Short Corner — Chandigarh

Aparna wears badminton singles crownTop seed Aparna Popat had to inspire herself to turn the tables on the one whom she must have beaten ...

Aparna wears badminton singles crown
Top seed Aparna Popat had to inspire herself to turn the tables on the one whom she must have beaten more number of times than she could care to remember. Her 6-11, 11-6, 11-8 win over Neelima Choudary for the women’s singles title of the Indianoil-Servo Asian Satellite Badminton Championship today paled in comparison to the quality of the fare dished out by the two Malaysians, Lee Tusen Sing and Yeoh Kay Bin in the men’s singles title fight.

Davis Cup
Jim Courier will lead off for the United States against Belgian number one Filip Dewulf in the opening singles of the U S-Belgium Davis Cup quarter-final tie starting today. Yesterday’s draw arranged the second singles match between Andre Agassi against Christophe Van Garsse.

Rungta defends.
National cricket selection committee chairman Kishan Rungta today defended the choice of his colleagues in picking the A’ team for Holland and had a dig at critics by offering them his sympathies’. “I sympathise with people, including the administrators and cricketers, who are aggrieved with the selection of the Indian team to Denmark and Holland,’ Rungta said.

Story continues below this ad

IHF Colts win
Tamil Nadu thrashed Food Corporation of India 6-0 in a Pool D match in the 76th Madras Cricket Club-Murugappa Gold Cup Hockey Tournament on Friday. Indian Hockey Federation Colts routed Bihar XI 5-0 in a Pool D match. Bikram Pal Singh scored a brace in the 32nd and 44th minutes.

Visas issued
The five foreign athletic coaches who could not accompany the Indian squad for the Fukuoka Asian Track and Field Meet yesterday due to denial of visa by Japan will leave here tonight after being issued the papers this evening.

Nirupama out
Nirupama Vaidyanathan crashed out in straight sets to qualifier Nuria Montero of Spain in the quarter-final of the Gexto Challenger in Spain. She lost 2-6, 5-7. Earlier, Nirupama had got past Katalin Marosi of Hungary, ranked No 291 in three sets 4-6, 6-0, 6-3. In any case, Nirupama has picked up enough points to break into the top 160, her highest ranking this year.

Watts leads
Brian Watts, a Canadian-born American who plays most of his golf in Japan, broke par for the second successive day to take a two-shot lead halfway through the second round of the British Open. Watts added a 69 in much tougher conditions than for his opening 68 yesterday to reach a three-under-par total of 137 on the 7,018-yard Royal Birkdale course.