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Jumaat, 31 Ogos 2012

The Star Online: Sports

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The Star Online: Sports

Roddick rolls into third round at farewell Open

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 06:21 PM PDT


Published: Saturday September 1, 2012 MYT 9:14:00 AM
Updated: Saturday September 1, 2012 MYT 9:21:43 AM

NEW YORK: Andy Roddick served notice he will not go gently into retirement, blasting into the third round of the US Open on Friday by dispatching Australian teen Bernard Tomic 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 in only 87 minutes.

Roddick, the 2003 US Open champion, took the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium to loud cheers from supporters a day after announcing this would be the last event of his career, then made sure he would have at least one more match to play.

"Oh man. That was so much fun. I really appreciate that," Roddick told the crowd. "I am going to try to stick around a little longer."

The 30-year-old American advanced to a third-round matchup with Italy's 59th-ranked Fabio Fognini as he hopes to make an emotional last charge at a Grand Slam crown on the Flushing Meadows hardcourts.

"I didn't feel relaxed at all, not even a little bit," Roddick said, saying he kept his emotions in control until seeing a television feature about his career just before the match.

"I assume it was set to an '80s ballad," Roddick said.

"It got to me a little bit. I had to get away from that."

Defending champions Novak Djokovic and Samantha Stosur advanced in straight sets while British teen Laura Robson sent Chinese ninth seed Li Na home after earlier sending three-time US Open champion Kim Clijsters into retirement.

Three former champions - Russian third seed Maria Sharapova, Argentine seventh seed Juan Martin Del Potro and Australian Lleyton Hewitt - moved on with varying degrees of difficulty.

And World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka, the reigning Australian Open champion from Belarus, was to face China's Zheng Jie in a later match.

Serbian second seed Djokovic overwhelmed Brazil's Rogerio Dutra Silva 6-2, 6-1, 6-2, never facing a break point and winning 90 percent of his first-serve points to reach the third round in 99 minutes.

"It was very windy so it was very important to stay focused, but I played great," Djokovic said.

"Even if the scoreline doesn't indicate it, it was a tough match."

Next for Djokovic will be France's 31st-seeded Julien Benneteau, who ousted Russian-born US teen Dennis Novikov, the lowest-ranked player ever in the second round of a Grand Slam event at 1,098th, by 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/1), 7-5.

"It's important to get a day's rest and work on some things in my game and get ready for the next challenge," Djokovic said.

Robson ousted 2011 French Open winner Li 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-2 for her first career triumph over a top-10 foe, booking a fourth-round showdown against Australian seventh seed Stosur.

"That's going to be really tough," Robson said. "I'm going to work hard and just do the best I can." Robson, an 18-year-old left-hander who was born in Australia but moved to Britain at age six, ended the career of three-time US Open champion Clijsters with a second-round triumph.

Robson, the youngest player in the world top 100 at 89th, became the first British woman in the fourth round of a Grand Slam since Sam Smith at Wimbledon in 1998 and the first in the Open's last 16 since Jo Durie in 1991.

Li did not reach the last eight at any Grand Slam tournament for the first season since 2008.

Stosur, who has not won a title since lifting the US Open trophy last year, took a 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 victory over US 31st seed Varvara Lepchenko and looked forward to the challenge Robson presents.

"She's already had two very good wins and she's full of confidence," Stosur said. "I'm going to have to be ready to play my best game. She's got nothing to lose."

Sharapova, the 2006 US Open champion who completed a career Grand Slam by winning the French Open title in June, eliminated 252nd-ranked US collegian Mallory Burdette 6-1, 6-1.

"I'm really happy to go one round further than last year," the Russian said.

Next up for Sharapova is a fourth-round meeting with 19th-seeded comnpatriot Nadia Petrova.

Del Potro, the 2009 US Open winner, took a 6-2, 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 victory over American Ryan Harrison and will play for a place in the last 16 against compatriot Leonardo Mayer.

