Sports

Barcelona players must shoulder the blame for the club’s dismal performances this season, defender Jules Kounde said as the reigning Spanish champions find themselves eight points off the top spot in LaLiga. Barca suffered a heavy defeat against old rivals Real Madrid in the final of the Spanish Super Cup […]

MELBOURNE : Iga Swiatek will begin her Australian Open campaign with a first round match against former champion Sofia Kenin and the world number one said on Friday it was strange how different their career paths had been since their only meeting in 2020. Swiatek beat Kenin 6-4 6-1 in […]

ADELAIDE : Sixth seed Jelena Ostapenko came back from a sluggish start to beat Sorana Cirstea 2-6 6-2 6-4 in the first round of the Adelaide International on Tuesday. Ostapenko, a quarter-finalist at last week’s Brisbane International, needed nearly two hours to settle the match at the Australian Open tune-up […]

Former Australian Open runner-up Petra Kvitova said on Monday she is expecting her first child with husband and longtime coach Jiri Vanek and would miss the year’s first Grand Slam which begins in two weeks. Twice Wimbledon champion Kvitova, 33, is not playing in the ongoing tune-up tournaments in Australia, […]

PERTH: World number one Novak Djokovic is hoping his latest trip to Australia is not the last, but admits that at 36 he is now taking it “season by season”. The Serbian superstar is the king of the Melbourne Park hard courts, winning the Australian Open a record 10 times, […]

LONDON: Japan’s Kaoru Mitoma is a doubt for next month’s Asian Cup after being ruled out of action for up to six weeks with an ankle injury. The winger, 26, suffered the knock in Brighton’s 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace last week. There are also questions over Ivory Coast winger […]

LONDON: Manchester City came from behind to beat Everton 3-1 on their return from the Club World Cup yesterday and move five points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool. Pep Guardiola’s men, chasing an unprecedented fourth consecutive English top-flight title, were in deep trouble when trailing 1-0 at Goodison Park, courtesy […]

LONDON: Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez will miss tomorrow’s clash at Wolverhampton Wanderers after suffering a hernia, the Premier League club’s manager Mauricio Pochettino said. Argentine international Fernandez was substituted after just 32 minutes in Chelsea’s League Cup quarter-final win over Newcastle United on Tuesday. “Enzo is going to be out […]

England suffered a second successive white-ball series defeat to West Indies on Thursday after losing the fifth Twenty20 by four wickets but coach Matthew Mott said they will take valuable lessons from the tour into next year’s World Cup. England will play just one four-match series against Pakistan in May […]