Bengal beat Manipur 2-1 in final, retain Santosh Trophy

Guwahati: Bengal on Monday retained the Santosh Trophy with a 2-1 victory over Manipur in the summit clash to win their 31st title of the national championships.

Strikers Branco Cardozo (21st minute) and Budhiram Tudu (48th) scored for Bengal while Manipur pulled one back through Nabachandra Singh in the 75th minute at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

Manipur were playing in only their second final after winning the title in 2002.

Both the teams started on an aggressive note. While Manipur went all out for an early goal, Bengal preferred to play sensibly and gained in confidence as they played the waiting game.

Branco put Bengal ahead in the 21st minute. He blasted a Francis Fernandes pass from the top of the box as Bengal went into the interval with a one-goal lead.

After changing ends, Bengal doubled the lead in the 48th minute. Midfielder Budhiram Tudu found the back of the net when he tapped in from close.

With no other option left, Manipur went all out. And it paid dividends when Nabachandra Singh reduced the margin in the 75th minute. Inspired by the goal, Manipur launched a series of attacks to restore parity but it all came a bit too late.

Bengal now have won their second consecutive title after a lull of 11 years since emerging champions in 1999. In the last edition, Bengal had beaten Punjab 2-0 in the final to regain the trophy.

Vettel wins incident-packed Monaco Grand Prix

Monaco: Sebastian Vettel has won the Monaco Grand Prix, beating Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button in a thrilling and incident-packed race that several drivers failed to finish.

Defending F1 champion Vettel has won five of the six races this season, with only Lewis Hamilton beating him in China.

The German gambled by staying out on the same set of soft tires Sunday, turning the last 15 laps into a battle of wits as both Alonso and Button were on his tail.

That gamble looked certain to backfire until a crash on lap 72 resulted in a red flag that suspended the session just as he was close to being caught.

When the race resumed, Vettel had changed his tires and the last few laps became a procession. 

Germany forward Klose ruled out of Euro qualifiers

Berlin: Germany forward Miroslav Klose has been ruled out of next month's Euro 2012 qualifiers against Austria and Azerbaijan after picking up a rib injury in the 2-1 friendly win over Uruguay on Sunday.

Klose's injury opens the door for Bayern Munich team mate Mario Gomez to lead the attack after the Bundesliga top scorer made the most of a rare start by netting Germany's opening goal against Uruguay.

Klose, who was again seen as coach Joachim Loew's starting choice for the qualifiers despite Gomez's fine performance on Sunday, came on as a substitute in the second half but failed to make an impact.

"He picked up a painful rib injury. Medical tests on Monday showed that the 32-year-old will need to refrain from training in the coming days and so cannot be at our disposal for the qualifiers," the German football federation said in a statement.

Germany, who top their Euro qualifying group with five wins from as many matches, travel to Austria on June 3 before taking on Azerbaijan four days later.

Germany's second most capped player behind Lothar Matthaeus, Klose, is chasing Gerd Mueller's all-time scoring record, having netted 61 times in 109 appearances.

Mueller's record stands at 68 goals from 62 internationals.

Bopanna-Qureshi in quarterfinals of French Open

Paris: Indian Davis Cupper Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi advanced to the French Open men`s doubles quarter-finals with a straight-set win over Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan and Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.

The fifth seed Indo-Pak pair recorded a 6-3 7-5 win over their unseeded rivals in the third round in one hour and nine minutes.

It will be the third quarter-final appearance in the last four Grand Slams for Bopanna and Qureshi.

They will now clash with top seeded American twins Mike and Bob Bryan, who defeated Russia`s Teymuraz Gabashvili and Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan 7-6 (6) 7-5 in their pre-quarterfinal round.
Bopanna and Qureshi had lost to Bryan brothers in the US Open final last year.

Bopanna is the only Indian surviving in the men`s doubles as Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi made a shock second round exit.

Later in the day, seventh seeds Sania Mirza and Russian Elena Vesnina will take on top seeds Gisela Dulko of Argentina and Flavia Pennetta of Italy in the women`s doubles quarterfinals.

Another contest of Indian interest would be the mixed doubles quarterfinal between Indo-Czech pair of Paes and Iveta Benesova and the top seeded combination of Slovakian Katarina Srebotnik and Serbian Nenad Zimonjic.

