WTA Finals tennis: Sabalenka fends off Pegula; Gauff beats ailing Paolini – as it happened

Defending champion Coco Gauff kept her hopes alive of reaching the knockout stages of the WTA Finals with victory over Jasmine Paolini.Defeat by fellow American Jessica Pegula in her opening group match in Riyadh had put Gauff in trouble but she eased to a 6-3, 6-2 win against Paolini.The Italian has been struggling with illness and again was unable to show her best level physically, with Gauff overcoming a wobble midway through the first set.The third seed said: “I’m really happy with how I played today, definitely a turnaround from my first match. It’s the beauty of this tournament, you have another chance to prove yourself

Ben Stokes signals 2027 Ashes readiness by signing new two-year central contract

Ben Stokes has signalled his desire to play in the 2027 Ashes at home after signing a new two-year central contract with England.Aged 34, and having sustained hamstring and shoulder injuries in the past 12 months, there was a school of thought that this winter’s Ashes – less than three weeks away – could be the Test captain’s swansong.But as the only Test specialist among the 14 players handed two-year deals on Tuesday – his last white-ball cap came at the 2023 Cricket World Cup – Stokes and England are clearly considering the home summer against Australia in 2027, when he will have just turned 36.There is also a 50-over World Cup in southern Africa in late 2027 and England have thus far been coy on whether Stokes is part of their plans. Joe Root very much is, however, and, six months older than Stokes, he has also signed a two-year deal that continues his stellar career

The Breakdown | Fixation on forward rotation threatens to turn rugby contests into war of attrition

There was a time in rugby union when the phrase “Bomb Squad” felt novel. South Africa were ahead of the game in maximising the impact of replacement forwards off the bench and the sight of all that fresh beef rumbling on to the field early in the second half was certainly arresting. As the Springboks have proved repeatedly, it works a treat if you possess the requisite strength in depth.As with all good ideas, however, other people love to copy them. And so we have a modern-day arms race

Meet the British shot put champion doubling up as a bobsleigh pilot with an eye on Milan 2026

Having won her third British shot put title in four seasons in the summer, Adele Nicoll also has a Winter Olympic dream – and admits she’s ‘terrible for wanting to do everything’Walking through the University of Bath’s vast sports complex to Britain’s only bobsleigh push-start track, a momentary silence is broken by the thwack of a ball and hearty cheers from excited adolescent spectators.It is the first Wednesday afternoon – when inter-university sport takes centre stage – of the academic year, and Adele Nicoll is reflecting on how her own undergraduate days inadvertently led her to this point. Nicoll, then a sport and exercise science student at Cardiff University, had an eye on making it as an international shot putter, but not to the detriment of enjoying all aspects of university life; she played as hard as she worked.Upon graduating in the summer of 2020, serendipity struck when she met up with a university friend made while sampling the Welsh capital’s nightlife. “I didn’t actually have a friendship with this girl outside of the clubs,” she says

Andrew Wiggins: how a shy NBA player negotiated growing up a star in the social media era

Andrew Wiggins was among the first superstar prospects of the social media era. Born in Thornhill, Ontario just north of Toronto, Wiggins was known internationally by the time he was 13. It wasn’t always easy for the shy, small-town kid to embrace the spotlight.After just one full season at Vaughan, Wiggins needed better competition than Canada could provide and moved on to Huntington Prep in Huntington, West Virginia — a relatively new prep school set in a small, blue-collar, sports-oriented college town near Kansas.The head coach, Rob Fulford, had been recruiting Wiggins since he was 13, at one point watching 24 consecutive CIA Bounce games in person

Cocktails and checkmates: the young Britons giving chess a new lease of life

One of the liveliest spots on a Tuesday night in east London’s Brick Lane isn’t a restaurant or a streetwear brand pop-up, it’s a chess club – or chess club-nightclub hybrid, to be exact.Knight Club is the unlikely crossover between chess and London’s fervent nightlife scene. It was started by Yusuf Ntahilaja, 27, who began his first chess club in August 2023 at a smaller bar in Aldgate, not too far from the current location at Café 1001 on Brick Lane.“I wanted to make chess clubs for people who look like me and people my age,” he said. “Typically, chess is only put in spaces that are full of older people, which isn’t diverse enough