Sports

Seiko Hashimoto, the chairman of the organizing committee of the Olympic Games, wants to test athletes more often than planned this summer.   According to the former Olympian, this is necessary given the number of mutants of the coronavirus that appear and because of the contacts between athletes during the matches in Tokyo. There is talk of testing every four days in the current setup, but Hashimoto is considering a higher frequency, she said on Tuesday. The Olympic Games were postponed by a year due to the corona pandemic and are now taking place this summer.

Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic has rivalled Roger Federer. The 33-year-old Serb is at the top of the world rankings for the 310th week.   Djokovic, winner of the Australian Open for the ninth time last month, passes the 39-year-old Swiss next week and then takes the record alone. The Serbian is in his fifth period at the top of the world ranking. He was number 1 for the first time on July 4, 2011. Djokovic was then 24 years and 43 days old. His longest streak at the top of the global ranking was between July 7, 2014, and November 6, 2016: 122 weeks in a row. Djokovic was now number 1 since February 3 last year. He then relieved Rafael Nadal in the lead.

Golf icon Tiger Woods has doubts about participating in the Masters. The five-time winner of the Major tournament in Augusta underwent back surgery for the fifth time in December and is unsure whether he will have recovered enough to play in six weeks.   "My God, I hope I can be there, but I really don't know if it will work out. I have to be careful with my back because I only have one," 45-year-old Woods told CBS. Woods won the Masters for the fifth time in 2019 and now stands at fifteen wins in Majors, three less than record-holder Jack Nicklaus. The Masters are scheduled for April 8-11. Woods' recovery is taking longer than expected because he expected a return in March after the intervention in December. It is already certain that he will not play any tournaments until the Ma...

Tennis star Serena Williams has convincingly reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open in Melbourne.   The 39-year-old American settled in two sets with the Romanian Simona Halep, the number 2 on the placement list, 10 years younger. The seven-time champion triumphed with two 6-3. Williams plays in the semi-final against Japanese Naomi Osaka, who simply eliminated Hsieh Su-Wei from Taiwan: 6-2 6-2. Williams hopes to finally match the Australian Margaret Court, good for 24 grand slam titles, in Melbourne. Four years ago, the American veteran in Australia won a grand slam for the last time. Since then she has lost no fewer than four finals.

Serena Williams has won in front of full stands in Adelaide in a demonstration match against Naomi Osaka. It became 6-3 2-6 10-7 for the 23-time grand slam champion.   The game was played in front of 4,000 people at the Memorial Drive Tennis Club. It was the first time in almost a year that so much audience was present at a tennis match. "I haven't seen an audience in a stadium for so long. It feels like an eternity ago," said Osaka, the world's number 3, after her defeat. After the stringent measures in recent months, the Australians have won the fight against the coronavirus. "Tennis is back", wrote the Australian Open with a photo of the sold-out stadium in Adelaide. "It was worth quarantine," said 39-year-old Williams. "We had a calendar in our room on which we mark a cross e...

The top tennis players Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, the numbers 1 and 2 in the world, will participate in the second edition of the ATP Cup next month.   The national tournament serves as preparation for the Australian Open. Djokovic led Serbia to victory in the first ATP Cup last year. In the final, the Serbs won 2-1 against Spain, partly thanks to a victory by Djokovic over Nadal. The tournament, which will be held in abbreviated form from February 1 to 5, includes twelve countries admitted based on the position of their best tennis player in the world rankings. Australia received a wildcard as a host country, and Japan is allowed to participate because leader Kei Nishikori has a protected ranking after many injuries. The other participants are Serbia, Spain, Austria (with U...

Lewis Hamilton can hardly miss his seventh world title in Formula 1. With five races to go and a 77-point lead over his first attacker Valtteri Bottas, the Briton of Mercedes can already win the championship in the fourth to last race of this year.   That will be on November 15 in the Grand Prix of Turkey at Istanbul Park. Hamilton won the Grand Prix of Portugal on Sunday after a strong performance at the Portimão circuit. It was his 92nd Formula 1 victory, and he passed Michael Schumacher as the driver with the most GrandPrix victories. Hamilton also holds the record with 97 pole positions and will rival Schumacher with his seventh title. The 35-year-old driver has ruled Formula 1 since moving from McLaren to Mercedes in 2013. In his years at the German racing stable, Hamilton h...

Los Angeles Lakers have the seventeenth title in the American NBA basketball league up for grabs.   The California club won the fourth game in the NBA final against Miami Heat in the bubble at Disney World in Orlando. The team of LeBron James took distance from the opponent from Miami in the fourth quarter and won 102-96. The score in the best-of-seven series is 3-1 in favour of the team from Los Angeles. If they win the fifth game on Friday, the Lakers will be champions. James accounted for 28 points with the Lakers. Anthony Davis added 22 points, and Kantavious Caldwell-Pope was good for 15 points. Miami countered this with 22 points from Jimmy Butler and 21 from Tyler Herro. Bam Adebayo accounted for 15 points. The game went straight for a long time, while the Lakers often too...

Federer against Murray on first ATP Cup. If they both stay fit, Roger Federer and Andy Murray will compete at the start of next year.   In the draw for the first edition of the ATP Cup, which replaces the Hopman Cup tournament on the calendar,  Switzerland and Great Britain, together with Belgium, were classified in group C. These countries play their games in Sydney. The ATP Cup lasts ten days and starts on January 3. 24 countries are participating in the tournament, which are spread over six groups. The last participant has yet to be announced in five of the six groups. The admission is based on the ranking of the best tennis player in every country in the world ranking. The Netherlands, which saw leader Robin Haase descend to position 156 on the global ranking this year,  ...

Adebayor Extends career at Kayserispor. Emmanuel Adebayor joins Ben Rienstra and Bilal Basaçikoglu at the Turkish club Kayserispor.   The 35-year-old striker from Togo joined the club for a year, which ended in tenth place in the Süper Lig last season. Adebayor has been playing for Basaksehir in Turkey in recent years, where he was a teammate of Eljero Elia. The striker is not yet considering stopping. Adebayor extends his career by at least a year at Kayserispor,  which recently acquired midfielder Rienstra from sc Heerenveen. Wing striker Basaçikoglu, a former player of Heerenveen and Feyenoord, has been playing for the club from Kayseri since last year. Adebayor broke through in France with Metz and Monaco. The Togolese then played for the top clubs Arsenal, Manchester City...