The British Empire is one win away from finally breaking its Grand Slam drought.
On Friday night down under, No. 5 Andy Murray put on a masterful display of "tennis geometry," to defeat the aggressive, fiery David Ferrer4-6, 7-6(2), 6-1, 7-6(2), and reach the Australian Open finals, where he will take on Serbia'sNovak Djokovic.
It is Murray's second straight Australian Open final, and his third in four years. Using his long frame to flick balls just outside of the feisty Ferrer's reach, Murray dominated the fourth-set tie-breaker, seeming to move in slow motion to push one last shot past his opponent's racquet.
It was Ferrer's 10th straight tie-breaker loss at the Australian Open.
Murray's own mental error might have been his saving grace. Down 6-4, 5-4 in the second set, he rallied to break Ferrer and tie the set on his way to a 7-6(2) victory. However, Murray was surprised when he realized he had tied the set at 5-5.
"You might not believe this, but I actually thought it was 4-3," Murray said in his post-match interview. "I didn't know until the umpire called it 5-5. That probably helped me, I wasn't as nervous."
No player from Great Britain—Murray is Scottish—has won a Grand Slam since Fred Perry went back to back at Wimbledon and the US Open since 1936.
It's been tough for UK players to even make a final since. Bunny Austin lost in the finals of the French Open in 1937 and Wimbledon in 1938, then no player made a Grand Slam final until John Lloyd lost the 1977 Australian Open crown.
It was another 20 years until Greg Rusedski made the finals at the US Open in 1997, falling to Patrick Rafter in four sets.
After that, no British player reached a final until Murray lost the 2008 US Open final to Federer. He reached the Australian Open final last year, losing to Federer again.
Ferrer's tenacity proved his place in the semifinals was far more than just a by-product of Rafael Nadal's injury status. It was the first Grand Slam semifinal he had ever reached.
"He's an unbelievable athlete, he works so hard," Murray said, praising his Spanish opponent. "He was dictating most of the points early on."
Showing posts with label Past. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Past. Show all posts
Friday, January 28, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Leafs Rally Past Kings for Fourth Straight Road Win
Never mind the surging Maple Leafs. Even the Toronto Marlies were too much for the spiraling Los Angeles Kings.
Nikolai Kulemin scored the tiebreaking goal with 15:02 to play, James Reimer made 30 saves and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Kings 3-2 on Monday night for their fourth straight road victory.
With Reimer leading a late defensive stand, the long-struggling Maple Leafs reached the midway point of their season with three straight wins for the first time since their 4-0 start. Toronto coach Ron Wilson and captain Dion Phaneuf partly credit this minor surge to major contributions from three players who were with the AHL's Marlies in mid-December.
"They've earned the right to keep on playing, and they've all done an excellent job," Wilson said.
Darryl Boyce scored in his seventh NHL game during the second period, 34 seconds before Phil Kessel put the Leafs ahead on an assist by Joey Crabb, another recent callup.
"Those guys have all come in and helped us out when we needed it," Phaneuf said. "We've been playing some great hockey for the last 10 days, two weeks. We weren't getting results for a bit ... but we're all getting it done together now."
And then there's Reimer, who has won three of his first four NHL starts -- beginning with a victory at Ottawa on New Year's Day -- while filling in for injured Jean-Sebastien Giguere. The 22-year-old goalie stopped all 17 Los Angeles shots in the third period and survived a 6-on-4 disadvantage for the final 1:42.
"He was outstanding all night," Wilson said. "Every time we needed a whistle, he was cool and calm - coolly and calmly settles stuff down when the other team is all over us."
Kulemin put the Leafs ahead with a nifty spin and a short shot past Jonathan Quick after the Kings broke down defensively. With an assist from linemate Mikhail Grabovski, the goal was the third in two games for Kulemin, who leads the Leafs with four game-winners.
After Phaneuf took a slashing penalty, Los Angeles got the puck behind Reimer with 35 seconds left, but video review confirmed it didn't cross the goal line. Toronto hasn't lost on the road since Dec. 18.
