PARIS: Diego Schwartzman who reached the Roland Garros quarter-finals on Monday is trying his best to not think about Rafael Nadal and the challenge he will face against the Spaniard.

“I think at the beginning of every match against Rafa, you have to walk on the court thinking [about] winning the match, to have opportunities, to get opportunities,” ATP quoted Schwartzman as saying. The Argentine recognises that it will take a very high level of tennis from him just to have a chance on Parisian clay. Nadal leads the ATP Head2Head series against Schwartzman by 10-1.

“If you think about the four, five hours you are going to play, if you think about everything about Rafa in Roland Garros, he’s very difficult to play,” Schwartzman said. “You have to go on court, think about the tactics, think about how to play your best game.”

The 10th seed recognises the importance of having a good start against Nadal at the French Open. He believes players who start well against Nadal can then better focus on the task at hand if they come out firing.

“I think it’s very important not just for me, but also for Rafa when the opponent starts with good tennis, the match is going to [go] a different way,” Schwartzman said. “It’s always tough. But at the end it’s Rafa and you never know what is going to happen, and everyone knows that it’s going to be very difficult.”

England pacer James Anderson on Tuesday said his side will learn from the Ollie Robinson controversy and he also addressed how the past one week was really difficult for every member of the squad.

Robinson was on Sunday suspended from all international cricket pending the outcome of a disciplinary investigation following the tweets he posted in 2012 and 2013. United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Sports Minister Olivier Dowden criticised the ECB for suspending Robinson from international cricket over his tweets which were sent out by him during his teenage days. “It is a difficult time. As players, we are trying to learn from this. We realise it is important to try and educate around these issues, which we are continuing to with the ECB and the PCA. We have already been doing workshops before this series to try and help improve ourselves as people, basically, to try and make sure this sort of thing doesn’t happen,” Sky Sports quoted Anderson as saying.

When asked whether Robinson’s apology was accepted in the dressing room, Anderson said: “It has been accepted. He stood up in front of the group and apologised, and you could see how sincere he was and how upset he was.”

“As a group, we appreciate that he is a different person now. He has done a lot of maturing and growing since then and he’s got the full support of the team. He has definitely changed as a person and is going to improve, learn from this,” he added.

One more cricketer from the England team has come under the scanner for his allegedly racist remarks on Twitter post pacer Ollie Robinson’s suspension for similar reason.

According to a report in ESPNcricinfo, Wisden.com published the old tweets from another unnamed cricketer within the current England set-up. The report further states that the cricketer was aged less than 16 at the time he posted the tweets.

“I remember being that age. You do make mistakes. You are very young and inexperienced but, as people, we have just got to try and get better, improve and make sure that this sort of thing does not happen – that people are aware it is unacceptable,” said Anderson.

Sunil Chhetri’s brace helped India defeat Bangladesh 2-0 in the ongoing FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, and AFC Asian Cup China Qualifiers on Monday at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium at Al Sadd Club in Doha.

The 36-year-old Chhetri scored both his goals in the second half of the match as he netted the ball into the goalpost in the 79th and 92nd minutes. With this win, India has risen to the third spot in Group E with six points from seven games. Chhetri’s first goal was a properly-timed header from a left-sided cross while the other was an injury-time strike, as he curled home a finish from inside the penalty area.

Stimac made three changes from the side that took on Qatar in the last match. The Blue Tigers made a cautious start, playing it amongst themselves, searching for the gaps.

Bangladesh began to throw bodies forward in search of the equalizer, but were often thwarted by the Indian defence. Jamal Bhuyian went into the referee’s books a minute after Chhetri’s goal, for a foul on Brandon Fernandes.

Last week, India had suffered a 0-1 defeat at the hands of Qatar despite a good showing from goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu.

India will next lock horns against Afghanistan in the Qualifiers on Tuesday, June 15. The side is already out of contention to qualify for FIFA World Cup 2022, but the Blue Tigers can still qualify for AFC Asian Cup.

Bangladesh football team coach Jamie Day lavished praise on India skipper Sunil Chhetri for grabbing chances with both hands on Monday.

Chhetri broke the deadlock in the 78th minute when he headed in Ashique Kuruniyan’s cross from the left. He then sealed the game by curling in a shot from long range in added time, to win the match 2-0 for the Blue Tigers.

“For a long period, we did well, we had a couple of half-chances. But if you give Chhetri a chance, he scores like he showed tonight,” goal.com quoted Day as saying.

“He had two chances in the last 20 minutes, and he took them. So, we move on to the next game now and take positives out of that,” he added.

The Bangladesh coach said his side gave the ball quite easily to Indian players which eventually had long-lasting repercussions on the match.

India’s ace footballer and national team captain Sunil Chhetri scored two goals in a span of 13 minutes to help India seal a 2-0 victory against Bangladesh in the FIFA World Cup qualifier match at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in Doha on Monday. This is India’s first win in a World Cup qualifier away from home since 2001.

Now, Sunil Chhetri, who has scored 74 international goals, is second behind Cristiano Ronaldo in the all-time goal scorer’s list among active players in International Football, as he overtook Lionel Messi who lingers on 72 goals.

