SPORTMonday 17 July 2017

Muguruza hopes glory on grass won’t backfire

Hamilton cuts Vettel’s lead with

British GP victory

PAGE | 21 PAGE | 22 PAGE | 23Berchelt dominates Takashi Miurato retain WBO title

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Al Attiyah Sports Arena set to host FIBA World Cup qualifiersThe Peninsula

FIBA Asia Regional Office evaluation and educa-tional staff arrived in

Doha last Tuesday to inspect facilities and confer with QBF officials in relation to Qatar's hosting of the FIBA World Cup 2019 qualifying matches.

The site evaluation visit was conducted by Sport and Competitions Manager Marc Missirian while the educa-tional workshops were presented by Communica-tions Coordinator Hovsep Seraydarian and Data, Stats & Eligibility – Assistant Man-ager Maarouf Mawloud.

Q a t a r B a s k e t b a l l

Federation (QBF) Secretary General Ali Malki welcomed the FIBA Asia trio saying “It's great to have the FIBA repre-sentatives in Doha. With the federation preparing to host the qualifiers it’s vital that we are up to date on the rules and regulations according to FIBA”.

“It is also imperative to have our playing facilities evaluated and approved pre tournament” Malki said.

Talking about the brand FIBA Missirian said “FIBA is an international brand name so it’s important not only to deliver quality games but to do so at a standard where the global community and

stakeholders are satisfied”.He continued “We visit

host nations to help them bet-ter meet and prepare for the high standards of FIBA event deliverance. We also rein-force the federation’s o b l i g a t i o n s a n d responsibilities”.

When pressed on the pre-ferred stadium Missirian said “Both stadiums comply with the requirements of FIBA but Al Attiya Sports Arena gives a different experience, it presents a higher interna-tional standard and appeal.”

For his part QBF Com-munications coordinator Samuel Rico said “FIBA’s visit to Doha is a standard

routine. FIBA has set specific parameters as requirements to host qualifying matches and its important our ven-ues meet the criteria”.

Qatar is in group D of the FIBA World Cup 2019 quali-fiers along with Iraq, Kazakhstan and Iran. Qatar is scheduled to play three matches at home and three away.

The first home match will be played later this year against Kazakhstan - 24 November. This will be fol-lowed by three consecutive away games before return-ing home to meet Iran and Iraq on 29 June and 2 July respectively.

The Peninsula

Qatar coach Felix Sanchez yes-terday named a squad of 23 players for this week’s AFC

U-23 Asian Cup qualifiers against India, Turkmenistan and Syria.

The four-nation qualifying leg will be held at Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium from July 19 to 23. The U-23 Asian Cup will be held in China in January 2018.

Qatar face Turkmenistan on July 19 at 8.00pm followed by their games against India and Syria on July 21 and 23 respectively.

Sanchez guided the team to impressive wins in friendlies over the last month or so. Three days

ago, Qatar crushed Bangladesh 3-0. Qatar also played matches against Singapore, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Mohammad Bakri, Meshal Issa Barshim,

Mohamed Said, Tamim Almuhaize, Bassam

Hisham Al Rawi, Tariq Salman, Abdul Rah-

man Mohammed, Abdulrahman stubborn-

ness, Salem Al Hajri, Ahmed Ameen, Adel

Alawi, Omar Ahmed Al Emadi, Khaled

Mounir Mazeed, Salah Alawi Yahri, Abdelh-

amid Anad, Abdullah Alohrq, Asim Madibo,

Sultan Al Barik, Ahmed Al Saadi, Nasser

Ibrahim Al Nasr, Moaaz Ali, Akram Afif,

Mishal Al Shammari. Coach: Felix Sanchez

Qatar squad

Sanchez names U-23 squad ahead of home matches

London AP

Roger Federer's wait for No. 8 at Wimbledon is over.

He is once again the champion of the grass-

court Grand Slam tournament, now more often than any other man in the history of an event first held in 1877.

Federer won his eighth title at the All England Club and 19th major trophy overall, capping a marvellous fortnight in which he never dropped a set by over-whelming Marin Cilic 6-3, 6-1, 6-4 yesterday in a lopsided final that was more coronation than contest.

When it ended, with an ace from Federer after merely 1 hour, 41 minutes, he raised both arms overhead. A minute or so later, he was sitting on the sideline, wiping tears from his eyes.

Truly, the outcome was only in doubt for about 20 minutes, the amount of time it took Federer to grab his first lead. Cilic, whose left foot was treated by a trainer in the late going, was never able to sum-mon the intimidating serves or crisp volleys that carried him to his lone Grand Slam title at the 2014 US Open, where he surprisingly beat Federer in straight sets in the semifinals.

This one was all Federer, who last won Wimbledon in 2012.

That seventh championship pulled Federer even with Pete Sampras and William Renshaw in what's still officially called Gentle-men's Singles. Sampras won all but one of his in the 1990s; Renshaw won each of his in the 1880s, back in the days when the previous year's champion advanced auto-matically to the final and therefore was able to successfully defend a title with one victory.

Federer had come close to bet-tering his predecessors but couldn't quite do it. He lost in the 2014 and 2015 Wimbledon finals to Novak Djokovic, and in the semifinals last year after erasing match points to get past Cilic in a five-set quarterfinal.

With clouds overhead and a bit of chill in the air, the very first

game offered a glimpse at Cilic's apparent plan: go after Federer's backhand. All five points won by Cilic in that opening stanza came via mistakes by Federer on that stroke. Conversely, all three points won by Federer in that game were thanks to fore-hand miscues by Cilic.