"They came hard with a lot of pressure, dumping pucks in, but kudos to the guys," Reimer said. "The team that's down is always going to push hard. I just tried to take it shot by shot and not look at the clock."
Wayne Simmonds and Michal Handzus scored for the Kings, who have lost six of seven -- including five of six on their current eight-game homestand. Quick stopped 25 shots, but the Kings missed several chances to tie it in the final minutes, including that fruitless two-man advantage.
Staples Center was filled with mostly nervous fans - except for those hundreds of blue-jerseyed Leafs supporters at Toronto's first visit to Los Angeles since December 2008.
"When you're playing a team that you don't see a lot, you try to focus on the things that you have to do," Kings defenseman Rob Scuderi said. "I think we did a good job of that in the first period and in the last 15 minutes, but it's not enough. We find a way to do just enough to lose by one goal. That's been the case since Christmas, and it's got to turn around for us."
The Kings began the second half of their season in a tie for ninth place in the Western Conference -- not exactly where they hoped to be after leading the overall NHL standings earlier this fall. Los Angeles held a brief players-only meeting after the game.
"It's something that needs to be changed with our attitude," captain Dustin Brown said. "That's all it is, really -- playing the game right. We're halfway through the year, this is a big homestand for us, and the playoffs are at stake, so we've got to find a way to get it going. We need to look each other in the face and get this thing turned around. I'm not sure what we need to do, but we'll figure it out as players."
After a slow start, Toronto evened it early in the second period when Boyce got a 1-on-1 break against Kings defenseman Alec Martinez. Boyce's exceptional shot went between Martinez's legs and into the glove-side corner of Los Angeles' net for his second goal in six games since joining the Leafs on Dec. 30.
One shift later, Crabb's pass slithered through the slot past Kings defensemen Rob Scuderi and Drew Doughty to Kessel, who scored his team-leading 18th goal.
Notes
Colby Armstrong had an assist while starting at center for the Maple Leafs just three days after the cornea in his right eye was scratched by a sucker-punch from Atlanta's Ben Eager.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman attended the game during his swing through California. He reiterated the league's reluctance to host a Winter Classic in Los Angeles, but suggested the Kings could get a shot to be the visiting team in an upcoming outdoor game, perhaps in New York.
Nikolai Kulemin scored the tiebreaking goal with 15:02 to play, James Reimer made 30 saves and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Kings 3-2 on Monday night for their fourth straight road victory.
With Reimer leading a late defensive stand, the long-struggling Maple Leafs reached the midway point of their season with three straight wins for the first time since their 4-0 start. Toronto coach Ron Wilson and captain Dion Phaneuf partly credit this minor surge to major contributions from three players who were with the AHL's Marlies in mid-December.
"They've earned the right to keep on playing, and they've all done an excellent job," Wilson said.
Darryl Boyce scored in his seventh NHL game during the second period, 34 seconds before Phil Kessel put the Leafs ahead on an assist by Joey Crabb, another recent callup.
"Those guys have all come in and helped us out when we needed it," Phaneuf said. "We've been playing some great hockey for the last 10 days, two weeks. We weren't getting results for a bit ... but we're all getting it done together now."
And then there's Reimer, who has won three of his first four NHL starts -- beginning with a victory at Ottawa on New Year's Day -- while filling in for injured Jean-Sebastien Giguere. The 22-year-old goalie stopped all 17 Los Angeles shots in the third period and survived a 6-on-4 disadvantage for the final 1:42.
"He was outstanding all night," Wilson said. "Every time we needed a whistle, he was cool and calm - coolly and calmly settles stuff down when the other team is all over us."
Kulemin put the Leafs ahead with a nifty spin and a short shot past Jonathan Quick after the Kings broke down defensively. With an assist from linemate Mikhail Grabovski, the goal was the third in two games for Kulemin, who leads the Leafs with four game-winners.
After Phaneuf took a slashing penalty, Los Angeles got the puck behind Reimer with 35 seconds left, but video review confirmed it didn't cross the goal line. Toronto hasn't lost on the road since Dec. 18.
"They came hard with a lot of pressure, dumping pucks in, but kudos to the guys," Reimer said. "The team that's down is always going to push hard. I just tried to take it shot by shot and not look at the clock."
Wayne Simmonds and Michal Handzus scored for the Kings, who have lost six of seven -- including five of six on their current eight-game homestand. Quick stopped 25 shots, but the Kings missed several chances to tie it in the final minutes, including that fruitless two-man advantage.
Staples Center was filled with mostly nervous fans - except for those hundreds of blue-jerseyed Leafs supporters at Toronto's first visit to Los Angeles since December 2008.
"When you're playing a team that you don't see a lot, you try to focus on the things that you have to do," Kings defenseman Rob Scuderi said. "I think we did a good job of that in the first period and in the last 15 minutes, but it's not enough. We find a way to do just enough to lose by one goal. That's been the case since Christmas, and it's got to turn around for us."
The Kings began the second half of their season in a tie for ninth place in the Western Conference -- not exactly where they hoped to be after leading the overall NHL standings earlier this fall. Los Angeles held a brief players-only meeting after the game.
"It's something that needs to be changed with our attitude," captain Dustin Brown said. "That's all it is, really -- playing the game right. We're halfway through the year, this is a big homestand for us, and the playoffs are at stake, so we've got to find a way to get it going. We need to look each other in the face and get this thing turned around. I'm not sure what we need to do, but we'll figure it out as players."
After a slow start, Toronto evened it early in the second period when Boyce got a 1-on-1 break against Kings defenseman Alec Martinez. Boyce's exceptional shot went between Martinez's legs and into the glove-side corner of Los Angeles' net for his second goal in six games since joining the Leafs on Dec. 30.
One shift later, Crabb's pass slithered through the slot past Kings defensemen Rob Scuderi and Drew Doughty to Kessel, who scored his team-leading 18th goal.
Notes
Auburn’s Title Finishes Off Dreams for Teams Past
Auburn coach Gene Chizik said it best the day before his team would win the school's first national championship in football since 1957.
"I've told my guys that it's not about them," he said. "In 20 years it will be about them. But this game is about all of the Auburn people who never got the opportunity to be where we are."
Wes Byrum's 19-yard field goal on the last play of the game gave No. 1 Auburn a 22-19 win over No. 2 Oregon to deliver the Southeastern Conference its fifth consecutive national championship from its fourth different school. But this one was really not about conference pride, which was still considerable as the confetti rained down inside University of Phoenix Stadium.
This one was for guys like Al Del Greco. Del Greco kicked three field goals, the last one coming with 27 seconds left, to lead No. 3 Auburn to a 9-7 win over No. 8 Michigan in the 1984 Sugar Bowl. That night an 11-1 Auburn team thought it was going to be voted national champions after watching No. 1 Nebraska lose to Miami in the Orange Bowl and No. 2 Texas lose to Georgia in the Cotton Bowl.
"We were back at the hotel watching the Orange Bowl and we weren't sure if we should be pulling for Nebraska to lose or to tie," said Del Greco, who went on have a long career as an NFL kicker. "After Nebraska lost (31-30) we thought that they had to vote us No. 1."
Del Greco still remembers the phone call he got the next day from David Housel, the Auburn sports information director. The voters in both polls had elevated Miami from No. 5 to national champions.
"It was one of the most difficult phone calls I've ever received," said Del Greco, who was here with his son watching the game. "In many ways, you never really get over that."
This one was also for Pat Dye, who won four SEC championships as Auburn's head coach but never won the national title.
"I wanted to win this one so bad it was a sin," Dye said on the field after the game. "This was their dream and it was my dream. I don't have the words to tell you how great this is. This is bigger than that whole desert out there."
