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Today's sports news: What you need to know

07:10 am on 28 September 2020

Latest - Julian Alaphilippe timed his late attack perfectly to claim the world championship road race title, giving France its first rainbow jersey since 1997.

Photo: PHOTOSPORT

Alaphilippe's brutal acceleration on the last climb of the 258.2km race left his rivals in his wake and the Frenchman eased to the line with Belgian Wout van Aert having to settle for silver.

Swiss Marc Hirschi took bronze.

Three years after coming close in Bergen, Norway, when he was reined in with one kilometre to go, Alaphilippe benefited from top work by the French team, with Guillaume Martin covering their opponents' attacks on the penultimate ascent.

As Alaphilippe turned on the power 12km from the finish on the last of nine 28.8-km laps, only a handful of top riders - Jakob Fuglsang, Hirschi, Van Aert, Primoz Roglic and Michal Kwiatkowski - were left to chase.

It was the same tactics he used on the Poggio climb at Milan-Sanremo last month but this time, Van Aert, who prevailed that day, was not able to follow.

The quintet were unable to catch him before the final kilometres on Imola's former Formula One track, where they started to prepare for the sprint for second place, leaving Alaphilippe to celebrate the title.

-Reuters

Venus Williams and Andy Murray slump to opening defeats in Paris

Former French Open runner-up Venus Williams suffered her second successive first-round loss in a Grand Slam as she went down 6-4 6-4 to Slovakia's Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.

Seven-times Grand Slam champion Williams fought ferociously until the end, saving two match points on serve, but Schmiedlova showed great composure to serve it out, sealing victory with a forehand down the line.

Williams, playing her 87th Grand Slam and now ranked 76th in the world, also lost in the opening round at the U.S Open, the first time she had fallen at the first hurdle at her home Slam in major in 22 appearances.

She says she will now head back to the US and won't play again this year.

Meanwhile swiss star Stan Wawrkina advanced to the second round with a 6-1 6-3 6-2 victory over Britain's Andy Murray, his first Tour-level win since the season's restart.

The last time the pair met at Roland Garros, they battled for 4-1/2 hours in an epic semi-final but this time Wawrinka did not drop serve and converted six break points, firing 42 winners while Murray made 26 unforced errors.

-Reuters

Leicester stay top with big win over Man City

A Jamie Vardy hat-trick coupled with goals from James Maddison and Youri Tielemans steered Leicester City to a stunning 5-2 win at Manchester City and kept them top of the Premier League with a maximum nine points from three games.

City had not conceded five goals in a home game since February 2003 against Arsenal and it was the first time their boss Pep Guardiola had seen a side he is managing concede five in what was his 686th game in the dugout.

With injured strikers Gabriel Jesus and Sergio Aguero unavailable, City lacked bite as Raheem Sterling looked uncomfortable on his own up front while a porous defence was unable to contain Leicester's lethal fast breaks.

City, however, looked to be in cruise control after a sublime volley from Riyad Mahrez against his former club gave the home side a fourth-minute lead, as Leicester were barely able to break out of their own half in the opening stages.

Mahrez unleashed an unstoppable shot past goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel after the visitors failed to clear a corner but Vardy turned the match on its head with two penalties either side of a deft back-heel finish.

-Reuters

Newcastle hold Spurs to draw

Another controversial handball decision gave Newcastle United a stoppage-time equaliser by Callum Wilson from the penalty spot and a 1-1 draw at Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on Sunday.

Spurs had led through a 25th-minute Lucas Moura goal and Newcastle had not managed a shot on target but deep into stoppage time Newcastle's Andy Carroll and Eric Dier challenged for a ball and the forward's header brushed the arm of the Spurs defender.

A VAR review led referee Peter Bankes to look at the incident, in which Dier had his back to the ball as he jumped with Carroll, and point to the spot.

Wilson's spot-kick squeezed past Hugo Lloris and earned Steve Bruce's side a point that had looked unlikely for most of the match.

The incident followed similar match-deciding handball decisions in Manchester United's win at Brighton and Everton's victory at Crystal Palace on Saturday.

The decisions are a result of the Premier League adopting the same interpretation of the handball law as has been in operation in other countries for two years.

-Reuters

Rublev stuns Tsitsipas to lift Hamburg title

Andrey Rublev will arrive at the French Open having secured his third ATP title of the season after the Russian youngster defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4 3-6 7-5 in the Hamburg European Open final on Sunday.

As the year's last Grand Slam began in Paris, Rublev and Tsitsipas were almost 900 kilometres away in northern Germany, battling for the ATP 500 crown at Am Rothenbaum.

After sharing the first two sets, second seed Tsitsipas looked in control with a 5-3 lead in the decider but was denied the trophy by a late Rublev comeback.

Rublev, who lost last year's final to Nikoloz Basilashvili, ran away with the last four games of the match to become the first Russian to win the tournament since Nikolay Davydenko in 2009.

-Reuters