58 2GM Tuesday December 21 2021 | the times
Sport
5
Football
Sky Bet Championship
Fulham (0) 0 Sheff Utd (1) 1
17,308 Ndiaye 3
P W DL F A GDPts
Fulham............23 13 6 4 51 19 32 45
Bournemth.....23 12 7 4 37 20 17 43
Blackburn.......23 12 6 5 41 27 14 42
West Brom.....23 11 8 4 30 17 13 41
QPR....................21 10 5 6 33 276 35
Stoke................22 10 5 7 26 215 35
Nottm Forest.23 9 7 7 32 257 34
Coventry.........22 9 7 6 29 263 34
Middlesbro.....23 9 6 8 25 232 33
Huddersfield.23 9 6 8 28 27 1 33
Sheff Utd.........22 9 5 8 29 28 1 32
Millwall............22 7 9 6 24 240 30
Blackpool........23 8 6 9 23 27 -4 30
Luton................22 7 8 7 31 27 4 29
Preston............227782428-428
Swansea..........22 7 6 9 26 31 -5 27
Birmingham...23 7 6 10 22 30 -8 27
Bristol City......23 7 6 10 26 35 -9 27
Hull....................23 6 5 12 20 28 -8 23
Cardiff..............22 6 4 12 25 39 -14 22
@Reading......... 22 8 3 11 27 34 -7 21
Peterboro.......23 5 4 14 20 44 -24 19
Barnsley..........23 2 8 13 15 34 -19 14
*Derby..............22 5 10 7 18 21 -3 4
* deducted 21pts for breaching financial
rules and for going into administration
@ deducted 6pts for breaching financial
rulesa little rusty when only third to
Frodon at Down Royal last month.
Minella Indo, trained in Ireland by
Henry de Bromhead, is the 11-4 joint-
favourite, along with another Nicholls
runner in Clan Des Obeaux, who
took this prize in 2018 and 2019.
This race is not always targeted by
the top Irish horses but they have a
strong hand this time around, with
Willie Mullins set to saddle Asterion
Forlonge (5-1) and Tornado Flyer
(25-1). Ten horses remain in the field
after yesterday’s confirmation stage.Darts
William Hill PDC World Championship
Alexandra Palace, London (England
unless stated): First round L
Woodhouse bt J Wilson 3-1; R-J
Rodriguez (Austria) bt B Robb (NZ) 3-1.
Snooker
BetVictor Championship League
Morningside Arena, Leicester: Group A
(England unless stated): Liang Wenbo
(China) bt G Wilson 3-2; G Dott (Scot) bt
Zhou Yuelong (China) 3-1; G Wilson bt J
Lisowski 3-0; Liang bt R Day (Wales) 3-1;
J Lisowski bt Zhou 3-1; Dott bt T Ford 3-1;
Day bt Ford 3-2; Dott bt Lisowski 3-1;
Yuelong bt Ford 3-1; Dott bt Wilson 3-1;
Day bt Wilson 3-2; Lisowski bt Liang 3-2.Results
Football
Kick-off 7.45 unless stated
Carabao Cup: Quarter-final Arsenal v
Sunderland.
Papa John’s EFL Trophy: Second
round: North Tranmere v Harrogate
Town (7.0). South Exeter v Portsmouth.
FA Trophy: Third round Bradford Park
Avenue v Halifax.
Vanarama National League: North AFC
Telford v Guiseley; Kettering v Southport.
Cinch Scottish League Two Stirling
Albion v Elgin.
Darts
Alexandra Palace, London William Hill
PDC World Championship.Fixtures Blackmore and Frost set to clash in King George VI
Racing Rachael Blackmore and
Bryony Frost, the two most successful
female jump jockeys, will go head to
head on leading fancies Minella Indo
and Frodon in the Ladbrokes King
George VI Chase at Kempton Park on
Sunday (Rob Wright writes).
Frost became the first woman to
win the Christmas feature on board
the Paul Nicholls-trained Frodon
12 months ago and the pair are rated
5-1 by Coral to retain the title.
Blackmore rides Cheltenham Gold
Cup winner Minella Indo, who lookedThe newly crowned BBC Sports Per-
sonality of the Year, 19, was forced to
cancel an exhibition match against the
Olympic gold medallist Belinda Bencic
last week and attempted to keep up her
fitness in quarantine by walking around
her hotel room in circles.