Understandably, there were signs of nerves for both.

Federer's early play, in general, was sympto-matic of jitters. For every-thing he's accomplished, for all of the bright lights and big settings to which he's become accus-tomed, the guy many have labeled the "GOAT" — Greatest of All T i m e — admits to f e e l i n g h e a v y legs and j u m b l e d thoughts at important on-court moments to this day.

And so it was that Fed-erer, not Cilic, hit a double-fault in each of his first two service games. And

it was Federer, not Cilic, who faced the match's initial

break point, 15 minutes in, trailing 2-1 and 30-40. But Cilic

netted a r e t u r n

there,

begin-ning a

run of 17 points in a

row won by Federer on

his serve.It was as if

the first indication of the slightest bit of

t r o u b l e j o l t e d Federer.

In the very next game, Federer broke to lead 3-2 with the help of three errors by Cilic and one marvellous point. Cilic tried a drop shot, Federer got to it and

replied at a tight angle. Cilic got that

and offered a slick response

of his own but slipped and

fell to the

court, allowing Federer to flip a winner, elicit-ing roars from the crowd.

Federer broke again to take that set when Cilic dou-ble-faulted, walked to the changeover and slammed his racket on his sideline chair. Cilic then sat and covered his head with a white towel.

After Federer raced to a 3-0 lead in the second set, Cilic cried while he was visited by a doctor and trainer. At that moment, it wasn't clear, exactly, what might have been ailing Cilic. During a later medical timeout, Cilic's left foot was re-taped by the trainer.

Federer would break to a 4-3 edge in the third set and all that remained to find out was how he'd finish. It was with his eighth ace, at 114 mph, and he raised both arms overhead.

This caps a remarkable reboot for Federer, who departed Wim-bledon a year ago with a lot of doubts. He had lost in the semifi-nals, yes, but more troublesome was that his body was letting him down for the first time in his career.

Earlier in 2016, he had surgery on his left knee, then sat out the French Open because of a bad back, ending a record streak of participating in 65 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments. Then, after Wimbledon, he did not play at all the rest of the year, skipping the Rio Olympics, the U.S. Open and everything else in an attempt to let his knee fully heal.

It worked. Did it ever.

ROGER FEDERER'S EIGHT WIMBLEDON TITLES

��2003 : Beat Mark Philippoussis

(AUS) 7-6, 6-2, 7-6

��2004: Beat Andy Roddick (USA)

4-6, 7-5, 7-6, 6-4

��2005: Beat Andy Roddick (USA)

6-2, 7-6, 6-4

��2006: Beat Rafael Nadal (ESP) 6-0,

7-6, 6-7, 6-3

��2007: Beat Rafael Nadal (ESP) 7-6,

4-6, 7-6, 2-6, 6-2

��2009: Beat Andy Roddick (USA)

5-7, 7-6, 7-6, 3-6, 16-14

��2012: Beat Andy Murray (GBR) 4-6,

7-5, 6-3, 6-4

��2017: Beat Marin Cilic (CRO) 6-3,

6-1, 6-4

Federer gets No.8, extends GS list to 19MOST GRAND SLAM

SINGLES TITLES-ONE EVENT

MEN

10: Rafael Nadal, French Open (2005-08, 2010-14, 2017)

8: Roger Federer, Wimbledon (2003-07, 2009, 2012, 2017)

7: Willie Renshaw, Wimbledon (1881-86, 1889)

7: Richard Sears, US National Championships (1881-87)

7: Bill Larned, US National Championships (1901-02, 1907-11)

7: Bill Tilden, US National Championships (1920-25, 1929)

7: Pete Sampras, Wimbledon (1993-95, 1997-00)

WOMEN

11: Margaret Smith Court, Australian Championships/Open (1960-

66, 1969-71, 1973)

9: Martina Navratilova, Wimbledon (1978-79, 1982-87, 1990)

8: Molla Bjurstedt Mallory, US National Championships (1915-

18, 1920-22, 1926)

8: Helen Wills Moody, Wimbledon (1927-30, 1932-33, 1935,

1938)

7: Steffi Graf, Wimbledon (1988-89, 1991-93, 1995-96)

7: Dorothea Douglass Chambers, Wimbledon (1903-04, 1906,

1910-11, 1913-14)

7: Helen Wills Moody, US National Championships (1923-25,

1927-29, 1931)

7: Chris Evert, French Open (1974-75, 1979-80, 1983,

1985-86)

7: Serena Williams, Australian Open (2003, 2005, 2007,

2009-10, 2015, 2017)

7: Serena Williams, Wimbledon (2002-03,

2009-10, 2012, 2015-16)

Switzerland’s Roger Federer poses with the trophy as he celebrates

winning the men's singles final of the 2017 Wimbledon

Championships against Croatia’s Marin Cilic at the All England Lawn Tennis Club in

Wimbledon, southwest London yesterday. Federer won his

eighth Wimbledon title and 19th major trophy overall,

capping a marvellous fortnight in which he never dropped a

set by overwhelming Marin Cilic 6-3, 6-1, 6-4.

