Belgrade - The Serbian media on Wednesday rejoiced over the success of the nation's five players in the early stages of the Australian Open.
The Press daily said that the Melbourne Grand Slam was under a 'Serbian assault,' while Vecernje Novosti said 'Serbs - World 5-0.'
All five Serbs - the 2008 Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, Viktor Troicki, Janko Tipsarevic, Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic - advanced to the second round.
'Their wins pleases as much as their sure-footed play,' a Vecernje Novosti editorial said.
'Perfect! Only Troicki drops a set,' said a huge header in the daily Blic. 'A better start to the first Grand Slam of the season could not have even been imagined.'
Serbs were traditionally strictly football and basketball viewers. However, they are now tuning into other sports along with their TV channels, following the success of athletes such as Djokovic or world champion swimmers Nadja Higl and Milorad Cavic.
Source:monstersandcritics.com/
Showing posts with label Top Seeds Australian Open. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Top Seeds Australian Open. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Iceland Ties Serbia in Handball Championship
The Icelandic national team in men’s handball tied Serbia in their first game in the European Championship in Austria last night. Iceland lost their four-goal lead in the last five minutes of the game and the final score was 29-29.
Serbia’s goalkeeper deflected a penalty shot from Snorri Steinn Gudjónsson in the last second. “Óli [captain Ólafur Stefánsson] and I watched each other and he pointed at me. Then it was my job to take the penalty throw,” Gudjónsson told Fréttabladid.
“But the tournament isn’t over. It was a tie after all, not a loss, and now we are determined to win the remaining games in our qualifying group,” Gudjónsson added.
The Icelandic team led the entire game and Iceland’s coach Gudmundur Gudmundsson was disappointed with the final result. “We absolutely had them. That is why this is so frustrating.”
“We have a difficult game against Austria next so we just have to win it,” Gudmundsson added. The game against Austria is tomorrow.
Source:icelandreview.com/
Serbia’s goalkeeper deflected a penalty shot from Snorri Steinn Gudjónsson in the last second. “Óli [captain Ólafur Stefánsson] and I watched each other and he pointed at me. Then it was my job to take the penalty throw,” Gudjónsson told Fréttabladid.
“But the tournament isn’t over. It was a tie after all, not a loss, and now we are determined to win the remaining games in our qualifying group,” Gudjónsson added.
The Icelandic team led the entire game and Iceland’s coach Gudmundur Gudmundsson was disappointed with the final result. “We absolutely had them. That is why this is so frustrating.”
“We have a difficult game against Austria next so we just have to win it,” Gudmundsson added. The game against Austria is tomorrow.
Source:icelandreview.com/
Eye on the world
Source:washingtonpost.com/
First point nicked off Olympic vice-champions
Having snatched a point off the Olympic silver medalists from Beijing, Serbia will have another chance to replicate their fine performance when they take on another giant tonight, 8.15 CET – reigning European champions Denmark.
Serbia opened the game on a low and managed to score their first goal as late as the sixth minute of play, when Momir Ilic converted a penalty throw. Although Sead Hasanefendic’s men narrowed the initial gap to 3-1 and the Serbia coach tried to reshuffle the team’s play with a different system of defence and early pressure, Iceland continued to torment Serbia. Lacking a clear concept of play and finding the net with only every third shot on target, Serbia’s misery was compounded by an outstanding goal-scoring performance from Iceland’s Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson.
Hasanefendic introduced a number of substitutes in order to reverse Serbia’s fate, but Iceland never intended to drop the lead, not even when two men down. Serbian camp must have been awfully pleased to take the four-point deficit at halftime, a scoreline that bore little witness to the balance of powers on the court.
With two goals from Ivan Stankovic early in the second half, Serbia were resurgent and showed signs of improved confidence and organization in play. On the other end, Iceland were still finishing their own attacks with the greatest of ease and quickly. However, when Serbia’s top scorer Momir Ilic scored his first goal from open play on 35 minutes – his fourth altogether at that time against Iceland and 502nd for the national team – Iceland’s cast-iron defence started to leak.
