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24 Wednesday,June 4, 2003 TIMES SPORT The Times of , New

FRENCHFRIES Much to applaud India to field strongest ever squad Kozhikode: India will field ASIAN YOUTH Top ranked players from at the Paris their strongest ever contin- Vietnam, Iran, Krygyzstan, gent of 90 members in the gent of 90 players was agreed Singapore, Sri Lanka, Mongo- The different colours of Clement to by the Asian Confedera- World TT: Babras Asian Youth chess champi- lia and Malaysia would com- onship to be held here from tion. This will definitely help pete in the event being held in By Errol D’Cruz June 6 to 14. the AICF to unearth the tal- the country for the third time. TIMES NEWS NETWORK Over 200 players, represent- ented boys and girls and Parimarjan Negi, a child ing eight countries besides In- groom them to the levels of prodigy from Delhi, Dronoval- Pune: Two happenings brought In- dia, would be competing for achieving GM norms in about li Harika, D Sai Srinivas, G dia table tennis coach Sunil Babras three years times,” Koya said. moments of pure joy at the recent honours in the Under-10, 12 Rohit, K Vijay Keerthi, P Lak- The winners of these three World table tennis championships and 14 sections of the champi- shi Sahithi, G Mandanasri in Paris recently. onship for boys and girls, P T categorised championships and V K Sindhu — all medal Werner Schlager’s triumph in the Ummer Koya, Secretary, All- would qualify to represent winners in the last edition of India Chess Federation told Asia in the World Youth Chess the championship held in France’s Arnaud Clement likes variety. At the start of dana in a paisley pattern. blue riband event the men’s singles each set he’s played at Roland Garros, the No. 32- Set 3: Light blue shirt; dark green bandana with red- to deny seeming invincibles China a reporters on Tuesday. Championship to be held in Teheran — will be among seeded Frenchman has changed his shirt and bandana. rose flower pattern. clean sweep of the medals, was one. “The Federation’s request Greece during October this those representing India in Clement kept up the trend Monday as he lost 6-2, 7-5, Other fashion conscious players at this year’s French in- And the second, though on a dif- to field such a large contin- year. this presgitious event. PTI 7-5 to defending champion Albert Costa — making him clude Spain’s Carlos Moya and France’s Amelie Mau- ferent scale of expectation his own the last Frenchman of 18 to exit the tournament.It could resmo. No.4-seeded Moya wears a sleeveless shirt— team’s performance that saw two Kim, Lleyton be said that Clement went out on a colorful note. designed by Nike after Germany’s Tommy Haas had players each from the men’s and complained a while back that sleeves cramped his serv- women’s sections making the main Set 1: Dark blue shirt; pink-and-red bandana. ing style.Moya also wears new sneakers each match, as draw. Babras also savours the big may marry soon Set 2: Bright orange shirt; green, yellow-and-white ban- does No. 5-seeded Mauresmo. coup at the championships. Austri- Paris: Tennis’ most famous an Schlager first overcame defend- playing couple Kim Clijsters Changing murmurs: Martina because I played much better tennis who live with me. “But now Lleyton ing champion Wang Liqin in the and Lleyton Hewitt are talk- Navratilova says players on the and I also played less time,” he said. makes me compromise.” semi-finals before beating Joo Se women’s tour no longer sound so in- ing about tying the knot, the Money matters: Money is not al- Hyuk of South Korea in the final. timidated when preparing to face one Variety in Kim’s kitchen: Belgian Belgian revealed Tuesday. ways the route of all evil, even if it is Babras shared some of his of the Williams sisters. “It’s not like, star Kim Clijsters is a little supersti- not in short supply in the higher eche- World number two Cli- ‘Oh my God, I hope I don’t get wiped tious when it comes to what she eats thoughts with The Times of India lons of tennis. The men’s champion jsters, who has reached the off the court 6-1 6-1.’ It’s like, ‘I have at a major tournament. The 2001 fi- while reflecting on the champi- will take home 840,000 euros and the quarter-finals at the French a chance here,’” Navratilova said. nalist, girldfriend of men’s number onships in the French capital: women’s champion 819,000 - but in Open and will turn 20 the day With a crop of emerging challengers, one Lleyton Hewitt, said her eating The Indian performance: That the “good old days the financial in- after the women’s final Sun- the Williams family’s aura of invincibil- regime that year was a little repeti- four of our players two each from centives to win were much lower.Prize day, said that she and her ity seems to be in decline, Navratilova tive. “Two years ago when I reached the men’s and women’s section money has increased by some 4000 said.While Venus lost in the fourth the finals I ate the same thing every qualified for the main phase meant world number one boyfriend percent since Bjorn Borg first lifted round at Roland Garros, Serena re- day. It became difficult for the people that we have two among the top 128 Hewitt, who has already been the trophy in 1974. The cash haul mains the favourite. But Navratilova AP eliminated from the tourna- clearly didn’t matter much as winning in each section. That to my mind warned not to discount second-seed- ment, have discussed getting to Yannick Noah, the last Frenchman hasn’t occurred for a long, long ed Kim Clijsters or No. 4 Justine married. “We do talk about it to triumph here to date in 1983. time. Sharath Kamal from Chen- Henin-Hardenne, both Belgian, or Asked what he would do with his nai has been a revelation and I sometimes,” Clijsters told Amelie Mauresmo. “I thought earlier prize money, worth 1000,000 euros at daresay he is shaping to step into French television. “But I’m this year that I wanted to put money the time, he said: “Damn, I forgot to Chetan Baboor’s shoes. still young. I’m going to be 20 on a Belgian winning the French go and pick up my cheque.” in a few days.”AFP Open,” Navratilova said. INDIANS AT WORLD TT Ready for action: Defending Hewitt howler: Lleyton Hewitt can MEN champion Albert Costa played for thank his lucky stars he is a tennis Chetan Baboor lost in 1st rd more than 15 hours to reach the quar- player and not a tipster. Asked after main draw terfinals at the French Open, and he his third round defeat to Tommy Ro- Sharath Kamal lost in 1st rd said he’s ready for three more match- bredo how far the Spaniard would go, main draw es. “I feel great. I don’t feel that tired,” the Australian shot back “Next round.” Saurav Chakravarty did not meaning he would be swept away by the ninth-seeded Spaniard said after qualify for main draw a 6-2 7-5 7-5 win on Monday over Ar- Gustavo Kuerten. Robredo had other naud Clement. Costa, back on centre ideas, knocking out the Brazilian in WOMEN court for the first time since winning four sets to reach the quarter-finals. It Montu Ghosh lost in 1st rd main the 2002 final, beat Clement in just remains to be seen whether Hewitt draw over three hours—bringing his pre- will suffer the