kannur l Sunday l january 28, 2024 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l city edition Sabalenka steals show on Super Saturday While Aryna Sabalenka defended her Australian Open title, Rohan Bopanna became the oldest man to win a Grand Slam. A look... 1st since Azarenka to defend AO title Aryna Sabalenka Sabalenka blew China’s Zheng Qinwen off court to successfully defend her title — the first woman to do so in more than a decade. The Belarusian proved too powerful for Zheng with a 6-3, 6-2 drubbing in 76 minutes to win her second Grand Slam title New winner on cards For the first time since 2014, someone other than Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will win the AO title as Jannik Sinner faces Daniil Medvedev in the final Bopanna continues to pile on records A fter securing the World No. 1 spot, Bopanna became the oldest man to win a Grand Slam as he and Matthew Ebden beat Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori 7-6 (7/0), 7-5 in the final B opanna’s only previous Grand Slam win was at the 2017 French Open in mixed doubles, with Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski | More on P11 60 Bopanna’s first Grand Slam win in men’s doubles after 60 attempts CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI INDIA fractured Sit-in lands Khan ‘Z+’; strange, says Pinarayi in Bihar, Nitish may quit today E x p re s s Ne w s Ser v i c e @Kollam/T’Puram May stake claim to head the new govt with BJP shortly after resigning, take oath again R a m a s h a n k a r @ Patna Eight-time Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is expected to tender his resignation as the head of the Grand Alliance government by Sunday morning and become a nine-time CM later in the day, a source close to him said on Saturday . Before putting in his papers, he will hold a formal legislature party meeting of the JD(U) and then stake his claim to form the new government with BJP and its allies. The swearing-in ceremony will be held around 4pm on Sunday, the source said. Initially, Nitish and a few leaders of BJP will take the oath of office. Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda will be among the prominent BJP leaders participating in the in ceremony . On Saturday, the BJP held a meeting of its core committee in the presence of its Bihar incharge Vinod Tawde. Sources said BJP will collect consent letters from all its 78 MLAs and hand them over to Nitish before staking his claim to form the NDA government. Amid the drama, Nitish invited all JD(U) MLAs to his official residence and shared with them the realignment plan. He was busy with his official programmes earlier in the day . Sources said LJP ( R a m Vi l a s ) c h i e f Chirag Paswan will also be present at the swearing-in. Chirag was initially hesitant but consented after meeting Shah in New Delhi. Despite power slipping away, RJD leader and Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav put up a brave face, saying ‘Khel baki hain’ (game is still open). The party authorised his dad Lalu Yadav to take the final call on the full-blown crisis. P8 The stand-off between the Kerala government and the governor took on a new dimension on Saturday after the Centre granted Z-plus security to Arif Mohammed Khan in the wake of the wayside sit-in he staged after SFI workers waved black flags at him at Nilamel in Kollam. Irked by the protest, Khan, who was on his way to a function, stepped out of his vehicle and confronted the activists. He also called up Union Home Minister Amit Shah and apprised him of the alleged security lapse. Within half an hour, Shah informed Khan of the CRPF security cover granted to him and the Raj Bhavan. “After the governor spoke to the home minister, the PMO and the vice-president also called EXPRESS READ Derogatory skit: Chief Justice orders probe Kochi: Kerala Chief Justice has ordered a probe into the incident in which two HC officials, who are now suspended, worked on a skit that contained “derogatory and objectionable content and criticism” against PM Narendra Modi and the Centre. The skit was performed as part of the Republic Day celebrations at the HC. P2 Governor Arif Mohammed Khan stages a sit-in at a tea shop in Kollam against the police’s ‘failure’ in preventing black flag protests by SFI workers on Saturday | PTI the former,” said an official. Responding to the developments, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan accused Khan of continu- ously insulting Kerala and the Constitution. He also compared the governor to RSS workers, saying, “In Kerala, there are some RSS workers with central security Khan has now been in. cluded in the list,” he said. Terming the handing over of the governor’s security to the CRPF as “strange”, Pinarayi said Khan stepping out of his vehicle was against security protocol. The CM clarified that the Centre did not contact him before granting CRPF security to Khan. “The governor does not have time to read the policy address in the assembly but has , one-and-a-half hours to sit on the road in protest,” Pinarayi said, referring to Thursday when Khan wrapped up his policy address to mark the start of the assembly session in one minute and 18 seconds, the shortest in the house’s history . Khan later said he had never sought Central security, and that it was a decision taken by the home ministry  ● More on P5 . SC stays proceedings of Calcutta HC S u c h i t r a K a lya n M o h a n t y @ New Delhi In a special sitting on a Saturday a five-judge bench of the Su, preme Court headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud stayed all proceedings of the Calcutta High Court related to a case on caste certificate scam in MBBS admission after two benches of the high court issued conflicting orders. The bizarre chain of events began after a single bench of Justice Gangopadhyay handed over the probe in the case to the CBI on Wednesday. A division bench of Justices Soumen Sen and Uday Kumar Ganguly then stayed that order on the same day Later, on the following day, . Justice Gangopadhyay overruled the stay order of the division bench and directed the central agency to go ahead with the investigation. Justice Gandopadhyay accused Justice Soumen Sen of the division bench of acting in the interest of the West Bengal government. Staying further proceedings, the SC posted the matter for Monday . ‘Time to revisit Kerala model’ P4 WITH THIS ISSUE R e a d i n g L i st 2 024 Wordly Pleasures PLUS 12 PAGES