Sports News in Brief: September 2009

BILLIARDS World Professional Crown Pankaj Advani, the 24-year-old Bangalorean, scripted a brilliant 2030-1253 win over Mike Russell to win his maiden World Professional Billiards title at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds, UK. In a thrilling finale, he reduced the greatest billiards exponent of the modern era to a mere spectator in a five-hour clash. Pankaj Advani is only the second Indian after Geet Sethi to win the World Professional Billiards title in its 139-year history. He has also won the IBSF World Snooker Championship in China and has the rare distinction of being both the World IBSF and professional champion. He also won gold at 2006 Doha Asian Games (English Billiards singles). BOXING Vijender becomes first Indian boxer to be ranked No. 1 Adding to his already overflowing list of firsts in Indian boxing, Haryana lad Vijender Singh has again created history by attaining the numero uno position in the world in the 75 kg category. Now, he has become the first Indian boxer to win a medal at the Olympics, the first to win a medal at the World Championships and also the first to take the top spot. CRICKET India briefly become number one India became world number one in ODIs on September 11, 2009 after a six-wicket win over New Zealand. However, they could not hold on to the number one spot for long as they lost the next match against Sri Lanka. M.S. Dhoni's men are only the third team to hold the top slot after Australia and South Africa since the ranking system began. Indian team needed to win the two matches against Sri Lanka in the tri-series to stay on top. But they could only win the final of the series and lost the league match. England-Australia One Day series A devastating spell of fast bowling from Brett Lee at Lord's helped Australia to a seven wicket win and an unassailable 4-0 lead in the seven-match One-day series against England. It was the ninth time Lee had taken five wickets in a One-dayer. Australia captain Ricky Ponting's superb century paved the way for the world champions to beat England by four wickets in the fifth one-day international (ODI). Tim Paine scored his maiden international century as Australia inflicted fresh one-day misery upon England with a crushing 111-run win at Trent Bridge. Victory in this fixture left world champions Australia 6-0 up in the 7-match series. Sri Lanka-New Zealand-India Tri-series India defeated Sri Lanka by 46 runs to win the tri-series. India's win was backed by a century by Sachin Tendulkar who scored 138 runs off 133 balls. This was Sachin's 44th century. The win was India's first in a tournament final against Sri Lanka in eight attempts. The win was also India's first since January 2008 in a series involving more than two teams. BCCI Corporate Trophy Air India Red defeated Air India Blue by 93 runs to clinch the trophy. All India J.P. Atray Tournament Reliance-1 overhauled a massive 303 run target set by defending champions Indian Oil Corporation team to win the Pearls Trophy. The tournament was held at Mohali, Punjab. Castrol Cricket Awards, 2008 Indian opener Gautam Gamhir pipped Virender Sehwag to become the Cricketer of the year 2008. Gambhir, who scored over 1000 runs in Tests and ODI's in 2008, also won the best bastman of the year award while off-spinner Harbhajan Singh claimed the best bowler of the year honours, worth a trophy and Rs two lakh each. Dashing opener Sehwag and Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni were declared the Test and One-Day cricketers. All rounder Ravindra Jadeja was named the best young cricketer of the year. Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar and another stalwart Rahul Dravid were given special performance awards for becoming the first batsman to cross 12,000 runs in Tests and becoming the leading catcher in the traditional format of the game, respectively. Gundappa Rangnath Viswanath, former Indian captain and the first Indian to score a Test hundred against all Test-playing nations of his time was conferred the Castrol Lifetime Achievement Award. Vishwanath joins the legendary Capt. Vijay Hazare, Polly Umrigar, B.S. Chandrasekhar, Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Prasanna who were the earlier recipients of the award. G.R. Viswanath represented India in 91 Tests from 1969 to 1983, and scored 6,080 runs, inclusive of fourteen centuries. FOOTBALL Durand Cup Churchill Brothers defeated Mohun Bagan 1-0 in extra time to lift the cup. GOLF DLF Masters Title Gaganjit Bhullar won the title for his fifth consecutive victory on the domestic tour. PGTI Players Championship Amandeep Johl clinched the rain-hit championship at Chandigarh defeating Ashok Kumar in a play-off. BMW Championship Tiger Woods cruised to victory in the Championship, his sixth triumph of 2009, putting him back atop the US PGA Tour's FedEx Cup rankings. TENNIS India returns to elite Davis Cup group after 11 years India No. 1 Somdev Devvarman came back from two sets down to beat South Africa's Rik De Voest in a match that lasted nearly 5 hours. The thrilling win gave India an unbeatable 3-1 lead over South Africa and ensured a return to the elite Davis Cup World Group for the first time in 11 years. US Open, 2009 Kim Clisjsters of Belgium won the women's singles title for the second time, defeating Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, to complete one of the most stunning comeback in modern sports history. In doing so, she became the first mother to win a Grand Slam title since Australian Evonne Goolagong in 1980 and the first wildcard, man or woman, to win a US Open title in the history of the tournament. Juan Martin del Porto ended Roger Federer's run of dominance at the US Open to win the men's singles title. This was his first Grand Slam title. Leander Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy won the men's doubles title when they beat the third seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and his partner from the Bahamas Mark Knowles 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. Serena Williams and Venus Williams beat Cara Black and Liezel Huber to win the women doubles title. Carly Gullickson and Travis Parrott defeated Leander Paes and Cara Black to win the mixed-doubles title. WRESTLING Ramesh wins World Championship Bronze ending 42-year-old wait It takes guts to go for a high-risk three-point technical move in the final seconds of a medal bout at World Championship Wrestling. But in Ramesh Kumar's case, the all-out attack strategy paid off big time. The wrestler from Haryana ended India's 42-year wait for a medal in the men's segment at the World Championships by winning bronze in the 74kg freestyle category in Herning, Denmark.   Vishambar Singh was the last Indian male wrestler to win a medal at the Worlds, with a freestyle silver in 1967. In 2006, Alka Tomar had won bronze in the women's event. India also boasts of two Olympics bronze medal-winning wrestlers—Kasaba Jadhav in 1952 and Sushil Kumar in Beijing 2008.

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with warm regards

Harish Sati
Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)
Maidan Garhi, New Delhi-110068

(M) + 91 - 9990646343 | (E-mail) Harish.sati@gmail.com



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