Friday, August 20, 2021Muharram 12, 1443 AH

SPORTGULF TIMES

Lucky seventh as Zverev fi nally wins at ATP Cincinnati

Roglic back in red aft er Vuelta summit scramble

CYCLING CYCLING | Page 2 TENNIS TENNIS | Page 3

FOOTBALL

Inter’s turbulent summer leaves crown up for grabsPage 4

PSG bullish about Mbappe future

QOC launches Al Adaam Youth Council Initiative

Chelsea seek to add to Arsenal’s troubles in London derby

Gulf Cup federation celebrates Almoez’s career

LIGUE 1 FOCUS

PREMIER LEAGUE SPOTLIGHT

Pochettino says Frenchman is ‘our player’; reports suggest Messi not in Brest game

ReutersLondon, England

Arsenal’s troubled start to the Premier League season could get worse before it gets better as they prepare

to host Chelsea this weekend before a trip to champions Manchester City a week later.

Optimism was not sky high amongst Arsenal’s followers in the lead-up to the new campaign but the manner of the 2-0 defeat at newcomers Brentford last week has made it open season on manager Mikel Arteta’s job prospects, the club’s recruitment policy and just where exactly they are heading.

In the fi ckle world of football a win on Sunday against Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea would smooth the waters, but few will be wagering much on Arsenal prevailing in the London derby.

Whereas Chelsea are still basking in becoming European champions and look well-equipped for a title challenge, Arsenal appear to be a club in transition as they seek to re-

cover from fi nishing last season in eighth place.

According to the bookmakers, Arteta will not be the man to lead the club into a new era with the Spaniard even money favourite to be the fi rst top-fl ight manager to be sacked.

Arsenal technical director Edu’s position is also vulnerable after a less than impressive player recruitment policy over the past couple of seasons.

His judgement is again being called into question with the club apparently on the verge of paying around 25mn pounds ($34.23mn) for Sheffi eld United goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale.

There are also reports of fric-tion between Arteta and club cap-tain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who missed training on Wednes-day and is doubtful for Sunday’s clash with Chelsea along with fel-low forward Alexandre Lacazette.

STARK CONTRASTIt is all in stark contrast to the mood at Chelsea who will probably hand a second debut to new 97mn pounds striker Romelu Lukaku this weekend.

Lukaku, unavailable for Chelsea’s 3-0 opening day cruise past Crystal Palace, looks like being the fi nal piece in Tuchel’s jigsaw puzzle — a genuine number nine who will give his man-ager yet another attacking option.

“I’ve done a full pre-season. For now, I just want to get to know my

team mates better,” the Belgium striker who joined from Inter Mi-lan said this week.

“The English game is diff erent but, for me, it’s not something new. Whatever plan the coach has, I can adapt myself and help the team.”

Liverpool kick off the weekend with a home game against Burnley to-morrow lunchtime while later in the day champions Manchester City host Norwich City as they seek to bounce back from their surprise opening day defeat at Tottenham Hotspur.

Manchester United’s 5-1 ham-mering of Leeds United at Old Traf-ford last weekend has prompted talk of a title assault and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side will look to maintain the early momentum as they travel to Southampton on Sunday.

Buoyant Brentford face their sec-ond successive London derby, away at Crystal Palace tomorrow, as they look to continue their dream start to life back in the top fl ight after 74 years.

Tottenham’s new manager Nuno Espirito Santo will be back on fa-miliar ground as his side travel to his former club Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday.

QNADoha

The Arab Gulf Cup Football Federa-tion celebrated the achievements of Almoez Ali, the Qatari national team player, who is the fi rst player to

score in three tournaments across three dif-ferent continents in the history of Arab and Gulf football.

The federation in a report on its offi cial website said, “On this day, Almoez Ali was born, the beginning was from Mesaimeer Sports Club, then Aspire Academy, then Lekhwiya (Al Duhail), in addition to the European clubs that he played for, such as Austrian LASK, then Cultural Deportiva Leonesa, with whom he scored his fi rst goal. On April 3, 2016, he became the fi rst Qatari player to score in one of the Spanish leagues, before returning to Lekhwiya for the 2016-2017 season, to be awarded the Best Un-der-23 Player.”

The federation added that the player joined the Qatar U19 team, which won the Asian Youth Championship, and in 2015, joined the U-20 team that participated in the World Cup. On August 8, 2016, Almoez participated in his fi rst offi cial match with the Qatari team, where he entered as a sub-stitute, and the team won with two goals against Iraq. He then was the top-scorer in

the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship with 6 goals.

In the 2019 Asian Cup, Almoez scored a record 9 goals in one edition of the tourna-ment, including seven in the group stage, also a record. He also broke the record held by Mansour Muftah, who had 5 goals in the Asian Cup.

Almoez scored in the semi-fi nal against the UAE and then scored the famous goal against Japan in the fi nal to set his record, also winning the title of best player in the tournament.

His also scored in the 2019 Copa America against Paraguay, before being crowned top scorer for the 2021 Gold Cup with four goals, thus becoming the fi rst player in history to score in three continental tournaments.

In this August 13, 2021, picture, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta looks dejected after the loss at Brentford. (Reuters)

By Sports ReporterDoha

The Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) an-nounced the launch of its pioneering initia-

tive Al Adaam Youth Council on Wednesday.

Al Adaam Youth Council is a representative structure of all youth in Qatar from all nation-alities. It will be an active factor engaging in all the sport issues and decisions-making related to the QOC strategies.

