In his first year driving for Red Bull in 2009, Vettel finished the season as the youngest-ever World Drivers’ championship runner-up. He also secured Red Bull’s first pole position and race win in the team’s history. The following year he went on to become the youngest driver ever to win the World Drivers’ Championship. In the same year he helped Red Bull win the team’s first World Constructors’ Championship. He followed up his first championship with a second in 2011, becoming the youngest double as well as youngest consecutive champion.

Vettel holds numerous other “youngest” Formula One records, among them: the youngest driver to have taken part in an official practice session of a Grand Prix, to score championship points, to lead a race, to secure pole position, and to win a race.

Sebastian Vettel ‘s achievements in 2011

With 15 poles, 11 victories and 17 podiums from 19 races; Sebastian Vettel ensured the season 2011 in F1 racing was one of the most one-sided in a long time. He garnered 392 points and during the season, became only the second F1 driver in the history of the sport to have more than 10 wins in a single season. Vettel also won the inaugural India GP.

Yifan Hou of China retained the title after Koneru Humpy of India settled for a draw in the must-win eighth round game.

TENNIS-Sixth ATP World Tour Finals title
Roger Federer has won the title with a victory over France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. With this win he moved ahead of Pete Sampras and Ivan Lendl on the list of Tour Finals champions in the 100th final of his career.

Federation Cup
Czech Republic defeated Russia 3-2 to win the Fed Cup and clinch the country’s first title as an independent country.

NEW DELHI — Defending champions India retained the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) title with a 4-0 win over Afghanistan in the final in New Delhi on Sunday.

The hosts were kept at bay for the first 45 minutes by a strong Afghan defence, but broke the deadlock late in the second half and went on to score a quartet of goals.

India finally hit the back of the net in the 71st minute when Sunil Chhetri converted a penalty after Jeje Lalpekhlua was brought down by Faisal Safa following a pass from the centre.

Afghanistan were reduced to 10 men as goalkeeper Hameedullah Yousufzai was sent off for arguing with the referee over awarding the penalty to India.

India seized the opportunity to score twice in as many minutes through Clifford Miranda and Jeje, before Sushil Singh netted the fourth goal in injury time.

It was India’s 11th win over Afghanistan in 14 meetings. The Afghans have a single win, while the other two games ended in a draw.

The other teams in the tournament, which is contested every two years between South Asian nations, were Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Bhutan.

Ashwin bags Dilip Sardesai Award

Rewarding Ravichandran Ashwin for his stupendous show in the just-concluded Test series against the West Indies , the BCCI, on Monday, decided to bestow the Dilip Sardesai award on the off-spinner.

The 25-year-old, who was the man-of-the-series in the three-Test series with 22 wickets, will be presented the trophy at the BCCI Annual Awards Ceremony in Chennai on December 10.

ESS bags broadcast rights for Cricket Australia in Asia

ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has bagged the broadcast rights of all the domestic and home international matches of Cricket Australia (CA) until 2017.

The deal covers television, internet, mobile and radio distribution across Asia and the Indian subcontinent.

ESS currently has the broadcast rights for 27 test matches, 44 one day internationals and 12 Twenty20 (T20) matches under the Future Tours Programme (FTP).

The deal means that ESS will broadcast the 2013-2014 Ashes series, tours by South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Indies and New Zealand. ESS will also broadcast two India series during this period.

URUGUAY won a record 15th South American title today with a convincing 3-0 victory over Paraguay in the final of the 2011 Copa America.

With favourites Argentina and Brazil both failing to advance beyond the quarter finals, Uruguay left little doubt about which was the top team in the region.

Luis Suarez opened the scoring after 12 minutes and Diego Forlan added a second goal just before the break.

Suarez and Forlan then teamed up on the third goal in the 90th minute to cap an impressive performance.

Uruguay took charge of the match early and almost scored in the opening two minutes when a corner kick was headed on goal by Diego Lugano, forcing a good reaction stop from goalkeeper Justo Villar.

Wimbledon: Petra Kvitova won her first Grand Slam title Saturday by beating Maria Sharapova 6-3, 6-4 in the Wimbledon final.

Kvitova was playing in her first major final, but it was three-time Grand Slam champion Sharapova that showed her nerves. The 2004 Wimbledon champion double-faulted six times, including twice to get broken to 4-2 in the first set.

