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World number one Ash Barty said her tennis had reached a new level during a "phenomenal" week in Stuttgart where she pulled off three successive comeback wins to claim her second title on clay. The Australian, who turned 25 on Saturday, defeated fifth seed Aryna Sabalenka 3-6 6-0 6-3 in the final to hoist her third WTA trophy this season and cement her place at the top of the rankings. The Sabalenka win followed victories over fourth seed Elina Svitolina and sixth seed

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

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

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

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

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

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,