natassamarkidou.com

Dubai: The Dubai Sports Council (DSC) will host a ‘Sports and Technology Forum’ at the American University of UAE, Academic City from June 4-6.

The DSC initiative comes in line with the directives of Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of DSC to empower clubs within the emirate to move towards the goal of professionalism in all fields.

"In the past we’ve organised various such forums including sports psychology and the role of the media. Now it is time to add a different element of the use of technology to enhance sports at the individual and club level," related Dr. Ahmad Sa’ad Al Sharif, Secretary General, DSC.

"We realise the huge impact technology has in the field of sporting excellence, be it in team sports in the clubs or individual disciplines. Hopefully, such a forum will enable clubs to integrate various uses of technology and thus empower individuals," he added.

Article continues below

Story By: by Mark Memmott

New York Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera, earlier this season.

Update at 5:18 p.m. ET. He’ll Be Back:

“I can’t go out like this.”

That’s what Mariano Rivera told the AP about an injury that many thought could end the greatest closer in baseball history’s career.

The AP reports that Rivera said he would be back on the mound by 2013.

Our Original Post Continues:

Mariano Rivera, the greatest “closer” in Major League Baseball history, may have seen his career come to an end Thursday evening because of a knee injury he suffered as his New York Yankees were taking batting practice in Kansas City.

Rivera, 42, was chasing a fly ball in the outfield when his right knee buckled. The pitcher collapsed in pain, as video from the Yes Network shows. Later, the team reported that he tore an anterior cruciate ligament — ” a devastating knee injury that could signal the end of his remarkable career,” as The New York Times reports.

Rivera, speaking in a whisper, told reporters later that “at this point, I don’t know” whether he’ll play again. “Going to have to face this first. It all depends on how the rehab is going to happen, and from there, we’ll see.” Rehab from such an injury typically takes at least nine months.

According to the Times:

“For most of his 18 years with the Yankees, Rivera has been a fixture in center field during batting practice, along with the other pitchers, whose traditional duty is to retrieve fly balls. But Rivera always chased hits with more zeal and effort, including the one that led to his injury on Thursday.

“The ball was hit by Jayson Nix, who had been called up from Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to replace the injured Eric Chavez.”

Rivera’s career statistics tell the story of his remarkable career. He holds the record for most saves, with 608. His career ERA is a low 2.21. As CBSSports.com points out, in three consecutive World Series (1998-2000), “Rivera went 18-for-18 in save opportunities, with a 0.65 ERA.”

And, CBS says: “In 18 years with the Yankees, in a role where most have a roller-coaster existence, Rivera never had a bad season. His highest ERA since becoming a reliever was 3.15; his lowest save percentage was 83, and he was almost always at 87 percent or higher.”

Sports Illustrated wrote in 2009 about how Rivera “found perfection in one unhittable pitch” — a “cut fastball” that dips and darts.

Closers are, as the word implies, the pitchers who come in at the end of games when their teams are leading and get the last few outs to “save” the win.

At the very least, Junior Seau’s shocking suicide this week raises the stakes all the more when it comes to what might be on the line in the controversial and much-debated effort to increase player safety in the NFL. We don’t know for sure yet if the league’s two biggest headlines in recent days were connected on any level, and if Seau’s long and distinguished football career led to the kind of brain injury that contributed to him taking his own life, but there is ample reason — and far too much recent history — to support suspicion on that front.

Such significance makes the juxtaposition of the latest NFL versus players union battle all the more disgusting and distasteful to watch unfold. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s as if last year’s labor war never really ended. In some ways, it feels like we’re right back in the stagnant spring and summer of 2011, with the contentiousness this time spawned by the suspensions handed down to four current or ex-New Orleans Saints players by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for their roles in the team’s ugly bounty program scandal.

The league says there’s a mountain of evidence to support the penalties and they’ve shared it with the union, and the union says they’ve seen no evidence, and the judgments are inherently unfair. Two wildly contrasting sides to the story. Two different languages being spoken. Two different versions of reality being offered up, with two "independent” legal experts being trotted out Thursday to buttress their arguments. It’s all so very familiar.

