Sania & partner in final

Brussels: Sania Mirza and her American partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands stormed into the title clash of the WTA Brussels Open after struggling past Anastasia Rodionova and Casey Dellacqua 6-3, 4-6, 10-5, here on Thursday.

The fourth seeded Indo-American pair made a good start but faced stiff resistance from the Australian combo as the match progressed before winning in one hour and 21 minutes in the semi-finals of the $637,400 clay court event.

Bopanna out

Nice: Second seeds Rohan Bopanna and David Marrero suffered a shock first round defeat to crash out of the Nice Open, here.

The Indo-Spanish pair lost 3-6, 3-6 to American wildcards John Isner and Sam Querrey in just 54 minutes.

Diptayan draws

Tirupati: Overnight sole leader G. Akash maintained his lead with eight points after settling for a draw with FM Diptayan Ghosh of Bengal in the ninth round of the 50th National Challengers Chess Championship here on Thursday.

Negi saves day

Zaozhuang: GM Parimarjan Negi saved the day for the Indian men as they settled for a 2-2 draw with Vietnam in the seventh round of the Asian Nations Chess Cup.

Negi’s victory over Nguyen Van Huy came after P. Harikrishna was shocked by Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son and Abhijeet Gupta had drawn with Dao Thein Hai. K Sasikiran also drew his game with Le Quang Liem.

In the women’s championship, the Indian eves won 3.5-0.5 against lowly placed Singapore.

Joshna in semis

Chennai: India’s seasoned Joshna Chinappa exhibited tremendous skills in wearing down higher-ranked Carrie Ramsy of England in straight games to join her compatriot Anaka Alankamony in the semi-finals of the Chennai Open Squash Championship here on Thursday.

Telegraph Cup

Calcutta: TCS Vintage defeated TCS Red 1-0 while Magma ‘A’ beat Blue Star 1-0 in the Main Plate division semi-finals of the CC&FC Corporate Five-a-side invitational football tournament for The Telegraph Cup 2012, at CCFC ground, on Sunday.

Other Results (all semi-finals): Losers Plate: Madhya Bharat Papers 8 Wipro Ltd 7, Pricewaterhouse Coopers 2 Vodafone 1; Bowl: Berger Paints 4 HDFC Ltd 3; ITC 'A' 3 M. Junction 0.

Lasith included

Colombo: Sri Lanka have included seam bowler Lasith Malinga in their T20 and ODI squads for the home series against Pakistan starting next month.

T20 Squad

M. Jayawardene, T. Dilshan, K. Sangakkara, D. Chandimal, A.Mathews, L.Thirimanne, K. Lokuarchchi, T. Perera, N.Kulasekera, S.Senanayake, L.Malinga, C.Kapugedera, U.Tharanga, I.Udana.

ODI Squad

M.Jayawardene, T. Dilshan, K.Sangakkara, D. Chandimal, A. Mathews, L.Thirimanne, J.Mendis, T.Perera, N.Kulasekera, S. Senanayake, L.Malinga, R.Herath, U.Tharanga, N. Pradeep, D.Fernando.

Staff reporter & agencies