Querrey leaves Fish floundering in Queen’s final

June 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – Sam Querrey joined a prestigious group of American winners of the Queens’s Club grasscourt title on Sunday when he boomed down 15 aces to leave best buddy Mardy Fish floundering on center court.

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Querrey, the seventh seed, came through a hard-hitting contest 7-6 7-5 to claim his third title of a productive year and earmark him as a dark horse for the Wimbledon championships which start on June 21.

The towering 22-year-old seized his chance to win the title after the draw was shredded by a cull of all the top seeds including world number one Rafael Nadal, four-times champion Andy Roddick and last year’s winner Andy Murray.

As well as Roddick, the gigantic trophy which must be one of the largest in tennis, has also been lifted by Pete Sampras, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors and Todd Martin.

All of those players, most notably Sampras, McEnroe and Connors, also enjoyed incredible highs at Wimbledon but whether or not Querrey can also make a big impact at the only grand slam played on grass is open to question.

But it has certainly not done his confidence any harm on a surface he admits once left him clueless.

“It’s an honor to win the trophy,” Querrey told reporters. “All the greatest players in the world are on this trophy. It’s nice to be added to that list with them.

“I’m definitely playing great on the grass, and now I’ve got a week to practice and re-group. Then I’m looking forward to Wimbledon next Monday.

ALL-AMERICAN FINAL

It was not quite the finale that had been expected but Querrey and Fish made sure the first all-American final here since 1994 was an interesting spectacle for the center court crowd.

Fish threatened an early break before the rhythm of the match settled down to a procession of big-serving and heavy baseline hitting. Neither man made many forays to the net.

Querrey dominated the first set tiebreak, winning it 7-3, but Fish did finally break serve in the fifth game of the second set when his opponent blazed a forehand long.

A deciding set looked on the cards before two shocking backhands by Fish when he served at 5-4 in the second set allowed Querrey to break back.

Fish wavered again at 5-6 to hand Querrey victory and his first title on grass.

“I just really wanted to focus on my service games the whole week, which I did a great job of,” Querrey, who plans to buy Fish a consolation dinner on Sunday, said. “I think I only lost serve maybe like three times this week.”

(Editing by Pritha Sarkar and Alison Wildey)

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Nadal recovers clay court form

May 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Rafael Nadal rediscovered his clay court form after a rare wobble in the semi-finals to beat fellow Spaniard David Ferrer 7-5 6-2 in Sunday’s rain-hit final and claim his fifth Rome Masters title in six years.

The chinks in the armour that Latvian Ernests Gulbis exposed in Saturday’s three-setter were not in evidence as Ferrer never threatened an upset.

The third seed broke serve twice in the gap between two rain interruptions to take the first set and assume command of the second before cruising home.

It was not quite the superlative tennis Nadal displayed to claim his sixth Monte Carlo Masters two weeks ago, but conditions were soggy and he still looks ready to take his fifth title at the upcoming French Open after an injury-hit 2009.

“I probably didn’t play like in Monte Carlo,” he told a news conference. “I played well, but not at the same level as Monte Carlo, but I still won and that’s important for me.”

The former world number one had nothing to show for the pressure he put on his opponent’s serve before rain stopped the action at 4-4, after he had failed to convert five break points in the fifth game.

He seized his chance when play resumed and then saved a break point before wrapping up the first set with a booming serve that 13th seed Ferrer could not return in court.

Nadal turned up the heat and Ferrer surrendered serve again after some valiant resistance in the third game of the second set before the downpours caused another delay.

Ferrer, whipped in the semi-finals by Nadal at Monte Carlo 15 days ago, then caved in on serve again with a sloppy game and Nadal held his with ease to triumph more than four hours after the match had started.

“Maybe the court was slower and I had problems to make points (after the first rain stop),” Ferrer said.

“Rafa had chances in important moments and it’s difficult to beat him but I’m happy with my game.”

Sunday’s victory gave six-times Grand Slam winner Nadal his 17th career Masters title to equal Andre Agassi’s tally.

“I hope to improve his record but you never know,” he said. “I’m 23 and I’m happy about what I’ve done. Seventeen is a very important number.”

(Reporting by Paul Virgo, Editing by John Mehaffey; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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Henin wins and says Federer inspired her return

May 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Justine Henin was inspired to return to tennis by Roger Federer and the decision was rewarded on Sunday when she beat Australia’s Samantha Stosur in the final of the Stuttgart indoor tournament for her first title since her comeback.

It was the Belgian’s first tournament on clay, her favoured surface on which she has won four French Open titles, since she ended her 19-month self-imposed exile at the start of the year.

Henin, runner-up at Brisbane and the Australian Open in January, won 6-4 2-6 6-1 to end Stosur’s 11-match winning run.

“I never thought I would be back here,” said Henin in an on-court interview. “On clay, it means a lot to me.”

“When I saw Roger Federer winning the French Open (in 2009), I had a lot of respect. That brought back the fire that wasn’t there any more.

“It’s been a lot of work to get back and it’s not over.”

Henin’s victory came less than a month before she is due to return to Roland Garros for the first time since winning the title there in 2007.

A break in the fifth game was enough to give wild card entry Henin the first set against the world number 10.

In the second game, Stosur saved break points in the third and fifth games as the Belgian threatened to walk away with the match.

Instead, Henin’s serve briefly went to pieces and Stosur broke twice in a row to fight her way back into the match.

The third set was a different story as Henin pulled herself together and never looked back after breaking in the third game.

“Justine was just a little bit too good today,” said Stosur.

“In the third set, she got very aggressive, hit some very good returns and put me under pressure all the time.”

It was Henin’s 42nd tournament win and her first since Antwerp in 2008.

(Editing by Alison Wildey

To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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Stosur dumps Jankovic to make quarters

March 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Australian tennis ace Samantha Stosur has snapped Jelena Jankovic’s eight-match winning streak to advance to the quarter-finals of the lucrative Miami Open.

World number 10 Stosur had never previously taken a set from Jankovic, but outclassed the Serb 6-1, 7-6 (11-9) in their fourth career meeting.

Stosur’s impressive fourth-round victory also reversed a 6-2, 6-4 semi-final loss to eighth-ranked Jankovic last week at Indian Wells.

In a marquee match featuring two of the tour’s most in-form players, Stosur broke Jankovic in the second and seventh games to race through the opening set in 27 minutes.

The second set seemed headed the same way as Stosur jumped out to a 3-1 lead and grabbed another break point in the fifth game.

But Jankovic tenaciously battled back to 3-3 before sending the set to a tie-breaker.

Serving with confidence, ninth-seeded Stosur held her nerve, saving two set points in the breaker, to close out the contest match in one hour 31 minutes.

Stosur, who also made the quarter-finals last year in Miami, next plays US Open champion Kim Clijsters for a place in the last four of the $US4.5 million event.

The Australian is none-from-three against Clijsters, who crushed fourth-seeded titleholder Victoria Azarenka 6-4, 6-0 in her fourth-round match.

- AAP

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Rushmi, Maloo lone Indian survivors in ITF tournament

May 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, May 27 (IANS) Rushmi Chakravarthi and Parija Maloo were the only Indians to advance to the quarter-finals of the $10,000 women’s International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament here at the DLTA complex Wednesday.

Among the Indian losers were top-seeded Ankita Bhambri and her sister Sanaa who were beaten by Chinese girls.

Rushmi, seeded sixth, overcame a plucky Seo-Kyung Kang 6-7(4),7-5, 6-4 while Maloo foiled a second-set fightback from qualifier Treta Bhattacharya to win 6-3, 7-5.

It was the second three-setter for 31-year-old Rushmi, who after narrowly losing the first set tie-break came back strongly in the second which saw the two player trading breaks twice.

In the decider, Kang, who won the Mumbai ITF title last week, broke Rushmi in the third game but lapsed into errors to allow the Indian to broke back. Rushmi then had the decisive break in the tenth game to take the set and the match.

Rushmi next plays Australian Renee Binnie, who put out her injured doubles partner Isha Lakhani, 6-4, 6-0 in a little over an hour. Isha, a former national champion and third seed, suffered from a sore shoulder that made it difficult for her to serve and greatly cut down her strokes.

