Tuesday, July 6, 2021Dhul-Qa’da 26, 1442 AH

SPORTGULF TIMES

Sprint king Cavendish contemplates Elysees dream

Ko wins in fi rst start since losing World No. 1 ranking

GOLF GOLF | Page 6 CYCLING CYCLING | Page 7

FOOTBALL

England’s Maguire grateful to be in Euros aft er injuryPage 3

Federer, Djokovic advance as Jabeur makes history

TENNIS/ WIMB;EDON

Federer, who will be 40 shortly, eased past Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego 7-5, 6-4, 6-2 to make the last-eight

Luis Enrique out to settle old scores with ItalyAFPLondon

Luis Enrique’s belligerent self-belief has led Spain to the semi-fi nals of Euro 2020, but the former Bar-

celona boss has another personal score to settle in today’s last four clash against Italy.

His playing career at major tournaments is best remembered for the vicious elbow from Mauro Tassotti that left blood fl owing from his burst nose over his white Spain shirt at the 1994 World Cup.

Tassotti escaped without pun-ishment at the time — Spain de-nied a stoppage time penalty and the chance to take the game to extra-time as the Azzurri ran out 2-1 winners.

The Italy defender was subse-quently banned for eight games by FIFA, but the damage was al-ready done for Spain as they ex-ited at the quarter-fi nals.

That was a familiar story for Spanish football at the time as

generations of talented players came and went without leaving a trace at major competitions.

All that changed in 2008 as a last eight win over Italy on pen-alties opened the door for Luis Aragones’s side to win the Euro-pean Championship.

Vicente del Bosque then took over to win the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012.

But by the time Luis Enrique got the call, Spain had fallen rap-idly from grace.

In the previous three major tournaments, they failed to even reach the quarter-fi nals as the generation of a glorious era grew old together.

Luis Enrique’s contentious call to leave out former captain Sergio Ramos for Euro 2020 broke the last remaining link to the 2008 team.

Without Ramos, or any other Real Madrid player for the fi rst time in Spain’s history at a ma-jor tournament, the Madrid press cried foul, claiming La Furia Roja would lack leadership.

“I am one of the leaders, like all

coaches,” said Luis Enrique in re-sponse. “If that is not the case, it is a bad signal.”

It has not been a totally smooth ride. A case of coronavirus for Sergio Busquets in the days before the tournament began meant the coach’s decision not to take his full complement of 26 players was further questioned.

Spain have also only won one of their fi ve games in 90 minutes.

Yet, a number of Luis Enrique’s biggest calls have come through for him when it mattered most.

Alvaro Morata had to listen to his own fans chant “how bad are you” in a pre-tournament friend-ly against Portugal.

After a host of missed chances, including a penalty, in the group stages, the Juventus striker pro-duced a stunning fi nish in extra-time to turn the last 16 tie against Croatia back in his side’s favour.

Unai Simon’s comical own goal in that game to open the scoring when he failed to control a simple back pass from Pedri reopened the debate over who should be Spain’s number one.

But the Athletic Bilbao goal-keeper made two penalty saves in the shootout win over Switzer-land in the quarter-fi nals.

Nationalised just weeks before Euro 2020 kicked off , centre-back Aymeric Laporte has made vital contributions in both boxes as has Cesar Azpilicueta on his inter-national recall after three years. Further forward, Paris Saint-Germain winger Pablo Sarabia has more than justifi ed his sur-prise place in the squad with goals against Slovakia and Croatia, while Ferran Torres, Dani Olmo and Mikel Oyarzabal have all made telling contributions when introduced as substitutes.

“I always said we were one of the eight candidates to win the European Championship and now we are among the four best,” said Luis Enrique.

“It would be ridiculous to be in the semi-fi nals and not think about taking one step more. This is the objective.”

A familiar foe stands in his way at Wembley, but win or lose, Luis Enrique will do it his own way.

FOOTBALL

AFPLondon

Roger Federer yesterday became the oldest man to reach the Wimbledon quarter-fi nals since the

dawn of the Open Era in 1968.Federer, who will be 40 in just

under fi ve weeks’ time, eased past Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego 7-5, 6-4, 6-2 to make the last-eight at the All England Club for the 18th time.

In what will be his 58th Grand Slam quarter-fi nal, eight-time Wimbledon champion Fed-erer will face either second seed Daniil Medvedev or Hubert Hurkacz, the 14th seed, for a place in the semi-fi nals.

Medvedev was leading Hurkacz 6-2, 6-7 (2/7), 6-3, 3-4 when play was halted for the night due to rain.

Earlier, Novak Djokovic marched eff ortlessly into his 50th Grand Slam quarter-fi nal as Ons Jabeur became the fi rst Tunisian player to make the last-eight at the All England Club.

World number one Djokovic, chasing a sixth Wimbledon and record-equalling 20th major, eased into the last-eight at the tournament for the 12th time with a 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 win over Chile’s Cristian Garin.

He will next face Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics, one of a host of players booking last-eight spots at the tournament for the fi rst time. The list includes women’s top seed Ashleigh Bar-ty, second seed Aryna Sabalenka, Karolina Pliskova, Viktorija Gol-ubic as well as Matteo Berrettini, Denis Shapovalov and Karen Khachanov in the men’s draw.

Djokovic is halfway to a calen-dar Grand Slam.

Only two men have swept all

four majors in the same year with Rod Laver the most recent back in 1969.

“Confi dence levels are very high after winning the French Open,” said Djokovic. Barty reached the quarter-fi nals for the fi rst time, beating French Open champion Barbora Kre-jcikova of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-3.

Jabeur’s historic campaign saw her reach the quarter-fi nals for the fi rst time, beating Po-

land’s 2020 French Open cham-pion Iga Swiatek 5-7, 6-1, 6-1.

The 26-year-old is the fi rst Tunisian woman to reach the last eight and will face Belarus sec-ond seed Aryna Sabalenka who defeated Elena Rybakina 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 Former world number one Pliskova reached her fi rst Wimbledon quarter-fi nal with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Russian wild-card Liudmila Samsonova.

Men’s seventh seed Berret-tini became only the fi fth Italian

man to make the last eight with a quickfi re 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 win over Ilya Ivashka of Belarus.

The Queen’s Club champion, the fi rst Italian man in the quar-ter-fi nals since 1998, will face Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada who beat Alexander Zverev for a semi-fi nal spot.

Khachanov also reached a maiden quarter-fi nal with a fi ve-set win over Sebastian Ko-rda who was celebrating his 21st birthday.

Russian 25th seed Khachanov triumphed over his American rival 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 10-8 and will face Canadian 10th seed Denis Shapovalov.

A marathon 81-minute fi -nal set on Court 18 featured 13 breaks of serve before Khach-anov steadied himself to take the victory. Shapovalov, who knocked out two-time champion Andy Murray in the last round, dismissed Spain’s 2019 semi-fi nalist and eighth seed Roberto Bautista Agut 6-1, 6-3, 7-5.

Viktorija Golubic, ranked 66, defeated Madison Keys 7-6 (7/3), 6-3 as she also broke through to the last eight for the fi rst time where she’ll face Pliskova.

Meanwhile, Angelique Kerber, the 2018 Wimbledon champion, produced a superb display to beat American teenager Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-4 in 1 hour and 16 minutes to reach the quarter-fi nals.

Spain’s coach Luis Enrique conducts a training session at the Ciudad del Futbol in Las Rozas near Madrid on the eve of their Euro 2020 semi-final football against Italy.

Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur celebrates her win over Poland’s Iga Swiatek in the fourth round match at Wimbledon yesterday. See also pg 8

Switzerland’s Roger Federer returns against Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego during their fourth round match at Wimbledon yesterday.

Borg back at Wimbledon

London: Forty-five years after Bjorn Borg won the first of his five Wimbledon titles, his teen-age son Leo kept the family flag flying in the boys tournament yesterday.Leo, 18, reached the second round with a 6-3, 6-7 (2/7), 6-0 win over 17-year-old Marko Topo of Serbia.Borg fired six aces and 34 win-ners in his win out on Court Nine.Bjorn Borg won the boys tourna-ment at Wimbledon in 1972 before winning five successive men’s titles from 1976-1980.Only one father and son have previously won the boys title at Wimbledon — India’s Ramanath-an Krishnan in 1954 triumphed as did his son Ramesh Krishnan in 1979.

FOOTBALL2 Gulf Times

Tuesday, July 6, 2021

Italy in buoyant mood ahead of semi against Spain

EURO 2020

AFPLondon

Italy’s Leonardo Bonucci says the Azzurri are “thriving on the occa-sion” as they prepare to face Spain at Wembley today in a blockbuster fi rst

semi-fi nal of Euro 2020, a tournament in which they have so far been the standout side. “We are thriving on this occasion, we have made it this far and we are go-ing to give absolutely everything in our power to make the Italian people proud of this Azzurri side,” the Juventus defensive stalwart said on the eve of the game.

Bonucci added that Italy planned to dedicate reaching the fi nal to their strick-en team-mate Leonardo Spinazzola, who suff ered a ruptured achilles tendon in the 2-1 quarter-fi nal win over Belgium in

Munich on Friday.That result saw Roberto Mancini’s

team stretch their remarkable unbeaten run to 32 matches after they previously saw off Turkey, Switzerland and Wales in Rome in the group stage before edging Austria 2-1 after extra time at Wembley in the last 16.

That has inevitably led to a surge in confi dence back home and Italy are now widely considered the favourites against Spain. “We have had a fl awless run so far, but even if Spain have had some issues we need to put that to one side and really fo-cus on what we need to do, where we need to improve,” said the 34-year-old central defender.

“We simply need to be motivated by the fact we are coming up against such a great and prestigious side in such a wonderful arena as Wembley, in the knowledge that

we could be involved in the fi nal in just a few days’ time.”

More than 60,000 fans will be allowed to attend the game inside the 90,000-ca-pacity stadium after the British govern-ment eased the coronavirus restrictions that have been in place during the tour-nament. However, the crowd will be al-most entirely British due to restrictions on fans of the two sides entering the United Kingdom.

“It is pretty unfair if I’m perfectly hon-est, very unfair indeed,” lamented Italy coach Roberto Mancini. “That said we are better off playing in front of any crowd as opposed to a small number of people, but I do think it’s unfair we don’t have half the stadium full of Italian fans and the other half full of Spaniards.”

It is the fourth consecutive European Championship in which these sides have

met, with Spain winning on penalties in the Euro 2008 quarter-fi nals and then claiming a stunning 4-0 win in the fi nal in Kyiv in 2012.

Italy gained a measure of revenge last time out, winning 2-0 in the last 16 of Euro 2016 in France with Giorgio Chiel-lini and Graziano Pelle scoring.

“The fi nal in Kiev leaves a bitter taste in the mouth because we were really all out of puff by the time we got to the game,” recalled Bonucci, who played for Italy against Spain in 2012 and in 2016.

“We were short of ideas and short of energy and the result was a fair one on the day, but 2016 was a completely diff erent occasion.”

Mancini said he expected Italy to be at full strength with both striker Andrea Be-lotti and defender Rafael Toloi hoping to shake off knocks in time.

