Agence France-Presse Sports looks back on some of the biggest sporting shocks of last year, with rugby union and tennis featuring.
JAPAN, SOUTH AFRICA
Japan caused the biggest shock in Rugby World Cup history as they stunned two-time former champions South Africa 34-32 in their opening pool match in Brighton.
Photo: Reuters
The Brave Blossoms had won just one of their 24 previous matches in the competition, but the Asian champions, under the stewardship of Eddie Jones, signaled their intent early with captain Michael Leitch crossing to put the underdogs 10-7 up.
However, the experienced Springboks, whose starting 15 featured a combined 851 caps, went in with the half-time lead and appeared to have ended the plucky Japan challenge when Adriaan Strauss ploughed over to make it 29-22.
However, Japan fullback Ayumu Goromaru converted his own try to level the scores with 10 minutes to play. The Springboks responded with Handre Polland slotting over a penalty to seemingly put them back on top for good.
Photo: EPA
There was one final dramatic twist though as Japan, opting for a scrum rather than kicking a penalty as time expired, shifted play across the width of the field before finding replacement wing Karne Hesketh, who touched down in the corner to seal an incredible victory.
VINCI, SERENA
Serena Williams looked almost certain to become the first player since Steffi Graf in 1988, and just sixth player overall, to complete a calendar Grand Slam after reaching the semi-finals of the US Open.
With Flavia Pennetta then dumping out second seed Simona Halep in the first semi, the odds on the American landing a historic title shortened further. Riding a 26-match win streak at Flushing Meadows, the world No. 1 was overwhelmingly expected to sweep aside unseeded Roberta Vinci, the veteran Italian more renowned for her doubles success, and set up a showdown with eventual champion Pennetta, against whom Williams owned a 7-0 career edge.
Instead her bid was crushed in stunning fashion as the 32-year-old Vinci rallied from a set down to claim a sensational 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 triumph, beating Williams for the first time to set up the first all-Italian women’s Grand Slam final in the Open era.
FURY, KLITSCHKO
British boxer Tyson Fury registered one of the sport’s biggest upsets by outpointing longstanding heavyweight world champion Wladimir Klitschko in Duesseldorf, Germany, to end the Ukrainian’s nine-year reign.
Manchester-born Fury, 27, handed Klitschko his first loss since 2004 after winning a unanimous points decision 115-112, 115-112, 116-111 as the self-styled “Gypsy King” landed the WBA, IBF and WBO world title belts.
Fury, whose biggest previous win was against fellow Briton Dereck Chisora, was undeterred by the step up in class and backed up his pre-fight promises by confounding his decorated rival as well as the doubters with a skilful, measured performance.
Fury likened his “masterclass” performance to a “mongoose in a cobra’s nest, taking all the eggs home” in his first press conference as world heavyweight king.
EURO 2016
Semi-finalists at the 2014 Soccer World Cup, the Netherlands were expected to routinely qualify for the expanded 24-team European Championship finals and perhaps even contend for the title.
Placed alongside the likes of Czech Republic, Turkey and Iceland, their Group A draw was not overly complicated, but an opening defeat in Prague signaled the start of a disastrous campaign.
A pair of losses to Iceland were damaging, but not terminal, but just three days later a 3-0 defeat in Turkey left Holland’s fate out of their hands. Danny Blind’s men needed three points at home to the already-qualified Czechs coupled with a Turkey loss against Iceland from the final round of matches to rescue a desperate situation, but the Dutch succumbed 3-2, a comical Robin van Persie own-goal typifying their dire qualifying campaign, as the 1988 winners missed out on the European championship for the first time in 32 years.
MELBOURNE CUP
Michelle Payne became the first woman to win Australia’s 154-year-old Melbourne Cup after riding 100-1 outsider Prince of Penzance to a historic victory in November. Those long odds were nothing compared with the obstacles 30-year-old Payne, the youngest of 10 siblings, overcame on the road to eventual success.
She lost her mother, Mary, in a car accident when she was just six months old, and her career was sidetracked by a litany of injuries — including a head-first fall from a horse when she was just 18 that left her with a fractured skull and bruising on her brain.
However, none of that could prevent Payne, reportedly just the fourth female entrant in Cup history, from winning the world’s richest two-mile (3.2km) handicap race, as she held off Max Dynamite (12-1) by half a length, with Criterion (18-1) close behind.
“I thought a girl would win the Melbourne Cup, but I didn’t think it would be one of mine,” Payne’s father said afterward.
WAWRINKA, DJOKOVIC
Novak Djokovic completed one of the most remarkable seasons in tennis history last year with victory at the World Tour Finals, but the all-conquering Serb was denied a career Grand Slam at the French Open as he was beaten in the final by Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka.
All appeared to be going to plan as Djokovic grabbed the opening set 6-4, but a sublime show of stroke-making from the Swiss wrapped up a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 win.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
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