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After Great Start, Nadal Returns from Injury at Madrid Open

Spanish tennis player Rafa Nadal (C) does the kick-off ahead the Spanish LaLiga match between Real Madrid and RCD Espanyol at Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain, 30 April 2022. (EPA)
Spanish tennis player Rafa Nadal (C) does the kick-off ahead the Spanish LaLiga match between Real Madrid and RCD Espanyol at Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain, 30 April 2022. (EPA)
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After Great Start, Nadal Returns from Injury at Madrid Open

Spanish tennis player Rafa Nadal (C) does the kick-off ahead the Spanish LaLiga match between Real Madrid and RCD Espanyol at Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain, 30 April 2022. (EPA)
Spanish tennis player Rafa Nadal (C) does the kick-off ahead the Spanish LaLiga match between Real Madrid and RCD Espanyol at Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain, 30 April 2022. (EPA)

Back home, Rafael Nadal looks to resume his season where he left off before being sidelined by an injury that halted a great start to his year.

Nadal will seek his fourth title of the season this week at the Madrid Open as he returns to action following a rib stress fracture that kept him out for about a month.

Nadal had won his first 20 matches of the year before getting injured in the semifinals at Indian Wells. He made it to the final but lost to Taylor Fritz for his first defeat. Until then, it had been the third-best start to a season on the ATP Tour since 1990.

Nadal won the Australian Open for a record 21st Grand Slam title and also won in Melbourne and Acapulco. He missed tournaments in Miami, Monte Carlo and Barcelona because of the injury.

The 35-year-old Spaniard will be trying to win the Madrid title for the sixth time, and first since 2017, though he said last week he would have "few chances" of winning after arriving "with minimum preparation."

He will debut against either Miomir Kecmanovic or Alexander Bublik.

Nadal could face a semifinal against top-ranked Novak Djokovic, who has been trying to regain his best form after a slow start to the season.

A three-time winner in Madrid, Djokovic was coming off a runner-up finish in Serbia, where he won three three-set matches before losing the final to Andrey Rublev.

His first match in Madrid will be against either Gael Monfils or Carlos Gimeno Valero.

Another home-crowd favorite in Madrid will be young sensation Carlos Alcaraz, who made it to No. 9 in the world after titles in Rio de Janeiro, Miami and Barcelona.

The 18-year-old, touted by many as Nadal’s heir, could face his idol in the quarterfinals. He lost to Nadal in the tournament’s second round last year.

Alcaraz will begin his campaign against Nikoloz Basilashvili or Fabio Fognini.

Former world No. 1 Andy Murray, a two-time winner in Madrid, will be back at the clay-court tournament for the first time since 2017. He will face a marquee first-round match against former world No. 3 Dominic Thiem, a two-time finalist in the Spanish capital.

Thiem has been recovering from a wrist injury that sidelined him for eight months.

The 34-year-old Murray had earlier said he would skip the clay season but ended up accepting the wildcard invitation to play in Spain.

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Football Returns to War-torn Sudan as Elite Clubs Go Back Home

A Sudanese protester waves the national flag near the military headquarters in the capital Khartoum. (AFP)
A Sudanese protester waves the national flag near the military headquarters in the capital Khartoum. (AFP)
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Football Returns to War-torn Sudan as Elite Clubs Go Back Home

A Sudanese protester waves the national flag near the military headquarters in the capital Khartoum. (AFP)
A Sudanese protester waves the national flag near the military headquarters in the capital Khartoum. (AFP)

League football has returned to war-torn Sudan for the first time in more than two years with a one-month competition being organized for eight clubs to determine the country’s champions.

Sudan has been in the grip of conflict between the army and the Rapid Support Forces since April 2023, with more than 150,000 people killed and about 12 million uprooted, creating the largest displacement crisis in the world.

Among them have been the country’s biggest clubs Al Hilal and Al Merrikh, who between them have won all but four of the championships since the league was created in 1965, according to Reuters.

Last season, the pair were invited to play in the league in Mauritania, on the other side of the continent, where they could remain active and moved their club structures to the West African country, where Al Hilal emerged as champions.

But they are both back in Sudan to take part in a tournament to decide which clubs will compete in continental club competition for the 2025/26 season.

Al Hilal were quarter-finalists in this year’s African Champions League despite having to host their home games on neutral territory.

They were also weekend winners against Al Merghani Kassala in the first round of the Sudanese Elite Championship, which is being played at Ad-Damer, some 430km from the capital Khartoum, which has been badly damaged by the civil war.

Matches in the tournament are also being hosted in Atbara, which is 320km north of Khartoum.

There will be seven rounds of fixtures, and Al Merrikh also got off to a winning start over the weekend by beating Ahly Madani 1-0. Their derby against Al Hilal is set for the last day of competition on 22 July.

The other clubs competing are Zamalek, Umm Rawaba, Al Amal Atbara, Hay Al Wadi Nyala and Merrikh Al Abyad, who will all each play each other once.

Sudan’s national team, who will compete in the Africa Cup of Nations finals in Morocco at the end of the year and are also chasing a first-ever World Cup appearance next year, have not played a home match since March 2023.