Salah scores direct from corner in Egypt romp
Ivory Coast crush Central African Republic 4-0 in Africa Cup of Nations
JOHANNESBURG, Oct 13, (AFP): Liverpool star Mohamed Salah scored direct from a corner but was later injured as Egypt romped to a 4-1 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying win over eSwatini on Friday.
The striker went down holding his leg as the Group J match drew to a close in Cairo, resumed after receiving treatment, and was almost immediately withdrawn.
Speaking after the match, Egypt assistant coach Hany Ramzy told with Arsenal midfielder Mohamed Elneny.
Captain Ahmed Elmohamady, Amr Warda and Mahmoud Hassan also scored for Egypt and Sibonginkosi Gamedze snatched a late eSwatini goal.
Tunisia, who host Niger Saturday, and Egypt have six points each in a mini-league both seem certain to qualify from for the 2019 Cup of Nations in Cameroon.
Jonathan Kodjia, Manchester United defender Eric Bailly, Cheick Doukoure and Maxwel Cornet scored for the Ivory Coast as they crushed the Central African Republic 4-0 in Bouake.
In the other Group H match, Guinea defeated Rwanda 2-0 in Conakry through goals from Francois Kamano and Ibrahima Cisse to stay three points ahead of the Ivorians.
Angola ended the perfect, twovictory Group I record of Mauritania by recovering from conceding a third-minute goal to triumph 4-1 in Luanda.
Captain Mateus da Costa turned the tide with goals after 12 and 16 minutes, levelling from a penalty before volleying his team into the lead.
Angola and Mauritania have six points and Burkina Faso can join them if they win at home to bottom team Botswana Saturday.
An Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting goal earned Cameroon a laboured 1-0 Group B win over Malawi in Yaounde, and Dutch coach Clarence Seedorf his first success as ‘Indomitable Lions’ coach.
Defending champions Cameroon are guaranteed a place among the 24 finalists next year as hosts, but opted to participate in the mini-league phase to gain competitive match practice.
They top the group with seven points, four more than Morocco, who should narrow the gap by defeating the Comoros in Casablanca Saturday. Group C pacesetters Mali were held 0-0 by second-place Burundi in Bamako after captain Abdoulaye Diaby missed a penalty in the last minute of regular time.
Leaders Algeria moved three points clear of Benin in Group D thanks to a 2-0 win in Blida with Ramy Bensebaini and Baghdad Bounedjah scoring.
New Gabon coach Daniel Cousin saw his team defeat South Sudan 3-0 in Libreville, Togo snatched a 1-1 draw with the Gambia in Lome and Cape Verde outplayed Tanzania 3-0 in Praia. last month, said: “Being number two after this tournament is also a great achievement, considering the first four, five months of the year and considering I had the surgery.
“And where I was about four months ago and where I am today is quite an extreme opposite.
“I’m just cherishing that achievement and every moment spent on the court.”
The 21-year-old Zverev made an iffy start, beginning his first service game with a double-fault.
The world number five – who beat Djokovic in their only previous meeting, last year in the Rome Masters final – recovered his poise for a time.
The first set went with serve, and some big serves at that, until Djokovic grabbed the break to go 4-2 up.
Zverev threatened to unravel and conceded the set in barely 30 minutes after landing a routine smash into the net, to gasps from the arena.
The fourth seed, who is yet to win a Grand Slam despite his undoubted talent, angrily threw his racquet at the start of the second set as Djokovic ramped up the pressure. An increasingly exasperated Zverev issued more punishment to his racquet at 3-1 down, earning a code violation and tossing the battered piece into the crowd.
In Hong Kong, Wang Qiang, the best Chinese women’s player in tennis with a ranking of No. 24, will play Ukrainian teen Dayana Yastremska for a third career title at the Hong Kong Open on Sunday.
Wang posted two upset victories on Saturday by first finishing her rainpostponed quarter-final against topseeded Elina Svitolina and winning 6-2, 6-4. The victory over the fifthranked Svitolina marked Wang’s first career win over a top-five player.
Then, Wang upset fourth-seeded Garbine Muguruza 6-7 (5), 6-4, 7-5 to earn passage into the final.
Wang has been posting impressive results since mid-July. She won her first two WTA career titles at Nanchang and Guangzhou, and also was a semifinalist at Hiroshima, Wuhan, and Beijing.
Wang trailed Muguruza 4-1 in the final set, but showed determination to rally to win the nearly three-hour encounter.
Yastremska reached her first career final after defeating 40th-ranked Zhang Shuai of China 7-5, 6-4 in the other semifinal.
The 18-year-old Yastremska is the sixth teenager this year and fourth born in this century to reach a WTA final.
Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine celebrates winning a point during her women’s singles semifinal match against Zhang Shuai of China at the Hong Kong Open tennis tournament on Oct 13. (AFP)
Yastremska was 1-6 in WTA maindraw matches this year before Hong Kong, but has won four consecutive straight-set matches to advance to the final.
The 102nd-ranked Ukrainian’s best previous result at a WTA-level tournament was the Istanbul quarterfinals last year.
Yastremska rebounded from a break down in both sets to come through against Zhang.
In Tianjin, top seed Karolina Pliskova produced a ruthless display as she raced past Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky 6-2, 6-1 to reach the Tianjin Open final on Saturday.
Pliskova, who won the Pan Pacific Open title last month, dropped just eight points on serve and broke Bacsinszky four times to reach Sunday’s final against France’s Caroline Garcia.
World number six Pliskova, currently eighth in the Race to Singapore standings, is battling for one of the three available spots in the seasonending WTA Finals starting on Oct 21.
The 26-year-old Czech would improve her chances by claiming her third title of the season on Sunday.
“I know I have a good chance to get to Singapore between this week and next week as well,” former world number one Pliskova said.
“I think it was a pretty okay year for me and if I end it in Singapore it’s going to be amazing for me. It’s always a goal...so hopefully, I can end there.” Second seed Garcia cruised past Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-Wei 6-3, 6-4 to move into her first final since lifting back-to-back titles in Wuhan and Beijing last year.