Andrey Rublev claimed his first Masters 1000 title by beating teenager Holger Rune 5-7 6-2 7-5 in the Monte Carlo Masters final.

Rublev was 4-1 down to his 19-year-old opponent from Denmark in the deciding set and saved two break points before levelling the match.

A double fault from Rune then gave Rublev a 6-5 lead before the 25-year-old served out for his 13th ATP title.

“I don’t know what to say,” said Russian world number six Rublev.

“Trailing 1-4, 0/30, then saving break points, thinking there is no chance to win. But somehow I did it.”

Rublev, who had lost two previous Masters 1000 finals following defeats in Monte Carlo and Cincinnati in 2021, hit 33 winners against world number nine Rune. 

“I was hoping deep inside that I would have one chance,” added Rublev.

“Play until the end. I remember the previous finals and when I was losing I thought I’d have no chance and mentally I was going down.

“But today I thought, ‘just believe until the end’, and this is what I was trying to do in the third set, hoping I would have an extra chance to come back and what a way to do it.”

Antony scored one and assisted another as Manchester United moved up to third in the Premier League table with a clinical win over Nottingham Forest who missed out on a chance to move out of the relegation zone.

The visitors deservedly went in front in the 32nd minute as Antony stabbed home after Forest keeper Keylor Navas had kept out Anthony Martial.

And Antony played through Diogo Dalot who slotted in United’s second with 14 minutes remaining.

The win puts United three points clear of fourth-placed Newcastle United and six points ahead of Tottenham Hotspur in fifth, who have played a game more than the Red Devils.

Forest, who could have gone three points clear of the drop with a win, stay 17th, inside the bottom three on goal difference.

Eriksen inspires free-flowing United

Antony starred, but it was Christian Eriksen who was the true lynchpin for United.

The Denmark midfielder started his first match since picking up an ankle injury in January, replacing Marcel Sabitzer who sustained a groin injury in the warm-up.

And alongside Bruno Fernandes, Eriksen helped United dominate the first half with Jadon Sancho and Fernandes having early chances.

After Antony’s opener only an inspired performance from Navas and some wasteful finishing kept Forest in the fixture.

Fernandes saw his free header sail just wide on the strike of half-time and the Portuguese midfielder had a curling effort tipped on to the post by Navas after the restart.

United’s win, settled by Dalot’s first Premier League goal, was the perfect response to their disappointing 2-2 draw at home to Sevilla last time out.

They face Sevilla in the second leg of that Europa League quarter-final on Thursday before taking on Brighton in the semi-finals of the FA Cup on Sunday.

Forest sliding towards relegation

Forest are now winless across their past 10 Premier League matches.

They were 13th after their last victory when they beat Leeds Utd 1-0 on 5 February.

They had chances in the first half with Taiwo Awoniyi seeing one effort blocked by Aaron Wan-Bissaka and another fly off target from a strong position.

Forest also had a penalty shout in the 19th minute when an in-swinging corner struck the arm of United defender Harry Maguire, but the video assistant referee chose not to overturn referee Simon Hooper’s non-penalty decision.

With United 1-0 in front, Felipe headed over from a corner in the 73rd minute, but in truth Forest always looked second best in front of their home supporters.

They face Liverpool in their next match on Saturday where they will be desperately hoping to end their winless run.

Arsenal’s Premier League title jitters returned in a potentially costly 2-2 draw at West Ham United on Sunday as for the second week in a row they threw away a two-goal advantage.

The leaders were 2-0 up and cruising towards restoring their six-point cushion over Manchester City with Gabriel Jesus tapping home in the seventh minute and Martin Odegaard doubling Arsenal’s lead with a volley three minutes later.

But everything changed when they conceded a sloppy penalty that Said Benrahma tucked away in the 33rd minute.

West Ham, needing points themselves to stay away from the relegation zone, were transformed although Bukayo Saka had the chance to restore Arsenal’s two-goal lead early in the second half only to blaze a penalty well wide.

That miss looked even more costly moments later when Jarrod Bowen volleyed in West Ham’s equaliser in the 54th minute.

ust as at Anfield last week when Mikel Arteta’s team led 2-0 but ended up hanging on desperately for a 2-2 draw with Liverpool, there was a nervousness about Arsenal’s play as the pressure of winning a first title since 2004 intensifies.

City’s destiny is now very much in their own hands as Arsenal lead the table with 74 points from 31 games, four more than City who have played a game less and who host Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal side on April 26.

West Ham, who looked the stronger side after levelling and hit the crossbar through Michail Antonio, have 31 points from 30 games, four ahead of the relegation places.

Arsenal had won all five of their London derbies away from home this season without conceding a goal and had lost only two of the previous 29 league games against West Ham.

That record looked set to continue in a sparkling start but when the fulltime whistle sounded Arsenal’s players looked crestfallen at losing their grip on the title race.

“Very disappointing. The way we started was superb again, we were in total control, then we lost purpose,” Arteta said.

TERRIBLE PENALTY

“We gave them hope, conceded a terrible penalty, then credit to them. We got on the rollercoaster where everything is going, corners and throw ins, and we never got away from that.”

Arsenal remain in a position that they could have hardly imagined back in August but with City steaming up behind them after collecting 25 points from the last 27 on offer, the odds are shifting towards Pep Guardiola’s treble chasers.

It all began so well for Arsenal on a pleasant spring afternoon in east London.

An intricate passing move in the seventh minute ended with Ben White’s teeing up Jesus for a tap-in and with West Ham looking dazed and disorganised, unmarked Odegaard then volleyed in Gabriel Martinelli’s cross.

West Ham were handed a lifeline when Arsenal midfielder Thomas Partey was caught in possession by Declan Rice and Gabriel then took down Lucas Paqueta and Benrahma coolly beat Aaron Ramsdale from the spot.

Antonio’s harsh handball early in the second half, after a VAR chck, gave Saka the chance to calm Arsenal’s nerves but he made a hash of his penalty.

That turned up the volume from the home fans and less than three minutes after Saka’s miss, a lofted ball forward found the impressive Bowen unmarked and he showed great composure to bounce a volley past Ramsdale.

Arsenal still had time to re-group but offered very little in the latter stages and they must now focus on Friday’s must-win home clash against bottom club Southampton.

“We have to remember we are still top of the league with everything in our own hands,” Odegaard said.

As curtain is gradually drawing on his tenure as the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Chief Sunday Dare has yet said he has given the job his best shot, adding he’s at the ready to serve the country in any capacity in the future.

Echoing the popular ‘veni, vidi, vici’ (I came, I saw, I conquered) sentiment attributed to Julius Caesar aeons ago , Dare affirmed he breathed a new life into the almost moribund sport sector during his tour of duty at his ministry.

“ My job is done as sports minister; I have put in my best and I am ready to move on,” Dare declared Friday in Lagos.. “Nobody would say again that the sport ministry is a child’s play rather, sport in Nigeria now is big business

“ One of the highpoints of my tenure was the reclassification of sports as business and the enactment of the Sports Industry Policy (SIP) which of course, is major achievement.”

Aside the SIP deal, Dare would also be remembered for some bold initiatives including the Adopt-A- Talent and Adopt-A- Stadium offerings which respectively helped in the improving the welfare of many of the country’s elite athletes as well as the facelift of some of stadia including the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja, National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos as well as the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium in Ibadan and Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna beside others from Daura to Ogbomosho.

“ Through the SIP, we have been able to put together a document that would on the long term turnaround our sports through private investments,” Dare further said on the program.“ In fact, there’s a technical committee put in place by both the Ministry of Finance and that of the Youth and Sport Development to work out how benefits accruable to those who brings investment into sport.

“ I believe they should be able to come out with the modalities in the next two weeks about how many years of tax holidays as well as a single digit tax percentage.

“ But don’t also forget that the omnibus incentives has already been approved by the Federal Executive Council since November 2, 2022. And they are also going to address the Independent Athletes Welfare Fund which is the first of its kind and they are just going to decide the amount of the seed money that would be put into the project in order to give grants to active athletes as well as support to retired athletes because it has already been approved by the government,” he offered.

Yet Dare who had previously served the President Muhammad Buhari-led government as Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), said he was duty bound to offer more useful public service, adding he would be pleased to serve in any capacity if offered such opportunity by the incoming President -Elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu which incidentally he hitherto served as media aide.

In the meantime, a keen observer has spoken on recent outburst over the now controversial N21 Million budget estimate needed to revamp the dilapidated National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos.

He argued that those who are ‘knifing’ Dare on this particular project were only displaying their crass ignorance about what it takes to renovate an edifice that was built over five decades ago and which had equally suffered abandonment for almost two decades.

Sighting similar works done in other climes including the renovation of the Wembley Stadium in London and the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid, he said the N21 Billion estimate for the National Stadium was even cheap.

“The average global estimates for stadium renovations and upgrade range between 400M dollars to 678M dollars in other places,” he quipped.

“For instance, the 81,000 capacity Santiago Bernabeu was recently renovated by Real Madrid at a cost of over $700 Million Dollars. “

He added: “How much did it cost to rebuild Wembley Stadium? The stadium was built by Australian firm, Multiplex at a cost of £798 million (£1.27 billion today).

Two partially-retractable roof structures over the east and west ends of the stadium had also been renovated but it did not come at a paltry sum.

Paris Saint-Germain full-back, Achraf Hakimi has a reported net worth of $24million and 80 percent of which is controlled by his mother, Mrs Fatima, as was claimed amid the footballer’s divorce from actress Hiba Abouk.

Hakimi is twelve years younger than Abouk, whose $2million net worth pales in comparison with what the Morocco international has amassed.

Their short marriage could have ended with Hakimi giving up $8.5 million, but the former Real Madrid star managed to hide the fact that nothing is in his name.

Hakimi’s estranged wife never realized that the player’s mother was the one making all the purchases, including cars, clothes and jewellery.

Hakimi earns about $1million per month at PSG, where he shares the dressing room with the likes of Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar, but only keeps about 20 percent.

The rest of his paycheck, around $215,000 per week salary, goes straight into his mother’s bank account.

Hakimi is the sixth highest-paid player in Africa and has become extremely popular ever since leading his country Morocco to the semi-final of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

Tunisian striker Nizar Issaoui has died after setting himself on fire in protest against ‘police injustice’.

Issaoui, a former player for US Monastir, set himself on fire outside a police station on Thursday.

The player, who suffered a third-degree burn was unable to survive after being rushed to the hospital.

The footballer had claimed police accused him of “terrorism” when he complained about the price of a banana.

The dad-of-four had published a video on Facebook saying he was protesting against police as he had been falsely accused of terrorism in Haffouz, Kairouan, central Tunisia.

A video selfie circulating on social media shows Issaoui screaming: “For a dispute with someone selling bananas at 10 dinars (£2.65), I get accused of terrorism at the police station.

“Terrorism for a complaint about bananas.”