The Sport Review: “Amlin Challenge Cup: Quins and Wasps set for showdown” plus 2 more

Amlin Challenge Cup: Quins and Wasps set for showdown
Malaysian Grand Prix 2011: Vettel eyes fourth straight win
Andy Murray’s hunt for a permanent coach continues

Amlin Challenge Cup: Quins and Wasps set for showdown

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 11:32 AM PDT

Dominic Waldouck

After almost being thrown out of European competition following the Bloodgate scandal a year-and-a-half ago, Harlequins have a real chance at silverware in the Amlin Challenge Cup this season.

Quins face Aviva Premiership rivals London Wasps in the quarter-final at The Stoop on Friday with both teams looking to secure Heineken Cup rugby next season.

Neither side can rely on qualification through the Premiership play-offs as they currently sit sixth and eighth, but an Amlin Challenge Cup triumph would secure a place in the lucrative Heineken Cup for next season.

It will be the fourth time the two clubs have met this season. Quins have the better record with two wins and a draw, but the 38-13 victory in the Anglo-Welsh Cup in Abu Dhabi will mean nothing ahead of this European showdown.

Quins captain Chris Robshaw faces a race to be fit after suffering a deep cut to his leg in the Premiership clash with Leicester last Saturday.

Meanwhile, two-time Heineken Cup winners Wasps will be without 23-year-old centre Dominic Waldouck after he injured his Achilles tendon in the 25-12 loss to London Irish.

Wasps director of rugby Leon Holden told Press Association Sport: “It’s [Friday against Harlequins] a huge must-win game. We’ll only have one training run on Wednesday so with all the injuries it’ll all be down to good old-fashioned guts.”

Elsewhere, former Heineken Cup winners Brive and Munster clash in the Stade Municipal on Saturday with both sides looking to join the only three teams to have won both competitions – Bath, Northampton and Wasps.

Brive or Munster, who have never played each other before, will be rewarded with a home semi-final tie against either Harlequins or Wasps at the end of April.

Munster’s Irish fly-half Ronan O’Gara, who has scored in his last 80 Heineken Cup fixtures and is the only player to score over 1,000 points in Europe’s elite club competition, will be on hand to help the Irish province’s bid to reach the semis.

“Our discipline will have to be almost perfect because on the other side there is a world class goal kicker who will punish us,” said Brive centre Fabrice Estebanez.

Top 14 sides dominate the other ties, with two all-French quarter-finals. James Haskell’s Stade Francais will host Montpellier in Paris on Friday, before La Rochelle go head-to-head with Clermont Auvergne on Saturday.

Malaysian Grand Prix 2011: Vettel eyes fourth straight win

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 10:57 AM PDT

sebastian vettel

Formula 1 returns to Sepang for the 13th Malaysian Grand Prix with defending champion Sebastian Vettel looking to record his fourth win in a row.

The 23-year-old stormed to victory in Sepang last year as McLaren and Ferrari misjudged a rain-hit qualifying session which left them at the back of the grid for the race.

And the German leads the world championship following a dominant weekend at the Australian Grand Prix two weeks ago.

Sepang should also allow drivers to get the best use out of the new Drag Reduction System introduced for the 2011 season, while KERS should also be a prominent feature to boost overtaking for those teams running it.

Vettel's chances of victory will be increased if Red Bull opt to use KERS after removing it from both cars in Melbourne citing a possible reliability issue.

Despite that, Vettel was still comfortably quicker than McLaren rival Lewis Hamilton in qualifying and the race.

The weather in Malaysia will be key to the weekend with April the hottest month of the year. Stifling heat in excess of 30C coupled with high humidity means downpours are expected once again.

Pirelli will also come under increased scrutiny over its new tyres. Degradation is expected to be much quicker in the hotter temperatures, with three or four pit-stops the norm for most drivers, before additional changes between dry, intermediate and wet tyres if the weather changes.

Sepang is a notable race for many teams this weekend with Mercedes GP backed by the government-owned oil company Petronas, also the title sponsor of the race.

Malaysian entrepreneur Tony Fernandes owns Team Lotus and Malaysia's leading automotive manufacturer Proton funds Renault through its subsidiary Group Lotus.

McLaren will look to build on a solid opening race, where Hamilton finished second to Vettel despite poor performances in winter testing.

