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Friday, March 29, 2013 DECCAN HERALD17

       »Sport Angelo Matthews namedPune Warriors captain. P 18

Tennis Sony Open

GRITTY SHOW: Spain’s David Ferrer celebrates his win over Austrian Jurgen Melzer in thequarterfinals of the Miami Masters on Thursday. AFP

Super Haasstrolls pastSimon toenter semisFerrer overcomes sloppystart to beat MelzerMIAMI: Veteran TommyHaas backed up his upset ofworld number one NovakDjokovic with a quarterfinalvictory over Gilles Simon onWednesday to advance to asemifinal against David Fer-rer at the Sony Open in Mia-mi.

The 34-year-old Haas, whobeat Djokovic on Tuesday, pro-duced a strong encore per-formance in his 6-3, 6-1 victo-ry, when he produced anoutstanding return game,breaking Simon once in thefirst set and three times in thesecond.

Haas will next face worldnumber five Ferrer who over-came a sloppy start to defeatAustrian Jurgen Melzer 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 in their quarterfinalclash.

In the women's tournamentMaria Sharapova was shaky from the service line but theRussian world number two

dodged danger at key mo-ments to beat seventh seedSara Errani 7-5, 7-5 and reachthe semifinals.

Serving at 4-5 in the secondset of a see-saw struggle, thethird seed Sharapova savedthree set points before winningthe final three games to endthe two hour, 29-minute bat-tle.

"She had her chances to winthat second set. Who knowswhat would have happened,"said Sharapova, a four-time Mi-ami finalist who has yet to winthe tournament.

"I'm lucky to get to the nextone and have a chance to be inthe semis again ... the greatthing is that I pulled through. Iworked hard. I was steady, andI gave myself a chance to gethere."

Errani had four servicebreaks against Sharapova, whocommitted 14 double faults.But the 25-year-old Italian waseven more vulnerable to the

big-hitting Sharapova, whobroke serve six times.

Sharapova, bidding for arare double following her winat Indian Wells earlier thismonth, will play 2008 runner-up Jelena Jankovic of Serbia af-ter she beat Italy's Roberta Vin-ci 6-4, 6-7, 6-3.

Third-seeded Ferrer, who

has already won twice this yearafter notching seven tourna-ment wins in 2012, racedthrough the final set losing justfour points on serve and com-mitting only four unforced er-rors to finish with a flourish.

The loss ended a nine-match winning streak for42nd-ranked Melzer, who

won earlier this month in Dal-las.

The Spaniard will meet thewinner of Wednesday's latermatch between Germany's15th-seeded Tommy Haas, whoknocked out world number oneNovak Djokovic, and French11th seed Gilles Simon.Reuters

National leaguefrom April 1

»The Karnataka StateHockey Association will

conduct the OzonegroupNational Hockey LeagueChampionship from April 1-20.

The winner will beawarded Rs 2 lakh whilethe runners-up will bericher by Rs 1.5 lakh. Thethird and fourth placedteams will be awarded Rsone lakh and Rs 50,000respectively.

Participating teams: Airlndia, BPCL, IOCL, Army Red, Namadhari Seeds,Fortis, Punjab NationalBank, SAl, Army Green,MEG, ASC.

Inter-collegiatechess tourney

In and around

Champions

PRETORIA:A South Africancourt on Thursday clearedOscar Pistorius for interna-tional travel after the Para-lympian sprint star, chargedwith murdering his girl-friend, challenged his strin-gent bail terms.

Pistorius, 26, had appealedagainst a raft of conditions in-cluding the confiscation of hispassport that he said were un-fair and unwarranted.

“I find that the magistrate’sdecision not to grant the appel-lant his passport to travelabroad was wrong,” Judge BertBam told the High Court inPretoria. The double amputee— who faces trial later this yearover the Valentine’s Day killingof his model girlfriend ReenaSteenkamp — was not in courtfor the appeal, which was op-posed by the state.

