Sports

MELBOURNE — Roger Federer showed his 35-year-old legs may yet still carry him to a long-awaited 18th Grand Slam title as he overhauled fifth seed Kei Nishikori in a five-set slog to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals on Sunday.

Having issued a reminder of his class in the 90-minute rout of Tomas Berdych, Federer flaunted his endurance by prevailing 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 after a three hour and 26 minute battle under the lights at Rod Laver Arena.

After six months out of the game to recover from a knee injury, Federer’s fairytale return will continue against giant-killing German Mischa Zverev, who sensationally ousted top seed Andy Murray on the same centre court only hours before.

Since winning Wimbledon in 2012, Federer has gone close to adding to his major tally, but with each passing year, the doubts have only piled higher.

Yet with Murray and six-times Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic sent packing from Melbourne Park, the Swiss master finds himself with his best chance in years and revelled in his physical condition when taken deep by Nishikori.

“I felt great in the fifth [set], I must say,” the 17th seed told reporters. “Great energy. Even deep into the fourth I thought, ‘Yeah, fifth, here we go, no problem for me’.

“I’m feeling good about my chances.

“But tonight was special, no doubt about it. Going five against Kei here on Rod Laver Arena with the comeback, it’s definitely very special.”

The match threatened for a time to be anything but special as Asia’s first men’s Grand Slam finalist stormed to a 4-0 lead before weathering a huge Federer recovery to take the first set on a tiebreak.

The Swiss hit back quickly, belting a huge return to break Nishikori in the seventh game of the second.

Federer served out the set to love when Nishikori hit a return into the tramlines and the old master threw a steely gaze at his player’s box, pumping his fist.

Rattled by the pressure, Nishikori became twitchy, his fidgeting between points betraying the nerves as Federer roared through the third set in 26 minutes.

The Swiss looked to be coasting to victory but he suffered a rare wobble at 2-2 in the fourth, shanking a straightforward smash and then netting a volley to give up two break points.

The door ajar, Nishikori barged through it with a stinging passing shot as Federer rushed the net with more hope than design.

Nishikori served out to love, the match back to level terms as Federer’s suddenly misbehaving backhand saw him put a return just wide of the line.

Nishikori took a medical time-out between sets, with a trainer working hard on his legs, but it was Federer who appeared in greater need of a massage as he was thrown around the court by the Japanese.

But the Swiss held on grimly, and grabbed his chance in the second game when Nishikori netted to offer two break points.

The Japanese saved the first and fired a huge serve on the next that should have settled the argument. But Federer somehow made the return with a desperate backhand lunge.

Nishikori came in for the kill with an open court spread before him but dumped the ball into the net, triggering thunderous cheers from a crowd heavily favouring the Swiss.

From there, Federer rode the momentum to the finish, serving out the match strongly and savouring another huge ovation after having defied father time once again.

A fourth-round elimination by an unfancied player was a disappointing end to Angelique Kerber’s defence of her Australian Open title on Sunday but the top-seeded German had never appeared comfortable in her skin at Melbourne Park.

Kerber left head bowed from Rod Laver Arena after a 6-2, 6-3 defeat by 35th-ranked American Coco Vandeweghe, her final stand ending meekly in 68 minutes.

It was a far cry from the magical night 12 months before, when Kerber rose up like a blonde Valkyrie to fell Serena Williams in a three-set classic, clinching a maiden grand slam title that set a platform for the brilliant season to come.

MELBOURNE, Australia — Rafael Nadal held back time, for one tournament at least, when he rallied for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-2 win over German teenager Alexander Zverev to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open.

The 14-time major winner is on the comeback after an extended injury lay-off, yet he finished stronger in the 4-hour, 6-minute match on Rod Laver Arena as Zverev tightened up with cramping and nerves.

“I enjoyed a lot this great battle. I was losing the last couple of times in the fifth set and I said to myself, today’s the day,” said ninth-seeded Nadal, who had lost eight of the previous nine times he had trailed 2-1 in a best-of-five set match.

His 30-year-old legs, conditioned by 236 Grand Slam matches, carried him all the way.

Zverev’s creative shot-making in the first set and during the tiebreaker in the third gave the 19-year-old a confident start. But Nadal, the champion here in 2009, did not let him get too far in front.

In an exchange of breaks in the fifth set, Nadal broke to open, then dropped his own serve, before breaking Zverev again.

Nadal attributed his comeback to two important things.

“Well, fighting — and running a lot,” he said. “I think you know, everybody knows how good Alexander is — he’s the future of our sport and the present, too.”

Nadal, who had two months off with an injured left wrist at the end of 2016, will get another veteran next — either Philipp Kohlschreiber or Gael Monfils.

In another gripping five-setter, but on an outside court, wild-card entry Denis Istomin followed his upset win over defending champion Novak Djokovic with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 victory over Pablo Carreno Busta.

