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LONDON — Manchester City announced Tuesday they had reached an agreement to sign star striker Erling Haaland from Borussia Dortmund — sending an ominous statement of intent to their rivals.

The Norwegian international will move to the Etihad after the Premier League champions agreed to pay his reported 60-million-euro (£51 million, $63 million) release clause.

“Manchester City can confirm we have reached an agreement in principle with Borussia Dortmund for the transfer of striker Erling Haaland to the club on 1st July 2022,” the club said in a statement.

“The transfer remains subject to the club finalising terms with the player.”

The deal for the towering 21-year-old ends City’s long search for a specialist striker to replace record goalscorer Sergio Aguero, who left last year.

The club failed in a high-profile attempt to prise England captain Harry Kane away from Tottenham Hotspur last summer.

Haaland, whose father Alf-Inge played for City from 2000 to 2003, has been sensational since joining Dortmund from RB Salzburg in January 2020, scoring 85 goals in 88 appearances for the German side.

Speculation linking City with Haaland had been gathering momentum in recent weeks, with reports on Monday claiming the player had already undergone a medical.

Manager Pep Guardiola was reluctant to discuss the situation in a press conference on Tuesday, but all but suggested a deal was imminent.

“Everybody knows the situation, but I should not talk because I do not like to talk about the future, next season,” he said.

“At the same time I should say something, but Borussia Dortmund and Man City told me I’m not allowed to say anything until the deal is completely done, so I cannot talk. I’m sorry. We’ll have time to talk.”

But after Haaland’s in-principle move was announced, City centre-back Aymeric Laporte tweeted: “Happy not to be running after this guy for the next couple of years. Welcome Erling.” 

Top-scorers

City, who are the Premier League’s top-scorers this season with 89 goals, have often played without a recognised striker for the past two seasons.

Riyad Mahrez is their top scorer with 24 goals in all competitions, ahead of Raheem Sterling (16), Kevin De Bruyne (15) and Phil Foden (14).

Guardiola was keen to play down the significance of any one new signing.

He said: “We have a number nine right now. New players always help us try to be a stronger team, but a good defender will not solve our defensive problems and one striker will not resolve the scoring problems that maybe we have.

“We have always been consistent, scoring a lot of goals and conceding few. The stats are there, we are stable in those terms but the club always has to have a vision for the future.”

“That’s why with the decisions the club takes, I’m always completely aware and supportive 100 per cent.”

City, who lead Liverpool on goal difference at the top of the Premier League table and have a game in hand, are closing in on a fourth English league title in five years.

But they suffered a painful exit from the Champions League last week, losing 6-5 on aggregate to semi-final opponents Real Madrid.

For all Guardiola’s success in six years at the Etihad, his inability to conquer Europe is seen as a failure.

Haaland’s predatory instincts could be the missing ingredient to take City’s domestic dominance onto the Champions League stage.

“They have done fantastically well without having a top striker and now they have a top striker so you can only imagine what they will be like now,” former Manchester United and Norway defender Henning Berg told the BBC.

“As a number nine, as a goalscorer you cannot go to a better team because they get the ball in the box so many times.”

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp described Haaland as a “beast”.

“He’s a good player but City was never and will never be a team that wins games because of one player,” said Klopp after Liverpool’s 2-1 win at Aston Villa kept the pressure on City at the top of the Premier League.

“He’s a real beast, so unfortunately a really good signing.”

PARIS — Few players have rivalled Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic over the past two decades, but Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz threatens to upend tennis’s established order after a dizzying rise to stardom.

Alcaraz, who only turned 19 last Thursday, became the first player to beat Nadal and Djokovic on clay at the same tournament on his way to a second Masters 1000 title in Madrid.

Seemingly preordained for greatness, Alcaraz has so far delivered on the promise, described by beaten finalist Alexander Zverev as “right now the best player in the world”. 

He became the youngest US Open quarter-finalist of the Open era last September, then won his first Masters crown in Miami in early April. Only Nadal has won two such titles at a younger age.

