Sports

LONDON — As if clocking up a first victory over Rafael Nadal was not enough, David Goffin continued breaking new ground by stunning Roger Federer at the ATP Finals on Saturday to claim the biggest win of his career and reach the final.

Few gave the willowy world No.8th a prayer against the Swiss maestro who had rolled through his round-robin matches unbeaten for the 10th time.

Yet Goffin, beaten in all six prior meetings with Federer, turned the tables to claim a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory.

His comeback win means a new name will be on the trophy this year with fellow first-time qualifiers for the elite event Grigor Dimitrov and Jack Sock contesting the second semifinal.

“Both are really special. It was the first time against Rafa. Then the semifinal, to beat Roger for the first time here in such a big event, big tournament, it was the perfect moment,” Goffin, who beat a physically-struggling Nadal on Monday, said.

“It is the win of my career, for sure.”

Goffin sustained a freak injury at this year’s French Open when tripping on a court cover and rolling his ankle, then missed Wimbledon to recover.

He is enjoying a dream end to 2017 which will conclude when he leads Belgium in the Davis Cup final against France in Lille.

On Saturday, it appeared he would have an extra day to prepare for national duty as he was outclassed by Federer in the opening set — the 36-year-old world number two feasting on the elegant Goffin’s steady, medium-pace game.

It looked as though he was set for his second heavy beating of the week, having got only two games against Dimitrov in their group clash, but Goffin is made of sterner stuff.

The second game of the second set was to prove a turning point as Goffin, beaten 6-2, 6-1 by Federer in Basel last month, broke the Swiss’s serve with a forehand winner.

Goffin consolidated his lead to take the match into a decider that hardly looked possible a short while before.

Growing in confidence, the 26-year-old broke Federer’s serve again at 1-1 in the third set as the Swiss, suddenly anxious and struggling for timing, struck a backhand out.

There was plenty of time for 19-times Grand Slam champion Federer to reassert his authority and he had an immediate break-back chance but Goffin saved it with a sharp volley.
Goffin stayed cool and his moment of truth arrived at 5-4 when he stepped up to serve for the biggest win of his career.

Consecutive aces gave him a 30-0 cushion before he buried a nervy forehand in the net. Federer then went wide with a forehand to give Goffin two match points and a swinging first serve proved too good.

“When you start the game with an ace, it’s always better,” Goffin, the first Belgian to qualify for the ATP Finals, said.

It was only Federer’s fifth defeat of a superb year in which he roared back from an injury lay-off in 2016 to win the Australian Open and Wimbledon titles.
“Wish I could have played more aggressive today, but just never really felt comfortable taking the ball on,” Federer said.

“It’s kind of disappointing to finish on this note. But whatever happened today is less important than if I look at the entire season. With that season, I’m extremely happy.”

AMMAN  — Ramtha top the Jordan Professional Football League as Week 9 kicks off on Friday after a two week break during which the national team managed a 1-0 win over Cambodia to qualify to the 2019 Asian Cup.

In the week before the break, Ramtha beat Hussein 3-1 to maintain their lead before facing Th

at Ras. Wihdat still trail in second place after a 5-1 win over Manshieh and next play Aqaba, Jazira are third after a 1-0 win over Aqaba and next play Yarmouk.

Shabab Urdun are fifth after a 2-1 win over Ahli and next play Manshieh while Faisali are sixth a

fter they were held 1-1 with Baqa’a and next play Ahli

Ramtha have so far upset all former champs beating Faisali, Shabab Urdun and Wihdat to remain atop the lead. Ahli’s Mahmoud Wadi still heads the top scorers list with eight goals.

So far this season, reigning league and Jordan Cup champs Faisali beat Jazira to win the 35th Jordan Super Cup. Wihdat beat Jazira to win the Jordan Football Association Shield.

Last season, Faisali won their 33rd league title after a four-year break and combined it with the Jordan Cup. Ahli beat reigning league champs Wihdat to win the Super Cup, Shabab Urdun beat Faisali to win their second Shield title after they first won in 2007. Sarih and Sahab were relegated and replaced by Aqaba and Yarmouk from the First Division.

AMMAN — Jordan’s national football team edged Cambodia 1-0 in Phnom Penh, on Tuesday in their penultimate return leg 2019 Asian Cup qualifier.

