Serbia’s world number three Novak Djokovic crushed Russian Nikolay Davydenko 6-1 7-5 to win the $4.45 million Masters Cup on Sunday. The Australian Open champion, who lost all his matches without winning a set on his debut at the season-ending shootout last year, played his best tennis of the week in the Shanghai final. The 21-year-old Djokovic celebrated by kissing the court and tossing his racket and shirt into the crowd after seeing off Davydenko in one hour and 42 minutes. “I’m very, very happy,” he said. “It’s a great achievement for me. The best eight players playing here says everything about the quality of the event and I would definitely put it on a level with the grand slams.” Read the full story

British number one Andy M

urray booked his place in the Masters Cup semifinals after a comfortable 6-4 6-2 win over Frenchman Gilles Simon in Shanghai on Wednesday. Murray enjoys the moment after sealing his straight sets win over Frenchman Simon in Shanghai. Read the full story

 Top seed Rafael Nadal ha

s retired from the quarterfinals of the Paris Masters with a knee injury after losing the first set 6-1 against Nikolay Davydenko, just hours after second seed Roger Federer also pulled out because of a sore back. Federer’s poor record in the Paris Masters continues after a back injury forced him to withdraw from the tournament. Read the full story

Top-ranked Rafael Nadal and defending champion David Nalbandian advanced to the third round of the Paris Masters with straight-sets wins Wednesday.

Nalbandian, who beat Nadal in last year’s final, downed Nicolas Kiefer of Germany 7-6 (5), 6-3 to set up another meeting with fellow Argentine Juan Martin del Potro.

Nadal topped Florent Serra of France 6-2, 6-4 and next faces No. 16 Gael Monfils of France.

“(Monfils) is playing very well this year, and I have to play my best tennis if I want to have chances to win tomorrow,” Nadal said. “He can play aggressive, sometimes he play defensive, two meters behind the baseline. He can do something different.”

Nadal took only 27 minutes to win the first set before Serra rallied briefly, forcing Nadal to save a break point in the fourth game of the second set.

Sixth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko, who won here in 2006, advanced with a 7-6 (5), 7-5 win over Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia. He will play 2005 champion Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, who beat No. 12 Stanislas Wawrinka 6-3, 7-5.

No. 13 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France rallied to beat 2004 runner-up Radek Stepanek 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 and next faces No. 3 Novak Djokovic of Serbia.

Top seed Roger Federer secured his third successive Swiss Indoors title with a 6-3 6-4 win over number two seed David Nalbandian in the final in Basle.

Federer served well throughout, firing eight aces and conceding only seven service points in the entire match.

He broke once in each set to wrap up victory in 68 minutes and seal his 10th win in 18 matches against Nalbandian.

The 27-year-old Federer has now won four of his eight finals this season and won 63 of his 76 matches.

It was the 57th title of Federer’s illustrious career and he said: “I am overjoyed. I served well and played aggressively so I couldn’t ask for more.

“There are two tournaments that I always dreamed about winning as a boy - Wimbledon and Basel.

“When you realise a childhood dream and realise it again and again then it’s one of those places that you just want to keep winning even more at.”

Federer was once a ball-boy in this event and when he reached the final as a player he lost two in a row in 2000 and 2001.

But there was little chance of him losing this one, as he gave Nalbandian no break-point opportunities in the entire contest.

“It was a good match for me, I really felt my rhythm,” he said. “It’s always great to win at home especially three in a row.”

Nalbandian has now lost three finals in this competition but was gracious in defeat, and said: “Roger played a great match, he was almost perfect.”

Meanwhile, in Lyon, Sweden’s Robin Soderling beat Julien Benneteau of France 6-3 6-7 (5-7) 6-1 to win the third ATP title of his career.

Top seed Ana Ivanovic returned to winning ways with a straight sets rout of Russian Vera Zvonareva 6-2 6-1 on Sunday in the final of the WTA tournament in Linz.

It was the Serb’s first title since claiming the French Open and her third of a season which has fizzled out since her triumph at Roland Garros.

Injury and poor form have seen the 20-year-old slip to fourth in the world rankings, but a semifinal appearance in Zurich paved the way for her eighth career title in Austria.

Ivanovic converted all six break points against Zvonareva, who double-faulted seven times and wrapped up victory in just 51 minutes.

The ninth-ranked Zvonareva was also looking for her third title of the season after winning in Prague and Guangzhou.

She qualified for the season-ending WTA Tour Championships in Doha, Qatar, by reaching the semifinals in Linz.

Meanwhile top seed Elena Dementieva of Russia beat Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark to win her third title of the year at the Fortis Championships in Luxembourg.  Olympic champion Dementieva lost the first set to the 18-year-old Dane before taking the decider on a tiebreak as she ran out a 2-6 6-4 7-6 winner.

Marcel Granollers of Spain defeated Marcos Baghdatis 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 in the first round of the Swiss Indoors on Wednesday.

Baghdatis, bothered all season by injuries, needed treatment to his back during the match. The 23-year-old also missed matches due to a wrist injury. He was ranked as high as No.14 in April, and went into the match against Granollers ranked 43rd.

The 22-year-old Granollers won his only tour title at Houston in April, beating James Blake in the final.

