Roma arrive in Udine with the table tightening in the way it always does at this point of the season: everyone in the hunt, nobody comfortable. On Monday night at Bluenergy Stadium, the job against Udinese is simple to describe and harder to deliver: show up, impose order, and leave with the points that keep Roma where they want to be. Coming off a draining 1–1 away draw at Panathinaikos in the UEFA Europa League that was played almost entirely with ten men, there’s no appetite for romance here. This is about bankable football, the kind you can stack without needing your best version of yourself every week.
The problem is that Roma’s “best version” is currently scattered across the treatment room. Gian Piero Gasperini is again asked to build a coherent attacking plan without Paulo Dybala, Artem Dovbyk, Evan Ferguson, Stephan El Shaarawy, and Manu Koné. Gasperini will almost certainly use a 3-4-2-1 formation built for control, with Bryan Cristante anchoring the middle, Lorenzo Pellegrini and Matías Soulé tasked with supplying ideas, and Donyell Malen asked to turn half-chances into goals like he did against Torino.
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Even given Roma’s status as a definitively superior side to Udinese, the club from Friuli won’t just hand the Giallorossi the win. Udinese is mid-table, and they’re comfortable living in the messy middle of games. That’s exactly why this fixture matters. Roma will need to keep their nerve when the match tries to become something smaller and uglier than their ambitions. They don’t need fireworks. They need a clean tempo, a serious first hour, and the maturity to treat a single goal as a perfectly acceptable way to leave Udine with three.
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What to Watch For
El Aynaoui’s Serie A Return
Neil El Aynaoui is back in the league picture, and Roma need him now more than ever. After returning from the Africa Cup of Nations (with a star certainly on the rise for the Moroccan National Team) and being eased back into training, he’s now in AS Roma’s matchday squad for Serie A for the first time in months. Thankfully, this is exactly the kind of fixture where a midfield body can raise the technical floor.
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In Gian Piero Gasperini’s likely 3-4-2-1, El Aynaoui is penciled in alongside Bryan Cristante as the second midfielder who can turn a reset touch into forward momentum and keep Roma from playing the whole match in front of a settled block. If the front line is thin, and it certainly is, the midfield has to create advantages by playing through pressure rather than around it, and by arriving late into the spaces the forward vacate.
The third layer is psychological, and it’s where Roma might quietly benefit. El Aynaoui didn’t just come back from AFCON; he came back with a new status as a hero of his national team and a target for some of the biggest clubs in the world. AFCON-watchers have framed him as one of the true revelations of the tournament, and the broader European noise inevitably followed, with Spanish-market chatter linking his name to Real Madrid and Barcelona on the back of his AFCON performances.
Players who return from an international run in the spotlight often re-enter league play with sharper decision-making and a calmer sense of authority. Players who prove themselves at the international level often make fewer panic touches, have more insistence on receiving under pressure, and show more willingness to dictate where the game is played. If Roma are going to win ugly in Udine, El Aynaoui’s composure might be the most valuable new tool in the squad.
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Will Vaz Make a Difference?
Roma’s new-look attacking hierarchy is coming into focus, and it starts with Donyell Malen. Then it gets interesting. With Roma short on bodies and long on minutes, Robinio Vaz is being asked to live in the most thankless role in football (behind backup goalie, at least): the bench-forward who has to enter cold, read the temperature instantly, and make the game feel different in ten touches or fewer in the dying minutes of the match. That’s just the reality of arriving midseason at 18, when you need to get a new league’s rhythm still in your legs and you’re working with a manager who demands tacticaly know-how from every position, and especially the striker.
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What Vaz can change in his cameo minutes is the texture of Roma’s final third. The scouting pitch for Vaz when Frederic Massara decided to take a swing on him was energy. Vaz is a forward who presses like he’s offended you, one who runs channels to drag center-backs into uncomfortable decisions, and who turns a stale possession into something that resembles momentum. That profile matters behind a starter like Malen because it gives Roma a different lever late in matches. It affords them more verticality, more chaos, more “defend facing your own goal” stress for tired legs.
