SATURDAY, MAY 23, 2015 SPORTS Nadal, Djokovic face French Open last-eight duel PARIS: Nine-time champion Rafael which starts Sunday, riding a 22-match again, it’s a draw. You can’t affect it. Munich and Madrid this year and with a Sloane Stephens in Serena’s half. Nadal and world number one Novak unbeaten streak and has already cap- There is always a chance that that’s 10-0 record on the surface, starting Stephens could face the two-time Djokovic were placed on a mouth- tured a fifth Australian Open and gonna happen.” against a qualifier. Murray, a semi-final- champion in the last 16 but she starts watering French Open quarter-final col- Masters crowns in Indian Wells, Miami, The other potential quarter-finals ist last year, could face Australian hope against Venus. In contrast, second seed- lision course in Friday’s draw. Monte Carlo and Rome this year. could see second seed Roger Federer, Nick Kyrgios, who beat Federer in ed defending champion Maria Nadal is seeded a lowly sixth this Djokovic, bidding to become only the 2009 champion, face Swiss compa- Madrid, in the third round. Sharapova starts against experienced year after slipping to seven in the rank- the eighth man to complete the career triot Stan Wawrinka. In the women’s singles, top seed Estonian Kaia Kanepi and could tackle ings and as a result was always likely to Grand Slam, starts his campaign in Paris Third seeded Andy Murray was Serena Williams was handed a tough Spanish claycourter Carla Sanchez face one of his major rivals in the last against experienced 33-year-old Finn drawn for a potential last-eight clash draw which could see the American tak- Navarro in the quarter-finals. eight. “It’s very strange,” admitted Nadal, Jarkko Nieminen while Nadal begins against David Ferrer while Tomas ing on old rival Victoria Azarenka and Former number one Caroline promoted to the sixth seeding after the against 18-year-old French wildcard Berdych could tackle Japan’s Kei sister Venus before the quarter-finals. Wozniacki is a possible last-eight oppo- injury-enforced pull-out of Canada’s Quentin Halys, the world number 304. Nishikori. Federer, the 2009 champion, Williams, the 2002 and 2013 champi- nent for Williams. Third seed Simona Milos Raonic. “It’s never happened The world number one said he starts against a qualifier but has Latvian on and just three majors shy of match- Halep, the runner-up in 2014, could before. “But I have to play four matches wasn’t surprised by the draw which put 24th seed Ernests Gulbis, who knocked ing Steffi Graf’s Open-era record of 22 meet 2008 champion Ana Ivanovic in to get to the quarter-finals. I have to be Nadal into his section. “I think that even him out in the fourth round last year, Grand Slam titles, starts against a quali- the quarter-finals. ready for the first round.” Nadal defeated a few weeks ago when Rafa dropped also in his section. fier but could meet sister Venus in the Petra Kvitova, the fourth-seeded Djokovic in the 2012 and 2014 finals, from the top four, I think people already French star Gael Monfils, who defeat- last 16. Wimbledon champion is in Serena’s half but the top-seeded Serb, who turned 28 started talking the eventual quarter- ed Federer at the Davis Cup final in Two-time Australian Open winner of the draw and a potential semi-final yesterday, is the overwhelming finals with one of the top guys. So it’s 2014, is a potential fourth round oppo- and former number one Azarenka is a rival. Kvitova knocked the American out favourite for a maiden Roland Garros not a surprise,” said the Serb. nent. Murray is a possible semi-final potential third round opponent for of Madrid this month, ending the 19- title this year. “It’s been something that was build- opponent for Djokovic as well as Nadal Williams. Adding extra spice to the draw time major winner’s 27-match win Djokovic goes into the French Open, ing up already for a few weeks. But with the Scot, the champion on clay in is the presence of bitter American rival streak. —AFP ‘VCB’ready to run faster JAMAICA: Veronica Campbell-Brown, the The fall-out from the case, she said, did first lady of Jamaican sprinting, believes set her back last season when she looked a she will run faster than ever after enduring shadow of the woman who has garnered an ordeal she trusts no other athlete will seven Olympic and nine world champi- have to suffer. onship medals. The suspicion then was that The triple Olympic champion turned 33 