Rain forces Monday men's final at US Open

NEW YORK

NEW YORK: A complete rain-out Friday at the US Open forced tournament officials to postpone the men's championship match to Monday for the second year in a row.

Six-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal and Chilean 11th seed Fernando Gonzalez waited hours through a steady downpour before the completion of their suspended quarter-final from Thursday night was pushed to Saturday afternoon.

That postponed the semi-finals to Sunday and the final to Monday.

World number one Roger Federer defeated Andy Murray for his fifth US Open title in a row last year in the first Monday men's final since 1987, when Ivan Lendl defeated Mats Wilander for the crown.

Third-seeded Spaniard Nadal was aided by the delays, having aggravated an abdominal muscle strain Thursday night while seizing a 7-6 (7/4), 6-6 (3/2) advantage before play was halted.

Federer, the Swiss 15-time Slam champion, and Serbian fourth seed Novak Djokovic are set for one men's semi-final while Argentine sixth seed Juan Martin Del Potro awaits the Nadal-Gonzalez winner in the other.

Nadal, who hopes to complete a career Grand Slam with a US Open title, was also hit by rain last year when his US Open semi-final against Britain's Murray was halted in the third set and finished on Sunday.

News was nearly as bleak on the women's side, with defending champion Serena Williams to meet Belgium's Kim Clijsters and Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki to face Belgium's Yanina Wickmayer on Saturday after their semi-finals were postponed.

The men's doubles final and a women's doubles semi-final were also moved to Saturday. While breaks in the drizzle Friday allowed for some attempts to dry the courts, conditions were never near being playable.

"It's such a light mist the radar can't even pick it up, but it's still unplayable," US Tennis Association spokesman Chris Widmaier said.

A US flag flew at half-staff over Arthur Ashe Stadium in memory of those who died in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Federer could match Bill Tilden's 83-year-old record of six consecutive US Open titles with another crown, continuing a tradition of historic US Open Monday finals.

Don Budge completed the first calendar-year Grand Slam in 1938 after a hurricane halted play for a record six days. Rod Laver finished off the second men's Slam with a Monday win in 1962 and his second Slam in 1969 on a Monday.

TOI

ICC to trial Tendulkar's ODI-splitting idea

One-day matches into two innings of 25 overs each,

LONDON: International Cricket Council is now planning to split One-day matches into two innings of 25 overs each, an idea mooted by the Indian batting great Sachin Tendulkar earlier this month.

In order to spice up the One-day format, Tendulkar had proposed that every team should play two innings of 25 overs each and ICC cricket manager Dave Richardson said the governing body might soon conduct a trial.

"I quite like that idea, I believe South Africa may trial something along those lines," Richardson said.

"This might work in day/night cricket where one team has to bat in day and the other at night. It provides something different and reduces the effects on the team who loses the toss and has to bat first on a damp wicket, for example," he said.

Even though Tendulkar aired his view earlier this month, Richardson said the idea had popped up in the past as well and came up for discussion at annual meeting of the ICC cricket committee in May.

One-day cricket is already facing tough challenge from Twenty20 and the England and Wales Cricket Board scrapped Friends Provident trophy, the only 50-over domestic tournament, in favour of a Twenty20 event.

Richardson, however, is concerned that splitting it into two innings would mean less centuries as batsmen would have less overs to bat.

"I don't necessarily like the idea of playing two matches of 25 overs each with the openers batting again. The charm of One-day cricket is seeing someone batting at four and scoring a good hundred," Richardson said.

"If you bat in the middle order of a Twenty20 or a new 25-over innings, you're not to get much of an opportunity to hit three figures, one downside of the Twenty20 game," he said.

He, however, made it clear that such an experiment should be conducted at the domestic level before pushing it into international cricket.

"If it has been trialled successfully at domestic level, it may give the trial to give it the go-ahead at international level," he said.

"The ICC has been proactive with ideas and innovations, like the powerplays. The idea of the 'super-sub' wasn't as successful and got rid of quite quickly. One of the criticisms was that we trialled things at international as opposed to domestic level.

"Our tactics going forward are member countries trial changes first domestically and if they are successful, then we can take them on board at the international level," Richardson said.

The ICC cricket committee will discuss the result of the experiment when it meets next year.

