Friday, January 6, 2017Rabia II 8, 1438 AH

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Spurs and Alli deny Chelsea record win

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Ton-up Younis keeps Pakistan alive in third TestPage 7

Verdasco scalps another seed, to meet Djokovic in semi-fi nal

QATAR EXXONMOBIL OPEN

World No. 1 Andy Murray survives a slugfest against Nicolas Almagro to enter last four

By Joe KoraithDoha

The spotlight at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open has fi rmly been, and understand-ably so, on Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic. The top-two ranked stars

command the biggest number of people watch-ing them, maybe Murray gets the edge there. But one man has been fl ying under the radar, quietly booting seeded players out of the tournament.

Fernando Verdasco claimed his latest scalp yesterday when he defeated Ivo Karlovic in straight sets 6-2, 7-5 to enter the semi-fi nals. Verdasco had taken out fourth-seed David Gof-fi n in the second round and yesterday it was the turn of the sixth-seed Karlovic to fall to the Spaniard. Verdasco, ranked 42nd in the world has taken out players who are ranked 31 places (Goffi n, ranked 11th) and 22 places above him (Karlovic-20).

Against the 6’11” Karlovic, Ferdasco had a strong service game with 83 per cent of his serves going in but more importantly, he faced only a single break point and that too he was able to save. In comparison, Karlovic had 12 against him. “I am playing very good so far, especially my service game is really working,” said Ver-

dasco, who had been ranked as high as seventh in the world. But that was way back in 2010 and the Spaniard believes that it’s the fi tness issues that’s one of the hurdles in him climbing up the rankings.

“My goal this year is to be healthy and free from injury. Otherwise it is diffi cult to have a good ranking. Last year I had some problems with my cervical vertebrae. To avoid that, I am planning to travel with a physiotherapist this season. Because, at my age, fi tness is very im-portant if I want to prolong my career,” said the 33-year-old.

Verdasco has had an impressive run up to the semi-fi nals so far but next up for him is Novak Djokovic. The defending champion has yet to drop a set and is looking in fi ne form so far.

Djokovic defeated Radek Stepanek in straight sets 6-3, 6-3 yesterday. Verdasco had lost to Djokovic in the second round here in Doha last year – a 6-2, 6-2 loss that one was.

The Spaniard wants to put up a better fi ght this time around. “I don’t have anything to lose. I am going to play against a great player and I will be looking to win the match. When you are in the semi-fi nals, you always want more and I am going to fi ght hard to get into the fi nals,” said Verdasco.

Djokovic has an 8-4 head to head record

against his semis opponent and three out of those four defeats were on clay. But the Serbian champion was wary of the threat that Verdasco poses. “I saw him play against Goffi n and he played really solid, really impressive tennis. He’s playing better than last year when we encoun-tered each other in the second round. He’s a very complete player. He has a strong forehand and has a big serve,” said Djokovic yesterday.

“If he’s feeling good on that given day, he can really challenge any player on any surface. That’s how I see him. We have always been aware of his potential and his talent. Just that he wasn’t able to keep things consistent through-out his career. But, you know, he’s very danger-ous player if he’s, as I said, feeling well,” added the world no. 2.

Djokovic had to battle the wile of Stepanek and also the windy conditions, which was up-setting the rhythm of the players. “If we call these conditions windy, that would be putting it gently. It was quite challenging, especially men-tally, to be able to go through these kind of con-ditions without losing focus and determination on the court,” said Djokovic.

“However it’s the same for both players, so there is not much you can do. The force of the nature is like that. You have to accept and try to embrace it, really be one with the wind, other-

wise it’s not going to be good day for you,” he added.

Meanwhile, in the bottom half of the draw Andy Murray survived a slugfest against Nico-las Almagro to enter the semi-fi nals. The world no. 1 took close to two hours to defeat Almagro 7-6(4), 7-5. The Spaniard’s swinging forehand was fi nding the corners of the court and his ag-gressive play threatened to upset the odds. But Murray, despite berating himself constantly, was able to fi nd the mental fortitude to emerge victorious. “It was a very tough match. Both sets were very close. Almagro was aggressive and going for his shots. It was very windy conditions and that made it tougher,” said Murray after his match.

“I served well. I feel that it was the second serve percentage that was the diff erence. I had 61 per cent and he had 48,” he added.

As to the constant yelling at self, this is what Murray said: “I am pretty tough on myself, when I’m playing. Especially, since it’s the fi rst week of the season and I have to be ready for the Aus-tralian Open. As the season progresses and I get more comfortable with my game, I treat myself better.”

Two-time winner al-Attiyah pulls out of Dakar RallySan Salvador de Jujuy, Argentina: Two times Dakar Rally winner Nasser al-Attiyah of Qatar withdrew from the event yesterday after dam-age to his stricken Toyota proved too great to fix. The 2011 and 2015 champion, and early favourite for this year’s honours, ripped a wheel off the car in Wednesday’s third stage in Argen-tina and lost more than two hours as he limped to the finish. Organisers said the 46-year-old 2012 Olympic shooting bronze medallist had not started the fourth stage from San Salvador de Jujuy to Tupiza in Bolivia.

Al-Attiyah had won this year’s first stage, was runner-up in the second and was poised to retake the overall lead in the third from France’s nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb when he went off -track and crashed into a hole.

He had recognised on Wednesday that his hopes of a third overall win had disappeared. “Game over. A bad day,” he told the Dakar web-site (www.dakar.com) after ending the day 32nd overall but still hoping to continue competing.

“We stopped to repair but we could not. We don’t have all the parts. “It was a mistake it’s bad luck but this is the race. This is how the Dakar is. We were doing a really good job, we were lead-ing but there you go.”

The Qatari had already had a lucky escape on the opening day when his car caught fire after a leak sprayed oil on the exhaust.

BROKEN LEG FORCES DEFENDING MOTORCYCLE CHAMPION PRICE OUT

Meanwhile, defending motorcycle champion Toby Price was forced out of the Dakar Rally yesterday after breaking his left leg, joining al-Attiyah on the sidelines on just the fourth day of racing.

Australian rider Price suff ered his race-ending injury when he tumbled off his KTM motorbike after 371km of the fourth stage as the 9,000km race climbed into the dizzying altitudes of the Andes. The 29-year-old had to be airlifted off the course, which hit 3,000 metres above sea

level, to hospital. Austria’s Matthias Walkner, on a KTM, took victory on the fourth moto stage ahead of Spain’s overall leader Joan Barreda on a Honda.

Walkner finished 2min 2sec ahead of Barreda while French rider Michael Metge on another Honda was third, 3min 18sec behind Walkner. “I am happy with my victory today but I just hope Toby is OK,” said Walkner.

Barreda has a 22min 16sec lead over Chile’s Pablo Quintanilla, who is on a Husqvarna, in the overall standings. “Today was really diff icult, especially the first 70 kilometres, with amazing navigation... at two points I was not really sure, but finally I trusted myself,” said Barreda.

In other drama, it emerged yesterday that Slovakian KTM motorcycle rider Ivan Jakes had been hit by lightning 300km from the finish on the previous day’s stage.

He continued riding but was taken to hospital for checks after reaching the finish. Doctors later cleared him to continue in the race.

Quarter-fi nals results (x denotes seeding):Andy Murray (GBR x1) bt Nicolas Almagro (ESP)

7-6 (7/4), 7-5; Fernando Verdasco (ESP) bt Ivo

Karlovic (CRO x6) 6-2, 7-5; Novak Djokovic (SRB

x2) bt Radek Stepanek (CZE) 6-3, 6-3

Qatar’s Nasser al-Attiyah ripped a wheel off his Toyota in Wednesday’s third stage in Argentina. (Reuters)

Andy Murray whips a backhand yesterday.

Fernando Verdasco of Spain celebrates after his win over Ivo Karlovic at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open yesterday. RIGHT: A young fan gets lucky as he receives a wrist band from Novak Djokovic. PICTURES: Noushad Thekkayil

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TENNIS2 Gulf Times

Friday, January 6, 2017

Raonic sets up mouthwatering clash with Nadal

BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL

‘After injuries and hard times it’s so special to be back on court’

AFPBrisbane

Defending champion and top seed Milos Raonic cruised into the quarter-finals

of the Brisbane International with a regulation 6-3, 6-2 win over Argentine Diego Schwartzman yesterday.

Raonic, who beat Roger Fed-erer to win the 2016 Brisbane ti-tle, will now take on Rafael Nad-al for a place in the semi-fi nals after the Spaniard crushed Ger-many’s Mischa Zverev 6-1, 6-1.

Raonic broke Schwartzman once in the first set and three times in the second to wrap up the match in 69 minutes, but said he wasn’t happy with his start.

“At the beginning I really struggled that first service game, and had another close service game before I started to get in on his games,” Raonic

said. “Then I could feel I start-ed imposing myself on him. He started making some mistakes and I was able to create some things as well.

“I have to be glad with how I finished.” Nadal wasted no time in his 55 minute demoli-tion of Zverev to the delight of the packed crowd in Pat Rafter Arena. The 14-time Grand Slam singles winner gave Zverev no chance, blast-ing 30 winners across the two sets and making only seven unforced errors.

Nadal was troubled by ill-ness and injury in 2016 and said he was thrilled to be back on court fully fit.

“After injuries and hard times it’s so special to be back on court,” he said.

“Tomorrow (against Raon-ic) it’s going to be a very hard match.

“He likes this court and he’s had some good results here. I hope to play at my best and If I

do I’ll have a good chance.”Fourth seeded Austrian

Dominic Thiem saw off huge serving Australian Sam Groth 7-6 (7/5), 6-3.

The Australian was granted a wildcard into the tournament and won his fi rst round match against Pierre-Hugues Herbert.

But once his serve dropped off slightly in the second set Thiem was able to secure a comfortable win.

“I’m pretty satisfied with the victory because he served very well, especially in the first set,” Thiem said.

“He had over 70 percent first serves in and if he has this it’s very tough to break him.

“But I played a good tiebreak and in the second set I started to return better and luckily I got one break.”

Thiem will play Bulgaria’s seventh seed Grigor Dimitrov in the quarter-finals following Dimitrov’s 6-2, 6-4 win over Frenchman Nicolas Mahut.