“I would say this is the best week of my life,” Alcaraz said on Sunday, before pulling out of Rome to rest a sore ankle ahead of the French Open which begins on May 22.

Coached by former World No. 1 and 2003 Roland Garros champion Juan Carlos Ferrero, Alcaraz knows he has some way to go.

“I still have to improve in everything,” he said. “I have very good shots, but they can be improved and can be much better.”

Alcaraz was born in 2003, barely two months before Federer won his first major title at Wimbledon.

But, perhaps unsurprisingly, it is his compatriot Nadal — the record 21-time Grand Slam champion — he most admires.

“I have always looked up to Rafa, I always watched his big moments and matches and learned a lot from that,” said Alcaraz, who received a congratulatory call from Spain’s King Felipe VI after his Miami triumph.

A year ago Alcaraz sat 120th when he made his Madrid debut. Fast-forward 12 months and the hottest young prospect in men’s tennis has soared to a career-best sixth.

His four singles titles are the most on the ATP tour this year, as are his 28 match wins.

“It is great for tennis that we have such a new superstar that is going to win so many Grand Slams, that is going to be World No. 1,” said Zverev.

Inspirational

Stefanos Tsitsipas, last year’s French Open runner-up, marvels at Alcaraz’s polished, all-round game, acutely aware he is another significant obstacle in his own quest for Grand Slam glory. 

“He inspires me a lot. I really want to be like him. I look up to him,” said the 23-year-old Tsitsipas, at the forefront of the generation poised to take over from the “Big Three”.

“I know he’s at a young, early stage of his career. I can see him becoming big in a very short time. I’d really like to get to the level he is right now. I think he’s one of the best players in the world.”

Tsitsipas suggested the furore over Alcaraz might rankle some of the sport’s elder statesman, but Nadal insisted he was pleased for his fellow countryman.

“Everybody knows the amount of confidence he has right now, the level that he can reach. I’m happy for him,” said Nadal, who won his first major at Roland Garros in 2005, two days after his 19th birthday.

“Happy because we have an amazing player in our country for a lot of years to come.”

On Monday in Rome, World No. 1 Djokovic joined the chorus of praise,

“He’s different, for sure,” said the Serbian. “So far he’s the best player in the world, no question, this year.

“For Roland Garros, he is definitely one of the big favourites.”

Nadal said it was natural that Alcaraz was attracting attention.

“He is young, he is new, and all the new things are much more interesting than older things, without a doubt,” said Nadal.

“When you see a new car, always looks better. When you see a new phone, always looks better than the old one. It’s something that it’s normal in this life. I can’t complain at all about that.”

MADRID — Teenager Carlos Alcaraz continued his blazing rise by demolishing Alexander Zverev in the Madrid final on Sunday and then said “I really want to prove my level in a Grand Slam.”

Two weeks before the start of the French Open, the young Spaniard brushed aside his third-ranked foe 6-3, 6-1 in 62 minutes to continue a run that signals tennis has a new power.

“I really want to go to Paris to win a Grand Slam, to show my level in a Grand Slam,” said Alcaraz at a press conference after winning the second Masters 1000 of his career.

“People are going to take me as a favourite, but I take that as motivation,” added Alcaraz.

He said he will miss the Rome claycourt tournament this week after injuring an ankle in beating Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals on Friday.

“This morning, because of the fall against Rafa, I woke up with a more swollen ankle and I also had a blister that had become infected,” he said. 

“It was a little difficult to walk, but... we were able to do a few things to be at 100 per cent for the match.” 

Before the Madrid tournament last year, Alcaraz was ranked 120th in the world. On Monday he will reach No. 6.

“I have five more to go to be the best in the world,” he said.

He became the youngest US Open quarter-finalist of the Open era last September, then won his first Masters 1000 title in Miami in early April. 

Victory on Sunday brought a second Masters 1000 title. The only younger player to reach that milestone was Nadal, who won in Monte Carlo and Rome when he was 18. 

