The Morung ExpressSPORTSMonday21 February 201110 Dimapur

Oklahoma City Thunder's Serge Ibaka dunks during the Slam Dunk Contest at the NBA bas-ketball All-Star weekend, Saturday, February 19, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo)

MEMPHIS, FEBRUARY 20 (AP): Andy Roddick beat Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina 6-3, 6-4 on Saturday in the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships to advance to his 50th career tourna-ment final. Roddick will play Milos Raonic of Canada, a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 winner over Mardy Fish, in the championship looking for his 30th title overall.

Roddick had lost his first three matches with Del Potro and had struggled with slow starts. Not Sat-urday as the top-seed reached the finals for the fifth time in six semi-finals at The Racquet Club. He will play for his third title in Memphis on Sunday. Rebecca Marino of Can-ada was scheduled to play Magda-lena Rybarikova of Slovakia for the Cellular South Cup championship Saturday night.

Del Potro came in not having lost serve this week after reach-ing the semifinals in San Jose last week. But Roddick broke him in the second game, and del Potro needed a trainer to wrap his right leg above the knee after the fifth game before resuming. Roddick served out.

Del Potro broke Roddick in the second game of the second set, converting points off some of the American's unforced errors. Rod-dick hit a forehand long to lose serve and dropped his racket with a grimace. Roddick broke right back, then had a trainer stretch and work on his right arm.

The treatment seemed to help as Roddick held serve with three straight aces on his next service game, and he took control of the match by breaking Del Potro in a fifth game where they were knot-

Roddick meets Raonic for Memphis title

ted at deuce five times before Rod-dick broke again on his third break point when the Argentinian put a backhand into the net.

Roddick won 86 percent of his first serves and faced only two break points. Del Potro, who was sidelined by an injured right wrist for more than eight months last year, saved seven of 10 break points but was struggling with both his serve and his return game. Still, he will move up to around No. 164 in the rankings based on his past two weeks. Raonic is on what he calls an amazing run, and he's not ready to stop. The 20-year-old will play his

second ATP final in as many weeks after winning in San Jose last week. He even had a couple fans waving Canadian flags for him.

"I'm playing amazing and get-ting amazing results," Raonic said. This is just Raonic's ninth ATP World Tour event, and his hot start to this year already moved him from No. 156 at the end of 2010 to a career-high No. 59 coming into Memphis. His performance here will move him into the top 50 to around 37, which would make him the highest-ranked Canadian ever. Greg Rusedski was the last Canadi-an to win on tour in April 1995.

This was Fish's third semifinal in his 11th trip to Memphis, but the 29-year-old American hadn't seen Raonic play before in person out-side of perhaps 30 minutes on TV. Fish backed up about 6 feet off the base line, sometimes behind the word "Memphis" on the court try-ing to give himself a fraction longer to pick up Raonic's serve.

"You're basically guessing if you're standing way up," Fish said. "I felt like I was able to move back and at least get my racket on a few and not necessarily have to guess as much. But he hit spots, and it doesn't matter.

Raonic never played a third set in San Jose. He hasn't finished a match here yet without going to a third set. He won the first set over Fish in 35 minutes after breaking the American in the third game only to need 1 hour, 59 minutes to close out this match. The 6-foot-5 Raonic hit 144 mph on some of his serves, and he also has the mobility to run all around the court. He broke Fish again and won the match by going to the net and dropping a soft shot where Fish couldn't reach it. That came a point after Raonic got the advantage on a shot that appeared out. Fish pointed to the spot and complained to the chair umpire with no success.

"It's disappointing, but I'm al-ready down," Fish said. "I've got to break his serve, which I hadn't been very successful doing that. Certain-ly wasn't the reason I lost that call. It didn't help ... Obviously, the goal in that situation is to try to make him serve it out, make him ner-vous. He's never been in the semis of a 500 event before."