Serena faces fl ak in Auckland aft er rant against conditions

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AFPAuckland

Auckland Classic organisers have appealed for Serena Williams to return next year despite the world number two lashing out

at conditions following her shock second-round exit.

Williams said she “abhorred” the Auckland wind and called the conditions the “least favourite” she had played in after losing 6-4, 6-7 (7/5), 6-4 to world number 72 Madison Brengle on Wednes-day. As she prepared to go to Melbourne for the Australian Open, where she will attempt to win an Open-era record 23rd Grand Slam title, Williams said she would like to “get to somewhere better, some warm weather”.

“I really abhorred the conditions. It was way too much for me. This is almost not

a great opportunity to assess your game,” she said.

“I’m trying to think of a word that’s not obscene but that’s pretty much how I played,” added the American.

The New Zealand press were critical of Williams’ comments, with Fairfax Media saying the appearance of the tennis great was “a let-down from lots of perspec-tives”. “She avoided sponsorship and media opportunities throughout her time in Auckland and you’d have to say Maria Sharapova gave the tournament more bang for its buck when she came in 2011,” wrote Fairfax tennis writer David Long.

In the New Zealand Herald, Michael

Burgess said Williams “was far from a role model” with her reaction the loss in which she made, by one count, a staggering 88 unforced errors.

“In just her second — and fi nal — in-terview at the tournament Williams spent most of the three minutes and thirty sec-onds trying to attack the credibility of the event,” Burgess said in a column headlined “Williams failed to deliver”.

“She gave almost no credit to her op-ponent, and the focus on the conditions overshadowed Brengle’s tenacious play.”

Tournament director Karl Budge ad-mitted Williams’ outburst could aff ect player interest for next year, but said he still wanted her back.

“It does do a fair bit of damage but proba-bly more for next year,” Budge told reporters.

“It’s around how that message is de-livered in the dressing room and we don’t want to get a reputation as a windy tour-nament.”

Budge said he had not spoken to Wil-liams following her defeat but would meet her team at the Australian Open to discuss a possible return to Auckland.

“I’ll sit down and have that conversa-tion in Melbourne. We’ll go away and chat to her team,” he said.

“I hope she appreciates what we did for her and we’ll have a conversation in Mel-bourne and go from there.”

The Auckland Classic not only lost top seed Serena Williams but also her sister Venus, the second seed, who pulled out after her fi rst round match complaining of a sore right arm.

But Budge was complimentary about how Venus Williams handled herself.

“She was very apologetic. She’s all class, Venus,” he said.

“While we’re very disappointed she’s had to withdraw with injury, I think if there’s anyone that probably has a little bit of leeway it’s probably Venus Williams.”

Spain’s Rafael Nadal hits a shot during his match against Germany’s Mischa Zverev in Brisbane yesterday.

AFPShenzhen

American world number 39 Alison Riske stunned Polish top seed Agniesz-ka Radwanska in the

Shenzhen Open yesterday, send-ing her careering out of the WTA tournament 6-2, 3-6, 6-0.

Riske raced to a 5-0 lead in the quarter-fi nal fi rst set in the southern Chinese city before Radwanska, the world number three, off ered brief resistance, breaking her opponent back once.

The defending champion se-cured the second set 6-3, but the decider was a demolition that belied the diff erence in their rankings, with Radwanska only winning six points and Riske tak-ing it to love. China is a happy hunting ground for 26-year-old Riske, whose only WTA tour vic-tory came at the Tianjin Open in 2014 and who reached the fi nal there again last year. The highest-ranked player left in the $750,000

Shenzhen Open is Britain’s world number 10 Johanna Konta, who ground out a 6-4, 6-7 (11/13), 6-3 victory over Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic.

The two women hit a combined 22 aces during their two hour, 12 minute match, with Pliskova sav-ing two match points in the mara-thon second set tie-break, and Konta four set points, before the Czech fi nally prevailed.

“I knew going into the match that I would have a tough chal-lenge on her service games,” said Konta. “I tried to neutralise her fi rst and second serves as much as possible to try and get myself into those games, and work very hard to create some chances.”

In today’s semi-fi nals Riske will face Italy’s Camila Giorgi, who eliminated home player Wang Qiang 6-0, 6-2.

Konta will take on Katerina Siniakova, who followed up her defeat of world number four Si-mona Halep by disposing of Serb qualifi er Nina Stojanovic, 6-3, 6-4.

USA’s Riske proves dangerous for Radwanska

SPOTLIGHT

Perth: Six-times champions the United States finished off Australia 2-1 yesterday as they prepared for the weekend final of the Hopman Cup. Undefeated 3-0 in the round robin group, Jack Sock and Coco Vandeweghe will await an opponent from France and Switzerland, with the Europeans meeting in a concluding Friday group tie at the eight-nation mixed team competition. With holders Australia well out of title contention, Nick Kyr-gios withdrew after losing his singles to Sock 6-2, 6-2. The controversial Australian cited the knee injury he suff ered while playing basketball a few weeks ago as his reason for

missing the mixed doubles. He was replaced alongside Daria Gavrilova by Matthew Ebden. Sock was happy with his display. “I thought I played pretty well and served well,” Sock said. “Nick was worried about his knee, he wasn’t 100 per cent. This is a great week to get matches and get your feet wet.” Gavrilova won her first match of this edition as she overcome Vandeweghe 6-3, 4-6, 7-5. “I’m so happy I finally got the win. Tonight I finally managed to turn it around. I’m very glad,” she said after two hours, 11 minutes. “I tend to play long matches, I’ve probably never won in under two hours.”

Finalists US polish Hopman form with defeat of Australia

Auckland: Unseeded German Julia Goerges burst into the WTA Auckland Classic lime-light Thursday with a dramatic come-from-behind win to oust Caroline Wozniacki in the quarter-finals. The 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 defeat of the Danish third seed and former world number one eliminated the last of the tournament drawcards, a day after the exit of the two top seeds Serena and Venus Williams. Rain disruptions early in the week meant Goerges did not take the court until Wednes-day, when she had straight-sets wins over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Naomi Broady. But the 28-year-old German appeared lost for the first 10 games of her quarter-final as

Wozniacki raced through the first set and took a 3-0 lead.Then came Goerges’ transfor-mation as her first serve found its mark, as did her powerful forehand as she reeled off six straight games to level at one set all.She pulled away to 5-2 in the third set only to drop a game as she served for the match, but then made no mistake two games later.Goerges will play eighth seed Ana Konjuh in the semi-finals with Jelena Ostapenko, the seventh seed and only other seeded player to make the final four, up against Lauren Davis. Konjuh had an easy pas-sage into the final four when Japan’s Naomi Osaka pulled out of their quarter-final with a wrist injury.

Goerges stuns Wozniacki in latest Auckland upset

Kerber, Cibulkova beaten in Brisbane boiloversBrisbane: The Brisbane International lost its top two wom-en’s seeds Thursday when Angelique Kerber and Dominika Cibulkova were both bundled out in the quarter-finals of the season-opening tournament.World number one Kerber made 48 unforced errors, including five double faults, as she went down to Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, while Frenchwoman Alize Cornet eliminated Cibulkova 6-3, 7-5.Kerber started slowly against Svitolina, who broke the German early and held the advantage to take the opening set.Kerber struck back in the second and appeared to take com-mand of the match when she broke Svitolina at the start of the third. However, the sixth seeded Ukranian broke back to level the set, then broke again to move to 5-3, holding comfortably to claim her fourth win against Kerber in nine meetings.Kerber said she wasn’t worried about how the early loss would aff ect the defence of her Australian Open crown.“I think Grand Slams are always completely diff erent,” she said.“It doesn’t matter how you play before. Of course, it’s always good to have matches, especially at the beginning of the year. “I have had two good matches here. I will try to have a few more matches before Melbourne (at the Sydney International next week).”Svitolina will now take on third seeded Czech Karolina Pliskova, who came back from losing the first set to Italian Roberta Vinci to win her quarter-final 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.

‘I really abhorred the conditions. It was way too much for me. This is almost not a great opportunity to assess your game’

Jack Sock of the US hits a return against Nick Kyrgios of Australia during their Hopman Cup match in Perth yesterday.

Alison Riske of the US reacts after winning the quarter-final match against Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland.

Alli scores two as Tottenham end Chelsea’s winning run

PREMIER LEAGUE

Chelsea were bidding to become the first team to win 14 successive games within the same English top-flight season

AFPLondon

In-form midfi elder Dele Alli scored two near-identical headers as Tot-tenham Hotspur beat Chelsea 2-0 on Wednesday night to torpedo

the Premier League leaders’ hopes of a record 14th consecutive victory.

Chelsea were bidding to become the fi rst team to win 14 successive games within the same English top-fl ight season, but Alli’s goals, both set up by Christian Eriksen, brought them down to earth.

“We were competitive against a team in very good form, one of the best in Europe, and we feel very proud and pleased because the performance was very solid,” said Spurs manager Mauri-cio Pochettino.

Antonio Conte’s Chelsea must con-tent themselves with having equalled Arsenal’s season record of 13 wins in a row from 2001-02 and they remain fi ve points clear of second-place Liverpool. But the end of their winning streak will give hope to their pursuers, not least Tottenham, who rose above Manches-ter City and Arsenal to third place in the table, seven points below the leaders.

“It is a pity to stop this run, but Tot-tenham is a good team, a really strong team and I think is for sure one of the teams that can fi ght for the title until the end,” Conte said.

“My team are top of the table because we are working a lot. This league is very tough and it is important to continue to work,” added the Italian.

Alli, 20, has now scored braces in three successive games and his latest double allowed Pochettino’s men to register a fi fth win in a row — their best such run in nearly a year. It also enabled Spurs to claim a measure of revenge, both for their 2-1 defeat at Chelsea in November and the fi ery 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge last May that ended their title challenge.

Pochettino, meanwhile, could cele-brate his 150th Premier League game as

a manager with a deeply satisfying vic-tory. “We are in a good position, third in the table,” he said. “But it is a long way to fi nish the season.”

While Pochettino played down any

talk of revenge after Chelsea came back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 at Stamford Bridge in May – a draw that ended Tot-tenham’s hopes of catching eventual champions Leicester City – Alli said

the victory had been particularly sat-isfying. “There is a bit of history be-tween the sides now after last season and I think we wanted to stop their run like they did ours,” Alli said, referring to

the so-called Battle of the Bridge when Tottenham had nine players booked.

