Fernando Alonso

Renault Formula One driver Fernando Alonso, left, of Spain signs his autograph at the paddock of the Suzuka Circuit in Suzuka, central Japan, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009. The Japanese Grand Prix is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 4.

Champions Trophy: India-Australia game called off

Ground staff bring on the covers as rain stops play during the ICC Champions Trophy cricket match between Australia and India in Pretoria

Le Hamilton wons Singapore GP, Button extends lead

 Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and McLaren Mercedes celebrates in parc ferme after winning the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix at the Marina Bay Street Circuit on September 27, 2009 in Singapore.









McLaren's Lewis Hamilton won the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday, and Brawn GP driver Jenson Button extended his Formula One championship lead by one point.

McLaren Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton, centre, of Briton celebrates on the podium with Toyota's Timo Glock, left, and Renault's Fernando Alonso, right, of Spain on the podium after his win at the Singapore Grand Prix on the Marina Bay City Circuit in Singapore

INDIAN HEROS

Indian Sports Minister M.S. Gill (C) poses with tennis players Somdev Devvarman (L) and Yuki Bhambri (R) during a meeting in New Delhi on September 22, 2009. Devvarman beat South Africa's Rik De Voest 3-6 6-7 (3) 7-6 (5) 6-2 6-4 in the fourth rubber of a Davis Cup World Group play-off tie to lead India to the elite 16-team World Group after 11 years.

Police seize Maradona's earrings

Italian police have seized earrings from Argentina's football coach Diego Maradona in an effort to recover unpaid taxes from his playing days at Napoli.

Maradona handed over the earrings, worth some 4,000 euros (£3,600), at a health clinic in northern Italy.

Italian news agency Ansa said Maradona faced a bill of 37m euros from his time at Napoli, where he played a starring role between 1984 and 1991.

Team INDIA

Indian cricketers Suresh Raina (L), Yusuf Pathan( C) and Amit Mishra (R) walk to the team bus in Mumbai on September 18, 2009. Mahendra Singh Dhoni's India left for South Africa keen to maintain their consistency to fulfill their fans' expectations at the Champions Trophy from Sept 22-October 5. India disappointed in the tournament's last edition at home in 2006 when they failed to qualify for the semi-finals, but have given their fans plenty to cheer about with their recent successes.

Getty Images

Barrichello KISS

Brawn GP Formula One driver Rubens Barrichello of Brazil kisses the TV camera on podium after the Italian F1 Grand Prix in Monza.Barrichello won the race ahead of his team mate Jenson Button of Britian and Ferrari's driver kimi Raikkonen of Finland

Sachin Tendulkar

Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, left, and his wife Anjali Tendulkar attend a condolence service for former president of the Indian cricket board Raj Singh Dungarpur who died on Saturday, in Mumbai, India, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009. Tendulkar dedicated his match-winning hundred against Sri Lanka in the tri-series final to Dungarpur.




AP

Team INDIA

Members of the Indian cricket team pose for photographers with the Compaq Trophy after the final match of a tri nation ODI series in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009

Members of the India cricket team react, after their victory over Sri Lanka in the final match of a tri nation ODI series in Colombo, Sri Lanka,

India's cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni holds the Compaq Cup trophy after Inda beat Sri Lanka by 46 runs in the final match of a tri nation ODI series in Colombo, Sri Lanka,

Juan Martin del Potro upsets Roger Federer to win men's US Open title

Juan Martin Del Potro (R) from Argentina stands with Roger Federer (L) from Switzerland after winning the Men's Final US Open match at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center September 14, 2009 in New York.

A family affair, Clijsters joins elite mothers' club

Until Kim Clijsters celebrated winning the US Open with her 18-month-old daughter Jada, Margaret Court and Evonne Goolagong Cawley were the only women in tennis' open era to have combined motherhood and grand slam singles success.

Court returned after the birth of her first son, Daniel, to win the 1973 Australian, French and US titles; Goolagong Cawley's second Wimbledon triumph came in 1980, three years after her daughter, Kelly, was born.

Clijsters' irresistible family moment came just a day after the ugliness of Serena Williams' semi-final default, the defending champion having been wrist-slapped with a $US10,000 fine for her unsportsmanlike conduct towards a line judge.

