Daily Sports News

Somdev Dewarman defeated Marian Cilic in straight sets and avenged the defeat he suffered at the Chennai earlier this year. He beat the Croatian 7-4, 6-4 to reach the third round on the $ 1.4 million Legg Mason Tennis Classic. Cilic ranked 15th on the ATP ranking is the highest ranked player that Somdev has defeated in his career. This will certainly improve Somdev’s ranking.

Somdev took 1 hour and 42 minutes to defeat the Croatian. Somdev has had some excellent victories this year including the one on his way to his first ATP final with wins over much better ranked player players like Carlos Moya and Ivo Karlovic.

In a post match interview Somdev said that it’s was one of his biggest career victories and also called Cilic a great player. He also said that Cilic was already in the Top 15 of the ATP ranking and is soon going to be in the Top 10.

Alberto Contador the dark horse of the race and the Astana strong man took the first climb of the Alps in style. He powered ahead on the base of the final climb and took away the yellow jersey. He is now ahead of his Astana teammate and seven times champion Lance Armstrong with a gap of one minute and thirty seven seconds. Andy Schleck of team Saxo Bank finished an impressive second behind Contador.

As the tour returned to the mountains the 15th stage after a rest day was from Pontarlier to Verbier. The 207.5 kilometers stage had 6 climbs and two intermediate sprints. There were four category-3 climbs the cote du Rafour at 8 kilometers, cote des Etroits at 18.5 kilometers, cote de la Carrière at 54 kilometers and the cote de Prévonloup at 74 kilometers, a category-2 climb: col des Mosses at 135.5 kilometers and a category-1 climb to the finish at Verbier. The two sprints were Thierrens at 56.5 kilometer mark and Martigny at 181 kilometer mark.

Although the pace of peloton was dictated by Milram, Liquigas and Saxo Bank but just 6 kilometers from the finish and the final ascent Contador surprised everyone and took the lead. He quickly crossed all the escaped riders and finished the race with a 43 second gap.

Yellow jersey holder Nocentini was dropped at 5 kilometers and could just watch the yellow jersey going away from his hand. Thor Hushovd keeps the green jersey and is ahead of Cavindish by 18 points. In a post match interview Contador said that he was a different rider as compared to team mate Lance Armstrong and was looking for a tour victory this time and was not here to make records like Armstrong’s seven tour victories. Team Astana also had a good outing as it came back to the number one spot in the team standings and taking the place away from AG2R La Mondiale.

Finally the 75 year wait is over; an Ashes test victory at Lords for England over rivals Australia at Lords. England are now 1-0 ahead in the Ashes as the first test at Cardiff resulted in a draw.

England gave the visitors a mammoth target of 552 to win, but Australia was bowled out by England for 406 in the post lunch session on the fifth day. The day belonged to Andrew Flintoff who just before the start of the match announced his retirement from test cricket after the ongoing Ashes series. He took five wickets in 27 over’s giving away just 115 runs with three on the fifth day. This is Flintoff’s third five wicket haul in test career of 77 matches. He was also awarded the Man of the match for his excellent effort.

Michael Clarke’s effort in the form of 136 runs to rescue Australia went in vain as the Aussie batting tumbled against England. There was good support from Off-spinner Graeme Swann who took four wickets for 87 runs.

A generous Ricky Ponting accepted defeat with grace and in a post match interview said that the Aussie team was outplayed by England from the very first delivery of the match. He also added that he looks forward to the next test at Edgbaston and his team would come back strongly in the third test. The biggest concern for the Punter is now his bowling attack, especially Mitchell Johnson.

SCORECARD

The Ashes 2009 – 2nd Test, Australia vs England,Played at Lord’s, 16-20 July 2009

Result – England beat Australia by 115 runs

Some thought that it was a revival of the golden era of German Tennis when Boris Becker, Steffi Graf and Michael Stich won Wimbildon Titles, but they were all put to rest by The Magician Roger Federer when he defeated Tommy Haas in straight sets 7-6, 7-5, 6-3. Federer won the semifinal match and now is just on win away from recording his 15th Grand Slam title.

Centre Court witnessed the shear brilliance of Federer and audiences were enthralled with the quality of his game. He pocketed the win with a majestic slam dunk smash and made his way to the finals. It took Federer just two hours to beat his German opponent. Federer also created history by becoming the first to reach seven consecutive Wimbledon finals. Federer currently shares the record of most grand slam wins with American Pete Sampras and thus this final would be really special as he count go past him with 15 tiles if he wins on Sunday.

Federer in a post match interview said that he has been under lot of pressure over the years and Sundays win would make sure that he creates history and enters into the record book. If Federer wins on Sunday then he would clear all the doubts amongst the pundits of the game and also bring an end to the long going debate – Who is the best player in the history of the game.

Federer is the sure favorite as he has beaten Roddick in all the three previous engagements at the Wimbledon. Also on the over all record he is miles ahead of the American beating him 18 times and having only lost twice.

The English dream came to an end on Friday when Roddick defeated Murray in the Wimbledon semifinals. Murray could have been the first man to reach the Wimbledon finals since 1938 but he lost to Roddick on a score 6-4, 4-6, 7-6, 7-6.

Roddick was seeded sixth and has been a grand slam winner himself (2003 US Open) showed all the aggression and temperament which took him to the World No.1 rank. Roddick took the first set easily by breaking Murray’s in the very first serving game and then followed it with his perfect serving.