The honest wrinkle is the one every young forward eventually meets: he can provide strong performances in every single match this season as a sub, but that strength will not always be rewarded with a goal (or at least a meaningful one). As of right now, Vaz is still looking for his first goal in a Roma shirt, and the early story is almost comically familiar from the Ongoing Evan Ferguson Experiment. He’s providing promising movement, good intent, and one debut moment against Torino where he nearly opened his account, only for the goalkeeper to deny him from close range. Still, nearly is good for such a young striker; it shows that he’s already getting himself into the right positions to score and win. Given what Roma emphasized when they announced the signing (his age, his rapid rise, and a track record of contributing at Olympique de Marseille), the club is betting on Vaz as a player who can grow and lift the Giallorossi alongside him.
If Vaz gets another appearance against Udinese, don’t be counting his goals and treat “zero” as a referendum. Instead, watch whether Vaz can compress the match in Roma’s favor. Does his first sprint go forward instead of sideways? Does he make Udinese’s center-backs turn and run? Does he gives Roma that one extra sequence where a tired defense starts clearing with its eyes closed. The best late subs add direction to everyone else’s effort. For a team that can sometimes get a little too polite around the box, Vaz’s value is that he’s not especially interested in being polite.
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If that first goal comes tomorrow for Vaz, it will almost certainly come through persistence. It’ll be off an ugly rebound, a deflection, a near-post touch that looks obvious only after it’s happened. Roma doesn’t need Vaz to be a finished product just yet. They need him to be a problem in the right areas: inside the width of the posts, on the last line, arriving like he believes the ball is going to fall for him. If he does that in Udine, then he’s making a difference, even if it takes a bit for the scoreboard to catch up.
CHICAGO — After the 2025 post-season, Kevin Gausman did something he’d never really done before.
Still stinging from the Blue Jays’ loss to the Dodgers in the World Series, Gausman felt compelled to look back and relive the October experience, good and bad. When he’d work out, he’d often put on radio or TV broadcasts of his starts.
It wasn’t something he ever set out to do, but once he started he felt it worked for him. First off, he could watch the game as a pitcher and analyze what he could have done differently. And the experience also reminded him “what a fun, exciting time” the 2025 post-season had been in Toronto.
As the winter progressed, Gausman went back through all of his playoff starts. Sometimes he’d listen to the home radio broadcast, other times he’d flip to the road feed, curious what they might have said. As the weeks went by, he watched “probably every pitch (he) threw,” all 436 of them. By his final appearance — Game 6 of the World Series — it could be painful to relive.
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“Kind of heartbreaking at times,” Gausman said. “But I kind of needed it to get over it in a sense. It’s almost like when you have a bad breakup, I guess. If you have some voicemails, you’re going to listen to them for a while until you finally delete them.”
With a series against the Dodgers set to begin in Toronto on Monday, many of Gausman’s teammates will be coming face to face with similar emotions. On the schedule, it’s just another series in April, but any early season meeting between World Series opponents would inspire some strong emotions — and that’s especially true after a series that was closely contested all the way through extra innings of Game 7.
“It’ll bring back some memories for sure,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “It feels like we just played them. We still know they’re a damned good team. We still know they’ve got superstars up and down their lineup and really good pitching. I’m sure you guys (in the media) will have fun with it. There’s plenty of stories to write and I’m gonna get some sleep tonight with the media hours the next couple days.”
While the media presence will surely be significant, they aren’t alone in caring about this story. Near-sellout crowds are expected all week, and the players themselves have a heightened awareness of what’s ahead, as expected.
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For instance, Gausman’s parents told him they planned to make a point of being there for the Dodgers series.
“It’s something we can’t ignore,” Gausman said. “We know we lost to them in the World Series last year.”
Others within the Blue Jays’ clubhouse were looking forward to the series for their own reasons. After starting Sunday’s loss to the White Sox, Eric Lauer said he’s hopeful playing the Dodgers can help the Blue Jays collectively reach a higher level of play.
“Everybody knows it’s going to be a good series,” he said. “It’s going to be another showdown. It’s going to be a good one for us to get back on track. We stumbled this (0-3) road trip, but it’s going to be a good reset for us to getting back to playing baseball the way we know how. Going against the Dodgers you can’t make stupid mistakes and you’ve got to really throw the ball well so hopefully this series really locks us back in.”
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While Lauer’s not slated to pitch against the Dodgers this week, Gausman’s set to pitch Tuesday. And not only is he pitching, he currently lines up opposite World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who pitched opposite Gausman in Games 2 and 6 of the World Series, winning twice despite quality starts from Gausman both times.
Gausman knows the lineup he’ll face Tuesday is “really good — that’s why they won it back-to-back years.” So as the series approached, his focus was on attacking the Los Angeles hitters, not whether Yamamoto’s start day would line up with his again.
