After years of near-misses and a long spell outside the world’s top 100, Britain’s Harriet Dart has finally landed the Harriet Dart WTA title she dreamed about as a child. The 30-year-old came through qualifying in Guangzhou and beat Austrian teenager Lilli Tagger 4-6 6-3 6-4 in the final of the WTA 250 event.

A final that swung on one missed forehand

It was Dart’s first tour-level final, and it did not go smoothly. She dropped serve in the opening game and lost the first set to fourth seed Tagger, the 18-year-old who won the 2025 junior French Open. Dart levelled the match by taking the first break point she saw in the second set, for 5-3.

The decider was a scrappy, nerve-jangling affair, with five consecutive breaks of serve. Dart twice saw a lead wiped out before she broke again to go 4-3 up, then saved two break points to hold for 5-3. She earned two championship points on Tagger’s serve in the next game. Tagger saved the first with a big serve, and Dart put a mid-court forehand into the net on the second.

She did not let it linger. Dart served out the match, sealing it with an unreturned serve, and fell onto her back on the court before celebrating with her team. “It’s crazy to be sitting here as champion after coming through qualifying,” she told BBC Sport.

Built on resilience

The run was defined by comebacks. Dart saved three match points in her semi-final against China’s Sun Xinran, and her win over Tagger was the fourth time in seven matches that she came back after losing the opening set. “This week shows that even when I’m down – and people think I’m down and out – I’m still able to overcome it,” she said.

That fighting quality has been central to a strong second half of the season. Dart has won 19 of her 24 tour-level hard-court matches since Wimbledon. Her record for the year is now 23 wins from 34 matches, the highest winning percentage of her career. Reports credit her work with former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli as a significant factor in the turnaround.

What the Harriet Dart WTA title changes

The result matters beyond the trophy. Dart, the British number five, was ranked 115th before the final. She reached a career high of 70th in 2024, when she made the Wimbledon third round and the US Open second round, but has spent most of the past two seasons outside the top 100. When the new rankings are released on Monday, she will be back inside it.

That also secures her direct entry into the main draw of the Australian Open in January, so she will not have to play qualifying at the first Grand Slam of the season.

Tagger, who beat seven-time major champion Venus Williams on her way to the final and is ranked 53rd, was gracious in defeat. “It wasn’t fun to be on the other side of the court today – you’ve had an amazing year,” she told Dart. Dart returned the compliment, saying she had “no doubt Lilli will go on and win multiple titles”.

For Dart, the week was about more than ranking points. “Since I was a little girl, lifting a trophy on the WTA Tour has been something I’ve dreamt of,” she said. “To be able to finally do it is amazing.” She added that she hopes to return to Guangzhou next year.

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File photo: Dart RGQ23.jpg by si.robi, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Ciara Mageean, the Irish middle-distance runner who won European 1500m gold in Rome in 2024 and competed at two Olympic Games, has died at the age of 34. Her family announced that she died at 6.30am on Sunday, surrounded by her loved ones, after a battle with cancer.

The news came just days after a celebration of her marriage to long-term partner Thomas Moran. According to the sources, the couple had a small civil ceremony in Belfast in October. They then celebrated with family and friends at Darver Castle in County Louth on 25 October, a week before her death.

A champion from Portaferry

Born in Portaferry, County Down, Mageean played camogie for her local club before an ambition to reach the Olympics steered her towards athletics. Her junior record showed the promise early. She won 1500m silver at the 2010 World Junior Championships and again at the 2011 European Junior Championships, and she reached the Commonwealth Games 1500m final at 18.

The senior years were harder. A serious ankle injury ended her hopes of competing at London 2012, and she needed surgery in 2013. She came back to win the Irish 1500m title in 2014, and in 2016 she took European bronze in Amsterdam. Her Olympic debut in Rio ended at the semi-final stage. At Tokyo, a calf injury disrupted her preparation and she went out in the heats.

Her best years came later. In 2022 she won 1500m silver at both the European Championships and the Commonwealth Games, behind Laura Muir each time. Two weeks after the Euros she beat Muir in a strong field at the Diamond League meeting in Brussels. In 2023 she finished fourth in the World Championships final in Budapest and took the Irish mile record from Sonia O’Sullivan. She also held national records over 800m and 1000m.

