Sports World Review

Nadal hunting for his fourth straight title

Fresh from winning the Barcelona Open, the world number two player and top Spaniard Rafael Nadal has now set his sights on winning the Roma Masters Open that started on Monday and if he wins here, it will be his fourth successive title this season. Nadal is the top seeded player in the Roma Masters tournament and it is a tournament that he has not lost so far as he has won in the three previous visits here. This is the fourth Masters tournament of the season and is the second one to be played on clay, a favorite surface of Nadal.

Is it goodbye for Reds’ Ken Griffey?

The Cincinnati Reds are at a crosscroads: To trade or not to trade Ken Griffey Jr., outfielder for the Reds? They can either keep the 38 year old player where he is after his contract ends, and pay him $16.5 million to maintain his position in the regular lineup, or they can buy out the option for a mere $4 million. But rumors are rife about them trading him out after a bout of bad performances on the field. The Reds’ GM Walt Jocketty has refused to comment regarding this matter but he also did not refute the statement. The Reds suffered a 3-0 loss at the hands of the Cubs and are currently in last place in the NL Central.

Russia enter the finals of the Fed Cup

The United States suffered defeat at the hands of the Russian Fed Cup team in the semi final of the Fed Cup last Sunday at Moscow. The defending champion team Russia came up against a rather weak United States team as most of the top performers like Serena, Venus and Lindsay Davenport did not play for the United States. This is the fourth time in five years that the Russian team has qualified for the Fed Cup and they will be pitting it out against the Spanish team in one the sports important tournament for women in the world.

The U.S Captain Zina Garrison said that she was she was really disappointed that she did not have the top players to play against the Russian team and was happy that the younger players really played up to their skins. Zina said that it was clear that the young players like Ahsha Rolle and Vania King are all future stars. The players received good reviews and encouragement from many people during the course of the matches. 

Raikkonen Is Tops at F1 Again!

Once again Kimi Raikkonen has showed them who’s boss by driving Ferrari head on to the number one spot in the Formula One, for the third consecutive time! He made it all happen at the Spanish Grand Prix last Sunday and this resulted in the Italian’s team dominance in the championship race. This was the Finn’s 17^th victory and in this race, he managed to win with a 3.228 seconds margin ahead of Felipe Massa, his Brazilian team mate who’s also in Ferrari. This was a reversal of roles after Massa came in first at the Bahrain GP last month.

Raikkonen dominated the race from beginning to end and his Ferrari bosses were pleased that this victory gave him nine points head start ahead of Lewis Hamilton from McLaren. The McLaren team was more concerned about their second driver, Heikki Kovalainen, who suffered from a bad crash during the race. He was found not in critical condition at the hospital.

David Beckham leads LA Galaxy to a tie

The Los Angeles Galaxy managed to score a 2-2 tie against their arch rivals Houston Dynamo in a Major League Soccer game on Saturday night thanks to the excellent on field rapport of Donovan and David Beckham. Both the LA players showed amazing skills on the soccer field and it was the famous Beckham passes that helped Donovan score the goals. The famous personality of the sports world, Beckham, had displayed awesome ball control and said that he was happy to assist a goal scorer to score goals.

Donovan should also be credited for his shooting skills as he had to control the near perfect passes of Beckham into goals. It was Donovan’s sliding shot at the Dynamo’s goal in the 84^th minute that evened the game for the Galaxy team and the two players received good reviews for their game on Saturday. Donovan has so far scored five goals this season for the LA Galaxy team.

Giddy Up For Singapore International Racing Festival

Racing might not be a major sporting event in this part of the world but come May 2008, it will be, especially in Singapore where the Singapore International Racing Festival will be held for eight days, from May 10 to 18 at the Singapore Racecourse.

The Singapore Turf Club are the main organizers, and they have enlisted the help from big name sponsors such as Singapore Airlines. They will collectively hold a total of two races, namely the Singapore Airlines International Cup as well as the KrisFlyer International Sprint, as a grand finale to the special festival. The festival is family-friendly, and kids will surely love the “Horses in Motion” exhibition, which shows off ten live-sized horses ornately painted to reflect various cultural themes. Tickets are priced at an affordable S$3 for non-air conditioned seats and S$7 for air conditioned places. Once you touch down in Singapore, you can head to the Singapore Turf Club for tickets or access the racecourse by taking an MRT to the Kranji station.

Rio Ferdinand decides to stay with Manchester United

The England soccer star and one of the hot players in the English Premier League, Rio Ferdinand, has extended his contract with Manchester United for another five years and could probably end his soccer career with his favorite Premier League team. Ferdinand is left with one year of his present contract and his extension has come as pleasant news to all the die hard Manchester United fans all over the world.  

Ferdinand, who is 29 years old, has captained both his national side as well as his club this season and is said to have signed the new contract more quickly than last time. Rio Ferdinand who has received good reviews from former players for his defensive tactics is one of the leading sports personalities in the U.K and reports say that the United lawyers and Ferdinand’s agents were involved in the completion of the contract. Ferdinand is the main stay of the United as well as England’s defense.

Less Blacks in MLB

The Major League Baseball is known for its racial diversity in hiring players, but last year, the percentage suffered a huge drop to 8.2 per cent.

The MLB enjoyed an A- grade for racial diversity from Richard Lapchick, director of the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports, a great improvement over last years B+ grade. But in terms of players who are not of white ethnicity, only 8.2 per cent were blacks, a decrease from 8.4 per cent in the year 2006. The amount of black pitchers stood stagnant at 3 per cent. MLB also further received a less than satisfactory C+ grade for gender hiring, up from C last year. The overall grade remained at B grade.

In related news, the Los Angeles Angels promoted Tony Reagins to GM, where he joins Kenny Williams of the Chicago White Sox and Omar Minaya of the New York Mets as the only minorities.

MLB Players and Owners Reach New Heights with Drug Agreement

MLB players and owners have vowed to be more strict in enforcing drug rules and regulations for the betterment of the Baseball industry.

They responded to outside criticisms claiming that drug rules were not stringent enough. In addition, all players suspended in December’s Mitchell Report for using performance enhancing drugs were offered amnesty as part of the plan to review and reinforce better drug testing rules.

Commissioner Bud Selig wants badly for the game to move on and he agreed that it is high time that stricter drug rules were implemented.

The amnesty resulted in the eradication of Jose Guillen and Jay Gibbons’ 15-day suspensions following drug abuse charges. There will never be another Mitchell Report and both sides came to the conclusion that players who were involved in drug charges will have their name kept secret until proven guilty. A player should also be given allegations and proper evidence against him before disciplinary actions as well as investigations are reinforced.

David Garrard signs $60 million contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Quarterback David Garrard signed a $60 million contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars. This is the richest contract in the franchise history. Garrard reported that he is happy with that he has finally been able to wrap up the contract. The player and his agent were on the lookout for something on the lines of last season’s $67.5 million contract signed by Tony Romo. He could have asked for more but tired as he was of negotiating, he decided to close the deal at $60 million. 

 David Garrard finished 64 % of the passes for 2509 yards as well as 18 touchdowns in spite of having missed three games thanks to an ankle injury. A review of his performance would show that he concluded with the third highest passer rating at 102.2. Garrard is expected to be even better in the upcoming season. The team has also included players, Troy Williamson and Jerry Porter. Wayne Weaver said that David leading the team would give them the much needed stability to compete at the highest levels and win world sports championships.