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Newcastle Hosts Man City in League Cup. Madrid Looks to Bounce Back against Las Palmas

24 September 2023, United Kingdom, Sheffield: Newcastle United's Bruno Guimaraes celebrates with team-mate Anthony Gordon after scoring his side's seventh goal during the English Premier League match between Sheffield United and Newcastle United at Bramall Lane. (dpa)
24 September 2023, United Kingdom, Sheffield: Newcastle United's Bruno Guimaraes celebrates with team-mate Anthony Gordon after scoring his side's seventh goal during the English Premier League match between Sheffield United and Newcastle United at Bramall Lane. (dpa)
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Newcastle Hosts Man City in League Cup. Madrid Looks to Bounce Back against Las Palmas

24 September 2023, United Kingdom, Sheffield: Newcastle United's Bruno Guimaraes celebrates with team-mate Anthony Gordon after scoring his side's seventh goal during the English Premier League match between Sheffield United and Newcastle United at Bramall Lane. (dpa)
24 September 2023, United Kingdom, Sheffield: Newcastle United's Bruno Guimaraes celebrates with team-mate Anthony Gordon after scoring his side's seventh goal during the English Premier League match between Sheffield United and Newcastle United at Bramall Lane. (dpa)

A look at what’s happening in European soccer on Wednesday:

ENGLAND

Newcastle hosts Manchester City in the third round of the English League Cup on Wednesday. City has made a 100% start to the season, while Newcastle routed Sheffield United 8-0 on Sunday. Newcastle was beaten by Manchester United in last season’s final and is still waiting for its first major trophy since 1969. City won everything but the League Cup last season when it completed a trophy treble of the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup. Other all-Premier League clashes include Aston Villa vs. Everton, Brentford vs. Arsenal and Chelsea vs. Brighton. Liverpool hosts Leicester.

SPAIN

Real Madrid looks to rebound from its first loss of the season when it hosts promoted Las Palmas in the Spanish league. Madrid had won its first five league games before losing 3-1 at city rival Atletico Madrid on Sunday. Vinícius Júnior is expected to make his return after missing the match against Atletico because of a stomach illness. The Brazil forward had been out before that with a hamstring issue. Las Palmas defeated Granada in the previous round for its first win of the season. Girona, which entered the midweek games tied at the top with Barcelona, visits Villarreal looking for its six straight victory. In other matches, Athletic Bilbao hosts Getafe, Rayo Vallecano visits Cadiz and Real Sociedad is at Valencia.

ITALY

Inter Milan will be looking to continue its perfect start to the Serie A season when it hosts Sassuolo. Inter has won all five of its Italian league matches, conceding just one goal in the process. However, it found it harder than perhaps expected before winning 1-0 at bottom club Empoli at the weekend and faces a Sassuolo team full of confidence after a 4-2 victory over Juventus. AC Milan is just three points behind its city rival and hosts Claudio Ranieri’s Cagliari, which is still seeking its first win back in Serie A. Udinese and Salernitana are also winless and play defending champion Napoli and Empoli respectively. Last season’s runner-up Lazio is surprisingly struggling and it hosts Torino, while Atalanta travels to Hellas Verona.

GERMANY

Two-time champion Leipzig begins its German Cup defense at Wehen Wiesbaden, which has lost its last two games and failed to win any of its last four in the second division. Leipzig has made a fine start to season, winning its last four Bundesliga games after an opening defeat at Bayer Leverkusen. Wiesbaden will be hoping the visitors are distracted by their upcoming league game against Bayern Munich on Saturday.

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Djokovic Shocked at US Open, Eliminated One Night after Alcaraz

Serbia's Novak Djokovic (L) greets Australia's Alexei Popyrin after his defeat during their men's singles third round match on day five of the US Open tennis tournament at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City, on August 30, 2024. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP)
Serbia's Novak Djokovic (L) greets Australia's Alexei Popyrin after his defeat during their men's singles third round match on day five of the US Open tennis tournament at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City, on August 30, 2024. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP)
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Djokovic Shocked at US Open, Eliminated One Night after Alcaraz

Serbia's Novak Djokovic (L) greets Australia's Alexei Popyrin after his defeat during their men's singles third round match on day five of the US Open tennis tournament at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City, on August 30, 2024. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP)
Serbia's Novak Djokovic (L) greets Australia's Alexei Popyrin after his defeat during their men's singles third round match on day five of the US Open tennis tournament at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City, on August 30, 2024. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP)

Novak Djokovic was shocked at the US Open one night after Carlos Alcaraz was, bowing out in the third round with a 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 loss to 28th-seeded Alexei Popyrin of Australia on Friday night.
“Just an awful match for me,” Djokovic said. “Tournaments like this happen.”
Not often for him, though. The No. 2-seeded Djokovic was trying to become the first player in tennis history with 25 Grand Slam singles titles. Instead, after knee surgery in June, he finishes a year without claiming at least one major championship for the first time since 2017. Before that, it hadn't happened since 2010, The Associated Press reported.
Also of note: 2024 now becomes the first season since 2002 in which none of the Big Three of men's tennis — Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer — earned a Slam trophy.
The third-round exit equals Djokovic’s worst showing at Flushing Meadows; the only other occasions he was beaten that early at the US Open came in 2005 and 2006. The man who defeated Djokovic 18 years ago, International Tennis Hall of Fame member Lleyton Hewitt, is now Australia’s Davis Cup captain and was sitting in Popyrin’s guest box in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Djokovic, who is 37, has reached the final in Ashe 10 times, leaving with the title in 2011, 2015, 2018 and 2023.
On Friday, though, he double-faulted 14 times and looked physically sluggish and emotionally flat, perhaps residual fatigue after collecting his first Olympic gold medal for Serbia by beating Alcaraz in the final at the Paris Games earlier in August.
“Obviously, it had an effect,” Djokovic said.
The No. 3-seeded Alcaraz entered the US Open as the tournament favorite having won the French Open and Wimbledon, and acknowledged his energy was lower than he realized after getting eliminated in New York by 74th-ranked Botic van de Zandschulp 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 on Thursday night.
Djokovic then replaced Alcaraz as the money-line pick to take the men’s title, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, but that status didn’t last long at all.
For the 25-year-old Popyrin, this represented a real breakthrough: He had been 0-3 against Djokovic and 0-6 in third-round matches at majors.
But the strong-serving Popyrin is playing as well as ever, coming off the biggest title of his career less than three weeks ago at a hard-court tournament in Montreal, where he picked up five wins against opponents ranked in the top 20.
Everything was working against Djokovic, who was not up to his usual high standards.
Popyrin was terrific at the net, going 10 for 10 on serve-and-volley approaches and 25 for 36 overall on points when he pushed forward. Djokovic, in contrast, only won the point on 19 of his 40 trips to the net, in part because Popyrin kept flipping passing shots by him.
Popyrin took big cuts with his powerful forehand, accumulating 22 of his 50 total winners with that shot.
And he broke Djokovic five times, including for a lead of 3-2 in the fourth. That game felt titanic, lasting more than 10 minutes and including four break chances for Popyrin, who converted the last with an inside-out forehand to close a 22-stroke exchange, then rocked back on his heels, clenched both fists and let out a roar. He took Djokovic’s next service game, too, to make it 5-2.
The first time Popyrin served for the match, he faltered, allowing Djokovic to break. The second time, Popyrin finished the deal, holding at love when Djokovic sent a forehand long.
Now Popyrin will try to reach his first Grand Slam quarterfinal by getting past No. 20 Frances Tiafoe, who advanced Friday with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3 win over No. 13 Ben Shelton in a matchup between two Americans.