The Rome victory that defined Ciara Mageean’s career

After a run of near-misses at major championships, Mageean finally won a global-level title in Rome in 2024. Boxed in behind the Great Britain pair of Georgia Bell and Jemma Reekie in the final, she found a gap and drove down the home straight to win in 4:04.66. The victory made her the first individual Irish European champion since O’Sullivan, and it completed a set of European outdoor medals after her bronze in 2016 and silver in 2022. She had long been admired for honest, emotional post-race interviews, and she said afterwards that “words can’t even come close” to describing the moment.

The Paris Olympics brought more heartbreak. An Achilles injury forced her to withdraw on the eve of her heat.

Facing illness in public

Mageean was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer in 2025. The sources differ slightly on the timing: the BBC puts the diagnosis in May 2025, while Yahoo Sports says she announced it that July. She kept many details private for a long time. In June this year, while promoting her memoir, My Greatest Race, she revealed that her oncologist had given her two to three years to live.

She did not withdraw from public life. She filmed an adventure series in Costa Rica and explained why in plain terms: “If I’m going to die, I’m going to fit as much living into the years that I have left.” In another interview she said she was not scared to die but did not want it to happen soon. She also told the BBC she was grateful for a career “that many others didn’t get to have”.

Tributes across the island of Ireland

Political and sporting figures from both sides of the border paid tribute. Taoiseach Micheál Martin spoke of his deep sadness. Tánaiste Simon Harris called the news heartbreaking and praised the honesty with which she spoke about her illness. Irish President Catherine Connolly pointed to her “strength and perseverance” and her clear speaking. She also noted her advocacy for people suffering in Gaza and other conflicts.

Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill said that beyond the medals and records, Mageean would be remembered for her “warmth, courage and tremendous strength of character”. Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly described her as an outstanding ambassador for her sport. Athletics Ireland, which named her its Athlete of the Year in 2022, said it was heartbroken. Broadcaster Patrick Kielty called her “a champion of others who showed us all how to live”.

Down GAA stressed that she never lost her sense of place. It said she cheered on club and county when she could and sent messages of support, and that she “showed us courage, positivity and the value of life”.

Her family’s statement ended with a traditional Irish blessing. For a runner whose career was shaped by injuries and near-misses before it peaked in Rome, the response suggests she mattered to people well beyond the sport. Ciara Mageean leaves a husband, parents, family and friends, and an Irish athletics record book she rewrote.

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File photo: Irish middle distance runner Ciara Mageean in 2020.jpg by Bob Ramsak, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The headline news at Villa Park on Saturday night was that Goretzka starts for Aston Villa against Fulham, and the early evidence suggests the hosts have made the most of a tricky fixture. A live scoreboard snapshot from Sky Sports showed Villa 1-0 up, with N Jackson credited with the goal in the 39th minute.

What the sources tell us about Goretzka starts

The detail behind the headline is thin. The live blog page was unavailable when the source was captured, so there is no confirmed team sheet, formation or description of the role Leon Goretzka was given. The fact that Goretzka starts comes from that live coverage’s title alone. Nothing in the material examined explains how he has performed or why the manager chose him, so any claim about his influence on the game would be speculation.

Why the match was moved to Saturday night

The Premier League game was played at 8pm on Saturday 31 October. It was brought forward from Sunday because Villa travel to Barcelona in the Champions League on Tuesday, according to the Mirror. That context helps explain why a rotation-minded manager might freshen the side, though the sources do not say that is what happened here. In the UK the game is on Sky Sports, with coverage from 7.45pm. In the United States it is on Peacock from 4pm ET.

Form guide: ninth against 15th

The table gave Villa a mild edge before kick-off. They sat ninth after eight league games, with three wins, two draws and three defeats. Fulham were 15th with two wins, two draws and four losses. A home win would extend that gap, while a Fulham fightback would add to the uncertainty around Villa’s start to the season.

Off the pitch, the Mirror noted that manager Unai Emery has been linked with Manchester United, a story that drew a sharp public response from pundit Jamie Carragher. The sources do not suggest it affected Saturday’s preparations.

A busy Premier League Saturday

Villa’s game was one of several on a crowded day. Earlier, Chelsea hosted Manchester United at 12.30pm BST, a match billed as pivotal for both clubs. United were winless in eight games in all competitions, and Michael Carrick was still in charge despite expectations that a 3-0 loss to Bournemouth would end his tenure. Villa’s own result matters in that wider table picture, though the sources do not say how much.

