Can Donald Trump really make an NFL team name its stadium after him?

That’s if a well-sourced report from ESPN is to be believed. The US president has apparently let it be known to the ownership group of the Washington Commanders that he wants the team’s new stadium, which is scheduled to open in 2030, to take his name. “It’s what the president wants, and it will probably happen,” a senior White House official told ESPN.Not quite. While the franchise was a dominant force in the 1980s, its last Super Bowl appearance came in the 1991 season

Carlos Alcaraz up and running at ATP Finals with win over Alex de Minaur

Carlos Alcaraz opened the ATP’s season-ending championships, and the battle for the year-end No 1 ranking, in ideal fashion as he confidently navigated a turbulent opening set before easing to a 7-6 (5), 6-2 win over the seventh seed, Alex de Minaur, in Turin.Alcaraz, the top seed, is attempting to win the ATP Finals for the first time and hold off Jannik Sinner to finish the season as the top-ranked player. Despite ceding significant ground to the Italian in recent weeks by losing to Cameron Norrie in his opening match at the Paris Masters, which Sinner won, Alcaraz still holds a clear advantage this week since the Italian is defending his title from last year. The Spaniard must win all three of his round-robin group stage matches or reach the final in order to secure the top ranking.Although this has been the best season of Alcaraz’s career, he still has much to prove on indoor hard courts where he has so far struggled to replicate his results on other surfaces

Rob Steen obituary

My friend Rob Steen, who has died of a heart attack aged 67, wrote about sport, particularly cricket, with passion and style.“He was the most irrepressible sports fan of us all,” said the Guardian rugby correspondent Rob Kitson.“He cared more about sports journalism than anyone I’ve met,” a lecturer at Brighton University, where Rob taught, told me.He was perhaps proudest of his contributions to the Guardian spanning, intermittently, from 1988 to 2006, his role as deputy sports editor of the Sunday Times in the mid-1990s, and his long relationships with Wisden Cricketer and Cricinfo.He also wrote accomplished biographies of David Gower (1995) and Desmond Haynes (1993) and, with Alastair McLellan, the groundbreaking 500-1 (2001), about the 1981 Headingley test

ATP Finals tennis: Carlos Alcaraz defeated Alex de Minaur – as it happened

Carlos Alcaraz began his bid for a first ATP Finals trophy with a 7-6 (5), 6-2 win over Australian Alex de Minaur in their round-robin clash in Turin on Sunday.Alcaraz won his opening ATP Finals match for the first time despite De Minaur’s battling display, where the Australian recovered from 4-1 down to force a tiebreak in the opening set before the Spaniard came out on top.The pair traded breaks of serve at the start of the second set, but Alcaraz broke twice more to again lead 4-1 and this time there was no comeback despite De Minaur’s valiant effort in the opening match of the Jimmy Connors Group.Alcaraz is on course to end the year as world number one, and in Turin he must either reach the final or sweep his round-robin matches to guarantee himself the year-end top spot for the second time. ReutersThat, then, is us, but fear not: we’ve plenty else for you, starting immediately

Can anyone challenge the Sinner-Alcaraz supremacy? ATP Finals will reveal all

Days before the grand finale of the ATP season in Turin, the Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner show had already begun. Although the two rivals are locked in battle to determine the year-end No 1 ranking, rumours swirled early on Friday morning that they were scheduled to train together. Sure enough, that afternoon they entered the stadium court side-by-side and they were greeted by deafening roars from a significant crowd.The practice set that followed garnered as much attention as many matches this year. Thousands of viewers tuned in to watch the live stream, then highlights were swiftly available afterwards

America’s men’s grand slam drought is not Taylor Fritz’s burden to carry

Back at the ATP finals one year after reaching the last hurdle, Fritz remains a top-five talent. It’s a reminder that a certain major-title drought is not his burden to bearI would like to have some words with ESPN broadcaster Chris Fowler about what he said after Novak Djokovic beat Taylor Fritz, for the 11th straight time, in the US Open quarter-finals. Look – Fritz is American, Fowler is American – and sports often lend themselves to nationalism. A little bit of disappointment was appropriate. Instead, Fowler invoked the continued drought of American men at the majors: none of them had lifted a trophy since Andy Roddick in 2003, and Fritz had been the last one standing in the tournament