Andy Roddick celebrates after beating Juan Martin del Potro, of Argentina, in a semifinal round match at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships tennis tournament on February 19, in Memphis, Tenn. Roddick won 6-3, 6-4 to advance to Sunday's championship match against Milos Raonic, of Canada. (AP Photo)

LONDON, FEBRUARY 20 (AGENCIES): Everton skip-per Phil Neville scored the deci-sive spotkick to give his side a 4-3 penalty shootout win over hold-ers Chelsea after their FA Cup fourth-round replay ended in a 1-1 draw after extra time at Stam-ford Bridge on Saturday. Neville fired past Petr Cech after Ashley Cole had blasted his penalty high and wide as Everton completed a remarkable fightback and ended Chelsea's dreams of becoming the first club for 125 years to win the FA Cup three times in succession.

After the teams fought to a goalless stalemate in 90 minutes of end-to-end soccer, Chelsea took the lead in the last minute of the first period of extra time when Frank Lampard scored with a low volley from eight metres out.

That appeared to be enough to see Chelsea through, but with a minute of extra time remaining Leighton Baines equalised with a left-footed free kick to force the match into a shootout. Everton trailed 2-0 on penalties after Lam-pard and Didier Drogba scored from their spotkicks and Baines,

who minutes earlier had saved the tie, saw Cech save his penalty.

Phil Jagielka scored to pull Everton back to 2-1, before Chel-sea's Nicolas Anelka, taking vir-tually no run up, had his spotkick saved by Everton keeper Tim Howard and Mikel Arteta scored to make it 2-2. Michael Essien and Johnny Heitinga scored to make it 3-3 before Cole missed and Nev-ille scored to give Everton their stunning victory and end Chel-sea's hopes of emulating Black-burn Rovers, the last team to win the FA Cup three years in a row in

1884, 1885 and 1886.Lampard, who scored when

Chelsea beat Everton 2-1 in the 2009 FA Cup final, lashed in from close range after 104 minutes after Everton failed to clear a cross from substitute Anelka that bounced off Drogba's chest and fell sweetly for the Chelsea midfielder. Everton thought they had won the match in the last minute of normal time when Cech could only parry a long-range shot from Baines into Mar-ouanne Fellaini's path. Although Fellaini swept the ball home, he was marginally offside in the build-up.

Everton dominated the match for long periods, although Chelsea created more scoring chances, and saved the match with barely a min-ute to play when Baines perfectly placed his free kick high and wide of the despairing Cech. Three FA Cup fifth-round ties were going ahead later on Saturday with Pre-mier League Birmingham City facing League One (third division) Sheffield Wednesday, Stoke City playing League One leaders Brigh-ton and Manchester United meet-ing minor League Crawley Town at Old Trafford.

2Nd super table tennis league 2011DIMAPUR, FEBRUARY 20 (MExN): The 2nd Su-per Table Tennis League 2011 organized by the Kohima District Table Tennis Association (KDTTA) will be held on 11th & 12th March 2011 at the Indoor T.T. Stadium, Kohima. Interested players may contact Vitho Neikha, General Secretary, KDTTA Contact No. 9436010794 or at the Office of the KDTTA, T.T.Stadium, Raj Bhavan Road, Kohima between 3:00 pm to 6 pm.

Suresh Kalmadi asks for JPC probeNEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 20 (AGENCIES): The embattled former chief of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (OC), Suresh Kalmadi, has now asked for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Games scam. "Were the government to agree to constitution of a JPC into the 2G spectrum is-sue it would only be fair a similar process of Joint Par-liamentary Committee should go into the entire range of issues connected with preparations, executions and conduct of the Commonwealth Games. I am confident that this would enable the entire truth to emerge in the public domain," Kalmadi said in a statement. "I can vouch that I have not gained financially even a single rupee out of these Games and if proved otherwise, I am prepared to step down as a Member of Parliament," the statement added. He also asked why he was singled out while the role of all other government agencies was be-ing overlooked. Meanwhile, sources in the CBI have told NDTV that the investigating agency is probing an email sent by the owner of AM Films Ashish Patel to CWG treasurer Jeychandran which mentions a pay-ment of 50,000 pounds to an associate of Kalmadi.

