01/05/2026

SPORTS FRIDAY | MAY 1, 2026

29

Clinical Sinner reach Madrid Open semis WORLD NO. 1 Jannik Sinner held off 19-year-old wildcard Rafael Jodar to win 6-2, 7-6(0) in the Madrid Open quarterfinals yester day, becoming the sixth player to reach the semifinals of all nine ATP 1000 Masters tournaments. Sinner saved five break points in the second set and won 11 points in a row to secure victory over the Spaniard. “He pushed me to the limit, he’s an incredible player… I’m incredi bly happy, it’s been a very high quality match,” Sinner said in his post-match interview. The 24-year-old Italian pro duced a disciplined performance in the first set, breaking the local favourite twice to take a 5-2 lead, before sealing the set with a fierce backhand. Jodar, who won his first tour title in Morocco this month, threat ened to pull 4-2 ahead in the sec ond set, but Sinner saved two break points to stay level at 3-3. A double fault from the Italian put Jodar on the verge of another break, but Sinner saved three break points with a strong cross court forehand and two backhand winners that brushed the side line. Sinner went 40-15 up in the next game but Jodar saved three break points before taking it. Sinner, chasing his He will next face Arthur Fils, who beat Jiri Lehecka 6-3, 6-4 later in the day, extending his win ning streak to nine matches. The 21st seed became the first Frenchman to reach the semifi nals in Madrid since 2009, aveng ing his recent Miami Open loss to Lehecka with a dominant, 74-min ute performance in which he did not face a single break point. Like Sinner, Fils remains unde feated on clay this season, build ing on his triumph at the Barcelona Open earlier this month. – Reuters second claycourt title this season after win ning the Monte-Carlo Masters, dominated the tiebreak and sealed vic tory with a forehand that Jodar could not reach.

Iran walk out over airport treatment

AN Iranian football federation delega tion, including a former member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said they turned back at Toronto’s main airport this week, cit ing their treatment by Canadian immigration, and are set to miss a pre-World Cup Fifa gatheringin Vancouver. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported that the delegation members, including federation presi dent Mehdi Taj, secretary general Hedayat Mombeni and his deputy Hamed Momeni, turned back upon arrival despite holding valid visas, cit ing what was described as the “unac ceptable behaviour of immigration officials.” The Iranian delegation was en route to Vancouver for yesterday’s Fifa Congress, which is meant to bring

and security in a tournament staged in three countries. While Fifa has insisted fixtures will proceed as scheduled, the delega tion’s withdrawal deepens doubts over whether Iranian players, officials and supporters will be able to move freely across borders during the tour nament. Fifa has since contacted the Iranian delegation to express regret over the incident and indicated that President Gianni Infantino would arrange a meeting with them at the organisation’s headquarters, the Tasnim report added. Fifa did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters . A source at the Fifa Congress told Reuters , Fifa had sent a representative to mediate in Toronto but their efforts were in vain. – Reuters

vidual cases due to privacy laws, the government has been clear and con sistent: IRGC officials are inadmissible to Canada and have no place in our country,” the Canadian government said in a statement. “We have taken strong action to hold the IRGC to account and will con tinue to do so, while protecting the safety of Canadians and upholding the integrity of our immigration sys tem.” The incident that occurred on Tuesday underscores the practical and political obstacles surrounding Iran’s participation at the World Cup, the most politically sensitive item on Fifa’s agenda since the US and Israel launched a war against Iran in February. Iran’s qualification has not removed hurdles tied to travel, visas

together representatives of all 211 member associations ahead of the 2026 World Cup being co-hosted by Canada, the United States and Mexico. “While Mehdi Taj, president, Hedayat Mombeni, secretary general, and Hamed Momeni, deputy secre tary general of the federation, had travelled to Toronto with official visas to attend the Fifa Congress, they returned to Turkey on the first avail able flight due to the unacceptable behaviour of immigration officials at the airport and the insult to one of the most honourable organs of the Iranian nation’s armed forces,” the Iran football federation said in a statement carried by Tasnim News Agency . Taj is a former member of Iran’s hardline Revolutionary Guard (IRGC). “While we cannot comment on indi

Inter on brink of Serie A title as refereeing scandal rocks Italian football Scudetto amid scandal

S ERIE A leaders Inter Milan could be crowned champions of Italy this weekend when they take on Parma at the San Siro on Monday (2.45am Malaysian time), as a brewing referee scandal threatens the integrity of Italy’s top flight. Holding a 10-point lead over Napoli, who are at Champions League chasers Como on Sunday (12.01am), Inter need just one win in their final four matches to secure a 21st league title and third in six seasons.

of the same offence, which carries a maximum prison sentence of six years. The 52-year-old Rocchi have not spoken to prosecutors at a hearing yesterday, but Gervasoni was questioned over accusations that the selec tion of referees has, in some instances, been piloted and that VAR officials have received out side communication from both him and Rocchi on what decisions to make. Another official, Daniele Paterna, is accused of giving false testimony on an incident in which Rocchi is suspected of banging on the door of the VAR room to get him to change his ruling on a handball offence during Udinese’s 1-0 win over Parma in March last year. Rocchi is also suspected of having decided on the selection of Andrea Colombo as the referee for Inter Milan’s 1-0 defeat at Bologna in April last year as he was “liked by Inter”. Gervasoni, according to a report from daily La Repubblica , is suspected of having instructed a VAR official to make sure that a penalty was not given to Inter for a foul on Yann Bisseck during their 1-0 home defeat to Roma, which was also played last April. Napoli ended up winning the league title by a single point ahead of Inter. Five matches are under suspicion, none from the current season, and all five people officially under investigation are match officials. But a drawn-out scandal is the last thing Italian football needs after the national team’s cata strophic failure to reach the World Cup for the third time in succession, with the country’s foot ball federation not set to elect a new president until late June. – AFP old British tennis player, a former world No. 4, following a longstanding arm injury that side lined him for close to eight months. Draper has managed just nine matches across five events since returning to competi tive action in February and retired during his first-round clash with Tomas Etcheverry at the Barcelona Open earlier this month. He was subsequently diagnosed with an aggravated knee tendon injury but had hoped to feature in the second Grand Slam of the year next month. Draper has now decided against risking fur ther injury on the clay at Roland Garros and will now try to regain full fitness ahead of the grass court season, with Wimbledon starting on June 29. “My knee is on the mend and I’ve started back hitting balls but unfortunately I have been advised not to play Roland Garros,” Draper wrote on Instagram . “As gutting as it is to miss another slam, the advice is not to rush straight back into playing five set tennis on clay.”

But when Inter fans take to their seats on Monday, their Scudetto celebrations might already be underway, if Napoli lose to Como and AC Milan – 12 points back in third – fail to win at Sassuolo on Sunday. In reality, both Napoli and Milan’s remaining realistic tar get is sealing qualification to the

Champions League. Napoli would do just that if they beat Como and Roma then failed to win against Fiorentina on Monday night. Napoli are eight points ahead of both fifth placed Como and Roma, who sit sixth, with that pair trying to sneak into the top four in the final weeks of the campaign. But overshadowing the on-pitch action is a scandal in which the head of referees for Serie A and Serie B is being investigated by prosecutors in Milan for the crime of “sporting fraud”. Gianluca Rocchi suspended himself on Sunday after the news broke that he, VAR chief Andrea Gervasoni and two others were suspected Potapova’s run has included impressive vic tories over former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko and world No. 2 Elena Rybakina. Asked if she had thought she would be in the final four after her qualifying loss, the unseeded Potapova said: “No, I wouldn’t, for any money and anything. “That’s what makes our sport beautiful. I was given a second chance and now I’m here. “I’m super happy. There’s nothing better that could happen to me in my life at the moment.” Potapova will face Marta Kostyuk in the semifinals after the Ukrainian beat Linda Noskova 7-6(1), 6-0. Kostyuk defeated Potapova in the fourth round last year in Madrid, and is undefeated on clay this year. Draper out in fresh injury blow JACK DRAPER announced yesterday he had been ruled out of the French Open with a knee injury. It was a further setback for the 24-year

Inter Milan manager Christian Chivu. – REUTERSPIC

SHORTS

all the noise. “I don’t even look. Because if you start to, your head goes everywhere,” Fils told reporters. “I try to be focused. I still have to play here in Madrid, and I have to play Rome, then more preparation, and the French Open. So I have a lot of time. “When you’re injured you get a lot of … criti cism, bad comments. So I stopped looking at it (social media). Since then, I’m feeling pretty good without it.” Potapova makes history ANASTASIA POTAPOVA turned tennis heart break into history by becoming the first lucky loser to reach a WTA 1000 semifinal with her thrilling 6-1, 6-7(4), 6-3 victory over Karolina Pliskova at the Madrid Open yesterday. The Russian-born Austrian, who lost in quali fying last week, has capitalised on her unex pected main draw entry and stunned former world No. 1 Pliskova in a roller-coaster clash despite squandering three match points.

Fils serves French Open warning COMING ON the heels of his Barcelona triumph earlier this month, Arthur Fils’ run to the Madrid Open semifinals shows he has fully recovered from a long-term back problem and is ready to make a real statement at the French Open on home soil. A stress fracture in his lower back suffered at Roland Garros last year all but wiped out the remainder of Fils’ season, with his brief return in Toronto in August proving to be premature and forcing another long period of rehabilitation. Since returning in February, Fils has made deep runs at Doha, Indian Wells and Miami before going all the way in Barcelona, where he downed Andrey Rublev in the final to win his first title since his comeback. Fils beat Jiri Lehecka 6-3, 6-4 in the Madrid quarters on Wednesday to further heighten expectations before the French Open begins on May 24, but the 21-year-old is shutting out