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Djokovic, Sabalenka dodge upsets to go full steam ahead at Australian Open
In a Grand Slam that has seen several top-ranked players drop out in the first three rounds, defending champions Novak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka have dodged upsets to reach the Australian Open quarterfinals without a major blip.
Djokovic was ruthless in a 6-0, 6-0, 6-3 win over Adrian Mannarino on Sunday as he entered his 58th Grand Slam quarterfinal to match Roger Federer’s all-time Grand Slam record.
In a rare daytime appearance on Rod Laver Arena, the 10-time Australian Open champion hit 31 winners and raced to victory in 1 hour and 44 minutes.
Djokovic is into the Australian Open quarterfinals for the 14th time, which is equal second on the all-time list with Rafael Nadal and John Newcombe. The difference is that he has converted most of those quarterfinal runs into titles at Melbourne Park.
He will face Taylor Fritz, who reached the Australian Open quarterfinals for the first time with a 7-6 (3), 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 win over Stefanos Tsitsipas, last year’s runner-up.
Meanwhile, the ruthless women’s world number two, Aryna Sabalenka, warned that she is stronger now than when she won her maiden Grand Slam in Melbourne as her imposing march towards another title gathered steam.
The Belarusian was in total control against unseeded American Amanda Anisimova on Margaret Court Arena, blazing home 6-3, 6-2 in 70 minutes.
Sabalenka has dropped a scant 11 games in her four matches and, with top seed Iga Swiatek out of the tournament, is the clear favourite to win a second Grand Slam.
Should she do so, she will be the first woman to retain the title since compatriot Victoria Azarenka completed the feat in 2013.
“I think I feel stronger than last year. So far I feel good. Hopefully, I just can keep it up,” said the 25-year-old, who has embraced her status as reigning champion in Melbourne. “I’m getting stronger because I enjoy the atmosphere and I really want to stay here as long as I can, till the very last day.”
Last year’s US Open champion Coco Gauff has kept up with the two singles favourites after racing past unseeded Magdalena Frech 6-1, 6-2 in just 63 minutes on Rod Laver Arena as she zeroes in on a second Grand Slam title.
Gauff said she was enjoying “learning adulthood” after showing poise and determination to storm into her first Australian Open quarterfinal.
The tournament’s top seed among women Iga Swiatek lost 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to Czech teenager Linda Noskova in the third round on Saturday. Swiatek’s four Grand Slam titles and 18-match winning streak were no help against the big-hitting teen.
But pedigree and past performance seem to mean little to nothing at Melbourne Park so far this year, setting up a closing week that features a bunch of new players and storylines.
Apart from Swiatek, the other seeded players to depart the Grand Slam are Elena Rybakina (3), Jessica Pegula (5), Ons Jabeur (6) and Marketa Vondrousova (7).
In men’s draw, seeded players such as Ben Shelton (16), Holger Rune (8) and Casper Ruud (11) have also dropped out before the last-eight stage.
Briton Andy Murray was a first-round victim, along with returning former champion Naomi Osaka and Caroline Wozniacki.
(Aljazeera)
Some 360 bodies have been recovered and more than 1,400 people are missing across Nepal and China’s Tibet region after a huge collapse of mud and rock into a Himalayan river triggered catastrophic flooding across local towns and valleys, authorities have said.
Rescue teams waded through mud on Thursday searching for the missing, as authorities in Nepal said at least 359 people have been killed there.
At least three people have died in the neighbouring Tibet region.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang arrived at the mudslide site in Tibet on Thursday afternoon to “guide emergency rescue and relief work” a day after the disaster, state media reported.
Nepalese police and tourism officials said that more than 500 foreigners were among 910 people missing in Nepal.
Among the missing are tourists from more than two dozen countries: 177 are from India, 63 from the United States, 34 from Australia, 33 from the United Kingdom, and 25 from Canada.
Beijing’s foreign ministry also said nearly 100 Chinese nationals were among the missing in Nepal.
In Tibet’s Gyirong county, 558 people are reported missing, including 260 foreign nationals, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
Search and rescue operations are proving to be a “massive challenge” as just simply “getting to the affected areas … to try and recover the survivors”, is proving to be extremely difficult as the roads and bridges there have suffered extensive damage, said Al Jazeera’s Minelle Fernandez, reporting from the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu.
[Aljazeera]
India 503/9 decl (Devdutt Padikkal 117, Dhruv Jurel 115; Asitha Fernando 4-106, Prabath Jayasuriya 2-132) drew with Sri Lanka 290 (Sonal Dinusha 103, Pasindu Sooriyabandara 80; Prasidh Krishna 3-52, Manav Suthar 3-85) and 429/9 f/o (Sonal Dinusha 133*, Pasindu Sooriyabandara 92; Ravindra Jadeja 3-94, Manav Suthar 3-121)
Asif Khan the UAE batter, has been banned for 15 months after admitting to having tested positive for a banned substance – “a metabolite of mesterolone” – in an out-of-competition test conducted in September 2025, the ICC said in a statement on Thursday.
The statement said that Asif, 36, “had admitted the violation” of Article 2.1 of the ICC’s anti-doping code and accepted the period of ineligibility “pursuant to a case resolution agreement entered into with the World Anti-Doping Agency and the ICC”, which means there is no right to appeal on the part of the player.
The sanction is effective from September 8, 2025 and will run until December 7, 2026.
“Asif may return to training with a team or use the facilities of a club or other ICC Member organisation from 8 October 2026 but will only be eligible to play from 8 December,” the statement added. “The player’s individual results from 8 September 2025 until his provisional suspension on 29 December 2025 have been disqualified, along with all resulting consequences, including the loss of any medals, points, prize money or prizes.”
Asif, a former Pakistan Under-19 cricketer, made his UAE debut in March 2022 in an ODI against Oman in the ICC’s Cricket World Cup League 2. He turned out in 38 ODIs and 56 T20Is between then and September 2025.
The last three of those T20Is, against India, Oman and Pakistan in the T20 Asia Cup in 2025, came after September 8, and will be removed from his record.
[Cricinfo]
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