Sports & Casinos UK

Sabalenka made quick work of Iatcenko in the second round, while Tiafoe, Tsitsipas, Pegula and Muchova were among the other notable winnersAnd Nakashima breaks too – he’s hitting it hard off both wings and I wonder if he’s in the process of finding a new level. The first few times I watched him, I thought he had a bit of something and, real talk, I thought he’d be better by now than he is. But I really like what I’m seeing from him and, as we know, progress isn’t always linear.It’s a good start for Medvedev, Gorzy – who saved five match points in round one – tamely ceding serve to 15. Continue reading...

Kieffer Moore and Jacques Ekomié score in 3-0 winQPR beat Cardiff; Middlesbrough draw at BurnleyWrexham powered to their first Championship win this season with a ruthless 3-0 rout of injury-plagued Millwall on Wednesday.The Welsh side had drawn with Cardiff and Watford before losing at home to Birmingham prior to this match. But they bounced back in emphatic fashion in south London to kickstart their bid for promotion to the Premier League after narrowly missing out on the playoffs last term. Continue reading...

Colombian opens scoring in 3-0 win against AberdeenFalkirk 1-2 Rangers; Kilmarnock 0-1 St MirrenThe Celtic striker Camilo Durán inspired the Scottish champions’ 3-0 win over Aberdeen, while Rangers snatched a 2-1 victory against Falkirk on Wednesday.Durán has scored six goals in five matches for Martin O’Neill’s side after his latest eye-catching contribution at Parkhead. The Colombian netted in the 14th minute with the latest in his series of spectacular strikes since joining from Qarabag in the close-season. Durán collected Benjamin Nygren’s pass and unleashed a long-range drive that cannoned in off the crossbar. Continue reading...

Team circumvented salary cap rules to sign starOwner Steve Ballmer lands one-year banThe NBA has handed down one of the biggest punishments in the history of the league to the Los Angeles Clippers after finding that the franchise circumvented salary cap rules when it courted Kawhi Leonard as a free agent.The league has stripped the team of five first-round draft picks, giving the team no natural pick in the draft from 2029 through 2033. Continue reading...

Real Sociedad 0-1 Chelsea (agg 2-6)Keira Walsh scores at corner to settle tieChelsea ensured there will be three Women’s Super League teams in the league phase of the Champions League as Keira Walsh’s second-half strike against Real Sociedad extended their three-goal margin from the first leg of the third-round qualifier.The 5-2 win against the Spanish side in Chelsea’s first game at Wimbledon’s Cherry Red Records stadium gave Sonia Bompastor’s side a commanding lead in the tie, after a rusty start had forced them to come from a goal down. It wasn’t a particularly pretty performance, though, and that continued into the second leg against La Real, who will now drop into the Europa League.On Friday 4 September at 1pm Suzanne Wrack will be answering readers’ questions about the new WSL season for Guardian Conversations Continue reading...

Hampshire make U-turn over Scott Kuggeleijn signing after fan backlash as Warwickshire add to their troublesKent’s start is on the crunchy side of autumn. Compton (8) and Crawley (6) both gone. Kent 18-2.Rain at The Oval too, where my daughter is looking after my nephews and a couple of their friends. If you see an auburn haired young woman looking harassed, placate her with a mini roll. Auqib Nabi is Surrey’s latest recruit. Continue reading...

Diomansy Kamara says players must ‘be heard’Monaco defend halting Lamine Camara’s Chelsea moveIsmaïla Sarr’s agent has claimed some African players are treated like “a commodity” after Crystal Palace turned down Liverpool’s approach for the Senegal forward and Lamine Camara’s move from Monaco to Chelsea broke down on deadline day.Palace are understood to have rejected a bid from Liverpool for Sarr last week and insisted last season’s top scorer was not for sale. The 28-year-old, who missed the opening two matches against Everton and Manchester City after the manager, Pierre Sage, said he had picked up an injury, subsequently deleted all references to the Conference League winners from his social media accounts and is thought to have been disappointed by Palace’s stance. Continue reading...

The transfer window has broken all rational rules and limits, leaving us to marvel and, ultimately, pick up the billThere was a research study a few years back into a key period in the life of the TV show Location, Location, Location. You know the one. Half an hour of mid-morning drift. Hosted by two people whose common quality is they both look as if the minced essence of Wellington boots, the Volvo XC40 and the phrase “picky bits” has been reconstituted into human shapes, then sent out to judge people for buying houses.The big reveal was always the bit where they came back a year later and saw how much the value had shifted. Because all conversations about houses are, in the end, an excuse to talk about money. Oh wow, it’s gone up by £20,000. You are good. Oh no, you’re now bankrupt and your flat looks like a hostage cell with fairy lights. Unlucky. You are bad. Continue reading...

F1 champion first to back junior team in single-seater eraNorris also creates legacy programme to support talentLando Norris has co-founded a new junior, single-seater racing team. Named LN4 Fusion it will compete in multiple championships including the feeder series for Formula One, F3 and F2, as the current F1 world champion commits to helping young drivers make it to the top level in motorsport.Norris’s involvement, including a personal financial undertaking alongside an investment group, represents the first time an F1 world champion has directly backed a team in the modern junior single-seater era. As part of the project he has also established the LN4 Legacy programme, a driver development initiative designed to identify and support talent coming through the ranks from karting upwards and then provide assistance financially as well as in coaching, performance and career support. Continue reading...

From accepting a bid for Armstrong to collapse of Balogun deal, TFG has shown an amateurish and unambitious approachTo be placed in the same bracket as owners whose lack of ambition, lack of resources and/or incompetence has contributed to the longest trophy drought in Everton’s history, particularly 20 months into a reign that has accompanied the move to a glittering new stadium and the clearing of onerous debt, should be cause for considerable discomfort and embarrassment at The Friedkin Group (TFG) on Wednesday. The slight on Everton’s owner is neither unkind nor unfair. At least Farhad Moshiri had a go before the taps were turned off.TFG may have restored financial stability to Everton after the near-ruinous chaos of Moshiri’s final years and his attempts to sell to 777 Partners but its reputation as “winners” – as the club’s chief executive, Angus Kinnear, labelled his American employers – has been shredded in the space of four days. The description always appeared generous given its approach to the summer transfer window, part two of Everton’s strategic rebuild according to Kinnear. But from accepting Nottingham Forest’s £35m bid for Harrison Armstrong on Saturday morning to Folarin Balogun walking away from a £40m move from Monaco on Tuesday night, and more in between, TFG has positioned itself as just another Everton owner unable or unwilling to realise the club’s potential and to give an expectant fanbase grounds for optimism. Continue reading...