Federer makes a History

Roger Federer became tennis's greatest men's champion, watched by a legion of champions, as he beat Andy Roddick 5-7 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (7-5) 3-6 16-14 in four hours and 16 minutes to claim his sixth Wimbledon crown. It was also a record 15th Grand Slam title for the Swiss master, overhauling the total of Pete Sampras who was in the Royal Box along with fellow legends Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver. It was a truly momentous climax to the 2009 Championships as the 27-year-old Swiss became the most successful man in the sport. Sampras, previous holder of that title, had been an unannounced surprise visitor to Wimbledon – where he has not been seen since 2002.

There were some aggressive actions by both the players in the game and no one ready to give up their game. So to the deciding set, with Federer threatening to strike early as he reached break point for the sixth time in the match, only to be frustrated again as the American pumped down his 20th ace at 138mph. With no tiebreak in the fifth set, this one had to be played out.This reached a climax as Federer faced two break points at 8-8, only to serve his way out of trouble and as the games ascended into double figures for each man the set became the longest fifth set in Wimbledon's history. Federer's ace count finally, it was Roddick who cracked in the 30th game of the set. Three mishap off the frame indicated he was fatigued and when Federer was offered the first Championship point he grabbed it eagerly, leaping into the air with joy as another Roddick mishap sailed long.

What a great match! Both players deserve to win the title. Federer needs to be more aggressive, especially in a grand slam finals. I think he was mostly pave in the match, waiting for his opponent to make a mistake. He was lucky he got out of this one. For Roddick, he played the greatest tennis of his life. He did almost everything right up, working up the points patiently and methodically up until the last few games. He should learn from this experience.Incredible Talent and Poise. Breathless tennis and unbelievable determination... Congratulations to Roger Federer and Andy Roddick.

Dhoni stays no.1 in ODI rankings

Indian skipper M.S Dhoni is continuing at the top spot in ICC One Day International (ODI) rankings. Yuvraj singh is at the 5th spot with Sachin in Top 20. Next to M.S.Dhoni are Michael Hussey from Australia and Graeme Smith from South Africa in the 2nd and 3rd places respectively. Australian skipper Ricky Ponting is at the 7th spot and Andrew Symonds is in the 10th spot. Unfortunately Hayden missed out a spot in the top 10.

Its great to see an Indian quickie, Zaheer Khan in the top 10. In bowling Daniel Vettori tops the list, Nathan Bracken drops to 2nd place and Muralitharan is ranked 3rd. Australia is at the top in ODI with South Africa in TEST whereas India stays at the 3rd place in both forms of cricket.

Akthar again in controversy

Rawalpindi Express, Shoaib Akthar appears to be heading for another confrontation with the cricket authorities after threatening to take legal action against the national team management. Shoaib, a centrally contracted player with the Pakistan Cricket Board, who turns 34 next month, has taken 178 wickets in 46 Tests and 223 wickets in 144 ODIs and eight wickets in seven T20 internationals has appeared on a television talk show in which he has apparently made statements that are likely to upset authorities once again.

The publicity ads of the show claim Shoaib as saying he reserves the right to take legal action against the team management (apparently for dropping him from the T20 World Cup team and raising question about his fitness).He goes on to claim that there is a conspiracy to malign him and that he can still play for a few years for Pakistan.No stranger to controversies, Shoaib was withdrawn from the T20 World Cup squad in late May after a PCB medical panel found him to be suffering from a skin infection that needed treatment for 12 days. His ouster from the team also led to chief selector Abdul Qadir's resignation who alleged team coach Intikhab Alam and manager Yawar Saeed were behind the move to drop Shoaib and they didn't consult the selectors on this.

Under the terms of the central contract, players are not supposed to make controversial statements in the media but by the look of it, Shoaib seems to have done it once again on the television show. Waqar Younis said “Shoaib can still play for a couple of years for Pakistan and if that is possible then it is good for Pakistan cricket,.There is no doubt he is fast and is a very intelligent bowler.”

