Sports ARAB TIMES, SATURDAY, JANUARY 30, 2016 40

Hingis, Mirza win Australian Open doubles title

Andy grinds down Raonic to reach finalMELBOURNE, Jan 29, (RTRS): Andy Murray went through paroxysms of frus-tration but seized another opportunity to break his Australian Open jinx with a four-hour, five-set semifinal victory over Milos Raonic on Friday.

Four times the British world num-ber two has advanced to the final at Melbourne Park and four times he has been vanquished, three times at the hands of Novak Djokovic.

The Serbian will again stand in his path on Sunday as the Scot seeks to add anoth-er grand slam title to his 2012 US Open and 2013 Wimbledon crowns.

“Five finals is a great achievement,” said Murray. “You can’t take that away from me.

“I should be happy about that. There’s very few players that will have made five Australian Open finals, so I have to be

proud of that achievement.”Raonic, meanwhile, was left heart-

broken after suffering a thigh injury that hampered him from the middle of the third set of the 4-6 7-5 6-7(4) 6-4 6-2 de-feat.

Winning tennis matches never looks like a walk in the park for Murray but for much of the contest against the Canadian, he at least had some justification for the tortured grimaces and explosions of anger that followed every setback.

The 13th seed has been on fire this year and his big serve and huge fore-hands had one of the best returners in the game on the ropes, while his new-found net game helped him to a healthy 72 winners.

Murray said earlier this week that he would waste no more energy on the histri-onics but the match was just minutes old when he returned to his chair muttering curses having been broken to love in his first service game.

That was to be Raonic’s only break of the match but it was enough to win the first set and, after Murray had pounced to even up the contest, he ramped up his 230 kilometre-per-hour serve to clinch the third on tiebreak.

“It was tough,” said Murray. “It was

Djokovic looms

frustrating ... he didn’t miss a first serve in the breaker and I had played some good tennis in that set.”

The 25-year-old Raonic, hoping to be-come the first Canadian man to reach a grand slam final, was feeling the injury in the fourth set but Murray had also crucial-ly got a better fix on his serve and broke for 4-3.

Raonic almost claimed it back in the next game but Murray saved two break points, falling to one knee and roaring “Yes! Yes!” as he pumped his fist at the ground.

Murray served out the set to even up the contest again and grabbed two breaks early in the decider as the wincing Raon-ic’s level dropped, the Canadian’s racket feeling the brunt of his frustration after the first.

“It’s unfortunate, it’s probably the

most heartbroken I’ve been on court,” Raonic said of his injury.

“I think maybe that’s why I sort of lashed out at the start of the fifth set. I don’t think that’s like myself to do, but sometimes it’s a little bit too much to keep in.”

Murray finished off his ailing oppo-nent with a sublime crosscourt backhand volley to bring up a match point, which he converted with a handsome forehand winner.

The 28-year-old pointed both index fingers at the roof of Rod Laver Arena before slumping into his courtside chair with a look of relief on his face.

The relief will not be long-lived, how-ever, as he will be back on the same court on Sunday attempting to dethrone five-times champion Djokovic.

“I have a very good shot on Sunday if I

play my best tennis,” he said.“There’s no reason it’s not possible for

me to win.”Murray’s older brother Jamie will be

bidding for silverware on Saturday when he teams up with Bruno Soares to take on Daniel Nestor and Radek Stepanek in the men’s doubles final.

It is the first time two brothers have reached separate finals at the same grand slam.

“You’re not going to see it very often,” Murray junior said. “We should enjoy it and be proud of it because it’s a tough thing to do.”

That final will follow Angelique Ker-ber’s attempt to knock six-times Austra-lian Open champion Serena Williams off her perch in the women’s final.

World number one doubles pairing Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza clinched

their first Australian Open doubles title together with a 7-6(1) 6-3 victory over Czech pair Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka on Friday.

It was the 12th grand slam women’s doubles title for Hingis while the third for India’s Mirza, all of which have come with the Swiss in the last year.

The pair, who have now won 36 suc-cessive doubles matches, are also the reigning Wimbledon and US Open cham-pions.

“Thanks to my partner, we have had an incredible year,” Mirza said in a courtside interview. “We keep going and it’s great to have all these records with you.”

