Djokovic, Serena retain top spots in rankings

 Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams remained atop the latest tennis rankings issued on Monday by the ATP and the WTA.

Djokovic topped the unchanged rankings with 12,310 points, followed by Wimbledon winner Andy Murray at 9,360. Williams, on the other hand, has collected 11,705 points, leading Maria Sharapova (9,235 points) and Victoria Azarenka (8,825).

Spain's David Ferrer is third (7,120) in the men’s top 10, ahead of compatriot Rafael Nadal (6,860) and former number one Roger Federer (5,875).

After jumping eight spots thanks to her Wimbledon victory, Marion Bartoli dropped one spot to eighth in the WTA rankings with 4,365 points, behind Petra Kvitova with 4,435 points.

ATP top 10 as of July 22 (previous ranking in parenthesis): 1. (1) Novak Djokovic, Serbia, 12,310 points 2. (2) Andy Murray, Britain, 9,360 3. (4) David Ferrer, Spain, 7,120 4. (5) Rafael Nadal, Spain, 6,860 5. (3) Roger Federer, Switzerland, 5,875 6. (6) Tomas Berdych, Czech Republic, 4,865 8. (8) Juan Martin del Potro, Argentina, 4,500 8. (7) Jo—Wilfried Tsonga, France, 3,480 9. (9) Richard Gasquet, France, 3,045 10. (10) Stanislas Wawrinka, Switzerland, 2,915

WTA top 10 as of July 22 (previous ranking in parenthesis): 1. (1) Serena Williams, United States, 11,705 points 2. (2) Maria Sharapova, Russia, 9,235 3. (3) Victoria Azarenka, Belarus, 8,825 4. (4) Agnieszka Radwanska, Poland, 5,965 5. (5) Li Na, China, 5,555 6. (6) Sara Errani, Italy, 5,100 7. (8) Petra Kvitova, Czech Republic, 4,435 8. (7) Marion Bartoli, France, 4,365 9. (9) Angelique Kerber, Germany, 3,970 10. (10) Caroline Wozniacki, Denmark, 3,660 

Neptune’s 14th moon discovered

The new moon, Neptune’s tiniest at just 19.3 km across, is designated S/2004 N 1.

The U.S. space agency has announced the discovery of Neptune’s 14th moon. The Hubble Space Telescope captured the moon as a white dot in photos of the planet on the outskirts of our solar system.

The new moon, Neptune’s tiniest at just 19.3 km across, is designated S/2004 N 1.

The SETI Institute’s Mark Showalter made the discovery. He was studying the segments of rings around Neptune when the white dot popped out, 105,250 km from Neptune. He tracked its movement in more than 150 pictures taken from 2004 to 2009.

The considerably bigger gas giant Jupiter has four times as many moons, with 67.

“It is so small and dim that it is roughly 100 million times fainter than the faintest star that can be seen with the naked eye” said the space agency.

“It even escaped detection by NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft, which flew past Neptune in 1989 and surveyed the planet’s system of moons and rings,” it added.

“The moons and arcs orbit very quickly, so we had to devise a way to follow their motion in order to bring out the details of the system,” Mr. Showalter said.

“It’s the same reason a sports photographer tracks a running athlete — the athlete stays in focus, but the background blurs,” he said.

The method involved tracking the movement of a white dot that appears over and over again in more than 150 archival Neptune photographs taken by Hubble from 2004 to 2009.

On a whim, Mr. Showalter looked far beyond the ring segments and noticed the white dot about 65,400 miles from Neptune, located between the orbits of the Neptunian moons Larissa and Proteus, NASA said.

Andy Murray won Wimbledon

Rewrites Wimbledon history by bringing the men’s crown back to Britain after 77 years

Andy Murray defeated Novak Djokovic to become the man to bring the Wimbledon singles crown back to Britain after a gap of 77 years.

Murray won in three sets 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 against a Djokovic who struggled to be on top of his game.

The first game of the match, in which Djokovic went down 0-40 before managing to reel off the next five points, were a presage of the difficulties that the Serb would have with his serve.

This is something no one could have predicted. The serve that stood solidly by him all fortnight was a major reason for his not having dropped a set before reaching the semifinals.

Moreover, this is an improved weapon, honed with small but significant changes in technique — for instance, a higher elbow on the toss and a greater knee bend — that have contributed to greater power and accuracy.

But on Sunday, Djokovic’s serve cracked, the first time to give Murray a 2-1 lead in the first set. An immediate break back by the Serb only found him dropping his serve once again to give Murray a 4-3 advantage.