Yet if Williams' reputation has been soiled, perhaps irreparably, Clijsters - the first wildcard, man or woman, to win the US Open - is the feel-good story of the women's tennis year.

''I was so very excited to hear that Kim won, and I'm so happy for her,'' Goolagong Cawley said yesterday. ''Go, mums.

''How gorgeous that she brought her daughter on court to celebrate.''

Goolagong Cawley said one of the biggest memories of her 1980 win was being told by a Wimbledon official how long it had been since a mother had last won that title - Dorothea Douglass Chambers in 1914.

Court said she was more relaxed as a player after having a family. ''It's like you're thinking 'I haven't got too much time to think about myself or what I'm doing, or get nervous about things'. You just get on with it and I think that's how (Clijsters) probably felt. When you're not practising you're doing the Mum things, you know.''

The 26-year-old Clijsters emerged from a 27-month retirement just five weeks ago, capping her run through the draw with a 7-5, 6-3 defeat of Caroline Wozniacki.

Through it all, curly-haired Jada played in the corporate boxes or watched from the stand, sucking on a dummy next to her father, basketballer Brian Lynch, before rather unsteadily joining her mother on court after the trophy presentation, as the clock neared 11pm.

''We tried to plan her nap time a little bit later today so she could be here,'' said Clijsters, whose family spent off days at the Central Park Zoo.

Roger Federer Posts Picture of His Twin Girls on Facebook

Roger Federer shared pictures of his newborn twin girls today on Facebook. The tennis legend wrote on his page:

As promised, here is a family picture that my dad took. He thinks he's becoming a professional photographer. It was very funny as both girls had the hiccups while we were trying to take a decent picture. The girls and mom are doing great. Thanks for all your warm wishes.

The 2009 Wimbledon champ and his wife Mirka named the babies who born late last month Myla and Charlene.

No Indian driver is good enough for F1: Mallya

Karun Chandhok can kiss his Force India ambitions good-bye, at least for the time being, after chairman of the resurgent outfit Vijay Mallya said he doesn't consider any Indian driver good enough for Formula One.

Embolden after the team's stunning show in the last two races, Mallya was amused by the populist demand that Karun should be handed a race seat at the team even though the Chennai driver did not have an F1 super license.

"My job is to make sure that the team is successful.

Whichever driver I need, that is completely my decision. I want someone to convince me and justify the drama about this Indian driver thing," Mallya told Indian journalists via teleconference from Monza, where Force India driver Adrian Sutil came fourth to underline the outfit's growing stature.

"The fact remains, right now no Indian driver is good enough for Formula One," he added.

Force India roars, Adrian Sutil misses pole by seconds

Adrian Sutil nearly fetched Force India's second successive pole position before McLaren's Lewis Hamilton gatecrashed into his party in the adrenalin-pumped qualifying sessions for Sunday's Italian Grand Prix in Monza on Saturday.

Sutil, who had topped the timesheet in two of the three practice sessions, made a slight error in his final flyer through the first Lesmo to settle for the second place on Sunday's starting grid while Hamilton grabbed the pole.

Sutil's new Italian teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi dazzled in his Force India F1 debut and will start seventh on the grid on Sunday.

For a moment, it seemed Force India would be celebrating their second pole position when Sutil lapped the circuit in 1m 24.261s before Hamilton came from behind to run away with the pole.

It was a great duel between Sutil's VJM02 and Hamilton's Kinetic Energy Recovery System-powered McLaren car and the duo, best of friends, will occupy the front row on Sudnay.

Ironically, Giancarlo Fisichella, who joined Ferrari after recording Force India's maiden pole position and podium finish in Belgium, could not make it to the third qualifying session (Q3) and will start 14th on Sunday.

Sutil and Liuzzi made it to the second qualifying session as seventh and eighth fastest cars and then came fourth and fifth respectively in Q2 to storm into Q3.

This is the first time that both the cars of the Vijay Mallya-owned outfit made it to Q3.

Felipe Massa undergoes successful plastic surgery

Ferrari driver Felipe Massa had successful plastic surgery on his fractured skull at a Sao Paulo hospital on Monday, the Italian team said on their website (www.ferrari.com).

The operation lasted four and a half hours and after a short stay in hospital, the Brazilian will be able to go home and continue his rehabilitation ready for a return to racing next year.

Massa, who will be replaced by Giancarlo Fisichella for the last five races of this season, suffered the injury when he was hit by a spring at July's Hungarian Grand Prix.

Asin, the brand ambassador of City cricketers ?

Film industry and Cricket are the most glamorous fields in India. Film stars are alwyas showed their great interest in cricket.Sharukh , Preity Zinta, and shilpa shetty are already involved in IPL with their respective teams. Now Malayalam Film super star Mohanlal and director Priyadarshan are all set to float Asin as the brand ambassador of City cricketers.

Kerala 'City Cricketers' to make debut in IPL4?

The third edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will return to India and will be played in four new venues, it was announced by the league's chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi here on Tuesday.

The tournament will also see the induction of Indian Cricket League (IPL) players while the fourth edition in 2011 will see the induction of two new teams.

It is widely believed that one of the two new teams announced is the one that Bollywood hit maker Priyadarshan and superstar Mohanlal plan to start from Kerala - 'City Cricketers'.

The Priyadarshan-Mohanlal duo came out with many Malayalam blockbusters before the former moved on to Bollywood and created super hits there. The duo is now coming together to create a ‘blockbuster’ of a different kind. Priyadarshan’s keen cricketing sense and Mohanlal’s star value could combine to produce another big cricketing brand.

They have roped in Shashi Tharoor, the new Union Minister of State for External Affairs, as the chairman of their team and have the full support of the KCA.

Indian group keen to buy BMW Sauber F1 team

An Indian consortium has applied to buy BMW-Sauber, which is seeking new backers after German carmaker BMW said it was pulling out of Formula One at the end of the season, domestic media reported on Saturday.

"Indian investors have made an application to purchase the BMW-Sauber team," the Times of India quoted unnamed sources as saying. The paper said the deal was based around a 50 million euro investment and involved Swiss driver Neel Jani, who currently features in the A1 GP series and whose father is Indian.

An Indian already owns an F1 team with liquor and airline billionaire Vijay Mallya's Force India. However, there is no Indian driver on the grid.

Last month, team principal Mario Theissen said BMW-Sauber had several rescue proposals and had applied to keep their place in Formula One next year.

Theissen told reporters ahead of the European Grand Prix in Valencia that he and founder Peter Sauber, who has a 20 percent stake in the team, were evaluating proposals from interested parties.

"There are several interested parties and we are just about to evaluate the individual proposals," he said.













































source:Reuters

Force India

Giancarlo Fisichella finally gave Force India their first ever points in Formula 1 on their 30th attempt.

Giancarlo Fisichella finally gave Force India their first ever points in Formula 1 on their 30th attempt.

He chased Kimi Raikkonen around every lap at Spa-Francorchamps, rarely more than a couple of seconds behind. With Raikkonen’s temporary team mate Luca Badoer enduring a second dire race, speculation is rife Fisichella will be a Ferrari driver at Monza.

Fisichella kept his lead from pole position at the start while Raikkonen used his KERS – and plenty of the tarmac apron at the first corner – to get a run past Robert Kubica into second.

The Force India driver might well have stayed ahead of Raikkonen if the safety car hadn’t been scrambled following the first lap crash. But on the restart Fisichella was powerless to resist Raikkonen’s KERS-powered attacks and lost the lead on the run to Les Combes.

Raikkonen was never out of Fisichella’s sights all race long – the pair even pitted on the same lap twice. An extra lap of fuel at his first stop could have been enough to get Fisichella the lead – but even so what the team achieved was remarkable enough.

Fisichella has driven well this year, particularly at Monte-Carlo where he was ninth and only a few seconds away from scoring Force India’s first point.

With that milestone finally achieved – and their first podium to boot – can they go one place better at Monza?

The result lifts Force India from last in the constructors’ championship to ninth ahead of Toro Rosso .It means they’re in line to earn a lot more money at the end of the season, a precious lifeline for the cash-strapped team.