Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) — Venus Williams became the latest women’s seed to be eliminated from the U.S. Open, losing in three sets to former champion Kim Clijsters after sister Serena advanced to the quarterfinals.

Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal avoided any mishaps in the men’s draw yesterday, winning in straight sets to reach the fourth round of the year’s final Grand Slam tennis tournament at the National Tennis Center in New York.

Wildcard entrant Clijsters, in her first major since ending a two-year retirement last month, won 6-0, 0-6, 6-4 to send Williams to her earliest exit in five years at the tournament she won in 2000 and 2001. Only six of 32 women’s seeds remain.

“I feel I’m at a point where, if I play good and if I stay consistent, I can make it tough for the other girls,” Clijsters told reporters.

It was the first meeting between Williams and Clijsters since the Belgian beat the American in the quarterfinals four years ago en route to the title. Clijsters, who has won 34 singles titles and spent 19 weeks ranked No. 1 in the world, returned after a 28-month break during which she got married and had a daughter.

Clijsters will play China’s Li Na, the No. 18 seed, for a place in the final four, where she could face Serena Williams. The defending champion cruised past Daniela Hantuchova 6-2, 6-0 to set up a quarterfinal with 10th-seed Flavia Pennetta of Italy, who defeated No. 7 Vera Zvonareva of Russia 3-6, 7-6 (8-6), 6-0.

“I just want to keep this level and just stay focused,” said the second-seeded Williams, who’s seeking a 12th Grand Slam singles title.

Oudin Upsets

The next highest-seeded woman remaining is No. 6 Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia, who seeks a spot in the quarterfinals today against No. 9 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark. American Melanie Oudin, who upset former champion Maria Sharapova and 2004 runner-up Elena Dementieva her past two matches, is also in action against another Russian in No. 13 Nadia Petrova.

The top four men are all into the round of 16 after second- seeded Murray raced to a 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 win over American Taylor Dent and No. 3 Nadal beat fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro 7-5, 6-4, 6-4.

Britain’s Murray next faces 16th-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia, while Nadal meets No. 13 Gael Monfils of France.

Also moving into the fourth round yesterday were No. 6 Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina, No. 7 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, No. 11 Fernando Gonzalez of Chile and No. 24 Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain.

Federer Streak

Five-time defending champion Roger Federer is back in action today against Spanish No. 14 seed Tommy Robredo.

The top-seeded Swiss hasn’t lost a match at the U.S. Open since 2003 and is trying to become the first man to win six consecutive titles since tennis turned professional in 1968.

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, seeded fourth, plays in today’s final scheduled match against No. 15 Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic. Elsewhere in the men’s draw, No. 8 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia takes on No. 12 Robin Soderling of Sweden and No. 10 Fernando Verdasco of Spain faces unseeded American John Isner.

The 6-foot-9 Isner was a five-set winner in his third-round match against Andy Roddick, who was the last American man to win a major at the 2003 U.S. Open. This is the just the second time in seven Grand Slam appearances that Isner got past the first round. Roddick, at No. 5, is the highest men’s seed to be eliminated so far, as only two of the top 10 have lost.

By Erik Matuszewski and Danielle Rossingh
Source:Bloomberg

Chandigarh: With the 600 cc car they have designed and fabricated, a bunch of engineering students from Punjab are all geared up to take part in the prestigious Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) competition in the US next month.

This car is made by a group of 10 students of engineering (nine from mechanical and one from electrical stream) of Rayat Institute of Engineering and Information Technology, near Ropar town in Punjab, around 50 km from here.

They will participate in the Formula SAE International Competition at Fontana, California in the US, June 17-20.

“We are determined to give a tough fight to all other universities. Our concept is based on speed and our car can easily go up to a speed of 260 km per hour in normal conditions. We have tested it on different kinds of roads,” vice-captain of the group Kenneth Dean told reporters Saturday.

“The cost of this car is nearly Rs.650,000 but the overall cost of this project is Rs.35 lakh (Rs. 3.5 million). All the members of our team have contributed Rs.200,000 each and rest is borne by our college,” added Dean.

He said the group has been working on this project for the last six months. The car has a five speed gear and it can reach 110 km per hour within only 4.4 seconds.

“Its weight is 300 kg with aerodynamic design and it’s equipped with advanced safety equipment. We have used various hi-tech technologies in the car and it has been designed and finally analysed using software like Pro-E and AN-SYS,” pointed out Dean.

SAE is a 29-year-old annual competition and this year only one college from India is competing among 81 universities from across the world. Other participating countries include the US, Britain, Italy, Japan, Brazil, Germany and Australia.

In June 2008, students of the same college went to the SAE competition in Michigan in the US with their super-mileage car and won accolades for the country.

“Our super-mileage car bagged first place in Asia and 13th position in the world. It could easily give a mileage of 250 km in one litre. That time our focus was on mileage but this time, we zeroed only on speed,” said Gurvinder Singh Bahra, vice-chairman of educational group Rayat-Bahra.

The official Indian Premier League (IPL) website has incorporated Microsoft’s Silverlight platform to improve viewer experience and increase site interactivity.

Silverlight will allow IPL to deliver content, including real time ball-by-ball commentary, scoreboard updates, match schedules, team standings, detailed player profiles, and behind the scenes snippets, to cricket audience across the globe. The website will also provide a customized Internet Explorer 8 for IPL fans to stay connected with all the action.

The website’s image gallery has been built using Microsoft’s Deep Zoom technology, which will enable publishing of high-resolution images.

Video gallery is an on-demand interactive gallery using Silverlight to air video highlights. It will provide the end-user with features to filter videos based on match, team, player, etc. The videos can also be shared with friends (after community features are built) or commented upon. The ‘Highlights’ gallery will also provide a collection of videos from the tournament. The user can navigate through the collection of videos and filter them by various criteria like ‘Player’, ‘Team’, and ‘Match’ etc.

The website will also provide multiple video streams, which can be selected based on user preferences and bandwidth.

Christchurch: Hello and welcome to the live coverage of the third ODI between India and New Zealand 2009 being played in Christchurch. Indians leading the series 1-0 and have dominated with the bat.Here are the Full Scorecard on 3rd ODI:

The end of a highly entertaining game. India has gone up 2-0, and though the margin of victory - 58 runs - may indicate they won convincingly, New Zealand gave them a serious scare. Ryder and McCullum started off superbly, adding 166 in pretty quick time.

India were poor in the field to start with, dropping the openers and conceding quite a few runs by way of misfields and overthrows. However, Raina sparked somewhat of a revival after running out McCullum and Yuvraj followed suit, getting rid of Ross Taylor.

New Zealand lost eight wickets for 95 runs and that lost the match for them. There was superb resistance towards the end and it seemed at one point that Mills and Southee could make the Indians pay for letting it slip after they had been in command throughout the middle overs.

However, the visitors were just one wicket away from sealing a win, and once Mills was gone, so was the match for the home team. A competitive game nevertheless, and India have ensured they can’t lose this series from here on.

McCullum: “We didn’t bowl well enough. It was amazing batting from the Indians, but from our point of view we weren’t accurate enough. I did enjoy the opportunity of captaining my side, but unfortunately we weren’t good enough. The fact that Butler was injured halfway through the spell and that Oram wasn’t able to finish his spell did affect us. A good opening stand was the only chance we had, but despite the slide later on, I’m proud of the way we played.”

Dhoni: “It’s disappointing we dropped those catches early on, the bowling was simply not up to the mark. It was a pleasure to watch Sachin, and Yuvraj, once he gets going, it’s hard to stop him, especially on such grounds. Our batting is our strength, and if you post a big total you can put any side under pressure even if you are playing with four bowlers. We were worried about the scares during the opening stand and the late resistance, but it was all a matter of getting wickets which we managed to do”

Sachin Tendulkar is the Man of the Match: “I started off well in Wellington and was able to carry that form into this one. I haven’t played as many ODIs in New Zealand as a result of injury, and it feels great to have scored my first century here. The pitch was excellent, so was the ground. You need to get used to the dimensions here and bat accordingly.”

That’s all from here folks, thanks for tuning in and sending us your feedback. Join us for the fourth ODI in Hamilton on March 11. Until then, it’s goodbye from all of us here at MyNewsWire. Adios!

Unidentified gunmen have attacked the bus taking Sri Lankan and Pakistani cricketers to a cricket stadium in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore.

At least five Sri Lankan cricketers have been wounded and some police officers are also thought to have been injured.

The second cricket Test between Pakistan and Sri Lanka has been cancelled as a result of the attack.

For Video Clic Here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7920272.stm

It seems the International Cricket Council (ICC) has realized the enormous benefits the Internet has as a medium of marketing and propaganda. Yesterday, it roped in Internet giant Yahoo! as its online partner for all ICC events.

What Yahoo! gets out of it.

After a troubled 2008, this year has begun on a positive note for Yahoo! The 3-year deal entitles Yahoo! to exclusive online content rights & marketing entitlements for major ICC tournaments, including World Cup 2011, ICC World, Twenty20, and ICC Champions Trophy. Yahoo! will also have access to exclusive images, videos, interviews and player chats around all major ICC events.

Yahoo! to Launch dedicated ICC site!

For its part, Yahoo! has created an exclusive property called iccevents.yahoo.com , which will host all relevant information for every ICC event. Yahoo! has also launched a new, global cricket website — cricket.yahoo.com . Yahoo! calls it the ‘complete resource’ on the game. It is expected to feature news, updates, images, match schedules, statistics, and player profiles. The site however is still in the beta version.

ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said, “In today’s technology-driven world, this is a massive boost for the ICC and cricket. The ICC corporate website and the various event sites that will spring from this partnership will set a new benchmark for innovation and user interaction to ensure that people who choose to follow their team online are rewarded with an entertaining and exciting experience.”

Beijing on August 11: India has created history after 28 years when Abhinav Bindra has shoot the final bullet in 10M air rifle and got the target. No one believed that Bindra has won the gold medal. At one stage Bindra was struggling with the 4^th position but his confidence and concentration gave him 100% in the final.

Bindra shot a total score of 700.5 with an incredible performance in the final. Finland’s Henri Hakkinen was the leading till the final but can not stop Bindra and won bronze medal.

All Indians must proud and giving blessing to all athletes to give their best in the Olympic 2008.

BEIJING 2008 Olympic Games - Overall Medal Standings