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Monaco Loses at Rock-bottom Montpellier and Concedes 3rd Place to Lille in Ligue 1

Mousa Tamari of Montpellier HSC celebrates after scoring a goal during the French Ligue 1 soccer match between Montpellier HSC and AS Monaco, in Montpellier, Southern France, 17 January 2025. EPA/GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO
Mousa Tamari of Montpellier HSC celebrates after scoring a goal during the French Ligue 1 soccer match between Montpellier HSC and AS Monaco, in Montpellier, Southern France, 17 January 2025. EPA/GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO
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Monaco Loses at Rock-bottom Montpellier and Concedes 3rd Place to Lille in Ligue 1

Mousa Tamari of Montpellier HSC celebrates after scoring a goal during the French Ligue 1 soccer match between Montpellier HSC and AS Monaco, in Montpellier, Southern France, 17 January 2025. EPA/GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO
Mousa Tamari of Montpellier HSC celebrates after scoring a goal during the French Ligue 1 soccer match between Montpellier HSC and AS Monaco, in Montpellier, Southern France, 17 January 2025. EPA/GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO

Monaco's floundering season took another turn for the worse as it lost at rock-bottom Montpellier 2-1 in Ligue 1 and conceded third place to Lille on Friday.
Bruno Genesio's Lille extended its unbeaten run in all competitions to 21 games with a 2-1 home win against Nice to move one point above Monaco, which played earlier.
Despite taking the lead through Germany defender Thilo Kehrer in the first half against the league's worst defense, third-placed Monaco collapsed after the break when Jordan forward Mousa Al Tamari scored twice, The Associated Press reported.
New signing Mika Biereth started in attack for coach Adi Hütter's Monaco, which has won only twice in the past 11 games overall.
It was only Montpellier's third win in 18 league games.
Defeat left Monaco 12 points behind leader Paris Saint-Germain and increased the pressure on Hütter.
Next up for Lille is a tough trip to Premier League leader Liverpool in the Champions League on Tuesday, but Genesio's side is proving very resilient this season.
Lille fell behind in the 29th when midfielder Sofiane Diop turned the ball in after goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier spilled a right-wing cross from Jonathan Clauss.
Clauss was fooled by striker Jonathan David's dummy shortly after the break, however, and David astutely set up Hakon Haraldsson's equalizer. Then Clauss botched a clearance in the 63rd and defender Bafodé Diakité finished.
Nice dropped to fifth place and one point behind Monaco.
PSG is at Lens on Saturday.

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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
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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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
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

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.