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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

MADRID: Atletico Madrid stayed in control of La Liga's title race by beating struggling Huesca 2-0 at home on Thursday (Apr 22) with goals in each half by Angel Correa and Yannick Carrasco. Correa scored for the third time in two games to give Atletico the lead shortly before halftime, the Argentine dancing through the Huesca defence and getting the help of a deflection to take his shot into the net. Huesca had won two of their last three matches and stayed in

LEICESTER, England: Red-hot striker Kelechi Iheanacho scored an 11th goal in his last eight games in all competitions as Leicester City poured more misery on woeful West Bromwich Albion with an emphatic 3-0 Premier League win at the King Power Stadium on Thursday. Jamie Vardy and Jonny Evans were also on target for the home side, who stayed third on 59 points from 32 games, four clear of fourth-placed Chelsea and West Ham United and on course for Champions League qualification. Second-bottom West

BARCELONA: Lionel Messi scored twice as Barcelona crushed Getafe 5-2 on Thursday (Apr 22) to stay in the hunt for the La Liga title. Messi gave Barca an early lead with the help of a pin-point pass from Sergio Busquets but Getafe pulled level with an own goal by Clement Lenglet. The visitors then conceded a calamitous own goal when Sofian Chakla's backpass deceived keeper David Soria and trickled over the line. Messi extended Barca's lead before halftime, hitting the post then following

PARIS: Football's most powerful clubs faced mounting calls for reprisals over the European Super League fiasco on Thursday (Apr 22), although UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said next week's Champions League semi-finals were unlikely to be affected. Super League chief Florentino Perez, president of Real Madrid, had insisted Wednesday the rebel competition was merely "on standby" despite nine teams pulling out. Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea withdrew on Tuesday, followed by Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan and AC Milan 24

LONDON: Manchester United fans breached security at their club's training ground on Thursday (Apr 22) as they protested against the Glazer family for the owners' role in the failed European Super League plot. United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was forced to speak to around 20 supporters after they blocked both entrances to the Carrington headquarters. The protestors unfurled banners that read "51% MUFC 20", "We decide when you play" and "Glazer out". The 51 per cent is a reference to fans holding the

Devdutt Padikkal managed to overshadow none other than the great Virat Kohli with an elegant hundred in Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)'s successful 178-run chase against Rajasthan Royals (RR), in a virtual cakewalk of an IPL contest at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on April 22. It hardly happens that someone as brilliant as Kohli, plays a second fiddle, allowing the talented left-hander use his sinewy wrists to caress the balls to all parts of the ground during a mind-blowing maiden IPL century, an

LONDON: Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli became on Thursday the first batsman to score 6,000 runs in the Indian Premier League (IPL). India skipper Kohli reached the milestone in 196 matches and leads the list ahead of Chennai's Suresh Raina (5,448 runs), Delhi's Shikhar Dhawan (5,428), Hyderabad's David Warner (5,384) and Mumbai's Rohit Sharma (5,368). Kohli's unbeaten knock of 72 was eclipsed by 20-year-old Devdutt Padikkal, who smashed 101 off 52 balls in a 10-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals to become the

TOKYO: A police officer helping with Japan's Olympic Torch relay has become the first participant in the event to be diagnosed with COVID-19, organisers said on Thursday (Apr 22). A man in his 30s tested positive for the virus after working on the relay in Kagawa prefecture on Japan's southern island of Shikoku, Tokyo 2020 said in a statement. The officer was guiding traffic in the town of Naoshima on Saturday and came down with a fever on Sunday, the Asahi Newspaper reported,

MANCHESTER, England: The European Super League collapsed on Wednesday (Apr 21) as eight of the 12 founding members from England, Italy and Spain abandoned the breakaway project under massive pressure from fans, politicians, soccer officials and even the British royals. Founder and Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli told Reuters he was reluctantly calling time on the new league after six English clubs withdrew on Tuesday, with Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid following suit and AC Milan indicating they would too. "The voices and the

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Eoin Morgan has been fined Rs 12 lakh for maintaining a slow over-rate during his side's IPL 2021 match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) which KKR lost by 18 runs at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday. As this was KKR's first offence of the season under the IPL's Code of Conduct relating to minimum over-rate offences Morgan got away with a Rs 12 lakh fine. "Kolkata Knight Riders captain Eoin Morgan has been fined after his team maintained

Sunrisers Hyderabad finally got off the mark in the 2021 Indian Premier League, at the fourth time of asking, as they earned an emphatic nine-wicket win over Punjab Kings to leapfrog their opponents at the foot of the table. Having bowled out Kings for 120 on a helpful, slow Chennai surface, Sunrisers then chased down their target with just over an over to spare, Jonny Bairstow contributing an unbeaten 63 from 56 balls. Having lost all three of their opening games in the

Frenchwoman Stephanie Frappart will become the first female official to be involved in European Championship matches after UEFA confirmed the list of referees for this year's tournament. In the past two years, Frappart became the first female to referee a men's Champions League match, a French Ligue 1 game and a men's World Cup qualifier. Frappart was not named among the 18 referees to take charge of the 51 Euro 2020 games but she will be involved as a support match official, working

Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis said he plans to return to the court Thursday against the Dallas Mavericks as long as he feels ready the day of the game. The Lakers listed Davis as questionable for the contest. Davis has missed two-plus months of the season with a calf injury that he described to reporters Wednesday as a "ripping" feeling when he aggravated it Feb. 14 against the Denver Nuggets. Earlier in the week, Lakers coach Frank Vogel hinted that Davis' return

STUTTGART, Germany: World number one Ashleigh Barty wasted no time on Wednesday (Apr 21) booking her place in the quarter-finals of the WTA clay-court tournament in Stuttgart. The top seed needed just 24 minutes to wrap up the first set against Germany's Laura Siegemund before claiming a 6-0, 7-5 second-round win. "It was good to play on a new surface, the court was quite quick compared to what I am used to," said Barty, who hit six aces in an impressive opening display.

MADRID: A first-half double from Karim Benzema helped Real Madrid cruise to a 3-0 victory away to Cadiz on Wednesday (Apr 21) that moved them top of La Liga. The Frenchman's brace came either side of a maiden senior league goal for defender Alvaro Odriozola, as Real moved onto 70 points, level with city rivals Atletico Madrid, who have a game in hand, but top due to their better head-to-head record. "We started the game really well, robbing the ball high, that was