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Sharapova beats Li Na to retain Italian Open
May 21st
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Rome: Maria Sharapova successfully defended her Italian Open title on Sunday, beating Li Na 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5) in a wild match in which play was twice interrupted by rain and the red clay turned to mud.
“The match was a joke,” Li said. “It’s tough to play in such heavy rain and then you go and rest for two hours and then play again in heavy rain. … But I still have positive things to take away. She was just stronger and tougher.”
The rain proved even more formidable for a men’s final that never happened. Defending champion Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will have to wait until Monday to settle their championship.
Maria Sharapova successfully defended her Italian Open title by beating Li Na 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5).
AP Photo
Li appeared on course for victory when she surged to a 6-4, 4-0 lead, but 24 unforced errors from the French Open champion allowed Sharapova to take the next six games and the set.
Sharapova then seemed certain to win when it began to drizzle. The second-seeded Russian took a 4-1 lead in the third, but Li fought back to win four straight games to lead 5-4. Both held serve the rest of the way, forcing a tiebreaker.
After waiting out the rain for two hours in the locker room, the third set was over in five minutes. Sharapova completed the victory in 2 hours, 52 minutes.
“It was a really difficult match what with so many swings and having to wait an hour or two hours and then a tiebreaker in the final,” Sharapova said. “It almost feels difficult to have a loser and a winner as it all came down to one game, but I am happy.
“It’s great to beat someone at the level she played last year and knowing how well she plays on clay and how she defends and get herself back in good positions.”
Sharapova had the first break of the match. Li, however, broke straight back and did so again in the 11th game to take the first set.
Li was in control as she broke to love and raced to a 4-0 lead in the second set, taking 15 of 17 points as Sharapova struggled with the ferocity of her strokes. But the pressure seemed to get to the eighth-seeded Chinese, and Sharapova won the next eight games.
Li clawed her way back in when she got to 40-0 in the ninth game of the second set. But Sharapova broke following a couple of unforced errors and two double-faults and went on to serve for the set.
Li managed to even the final set as the rain lashed down. The match was delayed briefly at 5-5 and the players waited courtside for it to ease up before play resumed.
Sharapova almost handed the match to Li when she smashed the ball into the net, giving her opponent a championship point. But Sharapova persevered with a powerful forehand to the corner.
With rain pouring, the players were asked if they wanted to continue. Both said they did, but were eventually forced off court before the tiebreaker with the torrential rain leaving the court a mess.
Despite the outcome, Li liked her strokes and the way she moved. Now she’s turning her thoughts to Paris.
“I think I am ready for the French Open,” she said.
Winner’s Bag: Jason Dufner at the HP Byron Nelson Championship
May 20th
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WTCC : D’Aste: “I didn’t know the race had finished”
May 20th
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Stefano D’Aste was ecstatic after taking his first career victory in the WTCC at the Salzburgring, and the first win for the German Wiechers-Sport team, but admitted after the race he didn’t know it was the last lap as he made his way past Rob Huff and Tom Coronel at the final corner.
“I did a good job with Tom (Coronel) in the first laps and got a little gap, but then the Chevrolets arrived…and they overtook us,” said D’Aste. “Then after some laps I realised they were not continuing to push and we were closing the gap lap by lap.”
On the final lap when Yvan Muller went off track with a puncture, and with Rob Huff picking up the same problem on the next corner, Tom Coronel, now second, was stuck behind Huff on the left side of the track and an opportunistic D’Aste managed to dive around the outside to take the lead and go past the chequered flag.
“I didn’t know it was the last lap,” said D’Aste, “I thought I had to do two very very quick laps as I need to build a gap, but the race was finished.”
“I continued to push after the chicane and then I asked to Dominik (Greiner, Wiechers-Sport Team Manager) ‘How many laps do I have to do?’, and Dominik said the race is finished, you won!”
The win is D’Aste’s first official win in the WTCC, though the Italian famously took the chequered flag first in 2005 at Spa-Francorchamps, but as he’d won after cutting the last chicane he was handed a time penalty which saw the win handed back to Fabrizio Giovanardi’s Alfa Romeo.
The Italian was also penalised by the stewards after this race, as he’d climbed out of his car on the slowing-down lap to celebrate with the crowd, and returned to the parc fermé without his seat belts securely fastened, though this time it was only a reprimand.
