As she sat there quietly contemplating what had passed before her, the tears that seeped from the wells of her eyes and gently cascaded down her cheeks spoke a thousand words.

Told a tale they did, of hardship and of a woman that at times was down on her luck. One that was as much about relief, that all those years of traipsing around the world by herself struggling to get by had finally started to pay off, as it was about elation.

She had only ever won one WTA title during her fifteen year career, in 2007.
Now Greta Arn had finally secured her second title at the ASB Classic in Auckland today. She didn’t just beat Yanina Wickmayer 6-3, 6-3, she fair pummelled her.
With the modern propensity to attempt to perforate the ball, hers was instead a victory for acute tactical nous.

Certainly Arn gave the ball an almighty wallop at times. It’s just that, unlike her adversary, she interspersed this with the occasional slice serve, a delicate lob shot and every so often to change the pace of the game she would throw in some high topspin forehands.

Wickmayer had but not a clue what was going on. For the most part, she kept on belting hard flat forehands and not much else. On the few occasions that she ventured into the net, her approach shots were inadequate, leaving Arn free to fire shots back at the Belgium’s feet. Which Wickmayer promptly volleyed back into the net.

Arn simply dismantled her with the utmost precision. Never, at any stage of the match did Wickmayer seriously look like threatening the Hungarian wonder. If there was a service break to be had, it was Arn who would make a rendezvous with it.
Which she promptly achieved in the fifth game, to take a 3-2 lead. To date, despite the score line suggesting an even contest was at hand, in reality Arn always had control. Wickmayer looked under pressure from the beginning, and was hanging on by a mere thread. No matter what she tried, she couldn’t hang with Arn who was playing with great consistency. She put the ball back over the net and let Wickmayer commit errors. And she did.

Enough so that in the ninth game the thread snapped. Arn, ever ready, pounced and once again captured herself another service break and the first set, 6-3. The dream run of the previous four days seemingly was set to continue.

The defining moment of the final came in the sixth game of the second set. With Arn up 3-2 and each player holding their serve thus far, Wickmayer, at 15-15 on her serve decided to attempt a drop shop from the baseline. Not the right place to try such a stunt. Nor was it the right time of the game. Maybe if she had been up 40-15. But, then, she wasn’t. Panic had made an effort to acquaint itself with Wickmayer, who unwittingly welcomed it into her world.

What was there for all to see in that one fateful moment was a searing insight into a mind that was at the end of its tether as it searched for a way to combat the tactical prowess of a player that, by rights, had no business to have visited the upper echelons of the week’s play.

The match was effectively over.

Arn may only have been up 4-2, but, in reality, Wickmayer was a lost soul. She looked beaten. It was merely a matter of time before Arn put the defending champion out of her misery.

Before she did that though, Arn had the small matter of taming her nerves over the next couple of games. This, fortunately for her, turned out to be nothing more a minor blip in the large scheme of things. At 5-3 she was able to serve out the match to secure a popular victory

All week she had been able to keep a lid on her emotions, remaining ice cool under pressure for majority of the five days. But no longer could she contain the tidal wave of emotion swelling up within her as the mental exhaustion of the week finally took its toll as she fell to the ground in a crumpled heap.

Eventually, as she got back to her feet and sat at courtside, Arn would have been able to reflect on a career that hasn’t always gone to plan, but, now, she really will have something to truly saviour.

What a breath of fresh air. Greta Arn, that is. Ranked 177 in the world, she just keeps on keeping on as she steamrolls her way over the field at this week’s ASB Classic.

Not a grunt to be heard, either.

Already she had dealt to former world number one, Maria Sharapova, in the quarter-finals. This time it was the turn of 41st ranked German, Julia Goerges, to feel the tennis wrath of Arn.

Most would rightly expect such a lowly ranked competitor to at least have the decency to struggle through in three sets against more fancied opposition. Not Arn, though. No, she doesn’t have need for such offerings.

Here’s a woman that in a fifteen year pro career has won the princely sum of 500,000US dollars. There is many a modern day player that wouldn’t get out of bed for the opportunity to win less than that amount in one tournament, let alone over a decade and a half. Yet Arn does it all with the minimum of fuss.

