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Author: Chirag

Djokovic’s Indian Wells Participation In Doubt After Another Vaccine Issue

Posted on by Chirag

The former world no.1 has had a very horrible start to the new year. Starting in Australia, where he was held under the government’s watch and faced multiple court battles, he has played only 3 matches in 2022. Whereas his competitors, majorly Rafael Nadal is on a career best winning streak of 15 matches.

Post the Australian Open controversy and not being allowed to play there, he then went to Dubai to play his first match of tennis in 2022. The February month didn’t seem any luckier as Djokovic quickly lost his grip on the 3rd round match and lost to Vesely.

He also then separated with his long-time coach and lost a major sponsor in Peugeot and now things are getting worse. The Indian Wells committee along with BNP Paribas announced that Djokovic is part of the tournament draw however it will be up to the CDC to decide if he enters the country or not so his participation will be based on that.

“Novak Djokovic is on the tournament entry list, and therefore is placed into the draw today,” tournament chiefs said.


“We are currently in communication with his team; however, it has not been determined if he will participate in the event by getting CDC approval to enter the country.” Djokovic is a five-time champion at Indian Wells, where organisers have said proof of full vaccination will be required for spectator entry into the grounds for the tournament in the California desert.

Liverpool Survive Inter Milan As Bayern Munich Soar Past Salzburg

Posted on by Chirag

Lewandowski set new records as Bayern Munich thrashed Red Bull Salzburg with 7 goals to 1.

Over on the English and Italian side of things, Liverpool barely survived Inter Milan to make it to the next round of the UEFA Champions League.

The German champions Bayern Munich came right out of the gates with an aggressive attack after a 1-1 draw in the first leg. Lewandowski scored his hat trick with 2 penalties even before the clock hit 23 minutes. This made it the earliest treble scored by any player in Champions League history since the year 1996. The old record was just a minute more at 24.

Even Muller got on the scoreboard with his 2 goals in the second half. Salzburg did pull one goal back after 5 received but it wasn’t enough to create any sort of momentum. Bayern easily finished off with two more.

Over at the Anfield stadium in Liverpool, the home side took on Inter Milan once more after their 2-0 win in Italy. The reds went in with the lead and tried to increase it on multiple occasions with Salah missing twice.

They were however saved as Alexis Sanchez’s careless fouls got him sent out of the game with a red card. The Chilean made one foul in each half with his legs not straight and studs pointed out. This left the referee with no option and had to send off Alexis Sanchez. This changed the entire momentum of the game as Inter could now not make as many runs and attempts with only 10 men on the field.

Liverpool and Bayern Munich have now reached the next stage which will be the quarter finals of the UEFA Champions League 2021-22. They will await the remaining matches happening tonight and next week. Tonight City will face Sporting after beating them 5-1 and a leading PSG will face Real Madrid.

World’s Oldest Tennis player in Ukraine, Wants to Live till a 100

Posted on by Chirag

Post the news breaking about Putin invading Ukraine against the better judgement of almost every person on the earth, Ukraine now finds themselves under heavy fire as Russia plans to capture the entire country. 

Leonid Stanislavskyi’s dreams came true as the 97 year old played his favourite player and current 21 time grand slam champion Rafael Nadal and four weeks later, the war escalated and commenced properly as the Russian Army invaded Ukraine. 

“The war started on (February) 24th. From the 24th till now I have practically not gone out. I’ve stayed at home… I have supplies, the fridge is full. I’m sitting at home, not going anywhere,” he said.

“My daughter Tanya is in Poland, she wants to take me there. But I decided to stay here. I have bad hearing so I sleep at night and don’t hear anything. Last night there were bombings, in the morning there were air-raid sirens again.”

Stanislavskyi survived the Second World War, when he was an engineer who helped build Soviet warplanes to fight the Nazis.

“I never thought that I would have to live through another, more frightening war where people from both sides are dying — mothers are losing their children, wives are losing their sons and their husbands,” he added.

“What is this? What good is it? In the 21st century there can’t be war. The war needs to be stopped, an agreement has to be reached.”

“Tennis is my life, my destiny. I’ve played tennis at a serious level since I was 90, I’ve played abroad, I’ve played in World Championships, I’ve played in the European Championships.”

“I’m not afraid of anyone… I’m hoping that the war will end and I will be able to play tennis. If I could get (to Poland) I would play there. But I decided to stay at home and wait for the end of the war,” he said.

Champions League and Europa League Back in Town

Posted on by Chirag

This week the champions league and europa league return to everyone’s screens as the Round of 16 for both tournaments heats up.

