Lucky loser Van de Zandschulp stuns struggling Djokovic at Indian Wells

Novak Djokovic’s difficult start to the season continued on the North American hard courts as he crashed out of Indian Wells with an extremely poor performance in his opening match, losing 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 in the second round to the world No 85, Botic van de Zandschulp.Despite producing arguably the best performance of the year in his four-set victory over Carlos Alcaraz at the Australian Open, Djokovic has now lost three consecutive matches since that triumph. The thigh injury Djokovic suffered during his win over Alcaraz forced him to retire from his semi-final against Alexander Zverev and then he fell in the first round of the Qatar Open last month to Matteo Berrettini.As an increasingly dejected Andy Murray looked on from his player box, Djokovic’s lack of match practice was clear throughout a dire opening set, which included an extended period where he even struggled to win points. The Dutchman consolidated his early lead by winning 18 of 19 points in the middle of the set

Jeremiah Azu wins European Indoor gold for Britain in men’s 60m

It took 6.49sec of staggering power and fluency for Jeremiah Azu to win the 60m European Indoor gold for Britain. And about the same time again for him to have a packed crowd in Apeldoorn eating out of his hand.For no sooner had he been asked for his thoughts on his victory, the Rotterdam-born Azu began to speak in fluent Dutch: “I am here, I am in the building!” Having been foot perfect on the track, the 23-year-old proved to be word perfect off it too.Extra motivation, Azu admitted, had been provided after his wife, Terri, gave birth to their son, Azaire, last week – even though it had led to a few sleepless nights

‘We can’t wait’: Scotland’s Townsend relishing France test after win over Wales

After dominating yet another match without maximising the return on the scoreboard, Scotland now face the daunting prospect of a trip to Paris to take on high-flying France, the one team scoring even more freely than Scotland. They will probably thrive on it.Gregor Townsend acknowledged that Scotland face the toughest assignment of all on Saturday night. “France scored 70 points against a very good Italian team,” he said. “They got 40 points against Wales, 40 points against Ireland

Coe targets Musk and Zuckerberg talks over ‘pond life’ abuse of female athletes

Sebastian Coe will demand urgent talks with Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg to stop “pond life” abusing female sports stars with impunity if he becomes International Olympic Committee president.Speaking after a week in which Emma Raducanu spoke about not being able “see the ball through tears” after being approached by a stalker, and Eilish McColgan faced a blizzard of hate after posting a video of her running on social media, Lord Coe pledged to create a taskforce to find better ways to protect female athletes.“It is vital that women feel that sport is a safe space,” he said. “You cannot have young athletes thinking the second you get public exposure that this comes at you like a waterfall of horror.”Asked what he made of comments posted on Facebook, Instagram and X attacking women, the World Athletics president, who is among the favourites for the IOC presidential election on 20 March, replied: “It’s pond life

Galthié’s gamble with lopsided bench pays off for France as Ireland unravel | Andy Bull

Team’s replacement forwards made the difference with the champions unable to cope with their power and speedFor this weekend at least, Dublin has a French quarter. By the time the final whistle went at the Aviva Stadium, the thousands of French fans inside, outside and all around the ground were cheering, screaming, roaring, singing, dancing, in celebration of one of the great victories.They had travelled in huge numbers and been rewarded with five tries and 42 points, a record score for them in this city, revenge in plenty for the 21-point thrashing by Ireland in Marseille last year. France are favourites for the championship now and the Irish are squaring up to the kind of existential hangover you get by being so completely beaten in a match that had so much riding on it.The game will take some unpicking

Fabien Galthié fears Antoine Dupont suffered ‘serious’ injury against Ireland

France may have claimed a famous 42-27 victory, but in the moments after the match Fabien Galthié was too furious about the injury suffered by Antoine Dupont to take great pleasure in his side’s win over Ireland.Dupont was forced off the pitch in the 30th minute after Tadhg Beirne collapsed on to his knee while attempting a clear-out. Galthié described the incident as “reprehensible”, and has highlighted the actions of Beirne and Calvin Nash, who received a 20-minute red card for a high tackle on Pierre-Louis Barassi, in his post-match report to the citing commissioner.“There is a suspicion of a quite serious knee injury to Antoine,” Galthié said. “He is suffering and we are suffering with him