Roger Federer crashes out of US Open

September 6, 2012
roger


New York, September 6: Roger Federer saw his dream of becoming the first man in 87 years to win six US Opens destroyed by big-swinging Czech Tomas Berdych Wednesday in the Swiss legend's earliest New York defeat in nine years.

The 17-time Grand Slam title winner, bidding to reach his 33rd Grand Slam semi-final, and ninth in a row at the US Open, was beaten 7-6 (7/1), 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 by sixth-seeded Berdych.

"I have got to go back to the drawing board from here. The goal (of winning Wimbledon and getting back to number one) has been achieved, but this is very disappointing," said a despondent Federer.

Berdych was stunned by his triumph.

"It couldn't be better. There's no better moment so far than this one," said the Czech.

It was world number one Federer's worst defeat at the tournament since losing to David Nalbandian in the fourth round in 2003.

Berdych, who went into the quarter-final with a 4-11 record against the world number one, will now face British third seed Andy Murray for a place in Sunday's title match.

"I'll just try to bring something from today and try to add something a little more for my next match," Berdych said.

The 26-year-old Czech has reached the last four in New York for the first time while Saturday will be his first Grand Slam semi-final since he reached the Wimbledon final in 2010.

That was the tournament where he also defeated Federer in the quarter-finals.

In an extraordinary reversal of fortune, Wednesday's clash was Berdych's first appearance in a night match on the main stadium.

Wimbledon champion Federer, by contrast, went into the tie with a perfect 21 wins in his night-time outings.

Federer got off to a rock solid start, breaking in the first game before the Czech hit back at 3-3 and then romped through the tiebreaker.

Federer, 31, was under relentless pressure again in the second set when he was broken twice before the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd sensed a possible third comeback from two set to love down in three successive Grand Slams as the top seed cut the deficit.

But Berdych steadied himself in the fourth with a break in the eighth game and served out the match to love when Federer's weak service return was his 40th and final unforced error of the contest.

Berdych boasts a 4-2 career winning record over Murray, who reached a second successive US Open semi-final when Croatia's Marin Cilic squandered a set and 5-1 lead to lose 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-2, 6-0.

Murray won 15 of the last 18 games to secure a seventh win in eight meetings with the 12th-seeded Cilic.

"I've had a lot of tough matches -- everyone goes through them. We've seen Rafa, Novak and Roger struggle here," said Murray.

"There is pressure on you to perform well, expectations are high and sometimes you're nervous."

Tearful Andy Roddick said goodbye to the US Open, New York and his career in an emotional fourth-round defeat to Argentina's Juan Martin Del Potro.

The 30-year-old, the last American man to win a Grand Slam event when he claimed the US Open in 2003, had already said this would be the last tournament of a 12-year career which yielded 32 titles and $20 million in prize money.

"I've loved every minute of it -- for the first time in my career I'm not sure what to say," said Roddick, who was in tears -- as was model wife Brooklyn -- as he addressed the crowd after his 6-7 (7/1), 7-6 (7/4), 6-2, 6-4 loss.

Seventh-seeded Del Potro, the champion in 2009, booked a Thursday quarter-final date with defending champion Novak Djokovic.

Djokovic was leading Stanislas Wawrinka 6-4, 6-1, 3-1 when the 18th-seeded Swiss retired after complaining of dizziness and handed the second seed a 14th successive Grand Slam quarter-final place.

His tie against Wawrinka had been held over from Tuesday because of rain with the world number two ahead 2-0 in the first set.

"It was a difficult situation for both of us with the rain yesterday. We were here for 10 or 11 hours, warmed-up and then stopped. It was hard to get ready for a match that way," said Djokovic, the 25-year-old Australian Open champion.

Djokovic has reached his sixth successive US Open quarter-final by dropping just 20 games in four rounds.

Wawrinka has now lost 19 matches in a row against top-10 players.

Djokovic's fellow Serb, eighth seed Janko Tipsarevic, reached his second successive US Open quarter-final.

Tipsarevic brushed past German 19th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 and goes on to face Spanish fourth seed David Ferrer for a place in the semi-finals.



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News Network
January 6,2020

Sydney, Jan 6: Nathan Lyon captured five for 50 and 10 match wickets as Australia crushed New Zealand by 279 runs on Monday, capping a golden domestic summer as they swept the three-Test series.

The off-spinner led the powerful Australian bowling attack to dismiss the Kiwis for 136 and seal another heavy win over the Black Caps after similar victories in Perth and Melbourne.

Australia have been unbeatable this season, winning all five Tests at home -- two against Pakistan and three against New Zealand -- after retaining the Ashes by drawing the series 2-2 in England.

"It's been a great summer for the Australian Test side," Lyon said.

"It's pretty special to be part of it, we have been impressive, pretty clinical, the batters have done well and given us bowlers plenty of time."