“We are happy to stay under the ra-dar and keep picking up the points. We are not going to get carried away, there

is always room for improvement.” Whereas Spurs had gone with four at

the back in November’s 2-1 loss at the Bridge, here they eff ectively matched Chelsea’s 3-4-3 shape, which made for an attritional fi rst half at White Hart Lane. Spurs saw most of the ball, their wing-backs Kyle Walker and Danny Rose carrying the fi ght, but they strug-gled to pick holes in Chelsea’s rearguard and the visitors posed a threat on the break.

In the fi fth minute, Nemanja Matic’s lofted pass over Spurs’ right-sided centre-back Eric Dier found Eden Haz-ard in ample space, only for the Belgian to shoot narrowly wide with his left foot. Victor Wanyama and Eriksen sent low eff orts wide from range for Spurs and when the hosts fi nally got in be-hind, Dier ghosting in to meet Rose’s deep free-kick, Thibaut Courtois was on hand to save.

But in fi rst-half injury time, Spurs struck, Eriksen shaping a cross into the box from the right and Alli, hitherto close to anonymous, leaping to plant a glorious header in the top-right corner. It was the England midfi elder’s sixth goal in four games and within nine minutes of kick-off in the second half, he would have a seventh.

Urged on by a typically animated Conte, Chelsea fl ew out of the traps, Diego Costa testing Hugo Lloris with a skidding strike and Hazard nodding Marcos Alonso’s header wide from point-blank range.

The celebrations, though, were Tot-tenham’s thanks to a near carbon copy of their fi rst goal, Eriksen swinging a cross to the back post and Alli outleap-ing Victor Moses and Cesar Azpilicueta to head home.

Conte made three bold changes, sending on Willian, Cesc Fabregas and Michy Batshuayi for Marcos Alonso, N’Golo Kante and Moses, with Pedro Rodriguez moving to a left wing-back role. But his players, fi nally, appeared spent and Eriksen came close to add-ing a third with a dipping free-kick that narrowly eluded the left-hand upright.

FOOTBALL3Gulf Times

Friday, January 6, 2017

Rodriguez caps perfect year for Zidane’s Real with Sevilla win

COPA DEL REY

AFPMadrid

Zinedine Zidane celebrated a spectacu-lar fi rst year in charge of Real Madrid as James Rodriguez scored twice to set the European champions fi rmly

on course for the Copa del Rey quarter-fi nals with a 3-0 last 16, fi rst leg win over Sevilla.

Not even the absence of the rested Cris-tiano Ronaldo could halt Real’s now 38-game unbeaten run as Rodriguez took full advan-tage of a rare start by blasting home the open-er from outside the box after just 10 minutes. Raphael Varane headed home a second and Rodriguez added Real’s third from the penalty spot before half-time.

“The fi rst 45 minutes were physically and technically almost perfect,” said Zidane. The margin of Real’s win will be of particular comfort to Zidane with next week’s second leg (January 12) now appearing a formality amidst a hectic schedule that could see Real play 21 times in 11 weeks.

Madrid started a second consecutive home game without any of their fi rst-choice front three as Karim Benzema was left on the bench, Ronaldo rested altogether and Gareth Bale still sidelined by a long-term ankle in-jury. However, having enjoyed a rare 17-day break since their last outing in winning the Club World Cup against Japanese champions Kashima Antlers, Real started brightly. “We have a great squad and the players are happy when they see their teammates who have played less getting the chance to play,” added Zidane.

“We are still missing players through in-jury. That is something we can’t change, but when someone else comes in and plays well the coach is always happy.”

Rodriguez claimed after being overlooked once more during the Club World Cup that he would consider his future in January, but made the most of a rare start with a spectacu-lar opener after just 10 minutes. Casemiro thundered into a challenge to dispossess Ste-ven N’Zonzi midway inside the Sevilla half and Rodriguez dispatched the loose ball off the inside of the post from outside the area.

Luka Modric then nearly capped a brilliant team move for a second moments later when his overhead kick fl ew inches wide from Dani Carvajal’s cut-back. Real were relentless be-fore the break and another Carvajal cross was caught fl ush on the volley from Marcelo to sting the palms of Sergio Rico.

However, from the resulting corner, Varane was left completely unmarked to power home Toni Kroos’s delivery. Alvaro Morata then shot straight at Rico with another glaring op-portunity.

Yet, Sevilla should have gotten themselves fi rmly back in the tie 11 minutes before half-time when Joaquin Correa was played clean through on goal and after his initial eff ort was saved by Kiko Casilla, Vicente Iborra sliced wide with the goal gaping.

Instead, Sevilla found themselves 3-0 down at the break as Mariano was adjudged to have pushed Modric inside the area and Ro-driguez stepped up to convert from the spot.

“We were overrun in the fi rst-half, which is something that hasn’t happened to us in a long time,” said Sevilla boss Jorge Sampaoli. “We have to rediscover the characteristics with which we ended 2016 as soon as pos-sible.” There was far fewer goalmouth action at either end after the break. Morata fl uff ed

lines from Marcelo’s pinpoint cross with Ro-driguez waiting to apply the fi nish touch for his hat-trick, but Real were happy to settle on their lead, whilst Sevilla appeared to accept that the tie is already now beyond them.

Earlier, Real Sociedad also took a huge step towards the last eight as Willian Jose, Carlos Vela and Mikel Oyarzabal were on target in a 3-1 win over Villarreal. Second division Al-corcon and Cordoba drew 0-0 in the night’s other tie. Barcelona continued their defence of the Cup last light when they travelled to Athletic Bilbao for the fi rst leg of their last 16 clash.

FIRST LEG RESULTS Real Sociedad 3 (Willian Jose 17, Vela 33,

Oyarzabal 72) bt Villarreal 1 (Trigueros 77)

Alcorcon 0 drew with Cordoba 0Real Madrid 3 (Rodriguez 10, 44-pen, Varane 29)

Sevilla 0Return matches on January 10-12

Sanchez is fi ne, says Arsenal boss Wenger

ROUND-UP

AFPLondon

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger yes-terday downplayed Chilean star Alexis Sanchez’ moody behaviour during and after the 3-3 Premier League draw with

Bournemouth saying it was natural at his being frustrated.

The 28-year-old forward — who is holding off from signing a new contract — had a heated dis-cussion with midfi elder Aaron Ramsey during Tuesday’s game and then fl ung his gloves to the ground and stormed off down the tunnel after the Gunners had come back from 3-0 down.

Several newspapers reported yesterday that Sanchez — who scored Arsenal’s opening goal — had then refused to speak to his team-mates and sat sulking in the dressing room. “Well, what is surprising there?,” said Wenger, responding to a question about Sanchez’ negative body language.

“You want to win the games and when you don’t win, you are unhappy — it is normal. With-out passion, you do not come back after 70 min-utes from three goals down in the Premier League. First of all it is exceptional, it doesn’t often hap-pen in the Premier League and you need a special response, which is what happened. We wanted to win the game, and we didn’t win the game so we are all frustrated. Of course (he is fi ne),” added the Frenchman, whose side are fi fth in the table eight points adrift of leaders Chelsea.

Sanchez at least has a weekend off as Wenger said he would rest him and German midfi elder Mesut Ozil, who is also holding off on signing a

new contract, for the third round FA Cup tie with second tier Preston North End tomorrow.

Wenger said French midfi elder Francis Coque-lin faces a month on the sidelines with a ham-string injury.

The 25-year-old — who has been at the Gun-ners for eight years spending part of that time out on loan — suff ered the injury in the fi rst-half against Bournemouth. Wenger, who revealed Spanish striker Lucas Perez had taken a knock to his ankle in the same game, said the prognosis was he would be out for three to four weeks.

SILVA NAMED AS NEW MANAGER OF STRUGGLING HULL

Premier League strugglers Hull City appointed Marco Silva as manager for the rest of the season yesterday. The 39-year-old Portuguese — who guided Olympiakos to the Greek title last term be-fore resigning — replaces Mike Phelan, who was sacked on Tuesday. Silva’s fi rst match in charge of the bottom-placed club will be tomorrow’s FA Cup third-round tie with fellow relegation bat-tlers Swansea City. Silva fi rst distinguished him-self in his home country with Estoril and then coached Sporting Lisbon to a Portuguese Cup victory in 2015 but he was then sacked for not wearing a club suit in the technical area.

He will receive some funds for new players, said Hull vice-chairman Ehab Allam, whose parsimo-nious approach to the transfer market before the season started saw Steve Bruce walk out.

Silva, a former defender who played just two top-fl ight matches, will bring with him his own backroom staff , Allam having sacked their pred-ecessors on Wednesday.

Real Madrid’s James Rodriguez (left) celebrates with teammates Luka Modric (centre) and Raphael Varane after scoring during the Spanish Copa del Rey (King’s Cup) round of 16 first leg match against Sevilla at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid. (AFP)

Tottenham Hotspur’s Dele Alli (second left) jumps to score his and Totenham’s second goal past Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois during the English Premier League match at White Hart Lane in North London on Wednesday night. (AFP)

Arsenal star Alexis Sanchez flung his gloves to the ground and stormed off down the tunnel after the Gunners’ 3-3 draw with Bournemouth. (Reuters)

FOOTBALL4 Gulf Times

Friday, January 6, 2017

I’m not going anywhere just yet, says Guardiola

PREMIER LEAGUE

Man City coach admits it was 'inappropriate' to talk about life after football

AFPManchester, United Kingdom

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola de-nied yesterday that he was already planning his retirement at age 45, after saying that he was “arriving at the end” of his career. The

Spaniard sparked feverish speculation about his future after saying in an interview with American television station NBC that he could not see himself still being in management when he reaches his sixties.

During the interview Guardiola said: “I feel the proc-ess of my goodbye has already started. I am arriving at the end of my coaching career, of this I am sure.”

He now admits it was “inappropriate” to talk about life after football and insists he remains committed to City, where he has a contract until 2019, having only joined the club in July. “I said in the interview that I won’t be a trainer when I’m 60. But I’m 45. I’m not going to retire in two or three years,” he said.

