Category: Sports

Novak Djokovic surpassed Rafael Nadal to create the record for biggest undefeated head-to-head run against a single rival in the Open Era, by marking his 19th straight victory against Gael Monfils on August 18 at the Cincinnati Masters. The Serbian tennis star beat the previous record of Nadal against Richard Gasquet, which stood at 18-0.

Djokovic took one hour and eight minutes to outdo Monfils 6-3, 6-2 in the third round. Roger Federer claims the third position on the list, boasting an impressive 17-0 record against former player David Ferrer. Federer also maintains the same record against Mikhael Youzhny.

In a dramatic comeback, Djokovic on August 20 won the Cincinnati Open beating Carlos Alcaraz, exacting his Wimbledon final revenge with a 5-7, 7-6(7), 7-6(4) win in the final. The Serb beat lifted his third Cincinnati Masters title and a record-extending 39th Masters 1000 trophy. It was the pair’s third meeting this season in the last two months with Djokovic winning twice. After the Serb won their French Open semi-final clash in June, 20-year-old Alcaraz avenged the loss at the SW19 with an enthralling five-setter win. Overall, the head-to-head tie stands 2-2.

India won the men’s Asian Champions Trophy hockey defeating Malaysia 4-3 in the final at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium in Chennai on August 12. The win was a historic fourth title win for India.  With the victory, the team has soared to third place in the latest FIH rankings.

The Asians hockey champions made a remarkable comeback in 11 minutes, overturning a 1-3 score in the first half to a thrilling 4-3 victory over Malaysia. From the Indian side, Jugraj Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, Gurjant Singh and Akashdeep Singh scored the goals.  Kamal Abu Arzai, Razie Rahim, and Aminudin Muhamad scored from the Malaysian side.

India remained unbeaten throughout the competition, winning all but one match against Japan in the group-stage, where they were held to a 1-1 draw. They beat China 7-2, defeated Malaysia 5-0, edged defending champions South Korea 3-2, before hammering Pakistan 4-0 in the group-stage. In the knockouts, India beat Japan 5-0 before beating Malaysia 4-3 in the final.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin lauded Team India on their Asian Champions Trophy triumph and announced a cash prize of ₹1.1 crore for the winning team. Hockey India also announced a cash prize for the players and support staff.

Cristiano Ronaldo led nine-man Al Nassr Football Club to its first Arab Club Champions Cup title after scoring twice in a 2-1 extra-time win over Al-Hilal at the King Fahd Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on August 12.

Al-Hilal scored the first goal in the 51st-minute in the final match, with Brazilian footballer, Michael opening the score. Ronaldo equalised the goal in the 74th-minute for Al-Nassr, and later scored the second goal in extra-time. The Al-Nassr team was also reduced to nine men, with Abdulelah Al-Amri and Nawaf Boushal receiving red cards.

The Arab Club Champions Cup is played by top Arab clubs in the region, and included teams from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. The best player award of the final match went to Al-Hilal’s Sergej Milinkovic-Savic.

Ronaldo failed to win a trophy for Al-Nassr last season, when the team finished runners-up in the Saudi Pro League. The former Real Madrid superstar, however, scored six times in the tournament to finish as top scorer. Last week was a historic week for the Portuguese professional footballer, as he not only won the trophy, but also became the first person to reach 600 million followers on Instagram.

India’s Jyothi Yarraji clinched a bronze medal at the 100 m hurdles event at the World University Games in Chengdu, China on August 4.

The hurdler clocked 12.78 seconds to better her own women’s 100m hurdles national record in the race. The reigning Asian champion had earlier clocked 13.12 seconds and 13.05 seconds in the heats and semifinals, respectively, to enter the eight-woman final.

Yarraji, the only woman from India to record a sub 13-second 100 m hurdles, broke the national record for the ninth time, and was just a whisker away from matching the Paris 2024 Olympics qualifying standard of 12.77 second set for the event.

Slovakia’s Viktoria Forster won Gold with a timing of 12.72 second, while China’s Yanni Wu won silver with 12.76 second. The final on August 4 saw a high-quality race with all three medallists clocking their personal bests. Jyothi’s previous timing of 12.82 second came at the National Open Athletics Championships in Bengaluru in 2022.

Sprinter Amalan Borgohain clocked 20.55 s for the bronze medal in 200 m in Chengdu. His bronze-winning effort was just 0.03 second short of his national record mark set at the Federation Games last year.

Chess prodigy and Grandmaster Dommaraju Gukesh has now become India’s top-ranked chess player, overtaking India’s first GM Viswanathan Anand in live ratings.

Gukesh’s ranking improved after he qualified for the third round of the FIDE Chess World Cup, a major single-elimination tournament going on in Baku, Azerbaijan. The 17-year-old GM beat the home turf’s GM Misratdin Iskandaro to secure a live rating of 2755.9, narrowly beating Anand’s 2754.0.

Anand has been India’s top chess player in the published rankings for the last 36 years. That is also expected to change when FIDE publishes its ratings at the end of this month.

Gukesh saw an electric rise after breaking into the top 100 in 2023. His current world ranking is 11 based on FIDE’s monthly list. This ranking differs from the live ratings, which are calculated on a daily basis immediately after matches.

