Tennis: Djokovic into last 16 at Australian Open

MELBOURNE: World number one Novak Djokovic looked like a man in a hurry as he thrashed Nicolas Mahut 6-0 6-1 6-1 in 74 minutes on Saturday to reach the Australian Open last 16.

Mahut, who was involved in an epic 11-hour match against John Isner at Wimbledon in 2010, turned 30 on Saturday and was battling with a left knee injury but the only thing he received from the world number one was short shrift.

Djokovic was relentless from the baseline against Mahut, passing him virtually at will and banging back deep service returns the Frenchman had no chance of returning with his movement hindered due to heavy strapping on his knee.

Djokovic will meet either Australian Lleyton Hewitt or big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic in the last 16. AGENCIES

‘Laker Girl’ Jeanie’s book details life secrets

LOS ANGELES: Anybody who has ever worked for a family business knows it is hard to juggle the competing issues of work life versus family life.

But when your family business is as high profile as professional basketball’s Los Angeles Lakers — one of the winningest championship teams of all time — the job can be even more challenging. Add in that you are dating the team’s coach, and it gets even more complicated.

Welcome to the world of Jeanie Buss and her memoir “Laker Girl,” which is currently in bookstores.

Buss is executive vice president of business operations for the Lakers, one of the world’s best known sports franchises. She is the daughter of team owner, Dr. Jerry Buss, and sister to executive vice president of player personnel, Jim Buss. As important, she is the girlfriend of coach Phil Jackson.

She calls juggling her personal and her business life one of the most challenging issues she faces, day-to-day.

“My dad is very clear about family time being family time and not letting business encroach on that. And if there is a serious business issue, we make an appointment, sit down and have a meeting and keep it separate,” Buss told Reuters.

“Anybody who’s in a family business will agree that it’s really hard to keep boundaries, yet it’s really important to keep the sanity of the family,” she said.

Buss is, perhaps, the biggest Laker booster of them all, and it comes across in “Laker Girl.” Readers gain insight into the team during its championship season of 2009-2010, as well as into Buss’s life with Jackson and her career in business.

During the last season, Buss wrote in a daily journal and her thoughts on the team’s ups-and-downs over roughly eight months provide a timeline for “Laker Girl.”

She said that one question she is often asked is what it’s like to be a woman working in such a storied sports franchise, and by writing in journal form she could “share in real time, the highs and the lows” of working for the team.

Interspersed between the journal entries are chapters on her father’s start in southern California real estate, in which he amassed the fortune he used to purchase the Lakers in 1979.

Buss also shares her own work experiences with readers, starting out as a 19 year-old promoter of World Team Tennis matches in the late 1970s and moving on to her work with the Lakers, helping market the team and sell merchandise associated with it and its players, including Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol.

When asked what the Laker brand stands for, she is quick to reply. “In one word, I would say winning.

“My dad…he’s an American story. He is a self-made man who used education to pull himself out of a poor childhood,” Buss said. “He built an empire, but all the time being a fan. For him, he runs the team as a family and its fans like to win.”

“Laker Girl” offers readers some basic business tips as Buss relates experiences about being a highly-placed executive in a male-dominated business.

“You’ve got to stay true to yourself,” Buss said. “You have to have discipline and know your stuff and if people try to dismiss you, that’s their loss.

“Know what you’re good at, what your talents are, and hone those skills. That is what will help you succeed,” she said.

And, of course, she addresses the inevitable: whether Jackson will ever pop the marriage question.

Hint: the final answer is on the last page.

Lara Dutta and Mahesh Bhupathi get engaged

Download image as wallpaper

One of Bollywood’s gorgeous and stunning lady is now taken. Mahesh Bhupathi, the tennis star, proposed to Lara Dutta over a candle lit dinner. If that isn’t enough, for the romantic at heart, Mahesh did it with a ring that he designed himself that had a stone picked especially by the man for his woman.

