Nadal enters Monte Carlo semis
monaco: Rafael Nadal won nine straight games to open his match against Dominic Thiem, quickly advancing to the semifinals of the Monte Carlo Masters with a 6-0, 6-2 victory on Friday. The top-ranked Spaniard is on course for a record-extending 11th Monte Carlo title. Thiem, an Austrian who is seeded fifth and beat Nadal twice before on clay, earned sympathetic cheers from the crowd when he finally won a game in the second set. Nadal will next face Grigor Dimitrov. The fourth-seeded Bulgarian beat No 6 David Goffin 6-4, 7-6 (5) in an error-strewn match. Goffin led 4-0 in the second set but the Belgian missed three set points at 5-4. later Friday, second-seeded Marin Cilic was to play Kei Nishikori and No 3 Alexander Zverev was facing Richard Gasquet.
CA to name coach in ‘coming weeks'
sydney: Cricket Australia said on Friday a decision on who will replace national coach Darren lehmann will be made "in coming weeks". The CA Board met and discussed the process through which a new coach, as well as the captain and deputy of the men's one-day team will be named prior to the team's tour to England in early June. Board chairman David Peever said recommendations for preferred candidates for the leadership positions will be ratified before being publicly announced. "The Board has asked management to provide recommendations regarding candidates for the men's head coach, ODI captain and ODI vice-captain," Peever said in a statement. "The Board is anticipating receiving these recommendations in the coming weeks, with a view to making appointments. "Once these appointments have been endorsed and finalised, announcements can then be made."
Juanmi double crash Atletico’s hopes
madrid: A brace from late substitute Juanmi sealed a precious 3-0 win for Real Sociedad to virtually end Atletico Madrid's fading hopes of challenging for the Spanish league title. With a 12-point deficit to Barcelona, Atletico were already facing an uphill task to overhaul the runaway la liga leaders. Now with only five games remaining, Diego Simeone's men would be forgiven for focusing their remaining efforts on making sure they finish second ahead of Real Madrid -- now just three points adrift -- and their bid to win the Europa league. "Today, we played poorly in the first half and in the second half we improved at first, but didn't have the consistency to find the equalizer," said Simeone. "We have to congratulate Real Sociedad because they played a great match and won fairly."
‘India can do well in World C’ship’
chennai: India's number one men's table tennis player G Sathiyan, who won three medals on his Commonwealth Games debut, says the country has a good chance of finishing on the podium at the upcoming World Championship. "I think we had really worked hard. It is going to be much much tougher, of course. We have top countries, China, Japan, Korea. Everyone playing out there. We will try our best and try to probably even win a medal. That will be a great achievement. We are going to set our targets high and try to push for a medal in the world team championship," the Chennai-based paddler said. Sathiyan, who has risen to No 46 in the latest ITTF World Rankings also said, "It is a dream. We are all pumped up... High on confidence after the great show in the CWG. "