maybe after such a traumatic interruption last week but said her “best days are still to her career and in her thirties, her career ahead” now she has recovered from the could be in terminal decline. traumatic episode which saw her pilloried Yet Campbell-Brown, who says she as a drugs cheat before she was cleared of thinks she will still be around to challenge a potentially career-ending doping offence. at the 2017 world championships in “It was very unfair and I hope no athlete London, insisted: “I do believe age is just a will ever go through what I went through,” number and that my best days are ahead of Campbell-Brown reflected in an interview me.” She said, for instance, that she had with Reuters after starting her 2015 cam- “never put a really good 100 metres paign in impressive form in China. “It’s together”-astonishing, considering that she tough, especially when you know you’re won a world title in the event in 2007 — innocent and your name has been dragged and that she felt she could surpass her four- through the mud and people who had no year-old best of 10.76 seconds. clue were speaking evil stuff. As for her 200m, she looked good flying “But people go to jail for crimes they round Beijing’s Bird’s Nest in 22.68 last didn’t commit. It’s part of life and I take my week, seven years since she landed the sec- inspiration from those who have suffered at ond of her two Olympic half-lap titles there. the hands of wickedness.” In August, she intends to be back on Campbell-Brown received a two-year that track at the world championships and ban after testing positive for a banned she pointed out that the record number of diuretic in 2013 and says she went through Olympic medals won by any woman track an emotionally and financially crippling and field athlete is nine, by her compatriot experience as she fought to clear her name. and friend Merlene Ottey. So three more in She even took and passed a lie detector the 100m, 200m and relay in Rio de Janeiro test while her name was being smeared next year would give her 10. before the Court of Arbitration for Sport There is an indomitable quality about (CAS) finally exonerated her last Spring. VCB. One thing that upset her most about CAS noted the blatant flaws in the collec- the drugs slurs was that her Foundation, NEW YORK: Jordan Burroughs of the United States (in red) competes against Luis Esteban Quintana Martinez, of Cuba, during a freestyle tion procedures and possible “environmen- which she created to provide scholarships wrestling event in Times Square. —AP tal contamination” of her urine sample and mentoring programmes for high because of “deplorable” mistakes by school girls in Jamaica, suffered financially. Jamaican athletics and anti-doping offi- “I still want to inspire young women,” she cials. said. She also wants her ailing sport to Cuba and US wrestlers inspire again. “There are so many great ath- MUD STICKS letes out there and we have to uplift and While a nation which has always better promote them all,” she said. And that believed in their “VCB” celebrated, means not just her old Trelawny neighbour, Campbell-Brown knows how some mud a certain Usain Bolt. tussle in Times Square can always stick. “Well, Usain is great, Usain is well-loved, “Life is challenging at times, it was he’s energetic, he’s fun and he’s been doing rough and even to this day, I really don’t a good job carrying the sport. But I do NEW YORK: World class wrestlers from Cuba and two nations. Right now in Cuba you can’t really Streets, which promotes the sport in urban com- know what happened but one thing I can believe he could do with some help. If the the United States celebrated the improving rela- see the changes. But when the door opens munities, the event began with youth competi- say for sure is that I’ve never used drugs in burden is not only his, it will help promote tions between the countries on Thursday with more, you are going to see trade, going to see tors tussling on the mat erected in the shadow my career. I’ve been clean and honest all and push the sport. “As a sport, we have to an outdoor exhibition amid the hubbub of business.” The wrestling showdown precedes a of a statue of fabled Broadway showman George my life,” she said. regain trust at all levels so we can get the Times Square. Billed as “Salsa in the Square,” the trip to Havana by the New York Cosmos soccer M. Cohan. “A lot of people may speculate or insinu- support we need.