Churchill Brothers beat Sporting Clube to reach Durand final Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, Sep 5 (IANS) Defending champions Churchill Brothers beat Sporting Club de Goa 3-0 in a penalty shootout to reach the final of the Durand Cup football at the Ambedkar Stadium here Friday. Churchill will face Mahindra United in a repeat of last year's title clash. Both teams failed to score in the regulation team and the deadlock was not broken even after the extra time. But Churchill emerged winner after Odafa Onyeke Okolie, Ogba Kalu Nnanna, Varundeep got past goalkeeper Felix D'souza in penalty shoot. Sporting cut a sorry figure as captain N Singh, Bisheshwar Singh and Micky Fernandes counld not score. Bishweswar hit straight to goalkeeper Arindam Bhattacharya, who then saved Singh's shot diving to his left. Fernandes's strike went out of the left side of the post. The Goans though were themselves to be blamed. They were the better of the two teams but missed chances upfront. The two forwards Thoudam Singh and Thounaujam Singh could not combine well to take full advantage of the openings. Churchill's defence also stood solid with C. Chandrasekhar thwarting off the moves. He was later awarded the man of the match. * * * Paes hungry for more, wants to win French Open with Cara Indo-Asian News Service New York, Sep 5 (IANS) After winning the US Open mixed doubles title, ageless wonder Leander Paes is hungry for more and now wants to win the French Open title with partner Cara Black next season. At 35, Paes's cabinet boasts of eight grand slam trophies -- four doubles and four mixed doubles -- but he is not finished yet. Paes could well go on to add one more as he and Czech Lukas Dlouhy face Bryan twins Bob and Mike for the doubles title Friday. "If I wake up 31 days in a row in the morning and I feel like I don't enjoy this game, I'll stop the next day. That's always been the way for me," Paes said after he and Zimbabwean Cara beat Englishman Jamie Murray and American Liezel Huber 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 at Flushing Meadows. Paes said he approached the final with a purpose as the title had eluded him by a whisker twice in his career. Paes and Raymond in 2001 went down Australians Todd Woodbridge and Rennae Stubbs in the finals while last year he with American Meghann Shaughnessy lost a close title clash to Max Mirnyi and Victoria Azarenka of Belarus. "It was in the back of my mind that I hadn't won this one. I woke up this morning with a purpose. I woke up really fired up," Paes said. "The key part is selecting a good partner. I let Cara do all the work and I just stood back and enjoyed it." Paes's earlier mixed doubles titles came with American Lisa Raymond in 1999 Wimbledon and later with legend Martina Navratilova in 2003 Wimbledon and Australian Open. "I am still to win the French Open mixed doubles and hopefully Cara and I can win it next year," Paes said. Interestingly, Black and Huber are top ranked women's doubles partner and are still alive in the tournament, having booked a place in semi-finals. "It was tough for me to play against Liezel, but Leander was so good with me," Black said. "He calmed me a lot. All thanks to Leander. He pulled me through." Cara came to rescue at crucial moments in the final. Once when the fifth seeds were in real danger of losing the first set when they were down 2-5 and then a set point in the tie-breaker. Cara produced two great volleys to pull them out of a tight corner before Paes put away a customary volley to clinch the set. In the second set, Paes and Cara went a break up in the fifth game before Cara produced a beauty in the next game to leave Murray and Huber struggling to stay in the match. "She won the match for us," Paes said. Both Paes and Cara showed excellent hands as they complimented each other with their deft touch play. The fifth seeds did not face a break point in the entire match and gelled so well that it didn't look that they were playing for the first time together. The absorbing tussle ended after an hour and 37 minutes and Paes and Cara shared the winners' $150,000 prize money. Indo-Asian News Service * * * Leander Paes and Lukas Dloughy lose in US Open doubles final Indo-Asian News Service New York, Sep 6 (IANS) India's Leander Paes failed to add the men's doubles title to his Thursday's mixed doubles championship when he and and his Czech partner Lukas Dloughy lost the final against American twins Bob and Mike Bryan in two closely contested sets 6-7 (5-7) and 6-7 (10-12) at the Flushing Meadows here Friday. For the Bryan brothers, this was their sixth Grand Slam title and with it they are back as world's number one doubles pair.
