Sports
Nadal, Federer lead rankings at Australian Open
By Binoo K. John
Melbourne, Jan 11 (IANS) Spain’s Rafael Nadal has been top seeded at the Australian Open, above Swiss great Roger Federer at two, followed by Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov, Germany’s Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem of Austria.
Serbia’s Djokovic, who is making a comeback after a six month lay-off due to a tennis elbow injury, is ranked at 14. He is chasing a seventh Australian Open title and started off well with a reassuring 6-1, 6-4 win at the Kooyong Classic on January 10.
“I don’t want to be over confident but I’m very, very happy with how it went today,” Djokovic said after the match.
At the 14th rank, Djokovic may run into a tough opponent early on but the win against Thiem has set him up as a potential finalist.
Despite the tournament suffering due to withdrawals by Andy Murray and Kei Nishikori, the return to fitness of Djokovic and hopefully Nadal too opens up the tournament.
In women’s rankings, Romanian Simona Halep tops the chart followed by Danish player Caroline Wozniacki, Spanish-Venezuelan Garbine Muguruza, Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina and America’s Venus Williams.
Muguruza is injured and is not sure if she will take the field.
The US Open winner Sloane Stephens, who has been struggling with her form, has been seeded 13th.
–IANS
binoo/gau/mr
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.
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