David Beckham counter-sued by sex worker

LONDON, FEBRUARY 20 (AGENCIES): Soccer ace David Beckham is likely to face a court battle over allegations he cheated on his wife Victoria with a sex worker. Sex worker Irma Nici has filed legal docu-ments calling for lawyers to serve Beckham with a deposition ordering him to appear in the court over her allegations, which his representative has previ-ously branded "untrue and ridiculous". According to the mirror.co.uk, Beckham is subject to "exami-nation before an officer authorised to administer oaths on Feb 24 (Thursday)". Last week, Beckham's libel lawsuit over the In Touch article detailing the claims by Nici was dismissed by US District Judge Manuel Real for failing to produce evidence editors published the story with malice. Nici claimed she was "injured" by Beckham's "people" in New York as they tried to serve her with the original libel writ. "When Mr. Beckham sued my client, he did so in an outrageous and terrifying way," said her lawyer Paul Jensen. He said Beckham is bound to respond to the deposition order. "He may try to delay, reschedule or postpone it - but he can't avoid it," Jenson added. The recent development is said to have infuriated Beckham. "The efforts of Nici and her legal repre-sentatives to embarrass and humiliate David are ut-terly disgraceful. It appears she is trying to make a name for herself, garner some publicity, and make a quick buck in the process," said a source. "David's lawyers physically disproved her accusations yet she is counter-suing - apparently desperate to make Da-vid have his day in court. David and Victoria have far more pressing issues - but David has always said he will happily stand up in court and set the record straight," the source added.

Everton end Chelsea's dreams of FA Cup treble

NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 20 (PTI): Indian golfer SSP Chowrasia ended his three-year-old title drought winning the co-sanctioned Avantha Masters in the most dramatic fashion after closest rival Robert Coles of Eng-land bogeyed his closing hole on Sunday. The $2.3 million show-piece seemed destined for a play-off between Coles and Chowrasia until Coles' costly bogey on the 18th hole gave the Indian his first win since 2008.

The Indian closed with a five-under 67 for a winning total of 15-under 273, while Coles took second place after rounds of 70, 67, 67 and 70 at the DLF Golf and Country Club. France's Gregory Havret is in third place on 275, while Netherland's Robert-Jan Derksen, who had taken the first round lead, signed off in fourth place on 276.

India's Sujjan Singh got his rookie year on the Asian Tour off to the best of starts with a tied-fifth place alongside Spain's Pab-lo Larrazabal on 277. Chowrasia showed that he is the man for the big occasion after winning the battle of fairway supremacy against an elite field once again.

His last victory came at the In-dian Masters in 2008 and he was determined to end his three-year title drought at the Avantha Mas-ters which is tri-sanctioned by the Asian Tour, European Tour and the Professional Golf Tour of In-

dia (PGTI). Chowrasia signalled his title intent by opening with a birdie on the par-four first. He continued his charge with birdies on holes four, seven, eight, 10, 11 and 14. The 32-year-old seemed to be cruising towards a grand-stand finish until a disastrous double-bogey on the par-three 16th set him back to 15-under with just two holes remaining.

"It was a tight lie on the 16th with one of my chips, I duffed it and ran my second shot by. I made a weak putt and I paid the price for it," said Chowrasia. He could only par his closing two holes and had to endure an ago-nising hour-long wait before being declared the champion as Coles was still on the course with four holes to play. "After making those four birdies on the front-nine, I felt like I was on a roll. I thought that I could win the title already," said Chowrasia. "At 15-under, I was mentally pre-pared for the play-off already but luckily for me, Cole failed to take advantage and I'm glad I'm the winner," added Chowrasia.

Cole was left to rue his missed chance at the last and could only reflect on what could have been his maiden win. "The ball was really far below my feet and a bit of grass in between it and it was just a really awkward shot. I re-ally needed to get underneath to get it up in the air as soon as I could but the ground was rock

hard and it just kind of flew on me a bit," Coles said. "Then I got over the putt and I was still thinking I could make it and win the tourna-ment, but I just hit it so hard and it flew out of the middle of the putter and then I obviously missed the one coming back. "I think the main lesson to take from this is that you have to adapt to those situations under that kind of pressure with those adrenaline flowing," added the Englishman.

