Sports
Aryna Sabalenka beats Coco Gauff and faces Zheng Qinwen
Aryna Sabalenka remains on track to defend her Australian Open crown after reaching the Melbourne final by avenging her loss to Coco Gauff in last year’s US Open showpiece.
Belarusian second seed Sabalenka won 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 against American fourth seed Gauff in a tense semi-final. Both were edgy in an error-strewn first set with six breaks before Sabalenka pounced decisively late in the second.
Sabalenka will face Chinese 12th seed Zheng Qinwen in Saturday’s final.
Zheng, 21, reached her first Grand Slam showpiece by ending Ukrainian qualifier Dayana Yastremska’s incredible run with a 6-4 6-4 win in Thursday’s second semi-final. Zheng is aiming to become the second Chinese woman to win the Australian Open singles title – on the 10th anniversary of Li Na’s famous victory. “It feels unbelievable,” Zheng said. “I’m super excited to have such a great performance and arrive in the final
Anticipation for the contest between Sabalenka and Gauff at the opening Grand Slam of the season was high.
Both players had been impressive as they worked their way through the draw, setting up a rematch of their thrilling US Open final which 19-year-old Gauff edged in September to claim her first major title. It took place under the roof on Rod Laver Arena – as did the second semi-final – because of persistent rain in Melbourne.
Sabalenka had been particularly dominant and, after showing resilience to recover from sticky spells against Gauff, still has not dropped a set over the past fortnight.
The 25-year-old Belarusian unleashed her explosive game on Gauff from the start, cracking 33 winners and attacking her opponent’s second serve in a high-octane demonstration of her power.
While Sabalenka’s style still often leads to errors, she seems more at ease at Melbourne Park this fortnight having the experience of lifting her first major title here.
Now, after keeping her composure to serve out victory, she is the first woman to reach back-to-back finals since Serena Williams in 2017.
“I think I was able to focus on myself and I was prepared for her moving really good and putting every ball back,” said Sabalenka, who has reached at least the semi-finals of the past six majors. “I had to be ready to make an extra shot and I was ready for tonight.”
Gauff fulfilled what had long seemed her destiny by winning in New York, when she fought back from a set down to beat Sabalenka. This time she was unable to repeat the feat as Sabalenka ended her unbeaten start to the 2024 season.
Gauff came to Melbourne on the back of winning a WTA title in Auckland and did not drop a set in her opening four matches.
But, after scraping past Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk in what she called a “bad” quarter-final, she looked extremely nervy in the early stages of the semi-final. Gauff’s tension was illustrated by six double faults in the first set, although she also showed her ability to mentally reset as she twice recovered from being a break down.
After soaking up so much pressure, Gauff broke for 6-5 but blew the chance to serve out the set from 30-0 and was punished as Sabalenka dominated the tie-break. Gauff had to fight off more break points in the first and sixth games of the second set, with the pressure telling when loose errors from the baseline allowed Sabalenka to break for 5-4.
This time, Sabalenka did not allow the opportunity to slip from her grasp and earned the “revenge” she wanted to exact on Gauff for her Flushing Meadows defeat. “It was a tough match for me,” said Gauff, who looked close to tears while she left Rod Laver Arena. “Overall it was a positive tournament. I had chances in both sets, but she played better. I think it just came down to a couple of points and that’s tennis.”
Unlike Sabalenka and Gauff, neither Zheng nor Yastremska had ever played a Grand Slam semi-final match – and both were looking to emulate notable major triumphs of the recent past. Zheng – an aggressive baseliner with a hefty serve – was aiming to follow in the footsteps of Chinese trailblazer Li.
Yastremska, meanwhile, was the first qualifier to reach the last four of a major since Britain’s Emma Raducanu at the 2021 US Open.
It was Zheng who continued her journey to the delight of a vocal Chinese backing in a city where there is a large population with links to the Asian country.
After dropping her opening service game, Zheng instantly broke Yastremska and took the 23-year-old Ukrainian’s serve once more to seal the opener.
