Bhupathi, Knowles move up

Miami: Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles of Bahamas clinched a hard-fought first round win to advance at the $3.77 million Sony Ericsson Open. The fourth seeds edged out Tomas Berdych and Lukas Dlouchy of Czech Republic via the super tie-break 3-6, 6-3, 10-5 to enter the second round on Saturday.

In singles play, world No.1 Roger Federer beat Frenchman Gael Monfils 6-3 6-4 in the second round. Women’s seeds Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic also advanced but men’s fifth seed David Ferrer and No. 13 Andy Murray lost.

Spaniard Ferrer lost 4-6, 5-7 to world No. 60 Thomas Johansson of Sweden, while Murray wasted two match points before losing to Mario Ancic of Croatia 2-6, 6-2, 6-7. Andy Roddick also struggled but came through a tough 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 win over Viktor Troicki of Serbia.

Women’s world No. 2 Ivanovic breezed past Frenchwoman Emilie Loit 6-1, 6-2 and fourth seed Jankovic saved five match points in the final tie-break to beat Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden 6-7, 6-2, 7-6.

Chopra soars to tied 10

New Orleans: Daniel Chopra fired a 66 to soar to tied 10th place, just two behind the leaders before stormy weather truncated the penultimate round of the $6.2 million Zurich Classic on Saturday. Woody Austin, Nicholas Thompson, Briny Baird and Peter Lonard lead the chart at eight-under and the quartet are still to complete the third round.
Chopra played near-perfect golf, the lone bogey coming on the 10th hole, to take his three-day tally to six-under 210.

Vogts to coach Azerbaijan

Baku: Former Germany coach Berti Vogts was appointed the new Azerbaijan coach on Sunday, the Azeri FA said. The 61-year-old German will take over from Macedonian Gjoko Hadzievski, who was sacked at the end of last year after Azerbaijan finished bottom of their Euro 2008 qualifying group. Vogts, who coached his native country to the European title in 1996, quit as Nigeria coach last month following the team’s exit from the African Nations Cup when they lost to hosts Ghana in the quarter finals.

Bekele feat

Edinburgh: Kenenisa Bekele won a record sixth long course cross country world title on Sunday, surpassing the mark of five titles he shared with Kenyans John Ngugi and Paul Tergat. Sunday’s success also took his tally to a remarkable 11 senior world cross titles. Bekele had to stop to replace his shoe, half torn off after being clipped by another runner, but the Ethiopian recovered smoothly and eventually won in 34:36.00 seconds, ahead of Kenya’s Leonard Patrick Komon and Eritrea’s Zersenay Tadese.
Tirunesh Dibaba won the women’s race in 25:10.00.

Schumi fourth

Milan: Retired Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher finished fourth on Sunday in his first competitive motorbike race. The 39-year-old German, whose seven titles and 91 Grand Prix wins make him Formula One’s most successful driver, recorded the second fastest lap in the KTM minor series race at the Misano circuit on Italy’s Adriatic coast.