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Two of the Portland Trail Blazers' best players will be out for their marquee matchup against the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday. Damian Lillard (right hamstring) and Jusuf Nurkic (right knee) won't play against Los Angeles, the team Portland would face in the playoffs if the season ended today. It will be the third straight missed game for Lillard but the first for Nurkic since he missed a game April 10 against Detroit. He also missed the last meeting at the Clippers on

Charlotte Hornets rookie guard LaMelo Ball was cleared to resume individual basketball activity after a CT scan confirmed his broken right wrist has healed, the team announced Monday. Ball sustained the injury on March 20 in a game against the Los Angeles Clippers. He was examined by Dr. Michelle Carlson of The Hospital for Special Surgery in New York before receiving the green light on Monday. The team said updates about his status and return to play would be "provided as appropriate." ESPN

Eighth-seeded Belinda Bencic of Switzerland cruised to a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Germany's Nastasja Schunk on Monday in the first round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix at Stuttgart, Germany. Bencic completed the victory over the 17-year-old Schunk in one hour and 28 minutes. Schunk made it into the main draw with two qualifying victories. The day's only other first-round match featured Maria Sakkari and the Greek recorded six aces while posting a 6-2, 6-2 victory over German wildcard Andrea Petkovic. Sakkari won

European soccer's governing body UEFA led a backlash against plans for a breakaway Super League on Monday, saying associated players and clubs could be banned from its competitions - including three of this season's Champions League semi-finalists. Addressing an emergency meeting the day after 12 of Europe's top clubs announced the new league, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin described the Super League plan as a "spit in the face" of all football lovers. "As soon as possible they (the clubs) and the players have

LEEDS, England: An 87th-minute header from defender Diego Llorente gave Leeds United a 1-1 home draw with Liverpool in the Premier League on Monday (Apr 19) after the home side staged a protest against the breakaway Super League prior to the kickoff. Leeds players came out for their warm-up wearing shirts emblazoned with the slogan "Earn It" under the Champions League logo - a reference to the fact that the proposed 20-club Super League will have 15 permanent members with no relegation. A

LONDON: Tottenham Hotspur's decision to sack manager Jose Mourinho just days before their League Cup final against Manchester City is "crazy", former England skipper Wayne Rooney said. Rooney, who played under Mourinho when the Portuguese was in charge at Manchester United, said Spurs should have waited until after Sunday's (Apr 25) final to pull the plug on the 58-year-old's tenure. Spurs have endured a dismal run of form this season and fans are disgruntled by the team's style of play under the former

LONDON: Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp said he and his squad had found out about the club's involvement in plans for a breakaway Super League only on Sunday and urged angry fans not to blame the players. The German, who has spoken out in the past against a European Super League, told Sky Sports television that his opinion had not changed since 2019 when he said he hoped it never happened. "I heard first hand about it yesterday," he said ahead of Monday's Premier

There is no doubt that Badminton’s journey towards becoming a professional sport has been hindered by the amateur mindset of the https://www.sportsmonks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/450x216_SWING_INTO_GOLF_banner133539421103193450-1.webpistrators. When the much-delayed prospectus for the India Open 2021 – an Olympic qualifying event – was released, the immediate queries I got from a few foreign players included the question about who would be paying for lodging and boarding during the quarantine period. According to the tournament prospectus, those coming from Europe have to undergo seven days of quarantine while those

DOHA: Qatar is in talks with coronavirus vaccine makers to ensure all fans attending the 2022 World Cup in the country have been vaccinated, the foreign minister said Friday (Apr 16). The Gulf nation is facing a resurgence of virus cases and deaths despite progress in its mass vaccination programme, forcing authorities to impose a nationwide lockdown. "We have been negotiating and talking to the vaccination providers on how we can make sure that everyone attending the World Cup is vaccinated," Foreign Minister

LONDON: Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says giving up on the Premier League title is "not in our DNA" even though their pursuit of runaway leaders Manchester City appears hopeless. United head into Sunday's home game against struggling Burnley second in the table, 11 points behind City but with a game in hand. The Norwegian believes his side are on the right track but admits adding to their 20 league titles is unlikely. "Of course we'll never give up," Solskjaer said after