Let’s step away from the facts of the league’s investigation that are in such hot dispute for just a moment to restate the obvious: The league and its players may have that much-celebrated CBA in place, but that’s about all they’re in agreement over these days. If you thought the matter of increased player safety would be a uniting cause, one that bred commonality between the NFL and NFLPA, think again. You probably assumed optimistically that HGH testing would be instituted quickly and smoothly as well. After all, it’s in the new CBA.

There may be merit to each side of the argument in regards to the Saints player suspensions. Room for some honest debate. But it’s hard at this point to not see the issue as having merely become just another proxy war for last year’s labor fight, with both sides viewing the issue from polar opposite vantage points, and the rhetoric and inability to agree on any facet of player penalties growing by the day.

Where’s Robert Kraft and Jeff Saturday when you need them now? How about hugging this one out, rather than muskets at 40 paces and the threat of litigation?

Instead, it’s Groundhog Day, and the league and the union are back to trench warfare, battling in the court of public opinion to get their viewpoint heard. If there ever was a honeymoon between the two sides, it lasted about as long as that settlement announcement news conference on the sidewalk in D.C. last July. After that photo op, it was time to restart the game and watch the money roll back in, and return to the default setting of disagreement and instinctive mistrust.

It’s not only beyond tiresome, but it’s the wrong issue at the wrong time to fight about. Setting aside the Saints saga, which in time will pass, the league and its players need to be on the same page regarding heightened player safety because it’s too vitally important an issue to bungle. Back away from the trees and see the forest and the big picture here, football folks. Whether you like it or not, the Saints bounty scandal represents a pivot point of sorts in the game’s history, a line of delineation that marks when player safety truly rose to a front-burner issue in the NFL, and when the league started to truly grapple with how to better protect the men who play this violent game.

It’s not going to be a perfect path to that goal, and there will be missteps along the way. Institutional change of this level is never easy, but it’s time for that change to come. Making the game safer is a worthy objective to be pursued, it’s long overdue, and a real paradigm shift in the game’s culture is already underway and won’t be blunted. All of which are reasons why the players union needs to embrace every aspect of these changes and support them, even if it makes the NFLPA momentarily uncomfortable to not fight tooth and nail for the four players in New Orleans who have been deemed to deserve suspensions for their role in the bounty program.

I understand that a union’s very existence is to fight for its members, so on the surface, naturally it makes sense to appeal on behalf of Jonathan Vilma, Will Smith, Anthony Hargrove and Scott Fujita. But those aren’t the NFLPA’s only constituents. The union also represents every current player who might have been illegally targeted for injury in the past, or who might have been in the future had the Saints scandal never come to light. Those members, which make up the union’s vast majority, will benefit from a safer, cleaner game, and their interests must outweigh those of the four Saints players who are being held accountable.

Some current and former players have decried the league’s efforts to make the NFL safer, saying it can’t be done without ruining the game. But many others have lauded it, including Super Bowl-winning Giants quarterback Eli Manning just this week. He’s a player union member, too, and he deserves to have his voice heard by the NFLPA. Manning came out in favor of the league’s player suspensions because he believes the punishment fit the crimes, and the good that came out of the message sent by those penalties will outweigh the hardships that Vilma and Co. experience.

The majority of fans and NFL players, I think, believe the Saints scandal represents a good development for the future health of football players, and see it as more than just a case of needless over-reach or over-reaction.

Saints fans will never agree with much of this, because for the most part, football fans are blindly loyal to their team, right or wrong, and that’s not changing. New Orleans feels it has been unfairly targeted and singled out, and to many that’s understandable. But even if the truth winds up being that the Saints took a larger bullet than they deserved, or too much has been made of this particular story, there’s a much bigger issue at stake here, and it’s far more important than the specific facts or headline sizzle of this story. The cause of increased player safety is on the right side of history in this story, and anyone who lines up on the other side — even momentarily — is doing a small part to delay real change from taking place.

