Tennis teen on top

SPANISH tennis sensation Carlos Alcaraz crushed Russia’s Daniil Medvedev 6­3, 62, in the early hours of this Sunday, March 19, to win the Indian Wells Masters 1000 trophy in California. In doing so, he also recovered the No.1 world ranking.

His opponent arrived on a winning streak of 19 games unbeaten but the Murcian teenager showed that record very little respect as he proceeded to thrash the Russian star. After just one hour and 10 minutes, the contest was all over. This victory was the third Masters 1000 that Alcaraz had achieved in his short tennis career. He already had this year’s ATP 250 in Buenos Aires under his belt. On Monday March 20, he was announced once again as the leader of the ATP ranking, 240 points above the legendary Novak Djokovic.

Neill apologised to Toney in court in January for sending the message, which was described by a judge as “exceptionally offensive” and with “racial overtones”.

He has been banned from every football ground in the UK for three years, the first such sentence issued under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.

In addition, the ban prevents Neill from travelling abroad for international friendlies, qualification matches and tournaments.

The new legislation was brought in last year to widen the scope of banning orders for online hate crimes.

Toney also received racist and abusive messages after scoring the equaliser against Arsenal at Emirates Stadium in January, prompting Brentford Football Club to issue a statement declaring that, “Ivan Toney has been subject to sickening racist abuse on a regular basis, and we want to see tough action taken against anyone found guilty of such abuse.”