ignominy of Greg Mouma Das PSPB lost in 1st rd cise playing time at Roland Garros to Rusedski who forecast imminent de- main draw 15 hours, 3 minutes.Costa said a Russia's Vera Zvonareva during the feat for Pete Sampras after losing to T. Pradeepa did not qualify for straight-sets win was a relief after his quarterfinal match against Nadia him in the third round of last year’s main draw first three wins took five sets each. Petrova in French Open at Roland US Open. Sampras went on to beat Mamta Prabhu did not qualify “This match gives me confidence, Garros in Paris on Tuesday. Agassi in the final. for main draw

CROSS COUNTRY Easy going for top seeds Mumbai: Abhin Shyam Gupta of PSCB and Sachin Ratti of the Railways, the top two seeds in the men’s singles, cleared their open- ing hurdles in the Rs. 4.06 lakh prize-money NSCI Se- nior All-India major bad- minton tournament, host- ed by the National Sports club of India, which com- menced at the club’s courts here on Tuesday. Results: Men’s singles (1st round): - Abhin Shyam Gupta (PSCB) beat Nimish Goel (MP) 15-0 15-7; C M Shashidhar (Rlys) beat Abhijeet Nampalli (Kar) 15-2 15-12; Amar Mohite (Mah) beat V Diju (Rlys) 15-3 15-6; Hemant Duggal (Rlys) beat Rupesh Kumar (Kerala) 15-6 15-9; 4-J B S Vidyadhar (Rlys) beat Rutupurna Kulkarni (Mah) 15-4 15-5; Joy T Antony (Kerala) beat Swapnil Vyavaharkar (Mah) 15-2 15-7; Arvind Bhatt (PSCB) beat Anand Pawar (Mah) 15-8 9-15 15-8; Jibi Vargese (Rlys) beat Amrish Shinde (Mah) 15-3 15-0; Prashant Bhatare (Mah) beat Sanket Shetty (Mah) 15-12 17-16; Nikhil Kanetkar (PSCB) beat Anuj Gupta (Guj) 15-1 15-8; Anup Sridhar (Kar) beat Hi- manshu Thakkar (Mah) 15-6 15-11; S D S Krishna (AP) beat 3-Sanave Thomas (Ker) 15-12 15-8; Siddharth Jain (PSCB) beat Pallav Deka (Assam) 5-15 15-9 15- 7; Mayur Ghatnekar (Mah) beat G. Gu- ruprasad (Kar) 15-14 15-7; K. Shrini- vasan (AP) beat Ansuman Hazarika (ASM) 14-17 15-5 15-4; 2-Sachin Ratti (Rlys) beat Utsav Mishra (UP) 15-13, 15-10. Sangeetha in lead Kozhikode: Unfancied M R Sangeetha (TN) emerged as the sole leader with 5.5 points after the sixth round in the 30th National Women B Chess Champi- onship here on Tuesday. Trailing behind Sangeet- ha with 5.0 points apiece are Koneru Chandrahasa (CCA), Bhagyashree Thip- say (IDBI), Anupama Gok- hale (PSCB) and Sreeparna Chakraborty (ACC). Results: Koneru Chandrahasa (CCA) 5.0 drew with Bhagyashree Thipsay (IDBI) 5.0 Anupama Cokhale (PSCB) 5.0 drew with Sreeparna Chakraborty (ACC) 5.0 Vinuthana N (AP) 4.0 lost to Sangeetha M R (TN) 5.5 Sandhya N (KER) 4.5 drew with Sivasankari P (AARO) 4. Nimmy A George (KER) 4.0 drew with (LIC) 4.0 Sudha P (LD) 3.5 lost to (DEL) 4.5 Kruttika Nadig (MAH) 4.5 beat Soumya Swaminathan (MAH) 3.5 Safira Shahnaz M (TN) 4. beat Saheli Nath (WB) 3.5 Delphin C (MCA) 4.0 drew with Baisa- ki Das (JHAR) 4.0 Priyadarshini M (ECC) 4.0 drew with Swami Mohot (WB) 4.0 Prabhi Singha (ASSM) 3.5 lost to Patil Anuprita Anil (MAH) 4.5 Supriya Maji (GNCA) 4.5 beat Amruta Sunil Mokal (MAH) 3.5 Nabeela Farheen (TN) 3.0 lost to (MAH) 4.0 Saheli Dhar Barua (WB) 3.0 lost to Kiran Monisha Mo- hanty (ORI) 4.0 Sheena E (KER) 3.0 lost to Prathiba Y (TN) 4.0. PTI Kaviguru rally Kolkata: Anirban Mukherjee and Amit Ku- mar Saha became overall champions in the four- wheeler category while Rana Dey and Jaydev Choudhury won the hon- ours in the two-wheeler section of the sixth Servo Kaviguru rally which cov- ered a 308-km route from Kolkata to Santiniketan on May 31. The Mukherjee- Saha duo bagged a cash award of Rs 25,000. PTI

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