At the moment, the cause of change in the NFL is being held hostage to some degree by the debate regarding the evidence gathered against the Saints in the league’s bounty program investigation, and the fairness of the suspensions levied against the four defensive players. The stalemate is serving to obscure the larger issue of player safety, and breeding a new round of antipathy between the league office and union leadership.

To the NFL I would say: Stop telling us about the mountain of "multiple and independent first-hand accounts and corroborating documentation” that proves the evidence against the accused players and find a way to show us some of it. The fans, media and the rest of the league want to hear it, want to see it and want to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the NFL’s investigation has this story completely correct. Take this saga out of the realm of "Trust us, we have the evidence,” and prove it to the point where even the union can’t refute it.

The league says Hargrove signed a declaration that acknowledged the existence of the Saints illegal bounty program, his participation in it, and his being told to lie to cover it up in 2010. Can’t that document be used to knock down the union’s claims that it has seen no evidence proving players participated? Most football fans have a hard time believing Roger Goodell would suspend four players, one for an entire season, just for the fun of it, without evidence. But it’s time to give the public and the media more information and evidence than we’ve gotten so far, in order to get past the he-said, she-said element to this story.

In the end, I think the league is coming from the right place in their response to the Saints scandal. The NFL obviously has its own reasons to get its ducks in a row in regards to player safety, with hundreds of ex-players in the process of suing the league over concussion/brain trauma-related injuries. But clearly something was amiss in New Orleans. We’ve heard the Gregg Williams tape, we’ve seen the acknowledgments of responsibility from him, head coach Sean Payton, general manager Mickey Loomis and assistant head coach Joe Vitt. When you add in Hargrove’s signed declaration, it strains credulity to think that all Saints players are innocent of all wrongdoing in this saga.

Yet that’s basically the union’s position so far, that Saints management was totally at fault, and the Saints players were totally victims. The NFL is just being overzealous, connecting too many dots, and breathing too much meaning into what it found in New Orleans. At least in terms of any pay-to-injure charges against players. Oh, and see you in federal court.

The shame of it all is that player safety is too critical an issue to reduce to the players versus the league template. There can’t be two versions of reality that conflict this wildly, and we can’t re-fight the NFL labor war of 2011 over something that has this many potential losers. The league and its players need to be side by side on this one, even if both sides know there is no perfectly fair way to rule in the Saints bounty program scandal.

In this case at least, isn’t it better if the league over-reacted rather than under-reacted? Which would prove more dangerous? Erring on the side of player safety, or sweeping the story under the rug and pretending it’s business as usual? Take another look at recent headlines and the answer should be obvious.

While trying to figure out who’s Irina Spirlea and who’s Venus Williams…

I‘m not necessarily a Maria Sharapova fan (at least I hadn’t been). However, after her Stuttgart victory I was most impressed with the delight and joy I saw in her face after winning (her tennis was OK too). In an era of contrived celebrations (see NFL, NBA), the genuineness of her simple celebration was meaningful to me. Shame on me for not acknowledging her grit and fight to come back to the top of the game earlier. Yeah, she had lost several finals, but at least she reached the finals. I applaud her many efforts over the years, but I got the feeling that this one meant a little more than just another win. And I read that Ms. Sharapova even noted that her opponent wasn’t 100 percent due to a wrist injury, but was still very pleased with the win. Impressive to have the presence of mind to note that after what I believe was an important emotional win for her. Grace from a champion is nice.
– Bret, Orem, Utah

• Tennis fans are a fickle subphylum. A mere week ago, most observers were questioning Sharapova’s future, questioning her fight (given her results in recent finals), questioning her prospects heading into the clay season. Suddenly Sharapova is back, heading the French Open favorites list. We need to sign a liability waiver for inducing whiplash.

Overall, I’m with Bret. In so many words, Bret highlights The Great Sharapova Irony. We all know the ways in which she is presented and marketed. Yet as an athlete, she is all grit and inelegance. Her game isn’t easy on the eyes. As she admits, grace is not a core strength. A fluid mover, she is not. We all know about the unfortunate soundtrack that accompanies her ball striking. Instead, she wins by grinding and battling and committing herself to hard work. And she should be praised for this.

