MADRID (AFP) – Top-ranked Iga Swiatek came through “the most intense and crazy final” she has ever contested to avenge her loss to Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s Madrid final with a gruelling three-hour 11-minute victory in the Spanish capital on Saturday.
Coming back from 1-3 down in the decider and saving three match points in total, Swiatek claimed a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (9/7) victory to secure the Madrid Open trophy for the first time.
“Well, who is going to say now that women’s tennis is boring, right?” said Swiatek.
Swiatek, who picked up the 20th title of her career, and ninth at the WTA 1000 level, has now won her last eight consecutive finals and joins Elena Rybakina with a tour-leading 30 victories this season.
The 22-year-old Pole confessed she felt tight in the first two hours of the contest but drew inspiration from Rafael Nadal, and his ability to step up mentally.
Iga Swiatek returns the ball against Aryna Sabalenka during the 2024 WTA Tour Madrid Open tournament final tennis match. PHOTO: AFP
“I was surprised that in the third set I felt the best mentally,” said Swiatek, who improved to 7-3 lifetime against two-time Madrid champion Sabalenka.
“One thing that came through my mind was that I think Rafa had a couple of matches like that.
“I remember exactly when he was playing (Daniil) Medvedev in Australia and it clicked for him. He also struggled for a bit of time, he was tense and I think stressed. That kind of gave me hope that maybe it will click, even after two hours.”
At the Caja Magica, the pair traded breaks to kick off the final and were neck and neck until Swiatek drew a forehand error from Sabalenka to break for 6-5 and closed out the 61-minute opening set on her first opportunity.
Despite squandering a 2-0 lead early in the second, Sabalenka manifested a set point on Swiatek’s serve in game 10, forcing a decider with a lightning-fast down-the-line forehand winner.
It was the fifth time in six matches this fortnight that Sabalenka found herself embroiled in a three-set duel and she was clearly ready to go the distance. The defending champion broke for 3-1 in the decider, peppering Swiatek with deep, powerful shots, but her lead was short-lived.
Swiatek saved a pair of match points on her own serve at 5-6 as the high-quality affair fittingly went to a deciding tiebreak.
Sabalenka produced an ace to save match point at 5-6 in the breaker and saw one of her own slip away as Swiatek survived for 7-7.
Moments later, the Polish world number one flung herself to the ground in disbelief as she sealed a heroic victory on a long backhand from Sabalenka.
“I think it was the most intense and, like, crazy final I played,” said Swiatek after the match.
AFP – Erling Haaland scored four as Manchester City closed to within three games of an unprecedented fourth consecutive Premier League title by thrashing Wolves 5-1 at the Etihad.
Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Bournemouth on Saturday had opened up a four-point lead for the Gunners.
But City showed no signs of feeling the pressure as they cut the gap back to one point and have three matches remaining to Arsenal’s two.
Haaland has faced criticism for not matching the standards of his stunning first season in Manchester, when he scored 52 goals as City won the treble.
However, the Norwegian took his tally for this season to 36 goals in 41 appearances with a devastating display of finishing.
“Erling is back to business,” said City boss Pep Guardiola.
“Penalties are a guarantee but the second and fourth (goals) were unbelievable.”
Haaland was restored to Pep Guardiola’s starting line-up after coming off the bench to score against Nottingham Forest last weekend on his return from injury.
However, Guardiola pointed to an earlier injury problem this season that kept him out for two months as the reason behind Haaland failing to hit the same heights as last year.
“He was injured, an important one, and he’s so tall to get back to your best form you need time,” added Guardiola.
Even if City collectively are also not at the same level as a year ago, they remain well on course for a Premier League and FA Cup double.
And Guardiola insisted they will need to win all three matches, despite Arsenal facing a tricky trip away to Manchester United next weekend.
“One week, three games. Nine points we will be champions, six or seven points, Arsenal will be champions.”
