Webber takes

Monaco: Mark Webber driving a Red Bull took pole position for Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix here in Saturday’s final qualifying session. He outpaced nearest rival Pole Robert Kubica in a Renault by three-tenths of a second.

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel was third fastest ahead of Felipe Massa of Ferrari. His teammate Fernando Alonso will start from the pit lane after wrecking his car. Force India duo Toni Liuzzi and Adrian Sutil will start 10th and 12th respectively.

India win

New Delhi: A superb hattrick by Rani Rampal helped the Indian women’s team beat hosts New Zealand 3-2 in the first game and go one up in the five-match hockey Test series in Palmerston North on Saturday.

Paes in semis

Madrid: Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy defeated Nicolas Almagro and Marc Lopez 2-6, 7-5, 10-3 to reach the semi-finals of the Madrid Masters. In the men’s singles, Rafael Nadal overcame Almagro 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 to reach the finals. In the women’s singles Venus Williams, who beat Shahar Peer 6-3, 6-0 in the semis, will take on Aravane Rezai in the final.

Negi leads

New Delhi: Second seed Parimarjan Negi Saturday beat fifth seed GM Eltaj Safarli to stay sole leader with seven-and-a-half points in the ongoing Parsvnath Commonwealth Chess Championship.

Korea crown

Kuala Lumpur: South Korea upset defending champions China 3-1 to win the Uber Cup women’s badminton tournament for the first time on Saturday. China had previously won the tournament all six times since 1998.

SSP out

Mallorca: SSP Chowrasia missed the cut by a stroke after turning in a two-over 72 in the second round of the European Tour’s Mallorca Open golf tournament. Chowrasia’s combined total stood at seven-over 147. James Kingston (70) and Swede Pelle Edberg (64) were in joint lead.

2 more medals

New Delhi: India continued their impressive run in the ongoing Senior Assian Wrestling Championships and added a silver (Rajender Kumar) and a bronze (Sunil Kumar) to their kitty.

Powell on top

Doha: Jamaica’s Asafa Powell recovered from a poor start to win the men’s 100 metres at the opening Diamond League meet in steamy Qatar on Friday. The former world record holder won in 9.81 seconds. Compatriot Nesta Carter was second in 9.88.

Younis case

Lahore: Former Pakistan captain Younis Khan’s lawyer has claimed that his client’s statement, recorded before a PCB inquiry committee, has been twisted. “My client says it contains remarks that he never made… before the inquiry committee. It also does not have remarks he had made to the committee,” Younis’s lawyer said.