World Tennis League: HonorFX Eagles beat Game Changers Falcons for first win of season

Posted on by Vividh Bharathi

Abu Dhabi, Dec 21 (IANS) After suffering defeats in their first two matches, HonorFX Eagles bounced back with a 20-15 victory against Game Changers Falcons in their last match of Season 3 of the World Tennis League being played at the iconic Etihad Arena here on Saturday. This win took HonorFX Eagles to second place in the standings with an overall game tally of 54 points, while the Game Changers Falcons, despite the setback, held on to the top spot with 68 points.

However, all eyes will be on the final league-stage match between TSL Hawks and Kites, as the finalists will be determined later in the evening after this showdown. With all four teams still in contention, the match promises to be a decisive and thrilling encounter. The women’s singles clash between HonorFX Eagles’ Iga Swiatek and Game Changers Falcons’ Elena Rybakina began on an even note. Swiatek broke Rybakina’s third serve to seize the advantage and went on to comfortably close out the set 6-3 for HonorFX Eagles.

In the women’s doubles, Swiatek and Paula Badosa made an immediate impact, breaking the opening serve of their opponents, Elena Rybakina and Caroline Garcia, to take control of the set. The duo cruised to a comfortable 6-2 victory, extending HonorFX Eagles’ lead to 12-5.

The men’s doubles saw a similar dominance from HonorFX Eagles as Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Shevchenko outclassed Game Changers Falcons’ Andrey Rublev and Denis Shapovalov. The HonorFX Eagles duo closed out the set 6-4 with ease, giving their team a massive 18-8 lead.

In the all-important set of the match, Game Changers Falcon’s Rublev came out all guns blazing against HonorFX Eagles’ Tsitsipas. Rublev stormed to a commanding 5-0 lead before Tsitsipas managed to hold serve, making it 5-1. Rublev then sealed the set 6-1, narrowing the overall score to 15-19 and pushing the game into Over Time.

Despite his earlier struggles, Tsitsipas rose to the occasion in the Over Time, holding Rublev to love in a critical game to clinch the match 20-15. The victory marked the HonorFX Eagles’ first win of the season.

Rublev, who has been in fine form and has won all the men’s singles sets he has competed in at WTL so far, reflected on his performance.

“I don’t think I’m leading the team; it just happens that my singles matches have been the last ones, and I’ve managed to win them all, so maybe it looks that way. But the truth is, we’re a team, and we’re all trying to do our best together,” he said. “Today, I think I played a good match. It was Stefanos’ first singles match here, so it’s understandable he didn’t feel his best. I struggled in my first match too, but now I’ve adjusted to the conditions, and I think I played really well today,” Rublev added while talking about his match-up against Tsitsipas.

–IANS

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ISL 2024-25: Jamshedpur FC edge past Punjab FC in a tight contest

Jamshedpur, Dec 13 (IANS) Javier Siverio’s double strike ensured Jamshedpur FC edge past Punjab FC 2-1 in the Indian Super League (ISL) fixture played at the JRD Tata Sports Complex here on Friday. Pulga Vidal scored for Punjab, who slipped to fifth place in the table with 18 points while Jamshedpur climbed to sixth with the same number of points from 10 matches.

Punjab suffered an early jolt as Filip Mrzljak had to be replaced by Asmir Suljic after getting injured. The Red Miners stuck to their game plan of launching long balls into Punjab’s half and troubling the defence with their set pieces. Stephen Eze’s and Javier Siverio’s attempts were blocked by the defence after Jamshedpur kept winning the second ball from long throw-ins by the fullbacks.

The home side eventually took the lead in the dying seconds of the first half through a similar play. Eze flicked a throw in ahead of the onrushing goalkeeper Muheet Shabir which was met by Javi Hernandez who diverted it onto the path of Siverio. The Spaniard calmly finished it past the crowd of defenders to give his team the lead.

The best chances of the first half did come for the Shers earlier. Nihal Sudeesh found Pulga Vidal with a fine low cross at the end of a good run down the left wing but the forward skied his shot above the crossbar. Luka Majcen hit the post just before injury time with a header from a cross by Vidal down the left wing.

Punjab FC levelled the scores in the very first minute of the second half. Asmir Suljic released Luka Majcen inside the box and the Slovenian found Pulga Vidal unmarked at the far post. The Argentinian had no trouble in slotting the ball inside the net for his third goal of the season.

Javi Hernandez forced a save out of Muheet with a volley from the edge of the box which was the closest both teams came to scoring. Punjab played high up the pitch winning the battle in the midfield and keeping possession of the ball but chances were hard to come by. Albino Gomes made back-to-back saves from Leon Augustine and a free kick from Pulga Vidal to keep the scores level.

Jamshedpur struck the decisive goal six minutes from time again through Javier Siverio. Nikhil Barla put in a perfect cross between the two Punjab centre-backs, which was met with conviction by Siverio who headed it past the outstretched hands of Muheet. The Red Miners saw off the rest of the game to clinch all three points as Punjab suffered their third loss of the season away from home.

Punjab FC will travel to Kolkata for their next fixture on December 17 against East Bengal at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan.

–IANS

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3rd Test: Australia declare on 89/7, set 275-run target for India

Brisbane, Dec 18 (IANS) Australia have declared their second innings at 89/7 in 18 overs and set India a target of 275 to win the third Test at the Gabba on Wednesday. With a minimum of 54 overs left in the match, provided rain doesn’t disrupt proceedings, the stage is set for a remarkable finish to the match.

After clinching a lead of 185 runs, Australia had a highly eventful, 18-over second innings. They came out to play their shots, and were dismissed in quick succession. But with a big lead in hand, Australia found a good enough total to declare, thanks to cameos from Travis Head, Alex Carey and Pat Cummins.

Now, with a bit of uneven bounce and lots of seam movement in the pitch, Australia, with three fit frontline bowlers, have called upon India, who have their top-order woes, to chase it down, if they can. For India, Jasprit Bumrah took three wickets to take his match figures to nine, while Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj chipped in with two scalps each.

Bumrah provided the first breakthrough by getting some inward movement on a length delivery, and take the inside edge of Usman Khawaja to rattle the top of off stump. He came back to have Marnus Labuschagne slash away from the body and nick behind to Rishabh Pant.

That dismissal also fetched Bumrah his 52nd Test wicket in Australia, and moved past Kapil Dev to become India’s leading wicket-taker in Tests in this country. Akash was next to strike, as Nathan McSweeney flashed at an outside off stump delivery and edged behind to Pant.

Mitchell Marsh’s promotion to number four didn’t work as Akash found his outside edge and Pant completed another catch. Siraj came in to have Steve Smith strangled down the leg side, as Pant completed a brilliant diving catch. Head and Carey hit quick boundaries before the former went for a big heave but gave a top-edge to across-moving Pant, who took his fifth catch of the innings.

Cummins had an entertaining stay at the crease, hitting a four and six off Akash and giving the same treatment to Siraj, before being foxed by a slower ball from Bumrah and was caught by cover for 22 off just 10 balls. Five balls after he got out, Cummins called back the batters in to declare Australia’s innings and set India up for an interesting chase.

Brief scores: Australia 445 and 89/7 dec (Pat Cummins 22, Alex Carey 20 not out; Jasprit Bumrah 3-18, Akash Deep 2-28) lead India 260 in 78.5 overs (KL Rahul 84, Ravindra Jadeja 77; Pat Cummins 4-81, Mitchell Starc 3-83) by 274 runs

–IANS

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