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Egypt’s Al Ahly Produce Emphatic Away Win in Champions League Semi

FILE: Al Ahly players celebrate after Al Ahly's Mohamed Afsha scored his side's opening goal during the FIFA Club World Cup soccer match between Seattle Sounders FC and Al Ahly FC in Tangier, Morocco, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
FILE: Al Ahly players celebrate after Al Ahly's Mohamed Afsha scored his side's opening goal during the FIFA Club World Cup soccer match between Seattle Sounders FC and Al Ahly FC in Tangier, Morocco, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
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Egypt’s Al Ahly Produce Emphatic Away Win in Champions League Semi

FILE: Al Ahly players celebrate after Al Ahly's Mohamed Afsha scored his side's opening goal during the FIFA Club World Cup soccer match between Seattle Sounders FC and Al Ahly FC in Tangier, Morocco, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
FILE: Al Ahly players celebrate after Al Ahly's Mohamed Afsha scored his side's opening goal during the FIFA Club World Cup soccer match between Seattle Sounders FC and Al Ahly FC in Tangier, Morocco, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)

A double from striker Percy Tau and a third goal from Mahmoud Kahraba handed Egypt’s Al Ahly a runaway 3-0 away triumph over Esperance of Tunisia in the first leg of their African Champions League semi-final on Friday.

Tau, the South African international who previously played at Brighton & Hove Albion, opened the scoring with a left-footed drive after eight minutes and doubled the lead 10 minutes into the second half as the Cairo club made a giant stride in their bid to reach next month’s final.

Kahraba applied the final touch to a swift counter-attack in the 75th minute to add a third goal and leave Esperance with a near impossible task in next weekend’s return in Cairo, Reuters reported.

Friday’s game was played behind closed doors as punishment for crowd violence when Esperance beat JS Kabylie of Algeria in their quarter-final last month.

Al Ahly are Africa’s most successful club with 10 previous Champions League titles and have reached five of the last six finals. They were runners-up to Wydad Casablanca last year.

Wydad host Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa in the first leg of their semi-final on Saturday.

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Medvedev Beats Monfils in Beijing. Draper Upsets Hurkacz in Japan

Russia's Daniil Medvedev celebrates after defeating France's Gael Monfils during the China Open tennis tournament held at the National Tennis Center in Beijing, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Russia's Daniil Medvedev celebrates after defeating France's Gael Monfils during the China Open tennis tournament held at the National Tennis Center in Beijing, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
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Medvedev Beats Monfils in Beijing. Draper Upsets Hurkacz in Japan

Russia's Daniil Medvedev celebrates after defeating France's Gael Monfils during the China Open tennis tournament held at the National Tennis Center in Beijing, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Russia's Daniil Medvedev celebrates after defeating France's Gael Monfils during the China Open tennis tournament held at the National Tennis Center in Beijing, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Daniil Medvedev safely navigated a tricky first outing at the China Open on Friday, winning 6-3, 6-4 against French veteran Gael Monfils.
The third-seeded Medvedev, runner-up to Jannik Sinner here last year, broke Monfils' serve three times in a dominant opening set, The Associated Press reported.
After trading breaks in a closer second set, former No. 1-ranked Medvedev clinched the match with another service break to seal the win in 92 minutes.
Roman Safiullin, who made the main draw as a lucky loser in qualifying, beat three-time major winner Stan Wawrinka 6-3, 6-4 and will face top-ranked Sinner.
No. 3-ranked Carlos Alcaraz, seeded second in Beijing, begins against No. 51 Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard of France later Friday.
In the women's draw, sixth-seeded Emma Navarro was upset by Chinese wildcard Zhang Shuai 6-4, 6-2 in 75 minutes. The 35-year-old Zhang, a doubles specialist, played well above her current singles ranking of No. 595 as she took five of her seven breakpoint opportunities against the U.S. Open semifinalist.
Zhang will play Greet Minnen of Belgium, who beat 28th-seeded Anastasia Potapova 7-5, 2-6, 6-4, in the third round.
Also, 12th-seeded Diana Shnaider beat former Australian Open winner Sofia Kenin 6-2, 6-3 and Yuliia Starodubtseva had a 6-2, 6-2 win over 27th-seeded Katerina Siniakova.
Second-seeded Jessica Pegula was due open her tournament later Friday against Diane Parry of France, and Coco Gauff faced Clara Burel in a night match.
US Open champion Aryna Sabalenka plays Saturday against Thai qualifier Mananchaya Sawangkaew. Top-ranked Iga Swiatek was not playing this week for personal reasons.
Japan Open Second-seeded Hubert Hurkacz lost 6-4, 6-4 to US Open semifinalist Jack Draper in the second round in Tokyo, a day after top-seeded Taylor Fritz and third-seeded Casper Ruud were eliminated from the tournament.
While the 22-year-old Draper and Hurkacz were evenly matched on aces and winners, it was the Polish player's 30 unforced errors, to Draper's 20, that proved costly.
Draper will next play either Brandon Nakashima or Ugo Humbert in the quarterfinals.
Defending champion Ben Shelton also progressed to the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-3 defeat of Mariano Navone. Shelton, along with Fritz, traveled to Japan from the Laver Cup in Berlin, where they represented Team World in a loss to Alcaraz’s Team Europe.