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  Manchester United are close to signing Serbia midfielder Nemanja Matic from Chelsea for £40m. Matic, 28, would be United's third summer buy - following £31m defender Victor Lindelof from Benfica and £75m striker Romelu Lukaku from Everton. It will be the second time United manager Jose Mourinho has bought Matic, having signed him for Chelsea. Mourinho spent £21m in January 2014 to buy the player from Benfica for a second spell at Stamford Bridge. Matic had been valued at less than £5m in January 2011 when he left Chelsea as a makeweight in the  deal for defender David Luiz. The midfielder scored once in 35 Premier League appearances during Chelsea's title-winning 2016-17 season - but also struck spectacularly in their FA Cup semi-final victory over Tottenham in April. His exit had been expected after the Blues signed France international  Tiemoue Bakayoko,  22, from French champions Monaco in a  reported £40m deal  earlier this month. A move f...

    Katie Taylor wants "more fights" in the United States after making a winning debut                                                in New York on Saturday. The Irish lightweight, 31, stopped home favourite Jasmine Clarkson in the third round to record her sixth straight victory since turning professional . "There were some nerves," said the London 2012 Olympic champion. "I got caught with a few silly shots but overall it was good. "I hope I made some fans - I loved hearing the Irish in the crowd." Taylor dominated the contest against her 22-year-old opponent. Clarkson had no answer to Taylor's punches and, after the third round, the American's corner called a halt. Taylor is expected to challenge Uruguay's WBA world lightweight champion Cecilia Comunales later this year after stopping Nina Meinke of Germany in April's Wembley eliminator...

Legendary Olympic swimmer Mark Spitz says Adam Peaty would be taking a risk by adding the 200m breaststroke to his programme for Tokyo 2020. In 1972 Spitz won a then record of seven Olympic golds at one Games - a mark which stood until Michael Phelps won eight at  Beijing 2008 . Peaty, who defended the 50m and 100m world titles this week, has suggested he could compete in 200m from 2018. With the 50m breaststroke event not included for the 2020 Olympics, Peaty is considering adding the 200m to his race schedule in order to have the opportunity of winning two individual gold medals. "A lot of times a 100m breaststroker doesn't do well at the 200m, it can be due to training and desire, but also the order of the races at event," continued Spitz. "He has the speed, so all he needs is the conditioning to go two more laps, so the question is on Peaty - do you want to make the commitment?" "I know that as a fact because the schedule was changed for me thr...

Former world champion Dave McAuley has questioned how Carl Frampton failed to          make the weight before his fight with Andres Gutierrez was called off. The featherweight bout was cancelled after Guitierrez slipped in the shower, causing head and facial injuries. "It's not only Carl's fault, it's the trainer's fault and manager's fault," said former IBF champion McAuley. McAuley added that "people are finding it hard to swallow" the reason given for the fight being called off. Mexican Guitierrez, 24, suffered facial cuts, two broken teeth and bruising to the head in the accident on Friday - a day before the scheduled contest at the SSE Arena. Shower slip "What happened is very possible - with showers you can slip," said County Antrim man McAuley, who successfully defended the world flyweight title five times. "But the way it happened, because Carl being over weight and the fight not becoming a [world title] eli...

Mohammad Amir has always shown a knack of doing well against India since making a comeback in 2016, from a five-year ban for involving in spot-fixing. The recent occasion being the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 final when he dismissed three top batsmen - Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan. It helped Pakistan win the title. But cut to 2016, Rohit Sharma had a not-so-positive thing to say about the Pakistani player. After the left-arm pacer had dismissed him in a 2016 T20 Asia Cup match, Rohit said he was not a special bowler. “There is just so much hype around him, I don’t think it is right to give him too much hype after one match. He is good but he needs to prove it over and over again. Now people are comparing him to Wasim Akram and all that. He is just a normal bowler, on that given day if he is good, he is good. It is not as if he turns up and blows everyone away,” Rohit Sharma had said. “Stop talking about him already. He isn’t the only bowler, Pakistan have five other...

Double defending champions Patna Pirates began the fifth edition of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) with a 35-29 victory over hosts Telugu Titans at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium in Hyderabad on Saturday. Captain and raider Pardeep Narwal led from the front for Patna as he contributed 15 raiding points, while fellow raider Maonu Goyat chipped in with eight points. For the home camp, Rahul Chaudhari collected seven points, while Nilesh Salunke contributed six points. Defenders Bhardwaj and Vikas gave Telugu five points each. But all of the four top performers for Telugu were outshone by Pardeep, on whom Patna rode to victory. Pardeep was the main difference between the teams from the start. In the first-half, Telugu were looking to walk away with the game with a 10-7 lead following Goyat’s failed raid and Salunke’s successful raid that gave the hosts a good position in the 14th minute. Pardeep, however, kept earning points as Patna refused to surrender for an all out. Patna Pirat...