Djokovic into last four as Fognini quits

Paris: Second seed Novak Djokovic got a walkover into the French Open semi-finals after last eight opponent Fabio Fognini pulled out on Monday because of injury.

The pair were due to play their quarter-final on Tuesday but the Italian has not recovered from a thigh muscle problem sustained in Sunday`s long five-set win over Albert Montanes.

"I have a little problem with my left left leg so I have to retire," Fognini told a news conference.

"My doctors said if I play tomorrow maybe it can be dangerous."

Serbia`s red-hot Djokovic is on a 41-match winning streak since the start of the year, just one behind John McEnroe`s 1984 record.
His progression through the last eight will not count as part of the streak, officials confirmed, so the world number two will have to win the title for the first time if he is to break the American`s record at Roland Garros.

The Australian Open champion could meet third seed and 2009 winner Roger Federer in the semi-finals if the Swiss gets through his quarter-final.

Bandana-wearing Fognini reckoned he would be fit for Wimbledon next month and did not regret finishing the match even if a withdrawal when he suffered the problem in the final set would have put Spain`s Montanes through.

"It`s the best tournament of my career. But this is the best solution," added the unseeded Fognini, who battled through to the last eight with his unusual brand of laidback tennis, almost like a boxer dropping his hands.

'ICC has informed Tharanga about dope flunk'

Colombo: A day after a doping scandal rocked Sri Lankan cricket, the sports ministry on Monday confirmed that the ICC has informed opening batsman Upul Tharanga about flunking a random dope test conducted during the recent World Cup.

A sports ministry spokesman said that the ICC has informed Tharanga about the dope flunk and subsequently, minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage set up a three member panel to inquire into the case.

However, Sri Lanka Cricket, the country`s governing body for the sport, is yet to be informed by the ICC about the dope flunk, the spokesman said. The ICC is also yet to make the dope flunk official.
"The minister appointed the ministry secretary Udaya Seneviratne, Dr Geethanjana Mendis and Dr Maiya Gunasekera to investigate. They will be recording a statement from Tharanga," Harsha Abeykoon, the sports ministry media spokesman, said.

Apart from the sports secretary, the other two members are physicians with extensive experience of sports medicine.

26-year-old Tharanga tested positive for banned substance prednisolone -- a drug for asthma, a condition from which he is said to suffer. He became the first Sri Lankan cricketer to have failed a dope test. He is also set to face an ICC inquiry.

Tharanga, a left-handed opening batsman, had a pretty good World Cup even scoring a century in the semifinal against England, but was not picked for the current tour of England.

He has said that a well-known medical practitioner, who had treated Indian stars Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir and Ashish Nehra, prescribed the medicine containing the banned substance to him.


The blood sample was taken in Colombo during the World Cup and the embarrassing development comes amid allegations by former skipper Hashan Tilakaratne that Sri Lankan players have been responsible for match fixing since 1992.

After the news of the dope flunk broke out in a report in a local daily yesterday, Sri Lanka Cricket secretary Nishantha Ranatunga had denied knowledge of Tharanga`s failed dope test.

"Officially we know nothing about Tharanga`s case. SLC has not received any complaints or reports about the use of the banned substance called Prednisolone from any organization or agency," he said.

ICC spokesman James Fitzgerald has also yesterday refused to comment on the matter.

According to the ICC`s anti-doping code, a player is responsible for any prohibited substance found to be present in his or her test sample. If a player needs to take a drug that is on the World Anti-Doping Authority`s (WADA`s) banned list in order to treat an illness, he is required to apply for a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE).

Under the dope-testing process, if a player`s `A` sample is found to contain a banned substance, he will have the option of asking for his `B` sample to be tested as well.

If his `B` sample is also found to be positive, the player could face a provisional suspension until the ICC carries out its inquiry. If the `B` sample is negative, the investigation is discontinued.

Sania-Vesnina storm into French Open semis

                                                                




Paris: Seventh seed Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina stormed into the French Open semi-finals on Monday upsetting the top seed Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta 6-0, 7-5.

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.

This is for the first time that Sania has reached the women`s doubles semifinals in a Grand Slam event.

The quarter-final appearances in the 2007 US Open and 2008 Wimbledon were her best performances so far at the big stage.