The Star Online: Sports
The Star Online: Sports |
- Leipheimer wins USA Pro Cycling Challenge
- Federer says he's still hungry as US Open starts
- Bjorn wins Johnnie Walker at 5th playoff hole
| Leipheimer wins USA Pro Cycling Challenge Posted: 28 Aug 2011 06:59 PM PDT DENVER, Colorado (AP) - American Levi Leipheimer won the USA Pro Cycling Challenge and his third stage race title this year with a seventh-place finish in Sunday's sixth stage. Daniel Oss, who rides for the Italian Liquigas team, won the 70.9-mile final stage of the 518-mile inaugural event in 2 hours, 27 minutes, 8 seconds. Leipheimer, a Montana native who lives in Santa Rosa, California and competes for RadioShack, assumed his second race lead with a slim victory in the stage 3 time trial and led the race for five of its seven days. Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Cervelo) finished second overall, trailing by 11 seconds and Tejay Van Garderen (HTC-Highroad) finished third, 17 seconds behind. "The victory means so much to me, mainly because of the way we raced," said Leipheimer, who earlier this month won the six-day Tour of Utah and in June won the nine-day Tour of Switzerland, the biggest win of his 15-year pro career. "It took some of the best form of my life to beat Christian and Tejay. I took the (leader's) jersey, I lost the jersey. I had to race one of the best time trial's of my life to get it back and keep it. It took every ounce of energy I had." Elia Viviani (Liquigas) of Italy, victorious in stages 4 and 5, was second in the finale. American Fred Rodriguez, a former three-time national road champion, was third. The event featured 17 teams and a starting field of 130 in Colorado Springs that included reigning Tour de France champion Cadel Evans, as well as brothers Andy and Frank Schleck, who respectively placed second and third last month in the Tour de France. Evans, who hadn't competed in the United States since 2006, finished seventh overall, trailing by 1 minute, 18 seconds. Frank Schleck placed 13th overall with Andy Schleck 34th. Leipheimer, who placed third in the 2007 Tour de France, was among four teammates predicted as top contenders in this year's Tour de France . None of the contenders found success, with Leipheimer the only finisher, 32nd overall and the lowest place of his seven Tour de France finishes in nine attempts. "For or five crashes will set you back, but I refocused and had some other goals like the Tour of Utah and here in Colorado," Leipheimer said. Leipheimer is also an accomplished mountain biker who won the 2010 Leadville 100, breaking the course record set by former teammate Lance Armstrong the previous year. |
| Federer says he's still hungry as US Open starts Posted: 28 Aug 2011 06:58 PM PDT NEW YORK (AP) - First came the end of Roger Federer's remarkable run of reaching a record 10 consecutive Grand Slam finals. Then he failed to make it to a major semifinal after a record 23 in a row. The U.S. Open marks Federer's last chance to prevent the close of another streak: In each season from 2003-10, he won at least one Grand Slam title - and sometimes as many as three. He's 0-for-2011 heading into the year's last major tournament, where play is scheduled to begin Monday morning, after what the U.S. Tennis Association said was "minimal damage" to the site over the weekend from Tropical Storm Irene. This U.S. Open also is Federer's first major tournament since he turned 30 on Aug. 8. That age tends to represent a barrier to success in tennis: Of the past 100 Grand Slam titles, only five were won by a man past his 30th birthday. The last to do it was Andre Agassi at the 2003 Australian Open. Federer, though, said that his age hasn't affected his expectations. "Hasn't changed anything. I'm still as professional. I'm still as hungry. Everything's still completely normal," he explained. "It's just a number that's changed. I'm ready to go." His resume is filled with some rather impressive numbers, including a total of 16 Grand Slam titles and five consecutive U.S. Open championships from 2004-08, before his 40-match winning streak at Flushing Meadows ended in the 2009 final against Juan Martin del Potro. Last year, Federer lost in the semifinals to Novak Djokovic. For his career, Federer is 223-33 in Grand Slam matches, an .871 winning percentage. He can tie Agassi for the second-most victories at majors - Jimmy Connors retired with 233 - by beating 54th-ranked Santiago Giraldo of Colombia (who, for the record, is 2-10 in Grand Slam play) on Monday. They're slated to play their first-round match in Arthur Ashe Stadium at night, after seven-time major champion Venus Williams meets Vesna Dolonts of Russia. Other matches on the Day 1 schedule include 2006 U.S. Open champion Maria Sharapova against Heather Watson of Britain; reigning Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova against Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania; 2010 U.S. Open runner-up Vera Zvonareva against Stephanie Foretz Gacon of France; 19-year-old American Ryan Harrison against No. 27-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia; and No. 8 Mardy Fish - the highest-seeded American in New York for the first time - against Tobias Kamke of Germany. With 2005, 2009 and 2010 champion Kim Clijsters sidelined by a stomach muscle injury, the third-seeded Sharapova joins Williams' younger sister, Serena, as the women considered most likely to win the title two weeks from now. "I mean, to be honest, I have been seeded a lot lower, and I've still been one of the favorites," Sharapova said, "so it's not anything new for me that people expect me to do well." For the first time since the 2004 Australian Open, neither Federer nor Rafael Nadal is seeded No. 1 at a Grand Slam tournament. Instead, that honor went to Djokovic, who is producing one of the greatest seasons in tennis history. He's 57-2 with nine titles, including at Wimbledon and the Australian Open. He's also 5-0 against