Tennis’s grand slam season got under way with the Australian Open in Melbourne. Rafael Nadal defeats are increasingly hard to enter into the shock results category, but the former men’s world No 1 refused to contemplate retirement after a first-round loss to Fernando Verdasco: “It was not my day. Let’s keep going. That’s the only thing,” he said. More surprising was women’s world No 2 Simona Halep crashing out to China’s Zhang Shuai in straight sets, while the curtain fell on Australian Lleyton Hewitt’s illustrious career with a defeat to David Ferrer. The tournament opened under the shadow of startling allegations by the BBC and Buzzfeed that match-fixing was rife in elite tennis, though the investigation did not identify any of the supposed perpetrators.
Broncos and Panthers in final
American football’s Super Bowl 50 will see the Denver Broncos take on the Carolina Panthers on 7 February. Peyton Manning outshone Tom Brady in the battle of veteran quarterbacks as the Broncos edged the New England Patriots 20-18 in the AFC, while things were less tense for the Panthers in the NFC, as they crushed the Arizona Cardinals 49-15. Meanwhile, the Buffalo Bills made history by appointing Kathryn Smith as their special teams quality control coach, the first woman to take a full-time NFL coaching role: “While we understand the significance of this announcement, it’s important to understand that Kathryn earned this position because she has shown she is qualified, dedicated and puts in the work needed for this role,” Bills co-owner Kim Pegula said.
Toulon eye up English league
To the wacky world of European club rugby union where Toulon, winners of the continent’s showcase Champions Cup for the last three seasons, stayed on track for a fourth consecutive title by defeating Bath 19-14 to reach the quarter-finals. More intriguing, though, was the revelation that Toulon’s president, Mourad Boudjellal, has asked if the club can join the English Premiership, which he thinks is better-run than the French domestic league. “It is too early to give a formal response but we will give it due consideration and we will respond,” said a Premiership Rugby spokesman, cooly sidestepping the raft of legal and administrative obstacles.
Man United go down rich list
Manchester United executives were crying into their solid-gold Boddington’s beer tankards last week after the humiliating news that the Old Trafford side have dropped to third in Deloitte’s rich list of world football clubs. Having generated a mere €519.5m ($562m) for 2014-15, United now lag behind the Spanish big two of Real Madrid (€577m) and Barcelona (€560.8m), and showed exactly why by losing 1-0 at home to Southampton in the Premier League. Table-topping Leicester City continued their improbable, wondrous season with a 3-0 win over Stoke, while Arsenal lost ground after a 1-0 home defeat by Chelsea.
