Monday, 10th September 2007

RESULTS

U.S. Open 2007 – Final Results Recap
Men’s Singles: Roger Federer SUI (1) def. Novak Djokovic SRB (3) 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-2) 6-4
Women’s Singles: Justine Henin BEL (1) def. Svetlana Kuznetsova RUS (4) 6-1 6-3
Men’s Doubles: Simon Aspelin SWE (10) Julian Knowle AUT (10) def. Lukas Dlouhy CZE (9) Pavel Vizner CZE (9) 7-5 6-4
Women’s Doubles: Nathalie Dechy FRA (7) Dinara Safina RUS (7) def. Yung-Jan Chan TPE (5) Chia-Jung Chuang TPE (5) 6-4 6-2
Mixed Doubles: Victoria Azarenka BLR Max Mirnyi BLR def. Meghann Shaughnessy USA Leander Paes IND 6-4 7-6 (8-6)

Other Results

Source: Sports Features, 9th Sep 2007
In a competition fit for a queen, Elaine Youngs, with her selection of partner Jenny Johnson Jordan, proved she is the new Goddess of the Beach and the best individual female player of the 2007 AVP Crocs Tour. Youngs and Jordan defeated defending champion Kerri Walsh and her selected partner April Ross, for the 2007 Goddess title 23-21, 14-21, 15-11. The women played Friday evening and the final will be broadcast Saturday, September 8, from 8-10 pm on MyNetwork TV. Youngs was close to not advancing out of her pool when she defeated regular-season partner Nicole Branagh by only two points to make the finals. Youngs, who had the second pick of partners, selected Jordan, the same player that she played with in the match prior to the finals.

Source: Daily Breeze, 9th Sep 2007
Seventh-seeded John Hyden posted a 16-21, 21-16, 15-9 upset victory over second-seeded Phil Dalhausser in the championship match of the AVP Crocs Tour's "Gods and Goddesses of the Beach" volleyball tournament on Saturday. Hyden, who played with Mike Lambert, defeated, Dalhausser, who played with Sean Rosenthal, in the championship match. Hyden won $24,500 while Dalhausser earned $19,750 for the tournament.

Source: Superbike Planet, 9th Sep 2007
James Toseland's Superbike World Championship lead was cut after a tough weekend in Germany. Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) and Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) took turns to score full points in the 24-lap Lausitz races, with Haga overhauling Bayliss in race one, then a man-to-man duel in race two was taken by Bayliss, as his best pace returned in the latter stages. With Max Biaggi (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) scoring second and third in the Lausitz races, in his first competitive visit to the track, world championship leader James Toseland (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) left Germany with a much reduced championship lead of 41, 25 points less than he arrived with.


THIS WEEK

Sun, 16th Sep 2007
WWE: Unforgiven: Memphis
AVP Crocs Tour 2007: Final Day – San Francisco Best of the Beach


INFO BOX

Info Box - National Football League (NFL)
Source: Washington Post, 9th Sep 2007

The National Football League begins its new season this week at the absolute top of the American sporting heap. Nothing else comes even close. Just about all sports in this country, "amateur" as well as professional, are big business now, but pro football is the biggest. The numbers are staggering, even way back in 2003 when Forbes reported:

* Gross revenue of $5.3 billion for 32 franchises;
* Over $2.5 billion of that came from television, or $80 million per club;
* The average head coach made $2.5 million;
* The average player made $1.2 million, with top stars making several times that much;
* A salary cap set total player salaries at $75 million per club;
* Ticket prices average $52.95;
* Nearly 140 million Americans watched some part of the Super Bowl that year;
* A 30-second ad cost $2.1 million for the Super Bowl that year;
* The average franchise was worth $733 million, with the Washington Redskins topping $1 billion."


SPORTS SHORTS

* Newly-elected FA of Malaysia (FAM) deputy president Khairy Jamaluddin has been appointed as the new Malaysian Super League (MSL) chairman. Khairy, the president of Perak club side UPB-MyTeam FC who have been promoted to the Super League next season, replaces Datuk Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman. Besides heading the marketing arm (MSL) of the FAM, Khairy will also assume the post of deputy chairman of the national team committee, which will be headed by Sultan Ahmad Shah. The new FAM line-up, led by president Sultan Ahmad Shah, got down to immediate work after the Congress was held at Menara KLCC Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) here Sunday. Source: The Star MY, 10th Sep 2007

* The Pakistan Hockey Federation have reacted with dismay to a decision by the FIH to invite bids from India and Malaysia to host this year’s Champions Trophy, which could be shifted from Pakistan for security reasons. PHF secretary Khalid Mahmood told Indian news agency PTI that he was also concerned by reports that South Korea had followed Olympic champions Australia in pulling out of the tournament, scheduled for December 1-9. The FIH is said to have invited bids from Malaysia and India to host the event. Speaking to Sportcal.com earlier this week, the FIH said a decision on whether or not the competition would be moved would be taken by the end of this week. Source: Sportcal, 7th Sep 2007