This new entity will take a cen-tre stage in the planning proc-esses, hosting of the sport events and boosting the social responsi-bility eff orts of the QOC.

The main goal of Al Adaam Youth Council is to develop the youth’s creative initiatives that will help the QOC in mak-ing decisions, inscribing sport culture inside the Qatari com-munity, reaching out local youth throughout an elite group of youth elements representing the QOC. Al Adaam Youth Coun-cil will also help developing the new creative initiatives and ideas to be integrated into the QOC’s current and upcoming processes.

This new-born Council will spare no eff ort in performing several responsibilities and tasks, at the top of them, promoting the QOC’s strategy, values, goals in the local youth community,

enhancing the Olympic values, team Qatar values, encouraging the local youth community to in-volve in the sport sector, making team Qatar as a kicking-off plat-form for community participa-tion, performance devotion and opening the non-offi cial reach out channels between the QOC and youth category.

The council will help promot-ing all the QOC’s social respon-sibility initiatives inside the lo-cal community, encouraging the QOC and its staff to develop creative strategies and plans, transferring the perspectives of Qatari youth about the sport is-sues to the QOC, working closely and co-operatively with the board of directors, sport federa-tions, local organising commit-tees, exchanging thoughts with the local youth community and stepping up youth participation in the board activities to maxi-mum level.

A number of standards re-quired for nomination to the Al Adaam Youth Council have been defi ned. The council consists of 10 members representing all youth in Qatar (Qataris and non-Qataris), their ages ranged from 17 to 27 years. The membership will be divided equally between the two genders, in addition to members from people with special needs. Student from the nominated group been approved and selected by the QOC will take the presidency of this council.

Al Gharafa Stadium to host Iraq’s Qatar 2022 Asian qualifi ers

The Qatar Football Association (QFA) decided to choose Al Gharafa Stadium, Thani bin Jassim Stadium, to host the matches of the Iraqi national team in the Asian qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The QFA agreed to the request of the normal body to play the matches of the Iraqi national team in Doha, after the AFC decided not to play the matches in Iraq at the present time, until an inspection committee is sent in the coming days to evaluate the stadiums and sports facilities again. Iraq will face Iran in its second match in Group A, which will be held on the seventh of next month at Al Gharafa Stadium in Doha. (QNA)

AgenciesParis, France

Real Madrid are not hiding their desire to sign Kylian Mbappe but Paris Saint-Germain coach Mauricio Pochettino insists he

can’t imagine the France superstar play-ing for another club this season.

Mbappe is out of contract next June and his future has dominated headlines in France and in Spain since Lionel Messi’s shock move from Barcelona to Paris last week.

In Madrid they believe Mbappe does not want to share more of the limelight with the six-time Ballon d’Or winner. “Madrid are not giving up,” said the cover of sports daily AS yesterday.

PSG, meanwhile, want to keep the 22-year-old to complete a dream front line with Messi and Neymar.

Whether Real make their move before the August 31 transfer deadline remains to be seen, but Mbappe is in no rush to ex-tend his contract at the Parc des Princes.

Nevertheless, while Neymar and Messi build up their fi tness following extended summer breaks, Mbappe has played a starring role for his club at the beginning of the campaign.

He set up the decisive goal as PSG won 2-1 at Troyes on the opening weekend and then created three goals as Pochettino’s team beat Strasbourg 4-2 last Saturday.

“Kylian seems in good shape, he is motivated and working very hard to have a good season. That is what we are all thinking about,” Pochettino told report-ers yesterday ahead of PSG’s trip to Brit-tany to play Brest today.

“Kylian is our player and I don’t see him being anywhere else this season.”

The speculation about his future led to Mbappe being jeered by some PSG sup-porters before the Strasbourg game, but Pochettino insisted the France World Cup winner was taking it in his stride.

“Kylian is preparing for tomorrow’s

game. The only conversations I have with Kylian are about football,” the Argentine added. “He has a year left on his contract, if he doesn’t renew it. We are happy with him and from what I see he is happy with us too.”

French daily L’Equipe reported Messi will not be included in today’s game, add-ing that his former Barcelona teammate Neymar has also been left out.

L’Equipe added on its website that Italy’s Euro 2020 winning goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma has been called up alongside compatriot Marco Verratti, Marquinhos and Angel Di Maria.

Verratti was also part of Italy’s squad which beat England in the Euro 2020 fi nal on penalties at Wembley, while Di Maria scored Argentina’s winner in a 1-0 vic-tory over hosts Brazil in the Copa America showpiece.

Earlier yesterday, PSG manager Mauri-cio Pochettino had left open the possibil-ity that Messi could feature against Brest when he declined to specify whether Messi would fi nally make his debut.

“He has given us so much in the last few days,” Pochettino said of Messi. “There is a great atmosphere in the squad and he has settled in very quickly.”

Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe (right) and teammate Lionel Messi attend a training session as assistant coach Miguel D’Agostin (centre) looks on at the club’s training ground in Saint-Germain-en-Laye yesterday. (Below) PSG coach Mauricio Pochettino. (AFP)

SPORTGulf Times Friday, August 20, 20212

Yorkshire apologise for ‘inappropriate behaviour’ towards former player

FOCUS

AFPSydney

Steve Smith and Aaron Finch were both in-cluded in Australia’s squad for the Twenty20

World Cup yesterday despite in-jury struggles, while uncapped wicketkeeper-batsman Josh In-glis was a shock selection.