Murry came back strongly in the second set and broke Roddick ‘s serve and leveled the score to one set each.  But his aggression did not last long as he could not convert the three break point of the first game in the third set. He also failed to convert the set point to his advantage in the tiebreak giving Roddick a 2-1 lead in the match. The last set also went into a tiebreak and was won by Roddick.

Roddick showed that he still had the powerful serve in his arsenal when he fired the fastest serve of the tournament at an astonishing 143 MPH. Roddick in a post match interview said that he played this best game and many people had ruled him out and had thus all the pressure was on his young opponent.

Roddick now faces the Five Times Wimbledon Champion, The Magician Federer. Roddick has a enormous task ahead of him as he has only won 2 matches against Federer and lost 18. In his last 3 encounter at Wimbledon, Roddic has lost to Federer thrice. But one this is there that this independence day for Roddick will surely be different.

Wimbledon on US Independence day will be the stage for the most enduring sibling rivalry in sports. Venus Williams butchered World No.1 Dinara Safina 6-0 6-1 in just 51 minutes in her semi-final match while Serena Williams had to sweat it out for 2 hrs and 49 minutes defeating Elena Dementieva. There was a sharp contrast in the fortunes of the two sisters, but in the end they both said to the fourth final together. This also got Venus to a 35th consecutive set win at Wimbledon. Venus is looking forward to a hat-trick at the greatest even on the tennis calendar and also looking for her sixth overall. Head to head the both sisters are locked at 10-10 and this looks out to be another great match on Saturday.

Serena survived a match point at 4-5, 30-40 down in the deciding set and came back strongly to win the match. The match was the longest semi-final clash in the women’s draw at Wimbledon. Serena in a post match interview said that it was one of her most dramatic career wins. Serena was equally matched by Elena as she neutralized the power game which been the weapon for Serena. Venus hit 20 aces during the match which also showed her game plan as she also capitalized by winning 80% on the point on her first serve.

India wasted the excellent start if got in the warm up match against New Zealand and ended up getting defeated by just 9 runs. Rohit Sharma was asked to open the innings and showed his class with a 36 run knock. His batting caliber could be judged when he his Iain O’Brien for 18 runs is his second over for two massive sixes and a four. Other major contributors in the Indian chase were Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja scoring 45 and 41 runs respectively.

The blow to the Indian batting came when Kiwi captain Daniel Vettori struck twice in his first over with wickets of Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Rohit Sharma. There was some joy in the Indian camp when Raina who played some excellent shots with great running between the wickets. It was surely not India’s day as they could not reach the 171 target even though Jadeja tried his best.

To everyone’s surprise, the bowler in question over his performance in the concluded IPL, Ishant Sharma showed character and took four wickets. He bowled Jesse Ryder for 2 run making sure that Ryder’s poor form from IPL continued in England too. He also dismissed the Kiwi danger man McCullum. Ishant Sharma in the later part of the Indian bowling dismissed Jacob Oram and Styris. The other wickets were taken by Pragyan Ojha and Harbhajan Singh in the form of Martin Guptill and Ross Taylor.

James Franklin scored 27 not out off 10 balls and on-course also hit RP Singh for two successive sixes which were followed by a four. This over in the end part of the Indian bowling certainly pushed the kiwi score. Though India lost the match but certainly it provided the team to make necessary changes to its tournament strategy.

MSD in a post game interview said that the last two over’s of the Indian bowling where they conceded 31 runs were the main reason for the loss. India also missed the services of ace batsmen like Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag. Yuvi was down with food poisoning and Viru missed the game due to a shoulder injury, but they are expected to be fit when the tournament starts. India is now going to play Pakistan in its next warm-up match on 5th June 2009.

One of the best farewell presents a team could offer to their coach was done by Chelsea, with and excellent win over Everton 2-1 in the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium on Saturday. Though Everton had a dream start to the match when striker Louis Saha put Everton ahead after just 26 seconds and also scored the fastest goal in FA Cup Final but the day surely belonged to Chelsea.

Chelsea scored two amazing goals to get back into a 2-1 lead through strikes Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard scoring in 20th minute and the 72nd minutes respectively.

Chelsea was the hot favorite to qualify ahead of United for the Champions league when they conceded a last minute goal which resulted in a draw, taking United to the final. On Sunday Chelsea proved a point that they were the best side in English Club Football.

Chelsea, playing under Hiddink for the last time before he returns to coaching Russia’s national team, equalised after 20 minutes when Didier Drogba rose virtually unmarked to head past Tim Howard.

Frank Lampard said in a post match interview

“It was amazing, to be 1-0 down in one minute, we showed a lot of character. We basically dominated the game. The second half wasn’t quite so good, but I was always felt like we could win the game so I’m pleased to get the goal to help us win it.”

This win also helped England defender Ashley Cole to win his fifth FA Cup winner’s medals, the highest since the tournaments. He had previously won three with Arsenal and now has two with Chelsea.

Hiddink is a post match interview said

“We are very demanding on each other but that is a strength, they know how to react when they are on the back foot. That is why I like them. It hasn’t just been an in between job for me, it has been more than that. This is one of my biggest adventures, to win at football’s mecca is quite something.”

David Moyes the Everton coach gracefully accepted defeat and said

“Chelsea were the better team, however, we made a semi-final last year and now a final this year and the guys are growing in stature out there.”