Sports & Games

The Nottinghamshire bowlers said the two Twenty20 games in Cardiff and the following, five-match one-day international series should be played.

Seamer Broad said the England dressing room was still in a "state of shock" over the "spot-fixing" allegations which emerged Sunday.

The Chinese number one, a two-time winner on the OneAsia tour, carded six birdies against one bogey at Burapha Golf Club to lead Thai Namchok Tantipokhakul and Australian Terry Pilkadaris by one stroke.

In a hard fought duel, with both singles matches going the full five games distance, Thailand's Suthasini Sawettabut and Tanapol Santiwattanatram recorded a two-one victory over Ng Ka Yee and Chiu Chung Hei.

Suthasini Sawettabut gave Thailand the best possible start by beating Ng Ka Yee by the very narrowest of margins in the fifth game before, in an equally closely fought duel, Chi Chung Hei levelled matters by defeating Tanapol Santiwattanatram.

In 2003 with Paradorn-mania at its height after the Thai ace had become the first Asian player to crack the world top 10, the Thailand Open was born and the excitement surrounding "Ball" was a large part of the first event's success.

The U.S. used their height advantage to block and spike effectively at the net to take an initial 8-6 lead. Powerful jump serves by Logan Tom, who was the best scorer at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, caught the Thai players flat-footed several times, while the USA's high blocks also gave the Thai spikers a tough time. The USA, who suffered a 3-2 loss at the hands of the Thais last year, went on an aggressive attacking phase to lead 23-17. The strong visitors allowed the hosts only one more point to take the first set 25-18.

Nadal and Djokovic took the first set 7-5 against the unheralded duo of Vasek Pospisil and Milos Raonic, but then lost the next two sets, 6-3, 10-8.

Not since Jimmy Connors was ranked first and Arthur Ashe second when they played together 34 years ago have the top two singles players joined forces in doubles.

But the dream doubles team here did not produce the goods, the 20-year-old Pospisil and Raonic, 19, winning the final three games of the second set, and immediately gained control in the match tie-break by rolling out to a 4-0 lead.

They earned four match points at 9-5, and after seeing Djokovic and Nadal erase three of those opportunities, finally succeeded in closing out the win in one hour and 34 minutes.

Pospisil and Raonic will next face Wimbledon champions and number five seeds Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner.

Hard-hitting Troicki, seeded fourth, stormed back from a set deficit and dominated the second and the third sets against crowd favorite Tsonga. The 23-year-old Serbian managed to break his more highly fancied opponent twice in each of the last two sets before wrapping up the match.

"I'm looking forward to the final. I hope it's gonna be fun. I'm gonna play good. I'm gonna try for my first title," he added.

An ultrasound found that Nadal had an "acute rupture of his right abdominal muscle" that will require physiotherapy, rest and medication for "two to three weeks," the chief doctor of the Spanish Tennis Federation said in a statement released by tournament organizers on Monday.

The Thailand Open runs from Sept. 26-Oct. 4.

Most agree that the Sunday's PGA Championship victory can also only make Asia, already the world's fastest growing golf market, more attractive to sponsorship even if it does make the South Korean less likely to play regularly on the continent.

"This is a fantastic win not only for Yang but also for golf in Asia," said Asian Tour chief Kyi Hla Han. "This win has once again underlined the growing strength of the game in Asia."

While the impact on youngsters taking up the game may be limited to Yang's native country, rising Japanese talent Ryo Ishikawa said it would make a difference to how Asian players were perceived.

"His victory has changed people's view of Asian golfers," the 17-year-old said. "I haven't suddenly thought I can win a major just because he did. But it will give us all added motivation to try to be in contention at the big tournaments."

The Swiss won 5-7 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (7-5) 3-6 16-14 to surpass Sampras's 14 Grand Slam wins and regain the title he lost to Rafael Nadal last year.

And Sampras was back at Wimbledon for the first time since 2002 to watch from the Royal Box as Federer made history.

Federer, 27, will now return to the top of the world rankings ahead of Nadal.

But he had to dig deep against an in-form Roddick, who had four points for a two-set lead and then battled back to force an epic fifth set as the match became the longest men's singles final ever in terms of games played.

Federer, who claimed a first French Open title last month, has now won Wimbledon six times, the US Open five times, the Australian Open three times and Roland Garros once.

The 27-year-old beat her sister Venus 7-6 (7-3) 6-2 in the final, and then called the ranking system "shocking".

"I think if you hold three Grand Slam titles, maybe you should be number one, but not on the WTA Tour, obviously.

"My motivation is maybe just to win another Grand Slam and stay number two, I guess."

Serena remains behind Russia's Dinara Safina in the rankings despite being the reigning US Open, Australian Open and Wimbledon champion.

Somjit achieved his gold medal but the sometime playboy who promised to clean up his act, did become good again, but Manus 'only' scored a silver.

The 33-year-old former world champion was fighting in his last Olympics. He used his experience for a surprisingly easy win over Laffita, the 30-year-old in his first games for the Cuban team.

Somjit feared his time had passed after he lost to Cuba's Yuriorkis Gamboa early in the Athens Games four years ago.

The 33 year-old who won a 2007 world championship silver medal, hoped to add an Olympic gold to the world title he won back in 2003, with this Olympics definitely his last chance, as he will be too old for the next Olympics in London in 2012.

In-form Somjit outclassed Vincenzo Picardi of Italy 7-1 on points in the flyweight 51 kg division.