Tennis Sports

The distinction of having scored the first ever international goal to have been recorded is held by an Englishman, William Kenyon-Slaney. The distinction of having scored the fastest goal at the European Championship finals is held by Michael Owen in a match against Portugal where he managed to score a goal in 2 minutes and 24 seconds. The distinction of having scored the fastest goal at the World Cup finals is also held by an Englishman, Bryan Robson and it stands at 27 seconds in a match against France in 1982. Most goals in a single World Cup qualifying campaign is also another record which is held by Wayne Rooney who scored 9 goals for the qualifying rounds of the 2010 world cup in 2009-09. Read full article…

Seventh seed Kevin Anderson claimed the second title of his career after he recorded a 6-4 7-6 (7/2) win over Marinko Matosevic at the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships.

Australian qualifier Matosevic, ranked 173rd in the world, held his own in a tight first set, breaking his South African opponent twice, but he was unable to command on serve.

In the second set, Matosevic saved all eight break points he faced but could not make an impact in the tie-break.

In the end Anderson needed an hour and 58 minutes to add the Delray Beach crown to Johannesburg title he won last season.

At stake is a berth into the NCAA National Championship series this weekend as the NCHA O’Brien Cup playoffs will be play out at Hunt Arena at UW-River Falls.

The league’s top teams will battle through two days of grueling and intense competition and one team will lift the O’Brien Cup after Saturday’s championship game. The NCAA will announce the Div. III hockey field on Monday.

All four teams – UW-River Falls, Adrian College, UW-Superior and Lake Forest College – are playing well and have a legitimate chance to win the O’Brien Cup title. That should make for some exciting hockey action throughout the weekend.

In Friday’s first semifinal, UW-Superior plays Adrian College at 3:05 p.m. UW-River

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Andy Murray has ended a three-match losing streak against Tomas Berdych to reach the semi-finals at the Dubai Duty Free Championships for the first time.

It has not been a happy hunting ground for the world No4 in the past but he made a flying start to the match, then survived a topsy-turvy second set to win 6-3, 7-5.

Murray, who is likely to face the world No1 Novak Djokovic in the last four, had played two qualifiers in the first two rounds but this was a real test, with the 24-year-old’s only previous win against Berdych coming back in 2005.

The fast surface also appeared to be in the Czech’s favour but he could not find his range in the early stages and Murray reeled off the first seven points.

Berdych saved two break points but not the third, and the British No1 then found some big serves just when he needed them to save three break points and move 3-0 ahead.

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Not even winning is second straight SAP Open could keep Canadian tennis sensation Milos Raonic from dropping three spots in the ATP world rankings.

Raonic, who knocked off Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan Sunday to defend his title in San Jose, Calif., slipped to 35th in the rankings. That’s 10 spots off his career-best.

But the 21-year-old from Thornhill doesn’t expect to stay in the 30s for long. In fact, he’s aiming to break into the top 10 very soon.

“That’s where I want to be by the end of the year,” Raonic said on a conference call. “I don’t think there’s anything that really tells me that I don’t belong there. I feel just in general my confidence is growing, my respect from the other players is growing.

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