Rotterdam: Roger Federer extended his perfect record against Jarkko Nieminen to 13-0 as he reached the semi-finals of the ABN Amro World Tennis on Friday. The top-seeded Federer did not face a single break point as he won 7-5, 7-6 (2) for a 13th straight win over Nieminen of Finland in matches stretching back to 2002. The No. 3-ranked Swiss will face Nikolay Davydenko, who dispatched fifth-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet...
05:08 PM, Feb 18, 2012
Doha: US Open champion Sam Stosur reached her first semi-final of the year by overcoming the unorthodox Monica Niculescu 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 at the Qatar Open on Friday. Top-ranked Victoria Azarenka swept aside Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 6-0, 6-4 for her 15th straight win to set up a semi-final clash with fourth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, who beat Christina McHale of the United States 6-1, 6-1. After crashing out of...
05:03 PM, Feb 18, 2012
Nyon: Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri has lost his appeal to UEFA challenging a two-match touchline ban, and is barred from the Champions League round-of-16 matches against Chelsea. UEFA increased Mazzarri's punishment for "improper conduct," after he pushed Villarreal forward Nilmar to protest time-wasting tactics during a group match in December. UEFA says its appeals panel added a third match to the sanction. The additional ban was deferred for a two-year...
03:47 PM, Feb 17, 2012
Doha: Top-ranked Victoria Azarenka swept aside Simona Halep of Romania 6-3, 6-1 to reach the Qatar Open quarter-finals while Lucie Safarova dumped Svetlana Kuznetsova out of the tournament. Third-seeded Sam Stosur took advantage of shaky serving from Petra Cetkovska to win 6-3, 6-2 in the third round and earn her first back-to-back victories of the year, while fourth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska saved two set points in the first set on her...
12:52 PM, Feb 17, 2012
Milan: Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger branded his side's 4-0 defeat by AC Milan on Wednesday their worst ever performance in Europe. "We were never in the game, we were very poor offensively and defensively, and it as shocking to see how were beaten everywhere," he told reporters after the Champions League round-of-16 first leg at the San Siro. "It was our worst performance in Europe by far, there was not...
02:00 PM, Feb 16, 2012
St. Petersburg: Roman Shirokov scored his second goal of the game in the 89th minute as Zenit St. Petersburg beat Benfica 3-2 in the first leg of their round-of-16 match-up in the Champions League on Wednesday. Maxi Pereira put Benfica ahead in the 20th, tapping the ball in after second-choice goalkeeper Yuri Zhevnov spilled Oscar Cardozo's free kick, but Shirokov equalized seven minutes later. Substitute Sergei Semak made it 2-1...
05:30 AM, Feb 16, 2012
Milan: AC Milan firmly put aside their recent struggles against English teams by routing a lacklustre Arsenal 4-0 on Wednesday to all but seal a spot in the Champions League quarter-finals, dominating the first leg of what had widely been seen as the best match-up of the round-of-16. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger acknowledged his team is "realistically out of the competition" after their "worst performance in Europe by far." Kevin-Prince...
05:07 AM, Feb 16, 2012
London: Serbia did just fine without Novak Djovokic in the Davis Cup, while Russia's shorthanded team was surprisingly eliminated by Austria on Sunday. Serbia swept the reverse singles against Sweden to complete a 4-1 victory at home and set up a quarter-final against the Czech Republic, with Janko Tipsarevic clinching the win by beating Michael Ryderstedt of Sweden 6-2, 7-6 (5), 7-5. Dusan Lajovic then defeated Sweden's Filip Prpic 6-4,...
10:07 AM, Feb 13, 2012
London: Roger Federer suffered defeat for the second day in succession as United States completed a surprisingly comfortable victory over Switzerland in the Davis Cup World Group first round in Fribourg on Saturday. Former world number one Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka needed to win the doubles to keep the tie alive after Friday's two singles went to the US, but after a good start the Swiss pair lost 4-6, 6-3,...
11:50 AM, Feb 12, 2012
Mumbai: Mumbai Fighters gained a quarter-final berth in the World Series Boxing (WSB) after getting a walkover from Los Angeles Matadors in their last Group A league fight. The fight was scheduled for Monday in the US but was cancelled due to a re-structure of the home team's management. "Our fight against LA Matadors in The Music Box at Hollywood next Monday has got cancelled as their team management has...