“You never know how it’s going to line up, a lot of things can change from day to day, so I don’t really look too much at who I’m going to be facing,” he said. ”But I will say at the same time, when you’re facing other established guys it’s fun. We kind of expect that the other guy is going to pitch well and I think they expect you to pitch well, so there’s the level of understanding that we’re both going to go out there and do our thing.”
Gausman then added that he hopes the Blue Jays score 10 runs per game. An offensive outburst like that would certainly help flip the narrative around the 2026 Blue Jays, a team that’s now struggling to find its footing.
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Yet the story of 2025 has been told by now. When the games counted most, the Dodgers found a way, leading to a painful ending for a particularly likeable Blue Jays team. Nothing that happens now will change that — but even with that knowledge in mind, the next few days may still be emotional.
“It’s just funny because it’s so early in the season still,” Gausman said. ”But yeah, I get it. I get the excitement behind it. It’s just two of the best teams from last year facing each other for the first time, so yeah, it’s going to be fun. I know there’s probably going to be a little bit more reactions from the fans during that series. But that’s what sports is all about.”
The BYU Cougars women’s basketball team was on the outside looking into the NCAA Tournament this season despite going 26-12 under head coach Lee Cummard.
The Cougars played well enough to earn an invitation to the Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament, where the team was able to knock out the Kansas Jayhawks last week before losing to the Columbia Lions on Wednesday.
BYU Cougars guard Delaney Gibb brings the ball upcourt against the TCU Horned Frogs during the second half at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo., on March 6, 2026.(Nick Tre Smith/Imagn Images)
BYU drew attention for an interesting and faith-based, decision ahead of their 70-67 win over Kansas. The team didn’t practice because it was a Sunday.
Delaney Gibb, who led the team in scoring, explained it was for religious reasons that the team doesn’t practice on Sundays.
“When you look at it from a perspective of our team and our culture we’ve built and the faith that we have it’s a day that we get to have a different perspective on life,” Gibb said, via the school’s website. “There’s things that are bigger than basketball and Jesus Christ and having faith in Him is something that’s bigger than basketball.”
BYU’s Delaney Gibb speaks to media during Big 12 Women’s Basketball Media Day at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo., on Oct. 21, 2025.(Sophia Scheller/Imagn Images)
Gibb scored 12 points in the three-point victory. Sydney Benally added 15.
The sophomore’s remarks went viral during the week.
Unfortunately, for the Cougars, BYU lost to the Lions in their next game.
Gibb is likely to return for her junior season. She was named to the All-Big 12 Conference First Team after being named the 2025 Big 12 Conference Freshman of the Year.
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BYU guard Delaney Gibb drives the ball against the TCU Horned Frogs during the second half at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo., on March 6, 2026.(Nick Tre Smith/Imagn Images)
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have withdrawn from the Badminton Asia Championships due to the former’s shoulder injury, even as in-form Lakshya Sen and seasoned PV Sindhu gear up to spearhead India’s challenge with an aim to end a long wait for a singles title in the continental showpiece.
Satwik and Chirag, who had won the title in 2023, opted out as the former continues to recover.
“Satwik still has some pain, so they won’t be playing this week,” coach Tan Kim Her told PTI.
The duo had earlier pulled out of the Swiss Open ahead of their quarterfinal match due to a recurring right shoulder injury to Satwik.
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India will now rely on Lakshya and Sindhu in singles, with both looking to end the country’s 61-year wait for a title in the discipline.
Former national champion Dinesh Khanna remains the only Indian to win the men’s singles gold at the continental meet in 1965, and Lakshya will be keen to follow in his footsteps after a runner-up finish at the All England Championships.
The 24-year-old from Almora will open his campaign against Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu.
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Sindhu, meanwhile, returns after a disrupted European leg. The two-time Olympic medallist was stranded in Dubai en route to the All England Championships due to the conflict in West Asia, forcing her withdrawal. She subsequently skipped the Swiss Open to recover and will begin her campaign against Malaysia’s Wong Ling Ching.
India will also have a busy men’s singles slate, with HS Prannoy, returning after recovering from a shoulder injury, set to face a qualifier, while Kidambi Srikanth takes on Singapore’s eighth seed Loh Kean Yew. US Open champion Ayush Shetty faces China’s fifth seed Li Shi Feng.