With teams like Liverpool, Manchester City, Real Madrid, Paris Saint Germain and Bayern Munich still in the mix for the Champions league title, the race is getting fun. However out of Real Madrid and Paris Saint Germain, only 1 club will see the light of the quarter finals as the two face each other in theri second leg with the score at 0-1 favouring PSG.

Meanwhile Liverpool, who will face Inter Milan in the second leg tonight, already leading by 2 goals will have no difficulty getting to the next stage considering their great Premier League form.

The same goes for teams like Manchester City and even Bayern Munich. However for teams like Atletico Madrid and Manchester United it will be very difficult. As the two giants face each other in the second leg next week with the score at 1-1, it’ll be interesting to see how the two have changed their squads. 

Both United and Atletico have been on a bad run in their respective leagues with United standing at 5th and Atletico at 4th, both teams might fall more in points before the season ends. 

Meanwhile over in the Europa League, the first leg of the Round of 16 begins with a very dominant Barcelona at the helm. As La Blaugrana get ready to face Galatasaray after a very long time, their La Liga competitors, Sevilla will be facing West Ham.

Barcelona, if they get to the finals and win, will win the Europa League for the first time ever due to them never being out of the Champions League so early.

Weekend Football Update; Barcelona Move up to 3rd, City destroy United in Sunday Derby

Posted on by Chirag

This weekend was filled with football matches from across Europe.La Liga saw both of it’s giants in action as Barcelona visited Elche and Real Madrid hosted Real Sociedad. 

As Vinicius and Benzema led Real to a great performance in the Santiago Bernabeu with a thrilling 4-1 victory, Barcelona struggled but eventually managed to get the ever important 3 points. 

Before this match, Barcelona had started to show dominance as they scored around 22 goals in just 6 matches. Now after they struggled last night to beat Elche, they need to figure out their defence as teams find it easy to catch them on the counter attack. 

Barcelona now however, stand on 3rd place firmly as they look to beat out Real Betis for 2nd and eventually Real Madrid for 1st place if luck stays with La Blaugrana. 

Over in the United Kingdom, the Manchester Derby kicked off as Pep Guardiola’s City thrashed a shadow of itself United. 

Without the likes of Ronaldo or Cavani, United found it very hard to start great attacks and capitalise as Pep’s City carried the ball all the way to the back of United’s net four times and even were up by a goal in the first 5 minutes.

With the Europa league and Uefa League Round of 16 up ahead, it’ll be interesting to see how teams pace themselves this week.

Novak Djokovic Offers Ukrainian Tennis Player Financial Help

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The former World no. 1 and current World no. 2, Novak Djokovic has had a bad year so far with the whole Australian Open drama and court cases that saw him return to his home as he was not allowed to play and defend his Australian Open title.

He then finally tried his tennis shots and style on court in front of fans in Dubai, however he lost in his 3rd round match up in a shocker.

The Serbian was then finally given the green light to enter the French Open after concerns over vaccination status. France then announced they will be allowing non vaccinated people to enter the country post the 14th of March. This means Djokovic will be at the Roland Garros defending his title and going up against freshly crowned World no. 1 Daniil Medvedev as well as the King of Clay and 21 time grand slam winner, Rafael Nadal. 

With the current war going on in between Russia and Ukraine, the tennis organisations have taken action banning Russian teams and venues, however financially they haven’t he;ped out as much. Djokovic has offered his financial assistance to friend and tour member, the Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky.

After reading about Stakhovsky’s condition and will to fight for Ukraine as well, Djokovic offered him personal help and financial support through some messages on Whatsapp. The Serb might have different opinions when it comes to vaccines but has a kind heart when it comes to humanity. 

France Makes Vaccine Mandate U-Turn, Djokovic To Play on Clay

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The French Open will see the return of the defending champion Novak Djokovic as France has made a vital announcement in terms of the vaccine mandates. 

The French government will drop the vaccine mandate that requires any visiting people to be fully vaccinated on the 14th of March. This means that, unlike what happened in Australia earlier this year, Djokovic will be allowed to play even though unvaccinated in this summer’s French Open.

In Australia, the Serbian was given an exception by the Australian Open committee but then it was announced that Djokovic could not enter Australia and was kept isolated. What followed was an extensive court battle which eventually saw Djokovic pack up his bags and go back to Serbia.

The then World no. 1 played his first match of the year in Dubai where he lost in the third round in a shocker and even dropped from the World no. 1 spot as Daniil Medvedev climbed up and ended the 18 year dominance of the Big Three and short cameos from Andy Murray. 

