Dabrowski, Routliffe upset in doubles
On a day of big upsets at the BNP Paribas Open, second-seeded Gabriela Dabrowski of Ottawa and her partner Erin Routliffe of New Zealand were bounced out of the women's doubles draw by a pair of underdogs.
Asia Muhammad of Long Beach, Calif., and Ena Shibahara of Japan took one hour, 52 minutes to eliminate Dabrowski and Routliffe 7-6 (3), 2-6, 12-10 in the second round of the tennis tournament.
In the biggest upset of the day, Luca Nardi used a combination of poise and power to stun his boyhood idol and top-seed Novak Djokovic with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win on Monday in the third round of men's singles.
Soccer Australia said Tuesday the
Socceroos will play the Palestinian men's team in Perth, Australia, on June 11 in a 2026 World Cup qualifying match.
Australia has a 2-0 record in Group 1 in the second round of Asian qualifying while the Palestinian team has a draw and a loss.
The loss was 1-0 to Australia when the Palestinian side was forced to play a “home” game in Kuwait in November due to the conflict in Gaza. Players on the Australian team, before the start of the Kuwait match, donated a portion of their fees towards humanitarian causes in Gaza.
Former Lecce coach Roberto D'aversa
was banned for four matches on Tuesday for head-butting a player in an incident that led to him being fired by the Serie A club on Monday.
D'aversa apologized in postmatch interviews but later said that it wasn't a head butt.
However, the Italian league's sports judge statement on Tuesday said D'aversa was given the ban for “having struck an opposition player on the face with a head butt.”
D'aversa was also fined US$11,000.