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MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Iga Swiatek took three hours in the afternoon heat to beat 36-year-old Kaia Kanepi 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3 on Wednesday, with the payoff being a spot in the Australian Open semifinals against Danielle Collins.
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The Latest at the Australian Open on Wednesday (all times local):
4:25 p.m.
Former French Open champion Iga Swiatek has improved on her stellar record against players ranked outside the top 30 at Grand Slam tournaments with a 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3 win over Kai Kanepi to advance to the semifinals.
Roy Hodgson is back in the Premier League at the age of 74.
The former England coach was hired by Watford on Tuesday and will be tasked with keeping the team in the top division following its descent into the relegation zone.
The eight stadiums are ready in Qatar and World Cup tickets have been on sale for a week. Now the mission to snap up remaining tournament slots resumes.
With qualifying disrupted by the pandemic, fixtures have been squeezed in over the next week or so for teams in the Americas and Asia.
SCHLADMING, Austria (AP) — Six World Cup races. Six different winners. It’s anyone’s guess who will win the men’s slalom at the upcoming Winter Olympics.
Germany’s Linus Strasser won the final slalom before the Beijing Games on Tuesday, moving up from fifth after the opening leg to finish a slim 0.03 seconds ahead of Atle Lie McGrath of Norway in the prestigious event under the lights labeled “The Night Race.”
AMSTERDAM (AP) — Denmark playmaker Christian Eriksen is training with Ajax's reserves to regain fitness while seeking a new team, his former club said Tuesday.
The 29-year-old Eriksen has not played since suffering a cardiac arrest during Denmark’s opening match at the European Championship against Finland in June.
BAFOUSSAM, Cameroon (AP) — Sadio Mané got up from a horrible clash of heads that left him dazed on the ground, possibly with a concussion, to score a goal and help put Senegal into the quarterfinals of the African Cup of Nations on Tuesday.
SEVILLE, Spain (AP) — Anthony Martial will play for Sevilla on a loan from Manchester United until the end of the season, the Spanish club said Tuesday.
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — Wim Jansen, a former Netherlands midfielder who lost World Cup finals in 1974 and 1978 with the celebrated “Clockwork Orange” teams, died Tuesday. He was 75.
Dutch club Feyenoord announced the death and called Jansen, who suffered from dementia, “one of the greatest to ever play for the club.”
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Billy Casper and Mickey Wright were undeniable homegrown greats. Phil Mickelson is clearly San Diego's most accomplished and beloved golfer of the modern era, and Tiger Woods has racked up a slew of memorable wins at Torrey Pines in his home state.
VISOKO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — In a story published December 3, 2021, about a Bosnian teen gymnast, The Associated Press reported the wrong spelling for a coach’s last name. She is Amina Lepic-Milivic.
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Former Tour de France champion Egan Bernal remained in intensive care in Colombia on Tuesday after undergoing what his team described as “two successful surgeries."
The 2019 Tour champion from Colombia, where he is a beloved celebrity, collided with a bus parked on the shoulder of a road outside Bogota on Monday morning while training with his team Ineos Grenadiers.
A look at what’s happening in European soccer on Wednesday:
FRANCE
Last-place Saint-Etienne travels to Angers looking to snap a miserable run of seven consecutive league losses. The match was initially planned earlier this month but had to be rescheduled because of a COVID-19 outbreak at Angers.
SAN VIGILIO DI MAREBBE, Italy (AP) — After waiting seven years for a second World Cup win, Sara Hector now has three more victories in giant slalom — and they could not have come at a better time with the Winter Olympics starting next week.
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — LOOKAHEAD TO WEDNESDAY
It’s the second day of quarterfinals at Melbourne Park and second-seeded Daniil Medvedev is expecting one of the toughest challenges yet in his bid to win a second consecutive Grand Slam singles title when he plays 21-year-old Felix Auger-Aliassime.
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — With another Australian Open semifinal spot secured after a four-hour, five-set victory, Rafael Nadal looked toward his support team in Rod Laver Arena and nodded his head.
MADRID (AP) — Barcelona forward Ansu Fati will follow a conservative recovery plan to treat his left hamstring injury, the club said Tuesday.
Barcelona and the player have opted to avoid surgery and his recovery time should be reduced.
MILAN (AP) — Defending snowboard cross gold medalist Michela Moioli will replace Sofia Goggia as Italy’s flag bearer for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics after the latter’s injury over the weekend.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia and China oppose “the politicization of sport and demonstrative boycotts” ahead of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday in an address to his country's athletes.
Collin Morikawa had plenty of thinking to do on the short drive up the coast from Abu Dhabi to Dubai.