Hewitt, the 2001 US Open winner, outlasted Luxenbourg's Gilles Muller 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (5/7), 7-5, 6-4.

Spanish fourth seed David Ferrer, a 2007 US Open semi-finalist in his best Grand Slam run, moved into the third round by ousting Dutch qualifier Igor Sijsling 6-2, 6-3, 7-6 (14/12).

Czech fifth seed Petra Kvitova ousted Pauline Parmentier 6-4, 6-4 to reach a round-of-16 match against her third consecutive French foe, 11th seed Marion Bartoli, who downed compatriot Kristina Mladenovic 6-2, 6-4. - AFP

Earlier report

NEW YORK: Andy Roddick extended his career by at least another match when he humbled Bernard Tomic 6-3 6-4 6-0 in the second round of the U.S. Open on Friday night.

Roddick, who announced on Friday he would retire after the tournament, took just one hour and 27 minutes to beat Tomic at Flushing Meadows.

Australian teenager Tomic never really got into his stride and made 27 unforced errors.

The 30-year-old Roddick, a former world number one and 2003 U.S. Open champion, will next play unseeded Italian Fabio Fognini. - Reuters

Sharapova continues to blaze trail at U.S. Open

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 06:11 PM PDT

NEW YORK: Maria Sharapova continued her imperious march through the draw at the U.S. Open as she crushed American college player Mallory Burdette 6-1 6-1 on Friday.

The French Open champion needed just 58 minutes to send world number 252 Burdette packing.

"I expected her to play a big, solid match," said Sharapova, the 2006 U.S. Open champion. "She came out, she has pretty huge groundstrokes, and she likes to go for it.

"She's certainly somebody who could be dangerous if you give her the time to do what she likes to do."

Burdette, a 21-year-old wild card entry into the tournament, did not have time to do much of anything as she was swept off the court in 58 minutes.

Sharapova, who has lost just seven games in her first three matches, now plays Russian compatriot Nadia Petrova, a 6-4 7-5 winner over Czech Lucie Safarova.

Despite missing the hardcourt run-up to Flushing Meadows, Sharapova is playing as well as anyone in the women's draw.

"I didn't know too much going into this event because I hadn't played on hard in a few months," she said. "That made me extra focused, and I wanted to really get going from the beginning and be aggressive.

"Took a little bit of a break after Wimbledon and went home. I kind of recharged a little bit. Certainly feel a lot more energy than I did maybe after the French (Open)."

Sharapova said Petrova has "been playing really good tennis."

"She's someone that likes the faster courts, especially in New York," said Sharapova, who owns a 8-1 lifetime mark against Petrova. "I have had some tough matches against her.

"Although I have a good record, they have always been really tough and have gone to some three‑setters, some tough two‑setters.

"She has a big game, great serve, a difficult opponent, but I'm looking forward to that challenge." - Reuters

Aggressive Jamshed drives Pakistan past Australia

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 05:55 PM PDT

ABU DHABI: Pakistan, led by an aggressive 97 from opening batsman Nasser Jamshed, cruised to a seven-wicket win in the second one-day international against Australia on Friday to level up the series at 1-1.

Jamshed's innings, which spanned just 98 balls and included 11 fours and two sixes, helped Misbah-ul-Haq's side make light work of what looked set to be a testing target after Australia made 248 for nine.

The 22-year-old shared partnerships of 66 with fellow opener Mohammed Hafeez (23) and 101 with Azhar Ali before miscuing a drive at Mitchell Johnson to be caught at mid-off by Mitchell Starc just three runs short of his second ODI hundred.

Australia's bowlers were handicapped by heavy dew in the second innings of a match that spanned two days and finished in the early hours of the morning local time.

"It was a good toss to lose as dew was a major factor," Misbah told reporters.

"It was good for us there was so much dew during the second innings but the way Nasser Jamshed played, he showed his class."

Australia captain Michael Clarke said on the eve of the match that he wanted bigger contributions from his batsmen but although five of them passed 20, only Mike Hussey (61) was able to reach a half-century.

