Win over Murray a giant step on Pospisil’s comeback trail

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Vasek Pospisil of Canada celebrates a point during his straight sets victory against Andy Murray of Great Britain in their second round match during day six of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells Tennis Garden on March 11, 2017 in Indian Wells, California. Clive Brunskill/Getty Images/AFP CLIVE BRUNSKILL / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP

Vasek Pospisil, playing tennis with renewed purpose after a tumultuous 2016, knew something big was coming, but a stunning triumph over world number one Andy Murray exceeded his expectations.

“Amazing feeling,” Pospisil said after vanquishing Britain’s Murray 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) in the second round of the ATP Indian Wells Masters.

“I feel like I’m on a comeback trail,” he added.

“I felt like a big result was coming, because I believe in my abilities, but just kind of had to put the pieces together again. Obviously to beat the number one player in the world is incredible.”

The 26-year-old from Vernon, British Columbia, was ranked as high as 25th in the world in 2014 and in 2015 captured the Wimbledon doubles crown with American Jack Sock.

But he was playing on the lower-rung Challenger circuit as recently as February, honing his game under the guidance of new coach Mark Woodforde and trying to build up a ranking that had slipped outside the top 130 in the world.

He said Australia’s Woodforde, a 12-time Grand Slam doubles champion, had proved the perfect addition as he sought to rekindle the fire he lacked last year.

“He has a lot of wisdom,” Pospisil said. “He’s been around for many years. He was a great singles player himself.

“Doubles, obviously, that goes without saying, one of the doubles greats. But he was a very accomplished singles player, and I felt like he could help me kind of discover more about my game and how I want to play.”

Still glowing from his victory over Murray, Pospisil wasn’t interested in discussing the details of the personal troubles that played havoc with his career last year.

“I feel like I came out a little bit more wise about life, about myself,” he said. “I think that’s why I’m also now enjoying my time on the court so much more these days.

“The last few months I have been kind of stopping myself during matches and realizing how happy I am to even be competing and playing tennis.”

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Wenger says no to Barcelona job

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Arsenal's French manager Arsene Wenger/ AFP PHOTO / FRANCK FIFE / AFP PHOTO / FRANCK FIFE

Arsene Wenger said he had no interest in succeeding Luis Enrique as Barcelona coach on Thursday, but admitted his future as Arsenal manager remains up in the air.

Luis Enrique announced after Barcelona’s 6-1 win over Sporting Gijon on Wednesday that he will step down from his role at the end of the season in order to take a break.

Wenger, 67, is due to make a decision on whether to extend his 20-year association with Arsenal either this month or next and he reiterated that his preference would be to remain at the Emirates Stadium.

Asked if he would be interested in moving to Camp Nou, he said: “No, my preference has always been the same and will remain the same.

“Of course I am not looking for jobs in other clubs or jobs off other people.

“I am focused on me, getting to the next level and trying to improve and always trying to see what you can do better and reinvent yourself and that’s what I try to do. That’s basically it.”

Wenger’s position is once again under scrutiny after Arsenal fell off the pace in the Premier League title race and lost 5-1 at Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie.

Despite his long attachment to the club, he said he was not allowing sentiment to cloud his thinking about his future.

“I have been here for 20 years and I had many times the opportunity to leave so I don’t think I have to convince you that my preference has always been Arsenal,” he told a press conference at Arsenal’s training base.

“But of course I am objective and lucid enough to make the right decision for myself and the club as well. The club is free to make the decision it wants and I will respect that.”

Wenger also said he would not be worried about the potential impact of making a statement about his future similar to Luis Enrique’s.

“I believe that the players have their targets, the team targets, and I don’t think that can be detrimental. It can be positive as well,” said the Frenchman, whose side visit Liverpool on Saturday.

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Former councillors pledge to support Ugwuanyi in 2019 (Read full details)

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Ugwuanyi

Former local government councillors in Enugu State have promised to work toward the re-election of Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, should he seek a fresh mandate in 2019.

“The governor has done well and we shall support him to secure a fresh mandate to enable him complete his development strides,” Mr Chidiebere Okoh, leader of the 260-man councillors’ forum, said on Monday.

Okoh told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Enugu that the governor’s special attention to the rural areas and his humility had redefined governance in the state.

He said that the councillors opted to offer their support after assessing the governor’s efforts “in spite of very limited resources”.

Okoh described the governor as “a true grassroots politician and a gift from God, who has come to provide shelter to the poor and needy”.

“His administrative style has restored hope to the poor; this is the first time we are having a leader with a massive interest in the most helpless class in Enugu,” he said.

Okoh commended the governor over the prompt payment of salaries and the settlement of contractors’ claims, and urged him to sustain such commitment.

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Gunmen attack Kogi police station, kill two policemen, detainee

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PHOTO: udeytrymedia.com

Some gunmen in the early hours of Friday, attacked a police station at Eika community in Okehi Local Government Area of Kogi, killing two policemen and a detainee.

The News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN) gathered that the bandits invaded the police station at about 1 am and immediately opened fire on policemen on duty, killing them, alongside a detainee

The heavily armed hoodlums, said to be about 10, later set the station ablaze and proceeded to the house of Mr Sadiq Obomi, Chairman, Eika Community Development Association, and killed him.

The State Commissioner of Police, Mr Abdulahi Chafe, confirmed the incident , promising to provide details later.

However, a resident of Eika community who is also a member of a local vigilante group, told NAN that the gunmen came in two vehicles and started shooting into the air as they made their way to the police station.

He said that the gunmen later escaped after the operation, which he said, lasted almost two hours.

Security men have been deployed to the community to maintain peace.

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Jeff Sessions confirmed as US attorney general

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The US Senate confirmed Jeff Sessions as attorney general Wednesday, despite fierce debate about his civil rights record and Democratic concern over whether he serves as the nation’s top law enforcement officer independent from President Donald Trump.

Lawmakers greenlighted the senator as the 84th US attorney general on a mostly party line vote of 52 to 47, with one Democrat, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, voting with the Republican majority.

When the tally was announced, many senators broke into extended applause for their colleague.

Trump has harangued Democrats for slow-walking his nominees, blasting their unprecedented obstruction as a “disgrace.”

He appeared particularly angered by the delay on Sessions, who as attorney general would wield enormous power regarding the administration of justice, including on the issue of voting rights.

“Congratulations to our new attorney general,” Trump tweeted shortly after the vote.

Sessions, widely seen as an inspiration for Trump’s anti-immigration policies, is just the sixth of 15 cabinet members to be confirmed, in addition to the cabinet-rank positions of CIA director and US ambassador to the United Nations.

He takes charge of the Justice Department and its 113,000 employees amid a swirling legal debate over Trump’s most controversial White House action to date, an executive order temporarily blocking all refugee arrivals and immigration from seven mainly Muslim countries.

With Trump using Twitter to bully a judge who rolled back the ban, and an appeals court weighing whether to reinstate it, debate over Sessions grew increasingly acrimonious and personal.

On Tuesday night, it turned ugly. Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sternly rebuked Democrat Elizabeth Warren for reading a letter written by the widow of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr that criticized Sessions’s civil rights record.

“She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted,” McConnell said of Warren’s violation of the chamber’s rules of decorum.

Warren, a potential 2020 presidential candidate, later said: “I will not be silent about a nominee for AG who has made derogatory and racist comments that have no place in our justice system.”

In 1986, Coretta Scott King wrote a letter to the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee urging senators to reject Sessions’s nomination as a federal judge. His appointment ultimately failed.

“Mr Sessions has used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens,” King wrote.

Senator Sherrod Brown expressed concern about Sessions in light of Trump’s recent executive order.

“We need an attorney general who will be an independent voice beholden to the Constitution and the American people, not the president,” Brown said.

The genteel Sessions, who like the president is 70, was an early loyal Trump supporter who became a pivotal figure in his campaign and his transition team.

Sessions grew up in Alabama, in the segregated South. He was a US prosecutor from 1981 to 1993, before serving as the state’s attorney general. He won a seat in the US Senate in 1996.

His career was almost derailed when the Senate panel rejected him for a federal judgeship amid concerns over past comments he made about blacks, and voter rights.

At his confirmation hearing last month, Sessions endured pinpoint attacks by Democrats on his civil rights record, but he insisted that “this caricature of me from 1986 was not correct.”

Shortly after his confirmation he sought to assuage concerns about how he would run the department.

“I fully understand the august responsibilities of that office,” he said.

Sessions also recognized the heated US political debate since Trump’s election victory and urged Americans to come together.

“Our nation does have room for Republicans and Democrats,” he said.

But Senate Democrat Chris Murphy said he was “scared” about changes Sessions could bring.

Sessions’s “history of opposing civil rights, anti-gun violence measures and immigration reform makes him uniquely ill-fitted to serve” as attorney general, Murphy said.

“I want a chief law enforcement official that will be a champion of the disenfranchised and dispossessed, not a defender of discrimination and nativism.”

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