The Sports Review

Justin Henin, the world number one women’s tennis player, is having a gala time in Dubai, as she has won the 17th consecutive match that she has played in this tournament, by defeating qualifier Katarina Srebotnik 7-5, 6-7, 6-3 in a thrilling three setter. Henin had to bring out the best tennis she has ever played in this season to beat her lesser known opponent Serbotnik. The Barclays Dubai Tennis Championship is Henin’s favorite hunting ground and she had to give her best in the last set to retain her winning streak record in Dubai.

The Belgian number one player, who got a bye in the first round of the tournament, said that she was happy that the game was extended top the third set and acknowledged that this game will do a lot for her in the 2008 season. She said that she had thoroughly enjoyed the game and was in total rhythm for the entire match. The winner of the Sydney and the recently concluded Antwerp Championship, Henin, said that she badly needed a match like this to keep her focus on the game and appreciated the efforts of her Slovekina opponent. Henin will now face the Italian Francesca Schiavone in the quarter final round.

Andy Roddick, the world number 6 and top seed player at the Sap Open Tennis Tournament came up with a booming service package to defeat the fourth seeded player Stepanek 6-4, 7-5 in the Sunday’s final. This is the third victory at this championship for Roddick and the previous two titles victories came in 2004 and 2005. Andy Roddick’s serve has been the highlight in the final match as he closed out both the sets with a booming ace. Andy Roddick was pretty pleased to have some tough fights in the earlier rounds, as these matches instilled confidence in him that he is all set to scale the top of the peak.

As Roddick has been in and out of the tour for major part of last year, this victory has helped him in putting his foot on the accelerator pedal and he wants to carry on with the rich form that he has derived from this tournament. The last serve of the match was a 208 kph ace down the middle of the court that made him celebrate his triumph with a Michael Jackson style dance. Andy Roddick has accepted a wild card entry to play in the upcoming Memphis tournament as he is in need of more work to reach to the top level.

Everybody was raring (pun intended) to go on Sunday when the green flag came down at the Sprint Cup series in California. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans. After a third delay in the race due to heavy downpours, NASCAR finally decided the race would have to wait until Monday even though 87 of the required 250 laps were already done.

Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon were the main front runners. Their cars are both owned by Hendrick Motorsports who also owns Dale Earnhardt Jr’s car. They started out late around three in the afternoon. Several crashes led to the decision to postpone the event. Denny Hamlin and Dale Earnhardt Jr were involved in an accident. Both of the drivers blamed the wet track for the problems. Casey Mears, Sam Hornish Jr, and Reed Sorenson were also involved in collisions.

It was decided that the race be postponed due to the treacherous water on the track and the danger to the drivers themselves. The seams of the track were holding a lot of water causing hydroplaning and slick spots. Most of the drivers were mad about being placed on a less than ideal track and didn’t like to have the race postponed. But they all knew it was for safety reasons and will be back on Monday to continue the race.

The coming Saturday will witness the clash between Kevin Keegan’s men who are placed 13th in the English Premier league and Sir Alex Ferguson’s men who are currently in the 2nd position in the premier league. The Newcastle manager is very much determined in changing the fortunes of his side come Saturday, as his side is presently on a nine match no win situation. If Keegan’s wishes of beating the reigning champions come true, it will be considered to be an upset of sorts in the premiership. Kevin Keegan hopes to repeat the stunning feat achieved by his team when they beat the Man Utd team 5-0 on 20th October 1996 at St. James’ Park.

The victory on that day was one of the greatest achievements of Keegan in his coaching career and he feels that his record against Sir Alex is not as bad as the records of some other managers. Kevin said that his side is the under dog going into the game and hence will not have any pressure on their shoulders. He said that with a little bit of luck his team can surprise a few people. The Newcastle boys have worked a little bit harder for this game and were given a couple of days of rest before the training to get them all up and running for their big game on Saturday.

The World number one men’s tennis player, Roger Federer, has once again won the prestigious Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award. The amazing fact is that he has won this award for a record fourth straight year and is the first man to achieve the same. The awards were announced at a grand event in St Petersburg at Mariinsky Theatre that was attended by the Russian President Vladimir Putin. Federer seemed top be very happy to receive the award and later said that he was glad that the jury did not think that three is enough and awarded him with the fourth one this year.

Roger Federer, a five time consecutive Wimbledon Grand Slam title holder, said that the first Laureus award was the award he cherished most and said that he would like to win it next year also to make it five in a row as his Wimbledon titles. The World number one is virtually unbeatable as he has amassed three of the four grand slam titles in 2007 and he has done so for the past three years. Federer also thanked all the people who had voted for him and said that even though he received a lot of awards in the past year, they might have been either regional or national, but Laureus is one that goes worldwide.