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R FEDERER'S EIGHTMBLEDON TITLES

Beat Mark Philippoussis

-2, 7-6

Beat Andy Roddick (USA)

, 6-4

Beat Andy Roddick (USA)

4

Beat Rafael Nadal (ESP) 6-0,

Beat Rafael Nadal (ESP) 7-6,

6, 6-2

Beat Andy Roddick (USA)

, 3-6, 16-14

Beat Andy Murray (GBR) 4-6,

4

Beat Marin Cilic (CRO) 6-3,

MOST GRSINGLES TITL

MEN

10: Rafael Nadal, French Open

8: Roger Federer, Wimbledon

7: Willie Renshaw, Wimbledo

7: Richard Sears, US National

7: Bill Larned, US National Cha

7: Bill Tilden, US National Cha

7: Pete Sampras, Wimbledon

WOMEN

11: Margaret Smith Court, Austr

66, 1969-71, 1973)

9: Martina Navratilova, Wimb

8: Molla Bjurstedt Mallory, US

18, 1920-22, 1926)

8: Helen Wills Moody, Wimb

1938)

7: Steffi Graf, Wimbledon (19

7: Dorothea Douglass Chambe

1910-11, 1913-14)

7: Helen Wills Moody, US Na

1927-29, 1931)

7: Chris Evert, French Ope

1985-86)

7: Serena Williams, Aus

2009-10, 2015,

7: Serena

2009

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21MONDAY 17 JULY 2017SPORT

Yankees outclass Red Soxin 16-inning marathonAgencies

Didi Gregorius was not going to allow the Bos-ton Red Sox to have back-to-back walk-off wins on consecutive

nights.Gregorius ripped a go-ahead

RBI single to highlight a three-run 16th inning for the New York Yan-kees in a 4-1 victory over traditional rival Boston Red Sox in a five-hour, 50-minute game on Saturday at Fenway Park.

“It’s a good feeling,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said of watch-ing Gregorius’ timely hit. “Our guys were really good at tacking on.”

New York (46-42) bounced back after star closer Aroldis Chap-man issued a walk-off walk to Andrew Benintendi in Friday’s 5-4 series-opening loss after entering the ninth with a 4-3 lead.

On Saturday, Jacoby Ellsbury doubled off Red Sox reliever Doug Fister (0-3) to open the Yankees’ 16th. Chase Headley’s bloop single to center field put runners on first and third to set up Gregorius’ sin-gle to centre.

Austin Romine followed with another RBI single and Gary Sanchez added a sacrifice fly after a Ronald Torreyes sacrifice bunt and Fister’s intentional walk to Brett Gardner.

Matt Holliday clubbed a game-tying solo homer in the ninth, his 16th of the season, off closer Craig Kimbrel for New York, which had lost 19 of its last 26 games coming in and pulled within 3 1/2 games of American League East-leading Bos-ton (51-40).

“It’s a huge win for this team with the way some of the things had gone,” Girardi said.

Yankees starter Luis Severino permitted one run, four hits and two walks with six strikeouts in seven innings. Ben Heller (1-0) struck out three and pitched the

final two innings for the victory.

Boston starter Chris Sale, the American League starter in the All-Star Game on Tuesday, matched a season high with 13 strikeouts in 7 2/3 scoreless innings.

Sale became the first Red Sox pitcher since Pedro Martinez in 2003 with multiple 10-plus strikeout games against the Yan-kees in a season.

“He’s been outstanding,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said. “On a day where I thought he pitched under control, he had real good power early on but then he pitched comfortably throughout the rest of the ballgame.”

The left-hander allowed three hits and two walks before being relieved by Kimbrel, who pro-ceeded to blow his second save since July 3 and his first at Fenway. Kimbrel had converted a Fenway-record 30 consecutive saves.

Tampa Bay 6 LA Angels 3

Oakland 5 Cleveland 3

San Diego 5 San Francisco 3

Texas 1 Kansas City 0

Atlanta 8 Arizona 5

NY Mets 9 Colorado 3

LA Dodgers 7 Miami 1

Minnesota 4 Houston 2

Milwaukee 3 Philadelphia 2

Seattle 4 Chicago White Sox 3

Washington 10 Cincinnati 7

Chicago Cubs 10 Baltimore 3

St. Louis 4 Pittsburgh 0

Detroit 11 Toronto 1

NY Yankees 4 Boston 1

BASEBALL RESULTS

Dodgers rout MarlinsAgencies

Rookie Cody Bellinger hit for the cycle and Alex Wood improved to 11-0 to lead the Los Angeles

Dodgers to a 7-1 victory over the Miami Marlins on Saturday night.

The Dodgers have been playing baseball for 128 years, and Bellinger is the first rookie in franchise history to hit for the cycle and the ninth Dodg-ers player overall. Bellinger singled in the first inning, blasted a two-run homer in the third, slugged an RBI double in the fourth and got his triple when Marlins right fielder Giancarlo Stanton had the ball tip off the top of his glove.

Elsewhere, Khris Davis hit a two-run, walk-off homer to power Oakland past Cleveland.

Davis hit Bryan Shaw’s 3-2

fastball over the fence for his 25th home run and second walk-off hit of the season. Yonder Alonso led off with a walk against Andrew Miller (3-3), who gave way to Shaw, and Davis ended the game.

In Cincinnati, Anthony Rendon hit two home runs, including his second career grand slam, and drove in six runs to back Max Scherzer’s six score-less innings as Washington defeated Cincinnati.

Rendon was on base five times with a single and two walks for the Nationals. It was his third career multi-homer game. Scherzer (10-5) struck out 10 to extend his National League-leading strikeout total to 183.

Elsewhere, Jimmy Nelson struck out nine and Travis Shaw snapped a tie game with a solo home run in the eighth to lead Milwaukee past Philadelphia.

New York Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius follows through on a RBI single against the Boston Red Sox during the 16th inning at Fenway Park in Boston, MA, USA on Saturday.

