The Morung ExpressSPORTSSunday6 March 201110 Dimapur

DAVIS CUP 2011 ROUND FIRST DAYSantiago, Chile, March 5 (agencies): Sixteen matches in the books, but only two real upsets to speak of so far in the fi rst round of Davis Cup 2011 World Group action.Romania at Argentina (Parque Roca, Buenos Aires) (Argentina Leads 2-0) - What I expected to be the most straight-forward of the eight ties has had the win-ners expected, even if the matches have taken a little longer than expected. Da-vid Nalbandian opened the tie with a 6-3. 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 win over Adrian Ungur, and Juan Monaco put Argentina a win from advancing with a 7-6(5), 1-6, 6-1, 6-1 win over Victor Hanescu. Horia Tecau is a solid doubles player, but I still expect the Gauchos to close it out in the doubles.

Spain at Belgium (Spiroudome, Charleroi) (Spain Leads 2-0) - Fer-nando Verdasco was a late substitution for David Ferrer, but the Spain train rolled on as expected, winning all six sets contested on Friday. Verdasco rolled over Xavier Malisse 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 to open the tie, and Rafael Nadal rolled in the second with a 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 win over Ru-ben Bemelmans. Spain didn't need Nad-al to beat Belgium, but that his decision to return from injury at the competition shows the Spanish commitment to Davis Cup that has kept Spain's Armada sailing so fl awlessly in recent years. And in 2011, there's absolutely no indication that the ship will sink in Charleroi.

Kazakhstan at Czech Republic (CEZ Arena, Ostrava) (Tied 1-1) - Rankings held in the fi rst two rubbers of this tie, with Andrey Golubev besting Jan Hajek in a surprisingly tight 6-7(4) 7-6(3) 6-1 6-7(4) 3-6 marathon, then Tomas Berdych surviving several fi rst set defi -cits en route to a 7-6(5), 6-2, 6-3 win over Mikhail Kukushkin. Kukushkin-Hajek is tough to predict, but it seems like the Czechs should be the favorites in the other two ties. Still a whole lot to sort out in Ostrava.

United States at Chile (Estadio Nacio-nal, Santiago) (Tied 1-1) - The biggest surprise of the day came in its fi nal match. After Andy Roddick got through in a pre-dictably grindy four setter against Nicolas Massu, ATP #165 ranked Paul Capdeville came back from down two sets to upset #32 John Isner 6-4 in the fi fth set. Isner's year has been entirely disappointing, with about ten fewer wins so far in 2011 than he had at this point in 2010. It's an interest-ing trial for new captain Jim Courier in his fi rst tie, especially since with both Bryan brothers on the team he has no fl exibility in his singles lineup. But the Bryans will win, and it's tough to see Roddick losing to Capdeville as well.

France at Austria (Vienna Airport Hangar 3, Vienna) (France Leads 2-0) - What was always going to be a tough tie for Austria to win became com-pletely impossible when Jeremy Char-dy beat Jurgen Melzer in straight sets in the opening rubber. A routine straight-sets victory by Gilles Simon over Stefan Koubek (he's still playing?) in the sec-ond rubber puts the French in position to close it out on Saturday at the airport. Maybe the Austrians will let them catch an early fl ight home.

Russia at Sweden (Borashallen, Bo-ras) (Sweden Leads 2-0) - Sweden is a deceptively tough team, but this result will be completely about the decimation of the Russian team. Teymuraz Gab-ashvili and Igor Andreev are not strong options for any tie, much less one on an indoor hard court. Russia will be facing relegation in the playo� s this year, and if they come up against a team like Swit-zerland they could easily be demoted for the fi rst time over a decade.

Germany at Croatia (Dom Sportova, Zagreb) (Tied 1-1) - The tie I expected to be closest has completely lived up to that billing, with each side winning a fi ve setter in Zagreb Friday. Marin Cilic and Philipp Kohlschreiber each came down from two sets to one against Flo-rian Mayer and Ivan Dodig, respectively. Croatia should be able to serve its way to a victory in doubles, but it's still far too early to predict much in this tie.

Spain's Rafael Nadal returns the ball towards Belgium's Ruben Bemelmans, on the fi rst day at the World Group, fi rst round of the Davis Cup in Charleroi, Bel-gium on March 4. (AP Photo)

Bopanna goes down fi ghtingNOVI SAD, MARCH 5 (PTI): Rohan Bopanna put up a gallant fi ght against world number 18 Viktor Troicki be-fore losing as India conceded a 0-1 lead against top seed and defending cham-pions Serbia in the fi rst round of the Davis Cup World Group tie here on Friday. A formidable doubles player but ranked 629 in singles, Bopanna lost 3-6, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 3-6 in the fi rst singles after fighting for three-hours and 19 minutes at Spens Sports Center.