The 23-year old, however, put up a brave fight in the first set and after exchanging breaks in the fourth and the fifth game, was broken by the Australian in the tenth game to go a set down.

Isha, who had beaten Binnie last week in Mumbai, took medical time-out after the first game of the second set to treat her sore shoulder, but that did not help her much as Binnie easily walked away with all the sixth games.

Isha, who was down with jaundice in December, played only her third tournament of the year in Mumbai. She has also decided against playing in the next week’s ITF here.

“Since I didn’t have much training, I think that affected by shoulder muscles. I will take rest for some days to recover. My shoulder got worse by the second set, but I preferred to lose rather than concede the match,” Isha said.

Isha and Binnie had already lost in the doubles first round.

It was a bad day for Bhambri sisters. Both of them went down in straight sets.

Ankita went down to Ying-Ying Duan 2-6, 3-6 while fourth-seeded Sanaa lost 2-6, 3-6 to qualifier Yi Zhong. The Bhambris are already out of the doubles.

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Sehwag leads the race Castrol Indian cricketer of year 2008

January 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Mumbai, Jan 22 (ANI/Business Wire India): Virender Sehwag marked his return to form in style, capping off a wonderful 2008 with consistent scores in all forms of the game, to top the points (59 points) for the Castrol Indian Cricketer of the Year 2008.

The other four who made it to the top five are: Gautam Gambhir, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh and Ishant Sharma.

Sehwag had a phenomenal year in Test Cricket with a triple hundred against South Africa and a double hundred against Sri Lanka, along with some blazing starts at the top of the order in one day cricket. Carrying on with his splendid form against the Australians in the Test series, Sehwag also came good in the one day series against England with a blistering 85 in the first game at Rajkot, propelling India to a massive total of 387/5 in their allotted 50 overs. He followed that up with knocks of 68 in Kanpur, 69 in Bangalore, and missed out on a scintillating century with 91 in the fifth game at Cuttack.

The Nawab’s special year ended in a fitting finale during the first India England Test in Chennai, with a blistering 83 on the fourth evening, which tilted the scales in India’s favour. His prolific run in 2008 makes Virender Shwag the front runner for the Castrol Indian Cricketer of the Year Award.

Gautam Gambhir, his Delhi team mate, comes in a close second with 52 points, after matching his opening partner’s good run with scores of 51,70 and 40 in the one dayers against England, along with a gritty century in seaming conditions in the second Test against England in Mohali.

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni concluded one of the most successful years by an Indian captain, with four wins in five Tests. Dhoni led from the front with sterling performances at crucial moments to take the third position with 48 points.

Two young bowlers walked away with the fourth and fifth positions with pivotal spells against the visiting English team. Harbhajan Singh kept the pressure on the Englishman with some tight spells during the one dayers, and picked up crucial wickets during the Chennai Test, to capture 41 points.

Ishant Sharma enhanced his reputation as India’s new speed sensation, spearheading the attack with 6 wickets in the two Tests against England, and holds fifth position with 37 points.

As per the Awards criteria, all Indian cricketers who have played international cricket for India will now be invited to vote for their choice of the Castrol Indian Cricketer of the Year from amongst the top five.

The annual Castrol awards for cricketing excellence were instituted in 1997-98.

The rating system takes into account performances by Indian cricketers in Test and One Day international matches during the calendar year. The Awards have been dominated over the last decade by Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid and this is the first year when neither of the three legends – Sachin, Rahul and Sourav, feature amongst the top five.

In 2008, Castrol also initiated the Castrol Asian Cricketer of the Year Award which was won by Sourav Ganguly for 2007.

The Castrol Awards for Cricketing Excellence were instituted by Castrol in 1997 to recognize and honour the present, past and future of Indian Cricket. The main awards include the Castrol Indian Cricketer of the Year, the Castrol Junior Cricketer of the Year and the Castrol Lifetime Achievement Award. The Castrol Indian Cricketer of the Year Award is a democratic award based on the performances of Indian cricketers in International cricket.

The Castrol Junior Cricketer of the Year Award recognizes and highlights the performances of budding cricketers who are exceptionally talented and who have performed consistently in the domestic season under review. The Castrol Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes and rewards outstanding contribution to Indian cricket. (ANI)

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