Lewis back in the mix at US Women’s Open

Stacy Lewis of the US reacts after teeing off on the 11th hole during the third round of the US Women’s Open golf tournament at Trump National Golf Club-New Jersey on Saturday.

Eubank passes Abraham test to retain title LondonAFP

Chris Eubank Junior defended his Interna-tional Boxing Organisation (IBO) world super-middleweight title with a unanimous

points decision win over Arthur Abraham in Lon-don on Saturday.

Eubank retained the belt he took in February with the three judges awarding him the contest 118-110, 118-110, 120-108 at the end of 12 absorb-ing rounds at the SSE Wembley Arena.

The Brighton-born boxer, with his father, the former middleweight champion Chris Eubank in his corner, proved too much of a handful for the decade older Abraham.

The Armenian-born German manfully absorbed punch after punch from the fleeter-footed home favourite who kept up his relentless pounding until the final bell.

Eubank’s reward is an invitation to the inau-gural $50m (£38.4m) World Boxing Super Series Muhammad Ali Trophy.

Eubank, who took his record to 25-1, paid trib-ute to Abraham.

“He’s the most durable opponent I’ve faced. I hit him with every punch in the book. The state-ment was made.

“I’m happy with the performance. I got to show my skills, I got to go the 12 rounds and get the experience in.”

His dad described his son as “the most tal-ented fighter on the planet”.

Eubank senior added: “I believe he’s the best in the world. Over the coming nine months, he will be able to clean the slate and come away with the Mohamed Ali trophy and all the belts.”

On the undercard Britain’s Lee Selby defended his International Boxing Federation (IBF) world featherweight belt with a unanimous points deci-sion against Argentine challenger Jonathan Victor Barros four days after the death of his mother.

The 30-year-old Welshman -- who has held the title since 2015 -- emerged the winner of a gripping bout with the three judges scoring 119-108, 117-110, 117-110 after 12 rounds.

Berchelt dominates Takashi Miurato retain WBO title Los AngelesAFP

Miguel Berchelt (pictured) retained his WBC world title Saturday with a unanimous decision over former champion Takashi

Miura in the first defence of his super featherweight belt.

Mexico’s Berchelt won almost every round and it showed on the lopsided scorecards but the unflinching Miura fought on pride and looked like he could have knocked the champion out at any moment.

The judges scored the fight 116-111, 120-109 and 119-108 for the 33-year-old Berchelt who won the title with an 11th round upset victory over Fran-cisco Vargas in January.

Japan’s Miura (31-4-2, 24 KOs) was hoping to reclaim the WBC title which he held for more than two years before losing to Vargas in 2015.

Berchelt set the tone early in the 12-round clash as he rocked Miura with a hard punch in the fifth round that snapped the challenger’s head back at the Forum arena in south central Los Angeles.

Miura took the fight to Berchelt (32-1, 28 KOs) in the seventh round as the Mexican appeared to tire, pawing at him instead of landing solid blows like earlier in the bout.

Berchelt also had to deal the non-stop attack of Miura, who despite taking a massive amount of punishment to the head and body, wouldn’t yield an inch.

Berchelt wobbled Miura in the eighth with a left hook but he couldn’t finish him off.

Miura showed he has a steel chin and still had an opportunity to win the fight heading into the 11th round but only if he could score a knockout against Berchelt, who was in excellent condition.

Illinois Reuters

Patrick Rodgers moved closer to his first PGA Tour victory, and a

place in the British Open, when he retained a two-stroke lead after the third round at the John Deere Clas-sic in Illinois on Saturday.

The former world number one amateur was not at his very best, but a three-under-par 68 left him with the same advantage at the end of the day as when he started.

Rodgers posted a 16-under 197 score at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, while fel-low Americans Daniel Berger (63) and Scott Stallings (64) rocketed into second place on 14 under.

Sixteen players are lurk-ing within five strokes of Rodgers, who will continue to play with an attacking mindset.

“This is a nice course to play with the lead because you have to keep the pedal down all day,” Rodgers told CBS television after his eight-foot par putt at the last sneaked in.

“Sixteeen-under’s not

going to win tomorrow so I need to go out and make a lot of birdies. It was nice to have that mindset today. You’re not really holding on, you’re still trying to be aggressive and make birdies.”

The winner on Sunday will earn a spot in next week’s British Open.

World number 20 Berger, already exempt for Royal Birkdale, continued his siz-zling form, moving into contention for the third time in four starts.

He won the St. Jude Clas-sic in Memphis five weeks ago, before losing a playoff to Jordan Spieth at the Trave-lers Championship.

He has not played since that second-placing and did not want to go into a major without a tune-up under his belt.

“I love playing the week before a major so this fit into my schedule quite well,” he said after matching his career-low round on tour.

“In Memphis I drove the ball phenomenally and this week I haven’t driven it so well but I’ve kept it in play for the most part. I’ve made a bunch of putts, which has been the difference.”

Rodgers retains two-shot leadat John Deere Bedminister, New Jersey

Reuters

On a leaderboard dominated by South Koreans and topped by China’s Shanshan Feng, American Stacy

Lewis made a spirited charge to put a home country name into the mix at the US Wom-en’s Open on Saturday.

But the surge that catapulted Lewis within a shot of the lead midway through the third round ended in an embarrassing collapse at Trump National Golf Club.

Former world number one Lewis, win-ner of 11 LPGA Tour events, ran off four birdies in a row from the seventh hole to reach seven under par for the champion-ship, one behind Feng at the time.