It all happened a month ago in the glitz and glam of New York City where Mahesh was visiting for the US Open. Now this one relationship, that was under the media scrutiny time and again, is finally official. Earlier Lara would always call their relationship as “just friends” when asked, but now she can’t help but blush. The couple waited to make things public as Mahesh was going through a divorce and needed time to get things sorted. Mahesh’s ex wife, Svetha Jaishankar, though didn’t leave any opportunity to blame Lara for the divorce, Lara on her part, did clarify saying that she met the tennis star a year after he separated from his ex wife.

But all’s well that end’s well! As to when the wedding bells will ring, the couple is waiting to have some free time on hand so that they can sit comfortably and make plans. Bollywood Hungama wishes the couple the very best.

Rain expected for more two days

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: The Meteorological Department has forecast more rain and thunderstorms in Karachi and some parts of Sindh.

Scattered rain and thundershowers are expected in Punjab, with occasional gaps, particularly in Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Gujranwala, Lahore, Faisalabad and Bahawalpur for the next two days, Met analysis said.

The rain/thundershowers, is expected to be heavy in Sindh, particularly in Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Nawabshah, Tharparkar and Karachi during next two to three days.

In Balochistan, mainly hot and humid weather is likely in most parts of the province.

Isolated rains and thundershowers are also expected in Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir, while heavy thundershowers are expected at a number of places in Kashmir during next 2-3 days. SAMAA

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa celebrates Eid today

Staff Report

PESHAWAR: Eid-ul-Fitr is being celebrated in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa today (Friday), after the announcement of Shawwal moon sighting by religious elders of Peshwar’s Mosque Qasim Ali Khan.

The Shawwal moon sighting meeting of nongovernmental committee of Peshawar’s Mosque Qasim Ali Khan was presided over by Mufti Shahb-ud-Din.

Religious elders participated in the meeting, saying that they received 20 persons, including two women, witnesses of sighting Shawwal moon.

On the other side, Waziristan and Mohmand Agencies have already announced to celebrate Eid on Friday.

The head of the nongovernmental committee of Mosque Qasim Ali Khan has said that the difference in moon sighting between the decisions of the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee and their nongovernmental committee is similar to the difference in words sure and

Fire erupts in Rawalpindi plaza

Staff Report

RAWALPINDI: Fire has erupted in third floor of a plaza, located at Adamjee road in Cantt area, Rawalpindi, SAMAA learnt Friday.

According to sources, a massive fire roars in Rizwan Arcade early morning that engulfs the third floor of the building.

“Fire damaged garment material worth of million rupees,” said rescue sources.

The staff of cantonment board and city fire brigade are engaged in extinguishing fire, however the cause of fire was not known yet. SAMAA

Qureshi aims to serve up peace at U.S. Open

NEW YORK: Pakistan’s Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi only took up tennis to avoid doing homework, but now the doubles specialist is a household name back home with his exploits at the U.S. Open and his bid to broker peace.

The 30-year-old lost in the finals of the mixed doubles on Thursday but will get another shot at his first grand slam when he teams up with India’s Rohan Bopanna in the men’s doubles final against the top-seeded Bryan brothers on Friday.

Qureshi and Bopanna have been trying to use their tennis partnership to promote more peaceful relations between India and Pakistan.

The pair wear sweatshirts emblazoned with the slogan “Stop War, Start Tennis” and there has been talk of a match being played across the India-Pakistan border.

“I’ve always said there’s no reason the Indians and Pakistanis can’t get along with each other,” said

Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi set to create history at the US Open

KARACHI: The Pakistani nation finally has something to cheer about, as their tennis ace Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi made history at the last Grand Slam of the year by becoming the first man from the country to make it to the finals of a Grand Slam event.

The Lahore born 30-year old has made it to the finals of both the doubles and mixed doubles event, producing a stunning display of tennis along with his partners Rohan Bopanna and Kveta Peschke.

It has been a truly memorable week for Aisam-Ul-Haq and India’s Rohan Bopanna, as they finally made an impact on the tennis world after having easily their best season at the international level, winning some events whilst making it to the quarterfinals at the biggest stage of them all, Wimbledon, where only an injury to the Pakistani quashed their dreams.

However, they have redeemed themselves big time at the Arthur Ashe

Isner, Mahut locked in 10-hour freak show

LONDON: American John Isner and Frenchman Nicolas Mahut staggered off court as darkness fell on Wednesday after taking a chainsaw to the tennis record books on an unforgettable day at Wimbledon.

