The Star Online: Sports
The Star Online: Sports |
- Lewis Hamilton does a U-turn
- Federer: Don’t expect a new champion
- Ruthless Sharapova dispatches Cibulkova to set up semis date with Lisicki
| Posted: 28 Jun 2011 05:51 PM PDT VALENCIA: McLaren's Lewis Hamilton came out fighting on Monday, a day after he gloomily declared the Formula One title battle almost over, and promised fans he would never give up despite the odds against him. "To all our supporters, ignore what u read in the papers today," the 2008 world champion declared on his Twitter feed. "My team will never give up; I WILL NEVER GIVE UP!!!!" Hamilton had been far less feisty after Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel won Sunday's European Grand Prix, the champion and runaway leader's sixth victory in eight races. The German now has a 77 point lead over McLaren's Jenson Button and his own Australian team-mate Mark Webber with 11 races remaining. He is 89 ahead of Hamilton. Hamilton, who finished fourth in the race, had told reporters in the immediate aftermath that "I think it's finished really. "In the sense of the championship it's almost over already." He later expanded on the theme to British reporters in a conversation at the back of the McLaren garage. "I just want to continue finishing races because Sebastian is pretty much gone," he said. "He has pretty much won it really. "Unless he doesn't finish the next 10 races, which is very, very unlikely, he is gone. He has almost 100 points on me. That is four wins that I need to catch up without him finishing in any of those races," added the Briton. "It is not impossible but now it is about working with the guys to score as many team points as possible in the constructors' championship. "We can't beat the Red Bull right now. There was over a second per lap difference today. That is just ridiculous." The next race is the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, and the 26-year-old did not want to cast a cloud over his home event and the army of fans hoping for a victory by one of McLaren's two British champions. "Bring on Silverstone, (yo)ur support will make a world of difference to us. I'm going to the factory now to do all I can with our team," he Tweeted. "People make a huge effort to come out, they camp out in the fields and its such an important weekend to them as it is to us and of course we'd love to put on a great show," he had explained after the race. "We will do what we can." — Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| Federer: Don’t expect a new champion Posted: 28 Jun 2011 05:51 PM PDT ROGER Federer (pic) has warned Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray that it will take a huge effort to stop either him or Rafael Nadal winning yet another Wimbledon title. Australian Open champion Djokovic has made a powerful start to his bid for a first Wimbledon crown, while Murray's superb form led some pundits to tip him to end Britain's 75-year wait for a men's champion. But Federer remains on course for a record-equalling seventh triumph after moving into the quarter-finals with a 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 victory over Mikhail Youzhny on Monday. The 16-time Grand Slam winner faces France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the last eight and is seeded to face Djokovic in the semi-finals. In the other half of the draw defending champion Nadal ground out a four-set win over dangerous Argentine Juan Martin del Potro in the fourth round. Nadal, who is seeded to meet world number four Murray in the semi-finals, has appeared in four of the last five Wimbledon finals, while Federer has only missed one final here in the last eight years. With that in mind, Federer, searching for his first Grand Slam since the 2010 Australian Open, believes it is too soon to talk of the old guard being unseated by Djokovic and Murray. "We've got to wait and see how this turns out because it could be a repeat of the Djokovic and Murray final in Australia and then I was wrong. If it's not the case, then I was right," Federer said. "At the end of the day, I don't care if I'm wrong or right. I know where my game is at. I know where Rafa's game is at. "He was going for four Grand Slams in a row in Australia and when he loses suddenly it's a new era. I just struggle when it goes from one extreme to the next. "I don't need to get into all that fuss. I just need to straighten the record sometimes, otherwise people go in a direction that's just ridiculous." — AFP Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| Ruthless Sharapova dispatches Cibulkova to set up semis date with Lisicki Posted: 28 Jun 2011 05:50 PM PDT MARIA Sharapova looked like a champion under the Centre Court roof at Wimbledon, advancing to the semi–finals at the All England Club for the first time since 2006 with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Dominika Cibulkova yesterday. Sharapova, the only Wimbledon champion remaining in the women's draw after the Williams sisters were eliminated a day earlier, won eight straight games to win the first set and take control of the second. The fifth-seeded Russian has not lost a set at this year's tournament. "It's been a few years since I got past the fourth round, and now I'm in the semi–finals," said Sharapova, who won the tournament in 2004 and also reached the semi–finals the following year. "So this a great chance for me to take it a step further." Sharapova will next face German wildcard entry Sabine Lisicki. She reached her first Grand Slam semis by beating 2007 finalist Marion Bartoli 6-4, 6-7 (7-4), 6-1 on another wet day at Wimbledon. "This is a player that's playing with a tremendous amount of confidence right now and playing really great grass-court tennis, so it'll be a really tough match but I certainly look forward to it," Sharapova said. With heavy rain causing a racket as it pelted down on the retractable white cover over the court, Lisicki used drop shots to perfection in the first two sets, becoming only the second wildcard entry to reach the women's semi–finals at the All England Club. "I cannot explain how I feel at the moment," said Lisicki, the first German Grand Slam semi–finalist since Steffi Graf in 1999. "It was just such a tough road back and it's so wonderful to be standing on Centre Court in Wimbledon which I love so much. I'm just so happy." "My mind was trying extremely hard, but just my body couldn't do anything anymore," said Bartoli, who beat four-time champion Serena Williams in the fourth round. "I still fought very hard, especially in that second set. ... I have no regrets." Lisicki, who finished the match with 52 winners to Bartoli's 12, reached the quarter–finals at the All England Club two years ago but lost to Dinara Safina. The rain briefly delayed the start of play as the roof was closed. – AP Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
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