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Carlos Alcaraz puts his flawless start to the season on the line and fellow top seed Aryna Sabalenka aims to regroup from Australian Open disappointment as Indian Wells begins this week.Alcaraz arrives in the Southern
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Resurgent bottom club Wolverhampton Wanderers stunned Liverpool with a last-gasp 2-1 win at a rocking Molineux on Tuesday to offer a glimpse of a miraculous escape from relegation while putting a big dent in the
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Marco Jansen hit an unbeaten 55 to lift South Africa from a precarious 77-5 to 169-8 against New Zealand in the first semi-final of the T20 World Cup on Wednesday.Spinners Rachin Ravindra and Cole McConchie
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Pakistan dropped batting great Babar Azam on Wednesday for next week's one-day international series in Bangladesh, bringing in six uncapped players with an eye on next year's World Cup.Opener Saim Ayub, spin all-rounders Shadab Khan
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Underdogs New Zealand back themselves against anyone in "one-off games," declared captain Mitchell Santner on the eve of their T20 World Cup semi-final against South Africa in Kolkata.Santner admitted that Aiden Markram's unbeaten South Africa,
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Real Madrid fell to a damaging 1-0 defeat by Getafe at home in La Liga on Monday, leaving them four points behind leaders Barcelona.Alvaro Arbeloa’s side, beaten by a superb volley from Martin Satriano, suffered
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Top seed Carlos Alcaraz will open the Indian Wells Open, season’s first ATP Masters 1000 event, against former World No. 3 Grigor Dimitrov or Terence Atmane, with five-time champion Novak Djokovic also looming in his
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New Zealand driver Liam Lawson is looking forward to the start of the new Formula 1 season in Melbourne this weekend, although he says the new-era cars are not ‘super fun’ to drive.Lawson is hoping
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South Africa may be in red-hot form at the Twenty20 World Cup, but captain Aiden Markram said they will take nothing for granted in Wednesday’s semi-final against New Zealand, especially with his side moving to
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World number one Aryna Sabalenka on Tuesday voiced her support for a proposal to make women's matches best-of-five sets during the later stages of Grand Slam tournaments.Speaking ahead of this week's ATP-WTA tournament in Indian Wells, the hard-hitting Sabalenka said she believed switching to five sets would benefit her game."Yeah, let's do that," the four-time Grand Slam singles champion said when asked about the idea, which was floated by incoming US Tennis Association chief Craig Tiley at the Australian Open earlier this year."I feel like I would have probably more Grand Slams," Sabalenka added. "Physically I'm really strong, and I'm pretty confident that my body can handle that. So let's do it."Tiley, the former head of the Australian Open who last week was named as the new USTA chief, told the New York Times in an interview last month that switching to five sets from the quarter-finals onwards at Grand Slams should be discussed."All the research shows interest grows as the match goes on," Tiley said. "As a sport, we need to evolve."But while Sabalenka backed the move, other women players were more circumspect."I mean, it probably would favor me, because I'm physically up there with the best, but I mean, I probably wouldn't want to see that happen," reigning French Open champion Coco Gauff told reporters."And if it were to happen, I would prefer it to be the whole tournament, not just the quarters. I think changing the format in the middle of the tournament defeats the purpose of the playing field."Six-time Grand Slam champion and former world number one Iga Swiatek was firmly against the idea, and questioned the suggestion it would boost audiences."I think honestly it's a weird approach in the world where everything is becoming faster, you know," Swiatek said. "So I don't know if the audience honestly would like that."Also, I don't know if we would be able to keep the quality for five sets. Well, that's a fact, like, men are more physically strong and they can handle it for sure better."Swiatek said the physical demands would also force players to adjust their schedules, potentially leading to them playing fewer tournaments."We have never practiced in a way to prepare for that, so we would need to change, I think, our whole calendar, because the Grand Slams would be so tough that I don't think we would have honestly time to prepare for any other tournaments," she said."I think it would change a lot. I don't think it would change anything for good."World number five Jessica Pegula echoed Swiatek's remarks, stating while five sets were well within the physical capabilities of women, a switch could be counter-productive."I think we have amazing female athletes that honestly I think we could do that," the American said. "I don't think it's the fact that we can't; I just don't necessarily think that we should."On that aspect, I don't even know how you would schedule tournaments. We'd have to add weeks. We can't even get through the schedule now. So I'm not really sure for like a fan experience how that would really work." Related Story
