Category: 6. Sports

        In Cricket, Indian spinner Deepti Sharma is on the verge of becoming the number one bowler in the ICC women’s T20 International rankings for the first time in her career. She has moved to second place in the latest list after gaining one spot, overtaking Australian pacer Annabel Sutherland and now trails Pakistan’s Sadia Iqbal by only eight rating points.

Deepti’s rise came after she took three wickets in the third game of India’s five-match T20I series against England. Deepti has consistently ranked within the top 10 T20 International bowlers for most of the past six years, but the 27-year-old has never held the top position, despite demonstrating great consistency recently.

MPs have voted to back the Football Governance Bill and establish an independent regulator to oversee the men’s game in England’s top five divisions.

They voted by 415 to 98 to pass the bill at its third reading in the House of Commons, and it is now poised to become law.

The legislation will grant powers to a body that is independent from government and football authorities.

The government has previously said an independent regulator will “protect football clubs” by “ensuring their financial sustainability”.

“I am proud to be part of the winning team that has put our fans back on the pitch at the heart of the game, where they belong,” Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said.

The bill was initially introduced in March 2024 by the then-Conservative government but failed to pass through parliament before a general election was called in May. The new Labour government reintroduced the bill in July 2024.

In a message to fans before the vote, Nandy had told the Commons: “We are doing this for you because for too long, you have been treated as an afterthought at best or a nuisance at worst in a game that is only great because of you.

“This is for Macclesfield, for Wigan, for Bury, for Bolton, for Derby, for Reading, for Sheffield Wednesday, for Morecambe and for many, many more who have had to endure the misery of being put last when they should have been put first.”

Shadow Minister for Sport, Louie French MP, criticised the Bill, saying “a future Conservative government will trigger a review of Labour’s regulator as soon as possible”.

Football campaign group Fair Game described the bill clearing the Commons as “a historic step forward for our national game.”

“This is a victory for fairness, sustainability and the future of football… Now, at long last, we are firmly on the path to a fairer future for football,” it said.

When Carlos Alcaraz is on his A-game, there seems to be nothing that can stand in his way.

Britain’s home hope Cameron Norrie was no match for Spain’s two-time defending champion in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon 2025, as Alcaraz sailed through their encounter in one hour and 39 minutes to win 6-2, 6-3, 6-3 on Tuesday (8 July).

Norrie’s elimination means there are no Britons remaining in the men’s or women’s singles draws.

His 22-year-old conqueror Alcaraz will take on world number five Taylor Fritz in the last four on Thursday (10 July).

More to follow.

Jordan Stolz, new kid on the block, leads Team USA

WIMBLEDON — After a dozen games — a 6-6 dead heat — tiebreaks, by design, un-tie things. They are the high-stakes pivotal sequence, the ultimate endgame when the money is made.

As we speak, Aryna Sabalenka has won 14 consecutive tiebreaks, and if that sounds like a lot — it is. The odds of a player doing that are 16,384 to one, or .00610351562 percent. It has only happened once previously in the more than half-century of Open era play; Sloane Stephens did it between 2015 Roland Garros and 2016 Wimbledon.

“I think just because I’m not thinking about these stats during the match helps me to stay focused from the very beginning until the very end of the tiebreak,” Sabalenka said of her tiebreak mentality. “Because tiebreak is a tricky game. Everything can just go one way or another.

“You just got to be focused on each point and be aggressive.”

Those last 12 words are Sabalenka’s mantra, her deceptively simple strategy for success. That aggressive focus is a leading reason it was announced on Tuesday that she’s the first player to qualify for the 2025 WTA Finals Riyadh presented by PIF, taking place four months from now.

Sabalenka, who leads all women with 47 match-wins this year, has collected 6,615 points in the PIF Race to the WTA Finals, more than 2,000 ahead of her closest pursuer.

Since regaining the World No. 1 ranking last fall, Sabalenka has held it for 37 consecutive weeks. Overall, she’s had it for 45 weeks, more than the individual career totals of Angelique Kerber, Naomi Osaka, Maria Sharapova, Kim Clijsters and Venus Williams.

Sabalenka has worn it well, embracing nearly everything that goes with the No. 1 ranking. Following her remarkable success in tiebreaks, Sabalenka has made it a habit to seize the moment.

She’s playing her third consecutive Grand Slam event as the World No. 1 — and she is trying to become only the third woman this century to reach the singles final of a calendar year’s first three majors, following Justine Henin (2006) and Serena Williams (2015 and 2016).

On Tuesday, Sabalenka came back to defeat Laura Siegemund 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 to advance to the semifinals. She’s the first player to reach the final four here in three consecutive appearances since Serena Williams did it four times in 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019.

Sabalenka has now made 10 Grand Slam semifinals in a span of 11 appearances, joining Williams as the second player this century to do that.

Earlier in the fortnight, when Sabalenka played on Centre Court against Great Britain’s Emma Raducanu in the third round, the top seed demonstrated the poise that has propelled her to the top.

Down 4-2 in the first set and 4-1 in the second, there were a few flashes from her younger days — slumped shoulders and animated conversations with herself. And yet, Sabalenka, summoning her devout belief, came back to win 7-6 (6), 6-4.

“Maybe earlier in my career I would just lose it and I would just go crazy and lose that [second] set 7-5,” she told reporters later. “But with the years, with the experience, I learned that this is not it.

“I think experience solved a lot of problems.”

That experience, and her spirit of carpe diem, will carry her all the way to Riyadh, where she’ll be making her fifth consecutive appearance at the prestigious season-ending tournament.

