Henin, Nadal cruise at French Open tennis
PARIS: Justine Henin and Rafael Nadal each kept on course for their fifth French Open titles, but twice-beaten finalist Dinara Safina crashed out.
Henin beat Bulgaria”s Tsvetana Pironkova 6-4, 6-3, while Nadal eased past French teenager Gianni Mina 6-2, 6-2, 6-2.
But Russian ninth seed Safina had a day to forget, as the former world number one fell 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 to Japanese veteran Kimiko Date Krumm.
Men”s sixth seed Andy Roddick came through a five-setter to beat Finland”s Jarkko Nieminen 6-2, 4-6, 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 and there were also wins for Lleyton Hewitt and Spanish seeds David Ferrer and Juan Carlos Ferrero.
Former world number one Maria Sharapova, the Russian 12th seed, brushed off 18-year-old compatriot Ksenia Pervak to win 6-3, 6-2, while French 13th seed Marion Bartoli won 6-2, 6-3 against Italy”s Maria Elena Camerin.
Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, the seventh seed, eased past Russia”s Igor Kunitsyn 6-4, 6-2, 6-2, but Argentine 26th seed Juan Monaco fell 7-6 (8/6), 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 to Slovenian qualifier Grega Zemlja, the world 141.
Ninth seed Ferrer triumphed 6-1 6-3 6-1 over Frenchman David Guez, with Ferrero, the number 16 seed, a 6-4 6-3 6-1 winner against Uruguay”s Pablo Cuevas, but 18th seed Sam Querrey of the USA lost in four sets to countryman Robby Ginepri.
Australia”s Hewitt, the 28th seed, took his place in the last 64 by beating France”s Jeremy Chardy 7-5, 6-0, 6-4 in a match that ended with a dramatic rainstorm after three days of blazing heat in Paris.
Three-Time Grand Slam Champion Maria Sharapova,Davydenko Out Of Miami
MIAMI : Three-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova will miss the Sony Ericsson Open, as will women’s world number two Dinara Safina and 2008 men’s champion Nikolay Davydenko, organizers said Wednesday.
The Miami tournament is the second of prestigious back-to-back hardcourt tournaments in the United States, coming immediately after this week’s event at Indian Wells, California.
Sharapova, who won the WTA title in Memphis in February, had been slated to play in Miami for the first time since 2007.
But an MRI exam on the sore right elbow that hindered her as she made a third-round exit in Indian Wells showed a bone bruise that is likely to sideline the Russian for three to six weeks.
Safina, a three-time Grand Slam finalist, remains sidelined by the back injury that forced her out of the Australian Open.
Davydenko is out with a broken left wrist. He had played one match at Indian Wells and then pulled out after an MRI revealed the wrist he injured in Rotterdam last month was, in fact, fractured.
Arsenal Crashes Liverpool 2-1
Arsenal Vs Liverpool 2-1, LONDON: A young team Thursday night Arsenal won seven times League Cup Champions Liverpool 2-1 in an absorbing Carling Cup tie fourth round at the Emirates Stadium.
Fran Merida thundered in a shot from 18 yards to put Arsenal ahead early in the first half of Emiliano Insua Liverpool drew 6 minutes later with an excellent dipping 25-yard strike.
Nickolas Bendtner shot in the roof of the net in the second half to secure Arsenals place in the quarter-finals.
At Stamford Bridge, Saloman Kalou gave the home side the lead, Florent Malouda scored the second a low drive sealed the victory Deco and a header from substitute Didier Drogba rounded off in style.
The 4-0 score line serves as testimony to a great performance, coherent than it was in much of Chelsea’s second string team.
In another tie of the night, crossed the Manchester City to a 5-1 victory over Championship side Scunthorpe. A midweek Serie A Juventus tie scored two victories on the bounce with a 5-1 victory over Sampdoria at the Stadio Olimpico blows.
Amauri, Giorgio Chiellini, Mauro Camoranesi and David Trezeguet goals substitute at Juventus produced his best performance of the season to leave behind Sampdoria, for which Giampaolo Pazzini grabbed a consolation second.
And in tennis, Serena Williams finished the year as world number one after Dinara Safina withdrew due to a back injury since the season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha.
The Wimbledon champion Williams later won his second match of the tournament, defeating her older sister Venus 5-7 6-4 7-6.
Serena had to win only one more game than Safina of Russia to reach the leaderboard.