Jordan secured qualification from its group, along with Vietnam, as the top two teams from each group moved to the Asian Cup finals set for the UAE in 2019.

AMMAN — HRH Prince Ali, president of the Jordan Football Association (JFA) and also president of the West Asia Federation, on Tuesday said that the Asian Football Confederation was transparent and just in dealing with suspensions against Faisali players. In a tweet in Arabic, Prince Ali said: “We were the first to refuse acting out of context, but we acted according to exaggerated decisions that contradicted facts.

I have been and will always be a supporter of transparency and justice, and the Asian [Football] Confederation proved today, through its committees, that it adopts such a policy in dealing with the suspensions against Faisali club...,” he added.

The AFC appeal committee earlier in the day decided to cancel the suspensions of the Faisali players, after follow ups from the JFA and Prince Ali who always announced that it is his duty to defend the rights of Jordanian clubs, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Also on Tuesday, Faisali club commended the prince’s efforts in abolishing the  suspensions of the players. Baker Odwan, deputy Faisali chairman and the club spokesperson, said that Prince Ali exerted big efforts in following up on all details related to the appeals for  Mutaz Yaseen, Baha Abdul Rahman, Ibrahim Zawahreh, Ibrahim Daldoum and Akram Zuwi, until penalties at the local and Asian levels were abolished. Penalties remain standing at the Arab level.

SAO PAULO — Sebastian Vettel restored Ferrari pride with victory in the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday while newly-crowned four-times world champion Lewis Hamilton produced the drive of the day from last to fourth for Mercedes.

Hamilton, who clinched the title in Mexico two weeks ago, started from the pit lane after changes to his car following a crash in qualifying then began a thrilling charge through the field.

The Briton was already up to ninth after 10 laps, with the safety car deployed after opening lap collisions and led the race before the halfway stage as others pitted and he ran longer.

He finished only 5.4 seconds behind Vettel.

“It was fun. It was reminiscent of my karting days when I’d start at the back, particularly in my first year or two,” said Hamilton, voted driver of the day by fans in an online poll.

“I messed up yesterday and put myself in the worst position,” he added.

“Waking up this morning, my goal was really kind of just to redeem myself... I was trying to get back to third but just ran out of tyres at the end.”

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff described his stirring performance, with a series of overtakes, as “a champion’s drive”.

Valtteri Bottas, who had lined up on pole position for Mercedes, saw his hopes of overhauling Vettel for the runner-up position in the championship effectively disappear when he finished second.

The Finn lost the lead at the start to the German, who had the race under control from the first corner onwards on a sunny afternoon at Interlagos.

Vettel is now 22 points clear of Bottas with only the Abu Dhabi season-ender remaining. Hamilton’s unassailable overall lead was reduced to 43.

It was the German’s fifth win of the season, 47th of his career, and Ferrari’s first success since Hungary at the end of July when Vettel was leading the championship.

Finland’s Kimi Raikkonen held off Hamilton to take third place for Ferrari, the 2007 world champion’s third podium finish in a row.

Flat out

“I had a very good getaway but then I had a bit of wheel spin so I thought I had missed my chance,” said Vettel of the key moment of the race.

“But I think Valtteri was struggling even more off the line so I was able to squeeze down the inside and I think I surprised him a little bit.

“After that we were pushing for the remaining laps flat out. I was trying everything to pull a bit of a gap and control the race from there.”

Dutch 20-year-old Max Verstappen was fifth for Red Bull, and set the fastest lap after a second stop for fresh tyres, with Australian teammate Daniel Ricciardo sixth after fighting back from a first lap collision and spin.

Retiring Brazilian Felipe Massa said farewell to his home crowd with seventh place for Williams, the former Ferrari driver then ushered onto the podium to be interviewed in front of the crowd by retired compatriot Rubens Barrichello.

Force India’s Sergio Perez was ninth and Germany’s Nico Hulkenberg, lapped by the leader, took the final point for Renault. 

The safety car was deployed for three laps after Ricciardo, McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne and Haas’s Kevin Magnussen tangled at the start.

