Wednesday, September 30, 2020Safar 13, 1442 AH

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All-round eff ort helps Sunrisers notch fi rst winPage 7

Djokovic in cruise control at Roland Garros

FOCUS

This is our chance, says Pakhtakor’s Krimets ahead of clash with PersepolisAFCDoha

Pakhtakor FC are hop-ing to reach the semi-fi nals for the fi rst time in 16 years when they

face Persepolis in the 2020 AFC Champions League quarter-fi nal today.

The 12-time Uzbek champi-ons reached the competition’s fi nal four in the fi rst two edi-tions of the AFC Champions League in 2003 and 2004, but have since been unable to match this achievement; their best result being a quarter-fi nal ap-pearance in 2009.

Pakhtakor’s return to the quarter-fi nals saw them top Group B of the 2020 AFC Cham-pions League with an unbeaten record and only one goal con-ceded following the annulment of Al Hilal SFC’s results.

At the heart of their strong defensive record is the cen-tre-back pairing of club cap-tain Egor Krimets and fellow Uzbekistan international vet-

eran Anzur Ismailov.“The quarter-fi nal is a very

important match, we do not know when will our next chance to be in this stage again come, so this is our chance,” said Krimets, who has been at the club since 2011.

“We know Persepolis are good in set-pieces, so it is important to be cautious with them. Our aim is not to give them such chances to score goals, so we will try not to commit many fouls near our penalty box.

“Ismailov and I played in the national team together for so long and he joined us at Pa-khtakor this year, so our under-standing is important, especial-ly in such a diffi cult game.

“But against Persepolis, we are not only being tested in our defensive solidity, but also in team character, how we can play in attack and build up against such a strong team.”

Persepolis, on the other hand, are in the quarter-fi nals for the third time in four years, having reached the semi-fi nals in 2017, and then the fi nal in 2018, los-ing to Al Hilal SFC and Kashima Antlers respectively.

Today’s game comes a day be-fore the fi fth anniversary of the death of former Persepolis cap-tain Hadi Norouzi.

The attacking midfi elder spent seven years at the club and had just been named cap-tain when he passed away after a heart attack on October 1, 2015. Head coach Yahya Golmoham-madi, himself a former Perse-polis player, wants his players to win the quarter-fi nal tie in

memory of Norouzi.“First of all, I would like to

wish a quick recovery to Pa-khtakor head coach Shota Arve-ladze,” said Golmohammadi on his opposite number who tested positive for Covid-19 last week.

“Our thoughts are with the family of Norouzi on the mem-ory of his passing. The players want to put in a fi ght tomorrow and dedicate the win to his soul.

“We worked really hard to reach this stage, we faced Al Sadd who are one of the best teams in the competition and it was an exhausting game. But we are well motivated and in good spirits. Pakhtakor had one more day to rest and they will be coming at us like machines. We will need to consume more en-ergy and fi ght in this game, but hopefully we can win and reach the next stage.”

TODAY’S FIXTURESAt Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium4:40pm: Al Nassr (KSA) vs Al Ahli Saudi FC (KSA)8:45pm: Persepolis FC (IRN) vs Pakhtakor (UZB)

AFPParis, France

Novak Djokovic’s bid to become the fi rst man in half a century to win all four Grand Slam titles

twice got off to a straightforward start yesterday at Roland Garros.

World number one Djokovic, returning to Grand Slam action for the fi rst time since his US Open disqualifi cation, eased past Sweden’s Mikael Ymer, ranked 80, in straight sets 6-0, 6-2, 6-3.

It was his 32nd win in 33 matches in 2020 and kept him on course for a second French Open title following his 2016 triumph, and 18th career major.

“It’s always a pleasure to re-turn to Paris on Philippe Chatri-er, this important court. The at-mosphere is a little diff erent this year with few fans but I remain motivated to win the title,” said Djokovic, only one of two men to have defeated 12-time champion Rafael Nadal in 15 years in Paris.

Djokovic, who suff ered no im-mediate hangover from his US Open controversy by quickly wrapping up a record 36th Mas-ters title in Rome on the eve of Roland Garros, next faces Lithuania’s Ricardas Berankis.

The 33-year-old is in the sec-ond round for a record-equalling 16th time, matching Guillermo Vilas and Nadal.

Second seed Karolina Pliskova ended Mayar Sherif’s fairytale Grand Slam breakthrough to set up a second round clash against former champ Jelena Ostapenko.

Pliskova, a semi-finalist in 2017, squandered eight set points in the opener as world number 172 Sherif, the first Egyptian woman to play in the main draw at a Slam, took a shock lead. However, the Czech’s greater ex-perience eventually told as she recov-ered to progress 6-7 (9), 6-2, 6-4.

“I think she was playing very smart today. Of course she had a lot of confi dence just winning three matches from quallies,” said Pliskova of her 24-year-old op-ponent. “She had nothing to lose.”

Latvia’s Ostapenko, the world 43, won her first match at the French Open since sweeping to her shock 2017 ti-tle when she fired 46 winners past Madison Brengle of the

United States to win 6-2, 6-1.

‘PRESSURE ALL GONE’“After I won here it was a tough time. I had to get used to the pressure but now it’s all gone,”

said the 23-year-old Ostapenko.Denmark’s Clara Tauson,

just 17 and a qualifier, un-leashed 48 winners to knock out American 21st seed and US Open semi-finalist Jennifer

Brady 6-4, 3-6, 9-7. Tauson also saved two match points on her way to a maiden career main draw win.

Australian Open champion Sofi a Kenin recovered from a break down in the fi nal set to de-feat 125th-ranked Russian Liud-mila Samsonova 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

Fourth seed Kenin, who dumped out Serena Williams in Paris a year ago, fought back from 2-0 down in the decider to advance to a second-round tie against Romania’s Ana Bogdan.

Russian 13th seed Andrey Ru-blev came back from the brink to beat American Sam Querrey in

fi ve sets. Trailing by two sets and 5-2 to the big-serving Querrey it seemed as though Rublev was about to suff er a similar fi rst-round fate to his fourth-seeded compatriot Daniil Medvedev.

The 22-year-old had never re-covered a two-set defi cit before but showed incredible fi ght to gradually turn the match around to win 6-7 (5), 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-4, 6-3 in three hours and 17 minutes.

World number six Stefanos Tsitsipas too clawed his way back from two sets down to beat little-known Jaume Munar 4-6, 2-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 and survive a fi rst round scare yesterday.

Second seed Pliskova fights back in her opener from a set down to set up second round tie with former champ Ostapenko

Qatar in Group D of 2021 CONCACAF Gold CupQNADoha

Reigning AFC Asian Cup champions Qatar have been placed in Group D

of the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup, alongside Honduras, Panama and Grenada.The Confederation of North, Central America and Carib-bean Association Football (CONCACAF) held its first draw for the tournament Monday in

Miami, Florida, in the United States of America.Reigning champions Mexico, the top-seeded team in Group A, were placed with El Salvador, Curacao and another team to be determined via a preliminary tournament. The United States was drawn to play Canada, Mar-tinique and a preliminary-round qualifier in Group B, while Costa Rica, Jamaica, Suriname and a qualifier from the preliminary rounds were drawn to play in Group C.

Qatar is the seventh guest na-tion to compete in a Gold Cup and the first Arab nation, joining the ranks of Brazil (1996, 1998, 2003), Colombia (2000, 2003, 2005), Peru (2000), Ecuador (2002), South Africa (2005) and South Korea (2000, 2002).Qatar is also the second nation from the Asian Football Con-federation (AFC) to appear in a Gold Cup tournament.The 2021 Gold Cup will take place July 10 through Aug. 1, with 16 teams participating in total.

FOOTBALL / AFC CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Pakhtakor’s Egor Krimets. (AFC)

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic in action during his French Open first round match against Sweden’s Mikael Ymer (not pictured) at Roland Garros in Paris, France, yesterday. (Reuters)

RESULTS Men (Round I)1-Novak Djokovic (SRB) bt Mikael Ymer (SWE) 6-0, 6-2, 6-3; Ricardas Berankis (LTU) bt Hugo Dellien (BOL) 6-1, 6-4, 6-4; 20-Christian Garin (CHI) bt Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4; Marc Polmans (AUS) bt Ugo Humbert (FRA) 6-2, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3; Attila Balazs (HUN) bt Yasutaka Uchiyama (JPN) 6-2, 6-3, 7-5; Lloyd Harris (RSA) bt Alexei Popyrin (AUS) 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (7); 7-Matteo Berrettini (ITA) bt Vasek Pos-pisil (CAN) 6-3, 6-1, 6-3; Thiago Monteiro (BRA) bt 31-Nikoloz Basilashvili (GEO) 7-5, 6-4, 6-2; 22-Dusan Lajovic (SRB) bt Gianluca Mager (ITA) 6-4, 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-1; Kevin Anderson (RSA) bt Laslo Djere (SRB) 6-2, 6-3, 6-4; Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (ESP) bt Harold Mayot (FRA) 7-6 (5), 6-3, 7-5; 13-Andrey Rublev (RUS) bt Sam Querrey (USA) 6-7 (5), 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-4, 6-3; Roberto Carballes Baena (ESP) bt Steve Johnson (USA) 6-1, 6-1, 6-0; Pablo Cuevas (URU) bt Henri Laaksonen (SUI) 6-1, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2

Women (Round I)Nao Hibino (JPN) bt Marta Kostyuk (UKR) 6-4, 6-0; 30-Ons Jabeur (TUN) bt Zarina Diyas (KAZ) 4-6, 6-3, 6-1; Clara Tauson (DEN) bt 31-Jen-nifer Brady (USA) 6-4, 3-6, 9-7; Danielle Collins (USA) bt Monica Niculescu (ROU) 2-6, 6-2, 6-1; 14-Elena Rybakina (KAZ) bt Sorana Cirstea (ROU) 6-0, 6-3; Fiona Ferro (FRA) bt Heather Watson (GBR) 7-6 (4), 6-4; Irina Maria Bara (ROU) bt 26-Donna Vekic (CRO) 6-3, 6-4; Alison Van Uytvanck (BEL) bt Rebecca Peterson (SWE) 2-6, 6-3, 6-1; Ana Bogdan (ROU) bt Timea Babos (HUN) 6-4, 6-2; 4-Sofia Kenin (USA) bt Liudmila Samsonova (RUS) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3; Laura Siegemund (GER) bt Kristina Mladenovic (FRA) 7-5, 6-3; 29-Sloane Stephens (USA) bt Vitalia Diatchenko (RUS) 6-2, 6-2; Paula Badosa (ESP) bt Kateryna Kozlova (UKR) 6-2, 4-6, 6-3; Jelena Ostapenko (LAT) bt Madison Brengle (USA) 6-2, 6-1; 2-Karolina Pliskova (CZE) bt Mayar Sherif (EGY) 6-7 (9), 6-2, 6-4

2

French Open players under lockdown off -courtMEASURES

TENNIS

Gulf Times Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Mladenovic calls for VAR aft er double bounce controversy

Inspired by Wozniacki, Danish teen Tauson plots own path to top

‘King’ Harris takes tennis message to townships

FRENCH OPEN FOCUS

SPOTLIGHT

‘She had plenty of other opportunities. It was just the wrong call, and that happens’

AFPParis, France

This year’s Roland Garros is not just about what happens on the court, it is also very much about

what goes on off it as organis-ers try to reduce any chance of the coronavirus rearing its ugly head.