He conceded, however, that it had been a mistake to bat first after winning the toss.

"It was definitely the wrong choice but we can't use it as an excuse," Clarke told reporters.

"With the late start, dew will affect both sides so it's all about finding a way of executing better than we did tonight.

"A big part of the role of our top four is to make big scores and it's disappointing we weren't able to do that again."

Australia's batsmen were once again shackled by Pakistan's spinners with off-spinner Saeed Ajmal again proving the key bowler.

Ajmal, who took 3-30 in the previous match in the previous match in Sharjah, once again tormented the Australia batsmen and finished with 4-32.

"He's our number one bowler and he's the number one in the world," said Misbah. "He is playing his role, helping us win matches but the other spinners are doing that too."

Ajmal tormented David Warner (24) and the opener laboured for 68 balls before being put out of his misery when he tried to work the spinner on the on-side and was adjudged leg before wicket.

Ajmal also removed David Hussey lbw for a duck leg as he pushed forward and then returned later in the innings to dismiss Mike Hussey and Glenn Maxwell (28), the latter stumped as he charged a doosra after a bright knock.

Mike Hussey faced 72 balls and hit a four and two sixes as he and George Bailey (39) got Australia back on track with a stand of 66 in 14 overs after coming together with their team in some disarray at 87-4.

There were two late wickets for left-arm fast bowler Junaid Khan (3-52) but at the halfway stage Australia's total looked a useful one until it became apparent that dew would be such a handicap.

Asad Shafiq (9) fell cheaply soon after Jamshed was dismissed to give Australia hope but Azhar Ali (59 not out) and Misbah (35 not out) ensured there was no late wobble, adding an unbroken 59 from nine overs to see their side home.

The deciding match of the series will take place in Sharjah on Monday, with three Twenty20 internationals to follow. - Reuters
Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Business

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The Star Online: Business

Iron ore sees worst month since October 2011

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 05:10 PM PDT

SINGAPORE: Iron ore looks set to hit nearly three-year lows on Friday and to end August with its worst performance in 10 months as Chinese steel producers shun fresh cargoes in the face of waning demand.

Iron ore has been hardest hit among industrial commodities by China's slowdown, losing 36% this year, as falling steel prices curbed demand from the biggest consumer of the raw material.

Iron ore with 62% iron content, the industry benchmark, dropped 1.8% to US$88.70 per tonne on Thursday, the lowest since October 2009, according to data provider Steel Index.

For the month, the steelmaking component has lost more than 24%, the most since it fell 31% last October.

"This is all about destocking because I don't think we're seeing a massive collapse in end-user demand for steel. Everybody's just reducing their inventory of iron ore," said Graeme Train, analyst at Macquarie in Shanghai.

Train estimated that smaller Chinese steel mills had dropped their iron ore inventories to about 17-18 days worth of consumption, versus 27-30 days over the past year.

Train said the "absolute minimum" inventory would be 14 days, which is about the period it takes for cargo imported from, for example, Australia, to reach China.

"So there's potential for the mills to destock further, so we could see prices go down to US$75-US$80," he said.

Shanghai steel rebar futures have dropped about 17% this year, less than half the percentage loss for iron ore. Shanghai rebar is down nearly 10% this month, the steepest drop in almost a year, as losses extend to a fifth straight month.

In the face of weak steel demand, most Chinese mills have kept their iron ore inventories low, with some opting to buy small lots from port stockpiles instead of ordering fresh, big cargoes.

"I'm not getting any inquiries at all today," said a physical iron ore trader in Singapore, who thinks prices will only see support at around US$70.

Brazil's Vale, the world's top iron ore miner, said it was surprised that prices fell below US$110 a tonne which it attributed to excess supply rather than weak demand.

Jose Carlos Martins, who runs Vale's iron ore business, however, said the company's production costs were still well below current prices.