As for the sudden spasm of (exuberant) optimism, let’s not coronate anyone as a Grand Slam champ based on one good week, a full month before the actual event. But no question, Sharapova did herself proud, particularly on clay, beating the last three Grand Slam champs in succession. I’ll repeat what I wrote other day: between Serena’s play in Charleston and Sharapova’s run in Stuttgart, the women’s side of the French just got a lot more interesting.

How will the summer Olympics affect who plays the Western and Southern Open this year?
– Gerry R. Elkhart, Ind.

• Anyone from the hometown of Shawn Kemp gets special consideration here. As for the field of the Western and Southern event, my moles say you should be OK. The tennis competition will occur during the first week of the Olympics, so the (fortunate) last of the players get their hardware and leave London by Aug 5. Cincy starts Aug. 12. The folks in Canada are likely a bit more nervous. The Rogers Cup starts August 6. (Remember, too, that the Canadian WTA final will be held on a Monday this year.)

It’s great that the USTA found a new sponsor — Emirates Airlines — for the U.S. Open Series. And it makes sense to package all the events leading to the year’s final major. But once every four years, the Olympics sure throw the proverbial wrench into the scheduling. On the other hand, who can argue that including tennis as an Olympic event — attracting and exciting all the best players not named Mardy Fish — isn’t a net positive for the sport?

My quartet submission is from Anchorman. Some of these are a stretch, but they made me chuckle

1. Ron Burgurndy = Rafa, he’s always selling two tickets to the Gun Show.

2. Bryan Fontana = Tsonga, “60 percent of the time his on court strategy works every time”.

3. Champ Kind = Azarenka, her on court shrieks are as a signature catchphrase as loud and unnecessary as Champ’s “Whammmmy!” call.

4. Brick Tamland = any WTA fan who quotes Brick’s immortal “Loud Noises!!!!” in their head during a normal shriekfest.

Given the almost nonexistent overseas gross of Anchorman, I doubt these will resonate with all of your readers.
– Anonymous

• Well played. And you didn’t mention the best news of all: Sequel!

Jon, I was wondering if you might talk a bit on how a tournament officially becomes a “Grand Slam”. Who designates them as such? What is the criteria? Do tournaments ever “apply” to be considered the fifth Slam? Do you think there will ever be a fifth Slam and if so, what effects will that have on the world of tennis?
– Shayne, Louisville, KY

• The Slams are governed by the International Tennis Federation. The Big Four received their vaunted status generations ago, of course. Now, it is very much a closed shop. Even if a promoter or federation were willing to pay the purse and even if a suitable venue existed, there’s roughly a 0.00 percent chance there would be a fifth major. For all sorts of reasons — the break from the tradition, the diluting of the existing products, the havoc it would unleash on the schedule — it never would be formally recognized as a fifth Slam.

Informally, events have used the “fifth Slam” designation, mostly as a marketing tool. “Hey, we may not be an official major, but we’re the closest thing. Men and women. All the top stars in attendance. Seven rounds. Two weeks (almost) of play.” The Sony Open (aka the Sony Ericsson Open) in Miami and the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells are most aggressive in claiming this distinction.

For as often as tennis administrators wring their hands over the schedule, I think four Slams is the perfect number. You have your tent poles — erratically spaced, as they are — and the rest of the events fill the gaps. The majors are special and there are enough distinguishing features (the purses, the best-of-five format for the men, the mixed doubles, the improved television platform) to make clear they are special. Five majors and you’re diluting the product too much. Three majors and you’re shortchanging the fans and the players.

Currently watching Jamie Moyer carve up Major League hitters at the age of 49. Wondering if you could think of any tennis comps for The Ageless One — late, sustained success (we’ll say after 30), crafty style (left handedness preferred but not required), etc. The best I could come up with was Fabrice Santoro.

– Scott, Pittsburgh

• I always likened Santoro to a knuckleballer, a guy who succeeded with a skill set — guile, touch, feel, angles, mystery — that was entirely different from that of the opponent, totally at odds with the prevailing power ethos. The Magician worked his tricks into his 30s, but I don’t think of him as a tennis Methuselah.