Also, Jarkko Nieminen of Finland defeated Argentina’s Eduardo Schwank 6-2, 6-4, and Belgian qualifier Kristof Vliegen beat wild card entry Philipp Petzschner of Germany 6-2, 6-3.

In second round matches, sixth-seeded Russian Igor Andreev needed more than 21/2 hours to overcome Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-6 (6), 6-7 (0), 7-5. Benjamin Becker beat his fellow German Andreas Beck 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Guyana News Today-British rising star Andy Murray claimed his second successive Masters Series title on Sunday, beating surprise package Gilles Simon in straight sets in Madrid to follow up his shock semifinal win over former world No. 1 Roger Federer. The world No. 4 won 6-4 7-6 (8-6) against the unseeded Frenchman, who was playing his first final in a top-tier tournament. Scotland’s Murray added to his victory at the previous Masters Series event in Cincinnati, which helped spur him to reach the final of the U.S. Open last month before being beaten by Federer. Read the full story

Contrary to popular belief, schizophrenia is not split personality. It is a serious brain disorder—the most chronic and disabling of the major mental illnesses—that distorts the way a person acts, thinks, expresses emotions, perceives reality and relates to others. No one knows exactly what causes schizophrenia, but genetic makeup and brain chemistry may play a role. There is no cure for schizophrenia but medicines can relieve many of the symptoms. A new class of drugs called atypical antipsychotics was developed in the 1990s and has become the drugs of choice for treating children and teenagers. However, a new government study has found that these medicines are no more effective than older, less expensive drugs and are more likely to cause some harmful side effects.

For the study, dubbed “The Treatment of Early Onset Schizophrenia Study” (TEOSS), researchers, led by Dr. Linmarie Sikich of the University of North Carolina, recruited 119 young people ages 8 to 19 who suffer from psychotic symptoms. They were given either Zyprexa from Eli Lilly, Risperdal from Johnson and Johnson, or an older drug called molindone, or Moban, plus benztropine, a medication often used to reduce side effects like uncontrolled shaking or tremors that can be associated with molindone. Neither the patients nor the doctors treating them knew which drug was being taken. The study was monitored throughout by a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) oversight board to ensure the children’s safety.

After eight weeks of treatment, 50 percent of those taking molindone showed improvement in their symptoms, compared to 46 percent who were taking Risperdal and 34 percent of those taking Zyprexa. Statistically, there was no significant difference among the improvements seen in the three groups. However, half of the children in the study stopped taking their drug within the two months, either because it had no effect or was causing serious side effects, including rapid weight gain. The Risperdal group gained an average of nine pounds, and the Zyprexa group gained an average of 13 pounds before the oversight board ordered they be taken off the drug. Levels of a hormone, prolactin, also rose among patients taking Risperdal, which could trigger early menstruation in girls and cause growth of breast tissue in boys.

Both the Risperdal group and the Zyprexa group also showed changes in cholesterol and insulin levels, which are known risk factors for diabetes, where those taking molindone gained less than one pound, on average, and showed little metabolic change. They did, however, have more akathisia—a movement disorder involving restlessness and need to fidget. “All three of these drugs have different side effect profiles, but the newer drugs are much more likely to cause weigh gain,” said Dr. Sikich.

Dr. Sikich points out that almost all children and adolescents now treated for schizophrenia begin treatment on the newer, atypical drugs. Prescription rates for these newer drugs have increased more than fivefold for children over the past 12 years. “Atypical antipsychotics are commonly used to treat kids with EOSS, but these results question the wisdom of that approach,” she said. “They also remind us that we need to develop safer, more effective medications to treat these children, given the limited effectiveness of both the atypical and the conventional medications.”

Study coauthor Jeffery Lieberman, M.D., of Columbia University Medical Center, noted that the TEOSS results are the first documented evidence of how newer antipsychotics compare to older ones when treating children and adolescents with schizophrenia. “Doctors need to educate families about the potentially serious side effects these drugs can have so that strategies can be put into place to address them,” he noted. The TEOSS results are similar to those found in the NIMH-funded Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness (CATIE), which found the newer antipsychotics no more effective than older ones in treating adults with schizophrenia.

Representatives for Eli Lilly and Johnson and Johnson told the Times that their drugs weren’t approved to treat schizophrenia in children and that there was a need for new therapies, given the small number of options for kids. Eli Lilly spokesman, Jamaison Schuler, pointed out that the new study had not lasted long enough to pick up well established, long-term side effects associated with the older drugs, which can include rigidity, persistent muscle spasms, tremors, and restlessness.
Of the estimated 3 million Americans suffering from schizophrenia, about 1 million are children and teenagers. People with schizophrenia often have problems functioning in society

Guyana News Today-Venus Williams is just one match away from reclaiming the title she last won in 1999 after beating second seed Ana Ivanovic 4-6 6-3 6-4 to reach the final of the Zurich Open. Williams recovered from the loss of the opening set to defeat Ivanovic in the Zurich Open semifinals. Williams will face unseeded Italian Flavia Pennetta, who beat Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain 6-3 7-6 to reach her fourth final this year. Pennetta holds a 3-1 record against the 28-year-old American and beat her in Moscow last week. The third-seeded Williams is looking for her second singles title of the year, after winning Wimbledon, as she tries to secure a place in the season-ending WTA Tour championship in Doha, Qatar next month. Read the full story