This drone footage obtained by The Associated Press shows the village of Ocheretyne, a target for Russian forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. PHOTO: AP
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Ukrainian village of Ocheretyne has been battered by fighting, drone footage obtained overnight by The Associated Press shows. The village has been a target for Russian forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
Russian troops have been advancing in the area, pounding Kyiv’s depleted, ammunition-deprived forces with artillery, drones and bombs. Ukraine’s military has acknowledged the Russians have gained a “foothold” in Ocheretyne, which had a population of about 3,000 before the war, but says that fighting continues.
Residents have scrambled to flee the village, among them a 98-year-old womanwho walked almost 10 kilometres alone last week, wearing a pair of slippers and supported by a cane, until she reached Ukrainian front lines.
Not a single person is seen in the footage obtained late Friday, and no building in Ocheretyne appears to have been left untouched by the fighting. Most houses, apartment blocks and other buildings look damaged beyond repair, and many houses have been pummeled into piles of wood and bricks. A factory on the outskirts has also been badly damaged.
The footage also shows smoke billowing from several houses, and fires burning in at least two buildings.
Elsewhere, Russia has in recent weeks stepped up attacks on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
Four people were wounded and a two-story civilian building was damaged and set ablaze overnight after Russian forces struck Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine, with exploding drones, regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said Saturday.
The four, including a 13-year-old, were hurt by falling debris, he said on the Telegram messaging app.
Russian state agency RIA reported Saturday that Moscow’s forces struck a drone warehouse in Kharkiv that had been used by Ukrainian troops overnight, citing Sergei Lebedev, described as a coordinator of local pro-Moscow guerrillas. His comments could not be independently verified.
Russian forces continued hitting Kharkiv and its surroundings on Saturday, according to updates posted by Syniehubov and other Ukrainian officials on the Telegram messenger app. One strike hit a civilian business in an industrial district of the city, wounding at least six people, Syniehubov said. A further attack killed a 49-year-old civilian outside his house in Slobozhanske, a village northeast of the city, the governor reported.
In the Black Sea port of Odesa, which has been repeatedly targeted in recent days, three people were hurt in a rocket attack on “civil infrastructure,” regional Governor Oleh Kiper said.
Ukraine’s military said Russia launched a total of 13 Shahed drones at the Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions of eastern Ukraine overnight, all of which were shot down by Ukrainian air defences.
Ukraine’s energy ministry on Saturday said the overnight strikes damaged an electrical substation in the Dnipropetrovsk region, briefly depriving households and businesses of power.
According to Serhii Lysak, the province’s governor, falling drone debris damaged critical infrastructure and three private houses, one of which caught fire. Two residents were hospitalised.
Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed early on Saturday that its forces overnight shot down four US-provided long-range ATACMS missiles over the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The ministry did not provide further details.
Ukraine has recently begun using the missiles, provided secretly by the United States, to hit Russian-held areas, including a military airfield in Crimea and in another area east of the occupied city of Berdyansk, US officials said last week.
Long sought by the leadership in Kyiv, the new missiles give Ukraine nearly double the striking distance — up to 300 kilometres — than it had with the mid-range version of the weapons it received from the US last October.
Later that day, Russia’s Emergencies Ministry reported that a major fire had engulfed a warehouse on the outskirts of the Crimean city of Simferopol. Dozens of emergency workers were dispatched to the site, and had extinguished the fire by early evening, according to the ministry.
The ministry did not say what had caused the blaze, or what was stored at the warehouse. There were no immediate reports of casualties or comment from Ukraine.
Also on Saturday, a Ukrainian drone damaged telecommunications infrastructure on the outskirts of Belgorod, a Russian city some 50 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, according to the local governor. Vyacheslav Gladkov did not say what the site was used for.
Hours later, Gladkov reported that five people in Belgorod were hospitalised, with shrapnel wounds and other injuries, following a strong blast on Saturday that also damaged around 30 private homes and sparked two fires. He did not immediately clarify what caused the explosions.
One Telegram news channel focusing on Belgorod posted claims Saturday that a Russian aerial bomb meant for Ukraine’s Kharkiv region across the border might have been dropped on the city by mistake.
