Jumaat, 14 Jun 2013

The Star Online: Sports


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The Star Online: Sports


Tennis: Murray downs Becker to make Queen's semis

Posted: 14 Jun 2013 06:31 PM PDT

LONDON: Andy Murray remains on track for a third Queen's Club title after the world number two booked his semi-final place with a 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) victory against Germany's Benjamin Becker on Friday.

Murray last won the pre-Wimbledon warm-up event in 2011 and the US Open champion is eyeing another morale-boosting triumph as he prepares for his latest assault on the All England Club.

The 26-year-old is playing in his first tournament since mid-May when he suffered a lower back injury that forced him to withdraw from the French Open.

Murray had no signs of rust when he swept aside both Nicolas Mahut and Marinko Matosevic on Thursday and this was another encouraging outing against the gritty Becker.

Next up for Murray is the winner of Friday's last quarter-final between French fourth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and America's Denis Kudla.

The top seed had never faced Becker in competitive action before, but still knew plenty about the 31-year-old after practising regularly with him during his winter training camp in Miami.

Murray's superiority was clear as he broke in the opening game and a sloppy smash from Becker on break point in the fifth game gifted the Scot as 4-1 lead.

A brief lapse from Murray handed a break back to Becker in the next game, but the Olympic gold medallist held serve to close out the set.

Murray looked certain for a routine win when he broke at the start of the second set.

But his concentration wavered and Becker, who suddenly started to unload some searing groundstrokes, hit back with two breaks to take a 4-2 lead.

That sparked Murray back into action and he broke to force a tie-break, which he won in no-nonsense fashion.

Lleyton Hewitt rolled back the years as the Australian moved into the last four with a surprise 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 victory over Argentine third seed Juan Martin del Potro.

Hewitt is a four-time Queen's champion and this year he is bidding to become the oldest man to win the event, surpassing American legend Jimmy Connors, who lifted the trophy aged 30 years and 284 days in 1983.

He will fancy his chances after seeing off world number eight del Potro to claim his first win over a top 10 player since he defeated Juan Monaco in Valencia last October.

"I'm still hanging in there. The last four or five years have been tough with surgeries, but mentally I feel fresh," Hewitt said.

"I'm enjoying competing with the best players in the world. I played really well, I've got better with each match this week."

The former world number one, who made his first appearance at Queen's as a 17-year-old in 1998, is well into the twilight of his career and his lowly spot at 82 in the world rankings reflects his diminished status.

But the 32-year-old former Wimbledon champion enjoyed notable victories over highly-regarded Grigor Dimitrov and former Queen's champion Sam Querrey en route to the last eight and his success against del Potro earned a first last four appearance since his run to the final in Newport, also on grass, last July.

Hewitt celebrated the win by inviting his son Cruz onto the court with him.

His semi-final opponent is Marin Cilic, who hopes to retain the Queen's title after the defending champion defeated Czech second seed Tomas Berdych 7-5, 7-6 (7/4).

The Croatian fifth seed is now just two wins away from becoming the first player to retain the trophy since Andy Roddick in 2005 after a dominant display against world number six Berdych. - AFP

Golf: Iceman Dinwiddie shares St Omer lead

Posted: 14 Jun 2013 06:25 PM PDT

ST OMER, France: South Africa's Tjaart van der Walt and Briton Robert Dinwiddie, making light of a bad back, shared the lead at four under par after the second round of the St Omer Open on Friday.

Overnight leader van der Walt was set to go into the weekend heading the pack only for three bogeys in the closing seven holes to bring him back level with Dinwoodie.

The Londoner put himself in contention with a faultess five under par 66 for a combined total of 138.

"Considering I didn't think I would be teeing it up, after taking a bad step on Tuesday morning and damaging a bad disc in my back, it was great," the 30-year-old said.

"I couldn't hit a ball on Wednesday so I honestly thought I had no chance but I just iced it and took a lot of anti-inflammatories and recovered so it was great."

One shot behind the leading pair were British duo Simon Wakefield and Chris Hanson and France's Victor Rui. - AFP

Leading second round scores at the St Omer Open on Friday (GBR & IRL unless stated, par 71):

138 - Tjaart Van Der Walt (Rsa) 67 71, Robert Dinwiddie 72 66

139 - Chris Hanson 71 68, Victor Riu (FRA) 68 71, Simon Wakefield 71 68

140 - Daniel Vancsik (ARG) 73 67, Jeppe Huldahl (DEN) 73 67, Daniel Gaunt (AUS) 70 70, Baptiste Chapellan (FRA) 72 68, Daniel Brooks 69 71, Justin Walters (RSA) 71 69, Seve Benson 75 65

141 - Jordi Garcia Pinto (ESP) 73 68, Scott Henry 72 69, Chris Lloyd 73 68

142 - Tyrrell Hatton 75 67, Andrew Marshall 74 68, Richard McEvoy 71 71, Thomas Fournier (FRA) 71 71, Luke Goddard 75 67, Benjamin Hebert (FRA) 74 68, Max Glauert (GER) 77 65 - AFP

Cycling: Da Costa powers to victory in Tour of Switzerland

Posted: 14 Jun 2013 06:21 PM PDT

LA PUNT, Switzerland: Defending champion Rui Da Costa of Portugal boosted his hopes of retaining his Tour of Switzerland title as he powered to victory on a gruelling seventh stage to close the gap on overall leader Mathias Frank to 13 seconds.

Da Costa was in a leading group of three riders alongside Dutchman Bauke Mollema and American Tejay van Garderen entering the final stages, but the pair were unable to match the Portuguese as he sprinted across the line.

"Our goal today was taking some seconds off the riders ahead of us in the overall (standings) and we didn't just do that, we also won the stage," said Da Costa.

"I am super happy although it was shame about the banner," added the Movistar rider, referring to a distance marker that fell onto the road just prior to the finish and briefly delayed the leaders.

"We lost around 10 seconds there which could be decisive, but the important thing is that I showed that I am in good form for (the concluding individual time-trial on) Sunday."

Mollema edged Van Garderen to second with Frenchman Thibaut Pinot, who took the points at the summit of the HC Albula Pass, dropped as the quartet tackled the final descent.

The 206km route from Meilen to La Punt featured four rated climbs, including a brutal 30km climb of the Albula Pass that peaked at 2,315m just inside the final 10km.

Switzerland's Frank came in ninth at 22sec, having been left behind by BMC teammate Van Garderen on the climb up the Albula, but remains in yellow with Da Costa breathing down his neck ahead of Saturday's eighth stage, a hilly 180.5km route from Zernez to Bad Ragaz. - AFP

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

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