and something that the wta can point to as they try and bring about this goal of equal prize money. but the wta chief executive knows that there will be criticism in some quarters, although the players have either been supportive or not spoken out against it for the most part. he knows he will have to justify his decision and his argument is that by going to riyadh, tennis is supporting growth and improvement and change across the region. staying with tennis news. third seeded dan evans is out of the atp tour event in marrakech. the british player and world number 42 was beaten in straight sets by the defending champion roberto carballes baena. the spaniard moves into the quarterfinals. rafael nadal has withdrawn from the upcoming monte carlo masters where the 22 time grand slam winner was expected to make his atp tour comeback. writing on the social media platform x, nadal said, unfortu nately i have to tell you that i am not going to be playing in monte carlo. my body si
so it would only be a consolation against eintracht frankfurt. that was a win for them. a bit of a confidence boost. they are not going through in europe this season. history will be made this month when rebecca welch becomes the first female referee to take charge of a premier league match. she ll officiate at fulham v burnley on 23 december. it comes less than a year after welch became the first female to referee a championship game. then on boxing day, sam allison will be the first black referee in the premier league since 2008. he ll oversee sheffield united s match against luton. onto cricket now and england are taking on the west indies in their second t20 international in grenada. and after putting the windies into bat, england restricted them to 176 7, opener brandon king top scoring on and unbeaten 82. adil rashid england s best bowler with a superb two for 11 runs. in reply, captainjoss butler was out for just five. and england are looking iffy on 106 4. 100 and w
1 0 to tottenham. reports from italy say anti doping prosecutors there have requested a maximum four year ban forjuventus midfielder paul pogba after he tested positive for testosterone. that length of ban is standard, but can be reduced to two years if an athlete can prove their doping was not intentional or if they provide substantial assistance to help investigators. pogba, who s now 30, has been provisionally suspended since he tested positive after a game in august. it s one of the most iconic clubs in world football, and with eight league titles to its name, one of brazil s most succesful as well. add to that they re seen as the team with the most goals in football history. over 500 of them scored by its most famous son pele. i can t forget their three copa libertadores titles as well. however, the good times at santos are over for now. on wednesday, for the first time in their iii year history, santos were relegated from brazil s serie a. here s our south american fo
apologies for the technical issues. i m sarah mulkerrins. it s another night of european action in football, with qualification to the knockout stages of the europa league up for grabs for some. in the early games, premier league side brighton have made it through, joao pedro scored from the spot to give them the win at aek athens. west ham are also through to the next stage, they won in serbia against batchka topola. real betis lost at sparta prague, so that means rangers could jump to top of that group, if they beat aris limasol, but they are currently losing 1 0. liverpool liverpool hosting lask they will secure top two if avoid defeat. two if they avoid defeat. in the europa conference league, aston villa are at legia warsaw. villa can leapfrog their opponents and go top of their group with a win, currently 1 1. and helsinki v aberdeen 2 2, who can t progress. that one was disrupted because of snow at the time. that one was disrupted because of snow at the time. to inte
pat cummins side made a flying start with travis head hitting a quickfire 62. australia edged closer to the target, but lost their seventh wicket with 20 runs still needed cummins and mitchell starc kept their cool to complete a hard fought victory with 16 balls to spare. i think there was enough in the wicket. it looked like every time they went to play a shot we had a wicket. yeah, we have both together for a long time now, we know each other s games. hopefully we can do that on sunday as well. there is a little bit of the wicket which we probably haven t had in the previous games, but it is nice to get the previous games, but it is nice to get to bowling. novak djokovic has boosted his chances of making the last four of the season ending atp finals in turin after he recovered from a second set slump to beat hubert hurkacz. all three of djokovic s group stage matches have gone to three sets he took the first against his polish opponent on a tie break, despite losing th