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OID‰‰†KOID‰‰†OID‰‰†MOID‰‰†C The Times of India, New Delhi TIMES SPORT Saturday,January 11, 2003 21 India take EB clinch it with 10-min burst on Kiwis Harish Tyagi By Nilankur Das For the winners, Mike Okoro TIMES NEWS NETWORK looked his threatening self showing a lovely touch, good trapping and im- in opener New Delhi: A striker walks up to peccable release. But Trijit Das first, take a spot-kick. All eyes are on him. Kuala Lumpur: India will If he misses, everybody rips him and then, Koustav Ghosh didn’t do much justice to the red-and-gold clash with New Zealand in apart. If he scores, no big deal. the inaugural match of the Kolkata giant East Bengal’s situation colours. The Armymen too had their thinking cap on and kept Okoro un- 12th Sultan Azlan Shah cup was similar when they took the field hockey tournament, being in the final of the Durand Cup der control with their smartly exe- cuted off-side traps which forced played in the northern city of against a promising Army XI at the Ipoh from March 22. Ambedkar Stadium. They were ex- some frustration in the East Bengal camp. Chandan and Subhashis Roy World champions Ger- pected to beat their unheralded ri- many will clash with Pak- vals. But if they had lost, people were Choudhary picked up bookings with sloppy tackles in the centre-circle. istan, while hosts Malaysia ready with epitaphs. There was no will take on South Korea in giant-killing surprise on Friday,how- It was here that East Bengal coach Subhas Bhowmick played a master- the next two matches of the ever, as East Bengal romped home six-nation tourney. won 3-0 with Mike Okoro, Kulothun- stroke which probably won him his first championship in this new ca- The much-awaited en- gan and Douglas D’Silva scoring. counter between arch-rivals In the barren first session, though, pacity.He replaced Chandan with the experienced Tushar Rakshit which India and Pakistan is it were the Army XI which played the scheduled for March 26, but better football. Gaping holes in the changed the whole match. before that the men in East Bengal midfield, a flurry of mis- It took the old warhorse just two blue will have to get past passes and remarkably poor quality minutes to break the deadlock. His Germany on March 23 and of the final ball was the hallmark of brilliant pass from the top of the box South Korea on March 25. the half. Raju Singh was an epitome found Okoro in the clear and he They face hosts Malaysia on of ill-directed centres, Shasti Duley tapped home in the 67th minute. Six March 28. held on to the ball for far too long, minutes on, Kulothungan scored Schedule: Chandan Das looked lost in the mid- from the right and the issue was put March 22: India vs New Zealand, Pakistan vs field which was slowly being cap- beyond doubt when Douglas slotted Germany, Malaysia vs South Korea; March 23: India vs Germany, Pakistan vs Malaysia; tured by the rivals. home a penalty. The 10 minutes gave March 24: Korea vs New Zealand; March 25: In the second session too, the East Bengal their 13th Durand title East Bengal’s Tuluanga tries to beat Army XI goalkeeper Abungobi Singh Malaysia vs Germany, Korea vs India, Pak- Armymen began well. They looked istan vs New Zealand; March 26: Pakistan vs during their Durand Cup final match at the Ambedkar Stadium on Friday. and the first since 1995. organised, there was purpose in their Player of the tournament: Mike Okoro (EBl). Best India; March 27: Germany vs Korea, creativity in the scoring area which striking duo of Raghu Kumar and coach: Subhas Bhowmick (EB). Promising players: Malaysia vs New Zealand; March 28: Korea game and they were very neat in Abungobi Singh (Army XI), Harpreet Singh (JCT), Mal- vs Pakistan, Germany vs New Zealand, India their moves. The quality, however, meant Pradeep Debnath’s many Pritam Bahadur was never quite samwa (TFA), R Nobi (Md Spo), Covan Lawrence (Sal- vs Malaysia; March 30: classification match- that was absent in their game was crosses remained unutilised as the there to receive them. gaocar). es and final. PTI Rafter calls it quits, officially Sydney: Former world number 1 Pat Rafter AFP announced on Friday that he was officially retiring from professional tennis, saying he no longer felt the motivation needed to com- pete at the top. Rafter, 30, a two-time US Open winner and twice runner-up at Wimbledon, made the an- nouncement quietly in an open letter to the media — a characteristic move for the modest tennis player. The Australian has not played since his country’s 2001 Davis Cup final loss to France, when he pulled out of the deciding singles match due to an arm injury. But he had left open the possibility of returning to competition this year after recovering. “I know it’s been a while coming, but I am announcing my official retirement from pro- fessional tennis,” Rafter said in his letter.