The Australian Open came to a thrilling conclusion over the weekend with China celebrating a memorable victory in the women’s draw by Li Na. The 2011 French Open champion added a second grand slam title to her resume after downing Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova 7-6, 6-0 on Saturday night – finally breaking her Melbourne curse following a narrow loss to Kim Clijsters in the 2011 Australian Open final and another to Victoria Azarenka last year.
Just as popular was men’s champion Stanislas Wawrinka who continued his giant-killing ways with a four-set win over world number one Rafael Nadal to win his first grand slam title. Wawrinka stunned Nadal with his power hitting to take the opening set and grab an early break in the second before Nadal sought treatment for a back complaint. Seriously affected by the injury, Nadal’s serve speed dropped significantly and his reduced movement seemed to throw Wawrinka off of his game too. Leading two sets to love, the Swiss dropped the third set but recovered to forge a 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 win.
America’s Scott Stallings secured his third win on the PGA Tour with victory in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. Stallings birdied the final hole to shoot a final round 68 and sneak away with a one-shot victory ahead of five players tied in second. It wasn’t such a happy weekend for our man Tiger Woods though, with the pre-tournament favorite failing to make the cut after the third day.
A big weekend of FA Cup action saw all the big guns progress but in a fascinating twist the EPL’s big four have been drawn against one another for the fifth round on 15 February with Manchester City hosting Chelsea and Arsenal hosting Liverpool. The only two Premier League sides eliminated this week were Stoke City, who lost 1-0 to Chelsea, and Crystal Palace who fell 2-0 at the hands of defending champions Wigan.
And England’s cricketers will have to turn to the upcoming Twenty20 games to salvage something from their disastrous tour of Australia after losing the One Day series 4-1. The tourists finally broke their long run of defeats with victory in the fourth ODI on Friday, having already lost the Ashes 5-0 and the first three One Day games, but the Aussies regrouped to win the final game on Sunday and continue their golden summer.
