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SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium: Red Bull’s Max Verstappen extended his lead in the Formula One world championship with a crushing victory in the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday. Verstappen started 14th on the grid but scorched through the field to cruise to victory ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who started on pole, in third. Charles Leclerc, Verstappen’s nearest challenger in the title race, struggled in the other Ferrari to find his groove after starting 15th. A late battle with Alpine’s Fernando Alonso saw Leclerc overtake the two-time world champion to snatch fifth, behind the Mercedes of George Russell. Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton retired on the opening lap after his Mercedes collided with Alonso’s car. Verstappen has now won nine of this season’s 14 races and sits 92 points ahead of Perez who has taken over second spot from Leclerc, who is a further three points behind. The Dutch flyer, who is already in sight of a second successive world title, was one of eight drivers to be relegated down the grid after implementing a power unit change. In spite of being quickest in qualifying he started 14th but quickly carved his way through the field to install himself in the easy chair up front. Perez proved a useful buffer in second place although he also had a comfortable afternoon as all the other cars struggled against the Red Bull pace. Russell’s fourth was small compensation for Mercedes after Hamilton’s first lap exit. Alonso called Hamilton an “idiot” over the radio and the Briton later took full responsibility for the collision which occurred when he cut in front of the Spaniard, after both had slipped past Perez on the opening turn. “Looking back he was in my blind spot, I didn’t give him enough space. It is my fault,” Hamilton told Sky. “I could not see him. I am sorry to the team and I need to recuperate and get back on the treadmill.”
NEWCASTLE: Eddie Howe has revealed Premier League clubs were reluctant to deal with Newcastle United at the end of the summer transfer window, with the Magpies being viewed as a clear and present top-flight threat.
The Magpies tried to land a number of additions in the final days of trading, most of whom were based at current Premier League clubs.
Newcastle United were keen to sign the likes of Lucas Moura from Tottenham and Douglas Luiz from Aston Villa, as well as a host of players on the books at Chelsea and Leicester City.
However, the window closed on Thursday evening without the club adding to the record-breaking capture of frontman Alexander Isak.
Howe, speaking ahead of this weekend’s clash with Crystal Palace, revealed how Newcastle found top-flight clubs tough to deal with — and what impact he believes that has had on the club.
“I don’t think I can go into details of deals, but I think we have certainly found there is no one there ready to do us a favor,” he said.
“It’s the narrative regarding us that has changed. I think if there is anything domestically, teams will put their price up if it is Newcastle. That is the same around the world, that is something we are having to deal with.
“That is why we have walked away from a few deals because I think it is important we are not seen as that club that will pay what is asked. I think it has to be fair.”
There seems to be a siege mentality building on Tyneside, a state of mind that is only strengthened by the behavior of other clubs in the transfer window.
The 2-1 loss to Liverpool at Anfield on Wednesday also highlighted the situation, with United booed off the park by the Liverpool faithful and goaded by some on the Reds’ bench.
Has all of this brought the group closer together?
Howe said: “I think that is a difficult one on transfers to say it has brought us closer together. The most important thing in terms of being together is the players and the staff, and everything that goes on here at the training ground.
“I would say we couldn’t be more together at the moment.
“There is a real feeling of us internally knowing we are against everybody else. That is healthy and I would embrace that.”
Some sections of the Newcastle fanbase felt let down by the club’s failure to add another midfielder to their ranks, with the squad, at present, looking a little threadbare in that department.
Howe is not of the same mindset.
“I’m OK with that,” the head coach replied when asked if he shared that final day disappointment.
“We were trying right up until the end of the window, but sometimes things look like they’re going to get done and for whatever reason, they don’t happen.
“There’s no blame attached to that, that’s the window; you’re dealing with other clubs, agents, players.
“We were actively trying to do one or two things that would have made a difference for us, but it didn’t happen.”
All in all, Howe agrees he is delighted with the four items of business handled by the club this summer, with Isak, Sven Botman, Nick Pope and Matt Targett added.