The 21-year-old Kvitova is the first left-handed woman to win the Wimbledon title since Martina Navratilova in 1990.

Using a fast-paced and well-placed forehand, Kvitova did little wrong on Centre Court as Czech greats Navratilova and Jana Novotna sat in the Royal Box with a host of other former Wimbledon champions.

Kvitova kept Sharapova on the run with 18 winners, and never seemed to lose confidence despite being broken three times.

Sharapova was the clear favorite entering the match. Besides winning the title at the All England Club in 2004, she also won the U.S. Open in 2006 and the Australian Open in 2008. Shoulder surgery in October 2008 slowed her career, but she returned to the semifinals at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time since then at the French Open last month.

At Wimbledon, Sharapova had not lost a set heading into the final. But she struggled with her serve in the semifinals, double-faulting 13 times before beating German wildcard Sabine Lisicki.

Sharapova won the toss at the net before the final and elected to receive, perhaps because she wanted some time to get into game action before testing her serve.

Li Na made sporting history at the French Open today when she became the first player from China to win a Grand Slam singles title.

The 29-year-old from Wuhan defeated defending champion Francesca Schiavone of Italy 6-4, 7-6 (7/0)) to take her place in the pantheon of Chinese sports stars.

Li clinched the watershed win with a superb 7-0 tie-break performance in the second set, falling onto her back in the red dirt when Schiavone hit long on match point

It was a thrilling display of shot-making from the Chinese player who has said she hopes that by winning a Grand Slam title she will act as a catalyst for the growth of tennis in her giant homeland.

For 30-year-old Schiavone it was a bitter pill to swallow one year after she upset the odds to become Italy’s first and so far only Grand Slam women’s champion.

CSK Retain IPL Title

Chennai Super Kings retained the Indian Premier League title after crushing Royal Challengers Bangalore by 58 runs in a thoroughly one-sided final here today.

After putting up a formidable 205 for five riding on a smashing 95 from Murali Vijay, the champions restricted their opponents to a meagre 147 for eight thereby winning an incredible eighth match on trot at the Chepauk.

Chasing 206, RCB depended on Chris Gayle (0) but the big Jamaican fell prey to the law of averages as he was snapped up by Dhoni in the very first over bowled by Ravichandran Ashwin. The match was over as a contest after that moment only.

World Sportsman of the year: Rafael Nadal (Spain) – World number one Tennis player

World Sportswoman of the year: Lindsey Vonn (USA) – Straight skiing World Cup champion and Olympic Downhill Gold Medal

World team of the year: Spain Football world cup squad – 2010 FIFA World cup champion

Spirit of Sport Award: European Ryder cup team

World breakthrough of the year: Martin Kaymer (Golf)

Lifetime achievement award: Zinedine Zidane (France)

World comeback of the year: Valentino Rossi (Italy) – legendary MotoGP rider.

World Action sportsperson of the year: Kelly Slater (USA)

World Sportsperson of the year with a disability: Verena Bentele

World Cup 2011 Group A

Teams                MP     W     D     L     NR     NRR           PTS
New Zealand     5       4     0     1     0     +1.957           8
Sri Lanka            5       3     0     1     1     +2.705            7
Australia            4       3     0     0     1     +1.645            7
Pakistan              4       3     0     1     0     +0.760           6
Zimbabwe          4        1     0     3     0     -0.690            2
Canada                5        1     0     4     0     -2.046            2
Kenya                  5        0     0     5     0     -3.005           0

World Cup 2011 Group B

Teams            MP     W     D     L     NR     NRR     PTS

India                  5         3     1      1     0     +0.992         7
West Indies      4        3     0     1     0     +2.206         6
South Africa    4        3     0     1     0     +1.352          6
England             5        2     1     2     0     +0.013          5
Bangladesh      4        2     0     2     0     -1.241            4
Ireland              4        1     0     3     0     -0.444           2
Holland             4        0     0     4     0     -2.728          0

World Cup Records and   Facts

27-year-old O’Brien reached the milestone by taking a double off Michael Yardy in the 41st over of Ireland run chase after England had batted first and posted 327 for eight.

O’Brien’s record is the sixth fastest overall in ODIs. Shahid Afridi holds the record of fastest hundred in ODIs in 37 balls. He also hit another ton in 45 balls. Others who have hit faster centuries in ODIs than O’Brien are Mark Boucher (44 balls), Brian Lara (45) and Sanath Jayasuriya (48).