World champion Casey Stoner will start the Dutch TT from pole position after a thrilling qualifying session in Assen. The Australian Ducati rider set a lap record of 1:35.520 to edge out Honda’s Dani Pedrosa, with Yamaha star Valentino Rossi completing the front row in third place.

Britain’s James Toseland showed impressive pace at times but had to make do with 13th place, meaning he will start from the fith row of the grid. American Nicky Hayden, a winner in the Netherlands two years ago, was fourth fastest for Honda ahead of French LCR Honda rider Randy de Puniet and American Colin Edwards on a Yamaha. Read the rest of this entry »

World number one Ana Ivanovic’s luck finally ran out at Wimbledon when she was toppled 6-1 6-4 in the third round by China’s Zheng Jie. Forty-eight hours after the Serb saved two match points against Nathalie Dechy, the second with the help of a netcord, she suffered an astonishing meltdown on Court One.

The French Open champion struggled to keep the ball in play as she either sprayed errors off the court or scooped shots into the net with alarming regularity. Read the rest of this entry »

Defending champion Roger Federer raced to a comprehensive three-set win over Frenchman Marc Gicquel to continue his breezy progress. Federer completely dominated the match after surprisingly dropping his opening service game of the match, breaking Gicquel six times on the way to a 6-3 6-3 6-1 victory in just 81 minutes.

The world number one needs four more victories next week to set a modern era record of six men’s titles in a row. He captured the first set with a booming ace and the second, after two breaks of serve, with a screaming forehand winner.

With the 53rd-ranked Gicquel completely out of his depth, the Swiss master sailed through the third with two breaks to claim his 62nd grasscourt victory in a row. Read the rest of this entry »

Third seed Maria Sharapova was sensationally beaten 6-2 6-4 by fellow Russian Alla Kudryavtseva in the second round at Wimbledon. The 2004 champion’s game fell apart against one of the lesser lights of the powerful Russian brigade at the grasscourt grand slam and she followed men’s third seed Novak Djokovic out of the tournament early.

Sharapova’s defeat registered higher up the shock scale than Djokovic’s battering by former world number one Marat Safin 24 hours earlier because the 20-year-old Kudryavtseva is ranked 154th in the world and has never made a mark at a grand slam.

Sharapova, also a former number one, served atrociously throughout the match and many of her eight double faults came at crucial moments.

The last one gave Kudryavtseva a match point which she grabbed with both hands, pummelling a forehand into the corner before shrieking with delight at the biggest triumph of her unspectacular career. Read the rest of this entry »

Spain marched into the final of Euro 2008 in style by comfortably beating Russia 3-0 in a rain-soaked Vienna. After Xavi had given Spain a 50th minute lead at the Ernst Happel Stadium, first-half substitute Cesc Fabregas capped a virtuoso display by setting up Dani Guiza and David Silva to ensure a date with Germany on Sunday.

Following an intriguing but cagey first half, Spain opened the scoring five minutes after the break when midfielder Andres Iniesta teased full-back Alexander Anyukov before cutting inside and lifting a ball into the path of Barcelona team mate Xavi and the little playmaker lost his marker to stab a volley past goalkeeper Igor Afinkeev.

With 15 minutes to go and Russia under severe pressure, they put the game beyond doubt when Fabregas deftly lifted a ball over the defence for substitute Guiza to finish from close range. Read the rest of this entry »