Borneo Bulletin Digital

24 / 24

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2020
Shapovalov
wins in 5 at
Open against
Fritz
Page 22
Brunei Press Sdn Bhd (Member QAF Group) Locked Bag No. 2, MPC Old Airport Road, Berakas), Bandar Seri Begawan BB 3510, Lot 8 11, Perindustrian Beribi II, Gadong, Negara Brunei Darussalam Tel: 245 1461 / 242 1760
AP - Chelsea took its spending spree
onnewplayers tooverUSD250million
ahead of the new season by sign-
ing highly rated Germany attacking
midielder Kai Havertz from Bayer
Leverkusen yesterday.
The21-year-oldHavertz, who is one
of the great young hopes of German
football, moved for a fee that report-
edly will rise to a maximum of GBP70
million (USD92 million) and will form
part of Chelsea’s new-look attack that
also includes fellow new signings
Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech.
WithEngland left backBenChilwell
and Brazil centre back Thiago Silva
also joining the London club in the
offseason, manager Frank Lampard
is going into the 2020”21 campaign
startingSeptember 12havingchanged
half his team. Havertz is arguably the
most exciting transfer of them all.
A left-footedplayer who is at home
as an attackingmidielder or as a cen-
tral forward, Havertzwas Leverkusen’s
top scorer last season with 17 goals in
all competitions.
In the Bundesliga, he has scored
36 goals in 118 games. He was
the youngest player to reach 100
Bundesliga appearances.
Lampard, a freescoring attacking
midielder like Havertz as a player
most notably for Chelsea and Eng-
land, will hope his remoulded attack
can help the team challenge Liver-
pool and Manchester City for the
Premier League title in his second
season in charge.
“Kai is one of the best players
of his age in world football, so we
are very happy that his future lies
at Chelsea,” club’s Director Marina
Granovskaia said.
“He has proven pedigree in one of
the best leagues in Europe, he plays
for the German national side and he
is an exciting, dynamic talent. We
are delighted to be able to add his
versatility and quality to the squad
before the season begins.”
Lampard leaned on Chelsea’s
homegrown talent, like Tammy Abra-
hamandMasonMount, inhis irst year
asmanager but the teamstumbled in
the secondhalf of the seasonandonly
qualiied for the Champions League
on the inal day of the season.
Havertz made his breakthrough
aged 17. He started the2016”17 season
with Leverkusen’s under-19 team and
was 17 years, four months old when
he made his irst senior appearance
as a substitute. “He’s anexcellent foot-
baller with outstanding technique,
fast, robust in challenges, a good
header of the ball,” then-Leverkusen
coach Roger Schmidt said after Hav-
ertz broke into the team.
Havertzquicklyestablishedhimself
as the team’s brightest prospect and
consistently starred alongside fellow
youngster JulianBrandt, beforeBrandt
joined Borussia Dortmund last year.
Havertz is developing into a
complete player. He has composure
on the ball, technical skill, the per-
ception to anticipate teammates’
movement and ability to then play
the ball where they want it.
In the second half of last season,
the tall Havertz showed his versatility
by playing as striker for Leverkusen
following injuries toKevinVolland and
Lucas Alario.
But it is inmidieldwhere Lampard
is likely to deploy Havertz to give the
team some creativity in central at-
tacking areas, something it lacked
last season. Havertz last played for
Leverkusen in the quarterinals of the
Europa League on August 10, scoring
in a 2”1 loss to Inter Milan.
His irst game for Chelsea could
come in its Premier League opener
at Brighton on September 14.
NEW YORK (AP) — Naomi Osaka
spiked her racket after one errant
forehand late in the second set
at the US Open, then lung it the
length of the baseline after a
missed backhand return ceded
that tiebreaker.
Sometimes, that’s the sort of
reaction it takes to right things for
Osaka. And, perhaps surprisingly,
s he needed wha t eve r pu s h
she could get in Friday’s third-
round match.
Facinganopponent competing in
just her second major tournament,
two-time Grand Slam champion
Osaka eventually igured out a way
to turn a tight one into a runaway
and beat 18-year-old Marta Kostyuk
6”3, 6”7 (4), 6”2 by claiming the inal
ive games at Flushing Meadows.
After taking things out on her
racket, Osaka sat with a white
towel draped over her head during
a changeover.