Alcaraz turned 19 on Thursday and over the next two days battled past Nadal in two hours and 28 minutes and Novak Djokovic in 3hr 36min.

“I am 19 years old, which I think is the key to be able to play long and tough matches in a row. I am feeling great physically,” he said

“It feels great to be able to beat these players. To beat two of the best players in history and then Zverev, the World No. 3. He is a great player. I would say this is the best week of my life,” he said.

‘Good shots’

Zverev had no doubt where the teenager’s trajectory is heading.

“It’s great to see for tennis that we have such a new superstar who is going to win so many Grand Slams and is going to be World No. 1,” said the German. 

The atmosphere on Sunday did not reach the fervour of the day before, as Alcaraz grabbed control early and cruised to his quickest victory of the week.

Even so, “it was a spectacular atmosphere”, he told the crowd at the end.

“This tournament is special for me because it’s the first tournament I watched when I was seven or eight,” said Alcaraz. 

“Watching Rafa lift this trophy so often, gave me a lot of power to work hard for this moment.” 

Zverev complained that he was “dead” because he had played the latest matches the previous two nights, yet he was impressed with Alcaraz.

“Carlitos, right now you are the best player in the world. Even though you are still five years old you are still beating us all,” he told Alcaraz on court after the match. 

Alcaraz said he had some way to go.

“I still have to improve in everything,” he said. “I have very good shots, but they can be improved and can be much better.”

MADRID — Ons Jabeur says she is hungry for more success after she claimed the biggest title of her career, becoming the first Arab or African player to win a WTA 1000 title thanks to a 7-5, 0-6, 6-2 victory over American Jessica Pegula on Saturday in Madrid.

The Tunisian trailblazer picked up her second WTA trophy and is set to return to her career-high ranking of No. 7 in the world on Monday.

Jabeur, who is the first Arab player — man or woman — to crack the top 10, owns a tour-leading 12 victories on clay so far this season and picked up a 20th win overall in 2022.

“I honestly still can’t believe it. I went through a roller coaster of emotions during the past few days, just after the semifinal. I was really stressed trying to breathe,” said Jabeur, who had won just one of her previous five WTA finals.

“I really didn’t want to get disappointed again. I thought my heart was going out of my chest today. I’m very happy and trying to realise that I won today really.”

Pegula had to save four break points in her opening two service games before she upped the pressure on the Jabeur serve to break for 3-1.

The Tunisian struck back in game seven, finding her range on the return and was soon on level terms with Pegula.

Jabeur faced a set point in an error-strewn 10th game, but weathered the storm to hold then broke Pegula to love using a signature drop shot return. The World No. 10 closed out the set on the 54-minute mark.

Pegula was in trouble at the start of the second set, but she swatted away three break points and it was her turn to attack as she swept the next six games in under 30 minutes.

The first three games of the decider went against serve until Jabeur finally consolidated a break to inch ahead 3-1. The 27-year-old doubled her advantage and fell to her knees when she wrapped up a milestone victory.

Jabeur improved to 2-4 in WTA finals and to 3-2 head-to-head against Pegula, who will rise to a career-high No. 11 in the world on Monday.

“I think for both of us, the last two weeks proved a lot. We’ve come a long way from a few years ago, we were ranked 75 and 76, we were right next to each other. So that’s pretty amazing,” Pegula told Jabeur during the trophy ceremony.

The 28-year-old American has shown great consistency at WTA 1000 tournaments, winning 28 matches at that level since the start of the 2021 season. Only one player has tallied more victories within that span at such events — World No. 1 Iga Swiatek.

Meanwhile, Jabeur has already shifted her focus onto her next tournament in Rome, where she faces Romanian Sorana Cirstea in the opening round on Tuesday.

“Definitely all those matches I’ve won on clay will give me a lot of confidence. I’m just going to try to take as many [ranking] points as I can in Rome. I know I didn’t play last year, so it’s extra points for me,” said Jabeur.