“I love my job and I’m in the perfect place to do my job, especially here in England. I’m not going to train at 60 because I want to do something else in my life. I started playing football young and my career was on the pitch. I want to do something else in my life, but in the next three, four, fi ve, six or seven years. I said that at 60 or 65, I’m not going to train.

“Maybe it was inappropriate to say I’m starting to say goodbye to my career. Maybe it was inappropriate but I’m not thinking that I’m going to retire.”

Guardiola has had a testing fi rst season in England, with City sitting fourth in the Premier League, seven points behind leaders Chelsea. He gave two awkward television interviews after Monday’s 2-1 victory over Burnley, leading to suggestions that he might be feeling the pressure.

But he is adamant that he is enjoying the challenge of guiding City as they seek success on three fronts — in-cluding the FA Cup, in which they visit West Ham for a third-round tie tonight. Guardiola also moved to clarify comments he made that suggested neighbours Man-chester United are a bigger club than City. The City boss said this week that it might take the club 10 years to match United because they do not have the same history when it comes to winning trophies.

But Guardiola believes that City are making fast progress — and that their future is bright. “For Man-chester City fans, Manchester City are the most impor-tant thing. Always that remains,” he said.

“When I said to compare the history and the titles, Liverpool, United, Barcelona and Real Madrid, and these kind of clubs, we are behind. If people don’t understand that, I’m sorry. In the last fi ve or six years, I think Man-chester City are the best club, the club who have achieved more targets of getting better and of growing the most, I

think they are one of the best in the world by far.”He added: “But in terms of the titles, just the titles, we

are behind all those clubs in the last 20 years. Liverpool haven’t won the Premier League in 25 years, but in terms of titles, are better than Manchester City. But this club being a lesser club than those? I never said that.”

Mood in Gabon gloomy, tense ahead of Cup of NationsAFPLibreville, Gabon

With just days to go before Pierre-Emerick Aubam-eyang’s Gabon begin their quest to win the Africa

Cup of Nations on home soil, the mood in the host nation remains gloomy.

While the fi nal touches are being put on the four stadiums due to host matches in the January 14-February 5 tournament, the small central African state remains in the midst of a social and political crisis. On the streets of the capital Libreville, decorated with banners advertising the upcoming con-tinental tournament, workmen have been busy applying a fi nal lick of white paint to the edges of pavements.

In the other host cities of Oyem in the north, Franceville in the south-east and Port-Gentil, the country’s oil capital, fi nal adjustments are still being made around the stadiums.

But the atmosphere on the streets is yet to pick up and the mood around the

end-of-year celebrations in Gabon was somewhat moribund at a time when the country is struggling with a severe eco-nomic crisis caused by the collapse of the price of oil.

Oil is the main source of revenue in the country of 1.8mn people and with a large number of economic migrants from the likes of Senegal, Burkina Faso and Cameroon. “Libreville, Port-Gen-til, Franceville and Oyem have lost their reputations as energetic, teeming cit-ies of party animals,” stated an opinion piece in the national daily L’Union on Wednesday.

President Ali Bongo Ondimba’s re-election in August, which was validated by the constitutional court, is contest-ed by the opposition and the European Union and led to deadly unrest in the country. In his New Year message to the nation, Bongo accepted the diffi culties currently faced by many in the country.

“Many of our compatriots have been badly aff ected by the fall-out from the world economic crisis. Many jobs have been lost in the oil industry in particu-lar,” he said.

In recent months there have been continual calls for strike action, nota-bly in public sector jobs, amid demands for social as well as political change.

Close to six months have passed since the presidential election, but op-position leader Jean Ping continues to declare himself the rightful winner and has called on the people of Gabon to resist against “the dictatorship”. Op-position newspapers have made regu-lar calls to boycott the Cup of Nations, which gets underway when Gabon face debutants Guinea-Bissau on Janu-ary 14, or to use the tournament as a soundbox for their ideas.

Still traumatised by the post-election violence, some in Gabon are dreading the prospect of incidents around matches, notably in the tradi-tionally rebellious city of Port-Gentil and in Oyem. The head of state has tried to calm the tensions by reiterating his promise to open political dialogue “the day after the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations ends,” but Ping has so far re-jected this.

Bongo described 2016 as “a diffi -

cult year due to an election campaign marred by hatred and by a post-elec-tion situation that saw tension rise to unacceptable levels for our people.” A big football fan, Bongo is hoping the Cup of Nations — CAN to give it its ac-ronym in French — can bring a period of calm. “These should be moments of

joy, of coming together and of shared joy,” he insisted.

A Gabon squad led by the prolifi c Borussia Dortmund striker Aubam-eyang and also featuring the likes of Juventus midfi elder Mario Lemina and Didier Ndong of English Premier League side Sunderland are dreaming

of winning the trophy for the fi rst time.But the locals are yet to be com-

pletely won over by the prospect of fol-lowing The Panthers, who are also in a group with Burkina Faso and illustrious neighbours Cameroon. “Our minds are not on football,” admitted unemployed Libreville resident Stephane Mba.

BOTTOMLINE

China to curb splashy spending on players

FOCUS

AFPBeijing

China ordered a clamp-down yesterday on the mega sums being shelled out on foreign football

stars and their salaries after the high-profi le signings of Oscar and Carlos Tevez.

There has to be action against “irrational investment” and the government will “regulate and restrain high-priced signings and make reasonable restrictions on players’ high incomes”, a state General Administration of Sport spokesman warned.

Insolvent clubs could be kicked out of China’s Super League, which has been spending more than the English Premier League in recent transfer win-dows to draw top names. Brazil-ian international Oscar moved to Shanghai SIPG from Chelsea in a 60-million-euro ($63mn) deal, while Tevez was lured to rival Chinese Super League club Shanghai Shenhua in a separate big-money deal.

While the transfer fee for the Argentine former Manchester United and Manchester City striker was a relatively paltry 10.5mn euros, according to re-ports, the 32-year-old is report-edly set to become the highest-paid player in the world with a two-year contract of 38mn euros per season. Oscar’s deal with Shanghai SIPG is thought to be 24mn euros a season — which would still put him above Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi of Barcelona.

Oscar and Tevez followed the likes of Italian striker Graziano Pelle, the Brazilian Hulk, Co-lombian Jackson Martinez and Belgian Alex Witsel, who were all lured to unfashionable China by huge wage deals.

Witsel turned down a move to

Juventus to go to China, saying he was thinking about his fami-ly’s fi nancial future. Top coaches such as Manuel Pellegrini (He-bei Fortune), Luiz Felipe Scolari (Guangzhou Evergrande), Andre Villas-Boas (Shanghai SIPG) and Sven Goran Eriksson (Shenzhen FC) have also been drawn by Chi-nese riches.

The world-beating deals are part of a Chinese rush into foot-ball with heavy political over-tones. China’s national team is ranked 82nd in the world — just below the Caribbean island na-tion of St Kitts and Nevis, popu-lation less than 60,000 — but President Xi Jinping has declared his hopes of the country one day hosting and winning a World Cup, prompting a fl ood of money into its top teams.

The wild spending has drawn criticism in China. Many fans have questioned whether the huge sums would be better spent on building up the country’s lag-ging infrastructure and talent in the sport. Other leagues have also signalled growing concern at China’s spending.

“The Chinese market is a dan-ger for all teams in the world. Not only for Chelsea, but all teams in the world,” Chelsea manager An-tonio Conte said last month. The Brazilian international Ramires left Chelsea for China 12 months ago. Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger called Chinese spending a “dis-tortion” that could be a threat to the Premier League. Without giving fi gures, the offi cial with the sports administration, the state agency that controls the country’s sport, said the gov-ernment would “set the upper limit” for players’ transfer fees and wages.

It would consider measures such as taking fees from clubs that spend excessively to sup-port youth development pro-grammes. “

Qatar the perfect place for football: AncelottiA

fter fi rst witnessing Qatar when he visited with AC Milan in 2009, Qa-tar’s passion for football and world-class sports facilities have again

impressed the veteran Bundesliga, Premier League and Serie A coach Carlo Ancelotti.

“I’ve visited Doha a number of times and every year there are new things to see and the country has changed again. It’s very impres-sive,” the boss of Bundesliga champions and current league leaders FC Bayern Munich said after the fi rst day of the club’s winter training camp in Doha.

On Qatar’s sporting infrastructure spe-cifi cally and looking ahead to the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Ancelotti added: “Of course, for us the most important thing is the football and we are never disappointed. The facili-ties are fantastic. The weather is great. This is why I come back. It really is the perfect situa-tion to play football.”

Doha’s sports facilities have drawn FC Bay-ern back for the seventh consecutive year for the club’s mid-season training camp, further demonstrating the impression Qatar’s sports facilities leave on the elite professionals who visit them. FC Bayern is one of many Europe-

an clubs to train at Doha’s illustrious Aspire Zone, with other recent visitors including Se-rie A rivals Juventus and AC Milan, and rising Chinese Super League stars Shanghai Inter-national Port Group (SIPG) FC.

As part of Bayern’s training programme, the club will also take on newly-promoted Belgian top fl ight side KAS Eupen in a friendly on Tuesday, 10 January. Aspire-owned Eupen is also in Doha for a training camp and, de-spite its non-competitive nature, Ancelotti said the upcoming match would be a useful test of his team. “It is a friendly game but it is an important game. I will be watching carefully because it is good to check who has grown after a week of training. Whoever plays has to play well,” he said.

Bayern Munich will be training at the As-pire Zone for the next seven days, and, ac-cording to the club coach, won’t be resting during while they are in Doha, with Ancelotti eyeing a treble of Champions League, Bun-desliga and DFB-Pokal trophies in his fi rst season with the club.

The team fl ies back to Germany the day af-ter their friendly against KAS Eupen.

www.sc.qa

SPOTLIGHT

Bayern Munich players take part in a training session at the Aspire in Doha yesterday. (Reuters)

Pep Guardiola insists he is happy at Manchester City and believes the club are in a ‘good position’ to create history.

Algeria’s players warm-up during a training session in Sidi Moussa, ahead of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon. (AFP)

AFPLos Angeles

The Charlotte Hornets withstood a 33-point performance from pro-lifi c Oklahoma City point guard Russell Westbrook on Wednesday

to snap an 11-game losing streak against the Thunder.

