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sports Diabierna 26 augustus 2022

Serena Williams' 1st opponent at US Open is Danka Kovinic

(AP) — Serena Williams' Williams has won the hard- champion Emma Raducanu.
first opponent at what court tournament in Flush-
is expected to be the last ing Meadows six times. Because Williams has said
tournament of her career, She is just 1-3 this season, she's preparing to wind down
the U.S. Open, will be having recently returned to her tennis career, her every
Danka Kovinic. singles action after a year move will be the focus at the
away following a first-round start of the U.S. Open.
Win that, and Williams could injury exit at Wimbledon in While Williams has spent
face No. 2 seed Anett Kon- 2021. more than 300 weeks at No.
taveit of Estonia in the sec- 1, her lack of activity has
ond round. Her first match back came at contributed to a slide; she is
The brackets for the wom- the All England Club in late 410th this week.
en's and men's singles events June, and she lost her opener That meant she would not
were released Thursday by there in a third-set tiebreaker be seeded in New York and
the U.S. Tennis Association. to 115th-ranked Harmony could have been placed any-
Tan. where in the field — and
Play begins Monday; first- against any player. the bracket. 7 Simona Halep or French
round matches will be held Kovinic is a 27-year-old from No. 1 Iga Swiatek, a two-time Open runner-up Coco Gauff
that day and Tuesday. There Montenegro who is 80th in Other possible opponents for French Open champion, will on the bottom half.
was no immediate word on the WTA rankings this week Williams, should she prog- meet Jasmine Paolini in the
when Williams will compete. and has been as high as 46th. ress through the tournament, first round, while Raducanu Shortly before the draw an-
Williams and Kovinic have include No. 27 seed Martina will begin her title defense nouncement, some expected
The 23-time Grand Slam never played each other in Trevisan of Italy in the third against Alize Cornet. news arrived: Novak Djokov-
champion, who turns 41 singles. round and 2021 U.S. Open ic tweeted that he would not
on Sept. 26, announced this runner-up Leylah Fernandez Potential quarterfinals are be in New York for the U.S.
month she was preparing to After winning a match at of Canada or 2021 French Swiatek vs. No. 8 Jessica Pe- Open.
step away from her playing a tournament in Toronto, Open champion Barbora gula, and No. 4 Paula Badosa The 35-year-old from Serbia,
career. She did not explicitly Williams was eliminated in Krejcikova of the Czech Re- vs. No. 6 Aryna Sabalenka who owns 21 Grand Slam ti-
say when she planned to stop straight sets there by Tokyo public in the fourth. on the top half of the field, tles, is not vaccinated against
but made it sound as if the Olympics gold medalist Be- and Kontaveit — or, perhaps, COVID-19. Foreign citizens
U.S. Open would mark her linda Bencic, then lost again She could face her sister Ve- Williams — vs. Wimbledon who have not received the
farewell. in straight sets at Cincinnati nus only in the final, because runner-up Ons Jabeur, and shot are not allowed to enter
against reigning U.S. Open they are on opposite sides of No. 3 Maria Sakkari vs. No. the United States.

Evenepoel takes Vuelta's red jersey as Roglic moves closer

to the top. dream come true." made it back to the front to win his
first Grand Tour stage.
Evenepoel was second to Wine after a Evenepoel is the first Belgian leader
tough final climb, enough to put him of the Vuelta since Dylan Teuns took "It's almost unreal," Wine said. "It's a
21 seconds ahead of previous overall the red jersey after the sixth stage of dream come true. I was able to man-
leader Rudy Molard and 28 seconds the race in 2019. age my effort and pace the climb
in front of Enric Mas, who was third pretty handily. (In the last kilometer)
in a foggy finish on Thursday. Roglic, the Jumbo-Visma rider going I thought about my wife who's basi-
for a fourth straight Vuelta title, was cally done everything for me in the
"I'm proud to be leader. It's a big more than four minutes off the lead last three or four years to get me to
dream come true," said Evenepoel, entering the sixth stage. He moved to this point."
(AP) — Remco Evenepoel took who rides for team Quick-Step Al- within about a minute of Evenepoel
the leader's red jersey on a wet pha Vinyl. "This is the reason why with a strong run on Thursday. Jan Hirt had to withdraw because of a
and cold day at the Spanish Vuel- I've been working so hard for so long. positive test for the coronavirus.
ta on Thursday, while Jay Wine What I showed today is maybe one Wine, the Australian from team Alpe-
overcame a flat tire to win the of the best things I did on a bike. In cin-Deceuninck, had a flat tire less The seventh stage will feature a mid-
sixth stage and defending cham- an uphill finish to put such a strong than five kilometers (three miles) mountain route of nearly 200 kilo-
pion Primoz Roglic moved closer performance thanks to the team is a into the stage but recovered and meters (125 miles) on Friday.

Barcelona loans France defender Umtiti to Serie A club Lecce

(AP) — World Cup-winning France de-
fender Samuel Umtiti will prepare for The 28-year-old Umtiti joined Barcelona
this year's tournament in Italy instead of six years ago from Lyon and has a contract
Barcelona after moving on loan to Lecce. through 2026. That deal was agreed in Janu-
ary which included taking a salary cut so Bar-
Barcelona said Thursday the newly promoted celona could register new signing Ferran Tor-
Serie A club had taken Umtiti for one season res.
with no option to buy.
Barcelona thanked Umtiti then for "his will-
The loan deal is the latest move by Barcelona ingness and the affection that he has demon-
to try to comply with financial rules during strated towards the club."
its debt crisis and still be able to register new
players. He was a starter in central defense at the 2018
World Cup and scored in France's 1-0 win
The Spanish side has been unable to regis- over Belgium in the semifinals.
ter Umtiti's France teammate Jules Koundé
since signing the defender from Sevilla last France is in a group with Australia, Denmark
month for a reported fee of about 50 million and Tunisia at the World Cup which starts
euros ($50 million). Nov. 20 in Qatar.