Australia declared their second innings at 217 for two with David Warner scoring an unbeaten century, leaving the Black Caps with a revised 416-run target in the fourth innings on a wearing Sydney Cricket Ground pitch.

But the Kiwis buckled under the pressure of Australia's superior bowling attack with Mitchell Starc taking three for 25 to support the wiles of spinner Lyon.

"They were clinical in all areas and after the first match they put us under pressure session after session," said skipper Kane Williamson, who missed the Test with a virus.

New Zealand were reeling early at 27-4 and never recovered after Starc and Lyon took two wickets each in the middle session to put the skids under the tourists.

Starc removed both openers, Tom Latham and Tom Blundell, in the first five overs. Blundell fell to a stunning catch by a diving Lyon at point for two and stand-in skipper Latham lost a review for leg before wicket.

Jeet Raval was out in a review to the faintest of edges on 'Snicko' in Lyon's first over for 12.

First-innings top-scorer Glenn Phillips went for a duck after technology detected a faint outside edge to wicketkeeper Paine off Lyon.

Taylor's Kiwi record

Ross Taylor became the leading all-time Kiwi batsman, going past Stephen Fleming (7,172) before he was bowled by Pat Cummins for 22 to take his Test aggregate to 7,174.

Big-hitting Colin de Grandhomme smacked Lyon for six to bring up his fifty but went next ball hoicking to Joe Burns at deep mid-wicket for 52.

Todd Astle was out to a superb diving catch by James Pattinson in the outfield for 17.

Starc yorked William Somerville's middle stump for seven and BJ Watling was the last to fall, caught at backward square leg by Pat Cummins for 19.

Earlier, Warner completed his 24th Test century and remained unbeaten when skipper Paine declared upon the dismissal of Marnus Labuschagne.

"You know you're capable of doing so," Warner said, when asked about how he had bounced back from his disastrous Ashes campaign in England last year.

"I was in the nets hitting the ball well and had the skipper backing me. To be able to play with freedom helped me. It's all paying off."

Labuschagne, who was dropped on four in a regulation caught-and-bowled chance by leg-spinner Astle, was caught at long on off Matt Henry for 59 -- his seventh score over 50 in eight innings this domestic summer.

Labuschagne finished the home five-Test season with a stunning aggregate of 896 runs, made up of his 215 in the first innings, three other centuries and three half-centuries in eight innings.

There was drama late in the Australian innings when Warner was given an official warning by umpire Aleem Dar for running down the middle of the pitch in scampering a single.

It resulted in five penalty runs being added to New Zealand's first innings total meaning their target was revised down from 421 to 416.

The Test was played against the backdrop of one of Australia's most devastating bushfire seasons with at least 24 people losing their lives in blazes raging across the country, including on the outskirts of Sydney.

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News Network
April 27,2020

Lahore, Apr 27: Pakistan batsman Umar Akmal has been banned from all forms of cricket for three years for failing to report spot-fixing offers, the Pakistan Cricket Board announced Monday.

Umar, who turns 30 next month, pleaded guilty to not reporting the fixing offers which led to his provisional suspension on February 20 this year.

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News Network
June 24,2020

New Delhi, Jun 24: Star Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan deeply regrets his "silly mistake" of not reporting a corrupt approach by an Indian bookie to the ICC, leading to his one year suspension from the game.

Shakib was banned for two years, one year of it suspended, for failing to report corrupt approaches during an IPL edition by an alleged Indian bookie named Deepak Aggarwal.

"I took the approaches too casually When I met the anti-corruption guy and told them and they knew everything. Gave them all the evidence and they knew everything that happened," Shakib told Harsha Bhogle on 'Cricbuzz in Conversation'.

"To be honest, that's the only reason I was banned for a year, otherwise I'd have been banned for five or 10 years," he added on the ICC's investigation.

The 33-year-old, who was in brilliant form before the ban, amassing 606 runs in the 2019 World Cup in the UK, said he regrets how he went about the situation.

"But I think that was a silly mistake I made. Because with my experience and the amount of international matches I've played and the amount of ICC's anti-corruption code of conduct classes I took, I shouldn't have made that decision, to be honest."

Lesson learnt, Shakib's advice to all young criceters is to never take any such message lightly.

"I regret that. No one should take such messages or calls (from bookies) lightly or leave it away. We must inform the ICC ACSU guy to be on the safe side and that's the lesson I learnt, and I think I learnt a big lesson," he added.

The all-rounder, whose ban ends on October 29, said he became a bit arrogant and never felt he was doing anything wrong by not reporting the bookie's approach immediately.

"Because you do most things right in your life, you tend to get arrogant with some decisions. You may not realise but you're doing wrong by the books. It never came to my mind that I am doing something wrong

"It was just a feeling of 'okay, what's going to happen, leave it' and I continued with my life. But that's the mistake I made. And that happens," Shakib said.

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