That has meant strict sanitary conditions for the players who have been corralled into two hotels close to the courts which they cannot leave other than to play or to see a doctor.

In part this was to counter the controversies that emerged dur-ing the US Open when French player Benoit Paire, who was ruled out of the tournament fol-lowing a positive test for Cov-id-19, spoke of a “false bubble”.

The French Tennis Federa-tion (FFT) has given no leeway to French players, who might be tempted to stay with friends or family, and none also for three-time champion Serena Williams who owns an apartment in the French capital.

“I have serious health prob-lems which make me try to stay away from public places,” Wil-liams said during the US Open, obviously concerned about be-ing in close proximity to anyone.

“I have found myself several times in the hospital in serious states. I will make the best deci-sion for my health.”

So far so good for Williams who cruised through her fi rst round match against Kristie Ahn as she started her bid for a record-equalling 24th Major.

But the players are not com-pletely bubbled as the two hotels are not being used exclusively for Roland Garros. It is not un-common for the players to min-gle with hotel guests, ordinary tourists, in the lobby of the building or in one of the eleva-tors.

‘BUBBLING IS IMPOSSIBLE’“Our objective was not to cre-ate a bubble because the bubble

is impossible,” Bernard Montal-van, responsible for the health protocol at Roland Garros, told AFP.

Opinions diff er among the players about that ‘non-bub-bling’ approach.

The American John Isner “feels very safe” while Britain’s Dan Evans said he felt “nervous” at the sight of the public in the hotel.

“If we are forbidden to leave

(the establishment), then we should not see the public there, that’s my opinion,” he said at a press conference on Sunday.

Evans lost his fi rst round singles match but must hang around for his opening doubles match.

There is an area which is re-served purely for the athletes but the “players’ lounge” up on the 9th fl oor is a small joy for those who have already spent

several weeks confi ned to New York for the Masters 1000 in Cincinnati — which was relo-cated to Flushing Meadows — and the US Open.

But there was enough laugh-ter and noisy discussion emerg-ing from the lounge on Saturday, on the eve of the launch of the third and fi nal Grand Slam tour-nament of the year, to suggest it was a popular place.

WALTZ OF VEHICLESPlayers are only allowed to leave the hotel for three reasons: a match, training or something medical.

For this, they have to book a tournament shuttle which leads to a continuous waltz of vehicles stamped with the Roland Garros logo in front of the hotel.

Many opt to have meals de-livered rather than eat with the public. Delivery men and wom-en follow one another through the hall, leaving the hotel res-taurant to the few tourists brav-ing the start of autumn in Paris.

To help seal the hotels, the lobby is littered with security guards ensuring that everyone wears a mask, social distancing measures are respected and that the players are not disturbed by over enthusiastic fans looking for an autograph or a selfi e.

Most of the time, their work is limited to guiding disoriented customers to reception, the res-taurant or the elevators.

All these restrictions are in place for a reason. The players are only too well aware of the threat of Covid-19 which yes-terday offi cially passed the one mn fatalities mark worldwide.

AFPParis, France

Clara Tauson played down the inevitable compari-sons to Caroline Woz-niacki, her country’s

only Grand Slam champion, after becoming just the second Danish woman to reach round two at a major since 1989 yesterday.

The 17-year-old Tauson knocked out US Open semi-fi nalist Jennifer Brady in a nail-biting three-set clash on her Grand Slam main draw debut, having come through qualifying in Paris.

The former Australian Open junior champion saved two match points before clinching a 6-4, 3-6, 9-7 victory to set up a tie with Danielle Collins for a spot in the last 32.

“It’s an insane feeling. I didn’t expect it going into the match. Jen, she was in the semi-fi nals at the US Open so I was just grate-ful to be there and play,” said Tauson.

“It’s a dream come true,” she added. “Winning the match...I don’t have any words yet.

“I’ve never really experi-enced a match like that because we played long. She had match points, I had match points...I’m really happy.”

Since the retirement of Woz-niacki after last year’s Austral-ian Open — a tournament she won in 2018 — Denmark has been left searching for its next tennis champion.

“Of course there’s been a lot of

attention on me but I try to focus on myself. I’m just happy tennis is going OK in Denmark,” said Tauson.

“We get compared a lot but I’m my own person and she (Wozni-acki) is her own person.”

“Caroline was my biggest role model for me growing up,” she added.

“Denmark is a very small ten-nis country and she made it out. That made me think I could make it out growing up as well.”

Tauson arrived in Paris ranked 188 and is appearing in only her second main draw at tour level, but said her display against Brady fi lled her with great confi dence.

“I feel like I have game to be there,” she said. “It was probably the highest quality tennis I’ve played in my life. It was a good place to do that!

“I adjusted and think I’m ready to be at this level. I still have to break into the top 100 and there’s still a long way to that.”

The Copenhagen native is based in Belgium at the Justine Henin Academy — founded by the four-time French Open winner and former world number one.

“She was there for some of my match today and is watching my practice,” Tauson said of Henin. “She’s a great inspiration and I’m just trying to do the same.”

Next up for Tauson is an-other American in Collins, who reached the 2019 Australian Open semi-fi nals.

“She’s a very good player. I’m just looking forward to the match and hoping I can play just as well as today.”

AFPParis, France

Having supplanted Kevin Anderson as South Africa’s number one, Lloyd Harris is a man

on a mission — to take tennis to the football strongholds of his country’s townships.

Harris, now at 90 in the world, won his opening match at Roland Garros for the second successive year yesterday, a comfortable 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (7) victory over Alexei Popyrin of Australia.

Now the 23-year-old, fondly nicknamed ‘The King’ by his Davis Cup teammates, wants to use his higher profi le for good in South Africa.

Recently, he and Anderson played a weekend exhibition in Soweto in front of a “couple of hundred of kids” most of whom are more acquainted with foot-ball, cricket or rugby.

“We made a weekend of it. They had their national school cham-pionships taking place and there were some top players there,” said Cape Town-based Harris.

“We are trying to make an im-pact but it’s a real challenge. The biggest part is that it’s easy to get a football or a rugby ball.

“But these are under-privi-leged kids and a tennis racquet is expensive so there’s a lot of work to do.”

Harris is 11 years younger than Anderson whose career has been hit in the last 12 months by having to undergo two knee surgeries.

As a result, the former world number fi ve, and two-time Grand Slam fi nalist, has seen his ranking plummet to 118.

“Kevin’s a great guy, we talk most weeks, we are good friends now,” said Harris. “He has reached the pinnacle of the sport and has been a great infl uence.”

Harris got his nickname for his precocious talents when he joined South Africa’s Davis Cup team.

“The other guys saw that even at 18 I was beating players who were 27, 28, so they called me ‘The King’.”

“All the guys in the team have nicknames.” Tucker Vortser was ‘Dragon’, Nicolaas Scholtz is ‘Shark’ and Ray Klaasen was ‘Fox’.

Harris will now attempt to make the third round of a Slam for the fi rst time when he faces Italian seventh seed Matteo Ber-rettini who eased past Canada’s Vasek Pospisil 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 yes-terday.

AFPParis, France

Kristina Mladenovic called for a football-style VAR system to be introduced in ten-

nis after her Roland Garros op-ponent profi ted from a dou-ble bounce to help knock the Frenchwoman out of her home Grand Slam yesterday.

Mladenovic was 5-1 up and with a set point against Laura Siegemund when the German scooped up a winner despite the ball appearing to bounce twice. The incident was missed by chair umpire Eva Asderaki.

World number 44 Mladenovic pleaded in vain before Siegem-und took full advantage, racing into the next round with a 7-5, 6-3 win.

“It would be great to have that,” said Mladenovic when asked if video replays should be introduced in tennis.

“It’d be a pity to replace a hu-man with a camera but to err is human. I don’t see how the um-pire could not see it. Unfortu-nately, she continues at Roland Garros but I do not.”

It was a second successive miserable Grand Slam for the 27-year-old Frenchwoman who was withdrawn from the dou-bles at the US Open earlier this month in a row over coronavi-rus.

Despite her disappointment, Mladenovic refused to blame Siegemund for not calling the incident on herself.

“Well, she would have been the best and most fair player on the tour if she would have done that. Unfortunately, she didn’t. I didn’t expect her to do it,” added Mladenovic.

“But if she would have done it, she would have all my respect and be super-fair play. She’s not the one responsible. I think the chair umpire is the one that should be really focused on that call. The set was mine. It was just unlucky for me that the

chair umpire didn’t do her job.”Siegemund defended not call-

ing the double bounce herself.“If in that call, I’m coming

running full speed, if in that call I say, ‘Oh, it was a double bounce,’ and later I see on the video it was not, I would be an-gry at myself. So I think in that situation, that was a close call,” said the 66th-ranked player.

“That’s what the umpire is there for. I think she has better chances than me to see what has happened exactly.”

Siegemund backed Mlad-enovic’s call for video replays which would allow controversial calls to be reviewed courtside and, if necessary, overturned.

“If we have the technical de-vices to get a quick replay, I think that’s a good thing for all sports,” she said.

However, Siegemund insisted that Mladenovic had plenty of chances to kill off the fi rst set even before the controversy erupted.

“I can understand her frustra-tion. I can maybe understand a little bit that she’s getting at me, but I think she should get at the umpire.

“She had plenty of other op-portunities. It was just the wrong call, and that happens in sport.”

Mladenovic has seen crucial leads disappear before — at the US Open, she led Russia’s Var-vara Gracheva 6-1, 5-1 and had four match points but still went on to lose in three sets.

Germany’s Laura Siegemund returns the ball to France’s Kristina Mladenovic (below) during their French Open first round match at Roland Garros in Paris, France, yesterday. (AFP)

Spain’s Rafael Nadal wears a protective face mask before his first round French Open match at Roland Garros in Paris, France, on Monday. (Reuters)

Denmark’s Clara Tauson celebrates her win over Jennifer Brady (not pictured) of the US during their French Open first round match at Roland Garros in Paris, France, yesterday. (AFP)

Nassr, Ahli relying on familiarity to seal semi ticket

AFCDoha

Al Nassr FC are looking to create club history by reaching their fi rst-ever AFC Champions

League semi-fi nal when they face compatriots Al Ahli Saudi FC in the quarter-fi nal of the 2020 competition today.

While both Saudi teams have never won the competition, Al Ahli did reach the fi nal in 2012, losing to Ulsan Hyundai 3-0. They have since reached the quarter-fi nals on two occa-sions; in 2013 and 2017. Al Nassr, meanwhile, are in the quarter-fi nal for the second time in a row, having never reached this stage before 2019.

