Sports in brief 2011-10-06

Dinamo Riga fans have had to endure one of the worst months in the club’s history, with their team recording just one victory in the opening month of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). Following on from the air tragedy that claimed the lives of the entire Yaroslavl Lokomotiv team, September saw a reduced schedule for all teams, with the tournament beginning nearly a week late. When the hockey did begin, it was not the start to the season that Dinamo Riga would have been hoping for under the tutelage of new trainer Pekka Rautakallio. Beginning on the road on Sept. 13, Dinamo Riga went zero-for-two before returning back home to enjoy some better luck, knocking over CSKA, 5-3, on Sept 19. Two evenings later they would pick up one more point in a shootout loss to Dinamo Minsk, but that would be as good as their month would get. In their third home game, Dinamo Riga gained an unwanted place in the history books, becoming the first team to lose to league newcomers, the Slovakian-based Lev. The month would then finish with their biggest loss to date, falling 4-1 to Dinamo Moscow. The one shining light from the month was the form of forward Mikelis Redlihs, who picked up six assists and two goals to be amongst the leading point scorers in the league.

Lithuanian National Basketball Association (NBA) legend Zyrdunas Ilgauskas has decided to hang up his singlet after 13 seasons playing in the world’s premier basketball competition. At the completion of the last season, in which “Big Z” went all the way to the championship series with the Miami Heat, where they would finally be halted by the Dallas Mavericks, most in the know believed that the 36-year-old center would return for one more season in an attempt to capture an illusive NBA Championship ring. But last week Ilgauskas announced his decision to retire at an event in Cleveland, the city where he played for 12 of his 13 NBA seasons for the Cavaliers. “Enough is enough. My body is beat up and I’m tired physically. There is no age limit, but everyone knows when it’s time,” Ilgauskas was reported as saying in Cleveland newspaper, the Cleveland plain-dealer. It is believed that the ongoing NBA player lockout saga, in which no imminent end is apparent, may have also played a part in Ilgauskas’ decision as he opts out of the uncertainty that the lockout brings with it and, instead, focuses on life after basketball. Ilgauskas holds the record for most games played (771), rebounds made (5,904), and blocked shots (1,269) for the Cleveland Cavaliers, which was enough for the club to announce earlier this year that they intend to retire his number 11 singlet in the near future.

Estonian Kaia Kanepi has come out of one of her best weeks of tennis this season, knocking over world no. 1 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, 7-5, 1-6, 6-4, in the round of 16 at the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, Japan. Despite falling a day later in the quarterfinals to Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, the victory over the world no. 1 indicates that the 26-year-old may finally be putting the leg injuries that have thus far plagued her 2011 season behind her. This week at the China Open in Beijing, Kanepi has again begun strongly, routing local qualifier Saisai Zheng of China, 6-0, 6-3, in the opening round. She has now been gifted a free ride into the final 16 after her second round opponent, Sabine Lisicki of Germany, pulled out before the match began, suffering from illness. In the round of 16, Kanepi will be hoping for a similar result as a week previous as she once more prepares to take on Wozniacki, with the pair set to clash on Thursday morning, Baltic time.