Page 2135 - Sports
Mourinho keen to tie up long-term De Gea deal
Jose Mourinho has indicated that Manchester United will do all they can to extend David de Gea's contract. The Spain goalkeeper, who almost joined Real Madrid in 2015 and continues to be linked with a move there, has a contract that expires in June 2019, although United have the option to extend it for a further year. United manager Mourinho, though, says that the club are keen to negotiate a new contract soon, with British newspaper reports suggesting they would look to get him to commit to the club until 2023. The 27-year-old, signed from Atletico Madrid for 18.9 million ($29.8 million, 22.7 million euros) in June 2011, was United's players' player of the year in 2014 and 2015, and Mourinho sees him as a crucial part of the club's bid to return to the very top of the English and European game. "We are not going to let the option disappear," Mourinho said. "A goalkeeper like he is, obviously at a club that wants to get better and better, we are not going to let that ...
Guardiola urges City to learn from Anfield pain
Pep Guardiola has challenged his Manchester City stars to use their dramatic 4-3 defeat at Liverpool as a warning to guard against complacency. Guardiola's side saw their 30-match unbeaten run in the Premier League come to a stunning end at Anfield on Sunday. The leaders fell behind to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's early opener and although Leroy Sane equalised before half- time, City were blown away by three goals in nine second half minutes from Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah. Although late goals from Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan put a flattering gloss on the scoresheet, City boss Guardiola had no complaints about his side's first league defeat since April 5 at Chelsea. It was City's first domestic defeat since an FA Cup semi-final against Arsenal on April 23. Conceding that all the talk of City winning the title at a canter and possibly going unbeaten throughout the entire season made it hard to keep his players motivated, the Spaniard said: "In every ..
Anand draws with Karjakin, Carlsen beats Adhiban
Multiple world champion Viswanathan Anand played out an easy draw with Sergey Karjakin of Russia while B Adhiban lost to top seed Magnus Carlsen in the second round of 80th Tata Steel Masters Chess tournament here. On what turned out to be an easy day, Anand had to stretch himself only a little as Karjakin did not attempt any complicated warfare. The result was exchanging of pieces at regular intervals and the players signed peace in an opposite coloured Bishops endgame. With 1.5 points in his kitty, Anand now shares the second spot behind Anish Giri of Holland who came up with another sterling performance to beat Vladimir Kramnik of Russia. Norway's Carlsen, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan and Anand are now sharing the second spot. Playing white, B Adhiban paid a heavy price for his safe approach against Carlsen. Known for his combative and uncompromising chess that won him many fans in the last edition, Adhiban went for a sedate four knights Scotch opening and it .
Australian Open: Bencic stuns Venus in first round
Switzerland's Belinda Bencic upset fifth seed Venus Williams in the first round of the women's singles competition in the Australian Open tennis tournament here on Monday.
1st round wall remains unscaled for Bhambri at Australian Open
Yuki Bhambri struggled to rein in his unforced errors and played well only in patches as his third Australian Open appearance ended with a straight-set first-round defeat at the hands of a seasoned Marcos Baghdatis, here today. The 25-year-old Indian qualifier, ranked 122, had his chances against world number 103 Cypriot, but unforced errors cost him the match 6-7(4) 4-6 3-6 after two hours and nine minutes on court number eight. Bhambri is yet to win a round in the main draw of a Grand Slam and the Australian Open is the only Major he has played. In 2015, when he came through the qualifiers, Bhambri lost to Andy Murray. In 2016, when he made the cut after breaking into the top-100, he drew Tomas Berdych and again failed to go beyond the first round. It was a good chance for Bhambri to improve his record but a staggering 33 unforced errors to just three of Baghdatis meant that his good work of the past few weeks could not yield him a good result at the big stage. Bhambri
Cologne shock Monchengladbach, Dortmund held in German Bundesliga
Simon Terodde's late winner helped FC Cologne beat Borussia Monchengladbach 2-1 while a wasteful Borussia Dortmund were held 0-0 by Wolfsburg in their Bundesliga matches.
Aussies suffering from Ashes hangover: Mitchell Marsh
Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh has said that though his side have been suffering from an Ashes hangover, the same was not the reason behind their shocking defeat in the opening ODI against England.Coming on the back of a 4-0 Ashes series win, Australia had hoped that they had to do a little to outplay England in the ongoing five-match series.But the Steve Smith-led side slumped to a shocking five-wicket defeat against England despite the home side compiling up a competitive total of 304-8 in the first ODI at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).And now the star all-rounder, who continued his solid form with superb 68-ball 50 along with opener Aaron Finch (107) and all-rounder Marcus Stoinis (60) to guide Australia to a commanding total, said that the hosts are feeling the effects of their Ashes success.He, however, believes fatigue might be the reason behind Australia's poor performance with the white ball in the opening match."There may be an element of that but from a momentum .
