Top Investment Bank is said to be bidding on Oracle Octopus Paul

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US takes swing at Chavez golf remarks

By Barbara Miller for The World Today

Posted 8 hours 5 minutes ago

'Out of bounds': Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez dismissed golf as a bourgeois sport. (Reuters: Jorge Silva)

• Audio: Chavez takes aim at golf (The World Today)
• Related Story: Chavez supporters storm TV station

Venezuela's outspoken president, Hugo Chavez, has said that capitalism leads society straight to hell. Now apparently so does golf.

Mr Chavez has launched a stinging attack on the game which he says is bourgeois and for the lazy.

Golf, said Mr Chavez on national television, is a bourgeois sport and his government is reported to be moving to close down some of Venezuela's best-known courses.

It is probably not entirely a coincidence that some of the courses in question are on prime land.

Mr Chavez has asked why the courses should be kept open so a small group of bourgeois and petit-bourgeois can play golf.

Golf-lovers around the world, however, are outraged.

"As the Department of State's self-appointed ambassador at large for golf, I wish to protest the unwarranted attack by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on the game of golf," said Philip J Crowley, the US State Department spokesman.

"The suggestion by Mr Chavez that golf, a truly global sport, is bourgeois is a mulligan.

"And once again Mr Chavez, one of the hemisphere's most divisive figures, finds himself out of bounds."

In his television broadcast, Mr Chavez also mocked the use by some golfers of carts to get them around the course.

This, he said, represented the laziness of players.

Jake Adams, a trainee professional at Manly Golf Club in Sydney, says he disagrees.

"If you're 70-years-old and you're playing three times a week, I think it's a great goal to be able to go out and play 18 holes at that age," he said.

"At Manly, it's quite flat so we have a lot of older guys that do walk. But in saying that if you can go out and socialise and if it means you're in a cart, I wouldn't say you're lazy.

"You're out and about. You're enjoying yourself, whether you're walking or in a cart. I don't think it makes a big difference.

"I use them to practice. I can double my time in practice and do it twice as fast in about two hours.

"I train three days a week on the beach in soft sand so I wouldn't say I'm lazy."

Tags: world-politics, golf, olympics-organising-committee, australia, nsw, manly-2095, united-states,venezuela

Federer Beats Roddick at Wimbledon for Record 15th Major Title

Federer Beats Roddick at Wimbledon for Record 15th Major Title

By Danielle Rossingh

July 5 (Bloomberg) -- Roger Federer became the first man to win 15 major tennis titles, beating Andy Roddick in the Wimbledon final that lasted more than four hours and finished on the winner’s only service break.

Federer defeated Roddick 5-7, 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 16-14 on Centre Court at the All England Club to pass Pete Sampras in the Grand Slam record books. Federer will replace the injured Rafael Nadal of Spain at the top of the rankings on the ATP World Tour tomorrow.

Sampras watched the match from the stands, seated beside other former champions including Bjorn Borg. Federer acknowledged Sampras when the American arrived during a first- set changeover.

Federer threw his racket in the air as Roddick’s forehand flew out on the first match point. He had squandered six previous break points.

The 30-game final set marked the longest in tournament history. The previous record was 24 games in 1954.

The record-breaking win, following a difficult season in 2008 during which he lost his top ranking and Wimbledon crown to Nadal, leaves him as one of the world’s greatest athletes. The Swiss won his first French Open last month after losing three straight finals to Nadal, a Spaniard who was ousted in the fourth round in Paris this year and skipped Wimbledon because of knee injuries.

“His achievement is more difficult than what Tiger Woods has pulled off,” seven-time Grand Slam champion John McEnroe said, comparing Federer with the world’s top-ranked golfer. “He’s running, he’s playing on different surfaces. Doesn’t Tiger just have to play on grass?”

The 27-year-old’s accomplishments brought praise from sportsmen across the world.