It was a lead he hung on to, ending the game emphatically, with three great serves, one of them an ace.

The first set, which lasted an engrossing 59 minutes, seemed a closely fought one on the face of it. But the statistics showed that the Scotsman was ahead on almost every count, making more aces and winners.

It was the head-to-head comparison on serve that told the story — Djokovic was winning a mere 54 per cent of the points on his first serve against Murray’s 84 per cent. As for unforced errors, Djokovic had committed 17 against Murray’s six.

It was Djokovic who drew first blood in the second set by breaking Murray to go up 3-1 and then hold his serve. But the match changed course from there, with Murray working himself back into the game to level 4-4 and then breaking a seemingly edgy Djokovic to go up 6-5.

Losing his cool

Having exhausted his challenges, Djokovic lost his cool and screamed at the umpire after a ball that Murray hit was called in. It was the Serb — who thought it was out — who was wrong and Hawk-Eye showed the ball had clipped the baseline.

With the break in the bag, Murray sealed the set with an emphatic game, going up 40-0 and then serving it out with a deafening ace. The beginning of the third set suggested that Murray was almost home and dry when he went up 2-0.

But Djokovic, who was 0-30 down on his serve, suddenly seemed to gather himself. Holding his serve, he broke Murray to go up 4-2, playing as confidently as he has done for most of the last fortnight.

But another wild swing in momentum changed the course of the match with Murray breaking and surging ahead. The Briton, thanks to a mix of great serving, and Djokovic’s relapse into making uncharacteristic mistakes, was poised to serve for the match.

Up 40-0, the match seemed well but over, but in an exciting twist, Djokovic came back from the dead, saving three straight championship points. However, Murray hung in to finish the game even as it threatened to slip away from him.

Sebastian Vettel win his home race German GP

Webber’s wheel hits cameraman at German GP; Bianchi’s car catches fire

World champion Sebastian Vettel was pushed all the way but finally tasted Formula One victory on home soil on Sunday in a German Grand Prix that sent him 34 points clear of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso. 

Championship rival Kimi Raikkonen was second for Lotus, only a second adrift, after a late tyre change left him hunting down the Red Bull in a thrilling final few laps while team mate Romain Grosjean was third. 

Alonso, who started eighth on an adventurous tyre strategy, finished fourth. The Spaniard now has 123 points to Vettel's 157 after nine of 19 races. Raikkonen has 116. 

There were none of the explosive tyre failures that raised safety fears at last weekend's race in Britain, with the subsequent threat of a driver boycott, but there were still moments of concern on a hot afternoon at the Nurburgring. 

A stray wheel from Mark Webber's Red Bull injured a cameraman in the pit-lane while, on track, Jules Bianchi's car momentarily caught fire and then rolled towards oncoming traffic after the Frenchman had scrambled out. That incident brought out the safety car but Vettel hung on for his 30th grand Prix win. 

The triple champion had never won in Germany or in July but, days after his 26th birthday and a week after mechanical failure forced an agonising retirement at Silverstone, ripped up the statistics to the delight of thousands of flag-waving fans. 

Fernando Alonso, who like Raikkonen had quicker tyres than Vettel in the closing stages after starting on mediums, chased Grosjean home. 

The main drama happened in the first 25 laps of the race. 

Both Red Bulls jumped pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes at the start, coming close at the first corner but avoiding contact, and Vettel took command from Australian Mark Webber. Ferrari's Felipe Massa also got past Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo into sixth place but spun at the same tricky turn one at the start of the third lap and, with the engine cutting out, had to retire. 

Force India's Paul Di Resta and Jean-Eric Vergne's Toro Rosso then almost collided in the pits with Force India releasing the Briton as the Frenchman was coming in. The incident was being probed by stewards. 

Hamilton came into the pits for his first tyre change on lap seven, earlier than the other contenders, and Vettel followed him after the next trip round. 

Vettel's team mate Webber then entered the pits on lap nine but the rear right wheel was not attached properly and came away as he accelerated, hitting the cameraman and knocking him over. 

An FIA statement said the man was conscious and had been taken to hospital by helicopter and was under observation. Webber's wheel was put back on and he returned well down the field. The Australianended up seventh on the track where he first won a grand prix in 2009. 

While fans at the rural west German track — famous for the old Nordschleife loop no longer used in Formula One — were coming to terms with the Webber incident, Bianchi's Marussia came to a halt and flames flared out of the back. 