Despite Al Ahli having a rela-tively superior record in the AFC Champions League, Al Nassr boast nine Saudi Pro League ti-tles to Al Ahli’s three. The two head coaches have taken diff er-ent perspectives to a match that brings together two sides who know each other so well.

“It is an advantage for both teams to face a fellow Saudi team,” said Al Nassr head coach Rui Vitoria.

“It makes it easier for the coaches to prepare for the match because we know each other. I like the fact a Saudi team is guaranteed to reach the West

fi nal. Of course, I want us to be that team, but I am happy that a team from our league will be in the fi nal of this part of the com-petition. “The players will not only be tired in their legs, they will also be tired mentally and with time there is a tendency to lose concentration, so the team that retains more concentration until the end and stays mentally stronger will win.”

A 75th minute Abderazzak Hamdallah strike settled Al Nassr’s Round of 16 encounter against Al Taawoun, while Al Ahli had to fi ght to come from

behind against Shabab Al Ahli Dubai, with a second-half Omar Al Soma penalty cancelling out Azizjon Ganiev’s opener.

Head coach Vladan Milo-jevic’s men needed 30 minutes of extra time and a penalty shootout which saw Al Soma miss from the spot, but he was spared the punishment after Abdullah al-Naqbi fi red wide for Shabab Al Ahli, handing the Saudis a 4-3 win with Ahmed Khalil having earlier missed Shabab Al Ahli’s fi rst penalty.

“We know in the last game we played extra time and had a long

and tiring game, but I feel my players are preparing very well for the game,” said Milojevic.

“Al Nassr are a strong team with good players. They have a lot of quick and skilful play-ers like Hamdallah, Abdulfat-tah Asiri and Pity Martinez, but for me, it is about having a good team, not just good individuals, and I am confi dent that we have a good team. We know very well that Al Nassr are a big team and are always competing for the ti-tle in the Saudi Pro League, just like us. For me this is a strong derby, and I know both teams

will come with motivation, but I believe in my team having the most motivation to go to the next round.”

This is the second time in AFC Champions League history that two Saudi teams have faced off in the quarter-fi nals. Coin-cidentally, the only other time this happened was last year with Al Nassr and Al Ahli’s two city rivals.

On the occasion, Riyadh-based Al Hilal beat Jeddah-based Al Ittihad 3-1 on aggre-gate at the same stage and went on to be crowned champions.

AFC CHAMPIONSHIP LEAGUE

‘It is an advantage for both teams to face a fellow Saudi team’

Klopp wowed by Liverpool’s early season formAFPLiverpool

Jurgen Klopp said Monday that he has been blown away by the standards Liverpool have set at the

start of their Premier League title defence after coming from behind to beat Arsenal 3-1 at Anfi eld.

Goals from Sadio Mane, Andy Robertson and Diogo Jota saw off the Gunners, who had won their opening two league games of the season.

While Manchester City, Chel-sea, Manchester United, Tot-tenham and now Arsenal have all lost in the opening three weeks of the new campaign, Liverpool have taken maximum points to lay down an early marker that they remain the team to beat in the Premier League this season.

“It’s really early in the season and with this performance it is absolutely ‘wow’,” said coach Klopp. “From the fi rst second, (it was) dominant against a team in form. We had to be careful like hell of the counter-attacks.

“The football we played was absolutely exceptional. About this game tonight, there is noth-ing bad to say.”

The outcome of the match could have been very diff erent, though, had Mane not escaped with just a yellow card for an el-bow on Kieran Tierney after just three minutes.

Arsenal followed the game plan that had brought them two victories over Liverpool in recent months as they dropped deep then looked to play around the Reds’ press when in possession.

However, unlike when they met at the back end of last sea-son’s Premier League when Ju-rgen Klopp’s men had already won the league or the Commu-nity Shield in August, Liverpool were far sharper in pulling the Gunners out of position.

The only time Arsenal did manage to pierce the Liverpool press before half-time, they opened the scoring completely against the run of play.

Robertson was at fault as he

spooned Ainsley Maitland-Niles’s cross into the path of Lacazette, who also failed to make a proper connection, but the ball bounced into the ground and looped over the helpless Al-isson Becker.

WASTEFUL ARSENAL PUNISHED

Liverpool responded immedi-ately to level within three min-utes as Mohamed Salah outmus-cled Tierney and when his shot was parried across goal by Leno, Mane turned into an empty net.

Robertson them made amends for his previous error as Liver-pool’s fl ying full-backs com-bined as Alexander-Arnold’s cross was this time converted by the Scotland captain.

However, where Arsenal sides of recent years might have col-lapsed, as they did in losing 4-0 and 5-1 at Anfi eld in 2018 and 2019, Mikel Arteta has instilled a new-found belief in the FA Cup winners.

The visitors were more expan-sive after the break and created a huge chance to level when Dani Ceballos put Lacazette through on goal, but Alisson stood up well to block the French striker’s shot.

“When you come to An-fi eld you are not going to get 10 chances. When you are one-on-one with the goalkeeper, you have to score,” said Arteta as Liv-erpool extended their unbeat-en run at home in the Premier League to 61 games.

“It is a really tough place to come for anyone in the world, they set incredible standards.

“They have diff erent weap-ons. They have been together fi ve years, we have been together a few months. The standards are this and this is what we have to reach.”

Klopp introduced Jota for his league debut 10 minutes from time and the Portuguese inter-national quickly showed why Liverpool spent £41 million ($52 million) to sign him from Wolves.

Jota pounced on David Luiz’s headed clearance to control and fi re a sweetly-struck volley found the bottom corner.

EPL

Women’s football legend and Can-ada goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc will appear on Generation Amaz-ing (GA) Instagram Live today at

4pm Doha time (GMT+3) to discuss gender equality, women in sport initiatives and give advice to the next generation of youth.

The current Head of Women’s Football at CONCACAF was the fi rst female profes-sional player to compete at a record fi ve FIFA Women’s World Cup tournaments for her country. LeBlanc won the bronze medal at the London 2012 Olympics with the Canadi-an national team and went on to become one of the longest-serving team members with over 18 years playing for her country.

At club level, the legendary goalkeeper has enjoyed a long career in the professional league with US teams including the Chicago Stars and the Portland Thorns among others.

Today, LeBlanc works closely with GA partner CONCACAF to develop the wom-en’s game in the confederation’s 41 member countries. LeBlanc is also a long-serving Ambassador of Unicef Canada, travelling to some of the world’s most underprivileged

communities for development work.In anticipation of the session, Nasser

al-Khori, GA’s Programmes Director, said, “Gender equality remains one of our core programme causes as we work towards en-suring that girls continue to be inspired and empowered through the Generation Amaz-ing football for development programme.”

Al-Khori added, “We are proud to feature Karina LeBlanc, a women’s football leg-end who is doing incredible work with our partner CONCACAF to advance women’s football. We believe this session will further inspire young girls and boys to follow their dreams and keep working hard, both on and off the fi eld.”

In the previous week of GA Live sessions, Argentina and AS Roma defender Nicolás Burdisso shared insights from his outstand-ing career and underlined the values which have helped him succeed on the world’s big-gest stage. The former Boca Juniors player shared his advice on how to stay active and motivated during the Covid-19 pandemic – as well as answering questions which came in from the audience during the session.

Burdisso said, “Football is a phenomenal sport to use – everyone knows it is a sport that requires a team. It is a great tool to teach kids certain tools to use in their day-to-day.”

Speaking to youth aspiring to make a ca-reer in football and sport, the former defend-er added, “There’s no magic to it, you just have to work hard and continue dreaming – follow your dream. Of course, there is a bit of talent involved but it’s all about consistency and waiting for your opportunity to come to perform to the best of your abilities.”

GA has reached 500,000 benefi ciaries in Asia and the Middle East to date, and aims to positively impact 1 million youth by 2022. qatar2022.qa

LeBlanc to talk gender equality on GA LiveSPOTLIGHT

FOOTBALL3Gulf Times

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

VAR ready for historic AFC club competitions debut todayThe Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system will mark its debut in the Asian Football Confederations (AFC) club competitions in the all-Saudi clash between Al Nassr and Al Ahli in the AFC Champions League quarter-finals at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in Doha. Asian refereeing set new benchmarks earlier this year when the AFC U23 Champi-onship Thailand 2020 became the first AFC competition to successfully implement VAR across all 32 matches.Now Asia’s premier club tournament will be-come the third AFC competition to embrace the latest in technology from the quarter-finals after it was first introduced from the same stage of the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019.AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifah said: “Asian referees are already among the best in the world, but we must

continue to set higher standards to ensure the AFC continues to be leaders in world refereeing. “So much has gone into the successful and safe restart of the AFC Champions League in the West region and the introduction of the VAR system from the Quarter-final stage reinforces the AFCs Vision to provide the ultimate stage for our players, teams and match off icials to show-case their undeniable talent,” he added.Al-Khalifah said, “The AFC has a proven track record in the implementation of the VAR system and I would like to thank FIFA, IFAB, our technology partners, our host association — the Qatar Football Associa-tion and all our stakeholders for ensuring our matches are delivered to the highest standards possible.”As part of the AFCs commitment to ensure

Asia’s match off icials are equipped with the latest in VAR developments, numerous seminars and courses have been organised with the first-ever online AFC VAR course held as recent as last month, which engaged a total of 104 AFC Elite Match Off icials from 19 Member Associations.Additionally, to further enhance the AFCs VAR capabilities, a virtual AFC VAR Informa-tion Off icer (VIO) Workshop 2020 was organised on August 26 to ensure VIOs are well-versed with the technical requirements of the VAR system.The VAR system, which aims to provide min-imum interference with maximum benefits, is limited to four game-changing decisions or incidents, specifically — goal or no goal, penalty-kicks, direct red cards and mistaken identity decisions. (QNA)

Liverpool’s Sadio Mane celebrates scoring a goal against Arsenal during their EPL match on Tuesday. (Reuters)

FOOTBALL

Gulf Times Wednesday, September 30, 20204

ReutersMadrid

Real Madrid coach Zin-edine Zidane has no interest in bringing in any more players before

the transfer window closes next week, he said yesterday.

Madrid still looked like a work in progress in Saturday’s scrap-py 3-2 win over Real Betis after drawing their fi rst game of the season 0-0 at Real Sociedad, but the Frenchman does not believe adding to his squad is the answer.

“We already have a lot of play-ers, why would we want to add any more?,” Zidane told a news conference ahead of today’s home game against Real Val-ladolid.

“It is already very diffi cult to pick a team, because all the play-ers are very good, so why add more. The market is open until October 5 but I’m very happy with what I have. This squad is mine and for me they are the best.”

Zidane will be without Ger-many midfi elder Toni Kroos against Valladolid and Sunday’s

trip to Levante, but he said Eden Hazard was getting closer to re-turning to action.

There have been questions about Hazard’s weight, but Zi-dane dismissed any suggestions the Belgian forward had an un-professional attitude, putting his lack of impact at Real follow-ing his 100 million-euro move last year down to two ankle in-juries.

