Bringing to you top brewing news in the world of sports. From the drama at the Australian open to the women cricket world cup to the hockey world cup – a lot has happened in the world of sports as the year has just begun and here is the all you need to stay abreast of:
Novak Djokovic winning his 10th Australian open, Men’s single
Novak has surely made the inside of a tennis stadium his own – one where he has an unprecedented era of dominance in men’s singles. One extremely important win for him was the recent Australian open win against Stefanos Tsitsipas. With this win he became the second man in history to win 10 or more grand slams in singles majors after Nadal’s 14 French Open titles.
Returning after a year of absence, Djokovic has been on record to say that this has been one of the most crucial wins for his career. It brings him to winning 22 grand slams overall. Pointing to his family, coaches, and friends, he said ‘It was just one of those movements where you feel a huge burden is off your back after all we have been through.’
Experts applaud Novak’s ability to block out the noise and focus on his game with precision, technique to win the game point and overcoming all physical struggles and injuries. His coach – Goran Ivanisevic mentioned – ‘The guy is unbelievable. I don’t know how to describe it in words. I thought I saw everything, and then you see this. Probably I’m going to see something else.’
In his 15 years of career- Novak has proven his metal by winning every possible grand slam, recovering, and coming back stronger each time a physical injury hits him – owning the court he plays on. If one must look at all records – statistically – Novak Djokovic is surely considered to be the best tennis player of all time.
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Aryna Sabalenka wins Australian Open 2023, Women’s singles
The relentless Belarusian Aryna won her first Grand Slam singles title against Elena Rybakina. This win has aided her to move up by two points in the world rankings.
The current grand slam champion, Sebalenka said – ‘I felt really good playing here and I had goosebumps when everyone was cheering for us. I am looking forward to coming back next year.’
She kept her record of not dropping a set during the entire tournament with an impressive win over the world number one Iga Swiatek and other fellow winners like Jelena Ostapenko, Victoria Azarenka. With several near misses in her kitty, many experts doubted if Aryna had what it takes in her temperament to win a grand slam – are now pleasantly silenced and hoping for her to take over the other grand slams soon.
The young 24-year-old Aryna was seen celebrating her win with pride riding a gondola in the Royal Botanical Gardens with the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Trophy.
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Kubler and Hijikata win mixed doubles at Australian Open 2023
Local wildcards Jason Kubler and Rinky Hijikata gave the Australian audience a great show. Making sure the trophy stays in the home hands, they both stormed into winning the men’s double at the recent Australian Open 2023. They defeated Monaco’s Hugo Nys and Poland’s Jan Zielinksi while playing together for the first time.
Both Kubler and Hijitaka were seen to outplay their opponents. The Aussie duo is now the fifth unseeded team to win an Australian Open men’s doubles title. In his interview, Kubler mentioned that ‘This is the highlight of the career for me honestly, still it has not 100 percent sunk in yet and it just feels, I don’t know, almost surreal a little bit’. Even Hijikata acknowledged that their collective title win exceeded all expectations.
They both thanked the home support received from the Melbourne Park crowds and how that aided in not giving up, also mentioning how playing at home – there is no better feeling.
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Germany winning Hockey World Cup 2023
Beating Belgium in a penalty shoot-out with 5-4 score, Germany won the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup 2023 at the Kalinga Stadium in India.
The goalkeeper of Germany – Jean-Pail Danneberg became the hero of the match with his classic and crucial three saves in the penalty shootout. While his counterpart – Vincent Vanasch – the Belgium goalkeeper could only make two saves.
With this win in 2023 – Germany has now become the 4th team in the world to have won 3 or more hockey world cups titles. With Pakistan being the most successful team followed by Australia and the Netherlands. The finals between Germany and Belgium saw Germany in their fighting spirit through the third quarter leading the match towards a penalty shootout where Germany gained a two-goal advantage that Belgium could not fight with.
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Indian Women cricket team wins U-19 ICC world cup
In the first ever edition, Indian women’s cricket team won the 1st International Cricket Council Under-19 T20 by defeating England with 7 wickets. Held in South Africa earlier in January, Indian women cricket team is now the official first title holder of the women t20 cricket world cup – which is also India’s first world cup win in the women’s sections.
Captained by Shafali Verma – the Indian women’s cricket team made the nation proud with the first win in international world cup for women’s for which the BCCI has announced an INR 5 crore prize money for the under-19 women’s team.
-The 18-year Indian pacer from West Bengal – Titas Sadhu, won the Player of the match award.
-The player of the tournament was awarded to Grace Scrivesn who is the captain of the England team.
-Shweta Sehraway of the Indian team scored the most runs – 297 total.
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