Arsenal Crashes Liverpool 2-1 was first posted on October 30, 2009 at 8:30 am.
Serena Takes No 1 Ranking as Safina Withdraws
Serena Takes No 1 Ranking as Safina Withdraws, Dinara Safina withdraws from the WTA Championships with a back injury to hand the year-end top spot to American Serena Williams.
Safina’s tearful exit after just two games of her first group match against Jelena Jankovic meant 11-times grand slam champion Serena was assured of ending the year top of the pile for the first time since 2002 even before she beat sister Venus later in a midnight thriller.
Earlier at the Khalifa Tennis Centre Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka, two players who are set to challenge the Williams sisters for major honours, went toe to toe for three hours before Denmark’s Wozniacki triumphed 1-6 6-4 7-5.
Ishikawa wins golf title in Tokai Classic
MIYOSHI, Japan: Ishikawa wins golf title in Tokai Classic, Japan’s teenage sensation Ryo Ishikawa birdied the last two holes for a one-stroke victory in the Tokai Classic men’s golf tournament on Sunday.
Overnight leader Ishikawa hit an eagle, six birdies, one bogey and two double bogeys for a 69 to complete the four rounds with a 14-under-par 274.
Takeshi Kajikawa came second, Shingo Katayama and Yuta Ikeda were tied at third place on 277, followed by Yasuharu Konno at fifth on 278.
“Nobody can write such a scenario,” said Ishikawa.
“But I was able to hit an important second shot on the final hole. I was excited with my second shot. Next year, I will try not to have a double bogey twice in a day,” the 18-year-old added.
It was Ishikawa’s fourth title of the season and sixth overall, and kept him on top of the Japan Tour rankings.
Ishikawa has revived the Japanese men’s game after becoming the youngest winner of any event on the world’s six major tours when he shot to victory in the domestic KSB Cup as an amateur, aged just 15, in 2007.
He finished fifth in last year’s Japan Tour money rankings in his rookie season as a professional and made his US PGA debut this year.
He was the youngest competitor in the US PGA Championship history, at Chaska, Minnesota, this season and made the cut for the first time in his three major outings.
Ishikawa wins golf title in Tokai Classic was first posted on October 4, 2009 at 9:20 pm.
Dinara Safina and Serena Williams win in Beijing
BEIJING : Dinara Safina and Serena Williams win in Beijing,, Dinara Safina and Serena Williams, the world number one and two, advanced Sunday to the second round of the China Open, where the US superstar will look to wrest the top ranking from the Russian.
Williams, 28, surrendered a few early service breaks but steadied herself with precise play from the backcourt to defeat Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi 7-5, 6-4.
The younger of the Williams sisters kept the pressure on Kanepi, eventually forcing the 24-year-old to send a sliced backhand into the net to end the first set.
The pair stayed on serve for most of the second set, but Williams sealed the win when she broke the 48th-ranked Kanepi for the fifth time in the final game.
“It was a good challenging match to start out with. It wasn’t easy but I felt like I was hitting a clean ball,” Williams said after the match.
“She’s a really good player. She always plays me really tough.”
Safina, looking to bounce back after an embarrassing loss last week in Japan to a teenage Taiwanese qualifier, defeated Italy’s Roberta Vinci 6-4, 6-4, but it was not as straightforward as the score suggested.
The pair traded breaks throughout the match, with Safina losing her serve four times and the 26-year-old Vinci surrendering hers six times.
“There is still room for improvement in my game,” Safina told reporters.
“She’s not an easy one to play… you have to really pick the right shot to go for it. She has a great touch.”
The 23-year-old Safina will face Chinese wild card Zhang Shuai in the second round, while Williams will take on Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova.
Williams only needs to have a better result than Safina in Beijing to claim the number one ranking, according to WTA officials.
While the Russian said she did not think about the points race, the American has her sights firmly set on the top spot.
“It’s definitely on my radar,” Williams said. “I would love to be number one but I also want to pay the price to be number one. And it’ll come eventually.”
In other matches, Svetlana Kuznetsova, the tournament’s sixth seed and reigning French Open champion, survived a scare from China’s Zheng Jie, falling behind early in both sets but outlasting her opponent 7-6 (7/3), 7-5.
The 24-year-old Russian — who is ranked sixth in the world but also crashed out early in Tokyo — was on the ropes in the first set against world number 32 Zheng, losing her first service game and quickly falling behind 0-3.
