Saudi Al Hilal Will Fight to the End to Defend Title, Says Defiant Diaz

Football - AFC Champions League - Final - First Leg - Al-Hilal v Urawa Red Diamonds - King Fahd International Stadium, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - April 29, 2023 Al-Hilal's Salem Al Dawsari in action. (Reuters)

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09:14-30 April 2023 AD ـ 10 Shawwal 1444 AH

Asharq Al Awsat

09:14-30 April 2023 AD ـ 10 Shawwal 1444 AH

Saudi Al Hilal Will Fight to the End to Defend Title, Says Defiant Diaz

Al Hilal coach Ramon Diaz vowed his side will not give up on the defense of the Asian Champions League title despite surrendering an early lead and seeing Salem Al Dawsari sent off in their 1-1 draw with Urawa Red Diamonds in the final's first leg.

Al Dawsari displayed the best and worst of his game at Riyadh's King Fahad International Stadium on Saturday, putting Al Hilal in front in the 13th minute only to be sent off with four minutes remaining for kicking out at Urawa's Ken Iwao.

The red card came after Shinzo Koroki had leveled for the Japanese club eight minutes into the second half to leave the tie finely balanced going into the return leg at Saitama Stadium outside Tokyo next Saturday.

"We started the match very well, we were good offensively and deservingly scored," Diaz said. "However, this is the nature of a final and mistakes can complicate matters.

"The final isn't over yet. This final is over two matches and we will fight till the end."

Al Dawsari, a talismanic figure for Al Hilal who scored the winner in Saudi Arabia's historic shock 2-1 victory over Argentina at the World Cup last year, will not be available for the second leg as the Riyadh club chase a record-extending fifth Asian crown.

"There was some confusion after Urawa equalized and then came Al Dawsari's red card but we still had chances to score," Diaz said.

"We haven't given up hope and will do our best to be Asian champions again."

Urawa go into the second leg holding a slender advantage due to Koroki's away goal. Coach Maciej Skorza, leading his team in the competition for the first time, praised his players' battling performance.

"It is a very good result for us and I have great respect for the Urawa players as they fought till the end despite it being such a tough match," said the Polish coach, who was appointed to lead Urawa in December.

"This experience was crucial for the players and it was also a learning experience for me as well. We have learnt so much from this for the second leg and we are very hopeful of getting a result at Saitama next week."

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

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07:51-18 January 2025 AD ـ 19 Rajab 1446 AH

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07:51-18 January 2025 AD ـ 19 Rajab 1446 AH

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

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.

Saudi Al Hilal Will Fight to the End to Defend Title, Says Defiant Diaz

Saudi Al Hilal Will Fight to the End to Defend Title, Says Defiant Diaz

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

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

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