MELBOURNE, Jan 25: Even Jo-Wilfried Tsonga says the extraordinary level of tennis he played to wipe out world number two Rafael Nadal was ridiculous.
Now the 22-year-old finds himself with a chance to become the first French winner in Australia since Jean Borotra in 1928 and the last men’s Grand Slam champion from France since Yannick Noah in 1983.
The Le Mans-native has been propelled into the spotlight with an unbelievable spell in Melbourne that has seen him claim the scalps of four top seeds.
And he is now just one match away from joining an elite club of champions.
He stunned the triple French Open champion and the tennis world with a rare performance he would want to bottle forever as he rocketed into the final in just his fifth Grand Slam tournament.
Nadal, who been second only to the great Roger Federer in the rankings over the last three years, could only shake his head in disbelief at the astonishing level produced by the 38th-ranked Tsonga.
All Tsonga could do after his 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 annihilation was puff his cheeks in bewilderment at what he had achieved.
Nicknamed Mohammad Ali for his resemblance to the boxing legend, Tsonga did as he pleased against Nadal, blasting 49 winners, 17 aces and breaking Nadal’s serve five times. He won 31 more points than the non-plussed Spaniard.
France’s new sporting hero cannot explain how his two hours of faultless tennis came about, saying he had no inkling it was about to materialise.
Tsonga has become an instant tennis celebrity as he prepares for the biggest match of his life on Sunday against Serbia’s Novak Djokovic who recorded one of the biggest upsets in the history of tennis by eliminating top seed Roger Federer in the other semi-final on Friday.
Asked at his post-match conference if he could repeat his red-hot form in the final, Tsonga said: “I will do my best on the court, so I know it’s going to be difficult to beat me.”
Nadal is not so sure. “It’s very different to play in the final. I think he’s going to feel the pressure of playing in his first Grand Slam final,” the Spaniard stated.
Tsonga’s tennis career has been beset by injuries with back, shoulder and abdominal problems, drastically curtailing his 2005 and 2006 seasons.
But he said he is now able to realise his full potential with an extended run of matches.
It has been an euphoric time for Tsonga at the season-opening major.
He claimed his first win over a top-five player and followed his elimination of seeds, Andy Murray (9), Richard Gasquet (8) and Mikhail Youzhny (14) in the early rounds.
Tsonga becomes the eighth unseeded player to reach the Australian Open final since the ATP rankings began in 1973, and is projected to climb from his current 38 to 27 when the new rankings come out next week.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Saudi Arabia holds first women’s soccer match
AL-KHOBAR, Jan 25: History was made here on Thursday when the first ever all-female soccer match was held in the eastern province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
In the historic match, the Al-Khobar-based Prince Mohammad bin Fahd University team defeated the Al-Yamamah Women’s College from Riyadh, in a penalty shoot out after the game had been tied 2-2 in regular time. Al Yamamah’s goalkeeper was named as woman of the match.
The match was held in a 35,000 capacity stadium in the city of Dammam and no men were allowed inside the stadium while the referee and the linesman were also female.
The first female soccer teams in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom were formed some 18 months ago.
Saudi Arabia’s national soccer male team is one of the Asia’s most successful teams, currently ranking 57 in the FIFA ratings and has taken part in the last four world cups.
In the historic match, the Al-Khobar-based Prince Mohammad bin Fahd University team defeated the Al-Yamamah Women’s College from Riyadh, in a penalty shoot out after the game had been tied 2-2 in regular time. Al Yamamah’s goalkeeper was named as woman of the match.
The match was held in a 35,000 capacity stadium in the city of Dammam and no men were allowed inside the stadium while the referee and the linesman were also female.
The first female soccer teams in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom were formed some 18 months ago.
Saudi Arabia’s national soccer male team is one of the Asia’s most successful teams, currently ranking 57 in the FIFA ratings and has taken part in the last four world cups.
Nerves to assist Sharapova
MELBOURNE, Jan 25: Australian Open finalist Maria Sharapova’s mentor Nick Bollettieri says his former charge’s big-match nerves will win her the title decider against Serbian Ana Ivanovic on Saturday.
He pointed out that Sharapova had won two Grand Slams and will be contesting her fourth final at a major, while Ivanovic has only reached one decider, last year’s French Open, which she lost in a nervy display to Justine Henin.
But he said a potential wild card could be Sharapova’s reaction to the squeaking caused by Ivanovic’s shoes as she shuffles on the Plexicushion surface before receiving a serve.
