Sports

LONDON: Former champions Venus Williams and Andy Murray were named in Wimbledon's initial list of wild cards on Wednesday (Jun 16) for this month's grass court Grand Slam. American Williams, who will turn 41 on Thursday, won five out of her seven Grand Slam singles titles at Wimbledon, but has slipped to 103rd in the women's world rankings. She has not made it past the opening round at any tournament since reaching the second round of the Australian Open in February. Britain's Murray

LONDON: Premier League champions Manchester City will start the defence of their title away to Tottenham after the fixtures for the 2021-22 season were unveiled on Wednesday (Jun 16). City are among the sides heavily linked with Spurs striker Harry Kane, throwing up the tantalising possibility that the England captain could line up against his boyhood club on the opening weekend. Pep Guardiola's side won the league by 12 points last season ahead of rivals Manchester United, who open their campaign against old

Trust Christiano Ronaldo to thrill the world even without a football at his disposal. He stunned all by dribbling past two Coca-Cola bottles at a press conference in a bold statement against carbonated drinks. He may have raised a few hackles in the process, Coca-Cola being one of the sponsors of Euro 2020. Portugal footballer Cristiano Ronaldo set off a flurry of excitement even before his team could take the pitch for their Euro 2020 opener versus Hungary. The setting was an otherwise

RIO DE JANEIRO: Argentina's Lionel Messi scored one of his trademark free-kicks in the first half but Eduardo Vargas equalized for Chile to leave honors even at 1-1 in their Copa America opener in Rio de Janeiro on Monday. Messi curled a superb free-kick into the corner of Claudio Bravo's net from 25 meters after 33 minutes. Chile equalized 13 minutes into the second half when Vargas followed up to head home the rebound after Arturo Vidal's penalty was tipped onto the bar

New Zealand on Tuesday named a 15-man squad for the World Test Championship final against India, to be played at The Ageas Bowl in Southampton from June 18. Kane Williamson, who missed the second Test of the recently-concluded series against England, returns to lead the squad as does wicket-keeper batsman BJ Watling. Colin de Grandhomme has been included as a specialist all-rounder while Ajaz Patel is the specialist spinner. All of Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls, Ross Taylor, and Devon Conway have kept their

After Djokovic beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in five gripping sets on Sunday, the World No. 1 handed his racquet to a young fan in the stands, who erupted into a fit of disbelief. Indian billionaire Harsh Mariwala was full of praises for Novak Djokovic's act for a young fan after his French Open triumph on Sunday. The chairman of Marico commended the goodwill gesture when Djokovic explained the reason he gave his winning racquet as a souvenir. "Someone just shared this with me on

Stefanos Tsitsipas has learnt the hard way over the last two months that Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal will take some shifting from the top of the men's game. The Greek led world number one Djokovic by two sets in the French Open final on Sunday, but still ended up losing and it has become a familiar feeling to be so close and yet so far. Tsitsipas led Djokovic in the Rome Masters quarter-finals this year, but lost. He also pushed 13-time French

Chesson Hadley was on the cusp of his first PGA Tour win in seven years on Sunday until a disastrous finish at the Palmetto Championship at Congaree where he bogeyed the final three holes to finish one shot back. Hadley, who missed the cut in 10 of his last 12 events, started the final round with a four-shot lead but fell apart in spectacular fashion as he carded a four-over-par 75 at Congaree Golf Club in Ridgeland, South Carolina. That left Hadley, who

BRASILIA: Star forward Neymar netted a penalty and created a second as hosts Brazil eased to a 3-0 victory over a coronavirus-depleted Venezuela on Sunday (Jun 13) in the opening match of the 2021 Copa America. Centre-back Marquinhos opened the scored midway through the first half and Gabriel Barbosa sealed the Group B win a minute from time. In a tournament already delayed a year and moved from its original hosts Argentina and Colombia due to the pandemic, it was fitting that the

LONDON: Raheem Sterling finally found his tournament touch when his 61st-minute goal gave England a deserved 1-0 win over Croatia at Wembley on Sunday (Jun 13) as they began a European Championship with a victory for the first time in nine attempts. Sterling, something of a surprise starter after a flat end to the domestic season but a favourite of manager Gareth Southgate, slid home after great work by Kalvin Phillips to end an individual drought that had run through England’s three previous

The Qatari runner Ahmed Al Shahrani has created a new record in the history by becoming the first ever disabled person to ‘run’ the whole distance of the country from the south to the north in a wheelchair. Surpassing a distance of 204 km in 41 hours, 55 minutes, running through the safe track designated for the purpose, Al Shahrani has managed to become the first rider with special needs to set this new record by covering this huge distance. A French resident

For the second time in six years Novak Djokovic is halfway to a calendar year sweep of all four Grand Slam titles after winning the French Open for a second time on Sunday. The 34-year-old dug deep into his reserves of resilience to hit back from two sets down against Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas to win 6-7(6) 2-6 6-3 6-2 6-4 and increase his Grand Slam tally to 19. That takes him only one behind the men's record 20 held by Rafa Nadal and

BUENOS AIRES: This year's Copa America gives Argentina another chance to break a 28-year trophy drought, which has been made even harder by a venue switch from home turf to that of arch-rivals Brazil. The Argentinians were supposed to stage the tournament this year, but with COVID-19 cases surging, it was moved at the last minute and Brazil are now hosting their second Copa America in succession, beginning on Sunday (Jun 13). The last time Argentina won the tournament was in 1993, their

TOKYO: The Japanese government is considering ending a state of emergency in Tokyo and several other prefectures as scheduled on Jun 20, but keeping some curbs such as on restaurant hours until the Olympics start in July, the Mainichi daily reported. New coronavirus infections in Olympics city Tokyo have inched down during the last month of emergency restrictions, though authorities remain concerned about the spread of variants and the continued strain on medical resources. On Friday, the head of Japan's main opposition Constitutional

UEFA Euro 2020 tournament begins on Friday Turkey taking on Italy in a Group A encounter at the Stadio Olympico in Rome. Google celebrated the tournament with a doodle, which had a whistle to mark the tournament kicking off. For the first time, the tournament is taking place in 11 cities across Europe -- instead of one or two countries -- despite the lingering shadow cast by the COVID-19 pandemic. Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal are the defending champions but world champions France start the

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced India Men's squad for the upcoming three-match ODI series and three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka. Shikhar Dhawan will lead in the absence of regular captain Virat Kohli and vice-captain Rohit Sharma, who are on the tour of England with the Test team. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been named vice-captain. The squad has several new faces in middle-order batsman Nitish Rana, all-rounder K Gowtham, opening batsman Ruturaj Gaikwad and fast bowler Chetan Sakariya among

Czech Barbora Krejcikova reached the French Open final as she beat Greek 17th seed Maria Sakkari 7-5 4-6 9-7 on Thursday in a nail-biting, see-saw contest in which she saved a match point and overcame a wrong line call that held up her celebrations. Krejcikova dragged herself back from the brink of facing a match point at 3-5 in the third set and then rode an emotional roller coaster when she thought she had booked her place in the final before a wrong

Al-Arabi and Al-Duhail handball teams will leave Thursday for Jeddah in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to participate in the 23rd Asian Championship for Champions League Clubs, whose competitions will start next Saturday and continue until June 21.

European soccer governing body UEFA has ordered Ukraine to remove the phrase "Glory to the heroes" from the inside of its new national team shirt ahead of the European Championship for political reasons, after a complaint from Russia. Russia on Wednesday had complained to UEFA over Ukraine's kit, which is emblazoned with a map including Crimea and words from a military slogan. UEFA said the map was not a concern, and neither was the phrase “Glory to Ukraine” on the outside of the

PARIS: A fired-up Novak Djokovic repelled a stirring fightback by Italian Matteo Berrettini to claim a 6-3 6-2 6-7(5) 7-5 victory on Wednesday to set up a mouth-watering semi-final showdown with defending champion Rafa Nadal. The 34-year-old bellowed a series of frightening roars after completing a victory that at one stage looked like a formality but became increasingly fraught as Berrettini threw the kitchen sink at the Serb who becomes only the second man to reach 40 Grand Slam semi-finals after Roger Federer.