The Star Online: Sports
The Star Online: Sports |
- Carter shatters Fu's German title bid
- F1: Defending champ Vettel wary of Webber threat
- Davis Cup: Spain crash out to Canada, US battle to survive
| Carter shatters Fu's German title bid Posted: 03 Feb 2013 06:35 PM PST BERLIN: England's Ali Carter came from 5-3 down to beat Hong Kong's Marco Fu 9-6 to win his third world-ranking title at the German Masters on Sunday. Carter dominated the evening session in the German capital to take the 60,000-euro top prize and add to the titles he won at the 2009 Welsh Open and 2010 Shanghai Masters. Hong Kong's 35-year-old Fu looked the stronger player in the early stages but struggled with his safety and potting at the business end. Fu had been seeking his second ranking title having won the 2007 Masters. "I didn't have many chances tonight. Every time I came to the table I was faced with a tough shot," said Fu. "Ali played very well so all credit to him. It was nice to be in a final again as the crowd was great - hopefully I can come back next year and win it." - AFP |
| F1: Defending champ Vettel wary of Webber threat Posted: 03 Feb 2013 06:33 PM PST LONDON: World champion Sebastian Vettel insisted on Sunday that he is not the overwhelming favourite for a fourth successive Formula One title and believes his main threat could come from Red Bull teammate Mark Webber. The season roars into action on March 17 in Melbourne, with 19 races scheduled over nine months with the season closer in Brazil on November 24. "It's one thing to look back at what we have achieved as a team, but really I feel that we all start again from zero," said Germany's Vettel, who became the youngest man to win three straight titles in 2012 at the age of 25. "So we've all got the same chances and it will be a long year, a lot of races and a very tough challenge waiting for all of us. "If anything the expectations are there, people expect something, but more than that, we expect ourselves to do well again so there's a lot of pressure. "It will be tough - tough to beat Mark (Webber), tough to beat the other guys and the other teams because they will try everything to beat us. "The best drivers are in the best teams. I think it's easy for you to work out who they are - Fernando (Alonso) certainly is one of them. "Mark is one of them, Lewis (Hamilton) is one of them and there are others, but I usually don't like to name them as there's a chance of forgetting one of them and that's not the idea. I think it's the usual suspects." Red Bull unveiled their car for the new season on Sunday with team boss Christian Horner saying the desire for more success is as great as ever. "As always the competition is phenomenal, so to have won three in a row is quite remarkable. It's testimony to all the hard work that has gone on," said the 39-year-old. "We're still a young team, but we're evolving and there is a fierce determination to keep those trophies for another year." Horner also defended recent criticism by team adviser Helmut Marko who questioned Webber's capacity of maintaining a season long challenge for the title. Horner said they are happy to have extended the contract of Webber, who has won only three races in the last two seasons. "As we all know Helmut can be outspoken at times and some of his comments, that reflected his opinion, and sometimes these things can be misinterpreted," Horner said. "If we weren't happy with Mark we would never have signed him for this year. We give both drivers equal opportunity and it's down to what they do on the circuit. "Certainly in the team, that's the approach and we'll continue to do that. For us, it doesn't matter which driver wins as long as it's in one of these cars." The 36-year-old native of New South Wales also said he was confident he could beat Vettel to the title. "I do believe I can have a crack at the championship again this year, as I have done in previous seasons," he said. "That's what I'm getting up each day thinking. The team know I need 100 per cent support. You cannot win world championships with 90 per cent support. That's what I'm confident of." - AFP |
| Davis Cup: Spain crash out to Canada, US battle to survive Posted: 03 Feb 2013 04:48 PM PST PARIS: Short-handed five-time champions Spain crashed out of the Davis Cup Sunday when Canada completed a famous World Group triumph while 32-time winners United States edged Brazil in a dogfight. Milos Raonic secured the crucial winning point in Canada's 3-2 victory in Vancouver by beating Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 to send Canada into their first Davis Cup quarter-final. They will tackle Italy in April for a place in the semi-finals. Missing top players Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer, Nicolas Almagro and Fernando Verdasco, Spain, winners of the title three times in the last five years, and the 2012 runners-up, had been 2-0 down on Friday. Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez kept their hopes alive with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 6-2 victory over Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil in Saturday's doubles. But Raonic, the world number 15, was unstoppable on Sunday firing 22 aces and 55 winners past the hapless Garcia-Lopez, the world 82, as Spain were beaten in the opening round for the first time since 2006. Albert Ramos beat Frank Dancevic 7-5, 6-4 in a dead rubber to create the final margin. The United States escaped an upset when Sam Querrey rallied to beat Thiago Alves 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) and give the Americans a 3-2 triumph. Querrey fired 26 aces for a perfect weekend in his first Davis Cup home tie. Brazil's Thomaz Bellucci battled back to defeat John Isner 2-6, 6-4, 6-7 (7/9), 6-4, 6-3, in Sunday's opener at Jacksonville, Florida. Isner fired 22 aces in the clash but also committed 81 unforced errors. The US had been 2-0 ahead on Friday before twins Bob and Mike Bryan suffered a stunning loss in the doubles - just the third of their Davis Cup career - to Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares, going down 7-6 (8/6), 6-7 (7/9), 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. The Americans will meet 2010 champions Serbia, who had already defeated Belgium. Tomas Berdych beat Stanislas Wawrinka in a battle of Davis Cup ironmen as defending champions Czech Republic reached the quarter-finals. The Czechs led Switzerland 2-1 overnight after Berdych and Lukas Rosol beat Wawrinka and Marco Chiudinelli 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 24-22 in the longest-ever Davis Cup match, an exhausting doubles which lasted a minute over seven hours. World number six Berdych and Wawrinka, the 17th-ranked player, returned on Sunday for the first of the reverse singles in Geneva and three hours 15 minutes later, it was the Czech who triumphed again, claiming a 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7/5) win. "Stan is one of the players who I don't like to play. He has a dangerous game," said Berdych, of a player who also featured in a five-hour defeat to Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open last month. "The match on Saturday will go down in history. You play tennis for moments like this," added Berdych, who won all three rubbers he played this weekend and spent almost 13 hours on court. Wawrinka insisted that despite his three matches - he had also won his opening singles on Friday - he would have been able to play a fifth set on Sunday. "I care about this competition and love to play for my country," said Wawrinka, who was Switzerland's top player in the absence of Roger Federer. "We were really close. I was up in the tiebreak today but Tomas played better and showed why he is number six in the world." The Czech Republic will now travel to Kazakhstan in April for the quarter-finals. Kazakhstan, who beat Austria 3-1 in their World Group clash on Sunday in Astana, knocked the Czechs out in the first round in 2011. In Turin, Italy beat Croatia to make the quarter-finals for the first time since 1998. Italy had led 2-1 overnight but Marin Cilic won his second singles match of the tie by easing past Andreas Seppi 6-3, 6-3, 7-5. Fabio Fognini then saw off Ivan Dodig 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to clinch the winning point. "In Davis Cup, everyone wins or everyone loses...it wasn't just my victory, it was Italy's victory," tweeted Fognini. The other quarter-final will see Argentina facing France after they completed comfortable victories over Germany and Israel respectively on Saturday. - AFP |
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