Both pairs were broken four times each in the first set before Mirza sealed it in the tiebreak after 62 minutes when Hradecka sent a forehand service return long over the baseline.

Hingis, who was knocked out by Mirza and Croatia’s Ivan Dodig in the mixed doubles quarter-finals, took a medical time out at the end of the first set to have treatment to her right shoulder, but did not appear troubled.

Hradecka dropped serve in the first and fifth games of the second set, to give the top seeds a 4-1 lead, and while Mirza lost her next service game they never looked like relinquishing control with Hingis dominant at the net.

The Swiss was then broken while serv-ing for the title, though they sealed it on their fourth championship point when Hradecka’s running forehand sailed over the baseline, the third time she was bro-ken in the set.

“You have won two grand slam dou-bles so you were very tough,” Hingis said of the Czech pair.

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Britain’s Andy Murray hits a return during his men’s singles semi-final match against Canada’s Milos Raonic on day twelve of the 2016 Australian Open tennis tour-nament in Melbourne on Jan 29. (AFP)

India’s Sania Mirza (right), and Switzerland’s Martina Hingis (left), pose with the trophy as they cel-ebrate after victory in their women’s doubles final match against Czech Republic’s Lucie Hradecka and compatriot Andrea Hlavackova on day twelve of the 2016 Australian Open ten-

nis tournament in Melbourne on Jan 29. (AFP)

Vidic retiresfrom soccerLONDON, Jan 29, (RTRS): Former Manchester United captain and defensive rock Nemanja Vidic announced his retirement on Friday, saying injuries had taken their toll and it was time to call it a day.

The 34-year-old Serbian central defender moved to Inter Milan in 2014 but his contract with the Serie A club was terminated by mutual consent this month.

“The time has come for me to hang up my boots,” he said

in a statement on the United website (www.manutd.com). “The injuries I have had in the last few years have taken their toll.

“I would like to thank all the players I have played with, all the managers and staff I have worked with, and say a big ‘thank you’ to the fans for their support over the years.”

With Rio Ferdinand, fan fa-vourite Vidic was at the heart of the United defence between 2006 and 2014 and he won five English Premier League titles as well as the Champi-ons League in 2008.

A strong, uncompromising defender who was dominant in the air, Vidic was the perfect foil for the elegant Ferdinand.

“He became a defender that was feared, he could fight with the most physical, he crunched into tackles, he attacked the ball better than anyone I’ve ever seen,” Ferdi-nand said on Facebook.

“But as he will tell you with a smile, he could also play with the ball too, which made him a complete and great de-fender.”

Australia falter again

India seal 3-match T20 seriesMELBOURNE, Jan 29, (AFP): India took an unbeatable 2-0 lead over Australia in their three-match Twenty20 series with a 27-run win in the second match at the MCG on Friday.

The tourists won the first match in Ad-elaide by 37 runs and the second encoun-ter followed a remarkably similar script.

After India made 184 for three, almost an identical score to the game in Adelaide, Australia once again looked in a strong position in the chase as it neared a century with the openers Aaron Finch and Shaun Marsh still at the crease.

However, as was the case in Adelaide the home side faltered, with their middle order unable to continue the good work of the openers.

Australia was cruising at 94 for none in the 10th over, but the dismissal for Marsh for 23, caught from the bowling of Ravi Ashwin for 23, turned the tide.

Wickets started to tumble and when the captain Finch, who was battling a recurrent hamstring strain but shaped up as Australia’s last hope, was run out for 74 from 48 balls the tourists were in total control.

Finch had ridden his luck until then, having been dropped three times in quick succession just after reaching his half-century.

To make matters worse for the skip-per, he appeared to severely aggravate the injury to his hamstring in being run out, placing his immediate playing future in doubt.

Australia lost 8-63 as India took the game and series away from them.

Shane Watson, who stood in for the injured Finch at the post-match presen-tation, said the home side blew a great foundation for the second time in as many matches.

“We got a really good start, but the middle order weren’t able to get the mo-mentum up,” he said.

“We lost too many wickets through the middle.”

