admin

Rafael Nadal saved a championship point to beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-7 (6/8), 7-5 on Sunday and claim a 12th Barcelona Open title in the ATP's longest match of 2021. The Spaniard secured his first title of the year and 87th of his career, denying Tsitsipas back-to-back triumphs following his maiden Masters 1000 title at Monte Carlo last week. Nadal avenged his Australian Open quarter-final loss to Tsitsipas and will return to second in the ATP rankings on Monday by climbing back above Daniil Medvedev after his marathon

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said winning felt much better with fans in attendance after beating Tottenham 1-0 at Wembley to lift the League Cup for the fourth consecutive year in front of 8,000 supporters on Sunday. Aymeric Laporte's header eight minutes from time finally rewarded a dominant performance from City as they extended Spurs' 13-year wait to win a trophy. For the first time in 13 months, a football match in England had designated fans from both teams inside the stadium in

A stunning performance from Ravindra Jadeja helped Chennai Super Kings beat Royal Challengers Bangalore and go top of the Indian Premier League. Jadeja, who was dropped on nought, equalled the IPL record for most runs by a batsman in an over when he hit 37 off the final over of CSK's 191-4. He then took 3-13 with the ball and had a direct-hit run out as RCB could only reach 122-9 from their 20 overs. The win moves CSK top at the expense

Inigo Martinez's late header threw La Liga's title race even further open as leaders Atletico Madrid lost at Athletic Bilbao. Alex Berenguer scored early for the hosts but Stefan Savic looked to have rescued a point until Martinez struck. Atletico remain two points above both Real Madrid and Barcelona, with Sevilla a point further back in fourth. But Barca, winners earlier on Sunday at Villarreal, have a game in hand and can go top by beating Granada on Thursday. Atletico paid the price for a

Adam Zampa and Kane Richardson have joined fellow Australian Andrew Tye in ending their Indian Premier League (IPL) season early to return home. India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, 34, also said he is taking a break from the IPL to support his family. The news comes as India struggles with a surge in coronavirus cases. Tye, who was with Rajasthan Royals, flew to Sydney on Sunday, citing the "stress of bubble life" and concerns about borders closing in Australia. "I just thought I should try

Rafael Nadal stayed on course for his 12th Barcelona Open title with a 6-1 6-4 win over British number two Cameron Norrie in the quarter-finals. The 34-year-old had far too much skill and guile on his favoured clay surface. The world number three swept through the opening set but although Norrie made more of a fight of it in the second, Nadal was too good. "I played well at the beginning then I stopped a little bit in the second," said the Spaniard.

The Champions League semi-finals next week are expected to go ahead, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said, after a plan by some top clubs to create a Super League caused chaos. "There is relatively little chance that next week's matches will not be played..," Ceferin told Slovenian television Pop TV late Wednesday. "The key thing is that the season has already started. If we cancelled the matches, television stations would have compensation demands," added Ceferin, who is Slovenian. Football's most powerful clubs faced mounting calls on Thursday for reprisals

The Japanese Grand Prix will remain at Suzuka until at least the end of the 2024 season after Formula One and circuit owners announced a three-year contract extension on Saturday. The figure of eight track south-west of Nagoya first hosted a Formula One race in 1987 and has provided the decider for 11 drivers' championships. "This extension is part of our long-term commitment to growing the sport in Asia, and we are pleased to be able to continue our successful relationship with Mobilityland,"

England paceman Jofra Archer will miss the entire Indian Premier League as he recovers from a long-standing elbow injury. Rajasthan Royals had hoped that Archer, who was named Most Valuable Player in the 2020 campaign, would play some part in the tournament after sitting out the early rounds. However, although the 26-year-old returned to bowling this week with higher intensity, the ECB has confirmed that the Sussex fast bowler is not match-ready. Archer is the third England player to be ruled out for

Rohit Sharma said that Mumbai Indians have failed to put up big totals in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and that is an area they will have to address. Mumbai Indians (MI) slumped to their third defeat of the season against Punjab Kings (PBKS) on Friday. "Not enough runs, exactly. I still feel it's not a bad wicket to bat on. You can see how Kings won with nine wickets in hand," Rohit Sharma said in the post-match press

