Anand, Swapnil win; Gujrathi held in Round 8

Isle of Man

Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand and Swapnil S Dhopade notched up wins, while Vidit Santosh Gujrathi played out another draw as the trio shared the joint third place after the eighth round of the Isle of Man International chess tournament here. Anand continued his unbeaten run at the tournament by beating France’s Fressinet Laurent in 41 moves. Dhopade defeated England’s Short Nigel after battling for 73 moves. Gujrathi signed truce with Ukraine’s Eljanov Pavel after 30 moves. Harika Dronavalli played out a hard-fought draw against Australian GM John Paul Wallace. World champion Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura are at the first and second positions at 7 and 6.5 points, respectively. 

Paris

Weightlifting: Russia, China get one-year doping bans

Russia and China were banned from international weightlifting, ruling them out of the World Championships, after re-analysed drugs tests from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics returned at least three positive results each. In all, nine nations were suspended by the International Weightlifting Federation for a year with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Turkey and Ukraine all sitting out the Worlds in California from Nov 28 to Dec 5.

Chennai

Bengal Warriors beat Jaipur in a thriller

Riding on Maninder Singh’s brilliant performance, Bengal Warriors edged past Jaipur Pink Panthers 32-31 in the Inter Zone Challenge Week of the Pro-Kabaddi League here today. In a nail-biting finish, Maninder (16 points) got a crucial bonus point in the dying moments to win it for Bengal Warriors. Pawan Kumar scored 14 points for Jaipur. — Agencies

New Delhi

Dhawan returns for T20I series against Australia

Opener Shikhar Dhawan has been included in the 15-member squad for the three-match T20I series against Australia. Dhawan, who missed the ODI series against Australia, replaces Ajinkya Rahane. Keeping their spots after commendable performances in the ODI series are spinners Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal and Axar Patel. Veteran pacer Ashish Nehra has retained his spot in the T20 squad, while Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami have been left out. The first T20I will be played in Ranchi on October 7. Squad: Virat Kohli (C), Rohit Sharma (V-C), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (WK), Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Axar Patel

London

Djokovic will benefit from long break, says new physio

Novak Djokovic is recovering from a “significant” elbow injury and is keen to get back on the tour again, the 12-times Grand Slam champion’s new physiotherapist Ulises Badio has said. A prolonged dip in form before the injury earlier this year forced Djokovic to curtail his season. The former No. 1 added Argentine Badio and Italian fitness coach Marco Panichi to his team and is expected to return early next year. “Novak had a significant injury and we are bringing it under control,” Badio told Argentine daily La Nacion, adding that the Serb’s decision to take time off had helped.

Beijing

Svitolina off to flying start in Beijing

World No. 3 Elina Svitolina made a confident start to her China Open campaign with a 6-3 6-2 first-round victory over Chinese wildcard Zhu Lin on Sunday. Svitolina will meet Wuhan Open runner-up Ashleigh Barty of Australia in the second round. Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska began her title defence in Beijing with a convincing 7-5 6-3 win over Carina Witthoeft. Fourth seed Karolina Pliskova also made an impressive start to the tournament, beating Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro 6-3 6-4. One day after sealing a spot in the season-ending WTA Finals in Singapore, fifth seed Caroline Wozniacki advanced into the second round with a 6-1 6-7(4) 6-1 win over home favourite Wang Qiang.

Munich

Bayern misery continues as Hertha fight back to draw

Champions Bayern Munich wasted a two-goal lead for the second straight week to draw 2-2 at Hertha Berlin on Sunday in interim coach Willy Sagnol’s debut following the midweek sacking of Carlo Ancelotti. Goals from Mats Hummels in the 12th minute and Robert Lewandowski after the break looked set to get the Bavarians back on track after last week’s 2-2 draw against VfL Wolfsburg and their 3-0 rout by Paris St Germain in the Champions League on Wednesday. Yet Hertha needed just five minutes in the second half to level with goals from Ondrej Duda after a sensational solo from Genki Haraguchi, and Salomon Kalou.

Madrid

‘There won’t be problems between Ronaldo and Real’

Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane on Saturday preferred not to comment on the message star forward Cristiano Ronaldo appeared to send to club president Florentino Perez about his contract’s renewal. In an interview after winning 3-1 over German Borussia Dortmund in the UEFA Champions League, Ronaldo was asked about the renewal and said it was a question for Perez, reports Efe news agency. “I’m not going to get involved in issues between the club and Cristiano Ronaldo, but I don’t think that there’s any problem between them,” Zidane said. — Agencies

Not for anyone’s eyes

The La Liga match between Barcelona and Las Palmas had to be played behind closed doors at Camp Nou in Barcelona, without any supporters present, following clashes between police and voters in Catalonia over an independence referendum. Lionel Messi scored twice, while Sergio Busquets scored for the first time in the league in three seasons as Barca won 3-0. League leaders Barca tried to have the game postponed, but their request was turned down by La Liga and the club announced 25 minutes before kickoff that the game would be played behind closed doors. Reuters