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/ 14 January 2008
Andy Murray crashed and burned at the first obstacle but Andy Roddick and Nikolay Davydenko made stress-free starts in the men’s singles on the first day of the Australian Open on Monday. Murray, the world number nine, has plenty of free time on his hands after coming off second-best to flamboyant Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in a centre-court showpiece.
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/ 14 January 2008
Defending champion Serena Williams and top seed Justin Henin survived gritty encounters on the first day of the Australian Open on Monday, while Maria Sharapova set up a tough clash with Lindsay Davenport. Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo also showed glimpses of the form that won her the 2006 championship.
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/ 13 January 2008
Roger Federer has shaken off a stomach virus and is 100% fit for the defence of his title at next week’s Australian Open, the Swiss said on Sunday. The world number one, who will be bidding for his 13th grand-slam title, will go into the event having not played a competitive match for two months.
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/ 12 January 2008
Environmental group Greenpeace said on Saturday one of its protest ships has located the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean and is pursuing it. ”Our primary objective is to stop the Japanese fleet from whaling in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary,” said spokesperson Sara Holden, who was on board the ship Esperanza.
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/ 12 January 2008
Andy Roddick warmed up for next week’s Australian Open in ideal fashion with a 7-5 6-3 win over Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus on Saturday to win the Kooyong Classic for the third successive year. The American, who is seeded sixth next week, outgunned Baghdatis in 76 minutes.
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/ 10 January 2008
Australian Open organisers on Thursday said there would be a heavy police presence at this year’s tournament to prevent the brawls and sexually related offences that marred the event in 2007. Police were caught off-guard in 2007 when locally based Serbian and Croatian fans clashed on the first day of the tournament.
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/ 10 January 2008
Andy Roddick continued his bid for a Kooyong Classic hat-trick on Thursday with a 6-3, 6-3 defeat of Marat Safin to reach his fourth consecutive final. Roddick braved 41°C temperatures for the quickfire win, which sets him up for Saturday’s final against either Marcos Baghdatis or Fernando Gonzalez.
World number one Justine Henin goes into the Australian Open as the overwhelming favourite after an inspired 2007, but there is no shortage of challengers. Among them is superstar defending champion Serena Williams, who stunned the tennis world by winning the title last year in her comeback event following an injury-plagued 2006.
Roger Federer is poised to advance to within one Grand Slam of Pete Sampras’s record of 14 in the year’s opening major tournament at the Australian Open, which gets under way in Melbourne on Monday. Federer has been unchallenged as world number one since February 2004 and won three of last year’s four Grand Slams for the third time in four years.
West Indian umpire Steve Bucknor has been dropped for next week’s third Test between Australia and India, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said on Tuesday. ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed told a news conference that New Zealand umpire Billy Bowden would stand in the West Indian’s place.
Roger Federer’s Australian Open preparations suffered a blow on Monday as the defending champion was forced to withdraw from the Kooyong Classic warm-up event owing to a virus. Federer said that he came down with the bug on the weekend after arriving in the city on Friday from Dubai, where he trains in the off-season.
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/ 29 December 2007
Australia thrashed India by 337 runs to win the opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series on the fourth day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday. The Australians claimed their 15th consecutive Test victory and will look to equal their world record of 16 wins set from October 1999 to February 2001 in next week’s second Test.
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/ 28 December 2007
India will have to do what no other Test team has done before to come from behind and win the first cricket Test after Australia set them an historic run chase at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday. The Australians offered the Indians 499 runs to win with two days left after declaring their second innings at 351-7 late on the third day.
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/ 27 December 2007
Australia took a firm grip on the first Test after Stuart Clark and Brett Lee produced a sustained period of hostile and controlled pace bowling to bowl India out for 196 late on the second day on Thursday. Clark, who finished with an outstanding 4-28 off 15 overs, captured the valuable wickets of Sachin Tendulkar (62) and Rahul Dravid (four).
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/ 26 December 2007
Stuart Clark struck a body blow for Australia with two wickets, including the crucial wicket of Sachin Tendulkar, just before tea to leave India struggling at 122 for five on the second day of the first Test on Thursday. Tendulkar, who with Saurav Ganguly had been rebuilding India’s innings from 55 for three, chopped a delivery from Clark onto his stumps to be dismissed for 62.
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/ 25 December 2007
India are considering playing two spinners to capitalise on their batting depth to pressure Australia in Wednesday’s opening match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, skipper Anil Kumble said onTuesday. Kumble said the team would be playing to their strengths and are contemplating using both spinners.