Dravid among Champions Trophy probables

Its happy to hear that Rahul Dravid is included among India's probables for the ICC Champions Trophy in September this year. The selectors picked a longlist of 30 players for the tournament, to be held in South Africa, including Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan. Dravid played his last ODI in October 2007 against Australia in Nagpur. He averages 39.49 with 10,585 runs from 333 games with a strike-rate of 71.22 and is the third Indian to accumulate more than 10,000 runs in ODIs. Dravid played a key role in the success of Royal Challengers Bangalore during the IPL's second season, scoring 271 runs at a strike-rate of 115.81 as the team finished runners-up in the tournament held in South Africa.

Probables: MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Abhishek Nayar, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan, RP Singh, Praveen Kumar, Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Karthik, Munaf Patel, R Ashwin, M Vijay, Amit Mishra, Ajinkya Rahane, Dhawal Kulkarni, S Badrinath, Ashish Nehra, Virat Kohli, Bhuvneshwar Kumar Singh, Wriddhiman Saha, Pankaj Singh.

Michael Phelps broke 100m butterfly world record

Michael Phelps broke 100m butterfly world record in US National Championships. Phelps trimmed .18 seconds off the old mark of 50.40 ending American compatriot Ian Crocker's six-year hold on the record. Now he holds 5 records -- 400 and 200 individual medley, 200 and 100 butterfly and 200 freestyle. Phelps holds the record for the most gold medals at a single Olympics, his eight at the 2008. Phelps's international titles and record breaking performances have earned him the World Swimmer of the year award in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008 and American Swimmer of the year award in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008. He has won a total of 48 career medals thus far in major international competition, forty gold, six silver, and two bronze spanning the Olympics, the World, and the Pan Pacific Championships. His unprecedented Olympic success in 2008 earned Phelps Sports Illustrated magazine's Sportsman of the man award.

Dune Kossatz is IPL miss Bollywood

South African Model Dune Kossatz has been crowned Miss IPL Bollywood South Africa 2009 on Sunday morning. The 34 year old Kossatz beat 15 other finalists for the Miss Bollywood title at an impressive ceremony held at the Monte casino entertainment complex in Johannesburg.She won Rs.50, 000 cash, a business class trip to India and other prizes. 24 year old Johannesburg Business Marketing graduate Genna Cloud first princess and Dunay Nortje was crowned Second Princess. All three winners were white South Africans who beat several Indian contestants.

She was crowned by former Miss Universe Michelle McLean of South Africa. She received a specially made crown from Gitanjali Jewelers containing gold, silver, diamonds and other precious stones. The 34 year old Kossatz represented the Chennai Super Kings in the competition.Miss Bollywood IPL South Africa was a search to discover a DLF IPL fan with star feature, someone that stood out in a crowd. There were also two live performances one was Grammy award winner Akon sang his hit ‘I wanna make love’ and second was Eddy Grant got the audience to their feet when he girdled out his smash singles with them Electric Avenue.

The Ceremony judges were Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, Michelle Mclean, Michel Adam, Dr. Precious Moloi, Joanne Strauss, Bandana Tiwari, Editor Vogue India and Francios Pienaar. Kossatz had gathered the most Internet votes of 48 finalists selected from each of the IPL games held at several South African venues. She was delighted at the chance to do screen tests for a movie with Shah Rukh Khan as part of her prize package.Kossatz has acted in the popular HBO TV show ‘Entourage‘. She also acted in some movies including The Mind of the Married Man, Las Vegas and Venus & Vegas.