Despite D’Aste’s win and joint independents’ class win, with Pepe Oriola second and Norbert Michelisz third in class in race two, and with D’Aste suffering a DNF in race one, he remains third in the Yokohama Independents’ Trophy after Austria, 21 points behind Oriola.
WTCC Independents’ Standings after Austria
WTCC : Alex MacDowall takes first independents’ win
May 20th
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Former BTCC driver Alex MacDowall took his first independents’ class win in the WTCC in Austria after a strong showing all weekend in the Bamboo Engineering Chevrolet Cruze.
MacDowall secured his first class pole position yesterday with fifth on the grid, with only Gabriele Tarquini’s Lukoil Racing Team SEAT separating him from the three works Chevrolets, and without his team-mate Pasquale Di Sabatino in Q2 was left without a slipstreaming partner.
In the first race, MacDowall dropped a spot to Tiago Monteiro at the start, but the 21-year-old from Carlisle held position to finish as the top placed independent driver and took 11 points in the Yokohama Independents’ Trophy.
“It’s been a good weekend,” said MacDowall after the race. “It’s what we needed, that little boost, our spirits are very high.”
“I was looking healthy during the race, I could see the three works Chevrolets battling quite hard with the tow, so it was a shame Monteiro got ahead at the start. It was just so tough to try and get past him and Tarquini was very wise in his defensive moves.”
“I thought I’d play it safe and if it an opportunity comes I’d take it, but it didn’t happen but I’m still happy to take my first independent win.”
Alex MacDowall is now in a clear sixth in the independents’ standings, just three points behind Mehdi Bennani going to the next round at Portimao.
IPL 2012: Rajasthan Royals vs Mumbai Indians — As it happened
May 20th
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Vineet Ramakrishnan/ Zeenews Sports Bureau
Jaipur: 11:20 pm Over 18 MI 163/0 WIDE from Watson and with that Mumbai Indians register a massive morale boosting 10 wickets victory over Rajasthan Royals courtesy Dwayne Smith’s solid knock off 87 ably supported by Sachin Tendulkar (58)
Match Report » I Scorecard »I Highlights»I Points table »
11:19 pm Over 18 MI 162/0 The scores are level now, 7 runs off the over.
11:15 pm Over 17 MI 155/0 FOUR!!! for Tendulkar, majestically driven, full pitched delivery and Sachin gets his expansive drive, classic stuff from the maestro.
TIMEOUT: Well, what for really … this has been the perfect practice match for Mumbai for their upcoming game in the playoffs against Chennai, they seem to have got the opening combination right and Sachin seems to have got into the T20 groove.
11:08 pm Over 16 MI 149/0 FIFTY for Sachin in 44 balls. Rajasthan drop Smith again. Ordinary fielding from RR, this time Tait and another FOUR!!! from Smith, Trivedi drags it down leg side, Smith whips it from his legs.
11:04 pm Over 15 MI 140/0 Fiancé from Smith and FOUR!!!, drives it to covers. Next ball, long hop from Hogg and Smith dispatches it to midwicket fence for another FOUR!!! with power.
11:00 pm Over 14 MI 130/0 two wides from Tait, and FOUR!!! from Smith, again, spectacular shot, short ball and Smith slaps it to midwicket. It was a tennis forehand shot from the West Indian.
10:55 pm Over 13 MI 119/0 Stuart Binny into the attack now, and FOUR, too short from Binny, a slower one and Sachin muscles it over covers splitting the gap in the deep. FOUR!!! sloppy again in the deep as Smith takes his front foot out of the way and clubs it to long on, the fielder makes a mess of it.
10:51 pm Over 12 MI 105/0 OUT!!! Smith top edges a length ball, Sid Trivedi takes a good return catch but WAIT….. It is a front foot no-ball, again. After Malinga it’s Trivedi now, so FREE HIT, and a long hop , Sachin pulls it away wide of deep square leg. 100 up for Mumbai.
10:46 pm Over 11 MI 95/0 SIX!!! Chandila back into the attack and Smith greets him with a massive hit over deep midwicket. Second ball, in the slot again and another SIX!!!, this one bigger than the first one, same area though. FIFTY for Smith in just 34 balls. 16 runs off the over.
