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Aberg stretches lead to three at Players Championship

SIDENETTING Inter’s Serie A title bid hit

LUDVIG ABERG grinded through a difficult day for a one-under-par 71 and stretched his lead to three strokes after yesterday’s third round of the US PGA Players Championship. The 26-year-old Swede, third last week at Bay Hill, made an eagle, birdie and two bogeys to stand on 13-under 203 after 54 holes at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. “Overall I didn’t play my best golf today but felt like I kind of hung in there, which was nice,” Aberg said. “Started the day with a two-shot lead and now we’ve got a three-shot lead, so I guess that’s a good thing.” American Michael Thorbjornsen shot 67 to grab second on 206 with compatriot Cameron Young third on 207. “I don’t think I have to change too much,” Thorbjornsen said. “If you play some really steady golf you’ll run into some birdies … slow and steady wins the race and we’re just going to play some A TEARFUL Kimi Antonelli celebrated a breakthrough first win of his Formula One career yesterday after leading champion ship-leading teammate George Russell in a Mercedes one-two in China from pole position. The 19-year-old Italian driver became the sec ond-youngest race winner in the sport’s history after four-times world champion Max Verstappen, who took his first victory with Red Bull at 18 in 2016. Lewis Hamilton finished a distant third, the seven-times world champion’s first podium since he joined Ferrari last year and first since Las Vegas 2024, with teammate Charles Leclerc fourth after a lively battle between the two. McLaren’s reigning world champion Lando Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri both failed to start due to problems with their cars. “Thank you everyone. Thank you so much. You CHINESE GP RESULTS: 1. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) 1:33:15.607; 2. George Russell (Mercedes) +5.515s; 3. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +25.267s ; 4. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +28.894s; 5. Oliver Bearman (Haas) +57.268s ; 6. Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +59.647s; 7. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +80.588s; 8. Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) +87.247s; 9. Carlos Sainz Jr. (Williams) 1 lap; 10. Franco Colapinto (Alpine) 1 lap; 1 1. Nico Hülkenberg (Audi) 1 lap; 12. Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) 1 lap; 13. Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) 1 lap; 14. Este ban Ocon (Haas) 1 lap; 15. Sergio Pérez (Cadillac) 1 lap. DNF: Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) , Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) , Max Verstappen (Red Bull) , Alexander Albon (Williams) , Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) , Oscar Piastri (McLaren) , Lando Norris (McLaren) . ARDA GULER scored from around 70 yards out and Fede Valverde capped an excellent week with another fine strike as Real Madrid thrashed Elche 4-1 yesterday in La Liga. Los Blancos , second, cut the gap on Barcelona at the top of La Liga to a provisional one point ahead of the Catalans vs Sevilla overnight. Atletico Madrid, third, scraped a 1-0 win over Getafe, with the visitors reduced to 10 men when Abdel Abqar was sent off for touching Alexander Sorloth in a sensitive area. Uruguayan midfielder Valverde, who scored a sensational hattrick against Manchester City in the Champions League in midweek, whipped the ball into the top corner before half-time after Antonio Rudiger blasted the hosts ahead. Dean Huijsen headed home the third for Alvaro Arbeloa’s side, who visit Man City on Wednesday aiming to reach the Champions

I love these tournaments that have that‘big feel’to it with the atmosphere. “I’m looking forward to a good day and we’ll see where that ends up tomorrow night.” A fourth-place pack on 208 includes England’s Matt Fitzpatrick, Norway’s Viktor Hovland, Canada’s Corey Conners and Americans Justin Thomas, Brian Harman and Xander Schauffele. No one has ever come from farther behind in the final round to win the Players. Aberg, the 2024 Masters runner-up, seeks his third PGA Tour title after the 2023 RSM Classic and last year’s Genesis Invitational. Top-ranked Scottie Scheffler fired a bogey-free 67 to stand on 212. “I was a little sharper than I was the first two days,” he said. “I was swinging it better each day of the tournament. Today hit a few more fairways and was able to give myself a few more looks for birdie.” World No. 2 Rory McIlroy, the defending cham pion, shot 72 to finish on 217. – AFP

