The Star Online: Sports
The Star Online: Sports |
- Tennis: Kvitova beats another champion to reach Dubai final
- Cycling: Kenny sends girlfriend, fans crazy with world gold
- Cycling: Armstrong cites US Postal success in legal fight
| Tennis: Kvitova beats another champion to reach Dubai final Posted: 22 Feb 2013 05:29 PM PST DUBAI: Former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, showing her best form for more than a year, beat her second champion in a row to reach the Dubai Open final here on Friday. Kvitova, who ended the title defence of Agnieszka Radwanska on Thursday, beat the 2011 titleholder Caroline Wozniacki, breaking serve in the opening game and rarely looking back in a 6-3, 6-4 win. In her first final in six months, she now meets fifth seed Sara Errani of Italy, the French Open finalist, who beat her best friend and doubles partner Roberta Vihnci 6-3, 6-3. The Czech's win over the Dane was full of characteristically fierce ground strokes, struck flat and hard to read, as well as a rising buoyancy which has not been evident over the past year. Kvitova was delighted to have beaten three top 12 opponents in a row and, beaming at her success, said she was hopeful about her strengthened physical condition despite claiming that her "body was confused". Asked for an explanation, she said: "I'm trying to be stronger in my legs and to have like stronger muscles, so I can be more quicker and stay quite low for the fast shots. "That's something I didn't like doing in the past. But I'm still thinking about the bad position I had before, and I'm trying to have the good position - that's why I'm, like, quite confused." Nevertheless there was definite improvement in her movement, which helped her to break Wozniacki's serve in the opening game, to keep up a fierce attack, and to hold right through to the penultimate game of the first set when she broke Wozniacki again. Wozniacki often moved superbly, but in the second set she also tried to serve harder, play faster, and generate more pressure of her own. This helped her break for 3-2, and save break points in the eighth game. In between these two moments of resistance however Kvitova's attack was still too forceful, and she broke back for 3-3, and then broke again to win the match. There was a frustrating end for Wozniacki, whose final shot, a backhand drive, was questionably called out - but she could do nothing about it because she had used up all her challenges. "I don't know (if it was out) but it would have been nice to be able to challenge it," she admitted. "It was close, but, you know, I just have to believe it was out." If Errani and Vinci thought that by taking a break from doubles to play singles only, they would spend time apart it was not entirely successful. Instead Errani and Vinci found themselves battling against each other for an hour and 23 minutes of old-style rallies in which slice and accurate placement played a bigger part than power and flailing topspin. Errani prevailed because she imposed her busy approach on the rallies. However it was noticeable that she toned down her some of her grunts, suggesting that comradeship may occasionally have vied with competitiveness for priority. "It's tough to play against one person who knows what you're going to do with every shot," she admitted of the partner with whom she says she spends 300 days a year, while Vinci described it as like "playing against a sister." The match finished with a symbolic moment. As Errani's drive landed near the baseline, Vinci surprisingly stopped the rally, called for a computer review, and, on seeing that the shot was shown to be in, discovered she had inadvertently ended the contest without striking the ball back against her friend. - AFP |
| Cycling: Kenny sends girlfriend, fans crazy with world gold Posted: 22 Feb 2013 05:23 PM PST MINSK: Britain's Olympic sprint champion Jason Kenny won the keirin gold medal at the world track cycling championships on Friday, a victory which sent girlfriend Laura Trott, also a title winner, into a Twitter frenzy. Kenny beat German favourite Maximilian Levy, the 2009 world champion who had lost out to another British rider, double Olympic champion Chris Hoy, last year. Dutch rider Matthijs Buchli claimed bronze. Trott, Kenny's girlfriend and a gold medallist in the women's team pursuit on Thursday, praised her man on Twitter. "Arghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!! Happiest girlfriend in the world!!!! @JasonKenny107 #lovehim x," she tweeted. Kenny, 24, who delivered Britain's third gold of the championships, had reached the final the hard way, needing to go through the repechage in the first round before earning a place in the final when France's Franois Pervis was disqualified for blocking the Briton. "It was unbelievable. I put my hopes on Levy, saying I would stick to him and try and pass at the finish, which is how it worked out," Kenny told the BBC. "I was suffering a crisis of confidence after coming sixth in the team pursuit. But a bit of luck finally went my way and the final unfolded perfectly." Simon Yates had opened Britain's Friday gold account when he clinched victory in the men's points race, beating Spain's Eloy Teruel by a point. The 20-year-old Briton had been a point behind the Spaniard before the final sprint, but a third-place finish in the deciding showdown allowed him to snatch gold. Bronze went to Russia's Kiril Sveshnikov, who was second in the last sprint. Yates succeeds Australia's Cameron Meyer who won the title in 2009, 2010 and 2012 as world champion. "I just tried to save some energy for the end and (I started to believe) with 10 