Serbia’s game was now on a rise, spearheaded by Ilic at left-back, sub Vuckovic at centre back and Toskic at pivot. The team managed to reduce the deficit to only two points on two occasions, with Serbia goalkeepers producing some impressive saves from penalty throws. Serbia succeeded in overcoming the poor display in the first half to battle to a exciting closing stages of their opening match at the Euro 2010.
Atlason and Gunnarsson continued to score goals for Iceland, while Serbia at the other end had a couple of nervy misses as Iceland came to a 28-24 lead after 54 minutes of play. Against all odds and the run of play, Serbia then proved the unique beauty of handball was in a dogged approach to the game.
Stakovic scored six goals from as many shots in the second half, which, coupled with Stanic’s frequent saves, managed to keep Iceland at bay. Key moments in the match were when Serbia pulled another one back with a man down to make it 29-27 for their opposition. As the penultimate minute of play was dying, Toskic scored as Serbia were one goal down for the first time, after which Iceland made a second consecutive attacking foul. Vuckovic then scored his fourth goal of the game to level the score at 29-29. Still, in the dying moments of the game, Gunnarsson was awarded a penalty throw, and Snorri Gudjonsson had a chance to steal the win for Iceland from the seven-meter line. Serbia goalkeeper Stanic came out big and stopped the shot to mark the beginning of Serbia’s celebration at taking a point off the Olympic silver-medalists.
Euro 2010, preliminary round, day 1
Serbia v Iceland 29-29 (11-15)
Linz, Tips Arena
Referees: Reiner and Bernd Methe (Germany)
Serbia: Stanic 14 saves, Kojic 1 goal, Sesum 3, Nikcevic, Stojanovic 2, Toskic 4, Peric, Ilic 7 (4 pens), Markovic 1, Pejanovic 2 saves, Andjelkovic, Lapcevic, Vilovski, Vuckovic 4, Nenadic 1, Stankovic 6.
Iceland: Gustavsson 10 saves, Svavarsson, Geirsson, Palmarsson, Ingimundarson 2 goals, Hallgrimsson, Atlason 7, Sigurdsson 9, Gudjonsson 1, Stefansson 4 (1), Asgeirsson, Petersson 2, Gudmundsson 6 saves, Jakobsson, Gunarsson 4.
Group B standings: Denmark 2 points, Serbia 1, Iceland 1, Austria 0
Source:english.blic.rs/S
Standard Liege’s Jovanovic in Liverpool talks
The 28-year old Serbia international is out of contract this summer and intends to leave the Belgian club on a Bosman transfer.
Jovanovic has been linked with moves to Spanish outfit Valencia as well as Atletico Madrid and Italian giants AC Milan but Liverpool have now moved to attempt to lure him to Anfield.
It is understood Jovanovic will not give an answer this month and could even wait until after the World Cup to switch clubs.
Source:ribalfootball.com/
Brazilian player cleared of wrongdoing
Brazilian Marcos Daniel has been cleared of any wrongdoing after an altercation with a spectator at the Australian Open.
Officials launched an investigation into the incident, which followed his first-round defeat by Colombia's Alejandro Falla on Tuesday, but found no evidence he broke any rules.
"The tournament referees' office has thoroughly looked into an incident regarding Marcos Daniel yesterday afternoon. No further action will be taken," a Tennis Australia statement read.
Organisers have beefed up security this year after the past three championships were marred by violence.
But more than 60 people have been ejected from Melbourne Park in the first three days of the event.
There were 45 ejections on Wednesday, including 35 fans who disrupted the second-round match between Chile's Fernando Gonzalez and Turkey's Marsel Ilhan.
In 2007 around 150 Croatian and Serbian fans engaged in a wild brawl, hitting each other with bottles and flagpoles.
In 2008 police used capsicum spray on a group of rowdy Greek supporters and last year dozens of Serbian and Bosnian fans began throwing chairs and trading punches and kicks.
Source:abc.net.au
Officials launched an investigation into the incident, which followed his first-round defeat by Colombia's Alejandro Falla on Tuesday, but found no evidence he broke any rules.
"The tournament referees' office has thoroughly looked into an incident regarding Marcos Daniel yesterday afternoon. No further action will be taken," a Tennis Australia statement read.
Organisers have beefed up security this year after the past three championships were marred by violence.
But more than 60 people have been ejected from Melbourne Park in the first three days of the event.
