Bopanna & Qureshi in quarters

New Delhi: India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi Tuesday advanced to the quarter finals of Gerry Weber Open after defeating the pair of Ivan Dodig and Alexandr Dolgopolov in straight sets in the first round of the event at Halle, Germany. The top-seeded Indo-Pak pair defeated the Dodig-Dolgopolov duo 7-5, 6-4.

Somdev loses

London: Somdev Dev Varman crashed out of the Queen’s tournament after suffering a shock 5-7, 3-6 defeat against Australian qualifier Matthew Ebden in the opening round.

Bomb blast

Chisinau: A car exploded in Moldova’s capital on Tuesday, killing the chairman of the country’s tennis federation, a government spokesman said. Igor Turcan was hospitalised with serious wounds to his leg after a car with Russian plates exploded as he as he walked out of the tennis federation headquarters.

Praise for Dhoni

Mumbai: After failing to score big in the run-up to the World Cup summit clash against Sri Lanka, Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni resembled a “bomb about to explode” ahead of the final, Yuvraj Singh said. “He (Dhoni) was not getting big scores in the tournament, but he kept working hard... Watching him in the nets gave one the impression that he was a ‘bomb about to explode’,” Yuvraj said.

Illyas fate

Lahore: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is likely to suspend national selector Mohammed Illyas for violating the terms of his employment contract.

Rai sole leader

Pune: Himmat Rai returned a five-under 67 to emerge sole leader after first round at the PGTI Players Championship, here Tuesday.

IOC support

London: International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge would welcome a bid from cricket to become a sport at future games, it was reported here Tuesday.

Pugilists’ show

New Delhi: India’s hopes of winning a bagful of gold medals at the Giraldo Cordova Cardin Memorial Boxing tournament, in Havana, Cuba, suffered a setback as the pugilists settled with just one silver and five bronze in Havana, Cuba. Manpreet Singh (91kg) won the lone silver .

Hockey squad

Calcutta: Mohammed Riyazuddin will lead the Bengal senior hockey team in the senior national championship, in Bhopal, from June 10.

The squad: Md. Riyazuddin (captain), Ashish Singer, Tapan Kr. Saha, Jotil Singh, Manoj Kiro, Gurdeep Singh, Gurpratap Singh, Avijit Biswas, Gurwinder Singh, Fardeen Khan, Danish Mustafa Khan, Sunder Singh, Amarjeet Ekka, Sunil Kujur, Lalit Baxla, Razi Abdi, Junas Bara, Shuvankar Bhuiyan; Coach: Istiyak Ali; Manager. Iqbal Singh

Staff reporter & Agencies