Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/476647
22 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 11 MARCH 2015 Sport SAILING TENNIS RC44 Valletta Cup programme of events launched With just fifteen days to go, final preparations for the first RC44 Valletta Cup are in full swing DURING a press conference held Monday morn- ing at the Royal Malta Yacht Club, the official programme of events was announced by Mr. Niki Travers Tauss, representing Yachting Events Ltd., the organisers of the RC44 Valletta Cup. Also present was the Honorable Dr. Christian Cardona, Minister for the Economy, Investment and Small Business, whose Ministry is also co-hosting the event with the support of the Malta Tourism Au- thority and Transport Malta. The RC44 Valletta Cup will be the first race from the 2015 RC44 Championship Tour and will join a family of prestigious locations hosting the 2015 Tour - Porto Cervo, Italy, Marstrand, Sweden, Cas- cais, Portugal and finishing off in the British Virgin Islands. The race will bring together the worlds of sailing and business allowing amateur owner- drivers, most of whom are top international busi- ness men, team up with world class sailors to race on high performance one design yachts. Held between the 25 and 29 March, 2015, the RC44 Valletta Cup will consist of a series of races, the first of which being a Match Race scheduled for the 25th March. Match Racing will be held in the Grand Harbour which, through the support of Transport Malta, will be closed specifically for this event. The rest of the days will see a series of Fleet races along the Tigne - St. Julian's seafront. Depending on weather conditions, the likelihood of a coastal race with the f leet heading towards Gozo is a possibility. Dr. Christian Cardona, Minister for the Economy, Investment and Small Business addressing this Moinday's press conference. PHOTOGRAPHY BY PIERRE SAMMUT - DOI Davis Cup - Brazilians complain of racism during Davis Cup defeat to Argentina ARGENTINA won the decisive sin- gles match against Brazil on Mon- day to close out a dramatic Davis Cup encounter marred by reports of racist taunts by spectators dur- ing the longest singles match ever played in the competition. Brazil's Joao Souza told the Bra- zilian website SporTV.com that he heard fans call him a monkey dur- ing his reverse singles match against Leonardo Mayer on Sunday. Mayer won it after 6 hours, 42 minutes to level the best-of-five-match series at 2-all. "I wanted to go to the umpire but I would be jeered even more, it would only make it worse. We know it's tough to play away from home, but racism is a bit too much," Souza told the website. Brazil's Thomaz Bellucci also complained about abuse from the fans during his decisive singles match against Federico Delbonis on Monday. Delbonis won 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 to clinch the victory for Ar- gentina, which earned a spot in the Davis Cup quarterfinals. The match had been suspended because of darkness on Sunday with Delbonis up a set. "It was the toughest day to play," Bellucci told SporTV.com. "There was a lot of noise, a lot of people talking to me when I was serving. They were cursing at me every time I went for the towel. We knew it was going to be like this, we knew we were not going to be treated as lords." The Brazilian team, upset at how the players were treated during the matches, skipped the post-match news conference on Monday. After squandering 10 match points, Mayer finally broke Souza's serve to close out Sunday's match 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5), 5-7, 5-7, 15-13. The previous longest singles Davis Cup match had been John McEnroe's win over Mats Wilander in 1982, which lasted 6 hours, 22 minutes. Delbonis said he was inspired by Mayer's performance to come back after dropping the second set against Bellucci on Monday. "After what Leo did yesterday, I had to play with heart and that's what I did," he said. Argentina will next play Serbia in the quarterfinals. The Argentines had reached at least the semifinals of the World Group from 2010-13. They were upset in the first round by Italy last year. Argentina is still seeking its first Davis Cup title. It was runner-up four times: 1981, 2006, 2008 and 2011. Brazil's team captain Joao Zwetsch (L) talks to Joao Souza during his Davis Cup tennis match against Argentina's Carlos Berlocq in Buenos Aires