THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 2016 SPORTS Brit Broady prevails after racquet row in Auckland

AUCKLAND: A fired up Naomi Broady let Broady, who knocked out former world her racquet do the talking as she stormed number one Ana Ivanovic in the first round back to beat Jelena Ostapenko in an ill- on Tuesday, settled quicker to take the tempered Auckland Classic clash marred by tiebreak and force a deciding set but she an on-court row after the Briton called for looked down and out as she trailed 5-1 in the Latvian to be disqualified. the third. Tensions boiled over in the second set of But the British qualifier saved a second the low key second round clash when, after match point as she stormed back to prevail a winner by Broady, the 18-year-old 4-6 7-6(4) 7-5, helped by 21 aces, and book Ostapenko’s racquet came out of her hand, a spot in the quarter-finals where she will bounced off the blue hard court and face American fifth seed Sloane Stephens. against the back wall towards the ball boy. Both players shook hands at the end of “She threw the racquet and hit the ball the contest but bad blood remained with boy, no way was that accidental,” the 25- Broady clearly angry about the incident year-old Broady complained to the umpire. and repeating her accusation that Play was delayed as the umpire and ball Ostapenko intentionally threw her racquet boy had a conversation. The umpire opted in the second set. for a code violation over a disqualification The umpire attempted to quell the trou- after the Latvian wildcard argued the rac- ble as the players continued their verbal quet slipped from her hand but a clearly volleys. “Jelena commented that my behav- upset Broady called for another official to iour was terrible,” Broady said. “Which I adjudicate. thought was a bit out of order, considering “I asked for the tournament referee to the events that had gone on in the match. I come down onto the court to give his opin- don’t think I did anything disrespectful to ion,” Broady was quoted as saying by local her, or anyone else on the court. “So I’m not media. really sure where that came from, but ten- “But as he isn’t the chair umpire, he goes sions were high, adrenalin was going. We by what the chair umpire says and his opin- had a bit of a confrontation, but she’s going ion was that it had slipped from her hand, to be a fantastic player and I’m sure we’ll as Jelena had said, so it was just a code vio- both learn from any mistakes we made lation and move onto the next point.” today and move forwards.” — Reuters Azarenka advances to q-finals at Brisbane

BRISBANE: After two injury-interrupted Andrea Petkovic had a 7-5, 6-4 win over seasons, Victoria Azarenka is emerging Ekaterina Makarova to move into a quarter- DALLAS: Dallas Mavericks guard Deron Williams (8) shoots a 3-pointer in the final second of the second overtime in an NBA basketball game from the shadows of some highly-ranked final against U.S. qualifier Samantha against the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday, in Dallas. The Mavericks won 117-116.— AP rivals who have either withdrawn from Crawford, who had an upset 7-5, 7-5 win Australian Open warmup events or lost in over seventh-seeded Belinda Bencic. the early rounds. Petkovic, who has struggled in the past Mavs win in 2 OTs, make it 22 The two-time Australian Open champi- with serious injuries, attributed the high on reached the quarterfinals of the attrition rate in January to the extra work Brisbane International - a tournament she players are putting into the conditioning won in 2009 - with a 6-3, 6-2 win over over the off-season. straight at home over Kings Ysaline Bonaventure. “If I know them well, the top players, Bonaventure, a lucky loser from qualify- they still will be in good shape when it DALLAS: Deron Williams hit a 3-pointer at the scored 23 points, and New York almost lost a 16- the first quarter and Stephen Curry added 17 ing, was cast into the second round on comes to the Australian Open,” Petkovic buzzer in the second overtime, and the Dallas point lead before holding off Atlanta to give the before sitting out the fourth to rest his ailing leg Wednesday as a replacement for top-seed- said. Mavericks beat Sacramento 117-116 Tuesday