Murata stops N’Dam to win world title

TOKYO: Japan’s Ryota Murata beat champion Hassan N’Dam by technical knockout on Sunday to capture the World Boxing Association middleweight title.The 2012 Olympic champion avenged a controversial points loss to the Frenchman earlier this year with a convincing display in Tokyo, inflicting heavy punishment on N’Dam who failed to come out for round eight.

“I’m not crying,” joked Murata after bursting into tears on seeing the referee wave the fight over, making him only Japan’s second middleweight world champion — and first in 22 years.“I was surprised at the way the fight finished but I knew he was feeling the pace and wanted to finish the job quickly,” added the 31-year-old, proudly cradling the WBA “regular” world belt.  kk

Aisam, Rojer lose Stockholm Open final

By our correspondent

KARACHI: Pakistan’s tennis ace Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and his partner Jean-Julien Rojer from Netherlands lost in the finals of Stockholm Open in Sweden on Sunday. The second seed pair of Aisam and Rojer, ranked 28th and 12th, respectively, was beaten by the Wimbledon finalist pair of Oliver Marach of Austria and Mate Pavic of Croatia 6-3, 6-7(6-8), 4-10.  In the semi-finals, the duo had beaten Nenand Zimonic of Serbia and Jack Sock of the US 6-7, 6-4, 10-6 after a thrilling encounter of this ATP-250 event.