“A very good window for us. From my side, we set out a very clear vision at the start of the window of what I wanted it to be. It’s never perfect, never absolutely as you want it to be, but from the board down, everyone has given their all to create the best squad possible,” he said.
“I found the window difficult and very long. I’m pleased it’s shut and we can concentrate on football, but very pleased with the squad that’s left.”
On the final day of the window Newcastle did trim their senior squad, with Federico Fernandez making way for Elche, Matty Longstaff heading to Barnsley and Martin Dubravka going out on loan to Manchester United.
NEW YORK: Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur reached the last 16 of the US Open for the first time on Friday after defeating Shelby Rogers of the United States. Fifth seed Jabeur, who made history at Wimbledon in July after becoming the first African woman to reach the final at the All England Club, came from behind to advance 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. The 28-year-old will face Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova in the fourth round. Friday’s victory saw Jabeur book a place in the fourth round of the US Open at the 10th time of asking. In nine previous appearances in New York she had not got beyond the third round. “Crazy, crazy match,” Jabeur said after her win. “Shelby plays really well. “I’m glad I got the win. It was difficult to adapt to how well she was playing. I was happy that I kept fighting to the end and got the win.” Rogers, the 31st seed, reached the quarter-finals in New York two years ago, her best performance at the tournament. The right-hander from South Carolina flirted with a remarkable comeback in the third set after saving four match points before holding serve for 5-2. She then broke Jabeur to reduce the deficit to 5-3, but lost her next service game to love as the Tunisian advanced.
It was recently announced that a WTA tournament will be staged this October in Monastir, Tunisia, and I couldn’t be happier.
It’s a lot of pressure but it’s a good kind of pressure, the kind that helps you perform well in front of your home crowd. It’s great to see that we are evolving and are staging bigger tournaments in Tunisia. I’m glad the Tunisian tennis federation and my country have taken this big step. It’s also nice to see more and more tournaments staged in Africa, in general. Hopefully it’s going to be a great one. I cannot wait to invite every player to come and play and hopefully they will have a great first impression of Tunisia.
The tournament will take place in the same town that is home to the very first club I ever practiced at. It’s going to be in a hotel and they’re building a big center court with several outside courts. I do my preseason training block there every year and it’s a great place. Hopefully I’ll have a home court advantage. The crowd will be there to support me for sure.
It’s also great they are giving more importance to women’s sport. I think in Tunisia specifically, when a Tunisian woman or a man does something good, the people automatically get interested in that sport. So since they have me in tennis, they’re following tennis more and more. I know some Tunisians who have told me they previously followed Nadal and Federer and now don’t even know what the guys are doing, so now they’re just following me and following women’s tennis. This is a great thing. Hopefully people will discover more and more about women’s tennis because there really are some amazing players on the WTA tour.
I saw what Andrea Petkovic said about the WTA being a very competitive environment but that it also felt like a sisterhood. I think before it was tougher to feel the sisterhood part. Some players tend to forget they are human beings. But now I feel like that has changed. With time, I have come to feel very close to a lot of players.
I am someone who loves to put the human being before the player, so it’s nice to talk to my peers on tour about so many things. I even offer them help from time to time. I don’t see it as: “Okay, if I’m going to help you, you’re going to beat me later.” Or anything like that. It is a family to me, the WTA, and I think there is more and more humanity on tour right now, which is really great. And I hope we can continue evolving in that way, because I feel as women, we should stick together.
It’s the opposite of what some outsiders think it is; like we’re fighting in the locker room or something. No way! We are actually nice to each other and are very supportive of each other. Sometimes a player would come to me and say: “You deserve to be on a big court, why did they schedule you on that court? You deserve better.” Which is really unbelievable to come from another player, but it’s true. We care about each other.
New York has been fun so far and I’m happy to have gotten through my first two matches at the US Open. I got to meet lots of people including Seal, the British singer. It’s the second time that I have met him; the first time was in Indian Wells.
