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Tuesday June 27, 2017

GERMANY reached the Confed-erations Cup semifi nals Sunday with a 3-1 victory over Camer-oon, which was reduced to 10 men after further confusion with experimental video replays.

Germany was leading through Kerem Demirbay’s 48th-minute strike when a case of mistaken identity halfway through the second half that replays were meant to eradicate left the Afri-can champions bemused and irritated.

Sebastien Siani was dismissed for a foul challenge on Emre Can after referee Wilmar Roldan inspected a pitch-side monitor.

It took furious protests from the Cameroon players, includ-ing Siani sarcastically applaud-ing Roldan, for the Colombian to check the monitor again and discover he had sent off the wrong player. Siani was called back on and Ernest Mabouka was correctly sent off.

“The referee did not give any explanation,” Cameroon coach Hugo Broos said through a trans-lator. “It’s a foul, fair enough but both players had their legs high up to reach the ball. I don’t understand why only my player received a red card.”

Germany extended its lead two minutes after the red card courtesy of a diving header from Timo Werner. There were fl ickers of a comeback by Camer-oon when Vincent Aboubakar’s fl icked header slipped through Marc-Andre Ter Stegen’s raised hands. But Werner netted again in the 81st minute to secure a 100th victory for Joachim Loew in his 150th match in charge of Germany.

INDIA’S Kidambi Srikanth claimed a fi rst victory over Olympic and two-time world champion Chen Long to win the Australian Open Superseries fi nal in Sydney on Sunday.

The 11th-ranked Srikanth outgunned the sixth-ranked Chinese star 22-20, 21-16 in 46 minutes for his second succes-sive Superseries title after win-ning the Indonesia Open earlier this month.

It was Srikanth’s fi rst win in six encounters against the Rio Olympic champion, with Chen defeating the Indian at the Sudirman Cup on Australia’s Gold Coast last month.

“I was not thinking of winning or losing. I missed competitive badminton during my break last year and wanted to enjoy the match,” Srikanth said.

“These conditions are such that you can’t really attack, it’s a bit slow, you have to be prepared for a long match.

“In all the breaks today I had the advantage, (coach) Mulyo told me to keep it going, not to make simple mistakes and allow him back into the match.”

Indians have now won four of the six Superseries this year.

Srikanth is in career-best form after returning from injury in April.

He made it to the Singapore Open fi nal and won the Indone-sia Open ahead of the Australian event.

Chen is on the comeback trail from a long-lasting injury and has not won a Superseries title since the 2014 Denmark Open.

Chen, who had played two long matches before the fi nal, said he was still recovering from gastroenteritis.

“As a whole I played very well, but since I arrived in Sydney I have had gastroenteritis and diarrhoea, so I haven’t been at my best physical condition,” he said.

“But since I made the fi nal, I wanted to continue to play as well as I could.”

Olympic bronze medalist Nozomi Okuhara earlier downed Akane Yamaguchi 21-12, 21-23, 21-17 in an all-Japanese women’s fi nal. (SD-Agencies)

ROGER FEDERER defeated Germany’s Alexander Zverev 6-1, 6-3 to win the Gerry Weber Open for the ninth time Sunday and claimed his 92nd career title.

Playing in his 140th career fi nal, Federer saved the only break point he faced and con-verted four of his eight opportu-nities to clinch his 92nd career title in 53 minutes.

“I played unbelievably well. I felt good and never let up,” said Federer, who dropped just nine points on his serve. “It was my best game this week. Nearly everything worked out for me.”

Federer, who skipped the clay-court season after winning the Miami Open in early April, claimed his fourth title of the year, matching Rafael Nadal’s tally, and he will be seeded ahead of his Spanish rival for Wimble-don, which starts in eight days.

Federer had already won the Australian Open before titles in Indian Wells and Miami in 2017.

The 18-time Grand Slam champion was surprised by German veteran Tommy Haas on his return from the two-month break last week in Stuttgart but brushed off any

RED BULL’S Daniel Ricciardo won a chaotic Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku on Sunday, with Formula One championship leader Sebas-tian Vettel fi n-ishing fourth after being penalized for swerving into rival Lewis Hamilton who came home in fi fth.

Ferrari’s Vettel, who seemed infuriated with Hamilton after the British driver slowed on the exit of Turn 15 under safety car conditions after a red-fl ag stop-page, collided with the triple For-mula One -champion’s Mercedes and was hit with a 10-second stop-go penalty, which saw him drop from second to ninth.

Hamilton was denied the opportunity to prevent Vettel from extending his champion-ship advantage when he was forced to cede his lead after pit-ting due to a loose head rest.

Ricciardo’s victory was his fi rst since he won the Malaysian Grand Prix last year. (SD-Agencies)

Cameroon’s Collins Fai in action against Germany’s Kerem Demirbay (R) during their match in Sochi, Russia, on Sunday.SD-Agencies

Ricciardo wins Azerbaijan GP

Daniel Ricciardo

Federer claims 92nd career title

doubts over his form in Halle.Against the 20-year-old

Zverev, who lost last year’s fi nal to Florian Mayer, Federer raced to a 4-0 lead before wrapping up the fi rst set in 22 minutes. Zverev created his only break chance in the opening game of the second, but ultimately was unable to show why he is regarded as one of the sport’s brightest prospects.

“You could have been a bit nicer and allowed me a couple more points,” Zverev joked to his idol.

Federer had words of affection for Zverev, who won their semi-fi nal in Halle last year.

“He’s a very nice lad. I’m very happy for him, how he’s devel-oped in the last years. The future belongs to him,” Federer said.

(SD-Agencies)

Roger Federer reacts during his match against Alexander Zverev at the Gerry Weber Open fi nal Sunday. SD-Agencies

Germany reaches Confed Cup semis

By securing the top spot in Group B of the World Cup warm-up tournament, the inexperienced Germany squad playing without many of its 2014 World Cup winners will now stay in the Black Sea resort of Sochi and play Mexico on Thursday.

The other semifi nal Wednes-day sees Portugal play Chile, which fi nished second in Group B after drawing 1-1 with Austra-lia in Sunday’s other game.

The Germans will have to display greater urgency against Mexico than they did in the fi rst half against Cameroon. Loew’s

side was wasteful, with wing back Joshua Kimmich sending a diving header wide, and largely restricted to attacking down the fl anks.

Ter Stegen prevented Cam-eroon going in front, with the goalkeeper’s one-handed save blocking Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa’s hooked shot across goal at the end of a nervy fi rst-half for the Germans.

“Some of my players have no experience and were nervous because one mistake could have eliminated us,” Loew said through a translator.

Taking the lead in slick fash-

ion. Julian Draxler fed Demirbay with a back-heel through Siani’s legs and the midfi elder marked his fi rst international start by slicing a shot into the top corner with his weaker right foot.

Cameroon goalkeeper Fabrice Ondoa prevented Germany from extending its lead by blocking Kimmich’s shot from a tight angle. Then came the red-card confusion, swiftly followed by Germany’s second goal. Werner evaded Adolphe Teikeu to meet a cross from Kimmich and open his international account with his stooping header.

(SD-Agencies)

India’s Kidambi Srikanth celebrates after beating Olympic and two-time world champion Chen Long to win the Australian Open Superseries fi nal in Sydney on Sunday. SD-Agencies

Srikanth stuns Chen to win Aussie title