Mancini’s team are on an remarkable unbeaten run of 32 matches

Anelka tells Mbappe to leave Paris Saint-Germain to win the biggest prizes

Qatar Football Association announces award nominees for 2020-21 season

Home advantage pays dividends at unique Euro 2020

AFPLondon

Former France striker Nicolas Anel-ka believes star forward Kylian Mbappe will need to follow his ex-ample in leaving Paris Saint-Ger-

main to play abroad if he is to be regarded as the best player in the world.

Mbappe, who joined PSG in 2017, is about to enter the fi nal season of his contract in the French capital with speculation linking him with a move to Real Madrid.

Despite spending four seasons alongside Neymar at the Parc des Princes, the super-star duo have failed to deliver PSG’s fi rst ever Champions League title and even lost Ligue 1 last season to Lille. Anelka had a brief stint in Madrid himself after joining Arsenal from PSG as a teenager in 1997.

“If you want the biggest accolades, you will have to move from PSG at some point,” Anelka wrote in an open letter published

in The Athletic. “Whatever you do in Paris will be good, but somebody will always say, “Well, you did great for PSG but it was only

in France. The best leagues are in England and Spain, so you didn’t compete with the best players in the best league.”

Mbappe proved himself as a global star at the 2018 World Cup where his four goals helped France become champions for the second time. However, he was far from his best as Didier Deschamps’ men crashed out of Euro 2020 at the last 16 to Switzerland on penalties last week.

Mbappe was the only player to miss in the shootout, rounding off a miserable tourna-ment in which he failed to score. Anelka missed the penalty that saw Chelsea lose the Champions League fi nal to Manchester United in 2008 and said Mbappe will bear the “scar” of the Switzerland defeat forever.

“It is a scar that marks you, that fades but doesn’t ever really go away,” he added. “You feel all alone. You have to live with it and you have to work, work, work on the pitch, play matches, score goals, to be able to start to forget. But you will never completely forget. I never forgot. I will never forget.”

QNADoha

The Board of Trustees of Qatar Football Associa-tion (QFA) Award dis-cussed the preparations

for the Best Awards for the 2020-21 season and approved the fi nal list of nominees for the awards.

A total of 55 forms were sent out to participants in the voting process and 45 of them were ap-proved while 10 forms were re-jected for being incomplete.

It was also decided to cancel the QFA Award Ceremony this season and the winners will be announced through the offi cial website as well as social media platforms of QFA and Qatar Stars League.

The fi nal names of nominees for each award after the voting

process are:The best Under-23 Player

Award were Mahmoud Abu-nada (Al Arabi), Abdulrasheed Ibrahim (Al Ahli), and Homam al-Ameen (Al Gharafa). The best coach award Younes Ali (Qatar SC), Xavi Hernandez (Al Sadd),

and Nebojsa Jovovic (Al Ahli). The best player award for San-ti Cazorla (Al Sadd), Baghdad Bounedjah (Al Sadd), and Edmil-son Junior (Al Duhail). The Man-sour Muftah award for the top scorer will go to Al Sadd striker Baghdad Bounedjah (21 goals).

AFPLondon

Euro 2020 has delivered more drama than even then-UEFA president Michel Platini could have

envisaged when he announced the event would be held around Europe nine years ago, but it has still been slammed as a “joke” and “not really fair”. The tourna-ment has been played across 11 cities in 11 countries as the cul-mination of Platini’s plan for a continental-wide celebration of the championship’s 60th anni-versary, albeit a year late due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

But the unique set-up of the Euro — which by goals per game is the highest-scoring since 1976 — has led to criticism and a semi-fi nal line-up constituting of four of the nine host nations to qualify. While England, Spain, Denmark and Italy all played all three of their group matches on home turf, others had to travel thousands of kilometres between games.

Wales played their fi rst two matches in Azerbaijani capital Baku before a near 4,000-kilo-metre trip to Rome to face Italy. An exhausted side, who reached the semi-fi nals in 2016, were then thrashed 4-0 by Denmark, who had played all their group games in Copenhagen, in the last 16 in Amsterdam. Due to travel restrictions, Welsh fans from the UK could not even attend that tie, while the Danes were roared on by thousands of supporters.

“Written off before a bag of air was kicked, 3,000 miles from home,” said Wales full-back Chris Gunter. “Every nation had fans wherever they went. You and us deserved more from this joke set-up of a tournament, but who said life was fair.”

Switzerland made it to the quarter-fi nals despite a similarly hectic schedule. Vladimir Petko-vic’s men started their campaign against Wales in Baku, then trav-elled to Rome, before fl ying back to Azerbaijan.

Remarkably, they still man-aged to defeat world champions France, who had played their Group F games in Munich and Budapest, on penalties in the last 16 in Bucharest, before losing a

shoot-out to Spain in Saint Pe-tersburg. “Tomorrow will be the fourth time that we will change time zone. It is not great in terms of preparation,” said Swiss coach Petkovic after the group stage, before praising his players’ at-titudes. “We travelled a lot. We moved often and each time we had to adapt the biological rhythm of the players.”

England did not play away un-til their 4-0 quarter-fi nal vic-tory over Ukraine at the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday, and they will be back at Wembley, which will also hold the fi nal, next Wednesday to take on Denmark in the last four.

If England win that match, they will have played six of seven games at home. “England, for me, are still the big favourites,” Belgium coach Roberto Martinez told ESPN. “They are playing every game at home. You know that when the games are tight in the knockout phase, it’s a big ad-vantage to play at home.”

It is the fi rst time England have reached a European Champion-ship semi-fi nal since they hosted Euro 1996, while they still have not made a major tournament fi nal since winning the 1966 World Cup at Wembley.

Tournaments are usually host-ed by one or two nations, giving them a seemingly unfair advan-tage, but the last time a host team lifted the European Champion-ship title was France in 1984.

The diff erence this time, though, is the added travel for certain teams and coronavirus rules — usually sides would at least have a training base in the host country and fans would travel there in their thousands.

Croatia manager Zlatko Dalic, whose side were in Group D with England and fellow hosts Scot-land, said the coronavirus pan-demic made it more unfair be-cause of the tight restrictions on fans travelling to Britain. “We are harmed because we are playing without our fans,” he said. “With our fans we are way stronger. This is not really fair, we have to travel, stay in a bubble.”

But the signs are that this will be a one-off , with Germany to host the Euro in 2024 for the fi rst time since West Germany in 1988.

OPINIONFOCUS

SPOTLIGHT

Hong Kong: Defending champions Ulsan Hyundai continued their march towards the knockout rounds of the Asian Champions League yesterday with a 2-1 win over Kaya-Iloilo in Bang-kok despite playing most of their Group F game with 10 men.

Yoon Bit-garam scored either side of Kim Min-jun’s sending off in the 31st minute as the South Koreans extended their record-breaking run in

the competition to 13 consecutive wins. Yoon, who was the tournament’s Most Valuable Player last year, knew little about the 27th minute opener when Lukas Hinterseer’s strike from outside the area hit the playmaker on the side of the head before wrong-footing Zach Banzon.

Four minutes later Kim was shown a straight red card for dangerous play when he caught Marco Casambre in

the head with a high foot. Jovan Bedic levelled the scores

for the Filipinos two minutes into the second half, but Yoon put Ulsan back in front four minutes later when he fired into the top corner.

Ulsan lead the standings by three points after four games from BG Pathum United after the Thai League side came back from going a goal down to win 3-1 in their match against

Vietnam’s Viettel. Only the five group winners from

the matches being played in east Asia are certain to progress to the knockout rounds, with the three best runners-up also advancing.

Japanese champions Kawasaki Frontale maintained their winning run in Group I in Tashkent as Toru Oniki’s side handed United City FC a 2-0 loss to claim a fourth win in a row. Kei Chinen

put Kawasaki in front against the club from the Philippines 18 minutes into the game and Tatsuya Hasegawa sealed the points with 12 minutes remaining.

The win keeps Kawasaki three points ahead of Daegu FC following the South Korean side’s 3-0 victory over Beijing Guoan, which came courtesy of a brace from Jeong Chi-in after Kim Jin-hyuk’s opener.

Matches in the eastern half of the Asian Champions League are currently being played in biosecure hubs in Thailand and Uzbekistan after games in the west of the continent were held in similar conditions in April.

The last 16 will be played in mid-September with the quarter-finals and semi-finals scheduled for October.

The final will be held in a neutral venue on Nov. 23.

YOON DOUBLES UP AS 10-MAN ULSAN CONTINUE WINNING RUN

Italy coach Roberto Mancini (centre) talks to his players during a training session at the Hive Stadium in London yesterday. (Reuters)

FOOTBALL3Gulf Times

Tuesday, July 6, 2021

Peter Schmeichel backs son Kasper to thrive on penalty pressure at Euro 2020

We can stop Kane, says Denmark defender Christensen

England’s Maguire grateful to be in Euros aft er injury

FOCUSCONFIDENT

SPOTLIGHT

ReutersManchester

England defender Harry Maguire will be at the heart of Gareth Southgate’s defence in tomor-row’s Euro 2020 semi-fi nal

against Denmark, but he did not know if he would be fi t enough to even make the squad after an ankle injury in May.

Maguire suff ered ligament damage in Manchester United’s May 9 Premier League match with Aston Villa and missed the rest of the domestic season and his club’s Europa League fi nal loss to Villarreal.

He missed England’s warm-up games and opening two matches in the Euros’ group stage but returned in the fi nal group fi xture with Czech Repub-lic and has been alongside John Stones since then.

Asked if he feared he might have to watch the Euros on TV rather than be on the fi eld, Maguire, who scored a header in Saturday’s 4-0 win over Ukraine, said there was uncertainty.

“I think with any injury, you don’t know how you are going to recover, you don’t know the rehab, if you are going to have a setback. Touch wood, I haven’t had any setbacks in rehab and it has all gone smoothly, all gone to plan and a little bit quicker than we all thought,” he told a news confer-ence yesterday. “Obviously to miss the Europa League fi nal was disappointing and then I fully set my sights on making the Euros squad.”

The Yorkshireman said he did not know, when he was named in that squad, when he would be ready to re-turn to action but is pleased with the way he has coped. “It’s not like be-ing thrown into a friendly match, it’s the European Championship, so it’s so demanding and the intensity of each game,” he said.

“So where it has gone and where it has been, I think that is great credit to the medical staff at Manchester Unit-ed and England for the way they went

about everything, the way they pushed me every day and obviously I am really proud of myself in terms of the way that I pushed myself as well.”

Maguire was part of the England team which lost to Croatia in the semi-fi nal of the World Cup in Russia three years ago and says the memory of that loss is in the players’ minds. “Losing the semi-fi nal at the World Cup hurt

a lot. So we need to make sure when it comes on Wednesday night we get a positive feeling rather than the one we got against Croatia.”

England ready to end semi-fi nal jinx at Euro 2020, says Southgate

Gareth Southgate says England are ready to end their semi-fi nal hoodoo as they prepare to face Denmark in the

last four of Euro 2020, bidding to reach their fi rst fi nal at a major tournament since 1966. England topped their group and beat old foes Germany in the round of 16 before ratcheting up expectations with Saturday’s thumping 4-0 quar-ter-fi nal win against Ukraine in Rome.

England have fallen at the penulti-mate hurdle at major tournaments on four occasions since winning the World

Cup in 1966, including their defeat by Croatia at the World Cup in Russia three years ago. But Southgate believes his side have learned from that disap-pointment and are ready to take the next step.

“We’ve knocked off so many hoo-doos or perceived barriers already and I feel like this group of players will feel this is just the next challenge,” he said.

“I guess the interesting part for us is we won’t feel totally satisfi ed if it’s just a semi-fi nal for us, whereas maybe three years ago, although there was massive disappointment after the semi-fi nal, there was a feeling we’d come a long way. Now we’ve replicated what we did there, but that won’t be enough to fulfi l the group. That’s a positive sign.”

A key diff erence from 2018 is height-ened expectation, with Southgate himself admitting their benchmark in Russia was to end England’s 12-year wait for a knockout victory. The former international defender now has more knockout wins than any previous Eng-land manager and will go looking for another in Wednesday’s semi-fi nal bolstered by a boisterous partisan crowd of 60,000-plus at Wembley.

“It’s great to be coming back now,” said Southgate, who expects teen-ager Bukayo Saka to return to training on Monday after missing the Ukraine match with a slight knock. “To go and have that diff erent environment, prep-aration, focus was defi nitely helpful. But now to be coming back to Wembley is a great thing for us.”

Southgate says going through “re-al-life experiences together” such as the sickening racism experienced in Montenegro and Bulgaria in Euro 2020 qualifi ers has helped create a bond among his players.

Semi-fi nal opponents Denmark have also been brought closer together fol-lowing Christian Eriksen’s cardiac ar-rest in their group opener.

The Inter Milan player needed resus-citation on the pitch before a successful operation in hospital. “We talk about perspective in sport but we rarely have it,” Southgate said. “This was a moment that brought it home for all of us. “I can also imagine what it has done for the Danish team, their bond. We are talking about the things we have been through but what they went through that day — the way their captain was and the way the group was — and how that would have connected with their supporters. That’s pretty powerful.”

Defender missed England’s warm-up games and opening two matches in the Euros’ group stage

ReutersCopenhagen

Denmark’s Andreas Christensen believes his side’s Premier League players have

what it takes to stop England striker Harry Kane and silence Wembley Stadium when they meet in their Euro 2020 semi-fi nal tomorrow.

The 25-year-old defender’s club side Chelsea have a good record against the England No 9 and Denmark may also gain from the insight of midfi elder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg who is a team mate of Kane’s at Tottenham.

“We know his qualities, and everyone has an idea of what we can do to stop him,” Christensen told a news conference. “Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg also knows him, and it may be that he can share some things. All football players have their habits, and we must take advantage of them.”

Kane, who scored against Ger-many in the last 16 and added a brace in England’s 4-0 quarter-fi nal win over Ukraine, presents a tough physical challenge for the Danes. “He is good with his feet and he is one of the best fi nishers in football,” Christensen said.

“I react a lot on instinct. He is very big, so it is hard to get into

his body, but he also has great qualities with his feet, so you should not get too close either.”

Despite playing for more mod-est clubs scattered throughout Europe, the Danes are not intim-idated by England’s star-stud-ded lineup of household names. “I feel like we have the qualities to play against everyone. As a team, I would not say they are that much better,” Christensen said.

After masterminding his side’s remarkable comeback from los-ing Christian Eriksen to a car-diac arrest in the opening game, coach Kasper Hjulmand is work-ing on a plan to stop England’s forward line. “We’re aware of Harry Kane, but you cannot place an order to wrap a player up. We know all about how they attack, so we’re creating some structures to stop the English at-tacks,” he told reporters.

The game will take place in front of 60,000 fans at Wembley, but due to Covid-19 travel re-strictions, only Danes resident in the United Kingdom will be able to attend.

“We’re going to be outnum-bered, but we are happy and we try to be as calm as we can. We have shown that we have the quality to play against the best. It’s going to be about who wants it the most,” Christensen said.

AFPLondon

Peter Schmeichel says son Kasper will be ready for penalties if need-ed when Denmark take on England in the Euro 2020 semi-fi nals to-

morrow, warning the Danes should not be underestimated. The former Manchester United goalkeeper was part of the Danish team that stunned the world in 1992 when they won the European Championship for the fi rst and only time after receiving a late call-up to the tournament when the former Yugoslavia were disqualifi ed.

Schmeichel senior kept a clean sheet against England in a Group One stale-mate but more crucially was able to deny Marco van Basten from the spot in a 5-4 penalty shoot-out success over the Neth-erlands in the last four before he shut out Germany in the fi nal to help his country claim silverware.

“I am sure he would feel the same as I did — that it is yet another challenge,” the 57-year-old told ITV when asked how Leicester goalkeeper Kasper would feel about penalties.

“You have to deal with that and it is part of the job you’ve chosen to do. You know how signifi cant it is and how big it is but at the end of the day you can only do so much as a goalkeeper and he will be prepared for

it. I think one thing he will think of is the last time Denmark was in the European Championship semi-fi nals, Denmark did win on penalties so he can bring that into it.”

England are favourites to progress at Wembley on Wednesday and reach a fi rst-ever European Championship fi nal but Schmeichel warned Gareth Southgate’s side not to underestimate Denmark, who have recovered from the trauma of Chris-

tian Eriksen’s on-pitch cardiac arrest to reach the last four.

“You have to realise you are playing a good team when you reach the semi-fi nal,” he said. “Any team you play will be a qual-ity team, there is no doubt about that. We could have played Italy or Spain, they are equally as strong but I think what we have proven in our campaign is that we are a strong team as well and we can be a danger to anyone.”

England’s Harry Maguire plays darts before a press conference at St. George’s Park in Burton upon Trent, Britain, yesterday. (Reuters)

Denmark’s goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel. (AFP)

Spurs football chief Paratici wants to keep Kane at club

PREMIER LEAGUE

AFPLondon

Tottenham’s new manag-ing director of football Fabio Paratici said yes-terday keeping Harry

Kane is “our goal as a club” even though the England captain has stated his desire to leave. Kane, 27, has told Spurs he wants a move after growing frustrated at their 13-year trophy drought and a clutch of top sides have been linked with the forward, includ-ing Manchester City, Manches-ter United and Chelsea.

Reports last month said Pre-mier League champions City had made a bid of £100mn ($138mn) for the player, who won the Golden Boot as the top-scorer in the English top-fl ight last sea-son. Kane, whose three goals at Euro 2020 have helped England reach the semi-fi nals, is not ex-pected to make a decision on his future until after the tourna-ment, which ends on Sunday.

“Keeping him is not just my goal, it’s our goal as a club,” Paratici told Sky Sport Italia. “Right now, he’s one of the best strikers in the world,” he added. “He’s a complete player, really special. His physique is that of a real number nine, a true poacher, but he also has an incredibly re-fi ned technique.”

Paratici, who recently left Ju-ventus, said: “He’s a team player, but he’s a fi nisher at the same time, so I believe he is among the top three in the world. I haven’t heard from him yet because I don’t want to bother the players who are busy at the Euros.”

Tottenham last week an-nounced they had appointed former Wolves boss Nuno Es-pirito Santo as their new man-ager to replace the sacked Jose Mourinho. The club were regular top-four fi nishers under former manager Mauricio Pochettino, reaching the Champions League fi nal in 2019.

London: Manchester United are making progress in attempts to sign the midfielder Eduardo Camavinga from Rennes. The 18-year-old is a France interna-tional with three caps but went to the Under-21 European Champi-onship rather than Euro 2020.

Rennes are open to selling Camavinga for about €30mn (£25.7mn) because they could otherwise lose him for nothing next summer, when his contract is due to expire. He has been a long-term target for United and other clubs, notably Paris Saint-Germain, are also interested.

Camavinga, who has been selected for the Tokyo Olympics, last August became – at 17 years,

nine months and 17 days – the youngest player called into a France senior squad since 1932. He came on against Croatia the following month, becoming their youngest debutant since 1914, according to Opta.

A product of the Rennes acad-emy, he made his first-team debut in 2019 at 16 and has played 67 Ligue 1 games for the club. Last week, United confirmed they had agreed to sign the England winger Jadon Sancho from Borus-sia Dortmund. The club intend to further strengthen Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s squad provided deals reflect the economic climate, and Camavinga appears to fit that bracket. (The Guardian)

Man United step up pursuit of Rennes midfi elder Camavinga

Barcelona’s Dembele off ers apology over racism storm

Man City kept Ferran, Rodri from Olympics: Guardiola

Benitez’s arrival is a step in the right direction for Everton

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ROUND-UP

PREMIER LEAGUE

By Jonathan WilsonThe Guardian

What is Everton? It sounds like a fl ippant question, and per-haps to an extent it is, but as Rafa Benitez takes charge,

it’s also fundamental. A journey of self-improvement must perhaps begin with a realistic assessment of where you are starting from.

But that is not easy. It is not enough simply to say that Everton came 10th last season after a promising start, or even to point out that the latest Deloitte re-port their annual revenues as the seventh highest in the Premier League. They are the fourth most successful club in English league history. There were one of the Big Five whose lobbying led to the establish-ment of the Premier League. They are one of only six sides never to have been rel-egated from the Premier League.

The days when they vied with Liver-pool to be the best in England remain within living memory. They are sched-uled (at last) to move into a 53,000-ca-pacity stadium for the 2024-25 season. They are not just another team. They have a reputation and they have aspira-tions. But that in itself is problematic.

Everton are a big club, but they are not a super-club. Just how many super-clubs there are can be debated – the 10 wealthiest clubs in Europe? The 14? The 14 wealthiest plus AC Milan? – but it’s safe to say the 15th, 16th and 17th with the highest revenues – Zenit, Schalke and Everton – are not among them. They have never played in the group stage of the Champions League and, although they reached the European Cup quar-ter-fi nals in 1970-71, they have played in the qualifying round for the Champi-ons League only once. Since winning the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1985, they haven’t been beyond the last 16 of any European competition. They haven’t fi nished above seventh since 2014, but they haven’t been below 12th since 2004.

That consistency, paradoxically, makes Everton neither one thing nor the other. They exist on a lonely mezzanine be-tween Champions League qualifi cation contenders and teams who are relieved just to avoid relegation. At the same time, there is a dislocation between the histori-cal image of the club and what is realis-tically possible when Arsenal, the sixth-wealthiest English side, have revenues 83% greater than theirs.

Everton fans – at least those who are vocal on social media – tend to baulk at the idea that they are, at least at present, a

stepping-stone club, but it’s unavoidable. The trick then is to be a stepping stone in the right direction, buying low and sell-ing high – Leicester, perhaps, are the best English example – but too often Everton have been a stepping stone on the way down. The point, though, is that very few clubs these days are a destination.

Carlo Ancelotti’s defection was a symptom of the same problem. What-ever fi ne words he may have said (and at the time probably meant) about the com-munity spirit at Everton, realistically he was always going to accept an off er from Real Madrid – and that was the problem for Everton of appointing somebody of Ancelotti’s status. Perhaps he did bring glamour and credibility, and perhaps that did extend the transfer options available to the club – James Rodríguez and Allan, certainly, were drawn by the manager.

But there was always a danger if Ance-lotti did well that one of the super-clubs would come for him. As it turned out, that happened even after an unremarkable season. From that point of view, leaving aside his past at Liverpool and whatever disparaging remarks he may have made about Everton then, Benitez is perhaps a more natural fi t.

Benitez has had a hugely successful ca-reer and has been a regular in the latter

stages of the Champions League, but he is too much his own man, too uncompro-mising, to hold much appeal for the very elite.

Then there is the football he plays. This is not going to be thrill-a-minute high pressing. There’s an irony that the two most famous games Benitez was involved in at Liverpool both featured extraordi-nary Steven Gerrard-inspired comebacks and fi nished 3-3; that Gerrard was let off the leash was evidence something had gone wrong. What Benitez wanted most of all was control – and that, at least the way he tries to achieve it, is not always easy on the eye. (Which is perhaps a particular issue for clubs on the Everton mezzanine: for many, being entertained and fi nishing 10th is preferable to a grim slog to seventh.)

He is only 61, but there is a sense of Benitez as a rare survivor of the Pre-mier League of the century’s fi rst decade (along with David Moyes). Sir Alex Fergu-son, Arsene Wenger and Martin Jol have retired, while Jose Mourinho has been on the helter-skelter of diminishing returns for some years now. He comes from that more attritional age. Benitez wants order, which could also be said of Pep Guardio-la, but he seeks to achieve it in a diff erent way. He is far more prepared to sit deeper

and play without the ball and, while that may in part be a refl ection of the players he has worked with, it is also indicative of a natural caution.

He has spoken often of his fascination as a child with the board game Stratego and, with a training method based on constant repetitions and rigorous drill-ing, it can seem as though he is trying to mould his players into pieces he can ma-noeuvre around the pitch.

He distrusts individual inspiration, which can bring confl ict with bigger egos, but that’s an approach that seems more logically suited to a club of Everton’s sta-tus than Ancelotti’s ever did. Benitez’s biggest successes have come with clubs on the fringes of the elite – Valencia, Liv-erpool (as they were) and Napoli – where the organisation he attempts to instil, uninhibited by the egos of stars, elevates players to compete with more obvious starry names.

The question then is twofold: can that approach still work in the modern Pre-mier League? And does the Benitez style meet the aspirations of Everton fans? Given his past, the sense he is already having to win people over, that may not be straightforward – and that’s why there needs to be a realistic assessment of what Everton are, and what they hope to be.

The Spaniard’s style is a better fit for Everton than Carlo Ancelotti’s ever was

AFPParis

France midfi elder Ous-mane Dembele yesterday apologised after a video emerged on social media

of him appearing to denigrate Asian hotel employees on a tour of Japan by his club Barcelona.

Dembele off ered his “sincere apologies” after a 42-second clip, which he appeared to have made on Snapchat in 2019, was leaked and widely shared on so-cial media platforms.

It shows Dembele, on Barca’s preseason tour in July 2019, talk-ing to teammate Antoine Griez-mann who is waiting for local technicians to hook up a game console to a television in their ho-tel room. “All these ugly faces, just so you can play PES (Pro Evolution Soccer), aren’t you ashamed?” Dembele asks. He then appears to mock the Japanese language be-fore asking: “are you advanced in your country or not?”

Dembele, who is recovering from surgery after injuring his knee in France’s second group

game at Euro 2021, said he re-gretted the incident. “Recently a private video dating from 2019 has been circulating on social media. As it happens it is in Ja-pan — it could have been any-where on the planet and I would have used the same expressions. I wasn’t targeting any commu-nity,” the 24-year-old said on Instagram.

“The video has now gone pub-lic — I understand how it could have impacted the people present in those images and as such I of-fer them my sincere apologies.”

The video, fi rst appeared on a YouTube account with only a handful of subscribers, but was then picked up on Twit-ter where it received more than 6,000 retweets under the hash-tag #StopAsianHate.

Griezmann, who was also in hot water three years ago for ap-pearing wearing blackface and dressed as a member of the Har-lem Globetrotters for a party, insisted on Monday that he had always opposed “all forms of dis-crimination”. He also apologised and insisted: “I am sorry if I of-fended my Japanese friends.”

Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola has revealed his club prevented Rodri and

Ferran Torres from representing Spain at the Olympics and said other clubs should do the same to prevent players over-exerting themselves. Six players in Spain’s Euro 2020 squad includ-ing Barcelona midfi elder Pedri and defender Eric Garcia have been called up for the Olympics and are due to report for training on July 12, the day after the Eu-ropean Championship fi nal.

But while clubs outside Spain have the right to reject releasing players for the Games, Span-ish clubs are obliged to let their players go and represent their country. “Ferran Torres and Rodri could have gone to the Olympics but they’re not going because they went to the Euros. It’s too much,” Guardiola said.

“One tournament in a sum-mer is enough. The clubs are the ones who pay the players and they need to protect their assets. The current match calendar is brutal and yet new competitions and tournaments keep being created.”

ATLETICO SIGN FREE-AGENT PAULO

Spanish champions Atletico Madrid said yesterday that they have signed free-agent striker Marcos Paulo on a fi ve-year contact. The 20-year-old is a Portuguese passport holder and youth international but has played all his club football in his native Brazil. He appeared in 24 games for Fluminense of Rio de Janeiro last season, scoring

three goals and providing three assists. Atletico said in their statement that he is right-footed but plays left wing and at 1.86m (6-foot-1) can also play as a main striker. Atletico have lost centre-forward Moussa Dem-bele, who made fi ve appearances off the bench, scoring once, in a coronavirus and injury hit spell after joining on loan in January. He has returned to Lyon.

DORTMUND CHASING MALEN AS SANCHO

REPLACEMENT: REPORTBundesliga side Borussia Dort-mund are reportedly planning to spend some of the 85mn euros ($100mn) they are set to receive for Jadon Sancho on Nether-lands forward Donyell Malen from PSV Eindhoven. Sancho, 21, is set to leave Dortmund, who have agreed a transfer with Pre-mier League giants Manchester United. According to report, Dortmund are chasing Malen, 22, who played in all four of his country’s Euro 2020 games, creating two assists.

The centre forward scored 27 goals last season with ten assists in 45 games for PSV. Eindhoven right-back Denzel Dumfries is also reportedly being courted by Inter Milan.

Kuala Lumpur: Asian Champions League knockout matches will this year be played over single legs from the quarter-finals onwards because of the coronavirus pandemic, rather than the usual home and away format, off icials said yesterday.

The quarter-finals and semi-finals will now take place in October in one central-

ised venue for the east and west zone respectively, governing body the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said.

The final will be played on November 23 in a venue in the west zone, rather than over two legs as originally planned, the AFC said.

The venues have not yet been an-nounced. The decisions were taken due

to “the existing uncertainties related to the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the on-going travel restrictions imposed across the continent,” the AFC said.

The group stage for the west zone wrapped up in April, while the west zone group games will finish this month, with the round of 16 due to begin in Septem-ber. It is the latest upheaval for the com-

petition, featuring 40 teams stretching from Saudi Arabia in the west to Japan in the east, which has been thrown into chaos by the pandemic.

It was halted for six months last year, and when it resumed matches were played in centralised venues, and the knockout stage games were in a single-leg format.

AFC Champions League switches to one-leg ties from quarter-fi nals

SPORT4 Gulf Times

Tuesday, July 6, 2021

Qatar’s Saeed al-Sulaiti (centre) emerged triumphant in the third round of the CIV Campeonato Inter-Autonomous Speed Championship in Murcia, Spain, on Sunday. At the Circuito de Cartagena, al-Sulaiti topped the 14-lap Supersport 600 race in 23:01.469 seconds. Al-Sulaiti, who had finished third in the previous two rounds in May, also set the fastest lap of 1:37.640 seconds during the race.

AL-SULAITI WINS AT CIV CAMPEONATO INTER-AUTONOMOUS SPEED CHAMPIONSHIP IN SPAIN

Rafa Benitez’s biggest successes have always come with clubs on the fringes of the elite.

SPORT5Gulf Times

Tuesday, July 6, 2021

Australia captain Paine urges Smith not to rush injury return

Title-hungry upstart Suns and Bucks meet in NBA Finals

Dodgers complete season sweep of Nationals

CRICKETBASKETBALL

MLB

AFPSydney

Australia Test captain Tim Paine yesterday urged Steve Smith not to rush his comeback

from injury to ensure he is fi t for the Ashes, even it means missing the Twenty20 World Cup.

Smith is a crucial cog in Aus-tralia’s drive to retain the urn after their gripping 2019 series in England, where he was the standout performer on his return from a ban for ball-tampering.

Despite bearing the brunt of hostile English fans, he smashed an incredible 774 runs in four Tests, at an average of 110.57, including twin centuries on his Test return at Edgbaston. But he is struggling with an elbow in-jury after changing his batting grip, ruling him out of Australia’s current limited-overs tour of the West Indies. Smith stressed last week that Test cricket was his priority, and he was prepared to skip the T20 World Cup in Octo-ber-November.

“What’s important for me is that he’s fi t to go, whether that’s at the T20 World Cup or the Ash-es,” Paine said on a Zoom call.

“Obviously from a selfi sh point of view, I would love him to be 100 percent fi t and if that means he misses that tourna-ment (World Cup) then so be it.”

“But Steve is a professional, he’ll know where his body is at and if he doesn’t feel like he’s right then he’ll make the right call,” he added.

“It’s important now that he takes the time to get it right, not just for the Ashes but to prolong

his career for another four or fi ve or six years.”

Australia will go into the Eng-land series having played just one Test, against Afghanistan, since last summer after calling off tours this year to Bangladesh and South Africa over coronavi-rus concerns.

But Paine was not concerned.“We know the conditions here,

we know what to expect in Aus-tralia,” he said.

ROARING TICKET SALES Tickets went on sale Monday and many were snapped up, ac-cording to cricket.com.au, with Brisbane and Perth in particular doing a roaring trade.

The opening Test starts at the Gabba on December 8. The series then moves to Adelaide, Mel-bourne and Sydney before con-cluding in Perth.

Venues are being sold to full capacity, with the exception of the Melbourne Cricket Ground which has an 85 percent limit currently.

Whether the usual hordes of Barmy Army supporters will be able to travel to Australia, given current bans on international ar-rivals, remains to be seen.

Paine hoped they can.“Absolutely, I hope they do

open up (the borders) because they bring a brilliant atmos-phere,” he said of the English fans.

“The Barmy Army are a crucial part of the history of the Ashes and something the players love, whether they’re ripping into you or barracking for the English.

“It adds to the Test match, to the theatre, so fi ngers crossed those guys can get in.”

AFPPhoenix

Two long-frustrated franchises, the Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks, will meet in the

NBA Finals starting on Tuesday and one of them will put an end to an epic title drought.

The Bucks captured their only title half a century ago while the Suns have never claimed the crown since the club began play in 1968.

With star guard Chris Paul reaching the best-of-seven championship series for the fi rst time in his 16-season career, the Suns have reached the NBA Fi-nals for the fi rst time since 1993.

A Charles Barkley-led Suns squad lost to the Michael Jor-dan-sparked Chicago Bulls 28 years ago and the Suns also dropped the 1976 NBA Finals to the Boston Celtics.

Many thought Paul, an 11-time NBA All-Star and two-time Olympic champion, was too far past his prime at 36 to spark a title run.

Instead, the poised veteran leader averaged 16.4 points, 8.9 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 1.4 steals a game for the Suns after arriving in a trade from Okla-homa City last November.

“I’ve wanted to be part of this all of my career,” said Paul, who writes “Can’t give up now” on his shoes before every game.

The Bucks had not reached the NBA Finals since 1974 and won their only title in 1971, when legendary centre Kar-eem Abdul-Jabbar - still known then as Lew Alcindor - sparked a sweep over the Baltimore Bul-lets. Greek superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Bucks’ new dominating big man, has reached the NBA Finals after taking NBA Most Valuable Play-er honours the previous two sea-sons only to suff er playoff disap-pointment.

Whether or not the 26-year-old will be able to play, however, is another question. Antetok-ounmpo missed the last two games of the Eastern Confer-ence fi nals after hyperextend-ing his left knee in game four against Atlanta. The Bucks went

a league-best 60-22 in the 2018-19 campaign and won a playoff series for the fi rst time since 2001. They reached the Eastern Conference fi nals and grabbed a 2-0 lead only to drop the next four games and fall to eventual NBA champion Toronto.

The next season, Antetok-ounmpo sparked the Bucks to a league-best 56-17 mark, but suff ered a right ankle injury and missed most of the last two games as the Bucks lost to Mi-ami in fi ve games in the second round. While they didn’t pro-duce the league’s best record this season, the Bucks did reach the fi nal despite Antetok-ounmpo’s injury.

“Certainly any time you lose you’ve got to be honest with yourself,” Bucks coach Mike Bu-denholzer said.

“When this group hasn’t been able to advance it has hurt, it has been hard and the off -season the guys have put the work in - but

there’s still more to be done.”

‘LIKE A STORYBOOK’ The Bucks and Suns outlasted teams with more wins to reach the fi nal, but only one fairy tale run is going to have a happy ending. “This is like a storybook, going somewhere I’ve never

been,” Suns star Devin Booker said. “It has been a long time coming to get to this moment. This is nice right here, but we still have work to do.”

Suns coach Monty Williams, who says he likes Booker’s “fear-lessness” and killer instinct, is enjoying seeing Paul and others revel in the moment.

“I’m enjoying watching our players enjoy this moment,” Williams said.

“I know how badly (Paul) wants to win.”

Booker is averaging 27.0 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists a contest in the playoff s while Paul is contributing 18.1 points, 8.7 assists and 3.9 re-bounds a game in the post-sea-son to make the Suns bright.

Bahamas big man Deandre Ayton has 16.2 points and 11.8 rebounds a game. The Suns will enjoy fi ve days off before the NBA Finals opener while the Bucks will have only two.

“We’ve had kind of long, ex-tended pauses between each round and I’m kind of excited to try it without one,” Budenholzer said. “Maybe we can be the team that’s in a rhythm. It’s a quick turn, but we’ll be ready.”

Antetokounmpo has averaged 28.2 points, 12.7 rebounds and 5.2 assists a game but has had great support from Khris Middleton - with 23.4 points, 8.0 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 1.5 steals a game - and Jrue Holiday with 17.6 points, 8.4 assists and 5.6 rebounds a game.

“To get to the fi nals is amaz-ing,” Holiday said.

“It’s a feeling I’ve never felt before.”

“Everybody stays ready. Eve-rybody plays together. Every-body stays locked in,” Middleton said. “That’s all you can ask for.”

Phoenix won both regular-season games against Milwau-kee but only by one point each time.

ReutersWashington

Matt Beaty homered and Max Muncy had two doubles and three RBIs as

the visiting Los Angeles Dodg-ers completed a four-game se-ries sweep of the Washington Nationals with a 5-1 victory on Sunday.

David Price (4-0) pitched two scoreless innings of relief for the Dodgers, who extended their winning streak to a season-high nine games.

Alcides Escobar had three hits for Washington, which lost all seven meetings against the Dodgers this season.

The Dodgers broke a 1-1 dead-lock with two runs in the sev-enth. Gavin Lux, who had three hits, lined a leadoff double and scored on pinch-hitter Albert Pujols’ one-out single to left fi eld off Joe Ross (5-8).

Tony Gonsolin entered the game as a pinch-runner for Pu-jols and came around to score on Muncy’s double off Brad Hand, who replaced Ross with two outs. Ross allowed three runs on seven hits with zero walks over 6 2/3 innings. He recorded a season-high 11 strikeouts while throwing 101 pitches.

The Dodgers added to their lead in the ninth when Muncy

delivered a two-run double off the centre fi eld wall against Wander Suero.

Los Angeles used eight pitch-

ers after scheduled starter Trevor Bauer was put on admin-istrative leave by Major League Baseball, which is investigating

an assault allegation. The Na-tionals scored fi rst on Starlin Castro’s RBI single off Victor Gonzalez with one out in the

third. Castro is 10-for-21 with seven RBIs in his last seven games. Los Angeles responded with Beaty’s leadoff homer in the fourth. R

oss retired the next two bat-ters before allowing a pair of sin-gles. Austin Barnes was hit by a pitch to load the bases, but Ross struck out pinch-hitter Steven Souza Jr to end the inning.

Washington played without star shortstop Trea Turner, who sat out his fourth straight game with a left fi nger injury.

Nationals outfi elder Juan Soto went 1-for-3 with a walk, extending his on-base streak to 21 games. Los Angeles out-hit the Nationals 11-8 and moved a season-best 22 games over.500 at 53-31.

Despite losing Buster Posey to a thumb injury, the Giants earned a win against the strug-gling D-Backs, thanks to a solid 8 2/3 innings from Anthony DeSclafani. Arizona has lost 50 of its past 58 games. DeSclafani earned his ninth win of the sea-son by striking out seven, sur-rendering two runs and six hits, and walking just two batters.

Posey was shaken up when a foul ball glanced off of his left thumb, taking him out of the game. The team later announced it was a contusion and X-rays were negative. Before going out, Posey scored twice and drove in a run.

‘I’VE WANTED TO BE PART OF THIS ALL OF MY CAREER’

Schedule for the best-of-seven FinalTuesday July 6: Milwaukee at PhoenixThursday July 8: Milwaukee at PhoenixSunday July 11: Phoenix at MilwaukeeWednesday July 14: Phoenix at MilwaukeeSaturday July 17: Milwaukee at Phoenix (if necessary)Tuesday July 20: Phoenix at Milwaukee (if necessary)Thursday July 22: Milwaukee at Phoenix (if necessary)

Max Muncy of the Los Angeles Dodgers doubles in two runs in the seventh inning during a baseball game against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park in Washington, DC. (Getty Images/AFP)

Lanka cricket offi cial banned for attempt to bribe ministerReutersColomba

Sri Lanka’s cricket repu-tation suff ered a double blow yesterday when an offi cial was banned for

seven years for trying to bribe the country’s sports minister, while a top player was fi ned for giving interviews criticising the national board.

The International Cricket Council said it had banned former Sri Lanka Cricket per-formance analysts, Sanath Ja-yasundara, for off ering money to sports minister Harin Fernando to infl uence an international match. Jayasundara is the latest in a series of players and offi cials to be banned for corruption.

“Jayasundara’s attempt to bribe a minister is a grave trans-gression while the eff orts to cover up his tracks and the lack of remorse are hugely disap-pointing,” ICC anti-corruption chief Alex Marshall said in a statement. “We won’t tolerate corrupt conduct in our sport and my team will be relentless in preventing such behaviour,” he warned. Jayasundara was found

guilty of charges of off ering a bribe to “improperly” infl uence the unnamed international game and of delaying the investigation into the incident.

The bribe is reported to have been off ered in 2018 when Fern-ando said that the ICC consid-ered Sri Lanka to be the “worst country for cricket corruption”.

Earlier, Twenty20 Bhanuka Rajapaksa was fi ned $5,000 and handed a suspended ban for giv-ing interviews criticising the na-tional board.

Sri Lanka Cricket said 29-year-old Rajapaksa was in breach of his contract by giving the interviews to local media and on social media platforms.

His one ban was suspended for two years, however, and the board said Rajapaksa has been included in a training squad for a series against India starting July 13.

Rajapaksa gave interviews last month saying that he was unfairly excluded from the just-concluded tour of England where Sri Lanka lost the one-day and T20 series. He played his fi rst T20 against Pakistan in October 2019 and the last in January 2020 against India.

FOCUS

Milwaukee Bucks forward Khris Middleton holds up the Eastern Conference Finals Trophy and celebrates with teammates after the Bucks defeated the Atlanta Hawks in game six of the Eastern Conference Finals for the 2021 NBA Playoff s in Atlanta. (USA TODAY Sports)

Anderson reaches 1,000 fi rst-class wickets with haul for Lancashire

England seamer James Ander-son reached another milestone in a storied career as he picked up his 1,000th first-class wicket while playing for Lancashire in a County Championship match against Kent yesterday.Anderson, who turns 39 at the end of the month, reached the landmark during an impressive new-ball spell when he had Heino Kuhn caught behind by Dane Vilas.The wicket was taken from the end bearing his name at Old Traff ord and completed his 51st first-class, five-wicket haul as he claimed 5 for 3 in his first seven overs.Anderson becomes just the 14th player to claim 1,000 first-class wickets this century and just the fifth paceman after Andy Caddick (2005), Martin Bicknell (2004), Devon Malcolm (2002) and Wasim Akram (2001). Already the most pro-lific fast bowler in test cricket,

Anderson has 617 wickets in 162 matches for England at an average of 26.67.Having struggled with nig-gling injuries in recent years, Anderson is currently prepar-ing for a five-match home test series against India starting Aug 4, before visiting Australia in a bid to reclaim the Ashes in December.

SPORTGulf Times Tuesday, July 6, 20216

Ko wins in fi rst start since being dethroned as No. 1

O’Connor ruled out but To’omua starts for Wallabies

Gatland wary of ‘showing hand’ ahead of Springbok Tests

FOCUS

RUGBY

AFPLos Angeles

Australia’s Cam Davis edged Troy Merritt with a par at the fi fth playoff hole Sunday to

win his fi rst US PGA Tour title at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit, Michigan.

Davis had eagled the par-fi ve 17th and birdied 18 in regulation to thrust himself into a play-off with Merritt and Joaquin Niemann, all three tied after 72 holes on 18-under-par 270.

It was a heartbreaking fi n-ish for Chile’s Niemann, whose fi rst bogey of the week came at the fi rst playoff hole, his second shot at the par-four 18th threat-ening the fl agstick but taking a hard bounce to settle in deep rough behind the green.

Davis had a chance to clinch it but couldn’t make a six-foot birdie putt, settling for a par that matched Merritt’s.

Both would par the next three to bring the playoff back for a second time to the par-three 15th. Davis couldn’t get his 12-foot birdie putt to drop, but he emerged with the victory after Merritt missed the green and chipped on from deep rough only to miss his attempt at a par-saving putt.

“It’s been pretty hectic ever since the 17th hole for me,” said Davis, who carded a fi ve-under par fi nal round of 67 to be the fi rst in the clubhouse on 18-un-der.

“I just tried to put as much of it out of my mind as I possibly could and just hit every shot for what it was worth.

“As simple as it is to say, it’s hard to do when the pressure is on. I didn’t make any putts but I kept on putting it in play so it worked out all right.”

Merritt said Davis “did what he had to do. “He put it on the green every hole, had a chance to win fi ve times, hit great putts and he just played fantastic,” Merritt said. “So my hat’s off to him.”

Merritt and Niemann, who started the day tied for the lead, joined Davis in providing plenty of late-round fi reworks ap-propriate to the Fourth of July holiday. They both birdied the 16th to share the lead at 17-un-

der – the group atop the board on that number swelling to fi ve players when Davis holed out for eagle from a greenside bunker at the 17th.

