Pujara Torments Australia with Third Century
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NBANBA| Page 6 George ignores boo boys as Thunder sink Lakers 107-100 Friday, January 4, 2019 CRICKET Rabia II 28, 1440 AH Pujara torments GULF TIMES Australia with third ton of series SPORT Page 3 TENNIS/ QATAR EXXONMOBIL OPEN FOOTBALL Bayern Munich have all on board for Djokovic in semis Qatar training camp DPA Bayern are in Doha until Jan- Munich uary 10 before the Bundesliga resumes with a visit to Hof- fenheim on January 18. Unlike ayern Munich’s injured previous years in Doha, Bayern aft er another midfielders Corentin have not scheduled a friendly Tolisso and James Ro- match after what has been a B driguez are travelling relatively short winter break. with the squad for a training “We want to fine tune a lot camp in Qatar from today. of things in Doha, including Both are to work in Doha on fitness and technical-tactical their comebacks after serious elements,” coach Niko Kovac injury setbacks this season. said. comeback victory France midfielder Tolisso “And we have to begin pre- has been missing since mid- paring for our first opponent so ‘I knew that he’s playing probably the tennis of his life in the past 10 September with a cruciate we can get off to a good start at ligament tear while Colombian Hoffenheim.” months, and he’s definitely one of the greatest hitters in the game’ James suffered a partial knee Bayern are starting a second ligament tear in November. half of the season not at the top Winter newcomer, 18-year- of the league for the first time old Canadian winger Alphonso in eight years. Davies, is also with a 29-man The record German cham- party which includes the full pions are in second place, six first-team squad and several points behind leaders Borussia junior players. Dortmund. Abdulrahman al-Mannai elected chairman of QMMF Top seed and World No. 1 Novak Djokovic exults after beating Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili in the quarter-finals of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open yesterday. PICTURE: Noushad Thekkayil he General Assem- quorum with the presence of bly of Qatar Motor & representatives of clubs and Motorcycle Federa- sports bodies with membership Ttion (QMMF) elected of the QMMF, as well as a repre- Abdulrahman Abdullatif al- sentative from the Ministry of Mannai as the chairman of Culture and Sports. By Sahan Bidappa He also had the crowd root- and never looked back to pocket the Board of Directors of the The QMMF Board of Directors Doha ing for him throughout, even the opening set. The second set federation for four years. The included Hassan Abdulrah- as unforced errors crept into too played out similar way as he QMMF fi rst General Assembly man al-Ibrahim, Abdulrazzaq Basilashvili’s game. The all-im- sealed his win in one hour and was held at its headquarters in Khalaf al-Kuwari, Khalid Has- or the second succes- portant break for Djokovic came 45 minutes. Lusail on Wednesday. san al-Rumaihi, Salem Saeed sive day, Novak Djoko- in the fi fth game for a decisive “I think Stan is a really good The meeting of the first general al-Mohannadi and Mohamed vic was down a set as 3-2 lead, as Basilashvili cracked player. He is really a tough op- assembly to elect the board Ghanim al-Kubaisi. Fthe centre court crowd under pressure. He then sealed ponent to beat and we knew of directors of the QMMF was The General Assembly was anticipated an upset at the Qa- the deal with three winners in each other very well and we in accordance with the recent held based on amendments tar ExxonMobil Open. But once the tenth game to come out on used to practice a lot during the amendments to its statutes. proposed for new statutes of again, the Serb, with his back top of another slug fest, which tournaments. Today I was very It was held after having a full the QMMF. against the wall, found the mo- lasted one hour and 56 minutes. consistent and played with a tivation to scrape out of trouble. It was the sixth straight lot of rhythm. I think I played a The Khalifa international semi-fi nal for the Serbian, very complete match,” said the Tennis and Squash Complex ex- who capped 2018 as the oldest Spaniard, who lifted the big- HANDBALL ploded in joy as the biggest draw year-end No. 1 in ATP history. gest title of his career at the ATP of the tournament, World No. 1 Djokovic celebrated his surge 500-level tournament in Dubai. Djokovic, eked out a comeback orchestrating a whistling con- In another quarter-fi nal, wild 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over spirited test among fans. card Tomas Berdych cruised Qatar beat Bosnia in fi fth-seeded Georgian Nikoloz Djokovic has now won 13 past Frenchman Pierre-Hughes Basilashvili. consecutive matches in Doha, Herbert 