As for players failing to act their age, I give you four suggestions: 1) Go back to the pre-Open Era where players could succeed well into their 40s (see: Gonzalez, Pancho). 2) Look at the doubles phylum and note how many of the top players are north of 35. 3) Consider Roger Federer who is “only” 30, but remains in the conversation whenever talk turns to potential Slam winners. 4) Fix your gaze on Kimiko Date-Krumm, still going strong at age 41 — this, after a decade-long layoff.

Where could I go to read or even see players’ post-match interviews?

– Taylor H., Batesville, Ark .

• Start with Asap Sports, the excellent transcription service that many events — including the Slams — utilize. Play around on the website but be mindful of the time or you’ll be there for hours reading the quotes from, say, Richard Williams at the 1999 Lipton event. (Trust me on this one.) In keeping with tennis’ problematic absence of standardization, some events use other local services. Some post transcripts on the tournament’s official site, but fail to give them to ASAP. Others simply cut corners and forgo transcription.

Jon, you wrote: “Aga is less a nickname than a convenient truncating of a name that, while popular and perhaps mellifluous in Poland, confounds ugly Americans, particularly the tastemakers and the branding types. Same for Rafa, Vika, Masha, Caro et al.” Indeed, Aga is a truncation of Agnieszka Radwanska’s name, but her nickname in Poland is Isia (eeshya), too difficult to pronounce for non-Poles. But don’t take my word for it, just check Polish press.
– Les Banas, Portland, Ore. (soon to be Denver, Colo.)

• Thanks. Good luck on the move, Les. Congrats on the easy nickname.

Seems like a really long time since we had a nice dust-up on the ranking system, so here goes: Mona Barthel just lost her second straight deep, long, close, three-setter to Vika, and she won exactly the same number of points for this match as Wozniacki won for her 6-1, 6-2 knockout by Kerber.

1. Why don’t we award points at a finer granularity than matches? How about points for sets? Maybe even about points for, er, points?

2. Why don’t rankings reflect the quality of opponents?

– Badri, Mountain View, Calif.

• Totally disagree on your first point. Tennis — perhaps to a cruel degree — is a winner-take-all endeavor. One player wins the last point of the match and advances; the other player loses it and heads home. Winning is everything. We start mucking with this core principle — to say nothing of encouraging corrupt practices — when we start awarding points for sets, games, and close calls. Granularity is overrated, sometimes.

As for somehow awarding points based on the quality of the defeated opponent, I think that’s a more reasonable discussion. If Ivan Dodig beats Rafael Nadal or Milos Raonic upsets Andy Murray should that win come freighted with a few extra “quality points”? Sure.

Long as you brought up Barthel, reserve her now as a French Open dark horse?

So what IS your position in the anti-Williams club?
– Anonymous

• I feel I need to wreck the timing of my joke with a disclaimer. This was a reference to last week’s discussion of the readers’ vastly different interpretations of content. For the record, I am not an officer in the anti-Williams club. I am not even IN the anti-Williams club. I am not even anti-Williams. As long as this stays between us, if were going to find athletes for my kids to emulate, both sisters would make the list. I would say something to the effect of, “Try to compete like Serena; and comport yourself like Venus.”

Anyway, where were we? Ah yes, the executive position. I always wanted to be a vice-admiral. Is that option still open? Otherwise maybe parliamentarian, if only for the opportunity to bang that gavel and say, “I hereby call this meeting to order.”

I don’t know if you don’t want to bring attention to this or that it has been lost in all of the grunting debate hoopla, but Serena has quietly stopped grunting in most of her matches. It’s been great hearing the crisp thumping sounds coming from her powerful shots.

– Luke Nguyen, New Orleans

• A Charleston reader who was at the Family Circle Cup matches noticed this as well. Something to look for these next few weeks. Speaking of Charleston readers, take it away, Aaron….

WTHIGOW the Barcelona Open trophy? Don’t they know it makes Rafa (or anyone else who might win it one day) look like tennis’s version of (Lily Tomlin’s) Edith Ann?
– Aaron D. Charleston

• Here’s the trophy. And the reference.

