All posts tagged: cup

Italy into Davis Cup final after Sinner’s stunning comeback sees off Djokovic | Davis Cup

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The Davis Cup has a way of marking pivotal moments in a player’s career, unlocking qualities that can sometimes only be accessed while enduring the pressure of carrying the hopes of an entire team, not merely your own. As a raucous crowd inside Málaga’s Palacio de Deportes chanted his name, Jannik Sinner seemed to take a significant step forward as he led Italy to a 2-1 win over Serbia and into a Davis Cup final for the first time since 1998. In his third battle in 11 days with the world No 1, Sinner trailed Novak Djokovic 4-5, 0-40 on his serve, triple match point down in the final set of an incredible tussle. Somehow, impossibly, he recovered to defeat Djokovic 6-2, 2-6, 7-5. He then returned for the decisive doubles alongside Lorenzo Sonego and the pair defeated Djokovic and Miomir Kecmanovic 6-3, 6-4 to clinch the tie. Australia, last year’s runners-up, await Italy in Sunday’s final after they defeated Finland 2-0 on Friday. “I’m just very happy for all of us, for the team, …

Royale Pagaille wins Betfair Chase to lay down Gold Cup marker | Horse racing

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If a six-and-a-half-length success in the first Grade One of the campaign – his first at the highest level – is as good as it gets for Royale Pagaille this season, the delight of his trainer and rider in the winner’s enclosure here on Saturday made it plain that it will be more than enough. Venetia Williams’s nine-year-old has been beaten in the last three runnings of the Cheltenham Gold Cup, and remains an outsider at around 25-1 to make it fourth time lucky. But he is the epitome of the big, old-fashioned staying chaser that has always been Williams’s stock in trade, and if the mud happens to be flying at the Festival next March, who knows? Haydock, though, will always be Royale Pagaille’s happiest hunting ground, and having joined Bravemansgame, the 8-11 favourite for the Betfair Chase, as they turned for home, Charlie Deutsch took a lead which last season’s Gold Cup runner-up never seriously threatened to claw back. By the final fence, a fourth win from five career starts at Haydock was …

Ruthless Australia swat aside Finland to reach Davis Cup final once again | Davis Cup

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Australia eased into the Davis Cup final for the second successive year with a ruthless, efficient 2-0 win over Finland on Friday evening in Málaga. In the opening rubber, Alexei Popyrin produced his first live Davis Cup win, steadying his nerves through an extremely tense opening set before beating Otto Virtanen 7-6 (5), 6-2. Alex de Minaur then closed out the tie with an excellent performance, defeating Emil Ruusuvuori 6-4, 6-3 to take Australia back to the final. “You don’t take anything for granted in Davis Cup,” said Lleyton Hewitt, Australia’s Davis Cup captain. “It doesn’t matter the format. So we knew coming here every match was going to be extremely tough. You only have a day to prepare for your next opponents, as well, which isn’t easy.” As was the case in Finland’s opening tie, the large Finnish expat community in the surrounding area ensured that their presence was felt in the José María Martín Carpena Arena as they filled out the stands in their thousands, bellowing their chants right until the end. Their …

‘I’m going to take it to Djokovic’: Norrie ready for Britain-Serbia Davis Cup clash | Davis Cup

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Cameron Norrie has said he will approach Novak Djokovic as “just another player” when he leads the Great Britain team in battle against Serbia on Thursday at the “Final 8” stage of the Davis Cup Finals. A spot in the semi-final will be up for grabs for the victorious nation. “I’m going to go and be myself, give it everything and take it to him,” said Norrie, Britain’s No 1. “A huge privilege to play against him, compete against him, especially in Davis Cup. I have played him in a few big matches already. “I can’t wait. It’s a huge challenge and I think we’re all ready to play Serbia. We’re excited to get out there, I think at the end of the day he’s just another player and I’m going to go run for everything and give it everything, and a good challenge.” After narrowly advancing from the group stages in Manchester with the team at full strength, Great Britain have suffered significant blows ahead of the quarter-final round in Málaga. Dan Evans and …

Brazil v Argentina: 2026 World Cup qualifying – live | Football

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Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature Preamble Welcome to a crucial World Cup qualifier between first-place Argentina and fifth-place Brazil, where … … wait … do the standings matter? CONMEBOL, the South American federation, has the simplest and fairest qualification system. No comparisons of runners-up across disparate groups. No draw that creates a “Group of Death.” No “playoff to get into the group stage that determines who goes to the playoff.” Ten teams. Double round-robin. That’s it. It’s a fair format. It’s also quite forgiving. So Brazil are currently in fifth place, looking up not only at eternal rival Argentina and historically accomplished countries such as Uruguay and Colombia but also at Venezuela. If not for a three-point penalty to Ecuador, Brazil would be trailing them, too. And they would still be on course to qualify for the next World Cup, which will include a mind-boggling 48 teams. Even if things were truly horrific, Brazil would have nearly two years to fix the problem(s). The last games …

