A lot has happened over the past 24 hours in the world of sports, so lets delve right in.
AFL
Gary Ablett has found himself with a one match ban by the MRO for his strike on Gold Coast’s Anthony Miles.
The suspension is the first of his decorated career and will see him miss this week’s game against Sydney at the Cattery. AFL.com.au understands Ablett will not appeal the decision.
The first edition of the mid-season draft was held last night and saw 14 players picked up by AFL clubs.
Ex-Fremantle midfielder Josh Deluca was taken first by Carlton and Mitch Riordan, Kyle Dunkley, Michael Knoll and Lachlan Hosie rounded out the top five.
Gold Coast midfielder Ben Ainsworth is set to miss six weeks after foot surgery.
The 21-year-old suffered the injury in a tackle during Saturday night’s loss to Geelong.
According to AFL.com.au Carlton veteran Dale Thomas is set to be questioned by his club, over his drinking at a charity function less than two day before Carlton’s Sunday loss to St Kilda.
Speaking on Footy Classified last night, Blues Football Director, Chris Judd was not impressed by the incident.
“I’m not one to ‘infantise’ players – if players have a single beer or a couple of wines over dinner, I don’t have a huge problem,” Judd said.
“Needless to say, drinking, full-stop, in public, two days before a game when you’re 1-9, fails the stupidity test, clearly.”
“So we’ll wait and see what the result of the investigations are – I actually don’t have the detail, I’m not spinning that.”
Tennis
The second day of the French Open was held last night and saw three Australians, as well as some usual suspects book their place in the second round.
Australia’s highest-ranked male player Alex Di Minaur had a 6-1 6-4 6-4 win over American Bradley Klahn on Monday, which was then followed by eighth seed Ashleigh Barty’s 6-3 6-3 victory over Klahn’s countrymen Jessica Pegula. Sam Stosur then made it four Aussies into the second round with a convincing 6-2 7-6 (7-3) win over Czech Barbora Strycova.
Men’s top two seeds Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal both had comfortable straight sets victories, while it wasn’t quite as easy for Serena Williams.
Williams lost the first set to Russia’s Vitalia Diatchenko, however bounced back to win the next two sets 6-1 6-0.
Aussie’s Bernard Tomic, John Millman, Matt Ebden and Jordan Thompson all face their round one opponents tonight.
Cricket
Australia recorded a five-wicket-win over Sri Lanka last night in Southampton. This is the teams last hit-out before the World Cup begins against Afghanistan on Saturday.
Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat, before Australia’s bowling attack restricted the side to 8-239 off their allotted overs. The wickets were shared among the group with seven individual wicket takers. Spinner Adam Zampa had the best figures of 2-39 off his nine overs. Sri Lankans Lahiru Thirimanne was the only batsmen to pass fifty, being bowled by Nathan Lyon for 56.
The Aussies were able to chase down the total five wickets down with five overs remaining. The scorecard featured plenty of starts with four of the top five batters scoring above 30. Usman Khawaja was the star of the show scoring 89, brushing off knee injury concerns after he left the field in the first innings, after a well-struck drive hit him in the knee. Jeffrey Vandersay was the best of the Sri Lankans with the ball taking 2-51 off 7.5 overs.
Soccer
Socceroo Mile Jedinak’s club side Aston Villa has sealed a dramatic return to the English top-flight.
The Villains will make their return to the English Premier League (EPL), after their three year absence was ended by a 2-1 victory over Derby County in the Championship play-off final at Wembley.
Villa’s goals were scored by Anwar El Ghazi and John McGinn, before Derby’s Martyn Waghorn halved the deficit in the 81st minute.
Derby will join Norwich City and Sheffield united as the three promoted sides in the EPL next season.
Photo: Alex De Minaur on the practice court, by Carine06 available HERE and used under a Creative Commons Attribution. The image has not been modified.
