Monday 18th May, 2009 13 Violence mars Safina beats Barcelona title celebrations BARCELONA, Spain (AP) - Police fired rubber bullets at rioting crowds Wozniacki for after celebrations of Barcelona's Spanish league title spilled over into violence. Police said Sunday that 65 people were arrested overnight, while 51 suf- fered minor injuries in the distur- Madrid title bances. MADRID (AP) - Dinara scoring a break in the third game after both About 15,000 raucous supporters had Safina beat Danish held serve to start. Another break proved gathered at the city's Canaletes fountain on Las Ramblas avenue, the traditional teenager Caroline enough for her to take the first set. site for celebrating the Catalan club's Wozniacki 6-2, 6-4 on Wozniacki, who hadn't dropped a set in title wins. Sunday to win the Madrid reaching the final, hit a forehand long to be A few hours into the celebrations, a Open. broken again at the start of the second and group of around 100 people at nearby The top-ranked then could only watch as Safina slammed a Plaza Catalunya started launching bot- Russian player goes into two-handed backhand down the line for 2-0. tles and other projectiles at the police. the French Open with two Wozniacki had Safina scrambling and That led to plain-clothed officers mak- straight clay titles follow- looked set to clinch her first break point in ing arrests, which then provoked fur- ing last week's victory in the fourth game, but was lobbed after com- ther trouble. Rome. ing to the net. Safina then took a 3-1 lead Following police warnings, officers Safina overpowered when Wozniacki hit the ball out. charged at the crowd and fired rubber her 18-year-old opponent In the eighth game of the set, Wozniacki bullets. with 24 winners and set up three of her five break chances with The arrests were made for vandal- three break points at the some delicate drop shots, but her good work ism, public disorder and resisting "Magic Box" tennis center. was undone by several of her 22 unforced authority, police said. Barcelona secured the league title It is Safina's 11th career errors. Saturday after its closest rival Real title. Safina is now 14-1 on clay this season. Wozniacki, facing a Madrid lost 3-2 at Villarreal, providing Top-ranked Rafael Nadal and Roger top-ranked player for the the Catalan team with an unassailable Federer meet for the 16th time in a final first time, will become eight-point lead in the standings. the first Dane to crack later Sunday, which is also the first meeting In comments published on the club's the top-10 in next week's since Nadal's Australian Open victory over Web site, Barcelona president Joan rankings after reaching the Swiss player. Laporta had expressed his wish for fans her third final of the sea- Nadal has won five straight finals over to celebrate the team's second trophy of the week "quietly and calmly". son. Federer, including at Roland Garros, Barcelona won the Copa del Rey last Safina will go into Wimbledon and Melbourne, where the sec- Wednesday to complete its first domes- Roland Garros buoyed by ond-ranked Swiss player was reduced to tears. tic double for 11 years. The team also her recent success on has the chance to win the Champions Nadal won in the Spanish capital in 2005 clay after finishing run- League on May 27 when it plays defend- ner-up at the Australian and Federer a year later when the tourna- ing champion Manchester United in Open and Stuttgart earli- ment was played on indoor hard courts. Rome. er this year. Nadal, the four-time defending French Dinara Safina from Russia celebrates after winning a point during her final match She got off to a quick Open champion who is 25-1 in clay court against Caroline Wozniacki at the Madrid Open Tennis at the Caja Magica, Madrid, start against her younger finals, saved three match points to rally past Dubai tennis to Sunday May 17, 2009. opponent, who she was Novak Djokovic in a Masters Series record 4 (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza) playing for the first time, hour-plus semifinal on Saturday. pay fine after Israeli visa denial DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Giro d’Italia The director of the Dubai Tennis Gayle must be sacked as West Indies captain Championships says it will pay a record $300,000 fine for the United Arab Siutsou wins by Steve James Emirates' refusal to grant a visa to have it easy. people in Chandigarh to witness the