The onus to bring India back in the tie lies with the 93rd rank Somdev Dev-varman, who will now lock horns with world number 45 Janko Tipsarevic in the second singles. Bopanna defied odds to stage an excellent comeback as he was down by two sets but kept fi ghting and things changed when he grabbed the must-win third set with a break of serve in the 12th game.

Going with the momentum, Bo-panna came out fi ring on all cylinders, reducing the sea-di� erence between the rankings to mere a number, and stretched the match to the deciding fi fth set. A lot of drama followed when Bopanna was serving for the fourth set in the ninth game having broken Troicki in the previous game as he

argued with the chair umpire over a call. Already incense with the home crowd, which was making a lot noise in backing the son of the soil, Bopan-na lost his cool when a call resulted in his double fault. India captain S P Misra was also not happy as many of the calls earlier also went against Bopanna. However, Bopanna after saving two breakpoints in that game,

stunned the crowd by winning the set when a Troicki return kissed the net.

Somdev draws India level with SerbiaBELGRADE, MARCH 5 (AFP): Asian and Commonwealth Games champion Somdev Devvarman defeated Janko

Tipsarevic to pull India back level at 1-1 with defending titleholders Serbia on the opening day of their Davis Cup World Group first round tie. Viktor Troicki, who sealed his country's victo-ry against France in December's 2010 fi nal in Belgrade, put Serbia into the lead in Friday's fi rst singles on the clay at Novi Sad. He raced into a two set lead over Rohan Bopanna, who then clawed

his way back into contention to set up a cli� anger which the Serb eventually won 6-3, 6-3, 5-7, 3-6, 6-3.

"It was a tough match. I came back after 2-0 and I am disappointed I couldn't manage to win," Bopanna told reporters. Devvarman then lev-elled the tie with a 3-0 defeat of Tip-sarevic, although the Serb player dug deep, leading 4-1 in each of the opening two sets with the Indian winning 7-5, 7-5, 7-6 (7/3).

"I feel for Janko because he prob-ably didn't have enough time to adjust from Delray Beach, where it was a lot warmer and that much easier to serve," Devvarman said. "I served well, kept fighting and always believed I could win the match," he added.

Serbia, missing their best player, world number three and Australian Open winner Novak Djokovic, will be represented by their strongest pairing of Ilija Bozoljac and Nenad Zimonjic in Saturday's doubles where they come up against Bopanna and Devvarman. India su� ered a major blow to their chances after Grand Slam-winning doubles pair Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi were forced to withdraw due to injuries. But Devvarman was confi dent his team still had a chance to defeat the Serbs. "We defi nitely believe now we can win this tie and we will go out there to give it our best shot," he said.

(Left) Rohan Bopanna of India returns a ball to Viktor Troicki of Serbia during their Davis Cup World Group 1st round match in Novi Sad, Serbia. (Right) Somdev Devvarman of India reacts during their Davis Cup World Group 1st Round match against Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia, in Novi Sad, Serbia, Friday, March 4. (AP Photos)

Lhomithi Sporting Club informsDIMAPUR, MARCH 5 (MExN): The Lhomithi Sporting Club has in-formed all concerned crick-et teams/clubs that the last date for joining for 1st Di-mapur Open T20 Cricket Tournament which is to commence from March 15 onwards at DDSC Stadium is March, 10. Therefore all interested clubs and teams are informed to join on or before March 10. No teams whatsoever would be enter-tained at March 10, stated a press note.

Indian Army, IAF, Chennai Customs enter semi-fi nalNEW DELHI, MARCH 5 (PTI): Indian Army, Indi-an Air Force Chennai Cus-toms and Western Railway entered the semi-finals of the RIBA All-India Basket-ball tournament being held at the Vasant Kunj Sports Complex ground. Indian Army beat DDA by 61-51 while Western Railway de-feated RCF 64-43 in a one-sided encounter. Indian Air Force beat Prithvi Nath Club 67-35 to make it to the last four along with Chen-nai Customs who brushed aside the challenge from Signals team with a margin of 81-42. Chennai cager Sar-van Rajan scored 35 points for his team and was com-plemented by Vinod who scored 29 points.

Real coach Mourinho escapes stabbing attempt at airportMADRID, MARCH 5 (AGENCIES): A fan tried to stab Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho at a north-western Spanish airport but ended up injuring his body-guard instead. According to Spain's 'El Mundo' newspa-per, the attacker had target-ed the Portuguese coach at the A Coruna Airport when Mourinho was signing au-tographs last Friday. The bodyguard only became aware of the four-inch stab wound when he boarded the bus. Real Madrid has since beefed up security for the former Chelsea boss.