Batting lynchpin Smith had been under a cloud after pulling out of recent tours to the West Indies and Bangladesh due to a left elbow problem.

He said last month he could sacrifi ce playing at the T20 World Cup to ensure he was fi t for the home Ashes series against England this year, mak-ing clear Test cricket was his priority.

But he was part of the 15-strong squad named for the tournament from October 17 to November 14 in the United Arab Emirates and Oman.

Finch said this week that Smith was “going really well”.

“The last time I spoke to him, he wasn’t having any pain bat-ting so that was a real positive. He’s going to be such an impor-tant part of our campaign,” said the captain, who has also been beset by injury.

Finch underwent knee sur-gery last week after fl ying home from the Caribbean where he aggravated it during a T20 clash in St Lucia. He missed the team’s subsequent ODIs against the West Indies and their tour of Bangladesh.

Finch’s knee problems fol-lowed eye surgery this year after he complained of blurry vision.

But he will lead the team at the World Cup which will also see the return of David Warner,

Glenn Maxwell and Pat Cum-mins, who all opted out of Aus-tralia’s recent limited-overs tours to rest. Fast bowler Andrew Tye along with top-order op-tions Alex Carey, Moises Hen-riques, Josh Philippe and Ashton Turner were notable omissions, but Inglis surprisingly got the nod as back-up gloveman to Matthew Wade.

“Josh has been on our radar for some time with his perform-

ances in white-ball cricket and more recently in the Vitality (T20) Blast where he topped the run charts,” said chairman of se-lectors George Bailey.

“He off ers the squad fl exibil-ity in the batting order with his adaptability, counter-attacking ability and power striking. He is a player we are excited about for the future.”

Selectors opted for four spin-ners – Mitchell Swepson, Ash-

ton Agar, Adam Zampa and Maxwell. “Given the amount of cricket being played at the World Cup venues, we expect the wickets in the UAE to favour slow bowling, particularly in the latter stages,” said Bailey.

Australia head into the World Cup on a miserable run of form.

They lost their recent T20 series to the West Indies 4-1 and slumped by the same result against Bangladesh in a tour

capped by being bowled out for 62 -their lowest ever T20 score.

SQUAD: Aaron Finch (capt), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Ri-chardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa.Travelling reserves: Dan Chris-tian, Nathan Ellis, Daniel Sams.

Australia’s Smith, Finch fi t and bound for T20 World Cup

CRICKET

‘The last time I spoke to him, he wasn’t having any pain batting so that was a real positive’

Roglic back in red aft er Vuelta summit scrambleCYCLING

AFPCullera, Spain

Defending champion Primoz Roglic retook the Vuelta a Espana overall lead yester-day when he led the main

contenders up a steep incline fi nish, just failing however to catch early es-caper Magnus Cort Nielsen, who won stage six.

The fi nal ascent to a hilltop castle on a sunny afternoon at Cullera was an imposing 1.9km climb at 9.4 per-cent gradient and delivered a con-frontation between the overall con-tenders.

EF’s Cort Nielsen clung on impres-sively to beat Roglic by a bike length, and could barely raise his arms in cel-ebration at the fi nish.

“It was very close, I looked back at 150m and saw Roglic. I’m so happy,” said the 28-year-old Dane.

EF teammate, and one of the pre-race fancied riders, Hugh Carthy, was dropped and lost around three min-utes after Ineos, Jumbo and Movistar powered away in the fi nal part of the stage.

Other potential GC riders to lose time on the steep incline were Briton Adam Yates who dropped 25sec and Spain’s Bahrain Victorious leader Mikel Landa who was 27sec adrift of Roglic on the day.

The defending champion initially took the overall lead by winning the opening day time-trial, before giv-ing it up on day three in the hopes of avoiding the 90-minute daily me-dia commitment facing the red jer-sey holder. “Welcome to my world,” Roglic told Rein Taaramae, who took the red on stage three and then com-plained of how long he had to spend in interviews.

Roglic now leads a trio of Movistar riders in the overall standings with Enric Mas at 25sec, Miguel Angel Lopez at 36 and Alejandro Valverde at 41 with Egan Bernal in fi fth, also at just 41sec. The Slovenian appears to be on powerful form after crashing out of the Tour de France in July be-fore winning Olympic time-trial gold in Tokyo. “At the end I had good legs so I did a little sprint,” he said.

“We’ll see who will be the strong-est in Santiago,” he said in reference to the stage 21 individual time-trial

at the pilgrim town Santiago de Com-postela.

“It’s a long way until then,” said the man who won the Vuelta in 2019 and 2020.

He reclaimed the red jersey from Kenny Elissonde of Trek who was one of the fi rst riders dropped on the slopes up to the fortifi ed summit fi n-ish line.

Friday’s stage seven has six climbs, starting and ending with big ones as the race heads to a plateau behind the tourist region of the Costa Blanca.

Twins peak in 1-2 finish at Cycling’s Tour de l’Avenir

Norway’s Anders Halland Johannes-sen beat his own twin brother To-bias to the line in the Jura mountains on stage 6 of the prestigious Tour de l’Avenir Cycling race yesterday.

