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Tuesday June 13, 2017

HIS claycourt prowess as unas-sailable as ever, Rafael Nadal won his record 10th French Open title by dominating 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 in the fi nal Sunday.

No other man or woman has won 10 championships at the same major in the Open era, which began in 1968.

The 31-year-old Nadal was overwhelmingly good from start to fi nish against Wawrinka — and over the past two weeks en route to La Decima, Spanish for “10th.” Not only did Nadal win every set he played in the tourna-ment, he dropped a total of only 35 games, the second fewest by any man on the way to any title at a Grand Slam tournament in the Open era with all matches being best-of-5 sets.

“It’s really incredible. To win La Decima is very, very special,” said Nadal. “I am very emotional. The feeling I have is impossible to describe.”

Along with improving to 10-0 in fi nals at Roland Garros, Nadal increased his career haul to 15 Grand Slam trophies, break-ing a tie with Pete Sampras for second place in the history of men’s tennis, behind only rival Roger Federer’s 18.

Nadal is now just one short of Margaret Court’s all-time record of 11 titles at a single Grand Slam event. It marked a stirring return to the top for Nadal in his favorite event and on his favorite surface: Over his career, he is now 79-2 at the French Open and 102-2 in all best-of-5-set matches on clay.

A year ago in Paris, Nadal surprisingly withdrew before the third round because of a wrist

Nadal wins 10th title at French Open

injury, making the announce-ment at a news conference while wearing a blue brace on his left arm and a look of resignation of his face.

Finally back to full strength in the offseason, Nadal returned to work, reconstructing his fore-hand and redoubling his efforts to get back to his best.

Well, he sure proved to be precisely that Sunday, when the conditions were exactly to the liking of a guy who grew up on the island of Mallorca. The sun was shining, there was barely a trace of cloud in the bright blue sky and the temperature

was about 30 degrees Celsius.Wawrinka is no slouch; he

owns three major titles, includ-ing one from Roland Garros, and had never lost a Grand Slam fi nal. But a fi ve-set semifi nal win Friday over No. 1-ranked Andy Murray must have taken some-thing out of the 32-year-old Swiss, the oldest French Open fi nalist since 1973. His shots didn’t have their usual verve, his legs their usual spring.

Instead of pointing to his right temple, as he often does after key points won, Wawrinka kept rub-bing his forehead or running his fi ngers through his hair after

key points lost. When he netted a forehand to close a 14-stroke back-and-forth in the second set, he pounded his strings on his head several times.

Nadal has that way of wearing down opponents. On this day, he was nearly perfect. He won all 12 service games, saving the lone break point he faced, and made a mere 12 unforced errors.

When it ended, Nadal dropped to his back on the clay, then rose and briefl y pulled his blue shirt over his face. He was again the champion, again unbeatable at the French Open.

(SD-Agencies)

FORMER England, Real Madrid and Russia manager Fabio Capello was named Sunday to lead China’s Jiangsu Suning, one of the biggest coaching signings yet in a spending binge by the Chinese domestic league.

Jiangsu Suning said the disciplinarian Italian would “bring some of the world’s most advanced ideas and methods to drive the elevation of Jiangsu soccer, and Chinese soccer overall.”

Capello is the latest high-pro-fi le import to China following rocketing player deals, which reportedly put Ezequiel Lavezzi and Carlos Tevez among the world’s best-paid soccer players and saw Chinese clubs smash the Asian transfer record fi ve times within 12 months.

Suning has been particularly free-spending, splashing out on high-priced imports like Brazil-ians Ramires and Alex Teixeira.

But a disappointing season was compounded by elimina-tion from the AFC Champions League two weeks ago, and they are now fl irting with relegation from China’s top tier.

Jiangsu announced the depar-ture of South Korean coach Choi Yong-soo shortly after their Champions League exit.

Capello, now 70, brings a glit-tering resume.

He won fi ve Serie A titles — four with AC Milan and one with Roma — plus two La Liga crowns with Real Madrid. He also won the Champions League during his time with Milan.

Capello was appointed Eng-land manager in December 2007. His hard-line disciplinar-ian approach reaped impressive results during a honeymoon period, when a revitalized Eng-land qualifi ed for the 2010 World Cup with ease.

But Capello’s fi rst taste of management at a major inter-national tournament ended in humiliation as England crashed out with a 4-1 defeat against Germany in the last 16.

He survived the storm of criti-cism following that failure and guided England to qualifi cation for Euro 2012.

But the Italian resigned before the tournament after disagreeing with the Football Association over the decision to take the captaincy from John Terry, who was facing racism allegations.

(SD-Agencies)

Fabio Capello

Capello named head coach of Jiangsu Suning

ENGLAND won the Under-20 World Cup by beating Venezu-ela 1-0 in the fi nal Sunday for its fi rst global soccer title since 1966.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored in the fi rst half, and goalkeeper Freddie Woodman preserved the lead by saving a second-half penalty from Adalberto Penara-nda as Venezuela missed out on a fi rst FIFA trophy.

It ended decades of English underachievement on the inter-national stage since winning the senior World Cup 51 years ago on home soil.

“We have proved we are the best team in the world at this age group,” Calvert-Lewin said. “We have proved we are as good as any country and hopefully there will be opportunities for the lads next season.”

Although England hosts the world’s richest soccer compe-tition — the Premier League — playing time for young homegrown players like Cal-vert-Lewin can be limited as the their places in teams are taken by imported players.

(SD-Agencies)

England wins U-20 WCupSPAIN needed two fl ashes of

brilliance to beat Macedonia 2-1 and stay top of its World Cup qualifying group Sunday.

David Silva opened the scoring for Spain for the fourth straight match before Diego Costa hit what proved to be the winner before the half-hour mark.

But credit for both goals must be shared with playmakers Andres Iniesta and Francisco “Isco” Alarcon.

Iniesta cued Silva’s 15th-minute strike when he timed his chipped pass to meet Jordi Alba’s run into Macedonia’s box. Alba quickly centered the ball to Silva, who added his touch of class by turning past his marker and wrong-footing the goalkeeper as he rolled the ball home.

Isco topped that by deftly shifting the ball from his right to left boot to avoid a tackle and leave his defender behind, before crossing for Diego Costa to tap in his team-high fi fth goal in qualifying.

Macedonia had not tested David de Gea until Stefan Ris-tovski launched a rare counter-attack that he ended by smashing the ball inside the near corner in the 66th.

Silva, Costa keep Spain in lead of qualifying group

While Spain momentarily wavered, it controlled the fi nal minutes of the match to secure the points.

“We are happy with the three points,” Spain defender Sergio Ramos said. “We knew it wouldn’t be easy, they were pressing us the entire second half. Now we can rest.”

Spain improved its unbeaten record in World Cup qualifi ers to 59 consecutive matches, a run that stretches back to 1993.

Spain remained in the lead of Group G, level on 16 points with Italy, its next opponent in Madrid in September.

Macedonia was left with three points, immediately above bottom side Liechtenstein, which has no points.

Meanwhile, Lorenzo Insigne and Andrea Belotti both scored and set up goals for teammates to help Italy ease past Liechtenstein 5-0 in Udine.

(SD-Agencies)

Spain’s Diego Kosta (L) vies with Macedonia’s Vance Sikov during their match at the Philip II Arena in Skopje, Macedonia, on Sunday. SD-Agencies

Spain’s Rafael Nadal celebrates after winning the French Open fi nal against Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka in Paris on Sunday. SD-Agencies