Haas’s Romain Grosjean and Force India’s Esteban Ocon also collided at turn six, with the latter suffering his first single seater retirement since 2014.

“I knew this day would come at some stage, but I wasn’t expecting it to be today,” said Ocon. “There was nothing I could do... he made a mistake and I suffered from it.

“Days like this happen but I hope it will be another three years before it happens again.”

AMMAN — Jordan’s national football team plays host  Cambodia in Phnom Penh, on Tuesday in its penultimate return leg 2019 Asian Cup qualifier.

In the 1:30pm Amman local time match, Jordan needs a draw to secure qualification with the top two teams from each group moving to the Asian Cup finals set for the UAE in 2019. Jordan has maintained  Group C lead since Leg 1, when it  beat  Cambodia 7-0, Afghanistan 4-1 , and was held 0-0 with Vietnam.

As the return leg  kicked off, Jordan only managed a 3-3 draw with Afghanistan and now leads the group on points with Vietnam which beat Cambodia 5-0 and 2-1 and held Afghanistan 1-1.

Cambodia is third after beating Afghanistan 1-0. A fair opinion would note that Group C has limited capabilities and advancing to the 2019 Asian Cup should not be a difficult task against relatively unknown teams in the Asian continent. 

LOS ANGELES — The Golden State Warriors delivered a message yesterday that the defending league champs are back on form with a dominating 135-114 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers.

Philadelphia had won five of its last six, but found itself hopelessly outgunned in the second half against the Warriors, who extended their winning streak to six games.

All six wins have been by 17 or more points, the longest such streak in franchise history.

Forward Kevin Durant returned from a one game absence to lead all scorers with 29 points. Klay Thompson had 23 and Stephen Curry 22 for the Warriors, who shot 58.5 per cent from the field. Durant sat out Wednesday’s game against Minnesota with a sore left thigh.

JJ Redick finished with 17 points, French guard Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot came off the bench to score 15 and forward Dario Saric added 14 for the 76ers.

The 76ers have now lost nine straight against Golden State.

They had a chance to take a lead at the end of the second quarter, but Kevon Looney blocked Ben Simmons underneath the rim. Looney got the ball which led to a three-pointer from Thompson to put Golden State up 65-64
at the half.

The Warriors had a scare in the first 24 minutes when they lost Curry for a few minutes after Simmons’ knee banged into Curry’s right thigh.

Curry headed to the locker room after a few seconds, but was only gone a brief time. Once back, he wasted no time getting on the scoresheet again.

Elsewhere, Bradley Beal and Markieff Morris combined for 37 points as the Washington Wizards defeated the Atlanta Hawks 113-94.

Beal tallied 19 points and Morris 18 as the Wizards improved to 7-5 on the NBA season.

Kelly Oubre also had 18 points for the Wizards, who won back-to-back games for the first time since opening the season 3-0.

Morris said he is now looking forward to the next couple of weeks when they face teams like Toronto and Miami that are higher in the standings.

“Not to take credit away from the [Los Angeles] Lakers and the Hawks, but they’re not the best offensive teams. Once we get to those good teams, then we’ll be able to measure what we have,” Morris said.

Washington shot 53.8 per cent from the floor and led by as many as 25 points in the first meeting with Atlanta since winning last season’s first-round play-off series.

Strong defence

Washington’s defence kept the Hawks’ at bay. Atlanta shot 41 per cent from the field and had 24 turnovers, resulting in 39 points for the Wizards.

Taurean Prince scored 19 points and Marco Belinelli 15 for the Hawks, who dropped their third game in a row and second in as many days.

Dennis Schroder, who was superb against Washington in the playoffs, missed all eight of his field goal attempts in the first half Saturday and finished with seven points on two-of-16 shooting.

“It wasn’t my night,” said Schroder.

John Wall skipped the team’s morning practice due to illness, but dressed for the game and scored 10 points in the first half as Washington led 49-42.

In Houston, James Harden scored 38 points as the Houston Rockets beat the Memphis Grizzlies 111-96.

Harden made 11 of 25 shots, including six three-pointers. Eric Gordon also hit six three-pointers and added 26 points for the Rockets.

Reserve Tyreke Evans led the Grizzlies with 22 points. Marc Gasol added 15 while Mike Conley was held to 12 points.