In women’s singles, apart from Sindhu, Unnati Hooda meets Thailand’s Supanida Katethong, Tanvi Sharma takes on Malaysia’s K. Letshanaa, and Malvika Bansod faces Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan.
In men’s doubles, Hariharan Amsakarunan and M R Arjun, who won back-to-back titles at the 2025 Al Ain Masters Super 100 and the 2025 Turkiye International Challenge, face top seeds Kim Won Ho and Seo Seung Jae of South Korea. P. Krishnamurthy Roy and Sai Pratheek K. take on Japan’s Kakeru Kumagai and Hiroki Nishi.
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In women’s doubles, Ashwini Bhat K. and Shikha Gautam face Thailand’s Hathaithip Mijad and N. Tungkasatan, while Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela meet China’s Luo Yi and Wang Ting Ge. Priya Konjengbam and Shruti Mishra await a qualifier.
In mixed doubles, Rohan Kapoor and Gadde Ruthvika Shivani face Malaysia’s eighth seeds Goh Soon Huat and Lai Shevon Jemie, Ashith Surya and Amrutha Pramuthesh meet another Malaysian pair Wong Tien Ci and Lim Chiew Sien, while Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto take on Thailand’s P. Horbanluekit and Benyapa Aimsaard.
NEW DELHI: IPL comes and the demand for tickets and passes go soaring up by the fans. The desperation to get inside the stadium to watch their favourite teams in action in the IPL go high and high. When the tickets get sold out, the demand gets too hig, and the cricket fans even ask for tickets in black. But for a 25-year-old techie the craze for IPL tickets for RCB vs CSK turned too costly and he was duped for a massive Rs. 1.46 lakh. The techie, a resident of B Narayanapura, fell into a trap by a post posted by a fraudster who posed himself as a ticket seller on Instagram.As per a report in Deccan Herald, the techie alleged in a complaint to Mahadevapura Police that an individual claiming to be Sumit Biswal promised he could arrange IPL tickets along with food coupons. As per the techie, Biswal was introduced him as a senior supervisor for ticket counter at M Chinnaswamy Stadium
Watch
Devdutt Padikkal press conference: Chinnaswamy pitch, Tim David’s power & RCB’s batting strategy
“He asked me to come near the stadium gate number 10, saying someone would deliver the tickets within minutes, and even sent an email confirmation to gain my trust,” the complainant told Deccan Herald. “Initially, I agreed to buy two tickets for Rs 3,700 each,but he kept asking for more money under various pretexts such as refundable security deposits, additional ID cards and food coupons. Trusting him, I made multiple payments – even using my mother’s bank account after exhausting my own limits—and ended up transferring around Rs 1.46 lakh,” he added.RCB register their second winBhuvneshwar Kumar’s incisive spell of 3-41, coming after a marauding batting show from Tim David, Rajat Patidar and Devdutt Padikkal, propelled Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to a commanding 43-run victory over Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in their IPL 2026 encounter at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday.The contest saw RCB’s batting unit dismantle CSK’s attack with relentless hitting, as David’s 70 not out off just 25 balls and Patidar’s unbeaten 48 off only 19 balls provided for the late fireworks after Padikkal’s fluent 50 off 29 balls had set the tone for the daunting total.Their combined effort lifted RCB to a daunting 250/3, thus setting a new record for highest total in IPL 2026. In reply, CSK faltered under scoreboard pressure, with Sarfaraz Khan’s 50 off 24 balls and Prashant Veer’s 43 the lone acts of resistance amid a string of failures from the top order.Bhuvneshwar was at his disciplined best and even crossed the 200-mark in terms of wickets in IPL, with others also chipping in as CSK were bowled out for 207 in 19.4 overs. The comprehensive win also meant RCB have registered four consecutive triumphs over CSK for the first time in the IPL’s history.
Leeds threw away a two-goal lead in second-half injury time and had a double scare in extra time before going on to beat West Ham in a penalty shootout on Sunday and reach the FA Cup semifinals for the first time since 1987.
Mateus Fernandes and Axel Disasi struck in the 93rd and 96th minutes as West Ham leveled the score at 2-2 at London Stadium and forced extra time – where two goals for West Ham were chalked off for offside – before Leeds won the quarterfinal shootout 4-2.
West Ham debutant Finlay Herrick saved a penalty from Joel Piroe but Leeds eventually prevailed with Pascal Struijk scoring the winning penalty.
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“At least I’m old enough that I was already born when there was the last semifinal for Leeds United in the FA Cup in the ’80s,” Leeds manager Daniel Farke said.
“It was a crazy game.”
The thousands of West Ham fans who had left early were trying, and failing, to get back in when Taty Castellanos thought he had put the Hammers ahead in the opening seconds of extra time after a bad error from Leeds goalkeeper Lucas Perri, only for VAR to rule Castellanos offside.
Then Jarrod Bowen crashed a shot against the crossbar, with Pablo offside when he rolled in the rebound.
The 20-year-old Herrick came on as a replacement for Alphonse Areola, who left the field to receive treatment with five minutes of extra time remaining.
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Ao Tanaka and Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s penalty had previously built a 2-0 lead for Leeds in a classic FA Cup game between two relegation-threatened teams in the Premier League.
FA Cup semifinal draw
Leeds will play Chelsea in the semifinals in a repeat of the 1970 FA Cup final, which Chelsea won after a replay.
Manchester City and second-tier Southampton meet in the other semifinal match with games to be played April 25-26 at Wembley.
The draw was held after Leeds’ victory.
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Penalty shootout controversy
West Ham averted some controversy after it backed down on a decision, reportedly taken by the safety officer before the match, that a penalty shootout would not be taken in front of the end housing 9,000 Leeds fans because of “safety concerns.”
As it was, the coin toss went West Ham’s way.
Farke said: “You could imagine what I think about such a situation.”
Absent fans
Stoppage time, extra time and the shootout were played in front of a half-empty stadium after the exodus of home fans.
“What I saw on the pitch was more important than anything,” West Ham manager Nuno Espirito Santo said.
“What I saw was a group of players, a group of boys that didn’t give up. This is the major lesson that we have to take from today.
A trio of golfers can complete the third leg of the career grand slam with a victory at the 2026 Masters, which begins on Thursday, April 9. Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa and Brooks Koepka have won two of the other majors entering the Masters 2026. This extra incentive could up the interest in backing any of the three with PGA picks come Thursday, April 9 at Augusta National. The latest 2026 Masters odds via FanDuel Sportsbook list Scottie Scheffler as the +500 favorite (risk $100 to win $500), with Jon Rahm moving into the second spot on the Masters odds board at +950, followed closely by Bryson DeChambeau at +1000.
Other 2026 Masters contenders include defending champion Rory McIlroy (+1200), Ludvig Aberg at +1500 and Schauffele at +1600. Potential Masters sleeper picks who have had strong PGA seasons include Chris Gotterup (+4500) and Si Woo Kim (+5000). Before locking in any 2026 Masters picks, making any PGA DFS picks on sites like FanDuel or DraftKings, or entering any 2026 Masters one-and-done picks, be sure to see the golf predictions and projected leaderboard from the proven computer model at SportsLine.
SportsLine’s proprietary model, built by DFS pro Mike McClure, simulated every PGA Tour event 10,000 times and reveals golf betting picks that have a history of being extremely profitable.
This same model has also nailed a whopping 16 majors entering the weekend, including the 2025 Masters — its fourth Masters in a row — as well as this year’s PGA Championship and Open Championship. Anyone who has followed its sports betting picks could have seen massive returns on betting sites.
One major surprise the model is calling for at the Masters 2026: Schauffele, a two-time major winner and one of the favorites, stumbles and barely cracks the top 10. He’s had a rough start to the 2026 PGA Tour, as he missed the cut in his first event before placing 41st in his second. A big reason for Schauffele’s struggles lies on the green, where he ranks 76th in total putting after being third in 2024, when he won his two majors. When you factor in that Schauffele also has more missed cuts than top-fives over his last four trips to Augusta, he’s one to steer clear of with 2026 Masters bets, considering his short PGA odds. See who else to fade here.
Another surprise: The model is high on Morikawa, even though he’s a longshot at +3000 and has some concerns about his back after withdrawing from the Texas Open recently. He already has a PGA Championship and Open Championship on his resume, but Morikawa has been more consistent at the Masters than any other major. At no major does he have more top-fives (two), top 10s (three) or top 25s (five) than at Augusta National, which includes top-15 finishes in each of the last four years. The seven-time PGA Tour winner also enters in playing his best in years, as he prevailed at Pebble Beach in mid-February, ending a 45-start winless drought and then followed that up with a seventh place at the Genesis and then a fifth place at the Arnold Palmer. See who else to pick here.
