Sports News Today Highlights: Rafael Nadal To Skip Wimbledon; BAN Beat NED In T20 World Cup

Indian singles shuttlers HS Prannoy and Aakarshi Kashyap won their respective round of 16 matches at the Australian Open in Sydney to enter the quarter-finals. The US Open golf tournament will kick off in Kentucky. Meanwhile, the build-up to the much-awaited Euro 2024 football championship attains fever pitch, with the opening clash between hosts Germany and Scotland lined up tomorrow. Stay tuned for all the updates and highlights from the sports world on Thursday, June 13, 2024 right here

Aakarshi Kashyap's round of 16 match against Kai Qi Teoh has commenced at the Australian Open. The Indian shuttler leads 5-1 in the first game as of now.

Aakarshi Kashyap wins the first game comfortably against Kai Qi Teoh. The Indian shuttler clinches it 21-16 and is leading 11-8 in the second, in her quest to enter the Australian Open quarter-finals.

A breezy win for Aakarshi Kashyap, who takes the round of 16 clash 21-16, 21-13 against Kai Qi Teoh to advance to the Australian Open quarter-finals. Her compatriot HS Prannoy will be in action later in the day for his pre-quarterfinal.

Football superstar Lionel Messi has told ESPN in an interview that he will not take part in the upcoming Paris Olympic Games for Argentina. The 36-year-old has said it would be "too much" to play in Paris after representing his country at the Copa America.

He has also said that Inter Miami will be his last club, admitting that "there's not a lot of time left" in his career.

Jayson Tatum scores 31 points and Jaylen Brown adds 30 as the Boston Celtics ward off the Dallas Mavericks’ fightback for a 106-99 victory and a 3-0 lead in the NBA Finals.

A gritty West Indies have defeated New Zealand by 13 runs in their T20 World Cup 2024 Group C fixture. With that, the co-hosts have sealed their berth in the Super 8 stage. As for New Zealand, a second consecutive loss means they are virtually out of reckoning for the next round, and will need favourable results from other teams even if they win their remaining two clashes.

India's star pugilist Lovlina Borgohain will be in action, later today at the Grand Prix in Czech Republic. The Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist had won her opening bout yesterday against England's Chantelle Reid in the 75kg category.

While Aakarshi Kashyap marched into the quarter-finals earlier today, her contemporaries Malvika Bansod and Anupama Upadhyaya have been knocked out of the Australian Open. Malvika loses to Indonesia's Ester Nurumi Tri Wardoyo 17-21, 21-23, while Anupama is defeated 11-21, 18-21 by another Indonesian, Putri Kusuma Wardani.

India's top-ranked singles tennis player Sumit Nagal will take the court later today for his quarter-final match against Poland's Maks Kasnikowski at the Perugia Challenger in Italy.

The United States football team has halted an 11-game losing streak to Brazil with a 1-1 draw in the last warm-up match for the upcoming Copa America. Christian Pulisic's 26th minute goal has cancelled Rodrygo’s 17th-minute strike in the match. USA had suffered a 1-5 loss to Colombia in their previous warm-up match.

Indian golfer Pukhraj Singh Gill has secured a two-shot lead after carding an eight-under 64 in the opening round of the Nam A Bank Vietnam Masters on the Asian Development Tour in Long An (Vietnam). As many as seven Indians are playing in the three-day event with a field of 142 players.

HS Prannoy has begun his Australian Open round of 16 match against Israel's Misha Zilberman well, taking the first game 21-17. Prannoy leads 10-6 in the second game and is 11 points away from sealing his quarter-final berth.

Just like Aakarshi Kashyap earlier in the day, HS Prannoy breezes through his pre-quarterfinal match at the Australian Open. He beats Israel's Misha Zilberman 21-17, 21-15 to advance to the last-eight stage of the tournament.

The defending champions, England, need to win both their remaining matches against Scotland and Namibia by a good margin to equal Scotland on five points, and then hope for Namibia to lose badly against the Antipodeans.

Promising Vidhatri Urs, playing her first round as a professional, shot a creditable 1-under 69 to take lead after the opening round of the seventh leg of the Hero Women’s Pro-Golf Tour in Mysuru on Thursday.

Vidhatri, who won on the Hero WPG Tour in the past as an amateur, had a steady start with 10 pars at the Jayachamaraja Wadiyar Golf Club in her hometown.

She then had birdies on the Par-4 11th and Par-3 15th with a bogey in between on the par-4 13th hole. She was the only player to shoot under-par during the day. (PTI)

Striker Sam Kerr has signed a two-year contract extension with Chelsea, keeping her at the London club until 2026. Chelsea announced the new deal on Thursday.

The 30-year-old Australian has won five consecutive Women's Super Leagues, three FA Cups and two League Cups. She has 99 goals in 128 games for Chelsea and has netted 69 for Australia. (AP)

Wimbledon's total prize money fund will rise to a record 50 million pounds (about $64 million), with the singles champions each earning 2.7 million pounds ($3.45 million), All England Club officials announced on Thursday at the annual spring briefing.

The total amount is 5.3 million pounds ($6.8 million) more than last year, an increase of 11.9% — and exactly twice the 25 million pounds ($32 million at the current exchange rate) handed out to competitors at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament 10 years ago. (AP)

Indian men's team progressed to the quarterfinals of the Asian Team Squash championship following a 3-0 win over Mongolia on Thursday.

Former champions India will meet Pakistan in the quarterfinals on Friday.

Meanwhile, India women's team beat Chinese Taipei 3-0 but lost to Malaysia by an identical margin and will meet South Korea in a must-win final Group A league match for a semifinal spot. (PTI)

Paulo Fonseca was hired as AC Milan's coach on Thursday and charged with forming a more competitive challenge to city rival and Serie A champion Inter Milan. Fonseca, who signed a three-year contract, replaces Stefano Pioli, who left the club at the end of the recent season after a nearly five-year stint that included the 2022 Serie A title. (AP)

India's Bhowneesh Mendiratta could not emulate his excellent qualifying performance and settled for the fourth position in the final of the men's trap event at the ISSF World Cup for shotgun shooters on Thursday.

Bhowneesh bowed out with 29 after the first 35 shots of the 50-shot six-man final.

Great Britain's Matthew John Coward-Holley won the gold medal with a score of 47, Daniele Resca of Italy claimed silver with 46, and China's Haicheng Yu bagged bronze with 34.

Bhowneesh the first Indian shooter to win a quota for the Paris Olympics, shot 123 and finished third in qualifying after a excellent outing. (PTI)

Immensely gifted Divya Deshmukh of India outclassed Bulgaria’s Beloslava Krasteva to clinch the title in the World Junior Girls’ chess championship on Thursday.

With this win Divya, an International Master, ended the tournament with 10 points out of a possible 11, half-point ahead of the second-placed Mariam Mkrtchyan of Armenia at the Gift City. (PTI)

And we call it a day on what was an eventful outing in the world of sports. Till then it's good night!