No. 8 Dominic Thiem beat Benoit Paire 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 to set up a fourth-round match against No. 11 David Goffin, who ended Ivo Karlovic’s run 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.

Serena Williams reached the fourth round without dropping a set, staying on course in her bid for a record 23rd Grand Slam title.

Williams beat fellow American Nicole Gibbs 6-1, 6-3 and did not face a break point until she was serving for the match.

Dropping serve in that game was her only lapse in a match that then extended just beyond the hour — to 63 minutes to be precise.

“I don’t have anything to prove in this tournament here. Just doing the best I can,” Williams said. “Obviously I’m here for one reason.”

Williams started the tournament with difficult assignments in the first two rounds, but also got through those — against Belinda Bencic, with a career-high ranking of 7, and Lucie Safarova, a French Open finalist in 2015.

“She makes the court feel very, very small,” Gibbs said. “I was definitely feeling a lot of tension from early on in the match and it was showing in my serve and my forehand. I was catching the net a lot — the net felt 10 feet high today.”

Williams will next play No. 16 Barbora Strycova, who beat No. 21 Caroline Garcia 6-2, 7-5.

Ekaterina Makarova led by a set and 4-0 but had a mid-match fade, needing three sets and almost three hours to finally beat WTA Finals champion Dominika Cibulkova 6-2, 6-7 (3), 6-3.

“An amazing fight,” Makarova said of her first win over sixth-seeded Cibulkova, the 2014 finalist at Melbourne Park. “I got, to be honest, a bit tight at 4-0 in the second set. But I’m still here.”

She will now take on last year’s semifinalist Johanna Konta, who beat former No. 1-ranked Caroline Wozniacki 6-3, 6-1, in a rematch of their fourth-round encounter here last year.

Mirjana Lucic-Baroni continued her unlikely run with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 win over Maria Sakkari, and so did American qualifier Jennifer Brady.

Before this week, the 34-year-old Lucic-Baroni had not won a match at Melbourne Park since her debut at the Australian Open in 1998. The 19-year gap in between match wins at a Grand Slam tournament broke the record set by Kimiko Date-Krumm.

Lucic-Baroni, a semifinalist at Wimbledon in 1999, next plays No. 116-ranked Brady, who had never played in the main draw of a major before she qualified for this week.

The 21-year-old American had a 7-6 (4), 6-2 win over 14th-seeded Elena Vesnina on Show Court 2.

AMMAN — The draw for qualifiers the 2018 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women’s Football Championship was held on Saturday with 21 teams divided into four groups and vying for four slots to the final.

Jordan was drawn in Group A along the Philippines, Bahrain, Iraq, the UAE and Tajikistan. 

Other groups are:

Group B: South Korea, Uzbekistan, Hong Kong, India and North Korea.

Group C: Thailand, Taiwan, Lebanon, Palestine and Guam.

Group D: Vietnam, Myanmar, Iran, Syria and Singapore.

“The Jordan Football Association hosted a fantastic FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup last year and I would like to congratulate them again for this wonderful achievement” AFC President Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa said on the AFC website before the draw.

“I have no doubt that the AFC Women’s Asian Cup in the country next year will be every bit as professionally and passionately delivered. It is an occasion I and the whole continent looks forward to.”

The top team from each group will move to the championship which includes Japan, Australia, China and hosts Jordan who have automatically qualified. Jordan asked to participate in the qualifiers. If Jordan tops its group, the runner-up will also advance.

The women’s team, now 52nd in the latest FIFA rankings, is eagerly anticipating qualifiers for the 2018 AFC Women’s Championship starting in April after the U-17 team participated in the Kingdom’s inaugural appearance in FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2016 where they were eliminated from the first round after playing Spain, Mexico and New Zealand.  

The last time the senior team competed regionally was in 2015, when they exited the AFC Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament with a winless record. They are now 11th in Asia behind leaders Australia, Japan, and North Korea.

The 2018 AFC Women’s Championship will include the continents top eight teams. The event, held every four years, has been won by China a total of eight of 15 times. Japan are reigning champs.

It will be the first time a west Asia zone country hosts the AFC Women’s Championship. That comes after Jordan successfully hosted the U-17 FIFA World Cup in 2016 — a big boost not only for the Kingdom but women’s sports in the region. The event, was the first of its kind to take place in the Middle East, as Jordan beat bids from Uruguay, South Africa, Ireland and Bahrain. Jordan was the only Arab team at the U-17 World Cup after Egypt and Morocco were eliminated from the qualifiers. 

Jordan’s women’s football teams have been competing in all age divisions in the Asian zone. In 2007, the Kingdom qualified to the AFC U-19 Women’s Championship as the only Arab team but in 2014 and 2016 the team was eliminated from the qualifiers.

