LONDON
Roger Federer and Andy Murray easily secured spots in the semifinals of the ATP World Tour Finals yesterday with straight-sets victories in their last round-robin matches.
Federer continued his dominance over Robin Soderling, beating him 7-6 (5) 6-3 to gain the top spot in Group B of the season-ending tournament. Murray followed by recovering from a shaky start to beat David Ferrer 6-2, 6-2 to hand Ferrer his third straight loss in the group phase.
Their semifinal opponents will be decided today, when the last round-robin matches in Group A are played.
Federer won his third straight group match and improved his career record against Soderling to 15-1, with his only loss to Soderling coming in this year’s French Open quarterfinals.
The other group features Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Tomas Berdych and Andy Roddick, with all four still in contention for the semifinals ahead of the last round of matches today.
More tennis
● Serena Williams, the two-time defending champion, has withdrawn from the Australian Open because of a foot injury.
Tournament director Craig Tiley released a statement yesterday saying that Williams had pulled out of the Hopman Cup international mixed teams competition in Perth and the Australian Open in January.
It is the second consecutive Grand Slam tournament Williams will miss, and the loss of 2,000 rankings points could cost Williams, 29, her place in the top 10.
Williams has played only one exhibition match since winning Wimbledon in July. She had surgery after cutting her foot on broken glass at a restaurant after her win at the All England Club. She returned to practice in September, but twice put off her comeback, missing the U.S. Open, the season-ending WTA tournament, the Fed Cup and a handful of tour events.
Cycling
● Alberto Contador maintained his innocence yesterday over his failed doping test at the Tour de France and slammed the Astana team for abandoning him once the news broke.
Contador, 27, is facing a two-year ban and risks losing his third Tour title after testing positive for the banned drug clenbuterol, which he said came from contaminated meat.
Contador labeled the charges as “absolutely ridiculous” and said the entire episode had discredited him.
Contador, who is accused of using the muscle-building and weight-loss drug from a test taken one day before a crucial mountain stage, also won the Tour in 2007 and ’09 for Astana. The beef was bought from the Spanish border town of Irun.
Soccer
● A senior official for the South American football federation said its three votes for the 2018 World Cup will go to the joint bid from Spain and Portugal. Eduardo Deluca, general secretary of CONMEBOL, made the announcement yesterday ahead of the Dec. 2 vote.
Spain and Portugal are competing with bids from England, Russia and a combined bid from Belgium and the Netherlands.
Deluca says CONMEBOL’s executive committee had not made a decision on the 2022 host, which will also be selected Dec. 2. Japan, South Korea, the United States, Australia and Qatar are the bidding countries.
● The Nigerian Football Federation has made an official complaint to the African governing body accusing Equatorial Guinea of fielding two men on its women’s team. NFF spokesman Robinson Okosun told The Associated Press “the protest is on. We have lodged our protest with CAF. We are waiting for the response.”
Equatorial Guinea’s federation has denied the allegations against captain Genoveva Anonma and striker Salimata Simpore, saying the complaints stem from an “inferiority complex” among rival teams. Ghana and Cameroon also questioned the players’ gender at the recent African Women’s Championship in South Africa. Equatorial Guinea qualified for next year’s World Cup after it finished second, losing the final 4-2 to Nigeria.
● The Scottish Football Association said all Premier League matches in Scotland will go ahead as planned this weekend despite a strike by referees.
After failing to avert a walkout by referees despite offering a range of conciliatory measures, the SFA said it has found match officials from outside Scotland to officiate the six league games this weekend.
Scottish referees are striking in protest against clubs’ criticism of their recent performances.
Miscellaneous
● Kaz Matsui has returned to Japan and joined the Rakuten Eagles after spending seven seasons in the major leagues.
The Eagles said yesterday that they reached an agreement with Matsui, a 35-year-old infielder, who played for the New York Mets, Colorado Rockies and Houston Astros from 2004-10.
The switch-hitting Matsui was waived by the Astros in May and finished the year in the minors. Matsui, who helped the Rockies reach the 2007 World Series, batted .267 with 615 hits and 102 stolen bases in the majors. He played in only 27 games for Houston this season, hitting .141.
● The Vancouver Canucks have granted forward Rick Rypien, the cousin of Mark Rypien, a former NFL quarterback, an indefinite leave of absence.
It’s the second time in three years that Rypien, 26, has left the team to deal with undisclosed personal matters. Earlier in the season, Rypien got a six-game suspension from the NHL after grabbing a fan on his way to the dressing room in Minnesota.
Rypien has been a healthy scratch the last three games, and has one assist and 31 penalty minutes in nine games this season.
● German swimmer Sonja Schoeber has had her ban for testing positive for testosterone doubled to two years by the sport’s highest court. The Court of Arbitration for Sport in Frankfurt imposed the ban yesterday, upholding an appeal from Germany’s national anti-doping agency after the country’s national swimming federation had suspended her for only a year.
Schoeber said her two positive tests, in August and October 2009, came from tainted food supplements.
● Spanish steeplechase runner Jose Luis Blanco said he’s under investigation by his country’s athletics federation after a failed drug test. Blanco, who finished third in the 3,000 meters at this summer’s European Championship, said the federation informed him this week of the failed doping control from July 18.
Blanco, 35, said he has undergone nine separate tests in four different countries between June 14-Sept. 4.
● Britain’s counterterrorism minister said the national terror threat will remain at a severe level during the 2012 London Olympics.
The current threat classification means that an attack is highly likely in Britain.
Minister Pauline Neville–Jones said, “We must work on the assumption that (the threat) will remain as it is.”
Neville-Jones also told an Olympics security conference in London yesterday that more needs to be done to combat cyber crime to ensure the games are not a “soft target.”
Article source: http://www2.journalnow.com/sports/2010/nov/26/federer-and-murray-make-semis-of-atp-ar-420294/
Category: Cyber Crime
Article source: http://nationalcybersecurity.com/?p=41196