The 1-0 scoreline is only a snapshot from before half-time, and the final outcome is not confirmed by any of the material reviewed. What can be said is that Goretzka starts, Jackson has put Villa ahead, and Fulham have work to do in the second half.

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File photo: Leon Goretzka Ecuador v Germany 25 June 2026-159.jpg by Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Talk of a Makhachev retirement has moved from rumor to something close to a stated plan. UFC welterweight champion Islam Makhachev said on X that his next fight will be “one of the last in my career,” a remark that has put a rough timeline on the end of one of the most dominant runs in the sport’s history.

What Makhachev actually said

The 35-year-old Russian stopped short of announcing an exact exit date. He framed the next bout as a final statement. “They say Prates is too dangerous for me and Morales is too good for me,” he wrote. “So I want to face the best of them and prove to the world once again who is the best in the world.” That means he is targeting the winner of the interim welterweight title fight between Brazil’s Carlos Prates and Ecuador’s Michael Morales.

The wording matters. “One of the last” leaves room for more than one fight, so this is not a formal retirement announcement. Still, it is his clearest signal yet that the end of his career is near.

A record streak and a near-perfect résumé

Makhachev arrives at this point with a strong case for being one of the greatest fighters the UFC has produced. He beat Ireland’s Ian Machado Garry by unanimous decision at UFC 330 in Philadelphia in August to defend his welterweight belt. It was his 17th straight UFC win, which took him past Anderson Silva’s long-standing record for the longest streak in the promotion’s history. The former lightweight champion is 29-1 overall and is ranked the UFC’s pound-for-pound number one.

UFC chief Dana White has said Makhachev is “on the right path” to being regarded as the promotion’s greatest ever. A Makhachev retirement while still champion, and still unbeaten in the UFC for years, would give that argument a tidy ending.

The scheduling dispute behind the interim title

The announcement comes amid a public disagreement over timing. White said Makhachev was originally due to defend against Prates in January but chose to wait until after Ramadan. Al Jazeera reports that Makhachev will observe the holy month in February and early March 2027 and return in the second quarter.

White was blunt about it. “On average, Islam fights like once a year,” he said, adding that “you can’t hold up divisions like this.” He created the interim title bout to keep the division moving, saying the fight “makes sense.” The champion has since described it as the way to find “the true worthy contender.”

The fighters who will decide his next opponent

Prates and Morales meet on 30 January 2027 at UFC 336 in Toronto, where Al Jazeera says the fight is the co-main event. Prates, 33, has knocked out his last three opponents. Morales, 27, is 19-0 as a professional. One is a proven finisher and the other is unbeaten, which gives Makhachev the style contrast he seems to want for a closing chapter.

The remaining questions are practical. It is unclear how many fights Makhachev has in mind, and the dates for his return depend on the interim result and his Ramadan break. For now, the Makhachev retirement story rests on a single sentence from the champion, but it gives fans a likely end point for a record-setting career.

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File photo: Islam Makhachev 2022 UFC belt.png by Новости ННТ, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

A thousandth of a second separated Lando Norris from Kimi Antonelli at the top of the timesheets in Mexico GP final practice, and it left the weekend’s pole-position fight wide open. The reigning world champion edged the man poised to succeed him, with the result landing just hours before qualifying at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

A margin too small to read anything into

Antonelli had set the benchmark with a 1m17.601s, shortly after voicing his irritation over Max Verstappen getting in his way at Turn 1. He looked set to improve, going purple in the first sector of his next push, but never completed the lap. That gave Norris the opening, and the McLaren driver took it by the narrowest possible margin to post the fastest time of the weekend so far.

Charles Leclerc was 0.117s back in third after a late improvement, with Norris’s team-mate Oscar Piastri fourth. Verstappen, struggling with his brakes, was fifth and 0.351s off the pace. Sky Sports described a “genuine three-team fight” for pole, while Autosport pointed to the closeness of the four leading teams.

Ferrari’s potential versus its practice pace

Leclerc had led both Friday sessions, so third place felt like a step back for Ferrari. Lewis Hamilton had lost track time in FP2 with engine trouble but briefly topped the medium-tyre runs on Saturday morning with a 1m18.162s. An untidy final sector on his soft-tyre lap left him sixth, more than four tenths adrift. Mercedes’ George Russell was seventh, having complained of a lack of grip at Turn 12, the right-hander leading into the Foro Sol stadium.