Israeli player Shahar Peer. eighth stage In a time of unprecedented flux in Nor do those captaining the West great Sachin Tendulkar become the Salah Tahlak says the tournament the game and alarming recession in Indies. And Caribbean cricket in crisis highest run-scorer in Test-match histo- chiefs agreed Sunday to pay the penal- the economy, Chris Gayle has done for is a horridly overworked cliche given ry. ties imposed by the WTA Tour Board, the image of Test cricket what Gerald legs almost daily by woefully incompe- Administrative avarice is rife. The which rejected Dubai's appeal last Ratner once did for his jewellery busi- tent administrators (Donald Peters, a pricing was obviously too high for this week. The UAE turned down Peer's visa ness. A poor first-day crowd at fourth chief executive officer in seven Test match in Durham. But the request just before her planned arrival Durham has sent shares plummeting years, resigned recently), but it is time England and Wales Cricket Board’s for the tournament in February. further. now to move on. Kevin Pietersen was bidding process meant it had to be so. The tour also demands that Dubai Or that is the perception. And that sacked for much less. Indeed, what was Cheap tickets will not recoup a organizers confirm that qualifying can often be enough in these sensation- he sacked for? £500,000 bid. Israeli players will get visas at least alist times. Personally I don’t buy it. There was a certain irony to Gayle’s But, come the Ashes, there will not eight weeks in advance for the 2010 Test cricket is not dying. It has sur- comments: on his watch the West be a spare seat in the various houses. event. Tahlak says he hopes all players can vived worse; indeed cricket itself is Indies played out one of the most bor- How different the picture will look take part, but notes that organizers do surviving much worse in the after- ing series in recent memory last win- then. Especially if England can win. not have full control over government math of the horrific attack on the Sri ter. And there was betrayal and arro- Some say even then there will be no issues. Lanka team. gance, just as there has been in agent legacy because of the ECB’s commit- Gayle is hardly one of the game’s Andrew Chandler’s recent contention ment to satellite rather than terrestrial great thinkers. But he is a Test captain that his client, Andrew Flintoff, might television. of a major nation. And with that become a free agent and swan around The grass is not always greener. It is Agassi excited about comes a certain responsibility. He has various Twenty20 competitions: it was easy now to forget Channel 4’s rush for abdicated that quite astonishingly. He in Test cricket that these players made the Simpsons at 6.30pm every evening playing under turned up late for this series and has their names. That should never be for- during the 2005 Ashes, or the regular now as good as dammit said he does gotten. interruptions for horse racing (13 in Wimbledon roof not want to be here. He can backtrack That will remain the case, in my the first three days at the Oval 2005). WIMBLEDON, England and claim that he was “misquoted” opinion. Those already heralding a And the new BBC head of sport, (AP) — Having once and “misrepresented” in the interview new generation of cricketers versed Barbara Slater, has openly said recent- refused to play at Kanstantsin Siutsou of Belarus celebrates as that appeared on Wednesday, but I’ve first in the skills of Twenty20 might be ly the corporation cannot fit Test Wimbledon because of its he crosses the finish line to win the eight stage heard the tape. It’s all there. He defi- surprised. Test-match players can, in cricket into its schedules. Sky is not stodgy traditions, Andre of the Giro d’Italia, Tour of Italy cycling race, nitely said: “I wouldn’t be so sad” if terms of adaptation of technique, the devil, nor the dictator assumed. Agassi will get a unique from Morbegno to Bergamo, Saturday, May 16, Test cricket were to die out. And of the become Twenty20 players (although look at perhaps the biggest 2009. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati) captaincy he said: “To be honest with there will be exceptions, as Gayle has But that is a secondary matter. change ever to come to the All England Club. you, there’s a possibility I might give it rightly pointed out in the case of Grander issues await. Schedules must Andre Agassi Belarussian Kanstantsin Siutsou up – I will be giving it up, shortly.” Andrew Strauss), but the reverse will be redrawn (no Tests in the North Pole Agassi will become one of the first players to see the Centre handed the Columbia team their third Gayle has finally revealed he is no rarely be true. Bet you David Warner, in May). Test cricket’s very future Court’s retractable roof close over his victory of the centenary Giro d’Italia leader. Sometimes young rascals can Australia’s scything left-handed depends upon them. So much work is head on Sunday, before teaming with when he won the 209km eighth stage from unexpectedly be transformed into reli- Twenty20 opener, does not play Test needed, and consequently strong lead- wife Steffi Graf in a mixed doubles Morbegno to Bergamo. able leaders – Shakespeare told us of cricket. And, yes, he does want to. ership. Sadly that rules match against Tim Henman and Kim Race leader Danilo Di Luca retained Hal, Henry V,doing as much – but Most players still value Test out Chris Gayle. Clijsters for a televised inauguration of the race leader’s pink jersey, taking his clearly not in this instance. We have cricket’s primacy. That is no (C) The the new structure. advantage over Swede Thomas Lovkvist been duped. Benefit of the doubt can blithe platitude. It is why Telegraph to 13 seconds after sprinting to third no longer be given. We should have several Group, place. known when Gayle sat impassively Australians, London, Wimbledon unveils The efforts of Di Luca, the Giro cham- and insouciantly behind John Dyson including 2009 pion in 2007, prevented a podium sweep in Guyana last winter as the coach skipper for on-form Columbia - for whom misread the Duckworth/Lewis chart Ricky Centre Court Australian Michael Rogers finished and cost the West Indies the match. Ponting, fourth - and gave him eight bonus seconds Any captain worth his salt would have pulled out of roof to public to add to his five-second overnight lead on wanted to check. Not Gayle. the Indian Lovkvist. His decent record in charge (only Premier League to WIMBLEDON, England (AP) - Indoor Siutsou broke clear with 15km to race three losses from 13 completed Tests) prepare for the tennis has finally come to Wimbledon. The All England Club launched a and held off the fast finishing remnants must now be put down to a combina- Ashes. It is why the grand opening - or closing - of the new of the peloton to win in five hours four tion of fortune and the brilliance of saint-like Stuart retractable roof over its historic Centre minutes 34 seconds. two batsmen, Shivnarine Chanderpaul Broad resisted the Court on Sunday. Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen and Ramnaresh Sarwan. It is certainly IPL’s advances. With a soft whirring, the sliding roof took second behind his team-mate 21 sec- not down to Gayle’s on-field enthusi- Clearly Test cricket slowly unfolded without a hitch as onds back just a day after winning his asm. England players report increduli- is facing difficult times. British singers Faryl Smith and maiden stage on the race. ty at his inactivity there. Never a word But this is nothing new. Katherine Jenkins sang "Amazing Grace" in the center of the court. Columbia also won the race’s opening of encouragement, hands in pockets, Crowds outside England The 15,000 spectators - along with stage, a team time trial which put the feet rooted to the ground at first slip. and Australia have invited guests such as former tennis pink jersey on the shoulders of their Bowling changes occur with all the been sparse for great Boris Becker - collectively raised main sprinter, Manxman Mark consideration of a blackjack dealer. years, with their heads and cameras as the 10 truss- Cavendish. There is, of course, much to admire India’s decline es supporting a translucent canvas slow- The day was made for a long break- in Gayle. His strokeplay can be breath- the most wor- ly covered the court before closing to away and around the 40km mark a group taking. We can all laugh at his cool- rying. Last thunderous applause. Married couple Andre Agassi and of 10 riders managed to start putting ness. And his resilience is admirable. year there Steffi Graf were then to take on Tim some daylight between themselves and Those raised in the ghetto of were little Henman and Kim Clijsters in an exhibi- the field. (The Times) Rawlington Town, Kingston, do not more than 5,000 Chris Gayle tion doubles match.