Yastremska, who said it was her “mission” to ensure people remember about her nation’s fight against Russia’s ongoing invasion, needed treatment for what appeared to be an abdominal injury.
But, as promised before the match, the world number 93 continued to show the same fight she had displayed to come through qualifying to make the last four.
Losing serve for 2-1, Yastremska stopped Zheng consolidating the break by taking her fourth break-point opportunity in the next game.
However, a double fault set the tone for a poor seventh game where Zheng pounced again and the Chinese player used her dominant serve to see out victory.
(BBC)
Sunday was a day of surprises at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Nanjing 25.
While the likes of Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Gudaf Tsegay lived up to expectation in the 1500m finals, and Sander Skotheim did likewise in the heptathlon, there were several shock wins throughout the final day of action in Nanjing’s Cube.
Claire Bryant set the tone with the first final of the day, taking a surprise victory in the long jump. Another shock soon followed as world and Olympic high jump champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh was beaten by Australian duo Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson.
New Zealand shot putter Tom Walsh and sprint hurdler Devynne Charlton both produced their best form of the year so far to take surprise golds. Prudence Sekgodiso, meanwhile, was similarly surprised to win the women’s 800m. The men’s 800m, by contrast, went to the form book as Josh Hoey held on for victory.
Normal order was restored by the end of the day with USA taking dominant wins in both 4x400m finals. It meant they ended the championships top of the medals table with 16 medals, six of them gold.
[World Athletics]
World Indoor Athletics Championship
Sri Lanka men’s 4×400 metres relay team established a new national indoor record at the World Indoor Athletics Championship concluded in Nanjing China yesterday.
The team inclusive of Kalinga Kumarage, Randima Madushan, Shashintha Silva and Sadew Rajakaruna finished fifth in the 4×400 metres final won by the USA. Their finishing time of 3:10.58 seconds improved on the previous mark held by Prasanna Amarasekara, Rohitha Pushpakumara, Shivantha Weerasooriya and Asoka Jayasundara in 2007.
The women’s team ran in an indoor event for the first time. They too finished fifth in the final.
The semi-final berths secured by sprinter Chamod Yodasinghe and hurdler Kaveesha Bandara in their respective events were the high points of the Sri Lankan contingent during the three-day World Indoor Championships concluded on Sunday.
Yodasinghe reached the semi-finals of the 60 metres dash with a remarkable sprint performance on day one of the Championship.
Competing in heat two Yodasinghe clocked 6.70 seconds. It was also the finishing time clocked by USA’s Coby Hilton and Switzerland’s William Reais, who were separated by photofinish. Coby Hilton, William Reais and Yodasinghe were given the first, second and third places respectively.
Yodasinghe could not produce such a performance in the semi-final but his appearance in the semi-final will augur well when the world rankings are updated.
Bandara advanced to the semi-finals with a 7.87 seconds feat in the fourth heat of the 60 metres hurdles on Saturday. He could not make an impact in the semi-final but the semi-final appearance is going to stand him in good stead.
by Reemus Fernando
Chennai Super King’s bowling acquisitions during the off-season paid immediate dividends as their four new bowlers took nine wickets between them to restrict Mumbai Indians to 155 for 9, a total that they ultimately chased down with ease but not without a hiccup against debutant left-arm wristspinner Vignesh Purthur, who is yet to represent his state side in senior cricket.
However, it was the other left-arm wristspinner, younger than Puthur but a veteran by comparison, who made the telling impact. Noor Ahmad registered his best IPL figures and the best figures for a CSK spinner against MI, 4 for 18, to capitalise on the inroads made b Khaleel Ahmed whose CSK debut was not too shabby either: wickets of the openers and analysis of 4-0-29-3.
CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad made the chase look like a walk in the park with 53 off 26, bringing the requirement down to a run a ball in the ninth over, but this is when they started losing wickets to Puthur, struggling to impart power into his slow wristspin. Three of them holed out in the deep, but Rachin Ravindra anchored the chase with 65 off 45 to see them home.
