Next generation maybe French, feels Arsene Wenger
Paris: Legendary former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger feels Kylian Mbappe is the leading contender to shine post Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo’s dominance as the mega stars in world football enter the twilight of their careers.Portugal and Juventus superstar Ronaldo is 35 while Argentine great Messi, who plays for FC Barcelona, is 32.”We had never seen players like that, who can absolutely be creative in any tight situation,” Wenger told TalkSPORT.”These players are now getting towards the end (of their career) — Ronaldo, Messi — but it’s now about the next generation.”The next generation is maybe French. At the moment, the leading player could be Mbappe, of course Neymar, that we know, but England as well.”England has a good chance now; they are doing very well at youth level. They have done well with Gareth Southgate at the World Cup. I was hoping that at the European Championship, they could be one of the contenders,” said French man Wenger. (IANS)
Hurkacz defeats Paul in UTR Series
Warsaw: Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz prevailed over Tommy Paul 4-1, 0-4, 4-1 to secure third place at the UTR Pro Match Series tournament in Florida, USA on Saturday.The tournament was played behind the closed doors due to restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 outbreak, with the players having to win just four games to take a set, rather than the standard six, reports Xinhua news agency.Though Paul made a good start, Hurkacz turned the tables to win the opening set 4-1. A decisive third set was needed as the Pole made plenty of unforced errors and Paul leveled the result without dropping a game in the second set.However, it was Hurkacz who had the last laugh to win the match and secure the final podium place. (IANS)
China win Online Nations Cup
Chennai: Top-seed and favourite China were crowned champions at the FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup on Sunday by virtue of superior points tally despite their final match against the USA ending in 2-2 draw. India which had Viswanathan Anand, Vidit S Gujrathi, P Harikrishna, B Adhiban, Koneru Humpy and D Harika in its ranks, finished a poor fifth in the six-team event. China won the top prize on the basis of having won the round-robin stage. The No.1 seed had topped the league table after 10 rounds with 17 match points and 25.5 board points followed by USA (13 MPs, 22 BPs). In the final, the top board clash between the heavyweights Ding Liren (Elo 2836) and Hikaru Nakamura (Elo 2829) ended in a 38-move draw. The match featuring Hou Yifan and Irina Krush also saw honours being shared. The win for China came from Yu Yangyi, as he beat Wesley So. American Fabiano Caruana showed why he is rated so highly by beating Wei Yi in 43 moves. (PTI)