The Premier League could boast seven clubs in next season’s Champions League if all the right pieces fall into place – but now we know five will be guaranteed.
The extra place was sealed after Arsenal emerged 1-0 victors at Sporting in their quarter-final first leg, with Kai Havertz snatching a late winner in Lisbon.
It is the second consecutive year that the Premier League has earned an additional spot, with the English top flight at the pinnacle of the European Performance Standings.
Last term saw an unprecedented six English clubs qualify for Europe’s premier competition; five by their league position, while Tottenham earned their place in the league phase after winning the Europa League.
Yet that inflated contingent could grow even more this year, with the Premier League appearing as one of the more prominent beneficiaries to the competition’s expansion to 36 teams that came into effect at the beginning of 2024/25.
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As with every season, thetop four clubs in the Premier League table are guaranteed a spot in the 2026/27 edition – but like last year, England have earned an additional place.
That elusive fifth spot is earned by being one of the best-performing two nations in each season’s European club competitions. English teams performed particularly well in the Champions League league phase, which boosted their points tally in Uefa’s standings, and while last-16 exits of Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham threatened their ranking, Arsenal’s success has eased any fears of the Premier League being limited to four berths next term.
Chelsea secured Champions League qualification on the final day last term (Getty Images)
The Premier League will therefore definitely have a quintet of Champions League teams by the end of the campaign. Spots six and seven, however, require some optimistic hypothetical thinking to come true.
The Premier League will earn an extra spot at Europe’s top table if an English club outside the top five wins this season’s tournament.
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The winner of the Champions League would guarantee themselves a spot in the next campaign, as is always the case – but if that club has already qualified for the following edition via league position, that country will not get an extra spot.
That means Liverpool – who need to perform a comeback against Paris Saint-Germain in their quarter-final second leg on Tuesday – would need to win the Champions League but drop out of the top five for the Premier League to gain an additional place, as Arsenal will finish in the top five. Liverpool are currently fifth in the league, four points above Chelsea.
One of the Premier League’s underperformers would need to win the Champions League to add another spot (Reuters)
On top of that, the winner of the Europa League is also awarded a place in the Champions League, which assuming all of the above takes shape would bring the Premier League’s tally of qualified teams to the magic seven.
Aston Villa, who finished second in the league phase, are currently favourites to lift the title and will continue their European charge in the second leg of their quarter-final tie with Bologna, which they lead 3-1.
Aston Villa are among the favourites to win the Europa League (AFP via Getty Images)
However, Villa are currently fourth in the Premier League so would need Europa League glory to come at the expense of their top-five finish to the deliver a seventh qualification spot to England.
But the burden is not just on the Villans.
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Nottingham Forest, who are languishing at the other end of the Premier League table, also find themselves in the last-eight and face Porto in their return leg at the City Ground on Thursday, with their tie finely poised at 1-1.
Should Forest win the Europa League, they would ensure that English teams take another one of the 36 spots in next season’s Champions League.
Liverpool return to Anfield on Tuesday night needing to overturn a 2-0 deficit against Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain.
Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia scored in Paris to give PSG a commanding first-leg advantage, and Arne Slot must now decide how to set his side up for what could be a memorable European night—or a very short one.
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Alisson remains sidelined with a hamstring injury, meaning Giorgi Mamardashvili is expected to continue in goal.
Slot is expected to revert to a 4-3-3 after his three-man defensive experiment in Paris backfired, with Dominik Szoboszlai likely shifting to right-back.
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Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk are set to continue at centre-back, with Milos Kerkez on the left. Curtis Jones is almost certain to miss out after sustaining a groin injury against Fulham, opening the door for Alexis Mac Allister to come into midfield alongside Ryan Gravenberch.
The biggest selection dilemma is upfront. Mohamed Salah did not start in Paris but is expected to return to the XI at Anfield. Alexander Isak is fully fit after his long absence and could come off the bench, with Hugo Ekitike likely to lead the line from the start. Rio Ngumoha could feature from the left after scoring his first Anfield goal recently.