“I am feeling much better,” Raduca-
nu told BBC Breakfast. “Today I did my
10,000 steps around the room. That’s
been keeping me occupied.”
This is far from ideal for Raducanu
before her first full season on the WTA
tour. The US Open champion hadEuropean rugby officials are giving
serious consideration to reducing the
Heineken Champions Cup round-of-16
ties to a single leg to improve the
chances of completing the competition.
Seven pool matches could not be
played last weekend because of Covid-
related complications, prompting fears
of a struggle to finish the leading
European club competition, given the
lack of space in the schedule for
rearranged fixtures.
But there is growing support for the
idea that the knockout round of 16 in
both the Champions Cup and Chal-
lenge Cup, scheduled to be played on a
home-and-away basis in April, could
There are growing concerns surround-
ing the staging of the Australian Open
next month after Rafael Nadal became
the latest player to contract Covid-19.
The 20-times grand-slam champion
from Spain announced that he had test-
ed positive for the virus after arriving
home from an exhibition event in Abu
Dhabi, where he was defeated by Andy
Murray in the semi-finals on Friday. He
had returned to action only last week
after a four-month absence spent
recovering from a foot injury.
Nadal, 35, was scheduled to travel to
Melbourne next week before his first
warm-up tournament but it seems
likely that he will now pull out, which
would be a significant blow to his
preparations for the scheduled start
of the Australian Open on January 17.
He is at present experiencing
unspecified symptoms
during his ten-day
period of self-
isolation.
“I am
having some
unpleasant
moments but
I hope that I
will improve
little by little,”
Nadal said. “I am
now homebound and
have reported the result
to those who have been in
contact with me. As a conse-
quence of the situation, I
have to have total flexibility
with my calendar and I will
Nadal Covid case
raises fears for
Australian Open
Tennis
Stuart Fraser Tennis Correspondent
analyse my options depending on my
evolution.”
Whether the first grand-slam tour-
nament of 2022 goes ahead remains to
be seen. Organisers are anxiously
monitoring developments with the
Omicron variant and understandably
have concerns about its rapid rate of
transmission. More than 3,000 players,
coaches and other associated staff from
around the world are due to begin arriv-
ing in Australia after Christmas Day,
raising the potential for logistical chaos
with close-contact protocols should
there be further cases discovered.
Murray is one of many players who
are adjusting their training sched-
ules in an attempt to avoid
becoming infected with Covid-- The former world No 1 has
chosen not to practise at the
LTA’s National Tennis Centre
in Roehampton, southwest
London, because of “a num-
ber of positives there in
the last ten days”.
Instead he is hitting
balls on a private
court and using his
gym at home for
fitness drills.
Emma Raduca-
nu suffered con-
siderable dis-
ruption to her
preparations
for the new
season when
she tested
positive after
arriving in
Abu Dhabi
ten days ago.
Fulham are
caught cold
by Ndiaye’s
early strike
Paul Heckingbottom’s perfect record as
Sheffield United manager remained
intact as his side earned a narrow but
deserved victory away to the Sky Bet
Championship leaders, Fulham. The
home side had not lost in the league
since October 2, but, using the blue-
print that served their previous manag-
er, Chris Wilder, so well, United blunted
the division’s most potent attack to
make it nine points from three games
under Heckingbottom.
The visiting side served up a tactical
masterclass of defending in numbers
and counterattacking at pace at Craven
Cottage. It helped that they took the
lead with what proved to be the game’s
only goal after only three minutes.
Iliman Ndiaye collected the ball mid-
way in his own half and ran with it. He
outpaced Jean Michaël Seri and then
sprinted forward 50 yards before strik-
ing a low shot into the bottom corner.
“To win this way and to show that
spirit was a real big thing for us because
we haven’t looked like doing that so far,”
Heckingbottom, whose side are now
three points off the play-off spots, said.
Fulham struggled to pass their way
through a resolute back three protected
by two sitting midfielders. In one of
their few first-half openings, Aleksan-
dar Mitrovic sprinted on to a Kenny
Tete ball and sent a shot wide.