* Several UK and French newspapers today joined a boycott of coverage of the Rugby World Cup in protest against conditions for press accreditation for the event. The UK's Times, Guardian and Sun and France's sports daily L'Equipe joined leading press agencies in suspending coverage of the event. The dispute reached an impasse last night, when the International Rugby Board responded to the press agencies' boycott by saying that it would not be swayed by ‘unreasonable demands and the threat of non-attendance.’ Reuters, Agence France-Presse, Associated Press and Getty Images said that they were suspending text, photographs and television coverage of pre-tournament events and training sessions claiming that conditions journalists are being asked to sign to gain accreditation for the event breach conventions of freedom of the press and editorial integrity. Source: Sportcal, 7th Sep 2007

* The historic Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro will host the 2014 FIFA World Cup final, if Brazil wins the right to stage the tournament. The announcement came as FIFA's Inspection Committee visited Rio, Brasilia, Belo Horizonte, Sao Paulo and Porto Alegre to compile a report on Brazil's prospective venues for the competition. During their last day of the visit, the Committee members toured the 95,000-capacity Maracana, which hosted the 1950 World Cup final, with 1994 World Cup winner Romario and Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) president Ricardo Teixeira. Brazil is the only country to have tabled an official bid for the 2014 World Cup. Source: Soccerex Newsletter, 7th Sep 2007

* Golf’s World Cup, contested between two-man national teams, will have a record prize fund when it takes place at the Mission Hills Golf Club in China in November. Prize money has been increased by $2 million to $5 million, with the winning team set to share $1.65 million. The number of participating teams has also gone up, from 24 to 28. Some 18 teams qualify automatically and 10 others will come through qualification events in Aruba and Malaysia. Mission Hills has been confirmed as the host of the event for the next 12 years and Swiss watchmaker Omega has come in as title sponsor. Source: Sportcal, 7th Sep 2007


MORE NEWS

Vietnam/Rights: VTV Said to Save Euro 2008

The possibility that Vietnam Television (VTV), the national TV station, will get the broadcasting rights for the Euro 2008 finals in Austria and Switzerland next summer is up to 99%, said an anonymous source from VTV. VTV hasn’t officially confirmed this news but according to backstage information, VTV has to pay a record high sum of money to S5, the agency that holds the broadcasting rights for the Euro 2008 finals, to get the right to directly broadcast all matches of this football tournament in 2008 in Vietnam. However, the fee is less than $2 million, the price that S5 asked for previously.

After losing the broadcasting rights for the English Premier League from 2007 to 2010, AFF Cup 2007, and Asian Cup 2007, VTV has regained its position by successfully buying the copyrights of other great sports events such as AFF Cup 2008, La Liga and Serie A 2007/2008, the third round of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and now perhaps Euro 2008. Previously, VTV successfully negotiated to dub Vietnamese comments on matches of Premier League 2007/2008 broadcast on ESPN and Star Sport channels of its cable TV system.

VTV and two other TV stations of Vietnam, Hanoi Television and HCM City Television, and the Vietnam Olympic Committee contributed to the campaign to ask the organising board of 24th SEA Games to cancel its plan to sell the broadcasting rights for this event. Related to the broadcasting rights of the 2008 Olympics, VTV and VTC paid $75,000 to share the copyright. However, VTV pays double that of VTC ($50,000) so it has the right to sell the broadcasting rights for this event to other local TV stations. Source: Vietnam Net, 8th Sep 2007

India/General: Anti-Monopoly Body to Probe BCCI's Stance on ICL

The Indian cricket board’s stance against an unofficial competition is to be investigated by an anti-monopoly body to determine whether it is overstepping the mark. The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission said yesterday that it had taken note of press reports concerning proposed action against players who join the Indian Cricket League and would look into whether the board was adopting restrictive trade practices.

Players who sign up with the ICL have been told by the Board of Control for Cricket in India that they face exclusion from official competitions and the national teams. The BCCI has also threatened to sack former players affiliated to the board who become involved with the new league, and remove privileges such as pensions.

The MRTPC will look into these issues and the board’s refusal to allow the ICL to use stadia in the country to stage matches and could pass a cease and desist order. The commission has allowed 60 days for the report to be filed. Legal action has already been initiated by the ICL against the position taken by the BCCI and the Delhi High Court last week issued an interim order directing state-backed companies such as Indian Oil and Air India not to fire employees who join the league. Many Indian crickets work for public sector organisations and it was reported that they were in danger of losing their jobs if they agreed deals with the ICL.