Meanwhile Sujjan, who earned his Tour card by finishing in tied-21st at Qualifying School last month, is poised for the big leap as he showed that he can match up against the best with a noteworthy performance.

Starting the final round in tied-fifth, the 30-year-old marked his card with three birdies on holes four, six and nine with his only blemish on the front-nine coming at the par-four fifth. Suj-jan dropped another shot on the 12th hole but parred his last six holes to sign off in 71. "It has been a good week for me. I've been hit-ting the ball really well and gave myself lots of chances. There was no pressure for me even play-ing in front of the home fans. I just stayed focus and played my game," said Sujjan. "I'll be con-centrating on playing more on the Asian Tour this season and hope-fully my performance this week can spur me on to better things," added the Indian.

ROME, FEBRUARY 20 (AGENCIES): Inter Milan's title charge gained momentum as the champions squeezed past Cagliari 1-0 to close the gap on leaders AC Milan. Inter's bitter city rivals can push their lead over their neigh-bours back out to five points with victory today at Chievo but the nerazzurri's ninth win in 11 league games ensured they kept up the pressure ahead of their Cham-pions League clash with Bayern Munich on Wednesday.

Centre-back Andrea Ranoc-chia scored the only goal of the game in contentious manner as he appeared to be offside. The game began at break-neck speed with Cagliari goalkeeper Michael Aga-

zzi plunging to his right to save a vi-cious Goran Pandev stike after just two minutes.

The visitors went straight up the other end and Inter shot-stop-per Julio Cesar tipped over an An-drea Lazzari volley after a clever chip forward from Alessandro Agostini. From Andrea Cossu's re-sulting corner Cesar tipped over a Daniele Conti header. Inter took a controversial lead on seven min-utes as Samuel Eto'o took advan-tage of Cagliari players arguing with the referee to take a quick free-kick.

He played in Houssine Khar-ja behind the defence and his deflected cross was kept out by Agazzi's leg only for the ball to rebound to the Morocco mid-

fielder, who fired in a cross that hit Ranocchia and a defender on it's way in. However, television replays showed Ranocchia had been offside as Kharja struck his shot. Cagliari were straight back on the attack and Cesar tiped a skimming Davide Biondini shot around the post.

After that blistering first 10 minutes, the game settled a little, not in terms of pace but in terms of clear-cut chances.

On 21 minutes quick feet from Eto'o created a chance after a flowing Inter move but Agazzi got down well to stop his shot. The Cameroon captain enjoyed the best of the rest of the half's chanc-es but sent a free-kick over the bar

before he had another shot com-fortably saved by the Sardinians' goalkeeper. The second period struggled to live up to the promise of the first and it wasn't until the 70th minute thata clear chance came by as Conti's strike from range deflected off Thaigo Motta and wrong-footed Cesar, only to plop the wrong side of the post.

By now Inter seemed to be paying for the efforts of their midweek win over Fiorentina and Cagliari were pushing hard for an equaliser, with Lazzari's rasping drive sailing just wide.

However, coach Leonardo moved to hold onto what he had and brought on Esteban Cambi-asso, Dejan Stankovic and Mc-

Donald Mariga to shore up his midfield. Earlier, Daniele Paponi scored a last-minute winner to earn Bologna a 1-0 victory against 10-man Palermo. The visitors, who had Santiago Garcia sent off early in the second half, slumped to a second straight defeat and their Champions League hopes are now hanging by a thread af-ter a second uninspiring perfor-mance in a row.

They sit seventh ahead of Sun-day's games and already five points off a top four-finish. Bologna, on the other hand, look to be safely in the mid-table comfort zone de-spite having been deducted three points for financial irregularities earlier in the season.

Local favourite Chowrasia bags Avantha Masters

Inter title charge rolls on over Cagliari

Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, right, poses with his wife, Vanessa Bryant, from left, and their daughters Natalia Diamante Bryant and Gianna Maria-Onore Bryant after he had his hands and feet etched in concrete at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, Saturday, February 19. Bryant is the first athlete to have the honor. (AP Photo)