The week in numbers: w/e 4/3/12

McIlroy displaced Luke Donald as world number one (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

22 – Age of Rory McIlroy, who yesterday became world number one at 22 years and 10 months after winning the Honda Classic at Palm Beach. Only Tiger Woods, who was joint-second, two shots behind, has climbed to the top of golf’s rankings at a younger age.

72 – Roger Federer defeated Andy Murray 7-5 6-4 in the final of the Dubai Championship to win his 72nd career title. Murray had beaten world number one Novak Djokovic to reach the final.

50 – Wladimir Klitschko recorded his 50th professional knockout as he successfully defended his WBA, IBF and WBO world heavyweight title belts with a fourth-round win over Frenchman Jean-Marc Mormeck.

The week in numbers: w/e 29/1/12

Azarenka won both her first major and gained the number 1 ranking (image courtesy of Mark Howard/Flickr)

1 – Having lost the opening two games of the Australian Open final, Victoria Azarenka won 12 of the next 13 games to defeat Maria Sharapova 6-3 6-0, winning her first Grand Slam tournament and taking over the number one ranking.

15 – This was the third time in the last six tournaments that only 15 games were required to complete the ladies’ singles final. On each occasion the losing finalist was Russian (Sharapova in 2007 and 2012, Dinara Safina in 2009).

7 –  A joint-England-record seven players failed to score more than one run as the tourists were skittled out for 72 in pursuit of a target of 145 to give Pakistan an unassailable 2-0 lead in the second of their three-match series.

22 – 22 wickets fell in one day as New Zealand inflicted Zimbabwe’s record defeat to win their one-off Test in Napier by an innings. New Zealand declared on 495/7 before dismissing Zimbabwe for 51 and then 143 following on.

The week in numbers: w/e 22/1/12

Joe Paterno, RIP (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

85 – Age of Joe Paterno, former football head coach of Penn State University, who died after a short battle with lung cancer. Paterno won 409 games and two national championships in nearly 46 years as coach, but was sacked last November for his links to a child abuse scandal.

0 – Number of sets won by the five British players – Laura Robson, Heather Watson, Elena Baltacha, James Ward and Anne Keothavong – who competed on the first day of the Australian Open. They lost ten sets and all five matches between them.

3 – Former Chelsea and Leeds defender Michael Duberry scored an unusual hat-trick for current club Oxford United. He conceded two own goals to put visitors Hereford United 2-1 up at the Kassam Stadium, before snatching a last-minute equaliser to earn Oxford a point.

The week in numbers: w/e 27/11/11

Gary Speed, 1969-2011. RIP (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

42 – Age of Gary Speed, the Wales manager and former Leeds, Everton, Newcastle, Bolton and Sheffield United midfielder, who hanged himself at his own home at the weekend. Speed made nearly 700 appearances for his various clubs, was the first man to play in 500 Premier League games and was capped 85 times for Wales, more than any other outfield player. Appointed manager of his country in December last year, he won five of his ten games in charge, including four of the last five. He is survived by a wife and two sons.

2 – In the third Test in Mumbai, India and the West Indies played out only the second ever match (in 2,019 completed Tests) to finish as a draw with the scores level (also Zimbabwe vs England, 1996). Ravichandran Ashwin, who had scored 103 in India’s first innings, was run out attempting what would have been a winning second run on the final ball of the match as India finished on 242/9 after being set 243 for victory. (There have also been two tied Tests, where both teams completed both their innings with their total scores equal.)

The week in numbers: w/e 13/11/11

Joe Frazier, 1944-2011

67 – Age of Joe Frazier, the former undisputed world heavyweight boxing champion, who died after a short battle with liver cancer. He fought Muhammad Ali three times in world title bouts, including the ‘Fight of the Century’ (1971) and the ‘Thrilla in Manila’ (1975), winning once and losing twice.

1 – The IAAF World Atheltics Championships will be held in the UK for the first time after London was awarded the 2017 event over Doha, Qatar on Friday.

46 – Penn State football coach Joe Paterno was sacked for his role in not reporting allegations of child abuse to the police, in which a former assistant has been charged with sexually assaulting eight boys. Paterno won 409 games – a major college football record – and two national championships in nearly 46 years as the coach of the Nittany Lions.