Sky Sports’ analysts argued Ferrari still hold more potential than they showed. Leclerc was visibly sliding the car on most of his flying laps, and Jamie Chadwick said the team struggled to deliver on the first soft-tyre laps, “when it counts”. There is a recent precedent too: Ferrari topped every practice session in Austin last week, then faded in qualifying as Antonelli took pole.

Title within reach for Antonelli

The stakes are high for the 20-year-old Mercedes driver. He needs only a top-nine finish on Sunday to become Formula 1’s youngest world champion, and has reportedly promised to win the title in style. Norris’s narrow victory in Mexico GP final practice means he heads into qualifying with a point to prove as the man being succeeded.

Penalties, engine trouble and a Haas shake-up

Verstappen cannot take pole whatever he does in qualifying. He and Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson each carry a one-place grid penalty for their FP2 collision, which the stewards called “unacceptable”. Both drivers admitted the clash was “unnecessary and clumsy”. Lawson finished ninth in the session, narrowly ahead of rookie team-mate Arvid Lindblad in tenth. Verstappen said the incident was “not smart” for someone in Lawson’s position, with the New Zealander not yet confirmed at Racing Bulls for next season.

Verstappen’s team-mate Isack Hadjar was eighth, and called his Red Bull “the worst car I’ve driven this weekend”. Away from the track, the FIA gave the 22-year-old a formal warning after footage showed him pushing aside a fan who was trying to take a selfie. The stewards said he was reacting to “an uninvited and rather aggressive act” by someone who was “invading his personal space without consent”.

Reliability problems hit the midfield. Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto set no time after a power unit problem on his out-lap, with smoke seen from the engine. Home favourite Sergio Perez also failed to set a lap, and Cadillac said it would make a “precautionary engine change” before qualifying.

The biggest surprise came from Haas, which replaced Esteban Ocon with Ryo Hirakawa for the rest of the weekend. The team offered no explanation, though Sky Sports reported it confirmed Ocon was not ill. Ocon had a heated radio exchange with his race engineer in FP2, and he is already due to leave Haas at the end of the season. Hirakawa, a Le Mans 24 Hours winner making his race-weekend debut at 32, finished 19th, about six tenths behind team-mate Oliver Bearman. Haas has not said who will drive in Brazil next weekend.

With tyre runs yet to deliver anyone’s best lap, qualifying looks set to be decided by who strings a clean first soft-tyre lap together under pressure.

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File photo: 2025 Japan GP – McLaren – Lando Norris – FP1.jpg by Liauzh, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

One leg of darts, 15 throws and a £501,000 cheque: that was the outcome of Netflix’s Beat Luke Littler in Manchester on Friday night, when Fallon Sherrock became the only contestant to topple the reigning world champion.

Sherrock, 32, won the bull to throw first, hit a 180 (only the third maximum of the night) and finished on double 20. Littler, 19, had beaten 14 challengers before her. He called it “world class” and noted that winning the bull and going out in 15 darts was exactly what a challenger needed to do. Sherrock’s win ended the event immediately, so the five amateurs still waiting never got their turn.

A prize second only to Littler’s own

According to Sky Sports and the Independent, the payout is the second-biggest in darts history. Only Littler has taken home more from one prize pot, the £1m he earned for his second world title in January. For comparison, Sherrock won £25,000 for reaching the third round of the 2019 PDC World Championship, the run that made her the first woman to win a match at the event and earned her the nickname “The Queen of the Palace”. She was awarded an MBE in 2023.

Sherrock said her son Rory was in the crowd. “It’s his first time at anything and he has seen me win,” she said. Sixteen-time world champion Phil Taylor called the win “life-changing” and said it could clear a mortgage.

The criticism over who counts as an amateur

The victory came with an argument attached. Netflix billed the show as giving “amateurs a chance at life-changing money”, and Sherrock’s name on the list drew criticism on social media because of her profile. She qualified under the rules because she has never held a PDC Tour Card.

She admitted the backlash was “tough”. “I wouldn’t class myself as a pro really, because all I do is just play darts for the enjoyment of it,” she said. She added that people forget she was still playing World Darts Federation events when she made her Worlds breakthrough. Her reaction after winning was: “I’m just so happy to overcome all the hate and win.”

PDC president Barry Hearn, who sat on the audition panel, defended her place. “She’s entitled to enter. Why should she be denied?” he asked. He argued that a field of 20 people who could barely throw a dart would make poor television, and said the aim was “excellence competing against excellence”. Other contestants ranged from the world’s top-ranked WDF player to a bin man, an Australian jockey and a Nando’s manager.