There are no trainers in sight. Her coach is half way around the world, sitting at home, due to her having insufficient funds to fly him to New Zealand. She has no need to concern herself about which fancy outfits to wear. In between matches, she finds time to do interviews for television and the like, with a smile on her visage. Hell, she even manages the feat of smiling during her matches.

Just a little on the well rounded side then, it seems. The Hungarian does her country proud. A competitor that gets the utmost out of what ability she is lucky to possess. Unlike certain other pros. No names, of course.

Next year, tournament organisers, might like to shell out a few bucks on a free air ticket to bring Arn back to Auckland. They could do a lot worse. Big name she may not be. What she will give, at least, is every last little drop of effort she has to the cause. She certainly did that today in her 7-6, 6-3 victory over Goerges.

Perhaps it is the tough road that Arn has had to travel down all these years that allows her to keep her emotions under control when things don’t nessecarily go her way. Such as the time she led 4-2 in the first set, only to see her lead evaporate as Goerges rolled off three straight games, and had three set points over Arn in the tenth game.

Arn, ever the fighter, reduced the deficit to one set point, then, at 30-40, produced a high pressure ace to bring the game to deuce. Crisis averted, as she went on to level the match at 5-5. This all after her opponent had been on quite the roll. Georges’ serve had come into its own over the second half of the set. A mighty effort on the part of Arn, then, to quell the uprising of her opposite.

Both the next two games went to serve which brought about a tiebreaker.

Once again it was Arn who was the stronger mentally when the pressure came on, as she raced away with the tiebreak 7-3.

It had looked like, as in the first semi-final between Yanina Wikmayer and Shuai Peng, it was going to be a long afternoon for the two combatants.

But Arn put paid to any thoughts Goerges had of making a game of it, as she raced through the second set with relative ease.

Now all she has to do is play out another couple of sets in tommorrow's final and she will be able to collect a richly deserved payday.

Reputations, it seems, mean very little to Hungarian, Greta Arn. Put a former world number one such as Maria Sharapova at the opposite end of the court and she lifts mightily. No cowering to the leggy one’s past achievements, for her.

Nothing fazed Arn as she became the giant killer at the ASB Classic, today, by sending the top seed packing from the tournament in an emphatic 6-2, 7-5 quarter-final victory. Arn seemed to care not of the blistering power of the Sharapova ground strokes. The harder Sharapova hit, Arn would simply see this as an opportunity to return the favour with interest.

That she did, too. Unlike Sharapova, Arn went about her business with an intelligence of play, not to mention patience that the Russian appeared to be lacking in. Particularly in the first set, this was the case.

While Sharapova seemed thrilled at the prospect of belting the ball into another time zone, Arn bided her time with patient thoughtful tennis. Her foe, though, spent the majority of the first set playing with a sameness in the form of hard flat shot making off both the forehand and backhand. Not for her to set a point up with half a dozen topspin shots well over the net in the hope that Arn would make an unforced error.

Instead, it was Arn playing the percentages and waiting for the inevitable Sharapova error to rare its ugly head. And she never had to wait too long, it must be said. Only thirty minutes into the match, she was leading 5-2 and serving for the first set. This Arn managed with ease.

6-2 up and seemingly cruising to victory, Arn could have been forgiven for letting her intensity slacken, somewhat. A mistake, that would have been, though, as Sharapova set about reversing her sagging fortunes.

Despite her approach of the first set not working out to well, she persevered in the hope that eventually her luck would change. And it did for a while. Having drawn level at 2-2, Sharapova went on a two game blitzkrieg of error free tennis to totally dominate Arn, and take a 4-2 lead.

Arn is a fighter, though. The thirty-one year old veteran wasn’t about to let a victory over one of tennis big names slip through her grasp. She broke Sharapova’s serve in the 13th game with a brilliant backhand down the line to leave Sharapova floundering. On a high from such a magnificent shot, Arn then held serve to level at 4-4.

Hard it must have been for Arn, wondering which Sharapova would turn up for the 17th game. As good as Sharapova had been at times in the second set, she appeared to be suffering from a split personality. One minute she was great, the next all airy fairy. Unfortunately for Arn, it was the former who graced centre court with her presence displaying a forceful array of deadly forehands to take a 5-4 lead.