How to make 2026 Masters picks
The model is also targeting two more longshots of +3000 or greater, including one of at least +5000 that could bring strong returns. You can only see the model’s picks here.
Scottie Scheffler +500 Jon Rahm +950 Bryson DeChambeau +1000 Rory McIlroy +1200 Ludvig Åberg +1500 Xander Schauffele +1600 Matt Fitzpatrick +2000 Cameron Young +2000 Tommy Fleetwood +2200 Collin Morikawa +3000 Justin Rose +3000 Robert MacIntyre +3300 Patrick Reed +3500 Hideki Matsuyama +4000 Min Woo Lee +4000 Chris Gotterup +4500 Jordan Spieth +4500 Brooks Koepka +4500 Si Woo Kim +5000 Shane Lowry +5500 Russell Henley +5500 Viktor Hovland +5500 Akshay Bhatia +6000 Patrick Cantlay +6500 Jacob Bridgeman +6500 Nicolai Højgaard +6500 Jake Knapp +7000 Adam Scott +7000 Sepp Straka +7000 Tyrrell Hatton +7000 J.J. Spaun +7000 Justin Thomas +7000 Corey Conners +8000 Marco Penge +8000 Sungjae Im +10000 Sam Burns +10000 Harris English +10000 Cameron Smith +10000 Jason Day +10000 Maverick McNealy +10000 Gary Woodland +10000 Brian Harman +12500 Max Homa +12500 Daniel Berger +15000 Rasmus Højgaard +15000 Ben Griffin +15000 Kurt Kitayama +15000 Aaron Rai +15000 Ryan Fox +17500 Casey Jarvis +17500 Keegan Bradley +17500 Dustin Johnson +17500 Alex Noren +17500 Harry Hall +17500 Ryan Gerard +17500 Sam Stevens +22500 Nick Taylor +22500 Michael Kim +22500 Wyndham Clark +22500 Max Greyserman +25000 Sami Valimaki +25000 Sergio Garcia +25000 Haotong Li +25000 Nicolas Echavarria +25000 Carlos Ortiz +25000 Aldrich Potgieter +25000 Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen +35000 Andrew Novak +35000 Tom McKibbin +35000 Michael Brennan +50000 Kristoffer Reitan +50000 John Keefer +50000 Matt McCarty +50000 Davis Riley +75000 Bubba Watson +75000 Charl Schwartzel +75000 Zach Johnson +75000 Angel Cabrera +100000 Mason Howell +100000 Fifa Laopakdee +100000 Ethan Fang +100000 Brian Campbell +100000 Vijay Singh +100000 Jose Maria Olazabal +100000 Brandon Holtz +100000 Naoyuki Kataoka +100000 Danny Willett +100000 Jackson Herrington +100000 Fred Couples +100000 Mateo Pulcini +100000 Mike Weir +100000
During the third round of last year’s Masters, Johnson shot a round of six-under 66, which vaulted him into a tie for 10th entering the final day. But the 2007 Masters winner was stunned. Coming into Augusta National, he’d seen fair-at-best results.
“I don’t want to say I’ve seen it coming because that’s not what I’m trying to — I’ve seen the work and the results of hitting the face and seeing the line on putts,” Johnson said. “Not this week, but weeks prior I’ve seen it.
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“It just hasn’t showed.”
Oddsmakers saw that, too, and Johnson was listed at a whopping 600-1 to win. Which means you probably stayed away.
But if you somehow were in on a Johnson top-10 bet, which he secured during the final round?
Blackout.
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They happen. Should you be in search of something similar this year, you’ve clicked on the correct article. Below, members of our staff have each made a long-shot selection to assist you with your own weekly picks, whether those are for a low-stakes office fantasy league, or (legal!) big-bucks bets with a sportsbook. It’s an enjoyable endeavor for us. Deploy it as you wish.
On to our analysis.
Masters sleeper picks to watch for 2026
Alan Bastable
Sleeper pick: Min Woo Lee, +4,000. Might be unfair to call the 25th-ranked player in the world a “dark horse,” but I don’t hear a lot of pundits talking up MWL as a green-jacket threat. He’s been excellent on Tour this season with seven cuts made in seven starts and three top-10s, and he’s made the weekend in three of his four Masters starts. This year, I expect him to contend on the weekend.
