Alisa ready to restart her career

Key Biscayne: Alisa Kleybanova says she will bring a whole new approach to her tennis career when she returns to tournament action on Tuesday after a ten-month battle with cancer.

The Russian was in the top 20 and tipped to rise higher in the game before she was diagnosed with stage two Hodgkins lymphoma after the Italian Open last May.

“I don’t want to think about rankings, I just want to be on the court and feel good. I just want to be myself,” she said.

Sania advances

Miami: Sania Mirza moved into the second and final round of the qualifying event of the Sony Ericsson Open, a WTA Premier event, with a straight set victory over 18th seed Irina Falconi.

Sania faced stiff resistance from the American in the first set before pulling off a 7-6 (4), 6-0 win in one hour and 18 minutes. Sania broke the world No. 100 thrice each in both the sets.

Sania will now fight it out with American 10th seed and world No. 90 Sloan Stephens for a place in the main draw of the event.

Poulami to lead

New Delhi: Sharath Kamal and Poulami Ghatak will lead a six-member Indian team in the Olympic qualifiers to be held in Hong Kong from April 19 to 22.

The six-member Indian contingent will have three men — 2006 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Sharath, newly-crowned national champion Anthony Amalraj and Soumyajit Ghosh — and three women — reigning national champion Poulami, Shamini Kumaresan and young Ankita Das.

Ricardo step

Sao Paulo: Ricardo Teixeira severed his ties with Fifa on Monday, a week after he resigned as head of the Brazilian Football Confederation and organiser of the 2014 World Cup. Teixeira said he was stepping down from Fifa’s executive committee for personal reasons.

T20 qualifiers

Dubai: Afghanistan beat Bermuda by 15 runs to remain undefeated and book their place alongside Ireland and the Netherlands in the playoffs at the World Twenty20 qualifiers on Tuesday. Afghanistan topped Group A.

The Netherlands, which defeated Hong Kong by 38 runs, finished runner-up in Group A. Ireland, after defeating Oman by 44 runs, finished second in Group B.

Giles re-elected

London: Giles Clarke has been re-elected as chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board for the next three years.

Ajit retained

Mumbai: Ajit Agarkar has been retained as Mumbai’s captain for the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy knock-out meet to be played from March 23-27. Seeded into the quarter finals, Mumbai will take on Tamil Nadu on March 24.

The squad: Ajit Agarkar, Ajinkya Rahane, Wasim Jaffer, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Abhishek Nayar, Aditya Tare, Iqbal Abdullah, Shoaib Shaikh, Ankit Chavan, Kshemal Waingankar, Anup Revandkar, Siddharth Chitnis, Javed Khan