Today's sports news: What you need to know

Latest - Greek third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas has battled to a five set win over Briton Andy Murray in the first round of the US Open in New York.

Murray, the 2012 champion in New York, was up two sets to one, before Tsitsipas came through to win 2-6, 7-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in four hours and 49 minutes.

America's top ranked men's tennis player John Isner has become the highest seed to be beaten on the opening day.

Isner, the 11th seed was beaten by fellow American Brandon Nakashima in straight sets.

Seeded winners so far today include Andrey Rublev, Simona Halep, Garbine Muguruza and Casper Ruud.

Former champion Marin Cilic of Croatia retired from his first-round match against German Philipp Kohlschreiber with an apparent injury, his earliest exit from the U.S. Open in 13 attempts.

The 2014 winner had been up two sets but bowed out of the match early on in the fifth with Kohlschreiber leading 2-0, after struggling with his serve.

Other players to withdraw because of injury were American Jennifer Brady, 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga out.

Fans allowed in to watch Black Caps

Pakistan will allow spectators who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 to attend their home limited-overs series against New Zealand starting next month.

The grounds will be full to 25% capacity. New Zealand will arrive in Islamabad on Sept. 11 with Rawalpindi hosting three one-dayers before five Twenty20 Internationals in Lahore.

"Only spectators who are fully vaccinated and have Immunisation Certificate for Covid-19 will be allowed entry inside the stadia," the Pakistan Cricket Board said in a statement.

The Pindi Cricket Stadium will be able to welcome 4,500 spectators for the 50-overs format while the Gaddafi Stadium can have a crowd of around 5,500 for the T20 matches following approval from the National Command and Operations Centre, a military run body that oversees COVID-19 operations in Pakistan.

Pakistan has reported about 1.16 million cases of Covid-19 with over 25,600 deaths, according to government data.

International cricket returned to Pakistan in 2019 after opposing teams had refused to travel following a militant attack on the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore in 2009 that killed six policemen and two civilians.

The country has since hosted South Africa, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

-Reuters

F1 to review Belgium Grand Prix

Formula One will review the rules on how long a race needs to run before points can be awarded after bad weather turned yesterday's Belgian Grand Prix into a three-lap farce with no overtaking allowed.

McLaren Racing head Zak Brown said he had spoken to Formula One chief executive Stefano Domenicali after the rainswept race at Spa-Francorchamps and there would be further discussions this week with F1, teams and the governing FIA.

"What I always tell people on the race team is mistakes are okay, fix them and don't make the same one twice. That's what we need to do now.

"We need to figure out what is the minimum allowance of a race. Is it 25%? And there needs to be some racing."

Formula One's sporting regulations say half-points can be awarded "if the leader has completed more than two laps but less than 75% of the original race distance".

The race was the shortest ever, with Red Bull's Max Verstappen taking the win after three laps behind the safety car and drivers trundling around in heavy spray.

Several drivers said even half-points should not have been awarded. Mercedes's seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton called it a farce and said fans should get their money back.

-Reuters

Langer gets support

Former captain Ricky Ponting has lent his support to ex-team mate Justin Langer as the embattled coach attempts to weather a challenging period at the helm of Australian cricket.

Langer has come under scrutiny amid media reports players have tired of his intense coaching style after disappointing results on recent limited-overs tours of the West Indies and Bangladesh.

"I know there's been a lot of negativity the last few weeks, I really felt for Justin, I rang Justin a few times," Ponting, who captained Australia from 2004 to 2008, told 2GB radio.

"They just got back from that tough tour of the West Indies and then Bangladesh, and he was locked up in his hotel room in Adelaide, and he was sort of copping it left, right and centre.

"Me and a lot of his close friends have reached out to him."

Test captain Tim Paine and other senior players have held talks with Langer.

Langer said the talks had been beneficial.

-Reuters

Henry signs on with Belgium

Former France forward Thierry Henry will be a member of Belgium's coaching team through to the 2022 World Cup.

Henry was previously in the coaching setup under Roberto Martinez as Belgium reached the 2018 World Cup semi-finals, rising to assistant manager before embarking on his own managerial career.

The former Arsenal player had an unsuccessful spell in charge of French side AS Monaco from 2018-19, before becoming coach of MLS team Montreal Impact.

He left the Canadian club in February, saying he wanted to be closer to his London-based family, before re-joining Belgium in June for their Euro 2020 campaign.

That deal has been extended until the end of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, when Martinez's contract is also due to expire.

-Reuters

Staggering figures released on football transfers

More than $75 billion has been spent on football transfer fees worldwide over the past decade - with English clubs leading the list of big spenders.

World governing body Fifa conducted extensive research of transfers that took place between 2011 and 2020.

Manchester City and Chelsea headed the table of biggest-spending sides, two of 12 Premier League clubs in the top 30.

Southampton, 21st in the table overall, spent more than Borussia Dortmund, the report says.

The report marks a decade since Fifa launched its Transfer Matching System.

Fifa introduced the system to record player transfers between clubs, making it mandatory in October 2010.

Over the past decade, there have been far more transfers involving Brazilian players (15,128) - and more money spent on them ($10bn) - than on footballers from any other nation.

Overall, English clubs' net transfer spend of $10.3bn was far higher than any other nation, with China $2.9bn next.

A total of $5bn was paid to agents in fees over the decade to 2020.

-Reuters