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Klopp Urges Liverpool to Keep Pressure on After Win at Leicester 

Liverpool's German manager Juergen Klopp celebrates at the end of the English Premier League football match between Leicester City and Liverpool at King Power Stadium in Leicester, central England on May 15, 2023. (AFP)
Liverpool's German manager Juergen Klopp celebrates at the end of the English Premier League football match between Leicester City and Liverpool at King Power Stadium in Leicester, central England on May 15, 2023. (AFP)
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Klopp Urges Liverpool to Keep Pressure on After Win at Leicester 

Liverpool's German manager Juergen Klopp celebrates at the end of the English Premier League football match between Leicester City and Liverpool at King Power Stadium in Leicester, central England on May 15, 2023. (AFP)
Liverpool's German manager Juergen Klopp celebrates at the end of the English Premier League football match between Leicester City and Liverpool at King Power Stadium in Leicester, central England on May 15, 2023. (AFP)

Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp urged his team to keep the pressure on their Premier League rivals in the last two games of the season as they make a late charge for a top-four finish.

Liverpool secured Europa League football for next season after Monday's 3-0 win at Leicester City and sit one point behind fourth-placed Manchester United and third-placed Newcastle United, though both teams have a game in hand each.

Klopp, whose side are now on a seven-game winning streak, said six weeks ago he had doubts about their chances of playing in Europe next season.

"I didn't believe it can happen," Klopp told reporters. "What we lacked that time was obviously consistency and there was only one chance for us to get in these situations - winning pretty much all the football games.

"All the rest is not in our own hands but we know we have to win all the games until the end of the season to have a chance.

"... You wish anyway that the opponent was just losing and you have that kind of pressure off your shoulder. Our job is to keep the pressure."

Liverpool host Aston Villa on Saturday before a trip for their final match to Southampton, whose relegation has been confirmed.

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Two-time Defending Champion Sabalenka is Into 4th Round at Australian Open

17 January 2025, Australia, Melbourne: Russian tennis player Aryna Sabalenka celebrates her victory over Denmark's Clara Tauson during their women's singles third round match of the Australian Open Tennis tournament at Melbourne Park. Photo: Joel Carrett/AAP/dpa
17 January 2025, Australia, Melbourne: Russian tennis player Aryna Sabalenka celebrates her victory over Denmark's Clara Tauson 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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Two-time Defending Champion Sabalenka is Into 4th Round at Australian Open

17 January 2025, Australia, Melbourne: Russian tennis player Aryna Sabalenka celebrates her victory over Denmark's Clara Tauson during their women's singles third round match of the Australian Open Tennis tournament at Melbourne Park. Photo: Joel Carrett/AAP/dpa
17 January 2025, Australia, Melbourne: Russian tennis player Aryna Sabalenka celebrates her victory over Denmark's Clara Tauson during their women's singles third round match of the Australian Open Tennis tournament at Melbourne Park. Photo: Joel Carrett/AAP/dpa

It wasn't often pretty, but two-time defending Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka extended a few impressive streaks on Friday while becoming one of the first players to advance to the fourth round of the year's opening Grand Slam tournament.
In a tougher-than-expected match, Sabalenka beat Clara Tauson 7-6 (5), 6-4 in a poor early serving display by both players to open the sixth day of play on Rod Laver Arena, The Associated Press reported. It was Sabalenka's eighth match victory in a row to start the season after winning the Brisbane International 10 days ago, and her 17th win in a row at Melbourne Park.
As well, it's been nearly three years — the 2022 French Open — that the top-ranked Sabalenka has failed to advance past the third round of any Grand Slam tournament in which she played.
Both players lost their first three service games, and it became seven service breaks in a row when Sabalenka lost her fourth service game at love. After Tauson fired an unreturnable backhand cross-court to set up break point, Sabalenka managed a wry smile.
Tauson finally held a service game to lead 5-3 and Sabalenka also won her service game to stay in the first set. But no surprise — the Danish player lost her service while serving for the first set to leave it at 5-5, eventually going to a tiebreaker which Sabalenka won despite leading 4-1, taking the opening set in 63 minutes.
“The conditions are really tough to serve, heavy conditions,” Sabalenka said. “It was really important to get all of those breaks back. It could have gone either way.”
Sabalenka broke Tauson's serve in the third game of the second set and from there the odds were in Sabalenka's favor — when Sabalenka has an early break in a set, she wins it 88% of the time. But she still needed a break after seven deuces in the ninth game to put her in control and served out the match — after saving two break points in the final game.
“That was a great battle, she played unbelievable tennis,” Sabalenka said. “I am super happy I was able to push myself. I told myself, ‘well girl, you are tough.’ So many times I thought I was done.”
In another early match Friday, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat Laura Siegemund 6-1, 6-2 to also advance to the fourth round. Siegemund beat Olympic gold medalist Zheng Qinwen in the second round.
Also advancing Friday was 11th-seeded Paula Badosa, who beat Marta Kostyuk 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, and 18th-seeded Donna Vekic, who defeated 12th-seeded Diana Shnaider 7-6 (4), 6-7 (3), 7-5..
In the only early men's result Friday, American Tommy Paul beat Roberto Carballes Baena 7-6 (0), 6-2, 6-0 to also advance to the fourth round.