Nadal, with all of those matchups coming in tournament finals: two on hard courts, two on clay, and one on grass at the All England Club last month. "The record speaks for itself," Federer said. "It's been an amazing run, and he's still playing really well, and he's definitely one of the favorites here - if not the favorite." With two-time U.S. Open runner-up Djokovic at No. 1, and defending champion Nadal at No. 2, Federer is seeded No. 3, his lowest spot in New York since he was 13th in 2002. Even though Federer only has one title so far this season, his lowest total in a decade, and he's gone the past six major tournaments without a championship, he's sure he has more success in store. He still is capable of producing masterful tennis, such as when he ended Djokovic's 43-match winning streak by beating him in the French Open semifinals. That's why someone such as seven-time major champion John McEnroe doesn't discount Federer's chances of collecting a 17th Grand Slam trophy at some point. "This guy is arguably the greatest of all time," McEnroe said. "He's still playing some great tennis." Federer takes inspiration from past players who played well in their 30s, such as Ken Rosewall, Jimmy Connors and Agassi, who was 35 when he lost to the Swiss star in the 2005 U.S. Open final, a year before retiring. "I feel my game allows me to still play for many more years, because I have a relaxing playing style. I have almost played 1,000 matches on tour and that leaves its toll, but I'm very professional when it comes to massages, stretching, diet, sleep, all of that stuff," Federer said. "So I have always looked in the long term. ... That's why I'm confident I can still play for many more years to come at the highest of levels." |
| Bjorn wins Johnnie Walker at 5th playoff hole Posted: 28 Aug 2011 06:04 PM PDT GLENEAGLES, Scotland (AP) - Denmark's Thomas Bjorn held his nerve in a five-man sudden-death playoff to win the Johnnie Walker Championship on Sunday, triumphing at the fifth extra hole to maintain his remarkable resurgence this year. In one of the most dramatic finishes this year, Bjorn made birdie at the par-5 No. 18 - for the third straight time in the shootout - to finally shrug off plucky South African George Coetzee and claim a second victory on the European Tour in 2011. Austria's Bernd Wiesberger, Spain's Pablo Larrazabal and England's Mark Foster were eliminated one by one from a tense and energy-sapping playoff at Gleneagles that lasted more than 90 minutes and was played out in bitterly cold conditions and into the wind. All five players had finished with 11-under totals of 277. Foster, the joint overnight leader, had earlier squandered a three-shot lead with seven holes to play, bogeying the last for a level-par 72 when all he needed was a par. It took the event to the European Tour's first five-way playoff in 19 years. Emboldened by a superb season which saw him win the Qatar Masters in February and finish fourth at last month's British Open, Bjorn, who shot a final-round 69, sealed the 12th victory of his career after a sensational 7-iron approach to the fifth extra hole from 135 yards (meters). "The way I played the last three playoff holes, I can't be more proud of what I did," said Bjorn, who collected a (euro) 266,000 ($380,000) winner's check to take his season's earnings beyond (euro) 1 million. "That 7 iron was probably one of the best golf shots I've ever hit." It also secured another victory this year for a player over 40, following wins by Ernie Els (South African Open), Thomas Levet (French Open) and Darren Clarke (British Open), and lifted Bjorn 11 places in the rankings to No. 59. "It's the year of the over-40s," he said. "When there's so many young players coming through, it's nice to go out there and feel like you can still compete. It gives you a boost, that I might be 40 but that it's not over yet." However, it was yet another blow for the 36-year-old Foster, who described himself on Saturday as a "serial runner-up." Beginning the final round tied for a three-shot lead with Spain's Ignacio Garrido, Foster exited at the fourth playoff hole, leaving him to rue a failure to wrap up the title in regulation time when he drove into the deep rough at the last hole and landed next to a tree. After two hacks out of the rough, he then couldn't get up and down. A final-day meltdown was nothing new to Foster, who led or shared the lead in three previous tournaments this year - the French Open, the BMW International and the Scottish Open - without going on to win. His last win came eight years ago, at the Dunhill Championship in South Africa when he won a six-man playoff. "It's just a game of fractions," Foster said. "I honestly felt like I made a good swing off No. 18 the first time round. I just needed a break." On the fifth hole of the playoff, the 112th-ranked Coetzee - who finished with rounds of 66, 67 and 67 after opening up with a 5-over 77 - was always playing catch-up following his drive into the left rough. His sent his third shot to within 20 feet but couldn't drain the birdie attempt, leaving Bjorn the simple task of putting out. "Thomas did unbelievably well," Coetzee said. "I can't complain. I wasn't even looking like making the cut at one point." Larrazabal - this year's BMW International winner in Munich - and Wiesberger both shot 69s but exited the playoff at the first and second extra holes respectively on the PGA Centenary course that will host the 2014 Ryder Cup. Garrido, who was seeking a first win in eight years like Foster, started birdie-birdie but dropped shots at four of next six holes, slipping three shots behind Foster and becoming swallowed up by chasing pack. It's the first time Bjorn, a two-time Ryder Cup winner, has won two tournaments in one year on the European Tour since 1998. "I'm delighted, it's been a brilliant week. Things are going in the right direction," Bjorn said. |
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