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/ 23 December 2007
Fans at Australia’s first Test against India could be banned from the Melbourne Cricket Ground for life if they are found to be involved in racial taunting of players and other fans, Cricket Australia said on Sunday. Anyone caught doing so by undercover surveillance officers would be ejected from the ground and face further action.
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/ 24 September 2007
Australia’s drought could cut the 2008 wine grape vintage by more than half, industry groups said, cutting into a A-billion a year export business. The 2008 vintage is likely to fall to between 800 000 tonnes and 1,3-million tonnes, compared with a normal seasonal crop of about 1,9-million tonnes.
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/ 3 September 2007
Captain Ricky Ponting was absent from the Australia squad that headed to South Africa for the Twenty20 World Cup on Monday, with Cricket Australia (CA) citing ”family reasons” for his absence. CA chief executive James Sutherland said ”a private family issue” had arisen at the weekend for the 32-year-old skipper.
Surging demand from Asia and booming commodities prices have pushed BHP Billiton’s annual net profit up 28,4% to an all-time high of ,416-billion, the company announced on Wednesday. Underlying profit, the measure watched by analysts, rose by 35% to ,68-billion, just above the market consensus of ,5-billion.
Australia fullback Julian Huxley has been ruled out of the Tri-Nations decider against the All Blacks on Saturday after picking up an injury when he was playfully tackled by a teammate at a party. The 27-year-old has played in all Australia’s six Tests this year in the absence of the injured Chris Latham.
Australian federal police charged a 27-year-old Indian doctor on Saturday over his ”reckless” links with the alleged perpetrators of the attempted car-bomb attacks in the United Kingdom on June 29 and 30. After being held for 12 days, Mohamed Haneef (27) appeared in a Brisbane court charged with providing support to a terrorist organisation.
A boy called Hell has been barred from enrolling in a Catholic school in Australia because his surname jarred with its religious teachings, the child’s father said on Monday. The youngster’s dad, Alex Hell (45), has expressed outrage after the primary school in the southern city of Melbourne allegedly refused to admit his son, Max.
The All Blacks will be searching for answers on Sunday after their 20-15 upset loss to trans-Tasman rugby rivals Australia. The problem for the Wallabies, and the rest of the rugby nations heading to this year’s World Cup, is that Graham Henry’s New Zealand team will very likely find them.
Australia stunned New Zealand with two second-half tries to storm home for a 20-15 win in the Tri-Nations rugby tournament in Melbourne on Saturday. The Wallabies looked second-best to the World Cup favourites for more than an hour before unleashing two converted tries to keep their hopes alive.
The All Blacks may have won their past five matches against the Wallabies but they have a healthy respect for the improving side ahead of their Bledisloe Cup/Tri-Nations clash on Saturday. The All Blacks won on their past two visits to Australia, winning 13-9 in Brisbane last year and 30-13 in Sydney in 2005.
Assistant coach Wayne Smith insisted New Zealand would not field a weakened team against Canada on Saturday just a week before the All Blacks begin their Tri-Nations campaign in South Africa. New Zealand completed a 2-0 series win over France at the weekend with a 61-10 rout in Wellington.
Australia coach John Connolly laughed off suggestions he could be sacked before the World Cup if the Wallabies struggle during the Tri-Nations series. Australia, fresh from a 49-0 rout of Fiji in Perth on Saturday and a 2-0 series win over Wales, open the Tri-Nations when they face South Africa in Cape Town on Saturday.
England’s ”Barmy Army” of travelling cricket fans helped boost the Australian economy by -million during the Ashes and one-day series, Cricket Australia said on Tuesday. An Economic Impact Study released by CA and the Australian government found that the Ashes and subsequent one-day series helped attract 37 000 international visitors to Australia.
New Zealand flanker Jerry Collins has recovered from a heel injury and will take his place in the pack for the second Test against France in Wellington on Saturday. All Blacks coach Graham Henry made six changes to the side that routed the inexperienced French party 42-11 at Auckland’s Eden Park last weekend.
Australia coach John Connolly is set to rest players for Saturday’s test against Fiji in Perth, keeping his powder dry before the opening Tri-Nations clash with the Springboks. Connolly sees the game against in-form South Africa in Cape Town on June 16 as the first genuine test of the year for the Wallabies.
Jamaican police are to announce that Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer died of natural causes and was not murdered as they had initially stated, Britain’s Daily Mail said on Saturday. Citing a source close to the inquiry, the newspaper says Jamaican authorities will say they are no longer treating the death suspiciously.