Sabastian Vettel wins Belgian Grand prix

Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel has earned pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix on Saturday, putting himself in the perfect place to claim the Formula One championship in Sunday’s race. Vettel extended Red Bull’s perfect streak of poles to all 15 races this season, setting a lap of 1 minute, 30.466 seconds at the Suzuka circuit, edging McLaren’s Jenson Button by just nine thousandths of a second. Button’s McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton was third fastest despite not setting a time in his final run.
 
Vettel needs only one point in Sunday’s race or Button to fail to win to become the sport’s youngest two-title winner.Felipe Massa will start from fourth after the rare feat of outqualifying his Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso.

Berdych, Radwanska win in China Open finals

Beijing. Third seed Tomas Berdych ended his long title drought with a clinical, 3-6 6-4 6-1 victory over Croatian Marin Cilic on a smoggy final day at the China Open tennis today. Czech Berdych, who last won a title in Munich in May 2009, staged a second-set revival against the 25th-ranked Croatian and blazed through the decider. Cilic, facing his first seeded player in this year’s competition, set the tempo by breaking Berdych’s serve in the second game.

Berdych’s errors played a part in the first set which Cilic, who also lost the final two years ago, finished off with an ace. World number 10 Berdych, playing in his first final since his 2010 Wimbledon centre court loss to Rafael Nadal, fought back, and took the match to a third set.


Both players dripped sweat in the unseasonably humid Beijing autumn weather and the problems were compounded by a pall of smog enveloping the National Tennis Centre. The air quality monitor at the United States Embassy in Beijing recorded ”hazardous” levels throughout the final day of competition. German Andrea Petkovic was playing Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska in the women’s final later on Saturday. Agency

Tsonga, Wozniacki into quarterfinals at China Open

Top-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki advanced Tuesday at the China Open.Tsonga reached the second round by edging Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 7-6 (7), 7-5, and Wozniacki cruised past Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia 6-2, 6-3.Tsonga finished the match with nine aces and improved to 3-0 against Dimitrov. He will face Chinese qualifier Zhang Ze, who beat Li Zhe 6-1, 6-3.

Wozniacki was never threatened against Gajdosova, who committed eight double-faults and had 19 unforced errors. The Dane will meet Kaia Kanepi, who defeated Wozniacki last week in the third round of the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.Third-seeded Vera Zvonareva of Russia defeated Klara Zakopalova 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, and Maria Kirilenko of Russia stopped U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur 7-5, 1-6, 7-5

Fighting India draw against Malaysia in Asian CT

         The Indian hockey team continued its unbeaten run by fighting back from a goal down to hold Malaysia 2-2 on Wednesday but is still not assured of a place in the final of the Asian Champions Trophy here.The scorers for India were Ravi Pal Singh (9th) and Danish Mujtaba (52nd). For Malaysia, Tajuddin Jalil (24th) and Muhammad Amin Rahim (32nd) scored. India can afford a draw provided Malaysia beats Japan. India could then sneak into the final on better goal average, that too if Korea beats China, the lowest-ranked team in the tournament.