The noise drove Ivanovic’s semi-final opponent Daniela Hantuchova to distraction, prompting the Slovak ninth seed to accuse her opponent of gamemanship to get back into the match.
“Sharapova seems a little more confident around the net than Ivanovic does. This match is pretty even on paper,” Bollettieri added.
He pointed out that Sharapova had won two Grand Slams and will be contesting her fourth final at a major, while Ivanovic has only reached one decider, last year’s French Open, which she lost in a nervy display to Justine Henin.
But he said a potential wild card could be Sharapova’s reaction to the squeaking caused by Ivanovic’s shoes as she shuffles on the Plexicushion surface before receiving a serve.
The noise drove Ivanovic’s semi-final opponent Daniela Hantuchova to distraction, prompting the Slovak ninth seed to accuse her opponent of gamemanship to get back into the match.
“Sharapova seems a little more confident around the net than Ivanovic does. This match is pretty even on paper,” Bollettieri added.
Handball federations on collision course
BANGKOK, Jan 25: A storm has blown up in handball, plunging the sport into unprecedented chaos six months out from the Olympics.
Allegations of flagrant bias by Middle Eastern referees have sent the sport’s two biggest bodies — the International Handball Federation (IHF) and the Asian Handball Federation (AHF) — on a potentially explosive collision course.
Critics allege the fixing of a key match by means of a late switch of officials last September in the qualifying tournament in Japan where the Kuwaiti men’s team won a place at the Beijing Olympics. The claims are denied by the AHF.
Kuwait beat both Japan and South Korea in the five-nation qualifying event which also featured Qatar and the UAE.
In December, after appeals and protests by the Japanese and Koreans, the IHF ordered the disputed tournament, both men’s and women’s, to be replayed by the end of this month.
But influential Kuwaiti prince Sheikh Ahmed Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, long-serving president of the Kuwait-based AHF and head of the Olympic Council of Asia, has refused to sanction the replays and the AHF has threatened to penalise any Asian country taking part.
Last week the UAE decided to join Kuwait, Qatar and Kazakhstan, winner of the women’s event, in skipping the replays and it looks clear that only Japan and South Korea will show up for the tournament now set for Tokyo on Jan 29-30.
Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda joined the debate a couple of days ago and backed Japanese handball chiefs.
“In sports, it’s important to have fair rules and judgements. If that’s prevented, then Japan must insist on what it has to insist on,” he told parliament when asked about the heated handball bust-up.
Sheikh Ahmed has been vilified by the South Korean media, which claims Kuwait has undue influence over the federation.
“Sheikh Ahmed must recognise that the repeated dirty attempts to manipulate matches will severely tarnish the image of Kuwait,” the Korea Times said in a strongly-worded editorial after the Olympic qualifiers.
The handball federations of Japan and South Korea claim they have evidence proving the AHF switched German referees for Jordanian match officials, who they say repeatedly ruled in favour of Kuwait.
The two federations staged a protest outside the Kuwaiti Embassy in Seoul last year and sent DVDs highlighting questionable decisions by Gulf referees — dubbed ‘The whistle of the Middle East’ — to the International Olympic Committee and the IHF’s 160 member countries.
Angered by the IHF’s support for the replays, the AHF this week threatened to lodge an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport. In an interview with Reuters this week, Roshan Anand, AHF secretary-general, poured scorn on the allegations of cheating, suggesting that Japan and South Korea were sore losers.
“These complaints came only from the losers,” Anand said.
“Everyone wants to win and everyone complains when they are the losing team. The judging was as normal.”
He denied there was a switch of referees moments before Kuwait’s match with South Korea, which Kuwait won 28-20, and said the Gulf team were the rightful winners.
“The officials were not replaced. Kuwait has qualified for the Olympics,” he added. “They are the representatives of Asia and that is that.”
Oh No-kyun, who teaches sports diplomacy at South Korea’s Chung Cheong University, said political influence weighed heavy on sport and national federations needed to push for change.
“The reality is that politics underlines sports,” he told the Yonhap news agency when asked about the handball standoff.
“We have no choice but to step up our appeals to international organisations to correct injustices.”
Allegations of flagrant bias by Middle Eastern referees have sent the sport’s two biggest bodies — the International Handball Federation (IHF) and the Asian Handball Federation (AHF) — on a potentially explosive collision course.