“I don’t think he’s unprofes-sional, he’s just had a very big problem which has been both-ering him for a long time. What we want is for him to not feel any discomfort again, so we need to wait,” he added.

“It’s a long season and he wants to be back on the pitch with his teammates so he can play well and help us out.

“He’s getting very close, he’s training regularly with us and getting into shape and getting ready to come back.”

Due to renovation work on their Santiago Bernabeu sta-dium, Madrid are continuing to play home matches at their training ground, where they won all six matches at the end of last season.

Real don’t need any more players, says ZidaneLA LIGA

Suarez, Costa can play together, says SimeoneReutersMadrid

Atletico Madrid’s Diego Costa and new signing Luis Suarez can form a deadly partnership this

season says coach Diego Simeone.Costa scored Atletico’s fi rst

goal in the 6-1 thrashing of Gra-nada on Sunday before making way for Suarez, who marked his debut since switching from Bar-celona with an incredible return of two goals and an assist in the space of 20 minutes.

“Of course they can play to-gether. The important thing is that they play to the best of their abilities, Diego with his charac-ter, Suarez with his leadership,” Simeone told a news confer-ence ahead of Atletico’s game at Huesca today.

“They are diff erent players. Diego likes to play down the wings and run into space, while Suarez is better at short sprints, making diagonal runs into the area, playing with his back to goal and being a dangerous pres-ence in the area.”

Simeone, however, would not give any hints as to how his team would look against Huesca.

“Costa and Suarez might start together or they may play together at some point during the game or play separately,” he said.

While Suarez has been one of the most prolifi c forwards in Spain in the last six years, notch-ing 198 goals in six years for Bar-ca, Costa has struggled to return to the form which saw him help fi re Atletico to the Spanish ti-tle in 2014. Since returning to Atletico from Chelsea in 2018, he has only managed 11 La Liga goals and his place looked to be under threat from the arrival of Suarez.

But club president Enrique Cerezo has declared the Brazil-ian forward will stay this season, adding that the club have given up their pursuit of Uruguay for-ward Edinson Cavani. Simeone welcomed the news.

SPOTLIGHT

‘The important thing is that they play to the best of their abilities, Diego with his character, Suarez with his leadership’

AFPLondon

Manchester United’s fi rst formal bid to bring Jadon San-cho back to the

Premier League worth up to 100 million euros (£91 million, $117 million) has been rejected by Borussia Dortmund, Sky Sports reported yesterday.

Sancho, 20, has been a long-term transfer target for United as they look to build on fi nish-ing third in the Premier League last season and reaching the semi-fi nals of the Europa League, FA Cup and League Cup. The England interna-tional joined Dortmund from Manchester City for a reported £10 million three years ago, but has shone in the Bundes-liga to become one of European football’s brightest talents.

“The off er was for an ini-tial £73mn, rising to up to £91.3mn, which fell short of Dortmund’s £108mn valua-tion,” said a Sky report.

The German giants have in-sisted that Sancho will remain in the Bundesliga for another season after United failed to agree a deal by Dortmund’s deadline of August 10.

Sebastian Kehl, head of Dortmund’s player depart-ment, said after Sancho scored in a 5-0 German Cup win at Duisburg earlier this month: “Jadon Sancho will play for Dortmund this season”.

Sancho has started Dort-mund’s opening three games of the campaign, but has not travelled with the squad for today’s clash with Bayern Mu-nich in the German Super Cup

due to a “respiratory infec-tion”, the club said yesterday. Dortmund confi rmed Sancho has tested negative for coro-navirus.

The winger scored 20 goals and provided 20 assists in all competitions last season and Dortmund captain Marco Reus is looking forward to him stay-ing for another season.

“We all were happy that he will be with us for one more year because he delivers assists and goals, so we get points,” Reus told Sky Germany.

“If he gets as big as (Lionel) Messi or (Cristiano) Ronaldo, we will see. He needs time, ex-perience and it will be impor-tant how he manages the times when things don’t go so well. But he has the confi dence and the quality.”

United have faced criticism from fans for not spending more in the transfer market as their Premier League rivals have strengthened. Dutch in-ternational midfi elder Donny Van de Beek, who arrived for £40 million from Ajax, is Unit-ed’s only signing of the win-dow so far. Ole Gunnar Solsk-jaer’s men have also suff ered a poor start to the season, losing 3-1 at home to Crystal Palace and needing a 100th-minute penalty to beat Brighton 3-2 in their opening Premier League games.

Dortmund reject Man Utd’s 100mn euro off er for Sancho

DEVELOPMENT

Atletico Madrid’s Luis Suarez comes on as a substitute to replace Diego Costa during their La Liga match against Granada. (Reuters)

Soriano double helps Bologna see off ParmaRoberto Soriano scored twice and set up a third as Bologna got their first win of the Serie A season on Monday, 4-1 against local rivals Parma.Soriano headed in the first after quarter of an hour in Emilia-Romagna, with his second 14 minutes later taking a slight deflection.

Soriano then set up Andreas Skov Olsen for the third 10 minutes after the break.Scottish teenager Aaron Hickey made his debut for Bologna four days after signing from Hearts, and the 18-year-old left-back made an impressive start in the Bologna defence. Hernani hit back with Parma’s first goal this season in the 67th minute af-

ter Bologna goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski cleared straight to Gaston Brugman, who send it through for the Brazilian to finish off . Parma played the final 14 minutes a man down after defender Simone Iaco-poni was sent off for fouling Rodrigo Pala-cio. Argentine forward Palacio grabbed a fourth in injury time to leave Parma’s new

American owner Kyle Krause winless and bottom of the table after two games.Napoli are top of Serie A table following two straight wins including Sunday’s 6-0 hammering of Genoa. Champions Juventus are fourth with four points after being held 2-2 at Roma on Sunday, with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring both goals.

Villarreal’s Coquelin tears hamstring

Villarreal midfielder Francis Coquelin has been ruled out of action for around a month after tearing his hamstring in Sunday’s 4-0 defeat by Barcelona, disrupting the club’s plans for him to be their midfield engine this season.A club statement yesterday said Coquelin had torn his right hamstring but did not state how long he would be out for, although Spanish newspaper Marca reported he would be missing for four weeks with the injury.Villarreal, who finished fifth in La Liga last season, lost two key central midfielders in the close season, with club servant Bruno Soriano retiring and Andre Anguissa returning to Fulham.Coquelin, who signed from rivals Valencia along-side Dani Parejo, was earmarked as the team’s main holding midfielder but is now set to be out of their next five league games, including the clashes against Atletico Madrid and Valencia.The French midfielder’s injury is another problem for coach Unai Emery, who has made an underwhelm-ing start to life at Villarreal, drawing with promoted Huesca in their first game, then scraping a win over Eibar before their drubbing by Barca.The former Arsenal and Paris St Germain coach was so displeased with the team’s performance against Barca that he off ered an apology to the club’s sup-porters. (Reuters)

Roma great Totti meets girl who woke from coma aft er his messageIlenia Matilli, 19, has been in hospital since December, after a car crash which killed her best friend. In her gradual awakening from a coma, a video message of support from former AS Roma great Francesco Totti played a part.“Hold on and don’t give up,” the 44-year-old former Roma captain

and forward told Ilenia in a video he sent following a request from her parents. After hearing his voice, Ilenia gave further signs of recovery and wrote on a special blackboard that she wanted to meet her idol.Totti and Ilenia spent an hour together, the Gemelli hospital said in a statement. Even though

she used to play for the women’s team of Roma’s city rivals Lazio, Ilenia was wearing a Roma T-shirt which Totti signed with a golden marker pen.“I want to see you out of the hos-pital soon and get your life back,” Totti was quoted as saying.Doctor Luca Padua, who leads the neurorehabilitation unit, said

that listening to music, sounds and looking at images were an important part of Ilenia’s therapy.“There is still a long way forward, but we are confident,” Padua said. Former Italy international Totti spent his whole career at Roma, playing over 600 Serie A matches for the club before retir-ing in 2017.

Bayern’s Sane to miss Super Cup, Alaba doubtfulReutersBerlin

Bayern Munich winger Leroy Sane will miss today’s domestic Super Cup against

Borussia Dortmund with a knee injury while defender David Alaba is doubtful, coach Hansi Flick said yesterday.

Bayern, who won four titles this year, lost Sunday’s league game at Hoff enheim 4-1 to suff er their fi rst defeat of 2020.

“Leroy is out. He will most likely be out until and will re-turn after the break for inter-national matches (between October 7-13),” Flick told re-porters. Defender Alaba is doubtful with a muscle prob-lem, with a fi nal decision to be taken on matchday.

The Bavarians almost played through the summer with no real pre-season preparation as they lifted the Champions League in August. They also beat Sevilla last week in the European Super Cup to secure their fourth trophy after also winning the German league and Cup.

“No one has come to me asking for a break,” Flick said. “We know that this season will be a major challenge, not only for us but all teams with many international players.

“For us it is a bit diff erent situation. We had no real pre-season and we had two breaks of two weeks.”

Flick said his team were mentally strong, despite the loss to Hoff enheim which end-ed their 32-game unbeaten run across all competitions.

FOCUS

Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane reacts during their La Liga match against Real Betisin on Sunday. (Reuters)

Lightning dominate Stars to claim 2nd Stanley Cup title

AFPLos Angeles

Brayden Point scored a powerplay goal and Andrei Vasilevskiy blocked 22 shots for

a shutout as the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Dallas Stars 2-0 on Monday to capture their second Stanley Cup champion-ship.

The win erases years of close calls and underachieving per-formances in the postseason for the Lightning, who won the series four games to two and claimed their fi rst NHL title since 2004.

“We had a lot of confi dence in our group,” said Canadian forward Point. “We worked so hard and played our system so well. We weren’t thinking about anything, but the game ahead of us.”

There was no panic from

Tampa Bay in a dominating game six performance, even though they were coming off a gruelling double overtime loss to Dallas in game fi ve on Satur-day night.

Captain Steven Stamkos ac-cepted the Stanley Cup trophy from league commissioner Gary Bettman on the ice. Stamkos was injured and unable to play in the fi nal game, but he did get in fi ve shifts earlier in the series and even scored a goal.

“I am so proud of this team and everything we have accom-plished. I am speechless. It’s magical to be part of this,” Ca-nadian Stamkos said.

Swedish defenceman Victor Hedman was named the most valuable player of the playoff s. Hedman fi nished with 10 goals and 11 assists in the postseason.

“It is a dream come true. The best thing I have ever experi-enced in my hockey career,” said Hedman.

‘EVERYONE STEPPED UP’Blake Coleman scored the oth-er goal for the Lightning, who stormed out the gates and out-shot the Stars heavily in the fi rst two periods of game six in front of an almost empty Rogers Place stadium in Edmonton, Alberta.

The Lightning’s title run culminated an unprecedented 11-month 2019-20 season that was suspended on March 12 due to the Covid-19 pandemic be-fore resuming on August 1 in a quarantine bubble in Edmonton and Toronto, Canada.

