Bayern Forward Choupo-Moting a Doubt for Man City Game

28 January 2023, Bavaria, Munich: Munich's Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting gestures on the pitch during the German Bundesliga match between Bayern Munich and Eintracht Frankfurt at Allianz Arena. (dpa)
28 January 2023, Bavaria, Munich: Munich's Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting gestures on the pitch during the German Bundesliga match between Bayern Munich and Eintracht Frankfurt at Allianz Arena. (dpa)
TT
20

Bayern Forward Choupo-Moting a Doubt for Man City Game

28 January 2023, Bavaria, Munich: Munich's Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting gestures on the pitch during the German Bundesliga match between Bayern Munich and Eintracht Frankfurt at Allianz Arena. (dpa)
28 January 2023, Bavaria, Munich: Munich's Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting gestures on the pitch during the German Bundesliga match between Bayern Munich and Eintracht Frankfurt at Allianz Arena. (dpa)

Bayern Munich forward Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting will miss Saturday's league game against Freiburg with a knee problem and is a doubt for the Champions League quarterfinal first leg against Manchester City next week, coach Thomas Tuchel said Friday.

Tuchel said the 34-year-old Cameroon striker would not travel to Freiburg and would undergo treatment. “The time is tight” for him to recover ahead of the match at City on Tuesday, the coach added.

Choupo-Moting was best known as a backup for Robert Lewandowski until this season but has come into his own since the Poland forward left for Barcelona in July.

He has 17 goals in 28 games for Bayern this season and four in six in the Champions League, including one against Paris Saint-Germain in the round of 16.

He went off after 64 minutes of the 2-1 loss to Freiburg in the German Cup quarterfinals on Tuesday.

Serge Gnabry, Sadio Mané and Thomas Müller are candidates to replace Choupo-Moting ahead of Tuchel's first European game since he replaced Julian Nagelsmann last month.

Also out against Freiburg is 17-year-old forward Mathys Tel, who has played 21 times for Bayern this season, mostly off the bench. Defender Dayot Upamecano misses the game through suspension after picking up too many yellow cards.

Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and defender Lucas Hernandez remain longer-term injury absentees.



Osaka Earns First Grass Win of the Season with Victory over Qualifier Danilovic

Japan's Naomi Osaka returns the ball to Russia's Ludmilla Samsonova during the Berlin WTA tennis tournament in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, June 17, 2025. (Andreas Gora/dpa via AP)
Japan's Naomi Osaka returns the ball to Russia's Ludmilla Samsonova during the Berlin WTA tennis tournament in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, June 17, 2025. (Andreas Gora/dpa via AP)
TT
20

Osaka Earns First Grass Win of the Season with Victory over Qualifier Danilovic

Japan's Naomi Osaka returns the ball to Russia's Ludmilla Samsonova during the Berlin WTA tennis tournament in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, June 17, 2025. (Andreas Gora/dpa via AP)
Japan's Naomi Osaka returns the ball to Russia's Ludmilla Samsonova during the Berlin WTA tennis tournament in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, June 17, 2025. (Andreas Gora/dpa via AP)

Four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka fired 16 aces past Serbian qualifier Olga Danilovic to earn a 7-6(6) 7-6(4) victory at the Bad Homburg Open on Monday for her first win on grass this season less than a week before the start of Wimbledon.

The 27-year-old Japanese player, who had lost in the first round at her last two tournaments -- the French Open and the Berlin Open -- had won her first title in May in almost two years following a maternity break.

Osaka, who had reached the third round of the Australian Open in January before retiring injured, has not had back-to-back wins on any surface since the Italian Open in May. She is currently ranked 56th in the world.

"It's my first grasscourt win of the year," Reuters quoted Osaka as saying. "I am excited about that. I am super excited to play here and be back for my next round."

Asked whether she was on track to improve her form on the surface, she said: "I hope so. I think I have potential but everyone is really good so I cannot take it for granted."

The pair held serve to take the first set into a tiebreak where Osaka snatched it on her second set point.

Osaka was 40-0 up on her opponent's serve at 2-2 in the second set but she could not bag the first break of either player in the match, with Danilovic holding serve with her eighth ace of the match.

Osaka, however, got the mini-break she needed in the tiebreak when she challenged a Danilovic first serve that was then ruled out, with the qualifier then double-faulting.

She held on to that slim advantage to earn a spot in the round of 16 where she will face fifth-seed Emma Navarro.

Russian eighth-seed Ekaterina Alexandrova also eased into the next round with a 6-1 6-2 win over Swiss Belinda Bencic.

Croatia's Donna Vekic made equally light work of sixth seed southpaw Diana Shnaider for a 6-3 6-3 victory.

Clara Tauson of Denmark needed to work harder and battle from a set down before snatching a 6-7(6) 6-3 6-3 against Poland's Magdalena Frech.