Garbine Muguruza achieved the rare feat of overpowering world Serena Williams to claim her maiden grand slam title with a 7-5 6-4 win over the world number one and defending champion in the French Open final on Saturday.The 22-year-old fourth seed, who lost to Williams in last year’s Wimbledon final, became the first Spaniard to lift the Suzanne Lenglen Cup since Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in 1998.
“This is the big tournament in Spain and Rafa (Nadal) is our champion,” she said courtside, referring to the nine-times men’s winner who pulled out injured last week.“She won the first set by one point. That just goes to show you you really have to play the big points well and I think she played the big points really well,” Williams said.Although her hard-hitting game seems more suited to faster surfaces, Muguruza won 14 consecutive sets en route to the final after losing her opening set of the tournament.An anxious player by her own admission, she managed her emotions on Court Philippe Chatrier, saving six of eight break points against Williams, who had only lost only four of her 26 previous major singles finals.It was Muguruza’s first final on the slow surface and she relied on a powerful first serve and jaw-dropping winners down the line to subdue the American in a battle of will.
Williams, who was gunning for a professional era record 22nd major title, got off to a solid start, winning her first service game to love and putting pressure on her opponent’s serve.In the fourth game, which lasted nine minutes, Muguruza saved a break point with an unreturnable forehand, then a second with an ace.An ugly double fault, however, earned Muguruza the first break of the match, which she consolidated by holding serve in the sixth game with a flat forehand winner down the line to lead 4-2.Williams, 34, stepped into the court and put Muguruza on the back foot, breaking back for 4-4 when Muguruza sent a backhand long.An unreturnable crosscourt forehand gave Muguruza another break. Serving for the set, she showed early nerves in the 12th game before converting her third opportunity with a sizzling backhand winner.A weak Williams backhand put Muguruza up a break in the second, only for the Spaniard to serve consecutive double faults as the American broke back for 1-1.But she unleashed another forehand down the line to regain the advantage and held for 3-1.Williams saved four match points to hold but on Muguruza’s fifth opportunity to seal the contest in the following game she landed a lob on the base line and sank to her knees in apparent disbelief at winning the title.
America cannot be safe from terrorism unless it roots out and destroys the Islamic State at home and in the Middle East.Recent attacks in Brussels, the December massacre in San Bernardino and 32 other IS sponsored assaults in 24 cities around the world should drive home to Americans that no one on this planet is safe from radical Islam.
The founding principles of American civilization — the efficacy of democracy to guarantee personal security and the inviolability of human rights—are under attack and exploited by the IS.Bombings in the Brussels airport and subway owe much to a democratically elected government’s failure to use its security apparatus to map and roll up the IS extremist network in Muslim districts of the city — despite repeated warnings the infestation was spreading and posed a lethal threat.Now citizens of Belgium live in fear and are unable to move freely on their own streets.
Americans turn a blind eye too — obsessed with naïve notions about freedom of religion. And if we don’t become more realistic, we can look forward to more San Bernardino and perhaps 9-11 attacks.Islamic radicalization spreads among young Muslims much as did Christianity did during the Roman persecution but with terribly evil intentions.
Young people, burdened by poverty and unemployment — and disaffected by the failed promises of politicians to create decent opportunities — are exposed to a poisonous religion of hatred toward Christians and Western Civilization.
Founded on mutated and twisted notions of Islam, this creed spreads through loosely connected networks of underground mosques and terrorist cells, by word of mouth and on the internet.
Police efforts to monitor those activities were frustrated in Brussels — much as they were in San Bernardino — in part, by religious leaders, friends and families who turned a blind eye to terrorist preparations, refused to cooperate with authorities and often shared some sympathy for those who hold western values and institutions in contempt.Seen in this context, Islam and the Islamic community cannot be viewed as just another religion protected by the First Amendment.
Just as freedom of speech does not give individuals the right to scream fire in a movie theater, freedom of religion does not protect a community from conspiring through direct actions by its more brazen members or estoppel by ignoring bomb building in neighbors’ basements.
Either the Imams, Islamic community leaders and ordinary citizens earnestly assist authorities to root out the cancer in their midst, or western governments should subject Mosques and community groups to police surveillance normally reserved for movements dedicated to overthrowing governments and subjugating citizens because those are the avowed intents of the IS.As importantly, the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq provides essential support for the global terrorist movement and if not absolutely crushed, then its sinister designs to paralyze and destabilize western societies will in some places succeed.
Belgium is already skating on the edge of state entropy.Europeans appear not to have the stomach to defend their own liberties. The Germans and others cried but refused to protect the Ukraine from Russian aggression, and indicate no stomach for an expeditionary force to destroy ISIS on the ground.
