Sports

London, Aug 30 (IANS) There are five Premier League matches on Wednesday which promise to show just how high some teams can aim this season and perhaps increase the pressure on others.

Liverpool's home match against Newcastle United is the pick of the bunch as Liverpool try to build on their 9-0 thrashing of Bournemouth at the weekend.

Jurgen Klopp still has a long injury list limiting his options for squad rotations and it's hard to see him making more than cosmetic changes to the starting 11.

Newcastle travel after Allan Saint-Maximin's spectacular volley gave them a 1-1 draw away to Wolves, but the talented forward will miss the visit to Anfield with a thigh injury.

That should allow club-record signing Alexander Isak to make his debut in a match which will show if Newcastle can mount a serious challenge for the top-six this campaign.

Manchester City showed they can be hurt from set-pieces as they won 4-2 at home to Crystal Palace at the weekend, however, Erling Haaland also showed he is a huge threat in attack and recently-promoted Nottingham Forrest will do well to take anything from their visit to the Etihad Stadium.

League leaders Arsenal are favourites to make it five wins from five games when they host Aston Villa, who were booed off the pitch after their home defeat to West Ham at the weekend.

Pressure is growing on Villa coach Steven Gerrard and his side needs to turn its attacking ambition into clear chances, goals and points.

West Ham got their season rolling with that win at Villa Park and have a derby at home to Tottenham that will test both sides. Harry Kane is in fine form for the visitors, although visiting coach Antonio Conte could be tempted to rest an out of sorts, Heung Son Min and give a start to Richarlison, reports Xinhua.

The game may come too soon for West Ham to give a debut to record signing, Lucas Paqueta, who has joined from Olympique Lyon.

Finally, Bournemouth need to recover from Saturday's 9-0 thrashing at Anfield and Tuesday's surprise exit of coach Scott Parker when they entertain Wolverhampton.

Gary O'Neill will be in temporary charge for Bournemouth and the visitors have to see this as a perfect chance to end a run of 11 games without a win that stretches back into last season.

--IANS

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Osaka (Japan), Aug 30 (IANS) Ace Indian shuttler HS Prannoy advanced to the men's singles round of 16 at the Japan Open 2022 badminton tournament, here on Tuesday.

Prannoy, the world No 18, was leading 11-10 in the first game against Hong Kong's Ng Ka Long Angus when the latter retired from the tie due to an apparent injury.

The Ng Ka Long Angus withdrawal means that Prannoy will get the must-needed rest for his next round encounter which will be against the 2021 world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore.

The Indian, who reached the quarter-finals at the world championships last week after beating Kento Momota and Lakshya Sen along the way, will fancy his chances against Loh Kean Yew.

In the women's doubles, the pair of Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam were knocked out after they lost 15-21, 9-21 to South Koreans Baek Ha Na and Lee Yu Lim.

Meanwhile, Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen will begin his Japan Open 2022 campaign against Kenta Nishimoto on Wednesday. The likes of Kidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal also begin their campaigns on Wednesday, as do the pairs of MR Arjun/Dhruv Kapila and Treesa Jolly/Gayatri Gopichand.

However, two-time Olympic medallist and former world champion PV Sindhu is still recovering from a stress fracture on her ankle sustained during the Commonwealth Games and will miss the tournament.


--IANS
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Mumbai, Aug 30 (IANS) Actress Sara Ali Khan was photographed on a dinner date with cricketer Shubman Gill at a Mumbai restaurant.

A picture of Sara Ali Khan and Shubman enjoying a meal together is doing the rounds on the Internet.

Earlier there were rumours that Shubman was dating Indian cricket great Sachin Tendulkar's daughter Sara Tendulkar.

Sara Ali Khan is actors Saif Ali Khan and Amrita Singh's elder daughter. She was earlier rumoured to be dating Kartik Aaryan, with whom she was seen in the film 'Love Aajkal 2'. Shubman Gill is part of the Indian cricket team and started his international cricket career in February 2017.

On the acting front, Sara, who was last seen on screen in 'Atrangi Re', will next be seen in 'Gaslighit' alongside Vikrant Massey. She also has Laxman Utekar's untitled project with Vicky Kaushal.

--IANS
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New York, Aug 30 (IANS) Colombian qualifier Daniel Elahi Galan caused a major upset at the US Open on Tuesday, showing fourth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas the exit door with a hard-fought 6-0, 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 victory against the Greek player on Tuesday.

With the help of 41 winners, the world No. 94 reached the second round at Flushing Meadows after a two hours and 48 minutes slugfest on his main draw debut at the season's final major.

This was the 26-year-old Colombian's biggest win of his career.

"Definitely one of the best moments of my career," Galan was quoted as saying by atptour.com. "Definitely the best match of my career, not only because of the circumstances, also the opponent. I'm really happy."

Galan, who did not lose a set in qualifying, won the first 11 games of the match against Tsitsipas with a superb display of aggression.

"I think he (Tsitsipas) started playing better in the third set. He served much better than the first two and I was putting the serve in the court, but not putting pressure on him. He was always in control," Galan said.

"I think he felt really comfortable during those two sets. I tried to change a little bit the position when I was returning and that changed a lot because I was able to return (deeper) and he was not so offensive on the first ball, so I was able to do a little bit more."

Galan had entered the match with a 0-6 record against Top-20 opponents. He had reached the third round at Wimbledon and his confidence showed against Tsitsipas. The Greek has now lost in the first round of the US Open in two of his five appearances and has never advanced to the second week. He made 57 unforced errors compared to 28 winners in his defeat, according to atptour.com.

"He dominated the match," Tsitsipas admitted. "I just couldn't get into it."

--IANS

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