10:41 pm Over 10 MI 79/0 FOUR!!! for SRT, lucky one at that, he went for the scoop, realised the ball was a bit short, top edges the ball straight behind the keeper.
TIMEOUT: This is the best opening stand for Mumbai after experimenting with 13 opening pairs, and more importantly Smith looking ominous in the middle. Tait has gone for runs, also Sid Trivedi. Watson needs to do a Kulkarni.
10:36 pm Over 9 MI 72/0 Flick of the wrist from Smith and FOUR!!!, a tad short from Sid Trivedi, Smith picks up the length early, shuffles across and just flicks it over deep square leg , incredible shot.
10:32 pm Over 8 MI 66/0 Tendulkar looks to sweep Hogg, gets a top edge and Watson puts down a very tough catch.
10:27 pm Over 7 MI 57/0 Sid Trivedi into the attack, and he is off radar, 2 wides and one of them runs away to the boundary.
10:22 pm Over 6 MI 44/0 FOUR!!! for Tendulkar as he sweeps Hogg wide of backward square leg off a fullish delivery on the leg side.
10:17 pm Over 5 MI 39/0 Tait starts off with a wide as Smith goes for a half pull, Rahane and Chandila slow to react as ball falls safely. Smith flashes again and sloppy fielding in the deep gives him FOUR!!! . Another FOUR!!! for Smith this time over deep square leg, he pulls again without much time and the ball rolls over the rope.
10:13 pm Over 4 MI 27/0 Good over from Watson, beats Smith’s bat a couple of times but Smith flashes hard at an outside off length ball and gets a FOUR off the last ball.
10:08 pm Over 3 MI 21/0 FOUR!!! for Tendulkar, out of the manual, he leans into the pitched up delivery from Tait and caress it past the extra cover. Tait bowls three wides as well.
10:03 pm Over 2 MI 12/0 Watson into the attack now, FOUR!!! for Smith, fine leg up in the circle, Watson drifts it down the leg side, Smith waited for the ball and just clips it past the short fine.
10:00 pm Over 1 MI 8/0 SIX!!! by Dwayne Smith, clean as a whistle straight into the sight screens off the tossed up delivery. Chandila gamble not working for Dravid?
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For the stats, Rajasthan Royals have never lost a game scoring over 160 runs in the first innings and here at the Sawai Mansingh stadium, Royals posted a competitive 162 runs in the allotted 20 overs courtesy a breezy innings of 30 runs off 17 balls by Stuart Binny and Shane Watson 45 (36). Owais Shah (28) and Ashok Maneria (20) provided the late imputes to the innings after Dhawal Kulkarni, playing his first IPL match of the season, bowled a good spell first up to keep the RR run rate in check. Kulkarni finished with impressive match figures of 4-1-18-3.
After putting themselves into bat, the Rajasthan Royals had an early stutter as Dhawal Kulkarni got some bounce out of the track. He got rid of Rahul Dravid in his first over, the second of the match courtesy a short and wide delivery which the veteran went about chasing only managing an edge straight to keeper. From there on, Kulkarni bowled a good line beating Shane Watson’s bat a couple of times. Man in-form Ajinkya Rahane was the next batsmen to go as he tried to pull Kulkarni, failing to get the elevation as Rohit Sharma took a sharp catch at short mid on.
At that time RR were 31 for 2 in 6 overs and the momentum was shifted into the hosts favour by Stuart Binny as he pummeled one Harbhajan Singh over right after the time out for 22 runs. Watson then joined in with a massive six in the 11th over. They got their 50-run partnership but Binny ran himself out in the next over and Watson was cleaned up by Pollard two overs later. Owais Shah and Ashok Maneria though stuck in the middle getting the occasional boundary and with swift running between the wickets took the Rajasthan total past the 160-run mark in 20 overs.
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9:41 pm Over 20 RR 162/5 FOUR!!! Wrong line from Malinga, outside leg stump, D Yagnik clips it to square leg fence. Next ball, slower one from the slinger and OUT , great trickery from Malinga, as Yagnik gets fooled by the slower one as he scoops the ball up in the air, Malinga takes the catch. RajasthanRoyals end with 162/6 in the allotted 20 overs.
