Serena Williams quietly re-enters drug-testing pool in step toward possible 2026 return

Serena Williams has taken the procedural move required of any player contemplating a competitive comeback, after the 23-time grand slam singles champion re-entered the International Tennis Integrity Agency’s (ITIA) registered testing pool for the first time since 2022.Williams, 44, has not played an official match since her run to the third round of the US Open more than three years ago. Although she described her departure at the time as “evolving away” from the sport rather than a hard retirement, she filed the paperwork with the ITIA that September that exempted her from the sport’s stringent whereabouts requirements. To return to competition, however, players must make themselves available for out-of-competition testing for six months before they are allowed to enter an event.Williams’s name appeared on the agency’s updated testing-pool list dated 6 October

Men’s Rugby World Cup 2027: how the draw will work and the new format explained

A potential path to victory at the 2027 men’s Rugby World Cup will become clearer in Sydney on Wednesday when the draw for the tournament is madeKicking off on 1 October 2027, the men’s event will feature 24 teams instead of 20, and will be the first to include a round of 16. Each tournament since 2003 has included 20 competing nations, and the previous format moved straight from the pool stage to the quarter-finals. There will be a total of 52 matches in 2027, up from 48.Instead of four pools of five there are six pools of four. The eventual winners will still be obliged to play seven matches to claim the trophy, but will play one pool match fewer, before the last-16 game for a place in the last eight

Robin Smith obituary

In the eras before the Twenty20 format nobody hit a cricket ball harder than Robin Smith. Muscled like a prizefighter but with quick feet inherited from his ballet dancer mother, he produced strokes, the square cut especially, with a force that left dents in boundary boards and opponents’ ambitions. His wicket was highly sought after, for teams knew they were in for a hand-wringing experience, in all senses, should he spend any time at the crease.But Smith, who has died aged 62 after a long period of ill-health, was a mass of contradictions. On the face of it he was a courageous, attacking batter famed for thrilling encounters with fast bowlers, yet behind the bravado was a highly insecure person who constantly questioned his worth

ITV to show every England Test from 2026 after agreeing new £80m deal

ITV has won the rights to broadcast every England rugby union Test from next year after submitting a successful £80m bid for the inaugural Nations Championship.The terrestrial broadcaster is understood to have beaten off rivals to secure a deal that will ensure that all of the home nations matches will be available free-to-air for at least the next three years, in a major boost for the exposure of the sport.ITV already has a joint £63m deal with the BBC for the Six Nations Championship, with the commercial channel having the rights to every England game and 10 of the 15 matches overall as it is paying a greater share of the bill, and once the contracts are signed it will also have exclusive rights for the first two editions of the Nations Championship. The 2027 World Cup in Australia will also be broadcast live on ITV, as it has been since 1991.The Nations Championship deal gives ITV the right to show every game in the new 12-team competition, which features all the Six Nations and their major southern hemisphere rivals – South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, Fiji and Japan

‘He was a batter ahead of his time’: Robin Smith, former England cricketer, dies aged 62

Tributes have been paid to Robin Smith, whose swashbuckling batting and fearlessness at the crease lit up English cricket in an era when it often languished in the doldrums, fol­lowing his death at the age of 62.Smith played 62 Tests for ­England between 1988 and 1996, averaging 43.67. But it was the sight of him taking the fight to the fastest pace bowlers of his generation that will live longest in the memory.His highest Test score of 175, against West Indies in Antigua in 1994, came against a bowling attack led by Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, who took 924 Test wickets between them

Constitution Hill should never be asked to jump a hurdle in public again | Greg Wood

Trainer Nicky Henderson and owner Michael Buckley are still mulling over the options for Constitution Hill after his third fall in four starts at Newcastle on Saturday, but the simple fact that Henderson floated the question “can we go on asking him to do it?” in the immediate aftermath suggests that, in his heart, he already knows the answer. Whatever else might beckon for the eight-year-old – and a recent 160+ rating over timber suggests that he could compete at a very decent level on the Flat – this is a horse that should not be asked to jump a hurdle in public again.Henderson’s competitive streak is as fierce as ever after nearly half a century in the game, and so too his appetite for a challenge. As such, it would be odd if the urge to attempt a repeat of Sprinter Sacre’s unlikely return to Grade One-winning form at the 2016 festival was not nagging away at the back of his mind somewhere. Sprinter Sacre’s second Champion Chase victory was one of the great Cheltenham moments of recent decades, and Constitution Hill, after all, set off as the 4-11 favourite for the Champion Hurdle just eight months ago, with an unbeaten 10-race record to his name