11:24 PM, Feb 11, 2012
Pattaya: Sania Mirza's singles campaign at the Pattaya Open ended on Friday with a 5-7, 3-6 quarter-final defeat against Chinese Taipei qualifier Su-Wei Hsieh, but the Indian has kept herself in the title contention for the doubles by making the semi-finals. The 111-ranked Indian lost to the talented Tapiei player after battling for one hour and 20 minutes. However, in the doubles, Sania and her Australian partner Anastasia Rodionova continued...
07:02 PM, Feb 10, 2012
Paris: Second-seeded Marion Bartoli powered past Petra Martic of Croatia 7-5, 6-1 to reach the Open GDF Suez quarter-finals on Thursday. Roberta Vinci of Italy and Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium also moved into the quarters along with Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic and German pair Mona Barthel and Angelique Kerber. Bartoli hit a forehand return winner to clinch victory. The Frenchwoman won seven consecutive games to lead 4-0 in...
01:17 PM, Feb 10, 2012
Pattaya: Sania Mirza dug deep into her reserves to overcome a fighting Anne Keothavong 6-4, 7-5 to progress to the singles quarter-finals of the USD 220,000 Pattaya Open on Thursday. The unseeded Indian, ranked 111, tamed her giant-killing British rival in a hard-fought second-round match after one hour and 40 minutes of struggle. Keothavong, ranked 88, had shocked second seed and world number 16 Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia in the...
03:44 PM, Feb 09, 2012
Paris: Maria Sharapova beat Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa 6-3, 6-1 on Wednesday to reach the quarter-finals of the Open GDF Suez in Paris. The top-seeded Russian said the court was faster than expected after hitting 19 winners to 10 for Scheepers, who struggled with her serve and made eight double-faults. "It's just faster than what we played on the last couple of months. In Fed Cup, it was fairly...
09:56 AM, Feb 09, 2012
Barcelona: Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernandez has labeled Real Madrid's players 'bad losers' and 'animals' after his club won their latest ill-tempered match-up and the fall-out that thrilling victory continued to dominate the sports headlines in Spain on Friday. Barcelona eliminated cup holders Real Madrid from the Copa del Rey quarter-finals with Wednesday's 2-2 draw at the Camp Nou, after a match full of disputed refereeing decisions. El Mundo newspaper's website...
02:41 AM, Jan 28, 2012
Melbourne: Leander Paes is in line to win two Grand Slam titles as he and Elena Vesnina reached the mixed doubles summit clash even as Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi bowed out after their semi-final defeat at the Australian Open on Friday. Fifth seeds Paes and Vesnina came from behind to tame a fighting Italian pair of Roberta Vinci and Daniele Bracciali 5-7, 6-2, 10-7 in the semi-finals. Paes has...
03:34 PM, Jan 27, 2012
Melbourne: Petra Kvitova was naturally disappointed to fall short against the more experienced Maria Sharapova in the semi-finals of the Australian Open. Coming after her breakthrough 2011, however, the 21-year-old Czech was able to put the loss in perspective. "Yes, of course I'm disappointed right now," Kvitova said on Thursday. "If I look back, I don't know, in a week, for example, it will be a good tournament for me,...
03:19 AM, Jan 27, 2012
Melbourne: Sania Mirza had a productive day at the Australian Open on Monday as the Indian ace reached the quarter-finals of both the women's doubles and the mixed doubles events with Elena Vesnina and Mahesh Bhupathi respectively. Sania and Bhupathi, the 2009 mixed doubles champions, came from behind to beat Czech Iveta Benesova and Austria's Jurgen Melzer 3-6, 6-4, 12-10 in the second-round match. The sixth-seeded Indian team took one...
02:01 PM, Jan 23, 2012
Melbourne: Kei Nishikori keeps accumulating the tennis milestones for Japanese men, always remaining conscious of but not concerned about the expectations being heaped upon him. Nishikori notched another mark on Monday when he became the first Japanese man to reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open since the Open Era began in 1968, with an exhausting 2-6, 6-2, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 victory over former finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France. "I...
12:27 PM, Jan 23, 2012