Great Britain's Jonny Brownlee finished fourth as Spain's Mario Mola stretched his lead in the World Triathlon Series with victory in Edmonton. Australian Jacob Birtwhistle, who had to jump a barrier after wrongly running down the finishing straight as he led on the penultimate lap, was second. Mola won in 54 minutes 52 seconds, with South African Richard Murray third. Bermuda's Flora Duffy, 29, claimed her fourth straight win to dislodge Katie Zaferes at the top of the standings. Zaferes, 28, finished third, with fellow American Taylor Knibb, 19, second. Duffy leads the standings on 3200 points, with Zaferes eight points behind and American Kirsten Kasper third on 2,677.The sprint-distance races consisted of a 750m swim, 20km cycle and 5km run. Olympic silver and bronze medallist Brownlee, 27, was distanced during the run and finished 23 seconds behind Mola, while fellow Briton Grant Sheldon was 10th. Victory was a fourth of the season for defending champion ...

Great Britain's Jonny Brownlee finished fourth as Spain's Mario Mola stretched his lead in the World Triathlon Series with victory in Edmonton. Australian Jacob Birtwhistle, who had to jump a barrier after wrongly running down the finishing straight as he led on the penultimate lap, was second. Mola won in 54 minutes 52 seconds, with South African Richard Murray third. Bermuda's Flora Duffy, 29, claimed her fourth straight win to dislodge Katie Zaferes at the top of the standings. Zaferes, 28, finished third, with fellow American Taylor Knibb, 19, second. Duffy leads the standings on 3200 points, with Zaferes eight points behind and American Kirsten Kasper third on 2,677.The sprint-distance races consisted of a 750m swim, 20km cycle and 5km run. Olympic silver and bronze medallist Brownlee, 27, was distanced during the run and finished 23 seconds behind Mola, while fellow Briton Grant Sheldon was 10th. Victory was a fourth of the season for defending champion ...

New Arsenal signing Vivianne Miedema was on the scoresheet as hosts Netherlands set up a potential Euro 2017 semi-final with England by comfortably beating Sweden. The Dutch were always in control in front of a sell-out crowd in Doetinchem and will play either England or France on Thursday. Winger Lieke Martens opened the scoring with a low free-kick before Miedema tapped in her 42nd international goal. The Dutch have never reached the final. Euro 2017 - all you need to know The hosts and England are the only sides in the tournament with a 100% record and the Netherlands took control with Martens' opener. Miedema, 21, was tripped by Jessica Samuelsson just inside the area and while referee Bibiana Steinhaus gave a free-kick, Martens bent home to ensure that the mistake did not matter. Martens will join Barcelona after the Euros, alongside England forward Toni Duggan.  Martens then freed Liverpool winger Shanice van de Sanden over the top, and she kept her cool and teed u...

Dual Oaks winner and race favourite Enable, ridden by Frankie Dettori, has won the prestigious King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot. The 5-4 shot, trained by John Gosden, saw off the challenge of 9-1 Ulysses in second, with 8-1 Idaho in third. Racing against older horses, the three-year-old added to her Oaks success at Epsom and in Ireland this year. Last year's winner Highland Reel - Idaho's brother, priced at 5-1 - finished in fourth place. Under rainy and overcast Berkshire skies, Enable impressed as she raced away from the four-year-old Eclipse Stakes winner Ulysses. The summer event attracts some of the best horses from across the world, with this year's line-up for the mile and a half race proving no different. Previous Group One winners Jack Hobbs, My Dream Boat and Ulysses were joined by Sixties Song, the latter travelling from Argentina. 'What a buzz' Detorri had been on an intense diet to achieve the 8st 7lb weight required ...

        At least two people have been killed and 17 injured in a crush at South Africa's                                             biggest stadium, football officials say. It took place during the Soweto derby between football clubs Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates in Johannesburg. Orlando Pirates said the crush happened when people attempted to push their way through the gates into the 87,000-capacity FNB stadium. Authorities allowed the pre-season cup game to continue. Public safety official Michael Sun said on Twitter that all gates at the stadium had been opened to ensure crowd control and that the situation was later brought under control. Of the 17 injured, one is in a critical condition, the stadium managers said.

Virat Kohli's century laid the foundations for India's crushing 304-run victory over Sri Lanka on the fourth day of the first Test in Galle. India, who had a first-innings lead of 309 after centuries from Shikhar Dhawan (190) and Cheteshwar Pujara (153), dominated throughout and Kohli's unbeaten 103 helped set Sri Lanka 550 to win. With both Asela Gunaratne and Rangana Herath unable to bat because of injury, Sri Lanka subsided to 245 all out - Ravichandran Ashwin taking 3-65. The second Test begins in Colombo on 3 August, where India will look to wrap up the three-match series.