Bhambri clinches crown

New Delhi: A resurgent Yuki Bhambri won the first ever ATP Challenger singles title of his career after scoring a facile straight-set win over Israeli fourth seed Amir Weintraub in Fergana, Uzbekistan on Sunday.

The unseeded Indian, ranked 297, recorded a 6-3, 6-3 win in one hour and 20 minutes over the world number 185 in the summit clash of the $35,000 hard court event.

The victory is expected to push Yuki to top-220 in the ranking, which will make him the highest-ranked Indian in the ATP charts.

Argentina up

Duesseldorf: Argentina won both singles matches to take an unassailable 2-0 lead over the US on the opening day of the Team World Cup.

The eight-nation tournament on clay is a warm-up for the French Open, which starts in a week’s time. Carlos Berlocq defeated Andy Roddick 6-2, 6-2 to put Argentina ahead and Leonardo Mayer outlasted Ryan Harrison 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 to secure Argentina's win.

Lorenzo best

Paris: Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo climbed back to top spot in the world championships when he took his second victory of the season at the French MotoGP in Le Mans on Sunday.

The 2010 world champion, fourth on the grid, mastered the rainy conditions to finish 9.905 seconds ahead of Italy's Valentino Rossi, who had his best result so far for the Ducati team.Australian Casey Stoner, who announced this week that he will retire from the sport at the end of the 2012 season, took third place while his Honda team mate Dani Pedrosa, who had started on pole, was fourth.

Lorenzo, who won the season's first event in Qatar, tops the standings on 90 points, eight ahead of defending champion Stoner.

West Ham back

London: West Ham United won a typically tense and scrappy Championship playoff final thanks to an 87th-minute goal from Ricardo Vaz Te which put the Hammers back in the Premier League with a 2-1 win over Blackpool at Wembley on Saturday.

Vasily to miss

Moscow: Fullback Vasily Berezutsky will miss the 2012 European Championship after failing to recover from a hip injury, Russia coach Dick Advocaat said on Sunday.

“Berezutsky won’t be able to regain his form in time for the tournament,” Advocaat said following the opening day of Russia's training camp.

Zaozhuang: Top rated Indian GM K. Sasikiran scored the most important victory and paved the way for a 3.5-0.5 victory over Iran in the fourth round of Asian Nations Chess Cup in progress here.

In the women’s section, the Indian eves continued with their good run to beat Mongolia 2.5-1.5 and now occupy the sole second spot on six points.

2nd seed falls

Tirupati: Second seed IM S. Satyapragyan crumbled under time pressure to Praveen Prasad while three players, including world under-18 IM Debashis Das, shared the lead with four points from as many rounds in the 50th National Challengers Chess Championship here on Sunday.

In a surprising result, Satyapragyan succumbed to time pressure to hand full points to his Andhra Pradesh rival P Praveen Prasad in a keenly contested fourth round encounter.