Worldwide Acclaim

“What he’s doing over there and what he’s done throughout his entire career has been pretty phenomenal, just his consistency in the slams, the biggest events, he’s always there,” said Woods, who regularly exchanges text messages with his Swiss friend.

Federer cemented his place in the history one month after he won his sole Roland Garros championship to tie Sampras’s 14 major victories. The American, a seven-time Wimbledon champion, hailed the Swiss as “the greatest ever” after that match, which made Federer only the sixth man to win each Grand Slam tournament -- Wimbledon and the Australian, French and U.S. opens.

“It’s an unbelievable effort to have 15 Grand Slam titles,” Rod Laver, who won all four majors in one year in 1962 and 1969, told reporters at the All England Club before the final. “And, of course, Pete Sampras has got 14, which was an unbelievable effort right there.”

‘Best of Era’

Breaking the record makes Federer “the best of his era,” said Laver, who doesn’t like to compare different times because of equipment changes and different playing styles. “It’s amazing what sort of shots he can come with from impossible positions.”

Federer’s victory in Paris lifted the weight of expectation off his shoulders, nine-time Wimbledon champion Martina Navratilova said.

“The monkey is off his back,” she told a press conference in London. “From now on, everything is a bonus. It’s going to be fun to see him play the way he wants to play.”

“He’s an all-time great,” Bud Collins, a broadcaster and tennis historian for more than 40 years, said in an interview at Wimbledon the day before the men’s final. Like Laver, Collins won’t compare players from different eras.

At Roland Garros, Federer took advantage of Nadal’s early exit against Robin Soderling of Sweden. The Spaniard had stopped Federer in Paris in the previous four years, while he also took his Wimbledon crown last year in a five-set final that took 4 hours, 48 minutes and was called by McEnroe the greatest he’d ever seen.

Tears Fall

In August, Nadal ended Federer’s record 237-week run at the top of the rankings and again beat the Swiss in a five-set final at the Australian Open at the beginning of this season. That defeat left Federer in tears during the award ceremony.

Federer still needs to get the upper hand over his nemesis, Nadal, to be considered the greatest of all time, Collins said. The Spaniard has won 13 of their 20 matches.

Federer’s run to 15 major titles started six years ago at Wimbledon.

“There are milestone wins that you’ll never forget,” Federer told reporters at Wimbledon the day before the final. “One of them was obviously my first Wimbledon victory here in 2003.”

Another milestone was becoming No. 1 in the world in 2004 after winning the Australian Open.

“It was a wonderful feeling, like feeling on top of the world,” he said.

Slam Streaks

Federer played in a record 20th Grand Slam final, breaking the record he shared with Ivan Lendl. He’s also made 21 consecutive major semifinals. That record probably never will be broken, other players say.

“The consistency in the big tournaments is ridiculous,” said Andy Murray of Britain, who lost in the semifinals to Roddick. “No one will ever match that.”

Federer’s victory robbed Roddick of a chance to end America’s longest Grand Slam drought in the men’s game since tennis admitted professionals in 1968. Wimbledon is the 23rd major since Roddick triumphed at the 2003 U.S. Open and no American man has won one since. Andre Agassi had been the only other American male to reach a major final since then, losing to Federer at the 2005 U.S. Open.

Betting Favorite

Federer was the 1-8 favorite to win his sixth Wimbledon title at British bookmakers Ladbrokes, with Roddick at 9-2. Federer’s odds mean a winning 8 pound bet returns 1 pound and the original wager.

His historic run isn’t over just yet.

The Swiss, who is expecting his first child with his wife, Mirka Vavrinec, this summer, wants to compete in the 2012 London Olympics.

“Mirka’s dream was always that our child can see me play as well,” Federer said. “I have to play a few more years just because of Mirka. The 2012 Olympics here at Wimbledon is something I’m going to be a part of.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Danielle Rossingh at the All England Club through the London sports desk at drossingh@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 5, 2009 13:38 EDT

The Swiss does it again!!!