President Donald Trump, owner of the 500-acre complex, proudly watched the player passing his glass enclosed, private viewing suite wearing a red baseball cap with his slogan, “Make America Great

Again”, brandished on the crown.During that glorious

run by Lewis,

it looked like a prophecy come true.But on the 11th hole, the 32-year-old

Lewis gave back most of the strokes gained on her birdie binge.

Her approach shot on the par-four hole found the rough above the hole on the slop-ing green and her chip sped past the hole and ran down the steep slope back into the fairway. She ended up with a triple-bogey.

Another bogey followed, but the crown-ing blow to her day and championship hopes came at the par-five 18th.

Lewis found the water twice on her way to the green and registered an embarrass-ing quintuple-bogey 10 to card a 76 for a 218 total, 11 strokes behind Feng.

Feng, meanwhile, birdied the last after a run of 17 successive pars to stand nine under par.

One stroke back were Koreans Amy Yang and 17-year-old Choi Hye-jin, the world’s second-ranked amateur, with the next four places on the leaderboard

occupied by their compatriots.

22 MONDAY 17 JULY 2017SPORT

Muguruza hopes glory on grass won’t backfireLondon AFP

Garbine Muguruza hopes the leg-acy of her first Wimbledon title will not be a depressing repeat of the torment she suffered after her 2016 French Open

breakthrough.The 23-year-old Spaniard stunned sen-

timental favourite Venus Williams 7-5, 6-0 on Saturday to clinch her second Grand Slam crown.

She immediately turned her thoughts to the future, hoping her triumph will be a launchpad for more majors rather than a one-way ticket into the abyss.

When she defeated Serena Williams to win Roland Garros last year, it was revenge for her loss to the American in the Wimble-don final 12 months earlier.

But instead of having the world at her feet, the burden of being a Grand Slam cham-pion was too much.

She lost in the second round at Wimble-don last year to world number 124 Jana Cepelkova and crashed out at the same stage of the US Open to Anastasija Sevastova, ranked 48 at the time.

Muguruza made the quarter-finals of the Australian Open this year, but her Roland Garros title defence ended at the last-16 stage in tears and a bitter outburst at the Paris crowd.

“It’s not easy. It’s very good when you win it, and it’s hard after when you come back and you know you have to defend,” said Muguruza.

“But that’s a good problem to have. It was tough obviously, because you know you have a lot of matches to go.

“I’m happy to be in this situation. I’m happy that once again I see myself winning a Grand Slam, something that is so hard to do. It means a lot.

Muguruza’s title triumph on Saturday was her first of any kind since the 2016 French Open.

Two of her four career titles have now come at the majors.

When Muguruza lost in the first round at the Eastbourne grass-court event on the eve of Wimbledon, it looked like she was suffering another Paris hangover.

But with memories of her post-Roland Garros problems still fresh, she said she was determined to put the record straight.

She proved as good as her word, knock-ing out top seed Angelique Kerber, from a set down, and seventh-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova on her way to the final.

“Eastbourne was such a short tourna-ment, I didn’t play well there. But I did the week before in Birmingham (where she made the semi-finals), so that helped me,” she said.

“I always come very motivated to the Grand Slams. Since I lost the final here I wanted to change that.

“I came thinking, I’m prepared, I feel good. During the tournament and the matches, I was feeling better and better. Every match, I was increasing my level.”

She said a glance at the honours board at the All England Club also spurred her on to end Venus’s dreams of becoming the old-est Grand Slam women’s champion.

“I always look at the wall and see all the names and all the history. I lost that final. I’m like, I was close. I didn’t wanted to lose this time, because I know the difference,” she said.

On Saturday, Muguruza saved two set points at 4-5 in the opening set and swept the remaining nine games to take the title.

Ironically, Saturday’s final represented the largest age gap between two finalists since 1994, when 22-year-old Conchita Mar-tinez shocked 37-year-old Martina Navratilova for the Wimbledon title.

Twenty-three years later, Martinez was up in the player’s box on Centre Court in her role as coach, standing in for Sam Sumyk, Muguruza’s regular coach who was at home with his pregnant wife.

“My level at tennis doesn’t change, no matter who is in my box or not. I’m the same player,” she said.

“I like Conchita to be in my team because I have a great relation with her.

“The coincidence of her winning against Navratilova, me winning against Venus, there were a lot of things there -- it was awesome.”

Wimbledon champion keen on winning more trophiesLondon Reuters

Newly crowned Wimbledon women’s champion Garbine Muguruza says she would rather be ranked tenth in the

world and win more Grand Slams than focus on reaching the top of the rankings.

Muguruza beat five-times champion Venus Williams in straight sets on Saturday to win her second major tournament after her triumph at the French Open in 2016.

The Spaniard went into Wimbledon ranked 15th in the world and her victory at the All England Club will push her up to fifth in the WTA Rankings when they are pub-lished on Monday.

The 23-year-old says she cares little for the ranking number next to her name, however.

“I think unless you are number one, because that is incredible... I have been number two, I have been three and failed to win a Grand Slam and there is no compari-son,” she told a small group of international reporters.

“It is just having the trophy, having to have played all the matches. You have to play seven matches and you can face the one, the three, everyone.

“It is a different feeling. I don’t know what it feels like to be number one; hope-fully one day I can be and I can compare but for now I’d rather be 10 and win Grand Slams than be number one,” said Muguruza, who beat Williams 7-5 6-0.

Czech Karolina Pliskova, who went out in the second round at Wimbledon, will take over from German Angelique Kerber in the top spot in the new rankings.

