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Ferrari racer Charles Leclerc finished first in Friday’s practice session at the Australian Grand Prix. Indian tennis veteran Leander Paes reacted to a young girl mistaking him for a dancer. Read below to learn more about the latest happenings in the sporting world in the last 24 hours.
Formula One
Charles Leclerc tops Australian GP second practice session
Ferrari racer Charles Leclerc finished first in Friday’s practice session at the Australian Grand Prix. Leclerc was 0.381 seconds ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who topped the first two races. Verstappen missed the first 20 minutes after damaging his floor in an off-track incident. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz finished third. After the session, he said that Ferrari might have their ‘best shot’ of challenging Red Bull this season.
Hockey
MP, Haryana, Jharkhand enter Senior Women’s National Hockey
Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, and Jharkhand qualified for semifinals of the 14th Hockey India Senior Women National Championship on Wednesday. MP beat Bengal in a 4-3 shootout after both the teams locked at 1-1 at the end of 60 minutes. In the second quarterfinal, Deepika (5th and 14th minute) struck a brace from a penalty corner and then from the field. With her goals, Haryana defeated Odisha 4-1. While Haryana’s other two goals came from Neha Goyal (39th) and Navneet Kaur in the 54th minute.
Tennis
Daniil Medvedev is proud of daughter Alisa for inheriting strong personality
Daniil Medvedev said that he is proud of his one-year-old daughter for inheriting strong personality. Medvedev’s wife Daria commented on their daughter taking after her father. Daria said, "It’s tough. She has a lot of character. And it’s fun to see also how Daniil co-operates with his own character. So, yeah… very, very fun. It's an interesting feeling for sure.” Earlier, Medvedev admitted that he is trying to get his daughter to learn things by herself. He said, “I'm trying to be a good father in my own approach, and I want that she learns many things, and I'm there to help if she needs help.”
Leander Paes reacts to young girl mistaking him for dancer
Indian tennis veteran Leander Paes reacted to a young girl mistaking him for a dancer. The photo was uploaded by the girl’s uncle. The image went viral in no time and drew responses from various people including Paes himself. The picture was accompanied with a caption “My 6-year-old niece thinks Tennis legend Leander Paes is a dancer.” Paes responded hilariously to the tweet by posting a snippet from Salman Khan’s song ‘O Oh Jaane Jaana”, replaced Khan’s face with his own, and added a witty caption, “Confirming the rumours.”
People love Carlos Alcaraz so much that they don't give Daniil Medvedev any credit: Serena Williams’ ex-coach
Serena Williams’ former coach Rennae Stubbs recently expressed her admiration for Daniil Medvedev and said, "I have so much respect for him. I know he gets a little bit sloppy on the courts, at times, yesterday he was egging the crowd on... it's a little tough for him because people love [Carlos] Alcaraz so much that they don't give [Daniil] Medvedev any credit in a lot of ways," Rennae Stubbs said on her podcast.”
Elena Rybakina defeats Clara Tauson in second round of Miami Open
Number four tennis player Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan defeated Danish qualifier Clara Tauson 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 in the second round of the Miami Open. Rybakina, who finished as runner-up last year took 2 hours and 27 minutes to complete the turnaround and defeat the 91st-ranked Tauson. She was unable to defend her Indian Wells title earlier this month, and after her recent win, she said, "I missed a lot of hours on the court. Of course now, every match, every hour I get on the court, I just want to do better and better."
Football
Eduardo Camavinga signs French jersey while brushing teeth
The French footballer, Eduardo Camavinga, was spotted signing the national team jersey while brushing his teeth, in a hilarious video that went viral on social media. The 21-year-old is currently at the French national team camp under their head coach Didier Deschamps, set to play against Germany in an international friendly at the Groupama Stadium in Lyon, on Saturday, March 23.
Aurelien Tchouameni was filmed in a viral clip with his Real Madrid teammate Jude Bellingham, talking about who was better among the two mystery players recently. When the 24-year-old arrived at the French press conference, he got a plethora of questions about the mystery players being Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe, but according to him, it wasn’t quite the case.
Memo Ochoa makes double save to keep clean sheet against Panama
Mexico played a sensational game against Panama on Thursday night in the CONCACAF Nations League 2023-24 semi-final. El Tri dominated Los Canaleros 3-0 as legendary goalkeeper Guillermo "Memo" Ochoa kept a clean sheet in the third season of the international tournament. Ochoa made a massive double save to keep Panama off the scoresheet and fans lauded the Mexican goalkeeper's heroics on social media. Just over the 50-minute mark in the match, Panama left-back Eric David crossed the ball into the box.
Andrés Andrade received the ball and went deep into the box before backheeling the ball towards forward José Fajardo in the middle, whose shot was deflected by Ochoa. A Panama player headed the deflected ball towards the goal and this time the Mexican goalkeeper managed to hold the ball, making a double save.
Major football results
Friendlies
Guatemala 0-2 Ecuador
Portugal 5-2 Sweden
World Cup Qualification AFC
Qatar 3-0 Kuwait
Afghanistan 0-0 India
UEFA Nations League A EURO SF
Poland 5-1 Estonia
Wales 4-1 Finland
India I League
Namdhari FC 2-0 Rajasthan United FC
