Sports

BRNO - Serbia's junior bowling team won the title of world champion at the recent bowling championship in Brno, the Czech Republic, setting the new world record of 3,890 skittles.

 PAOK gives Panathinaikos another great run for its money

By George Georgakopoulos

Panathinaikos and Olympiakos made it two out of two in their semifinal series against PAOK and Panionios respectively on Thursday, in games that mirrored their opening matches of the semis two days earlier.

ROME - Serbia's Jelena Jankovic and Russia's Alisa Kleybanova failed to qualify for the qurterfinals in the WTA doubles event in Rome after losing to the Russian pair Ekaterina Makarova / Elena Vesnina in straight sets 7-5, 6-4 late on Thursday.

ROME - Serbia's highest-ranked male tennis player Novak Djokovic reached the quarter-finals of the Rome Masters tournament by beating Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 late Thursday.

In an unusual match - their fourth so far - Djokovic came from behind to beat the current world number 29.

Ludogorets Razgrad won the Bulgarian football Cup for a second straight year, beating Botev Plovdiv 1:0 in the final.

Roman Bezjak scored the only goal of the match in the 58th minute to give the Razgrad team its second consecutive double, winning both the league and cup.

Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov defeated the world number 6 Tomas Berdych 6:7, 6:2, 6:2 and qualified for the quarterfinal of the Rome Masters.

The win came as a sweet revenge for last week’s loss against the same opponent in Madrid, and an early birthday present for Dimitrov, who turns 23 on Friday.

ROME - Serbia's Nenad Zimonjic and Canada's Daniel Nestor beat David Marrero and Fernando Verdasco of Spain 4-6 6-3 10-7 in Rome on Thursday and qualified for the semifinals of the Italian Open.

Their next opponents will be the winners of the match between Bob and Mike Bryan of the US on one side and Tommy Haas from Germany and Rade Stepanek from the Czech Republic on the other.

ROME - Serbia's Jelena Jankovic beat Italy's Flavia Pennetta 6-2 6-3 in Rome on Thursday to reach the quarterfinals of the Italian Open.

Jankovic dominated throughout the match, earning a well-deserved victory against world number 12, her 8th in 10 matches against Pennetta.

She will next face Agnieszka Radwanska from Poland, who beat Francesca Schiavone of Italy 6-4 6-1.

ROME - Serbia's Ana Ivanovic reached the quarter-finals of the WTA tournament in Rome on Thursday by beating Maria Sharapova of Russia 6-1, 6-4 in the third round.

The win was Ivanovic's first against Sharapova after seven consecutive defeats.

In a bid to reach the semi-finals, Ivanovic will face Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain, who beat Romania's Simona Halep 2-1.

Organized crime was estimated to launder over USD 140B annually through sport betting, as 80% of global sport betting is illegal, according to a recent research.