MELBOURNE — A deflated Novak Djokovic blamed a bad day at the office for his stunning second-round elimination by Uzbek wildcard Denis Istomin which condemned the Serb to his earliest Grand Slam exit in nearly a decade.

A strangely off-colour Djokovic bowed out 7-6(8), 5-7, 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 at Rod Laver Arena, the court where he won his sixth title last year and was widely tipped to clinch a record seventh in 10 days’ time.

As the match slipped beyond the second seed’s control, Djokovic could conjure little emotion to rally in the fifth set but he denied that his competitive fires were lacking in the stunning upset.

“There was intensity, of course,” he told reporters.

“We played four-and-a-half hours. It’s just that, you know, it’s one of these days when you don’t feel that great on the court, don’t have much rhythm, and the player you’re playing against is feeling the ball very well.”

“So, you know, that’s sport.”

“I started the season very well. Again, it’s a tennis match. On a given day, you can lose. I mean, nothing is impossible.”

“What can I do? I did try my best till the last shot, but it didn’t work.”

After winning his maiden French Open to complete a sweep of grand slam titles, Djokovic’s form fell away in the second half of last season, prompting queries about his motivation leading into the new season.

Those queries looked to be put to bed after he opened his season with victory at the Qatar Open, having beaten world number one and long-time rival Andy Murray in the final.

He opened his Australian Open campaign with an impressive straight sets win over Spanish veteran Fernando Verdasco, who knocked out compatriot Rafa Nadal in last year’s first round at Melbourne Park and had held five match-points over the Serb in Doha.

But the manner of Djokovic’s exit in Melbourne, where he has reigned supreme for most of the last decade, raised fresh doubts about the Serb’s mindset.

He said he had not had time to reflect on his mental state but conceded that it was not his physical fitness that wanting against Istomin on a mild afternoon at Melbourne Park.

“Of course, four-and-a-half hours is not easy on the body. But still, I don’t think that has affected neither me or my opponent,” he said.

Still raw from the loss, Djokovic gave short shrift to a query about his playing schedule.

“At the moment I just want to go home, spend time with my family, and that’s all,” he said, adding that the defeat was hurting him as much as any in the past.

“Of course. I’m not used to losing in Australian Open second round. I’ve always played so well,” he said.

“Throughout the last 10 years, I’ve won six titles here. This court has been so nice to me. I enjoyed it very much.

“Of course, it’s disappointing. But the end of the day I have to accept it.”

AMMAN — The year 2017 promises to be something special for one of Jordan’s rising sports stars, according to the Jordan Olympic Committee News Service.

At 18, Mohammad Sarraj has proved himself in squash at the junior level and despite still qualifying for the age group competitions, he has already announced himself on the senior stage with two victories at the tail end of 2016 on the Professional Squash Tour.

The first in his home city of Amman in November was followed up by a second in Slovakia. A runner-up in Germany and a semifinal spot in France were sandwiched in between.

That form has already seen him rise to 148 in the world, just one place behind his 21-year-old brother Ahmad.

“I am from a sporting family which encouraged me to play sport from a very young age,” said Sarraj. “My father was a football player and my mother was a volleyball player. I was always playing with my brother Ahmad to have fun and to stay away from the streets or anything else that could affect us negatively.

“It was clear that we had talent for the sport at a young age so we got serious with our training and started to compete in tournaments.”

A step up to the professional tour though takes much more dedication and Sarraj revealed that he now trains three times every single day, except Fridays.

“I start my first session at 5am, followed at 12pm and then a final session at 5pm or 6pm,” he said.

“It sounds tough but I have a lot of fun playing squash. I always make sure, though, that I strike the right balance and have time to spend with my friends, so I have a life away from sport.”

So with strong foundations in place, Sarraj is ready for an assault on the world rankings in 2017. But first there is one last target in the juniors.

“I will participate in the Juniors World Championships in New Zealand in July for the last time. I really believe I can win it before I fully move on to the seniors.

“But my main goal for this year is to improve my world ranking in the men’s level. I believe I can reach the top 40 if I stay injury free as I am entering a number of tournaments,” Sarraj said.

Sarraj will launch his year by competing in the 18th Asian Junior Team Championships in Hong Kong from February 1-5 before moving on to Egypt for the Arab Championships and then join the professional tour with an event in Sweden.

AMMAN — Jordan National Rally Champion Asem Aref has confirmed that he will compete in the opening round of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship in Qatar from February 3-4, according to the Jordan Olympic Committee News Service.

The five-round series was announced last week with Jordan following Qatar from May 4-6 and then Cyprus, Lebanon and Iran completing the shortened 2017 calendar. Aref and co-driver Musa Djiyerian are looking to challenge for the RC3 category.

AMMAN — Jordan’s young table tennis stars are heading to Oman to take part in the Al Amal International Championships for players under the age of 12, according to the Jordan Olympic Committee News Service.

