newswirk.com » Sports

Safina beats Pennetta

admin — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 06:46:51 +0000

Dinara Safina needed only 56 minutes to eliminate Italy’s Flavia Pennetta 6-2, 6-0 on Saturday. She’ll play Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic for the championship of the $2 million Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open.After two weeks of grueling — and winning — tennis, Pennetta didn’t feel so good. She had blisters on her feet, a sore right ankle wrapped in tape, and aches all over from so many matches back-to-back — 11 in 13 days. She tried to take the loss stoically.Safina improved to 7-0 career against Pennetta — she’s lost only two sets to the Italian — and extended an impressive week. She ended Kim Clijsters’ comeback week in the quarterfinals with a dominating forehand, then was sharp with all her shots against Pennetta.World number one Dinara Safina brought an abrupt end to Flavia Pennetta’s impressive run of form by thrashing her 6-2 6-0 in the semi-finals of the Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open in Cincinnati on Saturday.In Sunday’s final, Russia’s Safina will take on fifth-seeded Serbian Jankovic, who emerged from a scrappy match with a 7-6 (7/2), 0-6, 7-6 (8/6) victory over fourth-seeded Russian Elena Dementieva.

Football world and market growth

admin — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:04:58 +0000

Adidas equips national fotball teams of for example Germany, Argentina and Spain as well as clubs like AC Milan, Chelsea FC and Bayern Munich.The world’s second-largest sports goods maker Adidas (ADSG.DE) expects sales in South Africa to grow at a double-digit rate in the years to come thanks to the football world cup in the country next year.Adidas aims to raise its leading share of the global soccer market to more than the current 34 percent, Chief Executive Officer Herbert Hainer said today at a press conference in the company’s Herzogenaurach, Germany headquarters. Shoes and shirts for the World Cup will go on sale in this year’s second half. Sales at the last World Cup in Germany exceeded Adidas’s forecasts and enabled the company to add 1 percent to 2 percent to its share of the global soccer footwear market. To capitalize on that tournament, Adidas sponsored teams including Argentina and spent more on marketing goods including replica jerseys.

Federer the best player

admin — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 01:01:07 +0000

Federer has won the Wimbledon title five times and was beaten in an
epic five-set final last year by world number one Rafael Nadal.The Swiss maestro completed a career grand slam when he beat Robin Soderling in the final of the French Open on Sunday.Roger Federer was
not playing only Robin Soderling at Roland Garros on Sunday. He was
also playing Pete Sampras, Rod Laver and even Bjorn Borg, who was
watching from right behind the baseline.Federer sank to his knees on the red clay and bowed his head. Finally.
He won the one major championship that had eluded him and he tied
Sampras’ record of 14 Grand Slam championships.

Victory in French open

admin — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 12:33:18 +0000

The crowd at the French Open final had a sense of what might be coming
next when Dinara Safina’s first serve hit the middle of the net
traveling at a shockingly low speed. There was a collective gasp at the
sight of the world’s top player as she fell apart.Safina had not won a set in losing last year’s French Open final to Ana
Ivanovic and this year’s Australian Open final to Serena Williams. But
Safina arrived in Paris as the game’s and the tournament’s No. 1 after
being the most consistent and successful woman on clay all spring. She
overwhelmed her first four opponents in a fashion reminiscent of the
retired champion who awarded the trophies on Saturday – Steffi Graf,
who now goes by Stefanie.On the men’s side, Swiss star Roger Federer will try to win his first
French Open championship today when he faces Robin Soderling.When Kuznetsova would allow herself to imagine winning the French Open,
she always pictured herself dropping to the clay in joy. But the
anticlimactic way this one ended didn’t call for such a celebration.
Instead, Kuznetsova simply turned to make eye contact with her coach
and supporters in the stands, then walked to the net for a handshake
and kisses on the cheek.At the other end of the court, Safina covered her forehead with her
left hand – disbelief written all over her face – then spiked her
racket.I was a little bit desperate on the court,” said the 23-year-old
Safina, who appeared to be fighting tears late in the match and during
the trophy presentation. “Didn’t stay tough mentally.