French guard Nicolas Batum scored 28 points for the Hornets in the 123-112 tri-umph. His driving layup and three-point shot keyed a 9-0 scoring run that took the Hornets’ lead from 105-104 to 114-104 with 1:19 to play. The Thunder wouldn’t get the gap below six the rest of the way, missing a chance to join the Utah Jazz atop the Northwest Division.

“We were aggressive,” Batum said after the Hornets snapped a two-game losing streak. “We tried to be aggressive on of-fense because we know they have some bigs inside. We made plays, especially on off ense.”

The Thunder were frustrated by the offi ciating most of the night. The Hor-nets connected on 40 of 49 free-throw

attempts while the Thunder made 19 of their 23 attempts from the foul line.

Charlotte coach Steve Cliff ord praised his team for their determination in getting to the basket and drawing contact.

“We drive the ball hard,” Cliff ord said. “We’ve been getting to the line pretty much all year. We’re top six in free-throw attempts, it’s one of our biggest strengths. We’re number one in not fouling, and we’ve been getting to the line.

“Driving the ball, getting the ball go-ing into the paint. Obviously, that was the biggest factor in the game.”

Westbrook, who has 16 triple-doubles already this season, added 15 rebounds and eight assists, two steals and a blocked shot. Although his 33 points were a game-high he had his struggles, missing 10 of his fi rst 12 shots from the fi eld.

He connected on 10 of 31 fi eld goal at-tempts, just two of 12 from three-point range, and was whistled for a technical foul in the fi rst quarter.

With 3:13 left in the quarter and the score tied 16-16, the Thunder called a timeout and Westbrook threw the ball to referee Tre Maddox as he walked to the

bench. Maddox wasn’t looking and the ball hit him in the head, prompting referee Sean Corbin to issue the technical, irking Thunder players and coaches.

“I called his name, he turned right at me and then he looked away,” Westbrook said. “I don’t know what to tell you, I re-ally don’t. I would never, ever disrespect the game in that way, throw the ball at a referee.

“I’ve never done it before. That’s just not even heard of in our game today. If you do that you get kicked out of the game,” Westbrook said. “That’s not allowed and I would never do such a thing. To get a tech is crazy to me.”

Kemba Walker added 20 points and nine assists for Charlotte. Frank Kamin-sky scored all of his 17 points in the fi rst half. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist did a solid job defending Westbrook, and also scored 14 points with 11 rebounds.

“You know, we tried to contain West-brook,” Batum said.

“It’s not easy but MKG (Kidd-Gilchrist) did a great job on him tonight. He still got his numbers but MKG did a great job on him and we made plays at the end.”

Curry scores 35 as Warriors topple Trail Blazers

Stephen Curry scored 35 points and Kevin Durant had 30 as the Golden State Warriors won their ninth straight home game with a 125-117 win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday.

The Warriors helped seal the victory with a 34 second burst in the fi nal quar-ter that included a Curry three pointer, a Shaun Livingston dunk and a Draymond Green block. “We are on a mission to do great things this year,” said Curry.

Despite not having injured star point guard Damian Lillard for the fi fth straight game, the Trail Blazers were still able to make the Warriors work for the NBA vic-tory in front of a crowd of 19,600 at Oak-land’s Oracle Arena.

RESULTSLA Clippers 115 Memphis 106 Golden State 125 Portland 117 Miami 107 Sacramento 102 Chicago 106 Cleveland 94 Milwaukee 105 NY Knicks 104 Charlotte 123 Oklahoma City 112 Atlanta 111 Orlando 92

‘We’re top six in free-throw attempts, it’s one of our biggest strengths’

Aggressive Hornets sting Westbrook’s Oklahoma Thunder

NBA

Bruins legend Milt Schmidt dies at 98DEMISE

AFPLos Angeles

Boston Bruins hall of famer Milt Schmidt, who won his fi rst Stanley Cup as a player

in 1939 and fourth and fi nal one as a general manager in 1972, died on Wednesday. He was 98.

The legendary Schmidt played centre on the Bruins’ famed “Kraut Line” and won the Hart Trophy as the National Hockey League’s MVP in 1951 and the Art Ross Trophy as the league scor-ing champion in 1940.

The four-time all star was one of the most skilled players of his generation but he was equally adept as a general manager, or-chestrating one of the most lop-sided trades in NHL history in 1967 when he brought Phil Es-posito to Beantown.

The oldest living former NHL player, Schmidt was the key cog in the “Kraut Line” which fea-tured Canadian boyhood chums Bobby Bauer and Woody Du-mart. The trio shared German ancestry.

“It would be a challenge to fi nd anyone who took greater pride in being a Boston Bruin than Milt Schmidt did — be it as a player, an executive or an am-bassador over the 80-plus years he served the franchise, the City of Boston and the National Hockey League,” NHL commis-sioner Gary Bettman said.

“Milt’s respect for the game was matched by his humility and was mirrored by the great respect with which his opponents, and generations of Bruins players, treated him through the years.”

Schmidt is the only person in Bruins’ franchise history to have served as a player, captain, coach and general manager.

He won more Stanley Cup ti-tles with Boston than any other person, capturing his second as a player in 1941 and fi rst as a gen-eral manager in 1970.

And it was as a GM in the late 1960s that he helped turn the fortunes of the franchise around by landing future hall of famer Esposito, Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfi eld in a trade with the Chicago Black Hawks for Gilles Marotte, Pit Martin and

Jack Norris. Schmidt would add a couple more players such as Bobby Orr and Johnny “Chief” Bucyk to form the “Big Bad Bru-ins” team that instilled fear into their opponents and won those two NHL championships in a four year span.

“I got to know Milt when I arrived in Boston, and I quickly learned that he was an outstand-ing ambassador for the game of hockey, a true gentleman, and that he epitomised what it means to be a Bruin,” said Bruins’ cur-rent president and former player Cam Neely.

After Schmidt retired as a player in December 1954, he immediately stepped onto the bench as a coach for the team’s game against Chicago on De-cember 25.

He served as head coach through the 1960-61 season, then became the club’s assistant general manager for two seasons before returning to the bench for four more seasons in the mid-1960’s.

Schmidt became the Bruins’ fourth general manager at the start of the 1967-68 season.

Saturday start for rookie Cook

NFL

The Sports XchangeOakland

Oakland Raiders rookie quarterback Connor Cook will make his fi rst career

NFL start in Saturday’s wild-card playoff game against the Houston Texans, coach Jack Del Rio announced Wednes-day.

The 23-year-old Cook has a total of 30 snaps in his NFL ca-reer, all in the regular-season fi nale when he replaced Matt McGloin, who left Sunday’s 24-6 loss to the Denver Bron-cos with a shoulder injury.

Cook was 14 of 21 for 150 yards with a touchdown, an interception and a lost fumble against the Broncos.

Cook will become the fi rst quarterback in NFL history whose fi rst start comes in the playoff s. The Raiders had no other choice with Pro Bowler Derek Carr out with a broken leg and McGloin’s shoulder in-jury causing him to miss prac-tice. Cook, a fourth-round pick from Michigan State, was the Raiders’ No. 3 quarterback for 15 games this season.

Quarterback Tom Savage remains in the NFL’s con-cussion and will not back up Brock Osweiler in Satur-day’s wild-card playoff game against Oakland. O’Brien said there was still a chance Sav-age could play but confi rmed Brandon Weeden will be ac-tive as the backup quarter-back at NRG Stadium.

Weeden was active for only two games this season when Savage missed time with an elbow injury. Texans coach Bill O’Brien named Osweiler as the starter on Tuesday over Savage, who sustained a con-cussion in Sunday’s 24-17 loss to the Tennessee Titans.

Miami Dolphins quarter-back Ryan Tannehill did not practice Wednesday because of his left knee injury but still could return for Sunday’s wild-card game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Tannehill has been side-lined since the Dec. 11 game against the Arizona Cardinals with a sprained ACL and MCL in his left knee. Coach Adam

Gase said the staff will decide later if Tannehill will practice Thursday.

Gase said starting Tanne-hill without any practice reps “would be hard for us to do. I need to see him move around with traffi c around him, how his escapability is.” Matt Moore has started in Tanne-hill’s place.

The Detroit Lions will keep coach Jim Caldwell through at least next season, end-ing speculation as the team prepares for Saturday’s wild-card game.

The Lions put any rumours to rest by confi rming Caldwell will return for a fourth season in 2017 no matter what hap-pens in the playoff game on the road against the Seattle Seahawks.

Caldwell is 27-21 in three seasons since taking over in 2014, guiding the Lions to the playoff s in two of the last three campaigns. Detroit sprinted to a 9-4 record and a two-game lead in the NFC North but stumbled to three straight losses — still enough to earn a wild-card spot at 9-7.

New England Patriots of-fensive co-ordinator Josh McDaniels is expected to in-terview with three NFL teams this weekend for their head-coaching openings.

McDaniels has offi cially scheduled interviews Satur-day in Foxborough, Mass., with the Los Angeles Rams, Jacksonville Jaguars and San Francisco 49ers for their va-cancies, a league source con-fi rmed to The Boston Globe.

The 40-year-old McDan-iels went 8-8 in his fi rst sea-son with the Denver Broncos but was fi red the following season after a 3-9 start. He served one season as off en-sive co-ordinator and quar-terbacks coach with the Rams in 2011 before returning to the Patriots in 2012.

Defensive coordinator Matt Patricia is expected to be on a similar schedule Saturday as he is set to interview with the San Diego Chargers and Rams for their head-coaching va-cancies. Patricia, 42, has been the defensive co-ordinator in New England since the 2012 season.

SPORT5Gulf Times

Friday, January 6, 2017

Charlotte Hornets Kemba Walker (15) and Oklahoma Thunder guard Russell Westbrook (0) go after a loose ball during the first half. PICTURE: USA TODAY Sports

Oakland Raiders rookie quarterback Connor Cook.

Boston Bruins hall of famer Milt Schmidt.

AgenciesDubai

Former world number one Tiger Woods said he would compete in the European Tour’s Dubai

Desert Classic next month as he charts his comeback from injury.

“I’ve always enjoyed playing in Dubai and it’s fantastic to see how the city has grown phenom-enally from when I fi rst started playing there,” Woods said on the event website (www.dubaid-esertclassic.com) yesterday.