According to an update by Pepel (“Ashes” in English), a channel run by Belgorod journalists now based outside Russia, local authorities had not issued any warnings prior to the blast. The destruction also appeared inconsistent with a Ukrainian drone strike, the post alleged.
Russian officials did not immediately respond to these claims, which could not be independently verified.
This drone footage obtained by The Associated Press shows the village of Ocheretyne, a target for Russian forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. PHOTO: AP
The White House is visible through the fence at the North Lawn in Washington, on June 16, 2016. PHOTO: AP
WASHINGTON (AP) — A driver died after crashing a vehicle into a gate at the White House Saturday night, authorities said.
The driver was found dead in the vehicle following the crash shortly before 10.30pm at an outer perimeter gate of the White House complex, the US Secret Service said in a statement.
Security protocols were implemented but there was no threat to the White House, the agency said.
The driver was not immediately identified.
The Secret Service will continue to investigate the matter, while turning over the fatal crash portion of the investigation to the Washington Metropolitan Police Department, the agency said.
The White House is visible through the fence at the North Lawn in Washington, on June 16, 2016. PHOTO: AP
In this image from a video, Western Australian Premier Roger Cook speaks at a press conference in Perth, Australia, Sunday. PHOTO: AP
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A 16-year-old boy armed with a knife was shot dead by police after he stabbed a man in the Australian west coast city of Perth, officials said Sunday.
The incident occurred in the parking lot of a hardware store in suburban Willetton on Saturday night.
The teen attacked the man and then rushed at police officers before he was shot, Western Australian Premier Roger Cook told reporters on Sunday.
“There are indications he had been radicalised online,” Cook told a news conference.
“But I want to reassure the community at this stage it appears that he acted solely and alone,” Cook added.
A man in his 30s was found at the scene with a stab wound to his back. He was taken to a hospital in serious but stable condition, a police statement said.
Police and Australian Security Intelligence Organisation agents have been conducting a counterterrorism investigation in the east coast city of Sydney since another 16-year-old boy stabbed an Assyrian Orthodox bishop and priest in a church on April 15.
That boy has been charged with committing a terrorist act. Six of his alleged associates have also been charged with a range of offenses, including conspiring to engage in or planning a terrorist act. All remain in custody.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had been briefed on the latest stabbing in Perth by Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw and ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess, who heads the nation’s main domestic spy agency.
“I’m advised there is no ongoing threat to the community on the information available,” Albanese said.
“We are a peace-loving nation and there is no place for violent extremism in Australia,” he added.
Police received an emergency phone call after 10pm from a teenager saying he was going to commit acts of violence, Western Australian Police Commissioner Col Blanch said.
The boy had been participating in a program for young people at risk of radicalisation, Blanch added.
“I don’t want to say he has been radicalized or is radicalised because I think that forms part of the investigation,” he said.
Police said they were later alerted by a phone call from a member of the public that a knife attack was underway in the parking lot. Three police officers responded, one armed with a gun and two with conducted energy devices.
Police deployed both conducted energy devices but they failed to incapacitate the boy before he was killed by a single gunshot, Blanch said.
Blanch said members of the local Muslim community had raised concerns with police about the boy’s behavior before he was killed on Saturday.
The Imam of Perth’s largest mosque, the Nasir Mosque, condemned the stabbing.
“There is no place for violence in Islam,” Imam Syed Wadood Janud said in a statement.
“We appreciate the effort of the police to keep our communities safe. I also want to commend the local Muslim community who had flagged the individual prior with the police,” Wadood added.
Some Muslim leaders have criticized Australian police for declaring last month’s church stabbing a terrorist act but not a rampage two days earlier in a Sydney shopping mall in which six people were killed and a dozen wounded. The 40-year-old attacker in the mall attack was shot dead by police. Police have yet to reveal the man’s motive.
The church attack is only the third to be classified by Australian authorities as a terrorist act since 2018.
In December 2022, three Christian fundamentalists shot dead two police officers and a bystander in an ambush near the community of Wieambilla in Queensland state. The shooters were later killed by police.
In November 2018, a Somalia-born Muslim stabbed three pedestrians in downtown Melbourne, killing one, before police shot him dead.
In this image from a video, Western Australian Premier Roger Cook speaks at a press conference in Perth, Australia, Sunday. PHOTO: AP
Juro Kara speaks during a press conference in Osaka, western Japan in March, 2005 after he was appointed as a guest professor at a university. PHOTO: AP
TOKYO (AP) — Juro Kara, who helped shape Japan’s postwar avant-garde theater, defiantly yet playfully transforming the essence of Kabuki aesthetics into modern storytelling, has died. He was 84.
The playwright, director and troupe leader died late Saturday from a blood clot in the brain after he collapsed at home and was rushed to a Tokyo hospital on May 1, his theater group Karagumi said in a statement on Sunday.
Kara, whose real name was Yoshihide Otsuru, rose to stardom in the so-called Japanese underground movement of the 1960s known as “un-gura,” characterized by a kitsch rebellious style also found in his contemporaries Shuji Terayama and Tadashi Suzuki.
Kara’s colourful shows, often in makeshift tents evocative of a traveling circus, rejected the established theatrical modes then dominating modernising Japan that were mostly Western, middle class and well-behaved.
His plays, such as “Koshimaki Osen,” were characterised by a raw energetic physicality, blatantly devoid of any pretense at naturalism.
Kara once compared his approach to “a womb covered in blood.” His theater came to be known as “the red tent.” A wandering group would put on his shows wherever the tents went up, most famously in a spot near a shrine in Shinjuku in downtown Tokyo.
Audiences found themselves immersed in otherworldly, dreamlike settings. The flashy posters that artist Tadanori Yokoo often created for Kara’s works exemplified that signature pop surrealist style.
Kara’s group is still active today, performing shows that carry on his legacy. His theater also served as a breeding ground for some of Japan’s top actors, including Kaoru Kobayashi and the late Jinpachi Nezu.
Born in Tokyo, Kara majored in theater at Meiji University in Tokyo, which boasts an extensive archive of Kara’s works.
In 1983, Kara won the prestigious Akutagawa Award for new writers for his novel “Letters from Sagawa.” He also acted in various films, often in bit character roles, including “Demon Pond,” directed by Masahiro Shinoda.
Funeral arrangements weren’t set but will be for family and friends, Karagumi said. Kara is survived by his wife Michiko, sons Gitan Otsuru and Sasuke Otsuru, and daughter Minion Otsuru, all actors.
Juro Kara speaks during a press conference in Osaka, western Japan in March, 2005 after he was appointed as a guest professor at a university. PHOTO: AP
US artist Frank Stella stands between his collages "Die Marquise von O..." (The Marchioness of O...) (left) and "Die Verlobung in St Domingo" (The Engagement in St Domingo") at the Wuerttembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, the gallery of the German Federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, in Stuttgart, southwestern Germany, Sept.lember 20, 2001. PHOTO: AP
NEW YORK (AP) — Frank Stella, a painter, sculptor and printmaker whose constantly evolving works are hailed as landmarks of the minimalist and post-painterly abstraction art movements, died Saturday at his home in Manhattan. He was 87.
Gallery owner Jeffrey Deitch, who spoke with Stella’s family, confirmed his death to The Associated Press. Stella’s wife, Harriet McGurk, told the New York Times that he died of lymphoma.
Born May 12, 1936, in Malden, Massachusetts, Stella studied at Princeton University before moving to New York City in the late 1950s.
At that time many prominent American artists had embraced abstract expressionism, but Stella began exploring minimalism. By age 23 he had created a series of flat, black paintings with gridlike bands and stripes using house paint and exposed canvas that drew widespread critical acclaim.
Over the next decade, Stella’s works retained his rigorous structure but began incorporating curved lines and bright colours, such as in his influential Protractor series, named after the geometry tool he used to create the curved shapes of the large-scale paintings.
In the late 1970s, Stella began adding three-dimensionality to his visual art, using metals and other mixed media to blur the boundary between painting and sculpture.
Stella continued to be productive well into his 80s, and his new work is currently on display at the Jeffrey Deitch Gallery in New York City. The colorful sculptures are massive and yet almost seem to float, made up of shining polychromatic bands that twist and coil through space.
“The current work is astonishing,” Deitch told AP on Saturday. “He felt that the work that he showed was the culmination of a decades-long effort to create a new pictorial space and to fuse painting and sculpture.”
US artist Frank Stella stands between his collages “Die Marquise von O…” (The Marchioness of O…) (left) and “Die Verlobung in St Domingo” (The Engagement in St Domingo”) at the Wuerttembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, the gallery of the German Federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, in Stuttgart, southwestern Germany, Sept.lember 20, 2001. PHOTO: AP
A race fan walks though the stands at Churchill Downs before the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby horse race Saturday. PHOTO: AP
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (AP) — A Kentucky Derby look isn’t complete without headwear. Hats or fascinators for women. Hats for men, and not only traditional ones.
People create their own statement pieces involving the Twin Spires, horses and even the starting gate at Churchill Downs, which is celebrating the 150th running of the famous race this weekend in Louisville, Kentucky.
The Derby was created by Meriweather Lewis Clark Jr, who wanted to bring the class and elegance of European racing to America. The tradition of wearing hats to the Derby began with its first running in 1875. But they began taking on a life of their own in the 1960s, growing larger and more ornate so the people wearing them could be spotted on television.
That meant fancy clothing and shoes too. The tradition has never wavered in the Derby’s history and, in fact, it continues to grow. There is a contest for best dressed at Churchill Downs and there are three official milliners this year.
A race fan walks through the grounds of Churchill Downs before the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby horse race Saturday. PHOTO: APA race fan walks though the stands at Churchill Downs before the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby horse race Saturday. PHOTO: AP
Jaime Munguia hits Canelo Alvarez in a super middleweight title fight Saturday, in Las Vegas. PHOTO: AP
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Jaime Munguia said to expect “a full-out Mexican war” against Canelo Alvarez on Cinco de Mayo weekend.
And while Munguia (43-1) may have suffered the first loss of his career Saturday night, he made good on his promise.
Alvarez (61-2-2), who has been on boxing’s pound-for-pound lists for more than a decade, retained his undisputed super middleweight belt with a unanimous decision.
Judge Tim Cheatham scored the fight 117-110, Steve Weisfeld had it 115-112 and David Sutherland 116-111.
And in a fight that was sure to be significant for Munguia, win or lose, the fiery and powerful boxer put his talent on display early on, overcame being knocked down in the fourth round, and took Alvarez to the distance for a fifth straight fight.
“I came out strong and was winning the early rounds,” said Munguia, 27. “I let my hands go, but he’s a fighter with a lot of experience. The loss hurts because it’s my first loss and I felt strong.”
Munguia who closed a 3-to-1 underdog at BetMGM, ignited the announced crowd of 17,492 quickly, landing a sharp left to Alvarez’s face in the first round. He came alive inside the two-minute mark of the second and set the tone in the third before closing the round with a flurry of punches culminating with a big right to head.
Then it was Alvarez’s turn.
The 33-year-old champion reminded Munguia of who he was fighting by using a left-right combination that resulted in a knockdown – the first time he’d been dropped in his career – and seemingly reverberated the rest of the way.
Alvarez’s stronger punches coupled with Munguia’s deflated energy over the next five rounds.
The elder fighter credited his younger challenger afterward by saying he was strong, but also added he’s “a little slow” and “I could see every punch.”
“That’s why I’m the best,” Alvarez said. “I took my time. I have a lot of experience. Munguia is a great fighter. He’s strong and smart. But I have 12 rounds to win the fight and I did. I did really good and I’m proud of it.”