In July, Gukesh also became the youngest chess player to cross the 2750 mark, edging past a record held by five-time World Champion Magnus Carlsen, who has been World No. 1 since July 2011. Carlsen’s current live rating is 2838.4, followed by the US’ Fabiano Caruana at 2786.4.

Running till August 25, the FIDE World Cup also serves as a qualifier for the 2024 Chess World Championship. The FIDE World Cup has 17 Indian participants this year.

Saudi Arabia has been drawn in Group G of the Asian Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup 2026 and AFC Asian Cup 2027 alongside Jordan, Tajikistan, and the winners of the Round 1 clash between Cambodia and Pakistan.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) held the draw for the Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 2 of the Asian Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup 2026 and AFC Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2027 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on July 27.

The draw saw 36 national teams divided into nine groups of four, competing against each other in home-and-away matches. Round 1 will see each team playing one home and one away match in October, while Round 2 matches will be held in a home-and-away round-robin format, between November 2023 and June 2024.

All nine group winners and the respective runners-up from Round 2 will advance to Round 3 of World Cup qualifiers and occupy their places at the AFC Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2027. The draw for the third round of the 2026 World Cup will be held in 2024, when 18 teams will be divided into three groups of six with the top two from each group qualifying directly for the FIFA World Cup 2026. The World Cup is being played in North America.

The 2022 host, Qatar is grouped with India, Kuwait plus Afghanistan or Mongolia.

Indian men’s and women’s football teams can now compete at Asian Games, as the government has relaxed rules to facilitate participation. The Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports had earlier mandated that only teams that have been in the top eight in Asia in its sport can represent India in Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China, from September 23 to October 8.

The previous rule, which was relayed to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and other national sports federations by the ministry, said that “for team events, only those sports teams which have achieved a ranking up to eighth among participating countries of Asia in the last one year should be considered for participation in Asian Games.”

The national men’s football team is currently ranked 18th in Asia, while the women’s team is currently ranked 11th among AFC nations. “Keeping in mind their performances in recent times, the Ministry decided to grant the relaxation,” said Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur.

The IOA had refused to clear the Indian football teams from playing at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta based on the same ranking criteria.

The Indian badminton pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty upstaged Indonesia’s world No.1 pair of Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto in the final of men’s doubles Korea Open final at the Jinnam Stadium in Yeosu, South Korea on July 23. The Indian pair won 17-21 21-13 21-14 in 62 minutes to claim the BWF World Tour Super 500 event.

Former world champion PV Sindhu is the only other Indian to clinch the Korea Open title, clinching the title in 2017.

The win on Sunday was the fourth title for Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in 2023, three on the BWF World Tour besides the Asia Championships crown in April this year in Dubai. The shuttlers won the Swiss Open in March. Their win at last month’s Indonesia Open made them the first Indian pair to claim a Super 1000 event, the highest level competition on the tour.

After the win on Sunday, the 2022 Commonwealth Games champions could move up from their current world No.3 ranking after logging 9200 ranking points for the win. The triumph revealed their amazing consistency and fighting spirit when down, it should only boost gold medal hopes at the Hangzhou Asian Games in September-October.

World number one Carlos Alcaraz defeated world number two Novak Djokovic 1-6, 7-6(8-6), 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 in the Wimbledon 2023 men’s singles final on July 16. The 20-year-old Spaniard won his maiden Wimbledon title and his second Grand Slam title. The match lasted four hours and 42 minutes. Djokovic had won the previous four editions of the tournament.

In women’s doubles, 2019 champions Su-Wei Hsieh of Chinese Taipei and Czech Republic’s Barbora Strycova beat the third-seeded Belgian-Australian pair of Elise Mertens and Storm Hunter 7-5, 6-4 in the final.

In the women’s final on July 15, Czech Republic’s Marketa Vondrousova beat Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur in straight sets to win her maiden Grand Slam title. On the same day, Great Britain’s Neal Skupski claimed his first Grand Slam men’s doubles title with Dutch partner Wesley Koolhof. The first seeds defeated Spanish-Argentine pair Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos 6-4 6-4 in the final on Centre Court.

In the mixed doubles final, Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok and Croatia’Mate Pavic won the title in three sets (6-4, 6-7 (9), 6-3) over Xu Yifan of China and Joran Vliegen of Belgium. Kichenok became the third Ukrainian to win a Grand Slam title and the first to win one at Wimbledon.

ICC on July 13 announced equal prize money for men’s and women’s teams at all its events. The decision was taken at the ICC Annual Conference in Durban, South Africa.

Teams will receive the same prize money for equivalent finishing position at comparable events and winning a match at those events. The ICC Board said that the decision fulfills its commitment to reaching prize money equity by 2030 well ahead of schedule.

The ICC Board also confirmed the largest ever investment into cricket after the distribution model for the next four years was agreed. Every ICC Member will receive considerably enhanced funding with a strategic investment fund ring-fenced to drive global growth initiatives as per the ICC Global Growth Strategy.

In addition, the board approved the changes made to ICC Sanctioning Regulations designed to support all Members to create sustainable revenue streams and develop the game while preserving and protecting the integrity of the sport and the welfare of players. In future, new events in need of a sanction will need to ensure that the playing XI of each team include a minimum of seven local or Associate Member players to support the development of the game.