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Hockey World Cup: South Africa, Argentina, Wales win 1st round of classification matches
With their wins, South Africa, Wales, Argentina and India head into the 9-12 playoff matches while losses for Malaysia, France, Chile and Japan see them go to the 13-16 playoff matches. All classification matches will take place on January 28. Malaysia were quicker off the blocks with form man Faizal Saari managing to get a shot in the circle inside the first minute, but South Africa survived that early chance and started to get in the game on counter attacks.
ISL 2022-23: Guarrotxena's hat-trick against East Bengal FC propels FC Goa into third place
The 12-minute salvo from Guarrotxena took his goal tally for the season into double figures and propelled the Spaniard to the top of the goalscoring charts. The result also struck a blow to East Bengal FC's playoff hopes, and they now find themselves ten points off sixth place with five games to go.
Tired legs as La Liga reaches halfway point this weekend
League leaders FC Barcelona face a short trip to play Girona, just three days after booking their place in the semifinals of the Cup with a 1-0 win at home to Real Sociedad. Midfielder Pedri is a slight doubt for the game with a muscle problem that saw him forced off on Wednesday and with another league match against Betis next week. Barca coach Xavi Hernandez may not risk such a key player.
Hockey World Cup: India hammer Japan 8-0 in 9-16th place classification match
Mandeep Singh (32'), Abhishek (35', 43'), Vivek Sagar Prasad (39') and Harmanpreet Singh (45', 58'), Manpreet Singh (58') and Sukhjeet Singh (59') were the goal scorers for India. Japan and India played an even contest in the first quarter with both teams showing offensive intent but neither team could manage to create a clear scoring opportunity.
Manika Batra climbs three places to reach career-high 33 in ITTF rankings
Manika's impressive outing at the WTT Contender Doha last week, where she reached the semifinals, helped her to gain three spots in the world rankings. In November last year, she became the first Indian women paddler to win a medal at the Asian Cup and only the second Indian to achieve the feat after Chetan Baboor bagged a silver in 1997 and a bronze in 2000.
Australian Open: Sabalenka beats Linette to reach first Grand Slam final, to face Rybakina
Sabalenka, who claimed her 11th career title at the Adelaide International 1 three weeks ago, has now won 10 matches in a row, including a career-best 20 consecutive sets. The longest match winning streak of her career to date is 15, encompassing three titles at Ostrava 2020, Linz 2020 and Abu Dhabi 2021.
Nat Sciver wins Rachael Heyhoe Flint Award for ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year 2022
In total, Nat, the seam-bowling all-rounder, hit 1346 runs and took 22 wickets in 33 matches across all formats in the year, captaining England for much of her side's home summer as captain Heather Knight was out due to a hip injury which needed surgery. Earlier, in the day, she had won ICC Women's ODI Player of the Year award for 2022.
Babar Azam bags Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Men's Cricketer of the Year 2022
Azam was the only player to breach the 2000-run mark during the calendar year across all formats, and he did it in style as he broke past that milestone in style while amassing a whopping 2598 runs at an imposing average of 54.12. His haul of eight hundreds and 17 fifties during the calendar year across all formats is his best of his playing career till date.
Indonesia Masters: Lakshya advances to quarterfinals, Saina bows out
Sen, seeded seventh, came from a game down to win 19-21, 21-8, 21-17 against Malaysia's NG Tze Yong in the round of 16, a rematch of the Commonwealth Games final. Both the shuttlers were evenly matched in the early exchanges and were tied at 13-all in the first game before Malaysian took the lead and clinched the opening game. But Lakshya bounced back and dominated the second game to draw level game-all.
Australian Open: Rybakina powers past Azarenka to reach her second major final
Playing in her first Australian Open semifinal, Rybakina had a tough task of facing a major champion for the third straight match.The 23-year-old paved her way to the biggest hard-court final of her career by notching wins over last year's finalist, Danielle Collins, World No.1 Iga Swiatek, 2019 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko, and two-time Australian Open champion Azarenka.
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