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Defending champions Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka booked quarter-final berths at the rain-hit ATP-WTA Cincinnati Open on Wednesday with straight-set wins.

Sinner shrugged off a mid-match rain interruption lasting nearly three hours as he advanced with a 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) victory over Adrian Mannarino.

He next faces Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime, who beat Benjamin Bonzi of France 6-4, 6-3.

Sabalenka, taken to three sets in her previous match with Emma Raducanu, defeated Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6-1, 7-5, winning a season-leading 50th match of 2025 and reaching her 29th career last-eight at the elite 1000 level.

Sabalenka had to work after surrendering a second-set break, but she broke Bouzas Maneiro in the final game to seal the victory.

“The key was to focus and put as much pressure as possible on her serve,” Sabalenka said. “I was up a break, made a couple of mistakes and she broke me back.

“I’m glad to win in straight sets – I didn’t want to stay for three hours.”

World number one Sinner, playing his first tournament since lifting the trophy at Wimbledon, notched his 24th consecutive hardcourt match win to gain his fifth quarter-final of the season.

The victory required patience, with the Italian who turns 24 on Saturday passing some of the afternoon weather pause by playing cards with his team.

Sinner had won the first set and they were on serve in the second when they returned, but the Frenchman’s tricky game took a toll as Sinner was broken while trying to serve out the match.

The second set instead went to a tiebreak, with the Italian firing his 11th and 12th aces to clinch victory.

“He’s a very difficult opponent, different from the other payers,” Sinner said. “He can read the opponent well.

“It was a struggle to close it out, but I’m happy to be in the quarter-finals.”

Earlier former champion Alexander Zverev polished off a weather-hit third-round victory, winning the final four points of a 6-4, 6-4 win over Brandon Nakashima.

The entire one-game exercise, with 2021 Cincy winner Zverev leading 6-4, 5-4 when play resumed, took less than two minutes, with the third seed set for a later fourth-round encounter against Toronto finalist Karen Khachanov.

Fifth seed Ben Shelton, last week’s Toronto winner, reached the fourth round with a 7-6 (7/3), 6-3, victory over Roberto Bautista Agut in a match rescheduled from Tuesday.

READ ALSO: India To Bid For Commonwealth Games As Part Of Olympic Push

 Swiatek advances 

Women’s third seed Iga Swiatek and men’s seventh seed Holger Rune both booked quarter-final berths before afternoon showers struck.

Wimbledon champion Swiatek beat Sorana Cirstea 6-4, 6-3, overcoming 33 unforced errors in a 95-minute victory.

“I wanted to be more solid than in my last match,” Swiatek said. “I’m happy with the level of my focus and the consistency.”

Rune advanced as 2024 finalist Frances Tiafoe retired with lower back pain with Denmark’s Rune up 6-4, 3-1.

The match was a re-run of a quarter-final here a year ago, won by the American who went on to fall to Sinner in the final.

Tiafoe received treatment on his back but it didn’t seem to help as Rune gained control.

The American walked dejectedly off court, carrying only a pair of shoes while an official carted away his massive tennis bag.

Rune, bothered this season by his own injury worries, secured his 100th career hard-court win and his first defeat of a top 20 opponent since he beat Carlos Alcaraz in the Barcelona final in April.

In another match interrupted on Tuesday, Magda Linette reached the fourth round at Cincinnati for the first time with a 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 6-3 upset of fourth-seeded American Jessica Pegula.

A British man accused of driving his vehicle into crowds celebrating Liverpool’s Premier League title win faces an additional 24 criminal charges, prosecutors revealed Thursday at his latest court hearing.

Former British Marine Paul Doyle, 53, appeared tearful as he joined the hearing at Liverpool Crown Court via videolink from prison, when details of the new counts stemming from the May 26 incident emerged.

Merseyside Police now say 134 people were injured when Doyle allegedly drove his Ford Galaxy Titanium into crowds who were leaving Liverpool’s waterfront after a victory parade.

The 31 charges in total now filed involve 29 victims, aged between six months and 77, the court heard.

READ ALSO: Liverpool Parade Car Ramming Suspect Appears In Court

Six relate to children, including two babies — one aged six months at the time and one aged seven months — who were injured when the car hit people massed on Water Street in the city centre.

Supporters of the city’s world-famous football team had thronged its streets to celebrate the club’s record-equalling 20th English top-flight title when scenes of joy turned to horror.

Doyle, a father-of-three from the Croxteth neighbourhood in the city, was initially charged with seven offences, including dangerous driving and causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

He now faces multiple additional counts under that and other charges, including 19 for attempting to cause grievous bodily harm, three of wounding with intent, and one of affray.

Doyle, wearing a grey T-shirt, did not enter any pleas during the 20-minute hearing, which several relatives of the victims and more than 20 members of the media attended.