September 10, 2007

Federer Collects His 12th Grand Slam Title

By LIZ ROBBINS

Sweat dripped from Roger Federer’s black headband in the United States Open men’s final, as the endearing newcomer Novak Djokovic held seven set points over him like a mirror to his vulnerability.

Djokovic had been the comedian of the United States Open, a 20-year-old Serb who had won over the crowd with his postmatch impressions of fellow players as well as his gutsy baseline game.

Federer did not care for his act. And in the accelerated end, Djokovic, playing in his first Grand Slam final, was not yet ready for the inimitable Federer.

As the world’s No. 1 playing in his 14th Grand Slam final, Federer showed why he is the reigning impresario of tennis. He pounced on Djokovic’s mistakes yesterday, dissecting him for a 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-4 triumph to collect his 12th Grand Slam title.

“He had his chances today, many of them,” Federer said. “You could sing a song about it. It’s a tough one for him to swallow, because especially him losing in the end straight sets, it’s tough.”

Those were the closing words of his news conference, perhaps fueling a compelling rivalry between the fashionable traditionalist, Federer, and the YouTube star, Djokovic.

Not that Federer, 26, was willing to admit it. He is chasing one man, Pete Sampras, the retired career leader with 14 Grand Slam titles.

With four consecutive Wimbledon titles and four consecutive United States Open championships, Federer has climbed closer. He is the first man in the open era to win four straight United States Open titles, the first since Bill Tilden won six straight national titles from 1920 to 1925.

Federer might have struggled briefly in the middle of the tournament — losing the first set to the 6-foot-9 John Isner in the third round and to Feliciano López in the fourth — but he crisply eliminated Andy Roddick, Nikolay Davydenko and Djokovic in straight sets.

The young players motivate Federer, he said. “Seeing them challenge me, beating them in the final, it’s really for me the best feeling,” he said.

Djokovic, the No. 3 player in the world, made some notable friends and fans. Sitting in his box were the 2006 women’s champion, Maria Sharapova (“It’s just a friendship we have,” he said), and Robert De Niro, whose restaurant he ate in during the tournament.

Djokovic upset Federer in Montreal last month in a third-set tie breaker, and he came into yesterday’s final filled with confidence. He blamed himself as much as he complimented Federer.

“I think I was mentally weaker today on the important parts than he is mentally stronger,” Djokovic said.

He left war-torn Belgrade at 12 ½ years old, when his parents, owners of a pizza restaurant, sent him to train at Niki Pilic’s academy in Munich. Eight years later, the sacrifice paid off.

His mother, Dijana, wearing the Djokovic team uniform, was happy with her son’s performance here against Federer.

“Next year he will win for sure,” she said. “I know that he’s better.”

In the first set, Djokovic and Federer were feeling each other out from the baseline. Djokovic broke Federer’s serve, then served at 6-5 for the first set, at 40-love.

Federer erased all three set points. Djokovic earned and lost two more. On the third deuce, Djokovic hit a backhand that fluttered wide. Federer had his first break point; Djokovic double-faulted to send the set to a tie breaker.

When Djokovic netted a backhand to even the tie breaker at 3-3, he slammed his racket to the court. Djokovic double-faulted again, on set point for Federer.

In the 12th game of the second set, Djokovic had two more set points. Federer came back with an ace to erase the first. On the second, Djokovic’s forehand was called long and he challenged. The replay showed the ball had barely missed the baseline.

“It could have gone any way,” Djokovic said. “In these important moments, I was doing something wrong, and then I missed that shot and I was unlucky.”

Then he joked about his lost chances.

“My next book is going to be called ‘Seven Set Points,’ ” Djokovic said, deadpan. “No, I’m joking. I can say I’m sorry. I wish I can dress up and play those 40-love points again.

“I have to look in a positive way. This has been one of the most amazing experiences. This is one of the biggest cities in the world. The crowd — it was a great atmosphere. I am really glad with my success on and off the court.”

