In brief

The 72-year-old, who has had three heart bypasses and been clinically dead twice earlier, was revived twice in 20 minutes before the ambulance arrived. His condition was not believed to be critical.

Chelsea calling
LONDON: Chelsea’s historic move in becoming the first top English club to start a match without a single English player prompted wry comments. “It is not very many years sinceChelsea was one of the most xenophobic of football clubs, with supporters booing foreign players when they came on to the field even on occasion their own players,” commented The Guardian. Chelsea played Southampton on Sunday, and won 2-1, Norwegian striker Tore Andre Flo scoring twice.

The line-up: Ed De Goey (Neth), Albert Ferrer (Spain), Emerson Thome (Brazil), Franck Leboeuf (France), Celestine Babayaro (Nigeria), Dan Petrescu (Romania), Didier Deschamps (France), Roberto Di Matteo (Italy), Gabriele Ambrosetti (Italy), Gustavo Poyet (Uruguay), Flo.

Joshna enters final
MUMBAI: Chennai’s Joshna Chinnappa reached the final of the girls U-15 section in the Scottish Open junior squash tournament at Edinburgh on Tuesday. Joshna, winner of the U-13 title there last year, vanquished Emma Barnett of England 9-2, 9-4, 5-9, 9-5 in the semi-final.

Manisha in semis
CHANDIGARH: Big-serving Manisha Malhotra rallied to outclass Masa Vesenjak 4-6 6-1 6-0 while Rushmi Chakravarthiasserted herself in downing Russian Olga Kaliojnaja as both the Indians stormed into the semi-finals of the $10,000 ITF Women’s circuit tennis tournament.

Results (QF, prefix denotes seeding)
Women singles (QF): Urska Vesenjak (Slo) bt 1-Katarina Daskovic (Yug) 6-3 7-6 (8-6); 2-Manisha Malhotra (Ind) bt Masa Vesenjak 4-6 6-1 6-0; 4-Rushmi Chakravarthi bt Olga Kaliojnaja (Rus) 6-4 6-2; Antonia Matic (Croat) bt 8-Anna Nefedova (Rus) 6-4 6-7 7-6 (5); Doubles (QF): Daskovic Katarine & Manisha Malhotra bt Archana Venkatraman & Arathi Venkatraman 6-1 6-0; Rushmi Chakravarthi & Jayalakshmi Jayaram bt Nandita Chandrashekhar & T Yamini 6-1 6-1; Masa & Urska Vesenjak bt Karishma Patel & Radhika Tulpule 6-3 6-2; Olga & Maria Kaliojnaja bt Anna Nefedova & Anna Nikanova 7-6 (3) 6-2.

Nitin, Panja clash
CHENNAI: Nitin Kirtane had the chance of finishing his semi-final encounter with third seed Vijay Kannan in an hour but finally when the match ended, it was close to three hours. The gratifyingthing for the top seed was his 6-2 6-7 (3) 7-6 (4) victory, taking him into the final for the second straight time in the Indian Oil Servo millennium tennis tournament. Fourth seed Saurav Panja made the grade by beating Manoj Mahadevan 3-6 6-1 6-2.

Battle for Kerala
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Three defeats in a row must have taught State Bank of Travancore a vital lesson; that soccer is more about scoring goals and winning, than entertaining crowds. Both SBT and FC Kochin, whom they face in the National Football League fixture here on Thursday, share a winless record and are languishing in the league a disappointing record for Kerala soccer.

Hockey camp ends
JAMMU: The fortnight-long camp for the Indian hockey team concluded here. The team leaves for Delhi tomorrow, and will proceed to Spain for a four-nation championship, from January 6-8. Earlier, to give exposure to the state players, the team played a friendly match with J&K.

— ENS & Agencies