Woods, sidelined by back pain for the past 15 months, will launch his offi cial comeback at the January 26-29 Farmers In-surance Open at Torrey Pines in southern California, the PGA Tour event announced on

Wednesday. The Desert Clas-sic at Emirates Golf Club is the longest-running European Tour event in the region and takes place from February 2-5.

Woods has also committed to play the February 16-19 Genesis Open at Riviera, California, and his hometown tournament, the Honda Classic in south Florida, the following week as he leads up to the Masters in Augusta in April. He is expected to play the March 16-19 Arnold Palmer In-vitational in Orlando, Florida, an event he has won a record eight times.

The 41-year-old American has not played an offi cial money event since Aug. 2015 and pulled out of a planned return at the fi rst event of the 2016-17 season in northern California in Octo-ber.

He said then that his game was not ready but the 14-times major champion subsequently made his comeback at the Hero World Challenge, an unoffi cial PGA Tour event, in the Bahamas in December where he fi nished 15th in an 18-man fi eld.

Woods will be making his eighth appearance in Dubai, where he has won twice and is 92-under par for the 28 rounds he has played there since 2001.

He joins world number two Rory McIlroy, Sweden’s British Open champion Henrik Stenson and Masters winner Danny Wil-lett among leading players at an event dubbed the ‘Major of the Middle East’.

“It was great winning in Du-bai in 2006 and 2008. When you win in Dubai, you know you’ve beaten an outstanding fi eld,”

said Woods. Woods will how-ever start the year at the Farmers Insurance Open this month, the PGA Tour event announced.

Woods had been widely ex-pected to start his season at the January 26-29 Farmers Insur-ance Open at Torrey Pines in southern California, an event he has won seven times.

He also captured the 2008 US Open there on one of his favour-ite layouts.

The former world number one had already committed to the Feb. 16-19 Genesis Open at sto-ried Riviera and announced on Wednesday that he would also tee it up the following week at his hometown tournament, the Honda Classic in south Florida.

Woods was scheduled to re-turn at the fi rst event of the 2016-17 season in northern Cal-

ifornia in October, but pulled out three days beforehand, saying his game was not ready.

The 14-times major champion subsequently made his come-back at the Hero World Chal-lenge, an unoffi cial PGA Tour event, in the Bahamas in Decem-ber where he fi nished 15th in an 18-man fi eld.

Woods has not publicly an-nounced his full schedule lead-ing up to April’s Masters, the fi rst major of the year.

But in confi rming these events he is clearly planning to get plenty of tournament rounds under his belt before his tilt at a fi fth green jacket in Augusta.

Woods is expected to play the March 16-19 Arnold Palmer In-vitational in Orlando, Florida, an event he has won a record eight times.

‘I’ve always enjoyed playing in Dubai and it’s fantastic to see how the city has grown phenomenally’

Woods to compete in Dubai Classic

GOLF

SPORT

Gulf Times Friday, January 6, 20176

AgenciesNew York

One night after saying his team got outworked badly in a loss to the Buff alo Sabres, New York Rangers coach Alain Vigneault

turned to goaltender Henrik Lundqvist and was rewarded with a 5-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers.

Lundqvist, who allowed four goals on 19 shots in Tuesday loss in Madison Square Garden, turned aside 30-of-32 shots for his 17th win of the season.

Kevin Hayes scored two goals, Michael Grabner added two goals and an assist and Chris Kreider picked up another goal to give the Rangers their fi rst win of 2017.

Canadiens 4, Stars 3 (OT)Max Pacioretty scored the game-win-

ner on a breakaway 19 seconds into over-time, his second goal of the game, giving Montreal a win against Dallas at American Airlines Center.

Nathan Beaulieu had a goal and two assists for the Canadiens, who also got a goal from Alexander Radulov. Shea Weber added two assists and Al Montoya made 39 saves.

Jets 4, Panthers 1

Patrik Laine took over as the NHL’s leading rookie goal-scorer, power-ing Winnipeg over Florida at the BB&T Center. Laine, the second overall pick in the 2016 draft, scored his 21st goal. The Jets also got goals from Shawn Matthias,

Nikolaj Ehlers and Mark Scheifele.

Canucks 3, Coyotes 0Ryan Miller stopped 22 shots for his

fi rst shutout in more than a year and Sven Baertschi scored the winning goal in the fi rst period as Vancouver extended its winning streak to fi ve games with a vic-tory over Arizona.

Brandon Sutter (penalty shot) and Bo Horvat (breakaway) scored third-period goals for the Canucks, who are 7-2-1 in their last 10 games.

Flames 4, Avalanche 1Mikael Backlund ran his goal-scoring

streak to fi ve straight games as Calgary beat Colorado at the Scotiabank Saddle-dome.

Alex Chiasson had a goal and an assist for the Flames, who converted three-of-seven power-play opportunities. Kris Versteeg and Johnny Gaudreau also scored, while Mark Giordano, Sean Mona-han and TJ Brodie chipped in with two as-sists each.

Ducks 2, Red Wings 0John Gibson continued his stellar play

in and Nick Ritchie and Ondrej Kase scored goals as Anaheim snuff ed out De-troit at Honda Center.

Gibson, who tied a franchise record with 51 saves in Sunday’s shootout victory against the Philadelphia Flyers, needed to stop only 23 this time in recording his eighth career shutout and second of the season.

Crolla given chance to regain world title

BOXING

AFPLondon

Britain’s Anthony Crolla will get his chance to regain the WBA lightweight title

in a rematch with Venezuelan Jorge Linares in Manchester on March 25, it was announced on Wednesday.

Crolla lost the belt he won in November 2015 on his sec-ond defence last September on points but the 30-year-old be-lieves he is capable of avenging that defeat.

“There had been lots of talk on the rematch since the fi rst fi ght with Jorge so I’m de-lighted to fi nally get this an-nounced,” said Crolla, whose record reads 31 wins – 13 inside the distance – fi ve losses and three draws.

“I’m working hard and making improvements, I will have to show improvements in the rematch if I am to win. I came up short on the night against the better man – with those improvements I believe I can change the result this time around.

“I see Jorge as the best light-weight in the world and I want

to be the best lightweight in the world.”

Linares said he was looking forward to clashing with Crolla again.

“Crolla is a tremendous fi ghter with a lot of heart so I know I must train twice as hard for another tough fi ght,” said the 31-year-old, who has also held world titles at feath-erweight and super feather-weight.

“I promise another great performance and assure that the belts are returning home with me,” added Linares, who boasts a record of 41 wins – 27 inside the distance – and only three defeats.

Eddie Hearn, the fi ght pro-moter, said the bout promised to be another crowd-pleaser, if the previous one was anything to go by.

“I’m delighted Anthony will get a chance to win his WBA title back along with the WBC Diamond and Ring magazine belts,” said Hearn.

“The last fi ght was a Fight of the Year contender and Linares boxed out of his skin, but one thing we know about Anthony is his ability to bounce back and he is so determined to win this fi ght.”

Lundqvist shines as Rangers bounce back with winNHL

Tiger Woods has added a second and third PGA Tour event to his early 2017 schedule.

Matsuyama embraces expectations for 2017Leicester centre Manu Tuilagi has withdrawn from England’s two-day training camp next week after injuring his knee, the Rugby Football Union has announced.The 25-year-old, who recently spent two months on the sidelines with a groin problem, was forced off in the eighth minute of Leicester’s 16-12 loss to Saracens in the English Premiership on Sunday.His place in Eddie Jones’s England squad has been taken by Bath wing Semesa Rokoduguni.“Manu Tuilagi (Leicester Ti-gers) will not attend England’s training camp in Brighton

because of an injury sustained during Leicester Tigers’ defeat to Saracens,” the RFU said in a statement released late on Sunday.“Semesa Rokoduguni (Bath Rugby) has been called in to join up with the 33-man squad.”Leicester director of Rugby Richard Cockerill said Tuilagi would be assessed on Monday.“Normally it’s 24 hours, so we will see how it has settled down in the morning to see if there’s any swelling,” Cockerill said. “It might just be a bang and a bit of swelling, it might be a couple of weeks. I’m just guessing.”

Jakub Voracek of the Philadelphia Flyers slides into Henrik Lundqvist (No 30) of the New York Rangers during the first period at the Wells Fargo Center in Phila-delphia, Pennsylvania. (Getty Images/AFP)

ReutersCape Town

Kagiso Rabada claimed a six-wicket haul yesterday as South Africa bowled Sri Lanka out for 224 in their second innings to win

the second test by 282 runs with a day and a half to spare and take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

Sri Lanka failed to last the fi rst session of the fourth day at Newlands, having re-sumed on 130-4 and being dismissed after just over 100 minutes of play.

They added 94 runs for their fi nal six wickets to fold easily after being set a huge 507-run target on Wednesday.

“We have been relentless, never letting Sri Lanka into the game. We really stood up at key moments of the game,” said South Africa captain Faf du Plessis.

The 21-year-old Rabada, who fi nished with fi gures of 6-55 and a second 10-wick-et haul in a test, ran through the visiting batsmen in a fi ery seven-over spell, fi rst having Dinesh Chandimal (30) caught as he fl icked the ball up to Stephen Cook at short leg.

Upul Tharanga was next to go as he swung the bat through a brief knock of 12 runs off seven balls, perishing when he got a bottom edge through to wicket-keeper Quinton de Kock. Rabada, having

taken two overnight, then claimed his fi fth wicket of the innings, surprising captain Angelo Mathews with some extra bounce and fi nding the edge of the bat for De Kock to take another catch. Mathews went for 49, the top Sri Lankan score of the test.

Suranga Lakmal (10) was next as a rising delivery from Rabada brushed his glove on the way through to De Kock. Rangana Her-ath and Lahiru Kumara showed some re-sistance for the ninth wicket before quick glove work had Kumara stumped off Kes-hav Maharaj for nine. Nuwan Pradeep was bowled by Vernon Philander to end the match, leaving Herath not out on 35.

“I felt my rhythm was a little off in the fi rst innings but then it all clicked in the second innings and it all just got a lot bet-ter,” Rabada told reporters.

South Africa dominated the test, save for the fi rst session on the opening day, scoring 392 in their fi rst innings with Dean Elgar and De Kock both getting centuries.

