Arab Times

Clermont extend Top 14 lead with thrilling win

Waratahs edge past arch-rivals Reds 15-13

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PARIS, March 27, (AFP): Clermont staged a stunning fightback to beat Bordeaux-Begles 24-19 at the Stade Chaban-Delmas and reclaim their fivepoint lead at the summit of the French Top 14.

Bordeaux had to make do with four Pierre Bernard penalties in the first half, but they finally broke down the discipline­d away team through second row Berend Botha’s try to move 19-0 ahead.

Alivereti Raka hit back quickly though for Clermont, and just three minutes later Patricio Fernandez converted his own score to make it a two-point game.

Wesley Fofana, in his first club match after returning from internatio­nal duty, conjured up a well-taken try to seal a thrilling victory for Clermont.

Franck Azema’s Clermont move five points clear of Toulon at the top of the Top 14 table, while Bordeaux’s second home defeat of the season keeps them in fifth.

The visitors themselves have the best away record in the division, but Bordeaux started well and took the lead through two early Bernard penalties as Raphael Ibanez’s men took advantage of territory gained by the forwards.

Bordeaux had to settle for three points again after Ole Avei had a try ruled out by the television referee, although they were given a boost when Clermont lock Sebastien Vahaamahin­a was sent to the sin bin.

Meanwhile, the New South Wales Waratahs edged past arch-rivals Queensland Reds 15-13 in a dour Super Rugby clash in Brisbane on Sunday.

The Waratahs scored two tries to one but trailed the Queensland­ers until 12 minutes to go when Wallabies fly-half Bernard Foley kicked a penalty to put his side in front.

The win means the Waratahs stay in touch with runaway Australian conference leaders ACT Brumbies, but they had to use all their experience to see off a brave Queensland side that is yet to have a win this season.

The Reds have improved each week since they sacked coach Richard Graham and, on the back of a superior scrum and line-out, they almost pulled off an upset.

The Reds have had a dominant scrum all season and they quickly took control in the opening stages of Sunday’s match.

They won a series of scrum penalties on the NSW line before New Zealand referee Ben O’Keefe eventually lost patience and awarded the home side a penalty try 10 minutes into the match.

The Reds tried to push home the advantage but Waratahs fullback Israel Folau narrowed the gap with a try in the corner following a superb break up the middle from Waratahs No 8 Jed Holloway.

Meanwhile, in Wellington it has been 14 years since the Canterbury Crusaders became the last team to go through a Super season undefeated and their cap- tain Kieran Read ensured it will be another year at least before that record is matched.

Read’s late try in Durban inflicted the first defeat of the year on the Coastal Sharks and means every side has now lost at least once in the first five rounds.

With the thrilling 19-14 victory the Crusaders, with a game in hand, have won three out of four and lie fourth in the New Zealand conference headed by the Waikato Chiefs, who scored nine tries in thumping the Western Force 53-10.

The 2002 Crusaders are the only team to have won every game in a Super season.

The Sharks and Western Stormers, who survived a scoreless second half to beat the Jaguares 13-8 in Buenos Aires, head the two African conference­s.

ACT Brumbies’ 25-18 triumph over the Central Cheetahs kept them at the top of the Australian group.

New All Blacks captain Kieran Read rounded off a 15-phase attack with his try eight minutes from time to steal victory for the Crusaders over the Sharks.

Despite being starved of possession, constantly trapped in their half and struggling at the scrums and line-outs, the Sharks were ahead 14-7 early in the sec-

Foley Serena Williams plays a match against Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan during Day 6 of the Miami Open presented by Itau at

Crandon Park Tennis Center on March 26, in Key Biscayne, Florida. (AFP)

although Nadal’s exit proved most stunning of all.

“Hopefully it’s nothing,” Nadal said. “Hopefully it’s just the extreme conditions out there, the beginning of a virus combined with the conditions.”

Nadal, a four-time Miami finalist but never a champion, was also a first-match loser at the Australian Open, only the second Grand Slam opener defeat of his career. ond spell.

They stayed in front for nearly half an hour until Read scored the match-winning try.

Crusaders coach Todd Blackadder felt the close result was a problem for his side who “dominated the whole game, but we probably pushed too many passes and made a lot of errors.

The Chiefs were in scintillat­ing form in notching a half-century against the Force with Charlie Ngatai leading the way with four tries while Damian McKenzie, the leading points scorer in the competitio­n, scored twice and landed three conversion­s.

They held a slender 12-10 lead at halftime and set the game alight after the break with 41 unanswered points as they mesmerised the Australian­s with a hightempo game peppered with inventive offloads.

Toulon went second in France’s Top 14 on Saturday moving ahead of Racing 92 with a thrilling 21-20 win over the Paris side in front of 40,000 fans in Lille.

The match, opposing two sides packed with internatio­nal talent, came two weeks before they are due to face-off again in the European Champions Cup quarterfin­als.

Both sides scored two tries with Frederic Michalak nailing the winning penalty kick for Toulon with the last action of the match.

But Laporte refused to read too much into the victory, two weeks out from their European clash.

Dzumhur, 23, won 22 of the last 29 points as Nadal, 29, repeatedly spoke with a trainer, asking for his blood pressure to be taken after two games of the third set.

“Can we not check the tension, if it is good or bad please?” he said. Told it was good, he said, “Continue.”

After dropping the third game, he sat with his head down as a trainer told him, “If you’re feeling bad, there’s no point to continue.”

Nadal battled through three more points and finally said he could not go on.

“Definitely I want Rafa to recover,” said Dzumhur. “He’s one of the best players in tennis and I wish all the best for him.”

World number one Serena Williams ousted Kazak Zarina Diyas 7-5, 6-3, in the match after Nadal and was also tested by the conditions.

“It was definitely humid,” Williams said. “Rafa played before me. He was in the most intense part of the sun whereas I was on the tail

Andy Murray of Great Britain plays a match against Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan during Day 6 of the Miami Open presented by Itau at Crandon Park Tennis Center on March 26, in

Key Biscayne, Florida. (AFP)

end of it.”

Swiss fourth seed Wawrinka, who has won titles this year at Chennai and Dubai, was ousted by Russia’s Andrey Kuznetsov 6-4, 6-3 while Czech eighth seed Kvitova, the 2011 and 2014 Wimbledon winner, fell to Russian 30th seed Ekaterina Makarova 6-4, 6-4.

Wawrinka, the 2014 Australian Open and 2015 French Open champion, managed only 16 winners against 37 unforced errors and went 0-for-8 on break point chances.

Kuznetsov, ranked a career-best 51st, avenged a third-round loss to Wawrinka at Indian Wells and made the Swiss his highest-ranked beaten foe.

With Nadal and Wawrinka out, the top-ranked player in their quarter of the draw is Canadian 12th seed Milos Raonic, coming off a runner-up showing at Indian Wells.

Raonic beat American Denis Kudla 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 and next faces US 22nd seed Jack Sock, who advanced 6-2, 3-2 when Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky retired with a back injury.

The losses also mean highestrat­ed obstacles to Murray reaching the final are in his quarter of the bracket, Japanese sixth seed Kei Nishikori and French ninth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Nishikori advanced to the third round by downing 107th-ranked French qualifier Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-2, 7-6 (7/4).

The 2014 US Open runner-up, coming off a fourth consecutiv­e title at Memphis last month, next meets Ukraine’s 27th-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov.

Australian 24th seed Nick Kyrgios routed Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis 6-2, 6-1, to set a thirdround date with 132nd-ranked US qualifier Tim Smyczek, who outlasted US 13th seed John Isner 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (7/5).

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