Sports Bar

Paes/Dlouhy in Brisbane final

Top seeds Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy earned a shot at the title of the season opener Brisbane International after beating Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner 6-4 0-6 10-7 in the semi-final. They will meet the winners of the Andy Roddick/James Blake vs Jeremy Chardy/ Marc Gicquel semi-final in Sundays summit clash.

India in joint lead in Turkey

Led by Krishnan Sasikiran on the top board,India defeated Azerbaijan 2.5-1.5 in the third round of the World Team Chess Championship in Bursa,Turkey to emerge joint leaders. Sasikiran defeated Vugar Gashimov. while Surya Shekhar Ganguly outplayed Gadir Guseinov to ensure Indian victory despite G N Gopals defeat to twice world junior champion Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. P Harikrishna draw against Teimour Radjabov.

Sridhar in nationals semi-final

Anup Sridhar beat top seed Ajay Jayaram 16-21 21-12 21-14 to set up a semi-final clash with P Kashyap at the Senior National Badminton tournament in Guwahati. Kashyap faced a stiff challenge from Sajal Chikla before wrapping up 11-21 21-11 21-12. Aravind Bhat will take on Chetan Anand in the other semi-final. In the womens section,top seed Sayali Ghokale to beat P Thulasi 21-18 21-17 to make the last-four.

Roddick pulls out of Davis Cup

Andy Roddick is pulling out of this years Davis Cup competition in a bid to avoid aggravating a knee injury. Im not playing Davis Cup this year, Roddick said on Friday. Im not retiring from Davis Cup. The 27-year-old Roddick injured his left knee last October,and the Australian Open warmup in Brisbane is his first tournament back. The United States is scheduled to play Serbia in the first round on indoor clay in Belgrade from March 5 to 7.

Dilshan to play against India on Sunday

Mirpur: Tillakaratne Dilshan is certain to play Sundays final league match against India,Sri Lankan team manager Brendon Kuruppu said. We could have even considered him playing today against Bangladesh but held him back. He has a very good chance of playing against India, Kuruppu said.

Pak Assembly wants Butt to go

Karachi: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Sports has sought removal of PCB chairman Ejaz Butt and summoned board officials and the team management to explain the sides debacle in Australia. We have decided to call the chairman of the board,other officials and the coach and manager of the team when the team returns from Australia, committee chairman Jamshed Dasti said.

Intikhab wants separate T20 squad

Karachi: Pakistan coach Intikhab Alam has joined captain Mohammad Yousuf in blaming Twenty20 for the sides debacle. I see a bleak future for Test cricket as far as Pakistan is concerned. The best solution is to have a separate T20 squad because when you play too much T20 cricket,it leads to players losing the skills of patience and temperament to play long innings that is required in Test matches, he said.

Afridi signs up with Hampshire

Karachi: Shahid Afridi has signed a contract with Hampshire to play in the 2010 English T20 championship. I enjoy playing in England and I always get a big support there. The Pakistan team is also due to play in England this year so it would not be difficult for me to adapt to the conditions then, he said.

KXIP commence IPL preparations

Mumbai: Kings XI Punjab will organise a five-team T20 tournament beginning Saturday to prepare themselves for the third season of the IPL. The teams are KXIP Red,Blue,Green,Yellow and Silver and will be led by Uday Kaul,Reetender Singh Sodhi,Vikramjeet Malik,Bipul Sharma and Tanmay Srivastava respectively,a media release said. The preliminary matches will be held at the Sector 16 stadium in Chandigarh and the final at the PCA Stadium in Mohali.