SOCCER
Mandzukic suffers injury
Juventus have suffered a blow after Mario Mandzukic was sidelined for up to three weeks on Monday, notably ruling the Croatian out of the Turin giants’ UEFA Champions League clash at home to Sevilla. Both Mandzukic and teammate Alvaro Morata were forced off toward the end of Juve’s 2-0 victory away to Genoa on Sunday, which ended the reigning champions’ quest for a first Serie A win of the campaign. Mandzukic underwent tests on Monday that “revealed a first-grade tear in his right thigh muscle. He will be sidelined from competition for 20 days,” a statement on Juve’s Web site said. However, there was good news regarding Morata, who scored Juve’s winning goal in a precious 2-1 victory over Manchester City in their Champions League opener last week. The Spaniard had complained of an abdominal muscle pain on Sunday, but tests revealed no strain or tear, according to the club statement.
CYCLING
Cavendish undergoes surgery
British sprint specialist Mark Cavendish has undergone surgery on his left shoulder following a crash that ruled him out of the Road Cycling World Championships. Cavendish, who won the road race world title in 2011, injured his left shoulder when he crashed during stage six of the Tour of Britain on Sept. 11. Cavendish’s team, Etixx-Quick-Step, said in a statement on Monday that the surgery was successful and that the “Manx Missile” would not return to competition before next season. Cavendish said he decided to have surgery “to avoid any problems in the near future.” Last year at the Tour de France, Cavendish had to pull out of the race with ruptured ligaments in his right shoulder.
TENNIS
Muller defeats Bedene
Gilles Muller of Luxembourg advanced to the second round of the Open de Moselle with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Aljaz Bedene of Britain on Monday. The 45th-ranked Muller hit 20 aces and converted three break points to progress at the indoor hard-court event. There was just one first-round match scheduled on Monday. Top-seeded Stan Wawrinka is to open his campaign later this week in the second round against either Dustin Brown of Germany or Rajeev Ram of the US.
TENNIS
Haider-Maurer beats Traver
Andreas Haider-Maurer of Austria beat Daniel Gimeno Traver of Spain on Monday in the first round of the St Petersburg Open, which returned to the ATP tour following a one-year absence. The day’s only main-draw singles match was close until Haider-Maurer seized the initiative in the second-set tiebreaker, taking the first five points on his way to winning 7-5, 7-6(2). The 61st-ranked Haider-Maurer faces fellow Austrian and third-seeded Dominic Thiem in the second round. The US$1 million St Petersburg hard-court event was moved to Israel last season, but canceled when conflict flared up in the Gaza Strip. Its return means Russia has two ATP events.
SOCCER
Belaili banned for two years
Algerian international Youcef Belaili has been handed a two-year ban for doping, the Algerian national league ruling body (LFP) announced on Monday. “Belaili tested positive for a banned substance. He will be suspended for two years from all national and international competitions,” LFP president Mahfoud Kerbadj was reported as saying by the APS agency.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later