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Salah Scores as Liverpool Beats Tottenham 4-2 in Premier League

Soccer Football - Premier League - Liverpool v Tottenham Hotspur - Anfield, Liverpool, Britain - May 5, 2024 Liverpool's Mohamed Salah in action REUTERS/Carl Recine
Soccer Football - Premier League - Liverpool v Tottenham Hotspur - Anfield, Liverpool, Britain - May 5, 2024 Liverpool's Mohamed Salah in action REUTERS/Carl Recine
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Salah Scores as Liverpool Beats Tottenham 4-2 in Premier League

Soccer Football - Premier League - Liverpool v Tottenham Hotspur - Anfield, Liverpool, Britain - May 5, 2024 Liverpool's Mohamed Salah in action REUTERS/Carl Recine
Soccer Football - Premier League - Liverpool v Tottenham Hotspur - Anfield, Liverpool, Britain - May 5, 2024 Liverpool's Mohamed Salah in action REUTERS/Carl Recine

Mohamed Salah quickly put last week's sideline spat with Jurgen Klopp behind him by scoring first in Liverpool's 4-2 win against Tottenham in the Premier League on Sunday.
The sight of Salah arguing with his departing manager late on in Liverpool's 2-2 draw at West Ham last week dominated debate in the following days.
But the Egyptian was back in the starting lineup and back on the score sheet to set his team on course for victory against Spurs at Anfield, The Associated Press reported.
Salah had already come close to scoring by the time he rose at the far post in the 16th minute to head in Cody Gakpo's cross from the left.
Tottenham had been given hope in its pursuit of Champions League qualification after fourth-place Aston Villa had a surprise 1-0 loss at Brighton. But Ange Postecoglou's team never looked capable of taking advantage of that result after being outclassed by Liverpool.
The home team went 2-0 up in the 45th after Salah's shot was saved by Spurs goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario and Andy Robertson converted from the rebound.
It was the least Liverpool deserved after dominating the chances in the first half and forcing Vicario into a host of desperate saves.
The title may be all but beyond Klopp's team, but Liverpool still looks intent on ending the season on a high for the German, who is stepping down as manager.
Gakpo scored Liverpool's third goal five minutes after the break when heading low at the far post following Harvey Elliott's curling left-foot cross.
Nine minutes later it was Elliott's turn to score with a moment of individual brilliance that brought the home fans to their feet and a beaming grin to Klopp's face.
Collecting the ball on the right, Elliott needed one touch to get away from Rodrigo Bentancur. Then, from around 20 yards (meters), he curled an unstoppable left-foot shot into the top corner and beyond the dive of Vicario.
Postecoglou sent on Richarlison in the hope of salvaging something and the Brazil international quickly made an impact by turning home Brennan Johnson's cross in the 72nd.
He then turned provider to tee up Son Heung-min to fire in from close range five minutes later.
Richarlison forced Alisson into a low save when racing through late on, which led to Joe Gomez producing a flying clearance to stop Johnson from converting the rebound.

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Gauff Drops Set but Beats Belinda Bencic to Reach Australian Open Quarterfinals

Coco Gauff of the US serves the ball to Belinda Bencic of Switzerland during their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP)
Coco Gauff of the US serves the ball to Belinda Bencic of Switzerland during their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP)
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Gauff Drops Set but Beats Belinda Bencic to Reach Australian Open Quarterfinals

Coco Gauff of the US serves the ball to Belinda Bencic of Switzerland during their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP)
Coco Gauff of the US serves the ball to Belinda Bencic of Switzerland during their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP)

Coco Gauff's consecutive-set streak ended at the Australian Open. Her bid for a second Grand Slam title continued on Sunday with a 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 comeback victory over Belinda Bencic in the fourth round.

Afterward, Gauff drew a broken heart on the lens of a courtside TV camera with the message, “RIP TikTok USA,” a reference to the ban of the popular app back home.

Until Sunday, Gauff — a 20-year-old from Florida who won the 2023 US Open as a teenager — had collected all 16 sets she'd played this year and 24 of her past 25 dating to the end of last season, which included a title at the WTA Finals.

“In the first set, she played great tennis, and it was tough for me to be on the offense,” Gauff said after grabbing the last five games against Bencic. “I just played more aggressively in the second set and then also the third set.”

The tournament's No. 3 seed was unable to control her shots well enough at the start against Bencic on a steamy early afternoon in Rod Laver Arena, where the temperature hit 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 Celsius) and the blue playing surface was bathed in sunlight.

Spectators seated along the sides of the court fanned themselves; Gauff sought relief from cool air provided at the players' sideline benches and pressed an ice pack against her face during one break in the action.

As trouble mounted late in the first set, in which Bencic broke in each of Gauff's last two service games — one of which ended with a pair of double-faults — the American kept missing the mark, compiling a whopping 20 unforced errors.

When her shots would land into the net or too long or too wide, or Bencic's would fall beyond her reach, Gauff repeatedly turned toward her coaches' box and put her arms wide with palms up, as if to ask, “What am I supposed to do?” After some of her nine double-faults, Gauff slapped her leg.

But Gauff recalibrated after the hour-plus first set, accumulating points in bunches, repeatedly hammering returns of serve and doing a much better job of targeting spots from the baseline. In sum, she was very much back to her best self. Not only did Gauff cut her unforced errors in half in the second set, but she also put together a 17-2 edge in winners over that span.

By the end, Gauff was in total control, and she motioned to the crowd for more noise after a reflex volley to win a point in the final game.

“Obviously there’s still a lot to go for me to accomplish my goal,” Gauff said, “but I can say that I’m proud of myself and happy with how I performed.”

Part of the problem in the early going, to be sure, was that Bencic is a terrific ball-striker. Her current ranking of No. 294 is misleading: The 27-year-old from Switzerland, who reached a career best of No. 4, only returned to action in October from maternity leave.

Her best past results have arrived on hard courts, including a run to the semifinals of the US Open in 2019 and a singles gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. She's now 0-3 in fourth-round matches at Melbourne Park, though, losing previously to International Tennis Hall of Fame member Maria Sharapova in 2016 and to eventual champion Aryna Sabalenka two years ago.

Gauff now faces No. 11 Paula Badosa in the quarterfinals on Tuesday. Badosa defeated Olga Danilovic 6-1, 7-6 (2) to get to the final eight in Melbourne for the first time.

The winner of Gauff vs. Badosa will play either No. 1 Sabalenka, who is seeking a third consecutive Australian Open title, or No. 27 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the 2021 French Open runner-up.

Sabalenka stretched her winning streak in Melbourne to 18 matches by defeating 14th-seeded Mirra Andreeva 6-1, 6-2, and Pavlyuchenkova beat No. 18 Donna Vekic 7-6 (0), 6-0.

Martina Hingis, from 1997 to 1999, was the last woman with three straight championships in Australia.

A year ago, Gauff reached the semifinals at Melbourne Park for the first time, before losing to Sabalenka.

One more win for each and they'll have a rematch in that round. They also met in the US Open final that Gauff won two seasons ago.

“For me, every match is a new opportunity. It’s a new game. You know, it doesn’t matter what happened in the past,” Sabalenka said. “For me, it’s about staying in the moment and focusing on myself and on bringing my best game, because I know that if I’ll be able to bring my best game, I know that I can get the win. So I’m trying to focus on myself.”

The first man into the quarterfinals was No. 12 Tommy Paul of the US, who beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-1, 6-1, 6-1. Paul, a semifinalist in Australia in 2023, will face No. 2 Alexander Zverev or No. 14 Ugo Humbert on Tuesday.