This means that Djokovic will now be in the same tournament as the 21 time grand slam winner Rafael Nadal and current world no. 1 Daniil Medvedev.

Man City Star Zinchenko Weighs In on Russia-Ukraine War

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Manchester City star Oleksandr Zichenko, the Ukrainian fullback has finally broken his silence and given his two cents on the Ukraine-Russia war going on right now. 

The Russian-Ukrainian war saw the sports world affected a lot as multiple sporting organizations including the UEFA and FIFA committees have banned all Russian sides from competing there and have allowed Russian athletes to continue playing under a neutral flag. 

“At midnight UK time, my wife woke me up and she was crying,” Zinchenko told BBC.

“I was in shock. She showed me the videos, the pictures, what’s going on now in Ukraine. Maybe the most closest feeling is when someone from your circle is dying. You know, this feeling like you feel so bad inside. But this is even much more worse. I’m just crying,” he said. “So already a week, I’m not counting, but even I can drive the car from the training ground, or it doesn’t matter where, I can just cry from nothing.

“It’s everything in my head. Imagine the place where you was born, where you was growing up. And there is just empty ground.”

“I’ll be honest, if not for my daughter, my family, I would be there,” he said.

“I’m just born like that. I know the people from my country, the mentality of them, and all of them, they think exactly the same.

“I know the people, the mentality of my people from my country, they prefer to die, and they will die. But they’re not going to give [up].”

“I’m so grateful,” he said. “I’m so grateful to all these people for the support I’m getting here. I didn’t realise it’s going to be like that in this way. So I would like to say all of them big thanks. I appreciate it.

Mats Wilander on Why Medvedev Lost to Nadal Twice in a Month

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Former tennis star and current legend, Mats Wilander has given his opinion as to why Rafael Nadal beat Daniil Medvedev two straight times within the span of 30 days. The current World no. 1, Medvedev and current World no. 4, Rafael Nadal met twice on a major stage, first in the Australian Open finals, which saw Nadal pull a rabbit out of his hat as he bounced back from an almost impossible 2 set deficit to win the thrilling five setter and his 21st Grand Slam.

The second time the Russian and the Spaniard met was over in Mexico in the semi finals of the Acapulco Open. The two are scheduled to be at the Indian Wells as well which starts on the 8th of March in California. 

“I think that you can be No.

1 in different ways. I feel like Daniil Medvedev deserves to be there, but to really go out and be looked upon as the best player in the world every day, he most probably needs to win a couple more Grand Slams while he is No.

1 in the world,” Wilander told Eurosport. “But that’s how the ranking works. That’s how the computer works and if you play a lot of tournaments and you’re consistent, you deserve to be there,” he added.

“But it must never be confused with being the best player in the world today and being the best player consistently over the last 12 months. There’s a huge difference between the two.” The Swede went on to claim that the Russian “has some distance to go” before he can be compared to the likes of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic when they were No.

1. “[Daniil Medvedev lost] to Rafael Nadal in Acapulco in very humid conditions – the tennis balls are not flying through the air as quickly as they do in Australia and when they do hit the court, they stop skidding through the court because the surface was very slow,” Wilander said.

“So in Acapulco, I can easily explain why Medvedev lost because of the conditions.”

Gabrielle Martinelli Wants to Stay at Arsenal Forever

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The Arsenal Winger, Gabrielle Martinellli has made a point to indicate his future plans to his club and his fans. 

The young player wants to stay at Arsenal and continue playing with them for as long as he possibly can. 

“We have a young group, we have a lot of time ahead of us, players with a lot of quality, I think we will achieve great things,” Martinelli told ESPN Brazil.

“Our focus is the Champions League. Fighting for that top four. A club like Arsenal has to be in the Champions League. It’s our total focus.

“We always want more. Of course, Arsenal are a giant team. If I can, I’ll stay here my whole life. I want to conquer things, as I said, I want to stay here and win titles, with these wonderful fans, my team-mates.”

“It was a giant leap for me,” he said. “I was at Ituano, I lived in Itu, and I came to play at Arsenal, living in London. It was a little complicated, but my family was always with me, they always helped me at all times, off and on the pitch as well.

“At the club, I always had [Emiliano Martinez’s] support as well. He helped a lot, he always helped me. His wife speaks Portuguese, so does he. He was very important to me, he helped me adapt to the club, to the country.

“With my family here, it became a little easier. But it was a big leap, it was just a bit of a good one.

“It’s a thud. You leave Itu, 30 degrees every day, playing at Ituano, and come to London. But with all the people, Emi, my family, they made it a little easier for me.”