Roman Amoyan wins Greco-Roman Wrestling Grand Prix, named as tournament best wrestler

PanARMENIAN.Net - Chess: Armenia’s Elina Danielyan defeated Maya Chiburdanidze of Georgia in round 2 of FIDE Women’s Grand Prix going on in Qatar. Currently, Danielyan is 2nd with 2 points. Georgia’s Nana Dzagnidze tops the tournament standings.Lilit Mkrtchyan suffered a defeat by Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria) and is currently 10th with 0.5 point. In round 3, Danielyan and Mkrtchyan will face Batkhuyag Munguntuul (Mongolia) and Marie Sebag (France) respectively.

Levon Aronian said that currently he spends 4 hours a day for chess training, as well as 2 hours a day for physical training in Tsaghkadzor, where he is getting prepared for the 2011 Candidates Matches. “Physical training is very important for a chess player,” Aronian told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. Kazan will host the Candidates Matches, in which Aronian will rival Alexander Grischuk (Russia). Aronian said that Grischuk is a very strong opponent and shows interesting matches. “Gabriel Sargissian, Hrant Melkumyan and Arman Pashikyan train with me and we focus on piece’s position in debut,” Aronian said. Sergei Movsesian, who has become a member of the Armenian team, has also joined them in Tsaghkadzor. The trainings will be over early in March. “Movsesian has a great experience. He is specifically successful in team competitions. In my opinion, his transfer will bring only positive results to our team,” Aronian said.

Tennis: Argentine Armenian David Nalbandian climbed 1 place to find himself 19th with 1655 points in the men’s tennis rankings released by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) on February 21, 2011. Spaniard Rafael Nadal (12390 points) continues to top the rankings, followed by Roger Federer (Switzerland) with 7965 points and Novak Djokovic (Serbia) with 7880 points.

Tommy Robredo defeated Nalbandian 6-4, 6-4 in quarterfinals of Copa Claro clay-court tournament. It was a morale-boosting win for the Spaniard, who had won only two of the previous eight matches against Nalbandian. Top-seeded Nicolas Almagro won his second title in two weeks Feb 20, following up last week's Brazil Open victory with a three-set finals triumph over Juan Ignacio Chela 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.

Meanwhile, Nalbandian and Juan Monaco have been selected to Argentina's Davis Cup for next month's opening round against Romania. Captain Modesto "Tito" Vazquez also picked Juan Ignacio Chela and Eduardo Schwank on Monday, saying he expects them to play doubles in the March 4-6 series on clay in Buenos Aires.

Football: The Football Federation of Armenia has approved the calendar of the Armenian top division matches and Armenian Cup 2011 quarter-finals. The Armenian top division football championship will kick off on March 5. Ararat FC, the winner of 2010 Armenia’s first league championship, will rival silver winner of the top division Banants FC in the first round. Mika, Impuls and Gandzasar will rival Shirak, 2010 top division champion Pyunik and Ulysses respectively. The schedule is as follows: Ulysses-Ararat, Banants-Gandzasar, Shirak-Pyunik and Mika-Impuls.

Boxing: The Home Depot Center in Los Angeles, Ca will host the upcoming super middleweight championship bout between Andre Ward (23-0, 14 knockouts) and Arthur Abraham (32-2, 30 knockouts) on May 14. On fighting in Los Angeles, Ward said: “I think it is good. He is going to have a large contingent of Armenian fans and I am going to have my fans. So it is going to be fun.” Ward went on saying: “I am not satisfied with 2010. I am trying to get better in 2011. You know, I am thankful for everything that has happened to me, but there is work to be done. I feel like I have to redeem myself because I was not satisfied with my last performance. I was not happy with it. So, I am trying to continue to grow. That is why I am not sitting around waiting for this date to come along. I’m working. And I am highly motivated.”

A WBC title bout is being discussed for April 23, with Vanes Martirosyan (28-0, 17KOs) taking on Saul Roman (34-8, 29KOs) for the WBC's "silver belt" at 154-pounds. The winner would become the mandatory challenger to the victor of Saul Alvarez-Matthew Hatton, who battle on March 5 for the vacant WBC junior middleweight title. Before the eliminator with Roman, Vanes will return to action on March 19 on the Lucian Bute-Brian Magee undercard at the Bell Centre in Quebec