Palestine v Australia: 2026 World Cup qualifier – live | World Cup 2026

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Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature Some of the Palestine players remain in Gaza. Those who travelled to Kuwait via a training camp in Jordan are preoccupied with the safety of their loved one. The Palestine coach Makram Daboub has been discussing the extraordinary circumstances in which this match will take place. Team news: four changes for Socceroos Palestine (possible 4-3-3) Hamadi; Al-Battat, Termanini, Saleh, Saldaña; Rashid, Jaber, Abu Warda; Seyam, Qunbar, Dabbagh.Substitutes: tbc Australia (possible 4-2-3-1) Ryan; Strain, Souttar, Rowles, Behich; Baccus, Irvine; Metcalfe, Boyle, Goodwin; Duke.Substitutes: Burgess, Bos, Silvera, Maclaren, Yengi, Borrello, Gauci, Circati, O’Neill, Maynard-Brewer, Miller, Luongo. ???? Graham Arnold makes four changes from our last match against Bangladesh. Ryan Strain, Kye Rowles, Aziz Behich and Martin Boyle all return to the Starting XI. ???????? v ???????? – 22.11.23 – 1:00am AEDT???????????? Live on Channel 10, Paramount+, 10 Play#PLEvAUS #Socceroos pic.twitter.com/IbxOlWEz8P — Subway Socceroos (@Socceroos) November 21, 2023 Updated at 13.15 GMT Preamble Hello and welcome to live, minute-by-minute coverage of the World Cup qualifier between …

From Maxwell to Sharma: 2023 Cricket World Cup team of the tournament | Cricket World Cup 2023

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Rohit Sharma (India). 597 runs @ 54.27, one century, three fifties, strike-rate 125, highest score 131: Reinvented himself as a berserker at the top of the order and boomed more sixes – 31 – than any other player. Left holding back the tears at the end, The Hitman is unlikely to ever be a 50-over World Cup winner but will unquestionably go down as an ODI great. Quinton de Kock (wk) (South Africa). 594 runs @ 59.4, four centuries, SR 107, HS 174, 19 catches, one stumping: This was a fine swan song in ODI cricket for doleful De Kock; the highest number of runs in a men’s World Cup from a wicketkeeper-batter and, as ever, compiled in such utterly butterly fashion. Those gloves deny Travis Head a spot here, a call that possibly compares to this correspondent’s pre-tournament predictions. Rachin Ravindra (New Zealand). 578 runs at 64.22, three centuries, two fifties, SR 106, HS 123*: The portmanteau first name thing was apocryphal – not a deliberate blend of Sachin and Rahul – but everything …

Australia earn Cricket World Cup glory as Travis Head ton spoils India’s party | Cricket World Cup 2023

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Australia won their sixth men’s 50-over World Cup title and spoiled India’s party in Ahmedabad as Travis Head’s superb century capped a ruthless display in the final. Set a modest target of 241 to win after a ruthless bowling display, Australia were rocked early on as David Warner was caught by Virat Kohli off Mohammed Shami’s bowling for just seven. A packed, partisan crowd were jubilant when Jaspreet Bumrah dismissed Mitchell Marsh (15) and Steve Smith (four) in quick succession. That proved to be as good as it got for the hosts, though, as Travis Head struck a nerveless 137 off 120, in a partnership with Marnus Labuschagne (58 not out) that slowly drained the belief from their opponents and the fans watching on. By the time Head was caught out, Australia needed just two more runs to win and Glenn Maxwell immediately hit them. India had won all 10 matches on their way to the final but Australia, who began with two defeats, have the trophy. Pat Cummins had put India in to bat …

India and Australia World Cup final shatters streaming records on Hotstar

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In India, few events garner as much attention as a cricket game. And there’s no match for a World Cup final. The Sunday game, which began just half an hour ago, has already topped 54 million concurrent viewers, shattering a record that was set just earlier this week. With no high-profile cricket game anytime soon, Hotstar is likely to maintain the record for at least six months. As far as the concurrent viewers metric is concerned, Hotstar now maintains a clear lead over rival, Mukesh Ambani-backed Viacom18’s JioCinema, which peaked at 32 million earlier this year. The milestone also comes at a time when Disney, which is streaming the ICC World Cup cricket matches at no cost to mobile viewers in India, is fast-losing digital subscribers in India and evaluating the future of the local business. Hotstar has lost more than 23 million subscribers in the past one year, according to Disney. Disney chief executive Bob Iger said earlier this month that the firm “would like to stay” in India and is considering its options …

India v Australia: Cricket World Cup final 2023 – live | Cricket World Cup 2023

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Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature “Hi Tanya.” Good morning, Jeremy Boyce! “Funny to think that it will soon be all over for another 4 years. No yellow shirts in the queues outside, but a big yellow banana skin waiting inside, unless India are right on top of their game and not feeling the pressure of 1.4 billion people weighing down on them. There is no better team than Australia for identifying a point of weakness and ruthlessly exploiting it. Fascinating few hours in prospect. Winning the toss could be crucial, watch out for double-headed coins… What would you do if you were Cummins and you won the toss ?” I would bat, get runs on the board, and challenge India to score 350 against a scurrying Labuschagne in the field, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins pawing the ground, Adam Zampa deceptively floating to the crease. The television coverage has started. DK, Ian Ward and Eoin Morgan are on the ground. The noise builds already, and a …