In a neat moment of sporting synchronicity, Australia captain Michael Clarke and his English counterpart Alastair Cook will play their 100th Test in the third Ashes contest this week.
It is a great achievement for two master batsmen, but given their competitive nature, only a win at the WACA will allow either to really enjoy passing what was once the rarest of milestones.
For Clarke, victory would secure a 3-0 series triumph and the return of the coveted urn after three consecutive Ashes defeats at the hands of his country’s greatest sporting rival.
“I think that’s why it’s most special for me, that we have the chance to win the Ashes,” Clarke told reporters at the WACA yesterday. “It’s obviously fantastic that I’ve been able to play 99 Tests for my country, something I’m certainly proud of, but in regards to it being my 100th Test match, it’s not my focus, there’s enough other reasons why this match is special to me and this team.”
For Cook, a first win for the tourists in Perth since 1978 would arrest an alarming decline in the fortunes of the England team since they arrived in Australia.
“It’s a huge honor to join the hundred club and one I thought I’d never get to,” the 28-year-old said. “It is a special day and it will make it an even more special week if we can produce the sort of performance we know we’re capable of.”
That they both reach the milestone in what could be the decisive moment of an Ashes series should not detract from the achievement of two players, who will one day go down in the record books as among the best their countries have produced.
Clarke is four years the senior and has just edged ahead in the statistics during this series with 26 Test centuries to Cook’s 25 and 7,940 runs to the Englishman’s 7,883.
“I think he deserves a lot of credit for the success he’s had over a long period of time and his record is something he should be really proud of,” Clarke said. “He’s a wonderful guy, I really enjoy playing against him. He’s a very good captain. He’s always been a prize wicket for the Australian team and this Test match is no different.”
Cook repaid the compliments.
“He’s obviously had an incredible career and he’s been the leading batsman [in the world] for the last couple of years. We’ve had a fair few battles along the way, both of us, and he’s one of these guys when you stop playing cricket you’ll remember playing against him. It’s great sharing it with him,” Cook said.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with