For under-23s, the race is seen as a test of future talent and was won by Egan Bernal in 2017 and Tadej Pogacar in 2018. Both men went on to win the Tour de France. The Norwegian twins are just 21 and Tobias is fourth in the overall standings at the nine-day stage race with Dutch rider Mick van Dijk in the lead.

ReutersLondon

Yorkshire have issued an apology to former player Azeem Rafi q following an independent investi-

gation into allegations of insti-tutional racism found he was a “victim of inappropriate behav-iour”, the club said yesterday.

The investigation was initiat-ed in September last year to look into allegations made by the off -spinner stretching back to 2008.

Rafi q, a player of Pakistani de-scent and a former captain of the England Under-19 side, last year said that he was made to feel like an “outsider” at Yorkshire and even contemplated taking his own life. “Many of the allega-tions were not upheld... it is right, however, to acknowledge from the outset that several of the allegations made by Azeem were upheld and that sadly, his-torically, Azeem was the victim of inappropriate behaviour,” Yorkshire said in a statement.

“This is clearly unacceptable. We would like to express our profound apologies for this.”

Rafi q, however, took to Twit-ter to express his disappoint-ment at the fi ndings, calling for Yorkshire to clearly spell out that he was the subject of racist abuse. “‘Inappropriate behav-iour’, are you sure about that @YorkshireCCC? You carry on playing with your words & fudg-ing this best way possible... It’s not going away,” wrote the 30-year-old.

In an interview to Sky Sports News later yesterday, Rafi q add-ed: “It hurts, it seriously hurts. I think at the end of it, there’s some sort of apology, but I think

it gets spoiled by the words that are used to try and minimise what actually my allegations were.”

The England and Wales crick-et Board (ECB) released a state-ment commending the player’s “bravery” and said it “recog-nised both the pain and the dis-tress of participating in an in-vestigation into these matters”.

“It is critical that Azeem, and others who gave evidence, re-ceive appropriate support and we are seeking assurances that this is the case,” said Cindy Butts, chair of the Independ-ent Commission for Equity in cricket, which was set up by the ECB in March to look into issues relating to race and equity.

Rafi q played for Yorkshire from 2008 to 2018 and became their youngest-ever captain af-ter he led the county in a Twen-ty20 game against Durham in 2012.

Mushfi qur, Liton return to Bangladesh side for NZ T20sMushfiqur Rahim and Liton Das were recalled to the national squad yesterday for next month’s five-match Twenty20 international series against New Zealand.Mushfiqur and Liton missed Bangla-desh’s stunning 4-1 T20 thrashing of Australia earlier this month because of Covid-19 rules.Opening batsman Tamim Iqbal, who was also absent from the Australia series due to a knee injury, has been left out as he is yet to recover fully.Batsman Mohamed Mithun was dropped and Bangladesh added leg-spinner Aminul Islam Biplob to the squad.The Black Caps arrive in Dhaka on

August 24 for the series which comes ahead of the T20 World Cup in October and November in the United Arab Emir-ates and Oman. The matches will be held behind closed doors on Septem-ber 1, 3, 5, 8 and 10 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka.

Squad: Mahmudullah Riyad, (Capt), Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Soumya Sarkar, Liton Das, Mosaddek Hossain, Afif Hossain, Naim Sheikh, Nurul Hasan Sohan, Shamim Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Mohamed Saifuddin, Shoriful Islam, Taijul Islam, Mahedi Hasan, Aminul Islam Biplob, Nasum Ahmed.

Malaysian MotoGP cancelled, replaced by race at MisanoAFPParis

The Malaysian MotoGP scheduled for October was cancelled yesterday due to Covid-19 restric-

tions with the Italian circuit at Misano stepping in to replace it, organisers announced.

“The ongoing Covid-19 pan-demic and the resulting entry re-strictions for Malaysia oblige the cancellation of the event,” a joint statement from the sport’s rul-ing body the FIM and promoters Dorna confi rmed.

This is the second year run-ning the October 24 race in Sepang has been called off be-cause of the pandemic.

The Malaysia round of the world championship has suf-fered the same fate as the races

this season in Thailand, Japan and Australia.

Misano has stepped in to fi ll Sepang’s place on the calendar for what will be its second Mo-toGP weekend in a month, with the circuit named after the late Marco Simoncelli staging the San Marino Grand Prix on Sep-tember 19. “The name of this event will be announced in due course,” the organisers said.

Frenchman Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) leads the champion-ship by 47 points from Francesco Bagnaia (ITA/Ducati) ahead of the British Grand Prix, the 12th round of the 2021 season, on Au-gust 29.

The Sepang cancellation means that Italian MotoGP leg-end Valentino Rossi’s fi nal home race before retirement will now be on October 24, instead of next month’s fi rst race at Misano.

DECISIONAustralia’s Steven Smith celebrates his century during the second ODI against India at the SCG in Sydney on November 29, 2020. (Reuters)

Team Jumbo’s Slovenian rider Primoz Roglic celebrates on the podium wearing the overall leader’s red jersey after the 6th stage of the 2021 La Vuelta in Cullera, Spain, yesterday. (AFP)

SPORT3Gulf Times

Friday, August 20, 2021

Lucky seventh as Zverev fi nally wins at ATP Cincinnati

TENNIS

AFPCincinnati

Olympic champion Alexander Zverev struck gold at the ATP Cincinnati Masters on

Wednesday with his fi rst victory at the US Open tuneup event in seven attempts.