The league, which is backed by Essel Group, the owner of media group Zee Telefilms, plans to commence operations with a Twenty20 competition in October and November and has recruited around 50 domestic and foreign players to take part in its events. These include Brian Lara and Inzamam-ul-Haq, the former captains of the West Indies and Pakistan respectively, Pakistan’s star batsman Mohammad Yousuf and South Africans Lance Klusener and Nicky Boje.

New Zealand all rounder Chris Harris is the latest player to be linked with the ICL after he decided not to renew his contract with the Canterbury club. New Zealand Cricket said last week that it was not prepared to release any of its contracted national team players to take part in the league's competitions. Source: Sportcal, 7th Sep 2007

Elsewhere/Rights: Parma Owner to Stand up to Big Clubs over TV Rights

Tommaso Ghirardi, the owner of Italian soccer’s Parma, has vowed to press for a larger slice of television rights money for his club after being elected to the board of Lega Calcio, the governing body of the Serie A and Serie B leagues. Ghirardi this week defeated Juventus president Giovanni Cobolli Gigli by 11 votes to 8, a result which did not go down well with the top clubs. None of the acknowledged ‘big five’ – AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus, Roma and Napoli – will be represented on the six-man committee and their officials walked out following the announcement of the result.

Italy’s leading clubs benefit from being allowed to sell their media rights individually, but Ghirardi believes there should be a fairer distribution policy. He said: ‘It’s a complex subject, they will have to be divided equally. It’s right that a club which has 100,000 spectators gets more [money] than another with a much smaller fan base, but if we consider ‘big’ teams with tradition and an important recent past, then Parma also belongs to that category.’ However, Ghirardi added that he thought only AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus ‘will be counted among the big teams.’

Earlier this year, a bill to re-introduce the central selling of media rights for Italian soccer's top two divisions from the 2010-11 season onwards was approved by the Italian parliament. The other members of the Lega Calcio are Urbano Cairo of Torino, Claudio Lotito of Lazio, Giampaolo Pozzo of Udinese, Aldo Spinelli of Livorno and Ivan Ruggeri of Atalanta. The ‘big five’ are disappointed that they will have no representation or say in issues such as pay-television rights and AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani suggested that they could take legal advice. Source: Sportcal, 7th Sep 2007


ARTICLES, COMMENTS & OPINIONS

The Grandeur of Grand Slams - 2007
Ed McGrogan writes for the US Open Official Site, 8th Sep 2007

There is no better time to reflect back on the memorable moments of this year’s Grand Slams. The four most prestigious tournaments on the tennis calendar always seem to produce unforgettable performances, champions and collapses. This year was no different, as many of these matches will be forever remembered in the annals of tennis history. Let’s take a walk down memory lane:

Player of the Year (Men): Roger Federer. The supreme Swiss is by far the most deserving of this recognition. Federer entered the Australian Open without playing any warm-up events, going on to win the year’s first Grand Slam without dropping a set. In early June, Roger tried to add the one piece of Grand Slam hardware that has eluded him – the Coupe des Mousquetaires. Although the king of clay, Rafael Nadal, denied Roger at Roland Garros for the third straight year, Federer exacted his revenge on Nadal only a few weeks later at Wimbledon, where he tied Bjorn Borg’s record of five consecutive Gentlemen’s Singles titles.

Player of the Year (Women): Justine Henin. Despite not playing in the Australian Open, Justine Henin has still performed the best overall amongst the WTA Tour’s finest by displaying remarkable consistency at the year’s biggest events. Last year, Henin reached the final of every Grand Slam tournament; this year, she’s again made it a habit to get deep into the second week of the majors. Henin defended her Roland Garros title for the second straight year, giving her four wins at the French Open in the last five years. Justine looked to be cruising into the Wimbledon final at the All England Club, but a remarkable collapse to Marion Bartoli denied her the chance to win the career Grand Slam.

Dominant Performance of the Year (Men): Fernando Gonzalez def. Tommy Haas, 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 (Australian Open Semifinals). The Chilean has always been known for his ability to fire winners from any side of the court. Problem is, “Gonzo” is also known for his tendency to rack up errors because of his preference to go for broke all the time. At this year’s Australian Open, everything went right for Gonzalez, going all the way to the final in his best-ever performance at a Slam. His success at Melbourne was typified during his semifinal match against Tommy Haas, who didn’t have a chance from the start. Gonzalez hit 42 winners and only three unforced errors in a match that stunned tennis fans – and Tommy Haas.

Honorable Mention: Roger Federer def. Andy Roddick 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 (Australian Open Semifinals). After getting whipped by the eventual champion, Andy Roddick was painfully honest in his post-match press conference: Q. What did Jimmy say to you straight after the game? ANDY RODDICK: He gave me a beer. Like Gonzalez, Federer didn’t once allow his opponent to get into the match, winning convincingly in one hour, 23 minutes.

