Latics Survives In Epl After Victory Over Blackburn

Wigan Athletic Manager Roberto Martinez  has labelled his side's successful battle against relegation from the Barclays Premier League as an 'incredible achievement'.The Latics won 1-0 at Blackburn Rovers on Monday night, a victory which ensured their top-flight status for another season – condemning Rovers to the drop in the process.Martinez steered his side to safety after inspiring them to an astonishing run of late-season form.Wigan were bottom of the table after being held to a 1-1 draw by West Bromwich Albion on March 17th – and their prospects were bleak as they faced arguably the toughest run-in of the League’s struggling sides.But from that point, Martinez masterminded a run of six wins in eight matches – with the Latics claiming some notable scalps along the way.Their brilliant results including a first-ever win at Anfield, a memorable home success against Manchester United, a superb away victory over an Arsenal side which had won nine of its previous 10 Barclays Premier League matches and a 4-0 thumping of Champions League-chasing Newcastle."It's an incredible achievement with one game still to go and a night to remember for everyone connected with Wigan Athletic," Martinez told Wigan’s official website."We knew how important the game was, but when we saw all our fans in the away end it gave us the warmth we needed."

Celebration

Martinez said he wanted Sunday’s final Barclays Premier League match against Wolverhampton Wanderers to be a celebration."We'll look forward to seeing them all [the fans] on Sunday at our DW Stadium," he said."It's an occasion the whole football club has to celebrate and we'll make sure that is the case."Let's make it a party atmosphere, but at the same time we'll approach the game in the right manner looking for a positive result."We've achieved our aim together and we must be proud of that. The DW Stadium has to be bouncing on Sunday ready to compete in the best league in the world once again next year."Martinez also saluted the work of chairman Dave Whelan after the club’s survival."It's easy when things are going well to say how good a chairman we have," he said."But through the tough times when we were bottom of the table he kept believing in us, stood firm and allowed us all to keep working towards our goal to keep his dream alive."He's an incredible man and I'm incredibly proud to work for him, he deserves these days".

Tennis: Madrid Open Results Round Up

the American booked her place to the next round of the Mutua Madrid Open after brushing Elena Vesnina aside with ease (3-6, 1-6) and will now face Pavlyuchenkova.

Serena Williams Now Knows what it takes to win on the Caja Mágica’s blue clay courts. She kicked off today’s proceedings in the Manolo Santana Centre Stadium by beating Elena Vesina 3-6, 1-6 in the first round.After taking just one hour and nine minutes to secure her place in the second round, where she will face Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the American met with the press to give her opinion on the blue surface. “I’m feeling good but I wasn’t thrilled. It’s just the first round. I am a competitor and I want to do my best that I can do every time I step out there, whether that’s playing well and losing, at least I know I can improve from that”.With last month’s victory in Charleston still fresh in her mind, Williams put the Mutua Madrid Open in perspective, “I just want to go out there and do the best I can every time and do the right things and hopefully I do the right things, the right results will come”. With the way the draw is set up a possibility exists that she could meet Caroline Wozniacki in the third round of the competition and either Sharapova, Jankovic or Carla Suárez in the quarterfinals. Asked if she would have preferred to have played a tougher opponent than Vesnina she responded, “No, it doesn’t matter to me who I play. This is my first tournament in Europe so hopefully I will just keep my good form and just keep going”.Serena’s debut on the Mutua Madrid Open’s Blue Clay left us with the memorable image of her singing along to “Everything I Do” by Bryan Adams as she put away her rackets. “That’s my go-to karaoke song. That’s the first song I always choose when I go to sing in karaoke bars. I have a whole performance to that song so when they played it out there, I was like “Oh my God! This is my karaoke song!” and I just really wanted to mic it at that point.”

The two main favourites to win the Mutua Madrid Open title, Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova, got their campaigns off to winning starts, although with very different experiences on the courts.Azarenka had to dig far deeper than was predicted to defeat Kuznetsova. The leader of the WTA rankings fought her way into an early lead, but Kuznetsova turned the game around and forced a tie-break, which Azarenka won. Last year’s runner-up stepped up her game in the second set, and in the end closed out the game with a 7-6, 6-4 final score against an impressive Kuznetsova.Sharapova, on the other hand, barely had to break a sweat in her first-round match against Begu. The Russian thumped her rival 6-0 in the first set, and was also in complete control of the second which she eventually won 6-3. She faces Klara Zakopalova next. However, the surprise of the day was the defeat of Roland Garros champion Francesca Schiavone, who lost to American Varvara Lepchenko in three sets.Caroline Wozniacki got her Mutua Madrid Open campaign off to a winning start despite twisting her ankle during the first set when she was leading 3-2 against Kazakh Ksenia Pervak. After receiving medical attention, she came back on with a bandaged ankle and eventually took the first set after a tight, 9-7 tie-break. In the second set, Pervak took advantage of the fact that Wozniacki wasn’t at 100% and forced a third set. Wozniacki showed her experience, however, winning 6-4 to go through to the second round, where she will meet Mona Barthel, who saw off fellow German Julia Goerges.Fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska convincingly beat Spain’s Lara Arruabarrena 6-3, 6-1. Lourdes Domínguez made it through a difficult encounter with Romania’s Monica Niculescu, who, after losing the first set 0-6, recovered quickly to complicate matters for Domínguez. The Spaniard had a match point on her serve with the second set reading 3-5 in her favour, but Niculescu managed to break it and the match went to a tie-break where it settled into another tight stalemate. Domínguez eventually won 6-8, however, and must now face Petra Cetkovska, who defeated tenth-seed Vera Zvonareva. Twelfth-seed Angelique Kerber eliminated qualifier from the previous round Johanna Larsson (6-1, 6-4) and will now meet Venus Williams.It took Nadia Petrova three sets and a comeback to knock out American Vania King 4-6, 6-3, 6-1. She will now meet the winner of the match between Mathilde Johansson and Ana Ivanovic. Yanina Wickmayer and Shahar Peer came away with two-set victories from their encounters with Jarmila Gajdosova and Polona Hercog.

KKR Beats DD To Go Top On Table

KKR has won their 6th match in a row. What was predicted to be a clash of the titans ended up being an easy win for the visitors. It was the 68-run partnership between Gambhir and McCullum that provided a solid platform as they made the most of the first 6 overs! KKR are now the table-toppers and they have also ended Delhi’s winning streak.The Kolkata Knight Riders replaced the Delhi Daredevils at the summit of the IPL log thanks to an emphatic six-wicket win against the hosts at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi, set up by a brilliant half-century from Brendon McCullum and an excellent all-round performance from Jacques Kallis on Monday.Delhi won the toss, elected to bat and managed 153 for nine. Kolkata reached the target at a canter with eight balls to spare as they scored 154 for four in 18.4 overs.Kolkata now replace Delhi at the top of the table, with 17 points after 12 matches. Delhi have 16 points after 11 matches.In pursuit of the target, McCullum smashed 56 off 44 balls, with seven fours, and featured in two significant partnerships that went a long way into securing the victory for the visitors.At the start of the chase, he and Gautam Gambhir smashed 68 runs in the first seven overs.Gambhir scored an attractive 36 off 21 balls with four fours and a six and neutralised Delhi’s ace with the ball, Morne Morkel.Morkel was expensive, conceding 20 runs in his first two overs, and Gambhir and McCullum took full advantage.When Varun Aaron dismissed Gambhir in his first over, Kallis joined McCullum, and they steadied the innings by scoring 60 runs off 49 deliveries for the second wicket.Kallis was circumspect and rotated the strike well to give McCullum the opportunity to play the role of the aggressor.They scored at a run a ball in the middle period without taking undue risks, and reached their 50 partnership off 41 balls.Umesh Yadav bowled with aggressive pace, reaching an impressive 150.3 kilometres per hour once, and his double-strike in the 16th over accounted for both Kallis and McCullum.He removed them in similar fashion as both attempted pull shots and were caught at the wicket, as Kolkata slipped to 128 for three after 15.2 overs.Kallis scored 30 off 27 balls, with three fours. His excellent efforts as an all-rounder were a major factor in the win.Yadav was the pick of the attack, taking 2-30 in four overs. Morkel captured 1-35 in four overs, but was not at his best.Earlier, Delhi won the toss and elected to bat.They started off well, reaching 40 without loss after 3.2 overs, but then Kallis changed the complexion of the game.He rocked the top-order by capturing 2-20. First, he unsettled Virender Sehwag with a short delivery and then produced a fuller ball that trapped him in front for 23.In his next over, Kallis removed David Warner with a fuller delivery that bounced and had him caught behind. Warner managed 21 off 19 deliveries.At 50 for two after six overs, Delhi were still handily placed, but Ross Taylor looked out of touch and the rest of the batting order was unsettled by his inability to find either the middle of the bat or the boundary ropes.The second half-century came off 49 balls.Taylor and Mahela Jayawardene scored 46 off 42 deliveries for the third wicket before Jayawardene sacrificed his wicket in an attempt to steal the strike from Taylor, who struggled to read the variations of spinner Sunil Narine.Narine again proved his worth by taking 2-23 in four overs – those four overs including two at the death. Rajat Bhatia conceded 0-26 in four overs.Irfan Pathan slammed a quick-fire 36 off 22 balls with four fours and a six and his late onslaught enabled the hosts to add 25 runs in the final two overs.

The Kolkata bowling attack proved to be a cut above the Delhi bowlers.McCullum and Gambhir raced to 60 runs in the first six overs and the game as a contest was pretty much over by then.Where Delhi’s bowlers showed aggressive intent, they operated without the composure and shrewd awareness that characterised the efforts of Kallis and Narine.