This national championship was for the guys on the 1993 team, which went 11-0 but could not play for the SEC championship or the national championship because of NCAA probation. Terry Bowden, the first-year head coach of that Auburn team, watched the game Monday night at the home of his brother, Jeff, in Florence, Ala. Terry is now the head coach of Division II power North Alabama and Jeff is his assistant.
"What I will always remember about that team is that it was a bunch of scrawny little guys who would not lose," said Bowden, who started 20-0 at Auburn in 1993-94. "The Auburn people thought all was lost when they went on probation. That team gave them hope that things were going to get better. I wish they could have been rewarded for what they did. Tonight is their reward."
This Auburn national championship was for the 2004 team that went 13-0, won the SEC championship, beat three top 10 teams but did not get a chance to play for the BCS title. That team had four first-round draft choices, a school record. Running backs Ronnie Brown and Carnell Williams were taken in the first five picks.
But USC and Oklahoma finished 1-2 in the BCS standings and played for the championship in the Orange Bowl. Coach Tommy Tuberville flew to Miami and put on a brave face while he watched USC destroy Oklahoma.
"All I remember about being down there is that at halftime USC was kicking Oklahoma pretty good (38-10)," Tuberville said. "We could have played with USC. I guarantee that. That was a great football team." Tuberville, now the head coach at Texas Tech, went out to eat Monday night in Lubbock and didn't watch the game. He was too nervous. There were 24 seniors on that Auburn team that he recruited. But you could tell in his voice that he desperately wanted it for them.
One of those seniors was Byrum.
The defensive coordinator on that Auburn team was Chizik.
"That team should have gotten a chance to play for the championship," he said.
This Auburn championship was for the late Jim Fyffe, the radio voice of the Tigers for 22 years who coined the signature phrase "Touchdown Auburn!" Fyffe died suddenly in 2003 at the age of 57.
"Jim would have loved to be a part of this. I really wish he had been here," said Mike Hubbard, the president of the Auburn Network. "He, as much as anybody, understood how much this moment means to the Auburn people."
This night was for Housel, the former sports information director and athletics director and the quintessential Auburn man. No single man in my experience has loved a university more than Housel has loved Auburn. He was not in a luxury box Monday night. He was sitting with the Auburn people, where he has always been.
This night was for Buddy Davidson, a long time Auburn employee who has seen every game played by the Tigers since 1957, the last time they won a national championship. When the snowstorm hit Alabama on Sunday and Monday, Davidson got out on one of the last charters to leave the state and made it just in time for the kickoff.
Tens of thousands of Auburn fans traveled here and just as many wanted to be here. Some couldn't get here because of the weather. You can bet that they slogged their way through the snow to continue the tradition of rolling Toomer's Corner in Auburn.
Some took out second mortgages to buy tickets. Thousands of others came here without tickets and were in the parking lot. They just wanted to be here.
Why? I asked Robert Gibbs, the White House Press Secretary, who grew up in Auburn, Ala. Gibbs' boss gave him the night off to come to Glendale in search of some history and to (hopefully) check another item off his Bucket List.
"It's really simple. I know a lot of people who have been waiting their entire lives on a game like this," Gibbs told me last week. "I'm one of them."
"I've told my guys that it's not about them," he said. "In 20 years it will be about them. But this game is about all of the Auburn people who never got the opportunity to be where we are."
Wes Byrum's 19-yard field goal on the last play of the game gave No. 1 Auburn a 22-19 win over No. 2 Oregon to deliver the Southeastern Conference its fifth consecutive national championship from its fourth different school. But this one was really not about conference pride, which was still considerable as the confetti rained down inside University of Phoenix Stadium.
This one was for guys like Al Del Greco. Del Greco kicked three field goals, the last one coming with 27 seconds left, to lead No. 3 Auburn to a 9-7 win over No. 8 Michigan in the 1984 Sugar Bowl. That night an 11-1 Auburn team thought it was going to be voted national champions after watching No. 1 Nebraska lose to Miami in the Orange Bowl and No. 2 Texas lose to Georgia in the Cotton Bowl.