Despite being one of the league’s most consistent win-ning franchises over the past few years, the Lightning have a reputation of coming up short in the postseason.

Tampa Bay were in the fi nals for the fi rst time since 2012, when they lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games.

They were heavy favourites to win the Stanley Cup in 2019 but

were unceremoniously swept in the fi rst round in four straight by the Columbus Blue Jackets.

“Sometimes in failure you fi nd success,” Tampa coach Jon Cooper said. “It doesn’t come easy. I truly believe the heart-break we suff ered brought us here today.”

This time history was on their side, as the Lightning have never lost a series in which they have held a 3-1 lead, including all three previous rounds this year. Point opened the scoring on the powerplay at 12:23 of the fi rst period for Tampa Bay.

Point took a shot, got his own rebound and fi red the puck high over the glove of Stars goalie Anton Khudobin. It was Point’s 14th goal of the playoff s.

“The beauty of our team is everyone stepped up. We had a tremendous determination. That is what makes this so special,” Point said.Coleman scored on a blistering one-timer

just over seven minutes into the second period to make it 2-0 for Tampa Bay. The play started with a faceoff in the Tampa end and a lucky bounce off the foot of the referee for the Lightning that gave them a quick posses-sion of the puck. Patrick Ma-roon carried the puck over the Stars’ blue line and passed to Cedric Paquette, who found a wide open Coleman with a per-fect cross-ice pass.

Khudobin made 27 saves in game six. He took over in the fi rst round of the playoff s from Dallas’ No. 1 goalie Ben Bishop, who went down due to an injury.

“There’s no feelings right now,” Khudobin said. “Just end-ed, you know?

“We battled hard, especially with the situation. It’s not easy to stay without families for two months, stuff like that.

“We stick together, we stick to each other. But right now, there’s nothing.”

NHL

‘WE HAD A LOT OF CONFIDENCE IN OUR GROUP’

Dodgers aim to end World Series drought as playoff s beginAFPLos Angeles

The Los Angeles Dodg-ers head into another Major League Baseball postseason on Wednes-

day looking to end a 32-year wait for a World Series crown after a litany of recent failures.

For the third time in four years, the Dodgers head into the playoff s boasting the best regu-lar season record in the National League, armed with high hopes of winning a fi rst Fall Classic since 1988.

But for all the vaunted regular season dominance, a postsea-son championship has remained elusive, with a series of agonis-ing losses fuelling the percep-tion of a psychological brittle-ness in pressure situations. In 2017, the Dodgers were beaten in seven games in the World Series by the Houston Astros, losing the decider in front of their shellshocked home fans at Dodger Stadium in game seven.

The following season, Dodger fans again had to witness a rival team celebrating the champion-ship at Chavez Ravine, with the Boston Red Sox wrapping up an emphatic 4-1 series victory in game fi ve.

In 2019, it was the turn of the Washington Nationals to infl ict the pain, with the Dodgers losing 7-3 at home in game fi ve against the eventual World Series win-ners after blowing a 3-1 lead heading into the eighth inning.

That game was notable for an-other in a series of disappointing outings for ace pitcher Clayton Kershaw, regarded as one of the greatest pitchers of his genera-tion yet struggling to shed the crude tag of postseason choker.

“Everything people say is true right now about the postseason,” a distraught Kershaw said after

last season’s letdown. “When you don’t win the last game of the season and you’re to blame for it, it’s not fun.”

It is a tale of postseason woe that will give even the most op-timistic Dodger fans cause for nervousness, despite the team boosting their fi repower this year with the acquisition of former Red Sox MVP Mookie Betts. The format of the abbreviated 60-game season, and the expanded 16-team playoff s, mean that the advantages normally accrued for dominating the regular season will be absent this year.

Instead the Dodgers must navigate a potentially awkward three-game wild card series at home to the Milwaukee Brewers starting on Wednesday, before then heading into a division se-ries which will be played on neu-tral turf in Texas.

“When the season’s closed down and we start the playoff s, none of that means anything,” said the Dodgers in-form out-fi elder AJ Pollock.

“We start over and everything goes back to zero. Hopefully, me personally, and the team, can just keep this thing rolling.”

If the Dodgers make it past the Brewers, they face a NL Division Series round against either the explosive San Diego Padres or St Louis Cardinals in Arlington.

In the American League mean-while, the top seeded Tampa Bay Rays face the Toronto Blue Jays in the wild card round, with their series starting on Tuesday.

Meanwhile the Astros, found guilty of cheating in a sign-stealing scandal that tarnished their 2017 World Series vic-tory, begin their playoff quest on Tuesday against the Minnesota Twins. The Chicago White Sox face a trip to Oakland to take on the Athletics while the New York Yankees face the Cleveland Indi-ans in other games on Tuesday.

MLB

Lakers, Heat prepare for battle as NBA odyssey reaches climaxBASKETBALL

Tampa Bay Lightning center Steven Stamkos hoists the Stanley Cup after the Lightning defeated the Dallas Stars in game six of the 2020 Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Place in Edmonton. (USA TODAY Sports)

LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers dribbles the ball during the fourth quarter against the Denver Nuggets in Game Five of the Western Conference Finals during the 2020 NBA Playoff s at the ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Florida on Saturday. (Getty Images/AFP)

SPORT5Gulf Times

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

AFPOrlando

LeBron James and the Los An-geles Lakers begin the fi nal challenge in their bid to re-turn to the summit of basket-

ball on Wednesday when they take on the Miami Heat team in game one of the NBA Finals.

A full 11 months after the 2019-2020 NBA season fi rst tipped off , a marathon campaign plunged into crisis by Covid-19 and tumultuous social unrest fi nally reaches its cli-max in Orlando.

The fact that the NBA season has managed to reach the home stretch is itself a triumph of sorts, a testament to assiduous planning by league of-fi cials to create a secure “bubble” at Disney World in Florida.

Since July, teams have been housed at the sprawling entertainment park in Orlando, largely sequestered from the outside world and the raging coronavirus crisis which has claimed more than 204,000 American lives.

Even then, the season has not been immune from external forces. A month ago, the season threatened to unravel as a tide of anger against racial injustice prompted teams led by the Milwaukee Bucks to boycott

games.The Lakers, who will be chasing

a 17th NBA championship against Miami in the fi nals, were one of two teams who reportedly voted to aban-don the season altogether on August 26 following the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha.

That walkout threat was only headed off by the intervention of former president Barack Obama, who reportedly counselled James and other players against a season-end-ing boycott. A little over one month later, and the 35-year-old James is now girding himself for a 10th ap-pearance in an NBA Finals, a tally bettered by only two players in the history of the league.

It also marks the vindication of James’ decision in 2018 to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Lakers, a faded superpower of the NBA who were fl oundering before his arrival two years ago.

Although James fi rst season in Los Angeles ended in disappointment, with injury restricting his appear-ances and the team once again failing to make the playoff s, the bolstering of the squad with Anthony Davis last year, who has formed a superb part-nership with James, returned the team to dominance.

“This is what I came here for,”

James said on Saturday after the Lakers defeated the Denver Nuggets to clinch the Western Conference championship and book a place in the fi nals.

“I heard all the conversations and everything that was said about why did I decide to come to LA (that) the reason I came to LA, it was not about basketball. “All those conversations, just naysayers and things of that na-ture. I understood that, with the sea-son I had last year and my injury, it just gave them more sticks and more wood to throw in the fi re to continue to say the things that they would say about me.

“But it never stopped my journey and never stopped my mindset and never stopped my goal.”

The Lakers’ odyssey back to the fi -nals has also been marked by tragedy. In January, the team was plunged into mourning following the death in a helicopter accident of franchise leg-end Kobe Bryant.

A determination to honour Bry-ant’s legacy has driven the Lakers into this year’s fi nals.

“Every time you put on purple and gold, you think about his legacy,” James said. “You think about him and about what he meant to this franchise for 20-plus years, and what he stood for both on the fl oor and off the fl oor.”

Standing in the way of James’ bid for a fourth NBA championship is a Miami team who are happy to be cast in the role of underdogs.

The Heat have excelled through the playoff s with Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic outstand-ing, routing the top-seeded Milwau-kee Bucks 4-1 in the Eastern Confer-ence semi-fi nals before accounting for the Boston Celtics 4-2.

Butler, who joined Miami in 2019 from the Philadelphia 76ers, says the team must neutralise James to have any chance against the Lakers.

“The main key, and it’s been like this for a very long time, if you want to win, you’re going to have to go through a LeBron James-led team,” Butler said.

“At the end of the day, that’s what it normally comes down to.

“That’s what we got to focus in on. Obviously you can’t focus in on him because he has so many really good players around him, but you’re go-ing to get the same test over and over again until you pass, and that test is LeBron James.

“We’re just going to have to play hard. We’re going to have to play damn near perfect because they are such a good team. They do so many things well. Obviously you know the star power that they have.”

Los Angeles Dodgers’ A.J. Pollock (right) is greeted by teammate Joc Pederson after hitting a two run home run in the seventh inning of the game against the Los Angeles Angels at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Sunday. (USA TODAY Sports)

Former Dodgers star Johnstone dies at 74Two-time World Series cham-pion Jay Johnstone has died at age 74 from complications of the coronavirus, the US media reported on Monday. The former Major League Baseball outfielder belted over 100 home runs in his career. He was known as an elite pinch hitter during his time with eight diff er-ent teams over two decades.

“The Dodgers are saddened by the passing of former Dodger Jay Johnstone and off er their deepest condolences to his family and friends,” the Dodg-ers wrote on Twitter. John-stone’s battle with the Covid-19 was confirmed by his daughter Mary Jayne Sarah Johnstone. No details were released. (AFP)

6

Butler fi nally at home as Heat prepare title tiltSPOTLIGHT

SPORT

Gulf Times Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Mahomes dominates as Chiefs top Ravens

Rivers out as Clippers coach

NFL NBA

Lamar Jackson completes 15 of 28 passes for a mere 97 yards for Baltimore

AFPLos Angeles, United States

Jimmy Butler’s journey to the NBA Finals began when he was thrown out of home by his mother as

a teenager.The 31-year-old Texan with

a taste for country and western music will lead the Miami Heat today as they take on LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers in game one of the NBA Finals in Orlando.

For Butler, it is the biggest sporting test yet in a life spent battling — and often prevailing — against the odds.

At the age of 13 growing up in the Houston suburb of Tomball, his mother told him he had to leave home. “I don’t like the look of you. You gotta go,” is how But-ler recalls his mother’s parting words.

For years he was homeless, spending a few days or weeks at a time sleeping on the couches of friends before moving on.

In high school he finally found a permanent home, being welcomed into the family of a friend, Jordan Leslie, also a tal-ented athlete who would later

go on to become a wide receiver in the NFL.

With a stable home life, But-ler was free to concentrate on his basketball, and although not regarded as a prized recruit out of high school, would eventually win a scholarship to Marquette University in Wisconsin.

