SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2013 SPORTS Hewitt steals show Photo of the day NEW YORK: Australian warhorse Lleyton pion and a great fighter,” said the big vived a first-set wobble before racing Hewitt battled to a five-set US Open win Argentine. away with 12 of the last 14 games to over Argentine sixth seed Juan Martin Hewitt, playing in his 13th US Open defeat Germany’s Benjamin Becker 7-6 Del Potro Friday, relegating Andy after having made his debut in 1999, hit (7/2), 6-2, 6-2 after saving two set points Murray, Novak Djokovic and Serena 42 winners, one more than del Potro, in the 10th game of the opener. Williams to supporting roles. who committed 70 unforced errors, a Djokovic, bidding to reach the final The 2001 champion defeated the bleak statistic which eased the impact of for a fourth successive year, sent down 2009 winner, 6-4, 5-7, 3-6, 7-6 (7/2), 6-1 in the Australian only converting eight of 13 aces and 40 winners against the 32- the tournament’s biggest shock to date. 18 break point chances. year-old Becker. Hewitt, 32 years old and down at 66 in Hewitt’s pyrotechnics overshadowed “Becker is a quality player and he the rankings after a lengthy battle with the progress into the third round of should have won the first set. I was for- injuries, served up a trademark warrior- defending champion Murray and world tunate to come out of it, but after that I like performance that recalled his gold- number one Djokovic, as well as felt more comfortable on the court,” said Djokovic, who next plays Portugal’s Joao Sousa. Czech fifth seed Tomas Berdych, who defeated Roger Federer on his way to the semi-finals last year, made the third round by seeing off America’s Denis Kudla 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/3), 6-3. He next meets French 31st seed Julien Benneteau. In the women’s event, four-time champion Williams eased past Russian- born Kazkhastan player Yaroslava Shvedova, 6-3, 6-1. Williams, who has dropped just eight games in three rounds, is chasing a 17th Grand Slam title and next plays compa- triot Sloane Stephens, who beat her in the Australian Open quarter-finals in January. Competitor performs at the Red Bull Olabillop in Bergen, Norway. —www.redbullcontentpool.com Chinese fifth seed Li Na hit 11 aces in a 6-2, 7-5 victory against teenager Laura Robson, avenging her loss to the Briton NEW YORK: Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina celebrates a point at the same stage last year. against Lleyton Hewitt of Australia during their men’s singles third The 31-year-old Li goes on to face round match on Day Five of the 2013 US Open. —AFP Serbian ninth seed Jelena Jankovic, the England level T20 series 2008 runner-up, for a quarter-final spot. en days when he was world number one women’s champion Williams, who made “I was really happy how I was hitting on CHESTER-LE-STREET: Alex Hales’s 94 pro- and Wimbledon champion. the last 16. Murray, the third seed and the court,” Li said. “And I thought I served vided the platform for England’s 27-run It was his 32nd career five-set victory Wimbledon champion, survived his first really well.” Li’s best US Open perform- win against Australia in the second and gave him a third-round match-up scare of the US Open, beating ance was a run to the quarter-finals in Twenty20 international yesterday as the with Russia’s Evgeny Donskoy, the world Argentina’s world number 81 Leonardo 2009, one round better than Polish third two-match series ended all square at 1-1. number 102. Mayer, 7-5, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 and goes on to seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who has Australia, set 196 for victory, finished on “I was really pumped up after I won tackle Germany’s Florian Mayer for a last- stumbled at the fourth-round stage on 168 for nine at Chester-le-Street with my first match because I knew I would 16 spot. three occasions. The 2012 Wimbledon opener Aaron Finch-who made a have a chance to play on Arthur Ashe Murray fired 28 winners while the runner-up made the last 16 once again Twenty20 international record 156 in the Stadium,” said Hewitt after his four-hour, Argentine hit 49 unforced errors. “It was with a 6-4, 7-6 (7/1) win over Russian tourists’ 39-run win at Southampton on three-minute win. a very tough match,” Murray said of an 32nd seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, a Thursday-out