Josh Berhow
Sleeper pick: Russell Henley, +5,500. Henley very quietly finished top 10 in each of his past two major starts, and he’s had four top 10s in his past six major starts after just one in the previous 38. The point? He’s getting better on the big stage, and his game is in a good spot — top 20s in five of his seven starts this year and ranks 31st in SG: Approach and 14th in SG: Putting.
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James Colgan
Sleeper pick: Keegan Bradley, +15,000. It feels like the golf gods owe him one after the way the Ryder Cup knocked him down in September. A Bradley win after all he’s been through over the past six months would be one of the best comeback stories in the sport.
PGA Tour golfers aren’t the only ones who can make some 💰 starting next Thursday. You can too! Here are a few tips. https://t.co/uldLYRZvRh
Sleeper pick: Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, +25,000. Which of this year’s Masters rookies is most likely to succeed? The winner at Australia’s Augusta National feels like a good bet. Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen makes his first Masters start via a thrilling win in December’s Australian Open. The Dane vaulted into contention with his understanding of angles and strategy at Royal Melbourne, another Alister Mackenzie masterpiece, where every hole requires elite shotmaking and focus. The success Neergaard found at this World Top 10 course will help him again at another this April. Understanding is one thing, but execution is most important. With a crowd of 30,000-plus Aussies pulling for Cam Smith, Neergaard delivered an unlikely up-and-down to secure the biggest win of his career. He’s got what it takes in the big moments, but at the very least, I’ll be taking him to make the cut in his first Masters appearance.
Alex Gelman
Sleeper pick: Fifa Laopakdee, +100,000. Yes, it’s a massive long shot but don’t sleep on the junior from Arizona State. He punched his ticket to the Masters after winning the 2025 Asia-Pacific Amateur. He started his career at ASU by winning his first tournament and already has four collegiate wins, including a win three weeks ago at the Desimone Classic.
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Jack Hirsh
Sleeper pick: Si Woo Kim, +6,600. His game sets up really well for Augusta, where lots of run-out should help equalize his length disadvantage. His game has been trending all year, and he’s missed just one cut in eight Masters appearances.
Jessica Marksbury
Sleeper pick: Jason Day, +6,600. Not only does Day have two top-6 finishes this season (including a runner-up at the American Express), he’s also played well many times at the Masters, with five career top-10 finishes.
Zephyr Melton
Sleeper pick: Maverick McNealy, +10,000. Mav has played some steady golf this year, missing just one cut and finishing in the top 30 in every other event but one. He finished middle of the pack in his debut last year, but he’s got the game to stay in it over the weekend.
Nick Piastowski
Sleeper pick: Jacob Bridgeman, +8,000. Let’s go back to the strokes gained stats, where we’ll find Jacob Bridgeman among the leaders in the putting category. The winner must navigate Augusta’s sloping putting surfaces.
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Josh Schrock
Sleeper pick: Adam Scott, +6,600. Due to the small field, there aren’t a ton of good “sleeper” options. I’d probably take Rickie Fowler if he was in the field, but, alas, he’s not. So we’ll go with Scott, who played well at Riviera and has great course history at Augusta. Honorable mention to Jason Day.
Josh Sens
Sleeper pick: Jason Day, +6,600. Yeah, I know. A past major winner at 66-to-1 isn’t exactly a sleeper. But I don’t see the point of going much lower on the board at the Masters, where long shots have about as good a chance of winning as I do of earning an overnight in the Crow’s Nest. A true dark horse simply isn’t going to come out on top at Augusta so I’m not going to waste a wager on one. As I see it, Day is as far down on the betting board as anyone with an outside chance at the green jacket. He’s got a strong track record here, including a T8 last year, and a T6 last week on a tough course was another good showing in what has been a decent season so far.
Sean Zak
Sleeper pick: Jake Knapp, +6,600. Knapp has been flying less under the radar recently, but he’s been one of the five or six best golfers in 2026.
Bernardo Silva will leave Manchester Cty in the summer after nine glorious years at the Etihad Stadium.
11:45, 06 Apr 2026
No one is irreplaceable. And no club appreciates that more than Manchester City.
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In the last decade, City have seen the likes of Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany, David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne all ride off into the sunset. Legends one and all. Deserving of statues outside the Etihad. But success has continued to come in their absence.
And no doubt trophies will continue to be collected whenever Bernardo Silva decides to leave the club. Assistant manager Pep Lijnders said Silva will depart City this summer in his post-Liverpool press conference.