“Af- ter taking several months for my arm to re- cover from stress fracture injuries I sus- tained in late 2001, I wanted to make sure that besides gaining physical fitness, I still had the motivation to compete,” he said. “If I couldn’t commit to giving 100 percent to the game, then there would be no point in returning. By the end of 2002, the motivation just wasn’t there and my decision was made,” he said. Rafter won the 1997 and 1998 US Open titles and briefly reached the top of the world rankings in July 1999. He finished runner-up at Wimbledon in 2000 and 2001 and played in two losing Davis Cup finals. A popular am- A file picture of Australian tennis star Pat bassador for his country, Rafter was named Rafter (L) posing with his partner Lara Australian of the year in 2002.AFP Feltham and their child Joshua Patrick Rafter. Hewitt faces a qualifier Melbourne: Australian top while her second-seeded sis- seed Lleyton Hewitt was on ter Venus will take on Russ- Friday drawn to play a quali- ian Svetlana Kuznetsova. fier in the first round of the Serena could bump into Australian Open tennis tour- fellow American Monica Se- nament, which gets under- les, a four-time winner here way here on Monday. Hewitt and a semi-finalist last year, also faces a potential third in this year’s quarter-finals. round match against former Kim Clijsters was placed world No.1 Gustavo Kuerten in Serena’s half of the draw, of Brazil, fighting his way while two-time defending back after a hip injury. champion and third seed Jen- World No.1 Serena nifer Capriati was in Venus’s Williams, bidding for her bottom half of the draw. fourth consecutive Grand Capriati faces a potential Slam win, faces French- quarter-final against either woman Emilie Loit in the Lindsay Davenport or Jus- women’s opening round, tine Henin of Belgium.AFP SPORTING WORLD AT A GLANCE AP Mark Philippoussis reacts during his first round Kooyang International match against Sebastien Gros- jean in Melbourne on Friday. Grosjean won 6-3, 6-7, 6-2. INTERNATIONAL (Spa) beat Kenneth Carlsen (Den) 6-4 6- TENNIS 4, 7-Guillermo Coria (Arg) beat Fernando Canberra Women’s Classic, Australia: Vicente (Spa) 6-2 6-2, Mariano Zabaleta Quarterfinals: 5-Francesca Schiavone (Arg) beat Vincent Spadea (USA) 6-4 6-3, (Ita) beat Flavia Pennetta (Ita) 6-3 4-6 6- Dominik Hrbaty (Svk) beat 6-Jan- 2, Marion Bartoli (Fra) beat Marlene Michael Gambill (USA) 6-3 6-7 (6-8) 7-6 Weingartner (Ger) 6-4 6-4, (2) Meghann (7-4) Shaughnessy (USA) beat 8-Magui Serna RALLYING (Spa) 7-6 (7-5) 6-4, Emilie Loit (Fra) beat Dakar Rally, France - Egypt: Stage 8, Adriana Serra-Zanetti (Ita) 6-4 6-2. Special 497km, Ghat - Sabha Moorilla International, Hobart, Aus- Leading Motorbikes: 1 Giovani Sala (Ita) tralia: Semifinals: 2-Amy Frazier (USA) 4hrs 34mins 45secs, 2 Jean Brucy (Fra) beat Elena Likhovtseva (Rus) 6-3 6-4, 4:36.51, 3 Cyril Despres (Fra) 4:38.24, 4 Alicia Molik (Aus) beat Iveta Benesova Marc Coma (Spa) 4:38.25, 5 Joan Roma (Cze) 6-1 4-6 6-3 (Spa) 4:39.51. Adidas International, Sydney, Aus- Overall leaders: 1 Fabrizio Meoni (Ita) tralia: women’s quarterfinals: 2-Kim 16hrs 56mins 34secs, 2 Richard Sainct Clijsters (Bel) beat 7-Chanda Rubin (USA) (Fra) 16:57.08, 3 Joan Roma (Spa) 6-1 6-2, Tatiana Panova (Rus) beat Olga 16:58.41, 4 Cyril Despres (Fra) 17:01.25, Barabanschikova (Blr) 6-3 6-2, 3-Justine 5 Giovani Sala (Ita) 17:27.54. Henin-Hardenne (Bel) beat Amanda Co- Leading Cars: 1 Hiroshi Masuoka (Jpn) & etzer (Rsa) 6-4 6-4, (6) Lindsay Daven- Andreas Schulz (Ger) 3hrs 57mins port (USA) beat 4-Daniela Hantuchova 42secs, 2 Stephane Peterhansel & Jean- (Svk) 6-4 3-6 7-6 (7-3) Paul Cottret (Fra) 4:03.24, 3 Jean-Pierre Men’s quarterfinals: Hyung Taik Lee Fontenay & Gilles Picard 4:13.09, 4 Gre- (Kor) beat 1-Marat Safin (Rus) w/o, goire De Mevius (Bel) & Alain Guehennec Wayne Ferreira (Rsa) beat Franco Squil- (Fra) 4:14.58, 5 Giniel De Villiers (Rsa) & lari (Arg) 6-0 6-4, Rainer Schuettler (Ger) Pascal Maimon (Fra) 4:16.44. beat Mardy Fish (USA) 7-6 (7-5) 6-4, (2) Overall leaders: 1 Stephane Peterhansel Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spa) beat 7- & Jean-Paul Cottret (Fra) 14hrs 52mins Paradorn Srichaphan (Tha) 6-3 6-1 21secs, 2 Hiroshi Masuoka (Jpn) & An- Heineken Open, Auckland, New dreas Schulz (Ger) 14:59.00, 3 Gregoire Zealand: 2nd round: 1-Jiri Novak (Cze) De Mevius (Bel) & Alain Guehennec (Fra) beat Robby Ginepri (USA) 1-6 7-6 (8-6) 15:59.33, 4 Giniel De Villiers (Rsa) & Pas- 6-3, David Ferrer (Spa) beat 3-Fernando cal Maimon (Fra) 16:06.33, 5 Jutta Klein- Gonzalez (Chi) 6-4 6-3, Felix Mantilla schmidt (Ger) & F Pons (Ita) 16:25.27.