“It’s what I do in times of extreme
anger and frustration,” she said.
Still, she improved to 7”0 since
tennis resumed after a hiatus of
more than ive months because of
the coronavirus pandemic.
That’s impressive, to be sure,
but still a long way from what top-
ranked Novak Djokovic has done in
2020. He is 26”0 this season — and
his winning streak dating to late last
year is now at 29 matches — after a
6”3, 6”3, 6”1 victory over number 28
seed Jan-Lennard Struff yesterday.
Djokovic’s bid for a fourth
championship in New York and 18th
Grand Slam title overall — Roger
Federer, with 20, and Rafael Nadal,
with 19, are the only men with
more, and neither entered this
tournament — will continue in the
fourth round against 20th-seeded
Pablo Carreno Busta tomorrow.
A n o t h e r p a s t U S O p e n
champion moving into the fourth
round yesterday was 2016 titlist
Angelique Kerber, who defeated
20-year-old American Ann Li 6”3,
6”4. Kerber’s next opponent is
another American, 28th -seeded
Jennifer Brady, a 6”3, 6”3 winner
against Caroline Garcia.
In the previous round, Garcia
upset top-seeded Karolina Pliskova.
Next up for Osaka will be big
hitter Anett Kontaveit, an Estonian
seeded 14th. She had a much easier
time in a 6”3, 6”2 win over number
24 Magda Linette.
In the day’s last women’s match,
two-time Wimbledon champion
Petra Kvitova beat 63rd-ranked
American Jessica Pegula 6”4, 6”3.
She’ll face another American,
93rd -ranked Shelby Rogers, in the
next round.
Men reaching the fourth round
included number ive Alexander
Zverev, number seven David Gofin,
number 12 Denis Shapovalov —who
won a ive-setter over number 19
Taylor Fritz — Jordan Thompson and
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
The day ended with a meltdown
by number four Stefanos Tsitsipas,
who wasted six match points in the
fourth set and fell to Borna Coric
6”7 (2), 6”4, 4”6, 7”5, 7”6 (4). It was
the second straight match that the
27th-seeded Coric went ive sets and
more than four hours for a win.
Down 5”1 in the fourth set, he
broke Tsitsipas three straight times,
ighting off six break points. “It was
just pure luck,” Coric said.
Zverev’s four-set win over
number 32 Adrian Mannarino began
over two-and-a-half hours later
than planned in Louis Armstrong
Stadium after the state of New York
got involved in whether Mannarino
should be allowed to continue to
participate at all.
Mannarino is part of a group of
seven players who were placed
under extra restrictions during
the tournament — including being
tested every day for the coronavirus
— becau s e con t ac t t r ac i ng
determined they potentially could
have been exposed to COVID”19
by Benoit Paire, the only entrant to
test positive.
Mannarino said he found out
about a half-hour before inally
heading to the court to play that he
was cleared.
With shadows creeping across
the Arthur Ashe Stadium court in
the early afternoon, the 137th-ranked
Kostyuk certainly had her chances
to pull off a signiicant surprise.
Osaka tosses racket, overcomes test
from teenager at US Open
The key moment: Kostyuk held
ive break points that could have
given her a 3”1 lead in the inal set.
“A turning point,” Osaka would
say later.
She fended off every one of
those and held to two-all, beginning
her match-closing run.
“I’m kind of scared how she’s
going to be in the future,” said
Osaka, who played with tape
wrapping her left hamstring, which
has been a problem since last week.
“She has no fear.”
Kostyuk had her own issues: She
twice took a medical timeout to
have a trainer tape her right ankle.
But she also was able to control the
outcomes of points for stretches,
winning 19 of the 23 points when
she went to the net. The Ukrainian
teen also delivered more winners
than Osaka, 36”30, over the match’s
two-and-a-half hours.
“I guess I would say the thing
that made me most displeased
was probably the decisions that
I was making and the fact that I
started becoming way too pas-
sive,” Osaka said, “and hoping that
she would, you know, make an
unforced error”.
Chelsea signs Havertz for USD92M to continue spending spree
Leverkusen’s Kai Havertz during
a training session in Duesseldorf,
Germany. PHOTO: AP
Naomi Osaka of Japan during the 2020 US Open at USTA Billie Jean King
National Tennis Center in the Queens borough of New York City.
PHOTO: AFP