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Bhupathi wins grudge match

PARIS: Mahesh Bhupathi came out on top when he won a grudge match against former doubles partner Leander Paes at the French Open on Sunday

India's Bhupathi and China's Zheng Jie eked out a 7-5, 6-4 win over Paes and Russia's Nadia Petrova in the first round of the mixed doubles event at Roland Garros.

Bhupathi and Paes, who won three Grand Slam doubles titles together, have barely been on speaking terms for years but had been expected to reunite this year to spearhead India's chances of capturing a gold medal at the Olympics in August.

But their relationship has hit a new low after Bhupathi said last month that he would not partner Paes in Beijing, opting to team up with Rohan Bopanna instead.

On Sunday, Paes suffered a particularly miserable day since he was also knocked out of the men's doubles.

The Indian and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy, seeded ninth, perished 6-4, 6-4 in the third round to the Uruguayan-Peruvian pairing of Pablo Cuevas and Luis Horna.

Fourth seeds Bhupathi and Mark Knowles had fallen in the first round of the men's doubles earlier in the week.

Spinner MacGill calls it quits

NORTH SOUND, Antigua: Australia leg-spinner Stuart MacGill will retire from international cricket at the end of the second Test against the West Indies, Cricket Australia said in a statement on Sunday.

MacGill, 37, is playing in his 44th Test match and has taken 207 wickets at 28.43. But he has struggled to recover from a wrist operation and had been well short of top form in the current series, which Australia leads 1-0.

He gave no specific reason for his decision but suggested that an inability to perform to his best was the main factor.

"There is no way I will ever walk on to a cricket field unless I can guarantee that I can dismiss top-order batsmen consistently," he said.

"The prospect of letting myself and the team down is simply not an option. I have worked way too hard for too long to sabotage my achievements by playing Test cricket for the wrong reasons."

MacGill spent most of his career in the shadow of fellow leg-spinner Shane Warne, who retired last year, but still took wickets at an impressive rate when the chance came.

Van Persie to join Dutch training

ROTTERDAM: Striker Robin van Persie will train with the Dutch Euro 2008 squad for the first time on Wednesday but remains doubtful for the team's opener against Italy on June 9, coach Marco van Basten said on Sunday.

Van Persie has trained separately from the squad since the Dutch started their preparations on May 20 as he seeks to regain full fitness after an injury-plagued season.

"Robin will join the group training (on) Wednesday and then we will have to see if he can play against the Italians," van Basten said after a 2-0 win against Wales in the final warm-up match on Sunday.

In October last year van Persie suffered a knee injury during a Euro qualifier against Slovenia and has subsequently sustained two muscle injuries.

Van Persie, who played only 15 league matches for Arsenal this season, believes that he learned from 18 months of injury problems that started with a broken metatarsal in January 2007.

Fourth NASCAR title for Busch

NEW YORK: Kyle Busch raced to a season-high fourth NASCAR win of the year with a dominant performance at Dover, Delaware, on Sunday.

The series points leader cruised to a commanding lead just beyond the midpoint, then outran Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle for his third victory in five races. Matt Kenseth was fourth and Jeff Gordon fifth.

Busch praised the work of his team.

"These guys on pit row did a phenomenal job for me," he told reporters. "We definitely didn't have the car to beat today. We had a third-place car but we made the most of our efforts ... we just had to get out front to beat them."

A massive wreck on the 22nd lap of the 400-lap race hampered several leading contenders including pole-winner Biffle, Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick.

(China Daily 06/03/2008 page22)