The German has been deep in a rut from his fi rst appear-ance in 2015 at the Midwest US venue, exiting in the fi rst round every time. But that all changed as Zverev celebrated success with a 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 win over South African Lloyd Harris to break his duck. “I’m happy where I’m at and I’m happy to get my fi rst win in seven years here,” he said. “It’s obviously a great start to the week.”

The breakthrough victory was the seventh in a row for the 24-year-old. “When I came on court and they said Olympic gold medallist, it did give me goose-bumps,” Zverev said.

“It made me a little nervous at the beginning of the match, I have to say, because it is a special feeling.”

Zverev now goes up against Argentine Guido Pella, a winner over Italy’s Fabio Fognini 6-1, 7-5. Top seed Daniil Medvedev, last week’s Toronto champion, also advanced in a no-drama 6-2, 6-2 defeat of American Mac-kenzie McDonald that took just an hour for the 2019 Cincinnati champion.

Number two seed Stefanos Tsitsipas fought off Sebastian Korda for a 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 victory that took the Toronto semi-fi nal-ist into the third round.

The Greek won on his second match point as Korda drove a forehand long after 97 minutes.

Tsitsipas next plays Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego who beat Amer-ican Tommy Paul 7-6 (11/9), 6-2.

Norway’s eighth-seeded Casper Ruud out-aced Ameri-can Reilly Opelka 21 to 17 on his way to a 6-7 (5/7), 6-0, 7-6 (7/4) victory. Andy Murray’s wild card run ended with a 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 loss to Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz.

The Scotsman, who has been struggling to re-establish him-self on tour after his latest in-jury – a groin problem – lost the second-round contest in one and three-quarter hours to the player who knocked Roger Federer out of Wimbledon. Murray fi red a re-

spectable 11 aces to the 17 of his ninth-seeded opponent in the fi rst-time meeting while saving four break points.

“This week was fairly posi-tive. I played much better than at Wimbledon and the grass

season,” he said. “This week my body felt good, even if hardcourts are not easy on the body. Physi-cally I was tired after some of the long rallies, but I felt fi ne.”

The 34-year-old Briton said the only factors that would make

him reconsider his comeback were “if my body doesn’t feel good “ or “my tennis starts going backwards.”

The two-time Cincinnati win-ner, ranked 105th, owns 14 career Masters 1000 titles, the most of

any man in a fi eld missing the “Big 3” trio of Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic - all 20-time Grand Slam champions.

Olympic silver medallist Karen Khachanov joined Murrray in defeat as the Russian exited 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 6-4 to Canada’s 12th-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime, who will face Wimbledon fi nalist Matteo Berrettini for a quarter-fi nal place.

Frenchman Gael Monfi ls earned the 500th match win of his career as he beat Australian Alex de Minaur 6-3, 7-5. Vic-tory put the 34-year-old into the third round against sixth seed Andrey Rublev, aged just six when the Frenchman won his fi rst ATP match in 2004.

“It was at Metz against Xavier Malisse and he retired,” Monfi ls said. “I remember all of my wins. I’ve been on the Tour a long time. I’m quite blessed in my career.”

American John Isner beat Ital-ian 11th seed Jannik Sinner 5-7, 7-6 (7/4), 6-4. Former cham-pion Grigor Dimitrov reached the third round over Kazakh Alexan-der Bublik 6-3, 7-5.

‘I’m happy where I’m at and I’m happy to get my first win in seven years here’

Korda, Sagstrom share leadReutersCarnoustie, United Kingdom

World number one and Olympic cham-pion Nelly Korda held a share of the

clubhouse lead at the British Women’s Open at Carnoustie yesterday after an opening-round 67.

The American carded eight birdies although three dropped shots left her tied on fi ve-under with Sweden’s Madelene Sag-strom who dropped a shot at the 18th. Korda is bidding to con-tinue a sensational year having won the PGA Championship and Olympic gold, although she ad-mitted after her round she was feeling a little jaded.

“Honestly we didn’t have much wind today. It was very chilly in the morning but other than that the wind kept calm and I took advantage of it,” Korda told Sky Sports.

“I am a little tired but I will still give it my all these next few days. I will go home next week and sleep in my bed for the fi rst time in six weeks so that’ll be nice.” South Korea’s Kim Sei-young was also at fi ve-under af-

ter 12 holes while Korda’s com-patriot Andrea Lee, ranked 143rd in the world, was at four-under for her round after 16 holes. Last year’s winner Sophia Popov was struggling at two-over after 12 holes after a double-bogey at the 10th hole.

REED WITHDRAWS FROM PLAYOFFS OPENER

Patrick Reed’s hopes of qualify-ing for this year’s US Ryder Cup team took a hit as the former Masters champion withdrew from the opening event of the FedExCup Playoff s in New Jer-

sey before his early-morning tee time on Thursday. The decision marked the second consecutive week Reed has pulled out of a tournament before the opening round and leaves him with just the August 26-29 BMW Champi-onship in Maryland to automati-cally qualify for the Ryder Cup.

No reason was given for Reed’s decision to withdraw from the Northern Trust in Jersey City but multiple media reports said he was dealing with an ankle in-jury. Reed is ninth in the US Ryder Cup standings. The top six golfers in the standings after the BMW Championship qualify for the American team that will face Eu-rope in the Sept. 24-26 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.

