Luke Donald moves up rankings with Japan win

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Luke Donald moved up a place to world number two as he overtook Tiger Woods by claiming victory in the Dunlop Phoenix tournament in Japan. 

Donald followed up opening rounds of 65, 64 and 71 with a 68 for the win. The Briton had led by four shots going into the final round and ended up finishing five strokes ahead of nearest rival Hideki Matsuyama. It is the 34-year-old's first tournament win since he defended the PGA Championship at Wentworth in May. Donald's latest success rarely appeared in doubt after he birdied the fourth and eighth, while getting an eagle at the seventh. He did bogey holes nine and 10 before seven pars and a birdie on the long 18th assured him of victory.






18 November 2012 Last updated at 09:20
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/golf/20384201

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Ivan Lendl sees himself coaching the rest of Andy Murray's career

Ivan Lendl says he sees himself coaching US Open champion Andy Murray for the rest of the Scot's career. 

Murray appointed eight-time Grand Slam winner Lendl as his coach in December, and has since won Olympic gold, the US Open and reached the Wimbledon final. "As long as it works for both of us, I can see myself being with him for the rest of his career," Lendl told BBC World Service. The 52-year-old also revealed he intends to improve Murray's tennis. "I have a lot of plans where I would like to see Andy end up with his game," said Lendl, who helped the 25-year-old become Britain's first male Grand Slam singles champion in 76 years with victory in the US Open in September. But despite Murray's success, the 52-year-old Czech-born coach says the player is only at 20% of where he wants him to be, though he refuses to set a particular target in terms of Grand Slam victories. "I think [he can achieve] a lot more. I'm not going to say number of Grand Slams, I'm just going to say where Andy is now," he said. "I take 'point A' - when we started working - now he's at 'point B', and when I envisage I would say he's about 20% there." Murray has enjoyed his best year of tennis under Lendl - winning the US Open, an Olympic gold medal, an Olympic silver medal and reaching the final, semi-final and quarter-final of Wimbledon, the Australian Open and the French Open , respectively. His Olympic gold medal came with a victory over Roger Federer at Wimbledon, just a month after losing the Wimbledon final at the same venue to the same opponent. It sparked fresh debate over whether Murray could become the first male British singles Wimbledon winner since Fred Perry in 1936. "I think that [if Andy's career will be judged on whether he wins Wimbledon] is an inappropriate question because I think everybody knows he can," said Lendl. "The question is 'is he going to win Wimbledon?' and know he will give it a good crack many, many times - not just once, not just in 2013 or 2014. He has quite a few years left in him and he's going to give it a crack." However, Lendl believes nothing is guaranteed with regards to success on home turf. "As you know in sport, you cannot predict, you can only anticipate - both Andy and I would be disappointed if at the end of the day he does not win," said Lendl. "But it's also a possibility that he may win more than one, and he may not win any. "I don't know, I don't know the answer to that, but he can."










16 November 2012 Last updated at 18:14
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/20363282

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Singapore Open: Thunderstorms raise risk of 54-hole event

Friday, November 9, 2012

The Singapore Open could be cut to 54 holes for the second year running after thunderstorms forced play to be halted early for the second day.  

Half of the field did not start round two on Friday and some greens were under water with more rain forecast. England's Simon Dyson birdied four of the 13 holes he played to lead on six under with Thailand's Chapchai Nirat. World number one Rory McIlroy, who needs a top-three finish to win the Race to Dubai, is one under after 12. Lighting and heavy rain caused two suspensions before play was finally called off. Last year's event, won by Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano in a play-off, was cut to 54 holes and only finished on the Monday morning. "At present, our aim is still to complete 72 holes, weather permitting," said tournament director Jose Maria Zamora. "However, if we do suffer more delays we would then decide, in consultation with the sponsor and promoter, whether to reduce the tournament to 54 holes or complete the fourth round on Monday." McIlroy, who finished his first round in one-under-par 70 on Friday morning, birdied his last hole of the day to improve to joint 29th.

The Northern Irishman had looked in danger of missing the cut after bogeying his third hole of the second round, the 12th, and following that with a double-bogey six on the par-four 13th to slip to two over. However, the 23-year-old picked up birdies on the 18th, first and third holes to move back into contention with six holes left of his second round. Dyson's share of the lead will be short-lived when play resumes at 23:30 GMT on Friday (07:30 local time on Saturday) because the siren to halt proceedings was sounded before he had chance to knock in a bogey putt on the fifth (his 14th). Nirat, who is ranked 631st in the world, completed a bogey-free 65 on Friday morning to take the first-round lead and mixed a couple of birdies with a couple of bogeys to remain six under after nine holes of round two. Denmark's Thomas Bjorn, who led on five under at the end of day one, is among the 78 players who were unable to tee off in the second round. Europe's Ryder Cup vice-captain was joined on that mark by Italian duo Francesco Molinari and Matteo Manassero. Molinari is yet to drop a shot in his second round, having birdied three of his 12 holes while Manassero recovered from an opening-hole double bogey to record six birdies in 11 holes. England's Chris Wood improved his score to four under with three birdies in the eight holes he was able to complete. He joined compatriot Simon Khan, who also did not tee off, in joint sixth, while Paul Casey (three under) was another who stayed in the clubhouse.












9 November 2012 Last updated at 11:22
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/golf/20266403

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Andy Murray chases place in ATP World Tour semi-finals

Andy Murray knows that a straight-sets win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Friday will guarantee a semi-final place at the ATP World Tour Finals.  

The Briton goes into the final round of Group A matches in second place, having beaten Tomas Berdych and lost to top seed Novak Djokovic. Murray takes on Tsonga at 19:45 GMT, after Djokovic plays Berdych at 13:45. A Djokovic win would ease Murray's task as he would then only need a set against the Frenchman. All four men go into Friday still able to secure one of the two semi-final places on offer in the group, and there are 10 different qualification scenarios. It is a situation Murray has experienced before, notably in 2009, when he won two group matches but was still eliminated on the percentage of games won. He at least has the advantage of playing last on Friday, so will know exactly what he has to do against Tsonga. "Who knows what the scenario will be when I get on the court but I'll just try my best to win," said Murray. "There are no easy matches here and you need to be prepared for some tough battles." The message was the same from Djokovic who, despite having won both his opening matches, could still suffer the same fate as Murray three years ago with a poor result against Berdych. "I will try not to depend on some other players' scores and matches," said the world number one.

 "I will try to focus and win every match that I play." Murray can take encouragement from a one-sided 6-1 record against Tsonga that includes victories in their last five matches. He beat the Frenchman over four sets in the Wimbledon semi-final this summer and has not lost to the world number eight since 2008. "I just have to play the Tsonga match and try to win regardless of what situation either of us are in," added Murray. "It doesn't matter what has gone before, I just have to win. We are not used to the round-robin format in tennis because we play knockout everywhere else apart from here. "That is the tradition of the tournament and it's fine. As professional sportsmen we should be able to deal with all sorts of situations and focus regardless." Fellow Briton Jonny Marray faces a less nerve-wracking evening after he and Danish partner Freddie Nielsen secured a place in the doubles semi-final with wins in their opening two matches. The Wimbledon champions complete the group stage when they take on Swede Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau of Romania at 18:00.






 8 November 2012 Last updated at 20:16
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/20259569

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