“I was just trying to hit a good bunker shot,” Davis said. “Picked my spot and just fl ew it a little bit past it, jammed the fl ag. Those I guess are the sort of things that need to go your way if you want to keep pushing for-ward.”

Davis rolled in a six-footer for birdie at the 72nd hole, then Merritt and Niemann both bird-ied the par-fi ve 17th to make it a three-way tie for the lead, Nie-mann missing a 13-foot eagle

attempt that would have given him the lead outright.

Neither could birdie 18, how-ever, Niemann fi nishing with four birdies in his four-under 68 and Merritt posting six birdies and two bogeys in his 68.

BOGEY-FREE RUN ENDS Niemann, who was vying to be-come the fi rst player since J.T. Poston at Greensboro in 2019 to win a US PGA Tour event with-out making a bogey, admitted it was gut-wrenching that his fi rst mis-step came at the fi rst play-off hole.

“It’s hard to be standing here knowing that there is a playoff

going on right now,” Niemann said, adding that he neverthe-less was “pretty happy with how my game is right now.

“I know that I could have closed the tournament pretty early on 14,” added the Chilean, who missed a fi ve-foot birdie chance there. “Then I couldn’t make a putt on 17 and 18. It’s just the way it works.”

Sweden’s Alex Noren fi red an eight-under par 64 to share fourth on 271 with Hank Lebi-oda, who signed for a 68.

Americans Bubba Watson (64) and Brandon Hagy (68) were a stroke back on 272.

LEADING FINAL-ROUND SCORES (x-won at 5th playoff hole; USA unless noted, par-72)270-x-Cam Davis (AUS) 68-68-67-67, Troy Merritt 67-68-67-68, Joaquin Niemann (CHI) 65-69-68-68271-Alex Noren (SWE) 70-70-67-64, Hank Lebioda 67-70-66-68272-Bubba Watson 68-73-67-64, Brandon Hagy 65-71-68-68273-Mark Anderson 70-70-67-66, Im Sung-jae (KOR) 69-68-69-67, Seamus Power (IRL) 66-71-69-67, Kevin Kisner 67-69-69-68274-Chris Kirk 67-68-70-69, Jason Kokrak 69-69-67-69275-Jason Day (AUS) 67-73-69-66, Cameron Tringale 71-70-68-66, Fabián Gómez (ARG) 67-71-70-67, Keegan Bradley 71-68-68-68, Mackenzie Hughes (CAN) 71-69-67-68, Kevin Tway 71-68-67-69, Pat Perez 67-69-69-70276-Maverick McNealy 68-69-72-67, Joel Dahmen 70-70-69-67, Roger Sloan (CAN) 65-75-68-68, Curtis Thompson 69-72-67-68.

AFPLos Angeles

Ko Jin-young two putted for par on No. 18 to win the Vol-unteers of America

Classic on Sunday, just one week after losing her world number one title.

In her fi rst start since Nelly Korda overtook her, the South Korean carded a two-under 69 for a one-stroke victory over Finland’s Matilda Castren.

Ko was No. 1 from July 2019, a streak of 100 consecutive weeks. But winning her eighth career LPGA Tour title on Sun-day helped take some of the sting off being knocked off her

lofty perch.“I was thinking I had a lot of

pressure with the No. 1 rank-ing,” Ko said. “But I made it this week. I’m very happy.”

Ko, who earned $225,000 for the victory, fi nished with a 16-under 268 total to edge Castren who closed with a 69 on the Old American Golf Club in Dallas, Texas.

‘’I had a lot of opportunities for birdies that I didn’t make,’’ Ko said.

‘’But I still won so it doesn’t matter.’’

She has now captured at least one win in fi ve straight seasons going back to 2017. Her previous wins include the 2018 Women’s Australian Open and 2019 ANA Inspira-

tion. Her most recent win was last year’s CME Group Tour Championship.

Mexico’s Gaby Lopez closed with a 65 to fi nish in solo third, two shots adrift of Ko. Lopez made her only bogey on the last hole.

Germany’s Esther Hense-leit closed with a 72 and tied for fourth with Ana Belac (68) and Emma Talley, who shot a 63. Ko got off to a hot start by making birdie on three of her fi rst four holes to open up a four-shot lead early in the fi nal round. From there, she kept a lead of at least two shots for most of the round.

Castren made a late charge with a birdie at No. 17 to close the gap to one shot, but was

unable to get any closer.“I played with her the last

two days, and it was just really cool to watch her play,” Cast-ren said.

“She didn’t make many mistakes at all, recovered from her not-so-great shots re-ally well. I can defi nitely see why she was world No. 1 for so long.”

Defending champion Angela Stanford carded a 71 to fi n-ish in a tie for 12th with fellow American Stacy Lewis.

LEADING FINAL-ROUND SCORES (USA unless noted, par-71)268-Ko Jin-young (KOR) 63-70-66-69269-Matilda Castren (FIN) 66-

66-68-69270-Gaby Lopez (MEX) 69-66-70-65272-Emma Talley 65-73-71-63, Ana Belac (SLO) 68-68-68-68, Esther Henseleit (GER) 66-70-64-72273-Lee Jeong-eun (KOR) 64-70-69-70274-Kim Hyo-joo (KOR) 69-68-70-67, Celine Herbin (FRA) 68-68-71-67, Kim Min-g (KOR) 65-74-67-68, Celine Boutier (FRA) 68-67-71-68

AFPJohannesburg

British and Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland said yesterday he did not plan to give the world

champion Springboks an early indication of who they were like-ly to play against in the upcom-ing Test series in South Africa.

He said the announcement of the team that will play the Sharks at Ellis Park on Wednesday, the second of an eight-match tour, was not an indication of likely Test combinations.

He dismissed as coincidence that 13 of the eventual Test team played for the Lions against the Crusaders at a similar stage of the tour of New Zealand in 2017.

“Wednesday night is another chance for us to have a look at a few more combinations,” he told a virtual news conference.

“I’m looking forward to seeing how the back row goes – it is an exciting mixture and one that we hope will off er something a bit diff erent.

“There is a lot of competi-tion. If you look at all positions, particularly the back three, the competition is huge.

“As we get a bit closer (to the Test series) we will start looking at potential combinations (but) not putting out a team that we think will play in the fi rst Test against South Africa.

“There will defi nitely be some mix-and-matching. You do not want to show your hand too ear-ly.”

Exeter Chiefs hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie was selected to start against the Sharks despite having been knocked out in the English Premiership fi nal against Harlequins on June 26.

Gatland said strict protocols had been followed and Cowan-Dickie had been cleared to play by a renowned concussion spe-

cialist. Forwards Tom Curry, Josh Navidi and Adam Beard will make their fi rst appearances for the Lions in a completely new run-on team.

The Lions thrashed the Golden Lions 56-14 at the same venue last Saturday and will be up against another young, inexpe-rienced team with the Sharks missing nine players who are in the Springbok camp.

Asked whether he was worried about not facing strong enough opposition, Gatland said, “We are concentrating on ourselves. There are lots of things we have still got to work on.”

The Lions will be captained by Ireland lock Iain Henderson, with tour captain Conor Murray listed as a replacement.

After the Sharks, the Lions will play the Bulls in Pretoria and South Africa ‘A’ and the Stormers in Cape Town before the Test se-ries begins on July 24.

LIONS TEAM (15-1)Liam Williams; Anthony Watson, Elliot Daly, Bundee Aki, Duhan van der Merwe; Dan Biggar, Gareth Davies; Sam Simmonds, Tom Curry, Josh Navidi; Adam Beard, Iain Henderson (capt); Zander Fagerson, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Mako VunipolaReplacements: Ken Owens, Rory Sutherland, Tadhg Furlong, Tadhg Beirne, Jack Conan, Conor Murray, Stuart Hogg, Chris Harris

AFPBrisbane

Veteran Australia back James O’Connor was yesterday ruled out of the fi rst Test against a

depleted France, but Wallabies playmaker Matt To’omua was declared fi t after a neck injury.

O’Connor had been racing the clock to get over a groin strain in time for Wednesday’s clash in Brisbane, but failed to make the grade. It is a blow for Aus-tralia coach Dave Rennie who is already without injured scrum-half Nic White for the three-Test series, Australia’s fi rst since an erratic 2020 when they won just one game from six.

But To’omua returns at inside centre, where he will reignite his partnership with Hunter Paisa-mi. Jake Gordon, who enjoyed a standout season with the un-

derperforming NSW Waratahs, comes in for White, preferred to Queensland Reds’ Tate McDer-mott primarily due to his supe-rior service game.

Talented Brumbies playmak-er Noah Lolesio will wear the No.10 jersey in the absence of O’Connor with a versatile Reece Hodge overlooked, while Tom Banks, Tom Wright and Marika Koroibete form the back three.

Up front, veteran loosehead prop James Slipper will play his 101st Test, while skipper Michael Hooper will appear in his 106th after returning from a stint in Japan.

They have four uncapped players on the bench – Lachlan Lonergan, Darcy Swain, Len Iki-tau and Andrew Kellaway.

“The whole squad has been training really hard over the

past three weeks to prepare for what’s going to be an exciting, tough series against the French,” said Rennie. “We’ve always se-lected a side based on earning the right to wear the jersey and this team is no diff erent.

“The whole group is excited to be back playing Test rugby in front of our families and sup-porters and we’re looking to start the year with a positive result at Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday night.”

France named their line-up on Saturday evening, with seven uncapped players in the squad, including fullback Melvyn Jami-net who has no top-fl ight expe-rience.

Only winger Damian Penaud, centre Arthur Vincent and stand-in captain Anthony Jelonch remain in the starting line-up from the last round of the Six Nations, when they lost to Scotland in March.

Coach Fabian Galthie has a young and inexperienced tour-ing party, missing a host of fi rst-choice players who are either injured or remained behind to play in the recent Top 14 fi nal. They have been in mandatory 14-day Covid-19 quarantine in Sydney, but allowed to train, and will only taste freedom on Tuesday when they will travel to Brisbane.

AUSTRALIA (15-1)Tom Banks; Tom Wright, Hunter Paisami, Matt To’omua, Marika Koroibete; Noah Lolesio, Jake Gordon; Harry Wilson, Michael Hooper (capt), Rob Valetini; Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, Matt Philip; Allan Alaalatoa, Brandon Paenga-Amosa, James SlipperReplacements: Lachlan Loner-gan, Angus Bell, Taniela Tupou, Darcy Swain, Isi Naisarani, Tate McDermott, Len Ikitau, Andrew Kellaway.