Philander and Rabada then took four wickets each as Sri Lanka were bowled out for 110 in reply but South Africa did not enforce the follow on, batting again in-stead and declaring midway through the third day on 224-7. South Africa won the fi rst test in Port Elizabeth by 206 runs and will be seeking a whitewash of the series in the third test at the Wanderers in Johan-nesburg from January 12-16.“It’s obvious-ly disappointing to make the same mis-

takes in a second successive test match. The batsmen let the bowlers down,” said Sri Lanka captain Mathews.

SCOREBOARDSouth Africa first innings 392Sri Lanka first innings 110South Africa second innings 224-7 declaredSri Lanka Second innings (overnight 130-4)D. Karunaratne b Philander 6K. Silva c Cook b Rabada 29K. Mendis c Elgar b Philander 4D. de Silva lbw b Rabada 22A Mathews c De Kock b Rabada 49D. Chandimal c Cook b Rabada 30U. Tharanga c De Kock b Rabada 12R. Herath not out 35S. Lakmal c De Kock b Rabada 10L. Kumara st De Kock b Maharaj 9N. Pradeep b Philander 5Extras (b6, lb5, nb2) 13Total (62 overs) 224Fall of wickets: 1-11 (Karunaratne), 2-25 (Mendis), 3-66 (Silva), 4-69 (De Silva), 5-144 (Chandimal), 6-165 (Tharanga), 7-166 (Mathews), 8-171 (Lakmal), 9-211 (Kumara)Bowling: Abbott 15-3-46-0, Philander 14-1-48-3 (1nb), Rabada 17-3-55-6 (1nb), Maharaj 16-3-64-1Result: South Africa won by 282 runsSeries: South Africa lead three-match series 2-0.

‘We have been relentless, never letting Lanka into the game. We really stood up at key moments’

Rabada runs riot as South Africa win Test

SA VS SL, SECOND TEST

Ton-up Younis keeps Pak aliveAUS VS PAK, DAY 3, THIRD TEST

AFPSydney

Younis Khan claimed his 34th Test century and fi rst in Aus-tralia to keep Pakistan’s fi rst innings barely alive in the fi nal

Test in Sydney yesterday.The 39-year-old Pakistani great be-

came the fi rst batsman to score Test hundreds in 11 countries as he turned around an indiff erent series with his fi rst century since October.

He fought back from a dreadful mix-up which led to the run-out of the team’s leading scorer of the series, Azhar Ali, to spearhead the Pakistan fi ghtback on a rain-aff ected day three.

Younis went to stumps on 136 off 279 balls with the tourists still trail-ing Australia by 267 runs and 68 from avoiding the follow-on. Pakistan were 271 for eight with Yasir Shah fi ve not out.

Younis showed Australia his un-doubted quality with 15 fours and a six off spinner Nathan Lyon, with his cen-tury coming off 208 balls.

In 206 Test innings, Younis has only been dismissed once in the 90s with 91 against New Zealand in Auckland in 2001.

“Younis has been a great servant for Pakistan cricket and scoring a hundred here as well. Now he’s scored a hundred in each Test-playing country, so it’s a big achievement,” Azhar said.

“It’s probably his last tour to Aus-tralia so it’s a really happy moment for each and everyone of us.”

While Younis held court, skipper Misbah-ul-Haq continued his hapless series when he holed out to deep mid-wicket off Lyon.

Tellingly, his 18 was his highest score of a series in which he has totalled just 38 runs at a paltry average of 7.60.

Azhar was run out for 71 in a poor piece of running with Younis, when he could not beat home Mitchell Starc’s throw from mid-on to the striker’s end. Younis drove Lyon to a diving fi elder at short midwicket and hesitated, leading to some indecision with Azhar before Starc swooped in to throw back to the ’keeper.

“Me and Younis trust each other really well when it comes to running between the wickets. Unfortunately in this innings we had some bad calls and nearly ran each other out three times,” Azhar said.

Concussion scareAzhar passed Mohsin Khan (390)

as Pakistan’s highest scorer in a se-ries in Australia, but he achieved it in three Tests, compared to Mohsin’s fi ve Tests in 1983. In fi ve innings, Azhar has scored 395 runs in this series at 98.75.

Azhar and Younis put on 146 runs for the third wicket, restoring the Pakistan innings after they were six for two.

Australia bowling coach David Saker said he expected the home side not to enforce the follow-on if the situation eventuated.

“I would assume that we will go out and have another bat and put some more wear in the wicket and have a bowl in the last day and a bit,” he said.

Asad Shafi q was out after he played well forward to left-arm spinner Ste-ve O’Keefe and got an inside edge for Steve Smith to take a fi ne outstretched right-hand catch for four.

It was Smith’s eighth catch in what has been a brilliant fi elding series for the Australia skipper.

Sarfraz Ahmed was caught in the gully off Starc for 18 late in the day and Mohammad Amir played a rash shot to be caught in the deep off Lyon for four.

Lyon grabbed a third wicket when he bowled Wahab Riaz for eight in the day’s penultimate over.

Wicketkeeper Matthew Wade left the ground with a stomach illness

shortly after play got underway in mid-afternoon following rain, but is expected to recover in time for Friday’s play. First-innings centurion Matt Renshaw also left the fi eld after being struck on the helmet, and was assessed for concussion. It was his second head knock in three days.

“Matt came off with some head-aches and he will be assessed through the night and in the morning,” Saker said. “With head knocks you have to take them quite seriously.”

Scoreboard Australia first innings 538 for 8 de-clared (M. Renshaw 184, D. Warner 113, P. Handscomb 110; W. Riaz 3-89)Pakistan first innings (126 for 2 overnight)A. Ali run out (Starc) 71S. Khan c Renshaw b Hazlewood 4B. Azam lbw b Hazlewood 0Y. Khan not out 136M. ul-Haq c sub (Bird) b Lyon 18A. Shafiq c Smith b O’Keefe 4S. Ahmed c sub (Bird) b Starc 18M. Amir c Warner b Lyon 4W. Riaz b Lyon 8Y. Shah not out 5Extras (b3) 3Total (8 wickets, 95 overs) 271 Fall of wickets: 1-6 (Sharjeel), 2-6

(Babar), 3-152 (Azhar), 4-178 (Misbah), 5-197 (Shafiq), 6-239 (Sarfraz), 7-244 (Amir), 8-264 (Riaz)

Bowling: Starc 21-5-65-1, Hazlewood 25-7-53-2, O’Keefe 18-3-37-1, Lyon 27-2-98-3, Cartwright 4-0-15-0

Misbah ‘integral’ to rebuilding Pak, says coach Arthur

SPOTLIGHT

AFPSydney

Coach Mickey Arthur urged veteran Paki-stan captain Misbah-ul-Haq yesterday

to continue playing despite a diffi cult tour of Australia, saying he was an “integral” part of the team.

Misbah went back on com-ments he made after last week’s series-losing Mel-bourne Test that he intended to retire and is leading Paki-stan in this week’s fi nal Test in Sydney.

Pakistan’s most successful skipper, who has scored a to-tal of 20 runs in four innings in the series, said his remarks after the innings and 18 runs defeat in Melbourne were triggered by frustration.

Misbah is expected to make a decision on his Test career upon his return home, but Arthur said the 42-year-old skipper remained an integral part of Pakistan’s team-re-building plans.

Arthur said he had spoken to the captain after the Mel-bourne Test and that Misbah had been “shattered”.

“Misbah is a guy with such high morals and high values and high standards. He was shattered he hadn’t contrib-

uted,” Arthur told the Aus-tralian Broadcasting Corp at the Sydney Test. “But we said we would discuss it the next two days and we had a day off and had the chat and never mentioned it again.

“From that time he was to-tally committed to certainly playing this Test.

“I’m hoping he continues as I think he is integral — him and I in terms of our work-ing relationship, in terms of building the team in the next phase.”

It has been a diffi cult se-ries for Misbah, whose fi eld-ing has been badly exposed along with questions over his fi eld placements and bowling changes.

“We can’t work any harder at our fi elding,” Arthur told reporters.

“We catch balls continu-ously and (fi elding coach) Steve Rixon works the guys hard and fi elding has been a massive frustration for us.”

“We set ourselves a helluva high standard and we are fall-ing short in the fi elding de-partment by a long way. We have just got to keep on plug-ging away and make sure we get better at it.

“We certainly don’t want to be labelled as a poor fi elding team, certainly in my duration with the Pakistan team.”

CRICKET7Gulf Times

Friday, January 6, 2017

Pakistan’s Younis Khan celebrates after reaching his century. (Reuters)

South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada celebrates after taking wicket of Sri Lanka’s Angelo Mathews. (Reuetrs)

SA rocked by Abbott departure

South African cricket was rocked yes-terday when it was announced that Test fast bowler Kyle Abbott had quit the national team in order to play county cricket in England. Cricket South Africa immediately cancelled Abbott’s con-tract and said it was in the process of doing the same with one-day star Rilee Rossouw. Both have Kolpak contracts with Hampshire which preclude them from playing for South Africa. Abbott has signed for four years and Rossouw for three. The announcements came immediately after South Africa clinched a Test series against Sri Lanka, winning the second Test by 282 runs. Abbott will not play in the third and final Test in Johannesburg next week. “It’s a mas-sive loss,” said South African captain Faf du Plessis, who was unaware of Ab-bott’s decision until the player told his teammates during the Cape Town Test following a report from England about his impending move. Du Plessis said Cricket South Africa needed to take action to prevent a further player drain. Three other players — Stiaan van Zyl, Simon Harmer and Hardus Viljoen, who have all played Test cricket in the past 15 months — have also signed Kolpak deals recently.

IANSMumbai

Riding on debutant Prithvi Shaw’s bril-liant century, de-fending champions

Mumbai cruised into the fi nal of the 2016-17 Ranji Trophy after defeating Tamil Nadu by six wickets in the semi-fi nal here yesterday.

Mumbai, the 41 times champions, will now take on Gujarat in the fi nal at Indore’s Holkar Stadium from Janu-ary 10. The 17-year-old Shaw scored 120 off 175 deliveries in the second innings to join Sachin Tendulkar, Amol Muz-umdar, Ajinkya Rahane, Jatin Paranjpe and Sameer Dighe, among others, as Mumbai batsmen to score centuries on fi rst-class debut. Shaw shared three crucial partnerships with Praful Waghela, Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav to take his team over the line.

