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Saudi Al-Hilal FC Second in FIFA Club World Cup

Al-Hilal FC of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia won the second place in FIFA Club World Cup in Rabat - SPA
Al-Hilal FC of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia won the second place in FIFA Club World Cup in Rabat - SPA
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Saudi Al-Hilal FC Second in FIFA Club World Cup

Al-Hilal FC of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia won the second place in FIFA Club World Cup in Rabat - SPA
Al-Hilal FC of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia won the second place in FIFA Club World Cup in Rabat - SPA

Al-Hilal FC of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia won the second place in FIFA Club World Cup in Rabat, Kingdom of Morocco after losing 5-3 to the Spanish Real Madrid in the final match Saturday.

Brazilian Vinicius Junior opened the scoring for Real Madrid in the 13th minute with his teammate Federico Valverde netting another five minutes later, Saudi state news agency SPA reported.

Al-Hilal then changed course when it’s player Moussa Marega took one back in the 26th minute to end the first half 2-1.

With a good restart in the second half, Al-Hilal pushed relentlessly forward trying to change course and, in the 63rd minute, Luciano Vietto scored a second goal for the Saudi team.

But Real Madrid were keen on keeping the lead until Vinicius scored another in the 69th minute. Al-Hilal's Vietto responded in the 78th minute for his second goal and the third goal for the Saudi team.

Accordingly, Real Madrid were crowned champion of FIFA Club World Cup for a record-enhancing fifth time in its history, while the silver medal went for Al-Hilal.

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Swiatek is in Total Control during a 6-1, 6-0 Rout of Raducanu

18 January 2025, Australia, Melbourne: Polish tennis player Iga Swiatek celebrates her victory over Britain's Emma Raducanu during their women's singles third round match of the Australian Open tennis tournament at Melbourne Park. Photo: Joel Carrett/AAP/dpa
18 January 2025, Australia, Melbourne: Polish tennis player Iga Swiatek celebrates her victory over Britain's Emma Raducanu during their women's singles third round match of the Australian Open tennis tournament at Melbourne Park. Photo: Joel Carrett/AAP/dpa
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Swiatek is in Total Control during a 6-1, 6-0 Rout of Raducanu

18 January 2025, Australia, Melbourne: Polish tennis player Iga Swiatek celebrates her victory over Britain's Emma Raducanu during their women's singles third round match of the Australian Open tennis tournament at Melbourne Park. Photo: Joel Carrett/AAP/dpa
18 January 2025, Australia, Melbourne: Polish tennis player Iga Swiatek celebrates her victory over Britain's Emma Raducanu during their women's singles third round match of the Australian Open tennis tournament at Melbourne Park. Photo: Joel Carrett/AAP/dpa

Everything came so easily for Iga Swiatek during a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Emma Raducanu on Saturday in the only Australian Open women's third-round match between two past Grand Slam champions — if you thought that meant it would be close, you'd have been rather wrong — that this was how she described it:
“I felt like the ball,” The Associated Press quoted Swiatek as saying, “is listening to me.”
Loud and clear. Asked to explain that sensation, Swiatek put her two index fingers a few inches apart and said, “It’s just being able to aim for this kind of space.” Then she spread her palms more than a foot apart to show that's the margin for error on other days.
The difference, she said, comes down to “being more precise and actually knowing where the ball is going to go, seeing the effects that you want it to.”
When the five-time major champion and former long-time No. 1-ranked woman — now No. 2, behind Aryna Sabalenka — is at the height of her powers, as she sure has seemed to be in Week 1 at Melbourne Park, it is hard for anyone to slow Swiatek down.
The heavy-spinning, high-bouncing forehands. The squeaky-sneaker scrambling to get to every shot. The terrific returning. And so on.
Against Raducanu, who won the 2021 US Open as a teenage qualifier, Swiatek played at a level she called “perfect.”
Indeed, Swiatek mounted a 24-9 edge in winners, made only 12 unforced errors — roughly half of Raducanu's 22 — and claimed 59 points to 29. That caused one spectator to yell out, “No mercy!” in the second set as Swiatek was reeling off the last 11 games after the match was tied at 1-all early with not a cloud in the sky and the temperature approaching 80 degrees Fahrenheit (above 25 Celsius).
“I think it was a little bit of her playing well, and me not playing so well,” Raducanu said. “That combination is probably not good.”
Swiatek, who agreed to accept a one-month suspension in a doping case late last year, owns four trophies from the French Open and one from the US Open. But she’s never been beyond the semifinals in Australia; she lost in that round to Danielle Collins in 2022.
A year ago, Swiatek was upset in the third round by teenager Linda Noskova.