Barca mount impressive comeback to beat Real Sociedad
FC Barcelona strengthened their lead in the Spanish top division football rankings after battling back from a two-goal deficit to trounce Real Sociedad 4-2 on their home turf, where they had not won in more than 10 years.
Namibia stun Cote d'Ivoire at African Nations Championship
Namibia beat Cote d'Ivoire 1-0 in their campaign opener in Group B of the African Nations Championship football tournament here.
Sudan defeat Guinea
Sudan beat Guinea 2-1 in an African Nations Championship clash here.
India firm favourites against Papua New Guinea in U-19 WC
The odds will be stacked heavily in favour of India when the title contenders, with an eye on securing a knockout berth, meet minnows Papua New Guinea in the ICC U-19 World Cup here tomorrow. Three-time winners India began the tournament on a rousing note, inflicting a 100-run defeat on a well-knit Australian team yesterday. With Zimbabwe being the other team in the group, India, with the kind of form they displayed in the sound thrashing of Australia, are expected to progress to knockouts without breaking a sweat. From the moment India captain Prithvi Shaw won the toss and chose to bat, their opening game went almost exactly to plan, and the script is likely to remain the same at Bay Oval tomorrow. The likes of Shaw, his opening partner Manjot Kalra, and Shubham Gill with the bat along with the pace duo of Shivam Mavi and Kamlesh Nagarkoti could prove to be more than a handful for the Oceanian country. Eager to prove themselves after their disastrous showing in the ...
Gold rush for Indian boxers at Serbian youth & junior tourney
Indian boxers dominated the seventh Nation's Cup tournament for junior and youth women, claiming 11 gold medals in all and both the team championship trophies in Sombor, Serbia. The junior team won 13 medals -- nine gold, two silver and two bronze medals --, while the youth team clinched four medals -- three gold and one bronze. In the junior category, Ekta Saroj (46kg), Baby Rozisana Chanu (52kg), Poonam (54kg), Arundhati Choudhary (60kg), Vinka (63kg), Mitika Gunele (66kg), Raj Sahiba (70kg), Sanamacha Chanu (75kg) and Komal (+80kg), were the gold-medallists. Sanjeeta (48kg) and Lipakshi won the silver medals, while Arshi Khanam (50kg) and Yashi Sharma (57kg) settled for bronze medals. In the youth category, Jony (60kg), Lalita (64kg) and Nandini (81kg) won gold medals. Rajbala (54kg) was the lone bronze-medallist.
Zambia beat Uganda in African Nations Championship
Zambia kicked off their campaign at the 2018 African Nations Championship with a convincing 3-1 win against Uganda in a Group B clash.
Pakistan were outplayed in all departments against Kiwis: Inzamam
Inzamam-ul-Haq, chief selector of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), has admitted that New Zealand have outplayed his side in all departments after the visitors lost the ongoing five-match ODI series Down Under.The Sarfraz Ahmed-led side slumped to a shocking 183-run defeat in the third ODI in Dunedin to go down 0-3 in the series against the Black Caps.And Inzamam expressed his displeasure on Pakistan's failure to put up great show in New Zealand, saying that his side had failed to perform to their potential despite picking up the best available squad."Obviously, we are all disappointed at the manner in which the [Pakistan] team capitulated on Saturday. There are no excuses for such a bad show put up by the boys.We [selectors] had picked the best available squad of players and the core of them won the ICC Champions Trophy only six months ago. No doubt the pitches in New Zealand are tough for most touring teams because it takes time to adjust to the conditions there," the Dawn quoted ...
Australian Open: Venus Williams stunned in opening round
American tennis star Venus Williams suffered a major blow as she crashed out of the season-opening Grand Slam, Australian Open, after slumping to a shocking straight sets defeat against unseeded Belinda Bencic of Switzerland in the opening round here on Monday.With the women's draw is wide open, the last year's runner up had hoped to make serious inroads into the first major of the year.However, Bencic proved too superior for Venus as she showed no sign of nerves, while pulling off a comfortable 6-3, 7-5 victory over the fifth-seed in the women's singles clash that lasted an hour and 55 minutes at Melbourne Park's Rod Laver Arena.Bencic was leading 4-3 in the first set when rain delayed the play for almost half an hour. On resumption, Venus failed to convert on four break opportunities before the Swiss star broke once more to wrap up the set.In the second set, Williams broke the 20-year-old's serve in the opening game but she failed to hold from thereon to hand Bencic one of the ...
