BASEL, SWITZERLAND – A major upset at the Swiss Indoors Basel tennis tournament has the sport reeling Saturday night 5 November: number 32 in the world, Japanese wild card Kei Nishikori, defeated Novak Djokovic, who praised the winner’s game, saying his opponent was “getting impossible balls back”.
Djokovic, top player in the ATP rankings, won the first set 6-2 and was only two points from victory in the second when Nishikori won a long rally to reach a tie-break, which he won. The final set saw the Japanese rush through to win 2-6 7-6 6-0. Djokovic was playing in his first tournament since taking time off with back strain, and was twice treated for shoulder strain. Djokovic now has a 68-4 record this year, having lost to Roger Federer in the French Open and twice retiring with injury.
Roger Federer defeated his Olympic doubles partner Stanislas Wawrinka in the other semi-final 7-6 6-2 and will meet Nishikori in the final, Sunday 6 November.
Links to other sites: TSR, Seattlepi
CINCINATTI, USA – Andy Murray won his seventh ATP title when Novak Djokovic retired when down 3-0 in the second set, having lost the first 6-4, 21 August. It was only the second loss of the year for the Serbian who has won 57 matches this season while progressing to the top of the ATP rankings. He called for medical treatment for his shoulder at the end of the first set.
Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer both lost in the quarter-finals of the Cincinnati Masters tournament which is the last big tournament before the US Open.
Swiss ice hockey
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva-Servette beat Rapperswill 4-2 to register their fourth successive win and move up to fifth in the table, their best spot in the rankings this season. However, their Canadian coach Chris McSorley risks suspension after a verbal attack on a referee.
Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria (GenevaLunch) – Lara Gut is back in top form, her skiing Sunday 9 January in Austria showed, as she beat American Lindsey Vonn by 0.53 on the tough slopes of Altenmarkt-Zauchensee to take the World Cup super-G final race. She started 24th which, she told reporters after the race, gave her a chance to see where others had made mistakes, so she could adjust her speed, which was almost too fast towards the end. Vonn, who leads
It’s her second World Cup win: the first, in St Moritz in December 2008, pushed the then-17 year old into world sports headlines as a new skiing star. She spent much of last season off the slopes after an injury led to hip surgery and a long recovery.
Vonn is currently ranked first in super-G, Maaria Riesch second and Gut third, but in overall standings Vonn is second, after Maria Riesch, while Gut is 13th, the top-ranked Swiss women’s skier.
Gut told the AP news agency that she’s put her recent arguments with the Swiss Ski Federation behind her. She and the federation last week announced they had reached an agreement on their differences, which included Gut’s objection to following team clothing rules. She was suspended from races the final weekend in December over this and public criticism of a team coach.
Government education subsidies keep fees low, even for foreign students
Parked and working hard at the Rolex Learning Center, EPFL in Lausanne
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – One-fifth of Swiss university students are foreign, with the figure climbing for graduate students, yet university fees remain low in Switzerland thanks to government subsidies. Parents pay about half of their adult children’s university costs. New federal statistics published Tuesday 23 November show that only 10 percent of the cost of attending graduate school is financed by scholarships or student loans.
The figures are part of a European-wide survey, Eurostudent, to be published in coming days, according to Bern. Thirty countries participated in the study.
Living at home saves students’ one-third of costs
Three-quarters of Swiss graduate school students work, and their families finance at least 50 percent of their costs.
The bulk of working students are employed during the school year as well as during school holidays.
Students at the HES, or specialized schools, are most often employed in a field linked to their studies.
Graduate students spend on average an additional CHF1,870 a month if they are paying rent away from their parents’ home, or CHF1,210 if they are living at home. Swiss graduate school tuition fees range from CHF1,000-8,000 a year, with foreign students often but not always paying the higher fees.