9:33 pm Over 19 RR 151/5 OUT!!! Good reflex catch from Kulkarni, as Maneria chips a full delivery straight to the bowler, Kulkarni takes a good low catch.
Menaria c and b Dhawal Kulkarni 21(20) [4s-1 6s-1]
9:28 pm Over 18 RR 144/4 CLEAN BOWLED Maneria gets super delivery, 140 kmph Yorker from the slinger but WAIT… that was a front foot no-ball from Malinga and now a FREE HIT, another Yorker and Maneria digs it out on the off side for a single.
9:22 pm Over 17 RR 136/4 FOUR!!! for Maneria, slices the wide full pitched delivery wide of third man. SIX!!! of a no-ball as Maneria, guides the short and wide delivery up and over third man. FREE HIT, just a single off it. Good Yorker last ball, 16 from the over.
9:17 pm Over 16 RR 120/4 FOUR!!! for Owais Shah as he top edges one high up, Malinga DROPS it as the ball goes over the rope. Last ball, Shah picks the ball from his pads and whack over deep square leg for SIX
TIMEOUT: Watson`s wicket definitely the big one as Mumbai will be pleased with the proceedings so far. But they would be vary of Shah and Shah would be vary of Malinga as well.
9:10 pm Over 15 RR 106/4 Bhajji comes back into the attack and concedes just 2 runs.
9:06 pm Over 14 RR 104/4 SIX!!! for Watson, massive one, slower one from Pollard and Watson picks it from outside off and thwarts it over deep mid wicket. 100 for Royals with a wide. FOUR!!! Watson, with fine leg up, Pollard drags the ball to the leg side, Watson makes contact, easy picking for the batsman. Last ball, top edge and OUT!!!. A tad short , Watson goes for the pull, does not time it well, Smith takes an easy catch at deep midwicket.
Shane Watson c Dwayne Smith b Pollard 45(36) [4s-4 6s-2]
9:01 pm Over 13 RR 91/3 James Franklin into the attack and concedes 7 runs off the over.
8:57 pm Over 12 RR 85/3 OUT!!! Binny runs himself out , Binny dabs the ball and takes off for the run, is sent back by Watson, Pollard meanwhile charges towards Binny and with some fancy footwork hits the stumps and that does the trick.
Binny run out (Pollard) 30(17) [4s-3 6s-2]
8:51 pm Over 11 RR 83/2 SIX!!! for Watson, brute force as he muscles the ball over deep midwicket fence. That is the FIFTY run partnership with that six for the duo.
8:47 pm Over 10 RR 74/2 9.1 Watson sweeps powerfully to deep square leg for 2 runs. 9.2 Binny charges down the track, checks his shot, plays it rather well for FOUR!!! at backward point. 9.3 FOUR!!! again for Binny as he chips the ball over to long off boundary. 9.4 Dot ball. 9.5 SIX!!! for Binny, down on one knee picks the middle and leg ball over fine leg fence. 9.6 exquisite shot for FOUR!!!, Binny carves the tossed up delivery through the offside towards cover point fence. 22 runs off the over.
TIMEOUT: Not the level of intensity one would associate with IPL here at Jaipur, the crowd response has been lukewarm so far, Rajasthan playing it cautiously so far as Mumbai look very much relaxed.
8:41 pm Over 9 RR 52/2 Dwayne Smith into the attack, 4 runs off the over.
8:38 pm Over 8 RR 48/2 SIX!!! for Binny, a big hoick to the cow corner off Bhajji. Width on offer for the all rounder, tossed up delivery, Binny extracts the maximum out off it.
8:34 pm Over 7 RR 40/2 FOUR!!! for Watson, pitched up delivery, Watson drills it past mid off. Another FOUR!!! just a flick over the in-field wide of long on off a pitched up delivery on middle and leg.
8:29 pm Over 6 RR 31/2 OUT!!! In-form Ajinkya Rahane out, sharp catch by R Sharma at short mid-on. Short ball from Kulkarni asked to be put away, Rahane goes for the pull, but straight to Sharma. 2nd wicket for Kulkarni.
Rahane c Rohit Sharma b Dhawal Kulkarni 13(17) [4s-2]
8:24 pm Over 5 RR 31/1 Malinga into the attack, 5 runs off the over.