‘DON’T FEEL SORRY FOR ME’Despite his troubled youth, But-ler dislikes his unusual back-story being framed as the classic sporting narrative of triumph over adversity.

“Please, I know you’re going to write something,” he told an ESPN interviewer in 2011 shortly before the NBA draft. “I’m just asking you, don’t write it in a way that makes people feel sorry for me. I hate that.

“There’s nothing to feel sorry about. I love what happened to me. It made me who I am. I’m grateful for the challenges I’ve faced.”

Those challenges have mould-ed Butler into the ferocious com-petitor who has helped carry Miami into their fi rst NBA Finals appearance since 2014.

It has taken Butler the best part of a decade to fi nd his pre-ferred environment.

Selected by the Chicago Bulls with the 30th pick in the draft nine years ago, Butler spent six seasons in the Windy City before being traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2017.

But tension with teammate Karl Anthony-Towns left Butler heading for the exit, and after a single season in Minnesota, he was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers in November of 2018.

In theory it should have been a perfect fi t for Butler, a high-quality addition to an emerging power complementing the likes of Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons.

Yet after the Sixers exited the playoff s in the second round last season, Butler was also packing his bags.

In July last year he was signed by Miami in a multi-team trade. In Florida, where he has clicked with Heat coach Erik Spoelstra and franchise president, Pat Ri-ley, Butler is fi nally at home.

‘HAPPY TO BE HOME’“I think that’s what this whole thing comes down to is being wanted, being appreciated for what you bring to the table, as I’ve said time and time again,” Butler said of his move to Miami.

Spoelstra says his and Riley’s

mission to lure Butler to Miami was wrapped up swiftly, recall-ing a dinner the three men shared last June as “one of the most amazing recruiting visits we’ve ever had”.

“It was so conversational, and you just felt like after 20 min-utes we were so aligned in how we viewed competition and work and culture, everything,” Spoel-stra said.

“We were talking shop and he interrupted Pat and I after din-ner, probably fi ve minutes into just a conversation, and he said, ‘By the way, I’m in.’ We’re like, ‘What? We haven’t even given you our pitch yet.’”

Butler, who had been tipped off about the team culture by Heat legend Dwyane Wade, says he needed little persuading.

“D-Wade told me about it. I wanted parts of that, the work; the culture, the word that every-body uses,” Butler said.

“More than anything, they wanted me to be here. They told me, like, ‘Yo, you’re the guy that we want. We’re coming after you.’ It was like, say no more.

“To be wanted, that’s what anybody wants in the world, not just basketball. I’m happy to be home.”

South Africa to host 2023 table tennis WorldsQNADoha

South Africa has been awarded the hosting rights for the 2023 World Table Tennis Champi-onships after beating the rival

bid from Germany at the International Table Tennis Federation’s (ITTF) An-nual General Meeting, held on Mon-day evening in Doha in the presence of Secretary-General of Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) Jassim Rashid al-Buainain.

South Africa won 90 votes (69.77% to beat off competition from the other candidate Germany, who had 39 votes (30.23%).

Khalil al-Mohannadi, President of the Qatari and Arab Table Tennis Fed-

erations and Deputy President of the Asian and International Table Ten-nis Federations, welcomed the par-ticipants, especially QOC secretary-general, the Members of the Executive Offi ce of ITTF, and the guests of Qatar, expressing pleasure that Doha hosted the ITTF Annual General Meeting for the second time after 2004.

Al-Mohannadi thanked HE the President of Qatar Olympic Commit-tee Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad al-Thani for the tremendous support to or-ganising this event in such a difficult time.

He explained that 2019 was a great year for ITTF at the level of events and achievements, while the Covid-19 caused the suspension of all activi-ties during the current year after Qatar hosted the 2020 Qatar Open in March.

Jimmy Butler (right) of the Miami Heat is defended by Marcus Smart of the Boston Celtics during in Game Six of the Eastern Conference Finals during the 2020 NBA Playoff s at AdventHealth Arena in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, on Sunday. (AFP)

FOCUS

Khalil al-Mohannadi (centre), President of the Qatar Table Tennis Association and Deputy President of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), at the ITTF’s Annual General Meeting in Doha on Monday.

AFPLos Angeles, United States

Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers has parted company with the franchise in the wake of

the team’s latest playoff fl op, the coach confi rmed on Monday.

In a statement on Twitter, Rivers said he was no longer the coach of the Los Angeles club.

“Thank you Clipper nation for allowing me to be your coach and for all your support in helping make this a winning franchise,” Rivers wrote.

“When I took this job, my goals were to make this a winning basketball program, a free agent destination, and bring a champi-onship to this organisation.

“While I was able to accom-plish most of my goals, I won’t be able to see them all through.”

Rivers’ departure comes after the Clippers agonising loss in the Western Conference semi-fi nals, when they blew a 3-1 series lead

before losing 4-3 to the Denver Nuggets.

The 58-year-old Rivers joined the Clippers from the Boston Celt-ics in 2013. However although the team were consistent qualifi ers for the playoff s, Rivers was unable to take them beyond the Western Conference semi-fi nals.

Six of the team’s playoff cam-paigns under Rivers ended in the fi rst round.

Rivers however insists he be-lieves the Clippers, who had high hopes of reaching the NBA Finals this year after recruiting Kawhi Leonard in 2019, are close to competing for championships.

“Though it was a disappoint-ing ending to our season, you are right there and I know what this team is capable of accomplishing with your support,” Rivers said in his message to fans.

“Thank you to all the players, coaches, and staff for helping us get there. Most importantly, thank you to the fans. We went through a lot, and I am grateful for my time here.”

ReutersNew York, United States

Patrick Mahomes passed for 385 yards and four touchdowns and also rushed for a score as

the Kansas City Chiefs recorded a 34-20 victory over the host Baltimore Ravens in Monday night’s showdown between two of the NFL’s best teams.

Mahomes completed 31 of 42 passes and repeatedly spread the ball around as fi ve Kansas City players topped 60 receiv-ing yards. Left tackle Eric Fisher and fullback Anthony Sherman caught touchdown passes as did receivers Tyreek Hill and Mecole Hardman.

Chris Jones stood out on the defensive side with two of Kan-sas City’s four sacks and he also two forced fumbles as the Chiefs started 3-0 for the fourth con-secutive season.

Lamar Jackson completed 15 of 28 passes for a mere 97 yards and one touchdown for Balti-more (2-1). The passing output was Jackson’s lowest in 25 games as a starter. He also had 83 rush-ing yards on nine carries for the Ravens, who also received a kickoff return score from Devin Duvernay.

The Ravens had just 228 yards of total off ence after averaging 394 yards and 35.5 points over their fi rst two games. The Chiefs had 517 yards while holding a 29-16 edge in fi rst downs and converting 10 of 13 third-down opportunities.

Travis Kelce led Kansas City with 87 receiving yards on six receptions. Also topping 60 were Hardman (four for 81), Hill

(fi ve for 77), Clyde Edwards-Helaire (fi ve for 70, plus 20 for 64 rushing) and Sammy Watkins (seven for 62).

Baltimore trailed by 17 at half-time but got back into the game on a 42-yard fi eld goal by Justin Tucker with 6:13 left in the third quarter and Jackson’s 5-yard touchdown throw to Nick Boyle on the fi rst play of the fi nal stan-za to pull within 27-20.

But Kansas City answered with a 13-play, 75-yard drive and coach Andy Reid pulled

out one of his trick plays on fi rst-and-goal from the Ravens’ 2-yard line. Fisher pretended he was blocking and then slid into the left fl at to catch the scor-ing pass from Mahomes on the tackle-eligible play with 8:14 remaining to make it a 14-point margin.

The Ravens reached the Chiefs’ 13 on their next drive but Ben Niemann and Frank Clark sacked Jackson on back-to-back downs (second and third) to ac-count for 18 yards in losses and

Jackson’s fourth-and-24 pass was incomplete with 4:55 left to end the suspense.

Mahomes passed for three touchdowns and ran for another as the Chiefs held a 27-10 halft-ime lead.

After Tucker capped Balti-more’s fi rst possession with a 26-yard fi eld goal, Kansas City moved 75 yards on six plays with Mahomes scoring the touch-down on a 3-yard run.

The Chiefs drove 68 yards on 13 plays on their second chance

with the ball and the drive ended with Mahomes tossing a 5-yard shovel pass to Sherman to make it 13-3 with 12:52 left in the fi rst half.

Duvernay displayed his speed on the ensuing kickoff by re-turning it down the right side-line for a 93-yard touchdown. But Kansas City’s off ense kept clicking as Mahomes threw a 20-yard scoring pass to Hill and a 49-yarder on third-and-14 to Hardman to account for the 17-point advantage.

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (centre) jumps to throw during the first half against the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, on Monday. (USA TODAY Sports)

Al Duhail, Al Wakrah qualify forQatar Cup handball fi nalQNADoha

Al Duhail and Al Wak-rah qualified for the Qatar Handball Cup

final for the 2019/2020 sports season. Al Duhail defeated defending champions Al Sadd 27-21 in the semifinal at Al Duhail Sports Hall.In the second semifinal, Al Wakrah beat Al Arabi 28/27 to advance to the Qatar Cup final.

AFPJohannesburg

The crisis in South African cricket deep-ened yesterday when it was revealed that the country’s sports minister had been asked to get involved in the administra-

tive problems aff ecting the sport.The South African Sports Confederation and

Olympic Committee (Sascoc) has written to sports minister Nathi Mthethwa claiming that it had met with “serious resistance” from Cricket South Africa (CSA) over an attempt to investigate the issues in cricket. The letter asks the minister for assistance to launch legal proceedings against CSA or “to take whatever action in your powers you deem necessary to restore the dignity of the game”. The latest move could put CSA’s member-ship of the International Cricket Council in jeop-ardy because the ICC’s constitution forbids gov-ernment interference in its member bodies.

The latest revelation came a day after CSA an-nounced that the Mzansi Super League, its fl ag-ship T20 tournament, would not take place as scheduled in November and December due to

logistical problems caused by the Covid-19 pan-demic. The tournament usually features several foreign players and is broadcast internationally.

No local or international fi xtures for the 2020/21 season have yet been announced by CSA, although the South African cricket season tradi-tionally starts in October.

Covid restrictions are just one problem for the embattled controlling body. Sascoc, an umbrella body for all elite sporting codes in South Africa, demanded earlier this month that the board of CSA step aside to allow an independent task team to investigate cricket’s administrative and fi nancial aff airs. A major stumbling block has been CSA’s refusal to allow unfettered access to a forensic report which formed the basis for the dismissal last month of chief executive Thabang Moroe after an eight-month investigation.

Sascoc believes the report implicates individu-als other than Moroe. CSA is currently without a president or a permanent chief executive.

CSA’s scheduled annual general meeting ear-lier this month was postponed indefi nitely and the organisation has been criticised by its players’ association, while sponsors have withdrawn their support.

