NFL playoff predictions: will anyone thwart the Chiefs’ three-peat bid?

The postseason kicks off on Saturday. Our writers pick the dark horses, players to watch and make their tips for the NFL’s championship gameCincinnati Bengals. This is the obvious answer, as it’s a bummer when the team with one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks (Joe Burrow), the receiving triple crown winner (Ja’Marr Chase) and the NFL’s sack leader (Trey Hendrickson) are on the outside looking in. Plus, it would be fun to watch opposing offenses torch the Bengals’ iffy defense. As it is, we’ll have to wait until next season to know whether a defensive overhaul (including the firing of defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo) will bear any dividends

Australian Open draw: Emma Raducanu on early collision course with Swiatek

Emma Raducanu will hope to start the new tennis season strongly as she faces Ekaterina Alexandrova, the 26th seed, in a challenging but winnable first-round match at the Australian Open after being unable to compete in the opening week of the season due to a back injury.Since travelling to Melbourne, Raducanu has trained normally on the tournament grounds and has looked in good shape during her public training sessions. On Tuesday, Raducanu competed against the 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in a practice set on Rod Laver Arena, which she won.Raducanu has been drawn into Iga Swiatek’s section of the singles draw and the pair could face each other in the third round. Swiatek, the No 2 seed, will begin her tournament against the doubles No 1, Katerina Siniakova

Alex de Minaur faces prickly path as Nick Kyrgios lands ‘kind’ Australian Open draw

Eighth-seed Alex de Minaur faces a tough start to his Australian Open tilt after drawing former world 22 Botic van de Zandschulp in the first round, with a potential match-up against top seed and defending champion Jannik Sinner in the quarter-finals.The draw for the Australian Open was made on Thursday ahead of the start of tournament on Sunday. De Minaur is hoping to become the first Australian to win the men’s singles at his home grand slam since Mark Edmondson in 1976.The Australian has beaten his first round opponent in their only previous meeting, a clash in the Davis Cup in 2022, but Van de Zandschulp will be no pushover. The 29-year-old has reached the third round at Melbourne Park before, was a US Open quarter-finalist in 2021 and upset Carlos Alcaraz in the second round at Flushing Meadows last year

‘Anyone can pickleball’: boom sport a hit over rugby ahead of Australian Open debut | Jack Snape

It has been hyped up by the likes of Nick Kyrgios, Patty Mills and Adam Scott, and few social media feeds are safe from an influencer picking up a paddle. Pickleball will now make its Australian Open debut in a milestone that marks the fledgling sport’s legitimacy, as participation booms and professional opportunities mature.The format that resembles mini-tennis with paddles and plastic, hollow balls has now overtaken rugby union, baseball and billiards in participation in Australia. With popularity soaring, local pickleballers are lobbying the government for official status to help with funding for court shortages and integrity measures to police burgeoning elite competitions.Tennis Australia’s head of game expansion, Callum Beale, says the Australian Open has included accessible paddle formats like padel and pop tennis in recent years to expand the appeal of the broad tennis category, but this year’s first pickleball slam is a “symbolic” moment

World Anti-Doping Agency faces crisis after US government withholds funding

The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) is facing a crisis after the US government defaulted on a $3.6m contribution to the global sport watchdog’s annual budget.Wada said the US had missed the 31 December 2024 deadline for payment and retaliated by saying representatives from the US would now be ineligible to sit on its foundation board or executive committee.The funding breakdown comes after a year of sniping between Wada and the US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada), which started when it was revealed last year that Wada had cleared 23 Chinese swimmers to compete at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, even though they had tested positive for banned heart drug trimetazidine (TMZ). Wada accepted the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency reasoning that a kitchen at a team hotel could have contaminated all 23 samples

Travis Kelce denies Chiefs lost to eliminate Bengals from NFL playoffs

Travis Kelce has rebutted claims that the Kansas City Chiefs rested starters in their final game of the regular season in order to deny the Cincinnati Bengals a place in the playoffs.After the Bengals won their final game of the regular season last Saturday against the Pittsburgh Steelers, they needed the Denver Broncos to lose to the Chiefs and the New York Jets to beat the Miami Dolphins the following day. The Jets duly overcame the Dolphins, but a severely weakened Chiefs team lost 38-0 to the Broncos, allowing Denver to claim the final wildcard spot in the AFC.The Bengals would have represented a tough challenge for any team in the postseason. They won their last five games of the regular season, inspired by Joe Burrow, who led the league in passing touchdowns and yards, and Ja’Marr Chase, who topped the NFL in receiving yards, receptions and receiving touchdowns