Rafa Nadal suffered a shock quarter-final defeat by Russian Andrey Rublev at the Monte Carlo Masters on Friday as he was overpowered 6-2 4-6 6-2, only his sixth ever loss at the tournament he has won 11 times. The Spaniard was in danger of being thrashed when Rublev led by a break in the second set, having dominated the opener, but showed his trademark grit to battle back. Rublev was unrelenting, however, and bludgeoned his way into a 5-1 lead in the second

Police Scotland are seeking to prosecute Slavia Prague defender Ondrej Kudela for racially abusing Glen Kamara in a Europa League match last month, the Rangers midfielder’s lawyer said on Thursday. Kamara complained of being racially abused by Kudela during the second-leg of a last-16 tie where Rangers were eliminated and Europe’s soccer governing body UEFA on Wednesday banned the Czech defender for 10 games. “Today Police Scotland confirmed that a case against Ondrej Kudela was submitted to the Procurator Fiscal for consideration, relating

Jaylen Brown scored 40 points and grabbed nine rebounds as the Boston Celtics closed out a perfect road trip with a 121-113 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday. Brown finished 17 of 20 from the field and at one point made 11 straight shots. The Celtics, who ended 3-0 on the trek and earned their fifth straight win overall, never trailed. Marcus Smart and Payton Pritchard each scored 15 points. Getting the start in place of Andre Drummond (bruised right big

SINGAPORE: Delwinder Singh is more used to crunching tackles than crunching the numbers but he is well aware of the figure in question. That was the number of days since Tanjong Pagar United’s last win in Singapore’s professional football league. And while the numbers don’t lie, sometimes they don’t tell the entire truth, said Delwinder, a defender for the Jaguars. After all, the team had sat out the competition for five seasons since their last win in 2014. They’d then gone winless through

LIVERPOOL: Tottenham Hotspur's Harry Kane moved clear at the top of this season's Premier League scoring charts but his two goals were only good enough for a 2-2 draw away to Everton on Friday (Apr 16). The England captain opened the scoring in the 27th minute with his 20th league goal of the campaign but former Spurs player Gylfi Sigurdsson levelled from the penalty spot. But Kane punished a defensive mistake six minutes later to earn his side a draw. Worryingly for seventh-placed

MADRID: Barcelona boss Ronald Koeman has reiterated that he is not worried about his future ahead of Saturday's (Apr 17) Copa del Rey final meeting with Athletic Bilbao. The Copa represents a chance for Barca to end a trophyless run which dates back to the 2018-19 season. After finishing last season without silverware, their hopes of Champions League glory were ended by PSG at the last-16 stage, while their defeat in last weekend's El Clasico means they are third-placed in La Liga heading

Moeen Ali hit 46 from 31 balls after Deepak Chahar's four-wicket haul and Ravindra Jadeja's electric fielding had shredded Punjab Kings' top order as Chennai Super Kings stormed to their first win of the IPL season. England star Ali struck seven fours and a six from the No 3 spot before Sam Curran (5no) smashed the winning boundary as Chennai coasted to their target of 107 with 26 balls to spare in Mumbai to win by six wickets and bounce back from Saturday's

Stewart Cink opened up a five-shot lead at the halfway stage of the RBC Heritage after firing back-to-back rounds of 63. Cink followed an early eagle at the second with six birdies as he raced to 16 under par, dropping only one shot over the first 36 holes to become the oldest player to hold the halfway lead in the history of the tournament in South Carolina. Overnight leader Cameron Smith slipped seven shots off the pace, while Dustin Johnson safely made it

SINGAPORE: Joseph Schooling famously upset the great Michael Phelps to win Olympic gold but he said "my biggest rival is myself" as he bids to return to form at the Tokyo Games. Schooling, Singapore's first Olympic champion, said the year's pandemic delay had given him extra time to prepare after a disappointing world championships in 2019. The 25-year-old caused a sensation at Rio 2016, when he beat his idol Phelps - who has a record 23 Olympic gold medals - by a fingertip

MANCHESTER, England: Manchester United reached the Europa League semi-finals after Edinson Cavani's early strike and a Jesus Vallejo own goal secured a 2-0 home win over Granada on Thursday (Apr 15) and completed a 4-0 aggregate rout of the Spanish side. United will face AS Roma for a place in the May 26 final in Gdansk after the Italian side ground out a 3-2 aggregate win over Ajax Amsterdam with a 1-1 home draw in the second leg of their quarter-final. Cavani netted