Munguia, who was thriving under new trainer Freddie Roach, appeared to be peaking both physically and mentally.
“There’s no doubt I would have beaten anyone else tonight,” Munguia said. “He has a lot of experience. I started well, but he’s a fighter who creates a lot of problems.”
Roach made his debut in Munguia’s corner in a win over John Ryder in January, and will now go back to the drawing board to prepare his young fighter for whatever promoter Oscar De La Hoya throws his way next.
There are several viable options for Munguia, including Christian Mbilli, the No 1 WBC contender from Canada who has yet to face top-notch competition and would likely be more than willing for the bout.
Los Angeles’ Diego Pacheco is ranked No 1 in the WBO, and is a fellow Mexican fighter who would be a formidable foe.
Finally, Puerto Rican boxer Edgar Berlanga is ranked No 1 by the WBA, and is another big puncher that would electrify the ring with Munguia.
“This experience for Jaime will take him to another level,” De La Hoya said. “He gains experience. He didn’t get schooled. He gained experience and becomes a better fighter.”
Jaime Munguia hits Canelo Alvarez in a super middleweight title fight Saturday, in Las Vegas. PHOTO: AP
Actor Kevin Spacey addresses the media outside Southwark Crown Court in London, July 26, 2023. PHOTO: AP
LONDON (AP) — Kevin Spacey, the Oscar-winning actor, has denied new allegations of inappropriate behaviour from men who will feature in a documentary on British television that is due to be released next week.
In an online interview with journalist Dan Wootton, Spacey said he has never done anything illegal and admitted that he has struggled to get back to work after being acquitted last year of criminal charges in a London court.
“I can’t go through this again, allowing myself to be baselessly attacked without defending myself,” he said in the interview entitled “Kevin Spacey: Right Of Reply” which was aired late Friday on Wootton’s YouTube channel.
Last July, a London jury acquitted Spacey on sexual assault charges stemming from allegations by four men dating back 20 years. The court victory was his second since he saw off a USD40 million lawsuit in 2022 in New York brought by “Star Trek: Discovery” actor Anthony Rapp.
The documentary “Spacey Unmasked” is set to be aired on May 6 and 7 on Channel 4 in Britain and streamed on Max in the US.
The documentary is said to feature testimony from men regarding events between 1976 and 2013, the actor revealed during the interview.
“I take full responsibility for my past behaviour and my actions, but I cannot and will not take responsibility or apologise to anyone who’s made up stuff about me or exaggerated stories about me,” said Spacey, who won Academy Awards for “The Usual Suspects” and “American Beauty”.
“I’ve never told someone that if they give me sexual favours, then I will help them out with their career, never,” he added.
Spacey, who served as artistic director of the Old Vic Theatre in London from 2004 to 2015, again admitted that he was a “flirt” with men in their 20s and that he made “clumsy” passes at times.
“I’ve clearly hooked up with some men, who thought they might get ahead in their careers by having a relationship with me,” he said. “But there was no conversation with me, it was all part of their plan, a plan that was always destined to fail, because I wasn’t in on the deal.”
The actor also claimed on X, formerly Twitter, that he had “repeatedly requested” that Channel 4 give him more than seven days to respond to the allegations made about him in their documentary.
Spacey said the broadcaster refused “on the basis that they feel that asking for a response in 7 days to new, anonymised and non-specific allegations is a ‘fair opportunity’ for me to refute any allegations made against me.”
“Each time I have been given the time and a proper forum to defend myself, the allegations have failed under scrutiny and I have been exonerated,” he added.
Spacey said he has struggled to get back to work after being acquitted of all criminal charges, describing his experience as a “life sentence.”
His acting career has been adversely affected since 2017 when he was first publicly accused of inappropriate behaviour at the beginning of the #MeToo movement. He then lost his lead role as Frank Underwood in the Netflix drama “House of Cards”.
Channel 4 has been contacted for comment.
Actor Kevin Spacey addresses the media outside Southwark Crown Court in London, July 26, 2023. PHOTO: AP
