Sports

AMMAN — Lifesaving training has been held to ensure sports coaches can provide immediate treatment in the case of a serious injury on the sports field, the Jordan Olympic Committee News Service announced on Saturday.

The Qusai Initiative, set up by the Crown Prince Foundation to improve the safety and well-being of Jordan’s sports men and women, organised the session in cooperation with the Jordan Olympic Committee (JOC).

It taught the participants, many of whom were national team coaches, how to carry out Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation, as well as other important first aids techniques. “The importance of this training course cannot be understated as it is giving coaches enough information on how to deal with emergencies in the right way as soon as they may happen,” said Zeid Habashneh, from Qusai Initiative.

AMMAN — Jordan has heralded a new swimming super star who has qualified to the Youth Olympics after winning U17 silver at the Asian Age Group Championships taking place in Uzbekistan, the Jordan Olympic Committee News Service reported on Sunday. Mohammed Al Bdour finished second in the 100m freestyle in a time of 51.12 seconds to guarantee his place on the plane to Buenos Aires next summer.

Meanwhile, two-time Olympian Talita Baqleh won silver in the seniors 50m Butterfly after clocking 28.57. Teammate Amro Al Wir added a bronze medal for Jordan in the 200m breaststroke after finishing in 2:19.44, which is another new national record, after having finished third in the 100m breaststroke on Saturday after clocking a time of 1:05.13, which is a B time for the next Youth Olympic Games that will be held in Buenos Aires next year.

The 16 year old also broke his national record of 1:05.70 that he set at the World Championships in May. Meanwhile, Mohammad Al Bdour, Dara Al Bakri and Seif Khatieh also participated in events but could not make the top three.

AMMAN — With only a few days to go, Jordan has revealed the pioneering eSports team who will take part in the 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, according to the Jordan Olympic Committee News Service.

The groundbreaking team of five will be sailing unchartered waters by becoming the first national team to compete under the Jordan flag, after eSports was included as a demonstration event in Ashgabat.

And with the support of the Jordan Olympic Committee (JOC) they are starting with ambition after opening a special training centre at Al Hussein Business Park last week. 

The team of Abdullah Jaradat, Abdulfatah Al Shroof, Ali Nidal, Amer Jaradeh, Anas Herzallah and Mohammad Khalil are being coached by Mohammad Zahran and will compete in DOTA 2, a game of two teams, each one including five players with the onus on both attack and defend.

Zahran pointed out that the team players are highly regarded in the game and are established on the world scene for DOTA 2, and expect to compete well in Turkmenistan.  

With eSports likely to join more multi-sport events, including the Olympic Games, the JOC has decided to create a temporary eSports Committee which will help the sport to grow over the coming months and years. Jordan is heading to Ashgabat 2017, which runs September 15-24, with over 100 athletes who will compete in 13 of the 21 sports on offer. 

NEW YORK — Petra Kvitova took solace from the plentiful evidence that she is able to battle with the best again, despite bowing out of the US Open after a quarter-final loss to Venus Williams on Tuesday.

Only three months after returning from a career-threatening injury sustained when she was stabbed by an intruder at her home in December, the Czech had much to be pleased about in her Flushing Meadows campaign.

The 27-year-old beat pre-tournament favourite Garbine Muguruza in the fourth round and on Tuesday came close to upsetting local favourite Williams before succumbing to a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(2) defeat. 

“I’m glad that I am still able to compete on the high level against the top players which I hope will give me some confidence for hard work again to continue to play well, to know that it’s still there somewhere,” she said.

Kvitova has made steady progress since her comeback at the French Open in May, but there remains a question mark over whether she can add another major crown to her 2011 and 2014 Wimbledon titles.

Her performances against Muguruza and Williams suggest that she can, but the Czech is remaining cautious as she tries to keep expectations low.

“I’m not sure about the Grand Slam titles,” she added. “Of course that’s why I’m playing tennis, and that’s why I wanted to be back and playing, and it is a big motivation. 

“But I’m still on the earth, and I know it’s still a lot of work. I know how tough it is to get a Grand Slam title. 

“It was pretty close but pretty far, as well.”

Against Williams, Kvitova worked the angles pretty well with her crafty left hand, but she lacked consistency and the American was never threatened in the final tiebreak.

It was a frustrating end to a campaign that Kvitova thought she would ultimately judge a success.

“I think it was pretty early [in my comeback] that I put a little bit pressure on myself, and I just wanted to play better and better, which I wasn’t ready for,” she said. 

“I’m just glad that I could show it here, that there is a way to play well again. So from my side, in a couple of days I hope that I will say, good job. But not just now.”

Williams grabbing opportunities

Now 37 and in the twilight of a sparkling career, the opportunities Venus Williams lives for are not supposed to come around as often as they once did.

“Sometimes you have opportunities and sometimes you take them and you don’t, but it’s not like you get opportunity after opportunity after opportunity in these sorts of matches,” said Williams. “You have to take the ones you have.”

Williams has taken those words to heart in a renaissance season that has seen her reach the Australian Open and Wimbledon finals and sit just one victory away, against American compatriot Sloane Stephens, from playing for the US Open title for the first time since 2002.

It has been nine years since Williams celebrated the last of her seven Grand Slam singles wins and 16 since she last lifted the US Open title and remains as hungry for trophies as ever.

“I’m still living my dream, and it’s amazing,” said Williams.

It did not always seem like it on Tuesday, particularly during a fluctuating second set when Williams was unable to put away her 13th seeded opponent, who had beaten her four times in five meetings.

“You know, definitely when I had opportunities in the second set and so many break points disappearing, you feel like, wow, I should be doing more,” said Williams. “You have to put it behind you. 

“It’s about winning the match you’re in. Doesn’t matter whether you’re playing well or not playing well. It’s about figuring out how to win.

“These big matches there have been times where I have won these and there have been times I didn’t win them.”

Williams has been winning much more than losing this year putting together a 34-10 match record.

But the records Williams is piling up now are the “oldest this” and “oldest that”. Longevity brings its own recognition but winning remains the ultimate goal.

Life has moved on for Williams. Sister Serena, a six-time US Open champion, is not in Flushing Meadows after giving birth to her first child and many of the players Williams is facing at the US Open grew up watching and idolising her.

A role model, Williams led four American women into the quarter-finals and hopes all four will reach the semifinals.

“All I have known all my life was great American players,” said Williams. “So it’s great to see this resurgence, and I hope it can continue.”

Roger Federer is as curious as tennis fans around the world to see if he will finally play against Rafael Nadal for the first time at the US Open.

But even if not, the two career leaders in men’s Grand Slam titles will have the chance to bond as teammates and possibly even doubles partners later this month in a new Europe versus The World team event.

“Good for a change, yes, after all these years,” Federer said. “If I can help him, great. If he can help me, even better.”

Federer rolled into the fourth round of the US Open on Saturday, extending his bid for a 20th career Grand Slam title by downing Spanish 31st seed Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 6-3, 7-5.

The 36-year-old Swiss third seed, seeking a record sixth title on New York hardcourts, could meet World Np. 1 Nadal in a Friday semifinal at Arthur Ashe Stadium in the one Slam where they have never played.

“For many years Rafa and me, we’ve tried to play against each other here, and it just didn’t work out,” Federer said. “Now this week, I don’t feel necessarily the pressure’s there.

“I’m happy I’m still around. Rafa fought well through again today. I’m happy for him, too. We’ll see if it gets done or not. I’m curious to see myself.”

Federer is having a banner season after some suspected he might never lift another Grand Slam trophy, taking the Wimbledon and Australian Open crowns.

Nadal has done the same at age 31, winning his 15th Slam title by capturing his record 10th French Open crown.

But the long-time rivals will team up on September 22-24 for the Laver Cup in Prague, a new three-day team event pitting Bjorn Borg’s European squad against a World lineup guided by John McEnroe.

Federer and Nadal will work together alongside Austria’s Dominic Thiem, Czech Tomas Berdych, Germany’s Alexander Zverev and Croatia’s Marin Cilic.

 “Rafa, he has been such a wonderful champion and a good friend of mine on the tour, one of my big rivals for life, that it’s just nice to be able to spend some time with him and support him,” Federer said.

Federer, who would be the oldest US Open champion in the Open Era (since 1967), was also excited about the chance to spend time with 61-year-old Swedish legend Borg, an 11-time Grand Slam champion who captain’s the European side.

“For me to spend time with Bjorn, it’s quite rare,” Federer said. “He doesn’t spend so much time on the tour. When he shows up, it’s short. I feel every minute you get with him is a privilege.

“Here we are, he’s going to be stuck with us. So it’s going, I think, to be very special for all of us, particularly me. I mean, I have incredible respect for him.”

Federer said if he could turn back the clock and face one all-time icon from another era, it would be Borg in his prime, when he was winning six French Open and five Wimbledon crowns from 1974 to 1981.

“If I could play one player ever going back, I feel like it would be Bjorn,” Federer said. “I feel he’s that incredibly good, for what he did for the game. If I look how he played, what he brought to it, it’s crazy.”

AMMAN — Sam Daghlas started playing basketball at the age of 14 in the US after having practiced football in Jordan, which made him realise his passion for the basketball and his will to change the Jordanian basketball scene for the better.

Jordanian-American Osama Mohammad Daghlas, known as Sam Daghlas, is the current head coach of the Jordanian national basketball team and a former professional basketball player.

Although he majored in sociology, he always knew basketball was his haven, the place where he can prove himself and improve his skills.

“I left Jordan at the age of 9, I loved football like every kid who grows up in Jordan, but when I arrived to America, I noticed that all the attention was on basketball so I fell in love with it while watching them play,” he said.

He tried out for the high school freshmen team, “I was lucky enough that the freshmen coach saw something in me… And since that day he worked on me daily and I worked on myself daily, kept practicing every day after school.”

Practicing gave Daghlas a boost and at the end of the year, he was transferred to the senior basketball team as a freshman, which motivated him to keep going.

“I worked hard for four months and look where it got me,” he says.

For the three years following that, he worked hard on making a name for himself, Daghlas said.

“After my senior year, I was supposed to go to college, unfortunately, I had a car accident with my dad and I wasn’t able to play for a whole year. I sat out for one year and kept rehabbing and getting back on court.”

After that, he was able to get a scholarship at San Diego Mesa College, where he played for two years, Daghlas then received another scholarship at Midwestern State University.

Coming back home

Once he finished his college education, he was performing workouts with an agent and many pro-players who play in Europe. That was when Nassouh Al Qaderi started the team called Zain (previously known as Fastlink).

When Qaderi heard of Daghlas and knew that he was Jordanian he flew to San Diego and met with him and his agent, and convinced Daghlas that Jordan was doing something new with a pro-team. “We’re doing it different,” Daghlas was told.

In 2003-2004, Daghlas accepted the offer and came back to play with the local basketball team. “I came here and he [Al Qaderi] set a huge goal for us to win the league.”

The Zain team was improving every year, with Qaderi coaching it, players had a goal of winning the Asia Championship, “in 2004, we lost in the Asia Championship. In 2006, we went back and won.”

Tareq Zoubi, a former head of the federation, also played an important role in Daghlas’ career and the local basketball scene. 

Daghlas said: “He had a vision, he developed Jordan’s basketball, the league was good, the national team was good, he hired great coaches for the national team.”

Challenges

As a young Jordanian player coming back home after having played in the US, Daghlas said the main challenge was to adapt to the mentality of the local basketball scene. 

“I believed in working hard and attending practices, I believe you must go 150 per cent for every practice, to come early and leave late, I always expected more, I was tough to play with, some players were not accustomed to my style,” he said.

His teammates then adapted to his commitment to the game and to improving Jordan’s performance in basketball both regionally and internationally.

‘Giving them a chance’

Jordanian basketball players, like Daghlas, who are given the option to play in their home country’s national team have the western mentality of the game, he said, by playing in and against highly professional teams at a young age.

“In Jordan, we wait till they are 19-20 years old to teach professionalism, which is not right. This is something you have to build in them from the age of five or six. To teach them hard work pays off, balance, time management, once they understand that at a young age, it becomes easier.”

‘Something good
will happen’

“I was lucky enough to have the chance to play 14 years professionally at the highest level, try-out for the NBA team, play on NBA summer league, NBA D league and on the highest level in China.”

In 2011, Daghlas won the best pointguard in Asia, with the “Legend of Asia” title for that year.

Golden Age of Jordanian basketball

When he first came to Jordan, he saw a lot of countries that respected Jordan’s basketball teams, with many professional players such as Enver Sobzokov, Rasheim Wright, Zaid Abbas, Ayman Idais, Islam Abbas and Francis Ireifej.

“That’s when I saw the change. When teams started respecting our matches and fearing us, worrying about us,” he said.

In 2011, Jordan got the second place in Asia, Daghlas said, “Teams realised Jordan had the talent. Every time we stepped on the court, we had a chance of winning.”

Every generation had a role in driving Jordan to where it is and improving the team’s skills, he said.

Turning point

At the highlight of his career, in 2007, Daghlas tore the ACL in his knee. “That was in the middle of my career and it woke me up and made me think, Sam, you are 27, you need to focus more, think about how you want to finish your career.”

He started studying his body in-depth, to become more professional, which led him to go back on track after an eight-month period of recovery.

“After that, I realised that it can all be taken away from you, in one play. I wanted to do it the right way and have no regrets… at least I would go to sleep at night knowing that I gave it my all regardless of what happens.”

Daghlas’ career
path shift

The current head coach’s last championship as a player was the West Asia Clubs Championships held last year in Jordan.

“We ended up not doing too well. That woke me up saying that change must be done, ‘you got to make a change, Sam,’ it might not be about you, it might be for something in future,” he said.

“I was home one night, the last championship I played with the national team was in 2015. I saw how depressed the players were with the whole situation in Jordan, with a lot of coaches not understanding the players,” Daghlas added.

When he saw that the basketball community was not giving players the benefit of the doubt, Daghlas contacted the president of the federation and told him he was willing to give up his career in return for placing Jordanian basketball back on the map.

“If I won’t be the guy that will get the team to the top of the mountain, then hopefully, I will help them take the first step… I can’t see Jordan going further down and down,” he told The Jordan Times.

NEW YORK — World No. 1 Rafa Nadal dismissed Dusan Lajovic 7-6 (6), 6-2, 6-2 to ease into the US Open second round on Tuesday, setting the Spaniard on a collision course for a long overdue Flushing Meadows showdown with Roger Federer.

While the year’s final Grand Slam is only just under way tennis fans have circled September 8 when, if all goes to form, Nadal and Federer would meet in the last four to decide a place in the final.

One of the great rivalries in sport, Federer, a five-times US Open winner and Nadal, twice champion, have clashed 37 times over the years, but never have they stood across the net on Flushing Meadows’ hardcourts.

On French Open clay, Wimbledon’s manicured lawns and in Australian heat, the elegant Swiss maestro and muscular Spaniard have played for titles and while no trophy would be on the line a New York meeting would still have the Big Apple buzzing.

Federer survived a first round scare from Frances Tiafoe as the Swiss ground out a 4-6, 6-2, 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 victory over the American teenager before a raucous crowd at the US Open on Tuesday.

Federer looked more relieved than overjoyed when Tiafoe’s forehand found the net on match point to keep his hopes of a 20th Grand Slam title alive.

The 19-year-old Tiafoe broke Federer in the first game of the match and bellowed out a loud “Come on!” when his forehand winner found the line to capture the opening set. 

Federer, who has won this year’s Australian Open and Wimbledon since taking a six-month break last year, soon found his groove once he broke Tiafoe to take a 3-1 lead in the second set and reeled off nine of the next 10 games. 

“Today I won. That’s the most important thing for me,” Nadal told reporters. “I believe that I am ready.”

After a sluggish run-up to the US Open that included a shock round of 16 loss to Canadian teenager Denis Shapovalov in Montreal and another to Australian Nick Kyrgios in the Cincinnati quarter-finals, Nadal needed a few games to find his range against the 85th-ranked Serb.

The 21-year-old, chasing a first US Open win, showed no sign of nerves, using his stylish groundstrokes to grab the early break on the way to 4-2 lead, the four games as many as he won in his only other meeting with Nadal, a round of 16 loss at the 2014 French Open.

But a steely Nadal found his comfort zone, breaking back at 5-5 to force the opener to a tiebreak that he took 8-6.

A ruthless Nadal delivered the young Serb another tennis lesson, breaking his opponent at the first opportunity in the second and third sets to improve his record in first round US Open matches to 13-0.