There were 45 ejections on Wednesday, including 35 fans who disrupted the second-round match between Chile's Fernando Gonzalez and Turkey's Marsel Ilhan.
In 2007 around 150 Croatian and Serbian fans engaged in a wild brawl, hitting each other with bottles and flagpoles.
In 2008 police used capsicum spray on a group of rowdy Greek supporters and last year dozens of Serbian and Bosnian fans began throwing chairs and trading punches and kicks.
Source:abc.net.au
Top Seeds Advance To Australian Open Second Round
Top seeds Roger Federer and Serena Williams took contrasting paths into the second round of the Australian Open tennis tournament Tuesday.
Three-time champion Federer overcame a spirited challenge from world No. 37 Russia's Igor Andreev in the men's grueling first round with a 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(2), 6-0 win.
The Swiss, who is seeking a record-extending 16th major championship in Melbourne, had to fight off three set points in the third set before winding up the match in two hours and 44 minutes.
Defending women's champion Williams, playing her first Grand Slam match since her outburst at the US Open, routed Polish teenager Urszula Radwanska 6-2, 6-1.
Radwanska, however, gave a tough fight to Williams keeping her on the court for 73 minutes.
With this, the 28-year-old American improved the record of not losing in any of the 41 Grand Slam first-round matches she played so far.
Her sister, sixth-seeded Venus Williams, too did not face much resistance in the first round match against Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic, winning in straight sets: 6-2, 6-2.
None of the other seeded women who took to the court Tuesday faced any upset. No. 8 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, No. 11 Marion Bartoli of France, No. 13 Samantha Stosur of Australia, 19th seed Nadia Petrova of Russia, and No. 20 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia advanced to the next stage.
Three seeded players in the men's section were eliminated in the first round Tuesday.
Eighth-seeded Robin Soderling, who is also last year's French Open runner-up, became the highest men's seed to see an early exit, losing a five-set match. No.16 Tommy Robredo of Spain and 25th-seeded Sam Querrey of the US also crashed out of the major season opener.
In an extraordinarily well-played match on Rod Laver Arena, veteran Lleyton Hewitt of Australia eased past Brazilian Ricardo Hocevar 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 in the first round.
Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, Novak Djokovic of Serbia, Fernando Verdasco of Spain, Gael Monfils of France, and Marin Cilic of Croatia were the other prominent winners in the men's section.
Second round matches start Wednesday.
Source:rttnews.com/
Three-time champion Federer overcame a spirited challenge from world No. 37 Russia's Igor Andreev in the men's grueling first round with a 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(2), 6-0 win.
The Swiss, who is seeking a record-extending 16th major championship in Melbourne, had to fight off three set points in the third set before winding up the match in two hours and 44 minutes.
Defending women's champion Williams, playing her first Grand Slam match since her outburst at the US Open, routed Polish teenager Urszula Radwanska 6-2, 6-1.
Radwanska, however, gave a tough fight to Williams keeping her on the court for 73 minutes.
With this, the 28-year-old American improved the record of not losing in any of the 41 Grand Slam first-round matches she played so far.
Her sister, sixth-seeded Venus Williams, too did not face much resistance in the first round match against Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic, winning in straight sets: 6-2, 6-2.
None of the other seeded women who took to the court Tuesday faced any upset. No. 8 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, No. 11 Marion Bartoli of France, No. 13 Samantha Stosur of Australia, 19th seed Nadia Petrova of Russia, and No. 20 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia advanced to the next stage.
Three seeded players in the men's section were eliminated in the first round Tuesday.
Eighth-seeded Robin Soderling, who is also last year's French Open runner-up, became the highest men's seed to see an early exit, losing a five-set match. No.16 Tommy Robredo of Spain and 25th-seeded Sam Querrey of the US also crashed out of the major season opener.
In an extraordinarily well-played match on Rod Laver Arena, veteran Lleyton Hewitt of Australia eased past Brazilian Ricardo Hocevar 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 in the first round.
Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, Novak Djokovic of Serbia, Fernando Verdasco of Spain, Gael Monfils of France, and Marin Cilic of Croatia were the other prominent winners in the men's section.
Second round matches start Wednesday.
Source:rttnews.com/
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