PARIS: Sania Mirza stormed into her first Grand Slam doubles final as she and her Russian partner Elena Vesnina defeated American duo of Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond in a thrilling three-setter in the semifinals of the French Open on Wednesday.
French Open 2011
Seeded seventh in the tournament, Sania and Vesnina beat their fourth seeded opponents 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 in 105 minute semifinal contest at the Roland Garros.
In the final, the Indo-Russian combo will face the unseeded Czech duo of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka who beat third seeded pair of Vania King of United States and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-3 in another semifinal.
This is Sania's third Grand Slam final appearance in her career - the first two being in the mixed doubles in the Australian Open.
Sania and ace compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi had won the Australian Open mixed doubles in 2009 while they were the losing finalists in the same Grand Slam tournament in 2008.
Sania, who paired up with Vesnina only in February, had a strap around just below her left knee but did not show any apparent problem as she played some superb winning shots across the net.
Sania and Vesnina broke their opponents early in the first set to race to 4-1 ahead before pocketing it 6-3 in 30 minutes.
The second set was a longer affair with both sides breaking serves though Sania and Vesnina were broken thrice in their serves to lose it 2-6 in 38 minutes. In the deciding set, Sania and Vesnina broke their opponents' serve in the first game itself and held theirs to take a 2-0 lead.
BOSTON: Shaquille O'Neal, one of the most dominating big men in NBA history in his prime, announced his retirement Wednesday after a 19-year career that saw him win four NBA titles.
"Shaq" was at his finest from 2000 through 2002 when he combined with star guard Kobe Bryant to guide the Los Angeles Lakers to three NBA crowns, and he added another in 2006 with Miami, two years after being traded to the Heat.
"im retiring," O'Neal posted on his Twitter microblogging website, which also included a video link in which he thanked his followers on the social media site.
O'Neal, 39, was nagged by injuries in the later seasons of his career, including failed stints to help bring titles to Phoenix, Cleveland alongside LeBron James and the Boston Celtics this season.
A nagging right Achilles tendon injury proved more than "Shaq" could overcome and said that he considered making a comeback but did not want to disappoint Celtics fans.
"I really thought about coming back but this Achilles is very damaged and if I had it done the recovery would be so long we'd have the same outcome as this last year - everyone sitting around and waiting for me," O'Neal said.
"I didn't want to let people down two years in a row. I didn't want to hold Boston hostage again.
"I'm letting everybody know now so ... the organization can try to get younger talent. I would love to come back, but they say once the Achilles is damaged it's never the same. I don't want to take that chance."
O'Neal, a 15-time NBA All-Star, ranks fifth on the all-time NBA scoring list with 28,596 points and his three NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Awards trail only Michael Jordan on the all-time list.
O'Neal, who ranks 12th on the NBA all-time rebound list with 13,099, played only 37 games for the Celtics this season, only three of those appearances coming in the last 2 1/2 months of the season.
Among NBA players with at least 2,000 baskets, O'Neal ranks second in shooting percentage with a 58.2 percent accuracy rate.
"Shaq" made the most of outside opportunities his NBA career offered, playing a genie in the 1996 movie "Kazaam" and the 1994 film "Blue Chips" where he played a young basketball star.
O'Neal also made rap albums, notably talking about growing up with his mother and stepfather in the song "Biological Didn't Bother".
The Orlando Magic made O'Neal the fist pick in the 1992 NBA Draft and "Shaq" was the NBA's 1993 Rookie of the Year.
He won the NBA scoring title in 1995 when he helped Orlando reach the NBA Finals, only to be swept by Houston, and in 2000, when the Lakers beat Indiana for O'Neal's first NBA title.
O'Neal famously announced his joining the Los Angeles Lakers in 1996 at the Atlanta Olympics, where he was a member of the US Olympic "Dream Team III" that captured a gold medal.
Bryant and O'Neal grew into a formidable combination but the two grew apart and after the Lakers lost the 2004 finals to Detroit, O'Neal was traded to Miami, where he and Dwyane Wade proved a formidable pairing, bringing a title to the Heat five years ago.
That was the last glory day for O'Neal, whose penchant for nicknames such as "The Big Aristotle" led him to dub himself "The Big Shaqtus" in Phoenix and "The Big Shamrock" in Boston.
His final season was his worst after losing a week in November to a bruised right knee, a week in December to a calf injury and a week in January with a sore right hip before the Achilles problems. He averaged only 9.2 points and 4.8 rebounds in 37 games.
O'Neal sported a Superman logo tattoo on one arm and another that featured a giant hand looming behind the Earth with the abbrevation TWISM, which stood for "The World Is Mine".
A Boston Celtics spokesman said the club had not received official notification of O'Neal's plan to end his career.
SYDNEY: Five-year bans handed to three Pakistani cricketers for spot-fixing offences were too lenient, according to a survey of international players released on Thursday.
Over three-quarters of respondents to the Federation of International Cricketers' Associations (FICA) players' survey, said the bans meted out to Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer were inadequate.
The trio, accused by Britain's News of the World of conspiring to deliberately bowl no-balls as part of a 'spot-fixing' betting scam last year, were banned by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
All deny wrongdoing and are appealing the verdicts at the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
"The vast number of players want significant penalties to be invoked against those who are found guilty of serious corruption offences," said FICA chief executive Tim May.
"Whilst 100 percent of players say that they will report any corrupt approaches made to them, 20 percent of them do not have confidence in the ICC to treat this information confidentially."
May said the vast majority of the 45 players polled were more comfortable reporting corruption approaches to their team manager, than to the ICC Anti Corruption Unit.
Meanwhile, nearly a third of players said they would retire early from international cricket to play exclusively in the Indian Premier League, citing fears over fixture clashes curbing their participation in the money-spinning event.
"The Indian Premier League continues to be popular with the players, and its superior pay structures for the players, continue to challenge players' priority over international cricket," May said.
"When players are able to earn over ten times their annual salary from their Boards, for just seven weeks cricket in the IPL, it would be foolhardy of Boards to continue to schedule international matches during IPL and expect players to remain loyal to the Board and international cricket," he said.
The survey also found that 54 percent of the players would retire from one or more formats of the game because of too much international cricket.
Players cited the major issues facing the game as governance, corruption and an overkill of international cricket, while only a single-figure percentage said decisions made at ICC Board level were in the wider interests of the game.
PARIS: Sania Mirza stormed into her first Grand Slam doubles final as she and her Russian partner Elena Vesnina defeated American duo of Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond in a thrilling three-setter in the semifinals of the French Open on Wednesday.