“Tough beginning of the match,” said Nadal, who will next meet American Tommy Paul or Japan’s Taro Daniel.

“The important thing is to win because is normal that you have some nerves at the beginning and you get a little bit tight at the beginning of the tournament. 

“So important thing is be through and that’s what I did today.”

AMMAN — The city of Aqaba will host the Jordan’s Ayla Golf Championship October 5-7, Ayla’s Managing Director Sahl Dudin announced at a press conference on Monday. 

This international golf tournament is the first one to be held at the Ayla Golf Club, and it comes as part of the second season of the 7th MENA Golf Tour — an initiative launched at the United Arab Emirates by the Sheikh Maktoum Golf Foundation back in 2011.

During the championship, Aqaba will welcome a total of 120 players of 25 nationalities, including world-renowned players such as Zane Scotland, Rayhan Thomas, Faycal Serghini and Ahmed Marjan.

Furthermore, this tournament will also be an opportunity for developing golfers to make their way to the professional sphere and gain international recognition, according to Chris White, Ayla’s director of operations.

White pointed out Ayla’s “social responsibility to grow the game of golf in the Kingdom”.

“Golf has become an Olympic sport and there is absolutely no reason why Jordan should not be represented in the Olympic games in the upcoming years,” White added. 

In this regard, White said that they are performing a talent scout at Aqaba and Amman schools with the aim of getting teenagers to take on this sport and “become the future golf stars of Jordan”. 

“Currently, we are training around 50 unprivileged teenagers from Aqaba and providing them with all the necessary equipment, and we are trying to identify 15 elite players in order to start a development programme,” said White. 

For his part, Dudin expressed his hopes for the championship to position Jordan as a “premier golfing destination” in the MENA region, noting that an event of this magnitude will “shine the spotlight on Aqaba as a fast growing destination for business and tourism”.

Designed by Greg Norman, the 18-hole, par-72 championship course at Ayla is the largest in the Levant region. Its construction was implemented under eco-friendly guidelines, and it incorporates a nine-hole golfing academy.

AMMAN — The U-16 team has concluded its final training camp as they prepare for the AFC U-16 Championship 2018 qualifiers set to take place from September 16 to 24.

The team played the UAE in two friendlies drawing 1-1 and winning 2-1 as they start the countdown for the qualifiers where Jordan will play in Group A alongside hosts Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Bahrain and Sri Lanka. 

Coach Abdullah Qitati noted the importance of the friendlies and expressed satisfaction in the team’s preparations noting the team’s “agenda was on course,” as they seek to advance in qualifiers after the squad failed to qualify to the 2016 AFC U-16 Asian Championship.

Meanwhile, the U-23 team, which qualified to the 3rd Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Championship in 2018 will also prepare in two phases for the AFC Championship as well as the qualifiers for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Palestine and Jordan moved from Group E, Oman moved from Group A, Iraq and Saudi from Group B, Qatar and Syria from Group C, Uzbekistan from Group D, Australia from Group F, North Korea from Group G, Malaysia and Thailand from Group H, South Korea and Vietnam from Group I and China and Japan from Group J.

In 2016, Jordan was eliminated from the quarter-finals of the 2016 AFC U-23 Championship and failed to make it to the top four and a possible Olympic slot, as the continent’s top three advanced to the Rio Games football tournament. In the inaugural AFC U-22 Championship in 2014, Jordan took third place when it beat South Korea while Iraq won the title after defeating Saudi Arabia.

Jordan’s U-23 squad was eliminated from the 1st West Asian U-23 Championship in 2015, and in 2014 the line-up represented Jordan at the Asian Games where they made to the quarter-finals.

Similarly, the U-19 men’s team is set to play in Group E alongside Syria, Palestine and host Iran in AFC U-19 championship qualifying stage scheduled to take place from October 31 to November 8.

Jordan hopes to advance after they were eliminated from the qualifying rounds of the 2016 championship. 

Jordan previously qualified to the Asian Championship four times and reached the FIFA Youth World Cup in Canada in 2007. Jordan finished fourth in 2006, but exited the group stages in 2008 and 2010, and reached the quarters in 2012. Jordan failed to qualify to the 2014 championship.