Chasing a target of 251 on the fi nal day of the match, Mumbai openers Shaw and Praful Waghela (36) put up a

90-run stand before the latter was caught by Vijay Shankar off Baba Aparajith.

Thereafter, Shaw teamed up with Shreyas Iyer (40) to put on a 91-run stand for the second wicket before forging a 57-run third wicket stand with Suryakumar Yadav (34).

Shaw, who consumed 152 deliveries to get to his ton, laced with 13 hits to the fence and one over it, perished ten runs short of the fi nish line.

Shaw mistimed a slog sweep off Aushik Srinivas and was well taken by a run-ning T Natarajan near the midwicket boundary. After that, Mumbai skipper Adi-tya Tare (4 not out) and Sid-dhesh Lad (1 not out) ensured there were no further hiccups as Mumbai looked on course for their 42nd Ranji title. For Tamil Nadu, Aushik Srinivas took two wickets while Baba Aparajith and Vijay Shankar picked up one wicket apiece.Brief Scores: Tamil Nadu 305, 356/6 declared lose to Mum-bai 411, 251/4 (Prithvi Shaw 120, Shreyas Iyer 40, Aushik Srinivas 2/73) by six wickets.

Shaw’s debut ton takes Mumbai to Ranji Trophy fi nal

FOCUS

Friday, January 6, 2017

GULF TIMES SPORT

Footprintinthesand wins Al Jassasiya Cup duel

Maukner sets early pace, champion Thomas in chasing pack at Qatar Amateur Open

HORSE RACING

GOLF

‘If you look at Sraab’s record, and even me as a trainer, I know, that she needs a good run after a break. But Footprintinthesand has done well right after a break. So we knew what to expect and it all worked’By Mikhil BhatDoha

Ahmed Kobeissi-trained Footprintinthesand edged out Alban de Mieulle’s Mar-jan in a thrilling duel to win

the Al Jassasiya Cup, a Local Thor-oughbreds Open Handicap event, at the Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club yesterday.

Starting off wide from Gate 7, Marvin Suerland had Footprintinthesand take the lead early on, with Umm Qarn’s Marjan right on his heels under Gaetan Faucon. In the fi nal furlong, Marjan was breathing down the neck of Kobeissi’s charge and only moved closer as the end neared.

However, at the post, Marjan’s eff orts were undone by a short head, while the winner’s stablemate Sraab, one of the favourites for the race, fi nished third.

“The race was a good one. We had prepared the horse well for this one and it all paid off in the end,” trainer Kobeissi told Gulf Times after the win.

Sraab’s form, with two straight wins, the last one more than a month ago, had him under the spotlight, along with In-jaaz Stud’s Al Hareth, who had 17 wins in the kitty from 22 starts before yes-terday.

“If you look at Sraab’s record, and even me as a trainer, I know, that she needs a good run after a break. But Footprintinthesand has done well right after a break. So we knew what to ex-pect and it all worked.

“Umm Qarn’s horse was great, but thanks to God, we won.”

The blue colours of HH Sheikh Mo-hamed bin Khalifa al-Thani and his Al Shahania Stud swept the top two places in the Purebred Arabian Conditions event with Meghwaar and Rasi showing phenomenal pace on the home stretch in the 1850m race.

Julian Smart-trained Meghwaar had stayed at the back of the pack under Marvin Suerland but moved out wide to avoid traffi c coming on to the home stretch, even as Harry Bentley had to deal with traffi c on Jassim Ghazali-schooled Rasi.

After early leader Al Safi was over-whelmed and passed by the likes of Mindza and Tharwah, Meghwaar steadily moved up the order in the fi nal furlong, while Rasi, having broken free of the traffi c, picked up pace too. Even-tually Meghwaar won, while Rasi edged out Adnan Hawa-ridden Mindza to the second spot.

Bentley guided Flying Empress to her second win this season, the fi rst being the Oaks Trial in November.

Yesterday, running in the Thorough-bred Handicap for fi llies and mares rated 76-90, Flying Empress track early leader Queen Anne, helmed by Gaetan Faucon, but went past the Abdulaziz al-Qathiri’s Queen Anne as the mile-long run reached the business end.

Ibrahim al-Malki-trained Fadak and Mohamed Riyaz’s Harry’s Dancer fi n-ished second and third respectively.

The win was trainer Jassim Ghazali’s third on the day, having won the two

maiden races earlier in the evening.Jockey Tomas Lukasek guided Blaz-

ers Rock to the gelding’s fi rst victory in a little over a year for trainer Hadi al-Ramzani in the Thoroughbred Classi-

fi ed Stakes for horses rated 65 & below.Black Treacle, ridden by Eduar-

do Pedroza, had sound claims in the mile-long run having won earlier this year over the same distance and then

coming close on the same course last month. With the lead early on, Black Treacle looked in control.

However, 200m from the post, Lu-kasek had his mount move wide and

then in the front, before pulling away for a fi ne win.

Black Treacle edged out Abbey Vil-lage for the second spot.

Mohamed Hussain-trained Al Aayar registered his second straight victory in as many weeks when Alberto Sanna rode the Dhafi al-Ardi al-Marri-owned six-year-old to victory in the Local Purebred Arabian Handicap event for horses rated 90 & below.

Sanna had his mount track early leader Saab before nudging forward, coming on to the home stretch. And even as the likes of Kassar and Al Fouz mounted their challenge, Al Aayar, despite a big win over the Qatar Inter-national Derby weekend had a bit of a reserve to pull away for his third career win.

Earlier in the day, Ghazali’s charges shed their maiden status with Al Majd Stud’s Teejann and Shaheen bin Khalid Shaheen al-Ghanim-owned Hillside Dream winning the Local Purebred Arabian Maiden Plate and Thorough-bred Maiden Plate events respectively.

RESULTSRace 1: 1. Teejann (JP Guillambert), 2. Namroud (Pier Convertino), 3. Semwo (Adnan Hawa), 4. Almudhahab (Jean Baptiste Hamel). Won by: 2 1/2, 1 3/4, 3/4. Time: 1:47.32. Owner: Al Majd Stud. Trainer: Jassim Ghazali.Race 2: 1. Hillside Dream (Harry Bentley), 2. Poet’s Song (Faleh Bugha-naim), 3. Moueen (Eduardo Pedroza), 4. Dubawi Flame (Tomas Lukasek). Won by: 3/4, Nk, Nk. Time: 1:24.06. Owner: Shaheen bin Khalid Shaheen al-Ghanim. Trainer: Jassim Ghazali.Race 3: 1. Al Aayar (Alberto Sanna), 2. Kasser (JP Guillambert), 3. Al Fouz (Pier Convertino), 4. Mujahidah (Harry Bentley). Won by: 1 1/4, 1 1/4, 1 1/2. Time: 1:30.16. Owner: Dhafi al-Ardi al-Marri. Trainer: Mohamed Hussain.Race 4: 1. Blazers Rock (Tomas Lukasek), 2. Black Treacle (Eduardo Pedroza), 3. Abbey Village (JP Guil-lambert), 4. Christmas Aria (Alberto Sanna). Won by: 1 3/4, Nk, Shd. Time: 1:57.25. Owner: Mohamed Nasser al-Ramzani. Trainer: Hadi al-Ramzani.Race 5: 1. Flying Empress (Harry Bent-ley), 2. Fadak (Eduardo Pedroza), 3. Harry’s Dancer (Jean Baptiste Hamel), 4. Sefaat (Stephan Ladjadj). Won by: 1 ½, Nk, ½. Time: 1:35.76. Owner: Khalifa bin Sheail al-Kuwari. Trainer: Jassim Ghazali.Race 6: 1. Meghwaar (Marco Monteriso), 2. Rasi (Harry Bentley), 3. Mindza (Adnan Hawa), 4. Tharwah (Gaetan Faucon). Won by: ½, Hd, 1 ½. Time: 2:05.53. Owner: HH Sheikh Mohamed bin Khalifa al-Thani. Trainer. Julian Smart.Race 7: 1. Footprintinthesand (Marvin Suerland), 2. Marjan (Gaetan Faucon), 3. Sraab (Saleem Golam), 4. Mutawas-sal (Jean Baptiste Hamel). Won by: Shd, 1 ¾, Nk. Time: 1:36.89. Owner: Mo-hamed Kazim al-Ansari & Sons. Trainer: Ahmed Kobeissi.

By Sports ReporterDoha

Markus Maukner of Austria put in a steady display to take a two-shot lead into the second round of the Qa-

tar Amateur Golf Championship at the Doha Golf Club yesterday.

Taking advantage of calm conditions in the morning, the 22-year-old shot a four-under par 68 to lead the Nether-lands’ Pierre Verlaar Jr, who posted a 70.

Qatar’s Saleh al-Kaabi was in third place, a further one shot behind on 71. Maukner, Verlaar Jr and al-Kaabi were the only three players who bettered par in the fi rst round of the 31st edition of the tournament.

“I am very pleased with my eff ort. But for a double bogey on the 10th hole I could have had a better score, Qatar’s al-Kaabi said.

Al-Kaabi, who is aiming to become the fi rst Qatari winner of the tourna-ment, is hoping to produce a better dis-play in the second round.

“I plan to be steady and play with a mix of caution and aggression. It remains to be seen how the wind will behave tomor-

row. Today it was calm in the morning,” he added.

Meanwhile, defending champion

Rayhan Thomas of India kept himself in the hunt with a 73 to be placed fi fth with two more rounds to go.

Thomas, who is the top amateur in the UAE, won the tournament in a play-off last year after scoring a birdie on the last hole. Several golfers ended up with unfl at-

tering scores – a feature of amateur tour-naments. The winner of the event plus the two best-placed Qatari players will get to play in the Qatar Masters later this month.

India’s Rayhan Thomas and Qatar’s Abdulaziz al-Mohanadi in action in the Qatar Amateur Golf Championship at the Doha Golf Club yesterday.

Jockey Marvin Suerland rides Footprintinthesand to victory in the Al Jassasiya Cup ahead of Marjan, ridden by Gaetan Faucon, at the QREC yesterday. At bottom, Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club (QREC) general manager Nasser Sherida al-Kaabi (third from right) and head of Media Saad Mubarak al-Hajri (right) with the winners of the Al Jassasiya Cup after Footprintinthesand won the mile-long event at the QREC yesterday. PICTURES: Juhaim