So, a third set was waiting just around the corner. The crowd was starting to get in behind their favourite Russian. Willing her on to greater effort they did, as not often do they get to witness a true world sporting star in their own back yard. They were dammed if they were going to miss out on seeing more of Sharapova.

Alas, it was not to be.

For, Arn steadied her game and fought back as she rampaged her way through the next three games to seal the victory and a spot in the semi-finals, happy in the knowledge that she has put paid to the hopes of local tennis fans seeing more of Sharapova.

New Zealand Cricket has appointed John Wright as coach of the Black Caps.

Rumours abound that before the decision was made, there was a clandestine break-in at the National headquarters in Christchurch and that the perpetrators of this are believed to be logic and common sense.

That they were able to infiltrate the minds of CEO Justin Vaughan and the Board of Directors has been a remarkable feat. For so long now, Wright has been fobbed off by the National body in regards to the Black Caps coaching position on the grounds that he didn’t have the organisational skills to do the job to a high level. A rather peculiar claim when his success with India from 2000-2005 is taken into consideration.

With Wright’s promotion to the head coach’s position, incumbent Mark Greatbatch has been moved sideways to a selector’s role. He now heads a three man panel, along with former internationals Lance Cairns and Glenn Turner, who will select the team independently of the coach and captain. Daniel Vettori, along with high performance director Roger Mortimer who is no longer with NZC, is the big loser in this sad debacle that is eleven individuals attempting to impersonate a cricket team. No longer is he the kingmaker in the operation as he has been stripped bare of the majority of his power. Dethroned of his selector’s position, Vettori will now be left to concentrate on his role as captain and player.

How the overhaul of the operating procedure of the Black caps will affect Vettori remains to be seen. It can’t be easy on his ego to be taken down numerous levels so publicly. But, with a record of one win from the previous fifteen one-dayers, something had to give. New Zealand Cricket was left with no choice but to dismantle the present regime. An effervescent bundle of high performance, this lot was not. Sure, they put in two respectable efforts in the test series in India recently. But, it seems, that was an aberration.

Wright will have his hands full with this lot. Not being used to answering to anyone but themselves, player power had been allowed off its leash to run rampant over the last few years. Playing personal deciding what is best for the team, but appearing to lack the nous to know which is the best road taken. Get away with it they could, due to the lack of quality second tier back-up. New Zealand simply does not have quality or quantity to be able to afford to lose the top echelon on personnel. So NZC bowed to their demands. But, no longer.

Clearly, for New Zealand Cricket, the recent losing streak was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Something had to give. And it did. NZC got tough, bit the bullet, swept away the pieces no longer needed and spruced up a few other bits, virtually admitting they were wrong not to have headhunted Wright many moons ago.

Don’t expect miracles from Wright, though. With only two months until the World Cup, there is little hope that he can turn around what are currently the biggest under-achievers in New Zealand sport in that little a time. Even less hope that the upcoming tour by Pakistan will throw some success in their laps.

No, more than likely a twelve to eighteen month trek through the highs and lows of the cricketing mountains and valleys awaits the soldiers. And if they don’t like Wright’s way of doing things? Simple really, release them from their contracts and invite them to go off and make the money they so covet in the hit and giggle that is the IPL. If that’s what tickles their fancy, then so be it.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, let the selectors choose eleven men that will give their all for their country. Sure, they mightn’t be to the standard of the current crop of playing staff, but, then, even if they lose heavily they wouldn’t be doing any worse than their supposed superiors are at the present time. And at least they will bleed for their country.

Which is just John Wright’s type of cricketer.

The New Zealand Rugby Union has been boxed into a corner and is on the ropes after Sonny Bill Williams landed a searing uppercut to their credibility.

Just when it looked as though Williams was giving his all to the mighty cause of rugby, news of Williams partaking in a boxing match in the first weekend of super fifteen next February jostles its way into our consciousness. Having showed commendable commitment to his new sport, many of us were finally prepared to forgive him for walking out on the Canterbury Bulldogs. Then he goes and mars it all by pulling a selfish stunt like this. And now he’s back to square one.

