- India
- Jul 11
Short Takes / July 11, 2022
Novak Djokovic, Elena Rybakina win Wimbledon titles
• Novak Djokovic defeated Australia’s Nick Kyrgios 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (3) for his fourth consecutive Wimbledon championship at the All England Club and seventh overall.
• The 35-year-old Serb extended his unbeaten run at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament to 28 matches and raised his career haul to 21 major trophies, breaking a tie with Roger Federer and moving just one behind Rafael Nadal’s 22 for the most in the history of men’s tennis.
• Among men, only Federer, with eight, has won more titles at Wimbledon than Djokovic. In the professional era, only Federer was older (by less than a year) than the 35-year-old Djokovic when winning at the All England Club.
• Elena Rybakina rallied from a set down to defeat Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur 3-6 6-2 6-2 to become the first player from Kazakhstan to win a Grand Slam singles title.
• Rybakina was born in Moscow and has represented Kazakhstan since 2018, when that country offered her funding to support her tennis career. The switch has been a topic of conversation during Wimbledon, because it barred all players who represent Russia or Belarus from entering the tournament due to the war in Ukraine.
• Since the WTA computer rankings began in 1975, just one woman ranked lower than the No.23 Rybakina has won Wimbledon Venus Williams in 2007 at No.31, although she had been No.1 and already won three of her five career Wimbledon trophies.
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Scindia assumes additional charge of steel ministry
• Union Minister Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia assumed the additional charge of the steel ministry. Scindia is currently in charge of the civil aviation ministry. The 51-year old BJP leader, who represents Madhya Pradesh in the Rajya Sabha, is the third steel minister in the current Modi government.
• Scindia succeeds Ram Chandra Prasad Singh who resigned from the post a day before the completion of his Rajya Sabha term.
• Singh, a former bureaucrat and Rajya Sabha Member, last year on July 8, had replaced Dharmendra Pradhan, who was allotted the ministry of education along with the ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship in a Cabinet reshuffle.
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Smriti Irani takes charge of ministry of minority affairs
• Union minister Smriti Irani took charge of the ministry of minority affairs, a day after Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi resigned from the Cabinet.
• Naqvi quit as minister a day before his term in Rajya Sabha ended.
• Irani was assigned the charge of the ministry of minority affairs, in addition to her existing portfolio of Women and Child Development.
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Renowned Gandhian P. Gopinathan Nair dies
• Renowned Gandhian, freedom fighter and Padma Shri awardee P. Gopinathan Nair passed away in Thiruvananthapuram.
• Considered as a living example of Gandhian values and principles, he had been a constant presence in the socio-cultural scenario of the southern state for several decades.
• Born on July 7, 1922 at Neyyattinkara, Nair began his public life by taking part in the freedom struggle during his college days. He was imprisoned for taking part in the Quit India movement.
• An ardent admirer and follower of Mahatma Gandhi since he was a youth, Nair got the chance to meet the Father of the Nation during his visit to the princely state of Travancore.
• He was one of the founding members of All India Gandhi Smarak Nidhi that was chaired by former President Dr Rajendra Prasad. He was part of it for over six decades. After Gandhiji’s death, he joined Sarva Seva Sangh and Sarvodaya. K. Kelappan was the chairman and Gopinathan Nair was the secretary in Sarvodaya’s initial years.
• Nair participated in the historic Bhoodan Movement (land gift movement) by Vinoba Bhave and served as the president of Gandhiji's Sevagram Ashram for several years.
• The nation honoured him with the Padma Shri in 2016.
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PM inaugurates golden jubilee celebrations of Agradoot group of newspapers
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Assamese newspaper Agradoot.
• Agradoot was started as an Assamese bi-weekly. It was established by Kanak Sen Deka, a senior journalist of Assam. In 1995, Dainik Agradoot, a daily newspaper, was started.
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British director Peter Brook dies
• Peter Brook, one of the world’s most innovative theatre directors who perfected the art of staging powerful drama in bizarre venues, passed away. He was 97.
• The British director used the world as his stage mounting productions ranging from challenging versions of Shakespeare through international opera to Hindu epic poems. Brook put on plays in gymnasiums, deserted factories, quarries, schools and old gas works in towns around the world.
• He was conferred the Padma Shri in 2021.
• He has also directed the 1963 film adaptation of ‘Lord of the Flies’.
• Brook’s autobiography ‘Threads of Time’ was published in 1998.
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‘Godfather’ actor James Caan dies
• American actor James Caan, who starred as gangster Sonny Corleone in epic mafia film ‘The Godfather’, has died at age 82.
• Caan was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actor for his portrayal of the hot-tempered Corleone in ‘The Godfather’ in 1972. He reprised the role in flashback scenes in ‘The Godfather: Part II’ in 1974.
• James Edmund Caan was born in the Bronx borough of New York City on March 26, 1940. He gained widespread acclaim for his role in the 1971 TV movie ‘Brian’s Song’, in which he played real-life Chicago Bears football player Brian Piccolo, who died of cancer at age 26. The role earned Caan an Emmy nomination.
• Caan’s career spanned six decades and included a broad range of other roles in movies from psychological thriller ‘Misery’ to comedy ‘Elf’.
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