World Sports March 16 2024 As it Happened: Lakshya Sen Loses In All England Open SFs

In today's sporting action, the top news was Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen losing in the semi-final of the All England Open Badminton Championships 2024 against Indonesia's Jonatan Christie. In football, Manchester City were in action against Newcastle United whereas Coventry City shocked Wolves in their FA Cup quarter-final tie. Get all the highlights and updates from the world of sports for Saturday, March 16, 2024, here. (Cricket News | Football News)

After enduring a lean patch last year, Lakshya Sen is slowly clawing his way back in 2024 and is now the lone Indian standing at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham.

Sen notched up a typically gritty victory last night, prevailing over Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia in a tense, three-game quarter-final encounter. The 22-year-old from Almora narrowly lost the first game 20-22, but fought back superbly to take the next two 21-16, 21-19 in 71 minutes.

He doesn't have much time to rest, however, as his last-four clash is lined up in the evening against familiar rival, Indonesia's Jonatan Christie.

Chess titan Magnus Carlsen has decided to convert the Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge into a tour, and has picked India as its first stop. The event will be held in India in November 2024 with a prize money of 500,000 USD (around INR 4 crore), Carlsen and German entrepreneur Jan Henric Buettner have jointly announced.

“Carlsen, the world’s greatest chess player, and the German entrepreneur Buettner, who initiated and hosted the event, have invited the world’s top chess players to become members of their newly formed, exclusive Freestyle Chess Players Club (FCPC). At the same time, Carlsen and Buettner confirmed the launch of a worldwide Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, a series of five tournaments per year on five continents,” their joint statement read.

Giovanni Fabbian scored in the fourth minute of stoppage time for Bologna to squeeze past Empoli 1-0 in Serie A, Associated Press reported. Visiting Bologna were on top throughout but could not make their pressure count until the dying seconds when substitute Fabbian followed up to convert after Empoli goalkeeper Elia Caprile failed to hold a fierce shot from Riccardo Calafiori. The result was a return to winning ways for Bologna, who lost to league leaders Inter Milan last week after a run of six consecutive wins.

The world's top-ranked women's singles player Iga Swiatek comprehensively trounced Marta Kostyuk 6-2, 6-1 to reach the final of the Indian Wells Masters (also known as BNP Paribas Open). Swiatek improved to a 19-2 record this year with the win.

She'll face the winner of the ongoing semi-final between third-seeded Coco Gauff and ninth seed Maria Sakkari in the title clash. Swiatek has beaten Gauff in nine of their 10 career meetings and taken three out of five meetings against Sakkari.

Lois Openda netted a brace as Leipzig turned on the heat in the second half to rout Cologne 5-1 in the Bundesliga. Leipzig jumped to fourth place, two points above Borussia Dortmund, who will play Eintracht Frankfurt later in the weekend.

Leipzig led after 15 minutes through Dutch forward Xavi but just three minutes later Sargis Adamyan scored his first Bundesliga goal in more than a year to equalize for Cologne, Associated Press reports. Leipzig were dominant in the second half and put the result beyond doubt during a seven-minute burst. Openda scored in the 63rd and 67th minutes and Amadou Haidara piled on to make it 4-1. Yussuf Poulsen completed the thrashing, eight minutes from time.

Arsenal women's team head coach Jonas Eidevall has revealed that referee Rebecca Welch delayed Chelsea’s Women’s Super League clash with Arsenal when both teams were lined up in the tunnel. The kick-off for Chelsea’s 3-1 victory was delayed by 30 minutes while Arsenal staff collected black socks from their opponents’ megastore, using blue tape to cover the Chelsea and Nike logos. Arsenal had arrived to Stamford Bridge with the same colour white socks as the hosts and were forced to make a change.

Zion Williamson scored 34 points to lead the New Orleans Pelicans to a 112-104 win over the slumping Los Angeles Clippers that tightened the race for the Western Conference's No. 4 seed. The surging Pelicans moved within two games of Los Angeles for fourth place in the conference and improved to 14-5 since January 31, tied with the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets for the best record in the West over that span. 

Rishabh Pant's background in gymnastics has helped him make an early recovery from the life-threatening car accident, according to Nishanta Bordoloi, the strength and conditioning coach at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru.

"One thing was that Rishabh has a background for gymnastics which was a very very big asset for us because there are a few things that come naturally to him," Bordoloi told bcci.tv. "Anytime he would feel he couldn't move, he could tumble or roll over back to his feet again. Which was so much of an added advantage for him," he added.

Greek world number 9 Maria Sakkari staved off a Coco Gauff fightback to book a place in the final of the Indian Wells Masters (also known as BNP Paribas Open) in California. She will take on top-seed Iga Swiatek after beating the American third seed Gauff 6-4 6-7 (5) 6-2 in a lengthy, rain-interrupted battle.

Another season, another title aspiration. Holders Chennai Super Kings are set to launch their Indian Premier League title defence at their beloved fortress - the MA Chidambaram Stadium - where they will take on Royal Challengers Bangalore on March 22.

Check out CSK's track record, schedule, squad and much more in our profile here.

Though non-committal on when he will retire as a player, veteran goalkeeper PR Sreejesh has revealed that he has aspirations for coaching the Indian hockey team. "After my career I will take a break for sure. I will need time to transfer myself from a player to any role, as a coach, assistant coach or goalkeeping coach. My plan is for long time. My plan is for 2036 or 2040," Sreejesh told PTI in an interview.

While he will play the Paris Olympics for sure, the 36-year-old Sreejesh is still optimistic about playing the next one, four years later. "I don't think so (it will be his last Olympics) because when you are 36 and doing a beep test of 20.8 , I think it's quite good," he said.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has appointed former Pakistan pacer Aaqib Javed as the men's team fast-bowling coach until the completion of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 in June. Javed, a 1992 World Cup winner, is currently serving as the Director of Cricket Operations and head coach of the Lahore Qalandars in the Pakistan Super League.

“We warmly welcome Aaqib and believe that his immense international experience, both in playing and coaching, will help our bowlers come into good shape ahead of the upcoming major international competitions, such as the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup,” Ashley De Silva, the SLC CEO, said.

Commonwealth Games gold medallist weightlifter Achinta Sheuli has been expelled from the Paris Olympics preparatory camp after he was caught entering the women's hostel at night at NIS Patiala, PTI reports. The disciplinary breach occurred on Thursday night. The 22-year-old, who competes in the men's 73kg weight class, was caught by security personnel, who made a video of the lifter.

"Obviously, such indiscipline will not be tolerated. Achinta was asked to leave the camp immediately," an Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWLF) official told PTI.

The Indian men's doubles pair of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Sai Pratheek K has slumped to a straight-game defeat in the quarterfinals to bow out of the Orleans Masters badminton tournament. The world No. 70 Indian duo lost 17-21, 16-21 in 40 minutes against the seventh-seeded Danish combine of Andreas Sondergaard and Jesper Toft, ranked 46th in the BWF chart. With that, India's campaign at the Super 300 event ended.

Boxing great Roberto Duran is receiving medical care for a heart problem, the family of the 72-year-old Panamanian has said. Duran, who was a champion in four different weight classes, “has suffered a health complication due to an atrioventricular blockade,” his family said in a statement on Duran's Instagram account.

WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman said in a social media post that Duran was being treated in a hospital in Panama.

“His family is joined by the world in prayers for his successful and prompt recovery, he is a champion and will win this fight,” Sulaiman said in the post on X, formerly Twitter.

Bengal thrashed Telangana with a massive score of 11-0 to qualify for the quarterfinals of the Senior Women National Championship in Pune, showcasing stunning hat-tricks of Sanjna Horo and Susmita Panna.

After facing a shocking defeat at Indian Wells, top-ranked Novak Djokovic decided to skip the Miami Open 2024. The tennis legend via social media announced, “at this stage of my career, I'm balancing my private and professional schedule. I'm sorry that I won't experience some of the best and most passionate fans in the world."

Coventry stunned Wolves with two goals in injury time winning the match dramatically by 3-2 at Molineux Stadium to enter the semi-finals of FA Cup first time since 1987, when they lifted the trophy for only time in history.

Indian shooter, Ashi Chouksey who is also three times Asian Games medallist, finished second in the women's 50m rifle 3 Positions (3P) event at Grand Prix Wroclawia and Dolnego Slaska international shooting competition in Wroclaw, Poland.

Manchester City XI: Ortega, Walker, Dias, Akanji, Gvardiol, Rodri, Kovacic, Foden, Bernardo, Haaland, Doku

Subs: Carson, Stones, Alvarez, Grealish, Ake, Gomez, Nunes, Bobb, Lewis

Newcastle United XI: Dubravka, Schar, Murphy, Burn, Lascelles, Botman, Guimaraes, Longstaff, Willock, Gordon, Isak

Subs: Karius, Dummett, Ritchie, Targett, Krafth, Hall, Almiron, Anderson, Miley

Lakshya Sen's valiant run at the All England Open Badminton Championships 2024 in Birmingham came to an end with a semi-final defeat (12-21, 21-10, 21-15) against Jonatan Christie of Indonesia.

In the English Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur were trailing 0-3 to Fulham at Craven Cottage in their EPL fixture.

And with that, we call it a night! We hope you have enjoyed our coverage. Till then, adios!