h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;}
div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul {
list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody
table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px;
border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody
table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em;
margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link,
table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td
a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000033; font-weight:bold;
text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} The Sport Review: “Federer
wins royal seal of approval with Stockholm title” plus 3 more- Federer wins royal seal of approval with Stockholm title - Fàbregas hails ‘outstanding’ win as Arsenal beat Man City - Patrice Evra pledges his support to Wayne Rooney - Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso wins Korean Grand Prix Federer wins royal seal of approval with Stockholm title Posted: 24 Oct 2010 03:01 PM PDT It was a royal occasion in more ways than one at the final of the Stockholm Open. Played to a capacity 5,000-plus crowd in Sweden's Royal Tennis Hall, the climax of the tournament was attended by Crown Princess Victoria, and it was she who would present the silver globe of a trophy to the winner. On court, too, the final boasted the closest to royalty that the tennis tour has to offer in the regal form of Roger Federer. Playing in Stockholm for the first time in 10 years, he appeared to be on a mission: to tick off as many new landmarks in his record-breaking career as possible. By winning his first match, Federer became the only active player on the tour to reach 900 ATP matches. The first of those matches was played, as 16-year-old, the week after he was crowned Wimbledon Junior Champion 12 years ago. In his second match, Federer won his 50th match of the year, to became only the fifth man in the Open era to win 50 matches in at least nine straight years. Were he to win the Stockholm title, he would reach 64, and tie with Pete Sampras in fourth place on the Open era titles list. It would also mark the 18th different country in which he had won. From the United States to Europe, from Japan to Canada, from the Middle East to the China, Federer is the ultimate worldwide champion. His progress in Stockholm, however, had been far from faultless. He was a set and a break down to Stanislas Wawrinka in the quarterfinals, in a match riddled with unforced errors, before finding his attacking game to take the win. Against Ivan Ljubicic in the semis, he also went a break down early on, and trailed right up to the moment Ljubicic served for the set. Federer assaulted the net, forced errors from his opponent, and broke back. Federer won the tiebreaker and then a more straightforward second set, 6-2. And the same pattern seemed to unfold in the final against Florian Mayer. The German, in only his third tour final, had completed one of his best ever weeks in taking out world No5 Robin Soderling and No22 Feliciano Lopez. Mayer may also have drawn some inspiration from Viktor Troicki who was at the same time on his way to a first ever ATP title in the Kremlin Cup. The Serbian sits just four places above Mayer in the rankings, at 43, and he had also performed giant-killing feats en route to the title, taking out No13 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and No18 Marcos Baghdatis. Mayer's self-effacing character and, more importantly, his swinging, uninhibited, athletic brand of tennis ensured strong Swedish support, and he won an early break from Federer. Mayer's combination of power and touch brought the best out of Federer, who responded with some of his most varied and fluid tennis of the week to break Mayer back. Federer rode this momentum and to take control of the match, rushing the net, picking off touch volleys, and making overhead smashes with confidence. It turned out to be the top seed's most intense performance of the tournament, and his most fleet-footed. On numerous occasions, he had to rush forward to retrieve a fading drop shot, but rarely did he fail to make a winner from the return. Then with precision timing, just as he'd done against Ljubicic the night before, Federer broke the Mayer serve to take the first set 6-4, which enabled him to open the second set on his own serve. Mayer continued to power both backhand and forehand ground shots to either wing, and throw in drops and a few aces for good measure. But Federer's standard stayed high. In the sixth game, he found slightly more attack and angle, picked up a couple of drop shots with outright winners, and broke the German. He held his own serve to go up 5-2, and safely served out for a 6-3 win. The nature of the award ceremony, from a charming and enthusiastic Princess Victoria, could not have been more appropriate. Mayer, a gentleman to his fingertips, thanked the crowd for their encouragement, before extending his hope that Federer would win back the No1 ranking "as soon as possible." The crowd went into overdrive with a standing ovation that brought the proceedings to a standstill, and almost brought a tear to Federer's eye. So with his 64th Sampras-matching title duly won, Federer will head home for a few days' break after reaching two consecutive finals in as many weeks—Shanghai and Stockholm. But then he has yet more business to attend to. His local tournament in Basel beckons, and it carries particular significance because Federer's three-year winning streak there was brought to an end in the 2009 final by Novak Djokovic. Federer, therefore, will be after revenge on his home turf. What's more, if they meet in the finals again, it will be their fourth confrontation in consecutive tournaments. Theirs is becoming one of the key rivalries of the tour, and any meeting is certain to bring both high quality tennis and high tension to the court. At this stage of the year, too, the 500 Basel points have great value because the No2 and No3 men in the world have twice swapped places in the rankings since the US Open. Federer now has his end-of-year ranking in view and would dearly love to guarantee the No2 spot to cap an eighth consecutive year in one of the top two places. There is a still bigger prize up for grabs the week after Basel: the final Masters of the year in Paris. Federer has already overhauled Andre Agassi's record number of Masters match wins, which now stands at 221. However, he still equals Agassi's tally of 17 Masters titles and needs one more to equal Rafael Nadal's leading 18. Paris would be a good place to do it, as that is the only Masters on the tour where Federer has yet to reach a final. To add a little more spice to the occasion, Djokovic is the title-holder there, too. So there are incentives aplenty to keep Federer's engine in turbo drive. But judging from his words in recent days, his desire to play and to win is undiminished. Not only did he cheerfully consider a 1,000 matches to be well within his reach