"We were back at the hotel watching the Orange Bowl and we weren't sure if we should be pulling for Nebraska to lose or to tie," said Del Greco, who went on have a long career as an NFL kicker. "After Nebraska lost (31-30) we thought that they had to vote us No. 1."
Del Greco still remembers the phone call he got the next day from David Housel, the Auburn sports information director. The voters in both polls had elevated Miami from No. 5 to national champions.
"It was one of the most difficult phone calls I've ever received," said Del Greco, who was here with his son watching the game. "In many ways, you never really get over that."
This one was also for Pat Dye, who won four SEC championships as Auburn's head coach but never won the national title.
"I wanted to win this one so bad it was a sin," Dye said on the field after the game. "This was their dream and it was my dream. I don't have the words to tell you how great this is. This is bigger than that whole desert out there."
This national championship was for the guys on the 1993 team, which went 11-0 but could not play for the SEC championship or the national championship because of NCAA probation. Terry Bowden, the first-year head coach of that Auburn team, watched the game Monday night at the home of his brother, Jeff, in Florence, Ala. Terry is now the head coach of Division II power North Alabama and Jeff is his assistant.
"What I will always remember about that team is that it was a bunch of scrawny little guys who would not lose," said Bowden, who started 20-0 at Auburn in 1993-94. "The Auburn people thought all was lost when they went on probation. That team gave them hope that things were going to get better. I wish they could have been rewarded for what they did. Tonight is their reward."
This Auburn national championship was for the 2004 team that went 13-0, won the SEC championship, beat three top 10 teams but did not get a chance to play for the BCS title. That team had four first-round draft choices, a school record. Running backs Ronnie Brown and Carnell Williams were taken in the first five picks.
But USC and Oklahoma finished 1-2 in the BCS standings and played for the championship in the Orange Bowl. Coach Tommy Tuberville flew to Miami and put on a brave face while he watched USC destroy Oklahoma.
"All I remember about being down there is that at halftime USC was kicking Oklahoma pretty good (38-10)," Tuberville said. "We could have played with USC. I guarantee that. That was a great football team." Tuberville, now the head coach at Texas Tech, went out to eat Monday night in Lubbock and didn't watch the game. He was too nervous. There were 24 seniors on that Auburn team that he recruited. But you could tell in his voice that he desperately wanted it for them.
One of those seniors was Byrum.
The defensive coordinator on that Auburn team was Chizik.
"That team should have gotten a chance to play for the championship," he said.
This Auburn championship was for the late Jim Fyffe, the radio voice of the Tigers for 22 years who coined the signature phrase "Touchdown Auburn!" Fyffe died suddenly in 2003 at the age of 57.
"Jim would have loved to be a part of this. I really wish he had been here," said Mike Hubbard, the president of the Auburn Network. "He, as much as anybody, understood how much this moment means to the Auburn people."
This night was for Housel, the former sports information director and athletics director and the quintessential Auburn man. No single man in my experience has loved a university more than Housel has loved Auburn. He was not in a luxury box Monday night. He was sitting with the Auburn people, where he has always been.
This night was for Buddy Davidson, a long time Auburn employee who has seen every game played by the Tigers since 1957, the last time they won a national championship. When the snowstorm hit Alabama on Sunday and Monday, Davidson got out on one of the last charters to leave the state and made it just in time for the kickoff.
Tens of thousands of Auburn fans traveled here and just as many wanted to be here. Some couldn't get here because of the weather. You can bet that they slogged their way through the snow to continue the tradition of rolling Toomer's Corner in Auburn.
Some took out second mortgages to buy tickets. Thousands of others came here without tickets and were in the parking lot. They just wanted to be here.
Why? I asked Robert Gibbs, the White House Press Secretary, who grew up in Auburn, Ala. Gibbs' boss gave him the night off to come to Glendale in search of some history and to (hopefully) check another item off his Bucket List.
"It's really simple. I know a lot of people who have been waiting their entire lives on a game like this," Gibbs told me last week. "I'm one of them."
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