Roger Federer showed signs of full recovery from a shock loss this month as he rolled over American teenager Sam Querrey 6-4, 6-3 into the third round of the Miami Masters on a rainy Saturday. The Swiss polished his tournament record to 25 wins and six defeats after winning the last two editions comprising a dozen matches.
Not even Tiger Woods was sure how he would introduce himself on the first tee at Doral Golf Resort, only that the words ”defending champion” would be appropriate in some capacity. But defending champion of what — or where? This is the CA Championship, and it’s a World Golf Championship with a 73-man field.
A Florida teenager finally took a long breath, uninterrupted by the hiccups that had plagued her for five weeks. The hiccups stopped at about 5pm local time on Wednesday, the <i>St Petersburg Times</i> daily reported Thursday. "Jennifer Mee had a few more spasms, but then she stopped and took her first uninterrupted breaths since … January 23," the paper said.
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/ 19 September 2006
Hurricane Gordon strengthened as it bore down on Portugal’s Azores Islands on Tuesday and emergency services in the mid-Atlantic islands went on alert. Gordon bore winds of 160kph at 8am EDT (12am GMT), making it a category two-storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.
Tropical Storm Ernesto weakened further on Wednesday as it swirled over southern Florida, where residents heaved a sigh of relief it had not regained hurricane strength. Contrary to expectations, Ernesto did not strengthen after leaving the Cuban coast, and remained a weak tropical storm when it hit Florida late on Tuesday.
Tropical Storm Ernesto slammed into Cuba early on Monday and headed towards Florida, which it could hit later in the week as a revived hurricane. Cuban authorities said they had evacuated tens of thousands of people from south-eastern areas of the country before the storm barrelled ashore.
Ernesto grew into the first hurricane of the year on Sunday as it gained strength rapidly on a path that could threaten the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico a year after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. The potentially dangerous storm was about 193km south-southwest of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and was a Category One storm on the five-stage Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity.
Mike Huckabee, the rock-playing Governor of Arkansas, will pardon Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards for his 1975 reckless driving charge in the American state, the governor’s spokesperson said on Thursday. "The governor is in the process right now to give a pardon to him," said Alice Stewart.
Mickey Spillane, the crime novelist who created the tough-as-nails detective Mike Hammer, died on Monday at 88 at his home in South Carolina, said a mortuary employee. ”He died today,” said Josh Campbell of Goldfinch Funeral Home in Murrells Inlet in the south-eastern United States, without giving a cause of death.
FBI agents have arrested at least seven people in Miami who reportedly plotted to attack the Chicago Sears Tower skyscraper, according to official statements and news reports. The arrests on Thursday were ”part of an ongoing investigation into a terrorist-related matter,” said the United States attorney’s office in Miami.
A Florida dog that chomped for help by cellphone, saving the life of her owner in a diabetic seizure, fetched a humanitarian award in Miami on Monday. Belle the beagle dialled the emergency number 911 on her owner Kevin Weaver’s cellphone last February when he began to convulse and lapsed into unconsciousness.
Residents of western Florida heaved a sigh of relief on Tuesday as Tropical Storm Alberto appeared increasingly unlikely to strengthen into this year’s first Atlantic hurricane. ”There is now only a slight possibility that Alberto will become a hurricane prior to landfall,” said a forecaster with the National Hurricane Centre.
United States officials warned on Monday the season’s first tropical storm could unleash ”life-threatening” rains as Cuban officials evacuated 25 000 people from Alberto’s path. About 400 people were evacuated in Havana where authorities are wary of storm damage to the old and often fragile housing stock in a densely populated city of more than two million.
Juan Rios shrugged as he carved out a juicy tenderloin from a 2,5m alligator that was brought to him bound and gagged but still kicking. The gator scare that has swept Florida ”was long overdue,” says Rios (42) throwing the choice cut into a bloody bucketful of meat that only a few hours ago was a potentially deadly animal.
As many as 10 Atlantic hurricanes could form in coming months, and up to four of them could hit the United States, experts said on Monday, urging residents to prepare for potentially devastating storms. ”The outlook calls for a very active 2006 season,” the National Weather Service said in a report released on Monday.
Famed test pilot and aviation pioneer Scott Crossfield, the first man to travel at twice the speed of sound, died when his plane crashed in the American state of Georgia, the Civil Air Patrol said on Thursday. He was 84. Crossfield was flying from the southern state of Alabama to Virginia when his Cessna disappeared from radar.