Davis outlasts Merritt in playoff for fi rst PGA Tour win

GOLF

‘IT’S BEEN PRETTY HECTIC EVER SINCE THE 17TH HOLE FOR ME’

Springboks in isolation again aft er De Jager tests positive

Rugby World Cup winners South Africa have gone into isolation for a second time in as many weeks after lock Lood de Jager tested positive for coronavirus yesterday.A South African Rugby state-ment said “Lood de Jager retuned a positive outcome in scheduled testing and, because of his close contact with a number of squad members, the entire group has gone into isolation.”Last weekend, the 45-strong squad went into isolation at a Johannesburg hotel after winger Sibusiso Nkosi, scrum-half Herschel Jantjies and prop Vincent Koch tested positive for Covid-19. It later emerged that Jantjies’ result was a false positive and he came off the bench in a 40-9 win against Georgia last Friday.The countries are due to meet again this Friday in Johannes-burg with South Africa prepar-ing for a Test series against the touring British and Irish Lions on three consecutive Saturdays from July 24.Coronavirus has wreaked havoc with the Springboks, forcing them to cancel all 13 home and away Tests scheduled for last year.The match against Georgia in

Pretoria last Friday was the first for the world champions in 20 months since they defeated England convincingly to win the Rugby World Cup a record-equalling third time. Springboks head coach Jacques Nienaber reacted to the initial isolation by saying he did not believe the Lions tour was in jeopardy.“There is no Springbok player who does not want to partici-pate in this tour because it is so special, coming around just once every 12 years.“I am not an expert in Covid, viruses and virology, but we are trying to mitigate the risks of infection and adhere to the health protocols.“With a virus, I do not think you can completely take away the risk of contracting it, but the precautions being taken to keep us as safe as possible are magical and we are abiding by them.”Both the Springboks, Georgia and the Lions are staying in bio bubbles and leave them only for training, matches and travel.South Africa is the African country most aff ected by the pandemic with 2,062,896 re-corded cases and 61,840 deaths by Sunday night. (Reuters)

Jin Young Ko of Korea poses with the trophy after winning the Volunteers of America Classic at the Old American Golf Club in The Colony, Texas. (Getty Images/AFP)

Cam Davis holds the trophy after winning the Rocket Mortgage Classic golf tournament in Detroit. (USA TODAY Sports)

Australia’s player Matt To’omua (right) passes a ball during a training session at Sanctuary Cove, Gold Coast yesterday. (AFP)

SPOTLIGHT

SPORT7Gulf Times

Tuesday, July 6, 2021

Cav contemplates Champs Elysees dream retirement

Nomura hopes Riner can match his golden hat-trick

Osaka says preparing for Olympics, will do news conferences

CYCLING

OLYMPICS

FOCUS

AFPTokyo

France’s Teddy Riner can cement his place as judo’s “king” by winning his third Olympic gold in Tokyo – ac-cording to the only person ever to

achieve the feat: Tadahiro Nomura.The retired Japanese judoka told AFP he

would love to see Riner match his own tri-ple tally at Tokyo’s historic Nippon Budokan arena, and wants the French giant to “give a performance worthy” of his talents.

Riner won his second Olympic title in 2016 in low-key fashion, beating Japan’s Hisayoshi Harasawa in the +100kg fi nal af-ter a defensive display that drew boos from the Rio crowd. Nomura urged the French su-perstar to win with a touch more panache in Tokyo, even if it means Riner edging out his Japanese compatriot for the title again.

“It would be tough to see a Japanese fi ght-er lose, but I’d also be happy to see Riner win the title,” said Nomura, who won his fi rst Ol-ympic -60kg title at the 1996 Atlanta Games and defended it in Sydney and Athens.

“My ideal would be for him not to be booed by the crowd, but to give a perform-ance worthy of him as the king – to win his third title with strong judo.”

Nomura said Riner will compete with “wounded pride” after his almost 10-year, 154-match unbeaten streak was ended by Ja-pan’s Kokoro Kageura in February 2020.

That will make the French superstar “a scary prospect” for opponents in To-kyo, Nomura believes, and defeat may have helped refocus his mind.

“He has a diff erent look in his eyes, and his

body is diff erent – he’s sharp,” Nomura said.“He wasn’t in his best condition and he

wasn’t prepared, and he lost. He knows that. It’s wounded his pride and he’ll be coming to win in Tokyo.”

KNOCKOUT ‘DANGER’ Nomura, still looking trim and toned under his sharp suit, has managed athletes and worked in the media since retiring at the age of 40 in 2015. He knows Riner well, having fi rst met him on a trip to France in around 2007.

He describes the French heavyweight as an “awesome athlete” who is “very kind and charming”, and says Riner’s 10 world cham-pionship titles make him “the king, defi -nitely”.

But Nomura remains the only athlete ever to win three Olympic judo gold medals – at

least for now.And the Japanese legend knows fi rst-hand

how diffi cult it will be for Riner to match his achievement.

Nomura says he expected Atlanta to be his fi rst and last Olympics when he made his de-but in 1996, but he grew in confi dence as the competition progressed and ended up taking home the gold medal.

He was at the top of his game in Sydney four years later, but the pressure that fol-lowed persuaded him to relocate to the Unit-ed States in a bid to take the heat off . There, he rediscovered his love for judo, and de-cided to move back to Japan to aim for a third title in Athens.

“Many times, people said Nomura was fi nished, asked how long I was planning to cling on or told me I should retire,” he said.

“It was a question of if I believed in my-self, and how serious I was about wanting it.”

Nomura thinks Riner should already have won three Olympic gold medals, but points to his 2008 Beijing Games semi-fi nal defeat to Uzbekistan’s Abdullo Tangriev as “the danger of knockout competition”.

Instead, he thinks the “hallowed ground” of the Nippon Budokan, which hosted judo at the 1964 Tokyo Games, would be a fi tting place for the Frenchman to fi nally complete his hat-trick.

“Just going to that venue gives me a spe-cial feeling – I’ve only seen video footage of Olympic judo at the Budokan, so I’m re-ally excited to see it with my own eyes,” said Nomura.

“Riner has said he’s really looking forward to competing in Japan – the birthplace of judo. I’d love to see Harasawa against Riner in the fi nal.”

AFPTokyo

Tennis star Naomi Osaka said yesterday she wants to be on top form at the Ol-ympics and will take part

in press conferences, after pulling out of several tournaments citing her struggles with depression and anxiety.

The world number two told Ja-pan’s national broadcaster NHK she was getting ready to play on home turf at the pandemic-post-poned Tokyo Games, after having withdrawn from Wimbledon and the French Open.

“I am preparing myself little by little so I can be at the top of my game for the Olympics,” the 23-year-old wrote in a message published by the broadcaster.

“Since getting the attention of the world, I’ve always had bouts of anxiety. This is especially the case in the lead up to big competitions.”

Osaka set off a debate about mental health in June after aban-doning her French Open campaign just one match in over a dispute on media duties.

The Japanese player had said post-match news conferences were detrimental to her mental health and likened them to “kick-ing people when they’re down”.

She later revealed her battle with depression and anxiety in a post on social media, saying she wanted to take time away from the game to get better.

In the message published by NHK, Osaka said she was “proud” to play for her country at the

Games, adding that she would take part in news conferences while giving consideration to her mental health. She was fi ned $15,000 and threatened with disqualifi cation from Roland Garros after refusing to honour mandatory media com-mitments.

French Open organisers protest-ed that they had treated her with “care and respect” after they were accused of being heavy-handed.

Osaka’s agent said last month that she had withdrawn from Wimbledon to spend time with friends and family.

But he added that she was “ex-cited to play in front of her home fans” at Tokyo 2020, which begins on July 23.

SWITZERLAND NAME FEDERER IN OLYMPICS SQUAD

Roger Federer was named by Swit-zerland’s Olympic Committee in their team for the upcoming Tokyo Games yesterday.

The 20-time Grand Slam cham-pion had said he would wait until the end of Wimbledon, with the men’s fi nal scheduled for this Sun-day, to confi rm his participation at Tokyo, with the men’s singles starting on July 24.

The only major title Federer has yet to win is the Olympic singles but he claimed the doubles in Bei-jing 13 years ago.

“My feeling is I would like to go to the Olympics,” he said in late-June. “I would like to play as many tournaments as possible.

“But I think we decided now let’s just get through Wimbledon, sit down as a team, and then decide where we go from there.”

AFPAlbertville, France

Sprint ace Mark Cavendish could walk away from cycling after crowning his career with the all-time record of Tour de France stage wins, his team boss Patrick Lefevere be-lieves. Cavendish himself credits Lefevere for relaunching

his career after fi nding himself teamless in December on the back of a three-year barren spell and aged 36.

Seven months later, with two bunch sprint stage wins on the 2021 edition of the Tour, Lefevere says Cavendish might do well to think twice about extending his contract another year.

“We went for dinner in June and Mark told me he would like to extend his deal for a further year,” Deceuninck Quick-Step boss Lefevere revealed after his rider took his Tour tally to 32 stage wins, two behind all-time record holder Eddy Merckx.

“But after his wins, the scenario is completely diff erent,” he said. There are three more fl at stages this week and two in the fi -nals section which could be enough to give Cavendish the record. “Imagine for a mo-ment the dream scenario that he wins the (sprint points) green jersey on the Champs Elysees. Imagine he wins his 35th stage on the Champs Elysee. Well, maybe he would say ‘that’s it, it’s all over for me boss.’”

“I wouldn’t stop him leav-ing then,” said Lefevere. “Be-cause I have seen some riders who take it one year too far.”

“Mark has another option now. He can go out on a high – and the choice is his,” said the Belgian.

On Monday, Lefevere again hailed his sprint man.“Mark was maybe a surprise, but he proved that a rider can al-

ways perform if he’s in a good mood and a good team. He made a lot of eff ort, it’s not by luck that he won.”

What Cavendish did was survive the cut-off and give himself a chance to win more stages on this Tour de France on a day other sprinters missed the time cut and were disqualifi ed from continu-ing. Cavendish believes his climb to the top of the Tignes slope may have been the greatest triumph of his glittering career.

He cried at the fi nish line as one of the last men to make it past the line before the expulsions began some 37 minutes after the winner Ben O’Connor.

“To have three teammates staying with me in the gruppetto (stragglers group) for a horrendous stage, it’s been incredible,” Cavendish said with conviction.

“If we stop now, it will be one of the most wonderful Tour de France stages I’ll ever have had,” Cavendish said yesterday of the challenging climb to ski-resort Tignes on a freezing stage nine.

“I’m so humbled and physically broken,” said Cavendish, who kept the green jersey for best sprinter.

“This is the one stage I was afraid of.” There are likely sprint fi -nales today, Thursday and Friday where Cavendish faces even less competition than the fi rst week, with several sprinters, includ-ing Groupama’s Arnaud Demare, amongst the time-cut victims Sunday.

‘I AM PREPARING MYSELF LITTLE BY LITTLE SO I CAN BE AT THE TOP OF MY GAME’

Qatar’s Cherif Younousse (left) and Ahmed Tijan, who are heading to the Tokyo Olympics as third seeds have been drawn in Pool C of the beach volleyball event yesterday. Younousse and Ahmed are grouped with World No 5 Jacob Gibb and Taylor Crabb of the United States, World No 18 Adrian Cara-mbula and Enrico Rossi of Italy and World No 19 Adrian Heidrich and Mirco Gerson of Switzerland. Twenty-four teams are divided into six pools of four teams each. The top two teams from each group and the four best third-placed teams from across the six pools qualify for the last 16.

