Top seed and defending champion Roger Federer wasted little time in finishing off Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean 6-2, 6-3, 7-6 (8/6) in Wimbledon’s rain-hit men’s semifinals on Saturday. The 22-year-old Swiss player was up two sets and 4-3 on Friday evening when play was finally abandoned after a frustrating day of unsettled weather.
Russian 17-year-old Maria Sharapova pulled off one of the biggest Wimbledon upsets to date on Saturday when she dethroned top seed and two-time defending champion Serena Williams 6-1, 6-4 in a stunning women’s final. She is the second-youngest Wimbledon winner in the Open era and the first Russian to win.
Second-seeded American Andy Roddick unleashed the full power of his awesome artillery to crush the brave resistance of Croatia’s Mario Ancic 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 and set up a Wimbledon title showdown with defending champion Roger Federer on Saturday. The 21-year-old Roddick becomes the first American to reach the men’s final since 2000.
Rising formula-one star Fernando Alonso delighted the Renault home-country crowd to capture the pole position for the French Grand Prix ahead of six-time world champion Michael Schumacher. ”To be first at the home grand prix is very nice,” the Spanish driver said. ”Now we have to see tomorrow.”
The American-bred, three-year-old Greys Inn gave the opposition a galloping lesson in the R1,5-million Vodacom Durban July Handicap over 2 200m when he streaked through the field down the home stretch to win with ease. This was the second win in South Africa’s premier race for trainer Mike de Kock and jockey Anthony Delpech.
Militant ruling-party supporters armed with clubs, stones and axes on Friday attacked people at a meeting called by Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, the party said in a statement. Tsvangirai escaped uninjured, but other supporters of his party received ”serious injuries”.
The South African Human Rights Commission has subpoenaed Limpopo’s provincial minister of housing, Mahwene Semenya, and Lepelle Nkumpi’s municipal manager over the eviction in May of more than 200 families from Lebowakgomo. It is alleged the families were not given adequate sewage and water facilities at their new homes.
The third assembly of African Union heads of state and government in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, next week will have to pay serious attention to providing funds to enable the AU to function as it should, South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday in his weekly online newsletter, ANC Today.
Thousands of doctors were stripped of their powers to issue drugs when a Pretoria judge dismissed a constitutional challenge on Friday to regulations obliging them to acquire special dispensing licences. The regulations came into effect with the Pretoria High Court’s dismissal of the bid.
Court rules on dispensing doctors
Doctors may appeal ruling
Thursday July 1 should have been the day that Kenya woke up to a new Constitution that set the country on a path of improved governance and development. But yet again, the government has failed to deliver this document. President Mwai Kibaki first promised that a new Constitution would be in hand by the end of his first 100 days in office.