Aryna Sabalenka became the first player to win the Wuhan Open three times with a hard-fought win over Zheng Qinwen in Sunday’s final.
The 26-year-old Belarusian was taken to three sets by China’s Zheng in a thrilling rematch of this year’s Australian Open final, in which she also claimed victory.
Sabalenka clinched her fourth women’s singles title of the year 6-3 5-7 6-3 and remains undefeated in Wuhan.
“That sounds crazy,” she said. “This place definitely feels like home.
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“I am pretty sure we are going to play many more finals against one another.”
Top seed Sabalenka took the opening set in just 38 minutes, but Zheng mounted her comeback in a gripping second to force a decider.
There, Zheng found herself 3-0 down, and while she pulled two games back, lost her serve again as Sabalenka broke for a 5-2 lead.
The world number two failed to serve out the match as Zheng broke back to love, but finally wrapped up her 17th career title on her third championship point.
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Reigning Olympic gold medallist Zheng, who became the first Chinese player to reach a WTA 1000 final, has now lost all four of her meetings against the three-time Grand Slam champion.
“Next time I will be better,” she said.
Sabalenka is now unbeaten in 17 consecutive matches in Wuhan, breaking Petra Kvitova’s record for the most at the tournament.
The win adds to a successful year in which she won both the Australian Open and US Open and appeared in seven singles finals.
To be clear, that’s not from a lack of interest on Masvidal’s side. Prior to his retirement from MMA in 2023, the UFC’s first-ever “BMF” champion called for a showdown with McGregor numerous times. Now that he’s planning to return to action sometime in late 2024 or early 2025, Masvidal sees a lot of possibilities for his first fight back, but he highly doubts McGregor ever competes again after sitting out for the past three-plus years.
“We’ll see him at a bar and shit,” Masvidal responded to MMA Fighting when asked if we’ll see McGregor again. “Are you talking about in the cage? Like as an official or to be judges? You mean fighting? I don’t think so. I hope he proves me wrong but I don’t think so.”
McGregor has been teasing his comeback for well over a year already after he healed up from a devastating broken leg suffered in his trilogy fight against Masvidal’s longtime teammate and friend, Dustin Poirier.
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Following his recovery, McGregor coached on The Ultimate Fighter opposite Michael Chandler with a fight originally expected between them sometime in 2023. Instead, a broken toe forced McGregor to withdraw from their scheduled meeting at UFC 303 this past June.
There were rumors swirling that perhaps McGregor could fight before the end of 2024 but UFC CEO Dana White nixed those plans and instead pointed towards 2025 for the Irish superstar to return. With each passing day more and more doubts are creeping in about whether or not McGregor will actually return and Masvidal knows with absolute certainty that he won’t be the opponent if that happens.
“Conor, under no circumstances, is fighting me,” Masvidal said. “He’s backed out of fighting Chandler — poor little Chandler, I don’t know how many times he let that dude eat dust. Imagine me?
“That guy is never fighting me. He can’t do enough cocaine to f*cking get [jacked] up to fight me.”
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If McGregor remains absent from the UFC, Masvidal wouldn’t mind taking his place in the fight against Chandler, although he sees that as just one of many options open to him.
Chandler has been out of action for nearly two years in anticipation of fighting McGregor and Masvidal doubts that ever comes to fruition. If Chandler finally wants to return to action, Masvidal invites him to a fight where he should know without a shadow of a doubt that the opponent will show up.
“That wouldn’t be a bad fight to get my feet wet again with MMA,” Masvidal said about fighting Chandler. “Kind of an introductory course to MMA. I wouldn’t mind that fight. But there’s a lot of fights that I would take. I was just throwing that one out there.
“You can’t sit in silence forever. Let’s go. You want to throw down with one of the most f*cking electrifying motherf*ckers that ever touched the sport? Let’s f*cking go.”
Relive some of the most thrilling moments from the 2024 NLDS series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres, a matchup that stands out as one of the most dramatic in MLB playoff history.
The four-inch curbing at Turn 16 is no more, just hours before the start of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series elimination race at Charlotte. The corner apex, which was extended before the race weekend, created a narrower final corner.
Commonly called ‘turtles’ or ‘sausage kerbs’ elsewhere in the world, drivers were aggressively running over the top of the curbs during practice in qualifying, and later complained about how violent the hits were. For example, Martin Truex Jr. compared it to getting a concussion.
As a result, NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports have replaced the red and white curbing with rumble strips that are just 2.25 inches from the track surface. A similar move was made at the bus stop chicane at Watkins Glen between 2023 and 2024 for the same reason.
Updated rumble strips to Turn 16
Drivers will be held accountable for abusing track limits across the new curbing. Vehicles must run the full course at all times and a driver will be penalized for cutting the final chicane in the following situation: “You will be judged as missing or short-cutting any turn previously described when all four tires on the non-track side of the red and white rumble strips that define the apex of the turns.”
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Similar to when drivers miss either the frontstretch or backstretch chicane, they must then come to a full stop at one of the designated locations or face a pass-through penalty. If there’s not enough time left in the race, a 30-second time penalty will be assessed.
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Australia have been imperious in the tournament so far, but their preparations for this game were hampered by injuries to Healy and Tayla Vlaeminck.
Fast bowler Vlaeminck is out of the tournament with a dislocated shoulder but Healy – who arrived at the stadium on crutches – has not been ruled out and will continue to have a foot injury assessed.
But such is Australia’s strength in depth those injuries failed to disrupt their seemingly unstoppable march towards a seventh Women’s T20 World Cup title.
The Southern Stars were reduced to 17-2 when Renuka Singh Thakur removed Beth Mooney and Georgia Wareham in successive balls, only for Harris and McGrath put on 62 for the third wicket.
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Another wobble saw Australia slip from 79-2 to 101-5 but Perry and Phoebe Litchfield, whose 15 from nine balls included a booming six over square leg, helped them finish with a flourish.
India began aggressively and reached 41-2 at the end of the powerplay, ahead of where Australia were at the same stage.
They were smothered by Australia’s spinners in the middle overs before a fourth-wicket partnership worth 63 between Harmanpreet and Deepti Sharma, who hit 29 from 25, raised hopes of a spectacular win.
Despite falling just short, India could still reach the semi-finals. But if they are eliminated it will be their performances earlier in the tournament and not here that did the damage.
LAS VEGAS – UFC gold if the goal for Chidi Njokuani, but he understands several steps need to be taken before that can turn into reality.
The UFC veteran is now 2-0 since dropping to the welterweight division, as he defeated Jared Gooden in a unanimous decision in the main card of Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 244. Now, Njokuani (24-10 MMA, 4-3 UFC) wants to test himself against the top 15 of the division in hopes to get closer to his ultimate goal.
“I’ll fight whoever, but I’m looking for somebody in the top 15 – maybe a bigger name, so I can start rising up in the rankings and getting my name out there a little more,” Njokuani said at the UFC Fight Night 244 post-fight press conference. “I’ll fight whoever. If a good opportunity comes by soon, I’ll take it. I’ll just go back with my management and see how they feel about everything.”
Njokuani, 35, has almost seen it all now 35 fights into his professional MMA career. Although some may dismiss his title chances, he believes there’s still time for him to get to a UFC title.
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“It may sound crazy to a lot of people, but I’m shooting for that title shot,” Njokuani said. “I still believe I can get it.”
The first part of Southgate’s application was centred around building a new water treatment plant.
Within the application it was highlighted that for the new treatment plant, a pine tree would have to make way.
The stone wall, meanwhile, will be dismantled and rebuilt in as accurate a fashion as possible – with each individual stone even being numbered in a bid to achieve an authentic rebuild.
How would Southgate and Tuchel transform Man Utd flops and who is best for job?
In an appearance at the European Club Association general assembly in Athens, when he was asked about his next potential job, Southgate said: “Firstly I’m enjoying my life…so there’s no rush.
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“I was 11 years committing myself fully to the FA and I’ve got lots of different experiences.
“But I won’t coach in the next year, for sure. I’m certain of that.
“I need to give myself time to make good decisions. When you come out of a really big role you need to give your body time, you need to give your mind time.”
Southgate vs Tuchel records compared
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THOMAS TUCHEL
Augsburg II2007-2008
P34 W 20 D8 L6 Win percentage: 58.82%
Mainz 052009-2014
P184 W72 D46 L66 Win percentage: 39.13%
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Borussia Dortmund2015-2017
P107 W67 D23 L17 Win percentage: 62.62%
Honours: DFB Pokal
Paris Saint Germain2018-2020
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P127 W95 D13 L16 Win percentage: 74.8%
Honours: Ligue 1 X2, Coupe de France, Coupe de la Ligue, Trophee des Champions x2
Chelsea 2021-2022
P100 W60 D24 L16 Win percentage: 60%
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Honours: Champions League, Super Cup, Club World Cup
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