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Diabierna 28 Mei 2021

Villarreal fans welcome players after club's 1st major title

(AP) — Fans of Villarreal, Spain's "Yellow Submarine,"
based in a city of about as the team is known because
50,000 people in south- of its yellow uniform and low
eastern Spain, took to the profile, is run by president
streets on Thursday to cel- Fernando Roig, a local busi-
ebrate the team's Europa nessman who has been at the
League title, the club's club's helm since the 1997-
first ever major trophy. 98 season and who is worth
around $1.8 billion according
Villarreal clinched the title to Forbes. He is a part-owner
with a victory over Manches- of Spain's largest supermar-
ter United in a penalty shoot- ket chain and owns a leading
out on Wednesday in Poland. ceramics group.
Villarreal has finished in
The team arrived back home the top seven in the Span-
on Thursday and paraded ish league in seven of the last
through the small city near eight seasons, including this
Valencia. Players then lifted one. Its best finish was sec-
the trophy at the team's La ond place in 2007-08. It made
Cerámica stadium in an event it to the Champions League
without the presence of fans semifinals in 2005-06, and to
but with team officials and the Europa League semifinals
players' relatives on hand. three different times, the last
Fans lined up through the in 2015-16.
streets to greet the players
who triumphed 11-10 in a keeper David de Gea. The shootout that ended with me The victory also gave Villar- Some famous Villarreal play-
marathon penalty shootout game ended 1-1 after extra scoring a penalty kick and real a place in the Champions ers from the past include
after goalkeeper Gerónimo time. then saving another, especial- League next season, guaran- Uruguayan striker Diego
Rulli converted his penalty ly when it meant the first ever teeing a big economic boost Forlán, Argentine midfielder
kick and then stopped the "Not even in my wildest title for a club," Rulli said. to the club. Juan Riquelme and Spanish
one taken by United goal- dreams I imagined a penalty midfielder Marcos Senna.

Djokovic, Nadal, Federer grouped in same half at French Open

(AP) – Well, here's a new the draw were that Djokovic No. 8 after playing only three Serena Williams, who has No. 4 Sofia Kenin vs. No. 8
one for the Big Three would be on one side and matches over the past 15 won three of her profession- Iga Swiatek in what would be
of men's tennis: Novak No. 2 Daniil Medvedev on months because of two oper- al-era record 23 Grand Slam a rematch of the 2020 final
Djokovic, Rafael Nadal the other; Nadal and No. 4 ations on his right knee. He titles in Paris, is in a quarter won by Swiatek, and No. 2
and Roger Federer ended Dominic Thiem were ran- could meet Djokovic in the of the women's draw filled Naomi Osaka vs. No. 6 Bi-
up in the same half of the domly placed and could have quarterfinals. with familiar faces. anca Andreesscu.
French Open field. shown up in either half. The other possible quarterfi-
nal on their side is Nadal vs. That includes possible Four-time major champion
Thursday's draw in Paris What no one knows is how No. 7 Andrey Rublev. matchups with three-time Osaka announced Wednes-
marks the first time in their many more Grand Slam The two remaining potential major champion Angelique day on Twitter that she would
long and distinguished ca- tournaments will feature all quarterfinals are Medvedev Kerber in the third round, not be doing news conferenc-
reers that Djokovic, Nadal three of the sport's top men. vs. No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas, two-time Wimbledon champ es during the French Open.
and Federer all are on one Federer, whose record for and Thiem vs. No. 6 Alexan- Petra Kvitova in the fourth,
side of the bracket at any most weeks at No. 1 in the der Zverev. then either two-time Aus- A year after withdrawing
Grand Slam tournament, ac- ATP rankings recently was tralian Open champ Victoria from Roland Garros before
cording to the International broken by Djokovic, turns 40 Medvedev is a two-time Azarenka or No. 3 seed Ary- the second round because of
Tennis Federation. on Aug. 8. Nadal's 35th birth- Grand Slam finalist but is 0-4 na Sabalenka in the quarter- an injured left Achilles, Wil-
day is next week; Djokovic's for his French Open career. finals. liams will face 74th-ranked
It means that no more than 34th was last week. Thiem won last year's U.S. Other possible women's Irina-Camelia Begu of Ro-
one of them can reach the fi- Open and twice has been the quarterfinals: No. 1 Ash Bar- mania to begin things. They
nal at Roland Garros, where Federer is currently ranked runner-up in Paris. ty vs. No. 5 Elina Svitolina, met once before, with Wil-
play begins Sunday. The trio liams winning, on clay in
tops the leaderboard for ma- Rome in 2016, the year Begu
jor men's singles tennis titles: reached the fourth round in
Federer and Nadal are tied at Paris for the deepest French
20 trophies, while Djokovic Open run of her career.
has 18. No one else has more
than 14. Other first-round matches
Nadal beat Djokovic in include Swiatek against Kaja
straight sets in the 2020 final Juvan, a 20-year-old from
for his record-extending 13th Slovenia who beat Kerber in
championship on the French the first round in Paris last
Open's red clay, but if they year; Azarenka against anoth-
meet again this time, it would er owner of two major tro-
have to be in the semifinals. phies, Svetlana Kuznetsova;
and Kenin, last year's Austra-
Djokovic is seeded No. 1, lian Open champion, against
and Nadal is seeded No. 3 — 2017 French Open champion
the seedings adhere strictly Jelena Ostapenko.
to the ATP rankings, so the
Spaniard's unprecedented Nadal and Swiatek are the
previous success in Paris is favorites to win the singles
irrelevant. titles, according to FanDuel
The only certainties before Sportsbook.