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Numerous clubs are monitoring the situation closely, including Barcelona, Juventus and several in both Saudi Arabia and the MLS. There is a simple reason for this: Silva remains at the top of his game.
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Despite approaching his 32nd birthday, the Portuguese midfielder is still one of the most consistent footballers of his generation. A player small in stature with a gigantic amount of talent, energy and appetite to continue succeeding at the highest level.
In recent times, Silva has become Pep Guardiola’s lieutenant both on and off the field. In the past nine seasons, no one has been picked more times by Guardiola than Silva.
This weekend’s trip to Chelsea will be Silva’s 450th game in all competitions, all of which have come under the Catalan. He is the bloke Guardiola trusts more than anyone else, which might just be the biggest compliment a footballer can be paid.
When games appear to be lost, Silva makes something happen. When Guardiola needs some inspiration, he relies on Silva. A player whose infectious influence on those around him cannot be measured.
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A footballer who can operate to maximum levels in different positions, someone with a relentless work rate to match his abilities on the ball and off it. He is an extension of Guardiola on the pitch. Someone who thinks, speaks and acts like his manager. An undroppable presence at this crucial stage of the season.
Guardiola has never hidden his admiration for Silva. “He doesn’t score too many goals or is not involved in all the assists, but he gives us something that is not in the stats, and a lot of things that are incredibly valuable to us. He is absolutely one of the best players I have ever trained in my career,” said the City boss of his captain.
With or without Guardiola next season, City will plough ahead with a deal to sign Nottingham Forest’s Elliot Anderson this summer. Anderson has emerged as one of the brightest midfield talents in Europe. But filling the sizeable boots of Silva will be the ultimate test of his burgeoning reputation.
Yet this is what clubs like City have to do.
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Teams evolve – and there will be life after Silva. Replacing him will be tough. No doubt. But not half as difficult as replacing the manager who coached Silva into becoming one of the most influential footballers in Premier League history.
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2 min read Last Updated : Apr 06 2026 | 3:49 PM IST
Lautaro Martinez is back from injury, and Inter Milan is back looking like the Serie A leader again.
Lautaro scored twice in his first action since February and Inter routed visiting Roma 5-2 on Sunday to end a four-match winless streak across all competitions.
Lautaro scored in the second and 52nd minutes at the San Siro. Hakan Calhanoglu – fresh off helping Turkey qualify for the World Cup – Marcus Thuram and Nicolo Barella also found the net for Inter.
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Gianluca Mancini, along with Barella a member of the Italy team that failed to qualify for the World Cup, scored a momentary equalizer for Roma. Then Lorenzo Pellegrini pulled one back for Roma after the Giallorossi had gone four goals behind.
Inter, which had its advantage sliced from 10 to six points before the international break, moved nine points ahead of city rival AC Milan and 10 ahead of defending champion Napoli, which hosts Milan on Monday.
Bologna prepares for Aston Villa
Earlier, Bologna won 2-1 at relegation-threatened Cremonese to move up to eighth before hosting Aston Villa in the Europa League quarterfinals on Thursday.
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Joao Mario and Jonathan Rowe scored early for Bologna before Federico Bonazzoli pulled one back late for Cremonese by converting a penalty. Youssef Maleh of Cremonese and Lewis Ferguson of Bologna were each sent off in stoppage time.
Cremonese was without former Leicester striker Jamie Vardy, who sat out due to a muscle injury.
Also, Torino won 1-0 at last-place Pisa with an 80th-minute goal from Che Adams.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Asked at the post-fight press conference how he believes Wilder will fare if he does go on and face the division’s best, with a specific mention of unified champion Oleksandr Usyk, Chisora said:
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“He’ll do well. He’s got power. Wilder’s got power for the first three rounds, then after he fades, but he’s always got that power. I’m not gonna take that away from him.”
Usyk had been pursuing Wilder earlier this year as part of his plan to face every top name of his generation. Negotiations reportedly moved too slowly for the American, however, who instead signed to face Chisora. With the victory, he makes a case to remain on the Ukrainian’s hit list, though is battling against the likes of Fabio Wardley, Daniel Dubois, Tyson Fury and Agit Kabayel.
In the meantime, Usyk – who beat Chisora by unanimous decision back in 2020 – will face kickboxing star Rico Verhoeven on May 23. Controversially, he has been permitted to put his WBC world title on the line for the fight, much to the dismay of the top contenders given Verhoeven has had just one professional boxing bout. It is unclear what the WBA and IBF intend to do.
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