LONDON — A malfunction with Wimbledon ‘s new electronic line-calling system required a point to be replayed during a quarterfinal match between Taylor Fritz and Karen Khachanov on Tuesday.

The issue occurred during the opening game of the fourth set on Court No. 1 after Fritz had served at 15-0 and the players exchanged shots. Then came a “fault” call.

Chair umpire Louise Azemar-Engzell stopped play and a few moments later ordered the players to “replay the last point due to a malfunction.”

The system had tracked Fritz’s shot in the rally as if it was a serve, the All England Club said.

“The player’s service motion began while the (ball boy/ball girl) was still crossing the net and therefore the system didn’t recognize the start of the point. As such the chair umpire instructed the point be replayed,” the club said in a statement.

Khachanov won the replayed point but the fifth-seeded Fritz advanced to the semifinals with a 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (4) victory.

Seven of the eight finalists from the men’s 800m at the Paris Olympic Games will clash again at the Herculis EBS Meeting, providing what looks set to be one of the highlights of the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Monaco on Friday (11).

It’s one of eight disciplines in Monaco in which the Olympic champion is set to compete. The men’s 200m, meanwhile, boasts two Olympic gold medallists in the form of Noah Lyles and Letsile Tebogo.

Olympic 800m champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi heads to Monaco off the back of two wins on the Diamond League circuit, topped by his world-leading 1:41.95 run in Stockholm last month – the fifth sub-1:42 clocking of his career. But this Friday’s race could be the toughest test of his season so far as he takes on the two men who joined him on the Paris podium last year: Canada’s Marco Arop and Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati.

Arop, the world champion, is undefeated over 800m this year, but he hasn’t contested any Diamond League races so far this season. Sedjati, the winner in Monaco last year in a meeting record of 1:41.46, finished second to Wanyonyi in Stockholm last month, clocking a season’s best of 1:42.27, his fastest time since the Olympic final.

The field also includes two other men who broke 1:42 last year: France’s Gabriel Tual and USA’s Bryce Hoppel. The addition of world indoor champion Josh Hoey and Algeria’s Slimane Moula means there’ll be eight men with sub-1:43 PBs on the start line.

World and Olympic gold medallist Noah Lyles will make his highly anticipated Diamond League debut. The 27-year-old opened his outdoor season in April with a low-key appearance over 400m (45.87) but was forced to delay the start of his international campaign due to some ankle troubles.

He won’t have it easy, though, as he’ll be up against the man who beat him to the Olympic 200m title last year: Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo. The 22-year-old, who clocked a world-leading 19.76 in Eugene last weekend, will be looking for a repeat performance of last year’s Monaco victory in a race that also features Alexander Ogando and Jereem Richards.

The Olympic podium will be reunited in the men’s pole vault with world record-holder Mondo Duplantis taking on Sam Kendricks and Emmanouil Karalis – three of the seven men in the field with PBs higher than six metres. Duplantis has been beaten in two of his three Monaco appearances to date, and Monaco remains one of just three Diamond League meetings in which the Swede doesn’t hold the meeting record.

The world champion will no doubt have his eye on Piotr Lisek’s meeting record of 6.02m, and if the conditions are good, he could even look to improve on the 6.28m world record he set in Stockholm last month.

Numerous global champions will clash in the other two field events. Following a high-standard competition in Eugene last week, two-time world champion Chase Jackson renews her rivalry with world indoor champion Sarah Mitton, Olympic champion Yemisi Ogunleye and European champion Jessica Schilder.

In the men’s high jump, Olympic champion Hamish Kerr takes on world indoor champion Woo Sanghyeok, Olympic silver medallist Shelby McEwen and world leader Jan Stefela of Czechia.

Olympic 100m champion Julien Alfred will be looking for a second successive Herculis victory after winning in Monaco last year with 10.85. The St Lucian has a best this year of 10.75, though her 10.77 clocking into a -1.5m/s headwind in Eugene last weekend suggests she’s capable of going much faster. She’ll face Jamaican twins Tia and Tina Clayton as well as USA’s Jacious Sears, who ran 10.85 last weekend.

World and Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino, competing in Monaco for the first time, headlines a women’s 400m field that includes Olympic bronze medallist Natalia Bukowiecka, NCAA champion Aaliyah Butler, Diamond League record-holder Nickisha Pryce and Chile’s Martina Weil.

In the women’s 100m hurdles, Olympic champion Masai Russell takes on Grace Stark – winner at the Paris Diamond League last month in 12.21 – and 2021 Olympic bronze medallist Megan Tapper.

World champion Femke Bol takes on former world record-holder Dalilah Muhammad, Olympic silver medallist Anna Cockrell and Jamaica’s Andrenette Knight in the women’s 400m hurdles.

Elsewhere on the track, the four fastest men in the world this year clash in the 110m hurdles: US quartet Cordell Tinch, Trey Cunningham, Dylan Beard and Ja’Kobe Tharp.

Winners of three recent Diamond League races will clash in a high-quality men’s 5000m, racing on the track where the current world record was set. Sweden’s Andreas Almgren, winner of the 5000m in Stockholm in a European record of 12:44.27, takes on Paris Diamond League winner Yomif Kejelcha and Eugene 10,000m winner Biniam Mehary in a field where eight men have PBs faster than 12:50.

Elsewhere, Kenneth Rooks and Abraham Kibiwot, the Olympic silver and bronze medallists respectively, lead a men’s 3000m steeplechase field that also includes in-form German Frederik Ruppert, Xiamen Diamond League winner Samuel Firewu and Kenyan duo Simon Koech and Edmund Serem.