The remaining six players on the team will be selected and an-nounced by US Ryder Cup cap-tain Steve Stricker following the Sept. 2-5 Tour Championship. In his most recent start, Reed tied for 31st at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis two weeks ago. Prior to that, he earned a share of 22nd place in the Tokyo Olympics men’s golf tournament where he was a late addition to the fi eld after Bryson DeChambeau tested positive for Covid-19.

GOLF

World No. 2 Osaka felt ‘ungrateful’ for her attitude to tennisReutersCincinnati

Naomi Osaka said she had felt “ungrateful” at times over the last year for not fully ap-

preciating her life as one of the world’s top tennis players.

The world number two sealed a comeback victory over Coco Gauff at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati on Wednesday, her fi rst event outside the Olympics since withdrawing from the French Open in May.

She pulled out of Roland Garros after being punished for refusing to do media confer-ences, saying her mental health was adversely impacted by cer-tain lines of questioning.

Osaka shed tears and brief-ly left a press conference in Cincinnati on Monday when asked about her relationship with the media and returned to the theme on Wednesday.

“I was wondering why was I so aff ected, I guess, like what made me not want to do me-dia,” the 23-year-old told a news conference.

“I’m wondering if I was scared, because sometimes I would see headlines of like players losing and then the headline the next day would be like a collapse or they’re not that great anymore.

“So then I was thinking me waking up every day, for me, I should feel like I’m winning. Like, the choice to go out there and play, to go see fans that people come out and watch me play, that itself is an accom-plishment.

“I’m not sure when along the way I started desensitising that. Like it started not being like an accomplishment for me. So I felt like I was very un-grateful on that fact.”

The four-times Grand Slam champion said the restrictions

imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic had made things “really stressful” her but re-cent events in Haiti and Af-ghanistan led to a change in her outlook.

A 7.2-magnitude earthquake has killed more than 2,000 people in Haiti – the country where her father was born – while Afghanistan has been in turmoil. “Seeing the state of the world, like how everything is in Haiti, Afghanistan right now, is defi nitely really crazy,” she said.

“And for me to just be hit-ting a tennis ball in the United States right now and have peo-ple come and watch me play... I would want to be myself in this situation rather than anyone else in the world.”

Osaka will next play Jil Teichmann after the Swiss put out American Bernarda Pera 6-1, 6-4.

Barty will next face two-time Australian Open cham-pion Victoria Azarenka.

“I feel good. I feel like I’m ready to play,” Barty said. “I’m as close to 100% as I’m ever going to get.

“I feel comfortable and ready and excited to be playing here in Cincinnati and knowing that we’re moving on to New York, one of the best tournaments and one of the best atmos-pheres in the world, that brings excitement.”

Angelique Kerber defeated Elina Svitolina 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 while former US Open winner Bianca Andreescu of Canada lost to Karolina Muchova 6-4, 6-2 in the second round.

Azarenka defeated Alison Riske 6-2, 7-5 while fellow former Grand Slam champions Petra Kvitova and Jelena Os-tapenko both won.

Kvitova stopped Veronika Kudermetova 6-2, 6-4 while Ostapenko advanced 6-7 (2/7), 5-4 when American Jennifer Brady retired.

FOCUS

Alexander Zverev of Germany plays a backhand during his match against Lloyd Harris of South Africa at the Western & Southern Open in Mason, Ohio. (Getty Images/AFP)

Opelka, Kyrgios included in Team World for Laver CupAmerican duo Reilly Opelka and John Isner along with Australia’s Nick Kyrgios have been picked as the final players to represent Team World at next month’s Laver Cup, tournament organis-ers said yesterday.The trio join Canada’s Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime, alongside Argentine Diego Schwartzman.“Reilly had a great run last week in Toronto to reach the finals and I’ve been really impressed with his recent form,” said Team World captain John McEnroe.Isner won the Atlanta Open last month and reached the semi-finals in Toronto.“To be on a team with guys we’re normally competing against is

so diff erent and so much fun. We come together so well as a group, the chemistry is awesome and it’s such a great environ-ment to be part of,” said Isner.The Laver Cup pits six players from Team Europe against six from Team World, with four matches played each day (three singles and a doubles). Team Europe have won all the three editions so far.This year’s event will take place in Boston from Sept. 24-26.Meanwhile American Varvara Lepchenko has been provisional-ly suspended for an anti-doping rule violation after the 35-year-old returned a positive test for a prohibited substance, the Inter-national Tennis Federation (ITF)

said yesterday.Lepchenko provided a urine sample on July 12 during the Hungarian Grand Prix, which was found to contain metabo-lites of adrafinil and/or modafinil – both substances prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency, the ITF added.The world number 127 was is-sued a pre-charge notice on Aug. 9 and her provisional suspension came into eff ect yesterday.“Lepchenko had (and retains) the right to apply to the chair of the independent tribunal con-vened to hear her case why the provisional suspension should not be imposed (or should be vacated), but has not exercised that right,” the ITF said.

Pumas shuffl e backs in search of way through Bok defence

ReutersCape Town

Argentina’s task in tomorrow’s Rugby Championship Test against South Africa

in Nelson Mandela Bay is to break down a resolute home defence that has conceded only four tries in their last 10 match-es, but it is an assignment much easier said than done.

The visitors were kept tryless in last weekend’s 32-12 defeat at the same venue in which the Boks claimed a bonus point for their three scores, and with the hosts having now picked a team that looks much closer to their fi rst-choice selection, Argen-tina’s task will be harder.

