Sportspad

The first grand slam of the year is yet to come and that could be the only hope left for Federers’ fans to clinch a title this year considering that the man has twelve already in his kitty. Has the go kaput for Roger like all those legends begun is the question which has started haunting his admirers. Federer hasn’t managed to reach a final this year clearly reflecting a slump in form but he also has injuries to blame as he isn’t at his fittest best.

This time around it was Andy Roddick, someone who hasn’t managed to defeat the Swiss legend in the making in five years, pummelling him 7-6 4-6 6-3 at the quarter final of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. Even Roddick could sense an under par performer as he mentioned:

He hasn’t missed a ball against me for about six years, I figured the law of statistics had to work for me eventually.

The Deutche Telekom company is realizing the nightmarish marketing scheme and the drug problems involved in granting sponsorships to the cycling teams. Even though the company started with lofty goal of eliminating the drug problem in the sport of cycling, it’s backing off from this ordeal.

The company now faces the ultimate question, whether they want to be associated with the sport of cycling as well as the doping associated with the same. The T-Mobile Executive Vice President Stephan Althoff recently recently expressed his views regarding this issue:

The question for Deutsche Telekom as a company is, Do we want to be associated with cycling and the doping in cycling?

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.....the countdown has begun for 2060 when scientists in France say no more sports record will be created or broken. If experts at France’s biomedical and epidemiological institute of sport, Irmes, are to be believed, then the world would have reach its physiological capacity just over 50 years from now.

According to Irmes, athletes have been consistently using their increasingly exploring their capabilities over time. Way back in 1896, when the world’s first modern Olympics were held, athletes were using 75% of their physical capacity but after more than a century, they are employing 99% of it.

Around 50 players or more who are currently playing and those who have retired in the Major League Baseball (MLB) will be part of the list involved in the illegal use of steroids or wonder drugs that boost performance of the players.

This was according to the recent report published by the New York Times. The investigation on this issue was led by George Mitchell, who is planning to submit his findings for more than a year to a news conference.

Steroids are the so-called enhancing drugs that heighten the adrenalin rush of the players while in play. These are not permitted to be in use since they are unnatural enhancers causing a feeling of highness or euphoria in players.

MLB officials met Mitchell in his law firm DLA Piper where the former were given report copies prior to the making of the investigation be public.

Based on reports, pieces of evidence gathered by Mtchell were in the form of phone records, checks, and shipment transaction of the prohibited drugs.

Mitchell’s report is a crucial finding since there were attempts to deny allegations that baseball players were not using steroids and all other investigations in the past where treated as mere ‘hearsays’ and no basis.

Reluctance among players to talk was a big factor to identify the issues’ whereabouts. But Mitchell was able to get accounts of the managers, former players, coaches and attendants about what they know on the issues as evidence of steroid use. There were already names surfacing but their identities and their involvement have yet to be confirmed.
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The unbeatable five Olympic medals of sprinter Marion Jones during the Sydney 2000 Games were snatched from her by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after admitting she was a drug cheat.

In Carl Froch, Britain have a really huge and promising hope to stamp its authority on the sport of boxing. While football and cricket make up the bulk of the sporting culture in Britain, boxing is often relegated to the sidelines to be practiced by a chosen few. But that could change to a considerable degree should Froch beat Russia’s Denis Inkin and gain the right to battle it out for the prestigious WBC title.

Although the fight is yet to be given a date and a venue, the anticipation and hype are already multiplying. Froch is 30 years of age and is unbeaten in 22 fights and the WBC has made the statement that should he beat the 29-year old Inkin, who is himself unbeaten in 31 professional encounters, then the boxer from Notthingham would qualify to fight 35-year old Joe Calzaghe for the WBC title.

The World Anti-Doping Agency, popularly known as Wada, was conceived in 1999 in an attempt to filter out the cheat from the sports arena. 8 years fast forward and the organization has been massively successful in chucking out the frauds from sports. Yet much remains to be accomplished still in this context and that is the precise reason why Wada is taking novel steps.

Wada now wants to fight drugs use laboratory testing as well as with police forces constantly patrolling the smuggling of drugs to the sportspersons. What it aims to do is get the required government help to stop the easy access of illegal and banned substances to sports athletes. Taking this step would be immensely useful as it would not only bar the potential cheaters from taking drugs but also help clean sports from the outside.

Serbian Novak Djokovic had to call all his gifted talent and determination to see-off crowd favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga for his first ever Grand Slam title at a packed Rod Laver Arena on Sunday. The 2008 final was itself somewhat unexpected with hot favourite and top seeded Roger Federer being stopped in his tracks by a resurgent Djokovic and Muhammad Ali look alike Tsonga taking care of the likes of Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Richard Gasquet and Mikhail Youzhny on his way to the fairytale journey. By winning at Melbourne Park, Novak Djokovic becomes the first ever Serb to win a tennis Grand Slam, although Monica Seles won three Australian Open titles while competing under the erstwhile Yugoslav flag from 1991-93.

As expected, world number three Djokovic received a barrage of immensely powerful Tsonga forehands, backhand and volleys throughout the match, especially in the first set before giving back his own in the next three to win the title 4-6,6-4,6-3,7-6(7-2). The win breaks the sequence of 11 straight majors won by either Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal since Marat Safin’s victory at the same tournament in 2005. Yesterday’s final was highly entertaining for the Melbourne crowd with Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga enjoying the bulk of the support and one banner inside the arena showed the image of the great American boxer Muhammad Ali with a tennis racket in hand.

It was the year’s first tournament for the World Number 11 Serena Williams and she couldn’t have asked for a better fairing than her title win at the WTA Bangalore Open. It wasn’t just her maiden tournament appearance in the country; it was indeed her very first visit.

Serena was seeded 3rd in the tournament, whilst her opponent, Patty Schnyder of Switzerland was seeded 4th. The seeding meant there wasn’t much to choose between the two, yet the experience and the sheer physical strength of the former was enough for her to clinch the title.

Here is another story of an Olympian athlete’s fall from grace. American athlete Marion Jones had been sentenced by an US District Judge to six months of imprisonment for lying about steroid use and involvement in a fraud case. Jones, the 2000 Sydney Olympics winner of 100m, 200m and 4×400m relay gold medals, 4×100m relay, and long jump bronze medals had earlier surrendered her medals on being found guilty of steroid use.

Since then, her names had been expunged from the record books. Her problems multiplied last October, when she admitted that she has lied to a federal investigator in November 2003 that she had never used performance-enhancing drugs. The second charge against the athlete was of conniving with her former boyfriend sprinter Tim Montgomery in lying before a federal investigator in a cheque fraud case. Jones’ six months prison term will begin from 11 March.