Roger Federer says he is not rushing his return to the court but is “feeling good” after knee surgery.

The 40-year-old Swiss had two knee operations in 2020 and then further surgery after this year’s Wimbledon.

Federer, a winner of 20 Grand Slams, spoke about his recovery at the Laver Cup in Boston on Saturday and received huge applause from the crowd.

“I’ve got to first walk again properly, run properly and then do the sidesteps and all the agility work,” he said.

“And then eventually I’ve got to be back on the tennis court. But it’s going to take me a few more months and then we’ll see how things are at some point next year. I’ve got to take my time. I don’t want to rush into anything at this point.

“This is also for my life. I want to make sure I can do everything I want to do later on. There’s no rush with anything, so I’m actually in a really good place. I think the worst is behind me. I’m really happy.”

Federer said in August that his latest knee surgery would give him “a glimmer of hope” to return to action in 2022.

He last played at Wimbledon in July, losing in the quarter-finals to Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz, and said he “was really unhappy with how things went” at SW19.

Federer added: “I was just nowhere near where I wanted to be to play at the top, top level. But I tried my best and at the end, at some point, too much is too much. Now I’ve just got to take it step by step.”

Anthony Joshua  has suffered the second defeat of his career as he was outclassed by Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk and lost by unanimous decision.

Anthony Joshua lost his heavyweight titles to Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday night at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Britain’s unified WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight world champion was comprehensively beaten and dethroned by unanimous decision.

The defeat – the second of Joshua’s career – leaves the prospect of an all-British undisputed showdown with Tyson Fury in tatters.

It was a stunning performance from Usyk, 34, as the Ukrainian became only the third boxer – after Evander Holyfield and David Haye – to win world titles at cruiserweight and heavyweight.

The fight began with a tentative opening round in which two straight left hands from Usyk were the main punches of note.

Both men looked to be engaging in a technical start as they sized one another up.

Joshua – three years his opponent’s junior – targeted the body well in the second, but was troubled by Usyk’s movement as he constantly switched angles to make life difficult before responding with his own jabs.

Usyk countered AJ with two clean shots at the start of round three and began to land with consistency.

The Brit appeared seriously troubled by the Ukrainian’s movement and speed in the early stages.

Towards the end of the third, Usyk found a home for a strong left hand which momentarily staggered Joshua.

The former cruiserweight king put in a lot of early body work, which AJ attempted to respond to in the fourth.

In round five, the champion began to open up with his right hand and was more aggressive, finding consistent success for the first time in the fight.

As they reached the halfway point, the challenger appeared to be beginning to slow and was forced to eat a couple of solid heavyweight power punches.

Round seven was particularly fascinating as both men had success and Usyk again staggered Joshua.

With five to go, Usyk was in command but the fight still remained in the balance.

AJ smashed home a series of body shots in the eighth, and appeared to briefly hurt his opponent to the mid section.

Round nine was another tentative session in which Usyk appeared to land more consistently.

Joshua tried to respond in round ten and cut Usyk over his right eye.

This appeared to spur the Brit on as he hammered home two notable straight rights, though his own right eye was badly swollen.

Usyk started the eleventh at fast speed and showed impressive accuracy as he cemented his commanding lead before the final round.

In the last three minutes, AJ could do no more to break Usyk down and the former cruiserweight king realised his ambition of heavyweight glory.

The three judges scored it as a unanimous decision 117-112, 116-112, 115-113.

Joshua, whose right eye was heavily swollen, made a swift exit from the ring.

His promoter, Eddie Hearn, confirmed there is a rematch clause and expects Joshua to take it up.

“It was a tough defeat. He got beat by the better man on the night,” conceded Hearn.

“It’s going to be difficult because Usyk’s confidence will be sky high. He [Joshua] will want to go straight back into the rematch.

“The desire is still there. He can do so much better in that fight.”

British boxing fans will hope he can indeed find something special, or the chances of Joshua vs Fury ever happening will decrease even more.

Liverpool ended the weekend on top of the Premier League but Manchester City were the big winners as they were the only one of the top four to win.

Manchester City got revenge on Chelsea for losing last season’s Champions League final by reversing the score from Porto in a 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge.

Manchester United’s 1-0 home defeat to Aston Villa and Liverpool’s 3-3 draw at Brentford rounded off a perfect day for Pep Guardiola’s men.

All four sides are now separated by just one point after six games, but Brighton could go top if they win at Crystal Palace on Monday.

Here are three talking points from the weekend:

Manchester City halt Chelsea charge

Chelsea’s Champions League success completed a hat-trick of wins over Manchester City towards the end of last season in three different competitions.

Had the Blues emerged victorious once more, Thomas Tuchel would have become the first coach to ever beat Pep Guardiola in four consecutive matches.

Instead, Guardiola turned the tide on the German as a City masterclass starved Chelsea of possession and strangled them with an intense press when they did have it.

Tuchel agreed his side has played well in the 20 metres in front of their own goal because they could not get any further up the field.

Even victory at a title rival could not silence the questions over why Manchester City did not splash out for a recognised striker in the transfer window as a 1-0 win was a scant reward for their dominance.

But they did enough to lay down a marker, as they have in the past at Stamford Bridge in title-winning campaigns under Guardiola.

Victory almost four years ago to the day signalled a changing of the guard from one champion to the next and last season’s 3-1 win to start 2021 came towards the beginning of a 21-game winning run that blew away any other contenders to the title.

Unbalanced Manchester United

Cristiano Ronaldo’s return raised expectations United could take the title back across Manchester for the first time since Alex Ferguson left as a manager in 2013.

