Dosedel closed to 3-2 before Sampras won the final four points by hitting winners to close out the match.Novak stunned Sampras in straight sets Friday, then teamed with David Rikl to beat O’Brien and Palmer in doubles Saturday, giving the Czechs a 2-1 lead in the best-of-5 series.But after taking out the world’s third-ranked player and top-ranked doubles team in two days, Novak ran out of gas during a prolonged baseline battle with Agassi, the world’s No. 1 player.”Every point I was running all the time to the right, then to the left I was just getting tired,” Novak said. “Andre was much better than me from the beginning of the match.”Agassi improved to 4-1 when the United States faces elimination in Davis Cup, including a 2-0 record this year. His victory in the reverse singles in Zimbabwe kept the Americans from being eliminated in the first round before Chris Woodruff pulled out a four-set win to give the Americans a 3-2 decision.”The thought of Jiri Novak coming in here and winning in our backyard, three points against me and Pete and the doubles, I just didn’t want that to happen,” Agassi said. “I managed to just have a bit more on my rally shots and I controlled the points a little bit more.”With girlfriend Steffi Graf looking on, Agassi ran Novak back and forth in a match that featured extended rallies and a few effective drop volleys by Agassi.A flag-waving, cheering crowd at its most raucous in three days of tennis repeatedly had to be quieted by the chair umpire between points.Novak’s netted backhand gave Agassi the first set before both players dug in for a back-and-forth battle in the second. Six of the nine games featured break points.Agassi won three consecutive games to go up 4-2, including saving two break points on his serve in the fourth game. Novak staved off two break points on his serve in the seventh game when Agassi mis-hit a backhand as Novak closed to 4-3.Agassi fell behind love-30 on his serve and faced another break point in the eighth game.

But Novak’s forehand hit the net cord for deuce, then his forehand service return went long and he netted a return of a big Agassi serve to trail 5-3. Novak fought back from a love-40 deficit only to hit a backhand wide in losing the second set 6-3.Agassi broke in the second and sixth games of the third, then won the match with a 115 mph (185 kph) serve that Novak got a racket on, only to return beyond the baseline.. If you’re stopping at a Granada motorway service station, for example at Stafford on the M6, you might pause before eating to use one of the new cybercafés there. You might even visit Egon Ronay’s new website, which will tell you he thinks you are about to be ripped off. If you’re stopping at a Granada motorway service station, for example at Stafford on the M6, you might pause before eating to use one of the new cybercafés there. You might even visit Egon Ronay’s new website, which will tell you he thinks you are about to be ripped off.
Mr Ronay, the renowned food critic, relaunched himself into cyberspace yesterday with a vituperative attack on the three chains that now dominate the motorway service station business, alleging that they often produce “cheaply mass-produced, unspeakable rubbish”.Among the first to read his angry words before they eat would be people stopping at Granada-owned stations, which make up 27 of the UK’s 74 motorway service areas. The company launched a scheme scheduled to start this year with Littlewoods to bring internet access points to its motorway restaurants and shopping areas.However, anyone logging on there to www.egonronay will find the Hungarian-born critic, whose guides have since 1957 made him a worldwide name, proclaim that “the standard of food has reached an all-time low in motorway services areas”.Reviewing Granada’s Leigh Delamere station, between junctions 17 and 18 of the M4, he said it had cappuccino that was a “mockery of its name …

very thin foam”, cafetiÿre coffee that “smelt of washing-up water” and croissants that were “very heavy, solid consistency, spongy – an unacceptable product”. Mr Ronay also says on the website that lack of competition between service stations, caused by the “absurdly small” number of operators – with 67 of the 74 owned by just three companies – means “there is nothing to raise, let alone monitor, standards”.He now aims to change that with the website, which will replace his famous printed guide and be updated every Wednesday. The problem of what he sees as overpriced yet low-quality food could have been prevented 40 years ago, Mr Ronay claims. “I warned the Ministry of Transport, the original midwife of motorway catering, that no more than one service area should be owned by each operator, as was the case at that time on the efficient German motorways.”Mr Ronay, whose independent appraisals of pubs, restaurants, airlines and airports have won him an army of loyal followers, decided to relaunch on the internet after receiving thousands of inquiries asking when he would republish his guides..

There was, metaphorically speaking, a little extra spice to flavour a famously competitive culinary contest being waged for the 30th year in the West Yorkshire village of Mytholmroyd yesterday. There was, metaphorically speaking, a little extra spice to flavour a famously competitive culinary contest being waged for the 30th year in the West Yorkshire village of Mytholmroyd yesterday.
The World Dock Pudding Championships – boasting nothing more transcontinental than the defending champion from Halifax, four miles along the Calder Valley – had been pepped up by climatic patterns that have done strange things to dock plants this year.An unseasonally warm winter gave rise to an early dock harvest, prompting fears that the leaves – the part used by those aiming to rustle up the world’s finest pudding – would be tough and unappetising. The competition was subsequently brought forward a month, for the first time in eight years, bringing more tender leaves.”The time change does add something,” said Sandra Wickham, one of the championships’ organisers, whose daughter Rachel was fighting it out in the junior competition. “The leaves will be smaller and fresher.”And so the tension piled up for world champions Trevor and Joan Whitworth and their 23 challengers – the largest field in years and the maximum permitted. “Any more than 24 and the judges get overfaced,” Mrs Wickham said.

“They forget what they have tasted.”The puddings – a breakfast dish also comprising nettles, oatmeal and onion – were cooked at stoves on the stage at Mytholmroyd’s community centre and solemnly removed to the judges’ adjacent room – each plate numbered to ensure no hint of bias. “The judges are looking for taste and texture,” added Mrs Wickham “Not too sloppy – so it sits nicely on the plate. They want the consistency of spinach.”The delicacy is dated by some locals to the days of 19th century poverty when dock leaves were eaten because they cost nothing. It can be made only from the young leaves of the dock plant, relatively rare but abundant in the Calder Valley where all competitors have a special place to pick them.The Knowhere guide to the town of Hebden Bridge describes the pudding as “a strange delicacy made by boiling weeds and oatmeal … foul and slimy, and of course, good for you.” Mrs Wickham only agrees with the last bit. “They’ve always reckoned it’s good for the blood,” she said..