EPFL’s Aebischer: we need more foreign students
EPFL: Rolex Learning Center has cubicle's for teamwork
The relatively low fees, compared to those in the UK and US, for example, are due largely to government subsidies, but there is little outcry over subsidizing international students. A recent change in the law now gives international students six months to find a job before their permits run out at the end of their studies. Some students, notably engineers, are in short supply and companies who hire them are anxious to see schools like EPFL, the Lausanne polytechnic, turn out more of them.
“There’s a real penurie,” says Denis Piaget, chief executive officer of Etel, a company in Motier, canton Neuchatel. It is the world’s leading supplier of direct drive and motion systems, whose high-tech industry clients include makers of semi-conductors, and it has long worked closely with EPFL. “Our products are unique, so we’re constantly innovating, and our clients have to be companies that are able and ready to invest in that. It’s tough to find really well qualified engineers who can work at this level, so strong academic centres are crucial for us.”
Swiss top 16 countries for honesty, Nation Brands Index places country at 8
Zurich, Switzerland 2010: a nice place to live, says Mercer
Update 16: 30 [Video] Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Zurich and Geneva once again come in second and third in the Mercer city quality of living rankings, following Vienna, Austria and just ahead of Vancouver, Canada. Mercer notes that these are not quality of life but quality of living rankings based on measurable criteria.
Calgary, Canada was named the best eco-city and Baghdad was at the bottom of the heap as the worst city for quality of living.
Mercer, which advises companies and staff on international workplace issues, has one of the most respected city rankings of the many produced. They rate 320 cities once a year using 10 categories and 32 criteria.
Switzerland also comes out top in a survey on honesty recently run by Reader’s Digest, where 1,000 Swiss were questioned as part of a survey of 16 countries.
Overall, 91 percent of Swiss questioned would return a wallet they found, while worldwide the figure was 63 percent. Russians came out worst in the survey, but in general the stronger the economy and the less poverty, the more honest people are, according to the survey’s results.
And the Nations Brand Index, which is used by Presence Swiss to measure outside perceptions of the country, rated Switzerland a strong number 8 for 2009.
Links to other sites: 20 Minutes (Fre), Readers Digest Switzerland
How are cities ranked by Mercer?
Didier Cuche (image: Swiss Ski)
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Didier Cuche, 35, one of Switzerland’s best skiing hopes for the upcoming Olympic Games in Vancouver, had surgery Saturday 30 January to mend his right thumb, broken in a fall close to the finish line in Kranjska Gora, Slovakia, during Friday’s World Cup Giant Slalom race. Doctors in Zurich said after the operation that they are very pleased, have put in a plate and seven pins to stabilize it and he should be able to start training again within days. Cuche may be able to join the team in Vancouver, but he and doctors will talk about this further in a press conference Sunday.
Cuche also injured his left knee, an MRI scan showed, but doctors expect him to be able to take up training despite several slight injuries to the knee.
Cuche is currently the world’s top-ranked downhill skier and he is in third place overall. He ended third in World Cup rankings for the 2008-2009 season. A week before his accident he won the legendary Kitzbuehel race in Austria.
Links to other sites: About.com, FIS international ski federation, Swiss Ski
Update 21:15 Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The world football federation Wednesday 2 December approved the Final Draw procedure, publishing the “pots” of teams. The draw takes place in South Africa Friday 4 and will determine who plays whom, when.
The Irish will not play in South Africa in the 2010 World Cup: that is the final answer to their request to Fifa, the world football federation, to reconsider. Ireland lost to France in a headline-making qualifying game after French player Thierry Henry’s illegal handball move that was not spotted by game officials. The Irish had asked to be an extra team for the World Cup but Monday Fifa said no.
CNN points out that France, unseeded, would have been seeded had November rankings been used instead of October’s.
The pots for Friday’s draw:
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva Servette handed a defeat to the Zurich Lions in front of the Zurich hockey club’s hometown fans, 6,915 of them, at the Hallenstadion. The Geneva team came from behind with only 10 minutes left in the match, for a final score of ZSC Lions – GSHC ap 3-4 (1-1, 0-2, 2-0). GSHC is now ranked fourth in its Swiss group.