The judge also ruled that Pis-torius could return to his up-market Pretoria home whereSteenkamp was shot dead inthe early hours of February 14.

He claims he mistook her foran intruder — although thestate maintains that the shoot-ing was premeditated murder.

“Why would this athlete go

to a country without extraditionand go and hide?” lawyer Barry Roux had told the court, sayingthe bail terms were tantamountto “house arrest” and that Pis-torius needed to take part inraces abroad to earn a living.

Earlier this month hislawyers argued that the bailconditions treat Pistorius as aflight risk.

The “Blade Runner”, wholast year became the first dou-ble amputee to competeagainst able-bodied athletes inthe Olympics, has cancelled up-coming competitions and hasnot restarted training, accord-ing to his agent Peet Van Zyl.

But Roux said Pistoriuswanted to be able to go abroad

under controlled circum-stances to earn money.

“It is not as if the appellantis travelling for holiday in Mau-ritius; it’s only to gain an in-come, there’s no other reason,”Roux said.

After being freed on bail of one million rand ($108,000,84,000 euros) last month, thesprint star was ordered to sur-render his passport and told toinform a corrections officer if hewanted to travel outside Preto-ria. The defence lawyers had alsoobjected to the random manda-tory alcohol and drug tests thatare part of the bail conditions.“Of course he was emotional,but does that mean because heis emotional you put him on pro-bational supervision? There’s nocausal link,” Roux said.

His next court appearanceis scheduled for June 4, but theprosecution said they were notsure trial would start on thatdate. Friday’s hearing came aday after Pistorius’s olderbrother Carl pleaded not guilty to culpable homicide and reck-less driving over a 2008 roadaccident in which a woman mo-torcyclist was killed.AFP

Court clears Pistoriusfor international travel

Oscar Pistorius

LONDON, REUTERS: Man-chester City manager Rober-to Mancini threw in the tow-el for his club's PremierLeague title challenge onThursday, saying the moti- vation for the rest of the sea-son was to keep the teamsbelow them at a safe dis-tance.

Defeat to Everton in theirlast Premier League outingleft City trailing leadersManchester United by 15points with nine games re-maining.

United have shown nosigns of wilting under thepressure of wresting theEnglish title back from theirnear neighbours and havewon their last six leaguematches.

"It's over but this doesn'tchange anything because weshould do our best from nowto the end," Mancini told re-porters.

"Every top team, whenthey can't win a title, shouldstill try to play well and winall their games."

Mancini made the sameassessment last season whenCity trailed United by eightpoints with six games to gobefore they rallied to snatchthe title on the final day ongoal difference.

"This is different (to lastseason)," Mancini added. "Idon't know how we will fin-ish this season, because wehave Chelsea four points be-hind us and Tottenham fivepoints behind.

"We have nine games leftand for this reason it's im-portant we keep workinghard and well."

A seemingly crucial partof City's decline in recentweeks has been the absenceof captain and defender Vin-cent Kompany who has beenout with a calf injury sinceJan. 26.

In that period, City havedropped 10 points, losingtwice and drawing twice, tofurther cement United's leadat the top of the table.

Mancinigives upEPL titlehopes

LONDON, REUTERS: Robin vanPersie feels he could stay at Man-chester United for the rest of hiscareer after enjoying a superbfirst season at Old Trafford.

The Netherlands striker hasnetted 19 Premier League goalssince joining from Arsenal inAugust, inspiring United to thebrink of a 20th top-flight title.

"For the next few years I willbe at Man United - maybe

longer," the 29-year-old wasquoted as saying by the BBCon Wednesday. "United couldbe my last club."

 Van Persi e has been en-thused by the new challengeafter eight years at Arsenalwhere he only won the 2005FA Cup.

United manager Alex Fer-guson's attitude towards olderplayers, with 39-year-old Ryan

Giggs and 38-year-old Paul Sc-holes still on the books, has alsoled the Dutchman to ponderwhether he is better off stayingfor good.

