England’s Lee Westwood has become the new world No. 1 for the first time as he ended Tiger Woods’ 281-week reign at the top of the golf rankings.
Germany’s newly crowned USPGA champion Martin Kaymer needed a top-two finish at the European Tour’s Andalucia Masters to take the top ranking himself, but ended Sunday’s fourth round well off the lead at seven-over.
Kaymer fired a final-round 75 to finish 10 shots behind winner Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland.
That allowed Westwood, who was not playing as he rests an injured calf, to complete a remarkable turnaround in fortunes that sees him become Europe’s first No. 1 since Nick Faldo in 1994, seven years after slumping to 266th in the rankings.
Asked if it was the most satisfying moment of his career, the 37-year-old said: “Yes I think so. It’s a dream, everyone has to say there is nobody better than me at the moment. You have to say it’s a highlight.”
“It’s a great honor and a big responsibility. It certainly sounds and feels good right now,” he said. “When you are growing up and people say what do you want to achieve, everyone says I want to be the best in the world. Right at this moment, I can show people the world rankings and say I am the best on the planet.”
Westwood will quickly come face to face with the man he deposed, with 14-time major winner Woods among the field at the forthcoming WGC-HSBC Champions event in Shanghai.
“I have a great relationship with Tiger,” said Westwood, who traveled to Shanghai yesterday afternoon. “We have mutual respect and have always got on well, on and off the course. I give him a little bit of stick and he gives me a little.”
All that is now missing from Westwood’s resume is a major championship, with several recent near misses helping propel him to the top of the rankings, but Westwood is not putting any extra pressure on himself to break his duck now he is world No. 1.
“I don’t think it adds to the pressure, there’s enough as it is,” he said.
Despite once again failing to win a major this year, Westwood has been the most consistent golfer in the world, with runner-up finishes at the Masters and at The Open.
Woods, meanwhile, has failed to win a tournament as the ripple effects from his marriage meltdown have wrecked his form.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier