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Leander Paes-Bhupathi advance to doubles quarters

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi have slowly but surely blown the cobwebs away. The Indian pair looked the champions they were not long ago as they swept aside the challenge of Brazilians Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa to reach the men's doubles quarterfinal of the tennis competition at the Beijing Olympics today.

The Indians won the one-sided match 6-4, 6-2 in just under 70 minutes against a pair which has had considerable success for over a year. The Indian duo, who first came together 13 years ago, attacked from the start. They served well in the first set, getting 80 per cent of their first serve in.
Overall, the the Indians kept their unforced errors to a minimum and generally combined well, prompting Paes to say, "If we play like this, we can do well. But we are taking one match at a time. Each of the teams are good here."


They set the tone for the match with a break in the third game of the first set and that was good enough to see them through without any hint of hesitancy or hiccups. The dominance only increased in the second set, as they wrapped it with breaks in the first game and the seventh.

It will be the third quarter-final appearance for Paes. He and Ramesh Krishnan lost to Croats Goran Ivanisevic and Goran Prpic in Barcelona in 1992, and then he and Bhupathi lost in the bronze medal play-off to another Croatian pair Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic in Athens in 2004.


Paes and Bhupathi will meet the winners of the match between Swiss pair Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka and Russians Dmitry Turshunov and Mikhail Youzhny. Winners of three titles together, two of them this season, Sa, 31, and Melo, 25, might have fancied their chances against the seventh-seeded Indian pair. But years of playing together carried Paes and Bhupathi through with ease.

Sa and Melo came together in 2007. And the same year, Melo also served a two-month ban for a doping violation. In 2007 Sa and Melo won the Estoril title and this year they were champions at Costa do Sauipe in February and then at Portschach in May.

The Brazilians did well on all surfaces. They reached the Wimbledon semis last year coming through a six hour 13 minute match, lasting a record 102 games, in the second round against Paul Hanley and Kevin Ullyett. This year they reached the final at Queen's Club and beat Bob and Mike Bryan in the quarter-final. Paes said, "I have played a few times against Sa and even lost a singles against him at Wimbledon some years ago. I have never won against him, but I didn't want to think about it. I had expected that Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek would come through, but they got beaten. That shows anything can happen here."

On the next match, Paes said, "Last night I came to know very late about Melo and Sa coming through. Now it could be Swiss or Russian pair coming up." (IANS)



Michael Phelps makes a golden start as records tumble - Beijing Olympics 2008
Magnificent, outstanding and unbelievable are just a few of the words that describe Michael Phelps’ performance in the opening final of the swimming events here in Beijing.He did not just lower his own world mark for the 400m medley - he shattered it.

His time of 4min 03.84sec was 1.41sec inside the figures he established at the US trials last month. His challengers lived with him for nearly three quarters of the race then faded on the final freestyle where his narrow lead of one second over team mate Ryan Lochte stretched and stretched until it finally snapped and away he went to finish 2.32 ahead.

The 400-meter individual medley loomed as perhaps the biggest obstacle Michael Phelps would face in swimming for a record eight Olympic gold medals, the event in which his brash, skateboard-loving teammate Ryan Lochte had insisted that he alone among Phelps' rivals wasn't too intimidated to play the role of spoiler along the path to history.
Phelps, cautious where Lochte is impetuous, and self-contained where Lochte is chatty, knew this was the moment that could change the course of his Olympics.Michael Phelps is on the downhill side of his gold medal pursuit now, and isn't that the way he seems to swim? Like he's plummeting down a water slide while his competitors tread water?

Phelps, the USA's star swimmer, won two more gold medals today to bring his total for this Olympics to five and his career Olympics total to 11.The first number puts him within three golds of breaking Mark Spitz's hallowed record of seven in one Olympics; the second gives him two more golds than any Olympic athlete.The world’s greatest swimmer got off to a rousing start in his quest to surpass Mark Spitz’s record haul of seven gold medals at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich when he crushed his world record in the 400-meter individual medley with a time of 4 minutes, 3.84 seconds.Phelps’ previous world record was 4:05.25 from the Olympic trials on June 29. He was under world record pace at every segment of the race.Despite his dominant showing, Phelps said he did not feel good before the race.

“I wanted to get 4:03 but to be honest, I didn’t feel so great. I was in the ready room. I didn’t feel so good. I got like these cold chills.’’Instead, it was Phelps who dealt cold chills to his competitors. With President and Laura Bush watching, Phelps delivered a withering blow to his closest competitors on the concluding freestyle leg.

He had been unable to pull away substantially from U.S. teammate Ryan Lochte and Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh through the butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke legs but put all doubts to rest on the freestyle.“Afterwards I looked up and saw President Bush giving me a thumbs up and holding the American flag,’’ Phelps said. “That was pretty cool. I was pretty emotional after that race. I’m emotional, excited. It’s a really good way to start.’’At the end of the first 50 meters of the freestyle leg Phelps had a body length on Lochte and Cseh and only increased his advantage as he powered for home. Cseh touched for the silver medal in 4:06.16 and Lochte claimed the bronze in 4:08.09.