“I do not count the number of goals. 10 years later, we will sit together, have a chat and then count,” smiled Sunil Chhetri after the final whistle against Bangladesh in the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers Qatar 2022.

“Many people keep on asking as to when Sunil is going to retire. He works so hard on the pitch, and in every training session, he is by far the best. He is in such good shape and is working with such professionalism. He is working as if he is 25, playing as if he is 25, and scoring goals like he is 25,” Head Coach Igor Stimac stated.

‘Ironman’ Sandesh Jhingan felt that Sunil’s name will still be remembered even after a century. “Some 100 or 200 years down the line, people will still talk about Sunil Chhetri. As long as there is Indian Football, people will remember his name. It’s for everyone to see what he does on the field. Hence, I would rather like to mention that off the field he is the perfect example for all to follow,” Jhingan said.

“I will keep on mentioning that one guy is floating in between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi— and that’s my teammate, my captain Sunil Chhetri,” Gurpreet Singh Sandhu expressed. “It shows his commitment and how consistent he has been scoring goals – one after the other. It’s simply remarkable,” he added.

Chhetri smiled, looked to his side, shook his head, and smiled again. “The match against Bangladesh was a tough match, frustrating at times,” he referred. “We were guilty of missing a lot of chances. We could have done better. It has been a topsy-turvy qualifying campaign. Looking back, we understand that we could have done a lot better. We will talk about it but I am happy that we got three points,” Chhetri said.

When he was reminded about his International goals, he said, “You know what. All of this is past. We play Afghanistan, and we have to be at our best. It will be a new day, a new canvas. And it is up to us to paint it the manner we want to.” The alarm on his watch rang and he got up, gestured and walked off for the recovery session at the gym.

The session is some 10 minutes away but he knows he cannot be late. In fact, and you can bet he will be the first one to step in.

Meanwhile, Kiren Rijiju, the Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports on Tuesday said that he enjoyed watching striker Sunil Chhetri score two amazing goals against Bangladesh in the ongoing FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, and AFC Asian Cup China Qualifiers.

“Congratulations to @chetrisunil11 for overtaking Messi to become 2nd highest active international Goal-scorer! I enjoyed his brilliant 2 goals against Bangladesh which secured a win for India and put him on to 74 international goals,” tweeted Rijiju. Chhetri had added another feather to his illustrious cap as he overtook Argentina star Lionel Messi to become the second-highest active international goalscorer on Monday.

He achieved the feat when he struck a brace to help India defeat Bangladesh 2-0 at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium at Al Sadd Club in Doha.

England skipper Joe Root feels there wasn’t a “realistic” opportunity for the hosts to win the first Test against New Zealand.England needed 273 runs to win the game in the final two sessions after New Zealand declared their innings at 169/6. Root and Dominic Sibley helped England walk away with a draw at the Lord’s Cricket Ground on Sunday. Root defended England’s approach and said it was hard to score over three runs per over on an “absolute best” wicket.“Having played on that wicket for a few days, we knew it wasn’t going to be as straightforward as it looked,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Root as saying.“If you look at the run rate throughout the game, it was hard to score above three an over even when the pitch was at its absolute best.“We wanted to lay ourselves a foundation but, once we got through the initial phase, it just didn’t feel like there was a realistic opportunity for us to win the game,” he added.Root said England wanted to be a bit more disciplined in their batting having been bundled out for 275 in the first innings.“So, it was about using it as an opportunity to be a bit more disciplined as a batting group. At times in the first innings we showed a little bit of ill discipline. This was a chance to put that right and take a bit of confidence going into the rest of the series,” said Root.England and New Zealand will next lock horns in the second Test from Thursday and Root feels the hosts have a very good chance to win the series.“The last two times we’ve played in New Zealand we’ve been hammered in the first game and pretty much out the series,” he said.“But going to Edgbaston, this series is very much alive. We’ve got a chance to win it and we can take confidence from some very good individual performances in this game,” Root added.

Former World No. 1 Andy Murray has backed Roger Federer’s sensible decision to withdraw from the ongoing French Open to protect his body after two knee operations.The three times major champion made an apt analogy and compared Tennis with other major sports like football and basketball where players if returning from an injury are given reduced minutes to build up their fitness but that is clearly not the case when talking about tennis. “In basketball, football etc when returning from injury players are given reduced minutes to build up their fitness. In tennis you don’t have that luxury of just playing a set in first match then 2 sets the next etc and building up that way,” Murray tweeted.“Id argue that it’s quite risky to play multiple 4hr matches in a row in your 2nd tournaments back in 18 months so to me it makes sense to be reactive based on how your body feels, length of matches etc. Sensible decision from him,” he continued.Earlier on Sunday, the 20 times major champion announced that he was withdrawing from the Roland Garros despite having reached the fourth round, opting to focus on his primary objective of winning a ninth Wimbledon title.“After discussions with my team, I decided that I should withdraw from French Open today,” Federer said in a statement released by the French Tennis Federation.“After two knee operations and more than a year of rehabilitation, it’s important that I listen to my body and not rush back into competition,” the 39-year-old Swiss added.Tournament director Guy Forget said: “The Roland Garros tournament is sorry about withdrawal of Roger Federer, who put up an incredible fight last night.”