Basketball, NBA: With a strong Dennis Schröder, the Boston Celtics continued their race to catch up. The international scored 23 points in the 104-92 home win over the New Orleans Pelicans, and it was the Celtics’ fifth win in the past six games. Schröder, who scored nine of 16 shots from the field, also contributed nine assists and five rebounds at the unusual lunchtime on the national holiday “Martin Luther King Day”. Top scorer for the Celtics, who now have a balanced record with 22 wins and losses each, was Jayson Tatum with 27 points.
On the other hand, there was less good news from national player Maximilian Kleber. The 29-year-old, who was born in Würzburg and works for the Dallas Mavericks, left the floor limping in the third quarter of the 104:102 against Oklahoma City Thunder and complained of pain in his left knee. By then he had scored eight points and three rebounds in just under 15 minutes of play. Man of the day was Slovenia’s exceptional Luka Doncic, who with his 41st triple-double now has one more under his belt than the rest of the Mavericks team combined.
Soccer, Italy: According to a report by Sport1, Bruno Labbadia will become the coach of the Italian first division club CFC Genoa. The 55-year-old is the successor to Andrei Shevchenko, who was recently on leave, at Serie A relegation candidates. Labbadia has been the favorite for the job in Genoa for days. According to Sport1, he will have a contract until the summer of 2024. The penultimate table had not yet been confirmed on Tuesday morning. The long-time Bundesliga professional has been without a job for almost a year since his separation from Hertha BSC in January 2021. He had also previously coached Bayer Leverkusen, Hamburger SV, VfB Stuttgart and VfL Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga. Labbadia was born in Darmstadt as the son of Italian guest workers and speaks Italian.
Tennis, Djokovic case: According to media reports, the Serb is also threatened with exclusion from the Grand Slam classic in Wimbledon if the tennis world number one does not get vaccinated. According to the British newspapers telegraph and Mirror those responsible for the London tournament do not want to give any assurance that Djokovic will be able to defend his title in the lawn spectacle next summer. In doing so, they would go beyond the current corona rules of the British government.
So far, unvaccinated top athletes have been allowed to enter the UK to train and compete there. It had previously become known that the title defense at the French Open in May was over for the 34-year-old Serb if he continued not to be vaccinated. French Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu had announced that national and international athletes will only be able to compete in France if they are vaccinated or have recovered. Participation in the US Open in New York is also only possible for vaccinated people.
Football, England: Timo Werner from the English Premier League club FC Chelsea dreams of successfully defending his title in the Champions League. “We have a very good team and, especially in one or two games, we’re probably one of the best teams in the world,” said the 25-year-old in an interview with Sky: “We’re forward with our defense and our game, hard to beat in individual games.” In the round of 16, Werner and Chelsea meet OSC Lille on the way to the “big goal”.
“They’re not the supposedly strongest opponents, but a very unpleasant team that you have to beat first,” stressed Werner. From the quarter-finals things could go very quickly, like last year. In addition to the Champions League, Chelsea are also represented in three other cup competitions. The championship is now “a long way off” for team manager Thomas Tuchel’s team after last weekend’s defeat at Manchester City. The gap is already 13 points. That’s another reason why Werner, who only recently recovered from a corona infection, wants to “get fully involved again” with the Blues in the Champions League.
Kyrie Irving, Vaccination: The basketball player has expressed his rejection of a corona vaccination in more detail than ever before and has ruled out having an injection against the virus administered. “It’s been my decision for a long time and I stand by it,” said the Brooklyn Nets professional on Monday (local time) after the 107:114 defeat at the Cleveland Cavaliers. Because he is not vaccinated against the corona virus, the 29-year-old is not allowed to appear in the Nets’ home games due to the applicable rules in New York. Only recently, in the face of many failures, did the Nets decide to at least use their top performer away from home after they had previously given up on him.
The week-long absence of teammate Kevin Durant, who may be missing from the Nets until the end of February, does not change his attitude. “Kev will be fine. Kev will be fine and we as his teammates have to deal with that,” said Irving. “But as far as my life outside of all of this goes, I’m sticking to my decision. That’s the way it is.” He also doesn’t understand that his basketball-related decision is constantly being questioned, Irving said. He stressed how much he loves playing for the Nets and with his colleagues, “but I’ve been away long enough to be able to think about all this, to be able to process it and to be able to make this decision, I remain strong”.
Tennis, Djokovic case: The Australian Tennis Association has expressed its regret after the fuss about the entry farce of world number one Novak Djokovic. “As the Australian tennis family, we recognize that recent events have been a major distraction for everyone,” Tennis Australia wrote in a statement on Tuesday: “And we deeply regret the impact it has had on all players.” Djokovic, the record winner with nine titles at the current Australian Open, left Melbourne on Sunday evening after losing in a federal court in a legal dispute over his visa.
The unvaccinated 34-year-old had received a medical exemption from Tennis Australia and the state of Victoria to start at the first Grand Slam tournament of the year. However, Djokovic’s evidence was not sufficient for entry into Australia. At the same time, the Australian Tennis Association, which organizes the Australian Open, announced that it would process the events. “There is always something to learn and we will review all aspects of our preparation and execution to improve our planning – as we do every year,” the statement said.