Real Madrid is identified as the richest football club in the world according the survey conducted by the accountancy firm Deloitte for the second consecutive year. The English clubs claimed three of the top five positions. According to Dan Jose a partner of the Sports Business Group, no other country has achieved this so far in the Football Money League. Manchester United reached the second position by climbing two places from last years position. Barcelona took the third position by dropping one place. Chelsea and Arsenal, the two English teams took the fourth and fifth places respectively.

Real Madrid got in to the first place by winning the Spanish league in 2006-07 seasons and this win caused an enormous increase in their revenue, it reached 261 million pounds by the end of the season. Manchester leaped in to the second position by winning the Premier League last season and it is expected that Manchester United can pose a challenge to Real Madrid in 2007-2008 season with the latest television deals for the Premier League. There is a net increase of 11% in the revenues of the first 20 clubs combined. The clubs in the top 20 position include six English clubs, four German and Italian clubs, three clubs from Spain, two from France and one Scotland.

Stating his admiration for Dara Torres, who said that her goal is to make the US Olympic swim team even at 41, Michael Phelps was consequently asked if he would be doing the same thing by 2024.  His answer was automatic and did not seem to need much thinking: he will be done swimming once he hits the age of 30.  He has said this same thing to his coach Bob Bowman long ago.  He said that when he reaches 30, he would be hanging up the suit and goggles and cap.

Michael Phelps, who is turning 23 this June, has competed in two Olympics seasons.  He has won six gold medals and holds six world records to his name.  Phelps joked that by the time he turns 30, he would given his coach thirty or forty heart attacks and would have turned all his hair to gray.  Bowman agrees, implying that the swimmer’s last Olympics would be in 2012.

Phelps discourages the idea of working with his agent Peter Carlisle when he retires from swimming.  Carlisle has always encouraged Phelps to become his assistant, but Phelps refused, saying that he wanted to go out there and “do things.”  

The 22-year-old swimmer became a pro at the age of 16.  He was still in high school, and at the time he did not yet understand the endorsement contracts that he signed.  He did not expect the amount of time he would be spending for photo shoots and commercials.  He knows better now, though, and he comments that he likes the business side of sport.

 The defeat of Manchester United to Manchester City came as a blessing to the Arsenal as they were pushed to five more points and reached the top of the league. The chances of Chelsea and United winning the premier league were dropped by their defeat and Arsenal’s chances are brighter now. Though Arsenal was finding it difficult to get into form in the match against Blackburn, the goals from Emmanuel Adebayor and Philippe Senderosa helped them to save their face. Arsenal’s coach Wenger is very satisfied with the performance of his boys.

With twelve more games remaining in the Premier League, Wenger is confident that his team will come out with flying colors as the team has the right mind condition to handle the pressures of the game. In the current league they have won 19 matches, drawn 6 matches and lost 1 match. The team believes that by playing any game with confidence, team spirit and the true desire to win will produce the result. As there will be more hard games to be played later in the league, it is necessary to remain focused and to fight till the last minute of the game.

On 3rd February Washington Wizard played a home game, which was in doubt in the last first quarter after the Kobe Bryant guard of Los Angeles Lakers’ drained a long jump shot. He patted Wizzard all star Caron Butler on his Back while going back on the defense side. This action seems disrespectful but they are friends and have played together in 2004-05 season. Game results are Lakers at 103 while Wizards at 91, which is not the usual sellout crowd record of fans cheering for visitors. They have came earlier for encouraging Bryant and his team but stayed late for the winners’ Lakers (30-16) who walked off the court with the victory. The match also had many interesting points for both Bryant’s and Laker’s fans but cheer has rolled through Wizard after the en route of scoring 30 points on 10 – 15 shooting with 6 rebounds and a pair of assists. Bryant was heavy for Wizards, repeatedly looked a step slow defensively while shot 43 from the field continuously. The coach Eddie Jordan later said that we had to play as one team to defeat Lakers or any other team, who has won a NBA 1982 Championship as a Laker.

Joe Calzaghe will fight Bernard Hopkins at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas on April 19. The champion confidently declared when he and Hopkins promoted their Las Vegas fight in London that it will be Hopkins’ last fight.

In reply, Hopkins referred to the fight as the execution of Calzaghe. He said it was high time Calzaghe left his backyard and fought in another country. Hopkins, 43 years old, has to his name 20 world title defenses for middleweight. He was the one who defeated the then undisputed Antonio Tarver in 2006 for the light-heavyweight championship. Hopkins stressed that age will not be a disadvantage for him. According to him, he may be an old man, but one that can fight.

Calzaghe, who remains undefeated in 44 fights, said that he may be down to his last two fights. Aside from the fact that he is turning 36 in March, he also did not want to fight just for the money. The champion said he may be able to fight when he reaches his forties, but added that it may be difficult for him to keep motivating himself to continue in his career because there were no more “big names” to have a match with. In other words, there will be no more challenge. People are thinking whether he will be like Rocky Marciano, who eventually retired undefeated.