TOKYO GAMES: QATAR’S YOUNOUSSE AND TIJAN PLACED IN POOL C

CAS upholds doping ban on Russian high jumper LysenkoThe Court of Arbitration for Sport yesterday upheld a ban on high jumper Danil Lysenko, whose missed doping tests briefly halted the international reinstate-ment of Russian athletes in 2019.CAS had upheld charges laid by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) against the 2017 world cham-pionship silver medallist “for mul-

tiple breaches of the Anti-Doping rules including whereabouts failures and tampering with the results management process,” said an AIU statement. In July 2020, World Athletics suspended the process of allowing Russian athletes to return to competi-tion after the country’s athletics federation (RUSAF) had failed

to pay a $5 million fine and $1.31 million in costs for helping cover up Lysenko’s missed tests.While CAS yesterday upheld bans of two years for wherea-bouts breaches and of four years for tampering, backdated to August 3, 2018, it suspended two of those years because, said the AIU, “of the substantial assist-

ance that the athlete provided to the AIU in bringing charges against former RUSAF off icials Dmitry Shlyakhtin and Artur Karamyan.”The ban means Lysenko, who is 24 and won the world indoor title in 2018, will be ineligible until August 3, 2022 and will miss the Tokyo Olympics, which

start later this month, and the World Championships next year in Eugene, Oregon. In a separate proceeding, Lysenko’s coach, Evgeniy Zagorulko, admitted to “tampering and complicity” in the case. He had accepted a four-year period of ineligibility. Zagorulko died in April. CAS said that Zagorluko also “provided

substantial assistance to the AIU in connection with the charges against Shlyakhtin and Kara-myan”. The judgement ends disci-plinary proceedings that started in November 2019 when the AIU charged Lysenko, Zagorulko, RUSAF and several senior RUSAF off icials with breaking anti-doping rules by submitting “forged docu-

ments and false explanations” during a 15-month investigation into the case. “This has brought closure to a protracted case that showed the lengths to which some individuals will go to cheat, but also the AIU’s capability to investigate such behaviour,” the head of the AIU, Brett Clothier, said in a statement. (AFP)

This picture taken on June 25, 2021 shows Japanese judoka and Olympic gold medallist Tadahiro Nomura posing with gold medals from the 1996 Atlanta (L), 2000 Sydney (C) and 2004 Athens (R) games in Tokyo. (AFP)

Barty takes anotherstep to fulfi lling her Wimbledon dream

AFPLondon

World number one Ashleigh Barty reached the Wim-bledon quarter-

fi nals for the fi rst time yesterday beating French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-3.

The 25-year-old Australian will play the winner of the match between unseeded compatriot Ajla Tomljanovic and British teenager Emma Raducanu today for a place in the semi-fi nals.

“In a sense of being in the quarters, I’m happy,” said Barty.

“I’m excited. It’s another stepping-stone for me. It’s an-other fi rst, I suppose.

“It’s kind of going to be a new situation, a new scenario, one that I’m going to look forward to.

“I’m going to enjoy it no mat-ter what. I think it’s a stepping stone to what is kind of one of my biggest dreams. We just keep chipping away.”

Defeat brought an end to Krejcikova’s 15-match win-ning streak and she will have to wait another year to see if she can emulate her late coach and mentor Jana Novotna in winning the title. Barty may have won in straight sets but that did not really tell the full tale of a hard fought 95-minute encounter

against an opponent who had yet to win a main draw singles grass match prior to Wimble-don.

Barty’s serve was once again her Achilles heel being broken early in the fi rst set and then again in the second when she served for the match.

Fortunately for the Aussie supporters on Court Number One — one of whom was holding a hand written card ‘It’s Barty’s Party’ — she broke Krejcikova’s serve to take the match.

Perhaps illustrating a mix of relief and celebration Barty fi st pumped as normal but also let out a yell with her eyes directed towards her team in the guest box.

The 2019 French Open cham-pion — who coincidentally also had a 15-match winning streak ended when she lost in the fourth round of Wimbledon two years ago — is especially keen to win this year as it is the 50th an-niversary of fellow indigenous Australian Evonne Goolagong Cawley’s fi rst Wimbledon title.

“It was an incredibly tough match,” said Barty.

“Barbora has had an unbe-lievable year and am happy to come through in the end. I found some good stuff when it was im-portant.

“This is a bit down to the work myself and my team do in prac-tice but this is the fun part to come out and enjoy myself.”

SPOTLIGHT

Tuesday, July 6, 2021

GULF TIMES SPORT

I’ve worked hard, says Jabeur aft er reaching quarters‘It was a great match and I had to stay calm rather than get angry...’

TENNIS/WIMBLEDON

AFPLondon

Ons Jabeur’s historic Wimbledon campaign saw her reach the women’s quarter-fi nals yes-terday, beating Poland’s 2020

French Open champion Iga Swiatek 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 in their fourth round match.

The 26-year-old is the fi rst Tunisian woman to reach the last eight at Wim-bledon and will face Belarus second seed Aryna Sabalenka who defeated Elena Ry-bakina 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

Sabalenka will be playing in her fi rst Grand Slam quarter-fi nal.

Jabeur celebrated victory with a fi st pump and a yell of delight but for once she was not a lone Tunisian voice as some spectators burst out into song.

“Tunisians are everywhere, I got to say,” she said.

“Yeah, they were singing actually a football song. I felt the need to sing with them also.

“I felt so happy that I wanted, like, to hear more. I was doing like this to hear them (cupping a hand to one ear)”

Jabeur’s exploits in the past few weeks have give huge momentum to her mission to encourage more Arab women, espe-cially North African, to take up the sport.

She admitted, though, that to get to where she is now has taken a lot of resil-ience to overcome setbacks.

“Maybe one of them was 2018, I started really bad the season, winning no match-es,” she said.

“I was doubting myself a lot. I think early in my career, after the juniors, when I didn’t see the results that I wanted, when I was seeing the juniors that I played with breaking the top 50, top 40, it was very diffi cult for me.

“I’ve worked hard to earn my place here.”

However, with her maiden WTA title under her belt — the fi rst Arab woman to achieve that — and now her run to the quarter-fi nals at Wimbledon she could not have done more to raise the profi le of herself and her broader goal.

“It is very important to me,” she said.“I have seen it, heard it, a lot of times

coming here on tour from where I come, I need to gain my respect either with the players or anyone around here.

“I just want to give the example for many generations coming from North Africa, from my country, from the Afri-can continent, that it’s not impossible, that we can do it.

“I’m trying to carry this message for a very long time. Hopefully it is working.”

Jabeur showed great poise to stay in the match after she let slip a 5-4 lead and

serving for the fi rst set only for the Pole to reel off three games on the bounce.

Swiatek, after a fl at opening, had tak-en note of a young Polish fan holding up a board inscribed ‘Jazda Iga’ (‘Come on Iga’).

“It was a great match and I had to stay calm rather than get angry when I failed to close out the fi rst set as getting angry would not have helped my cause,” said Jabeur.

“Today I decided to change my game a bit as everyone knows I am doing drop shots and being aggressive was key to-day.”

Jabeur never looked back once she had got over the loss of the fi rst set.

Breaking her 20-year-old opponent in the fi rst game of the second set set the tone for the rest of the encounter.

Indeed such was her dominance that Swiatek at one point having been out-witted by a Jabeur drop shot smashed the top of the net angrily with her racquet.

ReutersLondon

Formula One champions Mercedes are fi ghting against the odds now in their title battle with

Red Bull, team boss Toto Wolff said after Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix dealt a fi fth succes-sive defeat.

Once-dominant Mercedes started the season chasing their eighth consecutive constructors’ championship and with Lewis Hamilton seeking an unprec-edented eighth drivers’ title.

Hamilton is now 32 points be-hind Red Bull’s Dutch youngster Max Verstappen, who has won fi ve of nine races including the last three, and Mercedes are 44 points adrift of their Honda-powered rivals.

“We are fi ghting a tough bat-tle at the moment, against all odds as it stands,” Wolff told re-porters at the Red Bull Ring.

“It is against the odds for us now, and that’s clear because they have an overall perform-ance advantage.

“All these years I tried to keep our feet on the ground by not being carried away with per-formance and now I need to do the opposite.”

Wolff recognised the momen-tum was going in the wrong di-rection but said Mercedes would fi ght to the end and needed to stay optimistic.

“There are 13 or 14 races to go, we are one DNF (retirement) away from Red Bull, no more, and we’ve lost more points than we should have lost to our own mistakes... we need to just get our act together overall.

“This is so far from over... we just need to up our game, make less mistakes and continue to

understand the car better and then we are still massively and absolutely in the hunt.”

Hamilton has turned around big defi cits before as a Mercedes driver fi ghting for the title, but this is the biggest he has faced against a rival from outside his own team.

In 2017 the Briton was 25

points behind Ferrari’s Sebas-tian Vettel after six races, and still 20 adrift after the Austrian Grand Prix which was then also round nine.

In 2016 Hamilton was 43 points behind German team mate Nico Rosberg, who went on to win the title, after four races.

After Austria in 2014 Hamil-ton was 29 points behind Ros-berg but emerged as champion in the end.

“We’re miles away from them,” he said on Sunday of the challenge from Red Bull, with Verstappen winning on three successive weekends including two at the Red Bull Ring.

“We’ve got a lot of work to try and do in order to try and close that gap.” The next race is a home one for Hamilton, the Briton having won at Sil-verstone seven times and with the pit straight now named af-ter him.

“I hope our car feels better there,” the Briton said after bat-tling on Sunday with a damaged car. “I’m just going to go there and give it everything I’ve got.”

Title now against the odds for Mercedes, says team boss Wolff

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Norris ‘not getting too giddy’ aft er Austria highReutersLondon

Lando Norris has cau-tioned against soaring expectations for his home British Grand Prix after

putting McLaren back on the For-mula One podium in Austria on Sunday.

For the third time this season the 21-year-old fi nished third, after starting on the front row for the fi rst time in his career, and was voted Driver of the Day by fans. Mercedes-powered McLaren are also third in the constructors’ championship, ahead of Ferrari, and Silverstone is next up with a crowd of some 140,000 expected on race day as Covid-19 restric-tions are eased.

“The annoying thing is so many people are going to expect this every weekend now,” Norris told Sky Sports television after the race at the Red Bull Ring.

“I’m not getting too giddy be-cause I know we’re going to go to Silverstone and it’s probably going to be a little bit more like back to normality.” Norris said McLaren had not expected to be so quick in Austria but a combination of fac-tors, including warmer weather, had contributed along with im-provements to the car. Australian Daniel Ricciardo started 13th and fi nished seventh.

Rivals noted the speed of the McLaren, with Norris ahead of both Mercedes cars in qualifying and passing seven times world cham-pion Lewis Hamilton, who fi nished fourth in a damaged car, in the race.

“Such a great driver, Lando,” commented Hamilton over the team radio.

Norris, who has finished in the top five in eight of nine races this year and is fourth overall, said he was not playing down his chances in order to then make himself look good. “We’ve always been strong in Austria, every year since my first time coming here in F1. Silverstone was not so good for us last season,” he said.

“It’s not like I want to be nega-tive. I’m just realistic and I feel like a lot of people are going to expect this every weekend from now on and complain ‘why are we not quick?’.” McLaren team boss An-dreas Seidl said Norris could have fi nished second without a time penalty imposed after stewards ruled he had forced Red Bull’s Ser-gio Perez off the track early in the race.

“Let’s focus on the positives,” he added. “A sensational race weekend in the end from the team, from Lando.”

FORMULA 1

Australia’s Ashleigh Barty celebrates after beating Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejcikova during their fourth round match at Wimbledon yesterday.

Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur (also caricatured) returns against Poland’s Iga Swiatek during their fourth round match at the Wimbledon Championships yesterday.