laps to go when I realised I needed just one point," Yates told the BBC. "When you've got a world title on the line you get that energy from somewhere." In the day's other final, Katarzyna Pawlowska of Poland retained her women's scratch title. The 23-year-old finished comfortably ahead of Sofia Arreola of Mexico after 40 laps (10km) of the Minsk Arena. Yevgenya Romanyuta of Russia took the bronze, ahead of Laurie Berthon of France, who lost out on a medal in the sprint to the line. Pacesetter Caroline Ryan of Ireland was holding on until 12 laps from the end when the Polish defending champion made her move. But if Ryan's compatriot Martyn Irvine was able to hold on for gold after adopting a similar tactic in Thursday's men's scratch race, Ryan was out of luck. Pawlowska bided her time and then broke clear two laps out as an exhausted Ryan slipped back down the field to finish seventh. Giorgia Bronzini of Italy, road racing champion in 2010 and 2011, was a disappointing 11th. - AFP World track championships results on Friday (finals only): Men Keirin 1. Jason Kenny (GBR) 2. Maximilian Levy (GER) 3. Matthijs Buchli (NED) 4. Andrew Taylor (AUS) 5. Scott Sunderland (AUS) 6. Stefan Botticher (GER) Points 1. Simon Yates (GBR) 35 points 2. Eloy Teruel (ESP) 34 3. Kiril Sveshnikov (RUS) 30 4. Milan Kadlec (CZE) 30 5. Stefan Kueng (SUI) 27 6. Andreas Graf (AUT) 23 7. Henning Bommel (GER) 20 8. Angelo Ciccone (ITA) 19 9. Thomas Boudat (FRA) 18 10. Kenny De Ketele (BEL) 13 11. Alexander Edmondson (AUS) 10 12. Jesper Morkov (DEN) 7 13. Wojciech Pszczolarski (POL) 5 14. Pavel Gatskiy (KAZ) -17 15. Raman Ramanau (BLR) -58 Women Scratch 1. Katarzyna Pawlowska (POL) 12:45. (47.057 km/h) 2. Sofia Arreola (MEX) 3. Evgeniya Romanyuta (RUS) 4. Laurie Berthon (FRA) 5. Kirsten Wild (NED) 6. Dani King (GBR) 7. Caroline Ryan (IRL) 8. Alzbeta Pavlendova (SVK) 9. Leire Olaberria (ESP) 10. Tetyana Klimchenko (UKR) 11. Giorgia Bronzini (ITA) 12. Diao Xiao Juan (HKG) 13. Sarah Inghelbrecht (BEL) 14. Katsiaryna Barazna (BLR) 15. Melissa Hoskins (AUS) 16. Stephanie Pohl (GER) 17. Sarah Hammer (USA) 18. Jarmila Machacova (CZE) - AFP |
| Cycling: Armstrong cites US Postal success in legal fight Posted: 22 Feb 2013 05:11 PM PST WASHINGTON: Lance Armstrong's legal team released studies on Friday conducted by the US Postal Service saying the US government sponsorship of his Tour de France team produced a triple return on investment. The documents were made public as the US government joined a lawsuit that claims Armstrong - who admitted to doping after being stripped of seven Tour de France cycling titles - defrauded former sponsor US Postal Service. The lawsuit had been filed by Floyd Landis - a former Armstrong teammate who was stripped of the 2006 Tour de France crown for doping to which he admitted - alleging Armstrong defrauded US taxpayers by claiming he was winning Tour de France titles without taking performance-enhancing substances. Armstrong attorney Robert Luskin said in a statement that talks with federal lawyers collapsed over how to measure damages, with Armstrong's side saying the Postal Service reaped huge benefits from its cycling sponsor deal. "Those talks failed because we disagree about whether the Postal Service was damaged," Luskin said. "The Postal's Service's own studies show that the Service benefited tremendously from its sponsorship - benefits totaling more than $100 million." To support the claim, Armstrong's camp released sponsorship evaluations from 2001, 2002 and 2004 that attempted to place a monetary value on the exposure benefits to US Postal at that time. The studies claimed that for $32.276 million spent by US Postal from 2001-2004, there was $103.636 million in publicity benefits with never less than a 300 percent return in investment in any year of the sponsorship. There was no study to show any potential fallout in negative publicity from being attached to Armstrong's now-tainted era in the wake of his confession to being a dope cheat in a television interview with Oprah Winfrey last month. Links to the greatest doping scandal in cycling history could have provided damaging publicity and a more-recent negative payback for US Postal, already forced to stop Saturday delivery later this year because of financial woes. Armstrong was stripped of his Tour de France titles last year after the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) uncovered overwhelming evidence, included testimony from 26 witnesses, that he was at the heart of a major doping conspiracy. FCB Sports Marketing's evaluation of US Postal's 2001 benefits said that $6.138 million in sponsorship investment brought US Postal $18.539 million in exposure and global publicity could boost the value as high as $40 million. The studies used equivalent costs of advertising time on television coverage of the Tour or print advertising in newspapers or on websites where mentions of US Postal or photos with its logo were shown. Also measured was the value of Armstrong's image with the US Postal logo in such areas as magazine covers, television talk shows, commercials for other sponsors such as Nike and other appearances and marketing opportunities. Studies also recognized "intangible benefits" from Armstrong's popularity at the time, but noted "there are no standards and the value lies with the individual corporation and their objectives." The 2002 sponsorship of $6.138 million was given a return value of $19.297 million, the $10 million in 2003 was given a value of $31.2 million and the 2004 backing, also $10 million, was given a value of $34.6 million. - AFP |
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