But as they chase their first win in Malaysia since 2007, team principal Martin Whitmarsh believes Red Bull could once again be dominant with added pace they did not show at Albert Park.

Ferrari last won in Malaysia in 2008 with Kimi Räikkönen, and the team will be hoping to bounce back from a largely disappointing opening showing and at the very least challenge McLaren and Renault for the second row.

Renault, who showed good pace with Vitaly Petrov in the opening race, will be looking for more of the same from their Russian driver after he secured his maiden podium.

And the team will be hoping Nick Heidfeld can put a disappointing weekend behind him to push the team towards the front-runners.

Mercedes will be particularly keen to impress after an indifferent start to the campaign. And with their technical problems reportedly resolved, in Michael Schumacher they have the most successful driver round Sepang following his three wins with Ferrari in 2000, 2001, and 2004.

Sauber, who finished seventh and eighth in Melbourne before being thrown out of the race for a technical infringement, will look to bounce back and build on their otherwise impressive weekend after their inexperienced pairing of Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Pérez showed they aren't afraid to take it to the big names.

At the back of the grid Hispania will run their 2011 wing for the first time after passing the FIA crash test, hoping it will allow them to qualify both cars for the first time this season and bring them closer to rivals Virgin and Team Lotus.

Tonio Liuzzi could not quite make it in Melbourne, and should set a qualifying time this weekend. However, Narain Karthikeyan has been massively off the pace of his new team-mate, and could be the only driver to miss out despite talking up a good show before the weekend gets under way.

Team Lotus believe they have resolved the technical issues which have plagued them since winter testing, and after showing good race pace in Melbourne they will expect to be closer to midfield teams Toro Rosso and Force India.

Considering their performance in Malaysia 12 months ago, and their impressive start to the season, it is hard to look beyond another Red Bull victory.

But Sepang has an eventful history, and with several rookies on the grid, KERS, DRS, and unpredictable tyres to factor in, it could be one of the most spectacular races we've had in recent years.

Free Practice 1 for the Malaysian Grand Prix begins at 0300BST on Friday, with qualifying at 0900 on Saturday, and the race also at 0900 on Sunday.

Andy Murray’s hunt for a permanent coach continues

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 10:12 AM PDT

andy murray

So just who has offered their services to Andy Murray since his search for a coach began last autumn?

Because according to the interview he gave at London's Queen's Club this week, there have been quite a few offers "from ex-players and coaches on the tour".

Whoever they are, it appears none of them has been willing to put their own life on hold while they follow the tennis bandwagon from tournament to tournament, continent to continent, training base to Grand Slam.

Which is why Murray has revealed that he will rely on the team involved in his sponsor Adidas's player development programme, Darren Cahill and Sven Groeneveld, as an interim, short-term solution while the search continues.

"In Rome and Madrid, they'll be there,” he said. “And if I don't find someone before the French, I'll use them up to the French and see how it goes."

Murray's search for that permanent someone has already seen nine months and two Majors come and go since he parted from his coach of two-and-a-half years, Miles Maclagan, last July.

The separation marked a firm line under a poor six-month stretch that began after Murray's loss to Roger Federer in the Australian Open final.

It was a period in which Murray seemed short of ideas, lacking in confidence and out-of-love with tennis, so his announcement of a fundamental shake-up in his camp was no real surprise.

The time that has since elapsed without a resolution of his coaching set-up, however, has been a surprise, especially in the light of a slump in Murray's tennis following this year's Australian Open that puts even last year's dip into the shade.

Meanwhile, the views of assorted commentators have steadily filled the vacuum, and when the likes of Martina Navratilova have an opinion, everyone listens: "He's got the talent but he's got to get tougher mentally."

Murray initially delayed his search until after the US Open Series but asserted that he would make a decision ahead of the 2011 season.

However, each subsequent statement has given little indication of a long-term solution. Indeed the most recent announcements have, if anything, muddied the waters.

After losing his opening matches at both Rotterdam and Indian Wells this spring, Murray made hitting partner and best friend Dani Vallverdu a permanent fixture in his corner.

"From last summer's hard-court season until the end of the year, Dani came to every single tournament apart from one,” Murray said.

“At the start of this year, he was in Australia and then I didn't see him for five or six weeks and that might have been a mistake on my part as we do a week's training and then I don't see him.

“I think it's important to have a bit more continuity because otherwise the dynamic changes quite a lot."

