FACTFINDER’S CROSSWORD
Dear Reader,
As a result of the coronavirus pandemic we are suspending competition entries for all our prize crosswords. Puzzles will continue to appear as normal but no entries will be accepted or prizes given.
We hope to return to normal as soon as possible.
The solution to this week’s Factfinder crossword will appear next Saturday as usual.
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Joy Yates, Editorial Director
Across
1 A mint-flavoured liqueur (5,2,6)
10 Old Testament figure, the third son of King
David (7)
11 A fatal virus disease of sheep (7)
12 A day's work(4)
13 French river, rising near the Italian border
and flowing 178 miles into the Rhone (5)
14 Small red spots on the face (US coll) (4)
17 One of the main characters in Hugo's
Hunchback of Notre Dame (9)
19 A wild chrysanthemum (2-3)
20 River rising in Tibet and flowing 2,000 miles
into the Arabian Sea (5)
22 Aardvarks, pangolins, etc (coll) (9)
24 The Roman god of war (4)
25 An old Japanese gold coin (5)
27 A small melon with pale green flesh (4)
30 V S __ (1932 - 2018), writer knighted in 1990 who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001 (7)
31 River in south-west France, rising in the Pyrenees, and flowing 329 miles into the Bay of Biscay (7)
32 Relating to a US state (45,333 sq miles; pop about 13 million), nicknamed the Keystone State (13)
Down
2 A platform carrying a camera in TV
productions (7)
3 Country in west Africa (478,341 sq miles; pop about 20 million, independent since 1960 (4)
4 Alexandre __ (1802 - 70), French author who
wrote The Three Musketeers (5)
5 A heretic, infidel, etc (9)
6 An aromatic ointment used in antiquity (4)
7 A heavily-armed Greek foot-soldier (7)
8 A short-legged breed of Border terrier (6,7)
9 On of the burgher poets and musicians in
Germany (14-16th centuries (13)
15 Tactless or insensitive (5)
16 A greenish- or bluish-green colour (5)
18 American folk and blues singer (4,5)
21 Members of a family of squirrel-like rodents
(7)
23 The clove genus of the myrtle family (7)
26 Desert or semi-desert region of southern Israel (4,700 sq miles; pop about 630,0000 (5)
28 A large open farm wagon (hist) (4)
29 A measure of capacity for herring (4)
Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares’ bid to repeat their 2016 triumph at the Australian Open came unstuck at the semi-final stage as they lost to Joe Salisbury and Rajeev Ram.
Murray and Soares reunited at the start of the season but it was defending champions Salisbury and Ram who came out on top of a tight contest, winning 6-4, 7-6 (2).
It is rare for British players to find themselves on opposing sides of the net at the latter stages of grand slams and Englishman Salisbury and his American partner secured the bragging rights over their Scottish-brazilian opponents.
“Obviously we really wanted to win,” said Salisbury. “It was the semi-final of a grand slam, so you’re going to want to win just as much whoever you’re playing against.”
Salisbury and Ram will play ninth seeds Ivan Dodig of Croatia and Filip Polasek of Slovakia in tomorrow’s final, bidding to make it 12 straight wins at Melbourne Park.
Salisbury said: “It was a tough one. Very tight match throughout. We got off to a bad start, were broken, 3-0 down. I think we were a bit frustrated about that, and I think it was good that we got back on serve straight away.
“Then, we played really well the rest of that set. I’m sure they were pretty frustrated that they let that lead go. But then we felt good. Then the second set was really tight. I think we both weren’t serving
as well as we can. I felt like they were a little bit on top in the second set.
“But we knew if we got it to a tie-break we’d have a great chance. We managed to get through that in two sets.”
Daniil Medvedev will take on Novak Djokovic for the men’s Australian Open title tomorrow after beating Stefanos Tsitsipas to reach a second grand slam final.
The Russian is on a 20-match winning streak taking in the
Paris Masters, ATP Finals and ATP Cup and swept to a 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 victory in two hours and nine minutes.
Tsitsipas pulled off the result of the tournament by coming from two sets down to defeat Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, however the efforts of that and the metronomic excellence of his opponent combined to make this a one-sided match barring a late rally from the Greek fifth seed.
Fourth seed Medvedev pushed Nadal hard in his previous slam final at the US Open in 2019, coming from two sets down before losing in five, and he must now do what no tennis player has so far managed by defeating Djokovic in an Australian Open final.
Speaking on court, Medvedev said: "It's him (Djokovic) who has all the pressure.
"I just hope that I'm going to get out there, show my best tennis. He has for sure more
experience but more things to lose."
Naomi Osaka and Jennifer Brady contest today’s women’s singles final (8.30am GMT) at Rod Laver Arena.
Three-time slam champion Osaka is on a 20-match unbeaten streak and the Japanese has never lost a final at the majors. It will be a first grand slam final for American Brady and a rematch of the 2020 US Open semi-final, which Osaka won in three sets.