He claims boxing training will help his rugby for the 2012 season. Will improve his footwork, he says. Maybe it will. Just might cause him a serious season ending injury too. One punch from his opponent Scott Lewis, and potentially brain damage could be incurred. That said, perhaps his decision to get into a boxing ring instead of helping his Canterbury Crusader mates out smacks of someone that lacks the smarts to realise that he is letting others down. Or it could be that Williams knows what he is about and cynically lining his pockets with the green stuff is of more importance to him than being in the trenches with his teammates.

Maybe if this fight was to take part earlier in the summer, then some credence could be given to Williams’s argument that he is doing it as part of his training for the upcoming season. But on the first weekend of Super fifteen? Either he is procuring himself copious amounts of coin for the fight or he simply doesn’t give a toss about rugby and his employers. Not to mention all the fans out there. Perhaps Crusader fans would be within their rights to expect a refund as many of them would have been going to the opening match to watch Williams play.

But what would he care? As long as Sonny Bill Williams gets what’s best for Sonny Bill Williams, he’s happy. Some lucrative sponsorship deals here, a cashed up foray into the boxing ring there. Only way the Rugby Union could entice him to these fair shores, it seems. To think, we were all gullible enough to believe that Williams genuinely cared enough that he would choose to give his all to the cause of the New Zealand rugby. Turns out that those cynical types, that cared to illuminate anybody that would listen when Williams originally signed with the NZRU that he was only here on a hit and run mission to fulfil a dream of playing for the All Blacks at the world cup, were right.

Of course, the whole shemozzle doesn’t reflect particularly well on the NZRU. Taken for a ride somewhat, they appear powerless to do anything but bow to the demands of their prized prima donna. If they don’t give Williams what he wants, then they risk losing his services after the World Cup. In reality, there is more chance of the always patriotic Steve Hansen wearing nothing but a body painted New Zealand flag and break-dancing on the moon in said attire than there is of Williams staying in New Zealand in 2012 to dedicate himself to rugby.

And ask yourself this; if this was any other player, would the Union allow them to indulge in a boxing match? Not likely. The Rugby Union even refuses to select overseas based players for the All Blacks. No matter that those players such as Nick Evans are giving their all for their sport, showing total commitment, regardless of where they are based. How they must feel knowing that they would give anything to still be playing for their country, all the while seeing Williams laugh in the face of the famous black jersey.

So, one rule for Williams and a different version for the rest of the New Zealand super 15 teams, as well as the test squad.

Lucky for Williams then, that he has mastered all the necessary skills of rugby to such an extent that he is light years ahead of any other player and therefore able to take time away from rugby training to indulge his boxing fantasies.

Clearly being a rugby genius of biblical proportions, and with his obvious dedication to the cause, he will lead the All Blacks to their first World Cup trophy in twenty-four years.

Won’t he?

The next time Daniel Vettori demands the right to pack his own lunch, he should make sure he has the appetite to consume everything in his lunchbox.

Not content to be the Captain, the side’s one true world class bowler and do a handy job of batting on the side, he insisted that he have complete control over the team. So, no fulltime coach, then. Not to mention the fact that he is also one of the selectors.

It seems he liked the menu, ate it all and came back for seconds. A lot like anyone with an addiction, with the initial taste being to his liking, he hungered for more. It got the better of him. New Zealand Cricket bowed to his demands and he was on the road to absolute power.

All this would seem to be the cricketing equivalent of a dictatorship.

This is all well and good if you are on friendly terms with success.

Unfortunately for Vettori, though, he isn’t, and the situation is fast turning ugly for him.

While a good proportion of the cricketing fraternity were clamouring for John Wright to be brought in as coach, Vettori insisted there was no need. The players didn’t see the need for a fulltime coach. They knew how to go about producing the desired results.

Well, so he said, anyway.

Supposedly a lowly performing team like New Zealand doesn’t need a coach, yet a highly talented outfit such as the current England squad has a full-time coach to help them in their search for their Holy Grail, the Ashes.

Go figure, on that one.

