1st Sport Blog

Posted on Wednesday, 1st October 2008 by Josh

Top seed David Ferrer began the defence of his Japan Open title with a 6-4 4-6 6-1 victory over American Jesse Levine on Wednesday.

Chasing a berth at the season-ending ATP Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, the Spanish world number five recovered from a poor second set to finish off the second round encounter in clinical fashion.

“I don’t care about Shanghai now,” shrugged Ferrer, who suffered an embarrassing opening match exit in Beijing last week.

“I’m just focusing on this tournament. I have three more tournaments before Shanghai. It’s another week. What is important for me is to play well and take more confidence with me.”

Ferrer secured the first set when he chased down a Levine drop shot and whipped a forehand cross-court winner past his 101st-ranked opponent.

The Spaniard failed to capitalise and Levine broke Ferrer’s serve in the opening game of the second set before levelling the match with a big serve down the middle.

However, Ferrer’s superior class showed in the decider as he buried Levine in a flurry of huge ground strokes, closing out the match with an ace to book his place in the last 16 of the $969,000 tournament.

Ferrer will play Takao Suzuki next after the Japanese player upset Italian 15th seed Simone Bolelli 7-6 4-6 7-6.

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Posted on Wednesday, 1st October 2008 by Josh

Ferrari and McLaren have attacked the safety car rule that decided last weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, describing it as “humiliating” and “hopelessly wrong” for Formula One.

Fernando Alonso won his first race for Renault because he pitting before the safety car emerged a third of the way into the grand prix. It enabled him to tack onto the back of the field under safety car conditions and then go to the front when other drivers pitted when the pit lane was reopened.

McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh expects the Singapore events to prompt a change in the rules relating to when drivers can pit under safety car conditions.

“It will happen I am sure by the start of next year,” Whitmarsh was quoted as saying by Autosport magazine. “For people to change now they have to accept they got it hopelessly wrong, and it has to change during the winter.”

While safety car intervention can make races closer and provide some unpredictability, Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo felt it cheapened the sport.

“Unfortunately when we race on tracks where staging a circus or something else would be better, anything can happen, because the spectacle is supplied by the safety car,” Montezemolo was quoted as saying by Gazzetta dello Sport.

“This is humiliating for F1. We want to talk about this with all the other teams in the upcoming weeks.”

F1’s first ever night race received glowing reviews from most teams for how the track had been created largely from scratch, the faultless operation of the lighting system, and generally good organization.

However, drivers complained about how bumpy the track was, particularly off the racing line, which made overtaking difficult on a street circuit hemmed in by barriers.

The Ferrari president criticized both Singapore and Valencia—a street circuit that hosted the European Grand Prix earlier this month.

“Going forward with these circuits heralds a bad future for Formula One,” Montezemolo said.

Ferrari did not score a point in Singapore after Felipe Massa’s terrible stop in which he drove away with the fuel rig and hose still attached, dropping him from race leader to last.

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Posted on Wednesday, 1st October 2008 by Josh

Virginia Tech has been doing just enough to get by after splitting their first two games, but that’s also been good enough to get them back into the Top 25.

Ranked No. 20, the Hokies look for their fifth win in row on Saturday when they meet Western Kentucky for the first time.

Virginia Tech (4-1) began this season ranked 17th, but a 27-22 loss to upstart East Carolina knocked Frank Beamer’s team out of the Top 25. After defeating Furman by 17 on Sept. 6, the Hokies won three straight by a total of 11 points with two narrow wins coming in Atlantic Coast Conference play.

Stepping out of conference last Saturday, Virginia Tech held off Nebraska’s comeback bid in the second half to win 35-30 and hand the Cornhuskers only their third nonconference home loss since 1991.

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Posted on Wednesday, 1st October 2008 by Josh

When his trying rookie season finally came to an end, Corey Brewer immediately went to work on his shooting technique and his ball-handling skills.

Those were the Minnesota Timberwolves guard’s two most glaring deficiencies on the court. But Brewer’s most important goal this offseason was repairing his head.

“It was tough,” Brewer said as he prepared to start his second training camp with the Wolves. “Once you lose your confidence, it’s hard to get it back.”

No matter what Brewer tried last year, the shots just wouldn’t fall.

The No. 7 overall draft pick made 37.4 percent of his field goals in his rookie year and became such an offensive liability that coach Randy Wittman had to limit his minutes, keeping one of the team’s best defenders out of the game for long stretches of time.

“His number one thing is he’s going to have to have confidence and not lose confidence,” Wittman said. “That was his big thing last year. He lost a little bit of confidence, which affected his play.

“You have to learn at this level that you’re going to go through ups and downs, hard times and good times. You’ve got to not throw away that confidence when bad things happen.”

Facing questions from the media about his struggles only made matters worse. It was something he rarely had to endure during a Florida career that included being a Final Four MVP.

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Posted on Monday, 29th September 2008 by Josh

Polish soccer fans punched and kicked each other during a game, leading to 27 arrests.

The outburst happened in the western city of Szczecin at a first-division game over the weekend.

Footage broadcast on state television showed Wisla Plock fans scaling a fence to get into a section reserved for fans of the home team, Flota Swinoujscie. Fans from both teams attacked each other wildly before police arrived to restore order.

Officials have struggled for years to quell hooliganism at Polish soccer stadiums. Authorities have stepped up efforts to combat such violence, with the country the co-host for the 2012 European Championship.

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Posted on Sunday, 28th September 2008 by Josh

Ten-man VfL Wolfsburg missed their chance to go third in the Bundesliga with a 2-1 defeat at Karlsruhe on Sunday after defending champions Bayern Munich suffered their second consecutive league defeat.

Having smashed minnows Oberneuland 7-0 in the German Cup in midweek, Wolfsburg suffered their first defeat in 10 games after Karlsruhe midfielder Massimilian Porcello curled in a free-kick on 51 minutes to take a 1-0 lead.

Wolfsburg’s problems were compounded when their Brazilian striker Grafite was shown a second yellow card on 71 minutes when he barged Karlsruhe goalkeeper Markus Miller off the ball.

The home side went 2-0 up on 75 minutes when striker Sebastian Freis netted before Wolfsburg’s Portuguese defender Ricardo Costa scored a consolation goal with a header on 79 minutes.

“The game was there for the taking,” said Wolfsburg boss Felix Magath.

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