Doubling up in London?: Frederik Løchte Nielsen has once again teamed up with his doubles partner Jonathan Marray – with whom he won the 2012 Wimbledon title – at the season-end, eight-pair Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena in London, and the par have already qualified for the semi-finals, which are scheduled to take place on Sunday, after winning the first two games of their four-pair group. Ranked eighth, the pair kicked off their campaign on Tuesday with a win against Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna, and then followed that with another win on Wednesday against Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor, the reigning champions. The pair qualified for the event thanks to their win at Wimbledon, one of only three events from which they have acquired ranking points this season due to Nielsen's decision to focus on his singles game.
Delusions of grandeur: Viasat, one of the Superliga’s TV rights holders, has responded angrily to Morten Olsen’s criticism of the timing of a league game between AGF and FC Nordsjælland on November 16 – which is due to kick off less than 48 hours after Denmark’s international friendly against Turkey – condemning the national coach’s “superior” attitude. The broadcaster’s head of sport, Peter Nørrelund, complained that it was an “unprofessional” attitude and dismissed concerns about the players’ welfare. “They’re professional footballers – they’ll survive well enough,” he told sporten.dk. Three players from FCN and one from AGF were called up for the game, but there was no place for veteran winger Dennis Rommedahl, who is being rested. The only debutant is NEC Nijmegen left back Kevin Conboy, who is currently on loan from the Dutch club at Esbjerg.
Another final for Woz: Caroline Wozniacki made it through to her third final in as many months over the weekend at the Tournament of Champions in Sofia, but was thrashed 6-2, 6-1 by the in-form Nadia Petrova, who won last month’s Toray Pan Pacific Open. The season-ending tournament is effectively a ‘shield’ event: it is contested by the world’s top-ranked players who failed to qualify for last month’s WTA Championships and won a WTA event in 2012.
Host cities confirmed: The country’s handball federation, the DHF, has chosen Aalborg, Copenhagen, Århus and Herning as the four cities to host the Men’s European Handball Championship in 2014. Denmark, who will enter the tournament as defending champions, has never before hosted the Euros. However, it did host the World Championship in 1978, where it finished fourth. Denmark will host the Women’s World Handball Championship in 2015.
Laudrup out of rut: Unlucky for some, Michael Laudrup is now the 13th least likely English Premier League manager to lose his job, following Swansea City’s 1-1 draw against high-fliers Chelsea on Saturday. Just four weeks ago, reports emerged of player discontent as Swansea went five games without winning, but since then Laudrup has steadied the ship, beating Wigan in the EPL, and knocking Liverpool out of the League Cup.