“When you’re confident like that and you win a lot of matches, I think I should take this opportunity to go, like, really forward and win.”

 AMMAN — Defending regional champion and 14-time event winner Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah tops an impressive entry for the forthcoming Jordan Rally. The fourth round of the 2022 FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC) takes place on May 19-21, according to the Jordan Rally Media Service.

Jordan Motorsport confirmed on Friday that 26 crews and competitors from 10 nations will take part in the three-day event that is based at the Crowne Plaza Jordan Dead Sea Resort and Spa and offers 12 challenging gravel stages in the Dead Sea and Jordan Valley areas of the Hashemite Kingdom. 

Attiyah will be partnered by Andorra-based co-driver Mathieu Baumel and faces competition in the R5 group from Oman’s Abdullah Al Rawahi and fellow Qatari Nasser Khalifa Al Atya. The challenging duo currently hold third and fourth places in the overall points’ standings for the MERC, albeit 55 points and 60 points behind leader Attiyah, respectively.

Subject to final FIA technical checks, 14 teams will provisionally line-up in the NR4 group where points for both the overall regional series and the FIA MERC2 Championship are at stake. Local driver Issa Abu Jamous currently has a 26-point lead in the MERC2 category and also holds second place in the FIA Middle East Rally Championship.

The Jordanian and his co-driver Emad Juma top a field that also includes Lebanon’s talented young Alex Feghali, Kuwait’s defending MERC2 champion Meshari Al Thefiri, Oman’s Zakariya Al Aamri and fellow Jordanians, Shadi Shaban, Khaled Juma, Ihab Al Shorafa and Bader Al Fayez. 

Derivatives of the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution rally car dominate the entry, with 15 of the Japanese four-wheel drive cars on the entry list.

Former MERC3 champion Asem Aref leads the way in the two-wheel drive category in his Renault Clio RS.

The provisional timetable includes three demanding gravel stages, repeated twice, in the Jordan Valley on May 20 and two loops of three shorter timed tests at Bahath, Suwayma and Ma’in the next day before the podium finish takes centre stage from 4:30pm.

In a route of 598.22 kilometres, 205.54km will be timed against the clock. 

LOS ANGELES — Desmond Bane scored 23 points as the Memphis Grizzlies stunned the Minnesota Timberwolves with another late fourth-quarter rally to score a series-clinching 114-106 victory in the NBA play-offs on Friday.

Bane made nine of 15 shots from the field including a crucial go-ahead three-pointer late in the fourth quarter as the second seeds completed a 4-2 series win to silence Minnesota’s Target Centre crowd in Minneapolis.

It was another shattering loss for Minnesota, who for the third time in the series were unable to close out a victory after building a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter.

Minnesota had pulled into an 84-74 lead at the end of the third quarter but were blown away down the stretch by the Grizzlies, who outscored the Timberwolves 40-22 in the final period to snatch a dramatic win.

Bane nailed a three-pointer to give Memphis their first lead of the second half while Jaren Jackson Jr. added 12 points in the fourth to help the Grizzlies get over the line.

Memphis star Ja Morant had been effectively bottled up by the Minnesota defence in the first half with just four points, but ultimately finished with 17 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds.

The Grizzlies now face a mouthwatering Western Conference semifinal series against the resurgent Golden State Warriors starting on Sunday.

“It’s big-time for us man, super excited,” Morant said afterwards. 

“We got it done. It was ugly but we battled through, battled back and got the win. We got the four wins, but we’ve got to be better in the next round — we can’t come out again like we did in this series.”

Morant said the Grizzlies’ ability to overturn a hefty fourth-quarter deficit once again was testimony to the resilience of his team.

“We’ve got a lot of dogs on this team, guys who want to prove stuff, and have got a chip on their shoulder,” Morant said.

“We’ve got that never-satisfied mindset and we know that the game’s not over until the clock is showing all zeroes at the end of the fourth. 

“We just stick together, battle back and we were able to come out with some big-time wins. 

“We’ll enjoy this moment in the locker room tonight and then we’ll flip the page and start getting ready for Golden State.”

Bane said the latest in a series of Memphis Houdini acts was too close for comfort.

“I don’t want to be in that hole, I promise you,” Bane said. “We don’t mind it but we’d like to start games a little bit better. 

“Our resiliency really showed in this series. I think pretty much every game we won we were trailing at some point. It’s a gritty group.”

Bane’s 23-point haul was matched by 23 from Dillon Brooks, while Jackson Jr. finished with 18. 

Morant and Brandon Clarke finished with 17 points apiece, Tyus Jones chipping in with 10 points off the bench.

Anthony Edwards led the Minnesota scorers with 30 points while Karl-Anthony Towns had 18 with 10 rebounds and four assists.

Jaden McDaniels added 24 off the bench.

PARIS — Kyrgyzstan’s Ksenia Palkina has been fined 100,000 US dollars and has been banned from playing tennis until at least 2029, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) said on Friday.

The ban was for 16-years with six of them suspended and at 32-years-old Palinka has been set a date of 2029 for a comeback.

Palink admitted charges of match fixing at a French tournament and was detained by French police in November 2019, ITIA said.

LONDON — Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says he does not believe his new deal will be the deciding factor in whether star forwards Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane commit their long-term futures to the club.

Salah and Mane, along with fellow attacker Roberto Firmino and midfielder Naby Keita, have contracts that expire next year.

With Klopp now staying until 2026, there is a greater degree of security at the club, but the German is not convinced that will make a huge difference to individual players’ decisions.

“If it is a positive sign for the boys, great, but I don’t think this will be the one decisive thing for whatever decision they want to make,” he said on Friday.

“It is their own life but we just wanted to guarantee that everyone who wants to be here knows what he can expect.”

Egypt international Salah, whose negotiations have dragged on for several months, admitted last week it was not certain he would remain at Anfield, stressing the decision was not just about the money.

But Klopp said he did not make judgements about players’ loyalty based on whether they wanted to go elsewhere.

“If a player tells you early enough he wants to go then you have to deal with it,” Klopp said.

“I don’t judge people if they are loyal or not if they say during a contract ‘I want to go somewhere else and see what the weather is like or how the grass is there’.

“That’s not the case. I think you see loyalty in other areas.”

Salah was named the Football Writers’ Association player of the year on Friday.

Klopp takes his side to Newcastle for the early kick-off on Saturday, looking to put pressure on Premier League leaders Manchester City, who are playing later at Leeds, by opening up a two-point gap at the top.

With one foot in the Champions League final after a 2-0 win over Villarreal in the first leg of their semi-final and an FA Cup final against Chelsea next month, an unprecedented quadruple remains a possibility.

Klopp, whose side have already won the League Cup this season, said his new contract was the start of a new era at the club.

“We don’t think about changing the team in the next two or three years or whatever, but you have to prepare the little things so that you are ready for the future as well,” he said.

“That’s why I really think it’s a really good place to be or a good place to join, if not the perfect place.

“We cannot wait 10 years. We have to do it now. It’s no threat. This is only the start, to be honest. That’s the plan, that we really, really go for it.”

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said on Friday that Klopp’s decision to extend his stay at Liverpool will not have any influence on his own future plans.

Guardiola’s current City deal expires at the end of next season and he has yet to commit to prolonging his spell with the Premier League champions.

It remains to be seen whether Guardiola will stick around to maintain his duel with Klopp, with City and Liverpool embroiled in another tense Premier League title race this term.

The Spaniard insisted his only focus at present was City’s crucial trip to Leeds on Saturday as the leaders try to maintain their one-point advantage over second-placed Liverpool.

“Congratulations to Jurgen and Liverpool,” Guardiola told reporters.

“I think it’s really good for the Premier League. I wish him all the best for the future. My future is Leeds, our future is Leeds and then the end of the season.”

The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager said of his life at City: “I’m enjoying this part of the season and after we’ll have time. 

