Vondrousova will be new face of Czech tennis, says Mandlikova

June 9, 2019 | 11:37 pm

PARIS — Marketa Vondrousova’s quest to become the first Czech woman to win the French Open for 38 years fell just short but she is destined to win a Grand Slam title, according to 1981 Roland Garros champion Hana Mandlikova.

The 19-year-old left-hander’s dream run in Paris was ended emphatically by Australia’s Ashleigh Barty on Saturday, Vondrousova going down 6-1 6-3.

Mandlikova was also 19 when she claimed the French Open, having already won the Australian Open title. She believes Vondrousova can emulate her and become the new face of Czech tennis.

“I definitely think that,” Mandlikova told Reuters. “After Petra Kvitova and Karolina Pliskova, Marketa is now the one to look for. She’s already an awesome player and she definitely has it in her to win a Grand Slam.

“She just needs to work on mental toughness and just keep working hard on adding different elements to her game.”

Despite not being seeded, Vondrousova’s run to the final was not a total shock considering her claycourts skills and the fact she has been the most consistent player on the WTA Tour since bowing out in the second round of the Australian Open.

Her world ranking will rise to 16 on Monday and Mandlikova says the hard part for her will be that she is now a name, and her tricky game and deft dropshots will no longer be a surprise.

“It’s always easier when you’re a brand new face and have just appeared,” the 57-year-old said. “I’m not putting her game down because she has a talent, she has great hands.

“She has lots of tools and other players don’t really know what they are or how she uses them, although Barty got her tactics spot on today.

“I think the same thing happened with (2017 French Open champion) Jelena Ostapenko. She came here and hit bullets from everywhere and the girls didn’t know where they were going.” — Reuters

Raptors now heavy favorite to knock off Warriors

June 9, 2019 | 11:37 pm

TORONTO — The Toronto Raptors are heavy favorites to win their first NBA championship after taking a 3-1 lead on the Golden State Warriors, while star Kawhi Leonard is now the overwhelming favorite to take home MVP honors.

The Warriors were still favored to defend their title after dropping Game 3, but that all changed following Friday night’s 105-92 loss. With two road wins in the series, the Raptors only need to win one of the next three games, including two chances at home.

PointsBet now lists the Raptors at -715 to win the series, BetStars and FanDuel both have them at -700 and SugarHouse lists Toronto at -590.

However, if the Warriors are able to win Game 5 in Toronto on Monday night, the money then returns to Golden State running the table and winning in seven games.

WARRIORS HOPE TO REVERSE HISTORY
A defiant Golden State Warriors team are adamant they can overturn a 3-1 deficit to the Toronto Raptors and erase memories of becoming the first team to fail to win the NBA title after holding the same advantage.

The memory of the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers recovering from a 3-1 deficit to snatch the championship in 2016 is still fresh in their minds and gives them faith that their goal of a third successive title is not dead.

“We just got to win one game and then build on that,” Warriors forward Draymond Green told reporters after Friday’s 105-92 Game Four loss in Oakland.

“But I’ve been on the wrong side of 3-1 before, so why not make our own history.”

The Warriors battled back from a 3-1 deficit of their own in the 2016 Western Conference Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder, so they know what it takes to come back from the brink.

That Thunder team was led by Kevin Durant, who joined the Warriors the following season and went on to win back-to-back Finals MVP awards with the team in 2017 and 2018.

Durant has been sidelined with a calf strain since May 8, however, and it is unclear if he will be able to play in Game Five in Toronto on Monday.

The Warriors said they will be prepared to go with or without their sharpshooting forward.

“It’s not over,” a defiant Stephen Curry said.

“It’s not a good feeling right now, obviously, but we have been on both sides of it.

“And for us it’s an opportunity for us to just flip this whole series on its head.”

Coach Steve Kerr said his team’s desire to win is their most important asset going forward.

“We’ve got a lot of talent and we got a lot of pride,” he said.

“These guys have been to the Finals five straight years for a reason. They’re unbelievably competitive. And they’re together and they’re going to fight.

“So we’ll go try to get one win and, if we can do that, come back here and see what happens.” — Reuters

Fate

June 9, 2019 | 11:36 pm

For a while there, it looked as if Novak Djokovic would cruise to a fifth straight appearance in the final of a Grand Slam tournament. Prior to his Round-of-Four meeting with World Number Four Dominic Thiem, he carried an air of invincibility at Roland Garros; he made short work of his previous opponents, barreling through five straight-sets victories without surrendering more than three games in each set. And it wasn’t simply because he had momentum; in eight previous matches against the only player standing between him and a date with defending champion Rafael Nadal, he had emerged triumphant six times.

Unfortunately, fate conspired against Djokovic’s bid for the Coupe des Mousquetaires and, by extension, a second career Nole Slam. First, his playing style — predicated on precise point construction — clashed with the elements; swirling winds wreaked havoc on his swings, and to the point where he lobbied for a suspension of the contest until conditions improved. Second, and more importantly, he faced an extremely sharp Thiem, whose focus was such that no hurdle on or off the court — not the press conference snafu involving Serena Williams and not the swirling currents that toyed with bounces and sent particles of red clay airborne — could make hazy.