Federer, who scored an extraordinary five-set Wimbledon victory against No. 2 Rafael Nadal, said that championship would be his favorite.

“But New York has definitely grown on me the last few years,” he said.

He could not say the same for Djokovic. Federer said he still considered Nadal his true rival, even as Djokovic joined the conversation.

Federer was dismissive of Djokovic’s impressions of other players — Nadal, Roddick, Andre Agassi and even Federer.

“In the locker room he’s always very respectful toward me,” Federer said of Djokovic. “He’s pretty quiet. I didn’t see the stuff he did on court the other day. I didn’t see what apparently he did in the locker room either.

“I know some guys weren’t happy. I know some guys might think it’s funny. He’s walking a tightrope, for sure. If fans like it, it’s good for tennis, to be honest. It’s good to have a character like him out there, there’s no doubt.”

Federer left no doubt. For now.

Kiwis come from behind to beat Alinghi and even America's Cup

June 24, 2007 - 9:43 am

By: PAUL LOGOTHETIS

VALENCIA, Spain (AP) - Emirates Team New Zealand came from behind to snatch a 28-second win over defending champion Alinghi on Sunday, levelling their best-of-nine America's Cup series at 1-1.

Alinghi lost the starboard advantage after the NZL-92 yacht crossed in front of it to start. But Emirates Team New Zealand's early lead was short-lived as Alinghi pushed out in front after tacking to port halfway up the first leg.

The SUI-100 yacht gained a lead of more than two boat-lengths before making the first cross of the NZL-92 yacht for a 19-second lead around the first marker.

Alinghi's lead was cut to 13 seconds around the second mark before the Kiwis gained on the left side of the course up the third leg. Emirates Team New Zealand pushed ahead of Alinghi and around the final marker with the advantage before covering the Swiss yacht down the final lap as Alinghi lost for the first time in America's Cup racing.

"Any time we lose, it's a big loss," Alinghi skipper Brad Butterworth said. "On the first beat we looked pretty powerful ... and on the second beat they just sort of rolled into us really."

Alinghi's crew includes midbowman Curtis Blewett of Kelowna, B.C.,

The third-flight of the best-of-nine series is scheduled for Tuesday with Monday an off-day.

Challenger Emirates Team New Zealand had favourable light conditions as it looked to even the score after Alinghi won the opening flight by 35 seconds.

The start mirrored the first race, with the Kiwis getting off the line quicker as both boats moved out on a starboard course.

The Swiss pushed out to the left before tacking to cover, getting a lead of two boat-lengths before crossing, which has usually been decisive at this America's Cup's challenger series.

Alinghi maintained the lead after gybing to the right on the first downwind lap as it battled through wash coming off the watching spectator fleet.

Alinghi's gybes were stiff and the Kiwis ate into the lead before the boat's split on the third leg.

Emirates Team New Zealand pulled ahead and rounded the final mark with a 15-second advantage after Butterworth decided to cross to the right.

The boats split downwind before Alinghi gybed back to the middle as helmsman Ed Baird engaged Kiwi counterpart Dean Barker. But Barker covered every gybe as the Kiwis beat Alinghi to snap a six-race losing streak against the Swiss team.

In 2003, the team from landlocked Switzerland shocked sailing powerhouse New Zealand by defeating the Kiwis 5-0 at home to take the cup to Europe for this first time in more than 150 years. Sunday's win means the America's Cup will not be a sweep for the first time since 1992.

"I've lost a lot of races since then ... it's only every four years, I'll get over it," said Butterworth who lost for the first time in 17 America's Cup races.

Emirates Team New Zealand is only the second team in 20 flights since the start of the current Louis Vuitton Cup challengers' series to win after trailing around the first marker. The other was BMW Oracle Racing.

The America's Cup was named for its first winner, the New York schooner America, with the Auld Mug considered the oldest trophy in international sport.

http://www.news1130.com/news/sports/article.jsp?content=s062422A