8:19 pm Over 4 RR 26/1 FOUR!!! for Watson off the lat ball. Pitched up delivery outside off, Watson goes up and over covers, mishit goes for the boundary. 8 runs off the over.
8:15 pm Over 3 RR 18/1 FOUR!!! for Rahane, length ball just fraction short, Rahane flicks it towards square leg fence. Poor fielding by Lasith Malinga, another FOUR!!! for Rahane. Leg side ball from RP, Rahane flicks it towards short third man, Malinga makes a mess of it. Last ball, a bit off confusion as Rahane takes off for a single palying a gentle dab to short mid off, is sent back by Watson, Rahane puts in the dive.
8:10 pm Over 2 RR 9/1 OUT!!! Right-arm medium Dhawal Kulkarni playing in place of Munaf Patel bowls the second over of the match and picks up Rahul Dravid. Short and wide from the Kulkarni, Dravid chases the ball, gets a thick edge straight to keeper Karthik.
Dravid c Dinesh Karthik b Dhawal Kulkarni 5(5) [4s-1]
8:05 pm Over 1 RR 7/0 FOUR!!! for Dravid as he plays across the line a punches the good length ball wide of square leg. RP Singh starts off the proceedings for Mumbai Indians conceding 7 runs including a wide.
Toss: Rajasthan Royals captain Rahul Dravid won the toss and elected to bat first against Mumbai Indians at the Sawai Man Singh stadium.
Rajasthan Royals
R Dravid (C), A Rahane, S Watson, O Shah, A Menaria, D Yagnik (WK), S Binny, G Hogg, S Tait, S Trivedi, A Chandila
Mumbai Indians
S Tendulkar, R Sharma, K Karthik (WK), J Franklin, A Rayudu, D Smith, K Pollard, Harbhajan Singh (C), S Malinga, R Singh, D Kulkarni
First Published: Sunday, May 20, 2012, 23:50
WTCC : Speculation rife over multiple tyre failures in Austria
May 20th
http://www.shahidafridi.net
Chevrolet and SEAT were both caught out by punctures in the second race at the Salzburgring, with three of the four SEAT drivers affected and all five of the Chevrolets, which saw BMW take their second win of the year in two consecutive meetings, this time with Stefano D’Aste.
Despite no punctures being seen in any of the free practice sessions or the first race, eight cars suffered from front-left punctures with the most disastrous incident that of Alain Menu’s crash.
“I’m not sure why as it was early in the race and we didn’t have a problem in race one,” said Menu. “So I guess I must have picked some debris on the track but that was a bloody big hit.”
Alex MacDowall and Pasquale Di Sabatino of the independent Bamboo Engineering team also suffered punctures in their Chevrolet Cruzes, with MacDowall joining Menu in the Turn 9 gravel trap whilst Di Sabatino was able to pit and continued on to finish in 15th.
Tiago Monteiro was the first victim in the SR León 1.6T of SUNRED Engineering, going off on lap seven and scooping gravel in the corner and opting to drive into the pits and retire. The two Lukoil Racing Team SEATs of Gabriele Tarquini and Aleksei Dudukalo also suffered punctures and dropped to 14th and 16th after pitting for a new set.
Rob Huff and Yvan Muller both suffered punctures at the end of the final lap, both were able to cross the line in second and eighth respectively having been second and first beforehand.
“We thought we’d done our homework as we knew the challenge would be the front left tyre,” said Chevrolet Motorsport Manager Eric Nève to TouringCarTimes. “We were OK in qualifying and we were OK in race one. After the fact you can think that was due to the safety car phase in race one which we didn’t have in race two.”
“All the drivers I have spoken to said the tyres just went bang. Alain had a serious off, and Rob just got away with a little bit more luck than Yvan, as he had his puncture at the last corner and Yvan at the one before that.”
“What makes me worry is Portimao, because at Portimao we also have three right handers and towards the end the last one is a very long one. OK we’ve been there before, and we’ve punctured there before as well. “
“Maybe we built up some overconfidence over the weekend,” Nève added, “As there weren’t any alarms before this.”
Rob Huff also suspects the safety car period in race one contributed to the tyres being able to last the first race, with all the Chevrolet drivers saying they made no set-up changes between races.