Keeping the Boks at bay will likely not be enough to win the game, Argentina must fi nd a way to disrupt the home set-piece, and accumulate points through time spent in the Bok 22. “We didn’t execute well last weekend because we were under pressure from the South African defence,” Argentina coach Mario Ledesma said.

“But I think we can do things better if we implement what we train in the week.”

Domingo Miotti has been drafted in at fl yhalf for Argen-tina for his fi rst test start, while there is also a shuffl e of the back three with Juan Cruz Mal-lia in at fullback and Santiago Carreras moving to the wing.

Ignacio Mendy, who won an Olympic bronze medal in the Rugby Sevens in Tokyo, will be given his debut as Ledesma admits he is looking towards the next Rugby World Cup in France in two years’ time.

“Miotti has always been en-tering at the end of games, but we are working with him. He raised his hand and it’s part of what we talked about in terms of training players for France 2023.”

The Boks will not deviate from their plans, especially as they return to much the same side that won the British & Irish Lions series, bar some changes at the front of the scrum.

“Argentina will come hard at us, so we know we need to perform much better than last week to get the desired result,”

Bok coach Jacques Nienaber said. “While we were pleased with the victory and to start our Rugby Championship campaign on a winning note, there is a lot of room for im-provement in our performance.

“We’ve identifi ed a few areas we need to work on if we want to defend our (Rugby Champi-onship) title successfully.”

Both teams will later face Australia and New Zealand in two Tests each, though the venue for these is still being discussed.

TEAM (15-1)Juan Cruz Mallia; Ignacio Mendy, Santiago Choco-bares, Jeronimo de la Fuente, Santiago Carreras; Domingo Miotti, Gonzalo Bertranou; Ro-drigo Bruni, Guido Petti, Pablo Matera; Tomas Lavanini, Matias Alemanno; Francisco Gomez Kodela, Julian Montoya (capt), Nahuel Tetaz ChaparroReplacements: Facundo Bosch, Facundo Gigena, Santiago Medrano, Marcos Kremer, Juan Martin Gonzalez, Felipe Ezcurra, Nicolas Sanchez, Lucio Cinti.

RUGBY

Naomi Osaka of Japan serves to Coco Gauff during their Western & Southern Open match in Mason, Ohio. (Getty Images/AFP)

Nelly Korda of the US in action during the first round of the AIG Women’s Open in Carnoustie, Scotland, yesterday. (Reuters)

Inter’s turbulent summer leaves crown up for grabs

Qatar SC end camp in Serbia; Umm Salal to play friendlies

Kante, Jorginho up for UEFA prize

Friday, August 20, 2021

GULF TIMES SPORT

SERIE A

UPDATE

SPOTLIGHT

Dumfries and Lukaku replacement Dzeko key to Inzaghi’s chances at Inter

The Qatar national swimming team shone on the first day of the 28th GCC Aquatic Championships at Hamad Aquatic Complex yesterday. In the morning session alone, Qatari swimmers landed 9 golds out of a possible 12. The four-day championships will see competitions across three sporting disciplines — swimming, diving and water polo. The Qatari teams completed their preparations for the tournament, with the swimming and water polo teams attending two camps in Bulgaria, and the diving team setting up camp in Belarus.

GCC Aquatics Championships

QNADoha

Qatar SC concluded their training camp in the Serbian city of Belgrade by winning

their third friendly match on Wednesday against FC Vozdovac 2-1, as part of their preparations for the 2021/2022 season of the QNB Stars League, which will be launched on September 11.

Qatar SC had played two friendly matches, losing in the fi rst against Saudi Arabia’s Qad-sia 3-0, and losing against Oman 1-0.

The technical staff of Qatar SC is seeking, through friendly matches, to reach the best pos-sible readiness. Brazilian coach

Ze Ricardo is looking to take ad-vantage of the good capabilities that the team possesses after their ranks were strengthened by many strong signings.

On the other hand, Umm Salal SC announced the programme of their upcoming friendly matches in its external camp in Turkey, in preparation for the new season.

The team is scheduled to play three matches during the com-ing period, all of which will be with Kuwaiti teams residing in Turkey during the same period. While the fi rst match was played against Kuwait SC yesterday, two other friendlies are set for to-morrow (Al-Shabab) and August 26 (Al Arabi).

Umm Salal had played another friendly against Turkish team Fethiye Sport, and won 3-1.

AFPParis, France

Chelsea duo N’Golo Kante and Jorginho have been shortlisted for the UEFA men’s player of the year

prize for the 2020-21 season alongside Manchester City star Kevin De Bruyne, European foot-ball’s governing body announced yesterday.

The winner will be revealed at a ceremony in Istanbul next Thursday, August 26, when the draw for this season’s Champi-ons League will also take place.

Midfi eld duo Jorginho and Kante both starred as Chelsea beat De Bruyne’s City 1-0 in the Champions League fi nal in Porto in May.

Jorginho then helped Italy win Euro 2020.

The shortlist was selected by a jury composed of the coaches of the 24 national teams who took

part in Euro 2020, 80 coaches of the clubs which played in the group stages of last season’s Champions League and Europa League, as well as one journalist from each of UEFA’s 55 member associations.

Chelsea’s Thomas Tuchel was shortlisted for the coach prize along with Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola and Roberto Man-cini, who led Italy to European Championship glory.

The three players on the short-list for the women’s prize are Jennifer Hermoso, Lieke Martens and Alexia Putellas, all of whom won the Champions League with Barcelona.

