12/03/2026

SPORTS THURSDAY | MAR 12, 2026

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Mei Xing backs youth National shuttler ready to make way for younger players to shine N ATIONAL WOMEN’S doubles player Teoh Mei Xing is prepared to make way for younger players to compete in the 2026 Uber Cup National women’s doubles player Teoh Mei Xing. – BERNAMA FILEPIC

RESULTS & STANDINGS

ARSENAL are keen on signing Germany mid fielder Julian Brandt, 29, when his Borussia Dortmund contract expires this summer. MAN UNITED, Arsenal and Chelsea are all keen on Freiburg’s 20-year-old Switzerland midfielder Johan Manzambi. ARSENAL, though, have dropped their inter est in Newcastle’s 25-year-old Italian mid fielder Sandro Tonali. A RETURN to Serie A also appears unlikely for Tonali after Newcastle put a £77m price tag on the player, which will put off Juventus, but Manchester United and Manchester City still remain keen. NATIONAL SQUASH ace S. Sivasangari continued her fine form to reach the quarterfinals of the 2026 Australian Open Squash Championship in Brisbane yesterday. The top-seeded Sivasangari needed just 24 minutes to dispatch England’s Grace Gear 3-0 in a dominant display at the South Bank Piazza glass court. Waiting for the 27-year-old in the next round is compatriot and sixth seed Aira Azman. Aira advanced to the last eight after overcoming Hong Kong’s Tomato Ho 3-2 in a close match. Aira’s sister, Aifa, also advanced com fortably, defeating France’s Marie Stephan 3-0. Aifa will next meet Belgium’s Nele Gilis, who beat South Korean Ka Yi Lee. – Bernama Sivasangari extends fine form ENGLISH CHAMPIONSHIP: Leicester City 2 Bristol City 0, Millwall 1 Derby County 0, Portsmouth 1 Swansea City 2, Sheffield Wednesday 1 Watford 1, Wrex ham 1 Hull City 2, Stoke City 3 Ipswich Town 3. P W D L F A Pts Coventry 36 22 8 6 74 38 74 Mid’boro 36 20 9 7 58 35 69 Millwall 37 20 8 9 51 41 68 Ipswich 36 18 11 7 64 38 65 Hull 37 19 6 12 59 53 63 Wrexham 36 15 12 9 55 47 57 Derby 37 15 9 13 54 48 54 Southampton 35 14 11 10 57 46 53 Watford 36 13 13 10 46 42 52 Swansea 37 15 7 15 44 44 52 Bristol City 37 14 8 15 48 48 50 Sheff Utd 36 15 4 17 51 49 49 Birmingham 36 13 10 13 46 47 49 Preston 36 12 13 11 42 43 49 Stoke 37 13 9 15 42 39 48 QPR 36 13 8 15 46 58 47 Norwich 35 13 6 16 47 44 45 Charlton 36 11 11 14 34 44 44 Portsmouth 36 10 10 16 36 47 40 Blackburn 36 10 9 17 34 47 39 Leicester 37 11 11 15 50 57 38 West Brom 36 9 9 18 35 53 36 Oxford 36 8 11 17 34 48 35 Sheff Wed 37 1 9 27 23 74 -6 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE (last 16, first leg) : Galatasaray 1 (Lemina 7) Liverpool 0, Atalanta 1 (Pasalic 90+3) Bayern Munich 6 (Stanisic 12, Olise 22, 64, Gnabry 25, Jackson 52, Musiala 67) , Newcastle 1 (Barnes 86) Barcelona 1 (Yamal 90+6-pen) , Atletico Madrid 5 (Llorente 6, Griezmann 14, Alvarez 15, 55, Le Normand 22) Tottenham 2 (Porro 26, Solanke 76) . TOUCHLINES

ries, including mixed doubles, this year. She is paired with Tan Zhing Hui in women’s doubles and competes alongside Tan Zhi Yang in mixed doubles. Although her combination with Zhing Hui has been fairly good, she said she still needs time to build chemistry with Zhi Yang. “I have not played mixed doubles for quite some time. So I still need to improve my chemistry with my partner,” she said. Mei Xing’s best achievement with Zhing Hui was reaching the semifinals of the 2026 Singapore International Series recently. With Zhi Yang, their best results so far are reaching the quarterfinals of the 2026 Singapore International Challenge and the 2026 Singapore International Series. Mei Xing previously partnered Go Pei Kee, but they split after her partner decided to leave the Badminton Association of Malaysia last month. – Bernama

in Horsens, Denmark, next month. Mei Xing said young players should be allowed to gain experience representing the country in the world’s most prestigious women’s team badminton tournament, scheduled to be held at Forum Horsens from April 24 to May 3. “I have played in it before, so I think it is better to give the opportunity to juniors because they also need the experience. “I am also okay with staying here to continue training,” she said when met recently. The 29-year-old has played in three Uber Cup tournaments – 2020 in Aarhus, Denmark, 2022 in Bangkok and 2024 in Chengdu, China. Meanwhile, Mei Xing admitted that she faces challenges competing in two catego

Hakim Danish preps for Brazil

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Arsenal also monitoring the 22-year-old. BARCELONA are lining up alternatives to Marcus Rashford should they they be unable to agree a deal to make the 28-year-old England forward’s loan move from Manchester United a permanent one. CRYSTAL PALACE are leading the race for Millwall winger Femi Azeez, with the 24-year-old Englishman watched by several Premier League clubs including Everton and Brentford. TOTTENHAM, Crystal Palace and Manchester United are all interested in Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola. The 43-year-old is out of contract at the end of the season. £1=RM5.25 The second round of the World Motorcycle Championship season is scheduled to take place at Autodromo from March 20 to 22. – Bernama YOUNG national rider, Muhammad Hakim Danish Ramli (pic) is ready to review the new circuit in Brazil ahead of the second round of the World Motorcycle Championship (MotoGP) Grand Prix (GP) this season. The racer better known as Hakim Danish, said he had studied the video of the circuit to understand the character of the track at Autodromo Internacional de Goiania – Ayrton Senna since it is his first time competing at the circuit as well as most of the riders. “For Brazil, this is a new track for everyone and I have also watched it on my phone and I am studying from there. I also saw that the track is quite good and I hope to get good results,” he said at the media breaking fast ceremony with MKA Group yesterday. Meanwhile, the 18-year-old rider said his main focus now is to improve several weaknesses identified after the season opening race in Thailand. “I can see there is still a lot of room for me to improve in the first race in Thailand, including my riding and also the setup on the motorcycle,” he said. He said that the motorcycle setup aspects, especially the chassis and handling when braking, are among the things that need to be improved.

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JUVENTUS have opened talks with Man City’s Portuguese midfielder Bernardo Silva about a move when the 31-year-old’s contract expires, but face competition from clubs including Galatasaray and Inter Miami. BRIGHTON are confident of beating Chelsea to the summer signing of Cologne’s German winger Said el Mala, 19, who has impressed in his first season in the Bundesliga. CHELSEA do not want to sell striker Liam Delap this summer despite the 23-year-old Englishman scoring just one Premier League goal in an injury-hit season. LIVERPOOL remain in the market for a defender this summer and Eintracht Frankfurt’s Germany international Nnamdi Collins is a target, with

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