“I think the only difference between the two races was that the tyres got a good two or three lap rest in the middle of that race, and for sure I think that is the one thing that made a difference,” said Huff.
Ford were the only manufacturer with front-wheel drive cars not so suffer problems in the race, which was to the benefit with James Nash picking up points in race two as well with tenth after having fallen down the order early on and Tom Chilton close behind in second.
“We’re not working the tyre hard enough,” said Arena Team Manager Alan Cole to TouringCarTimes. “We’re still learning. We’re running what (tyre pressures) Yokohama recommend, as we don’t have the experience of everyone else, so we’ll run exactly what Yokohama say we should until we know any better.”
WTCC : Chevrolet drivers question absence of race two safety car
May 20th
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Chevrolet drivers Rob Huff and Yvan Muller have questioned why there wasn’t a safety car in race two, with the cars of Alain Menu and Alex MacDowall strewn across the gravel trap at Turn 9 for the last three laps of the race.
Alain Menu had suffered a puncture on Lap 9 in his Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T and had careered off into the barrier at high speed, with Alex MacDowall’s Bamboo Chevrolet also spinning off at the same corner moments later.
The incident was managed by yellow flags at the corner only, but with all five of the Chevrolet drivers and three out of the four SEATs in the race also suffering punctures, Rob Huff and Yvan Muller have questioned the decision not to deploy the safefy car as there could have been an even more severe accident.
“It’s a fast corner, it’s 200km/h, there are two cars in the gravel trap, imagine if I blew up my tyre not (in Turn 10) but (Turn 9), 200 metres earlier, I would have gone into them,” said Muller to TouringCarTimes. “It would not have made a difference to the result, as behind the safety car we have to do the same amount of laps anyway, but to not put the safety car out for that, it was not a good move.”
Race one winner Rob Huff, who was fortunate to be able to still cross the line in second place in race two despite the last minute puncture, echoed Muller’s sentiment.
“How there wasn’t a safety car with Alain and Alex in the barrier there I don’t know,” he said. “That’s probably one of the most dangerous positions a car can be. ”
Rome: Sharapova d. Li
May 20th
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A match that began as a classic encounter was increasingly dogged by difficult conditions and ended with both women laughing at the absurdity of it all. In the end, Maria Sharapova defended her Rome title, beating Li Na, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5).
Sharapova, whose clay-court credentials improve all the time, was the first to break, leading 3-1 after landing some excellent deep backhands—her more reliable wing, as well as the side she slides the best to—but it was Li’s forehand that quickly became the star of the show. Going down the line and cross-court with equal ease, Li broke back, showing the kind of effortless generation of pace, flowing from one groundstroke to the next, with which she won Roland Garros last year. As the set developed, Li increasingly looked the stronger player, going down the lines to drag Sharapova from side to side, and pummeling the Russian’s forehand to elicit error after error.
At 4-5, Sharapova’s serving let her down: First a double fault, then two serves out wide to Li’s forehand—which she read like a book for winning returns, putting the second seed set point down at 30-40. Having made one ace already in the game, she could not come up with another, and Li pounced on a weak second serve, forcing the error from Sharapova for the set.
As the rain started to fall—and a helicopter, patrolling nearby football fans ahead of tonight’s Coppa Italia final, flew repeatedly low over the stadium—Li went from strength to strength, bossing a passive Sharapova all over the court with an answer for everything the Russian tried. But just as I was getting ready to write about Li’s impeccable timing in recovering her form just ahead of defending her major title, however, she suffered an unexpected but total collapse. At 4-0, with Sharapova having won just six points in the set, Li started to miss, and miss badly. Sharapova is far too fine a competitor to miss an opening like that, and she quickly evened the match up, breaking three times and serving out the set six games later.
Having lost six straight games earlier in the match, Sharapova now won her eighth straight to lead Li 2-0 in the final set. It was 4-1 and all but over when Sharapova took her turn to collapse—and Li in turn found her game—leveling the match at 4-4. The increasingly torrential rain turned the court to mud, and it became a battle to simply finish the match as much as with the opponent, with both women determined not to give in. After gritty holds punctuated with debate about whether to stop or continue, the match finally stopped at, of all times, 6-6.
After a mere two-hour break, the competitors took the court again to decide the title with a tie-break. A shanked forehand by Li gave Sharapova the initial mini-break, but the French Open champ got back on serve courtesy of a deep return and backhand winner for 3-4. At 5-6, Sharapova saw her first match point and took it after Li’s backhand down the line went wide. With the call confirmed by Kader Nouni, Sharapova and Li laughed together at the net, a fitting end to a match that could have been one of the best WTA finals we’ve seen recently—and was, instead, one of the strangest, albeit most gripping.
—Hannah Wilks
ETCC : Fernando Monje wins again at the Salzburgring
May 20th
http://www.shahidafridi.net
Fernando Monje won for the second time today at the Salzburgring, going from eighth to first in two laps whilst Paulo Necchi takes his first win in S1600.
Urs Sonderegger started from pole position on the reverse grid in his PCR Sport SEAT León Supercopa, and was able to hold the position into the first corner whilst Andreas Pfister was spun around in his Supercopa by Csapa Gáspár’s Alfa Romeo 156. Later on the lap, Sonderegger was passed around the outside into Turn 12 by Stian Paulsen.
By the end of the first lap, Monje was up to sixth place, and went on to pass Gáspár as well as Peter Rikli’s Honda Civic on lap two, and then overtook three cars, two on the straight, to take the lead on the third lap and pulled up to a 10 second gap on Stian Paulsen.
In Super 1600 the battle was much closer with Kevin Krammes leading early on in the Ravenol Team GENA Ford Fiesta but he was soon caught and passed by category rival Paulo Necchi, in the Ravenol Team SAN Fiesta.
Urs Sonderegger was spun out in Turn 1 whilst fighting to keep fourth place from Gáspár’s Alfa on lap seven, which saw the Swiss driver out of the race.
In Super Production, Nikolay Karamyshev won the class, though he made contact with rival Aleksander Tosic which saw the Serbian driver knocked off the track. He’d later close to finish jus 2.4 second behind Karamyshev at the finish.
Necchi went on to take the win in Super 1600 ahead of Krammes, whilst Vadim Mescheryakov’s Chevrolet Aveo was hit by Ulrike Krafft’s Ford on the final lap, with Meshcheryakov retiring and Krafft finishing third.
The incidents between Gáspár and Pfister, and Meshcheryakov and Krafft are under investigation by the stewards.
Although Monje’s won four of the six rounds, he won’t be able to secure his title until the final round next month at Imola, with Peter Rikli and Petr Fulín still mathematically in with a chance of the title.
In Super 1600, it’s a two driver race between Ravenol Team GENA’s Kevin Krammes and Ravenol Team SAN’s Paulo Necchi with 18 points between them.
The final round of the 2012 ETCC is at Imola on June 24th.
ETCC : Fernando Monje wins race one in Austria
May 20th
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Fernando Monje overcame his ten place grid penalty to go from 11th to first and take his third win of the 2012 FIA European Touring Car Cup season.
SUNRED Engineering team-mate Igor Skuz started from pole and held the spot into the first corner, whilst Andreas Pfister was edging Single Make Trophy class rival Stian Paulsen off the track in order to hold on to his second place into the first corner.
Christian Fischer and Aytac Biter made contact at the first corner, with Fischer being spun around. The two would resume battle later in the race with Fischer recovering to eighth place before Biter made contact whilst passing him back on lap 11, which knocked the door loose on the Honda Accord. Fischer would later pit with further damage after clouting the tyre stacks at Turn 1.
There was a safety car early in the race to allow the recovery of Steffan Grossmann’s Ford Fiesta which had crashed out at Turn 7.
At the restart, Fernando Monje was rapidly moving up the order from ninth, taking the lead from Igor Skuz on lap 11, with Skuz later dropping down to ninth place.
Andreas Pfister won in the single make trophy class with second ahead of Stian Paulsen, with Petr Fulín the top BMW driver in fourth.
Nikolay Karamyshev won in the Super Production class just 0.338 ahead of rival Aleksander Tosic, whilst Kevin Krammes secured his fifth win from five starts in Super 1600 for Ravenol Team GENA, though the German had to fight off a strong charge from Argentinean driver Wilson Borgnino in his Maurer Motorsport Chevrolet Aveo.
Race two is at 17:05 CET.