"We are one of the most efficient producers," he said. "We will be the last to leave the market." - Reuters

Procter & Gamble wins Spikes Asia Advertiser of the Year award

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 05:10 PM PDT

The Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity, the annual regional creative advertising and communications event for Asia-Pacific, is presenting this year's Advertiser of the Year Award to Procter & Gamble (P&G) Asia.

The Lions Festivals, which organises the event together with Campaign Asia Pacific publisher Haymarket, says in a statement that the award honours a brand that has set itself apart through the quality of its campaigns with consistently high creative communications while encouraging and nurturing innovative marketing techniques produced by their agencies across the Asia-Pacific region.

"Since the launch of the Spikes Asia Festival four years ago, P&G Asia has won an astonishing number of Spikes Asia awards five gold, 11 silver and 11 bronze trophies across different disciplines design, digital, direct, integrated, media, outdoor and promo & activation with work produced by their agencies from across the region China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and the Philippines.

"It's a testament of their commitment to engage their consumers by not only embracing but also expecting creativity in their product communications around Asia," says Terry Savage, chairman of Lions Festivals.

Freddy Bharucha, P&G chief marketing officer for Asia, will be presented the award on Sept 18 in Singapore.

Spikes Asia Festival, to be held from Sept 16 to 18 at Suntec Singapore, will feature 30 seminars as well as The Forum, a new stream of content offering attendees the chance to interact with speakers on specific themes such as The Creative Future of Media, Creativity in Mobile Advertising and Creativity in Branded Content and Entertainment.

This year's speaker line-up includes BBDO Worldwide CEO and president Andrew Robertson, GroupM Global president Dominic Proctor, McCann Worldgroup chairman and CEO Nick Brien, Ogilvy & Mather worldwide chief creative officer Tham Khai Meng, Lowe Global Creative Council president Jose Miguel Sokoloff, and Cirque du Soleil creative director Lyn Heward.

Last year's Spikes Asia was attended by more than 1,700 delegates.

The Star is the official and exclusive Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity representative for Malaysia.

Can media agencies think?

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 05:09 PM PDT

ALTHOUGH many years have passed since the birth of media agencies (agencies that plan advertisers' media strategies), the debate continues on who creative or media agencies should be the primary communications partner for advertisers.

M&C Saatchi Asia regional chief executive officer Chris Jaques last month posted in his blog a provocative commentary titled "Why Can't Media Agencies Think?" which had earlier been published in Campaign Asia Pacific in 2011.

In it, he says that he doesn't believe "media agencies in their current form are capable of providing the creative brilliance on which business success depends."

He backs his argument by pointing to the performance of media agencies at the 2011 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, where out of the 81 winners of Media Lions, 66 were creative agencies and only 39 were media agencies.

"So creative agencies massively outperformed media agencies in their own media awards," he notes.

While Jaques says he believes media agencies should be the creative leaders of the future, currently "they are not able to generate "great ideas that can truly ignite consumer attitudes and behaviour, ideas that can truly transform a client's business."

He cites several reasons for this, including the media agencies' past legacy and the kind of staff they attract, their primary purpose being to invest money wisely and effectively, their role within their holding companies that limits their freedom to offer expertise that is competitive to other group companies, and the way clients incentivise media agencies (mainly against measurable data and not creative originality).

Jaques' views have many supporters, including Lowe Malaysia chairman Khairudin Rahim and DraftFCB Malaysia chief executive officer T. Renganathan (both are from creative agencies).

Khairudin says Jaques voices what everyone from the creative agencies have been thinking and "the facts presented speak for themselves."

"The reason why creative agencies consistently produce more high value ideas is their bias towards intuition versus facts. Great thinking and great ideas comes from people who use their intuition more than common logic," he says.

"They look at the same thing as everyone else and then think something different. It is intuition that makes for the greatest persuasion, things that touch hearts, alter perceptions and move people.

"Creative leaders of the past, present and future will always be from those who think laterally. These type of talent will reside in organisations that value and reward imagination more than efficiency."

Renganathan says creative agencies like DraftFCB are media agnostic. "We think in terms of ideas and not medium and therefore I believe we do come up with best ideas."

He suggests turning back the clock to where the industry was before the birth of media agencies.

"It's ideas first always and not where to place the message. Media agencies can be the creative leaders if they can combine the data, tools and analytics with the creative idea and message. But currently and to a large extent, creative souls do not thrive in a numbers environment. Creativity and innovation comes from people who can think laterally and the use of intuition."

Heads of media agencies have a different view.

Omnicom Media Group managing director Andreas Vogiatzakis says the client has separated the "functions" media and creative in order to drive efficiencies. "And that is good (albeit the fact those escalating media price wars are eroding our values and this needs to be changed)," he replies in an email.

"A debate in order to propagate an us versus them' mentality is not healthy. What exactly are the motives? Our industry is going through constant change, and we are experiencing a paradigm shift on a daily basis across the world. Complaining about each other won't do us any good unless it is constructive. We need to work towards fulfilling the client's needs and make our industry the best there is.

"At OMD and PHD (the agencies under Omnicom Media), we always put the client business first this is our business! This stipulates a close working relationship with our creative agency partners, so we can both, together, bring value to our clients."

On Jaques' comment that "It's great thinking and great ideas that build great brands not great data and terrific tools," Vogiatzakis says: "It is the old, simple story ... you can do great advertising, but if you have a bad media plan/placement, no one will see your ad. Or, you can have bad creative, and a great media plan, and that will be the fastest way to kill the brand! So you must have great creative and great media. One without the other won't work."

He says it is not about domination, but about co-creation. "Critically, our goal in (advertising) life should not be about a creative idea for the sake of creativity, but a creative idea with high relevancy to the objectives of the brand. Creativity for the sake of creativity has no place here; otherwise we can all go and become artists, not advertising/marketing professionals."

IPG Mediabrands president (Asia World Markets) and CEO (Malaysia) Prashant Kumar says that great thinking requires great imagination plus great engineering.

"It needs both art and science. Data brings objectivity and scalability to marketing decisions. Tools are a way to simplify handling of data," he says. "As per Chris' reasoning, Einstein was not a great thinker. Nor was da Vinci. They both studied too much data!"

On the performance of media firms versus creative agencies at Cannes Lions, Vogiatzakis says he doesn't think this is a tally war. "Success is measured in how a campaign builds business. Success is measured when the client retains the agency due to the results it brings," he says.

He adds: "I have no issue of co-ownership on awards. We together co-create. Nothing works in isolation."

Kumar, meanwhile, notes that most submissions for Cannes Media Lions are from creative agencies. "Ideas are the main currency for creative agencies. So they run huge award machines with massive budgets for awards. Clients expect more than media ideas from media agencies. So they are less aggressive in this area. Also media agencies tend to have much fewer done-for-awards cases. While there is no doubt that media agencies can get better overall on ideation, they tend to get less credit usually than they should."

On the topic of incentivisation, Vogiatzakis expresses doubt that clients incentivise creative agencies based on "creative originality" either.

"How would you judge so unless quite subjectively? The reason most incentivisation is based on measurable data/results is precisely that: measurable and quantifiable results. In fact, many of our clients incentivise us and the creative agency based on sales data."

On Jaques' comment that media agencies should be the creative leaders of the future but they're currently not capable, Kumar says: "Creative leadership is what clients would normally expect from creative agencies today, which due to their strengths in crafting skills are better placed in general. However I believe creativity should be open-sourced. Great ideas should be allowed to originate from anywhere in the marketing ecosystem. As that happens more, media agencies will invest to deepen their skills in this area." 　

Summing up, Kumar says media agencies are better at "thinking" where creative agencies are better at "feeling", though there are exceptions on both sides.

"Or to put it another way, media agencies are better at left brain thinking typically, while creative agencies typically bring right brain thinking. Together they make a whole brain team that creates great marketing ideas."

StarBizWeek emailed Jaques to get his response to the diverse views generated by his blog posting.

