Gilchrist Promises To Play Well
Posted on September 29, 2007 - Filed Under Sports | Leave a Comment
After loosing to India in the semi-finals of the T20 world cup Australia’s Adam Gilchrist promised to make up for Australia’s Twenty20 disappointment. Australia is set to take over India in the seven-match one-day international series which starting on Saturday.
Gilchrist is leading the Australian team in the absence of Ricky Ponting. Ponting has been ruled out of the first one-dayer due to a hamstring injury.
The Indians are on cloud nine ever since their surprising victory at the Twenty20 world championships in South Africa. The Indian team received a wild welcome and non-stop celebration marking their return home.
Gilchrist told reporters “We have enough preparation leading into this series. We were probably caught short at the T20 tournament but there’s no excuse now”.
The fact that Michael Hussey, Shane Watson and Nathan Bracken are not participating proves to be a week point for Australia. Michael Hussey and Shane Watson are not a part because of their injury and Nathan Bracken is awaiting the birth of his first child.
Federer Opts Out of Japan Open
Posted on September 28, 2007 - Filed Under Sports | Leave a Comment
World champion and number one Roger Federer has opted out of the Japan Open tennis tournament. He said that his busy schedule is the reason for opting out.
In an interview released by the organizers Federer said “I’m so disappointed that I have to withdraw from the Japan Open, I have not physically recovered 100 percent from the U.S. Open and Davis Cup”.
Federer also said that he is advised by his doctor that in order to avoid the risk of serious injury he should not play in a tournament for at least 10 days.
In last year’s Japan open final Federer defeated Britain’s Tim Henman with 6-3, 6-3.
Organizers have said that Spain’s David Ferrer and France’s Richard Gasquet have been added to the men’s bracket. American Venus Williams, currently playing in South Korea, has been added to the women’s bracket.
The Japan Open starts on Monday.
Maria Sharapova Unable To Play Due To Injury
Posted on September 27, 2007 - Filed Under Sports | Leave a Comment
Maria Sharapova will not be playing next week’s WTA event in Stuttgart due to a shoulder injury. This news was revealed on Wednesday.
The 20-year-old Russian, who is ranking number four in the world, has been suffering with her right shoulder from the time the WTA event in Miami earlier this year. And recently she has been suffering a lot of pain while serving. Due to this, the 2004 Wimbledon winner has not played any game since the US Open, where she lost in the third round.
Sharapova will probably return at the WTA event in Madrid this November.
She said “I was really looking forward to the Stuttgart tournament and I’m very sorry my injury hasn’t cleared up in time. I’ll do everything to be able to return to the tour as quickly as possible”.
In spite of Sharapova’s departure, there is still a strong field for the indoor event with nine of the world’s top 10 players including defending champion Nadia Petrova.
Ottis Gibson to be Awarded Player of the Year
Posted on September 26, 2007 - Filed Under Sports | Leave a Comment
Durham’s well experienced West Indian all-rounder Ottis Gibson has been named as the player of the year by his fellow professionals in English county cricket.
Gibson had a tough competition with Pakistan’s Mushtaq Ahmed, who twirled Sussex to another county championship triumph, to claim the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) award.
Gibson took 80 wickets for Durham as they ended runners-up to Sussex, including all 10 in an innings against Hampshire.
He has also been of great help to win two one-day titles – the Friends Provident Trophy and NatWest Pro40 (Sunday league) Division Two. Gibson has also been rewarded with a request to fill in as England’s fast-bowling mentor for the one-day tour of Sri Lanka which begins this week, with Allan Donald unavailable.
Adil Rashid the teenage leg-spinning all-rounder of Yorkshire was named the PCA’s young player of the year, adding to the Cricket Writers’ award he won earlier this month.
Pete Sampras is back
Posted on September 25, 2007 - Filed Under Sports | Leave a Comment
Five years ago when Pete Sampras retired, he was not sure if he would play tennis again. But this week Sampras will be playing a senior tour event. Sampras will be facing Mikael Pernfors on Wednesday to open ‘The Championships’ at The Palisades, the third and final event of the year for Sampras in the Outback Champions Series.
The 36-year-old champ is definitely enjoying his return to tennis. He retired after winning the 2002 U.S. Open. He hardly picked up a racket for three years, swapping his extreme gung ho nature for a role as a full-time dad to his two children.
Not in full pace but Sampras slowly started playing again, playing the past two years in World Team Tennis, an 11-team, month-long circuit in the United States that’s survived for much of the past 33 years.
Sampras has decided to return on a restricted basis this year on the senior circuit formed by former rival Jim Courier. Sampras has committed to play in Boston,
Athens and Charlotte, and has enjoyed it so much he’s agreed to play a handful of exhibitions, including a November match in Malaysia against top-ranked Roger Federer.
India Bags the Championship at T20 World Cup
Posted on September 24, 2007 - Filed Under Sports | Leave a Comment
It was indeed a great day for all the Indian cricket fans to watch the magnificent performance of the Indian cricket team. As a matter of fact, the team had to wait for 24 long years to bring home another world cup after the 1983 world cup. In 1983 it was under the leadership of Kapil Dev and in 2007 it was under the leadership of Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Nobody expected that India would win the T20 world cup because of their previous performances. But both the teams played extremely well giving their hundred percent to the game.
The game was indeed very entertaining and crucial at the same time. Every heart skipped beats when the match was nearing its end. Both the teams were neck to neck but ultimately India won the Inaugural Twenty 20 World Cup.