Actually, I don’t sense that you are a Serena or a Nadal hater. What you ARE though is the biggest Monica Seles hater because you are clearly a Steffi Graf zealot. I sense that you blame the current grunters on the WTA tour on Seles and because you always offer the “but” when others speculate on how many Grand Slam events Graf would NOT have won had Seles not been stabbed.
– Omar, El Paso, Teas

• Read this and get back to me, Omar.

• Here’s our latest SI Tennis Podcast. Chris Evert sits in for a sessions and was, predictably, great. This is worth 40 minutes of your time. You can connect with Chrissie on Twitter and Facebook.

• Tip of the cap to Glen Michibata who resigns as Princeton’s coach after 12 years.

• Sad story about Patty Schnyder.

• Jack Liebschutz, Polson, Mont.: “You mentioned family doubles in your column this week. My good friend, Jerry Morse-Karzen has won many, many golden tennis balls as a son and father; in both father and son and father and daughter. I doubt anyone has ever equaled his record.”

• Nice lid, Graf.

• Jim F. of Los Altos Hills, Calif.: “Regarding the SAP San Jose cancellation, four things, 1) Andy Roddick and Sam Querry told me, during the players’ reception at this year’s SAP, that they enjoyed the SAP because it was one of the few fast-court tournaments left on the ATP Tour. Canceling the SAP continues the conversion of the entire ATP to yearlong clay-court grinder tennis. Since this is bad for American players, where is the USTA? 2) As a ticket-holder for decades, I’m on the SAP’s e-mail list. They’ve sent me several e-mails since the sale — none of them about tennis. Instead of information on the future of the event, I get boy-band concert ticket offers. This is consistent with the lack of marketing, and lack of investment in big name players since they bought the tournament from Barry MacKay. 3) I believe that Bruce Jenkins and Matt Cronin are correct: SAP got killed to help their hockey schedule. 4) In case you’re interested, here are some photos I took at this year’s event.”

• Andy Murray on Jamie Murray.

• Press releasin’: “Tennis Hall of Famers Andre Agassi and John McEnroe and all-time great Martina Hingis will compete as part of the World TeamTennis matchup between the New York Sportimes and Boston Lobsters, the team announced. In a special benefit night on July 19, proceeds will go toward the Johnny Mac Tennis Project (JMTP), to provide scholarships, coaching, transportation and other financial assistance to qualified young tennis players in the greater New York area. The evening begins at 7 p.m. at Sportime Stadium on Randall’s Island.

• Tom of Boston, MA: “Random pro sighting. Two of my buddies and I were training at Hopman/Saddlebrook in the early 90s. While at lunch between sessions, I saw the No. 1 male player in the world, 10 feet away at a Coke machine. While slightly “star-struck” I called his name and wished him a good season. What I got back was a sneer and “hmphh”. Thankfully it was my only experience meeting Marcelo Rios.”

• Lavazza is the official coffee of Wimbledon. One wonders: what is the official tea?

Have a great week, everyone!

Dubai: Hong Kong, powered by a lethal backline, fired a clear warning to their rivals in the HSBC Asian Five Nations Top 5 competition after they swept to a convincing 85-10 victory over the UAE at the Sevens on Friday night.

Winger Rowan Varty grabbed four tries while inside centre Ally Maclay scored a hat-trick as the rampaging Hong Kong three-quarters accounted for a dozen of the 14 tries the visitors helped themselves to, as they got their campaign off to a sound start.

Hong Kong, runners-up last year, have set their sights on upsetting the Asian applecart by toppling perennial champions Japan. But despite the glut of tries, Hong Kong senior coach Leigh Jones warned that his side would have to step it up against South Korea, Japan and Kazakhstan.

"The scoreline flattered us. We have plenty of work to do," said Jones. "But this win will give us confidence as we look ahead to South Korea next week."

