Albert Ramos-Vinolas has pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the 2016 French Open with his straight sets dismantling of world No 9 Milos Raonic. Caroline Blumberg / EPA
Albert Ramos-Vinolas has pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the 2016 French Open with his straight sets dismantling of world No 9 Milos Raonic. Caroline Blumberg / EPA

Spanish and into French Open last-eight, but it’s not Nadal? Ramos-Vinolas a ‘very happy’ man



A Spanish left-hander moved into the quarter-finals of the French Open on Sunday. No surprise there, although his name was not Rafael Nadal but Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

With nine-time champion Nadal rocking the tournament on Friday when he pulled out with a wrist injury, the onus has fallen on some of his less-celebrated countrymen to carry the flag.

Ramos-Vinolas, ranked No 55 in the world, had never been past the second round in 18 previous grand slam appearances but Nadal would have approved of the way he swept past eighth seed Milos Raonic, the big-serving Canadian, to set up a clash with reigning champion Stanislas Wawrinka.

• Andy Murray: Federer absence a 'huge loss' to French Open, 'let's hope he's back for Wimbledon'

• Gallery: Rainy weather cannot stop Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Dominic Thiem at French Open

His 6-2 6-4 6-4 victory was only his second defeat of a top 10 player, the other being Roger Federer last year, and followed his win over No 23 seed Jack Sock on Friday.

His run has been even more surprising as his previous four visits to Roland Garros resulted in first-round losses.

“I’m very happy. I didn’t expect this,” Ramos-Vinolas, 28, said. “After losing last week 6-1 6-1 against Wawrinka (in Geneva), I was a little bit down.

“I don’t know why this week things seem to be falling into place but I hope I will continue in that way.”

Three other Spaniards will try to join Ramos-Vinolas in the men’s quarter-finals on Monday when Roberto Bautista Agut plays top seed Novak Djokovic, former runner-up David Ferrer is up against Tomas Berdych and Marcel Granollers, who was handed a walkover by Nadal, faces Austria’s Dominic Thiem.

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The Travel Diaries of Albert Einstein The Far East, Palestine, and Spain, 1922 – 1923
Editor Ze’ev Rosenkranz
​​​​​​​Princeton

BEACH SOCCER WORLD CUP

Group A

Paraguay
Japan
Switzerland
USA

Group B

Uruguay
Mexico
Italy
Tahiti

Group C

Belarus
UAE
Senegal
Russia

Group D

Brazil
Oman
Portugal
Nigeria

'Laal Kaptaan'

Director: Navdeep Singh

Stars: Saif Ali Khan, Manav Vij, Deepak Dobriyal, Zoya Hussain

Rating: 2/5

DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin

Director: Shawn Levy

Rating: 3/5

The Gandhi Murder
  • 71 - Years since the death of MK Gandhi, also christened India's Father of the Nation
  • 34 - Nationalities featured in the film The Gandhi Murder
  • 7 - million dollars, the film's budget 
Sarfira

Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad

Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal

Rating: 2/5

MATCH INFO

Chelsea 0

Liverpool 2 (Mane 50', 54')

Red card: Andreas Christensen (Chelsea)

Man of the match: Sadio Mane (Liverpool)

CRICKET WORLD CUP LEAGUE 2

Mannofield, Aberdeen

All matches start at 2pm UAE time and will be broadcast on icc.tv

UAE fixtures

Wednesday, Aug 10 – Scotland v UAE
Thursday, Aug 11 - UAE v United States
Saturday, Aug 14 – Scotland v UAE
Monday, Aug 15 – UAE v United States

UAE squad

Ahmed Raza (captain), Chirag Suri, Muhammad Waseem, Vriitya Aravind, CP Rizwan, Basil Hameed, Rohan Mustafa, Zawar Farid, Kashif Daud, Karthik Meiyappan, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Sabir Ali, Alishan Sharafu

Table (top three teams advance directly to the 2023 World Cup Qualifier)

1. Oman 36 21 13 1 1 44
2. Scotland 24 16 6 0 2 34
3. UAE 22 12 8 1 1 26
--
4. Namibia 18 9 9 0 0 18
5. United States 24 11 12 1 0 23
6. Nepal 20 8 11 1 0 17
7. Papua New Guinea 20 1 19 0 0 2

PRESIDENTS CUP

Draw for Presidents Cup fourball matches on Thursday (Internationals first mention). All times UAE:

02.32am (Thursday): Marc Leishman/Joaquin Niemann v Tiger Woods/Justin Thomas
02.47am (Thursday): Adam Hadwin/Im Sung-jae v Xander Schauffele/Patrick Cantlay
03.02am (Thursday): Adam Scott/An Byeong-hun v Bryson DeChambeau/Tony Finau
03.17am (Thursday): Hideki Matsuyama/CT Pan v Webb Simpson/Patrick Reed
03.32am (Thursday): Abraham Ancer/Louis Oosthuizen v Dustin Johnson/Gary Woodland

What is Dungeons & Dragons?

Dungeons & Dragons began as an interactive game which would be set up on a table in 1974. One player takes on the role of dungeon master, who directs the game, while the other players each portray a character, determining its species, occupation and moral and ethical outlook. They can choose the character’s abilities, such as strength, constitution, dexterity, intelligence, wisdom and charisma. In layman’s terms, the winner is the one who amasses the highest score.


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