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Liverpool must score at least three goals without reply to progress in normal time—a tall order against a side that has kept clean sheets in each of their last three away games.
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Anfield has witnessed famous European comebacks before, but PSG arrive in better shape than almost any side previously dismantled here.
Slot will need his team to deliver arguably their most complete performance of the season.
MONTE-CARLO, MONACO – APRIL 10: Carlos Alcaraz of Spain celebrates after victory against Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan in the Men’s Singles Quarter Final match on day six of the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters at Monte-Carlo Country Club on April 10, 2026 in Monte-Carlo, Monaco. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Carlos Alcaraz is back in the Monte Carlo final after a 6-4, 6-4 win over Valentin Vacherot.
The win sends him to back-to-back finals in Monte Carlo and continues his strong run on clay.
With this result, Alcaraz becomes just the third man to reach 10 ATP Masters 1000 finals before turning 23, joining Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
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He has now won 15 straight matches at clay-court Masters events and is 26-1 on clay since 2025.
This will be his fifth Masters final on clay and the 10th of his career.
Alcaraz is in form, and Monte Carlo is proving it again.
Gary Neville has stuck to his guns with his prediction of this season’s Premier League winner despite results from Arsenal and Manchester City last weekend. Six points separate the pair of sides at the summit of the English top-flight following a dramatic weekend.
Mikel Arteta‘s Arsenal suffered a shock defeat at home to Bournemouth on Saturday as they missed an opportunity to go 12 points clear in the league. Manchester City took full advantage of their slip, doing their business efficiently in a 3-0 win over Chelsea on Sunday.
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Neville spoke on Sky Sports about the title race in England, pointing out that this year is undoubtedly Arsenal’s, judging by the amount of struggles they have faced to get to this stage. He admitted that the Gunners will not coast to the title in what remains of the season, but will find a way to get it over the line.
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“I do feel now is the time for Arsenal. I’m not going to go and say it’s now or never, but it does feel a bit like because if you’ve had five years of trying to climb that mountain, and you’ve just failed at that final hurdle each time, there has to be a moment where you get over the line.
Arsenal will crawl over the line. I don’t think they’ll get over the line easily, they might even lose next week, but I do think they’ve probably got a little bit of a cushion. Manchester City aren’t perfect, and Arsenal will just get there, but they’re in a lot more trouble than they were at 12.30pm on Saturday, when they were just about to kick off against Bournemouth”, he said.
Neville’s prediction will become much clearer in the coming weeks, as there are only six games left to play in the Premier League this season. City have a game in hand, and will host their rivals at the Etihad next weekend in what will be a six-pointer in the title race.
The Gunners have not won the Premier League since 2004 and have not won a major trophy since 2020. They have finished in second place in each of the last three league seasons, and will hope to end their trophy drought this season.
Manchester City defeat Chelsea to take advantage of Arsenal slip
Manchester City overcame Chelsea in their Premier League meeting at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, claiming a 3-0 win. Pep Guardiola‘s side kept their hopes of winning the Premier League alive in dominant fashion in London.
Following a scoreless first half, the visitors needed just six second half minutes to go ahead as Rayan Cherki crossed for Nico O’Reilly to head home. Their lead was doubled shortly after when Cherki showed off his quick feet before slipping a pass through to Marc Guehi, who scored his first league goal for the club.
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Manchester City made it 3-0 in the 68th minute, as Jeremy Doku took full advantage of a Moises Caicedo error to find the back of the net, sealing the win. The result in Stamford Bridge, coupled with Bournemouth’s win over the league leaders on Saturday, sets up a thrilling finale to the campaign.
In the final days of one of the longest seasons in Vancouver Canucks history, it’s like the players suddenly don’t want it to end.
For the second time in California in less than 24 hours, the Canucks were fully invested and engaged Sunday and beat a team with everything to play for in the playoff race, denying the Anaheim Ducks a chance to clinch their first Stanley Cup tournament berth in eight years by winning 4-3 in overtime.
The Canucks delivered a severe blow to the San Jose Sharks’ wild-card playoff hopes on Saturday by winning 4-3 in a shootout in Northern California.
The Ducks and Sharks, who will likely miss the playoffs for a seventh straight year, are the rebuilds frequently trumpeted as blueprints for the genre and teams the Canucks should try to emulate. But Vancouver, at the embryonic stage of its own rebuild, set back both opponents.
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Marco Rossi’s power-play one-timer with 10 seconds left in overtime blasted the Canucks to victory in Anaheim after Beckett Sennecke, part of the Ducks’ new young core, turned the puck over in his own zone, which led to Chris Kreider’s slash on Drew O’Connor at 2:53 of the extra session.
After the Canucks rallied three times to win in San Jose, forcing overtime on Teddy Blueger’s goal late in regulation time, Vancouver blew a 3-1 lead in the third period against Anaheim.
Canuck Brock Boeser forced John Carlson into a turnover and brilliantly finished a shorthanded breakaway at 4:28 to put the National Hockey League’s worst team up by two goals. But Cutter Gauthier fired through Vancouver goalie Nikita Tolopilo on the same power play 37 seconds later. And at 6:56, Leo Carlsson tied it 3-3 by flipping a rebound through a sprawling Tolopilo after Canucks defenceman Filip Hronek’s rim-around took an unlucky bounce and caromed straight to Kreider in the slot.
But with Anaheim fans chanting “We want the playoffs! We want the playoffs!”, the Canucks survived the rest of the Ducks’ third-period surge before Vancouver’s sizzling power play won it in OT. Losing the bonus point left the Ducks tied with the Edmonton Oilers for second place in the Pacific Division (but third on the tie-breaker), one point behind the Vegas Golden Knights. Each team has two games remaining.
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As impressive as the resilience the Canucks displayed after losing their lead with 13 minutes to go in regulation, their start was at least as encouraging as their finish.
Facing a rested, hungry Ducks team 19 hours after beating the Sharks about 600 kilometres away, the Canucks were physically and emotionally engaged from puck drop.
Blueger went back at tough Anaheim defenceman Radko Gudas for his heavy hit on Vancouver rookie Liam Ohgren on the second shift, then challenged and fought him later in the period despite being overmatched. Even Gudas was impressed, helping Blueger up off the ice after the tilt.
Defenceman Elias Pettersson (Junior) didn’t shy away from Alex Killorn in a scrum. And as the game got rough, Canucks enforcer Curtis Douglas won a fight against Jeffrey Viel.
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Importantly, even after Gauthier opened scoring for Anaheim just 3:41 into the game, five seconds after Blueger’s initial cross-checking penalty ended, the Canucks responded with goals by Douglas at 10:49 and Jake DeBrusk, on a power-play shot-pass from Rossi, at 14:37 to build a road lead Vancouver held until the third period.
With their first consecutive victories since December, the Canucks are playing like a team that doesn’t want the season to end. Or, at least, a team that doesn’t want it to end despairingly, without any positivity heading into a long summer.
“Yeah, they’re really fighting,” Foote told reporters in Anaheim before the game. “It’s a great group. They’re getting better and better, they’re working at it. You can almost feel the room, the energy, something shifted the last month or so and especially the last, you know, 10 days. I know they don’t want it to end.”
As exuberantly joyful as Douglas was at scoring his first NHL goal, it was difficult to tell after he swept in a loose puck at 10:49 who was the happiest Canuck on the ice. That’s how excited teammates were for the 26-year-old who spent five years in the minors before changing NHL teams twice this season on waivers.
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Aatu Raty wouldn’t let go of the six-foot-nine winger during the group hug in the corner, and Pettersson looked like he wanted to wrestle him. It was a special moment for Douglas, a point-per-game player at the end of his junior career, who grew up in Oakville, Ont., not dreaming of fighting in the NHL but scoring goals.
Analyst Dave Tomlinson smartly pointed out on Sportsnet’s broadcast that all six Canucks on the ice for the goal — Douglas, Raty, Pettersson, Tolopilo, Ty Mueller and Kirill Kudryavtsev — were in the American Hockey League last season.
Playing his first NHL game this year, and the third of his career, defence callup Kudryavtsev earned his first NHL point by shooting from the point, the shot bouncing to Douglas off Raty. Kudryavtsev, 22, finished plus-one in 14:17 of ice time, with a 6-2 shots advantage at five-on-five and expected-goals-for of 77.8 per cent.
No team successfully rebuilds without veterans to help teach the kids, and the Canucks should seriously consider re-signing both Douglas and Blueger before they leave as unrestricted free agents this summer. Games like Sunday’s illustrate why leadership and toughness remain such important elements with so many young players in the lineup.
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In 23 games since the Olympic break — and since Rossi returned to the Canucks fully healthy — Vancouver is 18-for-55 on the power play (without a shorthanded goal against) for a success rate of 32.7 per cent that ranks second in the NHL during that time.
The power play was 4-for-7 on the weekend and a huge factor in both wins. But we were surprised not to see Jake DeBrusk used on either unit in overtime after he scored his fifth power-play goal in seven games in the first period. DeBrusk is fourth in the NHL this season with 18 PPGs.
When retiring Hockey Night in Canada reporter and After Hours host Scott Oake was invited into the Canucks’ dressing room before his final show Saturday in San Jose, the team gave him more than a jersey and an engraved silver puck. The Canucks are also making a $50,000 donation to the Anne Oake Family Recovery Centre in Winnipeg.
Scott and Anne lost their son to addiction in 2011, then founded the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre for men in an effort to change how drug addiction is treated in Canada. A retired nurse, Anne Oake succumbed to cancer in 2021. The new treatment centre in her name will allow women who have children to seek help without fear of being separated from their kids.
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“It caught me completely by surprise, something I never expected,” Scott said Sunday night of the donation. “We appreciate every dollar we get, but we depend on significant donations like this, and it will help save lives. For the Canucks to do this, I’m really touched.”
He said construction on the Anne Oake Family Recovery Centre begins in May and the 75-bed facility should be completed by the end of 2027.
Fabio Wardley has targeted an opponent that would bring together arguably the two biggest punchers in the entire division.
After beating Joseph Parker to get his hands on the WBO Interim title, it seemed as though Wardley would next collide with then-undisputed ruler Oleksandr Usyk. However, the Ukrainian instead opted to vacate his belt, with Wardley subsequently being upgraded to full WBO world champion.
Although, if Usyk changes those plans, Wardley has another option in mind, in the form of former WBC heavyweight world champion Deontay Wilder, telling The Stomping Ground of his wish to fight and defend his title across the pond.
“We would love to [fight Wilder]. He was one that was on the list before Daniel, both him and [Derek] Chisora funnily enough.
“I have ticked off a lot of milestones in my career but one thing that I haven’t done is fought in America and done one of the big ones [venues], whether that be MSG, whether that be in Las Vegas.
“If I am going to do that, I need a big name to do it with and who better at the moment, in terms of my division and in America, than Deontay Wilder.”
Wilder is widely regarded as one of the biggest punchers in boxing history, with 43 of his 45 wins coming by knockout, though he had to settle for a rare points victory when he defeated Derek Chisora earlier this month.
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Wardley has established himself as a massive puncher in his own right, with 19 of his 20 wins ending inside the distance. If a fight against Wilder came to fruition, Wardley went on to promise that there will be fireworks but, ultimately, he will score a ‘decisive’ win.
“I would be more of that [what we saw in Wilder-Chisora], just a lot cleaner and probably a bit more of decisive victory for me.”
It seems unlikely but is still technically possible.
The Central Glamorgan Rugby Union (CGRU) initially succeeded in receiving the required 10% of backing from Welsh clubs to call the EGM.
It had proposed three motions, which included a vote of no-confidence in WRU chair Collier-Keywood and Professional Rugby Board (PRB) chair Malcolm Wall.
The third motion involved governance changes which included how the four council WRU members – who sit on the governing body’s board – are elected.
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It has since been announced both Collier-Keywood and Wall will be leaving their respective roles. Former Harlequins chairman Wall has been replaced on an interim basis by Marianne Okland, while the process has been started to replace Collier-Keywood.
Following the announcement of those departures, the CGRU wrote to clubs stating it would withdraw the motions and believed the EGM should be cancelled.
The WRU rejected calls for the meeting to be called off, saying legal obligations dictate it must go ahead.
The governing body wrote to member clubs to check if any object to the resolutions being withdrawn from the EGM, given that 40 of the original 50 member clubs that requisitioned the meeting proactively withdrew their support.
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If clubs responded to this letter requesting to keep the resolutions on the table, the EGM will open with all members being asked to consent to the withdrawal of the resolutions.
If consent is not obtained, the EGM will continue as originally planned and members will vote on the three resolutions.
If no objections are received, the EGM will take place as an informal meeting which will include a WRU presentation about the “future of rugby in Wales” followed by an open discussion.
Clubs can attend in person at the Principality Stadium or online with at least 95 clubs needed in order for the meeting to begin without delay, if resolutions are to be considered.
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WRU board members will be in attendance. Whether outgoing Collier-Keywood – now effectively a “lame duck” chair – is present or speaks remains to be seen, with WRU chief executive Abi Tierney and director of rugby Dave Reddin the other key figures.
AUGUSTA, Ga. — When someone witnesses a catastrophe, several interesting things happen in the brain in an instant.
The autonomic nervous system floods the body with adrenaline and cortisol, speeding up sensory processing in the amygdala and supercharging memory encoding — basically turning the brain into a vector for documentation. Occasionally, this physiological response causes a phenomenon called “tonic immobility,” where the witness of a traumatic event does not flee or fight, but freezes.
In this situation, the witness is helpless — trapped in a moment of unforgivable horror, incapable of doing anything to alter the situation, and undergoing a moment of physiological stress in which their brain is uniquely attenuated to remember every gory detail.
This is the unfortunate situation that befell a few hundred patrons on the side of the 13th hole on Sunday afternoon at the Masters, when Haotong Li endured the worst 30 minutes of his golfing life, then recorded a score that both torpedoed his tournament and defied belief: A quintuple-bogey 10.
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The trauma began fairly innocuously. On his second shot from the fairway, Li overcooked his 3-wood approach into the winding section of Rae’s Creek that frames the hole. Under normal circumstances, the situation facing him would be fairly simple: Recover the ball from the creek, take a drop on dry land no nearer to the hole, and play the wedge approach shot into the green.
Except, as fate would have it, Li’s approach did not arrive under normal circumstances. Rather than settling inside the tributary, his ball ricocheted off a large rock and took an ugly bounce left, nestling deep into the bushes further up the hill on the far side of the creek.
Li sauntered down the fairway without too much concern — but realized his bad luck as soon as he arrived at the scene of the crime. Li’s caddie, Jady de Beer, drew the short straw, dropping the bag and stumbling across Rae’s Creek as he entered the bushes in pursuit of the ball.
After a few hapless seconds, the patrons on the far side of the fairway took pity on the caddie and began to shout instructions en masse, directing de Beer toward the golf ball, which he eventually recovered. (Left, left! Up! Higher!) After a long conversation, Li grabbed a wedge and headed across the river to survey the lie in the trees.
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This might have seemed like a good idea to both parties at the time of the decision, but it seemed quite clear to everybody on the opposite side of the fairway that it was an unforgivable error because it introduced a powerful, terrifying force: temptation. The ball was almost assuredly unplayable; Li seemed like he’d be better served to return to his previous spot than take on any additional risk. But after some more chatter, Li ignored the gallery’s better judgment and settled in for his chip from the middle of the hedges by straddling a bush and battling a thicket of branches just to get his club on the ground.
