Bopanna, Qureshi in quarters

Moscow: Top seeds Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul Haq Qureshi have advanced to the quarter finals of the $1,000,000 Kremlin Cup tennis tournament here. The Indo-Pak duo saw off Leos Friedl of the Czech Republic and Romanian Victor Hanescu 6-1, 3-6, 10-8 in a 76-minute battle.

Shuttlers up

New Delhi: Indian shuttlers Chetan Anand, Ajay Jayaram and Anand Pawar notched up straight-game wins to reach the quarter finals of the Dutch Open Grand Prix badminton tournament at Almere, the Netherlands on Thursday.

AFC inspection

New Delhi: The process of turning the I-League into a professional championship will begin, on Saturday, with the arrival of a six-member Asian Football Confederation (AFC) team in Calcutta to inspect the facilities of the I-League clubs there. The team will visit the offices of Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Chirag United and also inspect the three stadiums in the city that will be used to stage the I-League matches.

Gold Cup

Gangtok: United Sikkim Sporting Club showed Bhutan XI the door winning 1-0 in the first match of the Sikkim Governor’s Gold Cup, at the Paljor Stadium, here on Thursday.

Striker Sonam Bhutia scored the all-important goal in the 14th minute.

Sohail recalled

Karachi: The Pakistan Hockey Federation, stung by the national team’s poor performance in Delhi Commonwealth Games, have recalled experienced penalty corner specialist Sohail Abbas for the Asian Games training camp. Chief selector Hanif Khan said Sohail was called for the camp after a meeting in which the player expressed his keenness to play for Pakistan.

Poonia’s plan

New Delhi: Commonwealth Games gold medallist Krishna Poonia said she will reveal her plans regarding the proposed $20,000 discus throw duel between her and world champion Dani Samuels on Tuesday.

“We will reveal it on October 26. But I am ready for any challenge,” she said.

Nada hearing

New Delhi: The Nada Disciplinary Panel, hearing the case of 12 dope-tainted athletes, including three in Asian Games squad, was on Thursday adjourned for November 3 after their counsel sought cross examination of officials who conducted the tests.

R. K. Anand, the counsel for the athletes, moved an application seeking to cross examine the officials who were involved in the custody of the dope samples, and the panel granted his request.

No report

Karachi: The Pakistan team management is yet to submit its reports on the England tour, during which a spot-fixing scandal rocked international cricket. A PCB official confirmed that they had not received any tour report from former manager Yawar Saeed or coach Waqar Younis.