Allied bombing of ISIS and technical and materiel support for the government of Iraq and anti-ISIS insurgents are proving simply not enough.Despite repeated terrorist attacks, Europeans continue to believe tight security and good police work may somehow root out terrorists before they attack airports, subway systems and stadiums filled with spectators.
Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton rapidly turned their fire on each other with an eye toward November’s presidential election after rolling up strong wins in Northeastern states. The New York billionaire easily defeated rivals John Kasich and Ted Cruz in all five states that held party nominating contests on Tuesday – Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware. He had a margin of victory rivaling that of New York state a week ago and was on course to win the vote in every county in each state.Clinton, already in control of the Democratic race, defeated challenger Bernie Sanders in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Her only loss of the night was in Rhode Island.
The race now pivots immediately to Indiana, which is shaping up to be Cruz’s best, and perhaps last, chance to slow Trump’s momentum toward capturing the Republican presidential nomination for the Nov. 8 general election.
If Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas, can win a large share of the state’s 57 delegates on May 3, it will boost the chances that Trump will not be able to amass the 1,237 delegates he needs to clinch the nomination before the party’s convention in July. That could give Cruz a shot at convincing delegates to back him for president instead.
Cruz’s campaign has begun hinting that he could name a vice presidential running mate as soon as this week, a move that would seek to consolidate more Republican support and create an image that he will be the nominee. Former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who made a failed presidential bid, is among the potential picks being vetted.
Trump, pressing his point that he views the nominating race as essentially finished, criticized that as a potential Cruz pick. “I think it would be a bad choice, not because she’s a woman but because she did not resonate at all with people.”
“It’s too early to do it. And frankly, he’s wasting his time because he’s not going to be the nominee,” Trump said.
A loss to Trump in Indiana would effectively cripple Cruz’s already faltering bid, and increase pressure on the party to rally around Trump as the prospective nominee.
As Trump has moved from longshot candidate in a crowded field last year to clear front-runner, he has sparked despair among many in the Republican establishment both for his aggressive and sometimes insulting style and for campaign pledges such as slapping a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country, and building a wall along the border with Mexico.Katie Packer, head of the anti-Trump political-action committee Our Principles, said her organization would be active in Indiana with “TV, mail, phones, digital, all of it.”“We’re going to be playing in a lot of different congressional districts,” Packer said.
The Club for Growth, a conservative pro-business group, has bought $1.5 million worth of anti-Trump TV ads in the state.
Both groups worked to hand Trump a defeat at the hands of Cruz earlier this month in Wisconsin.
“Tonight, this campaign moves back to more favorable terrain,” Cruz said in Knightstown, Indiana on Tuesday.
DEAL ME IN’
Back on the East Coast, Trump and Clinton used victory rallies to snipe at each other, a taste of the kind of back and forth that will take place should they win their party’s nominations and face off in the general election campaign.“I think she’s a flawed candidate and she’s going to be easy to beat,” Trump told a news conference at New York’s Trump Tower.
In an interview on Wednesday morning with ABC’s “Good Morning America,” he said he was not concerned that supporters of his Republican rivals would not back him against Clinton.“They’re going to come over,” said Trump, a real estate magnate and former reality TV star. “I’ve watched it all my life. They are angry, they’re confused, and they don’t know how all of this has happened, then all of a sudden it turns into love. Anger turns into love.”
Trump was due to give a big foreign policy speech in Washington on Wednesday. He criticized Clinton’s record as secretary of state and her vote as a U.S. senator from New York in support of the Iraq war. He said her only advantage was her bid to be the first woman U.S. president.
“Frankly if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don’t think she’d get 5 percent of the vote,” he sa Clinton, in a victory speech in Philadelphia, took aim at Trump for accusing her of trying to “play the woman card.”“Well if fighting for women’s healthcare and paid family leave and equal pay is playing the woman card, then deal me in,” she said to cheers.Of 118 committed delegates available on Tuesday, Trump took 105, raising his total delegates to 950. Kasich, the Ohio governor, won five, all from Rhode Island, and Cruz one, with seven delegates still to be assigned, according to the Associated Press. Pennsylvania’s 54 unbound delegates will become clearer later.
Clinton’s strong showing in the Democratic race added to the pressure on Sanders to get out of the race or ease his criticism of her.In her speech Clinton was careful, however, to avoid criticizing Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, as she spoke of the need for party unity.
“Whether you support Senator Sanders or you support me, there is much more that unites us than divides us,” she said.Clinton’s victories on Tuesday brought her total count to 2,141 delegates, according to the AP, pushing her closer to the 2,383 needed for the nomination.
Sanders, who has accused Clinton of being in the pocket of Wall Street and pledged to do more than she would to address social inequality, showed no signs of getting out of the race. He is expected to campaign in Indiana.“The people in every state in this country should have the right to determine who they want as president and what the agenda of the Democratic Party should be. That’s why we are in this race until the last vote is cast,” he said in a statement on Tuesday night.
