Sania overcomes Fichman, enters Vancouver final

Top seed Sania's title-clash will be with another Canadian, second-seeded Stephanie Dubois, who beat American Mashona Washington, also in three sets 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 Saturday.

The Sania-Fichman match was delayed by rain and finished well past 10 in the night, making it tough for the Indian who had to go through three gruelling sets for the second consecutive night and she will be back on court for the final Sunday afternoon.

In the action-packed first set, Sania squandered a 4-1 lead, struggled through a marathon 12th game on her serve to force a tie-break and muffed two set points in the tie-beak before losing it.

The Hyderabad girl, however, had little difficulty in winning the next two sets, though she dropped her serve twice and broke Fichman thrice in the second set.

There was no stopping Sania once she pulled off the decisive break in the fifth game of the decider. A dispirited Fichman threw in the towel losing her next service game also.

Dubois dropped the second set against Washington but was in control of the third set just as she was in the first set.

Learning from Ants

Have you observed the ants? During summer they work very hard building ant hills and storing enough food grain for the rainy season. The ancient Indian economists followed this ant philosophy and taught us to save a portion of our earnings for the rainy days. In addition, we were told to maintain a sustainable standard of living so that we don’t have the misfortune to reduce the standard of living during the days of recession. We were also advised to save enough to invest in the education of the next generation because those wise men knew that empowering the young through education holds the key in ensuring the future security of the society.

In sharp contrast, look at the American economists? They want people to spend, spend and spend regardless of their financial capacity. If you have no money, use credit cards, buy today and pay later so that manufacturing industry will survive and so their employees. Then when they reach the saturation point, people don’t buy anymore, manufacturers produce less, jobs are cut, those already bought up to their credit limits cannot pay up and the whole system collapses. Luxurious living became more important than safeguarding the interest of the next generation.

Irresponsible over-consumption and artificial credit creation are responsible for today’s economic disaster. Long ago, Abraham Lincoln, one of the first Presidents of the USA said, “You cannot build a strong economy on borrowed funds” and he was absolutely right!

Scraping the Seam: Incidents of ball tampering in cricket

The ball tampering issue flared up yet again when former fast bowler Allan Donald made a call to legalize the whole deal. The cricket laws though strictly say that any tampering with the original condition of the ball is wrong and unfair. For the records Law 42.3 reads: (a) Any fielder may (i) polish the ball provided that no artificial substance is used and that such polishing wastes no time. (ii) remove mud from the ball under the supervision of the umpire. (iii) dry a wet ball on a towel. (b) It is unfair for anyone to rub the ball on the ground for any reason, interfere with any of the seams or the surface of the ball, use any implement, or take any other action whatsoever which is likely to alter the condition of the ball, except as permitted in (a) above. The history of cricket, though is blotted with incidents, where the cricket ball has been fiddled with.

Ashes may be over for Flintoff, feels Ponting

Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting believes England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff dodgy knee may not see him take part in the remaining two Ashes tests
Ponting could not help crowing over Flintoff's discomfort on the final day of the third test, when the latter could bowl only 11 overs.

"It's been pretty visible the last couple of days that he has been struggling more than he was at Lord's. When he batted he hobbled quite a bit. He went downhill pretty quickly. But that's their problem not mine," The Sun quoted Ponting, as saying.

With England's star batsman Kevin Pietersen already out of the series, Ponting knows Flintoff, 31, is the key man.

He said: "Without him and Kevin Pietersen that would leave two pretty big gaps in their team. There's no doubt they try to protect him, knowing how big a figure he is in their team."

Flintoff will be assessed today but Andrew Strauss reckons Ponting is wrong to doubt him ahead of the fourth Test on Friday

Vikram ‘voicing’ his talent in Bollywood

Little did Vikram wonder that one day he will lure even Hindi audience to his side? Well, our Chiyan is truly destined to go places with his talents.

Mani Ratnam has roped in Vikram for his Hindi-Tamil bilingual project, ‘Raavana’. Vikram acts as a hero in one and villain in other. According to sources, the actor was asked to act for the Hindi remake of ‘Anniyan’ but as he was involved in other projects that time, the movie was dubbed as ‘Aparajith’ in Hindi. Now he has also dubbed for his action hit ‘Dhil’; though, in fact has already been made in Hindi as ‘Dum’ with Vivek Oberoi. It is also said that Vikram’s much awaited movie, ‘Mallanna’ will also dubbed in Hindi in his voice.

But it is known that this striking hero used to lend his voice for other popular actors, and his voice had really enhanced those dubbed movies. That’s what we call Voice Impact!

'Shock' troubled ‘Yanthram’

Be it a small budget or big budget project, every film has its own behind-the-scene stories. It is not all about team work and co-ordination. The movie crew have to be equally prepared for any untoward accidents and delays
The much awaited project ‘Yanthram’ had its schedule disrupted due to a ‘shock’. This Sun Pictures banner had spread itself on OMR road for a shooting, comprising a huge set of a hospital. Amidst the preparations, a crew member was unfortunately hit by an electric shock and was immediately rushed to a hospital in Adyar. The incident happened early in the morning and since the shooting was hindered, it was postponed. Sources reveal that though the victim (still in the hospital now) is out of danger, his condition is yet to be confirmed.

Hope all goes well after this…

‘Kites’ to fly on special date

Hrithik Roshan stepped into the industry with ‘Kaho Na Pyaar hai’. The movie immediately rocketed him to an exclusive stardom! His career journey down the line had been happening and successful. And it seems that the Roshan family are going to celebrate in style, to commemorate his career line that spans almost 10 years.

According to sources, Anurag Basu’s ‘Kites’ is being delayed to be released on 15th January 2010. Worthy to be recalled, Hrithik’s debut movie was released on 14th January 2000. So the ‘Kites’ team are planning to mark the actor’s ten years in cinema with this one. But Rakesh Roshan, his father and the producer of the movie, said to sources, “I will take a decision by September 10 on whether it's coming in December this year or next January.”

Besides Hrithik Roshan, the movie stars Kangna Ranaut and Barbara Mori.

Now, that’s really an interesting way to celebrate!