How the field was built

The scale of the project was considerable. Some 25,000 people applied. Hopefuls first had to get down from 501 in 24 darts or fewer, then face an interview panel that included Taylor, Hearn and pundit Laura Turner. Sixteen players were picked outright, while the most experienced were paired off and put to a Netflix viewer vote. Sherrock took 75% against Germany’s Jarod Becker to earn her place.

Not everyone’s night ended well. Ireland’s Pearse Mackle, a 21-year-old student from County Cavan, was close to winning but missed the bullseye he needed.

The format fits a growing trend of amateurs-versus-stars spectacles. The Australian Open’s one-point tennis slam produced a A$1m winner who beat Jannik Sinner, and 100 amateur drivers recently raced Max Verstappen at Silverstone. Hearn linked the Netflix event to Littler’s arrival. “Luke Littler gave me the one thing I was missing, he gave me that young audience,” he said, adding that Beat Luke Littler was “a statement on where darts has become”.

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File photo: Fallon Sherrock – 2022 (cropped).jpg by Sven Mandel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Aston Villa legal action against Jamie Carragher was announced on Friday, and by Saturday the pundit had apologised, calling his own language “clumsy and wrong”. The row began with a podcast discussion about Unai Emery and Manchester United, and it escalated quickly into one of the more unusual clashes between a Premier League club and a television pundit in recent memory.

The club’s statement was posted on social media and signed by chairman Nassef Sawiris. “Aston Villa will initiate legal action against Jamie Carragher for his unacceptable insults about the club and its fans,” it read. It ended with a line that gave the dispute a wider meaning: “Aston Villa will not allow anyone to stop our ascension in English and European football.”

What Carragher said on the podcast

The remarks came on the Stick to Football podcast. Carragher was discussing the future of Michael Carrick, whose position at Old Trafford is reported to be in the balance after a dismal start to the season, and whether Emery might replace him. “Surely he would want that opportunity to manage a giant again,” Carragher said of the Villa manager.

He then set out what he called a “chain” in football. Real Madrid, he argued, can take Manchester United’s best player, as they did with Cristiano Ronaldo, while clubs below Villa can be raided by Villa for their managers and players. He told Villa supporters to “shut the f*** up” and added: “Aston Villa will never be Man United.”

Carragher’s defence, then his apology

Carragher first tried to calm things down by saying the comment was a joke. He said it was a response to “the stick Villa fans have given me” for suggesting Emery might fancy the United job. He also said he had praised Emery and Villa for years. On the Overlap Daily he went further, calling Emery the best manager in the league. He said any club in United’s position would ask “what’s the best we can get?”, and that a manager’s ego might push back on being told “that’s your level”. “It’s grown arms and legs,” he said.

That explanation did not end the matter. On Saturday he wrote on X: “I’d like to apologise to Aston Villa, the owners and their fans. My language this week was clumsy and wrong.” He insisted it had been tongue-in-cheek but accepted it “has not come across that way”, and signed off by wishing Villa luck in their home game against Fulham.

What we still don’t know

Several questions remain open. Reuters, cited by Al Jazeera, reported that the club did not say what legal basis it would rely on. Nor is it clear whether the apology will lead Villa to drop the Aston Villa legal action or press on with it. At the time of the Guardian’s report, the club had not responded publicly to the apology.

The sources also do not say what form any claim would take, or whether the club has formally contacted Carragher. Reuters said it asked for comment from both sides at the time of its initial report and did not immediately receive replies.

Why the reaction was so sharp

Villa’s reaction makes more sense given how the club has changed under Emery. Since he arrived four years ago, Villa have reached the Champions League twice and ended a 30-year wait for a trophy by winning the Europa League last season. This season, though, Emery has had to rebuild after six players from the Europa League final side left, some for higher wages and others for a more regular chance at silverware.

Against that background, a line that Villa will “never” match United is likely to land badly with a club and fanbase who see their rise as still in progress. Sawiris’s reference to Villa’s “ascension” suggests the club saw the comments as more than banter.

For Carragher, who works for Sky Sports and CBS, the episode is a reminder that the blunt style of modern football punditry can create real problems when it is aimed at a specific club’s supporters. The apology may help to defuse things, but the future of the Aston Villa legal action rests with the club.