“I’m incredibly happy and could not be in a better place to be working.

“I cannot visualise a better place but it’s not just me, it’s many things, other situations. With calmness, we are going to take the decision we are going to take.”

Liverpool forward Salah was voted the Football Writers’ Association Player of the Year on Friday.

The Egyptian, who has scored 30 goals in all competitions for Klopp’s quadruple chasing team this season, beat City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne into second place.

Guardiola offered congratulations to Salah, but laced the compliment with what might be perceived as a back-handed swipe at Klopp.

“Congratulations to Salah. Jurgen said they have the best keeper, the second-best keeper in the world, the best central defender, the best holding midfielder, the best striker. So it’s normal they win all the awards,” he said.

LOS ANGELES — The defending champion Milwaukee Bucks and resurgent Golden State Warriors completed 4-1 series victories to advance to the second round of the NBA play-offs on Wednesday.

In Milwaukee, Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 33 points as the Bucks brushed aside the Chicago Bulls 116-100 to clinch a comfortable series win and advance to an Eastern Conference showdown with the Boston Celtics.

In San Francisco, Golden State relied on 30 points from Stephen Curry and a crucial late 15-point cameo from Gary Payton II to seal a pulsating 102-98 victory over reigning MVP Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets.

The Warriors will now face either the Memphis Grizzlies or Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference semifinals.

The Warriors, who had led the series 3-0 before dropping game four in Colorado on Sunday, dug deep in the fourth quarter to clinch victory at the Chase Centre.

The Nuggets, buoyed by a towering 30-point display from Jokic, had led by eight points at the end of the third period.

But Golden State outscored the visitors 32-20 in the fourth quarter — with Payton contributing 10 points — to claim a dramatic win.

The victory was Golden State’s first play-off series win since 2019 after two consecutive seasons where they missed the postseason. 

“I think you could see those first three quarters we’d forgotten what it felt like to try and close out a game,” Curry said. 

“The nerves, the energy, the pressure in the building. It’s been a long time since we’ve felt this. We still know how to do it but we had to grind it out. It’s a good feeling to go through and get the win.”

While Curry led the Warriors scoring, Draymond Green delivered another huge shift marshalling the defence against the threat of Jokic.

“What Draymond does is hard to quantify because the stats never do him justice,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.

“I just feel like he’s built for the play-offs. This is what he’s all about. Regular season is hard for him because the games aren’t as meaningful and he’s at his best when the games are most important.”

In Milwaukee, Antetokounmpo was in dominant form, shooting 11-of-15 from the field and finishing with nine rebounds as the defending NBA champion Bucks romped to victory at the FiServ Forum. 

“I just wanted to set the tone, come out and play hard,” Antetokounmpo said. “Sometimes when you’re up 15 or 20 points you start being sloppy with the ball or not playing as hard. 

“I think our team kept their composure, kept playing hard, kept making shots.”

Antetokounmpo received scoring support from Pat Connaughton with 20 points while Bobby Portis had a double-double with 14 points and 17 rebounds.

It was another emphatic win for Milwaukee after victories by hefty double-digit margins in games three and four of the best-of-seven series.

Milwaukee now advance to an Eastern Conference semifinal series against the in-form Boston Celtics, starting on Sunday.

“It’s big,” Antetokounmpo said of the task in front of his team. “We’ve got to get some rest, go back and practise, watch some film, take care of our body and get ready for Boston.”

On Thursday’s evidence, Milwaukee will approach that series brimming with confidence after swatting aside sixth-seeded Chicago with ease. 

The Bucks blazed into an early 20-7 lead in the first quarter and remained comfortably ahead of Chicago for the remainder of a one-sided contest.

Milwaukee’s lead stretched to 29 points in the second quarter and although Chicago closed the gap to 11 points early in the third, another burst of scoring saw the Bucks surge into a 91-68 lead heading into the final quarter.

Chicago star DeMar DeRozan was restricted to just 11 points while Patrick Williams led the Bulls scorers with 23 points.