The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Americans draw first blood
HOPMAN CUP
COCO VANDEWEGHE gave the United States an early lead and Jack Sock clinched the Americans’ opening match on Sunday at the Hopman Cup mixed teams tournament in Perth. Vandeweghe beat Lucie Hradecka of Czech Republic 6-4, 6-2 before Sock defeated Adam Pavlasek 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 to clinch the match.
The Americans also won the mixed doubles 2-4, 4-2, 4-1, which this year features the Fast4 format, including a tiebreaker at 3-3 in each set and no advantage on points.
Hradecka replaced two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova after the latter was injured 10 days ago in a knife attack by an intruder in her home in the town of Prostejov. Kvitova is expected to be off the tour for up to six months.
“I played a decently clean match, it’s always going to be a little bit interesting your first time out on the court,” Vandeweghe said. “A little pre-match jitters but I thought I did a good job.”
The United States has won the Hopman Cup a record six times in the tournament’s 28-year history.
Roger Federer, making his return after a six-month left knee injury layoff, and Belinda Bencic begin play for Switzerland against Britain, represented by Heather Wilson and Dan Evans, on Monday night.
Rogers thumps Bouchard
American Shelby Rogers defeated 2012 Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard of Canada 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 on a steamy opening day of play at the Brisbane International on Sunday. Temperatures reached in excess of 30 Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) for most of the afternoon. After a heat-enforced 10minute break leading into the deciding set, Rogers dominated Bouchard to give American women a second victory on Sunday in the first round.
Christina Mchale also advanced with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Italy’s Sara Errani.
Defending champion and No. 1-ranked Angelique Kerber, who won the Australian Open and US Open last year, and French Open winner Garbine Muguruza, highlight the women’s draw in Brisbane.
Defending champion Milos Raonic and Rafael Nadal are featured in the men’s draw. LIVERPOOL FINISHED 2016 second in the Premier League with a 1-0 victory over thirdplaced Manchester City on Saturday that confirmed them as the best-placed challengers to Chelsea for the title.
Georgio Wijnaldum’s early goal kept Liverpool within six points of the London side who showed tenacity to see off a resilient Stoke City side 4-2 at Stamford Bridge.
Wijnaldum headed in powerfully from Adam Lallana’s cross after eight minutes and Liverpool deserved their half time lead in the first meeting in England between old Bundesliga adversaries Juergen Klopp and Pep Guardiola. City improved in the second half but could not find a way through in a match of few scoring opportunities.
“We were not cool enough in possession the whole night but they couldn’t create real chances because we defended really well,” Klopp said. Chelsea were given a stiff examination by Stoke, who twice came back to equalise. After defender Gary Cahill headed in a corner, Dutch international Bruno Martins Indi brought them level. Willian then scored twice in eight minutes in the second half, on either side of Peter Crouch tapping in for his first Stoke goal since May 2015.
Chelsea could not feel secure until Diego Costa, back after suspension, scored his 14th goal of the season. That made it 13 successive victories for Antonio Conte’s side, equalling the record by any side for a single season in the top division of English football.
“A great achievement,” he said. “But numbers are not important if you do not win the title.” Sixth-placed Manchester United fell behind at home to Middlesbrough before late goals from Anthony Martial and Paul Pogba brought about a 2-1 win.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, with 11 goals in his previous 10 games, was annoyed to have a 12th ruled out in the first half for a high foot and Grant Leadbitter scored for Boro midway through the second half.
Martial, who had earlier hit the post for United, brought them level with five minutes left and a minute later, Pogba earned his team their fifth successive league win.
Happy Mourinho
United manager Jose Mourinho was delighted with his team, who had 32 attempts on goal, and the home crowd.
“The players brought the fans with them,” he said. “The last 15 minutes were 70,000 on the pitch against 11.” West Bromwich Albion moved above Southampton into eighth place by coming from behind to beat them 2-1 at St Mary’s. The home side led just before half time when Ireland striker Shane Long scored against his old club but Albion equalised within two minutes through Matt Phillips.
Only four minutes into the second half, Hal Robson-kanu marked his first start of the season by thrashing in the winning goal.
Southampton’s coveted defender Virgil van Dijk received a red card near the end.
Leicester City, who had made the worst start of any champions for more than half a century, won an entertaining game 1-0 at home to West Ham United.
With England striker Jamie Vardy suspended, Algerian Islam Slimani headed the only goal to end the London side’s run of three successive victories.
Swansea City, who sacked manager Bob Bradley this week, slumped to a 3-0 home defeat by Bournemouth to leave them bottom of the table at the halfway stage of the season.
Benik Afobe, Ryan Fraser and Josh King were the scorers as Bournemouth moved back into the top half of the table.
Sunderland stayed in the relegation places with a heavy 4-1 defeat at Burnley, whose impressive home form continues to make up for having taken only one point all season on their travels.
Andre Gray scored a hat-trick in 22 minutes and Ashley Barnes added a penalty before Jermain Defoe’s late reply.