Roger Federer fights off Cilic to win 20th Grand Slam title

Agencies
January 28, 2018

Melbourne, Jan 28: Roger Federer powered home to beat Marin Cilic in five sets to win his sixth Australian Open and 20th Grand Slam title in a riveting final on Sunday.

The Swiss defending champion dropped his only sets of the tournament before completing a 6-2, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 win over the sixth seeded Croatian in 3hr 3min.

Federer, playing in his 30th Grand Slam final, joined Novak Djokovic and Australian great Roy Emerson as joint top for the most Australian Open men's titles.

He added to his already imposing win-loss record in Melbourne and is now 94-13. His overall his Grand Slam mark stands at 332-52.

The roof was closed over Rod Laver Arena as the tournament's heat policy was implemented amid evening temperatures of 38 Celsius (100 Fahrenheit).

Cilic's serve came under immediate pressure with a whipping backhand return winner for break point which the Croatian followed with a smash into the net for a break in the opening game.

The Croat was finding it difficult to settle and changed racquets in his second service game, but it had no obvious benefit as he dropped serve again after three break points to trail 0-3.

He finally held serve to get on to the board and trail 4-1 with Federer hitting the ball cleanly.

The Swiss star served out the first set in just 24 minutes after a double break and a shaky Cilic opening.

Federer fought off two break points in his opening service in the second set with pinpoint serves, while Cilic had a tussle before holding in the third game.

Cilic worked his way back into the match as both players traded furious forehands to stay on serve.

Cilic was break point down in the ninth, but crucially got out of it with a second serve ace down the middle followed by a forehand winner.

The Croat had a big moment in the 10th game when two Federer double faults gave him set point but a tentative backhand into the net and a wild backhand cost him his chance.

In the tiebreaker, Cilic got to two set points when his forehand clipped the line before a winning smash levelled the match after 84 minutes as Federer dropped his first set of the tournament.

But Cilic lost serve on the back of a couple of ground stroke errors and Federer raced 4-2 up in the third set.

The defending champion shifted gears with a stunning forehand off his toes and confidently held serve to lead 5-2.

Federer closed the door, serving out clinically for the third set in 29 minutes.

Cilic was then broken in the opening game of the fourth set with a poor backhand dropshot into the net as Federer closed in for the kill.

But the Croat broke back in the sixth game with three break points when Federer netted and fought off a break point in the next game to put his nose in front.

Cilic was now more in the flow and broke Federer again with his big forehands starting to find their mark. He served it out to take the absorbing final into a fifth set.

Federer was under pressure to keep his opening service but produced quality backhands to hold on amid mounting tension.

The world No.2 crucially broke to 2-0 when Cilic netted a forehand and held the next service game under pressure to lead 3-0.

Federer got the vital double break when Cilic netted a forehand, leaving the Swiss to serve out for the championship.

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News Network
September 19,2024

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Narendra Modi-led government of India has abstained in the UN General Assembly on a resolution that demanded that Israel bring an end, “without delay”, to its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory within 12 months.

The 193-member General Assembly adopted the resolution, with 124 nations voting in favour, 14 against and 43 abstentions, including that by India.

Those abstaining included Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Nepal, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

Israel and the US were among the nations who voted against the resolution titled ‘Advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences arising from Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and from the illegality of Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory’.

The resolution adopted Wednesday demanded that “Israel brings to an end without delay its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which constitutes a wrongful act of a continuing character entailing its international responsibility, and do so no later than 12 months from the adoption of the present resolution.” 

The Palestinian-drafted resolution also strongly deplored the continued and total disregard and breaches by the Government of Israel of its obligations under the Charter of the United Nations, international law and the relevant United Nations resolutions, and stressed that such breaches seriously threaten regional and international peace and security.

It recognised that Israel must be held to account for any violations of international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including any violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and that it “must bear the legal consequences of all its internationally wrongful acts, including by making reparation for the injury, including any damage, caused by such acts.”