Khaleel is a dichotomous IPL bowler. He is worse than the average fast bowler during afternoon games, and better than the average fast bowler in night games. The only explanation for it is that there is a small window for movement with the new ball under lights, and he is a different beast when the ball moves. It showed in how he denied the openers a big hit with the little bit of movement that was available. The eventual dismissals looked soft – Rohit Sharma caught at forward square leg and Ryan Rickleton bowled off an inside edge – but they were the results of the pressure created by Khaleel himself.
To make it better for CSK, their returning homeboy R Ashwin took a wicket in his first over. There is not much mystery to the Ashwin who has returned to CSK after more than a decade, but his length was immaculate, making it a risk every time the batters wanted to attack him. He ended up with figures of 4-0-31-1, the wicket being that of Will Jacks inside the powerplay.
Down at 36 for 3 in 4.4 overs, MI needed something special from their two best batters, stand-in captain Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma. The latter hit right back by taking two fours off Ashwin and then hitting two sixes off Ravindra Jadeja, against whom Suryakumar doesn’t enjoy a good match-up.
Noor then applied the handbrake with some elan. He was so difficult to pick even MS Dhoni was beaten by a mile when he turned one past Varma’s outside edge. That seed of doubt cast, he went back to what he does more often, turn the ball the other way at high speed. Suryakumar was beaten on the outside edge and stumped in a flash by Dhoni.
Debutant Robin Minz couldn’t get going and tried a desperate shot only to be caught at long-off. Tilak was beaten both in the air and off the pitch: caught on the crease, he had no time to adjust to the ball that turned back in and trapped him lbw. Noor came back at the death to bowl Naman Dhir around his legs.
Nathan Ellis took care of one of the former CSK players, Mitchell Santner, but the other, Deepak Chahar gave MI something to bowl at with a cameo of 28 off 15.
CSK made a surprise move of promoting Rahul Tripathi ahead of Gaikwad, but it didn’t last long as Chahar carried on from where he had left off with the bat, taking a wicket in his first over against CSK with a well-directed short ball.
Gaikwad, though, batted like a dream, taking down Trent Boult and both former colleagues, Chahar and Santner. S Raju, who is supposed to be a good death bowler, made an indifferent start with the new ball, and CSK ran away to 62 in the powerplay. The field spread, but Gaikwad kept going, hitting Jacks for a beautiful inside-out six against the turn, suggesting an easy pitch to bat on.
With just 82 needed off the last 13 overs, CSK would have wanted to register a big net-run-rate bonus, which is perhaps why they kept trying to hit Puthur’s slow left-arm wristspin for sixes. More than anything it was his slow pace and the slight slowness of then pitch that kept resulting in catches on the fence. Still, Gaikwad, Shivam Dube and Deepak Hooda is not a bad debut haul at all.
By now, it was almost like the home crowd was willing MI to take wickets so that they could get a glimpse of Dhoni with the bat. When Jacks bowled Sam Curran for 4 off 9, it drew a big cheer but the sight of Jadeja quelled the excitement.
The steepest the task got was 31 off the last four overs, but this is when MI gave CSK some pace to work with, and Jadeja immediately hit Boult for a four. Ravindra was the only batter to hit boundaries off Puthur: three sixes, all thanks to momentum generated by his use of feet to charge at the bowler. A run-out in the 19th over gave the Chepauk crowd what they wanted, they even got a six to seal the game, but off the bat of Ravindra as Dhoni stayed unbeaten on 0 off 2.
Brief scores:
Chennai Super Kings 158 for 6 in 19.1 overs (Rachin Ravindra 65*, Ruturaj Gaikwad 53, Ravindra Jadeja 17; Deepak Chahar 1-18, Will Jacks 1-32, Vignesh Puthur 3-32) beat Mumbai Indians 155 for 9 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 13, Will Jacks 11, Suryakumar Yadav 29, Tilak Varma 31, Naman Dhir 17, Mitchell Santner 11, Deepak Chahar 28*; Noor Ahmad 4-18, Khaleel Ahmed 3-29, Nathan Ellis 1-28, Ravichandran Ashwin 1-31) by four wickets
[Cricinfo]
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