 10 points from seven games. Real Kashmir FC remained at eighth with six points from five matches. This was Real Kashmir's third home match on the trot.

The match was a story of two halves as the first belonged to the visitors who enjoyed a 62 per cent possession of the ball, whereas the second belonged to the home side.

Both the teams were looking to gain an early advantage and Punjab FC took the lead after 21 minutes.

Confusion inside the Real Kashmir box because of a long ball from Punjab opened up an opportunity for Chothe and he made no mistake as he smashed the ball at the back of the net.

As the fans cheered on, Real Kashmir created a flurry of chances, but none of the home side players could find the back of the net. Punjab was able to hold on to their slender lead heading into the tunnel.

The second half resumed with Real Kashmir pressing high up the field and pressurising Punjab.

In the 56th minute, Real Kashmir playmaker Kallum Higginbotham cut through two defenders on the left side of the box and the ball fell to Mason Robertson, whose shot was too weak to trouble the Punjab goalkeeper.

Soon after, it was Danish Farooq who tried a curler from a distance but his shot did not have enough bend to trouble the Punjab goalkeeper. The home team's effort finally paid off in the 62nd minute.

A miscalculated header by Danilo Augusto fell at the feet of Gnohere Krizo, who was one-on-one with the keeper. He made no mistake in striking the ball into the opponent's goal to score the equaliser.

Real Kashmir was in their groove now, and Kallum came in from the right with a beautiful low cross across the face of the goal but Mason could not get a touch as the chance went begging.

The duo of Kallum and Mason were proving difficult for Punjab to deal with. In the 82nd minute, a beautiful long ball by Kallum found the head of a towering Mason, but the effort went just over the crossbar.

Within a few moments, Punjab again had another nervous moment as Chesterpoul Lyngdoh's cross from the right side hit the arm of Thoiba Singh but the referee turned down an appeal for penalty.

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News Network
June 24,2020

New Delhi, Jun 24: Star Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan deeply regrets his "silly mistake" of not reporting a corrupt approach by an Indian bookie to the ICC, leading to his one year suspension from the game.

Shakib was banned for two years, one year of it suspended, for failing to report corrupt approaches during an IPL edition by an alleged Indian bookie named Deepak Aggarwal.

"I took the approaches too casually When I met the anti-corruption guy and told them and they knew everything. Gave them all the evidence and they knew everything that happened," Shakib told Harsha Bhogle on 'Cricbuzz in Conversation'.

"To be honest, that's the only reason I was banned for a year, otherwise I'd have been banned for five or 10 years," he added on the ICC's investigation.

The 33-year-old, who was in brilliant form before the ban, amassing 606 runs in the 2019 World Cup in the UK, said he regrets how he went about the situation.

"But I think that was a silly mistake I made. Because with my experience and the amount of international matches I've played and the amount of ICC's anti-corruption code of conduct classes I took, I shouldn't have made that decision, to be honest."

Lesson learnt, Shakib's advice to all young criceters is to never take any such message lightly.

"I regret that. No one should take such messages or calls (from bookies) lightly or leave it away. We must inform the ICC ACSU guy to be on the safe side and that's the lesson I learnt, and I think I learnt a big lesson," he added.

The all-rounder, whose ban ends on October 29, said he became a bit arrogant and never felt he was doing anything wrong by not reporting the bookie's approach immediately.

"Because you do most things right in your life, you tend to get arrogant with some decisions. You may not realise but you're doing wrong by the books. It never came to my mind that I am doing something wrong

"It was just a feeling of 'okay, what's going to happen, leave it' and I continued with my life. But that's the mistake I made. And that happens," Shakib said.

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January 15,2020

Dubai, Jan 15: India skipper and batting mainstay Virat Kohli was on Wednesday named captain of the International Cricket Council's ODI and Test teams of the year, capping off a memorable season for the world No.1.

Apart from Kohli, there were four other Indians who were picked in the ICC's Test and ODI Teams of the Year.

While the Test team featured double-centurion Mayank Agarwal, opener Rohit Sharma, speedster Mohammed Shami and left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav found a place in the ODI side.

Kohli enjoyed a tremendous run in both the formats in 2019. The 31-year-old hit his seventh Test double hundred on the way to a career-best unbeaten 254 against South Africa in October last year.

It was a breakthrough year for opener Agarwal, who smashed two double tons, one century and went beyond the fifty-run mark twice. He hit a career-best score of 243 against Bangladesh in November.

Kuldeep, too, enjoyed a memorable year as he joined the golden list of bowlers with two hat-tricks. The chinaman claimed his second ODI hat-trick of his career against the West Indies last month.

In the absence of Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, Shami rose to the occasion making the best in the business hop, skip and jump with his pace, swing and bounce through the season. He scalped 42 wickets in 21 ODIs over the last 12 months.

The ICC's Teams of the Year 2019:

ODI Team of the Year (in batting order): Rohit Sharma, Shai Hope, Virat Kohli (captain), Babar Azam, Kane Williamson, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (wicketkeeper), Mitchell Starc, Trent Boult, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav

Test Team of the Year (in batting order): Mayank Agarwal, Tom Latham, Marnus Labuschagne, Virat Kohli (captain), Steve Smith, Ben Stokes, BJ Watling (wicketkeeper), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Neil Wagner, Nathan Lyon.

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