It was the best possible start for Phelps in his Olympian quest for glory and served as a reminder to his rivals that he will be extremely difficult to beat no matter the event.Phelps came out for the 400 IM in a parka and listening to music through earphones. He toweled off the start platform and stepped up bare-chested wearing a long-legged suit, as he usually does for this event.The man with an armspan greater than his height was the first in the water and had an incremental lead as the butterfly leg commenced but Lochte had a slight edge on the transition to backstroke. Cseh stayed remarkably close to Phelps while Lochte pulled even with his celebrated American teammate on the backstroke leg.

Phelps was nearly a second ahead of Lochte after the breaststroke but his advantage looked smaller than that. In fact, Phelps was in the lead at every 100-meter split in the race — 54.92 on the fly, 1:56.49 after the back, 3:07.05 after the breast and the world record 4:03.84 at the end.“He competed the whole way and he did really well,’’ Lochte said of Phelps. “He had a great race all the way and I’m proud of him.’’On the medal podium Phelps looked to be tearing up as the National Anthem played but broke into a laugh when the soundtrack cut off the last few seconds of the recording. He and Lochte slowly sauntered off the deck displaying their medals and waving to fans waving American flags.



Abhinav Bindra strikes gold for India in Beijing Olympics
Abhinav Bindra of India, a 2006 world champion, won the first gold medal in the Beijing Olympics in the 10 meter rifle shooting competition. He took over his competitors Zhu Qinan of China and Henri Hakkinen of Finland. Abhinav Bindra won the gold after gaining 700.5 points against China’s Zhu who earned 699.7 points to clinch a silver while Finland’s Hakkinen bagged 699.4 points for third place in the event.
ABHINAV BINDRA’S feat has made a nation of a billion people proud. An individual Olympic gold in has been elusive so far but, Bindra has shown that with the grit, focus and the determination no medal can be too far. Milkha Singh was right in saying, “My dream to see India win an Olympic gold medal before I die has been fulfilled.” Millions of other Indians would be sharing this feeling with Milkha Singh. A country of a billion people and one medal -- this has been the story for the past three Olympics but, this time it was gold.



Indra won by scoring 700.5 points, 596 in the qualifier and 104.5 in the final to claim the gold. India's other entry in the event, Gagan Narang, came ninth in the qualifier and failed to make it to the final.
However, Gagan Narang failed to make the final cut in the same event finishing ninth with a score of 595/600. Narang shot a series of 97, 100, 100, 100, 98 and100.
Bindra, a Khel Ratna awardee, finished the qualifying event joint fourth with Romania's George Alin Moldoveanu after the duo shot a score of 596/600.
The bespectacled shooter managed a series of 100, 99,100, 98, 100 and 99.
Meanwhile, Finland's Henri Hakkinen qualified first for the event with a score of 598/600 after shooting a series of 100,100, 99, 100, 100 and 99.
China's Qinan Zhu was a point adrift of Hakkinen with a series of 100, 100, 100, 100, 99 and 98.

The first ever individual gold for a nation that had been the biggest under achievers in Olympics and that is why you see this sense of ecstasy, pride and also relief amongst every one around as the main coffee table discussion has moved from cricket to Bindra’s feat in the Olympics. Abhinav Bindra had been barely heard of by most of the people in the country but, now he has become the greatest sporting icon and all the accolades that he gets are well deserved. But was this accomplishment a one off event or can the Indian contingent hope to get another medal at Beijing. Can this gold finally trigger a gold rush for the Indian? It would be difficult to put your stakes on any of the other Indian athletes getting a medal home, but the same could have been said about Abhinav Bindra before he clocked 700.5. The Indian shooters till date had always had the talent, but failed to impress in pressure cooker situations like the Olympics.


Major Rathore had set the tone with his silver at Athens, but Bindra has now gone where no other Indian athlete had ever before and this will only help in raising the bar that much higher. In the ongoing Olympics, it will be a David Goliath situation when the Indians go out there to play. But now there is hope and that added zeal in order to perform better. The gold is no more a shining medal that was just envied and lusted for; it is a part of every Indian athletes aspirations.

Miss Venezuela, Dayana Mendoza, has been crowned Miss Universe 2008.


Brunette Mendoza, 22, is a professional model and an interior designer who claims to love photography.

She was awarded her crown at the Crown Convention Center (Diamond Bay Resort) in Vietnam's city of Nha Trang

The pageant finale was watched by nearly a billion television viewers worldwide.

Mendoza's win makes it the fifth victory for Venezuela.

The model was once kidnapped in her homeland and said the experience has taught her to remain calm under pressure.

"This is something that happens in my country and that's why I want to raise my voice and say violence is not the answer," she said when asked about the incident.

Mendoza was one of four finalists from Latin America, including first runner-up Taliana Vargas, 20, from Colombia.

Others in the top five were from the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Russia.

From Left,Tailana Vargas,Miss Colombia,Dayana Mendoza, Miss Venezuela,Marianne Cruz Gonzalez ,Miss Dominican republic,Elisa Najera,Miss Mexico, Vera Krasova,Miss Russia are named into top five during the Miss Universe 2008 beauty pageant in Nha Trang.