INTER MILAN suffered another wobble in their bid to reclaim the Serie A title after Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Atalanta, who bounced back from Champions League humiliation against Bayern Munich. Nikola Krstovic earned a point for Atalanta by scoring in the 82nd minute at the San Siro, cancelling out Pio Esposito’s angled drive after 26 minutes for the hosts who had looked to be extending their league lead to 10 points. But Inter coach Cristian Chivu and his players were livid at Krstovic’s goal being awarded after what they saw as a push on Denzel Dumfries by Kamaldeen Sulemana, whose saved shot led to the leveller. Chivu was sent off for his vehement protests against the officials in a heated end to what had up to that point been a humdrum affair in soaking wet Milan. A fighting point for Atalanta came after last Wednesday’s humiliating 6-1 defeat by Bayern in the Champions League, a competition for which they will struggle to qualify for this season. Atalanta are six points behind fourth-placed Juventus who won 1-0 at Udinese in the day’s late match thanks to Jeremie Boga’s third goal is as many matches. Reigning champi ons Napoli trail Inter by nine points in third place after coming from behind to beat Lecce 2-1 in Naples where Scott McTominay made his return from injury. Bayern fight to draw at Leverkusen LEADERS Bayern Munich held on for a 1-1 draw at Bayer Leverkusen despite finishing with nine men in an eventful Bundesliga clash on Saturday. Second-placed Borussia Dortmund’s comfortable home win at Augsburg drew them nine points behind reigning champions Bayern with eight games to play. Aleix Garcia’s goal gave Leverkusen the lead and Bayern striker Nicolas Jackson saw red before halftime. Luis Diaz levelled things up but then picked up a second yellow card for div ing in the box. Bayern held firm to grab a point, even as Leverkusen had two efforts chalked off in stoppage time. Dortmund moved two points closer to Bayern with Karim Adeyemi and Luca Reggiani both getting on the scoresheet in a 2-0 home win over Augsburg. The victory took Dortmund to 58 points, one more than their final total last season. Promoted Hamburg drew 1-1 at home with Cologne yesterday. Eintracht Frankfurt beat last-placed Heidenheim 1-0. Wolfsburg’s bid to beat the drop took a hit in a 1-1 draw at Hoffenheim. Lens suffer blow to title hopes LENS missed the chance to move top of Ligue 1 and put pressure on Paris Saint-Germain as they slipped to a 2-1 loss at Lorient yesterday. Lorient climbed to eighth in the table, just four points ahead of sixth-placed Lille, who visit fifth-placed Rennes overnight, in the race for European qualifi cation. Monaco moved into fifth place with a fifth consecutive Ligue 1 victory in a 2-0 win over Brest. Nice claimed a vital 2-0 success at Angers to climb eight points clear of the relegation play-off place and snap a six-game winless run in the league. C’ship trio suffer setbacks CHAMPIONSHIP LEADERS Coventry and promo tion rivals Middlesbrough and Millwall all dropped points on Saturday. In-form Southampton ended Coventry’s six-match win ning run with a 2-1 victory at the CBS Arena. The Sky Blues were condemned to just their second home defeat of the season. It meant that Tonda Eckert’s side kept pace with sixth-placed Wrexham in the race for the playoffs as Saints extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to 12. Second placed Middlesbrough’s faltering promotion push suffered another blow as Adam Randell’s 96th minute header earned Bristol City a 1-1 draw at the Riverside Stadium. Boro have failed to win any of their last four home games. Millwall boss Alex Neil was left fuming with the sending off that allowed lowly Blackburn to earn a surprise 2-1 win at The Den. Ipswich climbed to third place with a 2-0 victory at relegated Sheffield Wednesday.

solid golf.” Aberg missed a birdie putt from just inside 60 feet at the par-five 16th and missed eight-foot putts for birdie at the par-three 17th island hole and for par at the 18th. “Would have loved to have had maybe a cou ple of those putts on 16 and 17 and obviously the one on 18 as well,” Aberg said. Even with his stumble at the last, Aberg owned the largest 54-hole lead at the Players since 2018 when Webb Simpson was ahead by seven on his way to victory. “It will be fun. It’s a challenge for sure,” Aberg said of his lead entering Sunday’s final round. “I slept on the lead last night and it’s fun. That’s why we play tournaments. I love big tournaments,

Kimi wins in China, becomes second youngest F1 winner Dream breakthrough

have made me achieve one of my dreams,” said Antonelli over the radio after tak ing the chequered flag.

Race winner Kimi Antonelli celebrates on the podium yesterday. – AFPPIC

“I’m speechless. I’m about to cry to be honest,” he said in his first interview as a winner in front of the Shanghai circuit crowd, before doing just that. It was a nervous finish for the Italian, who locked up and went wide with three laps to go, cutting his lead over Russell to 7.4 sec onds and finishing 5.515 clear. It was Mercedes’ second successive one-two in two races after Russell led Antonelli in the Australian opener last weekend. “I gave myself a little bit of a heart attack towards the end with the flat spot (on his tyres),” said the first Italian winner since Giancarlo Fisichella for Renault in Malaysia in 2006. “It was a good race.” Formula 1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali, also Italian, congratu lated Antonelli before the podium cele brations and the playing of the Italian national anthem. Oliver Bearman was fifth for Haas ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson. Isack Hadjar took eighth for Red Bull, after teammate Verstappen retired from the race, with Carlos Sainz ninth for Williams and Colapinto finally back in the points for Alpine in 10th after failing to score last year. – Reuters

Los Blancos rout Elche, Atletico triumph

“We’ve still got room to improve, the players’ commitment is exceptional,” a happy Arbeloa told reporters after the convincing win. Elche, 17th, slumped to an 11th consecutive league game without a victory and could finish the weekend in the relegation zone. Nahuel Molina’s thunderbolt from distance helped Atletico cut the gap to the top two. Atletico coach Diego Simeone rotated his line-up ahead of Thursday’s Champions League trip to Tottenham, but was still able to secure a sixth win in the last seven matches across all com petitions. The Rojiblancos moved two points above Villarreal, who drew at Alaves on Friday. Elsewhere Real Oviedo grabbed a rare win, beating Valencia 1-0 but staying bottom of the table, while Girona thrashed Athletic Bilbao 3-0. – AFP

League quarterfinals. The goal of the night, though, was scored by Turkish playmaker Guler late on, who spotted Elche goalkeeper Matias Dituro off his line and lobbed home from near the centre circle. “He hit the bar (from there in another game) and today he pulled it off, what a goal,” Madrid forward Brahim Diaz told Real Madrid TV . “Everyone had their hands on their head … it’s worth buying a ticket to see that goal,” added Arbeloa. Arbeloa was able to rest several of the players that started after the break, including Vinicius Junior and Valverde, bringing on a host of young sters to keep legs fresh. Madrid are still without a host of injured stars including Jude Bellingham, while French striker Kylian Mbappe could return from a knee sprain next week.