Bhambri, Nadal to begin Australian Open campaign today
Indian tennis ace Yuki Bhambri will aim to kick-start his Australian Open campaign on a winning note when he locks horns with Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in the opening round of the tournament here at the Melbourne Park on Monday.Earlier, Bhambri qualified for the main draw of the first major of the season after beating Canada's Peter Polansky in the third and final qualifying match.The 25-year-old struggled with his serve in the opening set before Polanksy pocketed the set with ease. But Bhambri rebounded strongly in the remaining two sets and won the match 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 in one hour and 55 minutes.It should be noted that Bhambri is a lone qualifier in the men's singles event.In his last two appearances in the main draw, Bhambri had suffered a defeat against British tennis maestro Andy Murray in 2015 before being knocked off by Tomas Berdych in the opening round in 2016.In the men's doubles event, starting from January 17, Indian pairs of Leander Paes and Purav Raja and Rohan Bopanna ..
Venus Williams, US champion Stephens out in 1st round
In her first match at the Australian Open since a Williams sister was guaranteed to win the title, Venus Williams lost in the first round to Belinda Bencic and ensured it cannot happen in 2018. Venus lost last year's final at Melbourne Park to younger sibling Serena, who clinched an Open era-record 23rd major but hasn't played a Grand Slam tournament since because of her pregnancy and the birth of her first child. The 6-3, 7-5 loss for Venus Williams was her first in five career meetings with Bencic, who lost to Serena Williams in the first round here last year. It was a bleak opening day for American women, with U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens, No. 10-seeded CoCo Vandeweghe, a semifinalist here and at the U.S. Open last year, and CiCi Bellis, the WTA's Newcomer of the Year, going out in the first round. The U.S. women were 0 for 7 in first-round singles by mid-afternoon. U.S. Open finalist and No. 11-seeded Kevin Anderson was the highest-ranked man eliminated at that
Rosewall's 'good luck' letters to Federer
At every Australian Open tennis great Ken Rosewall writes a heartfelt letter and leaves it for Roger Federer in the players' locker room. It's just a short note on a single slip of paper in neat hand writing, which Rosewall gives to the doorman. "I just write a simple half-page," Rosewall told The Australian newspaper on Monday. "Good luck. Hope the family's well. That's the extent of it. "My accreditation pass doesn't allow me to get into the dressing room. I don't want to invade his privacy or bother him at all, so I just figure I'll write him a note." He said he had met Federer several times and would like to see more of him, "but obviously his time is pretty well taken care of". "He's admired by millions of people, including me. He's been winning major championships for a long time," added 83- year-old Rosewall, who won eight Grand Slams. "Now he's 36 and still doing it. Now he's still carrying himself the way he does. He's done an amazing thing for tennis." Federer ..
Rebel with a cause Kyrgios to help troubled youth
Nick Kyrgios has become a rebel with a cause by creating his own foundation to help underprivileged youth, admitting it was time to "knuckle down" and grow up. The volatile Australian, who begins his Australian Open campaign Monday, wants to help the welfare of disadvantaged youngsters by creating the NK Foundation. It is all part of the young gun finding more maturity after frequent criticism in the past for his on-court blow- ups. "I'm pretty young still, but there is a time when you've got to knuckle down and become a true professional," he told the Melbourne Herald Sun Monday. "And I'm getting closer and closer to that at the moment." Kyrgios, 22, who won his fourth ATP Tour title in Brisbane ahead of the Australian Open, has revealed his desire to provide facilities for struggling children has become a key motivator in his career. "It's massive for me to have a foundation like that," he said ahead of his first-round match at Melbourne Park with Brazil's Rogerio ...
City's unbeaten run in EPL ends with 4-3 loss at Liverpool
Manchester City's 22-match unbeaten start to the Premier League came to an end with a 4-3 loss to Liverpool in a wild and thrilling game at Anfield. City finally faltered at a ground where the team has a long history of struggles -- with just one league win in 37 years -- and was ultimately undone by nine minutes of mayhem, when Liverpool hounded City's defense and scored three goals. With the score at 1-1, Roberto Firmino deftly chipped goalkeeper Ederson Moraes to regain the lead for Liverpool in the 59th minute. Sadio Mane smashed a rising shot high into the net in the 61st, and Mohamed Salah capitalized on a weak clearance from Ederson to score from 45 meters (yards) in the 68th. All three goals featured errors by what was previously the tightest defense in the league, as City failed to handle Liverpool's high press led by the irrepressible Firmino. City threatened an amazing comeback after goals by substitute Bernardo Silva, in the 84th, and Ilkay Gundogan, in the ..