French Open 2011: Kim Clijsters crashes of Roland Garros following defeat to Dutch world No 118 Arantxa Rus

The world No 2 was playing her first tournament after two months out with an ankle injury and looked rusty in her first-round win over Anastasiya Yakimova.

She seemed to be playing better in the early stages on Thursday but her level dropped midway through the second set and the decider was a horror show from Clijsters, whose first appearance at Roland Garros since 2006 was expected to see her challenge for the title.

Rus, ranked 114th in the world, must have feared the worst when Clijsters raced through the first three games but he dug in and began to trouble her opponent off the ground.

The second seed always had the edge though despite the windy conditions and a run of five hard-fought games in a row gave her the first set, and a 3-0 lead in the second.

Again Rus battled back, and the errors continued to come frequently from the Clijsters racquet, but it always seemed only a matter of time before the 27-year-old strung enough points together to finish things off.

However, after failing to take advantage of a match point at 5-2, she lost six of the next seven points to give her opponent a sniff of a chance, and Rus then saved another match point before levelling proceedings at 5-5.

The 20-year-old was now playing extremely well and she broke Clijsters - whose dream of a third grand slam title in a row was fast fading - for a second successive time before taking the second set with her fifth game in a row.

The Belgian, who did not appear to be moving particularly well, stopped the rot with a gutsy hold at the start of the third set but then let three break points slip away on the Rus serve.

When the Dutchwoman followed up by breaking again, the prospect of an early exit for Clijsters began to look a distinct probability.

The second seed had an outrageous slice of luck when a ball hit the top of the net and then the net post before dropping back into play but any thoughts that might indicate it was her day after all were swiftly dispelled.

A double fault handed Rus a 4-1 lead and she clinched a famous victory and a place in the third round of a grand slam for the first time on her second match point with a backhand winner.

View the original article here

Manchester City face hard grind to secure Champions League spot following defeat to Everton

For all the money spent by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, a talent for making life unnecessarily complicated remains and the next few days will be far more arduous following this defeat.

Victory at Goodison Park would have enabled Roberto Mancini to rest the legs of his key men against Tottenham tomorrow night, with the FA Cup final against Stoke to come on Saturday.

But after surrendering a lead that revealed a worrying weakness for crosses, which will have been noted by Tony Pulis, who could not even venture to the toilet without being grilled by supporters about Matthew Etherington’s hamstring, the visit of Spurs retains important.

It may be a little removed from the Champions League decider that was the penultimate match of last season but there will be no shortage of tension at Eastlands.

Mancini plans to bring Carlos Tévez, sidelined with a hamstring problem since April 11, on for up to half an hour against Harry Redknapp’s side but even that may be thrown into question if the game is not going City’s way.

The City manager, who was involved in an ugly exchange with Phil Neville after the final whistle, maintains that a six-point lead over Tottenham with a vastly superior goal difference and three games remaining means that fourth place is not a major concern.

“I am not worried but I am disappointed because, if we had won this game, [the race for fourth] was finished and we could have prepared very well for the final but now we are thinking only of Tottenham,” Mancini said. But the nature of City’s collapse under Everton’s second-half onslaught – they conceded both goals from headers – will give Rory Delap and Stoke’s own list of potential NBA recruits plenty of encouragement.

Nigel de Jong, who has been nursing a hip problem, is one who might have been spared tomorrow night but the Dutchman is certain that 35 woeful minutes will not disrupt City’s attempts to end their 35-year trophy drought.

“We have now got to grind through the Tottenham game before the Cup final and that will be hard,” De Jong said. “It is our own mistake and we just have to get our heads clear again. This is a very important week for the club, the players and the fans. This is do-or-die for Manchester City. Fourth place is in reach and everything is in our hands.

“We just have to win that game against Tottenham, we then have a chance to be FA Cup winners after 35 years but we just have to learn from this game.

“We just have to think what we did wrong, take the mistakes out and if we do that, we can be in fourth place and FA Cup winners.”

In the opening period at Goodison, the excellent David Silva and Yaya Toure combined to pull the hosts apart regularly and it was they who worked the opener, with the Spaniard slipping through for the Ivorian to finish with a cross-shot.

But again they simply seemed to stop doing what was so productive and Everton forced their way back, with Sylvain Distin heading in from Mikel Arteta’s free-kick and Leon Osman beating Vincent Kompany to glance in from Neville’s cross.

At the final whistle Aleksander Kolarov accused Seamus Coleman of elbowing him, resulting in Mancini and Neville having to be pulled apart as they roared insults at each other.

Moyes has come out on top in each of his four meetings with Mancini and the closest the Italian has come to any sort of victory was ripping the ball from his counterpart’s grasp at Eastlands last season.

View the original article here

Rhinos inflict heavy cup defeat on Hull

Leeds justified their Carnegie Challenge Cup favouritism with a dazzling display to sweep aside Hull 48-24 in a free-flowing fourth-round game in front of a 15,109 crowd at a sun-kissed KC Stadium.

England winger Ryan Hall ran in half his side's eight tries as the Rhinos condemned Hull to a first-hurdle home defeat for the second successive season, and sent out an ominous warning to their Super League rivals that they mean business in the cup this year.

It is 11 years since Leeds triumphed in the last final at the old Wembley but, on this form, they look a good bet to end their drought come August.

Not even the surprise sin-binning of scrum-half Rob Burrow, who had the audacity to square up to man mountain Epalahame Lauaki, could detract from an impressive victory, which goes some way to making up for their defeat by Hull in the 2005 final and help erase the memory of last year's opening-round defeat by St Helens.

The champions, strangely out of touch in the first two months of the season, were boosted by the surprise return of England skipper Jamie Peacock from a four-match lay-off with a foot injury but, just as importantly, they looked more like their old selves with the sun on their backs on a lush turf, a sharp contrast to the mud-caked surface they have had to contend with at Headingley.

Hull, beaten 46-30 at Headingley six days earlier, were strengthened by the return of Richard Horne, Craig Fitzgibbon and Danny Tickle and they looked lively in the opening stages, twice taking the lead before Leeds began to hit their straps.

Carl Ablett, Brent Webb (two) and Ian Kirke also touched down for Leeds, while Tom Briscoe, Jordan Tansey, Richard Whiting (two) and Jordan Turner were the tryscorers for Hull.

View the Original article