Levon Aronian tops Tal Memorial standings

PanARMENIAN.Net -

Armenian grandmaster Zaven Andriasyan advanced to round 2 of the Russian Cup in Belgorod. In the first round, Andriasyan defeated Russia’s Pavel Ponkratov 2:0. The men’s tournament brought together 18 grandmasters. The prize fund is 1 190 000 rubles.

Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian keeps the lead at the Tal Memorial with 3.5 points after defeating Russia’s Sergei Karjakin in round 5 and tying the game against Spain’s Alexei Shirov in round 6.

Basketball: Hatis Yerevan suffered a 69:82 defeat by Israel’s Elitzur in a 2010-2011 Eurocup F group qualifier. Coach Gia Ghazanchian apologized for the failure. “The game went wrong when central Erica Davis gave in,” he said, adding: “We had enough time to familiarize ourselves with the rivals’ style. But they included several players from Seattle. So we had an opportunity to play with basketball stars.”

The coach of Israeli Elitzur Ramla, Adan Inbar, confessed that the match against Hatis Yerevan was tough for both teams. “The Armenian team showed a good game but our players were stronger and managed to lead the game for a win,” he said. Group F is the hardest one, as all teams stand a chance to reach play-off, according to him.

Tennis Spaniard Rafael Nadal (11,810 points) continues to hold a clear lead in the unchanged top 10 in the men’s tennis rankings released by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) on November 8, 2010. Roger Federer (Switzerland) is second with 7695 points, followed by Novak Djokovic (Serbia, 6945 points). Argentine David Nalbandian climbed up 4 places to be 25th with 1435 points.

Nalbandian made an impactful start to the season's last Masters series event in Bercy, France when he recorded a clinical 6-3, 6-2 win over Valencia finalist Marcel Granollers to move to the next round of the 2010 BNP Paribas Masters, an ATP World Tour 1000 tournament.

SamboArmenia’s Ashot Danielyan (74kg), a sportsman of the Olympic Sport School of Artsakh, won the World Sambo Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Ruzanna Sargsyan (48kg), Tigran Kirakosyan (52kg) and Artak Tsatinyan (90kg) finished 5th.Vachik Vardanyan (68kg), 2010 European champion, won the combat sambo tournament.

Football: FC Banants defeated FC Kilikia 1:0 in the 27th round of the Armenian top division championship. Due to the victory, Banants top the standings with 61 points. The match between Ulysses and Shirak ended in a draw 1:1. Ulysses secured bronze medals of the championship, gaining 52 points. Mika suffered 1:2 defeat by Impuls.