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File photo: Football against poverty 2014 – Jamie Carragher (cropped).jpg by Ludovic Péron, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Durban Olympic bid is now South Africa’s official route to hosting the first Summer Games on African soil. On Thursday, the country’s Olympic committee named the east-coast city as its preferred candidate for either the 2036 or the 2040 Olympics and Paralympics. Officials could not yet say what it would cost.

The announcement came from Lwandile Simelane, acting president of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee. She said Durban would be the main candidate city but that the proposal would probably be a “multi-city bid”, with some events held elsewhere in the country. Johannesburg and Cape Town were also considered before Durban was chosen.

What the Durban Olympic bid is built on

The centrepiece would be the 56,000-seat Moses Mabhida Stadium, which was built for the 2010 football World Cup, the first held in Africa. Durban is South Africa’s third-largest city, home to around 4 million people on the subtropical Indian Ocean coast. Building a bid around an existing venue is a familiar way for candidates to signal restraint, and it sits awkwardly well with the city’s history of financial doubts.

A history of near-misses and cost worries

Durban was floated as an Olympic host more than a decade ago, after the World Cup, but no official bid materialised, largely because of concerns over cost. The city was also stripped of the 2022 Commonwealth Games because it could not provide the financial and other guarantees required. South Africa as a whole has tried before: Cape Town bid unsuccessfully for the 2004 Games.

Against that backdrop, the absence of a price tag stands out. Officials said they were not yet able to offer any estimate of what staging the Games might cost if the bid succeeds. Any credible Durban Olympic bid will eventually have to answer that question, particularly given the earlier Commonwealth Games withdrawal.

A crowded field and a long timetable

South Africa is one of seven countries bidding for the 2036 Games, alongside India, Qatar, South Korea, Germany, Hungary and Turkey. The International Olympic Committee set 31 October as the deadline for national committees to formally declare interest in 2036. Candidates can make virtual presentations to the IOC next month to begin the official process, and the IOC board is due to approve a shortlist in March. The host for 2036 is expected to be chosen in mid-2029.

Notably, South Africa is pitching for either 2036 or 2040, which suggests it may be prepared to wait if a rival is favoured for the earlier date. The sources do not say how the 2040 process would work.

Why it matters for Africa

If successful, South Africa would become the first African host of the Summer Games since the modern Olympics began in 1896. Momentum of a sort is building on the continent: the Youth Olympics open this weekend in Dakar, Senegal, which marks the first Olympic sports event ever held in Africa.

For now, the Durban Olympic bid is an announcement of intent rather than a funded plan. The coming months, from the IOC presentations to the March shortlist, will show whether South Africa can pair its historic pitch with the financial assurances that have eluded Durban before.

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File photo: Addington Beach, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (19892672743).jpg by South African Tourism from South Africa, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Alexander Zverev took less than an hour to dismiss Britain’s Arthur Fery 6-0 6-2 and book a place in the Vienna semi-finals, just days before he is due to replace Jannik Sinner as world number one. The German top seed has been in commanding form in the Austrian capital, and Friday’s quarter-final offered little resistance.

A repeat of Wimbledon, with the same result

The match was a rematch of this summer’s Wimbledon semi-final, which Zverev also won in straight sets to end Fery’s surprise run at the All England Club. Reports differ slightly on the exact length of Friday’s match, putting it at 58 or 59 minutes, but not on how one-sided it was. Zverev dropped only six points on his own serve, created nine break points and converted five. Sky Sports counted 19 winners from the German.

Fery arrived in Vienna in good spirits after beating former world number five Lorenzo Musetti in the last 16. He needed treatment on his leg near the end of that match, though, and he never looked at his best against Zverev. Both outlets noted that he struggled to make an impact.

Zverev’s praise for Fery

Zverev was generous in victory. He described Fery as a different kind of opponent from the one he faced the previous day, saying the Briton lacks big firepower but “plays tactically extremely well” and is “extremely fast”. He urged Fery not to be too hard on himself. “It is his first year on the Tour and he is doing amazing things,” Zverev said, adding that he hoped Fery would keep his head up. Sky Sports reported that Fery is ranked 35th in the world.

Zverev also said he had struggled to sleep on Thursday night. He had just beaten Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor in the last 16, a result that lifted him above Sinner in the standings.