But Kuznetsova, who won the China Open in 2006, rallied with powerful ground stroke winners to pull even at 3-3 and Zheng, clearly the crowd favourite, came up short in the first set tiebreak, surrendering the set on an unforced error.
The 26-year-old Chengdu native, who had never beaten Kuznetsova in four previous meetings including one here last year, again went up early in the second set, but the Russian persevered to close out the match in straight sets.
“I think that I started both sets pretty slow. I wasn’t quite moving well,” Kuznetsova said after the match.
“Then when I started to move better, I started to play better. Then I lost my concentration again, and then got it back and started to play better.”
Russia’s Elena Dementieva, the fourth seed, and number five Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark were due on court later Sunday.
Third seed Venus Williams of the United States advanced to the second round on Saturday.
In other first round matches on Sunday, Russian seventh seed Vera Zvonareva beat Romania’s Sorana Cirstea 6-2, 6-2, and Switzerland’s Patty Schnyder got past Poland’s Urszula Radwanska 6-4, 7-5.
Ninth seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus advanced, easily defeating compatriot Olga Govortsova 6-1, 6-3.
The men’s main draw gets under way on Monday, with Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Roddick leading the charge.
Dinara Safina and Serena Williams win in Beijing was first posted on October 4, 2009 at 9:23 pm.
Tiger Woods Fart
Tiger Woods Fart,Tiger Woods won the Buick Open for a third time Sunday after shooting a 3 under par in the final round, but not before sealing the 18th with a rather large fart.
After his disappointment in missing the cut at the British Open, Woods showed fine form at Warwick Hills to claim his 69th PGA Tour victory, shooting 20 under for the tournament and winning by three strokes.
“I’ve played all around the world, and I’ve never seen a day like this,” Woods told the media. “This event has always been special, but today was something else.”
Although golf fans are celebrating Woods’ return to form, it’s the fart on the 18th that is gaining Woods some extra attention. From the footage it isn’t clear whether Woods or his caddy let rip, but both found it amusing. Strangely this isn’t the first time Woods has sealed an event with a fart, having also farted when he won the Arnold Palmer invitational in March.
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Tiger Woods Fart
I Am Number One, Like It or Not: Dinara Safina
LOS ANGELES: An annoyed Dinara Safina has had enough of people questioning whether she can justify being the world number one, despite not having won a grand slam title.
The Russian bristled at the Los Angeles Championships on Monday when asked about world number two Serena Williams’ comments she was the people’s number one as she holds the U.S., Australian Open and Wimbledon titles.
“I didn’t do the ranking system,” said Safina. “If she has questions, she can give these questions to the WTA who is doing the ranking system.”
“It’s the result of how you play the whole year, not just the four grand slams. I’ve been playing the whole year and I’ve been having great results all through the grand slams.”
Safina has won at Rome, Madrid and Portorotz and reached the Australian Open and the French Open finals, as well as the Wimbledon semi-finals this year.
However, she has been thrashed in all of those grand slam matches, to Serena at the Australian Open, to Svetlana Kuznetsova at Roland Garros and to Venus Williams at Wimbledon.
Her top ranking was also questioned by former world number one Jelena Jankovic, who also had similar criticisms levelled at her when she held the mantle as the top-ranked player.
“If I had to pick someone after me, I’d pick Serena,” Jankovic told reporters last week.
“To be number one, you should be complete and if you are number one you have to be beating the Williams sisters.”
“I’m one of the rare players who has a positive record against the Williams sisters.”
Safina, who is a combined 2-9 against the Williams sisters while Jankovic is 8-8, said the Serb’s perception of what should define the number one ranking was ill conceived.
“The ranking system is not only based (on) if you beat Serena and Venus,” she said. “It’s based on how you play the whole year.”
“It has nothing to do with what your record is against them.”
“Did she beat them in the final of a grand slam? No. It doesn’t count when you beat them at a tier four (tournament).”
Safina has a 973-point lead in the rankings over Serena, and unless she has a complete meltdown in the events leading up the U.S. Open, the WTA said she would enter the year’s final grand slam beginning on Aug. 31 as the world number one.
The Russian added she was confident her first grand slam title was only a matter of time.
“I’m putting in 100 percent every day,” Safina said.
“I’m practicing and if has to come it comes. I think it’s just a matter of time and one day it will happen.”
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I Am Number One, Like It or Not: Dinara Safina