Against surely one of the weakest Aus-tralian sides to take the field in an inter-national match since the World Series Cricket split, featuring three T20 interna-tional debutants and minus star batsmen David Warner and Stephen Smith, India’s top order batsmen again produced a com-manding total.

Opener Rohit Sharma took nine balls to get off the mark, but made good on the slow start to top score with 60 from 47 balls.

Virat Kohli, who made an unbeaten 90 in the first game, backed that up with 59 not out from 33 balls.

Shikhar Dhawan chimed in with a per-sonal best of 42 from 32 balls, putting on 97 with Sharma at the top of the order.

Kohli was named man of the match and said he was able to capitalise on the groundwork of the opening pair.

“Sealing the series feels wonderful,” he said.

“Those two (openers) have been strik-ing the ball well.

“They are taking the game away from Australia in the first few overs, I think it demoralises the bowlers a bit and they have been laying a great platform for me.”

Rohit Sharma of India, bats during the second Twenty20 international cricket match between Australia and India at the MCG in Melbourne on Jan 29. (AFP)

Scoreboard

MELBOURNE, Jan 29, (AFP): Scoreboard from the second Twen-ty20 between Australia and India at the MCG on Friday:

INDIAR. Sharma run out (Maxwell) ..... 60S. Dhawan c Lynn b Maxwell .... 42V. Kohli not out .......................... 59M.S. Dhoni c Watson b Tye ....... 14S. Raina not out ........................... 0Extras (lb7, w1, nb1).................... 9Total (3 wickets: 20 overs)....... 184

Fall of wicket: 1-97 (Dhawan), 2-143 (Sharma), 3-181 (Dhoni)

Did not bat: Y. Singh, H. Pandya, R. Jadeja, R. Ashwin, J. Bumrah, A. Nehra

Bowling: Watson 3-0-17-0 (1w), Hastings 3-0-35-0, Boland 4-0-30-0, Faulkner 3-0-35-0, Tye 4-0-28-1, Lyon 1-0-15-0 (1nb), Maxwell 2-0-17-1

AUSTRALIAA. Finch run out (Jadeja) ........... 74S. Marsh c Pandya b Ashwin..... 23C. Lynn c Dhoni b Pandya ........... 2G. Maxwell st Dhoni b Singh ....... 1S. Watson c & b Jadeja ............. 15M. Wade not out ........................ 16J. Faulkner st Dhoni b Jadeja .... 10J. Hastings b Bumrah .................. 4A. Tye b Bumrah.......................... 4Extras (b1, lb2, w5)...................... 8Total (eight wickets; 20 overs) . 157

Fall of wicket: 1-94 (Marsh), 2-99 (Lynn), 3-101 (Maxwell), 4-121 (Watson), 5-124 (Finch), 6-137 (Faulkner), 7-152 (Hast-ings)

Bowling: Nehra 4-0-34-0, Bum-rah 4-0-37-2, Jadeja 4-0-32-2, Ash-win 4-0-27-1 (2w), Pandya 2-0-17-1 (1w), Singh 2-0-7-1

Serena vs Kerber beIN SPORTS 12 HD11:30 local

SOCCER

Saudi Prince,Englishman inNice takeoverNICE, France, Jan 29, (AFP): A mys-tery Saudi prince and a British busi-nessman led a buyout of French Ligue 1 side Nice on Friday, the club an-nounced.

The pair and their partners have pur-chased 49% with their share to eventually rise to 80%, Nice president Jean-Pierre Rivere said.

“After the first stage in which they take 49%, the new shareholders, with the the Saudi, will take 80% of the club,” added Rivere.

Businessman Edward Blackmore, the head of the Sports Investment Fund, said that he was unable to reveal the identity of his Gulf partner.

“We are investing together with my partner, but not only him,” said Black-more who would only say that the mem-ber of the Saudi royal family was at his home on the Cote d’Azur.

Rivere added that the Saudi prince asked not to appear in front of the cam-eras until the majority share had been es-tablished which is set for June this year.

Rivere will retain 20% control and re-main president while Blackmore will be-come vice-president.

Despite the new investment, Rivere was adamant that Nice were not trying to imitate big-spending Paris Saint-Germain who are running away with the French title and are in the Champions League last-16, fuelled by Qatari cash.