Critics allege the fixing of a key match by means of a late switch of officials last September in the qualifying tournament in Japan where the Kuwaiti men’s team won a place at the Beijing Olympics. The claims are denied by the AHF.
Kuwait beat both Japan and South Korea in the five-nation qualifying event which also featured Qatar and the UAE.
In December, after appeals and protests by the Japanese and Koreans, the IHF ordered the disputed tournament, both men’s and women’s, to be replayed by the end of this month.
But influential Kuwaiti prince Sheikh Ahmed Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, long-serving president of the Kuwait-based AHF and head of the Olympic Council of Asia, has refused to sanction the replays and the AHF has threatened to penalise any Asian country taking part.
Last week the UAE decided to join Kuwait, Qatar and Kazakhstan, winner of the women’s event, in skipping the replays and it looks clear that only Japan and South Korea will show up for the tournament now set for Tokyo on Jan 29-30.
Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda joined the debate a couple of days ago and backed Japanese handball chiefs.
“In sports, it’s important to have fair rules and judgements. If that’s prevented, then Japan must insist on what it has to insist on,” he told parliament when asked about the heated handball bust-up.
Sheikh Ahmed has been vilified by the South Korean media, which claims Kuwait has undue influence over the federation.
“Sheikh Ahmed must recognise that the repeated dirty attempts to manipulate matches will severely tarnish the image of Kuwait,” the Korea Times said in a strongly-worded editorial after the Olympic qualifiers.
The handball federations of Japan and South Korea claim they have evidence proving the AHF switched German referees for Jordanian match officials, who they say repeatedly ruled in favour of Kuwait.
The two federations staged a protest outside the Kuwaiti Embassy in Seoul last year and sent DVDs highlighting questionable decisions by Gulf referees — dubbed ‘The whistle of the Middle East’ — to the International Olympic Committee and the IHF’s 160 member countries.
Angered by the IHF’s support for the replays, the AHF this week threatened to lodge an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport. In an interview with Reuters this week, Roshan Anand, AHF secretary-general, poured scorn on the allegations of cheating, suggesting that Japan and South Korea were sore losers.
“These complaints came only from the losers,” Anand said.
“Everyone wants to win and everyone complains when they are the losing team. The judging was as normal.”
He denied there was a switch of referees moments before Kuwait’s match with South Korea, which Kuwait won 28-20, and said the Gulf team were the rightful winners.
“The officials were not replaced. Kuwait has qualified for the Olympics,” he added. “They are the representatives of Asia and that is that.”
Oh No-kyun, who teaches sports diplomacy at South Korea’s Chung Cheong University, said political influence weighed heavy on sport and national federations needed to push for change.
“The reality is that politics underlines sports,” he told the Yonhap news agency when asked about the handball standoff.
“We have no choice but to step up our appeals to international organisations to correct injustices.”
Nadal, Ferrero opt out
MADRID, Jan 25: World number two Rafael Nadal and Juan Carlos Ferrero have opted out of Spain’s opening Davis Cup tie against Peru to concentrate on the hard court season.
World number five David Ferrer will spearhead the Spanish challenge in Nadal’s absence for the first round World Group clash on clay at the Jockey Club in Lima between Feb 8 and 10.
Team captain Emilio Sanchez Vicario also said on Friday that world-ranked number 31 Nicolas Almagro had been called up to the Davis Cup team for the first time.
Tommy Robredo and Fernando Velasco complete the line-up.
Fed Cup captain Miguel Margets kept faith with Anabel Medina, Lourdes Dominguez, Nuria Llagostera and Virginia Ruano for the quarter-final tie with Italy in Naples on Feb 2 and 3.
Italy have won three out of five Fed Cup ties between the two countries, including their last meeting at the semi-finals stage in Zaragoza in 2006.
World number five David Ferrer will spearhead the Spanish challenge in Nadal’s absence for the first round World Group clash on clay at the Jockey Club in Lima between Feb 8 and 10.
Team captain Emilio Sanchez Vicario also said on Friday that world-ranked number 31 Nicolas Almagro had been called up to the Davis Cup team for the first time.
Tommy Robredo and Fernando Velasco complete the line-up.
Fed Cup captain Miguel Margets kept faith with Anabel Medina, Lourdes Dominguez, Nuria Llagostera and Virginia Ruano for the quarter-final tie with Italy in Naples on Feb 2 and 3.
Italy have won three out of five Fed Cup ties between the two countries, including their last meeting at the semi-finals stage in Zaragoza in 2006.
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