We must bounce back, says FergusonMANCHESTER, MARCH 5 (AFP): Sir Alex Fergu-son has told his Manches-ter United players that they must show the character of champions and bounce back against Liverpool on Sunday. The Premier League leaders have endured a rotten few days after throwing away the lead to lose 2-1 at Chelsea be-fore Ferguson was charged on Thursday by the Football Association for improper conduct. It is hardly the ideal preparation for one of Unit-ed's biggest games of the sea-son as they look to surpass Liverpool in terms of domes-tic title success.

Currently locked with Liverpool on the most num-ber of English top-fl ight ti-tles won - 18 apiece - United would dearly love to take a huge step towards overtak-ing their bitter rivals by win-ning at Anfield on Sunday. United start the weekend four points clear of nearest rivals Arsenal although Ar-sene Wenger's side will re-duce the gap to a just single point should they defeat Sunderland on Saturday. "At this club, you have to recov-er," said Ferguson, who is de-manding an immediate re-sponse following the events at Chelsea, where United finished with 10 men after Nemanja Vidic was sent o� in the dying stages. "That re-sult has put us back but we have to recover for Sunday's game against Liverpool." Midfi elder Michael Carrick, who has just penned a new three-year contract, echoed his manager's thoughts. "We have to forget it and move on," said Carrick. "It's a huge game on Sunday and we'll be ready for it. "We can move on quickly. We have to. We're used to doing that and we're usually good at it. Hopefully we can bounce back again." With Vidic sus-pended and Rio Ferdinand (calf ) and Jonny Evans (an-kle) both injured, Ferguson has something of a defensive crisis on his hands.

West Brom stormed to their fi rst win under Roy Hodgson as they beat local rivals Birmingham City 3-1.BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND, MARCH 5 (AGENCIES): The sides went in goalless at half-time but the game burst into life when Youssuf Mulumbu opened the scoring af-ter 47 minutes. Ben Foster's poor clearance put Birmingham under pressure and sub-stitute Peter Odemwingie threaded the ball through for Mulumbu to poke home. The Baggies, however, were caught cold just sec-onds after the restart when Stephen Carr released Lee Bowyer and his low cross was converted by Jean Beausejour.

Roy Hodgson was less than impressed with his side for going to sleep but the for-mer Liverpool boss was all smiles again when James Morrison cracked the visi-tors back into the lead in the 58th minute. The midfielder controlled the ball with his left foot, took a touch with his right and then hammered it home with his left to leave Foster well beaten. Birmingham again looked to hit back immediately but this time Scott Carson was on hand to beat away David Bentley's powerful drive. And Scharner put the result beyond doubt in the 72nd minute when he was left unmarked at the far post to head the third. Baggies boss Hodgson said: "I thought it was a very good performance all round. It's the players who

score the goals or do the spectacular things that catch the eye but it was a very good defensive performance. "Maybe we were a little bit lucky to catch Birmingham not at their best and therefore were able to win reasonably comfortably in the end."

Chris Brunt had the first attempt on target, although his header from Je-rome Thomas' cross did not extend Fos-ter. A mistake by Roger Johnson then let in Thomas for another run at goal but his shot was blocked. Birmingham started to get a foothold in the game and an error by Scharner almost proved costly for the visi-tors when his misdirected pass was seized on by Cameron Jerome. The striker's low shot beat Carson but fl ew just wide.

The Carling Cup winners kept plug-ging away and Jerome missed a golden chance to put them ahead after 36 min-utes. Beausejour got the better of Abdou-laye Meite before fl oating over an inviting cross, only for his team-mate to glance a header wide from 10 yards. Hodgson threw on Odemwingie for the second half and he made an instant impact with a perfectly-timed pass to allow Mulumbu to equalise. Birmingham were level inside a minute and the clash quickly began to boil over with Bowyer booked for a challenge on Mu-lumbu and Liam Ridgewell and Scharner joining him in the referee's notebook after an ugly tussle. West Brom refused to roll over and Morrison cut inside former Bag-gies star Curtis Davies before blasting the ball beyond Foster.

Hodgson Seals First Win With West Brom

Birmingham City's Cameron Jerome, center, competes for the ball with West Bromwich Albion's Abdoulaye Meite, right, and Jonas Olsson during their English Premier League soccer match at St' Andrews stadium, Birmingham, England on March 5. (AP Photo)