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/ 26 January 2006
Belgium’s eighth seed Justine Henin-Hardenne came through a tough three-set fight against fourth seed Maria Sharapova to reach the final of the Australian Open on Thursday. The Belgian came from behind to win 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 with a backhand down the line to end the Russian’s drive to reach her first-ever Australian Open final.
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/ 26 January 2006
Kim Clijsters hoped to celebrate her new world number one ranking with a place in the Australian Open final. Instead she hobbled from Melbourne Park on crutches bemoaning the low point of her career. After coaxing her battered body to take her as far as the final four of the tournament, second seed Clijsters finally succumbed to injury in Thursday’s semifinal with Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo.
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/ 25 January 2006
Kim Clijsters ended Martina Hingis’s gallant run in her grand-slam comeback with a 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 win on Wednesday in the Australian Open quarterfinals. She next plays number three Amelie Mauresmo, who reeled off the last nine straight games in a 6-3, 6-0 quarterfinal win over number seven Patty Schnyder of Switzerland.
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/ 25 January 2006
Former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash has waded into the debate over the playing conditions at Melbourne Park, calling them ”a joke, ridiculous and unfair”. He joins others including Lleyton Hewitt, Roger Federer, Lindsay Davenport and James Blake who have expressed reservations about the rubberised courts used at the Australian Open.
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/ 25 January 2006
A pumped-up Nicolas Kiefer and an ice-cool Amelie Mauresmo drove vastly different roads to park themselves in the Australian Open semifinals on Wednesday. Kiefer was on court for four hours and 48 minutes against Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean, while Mauersmo was back in the dressing room in less than an hour against Switzerland’s Patty Schnyder.
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/ 24 January 2006
Off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan surpassed 400 wickets in one-day internationals on Tuesday but couldn’t prevent South Africa from beating Sri Lanka by nine runs to keep alive their chances of winning cricket’s limited-overs tri-series. Opener Boeta Dippenaar carried his bat for 125 to anchor South Africa’s innings of 263 for five.
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/ 24 January 2006
Eighth-seeded Justine Henin-Hardenne upset number one Lindsay Davenport 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 on Tuesday to advance to the Australian Open semifinals. The loss may cost Davenport, who lost the final here last year to Serena Williams, the top ranking that she has held since October 24.
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/ 24 January 2006
The men’s and women’s fourth seeds, David Nalbandian and Maria Sharapova, justified their standings to become the first players into the Australian Open semifinals on Tuesday. Nalbandian, of Argentina, destroyed unseeded French veteran Fabrice Santoro 7-5, 6-0, 6-0.
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/ 24 January 2006
Sri Lankan offspinner Muttiah Muralitharan surpassed 400 wickets in one-day internationals as an unbeaten century by Boeta Dippenaar lifted South Africa to 263 for five in the first innings of a tri-series cricket match on Tuesday. Muralitharan took two wickets within two balls in his opening over.
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/ 24 January 2006
In a case of life imitating fiction, a 13-month-old cattle dog named Lassie helped rescue its injured master after he fell from a horse in eastern Australia, the man’s son said on Tuesday. George Crowther, a 90-year-old farmer from Queensland state, broke his hip and pelvis when he was pitched from a bucking horse.
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/ 24 January 2006
A family on the south Australian coast found a piece of whale vomit on the beach that is tipped to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, national radio reported on Tuesday. The chunk of ambergris, which is sought after by perfume manufacturers, weighed 14,75kg and is worth about per gram.
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/ 23 January 2006
Officials said on Monday that a limited-range tsunami could potentially have been caused by a magnitude-6,2 earthquake that the United States Geological Survey said struck near the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. No casualties or damage were reported, and there was no immediate word of any tsunami in the sparsely populated area.
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/ 23 January 2006
Power-hitter Amelie Mauresmo produced another no-nonsense straight sets victory on Monday to move into the Australian Open quarterfinals, as all the top seeds remaining kept their hopes alive. An in-form Patty Schnyder, Germany’s unfancied Nicolas Kiefer and Sebastien Grosjean of France also won.
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/ 23 January 2006
South African captain Graeme Smith said on Monday Australia do not have the strength in depth to rest key players, after their second-string bowlers were carted around the ground by Sri Lanka. Smith said the Australian attack without pace spearhead Glenn McGrath had been exposed.
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/ 22 January 2006
Andy Roddick’s Australian Open dreams collapsed on Sunday when he was ousted in the fourth round, but women’s top seed Lindsay Davenport remained on course for her second title in Melbourne. Davenport steamed into the quarters along with Justine Henin-Hardenne and Nadia Petrova.
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/ 21 January 2006
Triple champion Martina Hingis hurtled into the Australian Open fourth round on Saturday, overcoming extreme heat that helped Amelie Mauresmo secure an equally speedy victory. Anastasia Myskina became Russia’s fifth woman through, but sixth-seeded Guillermo Coria was knocked out by France’s Sebastien Grosjean.
