Motor Racing: Denmark’s Kevin Magnussen is set to replace Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado at the Renault Formula One team, Sky Sports television and specialist websites reported. Renault are due to present their driver line-up and management structure at an event in Paris next Wednesday. Maldonado’s future has been uncertain since Renault announced their return to Formula One as constructors and took over the financially-troubled team last month. Maldonado has an accident-prone reputation that has made him a regular visitor to the stewards as well as the butt of jokes on social media.
Basketball: Holders Real Madrid produced their best Euroleague performance of the season to sink Olympiakos Piraeus 84-72 to boost their hopes of reaching the knockout stages. The match in Madrid produced almost a carbon copy of May’s title showdown, when Real celebrated a record-extending ninth title with a 78-59 victory. Olympiakos again held their own in the opening quarter before Real found another gear and prevailed thanks to solid long-range shooting. The Top 16 features two groups of eight, with the top four in each section reaching the best-of-five quarter-final play-off series.
Tennis Doubles: World number one doubles pairing Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza clinched their first Australian Open doubles title together with a 7-6 6-3 victory over Czech pair Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka yesterday. It was the 12th grand slam women’s doubles title for Hingis while the third for India’s Mirza, all of which have come with the Swiss in the last year. The experienced pair, who have now won 36 successive doubles matches, are also the reigning Wimbledon and US Open champions.
Tennis: Men’s teams from Europe and the Rest of the World will begin a Ryder Cup-style competition in 2017 that will be named after Australian great Rod Laver, organisers said yesterday. The Laver Cup, styled after golf’s biennial Ryder Cup tournament, will see teams of six compete in both singles and doubles over three days, with four players selected on a “results-based formula” and two named as captain’s picks. The first edition of the tournament, which will be staged annually barring summer Olympic years, is expected to be held in Europe.