Knicks their second win over the Hawks in three in Golden State’s victory over the Los Angeles ed Simona Halep, who had a bye before night for their 22nd consecutive home victory days. The Knicks led by 16 in the third quarter Lakers. Kobe Bryant sat out his third straight withdrawing from a scheduled second- NISHIKORI UNTROUBLED over the Kings. Williams took an inbounds pass but saw the lead reduced to two points in the game with a sore right shoulder for the Lakers, round match with Azarenka because of an In the men’s draw, second-seeded Kei from Devin Harris with 2.3 seconds left, pump final minute before Jose Calderon scored on a whose three-game winning streak ended in Achilles tendon problem. Nishikori opened with a 6-3, 6-4 win over faked to get Rudy Gay to fly by him in the left drive with 18 seconds remaining. Kristaps Golden State’s 33rd win in 35 games. Curry The No. 2-ranked Halep withdrew within Mikhail Kukushkin to move into the quar- corner and the ball went in after the buzzer Porzingis had 17 points and 11 rebounds for stayed in the game after taking a blow on his left an hour of defending champion Maria terfinals against seventh-seeded Bernard sounded. Dirk Nowitzki hit an earlier 3 as the New York. Anthony finished with 11 rebounds leg in the third period, but briefly limped with Sharapova pulling out of the tournament Tomic, a 7-6 (6), 4-6, 7-6 (4) winner over Mavericks scored the last eight points after and seven assists. Paul Millsap led Atlanta with obvious frustration on his face. The reigning with a left forearm injury. Top-ranked Radek Stepanek. falling behind 116-109 with 1:20 left in the sec- 19 points. MVP missed two games with a bruised lower left Serena Williams withdrew from the Third-seeded Marin Cilic beat Chung ond overtime. DeMarcus Cousins scored 35 for leg last week before returning for Golden State’s in after skipping her Hyeon 7-5, 7-6 (3), and No. 8 Dominic his third straight 30-point game for the Kings, WARRIORS 109, LAKERS 88 last two games. Curry went to the locker room first match and retiring in the second set of Thiem had a 6-3, 6-2 win against Denis including a buzzer-beating layup for a 98-all tie Klay Thompson scored 22 of his 36 points in before the fourth. — AP the U.S. team’s second against Kudla to advance. at the end of regulation. Former Dallas guard Gold because of inflammation in her left At the Hopman Cup mixed teams event Rajon Rondo was out with back spasms in his knee. in Perth, Western Australia, lev- first visit since an acrimonious split after an ill- NBA Results/Standings Venus Williams and Ana Ivanovic - the eled its record at 1-1 with a 2-1 win over fated half-season with the Mavericks. The Kings top two seeded players at the ASB Classic , which lost for the second time. haven’t won a regular-season game in Dallas Atlanta 101, New York 107; LA Lakers 88, Golden State 109; Dallas 117, Sacramento 116 (OT); Chicago 117, in Auckland, New Zealand - were beaten in Alexander Zverev gave Germany a 1-0 since Feb. 27, 2003. Sacramento did win a game Milwaukee 106. the first round. lead with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Kenny De in Dallas during a five-game playoff series victo- Eastern Conference Western Conference Azarenka conceded an early service Schepper, but Caroline Garcia beat Sabine ry over the Mavericks in 2004. Atlantic Division Northwest Division break against Bonaventure and had seven Lisicki 6-2, 7-6 (5) to send the match to a W L PCT GB Oklahoma City 24 11 .686 — double-faults in the first set, but otherwise mixed doubles decider, which the German BULLS 117, BUCKS 106 Toronto 21 15 .583 — Utah 15 18 .455 8 Boston 19 15 .559 1 dominated after converting her fifth break- pair won 6-4, 6-7 (6), 10-6. Jimmy Butler had 32 points and a season- Portland 15 22 .405 10 New York 17 19 .472 4 Denver 12 23 .343 12 point chance in a fourth game that lasted In a night match, Andy Murray lost to high 10 assists to lead Chicago over Milwaukee Brooklyn 10 24 .294 10 more than 17 minutes and went to deuce Australia Green’s Nick Kyrgios. Heather for its season-best fifth straight win. Pau Gasol Minnesota 12 23 .343 12 Philadelphia 4 33 .108 17.5 Pacific Division 11 times. Watson was playing Daria Gavrilova in a bid scored 26 points