Edmund Dzumhur Win In Bucharest 2016 Highlights
Edmund Dzumhur Win In Bucharest 2016 Highlights
Apr192016
Serb beats five other stellar athletes for prestigious award
World No.1 Novak Djokovic was named the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year for the second year in a row. The Serb was on hand in Berlin to accept his award, dedicating it to Formula One driver Niki Lauda and footballer Johan Cruyff. Djokovic topped fellow star athletes Stephen Curry, Lewis Hamilton, Usain Bolt, Jordan Spieth and Lionel Messi for the award.
Congratulations to @DjokerNole, your Laureus World Sportsman of the Year! #LWSA16 pic.twitter.com/6ABX5MhKXi
— Laureus (@LaureusSport) April 18, 2016
“He had a great year again,” said Djokovic’s coach Boris Becker, a Laureus Academy member. “He’s played 88 matches, has won 82, He won three out of the four Grand Slams, reached the final of the French Open, he’s won seven other tournaments. Very few players, if any, had a year like that.”
Djokovic also earned Sportsman of the Year honours in 2012, following in the footsteps of Rafael Nadal (2011) and four-time winner Roger Federer (2005-08).
He tweeted ahead of the ceremony:
Excited! So many great athletes will be at the @LaureusSport awards ceremony. Always wearing #SneakersforGood pic.twitter.com/CHUFr1VH8F
— Novak Djokovic (@DjokerNole) April 18, 2016
Gabashvili saves two match points to oust former finalist
Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili came back from the brink to overcome former finalist Nicolas Almagro 1-6, 7-6(3), 6-2 on Monday at the Barcelona Open BancSabadell. Almagro, the 2013 runner-up (l. to Nadal), made a first-round exit for just the second time in 13 appearances at this ATP World Tour 500 clay-court tournament.
World No. 54 Gabashvili saved two match points while serving down 3-5 in the second set and broke Almagro to love in the next game. He clinched the victory after two hours and 11 minutes as he capitalised on his seventh match point opportunity.
There were mixed results for NextGen stars on Monday. Eighteen-year-old Alexander Zverev, the 2015 ATP Star of Tomorrow presented by Emirates, dismissed fellow German Jan-Lennard Struff 6-4, 6-3. Meanwhile, 19-year-old Hyeon Chung fell to Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri 6-3, 6-4.
Another 19 year old, qualifier Karen Khachanov, went the distance to defeat Great Britain’s Aljaz Bedene 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(2) in two hours and four minutes. He recorded his first ATP World Tour main draw win since a quarter-final effort three years ago in Moscow.
Four-time finalist and No. 3 seed David Ferrer will start his Barcelona campaign against Radek Stepanek. The Czech qualifier, the oldest player in the main draw at 37 years of age, defeated Colombian Santiago Giraldo 6-4, 7-5.
A pair of Spaniards also advanced on the first day of main draw action. Wild card Albert Montanes beat countryman Roberto Carballes Baena 6-3, 6-3, while Inigo Cervantes advanced with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Croatian qualifier Franko Skugor.
Tennis players Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams were named the sportsman and woman of the year at the annual Laureus World Sports Awards.
The awards honour the most notable sporting figures and their achievements of the previous year.
Serbia’s Djokovic, 28, reached all four Grand Slam finals last year, winning three of them, while American Williams, 34, also won three.
Brazil’s Paralympic swimmer Daniel Dias was disabled sportsperson of the year.
The 27-year-old, who earned seven gold medals at last year’s IPC Swimming World Championships, has now won the honour three times after landing it in 2009 and 2013.
New Zealand’s Rugby World Cup-winning All Blacks were named team of the year and their captain Dan Carter won the comeback of the year award. Carter was named man-of-the-match in the final, four years after missing the previous World Cup because of injury.
US golfer Jordan Spieth, 22, took the breakthrough of the year accolade after winning both the Masters and US Open in 2015.
German triathlete and 2015 World Ironman Champion Jan Frodeno, 34, was named action sportsperson of the year; Barcelona forward Lionel Messi, 28, was team athlete of the year – just a day after scoring his 500th career goal; and three-time Formula 1 world champion Niki Lauda, now chairman of the sport’s Mercedes team, received a lifetime achievement award at the ceremony in Berlin.
A special spirit of sport award was given posthumously to Johan Cruyff, in recognition of his work helping to deliver sport-related projects for underprivileged children around the world. The Netherlands football legend, who both played for and coached Ajax and Barcelona, died of cancer on 24 March, aged 68.
Laureus World Sports Academy chairman Edwin Moses said: “He represented everything that was good about sport.”
Stars play mini tennis at Tibidabo
Between them, Nadal and Nishikori have accounted for 10 of the past 11 editions of this historic ATP World Tour event.
The 29-year-old Nadal arrived straight from Monte-Carlo, where he captured his ninth Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters crown on Sunday with victory over Gael Monfils. After winning his first ATP World Tour title of the season last week, the Spaniard is now looking to regain the Barcelona title that he won from 2005-09 and 2011-13.
“I am very happy about the tournament in Monte Carlo,” said Nadal, who is due to open his Barcelona campaign against either Marcel Granollers or Daniel Munoz de la Nava. “It’s one of the most important ones of the season. Yesterday was a great day. I played at a very high level during the entire week. But now I have to continue like this in the next tournaments.
“Athletes live for their victories. We have to fight hard to do well and achieve victories.
“The objective in 2016 is to be happy. I have to keep playing, but be happy above all. I am looking forward to the tournament.”
Playing his first clay-court tournament of the season, the 26-year-old Nishikori is looking to three-peat at this ATP World Tour 500 tournament in Barcelona, where he beat Santiago Giraldo in the 2014 final and Pablo Andujar last year.
“I want to win the tournament again,” said Nishikori, who faces either Thiemo de Bakker or wild card Elias Ymer in the second round. “This is my favourite tournament. The toughest 500 event, especially on clay, with all the Spanish players and Rafa in good shape. It will be a tough competition.
“I saw a little bit of the Monte-Carlo final yesterday. It was a great match. I think Rafa is in great shape and he is playing great tennis again. It is going to be a tough match if Rafa and I play the final, but it will be a great week.”