French Open 2017: I had doubt whether I could win another Grand Slam title, admits Rafael Nadal

Agencies
June 12, 2017

Paris, Jun 12: Rafael Nadal admits he doubted he`d ever win another Grand Slam title after a three-year drought at the majors and an ongoing battle with injuries and poor form.

Nadal

On Sunday, the 31-year-old Spaniard coasted to a record 10th French Open title, demolishing Stan Wawrinka in a brutally one-sided final which also earned him a 15th Grand Slam crown.

Nadal triumphed 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 to become the first man in history to win the same major 10 times.

His collection of Slams now stands just three behind great rival Roger Federer, a staggering statistic coming just a year after he quit Roland Garros with a wrist injury.

His last Grand Slam title before this year`s Roland Garros came in Paris in 2014 and he admitted that there were doubts over whether or not he`d recover his former powers.

"I have doubts every day but that`s good as it makes me work hard with more intensity," he said.

"You have to be humble and accept that you have to work to improve things.

"I have doubts today, I had doubts in the last three years, I will have doubts in a few days.

"Life is never clear. If you have no doubts, then you are very arrogant. I am not an arrogant person."

After winning his ninth Roland Garros and 14th major in 2014, Nadal`s best performance at the Slams was two quarter-final spots.

His world ranking slipped as low as 10 in 2015 and his 2016 French Open was ended prematurely after the second round by a wrist injury.

But he finished runner-up at the Australian Open in January, losing in five sets to Federer and he was back in business.

He dominated the clay court season with titles in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Madrid.

He lost just one match on clay all year while his win on Sunday took his Paris record to a staggering 79 wins and just two losses.

Against world number three Wawrinka, his record is now 16 wins and three losses. On clay, it`s 7-1.

Nadal went through the tournament without dropping a set for the third time in his French Open career.

He lost just 35 games in total, second only to Bjorn Borg`s record of 32 in the Swede`s 1978 title-winning season.

"To win 10 Roland Garros titles is magical," added Nadal.

"I had tough times last year so it`s great to have big success again."

Despite his dominance at the French Open, Nadal said he never took victory for granted.

He was aware of being within touching distance of the title in Australia in January when he was a break up in the final set only to lose to Federer.

"At 4-1 in the third set I knew I was close. At 5-1, I thought probably I am going to win this.

"But I have come close before -- in Australia this year and in 2012 in Australia (when he lost an epic final to Novak Djokovic).

"So my mentality was that I cannot give Stan the chance to get back into the match.

"But I knew that I had been playing too good in the tournament to play a bad final."

Nadal said he had not given up hope of taking back the world number one ranking that he last held in June 2014.

"If I win I have chances to become number one -- if I play well, why not?"

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Agencies
March 1,2020

New Delhi, Mar 1: Former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif on Sunday heaped praise on Ravindra Jadeja after the all-rounder took a spectacular catch on the second day of the Christchurch Test against New Zealand.

Jadeja grabbed a one-handed stunner at deep square leg in the 72nd over to dismiss Neil Wagner, who had to depart after scoring 21 runs.

"Sir Jadeja for a reason! Jadeja Airlines, flying high! Terrific stuff," Kaif tweeted.

In the match, Jadeja also impressed with the ball. The left-handed bowler took two wickets while giving away 22 runs.

On day two, India bundled out New Zealand on 235 runs in the second Test. However, in their second innings, Indian batsmen again struggled to tackle the New Zealand pacers and lost six wickets with a lead of just 97 runs.

India went to stumps at 90/6, with Trent Boult doing the majority of the damage with three wickets.

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Agencies
January 26,2020

Chennai, Jan 26: Former India cricketer Kapil Dev on Saturday said that it will be a big loss for the Indian side when MS Dhoni decides to hang up his boots.

"I think he has served the country so well and nobody has done it like him. Everyone has to retire sooner or later. He is not playing matches currently. So I don't know when he will come out one day and say -- I have had enough. I think it will be our loss because he is such a fabulous cricketer," Dev told reporters here.

In the recently released BCCI contracts list, Dhoni did not find a place for himself. The former World Cup winning captain Dev said that it is unfortunate that Dhoni was not included in the contract list.

"I feel sorry that they have not included him. 

Tendulkar, Gavaskar had to witness the same. It's not my job and I am not there to give the contract to anyone. It is the job of the cricket board. So, I don't know. You can ask this question to the cricket board. They will be able to answer this question," Dev said.

The 38-year-old Dhoni is currently enjoying some time away from the game. He last played competitive cricket during the 2019 World Cup.

Dhoni had to face criticism for his slow batting approach during India's matches in the tournament. 

Especially in the games against England and New Zealand (semi-final), he had to bear the brunt of netizens, who deemed him as the reason for the Men in Blue's loss.

BCCI released the list of central contract list of players for the period from October 2019 to September 2020.

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News Network
March 23,2020

Colombo, Mar 23: Sri Lankan batting great Kumar Sangakkara has said he is currently in self-quarantine, following his government's guidelines for those recently returning from Europe, which has now become the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authorities are concerned over people returning from the most-affected COVID-19 countries in Europe not registering with the police and practising isolation.

"I have no symptoms or anything like that, but I'm following government guidelines," Sangakkara told News First.

"I arrived from London over a week ago and the first thing was there was a news bulletin saying that anyone who had travelled from within March 1 to 15 should register themselves with the police and undergo self-quarantine. I registered myself with the police."

The former captain said this even as the government confirmed there have been at least three cases of recent returnees attempting to hide the novel coronavirus symptoms from authorities.

Both Sangakkara and his former teammate Mahela Jayawardene have been active on social media, urging Sri Lankans to avoid panic and to exercise proper social distancing, as the country went into curfew on Friday evening.

Sri Lanka has so far reported more than 80 active COVID-19 positive cases in the country.

Across the world, the number of infected has crossed three lakh besides a death toll of more than 14,000 people.

Meanwhile, former Australia pacer Jason Gillespie has also gone into a two-week isolation after returning from the United Kingdom.

Gillespie, who is the head coach at Sussex, had been in Cape Town with the team for a pre-season tour, which was cut short as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

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