Murray suffers injury scare

Federer to start 2018 at Hopman Cup New concept to provide structure

LONDON, June 27, (AFP): Andy Murray suffered an injury scare ahead of Wimbledon as the world number one pulled out of an exhibition match at the Hurlingham Club due to a sore hip on Tuesday.

Murray had scheduled two matches at the Aspall Tennis Classic event following his shock first round exit against Australian world number 90 Jordan Thompson at Queen’s Club last week.

The 30-year-old Scot had been due to face Lucas Pouille, but his management announced on Tuesday that he would not take to the court because his hip was “a bit sore”.

The decision was described as a precaution, with Murray still planning to play the second match against an asyet-unnamed opponent in west London BERLIN, June 27, (RTRS): When Wimbledon got underway 25 years ago the reigning men’s and women’s champions were German but since then the country, once a tennis powerhouse, has yet to find another champion to succeed Michael Stich and Steffi Graf in London.

While German women have had two more finalists with Sabine Lisicki and Angelique Kerber at the All England club since Graf’s last win there in 1996, the men have had none.

Of the seven editions of Wimbledon between 1985 to 1991 Germans Boris Becker and Michael Stich won four between them.

Apart from his three Wimbledon crowns Becker also won two Australian Open titles and one US Open in his career, with no German able to emulate him or Stich since then.

“With an output of altogether four Wimbledon men’s singles titles between 1985 and 1991, Michael Stich and Boris Becker certainly defined an era in German tennis history,” German Tennis Federation President Sepp Klaus told Reuters.

“Both were exceptional athletes and their names are still closely associated with our sport.”

Klaus was quick to point out players like Rainer Schuettler and Tommy Haas had since reached the last four in London while Philipp Petzschner won the doubles competition in 2010.

Despite Philipp Kohlschreiber and Nicolas Kiefer reaching the last eight, Germany have clearly missed the chance to build on their successful tennis run as other nations did before

Kerber

them.

Sweden churned out a string of top professionals following Bjorn Borg’s successful era, with Stefan Edberg, Mats Wilander and Thomas Johansson winning men’s singles slams.

Becker-mania and the German public’s enthusiasm gradually ebbed as success became rarer in the 2000s with Becker’s biggest headlines late in his career concerning off-court issues.

Sponsors also moved away from the sport in Germany leaving the country without a Tier 1 event after the German Open in 2008 was downgraded from its Masters series status.

Even worse, the Berlin women’s tournament, one of the oldest women’s competitions in the world, was abolished nine years ago despite being a top tier event.

Klaus said the DTB’s new concept for promoting young talent launched in April would deliver the country’s next top players more efficiently.

The idea is to identify talented youngsters earlier and draw them into the federation aged 12-14 while also linking top talent with national team coaches to facilitate the move from youth player to professional.

With hugely impressive 20-year-old Alexander Zverev, the world number 12 who has stormed to three titles already this year, turning the spotlight more on tennis in Germany, the timing could not have been better.

“The new concept of the DTB will provide a structure in which young players will hopefully thrive,” Klaus said.

“It is our aim to find and support these talents at an earlier stage and to help them even more with the transition to professional tennis.”

“I am convinced that our efforts will pay off and strengthen German tennis, and especially German men’s tennis, in the long run.”

However, he arrived in Turkey after a second-round loss to Robin Haase last week on grass in Halle.

The Austrian was appearing in Turkey to help prepare for the third Grand Slam of the year at Wimbledon which starts on Monday.

Ramanathan had only played in one ATP tour event this year before heading to Turkey, and that was at home in Chennai in January.

Meanwhile, Djokovic’s Wimbledon preparations were hampered on Tuesday as rain ruined his Eastbourne second round clash with Vasek Pospisil.

Djokovic took a wildcard entry into the Wimbledon warm-up event on the south-coast in a bid to ensure he is up to speed in time for the grass-court Grand Slam, which gets underway on Monday.

The 30-year-old crashed to a shock French Open quarter-final defeat against Dominic Thiem and has not won one of the four majors since last year at Roland Garros.

Djokovic has not played a competitive tournament between the French Open and Wimbledon since 2010, but the 12-time Grand Slam champion is desperate to find his form after a wretched run in 2017.

But the Serb was left kicking his heels after the weather wrecked play on Tuesday.

When the former world number one took to the court at Devonshire Park he held serve at the start of the first set and was leading 30-15 in the second game, only for rain to start falling.

The showers never relented and play was called off until 0930 GMT on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Britain’s Marcus Willis saw his bid to qualify for Wimbledon held up by rain at Roehampton.

Willis memorably faced Roger Federer on Centre Court in the Wimbledon second round last year after battling through the qualifying stages.