I saw him the other day in the players’ area and he was like: “Nice to see you again.” I know he’s a huge tennis fan and he said: “I was supporting you at Wimbledon, my heart was with you.” It’s nice to have that kind of support, and you could see he is very passionate about my game; he calls it the “sneaky game,” because he knows I hit a lot of drop shots and slices. He said I was representing all of Africa, that I’m being a great example and he loves it every time I send that powerful message. It’s very nice of him really.
It’s important to me to use my platform to speak about things I believe in. But I also have to be very careful because some people can misunderstand my views. I think if you decide to stand up for what you believe in, you have to accept that there will be a lot of people that can criticize you for that, which is very powerful to understand at that stage. I love what Coco Gauff is doing, I love what so many players are doing with their platform. Definitely I want to get more involved and speak up about so many things and help my country more.
On the court, one of my goals is to become world No. 1. It’s a process and it will take time. The process has already started though and I feel if everything goes well, hopefully by next year I can really achieve that goal. Still, for me, the ranking is not as important as my game. I need to improve my game to really deserve that spot, to really handle the pressure of being No. 1 and keep going. I feel like Iga Swiatek is doing a great job at handling that top position and she deserves to be there, for now (laughs). She pushes me to do better, I definitely push her to do better, and all of us are trying to inspire each other and hopefully the entire top 10 field will be even stronger than before.
Football is cruel at times. On Monday, just prior to the final game of the Egyptian Premier League season, Ricardo Soares was asked whether it would be his last as head coach of Al-Ahly.
“Why would it be? It’s the last game of this season,” he said. “But now we prepare for the next.”
On Wednesday the Portuguese tactician was fired. He had been in the job for just two months.
“The club would like to thank Soares and his assistants for their service and we wish them all the best in the future,” Al-Ahly said in a statement. And that was that.
Soares was appointed in June and knew as the season came to an end, that his job was under threat. “I am proud of the time I spent with Al-Ahly so far, I accepted playing youth-team players and I know that the club doesn’t tolerate disappointing results.”
It is certainly true that the most successful club in Egypt and Africa has a low threshold for what it considers to be disappointing results. Pitso Mosimane knows all about that. He was appointed in September 2020 and delivered two African Champions League titles, to take the club’s tally to 10. He also made the final in May though the Red Giants lost to Morocco’s Wydad AC. Even with such success, the South African had to deal with plenty of criticism from former players.
Such continental commitments made it hard for Al-Ahly to challenge at home. In 2021, they finished four points behind bitter rivals Zamalek and by the time Mosimane left in May, Al-Ahly were in third with Zamalek again leading and Pyramids in second. Bringing in Soares was a last-ditch attempt to get back into the top two.
Under Soares, the 10-time African champions won just seven of their 14 league games, not terrible but not good enough for a team such as Al-Ahly as they finished third, seven points behind Zamalek. It was the first time in 30 years that the team had not ended the season in the top two.
That Al-Ahly had been busy in Africa and the FIFA Club World Cup earlier that year, and could have been feeling the effects of a long season, had not spared Mosimane from criticism and was certainly not something that would help Soares.
There were plenty of excuses: Injuries to players such as Mohamed Sherif, Amr Solaya, Akram Tewfik and Hussein Al-Shehat. Others were obviously tired and Soares used a number of young players as the games came thick and fast which didn’t help results. It was not only club commitments but Al-Ahly supply several players to the national team that made the final of the African Cup of Nations in January and February, and World Cup qualification in March.
An early loss to title rivals Pyramids was a major setback and Soares never really recovered. It was a difficult situation for a man who had never worked outside Portugal before. In early August, there were signs of frustration after a 0-0 draw with Pharco.
“I wanted to rest Ali Maaloul and Hossam Hassan but I had to start them, Mahmoud Wahid didn’t feel fit to start and Hossam is our only fit striker,” Soares said. “Losing points affects the players’ confidence, and injuries are never good for us. I am here to defend the players, we play in difficult circumstances.”
As well as fatigue and injuries, there were complaints about decisions from officials. “(S)tandards must be set for refereeing controversies,” the 47-year-old added. “Last game, the Contractors player was inside the box before the penalty kick was taken and the referee didn’t intervene. Today the referee ruled out our goal after a long VAR check, while last game it only took VAR 20 seconds to decide that our goal was offside.”
The pressure continued. After a victory over ENPPI on Aug. 24, Soares refused to answer questions in the press conference. “I apologize for not wanting to answer any questions at the moment,” Soares said. “We played a game every three days and almost every senior player is not here because of many injuries. I don’t want to make excuses, but in normal circumstances, Al-Ahly can win everything next season.”
But they were seen as excuses.
“I believe (the) Al-Ahly board explained the situation to Soares before he came to Egypt, that’s why he’s responsible for the results,” club legend Ahmed Belal said in early August. “Both the coach and the players are responsible for the recent setbacks, excuses are not accepted.”
By that time, there were already rumors of who would replace Soares once the season ended. Carlos Queiroz had left the Egyptian national team just months before and was available. He knew some of the players and had, unlike Soares, vast international experience. Vahid Halilhodzic had been fired by Morocco in August and was also linked.
Such hard-bitten coaches may be necessary. Coaching Al-Ahly means challenging for league and African titles but as well as the chance for glory, it also comes with a lot of pressure, stress and criticism. Ricardo Soares knows that after just two months in the job, and soon it will be somebody else in one of the hottest seats in world football.
NEW YORK: Serena Williams closed one chapter on her epic Grand Slam story at the US Open on Thursday while Victoria Azarenka triumphed in a politically-charged grudge match.
For the first time since 2018, Serena and sister Venus revived the partnership which has brought them 14 doubles titles at the majors.
However, their hopes of collecting a third crown in New York were dashed in a 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 defeat to Czech pairing Linda Noskova and Lucie Hradecka.
The loss leaves 40-year-old Serena free to focus on what is widely expected to be the final singles campaign of her landmark 27-year career before retirement.
On Friday, the 23-time Slam singles winner will face Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic for a place in the fourth round.
Serena and her 42-year-old sister went down fighting, clawing back from 1-4 down in the second set before the Czech pair steadied the ship.
“Im still in shock that we won because this is the first time we played together,” said Hradecka.
“I’m so sorry for you that we beat them but we are so happy that we did it.”
Meanwhile, Azarenka triumphed against Marta Kostyuk 6-2, 6-3 in a match dominated by bitter exchanges over the conflict in Ukraine.
Last week, Belarusian star Azarenka was axed from an exhibition event aimed at raising money for the war-ravaged country.
Ukraine’s Kostyuk had refused to take part in protest at the presence of Azarenka who she has criticized for a perceived failure to condemn the invasion of her home country.
Belarus is a close ally of Russia and has allowed Moscow to use its territory to launch attacks into Ukraine.
The tension between the two was evident at the end of their tie on Court 17 with Kostyuk offering just a touch of racquets instead of the customary post-match handshake.
“How did it make me feel? It’s not the most important thing in the world right now,” said Azarenka.
Kostyuk, the 20-year-old world number 65, said a handshake would not have been appropriate.
“I genuinely wanted to warn her that I’m not going to shake her hand,” she said.
“She never came up to me personally to tell me her opinion, what she thinks (about the war).”
Away from the controversy, world No. 1 and French Open champion Iga Swiatek cruised into the third round with a 6-3, 6-2 win over 2017 champion Sloane Stephens.
Paula Badosa, the fourth seed and potential semifinal opponent of Swiatek, suffered another miserable return to the city of her birth.
The Spaniard’s failure to get beyond the second round will stretch for another year after losing 6-7 (5/7), 6-1, 6-2 to Petra Martic of Croatia.
Sixth seed Aryna Sabalenka, a semifinalist in 2021, came back from 1-5 down in the second set and saved two match points to defeat Kaia Kanepi, 2-6, 7-6 (10/8), 6-4.
China will have four women in the last 32 for the first time at a Slam after Zheng Qinwen defeated Anastasia Potapova and Yuan Yue got the better of Irina-Camelia Begu.
Zhang Shuai and Wang Xiyu had already booked their spots in the next stage.