World Sports News in Brief

Teenager Haaland scores another two as Dortmund thump Cologne 5-1

Borussia Dortmund teenager Erling Haaland followed up his debut hat-trick by scoring two more goals, again off the bench, in a 5-1 demolition of Cologne in the Bundesliga on Friday.

Soccer Football - Bundesliga - Borussia Dortmund v FC Cologne - Signal Iduna Park, Dortmund, Germany - January 24, 2020 Borussia Dortmund's Erling Braut Haaland celebrates scoring their fifth goal. (Photo: Reuters)
Soccer Football - Bundesliga - Borussia Dortmund v FC Cologne - Signal Iduna Park, Dortmund, Germany - January 24, 2020 Borussia Dortmund's Erling Braut Haaland celebrates scoring their fifth goal. (Photo: Reuters)

Haaland, the first player ever to score five goals in his first two Bundesliga appearances, has come on in the second half both times and spent a total of 59 minutes on the pitch. Fellow 19-year-old Jadon Sancho was also on target with his 11th Bundesliga goal of the season and his eighth in his last eight outings as Dortmund outclassed the hapless Billy Goats.

* The International Olympic Committee has said Jordan will host 2020 Olympics boxing qualifiers for Asia and Oceania after an event in China's Wuhan was cancelled due to fears over the new flu-like coronavirus. The IOC said in a statement on Friday the qualification event would take place in Amman from March 3 to 11.

* The British government announced on Friday that the Paralympic Games have been added to the 'crown jewels' list of sports events that must be screened live on free-to-air television. The summer and winter events will be given the same status as the Olympics and other marquee events including the men's soccer World Cup tournament, the FA Cup final, Grand National horse race and Wimbledon tennis championships.

* AC Milan forward Ante Rebic scored the winner for the second week running as they beat Brescia 1-0 away in Serie A on Friday, sparing the blushes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic after an extraordinary miss by the 38-year-old. Ibrahimovic had only to tap the ball in from six metres after Theo Hernandez sent in a low cross in the 40th minute but the Swede instead contrived to shoot wide, his only excuse being that the ball might have been slightly behind him. The win took Milan up to sixth with 31 points from 21 games.

* Roger Federer looked defeat full in the face before rallying in the 10-point tiebreaker to edge local battler John Millman in a five-set thriller on Friday night and reach the last 16 of the Australian Open. It was Federer’s 100th victory at Melbourne Park and few of them can have been as hard as the four-hour, 4-6 7-6(2) 6-4 4-6 7-6(8) epic he shared with the teak tough world number 47 on Rod Laver Arena.

* Brazilian Joao Souza has been banned from tennis for life after being convicted of multiple match-fixing and other corruption offences, the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) said on Saturday. A TIU investigation found that the 31-year-old had committed several anti-corruption breaches between 2015 and 2019 including fixing matches at ATP Challenger and ITF Futures tournaments in Brazil, Mexico, the United States and Czech Republic.

* An electronic review system will be in place on clay courts for the first time on the ATP Tour as part of a trial that will be in place at select events this season, the governing body for men’s tennis said on Friday. Players are already able to challenge line calls on hard and grass courts but their inability to do so on clay, where chair umpires are left to rely on ball marks in the dirt, have caused a number of controversies. The review system will be in place at next month’s Rio Open as well as a yet-to-be named ATP 250 event and a Masters 1000 event in either Monaco, Madrid or Rome.

* Canadian Milos Raonic served and volleyed with robotic precision to bundle Greek sixth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas out of the Australian Open with a 7-5 6-4 7-6(2) victory in the third round on Friday. On a day that witnessed 23-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams and defending champion Naomi Osaka exit the women’s draw, the men’s side also lost Spanish ninth seed Roberto Bautista Agut, who fell to Marin Cilic after a marathon 6-7(3) 6-4 6-0 5-7 6-3 match.

* With composure that belied her age, Coco Gauff claimed the biggest win of her young career on Friday with a stunning upset of defending champion Naomi Osaka at the Australian Open to reach the fourth round. The 15-year-old American took advantage of a misfiring Osaka for a brutally efficient 6-3 6-4 win in just 67 minutes on Rod Laver Arena.

* Champion Novak Djokovic put on an impeccable serving display against Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka to canter to a 6-3 6-2 6-2 win in the third round of the Australian Open on Friday, staying on course for a record-extending eighth title at Melbourne Park. The Serb, who defeated another Japanese in Tatsuma Ito in his previous round, smashed 17 aces, won 93% points on his first serve and faced just a single breakpoint against the hapless Nishioka in the match that lasted only an hour and 25 minutes.

* Japan can expect a more than 50% hike in their medal tally at their home Olympics but will still fall significantly short of toppling China from the second position, data analysts Gracenote predicted exactly six months before the Tokyo Games. The United States have been tipped to top the medal table for the seventh successive Games with a haul of 117, including 47 gold, at Tokyo.

* Barcelona have been drawn at home to fellow La Liga side Leganes in the last 16 of the Copa del Rey, while Real Madrid will visit second division Real Zaragoza. Cup holders Valencia will play away to third division Cultural Leonesa, who caused one of the biggest shocks in the competition's history by knocking out Atletico Madrid on Thursday. The matches will be played on Jan. 29.

* Brighton & Hove Albion have turned Australian midfielder Aaron Mooy's loan from second tier Huddersfield Town into a three-and-a-half year permanent contract, the Premier League club said on Friday.

Reuters