Sports minister dragged into South African cricket crisis

SPORT7Gulf Times

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

IANSDubai

In-form Rajasthan Royals (RR) will aim for a hat-trick of wins when they square-off against two-time IPL winners Kolkata Knight Riders

(KKR) at the Dubai International Crick-et stadium here today evening.

After defeating Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in their campaign opener, the Steve Smith-led RR overhauled the highest tournament total of 224 against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in their previ-ous match. They are high on confi dence as they take another step towards qual-ifying for the playoff s, though that is a bit far at the moment.

RR opener Sanju Samson and skipper Smith smashed half-centuries in the game against KXIP. However, with the match slipping away from their hands, Haryana all-rounder Rahul Tewatia’s blitzkrieg bought them back in the con-test.

Once again, all eyes will be on Sam-son, who has two half-centuries from

as many games, and Tewatia, who smashed 53 off 31 balls against Kings XI Punjab.

Jos Buttler, who joined the team just before the previous game, managed only four runs against KXIP while Rob-in Uthappa departed after contributing just nine runs.

The RR team management would not tinker much with the winning combi-nation. However, a slight change in the batting-order might be possible.

In the bowling department, An-kit Rajpoot, who was expensive against KXIP, might be replaced while Jofra Archer will once again lead the pace at-tack along with Tom Curran and Jaydev Unadkat. Leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal, who has been amongst the runs so far, will look to overcome as the spin de-partment will heavily rely on his shoul-ders.

On the other hand, KKR have a win and a loss so far. After going down to the Mumbai Indians in their fi rst game, the Dinesh Karthik-led KKR made a fi ne comeback as they ticked all the boxes against SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH)

and came out victorious.Pat Cummins, who had a disastrous

outing against Mumbai, roared back against SRH as the pacer conceded just 19 runs from his quota of four overs besides bagging a wicket. The Aussie quick will look to continue from where he left and will seek support from Shi-vam Mavi and Kamlesh Nagarkoti.

In their last game, KKR hit the ground with an extra bowler in Varun Chakravarthy and it remains to be seen whether they opt to continue with the strategy or make any changes.

Looking at the spin favourable track in Dubai, Sunil Narine and Kuldeep Yadav would defi nitely be a part of the KKR playing XI on Wednesday.

Narine will also have an added re-sponsibility of handing fl ying start to KKR while opening as the Caribbean’s willow has remained silent so far. He will once again open with Shubhman Gill, who looks in fi ne touch with the bat after 62-ball 70 against SRH.

Meanwhile, skipper Dinesh Karthik and Eoin Morgan will have to handle the batting in the middle-order before

Andre Russell, from whom fi reworks are expected down the order.

As Dubai has been host to both the Super Over matches so far in the tour-nament, another juicy contest is on the cards.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Dinesh Karthik (captain), Andre Russell, San-deep Warrier, ShivamMavi, Shubman Gill, Siddhesh Lad, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Eoin Morgan, Varun Chakra-varthy, Tom Banton, Rahul Tripathi, Chris Green, M Siddharth, Nikhil Naik, Ali Khan, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Rinku Singh

Rajasthan Royals: Steve Smith (captain), Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Manan Vohra, Kartik Tyagi, Akash Singh, Oshane Thomas, Andrew Tye, David Miller, Tom Curran, Aniruddha Joshi, Shreyas Gopal, Riyan Parag, Varun Aaron, Shashank Singh, Anuj Rawat, Mahipal Lomror, Mayank Markande, Jos Buttler, Robin Uthappa, Sanju Samson

KKR out to stop Rajasthan winning streakCRICKET

All-round eff ort helps Sunrisers notch fi rst winIANSAbu Dhabi

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) fi nally opened their account — the last of the eight teams to do so — with clinical batting and bowling ef-

forts, beating Delhi Capitals (DC) by 15 runs in an IPL match here yesterday.

Leg-spinner Rashid Khan of Afghani-stan was the star performer for SRH as he bagged three wickets for 14 runs in four overs, for which he was adjudged the Man of the Match.

After the SRH batters — Jonny Bairstow (53 off 48 balls), captain David Warner (45 off 33), and New Zealander Kane Williamson (41 off 26) — helped their side post a fi ghting total of 162/4, the SRH bowlers too, rose to the occasion and restricted the opponents at 147/7 in the allotted 20 overs to set up their side’s fi rst win of the season.

Chasing the 163-run target, DC lost opener Prithvi Shaw (2) cheaply, cour-tesy pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who bagged two wickets for 25.

After the early blow, Dhawan (34) and captain Shreyas Iyer (17) forged a 40-run partnership for the second wicket before Rashid Khan dismissed the DC skipper in the eighth over.

Then, after DC managed another 20 runs to their total, Rashid struck again, sending back Dhawan in the 12th over.

Rishabh Pant (28) and Shimron Het-myer (21) then stitched together a 42-run

partnership for the fourth wicket, and that helped their side cross the three-digit mark. However, Bhuvneshwar was in no mood to entertain the SRH bats-man anymore as in the 16th over, he ac-counted for the wicket of Hetmyer while Rashid sent back the dangerous Pant as DC found themselves reeling at 117/5 in

16.4 overs.Marcus Stoinis and Axar Patel chipped

in with 11 and fi ve runs respectively while Rabada and Anrich Nortje remained un-beaten on 15 and three runs respectively, but these eff orts were not enough to help DC overhaul the target, falling short by 15 runs.

Rashid was the wrecker-in-chief with fi gures of 3/14 while Bhuvneshwar picked two for 25.

Earlier, SRH, who were asked to bat, posted 162/4 in the allotted 20 overs, thanks to opener Jonny Bairstow’s half-century (53) along with David Warner (45) and Kane Williamson’s (41) valuable contributions. Bairstow’s knock, which came off 48 balls, was decorated with two boundaries and a six.

Warner and Bairstow provided an ideal start to their side as SRH were 50 for no loss in the initial 6.5 overs.

Leggie Amit Mishra came with a much needed breakthrough for DC as he cut short the SRH skipper Warner’s innings in the 10th over before further jolting them in the 12th over, this time to send back Manish Pandey (3) cheaply.

With SRH being reduced to 92/2, Wil-liamson and Bairstow anchored the in-nings after adding 52 runs for the third wicket before Kagiso Rabada dismissed the latter in the 18th over.

The South African quick later sent back a well settled Williamson in the fi nal over while Abdul Samad and Ab-hishek Sharma remained unbeaten on 12 and one run respectively as SRH over-hauled a moderate total for the win.

Brief scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad: 162/4 in 20 overs (Jonny Bairstow 53, David Warner 45; Kagiso Rabada 2/21) beat Delhi Capitals 147/7 in 20 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 34, Rishabh Pant 32; Rashid Khan 3/14) by 15 runs

IPL

Leg-spinner Rashid Khan of Afghanistan was the star performer for SRH as he bagged three wickets for 14 runs in four overs, for which he was adjudged the Man of the Match

ReutersBerlin

Mick Schumacher will take part in fi rst Friday practice with Alfa Romeo at the

Nuerburgring next week as Fer-rari seek to give their three lead-ing junior drivers Formula One race weekend experience.

Britain’s Callum Ilott will take part in the same session with the Ferrari-powered Haas team while Russian Robert Shwartz-man will get his chance on the fi nal Friday of the season in Abu Dhabi with Haas or Alfa.

Schumacher, son of Ferrari great and seven-times world champion Michael, is lead-ing the Formula Two standings ahead of the Eifel Grand Prix weekend at the German circuit.

“The fact that my fi rst partic-ipation in a Formula One week-end will take place in front of my home audience at the Nuerbur-gring makes this moment even more special,” said Schumacher, 21.

Ferrari-powered Alfa Romeo

and Haas both have potential vacancies for 2021.

All three Ferrari Academy drivers will also test a 2018 Fer-rari SF71H at the Italian team’s Fiorano track today in prepara-tion for their F1 practice debuts, having already had seat fi ttings.

Mick Schumacher has won two races in F2 this season and leads Ilott by 22 points.

Shwartzman, a rookie in the series, is fi fth in the standings but has won three races.

Schumacher and Ilott have driven F1 cars before in test ses-sions.

Schumacher also drove Michael’s 2004 Ferrari around the Mugello circuit this month at a Tuscan Grand Prix celebrat-ing the Italian team’s 1,000th Formula One championship race.

“We wanted to organise this test session so that our three best youngsters would be as well prepared as possible to tackle an event that will always be a spe-cial moment for them,” said Fer-rari sporting director Laurent Mekies in a statement.

Schumacher and Ilott handed F1 practice slots

MOTORSPORT

BOTTOMLINE

All Blacks coach Foster demands fi x to Rugby Championship schedule

Reuters: All Blacks coach Ian Foster said yesterday Rugby Championship organisers need-ed to move quickly to change the tournament’s schedule and allow his team to spend Christ-mas with family rather than in quarantine in New Zealand.The All Blacks are scheduled to play Australia in Sydney on Dec.12 and would have to spend two weeks in isolation when they return home as part of Covid-19 protocols.The schedule has angered New Zealand Rugby and Foster said SANZAAR, which organises the Rugby Championship, had “reneged” on a deal that would have allowed the All Blacks to finish the tournament a week earlier.“It needs to be sorted — today would be great, but we’ll ac-cept tomorrow,” he told New Zealand media.“There was a deal based on the fifth (of December), we feel that SANZAAR has reneged on that, so we’ve put some solutions (forward), so we’ll wait and see.“There’s been set expectations and they haven’t been delivered on, so that’s up to the game and SANZAAR to sort out.”

Foster stopped short of sug-gesting the All Blacks could boycott the final match if SANZAAR would not change the schedule.“I don’t want to talk about that now,” he said. That’s a headline that I don’t want to put out there. But we’re bitterly disappointed that what was proposed got changed.”The All Blacks will play their first test match of the year against Australia in Wellington on Oct.11, with a second Bledisloe Cup test at Eden Park a week later before the Rugby Champi-onship starts in Australia in November.New Zealand media have raised concerns a number of All Blacks players with young families, including new father Beauden Barrett, might opt out of the last Rugby Championship match.Veteran hooker Dane Coles said he would not be making any Christmas plans until there was clarity.“Once we get a solid plan then we can have those conversa-tions with our loved ones and have those tough conversa-tions about what will happen,” he said.

Ooredoo to be offi cial telecomms partner for Qatar Football Family e-Tournament

Ooredoo Qatar, a leader in digital innovation, is support-ing the Qatar Football Family e-Tournament with a view to helping establish an e-sports league and to enable fans to play virtually at the highest level.The upcoming Qatar Foot-ball e-tournament is a major online football competition hosted by the Qatar Football Association and Qatar Stars League, set to run from 6-20 October 2020 with Ooredoo acting as official telecommu-nications partner. For fans, this is a chance to play virtually for their favour-ite club or national team. Registration is open until 3 October 2020. The tournament itself will be the springboard for Qatar’s new FIFA e-sport league. In turn, it will become competi-tive in the FIFA e-nation cup

and the e-sport FIFA global series. A minimum of 512 players will be participating online, using the PS4 platform, to compete and win the title.Sabah Rabiah al-Kuwari – Director PR at Ooredoo - said: “e-Sports is an exciting rec-reational pursuit and business opportunity, facilitated by the introduction of 5G networks in Qatar and worldwide. Working with the football authorities is an opportunity to help our gaming enthusiasts excel, competing at the highest level, and we’re delighted to be supporting this worthwhile initiative that will keep our customers entertained and connected as the pandemic situation continues.”Last year, industry estimates predicted the total audience for e-sports would exceed 450 million viewers, with revenue increasing to over US$1 billion.