A rise built on a big year

When the rankings update on Monday, the 29-year-old will become the second German man to reach the top spot, after Boris Becker in 1991. The French Open and US Open champion has taken advantage of injuries to Carlos Alcaraz and Sinner this year to overtake both. He is now chasing a third title of the season, and the Vienna semi-finals will be his 12th last-four appearance of 2026, according to Sky Sports.

His opponent will be either Australian fifth seed Alex de Minaur or Italy’s Matteo Berrettini.

The other half of the draw

The other Vienna semi-finals pairing is a heavyweight one. Second seed Alcaraz, a seven-time Grand Slam champion, beat American Tommy Paul 6-4 7-6 (7-2) and will face third seed Daniil Medvedev. Medvedev beat France’s Adrian Mannarino 6-2 6-3, and the win secured him a place at the season-ending ATP Finals for the seventh time.

The 30-year-old Russian missed last year’s finale after qualifying every year from 2019 to 2024. He has had a resurgent season, with four titles and more than 50 wins for the first time since 2023. He joins Zverev, Alcaraz and Ben Shelton in the eight-man field. Sinner has also qualified but will not play because of injury, leaving four places still to be filled.

Elsewhere, in Tokyo, women’s world number one Elena Rybakina withdrew from her Pan Pacific Open quarter-final against Leylah Fernandez with a neck injury. She had secured the year-end number one ranking only a day earlier. Fernandez advanced by walkover and will face Russia’s Kamilla Rakhimova in the semi-finals.

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File photo: Alexander Zverev (30004409818).jpg by Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Charles Leclerc set the pace in first practice at the Mexico City Grand Prix on Friday, finishing 0.659 seconds clear of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli in a session where ten rookies took over cars from the regular drivers. The result matters less for its headline than for what it hints at on Sunday. Antonelli is poised to be crowned world champion, and Ferrari look strong at altitude.

Antonelli’s title picture at the Mexico City Grand Prix

The arithmetic strongly favours the young Italian. A ninth-place finish clinches the championship whatever else happens. The only theoretical way to stop him is a win for his Mercedes team-mate George Russell or for Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton. Even then, he would need only ninth if Russell wins, or 10th if Hamilton does.

Leclerc’s margin gives Ferrari reason for optimism. Sky Sports pointed to the team’s small turbo working well in the thin air at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. Hamilton was fourth after what was described as a scruffy soft-tyre lap. Ferrari were also the only team to run both of their regular drivers in the session, and they are looking for only their third win of the season.

A session full of rookies

Teams often use Mexico City for their mandatory rookie running because the opening session is usually unrepresentative on a dirty track. This weekend is also not a Sprint weekend, and the circuit is considered relatively simple. That explains the unusual order. Mercedes reserve Frederik Vesti, in Russell’s car, was third, less than a tenth behind Antonelli. Ayumu Iwasa was fifth in Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, under a second off the pace on mediums. Pierre Gasly, Fernando Alonso, Oscar Piastri, Oliver Bearman and Arvid Lindblad completed the top ten.

Not every debut went smoothly. Briton Freddie Slater’s first grand prix weekend outing for Audi was cut to 14 laps, about half a normal run, because of reliability problems. He still got out late to set the 19th-fastest time. Sky Sports reported that Audi are under investigation for sending him out with a cooling fan on the car and are likely to face a big fine. Aston Martin’s Jak Crawford stopped on track with a technical problem, and Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar had an early power-unit issue that ruled out serious qualifying simulations. Racing Bulls’ Nikola Tsolov, making his practice debut, finished about a tenth behind Lindblad despite saying that blood flow to his right leg had been restricted by his seat.

Herta reaches the superlicence threshold

The most consequential storyline may be off the timing screens. Colton Herta finished 22nd, but the FIA says he has now covered enough distance to reach the 40 superlicence points required to race in Formula 1. Sky Sports reported that senior figures at Cadillac are keen to give him a 2027 drive. That would threaten Valtteri Bottas’ seat, despite the multi-year deal he signed when he joined the new team. Liam Lawson’s future at Racing Bulls is also unsettled. Tsolov, a Red Bull junior, could become Formula 2 champion, and Red Bull have traditionally promoted their young drivers quickly.

The regular drivers return for second practice on Friday at 10pm UK time, which should give a truer read on whether Ferrari’s pace is genuine and whether Antonelli’s title is as safe as the numbers suggest.

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File photo: 2024-08-25 Motorsport, Formel 1, Großer Preis der Niederlande 2024 STP 3978 by Stepro (cropped2).jpg by Steffen Prößdorf, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.