"You have a number of clubsin Europe where older playerscan find it good, where they are valued. You used to have thatat Juventus and AC Milan,Manchester United today is agood example.”

‘Want to retire at Man United’

ONGC hold Sporting;Bagan struggleMAPUSA (GOA), AGENCIES:ONGC capitalised on the ad- vantage of Sporting Clube deGoa being reduced to a 10-member side as they camefrom behind to hold the hoststo a 1-1 draw and split points inthe 22nd round of the I-Leagueat Duler Stadium here onThursday.

The hosts took the lead in the20th minute through DawsonFernandes but ONGC’s HassanOdeola scored the valuableequaliser in the 77th minute.

Sporting Clube de Goa nowhas 30 points from 22 matchesand remain at the sixth spot,while ONGC took their tally to29 points from 22 games.

Sporting, who came into thematch with impressive recordof remaining unbeaten in theirlast five matches after theirnew Spanish coach Bruzontook over, made their inten-tion clear from the very begin-ning.

They made early inroadsinto the rival half and took thelead in the 20th minute withFernandes striking the goal off a cross from Juanfri from theleft.

ONGC restored parity in the77th minute when defenderPawinder Singh, who took the

corner, floated the ball into thegoal mouth for Hassan Odeola,who shot home from close.

Lajong shineIn Kalyani, Mohun Bagan weredenied victory after leadingtwice in the match as a deter-mined Shillong Lajong FCforced a 2-2 result at theKalyani Stadium.

Following a barren first half,Mohun Bagan took the leadthrough their Australian strik-er Tolgay Ozbey in the 52ndminute before Lajong FCfound the equaliser within aminute thanks to BoithangHaokip.

Mohun Bagan regained thelead at the hour-mark owing tosubstitute Manish Maithani.But their lead was neutralisedonce again as Lajong FC sub-stitute PC Lahimthara noddedhome the equaliser.

After the draw, MohunBagan are still bottom of thestandings with 10 points from17 matches while Lajong FCare tenth with 21 from 22matches.

At the Balewadi Sports Com-plex, hosts Pune FC, riding ona brace from SukhwinderSingh (30th, 44th), scored a 2-0 win over Dempo.

BANGALORE, DHNS: Thesale of tickets for next week’sAsia Oceania Group I DavisCup tie between India andIndonesia at the KSLTAcourts will commence fromFriday.

The daily tickets for thetie, to be held from April 5-7, are priced at Rs 200. Theseason tickets are priced atRs 600 and Rs 700 and canbe purchased from the sta-dium between 10 am and 8pm.

Fans can also procuretheir tickets from ticketingportal www.bookmy-show.com from Saturday.

In a bid to attract morespectators, KSLTA will alsooffer a limited number of complimentary tickets onfirst-come-first-serve basis.

Davis Cuptickets salefrom today

chess tourney

»Sree Veerendra PatilDegree College of Sci-

ence, Arts and Commercewill organise the HKE Soci-ety President’s Cup inter-collegiate chess tourna-ment for boys and girls onApril 2.

March 30 is the last datefor entries while the entry fee is Rs 100 per student.For details, contact VB Red-dy: 99452 09074.

State Bank of Mysore, winners of the KSCA Group II Division I (Super League)

tournament. SITTING (L-R): KN Ramesh, Anand Katti, VS Thilak Naidu (cap-

tain), KN Suresh (Sports Officer, CM), Kalyan Mukherjee (CGM), Sharad Sharma

(MD), Saswata Chaudhuri (CGM), Bibhupada Nanda (GM- HR & Gen Amd),

Shyam Gopal G (DGM), KL Aswath (manager). STANDING: Anthoush Poll,

Aravind S, B AKhil, Pavan Desphnade, MK Manjunath, C Sashikumar,

Nooruddin, Aravind N, Anirudh Joshi, KST Sai, Chethan William.