Rahul Tewatia of Rajashtan Royals has been in fine form.

Sunrisers Hyderabad players celebrate their win over Delhi Capitals in Abu Dhabi yesterday. PICTURE: Sportzpics for BCCI

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

GULF TIMES SPORT

Gosden calm as Arc history beckons

Bangladesh cricketers to tour New Zealand two years aft er deadly terror attack at mosque

HORSE RACING

BOTTOMLINE

Heavy rain in the French capital has propelled Enable to favourite ahead of Aidan O’Brien’s English 1000 Guineas and Epsom Oaks winner Love

AFPLondon

Trainer John Gosden says his nerves are steady before he watches sta-ble stars Enable and

Stradivarius bid for racing his-tory in the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on Sunday.

The Englishman is bidding for his fourth victory in the past six runnings, with Enable attempt-ing to become the fi rst horse to win for a third time.

If either Enable or Stradivar-ius wins in Paris this weekend, it would be the fi rst triumph for a six-year-old, although 1932 vic-tor Motrico is the oldest winner, at seven.

“They are not excited yet, it is a bit early for them,” Gosden told AFP. “My nerves are all right. I am ticking along at the moment just going through the usual week routine.

“Let’s hope we all head over there for the weekend and the race takes place. The world is very much ifs and buts at the moment, these are challenging times for everyone.”

Sadly if either win they will not be returning to the usually packed grandstands at Long-champ but a smattering of at most 1,000 spectators due to coronavirus restrictions.

“The horses might actu-ally appreciate the fact there

are hardly any spectators on the course,” said Gosden, who is confi dent his horses are mature and battle-hardened

“They know their game, they are both very expressive charac-ters and know their own minds,” he said. “They carry themselves well and they enjoy their train-ing and their racing.”

Enable’s owner, Saudi Ara-bia’s Prince Khalid Abdullah, took the decision to keep Enable in training after she fi nished second in last year’s Arc. Usually

horses of her class are retired for breeding purposes.

Gosden said keeping her mind on the job had not proved a problem.

“She is a phenomenal athlete and has great mental strength,” he said. “She is in the zone when racing. She is like all great athletes. What separates them from the ordinary ones is be-ing strong-minded.” Heavy rain in the French capital has pro-pelled Enable to favourite ahead of Aidan O’Brien’s English 1000

Guineas and Epsom Oaks win-ner Love. More wet weather could dampen Stradivarius’s prospects, although stamina will be the least of his worries after winning three Ascot Gold Cups and a record four Good-wood Cups.

“It could be a tall order for Stradivarius if it is bottomless ground but Enable handles it,” said Gosden. The 69-year-old trainer admits he and Frankie Dettori got the tactics wrong last year in letting Enable chase

the leader Ghaiyyath, which left little in the tank when Waldgeist pounced late on.

However, at the same time he does not want a repeat of this year’s Epsom Derby, when O’Brien’s outsider Serpentine was allowed to tear away up front and the favourites failed to reel him in.

“You have to be wary of a cou-ple of Aidan O’Brien’s runners’ habit of haring off in front,” he said.

“You have got to be careful you don’t end up trying to chase them down from the start but alternatively you don’t want to give them 20 lengths a la Ser-pentine in the Derby.”

Whatever the outcome on Sunday, Gosden says it has been a privilege to train two horses of such ability at the same time.

They have won more than £12mn ($15mn) in prize money, Enable has never fi nished out-side the fi rst three in 18 races while Stradivarius has failed to make the frame on only two oc-casions in 24 starts.

“It has been a fantastic ride having those two through to six,” he said.

“They have won so many Group Ones and Enable has lost only two of them, one when she was not fully fi t (the Eclipse Stakes this year) and the other in the Arc last year she went a bit hard.

“I have been very lucky.”

AFPLondon

Lewis Hamilton has of-fered a veiled apology for his claim that Formula One bosses are singling

him out after he was hit with a 10-second penalty at the Russian Grand Prix.

Hamilton’s bid to match Michael Schumacher’s record of 91 victories in Sochi on Sun-day was wrecked when he was punished with two fi ve-second penalties for pre-race misde-meanours.

He had also been given two penalty points on his super li-cense by the race stewards but they subsequently cancelled them and instead fi ned his team Mercedes.

The six-time world champion claimed afterwards F1’s govern-ing body, the FIA, were fi nding new ways to stop him from win-ning.

But in a social media post yes-terday, Hamilton wrote: “I may not always get it right in the face of adversity.

“I may not always react the way you want me to when ten-sions are high, but I am only hu-man after all and I am passionate about what I do.

“I’m learning and growing every day, and I’ll take my les-sons and keep fi ghting on to the

next one.“Thank you to those who con-

tinue to support and are right there fi ghting with me.”

Hamilton will now have to wait until at least Germany’s Eifel Grand Prix on October 11 to match Schumacher’s all-time tally.

F1’s motorsport managing di-rector Ross Brawn called on the British driver to learn from the incident.

Brawn said: “Personally, I would go away, lick my wounds and think about how I could pre-vent such incidences again in the future.

“That’s what I know Mercedes will be doing. I know many of the people from my time at the team and they will recognise they have made some mistakes.

“Bad luck and mistakes hap-pen, but it’s how you respond that matters. It’s easy to think the world is against you but there is nearly always something you could have done diff erently and you can learn from.”

The F1 circus next heads to the Nurburgring for the fi rst time since 2013 for the 11th of 17 rounds this year.

Despite Valtteri Bottas’s tri-umph on Sunday, Hamilton, who fi nished third in Sochi, will head to Germany with a 44-point lead in his quest to be crowned world champion for a record-equalling seventh time.

Badminton chief defends calendar changes aft er outcry

SPOTLIGHT

AFPKuala Lumpur

Badminton’s ruling body yesterday de-fended postponing the season’s finale until

January — a decision that has sparked an outcry from players — saying it was the “best pos-sible solution” given the coro-navirus pandemic.

The virus has thrown the badminton calendar into chaos, with officials forced to repeat-edly postpone competitions.

In the latest change, officials announced last week the three tournaments that make up the Asian leg of the world tour will take place in the Thai capital Bangkok in January.

The final tournaments of the 2020 season were originally scheduled for November.

Badminton World Federa-tion (BWF) president Poul-Erik Hoyer insisted Tuesday it was the best outcome in a difficult year.

“Given the challenges we faced, this was the best possi-

ble solution under the circum-stances,” he told a press confer-ence.

“I am confident that with our safety protocols in place, the three events will kickstart badminton’s successful return in 2021.”

Several Danish players — in-cluding leading men’s doubles players Anders Skaarup Ras-mussen and Kim Astrup — were reported to have reacted angri-ly to the news of the postpone-ment.

Officials have acknowledged that changing the dates could affect world rankings and the 2021 season’s calendar.

Still, Badminton Association of Thailand president Pata-ma Leeswadtrakul said strict measures would be in place to ensure the safety of players and officials at the Bangkok tour-naments.

They included putting a “bubble” in place — like those implemented for the restart of other sports — and requiring players to take virus tests be-fore flying to Bangkok and on arrival.

AFPWellington

Bangladesh cricketers are to return to the scene of the Christchurch mosque massacre two years after the tragedy, New

Zealand cricket said yesterday.They are among four international

teams confi rmed to play in New Zealand over the coming months.

Bangladesh are scheduled to play a one-day international in Christchurch on March 17 and are likely to be in the city on March 15, two years to the day after a gunman killed 51 Muslim worshippers at two mosques and wounded another 40.

The gunman began his murderous rampage at the Al Noor Mosque, opposite the Hagley Park cricket oval, just as the mainly Muslim Bangladesh team arrived for prayers before practice on the eve of the second Test against New Zealand last year.

As the players were about to enter the

mosque, a woman warned them that there was shooting inside and players took cover on the fl oor of their bus.

“We were very lucky because we were not inside that place,” team manager Khaled Mashud told reporters.

“We saw it from outside, like watching a video, like in the movies. We saw many people coming out bloodied.”

None of the players were injured and the team returned home the following day after the Test was cancelled.

The government last week gave the green light for the West Indies and Pa-kistan to arrive under strict quarantine conditions for their fi rst 14 days in the country due to concerns over the eff ects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I’m thrilled to be making this an-nouncement today, given the uncertainty and diffi culties over the past six or seven months,” White said.

“We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the New Zealand government for helping us navigate this complex process.”

Included in the schedule are four Tests,

two against the West Indies and two against Pakistan, the fi rst of which will be a Boxing Day Test at Tauranga’s Bay Oval.

New Zealand are currently fourth in the inaugural Test Match Championship standings — behind India, England and Australia — and just ahead of Pakistan with the West Indies seventh.

White said New Zealand Cricket was aware of the challenging circumstances many people found themselves in as a consequence of the Covid-19 crisis and would be reducing ticket prices by nearly 50% to acknowledge this.

“It might sound counter-intuitive to be lowering ticket prices at a time of great additional cost and expense to the game, but we think it’s the right thing to do.”

When the teams arrive in New Zealand they will spend their required 14-days quarantine in Christchurch where they will be able to train at NZC’s high-per-formance centre in Lincoln University.

West Indies tour: Nov 27 — 1st T20, Auckland

Nov 29 — 2nd Twenty20, TaurangaNov 30 — 3rd Twenty20, TaurangaDec 3-7 — 1st Test, Hamilton Dec 11-15 — 2nd Test, Wellington

Pakistan tour:Dec 18 — 1st T20, Auckland Dec 20 — 2nd T20, Hamilton Dec 22 — 3rd T20, Napier Dec 26-30 — 1st Test, TaurangaJan 3-7 — 2nd Test, Christchurch

Australia tour:Feb 22 — 1st T20, Christchurch Feb 25 — 2nd T20, DunedinMar 3 — 3rd T20, Wellington Mar 5 — 4th T20, Auckland Mar 7 — 5th T20, Tauranga

Bangladesh tour: Mar 13 — 1st ODI, DunedinMar 17 — 2nd ODI, ChristchurchMar 20 — 3rd ODI, WellingtonMar 23 — 1st T20, NapierMar 26 — 2nd T20, Auckland Mar 28 — 3rd T20, Hamilton

File photo of Frankie Dettori riding Enable.

His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Thani (right), Enable trainer John Gosden (left) and jockey Frankie Dettori during the prize ceremony for the 2017 Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in Chantilly. (File photo)

Hamilton off ers veiled apology aft er F1 accusations

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