Source:TOI

Michelle Obama to pitch for Chicago Olympics

Washington,

Washington, Sep 12 (PTI) US First Lady Michelle Obama would travel to Denmark's capital Copenhagen next month in support of Chicago's historic bid for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

On October 2, Michelle Obama will attend the 121st International Olympic Committee Session at the Bella Centre ? Copenhagen Congress Centre, where the host of the 2016 Summer Olympics will be selected from the remaining four candidate cities: Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.

"President Obama informed IOC President Count Jacques Rogge today that the fight to pass health insurance reform keeps him from committing at this time to travel to Copenhagen on October 2, but he will continue to work to support Chicago's bid along with the First Lady and Valerie Jarrett, a senior advisor to the President, who will accompany the First Lady to Copenhagen," the White House said today.

India beat New Zealand to reach tri-series final

Brief score:

Colombo, Sep 11 (PTI) India beat New Zealand by six wickets to reach the final of the Compaq Cup tri-series here tonight.

Brief score:

New Zealand: 155 all out in 46.3 overs.

India : 156 for 4 in 40.3 overs (Sachin Tendulkar 46, Suresh Raina 45 not, MS Dhoni 35; Daniel Vettori 2/33).

Collingwood and Anderson rested

Paul Collingwood

England stars Paul Collingwood and James Anderson will be rested for the next three and two matches respectively in the current one-day international series against Australia.

Durham batsman Collingwood and Lancashire pace bowler Anderson have not missed an England fixture since early February and will finally get a chance to rest their weary limbs after being told they can leave the squad preparing for Saturday's match at Lord's.

Although England are 3-0 down in the seven-match series and need a victory on Saturday to have any chance of winning the series, it was decided that the strain of such a heavy schedule in the aftermath of the Ashes triumph has taken its toll on the duo.

Former England one-day captain Collingwood will return for the final match of the campaign at Chester-le-Street next weekend.

Anderson, meanwhile, will join up with the squad again for the second of back-to-back day-nighters at Trent Bridge.

England jet out to South Africa for the Champions Trophy on September 21, which means the only chance to combat player fatigue is to rest them against world champions Australia despite the threat of a series thrashing.

Despite this short break, Collingwood, 33, faces the prospect of virtually 12 months without a decent break.

He has been engaged in international action since January 20 and is contractually obliged to make himself available for Delhi Daredevils in next month's Champions League.

That club tournament takes place during a three-and-a-half-week lull for England's players, who leave for the tour of South Africa on November 1.

That tour comprises four Tests and five one-day internationals and finishes on January 18.

Nehra, Ishant should be the strike bowlers

pace spearhead Javagal Srinath

Former pace spearhead Javagal Srinath today said young pacer Ishant Sharma should be the strike bowler for India with Ashish Nehra in the absence of injured frontline speedster Zaheer Khan.

Brushing aside concerns that the gangling Delhi pacer was not in his elements, Srinath said, "Ishant is still a strike bowler. Ashish (Nehra) and Ishant should lead as strike bowlers in the absence of Zaheer. Ishant has good attitude and fitness."

Sharma, who has taken 52 wickets in 18 Tests and 42 wickets in 30 ODIs, has grabbed only five wickts while conceding 210 runs in the last five ODIs that he played in New Zealand and West Indies.

In three Tests this year in New Zealand the 21-year-old bowler claimed eight wickets while giving away 334 runs.

Srinath, who was here to conduct a two-day seminar for domestic match referees ahead of the season, also said the other Delhi pacer, 30-year-old Nehra, was a good substitute for Zaheer who is unavailable till the end of the year.

"Nehra is a good replacement for Zaheer," said the Bangalore stalwart who is on the seven-man ICC match referees panel.

Srinath said the absence of regular openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir would lead to changes in the top order.

"Gautam and Viru are pivotal. Their absence will bring in lot of changes at the top and somebody should step and face the challenge," he said.

Sehwag is out of action since May following a shoulder injury that needed surgery and is set to make his comeback in the Champions T20 League next month for Delhi Daredevils.

In-form Gambhir, set to partner Sachin Tendulkar at the top of the order in Sri Lanka, had to return yesterday from the island nation after he was found to be unfit because of a groin injury. He has been advised rest for ten days.

Another Delhi player, flamboyant rookie Virat Kohli, has been sent as Gambhir's replacement.

© PTI