When darkness interrupted their first-round match for the second consecutive day with the score at 59-59 (yes, fifty nine- fifty nine) in the fifth set they had been hammering away a teach other for an unbelievable 10 hours.

In a match of truly freakish proportions, towering 23rd seed Isner could barely stay upright as the crowds on Court 18 and those scrambling for every available vantage point chanted: “We want more…we want more”.

The two players, providing they can revive themselves, will be back on Thursday to complete a mind-boggling match that brought Wimbledon to a standstill on Day Three and will become one of the great “I was there moments” in sporting folklore.

Until Wednesday the longest match occurred at the French Open in 2004 between Frenchmen Arnaud Clement and Fabrice Santoro — that duel lasting a mere six hours and 33 minutes.

The fifth set alone of this mesmerising epic has lasted seven hours and six minutes and the way both players were serving suggested it might not even be concluded by close of play on Thursday.

soderling

Nadal wins French Open
PARIS
Scurrying along the baseline as only he can, sliding through the red clay he rules, Rafael Nadal stretched to somehow dig the ball out of a corner and fling it back over the net – once, twice, three times – during a 14-stroke exchange that ended when Robin Soderling sailed a shot long.

The French Open final was all of seven points old, and the message was unmistakable: Nadal’s knees are fine now, which means he is an entirely different player from the one Soderling stunned at Roland Garros in 2009. That was the first loss of Nadal’s career at this tournament, and it remains the only one.

His body sound, his mind at ease, Nadal played his unique brand of relentless, perpetual-motion tennis to handily beat the No. 5-seeded Soderling of Sweden 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 on Sunday. Nadal won his fifth French Open championship, his seventh Grand Slam title overall, and earned a return to No. 1.

“I lost last year because I was not well-prepared, and I had very low morale last year, as well,” said Nadal, who will supplant Roger Federer atop the rankings on Monday.

“But this time, I’m back,” said Nadal, who covered his face with a red towel and sobbed at match’s end. “I’m back _ and I win.” Yes, Nadal most definitely is back, and he is as good as – or perhaps even better than – ever.

Soderling, who stunned the tennis world by defeating Nadal in the fourth round of last year’s Roland Garros before making it all the way to the final, which he lost to Swiss great Roger Federer, was unable to put up much of a fight in the face of a relentless onslaught by Nadal, who used an excellent service game and dazzling court coverage to keep the Swede off balance.

“I started off OK, but to play against Rafa you have to play your best,” Soderling said.

Nadal broke Soderling in the 5th game of the first set, then he saved two break points in the 8th game.
3″ />
Soderling blew four opportunities to break Nadal in the 2nd game of the second set. The Spaniard then broke Soderling in the 5th and 7th games.
clay-court matches of his life — and that says something — to land a fifth crown at Roland Garros. The 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 score was harsh on Soderling. He performed better than in last year’s final against Roger Federer, although he claimed one fewer game. Rafa is a soul destroyer for opponents.

Soderling indeed strikes the ball harder than almost anyone on tour, with lanky Argentine Juan Martin del Potro a suitable comparison. His mind is in the right place, thanks largely to his 1½ year partnership with coach Magnus Norman, like Soderling a French Open finalist. Norman has transformed Soderling from an indoor player to an all-court threat, showing his protégé how to forget things that bothered him in the past — fans moving in the stands, a stiff wind and poor calls.

From all accounts a guarded individual, Soderling appears to be loosening up, which is good. Evidence came in his runner-up speech, when he dabbled in French. The fans loved it. It won’t hurt his marketability. Close friends suggest he’s a good guy. Nadal positively discussed Soderling’s personality Friday, casting aside much (not all) of what transpired at Wimbledon three years ago. Soderling will forever be reminded of that.

Along with his weapons, his belief and will to win existed prior to Norman. Soderling is one of those guys who steps on court believing, not simply hoping, he can overcome the likes of Nadal and Federer. No wonder Mats Wilander, the seven-time Grand Slam champion and former Swedish Davis Cup captain, predicted Soderling would win a major in 2010.

Next Page »