In his reply, he writes: "The fact is, media agencies now control more than 95% of a client's budget, and the fees paid to creative agencies are getting smaller and smaller. So media agencies are being required to provide broader-based expertise than they have had to deliver in the past.

"They may have developed the research, data and software but they haven't yet developed the talent, the culture, nor the skills necessary to fulfill the needs that clients now have of them."

He blames the holding companies. "By separating their creative agencies from their media agencies, they have created a structure that benefits their own business, at the expense of their clients' needs. It's nonsense. I've never once met a senior client who wanted their media and creative agencies to be separated. Both provide different, complementary talents, skills and perspectives. They should be working together, as one.

"The sooner someone has the guts to consolidate media and creative capabilities back into one integrated agency model, they will have clients rushing to their doors. I believe that this is the real issue, to be honest."
Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Nation

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The Star Online: Nation

M'sians from all walks of life attend Merdeka Day Promises Fulfilled rally

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 08:04 AM PDT

KUALA LUMPUR: Tens of thousands of patriotic Malaysians gathered at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil for the Promises Fulfilled rally in conjunction with the Merdeka Day celebrations on Friday.

The multi-racial boisterous crowd stood as one as they joined in to watch some performance-packed events.

The crowd excitedly waved the Jalur Gemilang flag and cheered loudly as Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah entered the stadium at 8.30pm followed by fireworks.

Najib and Rosmah led the country's leaders and Gen Y participants on a 380m 'unity walk' in the stadium before proceeding to the centre of the stadium where the main stage was located.

One of the main highlights of the event is the Tweet Up Merdeka where organizers hope to set a new world record by getting one million tweets in an hour between 8.15pm and 9.15pm via #Merdeka55.

Information, Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim thanked everyone for turning up in full force to celebrate Merdeka Day in the spirit of patriotism.

Najib urges Malaysians to protect 55 years of unity

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 07:57 AM PDT

PETALING JAYA: Malaysians must protect the unity of the past 55 years that has helped shape the nation into a successful country, said Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

Addressing a massive crowd at the Promises Fulfilled rally in conjunction with Merdeka day at the National Stadium, the prime minister said it was the role of today's generation of leaders and citizens to bring meaning to the country's independence.

"The first generation fought to achieve independence, followed by the next generation of leaders and citizens who fought to fill it.

"Now, we are together with the leaders and rakyat who are fighting to bring meaning to our independence," he said.

Najib said that not all countries who had gained independence were "rich, peaceful and strong".

However, he said that with the support, cooperation and contributions from leaders and citizens since gaining independence 55 years ago, Malaysia was now a successful country.

"A country that is richer, more peaceful and stronger by the day. After 55 years of building our country and setting our direction, we have to remember the base of our independence - unity.

"If we don't protect what we own, we own nothing," he said.

Najib said that Malaysia's harmonious blend of races and inclusive policies had allowed everyone to contribute in the country's successes and face any challenge. Referring to Thursday night's gathering of "Janji Demokrasi" by non-governmental association coalition Gabungan Janji, Najib said they were the minority.

"Last night was not the majority (of people). Tonight is the majority that is assembling," he declared.

More in The Star Saturday.

7.9 magnitude quake strikes east Philippines, tsunami alert lifted (Update)

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 07:49 AM PDT

PETALING JAYA: A tsunami warning has been lifted for Japan, Taiwan and a number of Pacific island countries but remained in effect for the Philippines, Indonesia and Belau following a 7.9 magnitude earthquake on Friday off the Philippines.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning center issued the updated warning, which also kept a number of areas of the Pacific on watch for a potential tsunami following the quake.

The quake hit the sea area east of the Philippines triggering the tsunami warning for the archipelago, Indonesia, Taiwan and Japan.

The US Geological Survey said the quake had a depth of 34 kilometres (21 miles) and hit at 8:47pm (1247 GMT) some 139 kilometres east of the city of Sulangan, eastern Samar.
Kredit: www.thestar.com.my
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