Forty-five years after taking part in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, Tomas Vazquez has no fight left in him, and simply dreams of seeing the island he loves one last time before he dies. ”I am old, I’m tired,” says Vazquez surrounded by Cuban memorabilia and a dozen former comrades-in-arms. ”My only hope is to be able to spend a week in Cuba, come back and die.”
Former United States Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova routed the top-seeded Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo 6-1, 6-4 to reach the final of the WTA and ATP Nasdaq-100 Open on Thursday. Mauresmo had won their first four encounters before Kuznetsova posted a 7-6 (13-11), 6-4 win in the Dubai quarterfinals earlier this year.
Swiss world number one Roger Federer and American fourth seed Andy Roddick advanced to the quarterfinals of the ,9-million ATP and WTA hard-court tournament in Miami with triumphs on Tuesday. Federer dispatched 37th-ranked Russian Dmitry Tursunov 6-3, 6-3 in only 58 minutes.
Britain’s Tim Henman fell to German qualifier Simon Greul at the ,9-million-ATP and WTA event on Monday as Russian Maria Sharapova and Japan’s Ai Sugiyama reached the quarterfinals. Henman dominated the first set but was overpowered in the second and sent packing in the third.
World number one Roger Federer outlasted France’s Arnaud Clement in the second round of a ,9-million ATP and WTA hardcourt event on Saturday but Kim Clijsters and Lleyton Hewitt were ousted. Federer dropped the final seven points in a second-set tie-breaker but won 6-2, 6-7 (4/7), 6-0 in a minute shy of two hours to reach a third-round match against German Tommy Haas.
A trend toward building ever bigger cruise ships, such as a 3 600-passenger vessel to be launched in June, has some industry experts wondering whether it might be too much of a good thing. Cruise lines taunt dream vacations at sea, complete with Broadway-style shows, cinemas, gourmet food and even artificial waves for surfing.
When the call is close, the pro tennis tours want to take another look. The ATP and WTA Tours have decided to use television replays starting with the Nasdaq-100 Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, in two weeks, officials said on Monday. This year’s United States Open will be the first Grand Slam event to review disputed calls on videotape.
Tiger Woods added to his impressive run of success as a frontrunner on Sunday as he parlayed his overnight lead into a one-stroke victory at the Ford Championship at Doral. The world’s number one golfer finished one shot in front of fellow American David Toms and unheralded Colombian Camilo Villegas in the ,5-million tournament.
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/ 7 February 2006
United States aviator Steve Fossett, who last year made the first solo non-stop trip around the world in an airplane, was making final preparation early on Tuesday for another adventure, during which he plans to set a new record for the longest aircraft flight.
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/ 30 January 2006
Nam June Paik, the avant-garde composer who was credited with being the inventor of video art, has died. He was 74. Paik played a pivotal role in using video as a form of artistic expression. A member of the Fluxus art movement, Paik combined the use of music, video images and sculptures.
Zeta again strengthened into a tropical storm on Thursday and could break the record for the storm lasting the longest into January since record keeping began in 1851. Zeta is the 27th and final named storm in a tumultuous, record-breaking hurricane season that officially ended more than a month ago.
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/ 28 October 2005
Florida, Mexico and Cuba reported progress by Friday in recovery from a trail of destruction left by Hurricane Wilma, briefly the Atlantic’s strongest storm on record. Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Beta, the 23rd Atlantic storm in the record-breaking 2005 hurricane season, churned in the Caribbean.
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/ 25 October 2005
Hurricane Wilma cut furiously across Florida late on Monday, killing five people and leaving more than three million homes without power, after churning huge waves that flooded Cuba’s capital, Havana. The storm killed at least 10 people in its violent passage through Mexico over the weekend.
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/ 19 October 2005
Hurricane Wilma, which swelled into an ”extremely dangerous” category-five storm on Wednesday, threatening Mexico and the Caribbean, is the strongest hurricane on record in the Atlantic, the United States National Hurricane Centre said.
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/ 19 October 2005
Hurricane Wilma intensified into an ”extremely dangerous category-five hurricane” early on Wednesday, churning northward between western Cuba and Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, the United States National Hurricane Centre said. Winds at the centre of the storm were clocked at 281kph, the centre said.
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/ 10 October 2005
Vince began to break down on Monday over the cooler waters of the far eastern Atlantic, less than a day after making this hurricane season the second-busiest on record, forecasters said. The former Category One hurricane weakened to a tropical storm with top sustained winds near 96,6kph, said forecasters at the National Hurricane Centre.