Despite introducing three forward-
thinking substitutes, it took Fulham
until the 75th minute to produce a shot
on target when Mitrovic forced Wes
Foderingham into an easy save. Ful-
ham’s second home defeat of the season
was confirmed only after the Serbia
striker struck the bar in stoppage time.
“We had a really bad evening, not
[just] because of the result but because
of the way we played,” Marco Silva, the
Fulham head coach, said.
To add to United’s heartwarming
evening, John Fleck came on with
15 minutes left for his first appearance
since he collapsed on the pitch in the
match away to Reading four weeks ago.Sky Bet Championship
Ivan SpeckFulham
Sheffield Utd
Ndiaye 30
1
Fulham (4-2-3-1): M Rodak 6 — K Tete 7,
T Adarabioyo 5, T Ream 6, A Robinson 7 (R Muniz
69min, 5) — H Reed 7, J M Seri 5 (T Cairney 46, 6)
— H Wilson 7, F Carvalho 6 (B Decordova-Reid 61,
6), N Kebano 7 — A Mitrovic 8.
Sheffield United (3-4-1-2): W Foderingham 7 —
C Basham 8, J Egan 9, J Robinson 8 — J Bogle 7,
O Norwood 7, C Hourihane 6 (J Fleck 75),
E Stevens 7 — M Gibbs-White 8 (S Berge 46, 8) —
I Ndiaye 8 (B Osborn 78), B Sharp 7. Booked
Foderingham, Robinson, Bogle.
Referee J Linington.
Attendance 17,308.specifically targeted improvements in
the physical side of her game this
month and she has been unable to work
with her new coach Torben Beltz as
much as she would have liked. She is
likely to play her first match of the new
year in Melbourne on January 3 or 4.
“I just want to look back at the end of
2022 and think that I have improved in
some way and also learned,” Raducanu
said. “I have got a lot of learning to do.
It might take longer to recover but we’ll
see. I’m looking forward to getting
started.”Champions Cup round of 16 could become single leg
become a one-leg contest, played at the
home of the team with the best record
from the pool stage. This would free up
one weekend to complete any out-
standing matches from the pool stage.
Two rounds of pool fixtures remain,
to be played on successive weekends in
January, and any decisions are likely to
be contingent on whether those games
proceed. Cross-channel matches are
shrouded in doubt after France tighten-
ed restrictions on travel from the UK to
try to minimise the spread of the Omi-
cron variant. All matches between
French teams and English or Welsh op-
ponents were postponed last weekend.
At present, five matches from the
Champions Cup last weekend and two
Challenge Cup matches need to be
rescheduled. Further contingencieswill be needed if there is significant
disruption to the next two rounds.
Covid testing among Gallagher
Premiership clubs last week revealed a
significant increase in positive cases,
with 47 players and seven staff mem-
bers from nine different clubs testing
positive, but all six top-flight matches
are due to take place this weekend.
Saracens had to forfeit their Euro-
pean Challenge Cup tie against Pau on
Saturday after an outbreak among their
squad, conceding a 28-0 defeat as a re-
sult, but they remain confident they will
be able to field a 23-man squad for the
Premiership game at home to Worces-
ter Warriors on Sunday.
Meanwhile Jonny Hill has confirmed
he will leave Exeter Chiefs to join Sale
Sharks at the end of the season. Asignificant role in the transfer was
played by Tom Curry, Hill’s England
team-mate, who will pack down along-
side the lock in club colours as well after
Hill, 27, agreed a long-term deal with
the Sharks. In six seasons at Exeter, Hill
has won two Premiership titles and the
Heineken Champions Cup, while
earning 12 England caps.
Exeter are also losing Sam Skinner,
the 26-year-old Scotland lock, who will
move to Edinburgh next season, as the
reduction in the Gallagher Premiership
salary cap continues to take effect.
The Premiership has reduced the
salary cap from £6.4 million to £5 mil-
lion for three seasons and Rob Baxter,
the Chiefs’ director of rugby, said last
week: “It makes it difficult to keep a
successful group together.”Rugby union
John Westerby
Raducanu with her Spoty trophy in Abu Dhabi, where she has been isolating after
testing positive for Covid on her arrival. Nadal, inset, also returned a positive test