Global sport — Dipak Patel likely to retire

The New Zealand selectors are expected to name a squad on Wednesday to prepare for the tour of Zimbabwe in September and October. National selection panel convener Ross Dykes added to speculation regarding Patel’s retirement by confirming today his availability for the tour remained uncertain.

Patel was unavailable for comment at his Auckland home today.

Sargsian, ATP’s first Armenian champ

NEWPORT: Sargis Sargsian has become the ATP Tour’s first Armenian champion, beating New Zealand’s Brett Steven 7-6 (7-0), 4-6, 7-5 in the final of the Hall of Fame Championships.

“I don’t know what happened with my serve today. It just clicked,” said the fifth-seeded Sargsian, who had 17 aces and just two double-faults. “I was serving harder than I have all week.” Sargsian, 24, entered the tournament with just one match victory on grass.

Love four, Bjorn to wed again

STOCKHOLM: It’s love four for Bjorn Borg.

The tennis great from Sweden will enter into a wedlock again despite having three failed marriages to his credit — this time with a 26-year-old model, Kari Bernardt.

Marriage or not, Borg has broken a record in his lovelife by managing to stock on with Bernardt for all of five years in their live-in arrangement, which as he confesses, is much longer than any of his marriages so far. All his previous nuptial arrangements, which came under heavy media glare, lasted far less and ended with massive fireworks.

First it was Romanian star Mariana Simionescu (1980-84), then the tempestuous Italian singer, Loredana Berte, (1989-92) and then Jannike Bjorling, with whom he has his only issue, Robin. The eleven-year-old son of the star plays good tennis and nurses hope of emulating his father’s feats.

Akinwande hold-up could cost dear

STATELINE: In the wake of Mike Tyson’s bite, Henry Akinwande picked the wrong time not to fight.

Not only did it cost Akinwande a chance at the WBC heavyweight title, it could cost him his $1 million purse.

Two weeks after Tyson’s disqualification, Akinwande followed suit when he was disqualified in the fifth round Saturday for holding Lewis during a WBC heavyweight title fight that more closely resembled a wrestling match.

Under a new state law signed a day before the fight, Akinwande could face the forfeiture of his entire purse along with a suspension from boxing for his actions.

Lawmakers passed the law frustrated over being able to fine Tyson only ten per cent of his $30 million purse.

Buster on a comeback trail

BILOXI: Former undisputed world heavyweight champion Buster Douglas won the fifth fight in his year-old comeback bid, stopping fellow American Quinn Navarre in the fourth round here yesterday. Now he wants to challenge Britain’s Lennox Lewis for the crown.

Ex-champion Douglas sent Navarre to the canvas once in the third round and three times in the fourth, the last time with a left jab to end the fight with 35 seconds remaining.

Douglas, best known for beating Mike Tyson in 1990, was stopped in the third round later that year to reigning World Boxing Asociation champion Evander Holyfield. Now 37-year-old Douglas hopes to force himself into the title picture again after having beaten himself into a life-threatening diabetic coma in 1995.

Boldon wins second double on trot

STUTTGART: Trinidad’s dual Olympic bronze medallist Ato Boldon completed his second consecutive sprint double in the Grand Prix meeting here today.

The 23-year-old Boldon, who won the 100 and 200 metres in Stockholm tomorrow, recorded the world’s best time this year in the 200 finishing in 19.77 seconds — bettering his own 19.82 in stockholm. Boldon, who also recorded a double in Lausanne last year, eased away from American Maurice Greene and Namibian Frankie Fredricks, the 1993 200m world champion, in the final 20 metres.

Greene finished second while Fredericks tightened up at the end and was a poor third.

Marathoner Aguta hurt in car crash

NAIROBI: Reigning Boston Marathon and Commonwealth 10,000 metres champion Lameck Aguta of Kenya was badly injured in a car crash on Saturday, Kenyan police said today.

Aguta sustained severe head injuries in the accident on the road between Molo and Kericho in Rift Valley province. A police spokesman said Aguta was initially taken to hospital in Nakuru but had fallen into a coma and had been flown to Nairobi for treatment today.