Muguruza says the points and calcula-tions are far from her mind and it is the big events such as Wimbledon and next month’s US Open that fire her up.

“My motivation is just to be able to be a good tennis player and come to the Grand Slams and be a threat.

“The ranking is temporary but it is really to be a good player and always have a chance to win a trophy.

“That is what I train for, in the gym and so on; on the days you don’t want to move,

you remember, if I work hard then I might have a chance to be in a final and so then you are strong,” she said.

Muruguza’s form dipped after her first Grand Slam event victory and she hopes that this time she will be able to manage her expectations better, although she acknowl-edges that her attacking style can make consistency hard to achieve.

“It is difficult to deal with success. You have all these expectations. Hopefully I can just be humble, keep working and don’t expect to perform incredible every match because it is not the case,” she said.

“I have a very aggressive game which means that one day I can be more up or more down. Hopefully I keep it the same way,” she added.

“(After the French Open) I did put a lot of pressure (on myself) because I was feel-ing good and I thought ‘I wish to play like this every week’ but it doesn’t happen and so then you start questioning, get a little bit frustrated and it brings you down.

“Hopefully this time I can manage a lit-tle bit better.”

Arsenal ‘have not made bid for Mbappe’Sydney Reuters

Arsenal had lost interest in signing Monaco’s Kylian Mbappe because he was too expensive, manager Arsene Wenger said after his side ended their tour of Australia with a 3-1

win over Western Sydney Wanderers.The 18-year-old forward had been linked with Real Madrid,

Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City and Arsenal after he helped Monaco to the Ligue 1 title last season.

Local media reported that Arsenal had made a bid of £123m for Mbappe, but Wenger denied that after his side beat Western Sydney with goals from Olivier Giroud, Aaron Ramsey and Mohamed Elneny in front of 84,000 at the Olympic Stadium on Saturday.

“That’s not true,” Wenger told the club website (www.arse-nalfc.com) after the match. “People have a big imagination.

“What we know now about Mbappe is that it’s over 100 mil-lion. After that it’s free to imagine what you want. But we have not made an offer.

“It looks like he will stay at Monaco. Too much choice maybe, so in the end people don’t move.”

Wenger added that Chilean forward Alexis Sanchez had not agreed a new contract with the club, despite both the manager and his fellow players wanting him to stay.

“No, a lot that comes out (about) Alexis doesn’t look completely right,” Wenger said when asked if the Chilean had agreed a new contract. “No, that’s not the case.”

The 28-year-old has one year left on his contract and British media have reported he is the target of Manchester City.

Sanchez then suggested later that he was no closer to signing a new contract with Arsenal when he said at a charity game in his home town of Tocopilla that he wanted to play in the Champions League.

Arsenal did not qualify for next season’s Champions League for the first time in 20 years, after finishing fifth in the English Pre-mier League.

The victory over a physical Western Sydney follows a 2-0 win over Sydney FC on Thursday and sets Arsenal up for their matches against Bayern Munich in Shanghai on July 19 and Chelsea in Bei-jing on July 22 as part of the International Champions Cup.

“It will be less robust physically but of course you play against teams who have top quality going forward,” Wenger said of what he expected against the European clubs.

“In the last two games we focused a lot on attacking ... Apart from that we will play in a different climate. It will be very hot, so we have to adapt to that as well.”

Rashford double as Man United thrash GalaxyLos Angeles AFP

Marcus Rashford scored twice as Manchester United kicked off their pre-season tour of the United States with a 5-2 rout of the Los Angeles Galaxy on

Saturday. With new signing Romelu Lukaku starting on the bench,

England striker Rashford reminded manager Jose Mourinho of his eye for goal with an energetic display against an out-classed Galaxy team.

Rashford opened the scoring after only two minutes, pun-ishing an error from Ariel Lassiter near the Galaxy penalty area to dart in on goal and place his finish beyond goalkeeper Jon Kempin.

The 19-year-old doubled his tally in the 20th minute, latch-ing onto a clever pass from Juan Mata to make it 2-0.

Marouane Fellaini put United 3-0 ahead five minutes later, tucking a low shot past the hapless Kempin after good work down the left flank by Jesse Lingard.

United boss Mourinho changed his entire line-up at half-time, handing a debut to Lukaku, who completed his record transfer from Everton earlier this week.

The Belgian international might have opened his United account within four minutes of coming on, but saw his shot saved by the Galaxy’s Brian Rowe, who replaced Kempin at half-time. The remainder of the half resembled a training exercise, with United dominating possession against a Gal-axy line-up who also made wholesale changes at half-time.

Spain’s Garbine Muguruza poses after

she beat US player Venus Williams to win the Wimbledon final.

Manchester United’s Marouane Fellaini celebrates scoring

a goal with Antonio Valencia.

23MONDAY 17 JULY 2017 SPORT

Hamilton cuts Vettel’s lead with British GP victorySilverstone Reuters

Lewis Hamilton won his home British Grand Prix for the fourth year in a row yesterday while a penultimate-

lap puncture slashed Sebastian Vettel’s championship lead to a single point.

The Briton’s drive from pole to flag on an overcast afternoon was lonely, uneventful and dom-inant -- in complete contrast to his Ferrari rival’s afternoon -- with Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas finishing 14 sec-onds behind to secure the one-two.

“The support has been incredible this weekend. I am so proud I could do this for you all,” said Hamilton, who threw him-self into the fans for some ‘crowd surfing’ after the podium celebrations.

“The team were faultless this weekend, Valtteri did an incred-ible job as well so it’s the perfect weekend for us.”

Far behind in his wake, as Hamilton cruised to a 57th career win and soaked up the applause from an army of flag-waving fans, came sudden drama.

Vettel, who had battled on worn tyres but looked like securing the final podium posi-tion until the blowout, finished seventh after an emergency pit stop with a shower of sparks from the wheel rim.

“There was no sign of that happening,” said Vettel over the team radio. “There were vibra-tions but I had it for 20 laps and it didn’t get massively worse. The tyres didn’t look great but they never look great.”

The German’s Finnish team mate Kimi Raikkonen, who had been second before also being

hit with a late puncture that sent Bottas and Vettel ahead of him, took third.

At the halfway stage of the 20-race season, Vettel has 177 points to Hamilton’s 176 with Bottas on 154.

Hungary, a circuit where the Briton has won five times before, is next up.

Hamilton became only the third driver, after his late com-patriot Jim Clark and Frenchman Alain Prost, to win the British Grand Prix five times and the first to take four successive vic-tories at Silverstone.

Clark won four in a row in the 1960s but one was at Aintree and another at Brands Hatch.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen finished fourth, ending a run of retirements, with Australian team mate Daniel Ricciardo fifth after fighting through the field.

Germany’s Nico Hulkenberg was sixth for Renault and Force India pairing Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez were eighth and ninth with Brazilian Felipe Massa securing the final point for Williams.

Jolyon Palmer’s miserable run continued, with Britain’s

only other driver on the grid fail-ing to make the start after his Renault broke down on the for-mation lap with a brake failure.

That forced an aborted start, with the field doing another for-mation lap before the lights went out and Hamilton made a clean getaway.

Vettel, brakes smoking, meanwhile lost a place to Verstappen.

The Toro Rossos of Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat collided on lap two, with the Spaniard shunted out and the safety car

making an appearance for three laps.

Kvyat, who has been involved in a series of incidents of late, looked at fault and was given a drive-through penalty for rejoining the track in an unsafe fashion.

With Hamilton pulling away, Vettel and Verstappen provided some fireworks with the Dutch teenager keeping the door firmly closed as they went wheel to wheel.

“He wants to play bumper cars or something,” exclaimed Verstappen over the radio.

Lewis Hamilton celebrates his win on the podium.

Mercedes’ British driver Lewis Hamilton celebrates with fans after he won the British Formula One Grand Prix at the Silverstone motor racing circuit in Silverstone, central England yesterday.

BRITISH GRAND PRIX RESULTS:

1. Lewis Hamilton (GBR/Mercedes) 1hr 21min 27.430sec, 2. Valtteri Bottas (FIN/Mercedes) at 14.063sec, 3. Kimi Raikkonen (FIN/Ferrari) 36.570, 4. Max Verstappen (NED/Red Bull) 52.125, 5. Daniel Ricciardo (AUS/Red Bull) 1:05.955, 6. Nico Hulkenberg (GER/Renault) 1:08.109, 7. Sebastian Vettel (GER/Ferrari) 1:33.989, 8. Esteban Ocon (FRA/Force India) 1 lap, 9. Sergio Perez (MEX/Force India) 1 lap, 10. Felipe Massa (BRA/Williams) 1 lap, 11. Stoffel Vandoorne (BEL/McLaren) 1 lap

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (DRIVERS)

1. Sebastian Vettel (GER) 177 pts, 2. Lewis Hamilton (GBR) 176, 3. Valtteri Bottas (FIN) 154, 4. Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) 117, 5. Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) 98, 6. Max Verstappen (NED) 57, 7. Sergio Perez (MEX) 52, 8. Esteban Ocon (FRA) 43, 9. Carlos Sainz Jr (ESP) 29, 10. Nico Hulkenberg (GER) 26, 11. Felipe Massa (BRA) 23, 12. Lance Stroll (CAN) 18, 13. Romain Grosjean (FRA) 18

Raza puts Zimbabwe on course for first Test win over Sri Lanka Colombo Reuters

Sikandar Raza closed in on his maiden hundred and put Zimbabwe in sight of

a first Test victory against Sri Lanka on the third day of their only match at the R Premadasa Stadium yesterday.

The touring side, who also won their maiden one-day international series against Sri Lanka which finished last week, reached 252-6 in their second innings at the close of play for an overall lead of 262 runs.

The 31-year-old Raza was unbeaten on 97 for his highest test score and has added 107 for the unbroken seventh wicket with Malcolm Waller, who remained 57 not out.

Sri Lankan spin spearhead Rangana Herath (4-85) had helped the hosts to reduce Zim-babwe to 59-5 at one stage but Raza and Peter Moor, who made 40, launched a fightback with a stand of 86 for the sixth wicket.

Earlier, Zimbabwe captain and leg-spinner Graeme Cre-mer (5-125) took his maiden five-wicket haul to help his side to restrict Sri Lanka to 346 after the hosts had resumed on 293-7.

Sri Lanka have been ham-pered by a left hamstring injury to al l-rounder Asela Gunaratne, who has been told he needs a recovery period of up to 10 days and will not bowl or field in the remainder of the ongoing Test.

Zimbabwe (I innings): .......................... 356Sri Lanka (I innings):D Karunaratne c Masakadza b Tiripano ..............25

U Tharanga (run out) ............................................... 71

K Mendis c Chakabva b Cremer ..............................11

D Chandimal c Chakabva b Cremer ......................55

A Mathews c Masakadza b Williams ....................41

N Dickwella b Cremer ................................................6

D Perera (run out) ....................................................33

A Gunaratne b Cremer ............................................ 45

R Herath st Chakabva b Williams ........................ 22

S Lakmal c&b Cremer ..............................................14

L Kumara (not out)......................................................1

Extras (B-8, LB-10, W-1, NB-3) ............................ 22

Total (all out) ......................................... 346Fall of wickets: 1-84, 2-107, 3-116, 4-212, 5-226,

6-238, 7-274, 8-322, 9-343, 10-346.

Bowling: Mpofu 11-2-41-0 (w1); Tiripano 10-1-38-1;

Raza 18-2-60-0; Cremer 39.3-4-125-5 (nb1); Waller

1-0-2-0, Williams 23-3-62-2 (nb2).

Zimbabwe (II innings):H Masakadza lbw Herath ......................................... 7

R Chakabva b Herath .................................................6

T Musakanda c Karunaratne b Herath ...................0

C Ervine c Karunaratne b Perera .............................5

S Williams b Herath ................................................. 22

S Raza (batting) ........................................................97

P Moor c (sub) b Kumara .......................................40

M Waller (batting) ....................................................57

Extras (B-4, LB-7, W-6, NB-1) ...............................18

Total (for 6 wkts) .................................. 252To bat: G Cremer, C Mpofu, D Tiripano.

Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-16, 3-17, 4-23, 5-59, 6-145.

Bowling: Lakmal 9-0-28-0; Herath 23-2-85-4;

Perera 21-1-69-1; L Kumara 11-3-43-1 (nb1, w2); K

Mendis 4-0-16-0.

SCOREBOARD

NottinghamReuters

England must chase down a world-record 474 to win the second Test while

South Africa have two full days to bowl them out after the tour-ists’ batsmen provided the strongest possible platform for victory on the third day yesterday.

It could have even better for South Africa who, after declar-ing on 343-9 just before the close, thought they had Alastair Cook lbw first ball, although the deci-sion was reversed on review.

England survived two other frenetic lbw appeals before reaching 1-0, still 473 adrift and facing a huge task on a wearing pitch as South Africa push for

the victory at Trent Bridge that would level the four-match series 1-1.

No Test team have scored more than 418 to win, while the record at Trent Bridge is a more modest 284-7, which England chalked up to beat New Zealand in 2004.

When South Africa resumed on 75-1, England knew they had to take early wickets and will rue the basic error that allowed Hashim Amla to escape at 91-1 when they failed to review a half-hearted appeal by Stuart Broad. TV replays later showed an edge to the keeper.

Inevitably Amla made Eng-land pay, seldom looking troubled by still difficult condi-tions to make 87 -- his second half-century of the match

-- before falling lbw to Liam Dawson on review.

The bearded right-hander shared strong partnerships with Dean Elgar, who made a stead-fast 80 after surviving a sharp early chance to Jimmy Ander-son, and Faf du Plessis.

Ben Stokes claimed the wickets of both partners: Elgar fell fending away to a ball which rose spitefully while South Afri-ca’s captain was trapped lbw by one that kept low after a watch-ful 63, dismissals that proved why the high-energy Durham paceman was England’s most potent bowler.

Even the new ball failed to check the tourists, with Vernon Philander (42) and Chris Morris increasing the tempo as the sun came out in the final session.

Windies recall Roach for tour of England KingstonReuters

Fast bowler Kemar Roach has been recalled to the West Indies squad for

their three-Test tour of Eng-land starting next month, the selection panel said on Saturday.

Roach, who has not played a Test for 18 months, was cho-sen after displaying fine form in domestic competition, said chairman of selectors Court-ney Browne. Roach has played 37 tests, taking 122 wickets at an average of 30.23.

Uncapped opening bats-man Kyle Hope and left-handed all-rounder Ray-mon Reifer were also chosen in the 15-man squad.

But Darren Bravo has not been picked, despite his recent apology for calling Cricket West Indies president Dave Cameron a “big idiot” in a tweet following disagreement over his playing contract late last year. The apology came too late for him to be considered.

Bravo, who has a very respectable Test batting aver-age of exactly 40, will be eligible for selection for future matches.

West Indies will play three Tests against England before a new squad is chosen for five ODIs and one Twenty20 game.

South Africa leave England record target

South Africa (I innings): ............... 335England (I innings): .....................205South Africa (II innings):H Kuhn c Root b Anderson...........................8

D Elgar c Anderson b Stokes..................... 80

H Amla lbw Dawson ....................................87

Q de Kock c Bairstow b Anderson ...............1

F du Plessis lbw Stokes ...............................63

T Bavuma c Root b Ali ................................. 15

V Philander c&b Ali ..................................... 42

C Morris c Ballance b Ali .............................. 13

K Maharaj c Broad b Ali ..................................1

M Morkel (not out) ....................................... 17

Extras (B-8, LB-8) ........................................ 16

Total (for 9 wkts decl) ................. 343Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-153, 3-154, 4-216,

5-253, 6-275, 7-304, 8-307, 9-343.

Bowling: Anderson 20-4-45-2; Broad 19-4-

60-0; Wood 18-5-68-0; Ali 16-2-78-4; Stokes

20-4-34-2; Dawson 11-1-42-1.

England (II innings):A Cook (batting)..............................................0

K Jennings (batting) ......................................0

Extras (lb1) ........................................................1

Total (for no loss) ..............................1Bowling: Morkel 2-2-0-0; Philander 2-2-0-0.

SCOREBOARD

South Africa’s Hashim Amla plays a pull during the third day’s play of the second Test match against England at Trent Bridge Cricket Ground in Nottingham, England yesterday.