Ronaldo double seals Madrid's place in last eight

March 19, 2014

RonaldoMadrid, Mar 19: Real Madrid stormed into the Champions League quarter-finals with a club record 9-2 aggregate success after Cristiano Ronaldo struck twice in a 3-1 win at home against Schalke 04 on Tuesday.

Real were virtually assured of a place in the last eight after thrashing the Bundesliga side 6-1 in Gelsenkirchen in the first leg and coach Carlo Ancelotti rested a host of regulars for the return at the Bernabeu with an eye on Sunday's La Liga "Clasico" against Barcelona.

Gareth Bale set up Ronaldo for Real's 21st-minute opener and Schalke levelled 10 minutes later when a long-range Tim Hoogland effort deflected off Sergio Ramos and bounced past the stranded Iker Casillas.

Ronaldo took his tally in this edition of Europe's elite club competition to 13 goals with his second of the night in the 74th minute. Alvaro Morata added a third for Real a minute later after a Ronaldo effort came back off the crossbar.

It was Real's biggest aggregate Champions League win after beating APOEL Nicosia 8-2 in 2011-12.

Ronaldo's double meant he surpassed his previous best Champions League haul of 12 from last season and he has 41 in all competitions for Real, the La Liga leaders, this term.

The world's richest club are bidding to reach the semi-finals for a third consecutive season and chase the 10th European crown that has eluded them since they last won the Champions League in 2002.

They are unbeaten in 31 matches in all competitions since a La Liga defeat to Barcelona at the end of October and also meet their arch-rivals in next month's King's Cup final.

Schalke, who are third in the Bundesliga, return to Germany to focus on securing a place in the Champions League next season.

Real can go seven points clear of third-placed Barca with a win on Sunday and Ancelotti used only four of the players who started the first leg at Schalke in Tuesday's starting lineup.

Jese started up front alongside Ronaldo and his Spain Under-21 team mate Alvaro Morata, but Jese was taken off on a stretcher with what appeared to be a serious knee injury and replaced by Bale in the eighth minute.

After a goal apiece for each side, Schalke had some good moments late in the second half, delighting their 4,000-strong travelling support who easily drowned out the home fans inside the giant arena.

Former Real forward Klaas-Jan Huntelaar was played through in the 40th minute by teenage midfielder Max Meyer and his low shot scooted narrowly wide.

Portugal's Ronaldo came close to a third in the 83rd minute with a low drive that struck the post, after earlier hitting the bar. He has struck 32 times in his last 25 Champions League matches and has 63 goals in 99 appearances.

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Agencies
January 9,2020

Kuala Lumpur, Jan 9: BWF World Championships defending champion PV Sindhu on Thursday cruised to the quarterfinals of the ongoing Malaysia Masters after winning a second-round match.

The 24-year-old had the upper hand in the clash and thrashed Japan's Aya Ohori in straight games 21-10, 21-15 that lasted for 34-minute. The world number six will now play in her quarterfinal match on January 10.

Earlier in the day, Saina Nehwal defeated South Korea's An Se Young 25-23, 21-12 in 38 minutes. The first game saw back and forth action between both shuttlers. In the end, Nehwal kept her cool to win the match.

On Wednesday, the 29-year-old had outclassed Belgium's Lianne Tan 21-15, 21-17 to progress to the pre-quarterfinals.

Shuttlers Parupalli Kashyap and Kidambi Srikanth crashed out of the tournament after losing their matches to Japan's Kento Momota and Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei respectively. 

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News Network
January 28,2020

Gibraltar, Jan 28: Young Indian Grand Master R Praggnanandhaa pulled off a huge upset, beating former world champion Veselin Topalov in the sixth round of the 18th Gibraltar chess festival to record his fifth straight win here.

The 14-year-old Chennai lad needed just 33 moves to put it across the Bulgarian. He had started with a loss against compatriot P V Nandhidhaa but since then he has been on a winning spree.

Praggnanandhaa, who recently won the world under-18 title, said: "It was very tough to prepare against him."

He is in second spot on five points with six other players and will take on Chinese GM Wang Hao in the seventh round.

Seventeen-year-old Russian GM Andrey Esipenko jumped to sole lead with 5.5 points with a win over Georgia's Ivan Cheparinov

The Russian player would be unpaired in the seventh round as he decided to take a bye.

A bunch of players including Indians — B Adhiban, K Sasikiran, Shardul Gagare, Karthikeyan Murali, SL Narayanan — are in joint third place with 4.5 points.

Adhiban beat Gabriel Flom, while D Gukesh, the world's second youngest Grand Master ever, defeated Martin Percivaldi to move to four points.

Also winning were Karthikeyan Murali against Qi B Chen and Gagare over France's Maxime Lagarde.

Top-seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov's moderate run continued as he was held to a draw by GM Aryan Chopra.

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Agencies
April 12,2020

London, Apr 12: Former Formula 1 legendary driver Stirling Moss died at the age of 90 on Sunday.

"All at F1 send our heartfelt condolences to Lady Susie and Sir Stirling's family and friends," Formula 1 said in a statement.

Often referred to as the greatest driver never to win the world championship, Moss contested 66 Grands Prix from 1951 to 1961, driving for the likes of Vanwall, Maserati and Mercedes, where he famously formed a contented and ruthlessly effective partnership with lead driver Juan Manuel Fangio.

In his 10-year-long stint at the tracks, Moss took 16 wins, some of which rank among the truly iconic drives in the sport's history - his 1961 victories in Monaco and Germany in particular often held up as all-time classics.

Moss won the 1955 Mille Miglia on public roads for Mercedes at an average speed of close to 100mph, while he also competed in rallies and land-speed attempts.

Following an enforced retirement from racing (barring a brief comeback in saloon cars in the 1980s) after a major crash at Goodwood in 1962, Moss maintained a presence in Formula 1 as both a sports correspondent and an interested observer, before retiring from public life in January of 2018.

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