The tournament takes place from January 21-26 with Kareem Zayadeen and Dana Al Khateeb looking for honours. They will be coached by Ayman Hadeed.

Meanwhile, all age category teams are preparing to participate in West Asian Championships which will be held in Aqaba from February 8-12.

AMMAN — Six of the leading teams from the region will compete in the West Asian Basketball Championships taking place in Jordan from January 29-February 2, according to the Jordan Olympic Committee News Service.

The host nation will be joined by Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Iran with all matches to be played at the Fuhais Club. The organising committee held a press conference on Tuesday afternoon announcing that everything was on track with Ayman Samawai, the Fuhais Club president, confirming that the venue is ready.

Jordan TV has committed to broadcasting all of the matches live while an agreement has also been reached with Lebanon’s LBC. The championships will take a straight league format with the top team from their five matches to be declared the winner. 

AMMAN — It was a memorable year for sport in 2016, both on and off the pitch.

As well as the notable achievements on the global level, Jordan underlined its position as a serious partner for the world of sport by hosting the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup to great acclaim.

It was a dream come true for the young Jordanian starlets who performed so valiantly against the world’s best in their age group.

But after the fanfare died down, rather than rest on their laurels and bask in the glory, Jordan went out and secured another major tournament in the 2018 Women’s Asian Cup with the host team already planning their participation.

The Jordan Olympic Committee News Service caught up with the team preparing to make an impact and spoke with technical manager Maher Abu Hantash.

“Our preparations are going as planned,” he said. “In December, we brought the squad together and focused on endurance and physical fitness, now we are in the second phase and working on identifying the players’ places in the team, in addition to playing friendly matches to reach the required level.”

A number of the U-17 World Cup team have now graduated to the seniors which the manager believes will be a big help.

“The current national team is a mix of previous players in the team and players who participated in the World Cup last year, which gives us the chance to prepare a perfect team.

“The World Cup has had its influence, especially in the facilities which will help us a lot in preparing the team.”

One of those players to step up is Stephanie Al Naber who played a starring role for Jordan back in September.

“It was quite a long break after the World Cup so we are excited to be back together again and preparing,” she said. “This is a big step up for us but we have time to prepare and I believe we will reach even better levels at the Asian Cup.”

One of the side’s veterans is Yasmeen Kheir whose return to the national team brings with it a host of international experience at the highest levels.

“To be back training with the national team is important for me as we have a role to highlight that women’s football is here to stay in Jordan,” she said.

Goalkeeper Rand Al Bustanji said that she has never felt fitter with the coaches working hard on their endurance, and she called her World Cup experience “a dream come true”.

The draw for the Asian Cup groups will take place in Amman on Saturday. Twenty-one countries will be vying for four places with Australia, Japan and China already qualified alongside Jordan who are the hosts.

AMMAN — Jazira top the Jordan Professional Football League standings as Leg 1 ended this week with no changes on standings and fans hopeful that Leg 2 will heat up the competition with four teams closely leading.

As teams break, the national team will hold a training camp in the UAE which includes a friendly against Georgia. Teams have a short time to regroup and address their gaps before they restart the league as well as Jordan Cup matches. Wihdat and Ahli will also prepare for their respective Asian Football Confederation competitions.

Wihdat are second after they beat Hussein 3-0, while Faisali held on to third after a 1-1 draw with Sahab. Manshieh are fourth after they held Ramtha 0-0 while Ahli could not improve after they lost 2-0 to Jazira. Shabab Urdun remained in 8th spots after they were held 0-0 by bottom placed Baqa’a. That Ras scored an important win as they try to move out of the last two after a 1-0 win over Sarih.

Jazira’s Syrian pro Mardig Mardigian still leads the top scorers list with eight goals. 

Manshieh, who joined the pro league this season with Sahab, have tipped the balance and are now in fourth place with teams like Ramtha, Ahli and Shabab Urdun further down the standings with inconsistent results.

Wihdat are looking to win their fourth consecutive and 16th overall title, while Faisali have not won the league in the past four years and eye their 33rd record title.

Ahli won the first major competition on the 2016/17 football calendar, making history when they beat reigning league champs Wihdat 2-1 to win the 34th Super Cup. In the Jordan Football Association Shield — back on the calendar after four years — Shabab Urdun scored a major 5-1 win over Faisali. It was Shabab Urdun’s second Shield title after they first won in 2007.

Last season, Wihdat retained the title with Faisali, Ahli, Jazira and Shabab Urdun in top five spots. It was Wihdat’s third consecutive and 15th league title since they moved up to the Professional League in 1975. Faisali beat Wihdat to clinch the Super Cup while it was Ahli, who after years in the backstage, beat Shabab Urdun to win their first Jordan Cup final.