Dominant Performance of the Year (Women): Serena Williams def. Maria Sharapova, 6-1, 6-2 (Australian Open Final). The final days of the Australian Open saw many one-sided matches, including this anticipated final in the women’s bracket. Serena Williams came into Melbourne without match play since the 2006 US Open, so there were understandably many questions about her stamina, her game and her desire. Williams cast aside all doubters, though, winning the championship in a rout of Maria Sharapova. Serena overwhelmed Sharapova with her strength, her serve and her tenacious brand of tennis. Even more impressive was the fact that Maria was the top seed at the Australian Open, with Williams unseeded. The numbers usually don’t lie, but they did on this day, as Serena was the undisputed No. 1 after her victory.

Upset of the Year: Marion Bartoli def. Justine Henin, 1-6, 7-5, 6-1 (French Open Semifinals). Looking to win Wimbledon for the first time – which would complete her career Grand Slam – Justine Henin looked extremely focused early on in her semifinal match against 20th-seeded Marion Bartoli. Henin cruised in the first set, winning in only 22 minutes. But in the most improbable reversal of fortune this year, the Frenchwoman Bartoli somehow managed to start playing at Henin’s level. She won the second set, 7-5, and then elevated her play even further in the final set, amazingly winning it with ease. Bartoli hit 86 percent of her first serves in during the match, but an even more astounding number is the final score. Henin looked unbeatable at Wimbledon coming into this match, especially after getting by Serena Williams in the quarterfinals. At the end of this match, Henin looked in stunned disbelief at herself -- and the unlikely Wimbledon finalist Bartoli.

Match of the Year (Men): Roger Federer def. Rafael Nadal, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6, 2-6, 6-2 (Wimbledon Final). The rivalry between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal has become the predominant theme in tennis during the past few years. Interest in the sport has increased, and fans have been rewarded with compelling performances between the two, most notably at the Rome Masters in 2006. But for all of their accomplishments, Federer and Nadal hadn’t yet played a classic match at a Grand Slam. Nadal has limited Federer’s effectiveness on the clay of Roland Garros so much so that analysts have suggested that Roger played poorly – not usually a word associated with Federer – in the 2006 and 2007 final. At Wimbledon last year, Nadal played well in a surprise run to the final, but Roger emerged somewhat comfortably in four sets. This year, things were different.

Federer’s groundstrokes on the grass have become legendary, but Nadal equaled Roger’s play on a sunny Sunday in London. After splitting the first two sets, Federer won a third-set tiebreaker to gain the upper hand. But instead of running away with the match, it was Rafa who took the fourth set by the reins, breaking Federer in the first game of the set. He did so once again on Federer’s next service game, and when the fourth set ended, the crowd knew they were seeing history in the making.

On a number of occasions in the fifth set, Nadal looked like he would be the player to end king Roger’s reign at SW19. Nadal had double break point in two separate games in the deciding set, but Federer summoned all his strength by saving each of these four break chances. When Federer got a chance to break Nadal, who was holding serve easily throughout the match, he didn’t blink. Roger’s overhand smash on match point ended Nadal’s chances of a Wimbledon title and ended a match forever destined as a classic.

Match of the Year (Women): Serena Williams def. Daniela Hantuchova, 6-2, 6-7, 6-2 (Wimbledon Fourth Round). Serena Williams was just seven points away from defeating Daniela Hantuchova in the fourth round at Wimbledon. With the end in sight, Williams would normally be on her way to a comfortable two-set victory. The American had dominated her opponents so far in 2007, showing off her tremendous game by winning the Australian Open and Miami. But something was askew with Williams in this match – she was tugging at her calf and walking around with noticeable pain. This wouldn’t be as easy as some of her triumphs this year.

Late in the second set, Serena cried out in pain after collapsing to the court due to the pain in her calf. In what seemed like an eternity, Williams was on the grass being tended to by trainers, asking her if she could continue. It wasn’t a certainty. “I thought about not finishing, but very briefly. I thought I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I hadn’t at least tried,” said Williams.

Serena got up and was helped by a weather delay – something all too common at this year’s Championships. But for once, Williams may have embraced this postponement. When Serena returned to the court, she was still hobbling, but at least she appeared that she could continue playing. “I was definitely saved by the rain,” Williams said.

Hantuchova took advantage of this weakened version of Serena, winning the second set in a tiebreaker. But it was Serena who ultimately took advantage of the situation, coming out firing in the third set with renewed confidence and vigor. Playing with both legs taped, she started to play more aggressively, dictating the play against a surprised Hantuchova. The fans who saw Serena nearly left for dead only moments ago were just as surprised, as Williams took the third set, 6-2, to win a match that you had to see to believe.