6-2, 6-4. The Czech Djokovic, bidding for his Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain (L) shakes hands with Stan and is 15-1 overall at the tourna- is playing his fi rst tournament friendly match third Qatar Open title, will face Wawrinka of Switzerland after defeating him in the quarter-finals. ment. The World No. 1, owner of since June last year and showed seventh seed Spaniard Roberto 72 tour-level titles, is attempt- some impressive form in Doha. Doha: Qatar’s handball in Group A which also includes Bautista Agut for a place in to- a tough match against in-form his wont, was never the one to ing to lift a trophy for the 14th He was awaiting the winner beat Bosnia 30-22 in a friendly Russia, Germany, Serbia, Brazil morrow’s fi nal. Bautista Agut Basilashvili, a strong baseliner give up easily. The 31-year-old consecutive season. It is also of the match between fourth- match at Duhail Sports Arena and South Korea. Group B com- had earlier knocked out three- who gives the ball a mighty showed why he is the owner of the fi rst time Djokovic has won seeded Italian Marco Cecchina- yesterday. prises Spain, Croatia, Mac- time Grand Slam champion thwack and had who won his 14 Grand Slam titles, bouncing back-to-back matches from a to and Dusan Lajovic of Serbia, The game was part of Qatar’s edonia, Iceland, Bahrain and Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 6-4 to en- fi rst two ATP Tour titles in 2018, back in the second set. set down since Cincinnati in who were playing a late match preparations for the upcoming Japan while co-hosts Denmark ter the semi-fi nals. both at ATP 500 events. He raced to a 3-0 lead, while August last year, a tournament last night. IHF 2019 World Men’s Hand- spearhead Group C that also “I thought Basilashvili was World No. 21 Basilashvili was Basilashvili threatened to re- he went on to win ball Championship scheduled has Norway, Austria, Tunisia, playing terrifi c from the begin- the enforcer from the word go, group, Djokovic closed out the Earlier, Bautista Agut put on Results from January 10-27 in Germany Chile and Saudi Arabia. ning. I expected him to,” said breaking Djokovic in the very set to take the match into the a consistent performance to Singles (Quarter-finals) and Denmark. Qatar will start their cam- a relieved Djokovic after the fi rst game. The aggressive Geor- decider. knock out Wawrinka. The two 1-Novak Djokovic (SRB) bt 5-Nikoloz The Qatar handball team also paign against Angola on Janu- match. “I knew that he’s play- gian applied relentless pressure In the third set, the two play- know each other’s game well, Basilashvili (Geo) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 played two matches against ary 11 and will play against ing probably the tennis of his on the top seed for another ers traded breaks in the fi rst two having practised together for 7-Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP) bt Belarus. In the first one, Qatar Egypt, two days later. life in the past 10 months, and break in the fi fth game for a 4-1 games. Astonishingly, Djokovic years. And Agut put that to good Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) 6-4, 6-4 drew 26-26, while they scored a Al Anabi’s next two matches he’s defi nitely one of the great- lead. While Djokovic did pull a showed higher physical ener- use yesterday. WC-Tomas Berdych (CZE) bt Pierre- 27-19 win in the second. are scheduled on January 14 est hitters in the game.” game back from Basilashvili’s gy than his opponent, despite The 24th ranked Bautista Hughes Herbert (FRA) 6-2, 6-4 Qatar are in Group D along and 16 against Hungary and As against Hungary’s Mar- serve, the Serb had no answer to playing his fi fth match of the Agut played mostly from the Doubles (Semi-final) with Angola, Egypt, Hungary, Sweden respectively. Qatar ton Fucsovics on Wednesday, the latter’s aggressive ground- tournament – after having en- baseline and controlled the Robin Haase & Matwe Middelkoop Sweden and Argentina in the will play their last preliminary Djokovic was slow to get off the strokes. tered the doubles semis with his match throughout. He broke (NED) bt Santiago Gonzalez (MEX) & world championship. round match against Argentina blocks. The Serb had predicted But Djokovic, as has been younger brother Marko. Wawrinka in the very fi rst game Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (Pak) 6-4, 6-1. World champions France are on January 17. (QNA) Gulf Times 2 Friday, January 4, 2019 TENNIS BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL FOCUS Nishikori back Osaka says US Open to best in victory win has over Dimitrov given her Japanese ace says his goal is to get back into the top 5 after an injury-hit 2018 belief AFP back to win the second with the Brisbane loss of just fi ve points.