Sania and Hingis win US Open women's doubles title, steamroll rivals in final

September 14, 2015

New York, Sep 14: India's tennis star Sania Mirza bagged her second consecutive Grand Slam title of the season, and fifth overall, as she won the US Open women's doubles with Swiss partner Martina Hingis, here today.

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The top-seeded Indo-Swiss team outplayed the fourth seed team of Casey Dellacqua and Yaroslava Shvedova 6-3 6-3 in the final, which never rose to great heights.

Sania's win capped off a memorable US Open for Indians as Leander Paes had won the mixed doubles trophy with Hingis yesterday, in a repeat show of the Wimbledon.

Kazakshtan's Shvedova and Australia's Dellacqua struggled to hold serve, making it too easy for Sania and Hingis. The contest was over in just 70 minutes as the top seeds asserted themselves.

Sania's ground-strokes from the back of the court and Hingis' agility at the net was too good for their rivals.

It was Sania and Hingis' second Major title in a row, having won the Wimbledon championships earlier this season.

Sania now has five Grand Slam titles in her collection. She won three Mixed Doubles trophies, the last one coming at this very venue with Bruno Soares in 2014.

In an extraordinary season, Hingis has won five Grand Slam titles this season, taking her overall number to 20. She won three titles with Paes and two with Sania.

"It's a great year for us. Already been a great year, became world number one. We were a solid team and were in with a chance in all Slams. We are happy to come through. I won mixed doubles here last year, great to come bak and win this," Sania said after her win.

An elated Hingis said,"from the start we hit it off. Our games complement each other. Sania won her first Wimbledon, for me it is bonus. I volley better than what I used to. (in her singles days)"

Shvedova committed a double fault in the second game at 30-all to give top seeds a break point and then a superb return from Sania brought another opportunity but the fourth seeds saved both chances.

The top seeds did not have to wait much for next chance as they broke Dellacqua at love to take a 3-1 lead. But the advantage slipped soon as Sania was broken in the fifth.

Shvedova, who is getting married on Tuesday, surrendered her serve one more time, letting Sania and Hingis just walk away with the set.

Shvedova was far from the player she is as she was down by three break points in the very first game of the second set. Top seeds grabbed the opportunity and consolidated lead with a solid hold.

Sania fired two stunning service winners on Dellacqua's serve as the Australian was broken at love in the seventh game.

Hingis hit an overhead volley winner on the first match point after Shvedova's double fault at 40-all.

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News Network
February 14,2020

Hamilton, Feb 14: Batting first, India finished at 263 for nine on the opening day of the three-day warm-up game against New Zealand XI here on Friday.

Hanuma Vihari made 101 off 182 balls before retiring, while Cheteshwar Pujara scored 93.

Besides, Ajinkya Rahane (18) was the only other Indian batsmen to register double digit score.

The likes of Prithvi Shaw (0), Mayank Agarwal (1) and Shubman Gill (0) failed to cash in on the opportunity.

Scott Kuggeleijn (3/40) and Ish Sodhi (3/72) shared six wickets between them for New Zealand.

Brief Scores:

India: 263 for 9 in 78.5 overs (Hanuma Vihari 101, Cheteshwar Pujara 93; Scott Kuggeleijn 3/40, Ish Sodhi 3/72).

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News Network
February 5,2020

Aukland, Feb 5: Striker Navneet Kaur scored a brace to guide the Indian women's hockey team to a convincing 3-0 win over New Zealand in the last game of its five-match tour here on Wednesday.

Navneet found the net in the 45th and 58th minutes, while Sharmila scored a field goal in the 54th minute as India drew curtains on the New Zealand tour on a bright note.

After a goalless opening two quarters, Navneet finally broke the deadlock for India in the 45th minute.

Sharmila then doubled the lead when she struck a powerful shot past the New Zealand goalkeeper in the 54th minute. Navneet found the net again just two minutes from the final hooter with a beautiful field strike.

India began the tour by thrashing New Zealand Development squad 4-0 before suffering close 1-2 and 0-1 defeats to the home senior team.

In penultimate game of the tour, skipper Rani's lone strike handed India a 1-0 win over Great Britain.

"...I am happy we produced three goals against New Zealand in the last match. This tour gave us a good insight about where we need to improve and one of the things is to create faster play than we do now," said India's chief Coach Sjoerd Marijne.

Commenting on his side's performance during the tour, Marijne said, "Sometimes we tend to keep the ball too long on the stick and then we create pressure. We need to avoid that by passing faster.

"On the defence side, we need to be a bit more calmer and need to improve our tackling. We will have a four week camp after a short break when we return home and we will be working on these points."

The Indian team will return home on February 7.

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Agencies
August 7,2020

Islamabad, Aug 7: Former Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, known for his blistering deliveries on the cricket field, recently baffled many with a deadly off-field bouncer by claiming he is willing to eat grass if it enabled an increase in budget for his country's Army!

"If Allah ever gives me the authority, I will eat grass myself but I will increase the budget of the army," said Akhtar in an interview with ARY News.

The 'Rawalpindi Express', considered the fastest bowler in history said he does not understand why the civilian sector cannot work in collaboration with the Armed forces.

"I will ask my army chief to sit with me and make decisions. If the budget is 20 per cent, I will make it 60 per cent. If we insult each other, the loss is ours only," the once feared fast-bowler said.

Akthar had also claimed to ARY News interview that he was willing to take a bullet for his country and had turned down a county stint just because he wanted to fight the 1999 Kargil War.

Ties between India and Pakistan have been strained in the recent months over several issues, the latest being Pakistan's attempt to broach in the UNSC the issue of Kashmir on the first anniversary of the India's move to scrap the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and to split the erstwhile state into two union territories .

Pakistan also has not been in a good financial position and under prime minister Imran Khan, himself an all rounder cricketer, has added nearly USD 22 billion, that is 35 per cent to the nation's international debt pile in the last two years, according to an Asia Times report in July.

While Pakistan recently received USD 1.39 billion from the IMF to cushion the economic shocks caused due to COVID-19 outbreak, Akthar had a few months ago proposed that a joint cricket match be played between India and Pakistan to raise funds to fight the coronavirus. The suggestion that was put down by cricketers in India.

Meanwhile the 'Pindi boy' whose deadly pace and bounce was once dreaded by batsmen had recently taken to Twitter to deny former India cricketer Virender Sehwag's claim of sledging him.

Sehwag along with other Indian crickerters such as Harbhajan Singh and even Rahul Dravid had been at the receiving end of Akthar's sledging and antics during their playing days.

"Yes, totally self made story by him. Mujhe yeh bol k bach k jana kidhar tha us nay," Akthar tweeted to a report in which Sehwag claimed that he had sledged the 'Rawalpindi Express' by telling him that Sachin Tendulkar was his father.

During an awards ceremony Sehwag had recounted that fed up with Akthar's sledging and retaliated by telling him to say the same things to Tendulkar, who smashed the 'Pindi boy' for a six. Sehwag quipped that he told Akthar then that "Baap baap hota hai".

In the recent ARY interview, asked about the allegation made against him by former India cricketer Virendra Sehwag that he makes pro-India comments for greater following on social media channels, Akhtar said, "I cannot talk on the basis of hate." 

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