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Spanish seeded players Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez were secondround casualties at the Qatar Open on Wednesday.
The eighth-seeded Lopez was upset by Bosnian qualifier Mirza Basic 6-4, 7-6 (2).
Basic, who is ranked 138th and is primarily a Challengerlevel player, reached the semifinals of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow as a qualifier last year — the only ATP-level tournament he played in 2017.
The seventh-seeded Verdasco, currently 35th-ranked, was eliminated by the 39th-ranked Andrey Rublev of Russia 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.
Rublev, 20, will face Borna Coric of Croatia in the quarterfinals.
Barca’s Dembele’s return a slow process
Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde is celebrating the return of Ousmane Dembele but says it will take time for the young forward to be fully reintegrated with the squad.
Dembele, the club’s most expensive signing ever, could make his much-anticipated return from a long injury layoff in Thursday’s Copa del Rey match at Celta Vigo.
The 20-year-old Frenchman, who arrived in the offseason to replace Neymar, hasn’t played since rupturing a thigh tendon in his left leg on Sept. 16.
The injury happened in one of Dembele’s first matches since being signed from Borussia Dortmund in a deal that could potentially reach nearly 150 million euros ($180 million).
The Oakland Raiders are one step closer to securing the land for their new headquarters and practice facility near Las Vegas at a steep discount.
Officials in suburban Henderson on Tuesday approved a resolution that allows the city to move forward with a direct sale of 55 acres (22 hectares) for more than $6 million — half the land’s appraised value. The city is using a Nevada law that allows for no-bid sales at undermarket prices when they are considered to be in the public interest.
“This is an opportunity to take the city of Henderson to a new level,” Assistant City Manager Greg Blackburn said during the city council meeting ahead of the resolution vote. “It’s hard to put a dollar value to what this does to help us for the future.”