Article continues below

A lot has already been said about the ‘Group of Death’ that the UAE find themselves in at the Olympics football competition in London. One can almost sense the smirk in some at the thought of UAE taking on Great Britain (possibly with David Beckham, the ambassador of English football, in their ranks) at Wembley, but one feels Mahdi Ali’s boys deserve better than this.

Yes, the luck of the draw has been quite cruel to the UAE, who are easily in the toughest group with Team GB, Senegal and Uruguay. Such a group means that the odds are stacked against them in all three group matches, nullifying their chances of being one of the top two finishers who move to the quarter-final stages.

The two other teams from the Arab world — Egypt and Morocco — have, by comparison, been clubbed into groups which give them a fighting chance to stay in the running for the second round. Both these countries, who have a greater lineage in soccer than the UAE, find a superpower each in their respective groups (Egypt have Brazil with them in Group E while Morocco have Spain in Group D) but look equipped to challenge the other teams on equal terms.

The current regulation where by each team will gain enormously in depth with the addition of three professionals over 23 years, along with a tight 16-team field, is going to make football a real marquee event along with athletics and swimming in this year’s Olympics.

Article continues below

Moscow: Jelena Jankovic steered Serbia into their first Fed Cup final when she thrashed Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1 6-4 in the second reverse singles on Sunday.

Jankovic’s win gave the visitors an insurmountable 3-1 lead against Russia in their semi-final, played on a red clay court laid on top of the ice rink at Moscow’s Megasport arena.

Earlier, Ana Ivanovic dispatched Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 3-6 6-0 6-3 to put the Serbs ahead 2-1.

"I still cannot believe that we are in the Fed Cup final," an emotional Jankovic told reporters.

Article continues below

Dubai Allegations of time-wasting, charged at Ali Al Habsi by Arsene Wenger after Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat at home to Wigan on Monday, are not fair according to the Latics’ Omani shot-stopper.

Goals on seven and eight minutes from Franco Di Santo and Jordo Gomez ruled Thomas Vermaelen’s 21st minute effort obsolete, but it was the manner in which Al Habsi set the pace for the remainder of the game that most riled Arsenal’s coach.

Wenger accused Al Habsi of "disrespecting people who pay big money to watch the game" after the Omani deployed stalling tactics from the first 10 minutes on.

A defence tactic

Article continues below

Chennai: The Chennai Super Kings will be hoping to reignite their campaign in the Indian Premier League when they host the Pune Warriors here today.

With only two wins in five outings, the Super Kings have made a typically slow start, but Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men don’t want to leave it to the last minute like they did a couple of seasons ago.

In contrast, the Sourav Ganguly-led Warriors, having won three so far, will be keen to consolidate their position and shrug off their recent defeat in Bengaluru.

The visitors have no Chris Gayle to contend with, but need to be wary of the Super Kings’ batting prowess that was on view the other night when they chased down a 200-plus target with the likes of Albie Morkel and Dwayne Bravo contributing at the death.

Article continues below

Abu Dhabi: The Brazilians once again dominated as their fighters advanced to the finals in most categories while six UAE fighters also made it to the finals for a slice of the Dh3.5 million at stake.

Friday’s competitions, which had over 500 fighters from about 48 countries, pit their skills in the Abu Dhabi Professional Jiu Jitsu Championship at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company premises.

After Thursday’s World Kids Championship, the professional fighters got into the act and a fairly good holiday crowd witnessed some high quality non-striking grappling on the mats.

Attended the action

Article continues below

General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, attended the action for the second consecutive day. UAE’s Faisal Al Ketbi advanced to the final of the Purple Belt Open category while Ahmad Mousa made it to the final in the 100-kgs White Belt category.

In the Adult Seniors Blue-White Belt section, Saeed Al Rashdai (88kgs) and Abdullah Al Ketbi (100kgs) were in line for some success after entering their respective finals.

The only ladies final in which Emirati women managed to make their mark was the 54kgs White Belt. Najla Mohammad and Shamsa Hassan won their respective semi-finals to assure themselves either a gold or a silver in the women’s section.

Results

The finalists in the men’s event:

White Belt:

Blue Belt:

Purple Belt:

Black Belt:

Blue-White Belt: