French Open: Sania-Elena in semis, Bopanna-Qureshi quarters

Paris: India's Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina of Russia shocked top seeds Gisela Dulko of Argentina and Flavia Pennetta of Italy to enter the women's doubles semifinals of the French Open tennis here Monday.

Seventh-seeded Sania and Elena won 6-0, 7-5 in 66 minutes.

They now play the winner of the match between fourth-seeded Americans Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond and fifth-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and Maria Kirilenko of Russia.

Earlier, India's Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan stormed into the men's doubles quarterfinals.

The fifth-seeded India-Pakistan pair defeated Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan and Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 6-3, 7-5.

They now play top seeds Mike and Bob Bryan of the US who overcame stiff resistance from Russia's Teymuraz Gabashvili and Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan 7-6(6), 7-5. — IANS

India winning moments

Australia dominance in ODI cricket ends after losing out to India in the Quarter-Finals. If you are an Indian fan.. cherish these winning moments.


In pic: Yuvraj Singh is ecstatic after hitting the winning run © Associated Press


In pic: Suresh Raina gives Yuvraj Singh a hug after the pair took India into the semi-final © AFP


In pic: Yuvraj Singh lets out a victory cry © AFP


In pic: Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina celebrate India's win © AFP

Yuvraj sets up Pakistan showdown

India 261 for 5 (Yuvraj 57*, Tendulkar 53, Gambhir 50) beat Australia 260 (Ponting 104, Haddin 53, Ashwin 2-52, Yuvraj 2-44) by 5 wickets

In pic: Suresh Raina gives Yuvraj Singh a hug after the pair took India into the semi-final © AFP

An awe-inspiring Ricky Ponting dazzled and Sachin Tendulkar hit a delightful fifty but it was the imperious Yuvraj Singh who stole the show to lead India to an exciting semi-final encounter against Pakistan. On a dry pitch, aiding turn, India couldn't remove a wonderfully solid Ponting, but found a way around him to hold Australia to a competitive 260. Tendulkar set the base and the middle order threatened to choke, but Yuvraj played a blinder to charge India to a famous win.

Sometimes, they say, one four can change things around. That cliché came alive today, in the final ball of the 39th over, with India needing 72 from 67 deliveries, when Yuvraj spanked Shaun Tait for a stunning four over backward point. It oozed of skill, impishness and dare under fire. Until then, in the preceding few overs, India choked and spluttered badly to almost hand the game to Australia. That Yuvraj hit over point sensationally turned the game on its head.

The next over proved to be the game-breaker as Brett Lee was looted for 14 runs: Suresh Raina played the most assured pull of his life to crash the first delivery to the boundary and Yuvraj carved the final delivery over point, but it was a shot in between that really reflected the enthralling contest. It was a screaming yorker from Lee, from around the stumps, and Yuvraj crouched, opened the bat-face and stabbed it through to the third man boundary. Lee looked stunned, and you felt that was the moment when India affected the jail break.

Until Yuvraj took ownership of the chase, the pressure-cooker situation had got to India and they were beginning to choke. In five mad overs between the 32nd and 37th, just after Virat Kohli had swiped a full toss from David Hussey straight to midwicket in the 29th over, it was absolute pandemonium as India looked hell bent on self-destruction. Gautam Gambhir tried to run himself out three times and was successful on the final attempt. In the 33rd over, he ran for a non-existent run after Yuvraj had played the ball towards midwicket but Ponting missed the sticks. In the next over, he got into a yes-and-no situation with Yuvraj and would have been run out had Brad Haddin, who dashed to the short mid-on region, thrown it at the non-striker's end. Gambhir was run out next ball, again running mindlessly after Yuvraj stabbed David Hussey wide of the first slip.

India required 93 runs from 101 balls at that stage, but they slipped further into the abyss as MS Dhoni got out after looking edgy. He nearly got involved in a run out, had a big swing and a miss against Lee and perished next delivery, cutting to point to leave India needing 74 from 75 balls. It was then that Yuvraj decided to play the World Cup innings of his life.

The batting Powerplay was the final hurdle, but Raina, who gave admirable support to Yuvraj after Dhoni's exit, walloped the first ball from Lee over long-on and Australia's fight evaporated with that shot.

Before Yuvraj, India's chase revolved almost entirely around Sachin Tendulkar. It was a slow pitch, but Tendulkar played some shots that defied the nature of the track. Tait v Tendulkar in particular lived up to the billing. Tendulkar punched the first delivery he faced, and the first from Tait, through cover point and, upper cut the next legal delivery to the third man boundary. Tait sledged, Tendulkar stared, and the chase was soaked with intensity from then on. Tait was soon out off the attack but returned to silence the crowd. He gave away six runs in his first over on return, which included two wides and also saw Tendulkar getting to his fifty. He struck with the first delivery of his next over, the 19th of the innings, with a delivery released from a slightly round-armish action that held its line outside off stump. Tendulkar tried to steer it to point but edged it to Brad Haddin.

Spare a thought for the Australian captain, probably playing his last World Cup match and to Australia, who were last eliminated before the finals of a World Cup way back in 1992. Whenever Zaheer Khan threatened to push India in front, Ponting shoved Australia ahead. The knock was a microcosm of Ponting the man. It had skill, grit, bloody-mindedness, and dare; it was Ponting. It will probably be the only knock from him that won't be remembered for many scintillating shots and it will be cherished for how responsibly he curbed his natural strokeplay.

There was tremendous poise in how he dealt with the slow nature of the pitch and a great amount of skill in the way he handled spin. Ponting showed sheer grit in the way he held the Australian innings together, and admirable character to do it when he wasn't in great form, on such a big stage. When he was fresh, he had to face Harbhajan Singh, his nemesis, bowling from around the stumps.

Ponting countered him by shuffling to his right and working the ball with the turn. When he was tired, he had to face the reverse-swing from Zaheer. In the middle, he picked Ashwin's carom ball, and mixed caution and aggression against Yuvraj Singh.

Australia's slide and India's resurgence in the middle overs began with an awful shot from Micheal Clarke, who top-edged a slog-sweep against Yuvraj to long-on in the 31st over. Zaheer dismissed Michael Hussey with that knuckled slower one to leave Australia wobbling at 140 for 4 in the 34th over. Ponting and David Hussey took the batting Powerplay in the 44th over and added 44 vital runs without losing a wicket. Ponting must have thought he had done all he could to ensure Australia remained in the competition but he was outdone by Yuvraj. —ESPNcricinfo

Clinical Pakistan storm into semi-final

Pakistan 113 for 0 (K Akmal 47*, Hafeez 61*) beat West Indies 112 (Chanderpaul 44*, Afridi 4-30) by 10 wickets

	Mohammad Hafeez led the way with bat and ball in Pakistan's huge victory © Associated Press

Pakistan are two games away from repeating the heroics of Imran Khan's 1992 team after a crushing 10-wicket victory against West Indies in the first quarter-final in Dhaka. Mohammad Hafeez starred with bat and ball, beginning West Indies' decline with two early wickets then ending it with a brisk 61, while Shahid Afridi is proving an inspirational force and led from the front again with four more scalps as the spinners produced a ruthless display to dismantle West Indies for 112.

Between the three of them, Pakistan's slow bowlers had figures of 27.3-5-64-8 and gave another example of how there is a threat from every part of the attack. At no point did Afridi need to fill overs, especially when the weakest link of the bowlers - Hafeez - managed to take 2 for 16 in his full allocation. Hafeez then dominated an unbroken opening stand with Kamran Akmal which wiped off the target with barely an alarm and 29 overs to spare.

The match represented a contest for as long as Chris Gayle was in the middle - the sum total of 2.5 overs. His departure sucked the life and belief from West Indies line-up with the rest remaining rooted to the crease, managing just seven fours and a solitary Shivnarine Chanderpaul six as he nudged his way to a hollow, unbeaten 44.

Some early aggression had proved the falsest of dawns. Devon Smith cut the first ball of the match to the point boundary and Gayle played two thumping shots, but in attempting his third boundary, he picked out Afridi at mid-off who did well to hold on to a stinging drive. With their talisman gone, West Indies became virtually scoreless.

Hafeez, handed the new ball after Abdur Rehman was left out, caused a host of problems for the left handers, mainly with his straighter deliveries, rather than any turn. The major damage came in his third over as he skidded one past Smith's inside edge, and three balls later, a similar delivery removed Darren Bravo as he thrust his pad down the line.

The next six overs brought just six runs as Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chanderpaul were rendered scoreless by the combination of Hafeez and Gul. The shackles were momentarily broken when Sarwan collected two boundaries off Wahab Riaz - the second a flowing cover drive - but they were the rare exception.

Hafeez was allowed to bowl eight overs for 12 runs though he was barely turning the ball and spinners continued to cause problems when Afridi had two close shouts for lbw in his first over. He used up a review with the first one but should have broken through in his second over when Gul didn't accept a chance at long-off when Sarwan, on 14, tried to go over the top.

Runs came at a painful rate, but at least the fourth-wicket pair were trying to set a platform. However, with the pressure building and Pakistan racing through the overs Sarwan felt he had to try some shots, but couldn't clear cover as he cut a delivery which bounced more than expected. Not for the first time, Afridi stood with arms aloft and it was just the start for the Pakistan captain.

Kieron Pollard did nothing to end the argument that he's a bully of weak bowling attacks when he bottom-edged a cut and Kamran Akmal's recent improvements continued with a sharp take. None of the West Indian batsman - barring Chanderpaul - had a clue which way Afridi was turning the ball and that was summed up by Devon Thomas' dismissal as he played back to a quicker ball.

From legspin to offspin it was then the turn of Saeed Ajmal to make more lower-order batsmen look foolish. Darren Sammy, who will struggle to justify his place in the team after this tournament, was turned square by a perfect doosra and the same delivery also removed Devendra Bishoo although this time the batsman helped with an inside edge.

Kemar Roach showed some of his team-mates that batting wasn't impossible as he accompanied Chanderpaul for 15 overs to add 40 but it was like trying to the plug the leak in the Titanic. Roach eventually chipped to midwicket and the innings ended with more than six overs remaining when Ravi Rampaul was bowled round his legs by Afridi.

Pakistan weren't going to ease their way to the target and after two overs had 25 on the board - it had taken West Indies until the 12th over to reach that point. Hafeez rode on the confidence of his bowling display, but some of the bowling served up was as bad as the earlier batting. A couple of tough half chances were spilled without affecting the result.

The victory means their first journey to India since 2007 to face either the co-hosts or defending champions in Mohali. Pakistan won't care who the opposition are, it will take an exceptional performance to stop them. © ESPN EMEA Ltd.

India game is a mini-final - Tim Nielsen

	Australia coach Tim Nielsen says India will be the ones facing all the questions ahead of the quarter-final © Getty Images

Tim Nielsen, Australia's coach, has said his team were hoping to meet India in the final of the World Cup, and would be treating their quarter-final against the tournament co-hosts in Ahmedabad on Thursday as a "mini-grand final". He said he was aware the atmosphere at Motera would be electric, and his players were looking forward to that.

"The adrenaline will certainly be flowing and playing in front of their home crowd in Ahmedabad will be exciting and a challenge for us," Nielsen said. "We've got no fear now; we know we're in the knockout stage.

"It's exciting … a mini-grand final in itself. If you came here and thought, 'What would be the best result? It would be great to make the final against India'. Well, we've got our final against India in the next few days. I'm sure if we're on our game, they won't necessarily be looking forward to playing against us. That's something in our favour."

India have played Australia in 15 one-dayers at home in the last five years, and Australia have won nine of those matches. Both teams have lost a game each in the group stages of this World Cup, and though India will be hoping home advantage can buoy them to a victory, Nielsen warned it could also be a hindrance to them.

Nielsen said he remembered the pressure Australia faced when they played the World Cup at home in 1992, and said things would be no different for India. "It's [playing at home] a huge factor for them. There's some pressure there and if we can start the game well and maybe quieten the crowd that will play on the mind of the Indian team."

The attention on India will also help lessen the hype that usually surrounds any Australian team at a World Cup. This time around, the defending champions are not the out-and-out favourites to win the tournament, and the end of their unbeaten World Cup streak, against Pakistan in Colombo, has further lessened the aura of the side. Nielsen looks at that as an advantage, saying all the pressure was on India.

''The media and the public scrutiny will also be so great that you'd expect India to have most of the pressure on them. They will be answering all the questions; there'll be questions about the surface we play on, there'll be questions about their line-up. It would be nice to think we can sneak under the radar a bit and just go about our preparation over the next few days and be as ready to go as we can be."

India's formidable batting line-up has shown a weakness in their last two games. In both matches, the top order set a solid base, only for the middle and lower order to collapse spectacularly. Against South Africa, in Nagpur, India lost their last 9 for 29, and then against West Indies, in Chennai, the collapse was 7 for 50. However, Nielsen said Australia could not risk letting India get off to a good start in the hope that wickets would fall later on, and would need to try to get early wickets.

"The importance of a quarter-final and the stature of a match will mean they [India's batsmen] are switched on. But if we can make some early inroads into their batting - [Virender] Sehwag, [Sachin] Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and [Gautam] Gambhir have played really well for them - we'd like to think that would be a benefit for us.''

Australia's own batting has had a few chinks, with Ricky Ponting and Cameron White both struggling for form, and the team crashing to 176 all out against Pakistan. Nielsen was not too concerned about the form of individual players, and said that as long as one of the top four batsmen got a big score, the team could kick on from that.

''We need to get a platform for our batting to expand and score quickly. The grounds are huge, the outfields lightning fast. If you can get in, then when the ball is changed after 34 overs you've really got an opportunity to score quickly.''

Australia have an impressive record against India in World Cup matches, having beaten them in seven of the nine counters, and will hope to continue that run on March 24. © ESPN EMEA Ltd.

Somdev sails into Asian Games final

IANS, NOV 22

Guangzhou: India's Somdev Devvarman entered the men's singles final defeating fourth-seeded Japanese Tatsuma Ito 6-2, 0-6, 6-3 in the Asian Games tennis here on Monday.

The Indian played a power-packed game from the backcourt and also rushed to the net hitting some crisp volleys.

Somdev plays top seed Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in the final for the gold medal. Istomin outclassed third-seeded Japanese Go Soeda 6-1, 6-0.

Somdev Devvarman along with his partner Sanam are already in the men' doubles final.

Asian Games: Saina reaches quarterfinals of women's badminton

Guangzhou, Nov 17 (PTI)

Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal cruised into the second round of the women's singles at the Asian Games after steamrolling Lydia Cheah of Malaysia in the the second round here today. The world number three Indian needed just 28 minutes to see off Lydia 21-15 21-17. She will next take on the winner between Yip Pui Yin of Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei's Ma Hsiao Pai in the quarterfinals tomorrow. The second seed Indian held her serve for most of the time and scored points through her smashes in the first game. She was also better at the net. Saina opened up a 6-1 lead swiftly but Lydia narrowed the gap to 10-12. But the Indian was not bothered much and pocketed the first game easily. In the next game, Saina again raced to a comfortable 6-1 lead before moving to 20-11 but the Indian squandered six match points before closing the match.

Steamrolling Lydia Cheah of Malaysia in the the second round here today. The world number three Indian needed just 28 minutes to see off Lydia 21-15 21-17. She will next take on the winner between Yip Pui Yin of Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei's Ma Hsiao Pai in the quarterfinals tomorrow. The second seed Indian held her serve for most of the time and scored points through her smashes in the first game. She was also better at the net. Saina opened up a 6-1 lead swiftly but Lydia narrowed the gap to 10-12. But the Indian was not bothered much and pocketed the first game easily. In the next game, Saina again raced to a comfortable 6-1 lead before moving to 20-11 but the Indian squandered six match points before closing the match.