Finally, he swung, and the crowd’s worst fears were realized. The ball traveled less than 15 feet, on an angle roughly perpendicular to the direction he’d intended to hit his ball, and settled even further into the crap.
It was around this time that myself and my colleague, cv vDylan Dethier, realized we might be on the brink of witnessing something not just bad, but truly horrific. Li’s ball had been in hell. Now it was somewhere worse. He no longer had the option to return to the site of his original tee shot. Instead he could take several club lengths and get a drop that way.
Li appeared to realize this himself as his mind finally adjusted and he recovered the ball in the bushes. He spent a little while attempting to settle into a stance in this new, worse lie — at one point taking dead-aim at the group of onlookers — before giving a dejected look at his ball and stepping away.
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At long last, and to the great relief of those seated potentially within low-laser-to-the-shins range, he decided to take a drop, which was when a new character entered our story for the first time: The rules official, who’d been serving as innocent bystander up to this point.
The problem was that Li appeared to pick his ball up off the ground, like a kid might pluck a dandelion, but he was not actually in a penalty area. The red lines demarcating said area were behind him; he’d just picked his ball up from live action, or at least that’s how it appeared from our vantage point, and so the rules official reacted like Li had just cut the wrong wire on a pipe bomb, furiously waving the golfer back into place so that he could take a proper drop from the location in deeper-hell. Put another way: You’re not allowed to do that.
Eventually, the rules official and Li worked out a solution — though the official still seemed impressively anxious about the whole affair — and after a few more long walks zig-zagging Rae’s creek, Li had taken a proper unplayable drop, sourced a proper golf club, and was prepared to play a shot advancing his ball up in the general direction of the green. (An aside: At one point during the zig-zagging, de Beer realized he’d left the bag roughly 30 yards behind where it needed to be, and began running back to gather it at pretty close to full speed. Two thoughts on that decision: 1. There is no running at Augusta National. 2. It’d been around 15 minutes since he’d first entered the creek when he started the sprint, which struck me as an unusual time to begin caring about pace of play.)
Haotong Li in the moment of disaster.
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Li played his pitch shot, though he used a surprisingly full swing and sent it high over the trees and long and left of the green, landing mercifully on the safe side of Rae’s Creek. The crowd, which was at this point equal parts dismayed and totally stunned, responded with an Augusta National first: A Bronx cheer for the golfer, who quickly escaped from the wrong side of Rae’s Creek and up in the direction of the green.
It was only now, pretty close to 25 full minutes after Haotong Li had first entered the wilderness, that the crowd’s attention turned to the other golfer sharing the hole with him: World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who was preparing to hit what might be described as the single most consequential shot of his entire Masters week, a pitch shot to set up a must-make birdie to cut the deficit from leader Rory McIlroy to 2.
Say what you will about Scheffler’s recent snippiness with the press and himself, the man handled the first act of Li’s disaster with the patience of a saint. He’d paced back and forth on the fairway, up to the green, back behind his ball, and now he hustled up to the ball and hit a good — if not great — pitch to roughly 11 feet.
Scheffler might have reasonably expected that his birdie putt might arrive soon after that pitch shot. Common sense would dictate Li playing his next shot with some eagerness, considering the delay his misfortune had already caused. Justin Rose was waiting in the fairway by now, after all. But Li hadn’t demonstrated much urgency at any point throughout the process and wasn’t about to start now.
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Li certainly may have hoped this part would wrap up fast. Instead he made a short, aggressive stroke with his putter toward the tucked Sunday pin location and it became clear that his disaster was only beginning. Li watched in a state of mesmerized disbelief as his ball rolled past the hole, espast his flagstick-tending caddie, past the edge of the green and all the way into the water.
It was around this time that the crowd reacted as if it had literally seen a collision, letting out the kind of low, horrified, disbelieving grunt one might hear after metal on metal, or discovering a cockroach infestation.
It’s unclear what Scheffler was thinking around this time, but his inner-dialogue probably didn’t get any more forgiving after Li’s eighth shot — which was another putt from the same location as the first putt into the water, though it traveled only about half the distance to the hole — nor his ninth, which missed the hole on the low side. Somehow Scheffler’s playing partner had managed to take eight shots between Scheffler’s second on the 13th and his birdie try, which also missed on the low side.
Thankfully, by the time the ball got within striking distance of the hole on his 9th stroke, Li was no longer trying to maintain the artifice of taking his time. He practically ran to place his mark behind his ball, clearing the runway for Scheffler. And then practically ran up to hit his tap-in, which fell into the hole for a truly breathtaking quintuple-bogey 10 … and elicited a second Bronx cheer from the Amen Corner faithful.
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Li, to his credit, was a good sport about the debacle, holding his hands to the sky in mock-celebration after finally escaping with a 10. And CBS, to its credit, was a good sport about it too, choosing not to show Li’s fall from 5 under and in-the-thick-of-it to even par and deeply dismayed.
But to those who watched the action from up close, the journey was a horrifying exercise in the kind of trauma only Augusta National can inflict.
The pain of the moment was real for Haotong Li, but the memory was even realer for those who saw it up close, and who will now live their lives trying to forget.
“I always thought I wanted to play this hole,” one of the victims said Sunday afternoon. “Now I’m not so sure.”
BBC Sport Northern Ireland’s Stephen Watson gets an exclusive interview with back-to-back Masters champion Rory McIlroy at Augusta National.
The 36-year-old from Northern Ireland became only the fourth player in history to win consecutive Masters titles on Sunday with a one-shot victory over American Scottie Scheffler.
MONTE-CARLO, MONACO – APRIL 11: Jannik Sinner of Italy celebrates after winning match point against Alexander Zverev of Germany during the Men’s Singles Semi Final match on day seven of the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters at Monte-Carlo Country Club on April 11, 2026 in Monte-Carlo, Monaco. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Jannik Sinner is in the Monte Carlo finals after a 6-1, 6-4 win over Alexander Zverev.
The result marks his fourth consecutive Masters 1000 final and extends his run to 21 straight match wins.
He has also now won 42 of his last 43 sets at the Masters level, along with an eighth straight win over Zverev.
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After the match, Sinner said:
“We came here trying to give myself some feedback. Now finding myself in the final means a lot to me.”
“Every match every day is different. I’m very happy about today’s performance. I felt really solid from the beginning. When you’re a break up straight away it changes the dynamic of the match. Very happy. Let’s see what’s coming in the final.”
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The Italian is now into his 12th Masters final and his second on clay, with this being his first in Monte Carlo.
He is now on a 16-match winning streak and has won 38 of his last 40 matches.
Sinner also joins Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic as the only players to reach the finals of Indian Wells, Miami, and Monte Carlo in the same season.
New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel and NFL reporter Dianna Russini have been in the news after their pictures from a resort in Arizona were published by the New York Post.
Russini is reportedly being investigated by The Athletic following the release of the pictures. Amid the investigation and rumors of her alleged affair, NFL commentator Colin Cowherd reflected on the moral and ethical aspects of the controversy. Cowherd said on his podcast (timestamp 20:00 onwards):
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“If you’re winning in the NFL as a football coach, and Vrabel took a team to the Super Bowl that had no business being in the Super Bowl. If these allegations, all we have is pictures. Just pictures, right? So it’s just a moral issue if the allegations are true. With Diana, it’s moral and ethical, because she has in her contract, there are standards and procedures from the New York Times.
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“I mean, they fired Jason Blair was a reporter. I don’t talk about the moral stuff. What I’m trying to tell people is, don’t confuse moral and ethical. Diana’s in a space where it’s moral and ethical. Mike’s is moral if, and again, these are allegations. That’s the other reason I don’t talk about it. But I do want to create or provide clarity on that… So I’m supporting the mainstream media.”
Vrabel and Russini were seen interacting near the pool at an Arizona resort. While The Athletic initially defended Russini, the journalist has been sidelined from reporting amid her ongoing investigation.
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