STUTTGART: World number one Ashleigh Barty fought back to reach the semi-finals of the WTA Stuttgart clay-court tournament with a 2-6, 6-1, 7-5 win over Karolina Pliskova on Friday (Apr 23). "It was an incredible match, with two very different opening sets, and the third was extraordinary," said Barty after her 18th win this year. "I felt like I created a lot of opportunities and Karolina was able to come up with some quality stuff on some massive points. "It was a really

LONDON: Tottenham striker Harry Kane is in a race against time to be fit for the League Cup final against Manchester City after he missed training on Friday (Apr 23). Kane suffered another ankle injury in the 2-2 draw at Everton last week and missed the midweek win over Southampton. Interim boss Ryan Mason does not know whether the England captain will be available for Sunday's showpiece game against City at Wembley as Spurs hunt their first trophy since 2008. "We're not sure

SYDNEY: Australia's diving team said it was "not safe" to travel to Japan as they withdrew from a Tokyo Olympics test event on Friday (Apr 23) just three months before the pandemic-postponed Games begin. The Diving World Cup was set to take place from May 1 to 6 in the Japanese capital. But with the Japanese government due to impose new virus states of emergency in Tokyo and three other regions on Friday, Diving Australia said they had concluded it would "not be

An own goal by Arsenal keeper Bernd Leno gave Everton a 1-0 win in their Premier League clash at The Emirates on Friday (Apr 23), gifting the Toffees three valuable points in their quest for European football next season and damaging their own hopes. Leno bundled Richarlison's low cross into the net in the 76th minute for the only goal to move eighth-placed Everton to 52 points, one behind Liverpool and three behind fourth-placed Chelsea, while the Gunners stay ninth on 46. As

LONDON: Football Association chief executive Mark Bullingham has warned "nothing is off the table" as the governing body seeks to prevent a repeat of the European Super League threat. English football is set for a fan-led review, under the direction of former sports minister Tracey Crouch, following the fall-out from the widely criticised breakaway plans. Twelve of Europe's leading clubs - including the Premier League's "big six" - announced late last Sunday (Apr 18) that they had signed up to compete in the

The top two seeds, Australia's Ashleigh Barty and Romania's Simona Halep, respectively, scored quarterfinal victories Friday and moved on to the semifinal round at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany. Fourth seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine joined them, advancing past seventh-seeded Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-2. Svitolina needed two hours, 37 minutes to win the match, saving 13 of 16 break points (81.3 percent). The No. 5 seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus will meet Halep after

Tiger Woods posted a photo of himself on crutches on Friday and said his rehab is “coming along” two months after the golf great suffered severe leg injuries when his car careened off a road near Los Angeles and crashed. The photo on the Instagram account of the 45-year-old American showed him smiling on a golf course with a black and white dog. "My course is coming along faster than I am," he said, adding a smiling face emoji. "But it's nice to

The Boston Celtics were without Jaylen Brown for their home game Thursday night against the Phoenix Suns. Brown had been listed as doubtful with an injured shoulder before the Celtics ruled him out, along with Robert Williams and Evan Fournier, prior to the game. Brown has season averages of 24.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.4 steals and 1.2 blocks per game. Romeo Langford was in the starting lineup against the Suns, his second start of the season for Boston. Also starting on Thursday were

LONDON: Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan says the new format for the UEFA Champions League is flawed and will add to player fatigue, calling it the lesser of two evils in comparison to the controversial European Super League. UEFA announced this week that they would expand the Champions League to 36 clubs from the 2024-25 season, with teams set to play four more matches compared to the current format. But Germany international Gundogan believes there is nothing wrong with the competition as it

STUTTGART, Germany: Karolina Pliskova will face world number one Ashleigh Barty in the quarter-finals of Stuttgart's WTA clay-court tournament after seeing off Jelena Ostapenko in a three-set battle on Thursday (Apr 22). Pliskova, the sixth seed, recovered from losing the first set in a tie-break by firing down 21 aces, 10 of which came in the last set alone, for a 6-7 (7/9), 6-4, 6-3 second-round win. "I like spending time on this court," joked Pliskova, the 2018 Stuttgart champion, after needing almost