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Nadal to participate in Kooyong Classic
Madrid, Jan 7 (IANS) World No.1 Rafael Nadal of Spain intends to compete in the Kooyong Classic exhibition tennis tournament in Melbourne, the organisers announced on Sunday.
The 31-year-old Spaniard is set to compete in the tournament, scheduled to take place between January 9-12, after a troublesome elbow injury forced him to withdraw from the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi and the ATP Brisbane International in Australia, reports Efe.
“Newsflash! World #1 @RafaelNadal will join @DjokerNole at the @KooyongClassic,” the exhibition’s organisers tweeted.
Both Nadal and former world No. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia plan to compete in the tournament, along with David Goffin of Belgium, Dominic Thiem of Austria, Belinda Bencic of Switzerland and Andrea Petkovic of Germany, among others.
Nadal will be looking to tune up ahead of the Australian Open, scheduled for Jan. 15-28, where last year he was runner-up to Roger Federer of Switzerland.
The Australian Open is to mark the start of Nadal’s season, following his withdrawal from the ATP Brisbane tournament in the first week of the regular tennis season.
Nadal is also scheduled to participate in the Tie Break Tens exhibition tournament on January 10 in Melbourne.
–IANS
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Sunil Gavaskar gives his opinion of GT allrounder Rahul Tewatia
The left-handed batsman from Haryana is garnering praise from all quarters for the way he’s finishing games regularly in the most exciting IPL season.
Gavaskar reckons Tewatia’s whirlwind knock in Sharjah (in IPL 2020) where he smashed West Indies pacer Sheldon Cottrell for five sixes in an over, gave him the confidence that he belongs to the big stage.
Speaking on Cricket Live on Star Sports, Gavaskar said, “That assault on Sheldon Cottrell in Sharjah gave him the belief to do the impossible and the confidence that he belongs here. We saw the impossible (he did with the bat) the other day as well. There’s no twitching or touching the pads (which shows a batter’s nervousness) when he bats in the death overs. He just waits for the ball to be delivered and plays his shots. He’s got all the shots in the book, but most importantly his temperament to stay cool in a crisis is brilliant.”
Gavaskar has also nicknamed the 28-year-old cricketer the ‘ice-man’ and lauded Tewatia’s ability to remain unruffled during the tense moments.