The British Open champion had just finished tied for 62nd at the Abu Dhabi Championship on Sunday and the guy with one of the purest swings in golf was concerned.
CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — The United States team for next month's Olympics lost one of its top medal prospects Tuesday when downhill racer Breezy Johnson said injury will force her to miss the Beijing Games.
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Former Tour de France champion Egan Bernal broke his femur and kneecap in a training accident Monday and underwent surgery to repair the damage, a hospital near Colombia's capital said.
YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — Cameroon's progress at the African Cup of Nations was overshadowed by a stampede outside the stadium that killed at least six people during the host nation's victory over Comoros on Monday.
MILAN (AP) — No player is creating more speculation and rumors in this January transfer window than Fiorentina forward Dušan Vlahović.
So far, though, the Serbia international is keeping everyone — including Fiorentina — guessing about his next destination.
FLORENCE, Italy (AP) — Mario Balotelli is back in the Italy squad more than three years after his last appearance in an Azzurri shirt.
Italy coach Roberto Mancini included the striker in a 35-man squad announced Monday for a three-day training camp this week, ahead of the World Cup playoffs in March.
PARIS (AP) — Top-ranked player Novak Djokovic could be allowed to defend his French Open title under the latest COVID-19 rules adopted by the French government, even if he is still not vaccinated when the clay-court Grand Slam starts in May.
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Former Zimbabwe cricket captain Brendan Taylor admitted Monday he took money from match-fixers who tried to blackmail him into manipulating international games with a secret video of him using cocaine on a visit to India in 2019.
WATFORD, England (AP) — Claudio Ranieri was fired by Watford on Monday after 3 1/2 months in charge of the Premier League team that has just slipped into the relegation zone.
Watford won two of its 13 league matches under the 70-year-old Ranieri.
Heavyweight boxing’s landscape should become a lot clearer this week when the promoters of Tyson Fury and Dillian Whyte conclude drawn-out negotiations over a world title fight that could yet bring Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk into the conversation.
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Alize Cornet dropped to her knees on the hard blue court, clasped her hands and took a few moments to let it sink in.
In her 17th trip to the Australia Open, her 63rd run at a Grand Slam, and two days after celebrating her 32nd birthday, Cornet finally qualified for the quarterfinals at one of the four major events in tennis.
DORTMUND, Germany (AP) — Borussia Dortmund’s top-scorer Erling Haaland has been forced to take another break due to what the club says are “muscular problems.”
Haaland had to go off in the 63rd minute of Dortmund’s 3-2 win at Hoffenheim on Saturday with what appeared to be a groin injury.
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The Latest at the Australian Open on Monday (all times local):
12:15 a.m. (Tuesday)
Stefanos Tsitsipas and Kaia Kanepi advanced to the quarterfinals at the Australian Open in the final two matches on Day 8 of the tournament.
MADRID (AP) — A missed penalty kick. An injury. A burglary.
It wasn’t the type of day Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema had hoped for.
Benzema had a tough day on the field Sunday then came back home to realize his house had been burglarized while he was away.
It’s like how Lindsey Vonn was inspired by Picabo Street when she met her idol as a 9-year-old kid at an autograph-signing session: When he was 10, Marco Odermatt won a junior race and benefitted from the coveted first-place prize — a day of skiing with his idol, Swiss downhill great Didier Cuche.
BERLIN (AP) — The Bundesliga's international break has come at just the right time for beleaguered Borussia Mönchengladbach coach Adi Hütter.
Hütter’s team is going through a crisis of form when it should be pushing for European qualification.
BROD, Kosovo (AP) — Competing in the giant slalom at the Beijing Olympics will be a giant step for 17-year-old Kiana Kryeziu and her country of Kosovo.
Kryeziu is the first female athlete from Kosovo at the Winter Games after she met the qualifying standard during races held in Italy.
AMSTERDAM (AP) — Dutch speedskater Jorien ter Mors, the first female athlete to win Olympic medals in two disciplines at the same Winter Games, has retired from the sport.
Over a 16-year career, the 32-year-old speedskater won three long track gold medals and one short track bronze medal while competing at the 2014 and 2018 Olympics.
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov are enjoying quite a run in the Australian sun.
For the first time, two Canadian men have reached the Australian Open quarterfinals.
MADRID (AP) — Barcelona finally got things going its way, finding a late goal to end its winless run and go into the international break on a positive note.
Barcelona struggled again but Frenkie de Jong scored in the 87th minute to salvage a 1-0 victory at relegation-threatened Alavés in the Spanish league on Sunday, snapping its three-match winless streak that included elimination from the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup.