The Hindu : Sport : Murray ends a 71-year wait

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 15, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport

Murray ends a 71-year wait

LONDON: Top seed Andy Murray defeated James Blake 7-5, 6-4 in the Queen’s Club final on Sunday to become the first British winner of the pre-Wimbledon warm-up event for 71 years.

Murray was the fifth British man to reach the final here since Bunny Austin’s triumph in 1938 and he finally ended the long wait for a homegrown success with another dominant performance in west London.

The Scot’s first grass-court title took his career haul of tournament victories to 12 and was also his fourth Tour triumph this year.

Main challenger

After several years spent climbing towards the sport’s upper echelons, Murray is firmly established as a big-game player and will be regarded as one of the main challengers for the Wimbledon title when the All-England Club tournament begins on June 22.

He didn’t drop a set all week and it is worth noting that when Austin won here all those years ago he went on to reach the Wimbledon final just a short while later. Perhaps Murray can emulate that feat as well.

“It’s been a great week. This is some of the best tennis I’ve ever played in my life,” Murray said. “I was quite nervous because people were telling me no Briton had won here for quite a while but when I had my chances I managed to take them.

“The only thing left is to get a Grand Slam. Hopefully I can do that at Wimbledon in a couple of weeks.”

Haas wins at Halle

At Halle, Tommy Haas won his first title in more than two years when he beat world No.4 Novak Djokovic 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-1 in the Gerry Weber tournament final on Sunday.

Haas, a former world No.2 who has not won a title since Memphis in 2007 after being plagued by a shoulder injury, was the more consistent in a baseline encounter that lasted two hours 12 minutes.

Both players stayed on the baseline and initially held serve comfortably, allowing no break opportunity. The 31-year-old Haas, world number 41, finally carved out a break at 4-3 to serve out the set a game later.

The 22-year-old Serbian took advantage of an erratic Haas, who double-faulted three times in the tiebreak to hand Djokovic the set.

Djokovic himself double-faulted on a break point to allow Haas to grab a 2-0 lead in the third set. He then wasted four break points of his own, allowing the German to go 3-0 up before breaking again.

Rybarikova triumphs

Meanwhile in the Aegon Classic at Birmingham, Little-known Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova won her first WTA title 6-0, 7-6(2) against China’s Li Na on Sunday.

Seeded 13, the 20-year-old Rybarikova used her serve-and-volley game effectively early on against the fourth-seeded Li to breeze through the first set.

Rybarikova, ranked 38 places below Li, then ground out a close second set by winning the tie-break 7-2 for a victory that is likely to take the Slovakian to her highest ranking position. Her previous best was 46 in February this year.

She was junior Wimbledon runner-up in 2006 but, after two attempts in the main draw, has yet to progress past the first round.

Rybarikova had ended Indian Sania Mirza’s good run in semifinals with 3-6, 6-0, 6-3 win. Sania doubles campaign also came to an end after the she and her Chinese Taipei partner Chuang Chia-Jung 7-5, 6-3 in the semifinals.

The results:

At London (Queen’s Club): Andy Murray bt James Blake 7-5, 6-4.At Halle (Gerry Weber Open): Final: Tommy Haas bt Novak Djokovic 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-1. Semifinals: Djokovic bt Olivier Rochus 7-6(7), 6-4.

At Birmingham (Aegon Classic): Singles: Final: Magdalena Rybarikova bt Li Na 6-0, 7-6(2). Semifinals: Rybarikova bt Sania Mirza 3-6, 6-0, 6-3.

Doubles: Semifinals: Cara Black & Liezel Huber bt Sania & Chuang Chia-Jung 7-5, 6-3. — Agencies

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport