Tuesday, September 08, 2009 NEW YORK: It was a bleak day for US tennis on Monday as for the first time in the 41-year Open era no American made it into the quarterfinals of the men's singles. The last to fall was giant John Isner, who was toppled by Spain's Fernando Verdasco 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. Top seed and defending champion Roger Federer, meanwhile, moved a step closer to a record-equaling sixth straight title with a routine 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 win over outclassed Tommy Robredo of Spain.In the last eight, he will play the man be beat in Paris to end his French Open jinx, Robin Soderling, who moved on when Nikolay Davydenko abandoned with a thigh strain when trailing 7-5, 3-6, 6-2. Verdasco will go up against fourth seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia who eased past Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 in a disappointing night-time session match on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court. Five points from a straight-set loss, Oudin kept plugging away with her perpetual-motion defense and pick-her-spots offense for a 1-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3 victory over 13th-seeded Nadia Petrova to reach the U.S. Open quarterfinals.The woman who eliminated No. 1 Dinara Safina, Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, couldn't build on that, losing in three sets to Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium, while Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine shut out Gisela Dulko of Argentina 6-0, 6-0.Like Oudin and Wozniacki, Wickmayer and Bondarenko are first-time Grand Slam quarterfinalists.
Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in
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