Chennai: Local fellow Prakash Amirtraj lost his first-round match to German fifth-seeded player Rainer Schuettler 2-6, 6-4, 1-6, even as Rohan Bopanna made his passage to the main draw after winning his final qualifying match in the $450,000 ATP Chennai Open here.

Amritraj had no answers to the tactical play of the German player. From the last seven years, Amritraj has been favoured with a wild card entry for the tournament. From the last few months, the Davis Cupper is being criticized for his continued poor show at the lone ATP event in India.

Nagpur: Medium pacer Praveen Kumar took three wickets as Tamil Nadu were restricted to 445 on Day two of their Ranji Trophy semi-final match against Uttar Pradesh.

Resuming at the overnight score of 296 for the loss of 2 wickets, Tamil Nadu team lost the momentum in the in the very first session of the play. Praveen took the key scalp of S Badrinath after the batsman had added just six runs to his overnight score. The right hand batsman scored a well made 65 runs. Praveen then sent back Tamil Nadu captain Dinesh Karthik(72) and S S Kumar(12).

Madrid - Spanish Liga club Osasuna announced on Tuesday that promising young l

London - Tottenham Hotspur have agreed a fee with Portsmouth to re-sign striker Jermain Defoe.

The deal, which is expected to be around 15 million pounds, will see Defoe return to Spurs less than a year after he joined Portsmouth for 7.5 million pounds (11 million dollars).

The move will see Defoe reunited with manager Harry Redknapp, who signed him from Spurs last year before joining the London club late

in 2008.

Defoe is due to undergo a medical at Tottenham later on Tuesday.

Lahore, Jan. 6 : Pakistan's leg spinner Danish Kaneria has said that he is hopeful of making a come back to Pakistan's one day squad.

Kaneria said that the fact the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) now has officials who themselves were international players would help his cause.

"PCB director general Javed Miandad has been a big supporter and he has always guided me in my career," the Daily Times quoted Kaneria, as saying.

Sydney, Jan. 6 : Chasing 376 to win on a difficult SCG pitch, South Africa reached 62 for one at the end of play on day four of the third Test against Australia.

Hashim Amla was batting 30, while acting captain Neil McKenzie was batting on 25. The Proteas need a further 314 runs to achieve a third remarkable victory against Ricky Ponting''s No. 1-ranked Australian side.

Only five wickets have fallen on day four despite the large cracks in the pitch. Australia resumed on 0-33 and declared at 4-257, 50 minutes after tea.