They could have done with some help in India as their form has given very little hope to their long suffering fans.

After the routing that the Black Caps were on the receiving end of against Bangladesh, supporters thought it couldn’t get any worse. A respectable showing against India in the following test series and they were led to believe that the Bangladesh result may have been an aberration.

Now three-nil down in the one-dayers against what is effectively India’s B side, it is clear that there is something more serious wrong within the team and there seems little hope that they will acquire any semblance of form and confidence for the upcoming World Cup in February.

So, what can be done? Well, certainly there is no point in changing much this close to a major competition. New Zealand cricket have called in former England coach, Duncan Fletcher, for the remainder of the Indian tour. With so little time though, Fletcher can do no more than paper over a few of the many cracks that are visible for all to see.

This means that the Black Caps have no choice but to limp through the next three months and hope for a miracle.

Even after the world cup, however, the options are limited. New Zealand Cricket could make mass changes and bring in new faces. Of course the problem with this approach is that there appears to be very little in the way of genuine talent below the top team.

The problem for New Zealand Cricket is tournaments such as the IPL 20/20 which offers players the chance to earn inordinately large sums of money. If they had tried to kick them out of the National team, they would’ve simply gone off and earn mega-bucks doing a hell of a lot less work.

Until now, that is. With their poor form affecting their earning capacity, the player’s options are not so widespread. Which is a splendid time for CEO Justin Vaughan to put a halt to the player power that inflicts this team.

The current mob’s places within the team may be safe. What should not be safe, though, is Vettori’s monopoly on power within New Zealand Cricket. While his position in the team is without doubt, and there is no question that he should stay on as captain, that should be where his control ends. Make the decisions on the field. Off it, leave that to a coach that has had many years of experience.

Surely now is the time to appoint a full-time coach of the ilk of a Duncan Fletcher of a John Wright. Either of these men would do a fantastic job of rescuing a mob of out of control egos and moulding them into, if not the world’s best, a competitive unit capable of competing with any team on their day.

And let us forget the nonsense that Vettori and Vaughan spout about Wright not having the organisational skills for the job. After all, he did have five highly successful years of coaching a star-studded Indian side with egos that were a match for their cricketing talents. If Wright could manage anything involving Indian cricket with success, then he more than warrants consideration for the job of coaching the Black Caps.

To which, most would concur. Except for those within the National team that possibly overrate themselves and are frightened of the home truths that a straight-shooter such as Wright may direct their way. This would seem a more likely reason for the players being against Wright as coach than his ability to organise.The latter seems to be more of a red herring.

For the sake of cricket in New Zealand though, let us hope not. And let us trust that Vettori is big enough to admit that he has taken on too much and that he would be better off concentrating more on his game than on how much power he can attain.

If not, then New Zealand cricket should do the flagging fortunes of its National team a favour and take the decision out of Vettori’s hands.

New Zealand has been put into bat by India in the second one day international in Jaipur tonight.

With the game being a day/nighter and heavy dew expected during the evening session, Indian captain Gautam Gambir predictably thought it wise to let the New Zealand bowlers struggle to bowl with a slippery ball.

If they do struggle, they won’t be the only ones in this match to find conditions impalpable. The batsmen have, too.

The opening pair of Jamie How and Martin Guptill made a furious start to the innings, smashing three fours in the first two overs. Then the runs dried up. What had been wayward bowling by S Sreesanth and Asheigh Nehra soon became the model of good line and length just wide of off-stump. And the New Zealander’s soon began to find batting not to their liking on what has been a low slow pitch.

How, in particular, was finding the going tough and perished in the fifth over after edging a Sreenanth deliver through to wicketkeeper Wriddiman Saha to leave New Zealand 14 for one.

In a strange decision, Captain Daniel Vettori decided to promote the inexperienced Kane Williamson up the order to number three ahead of Ross Taylor, despite the difficult batting conditions.

Williamson and Guptill proceeded to put on a partnership of fifty before Williamson was bowled by Munaf Patel playing around the ball for 29 with New Zealand now 64 for two in the 16th over.

After twenty overs, Guptill and Taylor had taken New Zealand through to 75 for two.