However, when Ronaldo was running riot for Ferguson’s teams in his first spell at United, the Portuguese was a difference-maker in a balanced team of proven winners.

Now he is the biggest but just the latest star in an expensively assembled squad lacking in cohesion.

United have now lost three of their last four games to again put Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s position as manager under scrutiny.

Solskjaer made the brave call to keep Bruno Fernandes on penalty duty over Ronaldo.

Fernandes had scored 21 of his 22 United penalties, but with his more esteemed international colleague watching on, blazed a stoppage-time spot-kick into the Stretford End.

Arsenal’s young guns shine

Just three weeks ago, Arsenal were off to their worst league start in 67 years with Mikel Arteta’s future as manager called into question with his side bottom of the table.

Three consecutive wins later, the Gunners are back in the top half and back on top in north London after blowing Tottenham away with three first-half goals in a 3-1 win at a delirious Emirates.

A £150 million ($205 million) summer spend on six players aged between 21 and 23 is already starting to bear fruit with Aaron Ramsdale, Ben White, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Martin Odegaard, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Nuno Tavares all playing their part.

But it was another two young stars developed by the Arsenal academy that offer most hope for the future.

Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka tore Tottenham apart before the break to grab a goal and assist each.

Enyimba’s coach, Finidi George has won his first game in charge of the Nigeria Professional Football League giants following a 2-0 victory against Uchecaria in a friendly game yesterday.

The friendly game provided the Super Eagles legend with an opportunity to assess his team for preseason and would have given him an opportunity to see some of the new signings in action.

New signings Samuel Kalu and Samuel Stone were named in the starting XI of the two-time CAF Champions League winners while regular players like Austin Oladapo, Anthony Omaka, Imoh Obot, Stephen Manyo and John Noble played their parts for Enyimba in Omoku.

Oladapo’s 25 yards unstoppable freekick sailed into the net to give Enyimba the lead in the 25th minute before Abel James then made it 2-0 for Enyimba after a goal mouth scramble.

Enyimba had 10 shots on goal and 6 of them were on target versus Uchecaria’s 5 shots on goal with 2 on target.

It will be recalled that Finidi played for Ajax Amsterdam, Real Betis, Ipswich Town and Real Mallorca during his career. He was part of the Super Eagles team that dominated African Football in the 90s.

He won the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations and featured for Nigeria at USA 1994.

The United States have regained the Ryder Cup with a record 19-9 victory at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.

Open champion Collin Morikawa claimed the winning half point in the fifth of Sunday’s 12 singles matches as the home side reached the 14½ points they needed.

Rory McIlroy and Ian Poulter, who kept up his record of never losing in the singles, were in tears despite winning their matches as they showed the emotion of what will be a chastening defeat for Europe.

Around them, American players and fans celebrated, with Brooks Koepka downing a beer thrown to him from the crowd after he completed a 2&1 victory on the 17th green.

There had already been big wins for Patrick Cantlay, Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau amid a carnival atmosphere by Lake Michigan, while Dustin Johnson became the first American to win all five matches at a Ryder Cup since 1979.

“This is a special day for everyone here involved,” said US captain Steve Stricker. “The Ryder Cup means a lot to everybody, your side and our side. We finally put in a dominant performance.

“These guys played great, they deserve it, they were fired up to be here and it showed.”

Europe captain Harrington conceded: “It’s a tough loss, but they were better than us. They were a strong team and played on their best form. They had momentum the whole time.”

The margin of victory eclipses the 18½-9½ successes enjoyed by Europe in 2004 and 2006 and America’s own triumph in 1981.

This was a thoroughly deserved win, built on a dominant opening two days for the hosts.

They led 6-2 after Friday’s foursomes and fourballs sessions, and extended that to a record 11-5 on Saturday to leave themselves needing to win just 3½ points out of the 12 available in the singles.

Harrington spoke on Saturday evening of using the spirit of 2012, when the visitors came from 10-6 down to win the ‘Miracle of Medinah’, to inspire his side.

He put McIlroy, who had lost all three of his matches, out first and the Northern Irishman immediately put European blue on the scoreboard by winning the first hole against Olympic champion Schaufffele.

And when Harrington’s fellow Irishman Shane Lowry went ahead on the second in the second match, the few European fans at Whistling Straits this week, started to believe.

However, Cantlay, who won the PGA Tour’s season-long FedEx Cup and its $15m prize earlier this month, won the next four holes to take control of that match.

Behind him, Scheffler birdied the first four holes as he put world number one Jon Rahm under early pressure.

And then the big-hitting DeChambeau hit his tee shot on the par-four first onto the green and holed the 40-foot eagle putt to stun Sergio Garcia.

They were leads the Americans would keep throughout their matches against the Spaniards, who had combined for three points from three matches in Friday and Saturday’s fourballs and foursomes.

“Unfortunately they were a little better than we were,” said Garcia who extended his points record to 28½ at his 10th Ryder Cup.

“We’ve got to accept that and we’ve got to get ready for Rome and try to get it back.”

The victory was clinched with seven matches still out on the course, underlining the sheer superiority of the home side.

This may now be the start of quite a Ryder Cup dynasty for the US, who had lost seven of the previous nine editions of the biennial contest.

Nigeria’s national women’s basketball team, D’Tigress has becomes 2021 women’s Afrobasket champions.

They retained their title.

Today D’Tigress beat Mali 70-59 to claim the crown in Cameroon.

With the win, D’Tigress have now lifted the Women Afrobasket title for the third consecutive time.