Judge Andrew Menary adjourned the case until September 4, when Doyle is expected to enter pleas.

Earlier this year, a provisional trial date was fixed for November 24, with the case expected to last three to four weeks.

The NBA on Wednesday approved the sale of the Boston Celtics to an investment group led by Bill Chisholm, five months after the deal worth a then-record $6.1 billion was agreed.

“The NBA Board of Governors has unanimously approved the sale of the controlling interests in the Boston Celtics to an investor group led by Bill Chisholm,” the league said in a brief statement.

“The transaction is expected to close shortly.”

Chisholm is the managing director and co-founder of Symphony Technology Group. When he and his co-investors agreed to purchase the storied Celtics franchise “at an initial valuation of $6.1 billion,” that was the highest ever offered for a North American sports team.

READ ALSO: India To Bid For Commonwealth Games As Part Of Olympic Push

It has since been surpassed by the $10 billion sale, in June, of the Los Angeles Lakers by the Buss family to billionaire Mark Walter.

When the Celtics’ sale was announced, it was stated that Wyc Grousbeck would continue in his roles of chief executive officer and governor, overseeing team operations through the 2027-28 season.

The Grousbeck family and Steve Pagliuca purchased the Celtics for $360 million in 2002.

But US media reported this week that Chisholm — a Massachusetts native who calls himself a “die-hard Celtics fan” — will assume the role of governor because under the terms of the deal, Grousbeck will no longer have the required 15% ownership stake the league requires to hold that role.

Nevertheless, ESPN reported that Chisholm and Grousbeck “plan to run the team together as originally planned.”

The Celtics are one of the most storied in the NBA’s history, with a record 18 championships, the most recent in 2024.

India says it will bid for the 2030 Commonwealth Games, seen as part of a wider push by the cricket-mad nation to host the 2036 Olympics.

“Our preparations will go ahead,” Indian Olympic Association (IOA) President PT Usha said after a meeting on Wednesday, according to local media.

The capital, New Delhi — which hosted the 2010 Commonwealth Games, an event marked by construction delays, substandard infrastructure, and accusations of corruption — is being considered as the host city.

READ ALSO: Chinese Climber Dies On Pakistan’s K2 Mountain

Bhubaneswar in the eastern state of Odisha is another option.

But the Indian media are tipping Ahmedabad, the key city in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat.

The city is home to a 130,000-seater arena, the world’s biggest cricket stadium, named after Modi.

It staged the 2023 Cricket World Cup final.

India last year submitted a formal letter of intent to the International Olympic Committee to host the 2036 Games.

India has staged World Cups for cricket and the Asian Games twice, and will co-host the Women’s World Cup cricket in September.

Nigeria and at least two other nations have reportedly expressed interest in hosting the Commonwealth Games, which struggled to find a replacement host for 2026 after the Australian state of Victoria withdrew, citing costs.

Glasgow stepped in and will stage a slimmed-down version.

Following IOA approval, India has until the end of August to submit a formal bid.

The decision will be made in November in Glasgow.

India said that if it wins the bid, the Commonwealth Games would be a “full-fledged” event.

“We will have all the sports we are good at and have a chance of winning maximum medals,” said IOA executive council member Rohit Rajpal, according to the Times of India newspaper.

That would include tag-type sports such as kabaddi and kho kho, which India is pushing to be included in the Olympics.

Despite its 1.4 billion people, India’s record at the Olympics is poor for a country of its size, winning only 10 gold medals in its history.

A Chinese mountaineer died while descending the world’s second-highest peak, with Pakistani rescuers waiting on Thursday for weather conditions to improve to recover her body.

Guan Jing was descending from the summit of K2 on Tuesday night when falling rocks hit her, Deputy Commissioner for Shigar district Arif Ahmad told AFP.

“An army aviation team is ready for the recovery of the body and is waiting for better weather conditions,” he said.

READ ALSO: Missing Pakistani Man’s Body Found On Melting Glacier After 28 Years

According to the Alpine Club of Pakistan, which monitors local climbing expeditions, Guan is the fourth casualty of the country’s summer climbing season.

Guan was among 30 climbers who reached the summit of K2 on Monday before beginning her fatal descent.

“The incident occurred on the Abruzzi Spur route between Camp I and Advanced Base Camp — a section notorious for frequent rockfalls,” the Alpine Club said.

At 8,611 metres (28,251 feet), K2 on the Pakistan-China border sits 238 metres shy of world-topping Himalayan giant Everest but is considered more technically challenging.

Home to five of the world’s 14 mountains above 8,000 metres, Pakistan typically welcomes an influx of summer climbers from early June until late August.

This season, four deaths have been reported, including two on K2, one on Nanga Parbat, and one on the lesser-known Laila Peak in the Karakoram range, where German Olympic biathlete Laura Dahlmeier died after being hit by falling rocks last month.