for just five. “I don’t know how many years I have opponent who like him was born on quarter-finalist in 2011. David Warner top-scored for Australia left to play and I was hankering to get May 15, 1987. Radwanska now faces Ekaterina with 53 but they were rarely up with the out on this court again and put on a “Both of us ran a lot and it was very Makarova, the Russian 24th seed who rate as seamer Jade Dernbach took three show.” Del Potro, still bothered by a wrist humid. I’m just glad I was able to put it clinched a 6-4, 7-5 win over German wickets for 23 runs in his maximum per- injury, was beaten in his second succes- together and pull it out in the fourth set.” 16th seed Sabine Lisicki, the Wimbledon mitted four overs. sive four-hour match. “He’s a great cham- Djokovic, the 2011 champion, sur- runner-up. —AFP Earlier, opening batsman Hales just failed again to become the first England batsman to score a Twenty20 interna- tional hundred as he took the hosts to Young American legacy of 195 for five. Pakistan-born leg-spinner Fawad Ahmed, wicketless on debut at CHESTER LE STREET: Australia’s David Warner (right) bats as Williams sisters emerges Southampton, took his first international England’s Jos Buttler looks on during the second 20Twenty interna- wickets to finish with three for 25. tional cricket match. —AFP NEW YORK: The legacy of the championship years of the Williams needs to get quicker.” Man-of-the-match Hales, who made 99 Hales, off the last ball of the penulti- off-spinner Joe Root. sisters is beginning to emerge, with 10 American women now McEnroe said the sheer number of emerging talents was what in a Twenty20 international against the mate over, was caught by Warner, running Warner, one ball after being missed by ranked in the top 100 and members of the younger set beginning gave him such optimism for the future. “I don’t know if you can cre- West Indies last year, shared an opening in from long-on, off Faulkner to end a 61- Steven Finn, then holed out off Dernbach to knock on the door of grand slam success. ate a grand slam champion, but if you get the numbers then you stand of 111 with Michael Lumb (43). ball knock featuring 11 fours and two sixes. to Hales, sweeping on the cover fence. Tennis great Chris Evert sees major hardware within reach, have that group effect and you have a better chance that the That partnership equalled England’s It was the 24-year-old Hales’s sixth fifty And when Dernbach took two wickets while US Tennis Association chief of player development Patrick extraordinary ones will get to the top,” he said. best for any wicket against Australia in a in 21 innings at this level. In contrast to the in two balls to dismiss Glenn Maxwell and McEnroe and US Fed Cup captain Mary Joe Fernandez agree that All three agreed that the current rise of US women was tied to T20 international, with Craig Kieswetter first innings, Australia lost early wickets Faulkner to leave Australia 148 for eight in US women’s tennis is once again very much on the rise. the impact made by Serena and Venus Williams, who have won a and Kevin Pietersen having put on 111 for with Finch out to his fifth ball when he the 18th over, the match was all but over. On Friday, 20-year-old Sloane Stephens beat Jamie Hampton in total of 23 grand slam singles titles between them. the second wicket in England’s 2010 World top-edged a hook off Broad to Wright at England, who won the preceding a third-round US Open clash between Fed Cup team mates that “Seeing them dominating and the great lives they are having Twenty20 final win over their arch-rivals in mid-on. Ashes Test campaign 3-0, and Australia put a spotlight on American talent bursting to prominence. and the champions that they are, that inspires them to develop Barbados. “I was disappointed not to get a And when Watson, sent back by meet in their third format of the season “The ceiling is high. This is a great group, starting with Sloane, their game even more,” said Evert, pointing to the African American hundred after getting close, Lumby helped Warner, was run out by Eoin Morgan’s when a five-match one-day international who has had the most success,” McEnroe, the former US Davis Cup girls among the crop like Stephens, Keys, Duval, Taylor Townsend me out at the start-he gets going quicker direct hit from backward point, Australia series starts in Leeds on Friday. captain, told Reuters at Flushing Meadows.