The Frenchman quickly jumped out but before a tractor could remove the car, the Marussia rolled back onto the track into the path of drivers. 

Fellow French driver Grosjean, who started fifth, enjoyed a superb race and came out second behind Vettel after his first pit stop with his pace surprising almost everyone. 

Bryan won on Wimbledon Doubles

Bob and Mike Bryan became the first doubles team to hold all four Grand Slam titles in the Open era when they won Wimbledon for the third time on Saturday.

The top seeds beat Croatia’s Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo of Brazil 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

The brothers, taking part in their 25th Grand Slam final, had also won the Olympics in 2012.

They now have 15 men’s doubles titles at the Grand Slams, and extended their winning streak to 24 matches.

Ken McGregor and Frank Sedgman are the only pair to have completed the calendar Grand Slam back in the pre-Open era of 1951.

Bouncing back

The top-seeded twins lost the first five games of the match but fought back strongly to outclass Dodig and Melo, and extend their Grand Slam record number of titles to 15.

The 35-year-old Bryans, who also won the Olympic gold medal last year, got the measure of their 12th-seeded opponents through the telepathic understanding which has brought them 91 career doubles titles.

They made the decisive break in the ninth game of the fourth set, and Bob Bryan served it out for victory which he sealed with an ace, prompting a trademark chest-pump by the brothers.

If they win the U.S. Open, they’ll join McGregor and Sedgman as the second men’s team to complete a calendar Grand Slam. The Aussie duo did it in 1951, 17 years before the Open era began.

Bartoli won her 1st Grand Slam champions in Wimbledon

A damp squib of a match flickered briefly to life, showed promise of growing into a roaring and incandescent fire, before being summarily, almost cruelly, doused out.

Sabine Lisicki, favourite with bookmakers and experts alike ahead of the final, was confronted with two opponents on Centre Court on a warm and sunny Saturday — Marion Bartoli and her own nerves.

It was difficult to say which the bigger threat was at times in what was a strange women’s final in what has been possibly the weirdest Wimbledon in a long time.

Nervy start

The first game, which saw Bartoli’s serve broken, thanks to a couple of wonderful shots by Lisicki, and a couple of double faults, revealed nothing about what was in store.

From then on, it was the French player all the way, as she reeled off the next six games to 6-1, as a despairing Lisicki struggled to cope with the pressure of the big occasion and by Bartoli’s searing returns, particularly off the backhand side.

Unable to find her rhythm and trying to hit her way back into the game, Lisicki ended up making more and more errors, frequently overcooking the forehand that she had used to lethal effect to defeat the likes of Serena Williams and Agneiszka Radwanska.

The second set began with Lisicki flattering to deceive, holding serve with imperious ease. In the next game, she earned four break points but missed out on converting any of them.

Then it was Bartoli’s turn to pile on the pressure as Lisicki found her serve, particularly the second, going to pieces.

The mis-hits and the unforced errors kept coming as the increasingly despairing German seemed to almost be pleading with herself to stop going down the path of self-destruction.

Serve fails

Lisicki’s serve, her most potent weapon, suffered the most from her lack of self-belief. At 103 mph, her average first serve speed — and she is one of the biggest servers in the women’s game — was not much more than Bartoli’s. Her second serve speed was astonishingly slow; no wonder Bartoli stepped in to cream winners off them.

Overall, Lisicki was able to win only 52 per cent of her first serve points against Bartoli’s 79 per cent. The German also made many more unforced errors — 25 to Bartoli’s 14.

At the other end, the ball was coming off Bartoli’s racquet with that tidy thwack that comes from being hit dead centre.

A 5-1, with Lisicki two break-points down, it seemed all over bar the prize-giving and curtseying. The saving of those two break-points only led to a third, but Lisicki dug herself out of the hole with a couple of fine serves, including an ace.

Brief show of defiance

The free-stroking German then showed us — but only ever so briefly — why she has the ability to beat the best in the game.

Breaking Bartoli, who may have had a small touch of nerves herself, she proceeded to play like the Lisicki the audience has known over the last fortnight by sealing her service game with a couple of brilliant shots — the first a backhand down the line, and then one of those searing forehands.

It was impossible not to wonder at this juncture if this could be the beginning of another astonishing comeback.

If this was the beginning of the comeback by a player who can be very, very good when she is good — and, frankly, pretty awful when she is bad — then she had left it much too late.

Bartoli had neither nerves nor sympathy when serving again for the championship, taking game, set and match with an ace.

In the end it was not Bartoli’s unwavering consistency that got the better of Lisicki’s whimsical genius.