Sports World Highlights: Indian Men, Women Enter Kho Kho World Cup Finals; Satwik-Chirag Falter In India Open Semis

Welcome one, welcome all. The morning brings along a number of mouth-watering Australian Open singles matches, so buckle up. Check out our full coverage of the season-opening slam HERE, and Day 6 in pictures HERE.

In last night's La Liga clash, Espanyol beat Real Valladoid 2-1 at home after Javier Puado and Roberto Fernandez found the back of the net.

Former Manchester United player and coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is in talks with Turkish club Besiktas. Solskjaer has not coached since 2021 when he was let go by the Red Devils.

Iga Swiatek put on a tennis exhibition on Rod Laver Arena as she bagelled and breadsticked Emma Raducanu 6-0, 6-1 to advance to the fourth round of the Australian Open 2025 competition.

The first match of the tournament will witness Australia taking on Scotland in Bangi.

The event will see 16 teams divided into four groups of four in a round-robin format. The top three teams from each group will make it to the Super Six stage of the competition. 

Paris Saint-Germain have completed the signing of Georgia's Khvicha Kvaratskhelia from Napoli for a reported fee of €70million. He has penned a four-and-a-half-year deal, and will wear the number 7 shirt for Luis Enrique's side.

Emma Navarro yet again battled it out, eventually finding a way to come through in a match that went the distance as she beat Ons Jabeur 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 at the Australian Open 2025 to progress to the fourth round of the competition.

The first match of the ICC Under-19 Women's T20 World Cup is off to a sensational start for Australia, but not a very good one for Scotland as they have already lost seven wickets for just 43 runs in 13 overs. The Aussies have been relentless, not giving much of a chance for the European regional qualifiers.

India's Sriram Balaji and Mexico's Miguel Angel Reyes-Varella crash out of the second round of the Australian Open 2025 competiton losing 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 to Portuguese duo Nuno Borges and Francisco Cabral.

The devastation wrought by the deadly wildfires that ravaged parts of Los Angeles have left an indelible imprint on the region's landscape. The run-up to the city hosting the 2028 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, in addition to World Cup matches in 2026 and a Super Bowl in '27, will coincide with massive rebuilding of housing and infrastructure. (AP)

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)'s selection committee will announce India's squad for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy 2025 and the ODI series against England on Saturday, January 18, 2025. The announcement will be made at a press conference addressed by chief selector Ajit Agarkar and skipper Rohit Sharma in Mumbai.

Caoimhe Bray picked up 3/1 in 3.1 overs as Australia have dismantled Scotland by nine wickets and 13.2 overs in the first match of the ICC Under-19 Women's T20 World Cup.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board is set to launch the inaugural edition of the Women라이브 바카라 Bangladesh Premier League after the ongoing BPL. According to a Cricbuzz report, the tournament will get underway from February 8 and will run till the 15th.

Arun Vishnu, a badminton coach who played a massive part in the rise of women라이브 바카라 doubles in India, has quit the national setup and will start an academy in Nagpur in March.

The 36-year-old from Kerala was instrumental in the developing players like Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, and also played a crucial role in pairing Ashwini Ponnappa with Tanisha Crasto.

Australia Women Under-19 beat Scotland Women Under-19 by nine wickets in the first game, while Samoa's game against Nigeria has been abandoned.

England scored 144/7 in 20 overs against Ireland, and the Irish are currently two down for 28 in 3.5 overs as rain stops play.

In a bizarre incident, the Ireland Vs England U19 Women's T20 World Cup game saw a snake enter the ground and delay the match.

We are just about 90 minutes away from the final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025 where Vidarbha will battle it out against Karnataka.

Gael Monfils takes out United States' Taylor Fritz 6-3, 5-7, 6-7, 4-6 to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open 2025 on Saturday, January 18.

Monfils "warmed up the court" for his wife Elina Svitolina. She is up against Jasmine Paolini at Margaret Court Arena.

Japanese baseball pitcher Roki Sakai has decided to pen a minor league contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He now becomes the third Japanese pitcher in the Dodgers squad alongside Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto. 

Omar Marmoush seemed on the verge of joining Manchester City on Friday as his current club Eintracht Frankfurt confirmed it was in talks with City and said the Egyptian striker would probably leave. Marmoush was not in the squad as Frankfurt beat Borussia Dortmund 2-0 in the Bundesliga but joined his teammates on the field after the game for an apparent farewell as fans cheered. (AP)

The South Africa Vs New Zealand match has been delayed due to wet outfield, while Nepal are currently in all sorts of trouble against Bangladesh, having been reduced to 44/8.

With the BCCI meeting still on, the press conference that was scheduled at 12:30 pm has been delayed slightly. However, we should be expecting it anytime soon.

We could be moments away from the press conference of India's Champions Trophy squad announcement.

Who could be the backup opener? Will Karun Nair VHT run earn him a spot? Will India prefer Axar Patel over Ravindra Jadeja?

Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Axar PAtel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep SIngh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja

Denmark's Mia Blichfeldt has slammed the conditions of the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium which is hosting the India Open Super 750 badminton tournament, while also terming the national capital's pollution level as "unhealthy and unacceptable."

The world no. 23 had picked up a stomach infection but managed to fight through the second round before losing 21-13 16-21 8-21 to China's Wang Zhi Yi. (PTI)

India captain Rohit Sharma confirmed his availability for Mumbai's next Ranji Trophy fixture against Jammu and Kashmir, but also highlighted the need to take time off from a busy schedule.

FIFA has banned a Venezuelan football official from the sport for five years for financial wrongdoing and fined him nearly USD 1 million.

Manuel Alvarez was secretary general of the Venezuelan soccer federation when his conduct enabled the "misappropriation and misuse" of its and FIFA's money, soccer's world body said announcing the verdict late on Friday, according to an AP report.

The 13th-seeded Holger Rune is currently playing his men's singles third round match against Serbia's Miomir Kecmanovic. Having lost the first set in the tiebreaker, Rune has won the second one 6-3 and the third set is on serve right now. Earlier, the numero uno Jannik Sinner breezed past Marcos Giron 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in just over two hours to advance to the last 16.

Nepal have defeated Uganda by a massive 89-18 margin to qualify for the Kho Kho World Cup women's final. They will take on the winners of the India vs South Africa match in Sunday's title clash. Read more about Nepal's campaign HERE.

The men's singles third round match between Holger Rune and Miomir Kecmanovic is going down to the wire. The deciding fifth set is currently underway, and while Rune leads it 2-1, Kecmanovic is putting pressure on the 13th seed's serve to break back. Neither player has won two consecutive sets, and whoever wins this will advance relieved, yet exhausted.

The pedigree shines through eventually. 21-year-old Holger Rune completes a 6-7 (5), 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over world number 51 Miomir Kecmanovic to proceed to the round of 16. And with that, day 7 of the Australian Open comes to an end, well past midnight in Melbourne.

Indian rally driver Sanjay Takale has carved a first in motorsport by becoming the first from the country to finish the Dakar Rally in the Classic cars category. Along with French co-driver Maxime Raud of the Compagnie Saharienne team, Takale finished 10th in his class and 18th overall among 96 entries at the gruelling competition of nearly 8000km.

Soon after Nepal women's semi-final win over Uganda, their male counterparts have sealed a final spot at the Kho Kho World Cup with a comfortable win over Iran. Carrying their red-hot form in the Delhi winter, the Nepali men's team race to a 72-29 win at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium. They will take on the winners of the India vs South Africa semi-final match in Sunday's title showdown. Read more HERE.

The Indian women's kho kho team has outplayed South Africa 66-16 in the semi-finals of the inaugural Kho Kho World Cup to book a place in the summit clash. India will meet Nepal, who earlier beat Uganda, in the grand finale on Sunday.

The ace Indian doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty loses its semi-final match in straight games to Malaysia's Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin. The 18-21, 14-21 defeat means India's campaign at the India Open Super 750 in New Delhi comes to an end.

Dhruv Shorey's third hundred in a row goes in vain as Karnataka ride on unfancied Smaran Ravichandran's stylish ton to win their fifth Vijay Hazare Trophy title. They defeat Vidarbha by 36 runs in a high-scoring final in Vadodara. Karnataka now have an unprecedented record of reaching five finals and winning all of them.

UP Rudras hold their nerves to register a narrow 1-0 win against Team Gonasika in the Hockey India League 2024-25. The hard-fought win puts UP Rudras in the third place of the points table, with the first phase of the league ending today. It was Rudras' skipper Hardik Singh who led from the front and also scored the lone goal in his team's victory.

The Indian men's kho kho team overcomes a strong South African challenge to secure its spot in the World Cup 2025 final with a 62-42 victory at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium. The Indian team will face Nepal, who qualified earlier after beating Iran, in the final on Sunday.

With that, we conclude our coverage today. We will be back tomorrow with all that is current in the world of sports. Until then, goodbye.