The Star Online: Sports
The Star Online: Sports |
- Abraham crowned new world super middleweight champion
- Retiring Clijsters praised as a champion, role model
- Power on Pole at Sonoma
| Abraham crowned new world super middleweight champion Posted: 25 Aug 2012 06:29 PM PDT BERLIN - Germany's Arthur Abraham is the new world WBO super middleweight champion after his unanimous win over compatriot Robert Stieglitz on Saturday. Abraham, 32, who defended his IBF middleweight title 10 times between 2005 and 2009, is now the world champion at the heavier weight after the judges scored the fight 116-112, 116-112, 115-113. "This is an emotional moment for me and it's hard to describe how I feel," said Abraham. "I always wanted to be the middleweight world champion and now I am the super middleweight champion too. "I trained hard for this and I had to box cleverly against such a good champion." Having held the title for three years, Stieglitz was well beaten with heavy bruising and cuts around both eyes at the end of the punishing title bout, while Abraham was left relatively unmarked. Abraham lived up to his 'King Arthur' moniker and the new champion now has a record of 27 knock-outs in 35 wins and three defeats. Having laboured to a points win over Piotr Wilczewski to defend his European WBO title in March, Abraham was back to the best fighting for the world title. Abraham started the stronger of the pair, but the champion twice pinned the challenger to the ropes in the second and started to exert his authority. Stieglitz raised the tempo in the third and Abraham fell clearly behind on points going into the fourth, but responded with some body-head combinations and one sharp hook left Stieglitz with swelling above his left eye. By the fifth, Stieglitz's face was marking noticeably while Abraham started to let his guard drop to lure the champion as he landed some punishing shots. Stieglitz put together some good combinations in the seventh round and kept up his impressive work-rate, despite a cut above his right eye needing the attention of the ring doctor in the 10th. Abraham raised his fists to the Berlin crowd in early celebration before the start of the 12 and finished clearly ahead on points as Stieglitz, 31, suffered the third defeat of his career in his 45th fight. Germany's WBA super-middleweight and IBF middleweight title-holder Felix Sturm, who fights next Saturday against Australia's Daniel Geale, has said he will fight the winner of Saturday's bout. - AFP |
| Retiring Clijsters praised as a champion, role model Posted: 25 Aug 2012 06:28 PM PDT NEW YORK - Maria Sharapova and Andy Murray led a torrent of praise for Kim Clijsters on Saturday as the three-time U.S. Open champion prepared for the final tournament of her storied career. Clijsters is chasing a fairytale ending at Flushing Meadows before retiring at the age of 29. She first retired in 2007 but returned two years later to become the first wildcard to win the U.S. Open and the first mother to win a major championship since Australian Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1980. "What's there to say about Kim?" Sharapova said. "There's so many great things besides the fact she's been an incredible tennis player and champion. She's someone that went away from the sport to commit herself to being a mother and a good wife and then coming back and being a professional and winning a few more grand slams. "She was always so focused and determined. One of the best athletes the game saw in women's tennis," Sharapova said. "And just a really great person, very humble. At the end of the day, just a down-to-Earth person that reflected on life in a very good way." Clijsters praised Murray's ability to handle pressure at Wimbledon this year and the Scot returned the favour in New York. "As a person, which is much more important than the tennis, she's a lovely person," Murray said. He also admired the competitive side of Clijsters, Murray said. "Early in her career she obviously had a lot of tough losses. She was competing with Justine Henin and a lot of pressure came with that. She lost a lot of tough matches to Henin. She managed to turn that around after taking a break. To come back to win a slam, or a couple more slams, is pretty incredible. "I'm sure she will be remembered as one of the best players of the last 15, 20 years, and also one of the best people." Venus Williams said Clijsters' successful return to the tour in 2009 fuelled hope that her own recovery from an autoimmune disease was possible. "Kim has had a resurgence like no other, coming back to win two majors," Williams said. "I think she's inspiration for everyone who has said if you put your mind to it, if you have a dream, you can do whatever you want." Top seed Victoria Azarenka described Clijsters as the ideal role model. "For the kids she's one of the people who you always like to be around," she said. "Obviously a lot of people love here. She's definitely one everybody is going to miss. " Defending U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur said women's tennis would be poorer for the loss of Clijsters. "She's still so young and she's accomplished so much," Stosur said. "I can imagine this is the perfect place for her to stop given the success she's had here in the past." - Reuters |
| Posted: 25 Aug 2012 06:27 PM PDT SONOMA, California - Australia's Will Power earned pole position for the IndyCar race at Sonoma for the third straight year Saturday, with team-mate Ryan Briscoe beside him on the front row. Series points leader Power, who has started on the pole and won the last two races on the 2.31-mile, 12-turn course, turned a lap in 1min, 17.2709sec to put himself on pole for his 100th career start in the IndyCar series. "It's great when you're in the fast six that you give it everything you got," Power said of the decisive final phase of qualifying. "You go as hard as you can for as many laps as you can. It's great to get the car on pole. It's important around here. The windows for strategies tomorrow are going to be wide open, because they increased the race by 10 laps." Power is on pole for the fourth time this season. He came into the week with a five-point lead atop the standings over Ryan Hunter-Reay, who missed out on fast six qualifying shoot-out and will start from seventh on the grid. "It is important to start up front here," said Power, who won here the past two years. "I just really like this track and I would love to make it three in a row. The whole team has worked hard all year and we'll just continue to push to win the championship." He said changes to the course should make for a lot of overtaking. "Hopefully not of me," Power said. "I don't want to let anyone by us." Briscoe completed a fast lap of 1:17.4347. France's Sebastien Bourdais was third-fastest with Brazilian Helio Castroneves and New Zealand's Scott Dixon rounding out the top five. - AFP |
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