When the rains came, Djokovic would eventually get the postponement he asked for, and the more benign setting seemed to help his cause. He leveled the contest at two sets apiece, and, when Thiem threatened to pull away in the final set, got yet another reprieve from more precipitation. He rallied from a 1-4 deficit and appeared ready for a protracted fight. In truth, he wasn’t; his serve — and, to be sure, strategy — failed him anew in the last game, and he wound up bowing 5-7 to crash out of the French Open.

In the presser that followed, Djokovic was alternately wistful, defiant, and, yes, accepting. “When you’re playing in hurricane-kind conditions, it’s hard to perform your best,” he said. No doubt, he was likewise put off by his contentious back and forth with chair umpire Jaume Campistol for a shot-clock warning in the third set. And in “these kinds of matches, one or two points decide a winner,” he noted. Nonetheless, he acknowledged Thiem’s superiority. “I mean, he took it, he won it, and well done to him … This match was always going to be tough because Dominic is a fantastic player on clay — and in general, but especially on clay.”

Under the circumstances, Djokovic can’t be too downcast with the result. Despite an up-and-down run-up to Roland Garros, he could well have reached the final had he not run into a determined Thiem. And, as he preps for Wimbledon early next month, he can take solace in the fact that he’s already in far better position than he was this time last year. Certainly, there are worse ways to begin his campaign to retain the title in the sport’s premier event than at the top of rankings.

Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994.

Startup founder aims to bridge Philippine healthcare gaps with drones

June 8, 2019 | 8:48 pm

Rapid advancements in healthcare mean those with the resources to live in global centers are often able to live longer, healthier lives. But seldom do life-saving medicines and materials make it to the world’s most remote communities.

In Rwanda and Ghana, two countries facing massive inequality in terms of the availability of vital medical supplies, both the lack of materials and proper infrastructure to transport them paint a fatal picture for those outside major metropoles. That’s why Keller Rinaudo founded Zipline in 2014, with the dream of building “an instant, automated logistics system for the planet.”

Zipline is the world’s first drone delivery service providing life-saving medicines to isolated communities otherwise considered unreachable. To date, they’ve made over 14,000 deliveries in areas across Rwanda and Ghana. Yesterday morning, June 7, Rinaudo and his team met with Secretary of Health Francisco T. Duque III and Secretary of National Defense Delfin N. Lorenzana to discuss bringing those services to the Philippines.

Speaking at “Future Forward”, an event organized by global non-profit Asia Society and co-presented by Businessworld Sparkup, Rinaudo shared his vision of an archipelago bridged by fully autonomous drones capable of delivering vital materials like blood and medicines in mere minutes.

The drones themselves, called Zips, are electric airplanes weighing in at roughly 35 pounds. Designed and manufactured by Zipline, they navigate to and from their destinations via an onboard chip. They are launched from distribution centers, and are tracked throughout their journeys by trained local operators.

A few minutes out from arrival, recipients get a text message informing them to watch out for their deliveries. Descending to about 40 feet off the ground, the drone drops the parcel, complete with a deployed paper parachute, to hit a predetermined target roughly the size of two parking slots. “This means that the experience of ordering something is super simple,” Rinaudo said. “You just send a text message and get what you need to save a person’s life 15 minutes later.”

“We thought that community acceptance would be a challenge,” Rinaudo said. “But we couldn’t have been further from the truth.” In Rwanda, up to 25 percent of the national blood supply is delivered to hospitals and healthcare facilities across the country by this system. Through their collaboration with Zipline, Rwanda was able to vastly increase access to medical supplies, while also reducing blood waste from seven percent, amounting to a national average of about $1 million in waste, to zero percent at the hospitals the drone delivery platform serves.

“People in Rwanda today say ‘Yeah, of course we have drones that deliver blood. How else would you solve that problem?’” he said. “It’s amazing how fast it goes from science fiction to totally boring.”

All in all, Zipline’s network comprises the largest commercial autonomous system in the world.

Speaking from their experience operating in the African region, Rinaudo said the key to their success has been deep collaboration with governments willing to embrace new technologies in solving age-old problems.

“Many people think the next big technological applications of our time will come out of places like Japan or the United States,” he said. Instead, Rinaudo points to the nations with greater needs and more open minds to new solutions. “It’s precisely the governments that embrace innovation that end up leapfrogging ahead of even developed nations,” he said.

While the Zipline team wasn’t at liberty to discuss in depth their specific plans for expansion into the Philippines, Rinaudo said that, historically, they’ve been able to make their first drone delivery within one month of signing contracts with their government partners.

Zipline’s massive platform is proof that AI-powered robotics can do for logistics what the Internet has done for information. Today, global players are finding countless applications in e-commerce and moving consumer goods.

“We don’t believe the long-term impact of that technology is delivering your tennis shoes or pizza,” Rinaudo said. “We believe the long-term impact of that technology is providing universal healthcare to every person on the planet.”