Moyer 250 th victory .

admin — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:51:31 +0000

The 46-year-old Moyer is the 44th player to win 250 games, and only the
11th left-hander to joint he exclusive list. It was his sixth try at
250 after going winless in his last five outings while allowing 38 hits
and 26 earned runs in 24 1-3 innings.Jamie Moyer beat the Nationals on Sunday to notch his 250th career win.
It was hard to appreciate from the Nationals’ side of things, but Acta
hopes his young team is taking note of what Moyer has accomplished, and
how he’s done it.

Manchester United will reach Euro final

admin — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:56:08 +0000

Manchester, England (Sports Network) – John O’Shea’s goal in the 17th minute gave Manchester United a 1-0 win over Arsenal in the first leg of the Champions League semifinals at Old Trafford on Wednesday.

Spartans’ win uplifts Detroit’s mood

admin — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 08:03:55 +0000

Michigan State survived its national-semifinal rumble with Connecticut last night, pulling away in the final minutes for an 82-73 triumph.

The Spartans, relentlessly rebounding, defending and pursuing loose balls, wore down the Huskies with the help of two subs, Detroit native Durrell Summers (10 points, six rebounds) and guard Korie Lucious (11 points). Michigan State’s bench outscored Connecticut’s by 33-7.

At halftime, Michigan State’s coaches encouraged the Spartans to push Thabeet as far off the block as possible, to keep their hands up and to make him score over them, Ibok said.But after halftime, Thabeet continued where he left off, making two jumpers over Michigan State’s 6-foot-10 center, Goran Suton, in the first 90 seconds. His second basket extended Connecticut’s lead back to 4 points for the second time in the half.

Tejada sentenced for lying to Congress

admin — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:06:13 +0000

Miguel Tejada received probation and community service for lying to Congress about performancing-enhancing drugs.

In January 2008, Congress asked the Justice Department to investigate Tejada, who told congressional staff members in 2005 that he had never taken steroids, had never seen players take steroids and had never heard other players talk about steroids. However, Tejada’s name was mentioned in the Mitchell Report on performance-enhancing drugs in baseball, released in December 2007.

Schilling for Hall of Famer

admin — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:39:31 +0000

While the discussion of whether or not he’s a Hall of Famer will continue for at least the next five years, I was wondering if our readers had any thoughts about Schilling from a fantasy perspective. The strikeouts were huge — over 3,000 of them — and he did have three 20-win seasons with the Diamondbacks.

But when it comes to a borderline candidate such as Schilling, perhaps the postseason record breaks the tie in his favor. I’m on record as giving the thumbs-down to Mike Mussina’s candidacy. In doing so, I pointed out Mussina ranked behind three other right-handed starters of his era (Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez and Greg Maddux) and arguably behind Schilling and John Smoltz as well. Although Schilling has 54 fewer wins than Mussina, he also has a better ERA+ (127 versus 123), plus more strikeouts in fewer innings.

Japan beat Korea in WBC

admin — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:37:18 +0000

Japan beat Korea, 5-3, in an electrifying 10-inning game Monday night in Los Angeles to defend its World Baseball Classic title.

The night belonged to the twos. With two on and two out and two strikes on him, Ichiro Suzuki smacked a two-run single to center and 22-year-old Yu Darvish–product of Iranian-Japanese parents– pitched a scoreless half inning to secure the victory.

As two Asian countries who clearly had been paying attention to their baseball drills stormed to the W.B.C. final, the American audience largely dwindled and whined, but if you missed Japan’s spectacular 5-3 extra-innings victory Monday night, you missed a classic championship game, played spectacularly. Appropriate excuses, however, include the fact that the game did not start until after 9:30 Eastern and lasted four hours.