It looked, therefore, as though one piece of Murray's confidence jigsaw was in place: the moral support and consistency of his friend from junior days.

But hot on the heels of a third opening-match loss—to world No118 Alex Bogomolov at the Miami Masters last week—came the surprise announcement from Murray's management company of his separation from part-time consultant Alex Corretja after a three-year association.

Corretja's input has always been spasmodic. The Spaniard did not travel to the Australian Open, for example. But his expertise is very much on the clay—he was twice a finalist at the French Open—and the clay season is just getting under way.

So the timing of the Corretja break-up, quickly followed by the Adidas team tie-up for the weeks leading up to Paris, suggests that the appointment of a permanent replacement is still some way off.

But does Murray really have too much to worry about? He parted from Maclagan after a good run at Wimbledon where he lost to eventual winner, Rafael Nadal, in the semis.

He then went on to enjoy a good autumn season, as though the freedom—or perhaps the need—to make his own decisions had engaged both his enthusiasm and self-belief.

After reaching the finals of the Los Angeles Open, he won the Canadian Masters in Toronto, beating both Nadal and Federer to do so.

There's a lot of people I'd like to work with in principle, but it's not that easy.
Andy Murray on his search for a new permanent coach

His aggressive, attacking play against an in-form Federer in the final was a reminder of just what great weaponry Murray has at his disposal when used offensively.

His subsequent performances in Cincinnati and the US Open saw relatively early losses, but both were in hard-contested matches against players finding their best tennis: Mardy Fish in Cincinnati and Stan Wawrinka in New York.

Murray then took the next Masters of the season in Shanghai, beating Federer in the final again, and fell to finalist Gael Monfils in the quarters of the last 2010 Masters in Paris.

And though he didn't win the World Tour Finals title, Murray was one half of arguably the best match of the tournament in his three-hour plus semi-final battle with Nadal. It was a rousing and gutsy performance, comprising 22 aces and—possibly overlooked—the majority of the points: 114 to Nadal's 109.

So at the end of 2010, Murray could reasonably have looked back at his six coach-less months with some satisfaction.

He could also, perhaps, have viewed his loss at this year's Australian Open with some pragmatism.

He reached the final of his third Major for the loss of just two sets and was beaten by Novak Djokovic, the man who had already beaten Federer in the semis, who has dominated every tournament since, and who has beaten Federer or Nadal in the final of each one of them (in fact both men at Indian Wells).

Perhaps it is this surge from his friend, Djokovic, that has taken the wind out of Murray's sails.

Not content with playing in an era dominated by two giants of the game who have all but closed the door on every Grand Slam—Federer and Nadal have won 21 of the last 24 titles—Murray is now watching a third man take even those two apart.

Whatever the reason, his confidence was clearly fractured again by his Melbourne loss, as his downcast comments at the Indian Wells press conference show.

"I played badly, I didn't move well and I've got to try and find a way of getting it back,” he said. “It's my job to get myself energetic, motivated and, when you're behind, to find a way to get yourself back into the match.

“I didn't find any energy at all, I just couldn't get it going and there was nothing good from the match."

So who might refresh the Murray confidence and tactics on his mission to outplay the three men who now stand in the way of a first Major?

Ivan Lendl works in Florida and was at the Miami Masters on the day Murray lost his opening match there. Like Murray, he played several Slam finals before taking his first title, and word quickly spread that the eight-time Major winner had put out feelers to the Murray camp.

But with Murray's latest announcement, it seems as though that partnership has been discounted.

Murray also seems to have given up on tempting Cahill, who was one of the men in the frame after Maclagan's departure, into a permanent role.

"He's someone I'd like to work with,” he said. “There's a lot of people I'd like to work with in principle, but it's not that easy. He has a contract with ESPN, and a deal with Adidas and a limited time I can use him for."

Murray elaborated on the difficulty of finding someone "who can be at the Slams, help me at the big events, and in the build-up to them, someone who's been there, understands the pressure.”

As he pointed out, a lot of the obvious candidates have families and don't want to be on the road for the 35 weeks a year that Murray needs.

While the search continues, however, he should take heart from someone who's been in the same place. Federer pointed out that he, too, struggled with up-and-down form until he hit 23, and has spent his own extended periods without a permanent coach.

So when Federer says Murray "is too good a player to continue like this – he'll be OK," there is surely reason to be patient for a while longer.