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/ 21 January 2006
A distressed Michaella Krajicek became the first victim of furnace conditions at the Australian Open on Saturday when heat exhaustion forced the Dutch teenager to concede her third-round match. The sight of the 17-year-old breaking down in the heat has again raised questions about the safety of conditions at the grand slam.
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/ 21 January 2006
A handbag containing jewellery worth more than 000 has been returned to a woman who left it hanging on a shopping trolley in a car park, Australian police said on Saturday. The handbag contained gold bracelets, rings, earrings, chains and pendants — plus a large sum of cash.
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/ 20 January 2006
A stunning spell of fast bowling by Brett Lee demolished South Africa and upstaged a record-breaking knock by teammate Phil Jaques as Australia grabbed a 59-run victory in their triangular series one-day match in Melbourne on Friday. Lee sparked a massive middle-order collapse, claiming 5-22 from 10 overs.
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/ 20 January 2006
A bottle with a message inside thrown in the sea in Britain has turned up in Australia six months later, news reports said on Friday. Alesha Johnson (4) threw the message-in-a-bottle into Morecambe Bay in the north of the United Kingdom in July.
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/ 20 January 2006
Maria Sharapova and Andy Roddick pressed all the right buttons on Friday to motor into the Australian Open fourth round, but Lindsay Davenport again misfired before getting back on track. The Russian world number four is coming good at the right time, seemingly untroubled by the blisters that hobbled her in the second round.
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/ 20 January 2006
Environmental group Greenpeace on Friday said it had ended its pursuit of Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean, which saw protesters attempt to put themselves between the harpoons and giant animals. The ships <i>Arctic Sunrise</i> and <i>Esperanza</i> will prepare to leave the region for Cape Town, the group said in a statement.
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/ 19 January 2006
Third seed Lleyton Hewitt and women’s fifth seed Mary Pierce were sent spinning out of the Australian Open on Thursday, but an awesome Roger Federer glided through to the third round. Hewitt’s dream of glory in front of his home crowd was shattered by Argentina’s Juan Ignacio Chela, who outclassed the Australian 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (8/10), 6-2.
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/ 19 January 2006
Australia will bring in two new players for their tri-series limited-overs clash with South Africa in Melbourne on Friday, naming opener Phil Jaques and bowler Brett Dorey. Simon Katich was ruled out after suffering a groin strain in training on Thursday and the selectors announced that Jaques, who made his Australian debut against the Proteas in the Boxing Day Test, would be his replacement.
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/ 19 January 2006
Roger Federer saved some energy for the rest of the Australian Open, while Kim Clijsters hobbled into the third round. Fifth-seeded Mary Pierce, the 1995 Australian champion and a two-time finalist at last year’s majors, became the highest-seeded player ousted in the tournament when she lost 6-3, 7-5 to Iveta Benesova on Thursday.
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/ 19 January 2006
Second seed Kim Clijsters struggled with a hip injury that threatens to derail her Australian Open campaign as she fought her way into the third round at Melbourne Park on Thursday. The United States Open champion downed China’s Meng Yuan 6-4, 6-2, but needed medical attention on her right hip early in the second set.
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/ 18 January 2006
South Africa’s Wesley Moodie would love another crack at world number two Andy Roddick in different match conditions after going out of the Australian Open on Wednesday. The 26-year-old giant matched serves with the fastest server in men’s tennis, but rued crucial unforced errors as he was knocked out 7-5, 6-3, 6-2.
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/ 18 January 2006
Serena Williams confounded her critics with a dominating display in the Australian Open on Wednesday but world number one Lindsay Davenport wobbled before booking her third round berth. Williams, the defending champion, has looked out of shape and out of form in the lead up to the tournament but put in a determined performance against Camille Pin of France, winning 6-3, 6-1 in just 49 minutes.
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/ 17 January 2006
A determined Sri Lanka shrugged off a recent run of poor one-day form and humbled South Africa in the tri-series limited overs competition at the Brisbane Cricket Ground on Tuesday. Sri Lanka achieved a 94-run victory, their seventh straight win in one-day internationals against South Africa.
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/ 17 January 2006
Kumar Sangakkara and Jehan Mubarak made half-centuries as Sri Lanka reached 282 for six, punishing South Africa’s decision to bowl first in their tri-series limited-overs cricket match on Tuesday. South African captain Graeme Smith sought to replicate the formula that gave his team a five-wicket win over Australia on Sunday.
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/ 17 January 2006
Top-ranked Roger Federer wasted no time getting his Australian Open campaign under way, cruising to 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 win on Tuesday over wild-card entry Denis Istomin. Federer was broken once and faced only three break points in the 83-minute match. French women Mary Pierce and Amelie Mauresmo also advanced.
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/ 17 January 2006
Feisty Australian pace-bowler Glenn McGrath believes the time has come for his colleagues to start behaving themselves following a spate of citings for bad behaviour on the field. ”I think at the end of the day it is up to the captain [to talk to umpires] and it should be left that way,” McGrath told a Sydney radio station on Tuesday.