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News Network
September 16,2024

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In a heart-breaking incident, 19-year-old Shaun D'Souza, a native of Vittalwadi in Udupi's Kundapur taluk, tragically lost his life in the UAE due to heat stroke.

Shaun, the beloved son of Elias Cyril D'Souza and Pramila D'Souza, originally from Hosabettu, Moodbidri, had been pursuing his college education in the UAE.

He was admitted to a hospital in Ras Al Khaimah, approximately 115 km from Dubai, after collapsing from heatstroke. Despite receiving immediate medical attention, Shaun breathed his last on Sunday, September 15. 

He is deeply mourned by his parents and two siblings. The family, who had been residing near St. Mary's Church in the UAE, are grappling with the profound loss. Shaun’s father, Elias, works as a manager for a private company, while his mother, Pramila, is an accountant.

The local community has come together to offer their support and condolences in this time of sorrow.

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News Network
September 24,2024

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The Israeli regime’s warplanes have conducted extensive airstrikes against towns and villages across Lebanon, killing at least 492 people.

Lebanon’s health ministry announced the death toll on Monday, saying the victims included 35 children and 58 women.

The ministry said at least 1,645 others had also been wounded in the attacks that targeted the areas earlier in the day.

Lebanon’s health minister Firass Abiad said that the health ministry is working to ensure those injured in Israeli strikes are getting the health care they need.

The health minister said he had asked hospitals to stop taking regular, light cases to make space for the wounded from the south.

“We working on directives for the first-aid centres to be turned into places that can receive the wounded. The displaced people who have cancer, kidney failure and other chronic diseases, we have the plan to continue their treatment in different medical centers,” he said.

The country’s media outlets said the aircraft had bombed all the towns and villages lying on the southern border as well as their surroundings.

Israeli warplanes also reportedly targeted eastern Lebanese areas, including the Bekaa Valley and Baalbek.

Lebanese sources said the airstrikes had targeted a total of more than 40 areas in Lebanon during the attacks.

The Sheikh of the Druze community reached out to the Deputy Head of the Supreme Islamic Shia Council and expressed solidarity and reaffirmed support for the people of southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs, and the Bekaa during this critical period for the country.

The Commissioner of Marjayoun-Hassbaya in the Muslim Scouts, Sheikh Hussein Al-Nader, was killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted his home in the town of Dibbine, Marjayoun district, South Lebanon.

Three people were injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting the Deir El-Zahrani highway, in South Lebanon.

A family of four was killed in Hermel, Bekaa, due to the recent Israeli airstrikes.

Israeli media outlets, meanwhile, alleged that the attacks had hit locations lying as far as 125 kilometers (77 miles) inside the Lebanese territory.

Israeli military spokesman Danieh Hagari said the regime "will engage in [more] extensive and precise strikes” against Lebanon, adding that the attacks would "go on for the near future.”

The regime has markedly intensified its attacks against the country since October 7, when it launched a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement has responded with numerous strikes against the occupied Palestinian territories as a means of both retaliating against the regime and displaying support for the war-hit Gazans.

On Sunday, the group staged its farthest-reaching strikes against the territories since October, firing scores of rockets against the Ramat David Airbase, 20 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of the city of Haifa, and the Rafael weapons manufacturing facility in the Zevulun area north of the city.

It described the strike against the facility as its “initial response” to the regime’s detonation of thousands of booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkie radios that killed at least 39 people and wounded 3,000 others across Lebanon over Tuesday and Wednesday.

Also on Sunday, Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem said the movement was in a "new phase" in its battle against the regime.

"Threats will not stop us... We are ready to face all military possibilities,” he noted.

Qassem made the remarks while attending the funeral of Ibrahim Aqil, one of the group’s senior commanders.

Aqil had been martyred alongside 37 others, including three children and seven women, during an Israeli attack on a residential building in a southern suburb of Lebanon’s capital Beirut on Friday.

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