with 11 rebounds, and Taj Central Division Golden State 33 2 .943 — Azarenka who dropped to a year-end to keep Britain alive. Cleveland 23 9 .719 — Gibson added 11 points and 14 boards as the LA Clippers 22 13 .629 11 No. 22 ranking in December after being In New Zealand, third-seeded Caroline Chicago 21 12 .636 2.5 Bulls led the entire way. Derrick Rose returned to Sacramento 14 21 .400 19 restricted to just 23 events across 2014 and Wozniacki resisted the fate of other seeded Indiana 19 15 .559 5 the Bulls after missing three straight games with Phoenix 12 25 .324 22 ‘15, is working her way back into form. players at the tournament with a 6-0, 6-2 a sore right hamstring. He showed no effects of Detroit 19 16 .543 5.5 Milwaukee 14 23 .378 11.5 LA Lakers 8 28 .222 25.5 “I definitely missed playing since I win against Christina McHale and No. 5 the injury and finished with 16 points. Khris Southwest Division haven’t in a while,” she said. As for the Sloane Stephens beat Carina Witthoeft 3-6, Southeast Division Middleton scored 26 for Milwaukee, and Michael Miami 21 13 .618 — San Antonio 30 6 .833 — broader issue of injuries, she said: “I’m just 6-1, 6-3. Carter-Williams had 20 points and 12 assists. Atlanta 21 15 .583 1 Dallas 20 15 .571 9.5 going to try to take care of myself right Austrian qualifier Tamira Paszek beat Orlando 19 16 .543 2.5 Memphis 19 17 .528 11 now, and hopefully everybody will be two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana KNICKS 107, HAWKS 101 Charlotte 17 17 .500 4 Houston 17 19 .472 13 ready for the Australian Open.” Kuznetsova and British qualifier Naomi Arron Afflalo and Carmelo Anthony both Washington 15 17 .469 5 New Orleans 11 22 .333 17.5 Fourth-seeded Angelique Kerber beat Broady reached the quarterfinals with a 4- Madison Brengle 6-3, 6-0 to set up a meet- 6, 7-6 (4), 7-5 win over Jelena Ostapenko of ing with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, while Latvia. — AP Djokovic eases into Qatar quarter-finals

DOHA: Novak Djokovic breezed through to the quar- ter-finals of the Qatar Open yesterday, losing just four games in a comprehensive defeat of Spain’s Fernando Verdasco. The World Number one triumphed 6-2, 6-2, in one hour nine minutes. It matched the score of his first round victory against Dustin Brown and means the Serb has spent just two hours on court in the first two rounds. “Both of the matches went very well,” said the Serb immediately afterwards, adding he had put in a “very solid performance” yesterday. Ominously for his rivals, Djokovic looked already to be getting back to his dominant form of 2015. In warmer temperatures experienced in Doha than in the rest of the week-around 20 degrees Celsius (68 Fahrenheit) — Djokovic controlled the match from the very beginning. He first broke Verdasco’s serve in the fourth game to 15 and was rarely troubled after that. The Serb squan- dered another break point just two games later but eventually closed out the set on Verdasco’s serve to go one up in just 31 minutes. Verdasco, the world number 49 who had beaten Djokovic four times in their 11 previous meetings, offered some resistance in the second set but only enough to delay the inevitable. The Spaniard, who may have been feeling the effects of his first round victory less than 24 hours before, missed two break opportuni- ties in the second set and was made to pay. Djokovic, was watched on by coach Boris Becker, the first winner of the Qatar Open back in 1993. It is not yet known who Djokovic’s third round oppo- nent will be, but it was at that stage last year that he crashed out of the Qatar Open, losing to Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic. Rafael Nadal plays his second round match later yes- terday, against Robin Haase of the Netherlands. Earlier DOHA: Novak Djokovic of Serbia celebrates after winning against Spain’s Fernando BRISBANE: Victoria Azarenka of Belarus hits a return against Ysaline Bonaventure of Jeremy Chardy won an all-French clash beating compa- Verdasco during their tennis match in the Qatar Open tournament yesterday, in Belgium during their women’s singles match on the fourth day of the Brisbane Doha. — AFP International tennis tournament yesterday. — AFP triot Paul-Henri Mathieu6-2, 6-4. — AFP