FIFA World Cup 2010 Schedule

2010 World Cup schedule
Day	Venue & Time	Stage	Team 1	Result	Team 2
Friday, 11 June	Johannesburg, 16:00	Group A	South Africa	–	A2
	Cape Town, 20:30		A3	–	A4
Saturday, 12 June	Johannesburg, 13:30	Group B	B1	–	B2
	Port Elizabeth, 16:00		B3	–	B4
	Rustenburg, 20:30	Group C	C1	–	C2
Sunday, 13 June	Polo wane, 13:30		C3	–	C4
	Durban, 16:00	Group D	D1	–	D2
	Pretoria, 20:30		D3	–	D4
Monday, 14 June	Johannesburg, 13:30	Group E	E1	–	E2
	Bloemfontein, 16:00		E3	–	E4
	Cape Town, 20:30	Group F	F1	–	F2
Tuesday, 15 June	Rustenburg, 13:30		F3	–	F4
	Port Elizabeth, 16:00	Group G	G3	–	G4
	Johannesburg, 20:30		G1	–	G2
Wednesday, 16 June	Nelspruit, 13:30	Group H	H3	–	H4
	Durban, 16:00		H1	–	H2
	Pretoria, 20:30	Group A	South Africa	–	A3
Thursday, 17 June	Polokwane, 13:30		A4	–	A2
	Bloemfontein, 16:00	Group B	B4	–	B2
	Johannesburg, 20:30		B1	–	B3
Friday, 18 June	Port Elizabeth, 13:30	Group D	D1	–	D3
	Johannesburg, 16:00	Group C	C4	–	C2
	Cape Town, 20:30		C1	–	C3
Saturday, 19 June	Rustenburg, 13:30	Group D	D4	–	D2
	Durban, 16:00	Group E	E1	–	E3
	Pretoria, 20:30		E4	–	E2
Sunday, 20 June	Bloemfontein, 13:30	Group F	F4	–	F2
	Nelspruit, 16:00		F1	–	F3
	Johannesburg, 20:30	Group G	G1	–	G3
Monday, 21 June	Cape Town, 13:30		G4	–	G2
	Bloemfontein, 16:00	Group H	H4	–	H2
	Johannesburg, 20:30		H1	–	H3
Tuesday, 22 June	Bloemfontein, 16:00	Group A	A4	–	South Africa
	Rustenburg, 16:00		A2	–	A3
	Polokwane, 20:30	Group B	B2	–	B3
	Durban, 20:30		B4	–	B1
Wednesday, 23 June	Pretoria, 16:00	Group C	C2	–	C3
	Port Elizabeth, 16:00		C4	–	C1
	Johannesburg, 20:30	Group D	D4	–	D1
	Nelspruit, 20:30		D2	–	D3
Thursday, 24 June	Johannesburg, 16:00	Group F	F4	–	F1
	Polokwane, 16:00		F2	–	F3
	Rustenburg, 20:30	Group E	E2	–	E3
	Cape Town, 20:30		E4	–	E1
Friday, 25 June	Durban, 16:00	Group G	G4	–	G1
	Nelspruit, 16:00		G2	–	G3
	Pretoria, 20:30	Group H	H4	–	H1
	Bloemfontein, 20:30		H2	–	H3
Saturday, 26 June	Port Elizabeth, 16:00	Round of 16 - Match 1	1A	–	2B
	Rustenburg, 20:30	Round of 16 - Match 3	1C	–	2D
Sunday, 27 June	Bloemfontein, 16:00	Round of 16 - Match 4	1D	–	2C
	Johannesburg, 20:30	Round of 16 - Match 2	1B	–	2A
Monday, 28 June	Durban, 16:00	Round of 16 - Match 5	1E	–	2F
	Johannesburg, 20:30	Round of 16 - Match 7	1G	–	2H
Tuesday, 29 June	Pretoria, 16:00	Round of 16 - Match 6	1F	–	2G
	Cape Town, 20:30	Round of 16 - Match 8	1H	–	2G
Wednesday, 30 June	Rest days
Thursday, 01 July
Friday, 02 July	Port Elizabeth, 16:00	Quarter-final C	5	–	7
	Johannesburg, 20:30	Quarter-final A	1	–	3
Saturday, 03 July	Cape Town, 16:00	Quarter-final B	2	–	4
	Johannesburg, 20:30	Quarter-final D	6	–	8
Sunday, 04 July	Rest days
Monday, 05 July
Tuesday, 06 July	Cape Town, 20:30	Semi-final I	A	–	C
Wednesday, 07 July	Durban, 20:30	Semi-final II	B	–	D
Thursday, 08 July	Rest days
Friday, 09 July
Saturday, 10 July	Port Elizabeth, 20:30	Third place play-off	Loser I	–	Loser II
Sunday, 11 July	Johannesburg, 20:30	FINAL	Winner I	–	Winner II