At a time when all the star-batsmen failed it was Gautam Gambhir’s marvelous performance that made it possible for India to reach a fighting score of 157 at the loss of five wickets.
Irfan Pathan’s overwhelming bowling (16/3) turned the face of match. R P Singh also excelled at the match.
Misbah-ul-Haque did a brilliant job and made a thrilling effort to win the match. Though he scored 43 he failed to give the final touch.
But on the whole it was a great match for both the teams.
Tim Henman’s Perfect Farewell
Posted on September 22, 2007 - Filed Under Sports | Leave a Comment
Tim Henman got the ideal Wimbledon farewell as he helped Great Britain’s bid to qualify for the Davis Cup world group by defeating Croatia’s Roko Karanusic on Friday.
Henman is going to retire at the end of the tie at the All-England Club. He was so determined to go out on a high.
After Andy Murray had defeated Marin Cilic in five sets, Henman advanced to Wimbledon’s Number One Court and brushed aside world number 164 Karanusic 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 to give Great Britain a 2-0 lead going into Saturday’s doubles.
Over 11,000 supporters rose to applaud Henman for one last time at the place where he went through so much pleasure and anguish in his disastrous attempt to win his home Grand Slam.
Henman will probably partner Jamie Murray, Andy’s brother, in the doubles and win would finish his career and the former Wimbledon semi-finalist admitted it was hard not to think about the end.
Henman said “This is a long weekend of tennis and just because I played a good match the job’s not done. After playing for this long in my career a couple more days isn’t going to be too much to ask. There were a couple of times when I had to bring myself back a little because it is very easy for your mind to wander onto a lot of difficult topics”.
He added “Thinking about playing at Wimbledon in potentially my last match and the emotions of that, the crowd and my family watching. So definitely a couple of times I really had to bring myself back into the zone.”
Well this is really a very emotional time for Henman.
Davenport enters semifinals of China Open
Posted on September 21, 2007 - Filed Under Sports | Leave a Comment
American veteran Lindsay Davenport entered the semifinals by merrily defeating Russia’s Elena Dementieva 7-6, 6-1 at the China Open tennis tournament quarterfinals on Friday. Dementieva ranks 15th in the world tennis. In spite of trying her best she lost to the
American veteran in the tiebreak. The Russian seemed have more vigor than Davenport, who just gave birth to her baby three months ago, but her poor serving made the victory impossible.
In the fourth game, Dementieva saved her service game but both of them broke each other’s service in the first three games.
Davenport, who is a master in passing shots, did not run much, but she still managed to save her service game in the fifth game and broke the Russian’s service in the sixth game. Dementieva, the 4th seed at the China Open, made seven double errors at all in the first set.
In the end, the American got back the impetus, and took a 7-1 win in the tiebreak. Davenport won the first set with 7-6. In the second set, the 4th seed lost her pace fully and kept making double errors. Davenport tremendously defeated her with 6-1.
Davenport will play the winner of Jankovic and Akiko Morigami in the semifinal.
Daniela Hantuchova Moves To the Second Round
Posted on September 20, 2007 - Filed Under Sports | Leave a Comment
Slovak second seed Daniela Hantuchova moved into the second round of the WTA Sunfeast Open on Wednesday with a 6-2, 6-1 win against Poland’s Maria Domachowska. Hantuchova’s dominant serve and brand double-handed backhand gave the Polish qualifier little chance in the one-sided encounter that lasted barely an hour.
Even England’s Anne Keothavong and Maria Koryttseva of Ukraine have made it to the second round. Keothavong has beaten Italian Sara Errani 6-4, 6-4 while Koryttseva defeated Australian Monique Adamczak 6-3, 6-3.
Eighth seed Chan Yung-jan of Taiwan and Tzipora Obziler of Israel advanced to the quarter-finals of this Tier-III event. Obziler, who upset ninth seed Russian Yaroslava Shvedova on Tuesday, took time to get into the channel before winning 4-6, 6-3, and 7-5 against Australian Casey Dellacqua.
Chan made short work of Jarmila Gajdosova from Slovakia, winning 6-1, 6-2. In a late-night match on Tuesday, top seed Marion Bartoli of France was shaken by 18-year-old American Vania King 6-1, 7-5.
In another late match late on Tuesday, India’s Sunitha Rao, ranked 211, defeated a jolt at the hands of lucky loser Sandy Gumulya of Indonesia before making it to the second round with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 win.
Maria Kirilenko Defeats Neha Uberoi
Posted on September 18, 2007 - Filed Under Sports | Leave a Comment
Russian fourth seed Maria Kirilenko had an easy win against India’s Neha Uberoi with 6-2, 6-2 and breezed through to the second round WTA tournament here on Monday. The on-field action was however surpassed by the last-minute pull-out by local favorite Sania Mirza with a right wrist injury.
Third seeded Mirza, will also miss out on the Korean Open next week in Seoul and is a doubtful starter in Tokyo in the following week.
Mirza said that she was looking forward for this meet and she is very upset that the injury is keeping her away from the courts.
Another Russian in fray, Ekaterina Ivanova, also made it to the next round with a 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 win over Britain’s Naomi Cavaday, while Australian Casey Dellacqua defeated Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak 6-2, 6-3.
In other matches of the day, Indian wild card Kyra Shroff was ousted by eighth seed Yung-Jan Chan 6-0, 6-0 while Slovakia’s Jarmila Gajdosova got the better of Youlia Fedossova of France 6-3, 6-4.
« go back — keep looking »