Lluis Cortes of the Catalan club was listed for the women’s coach award along with Peter Gerhardsson, who won the Ol-ympic silver medal with Sweden, and Emma Hayes of Chelsea, English Women’s Super League champions and Champions League runners-up.

Al Sadd back in training aft er Barcelona camp

Reigning QNB Stars League champi-ons Al Sadd resumed their training in Doha on Wednesday after the conclusion of their pre-season camp in Barcelona, Spain, from August 2-14.The team trained in the absence of play-ers who are currently with the Qatar na-tional team preparing for the 2022 FIFA World Cup’s European qualifiers. Also missing were Al Sadd’s Qatar Olympic team players, who are bracing for the AFC Under-23 Asian Cup qualifiers.Al Sadd’s technical staff , led by Spaniard Xavi Hernandez, was keen to increase the players’ physical capabilities espe-cially since they were coming from a break, according to the club’s website.Al Sadd played two friendly matches during their overseas camp, beating Spanish club UD Figueres 5-3 and los-ing to Sabadell, also of Spain, 2-3.

Al Duhail resume training aft er returning from camp in Austria

Al Duhail resumed their training after returning from the overseas camp in Austria, ahead of the start of new foot-ball season (2021-22). The players had their first training session in Doha on Wednesday at the club’s training field.Al Duhail’s website said the training would continue on a daily basis until the international players join their teammates.Al Duhail had played three friendly matches during their overseas camp, where they beat Austrian clubs Schwe-chat (2-0) and Admira (5-1) before losing to Albanian side Kukesi 1-2.The Red Knights’ new Portuguese coach Luis Castro, who took over from Frenchman Sabri Lamouchi, is keen on preparing his players so that they face up to the challenges of new season.

AFPRome, Italy

Inter Milan kick off the new Serie A season tomorrow in the midst of fan protests and money troubles that threat-

en to derail their title defence before it has even begun.

A dramatic summer for the champions reached its lowest ebb last week when star striker Romelu Lukaku was sold to Chelsea, a transfer that enraged not just supporters but report-edly also CEO Giuseppe Marotta and new coach Simone Inzaghi.

The Gazzetta dello Sport re-ported that Inter’s cash-strapped Chinese owners Suning forced the sale of Belgium forward Lukaku after having already offl oaded buccaneering right-back Achraf Hakimi, a key fi gure in their fi rst Serie A triumph since 2010, to Paris Saint-Germain.

The club’s fi nancial problems were clear well before the league crown was claimed, and last month previous coach Antonio Conte left Inter knowing his team could be dismantled.

They are still strong in key ar-eas and have one of Italy’s Euro 2020 heroes in Nicolo Barella, but the squad has certainly been downgraded.

Lukaku has been replaced with Edin Dzeko, a capable for-ward familiar with Serie A, but the Bosnia striker is 35 years old and scored just seven league goals last season.

Dutch defender Denzel Dum-fries, however, is an intrigu-ing choice for the vacant spot at right-back after his exciting displays at Euro 2020.

How he and Dzeko fare will be key to Inzaghi’s chances at Inter after doing an excellent job on a small budget at Lazio.

ALLEGRI’S JUVE LURKINGReady to pounce will be Juven-tus, who have Massimiliano Al-legri back at the controls and

added Euro star Manuel Loc-atelli to a midfi eld which was the Old Lady’s weak point under Andrea Pirlo last season.

Rumours of Cristiano Ronal-do’s desire to leave Juve have not dampened enthusiasm around the team’s chances as the chaos that has enveloped Inter and Allegri’s return have boosted hopes in Turin of reclaiming the title from their old enemies.

Also sniffi ng to overtake Inter is a new cast of managers led by

Jose Mourinho at Roma, who on Tuesday celebrated the arrival of Tammy Abraham from Chelsea.

Mourinho was welcomed back to Italy this summer, mem-ories of treble glory at Inter over a decade ago leaving Roma fans hoping the once Special One’s star has not defi nitively waned.

Elsewhere Maurizio Sarri will try to bring his brand of passing football to Lazio while Luciano Spalletti has a chance to get a tal-ent-packed Napoli back in the top

four on his return to club manage-ment after two years away.

FANS RETURNSupporters will fi nally be able to watch the unfolding drama in stadiums after the Italian government permitted clubs to open their stadiums to 50% ca-pacity earlier in the month.

The decision came after clubs railed against the previous leg-islation which also permitted grounds to be as much as half full, but included social dis-tancing rules which would have meant up to three quarters of places in some grounds being unavailable to fans.

Italian Football Federa-tion (FIGC) president Gabriele Gravina welcomed the move but insisted that it was simply a “fi rst step towards our aim of having our stadiums full as soon as possible”.

Last month the FIGC laid out demands to the government which as well as asking for tax relief included a request to cre-ate a ‘Save Football Fund’ man-aged by the FIGC which would receive one % of all bets placed on any sporting event.

Another test for the league will be how its new main broad-caster DAZN performs. The streaming platform outbid Sky for the 2021-2024 rights in March and will be expected to supply coverage of Serie A to millions in a country where digital development lags behind other European countries.

In this September 15, 2019, picture, Roma’s Edin Dzeko (left) is tackled by Sassuolo’s Vlad Chiriches during the Serie A match in Rome. Inter Milan has brought in Dzeko to replace Romelu Lukaku (not pictured).