in the next two years, he also confirmed that the No1 ranking was also an itch that needed scratching: "It's not that important to be two, three or four. For me, it's either number one in the world or everything else." He can't overtake Nadal before next summer, but after that? Fàbregas hails ‘outstanding’ win as Arsenal beat Man City Posted: 24 Oct 2010 11:55 AM PDT BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE, 24 October 2010 Manchester City 0 Arsenal 3 Skipper Cesc Fàbregas praised an “outstanding” Arsenal performance after the gunners battled to a hard-fought victory over 10-man Manchester City at Eastlands. Dedryck Boyata was sent off after just five minutes for bringing down Marouane Chamakh with the striker through on goal. Samir Nasri opened the scoring for the visitors before Fàbregas’s first-half penalty was well saved by Joe Hart. Alex Song then doubled his side’s lead mid-way through second half and substitute Nicklas Bendtner put the result beyond doubt to propel Arsène Wenger’s men into second place in the Premier League, five points behind leaders Chelsea. “I think we played some outstanding football and it’s difficult to stop a side when they play at that tempo,” said Fàbregas, who was instrumental throughout at the City of Manchester Stadium. “Even if they were 15 and we were 11 we would still go and win. “We always want to go forward and create chances but the way we played today, we were very difficult to stop. I think we were fantastic. “It’s very difficult what to know what will happen (over the rest of the season) and we have an important game on Wednesday (against Newcastle in the Carling Cup), but it’s a good victory against a good team.” Fàbregas added: “Chelsea are looking strong but they have to play a lot of the big teams. We have to keep calm and think about the Carling Cup and then we think about West Ham next Saturday and getting back into the league.” Meanwhile, Wenger admitted he feared his side might not finish the match with 11 men following a flurry of first-half bookings. “It is always difficult against 10 men but we have shown our intelligence, and we slowly took over the game,” said the Arsenal manager. “Sometimes we have played 11 against 10 and not won. “We were on a few yellow cards so we had to calm down and play in a positive way in the second half.” Patrice Evra pledges his support to Wayne Rooney Posted: 24 Oct 2010 11:24 AM PDT Manchester United defender Patrice Evra has pledged to support Wayne Rooney despite criticising the striker earlier in the week. The French international had reacted angrily to Rooney’s statement last week in which the striker questioned the quality of United’s squad. “If one player in the team does not trust the others, he should not play in the team,” Evra said earlier in the week. However, the former Monaco left-back now appears to have changed his stance and accepts Rooney’s comments came as the result of being in a difficult position. “I know from experience that I could be in his situation one day and so could everyone,” Evra told the Daily Mirror. “We are always open to him if he needs our help.” The 29-year-old accepted Rooney’s criticism of the team but denied suggestions that United’s squad is not capable of competing amongst Europe’s elite. “I myself would not play for this club if I knew we were not strong enough to win the league,” said Evra. “That is why we all play for Manchester United. “At this moment, I think everyone just needs to focus on their own job again and we will see at the end of the season. I agree with the criticism that United have not had the winning mentality this season. “We draw, we win and then we draw again and, of course, people will talk about this not being the same United because we are already behind Chelsea in the league.” He added: “I only stay in Manchester to win trophies and my message is that if people think that United are finished they are making a big mistake. I say this because it is the truth and I believe it.” Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso wins Korean Grand Prix Posted: 24 Oct 2010 07:10 AM PDT Ferrari's Fernando Alonso survived an incident-packed, rain-affected race to win the inaugural Korean Grand Prix and move top of the championship as Red Bull suffered a double DNF. Lewis Hamilton finished second for McLaren to keep his championship chances alive, while Felipe Massa took third for Ferrari as nine drivers failed to complete the race. Surface water caused trouble for the drivers on their way to the grid and Race Control opted to delay the start by ten minutes behind the safety car. But the race was red-flagged just three laps in as rain continued to fall and drivers complained of impossible conditions. With the cars lined up on the grid, the race was delayed for an hour before restarting under safety car conditions. The cars were then finally released on lap 18. Mercedes' Nico Rosberg was the first driver to make a charge, passing Hamilton for fourth before being collected by Mark Webber, who ran wide at turn 12 before spinning twice across the track and taking both drivers out of the race. It proved to be a mixed day for McLaren after Jenson Button pitted for intermediate tyres on lap 28, but emerged down in 16th, only for a safety car deployment to compound Button's problems as rivals took the opportunity to pit. A 27-second pit stop for Alonso, the result of a problem with a wheel nut, briefly allowed Hamilton to get into second on lap 32, but he ran wide into turn one following the restart to hand the place back to the Spaniard. Vettel, Alonso and Hamilton held position and traded fastest laps in the fading light until the Renault V8 engine in Vettel's Red Bull gave up just ten laps before the chequered flag, sending plumes of smoke billowing across the track. The breakdown handed Alonso the lead, where he stayed unchallenged to the end of the race as Hamilton's intermediate tyres dropped off. Alonso has now won three of the last four races and leads the world championship with 231 points ahead of Webber's 220. Hamilton is a further ten behind and Vettel still on 206, with just 50 points available in the final two races. Red Bull's first double DNF of the season sees them stay on 426 while McLaren close the gap to just 27 on 399. Ferrari are now an outside contender for the constructors' championship with 374. Speaking after the race, Alonso said: "I know that to win the championship means to be consistent and finish on the podiums, which is what we have been trying to do." Formula 1 moves on to the penultimate race of the season in two weeks' time in Brazil. You are subscribed to email updates from The Sport Review To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. Email delivery powered by Google Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 -- Posted By Mas Item Arekjowo to The Sport Review at 10/25/2010 12:06:00 AM -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Gugukluhayat" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/gugukluhayat?hl=en.
