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AMMAN — The Jordan Rally, round two of the 2019 FIA Middle East Rally Championship, gets under way at Abdali Boulevard in the heart of Amman on Thursday evening, according to the Jordan Rally Media Service. 

The ceremonial start will take place from 7:15pm, giving spectators the opportunity to see the cars and drivers in the capital. Cars will then cross the start podium in reverse order. 

Then the on-stage action switches to the sinuous gravel trails of the Dead Sea and Jordan Valley areas on Friday and Saturday.

Officials at Jordan Motorsport have completed the repairs and tweaks to the special stages, following recent inclement weather conditions, and a favourable weather forecast for the weekend lays the foundations for two days of classic rallying action near to the lowest point on earth.

Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah is the defending champion and a 12-time winner of the Jordan Rally. His French co-driver Matthieu Baumel has won the event on five occasions, but both are trying to clinch a first success in their new Volkswagen Polo GTI R5.

Fresh from winning the recent Merzouga Rally in Morocco with Attiyah at the helm of a lightweight Can-Am Maverick X3, Baumel said: “I am really surprised. Despite the weather, the organisers have done a very good job. All the tracks are well prepared. It is going to be a nice rally. I think we will beat the best times on some stages this year because the piste is well prepared.”

Reigning MERC 2 champion Meshari Al Thefiri of Kuwait also leads this year’s showroom category after his win in Qatar last month. Speaking of the recce, he said: “The stages are very good and the tracks are in perfect condition, not like last year when we had the late rain and it was very slippery. It is good for me. The goal is maximum points and maximum speed, flat out on the first loop, to kill off my rivals and to win again.”

Henry Kahy of Lebanon, the defending FIA MERC 3 champion, and his Jordanian co-driver Musa Djiyerian said: “Full credit to the organisers. Amazing stages. You cannot even see that the stages were damaged at all. It will be flat out for us in the front-wheel drive category.

“Recce went very well and then we had documentation today and then some testing. Henry is feeling confident with the notes and the car. Last year was his first time behind the wheel of the Skoda. After one year with the car, he is feeling good, especially here in Jordan. The weather forecast is good. We have missed the sun in Jordan in recent days…,” they added.

Support for the event comes from Abdali Boulevard, Mountain Dew, Hala and Bliss FM.

AMMAN — Competitors have arrived at the Dead Sea and are carrying out their last minute preparations for this weekend’s Jordan Rally, round two of the 2019 FIA Middle East Rally Championship, according to the Jordan Rally Media Service.

Unusual weather conditions have forced rally organisers to make further small changes to the route. While many parts of northern Europe basked in glorious sunshine and warm Easter holiday temperatures, the Levant region has sustained heavy rain and even the occasional snow flurry.

Temperatures are set to climb dramatically this week and should be around 30ºC at the Dead Sea by the weekend, but Jordan Motorsport was forced into late minor route revisions and has done away with the second run through the Dead Sea super special stage before the ceremonial finish on Saturday.

 “We had torrential rain for the last four weeks actually. We had to redo the itinerary totally. Our famous Jordan River stage was initially planned but, because of the rain, we had to reinvent the itinerary from scratch. We came up with 244km of special stages,” said George Khoury, clerk of the course.

“We actually had snow a few days ago. Some areas in the south of Jordan were covered in snow. They were white over. We were inspecting them for the last 48 hours and we are happy that they have held to their status. There have been minor fixes here and there and we are working on that now.

 “This year we will not be running the super special stage on Thursday. We concentrated on the ceremonial start in Abdali in the heart of Amman. We wanted to increase the exposure of the event, give competitors’ sponsors more marketing opportunities and take the rally to the heart of the city for the spectators. Hopefully we will have one of the best Jordan rallies ever,” he added.

Competitors from 10 nations carried out on Tuesday the first of two permitted days of reconnaissance of the special stages, with the remaining stages scheduled for recce on Wednesday.

A name appearing on the entry list of a rally outside Lebanon for the first time is that of 21-year-old Alex Feghali, the son of 14-time Rally of Lebanon winner Roger. The youngster began his motor sporting career in the Lebanese Karting Championship and took part in the Spring Rally with a Peugeot 208 RC2. He teams up with the experienced co-driver Joseph Matar, himself a seven-time winner of the Rally of Lebanon.

The event is based at the Crowne Plaza Jordan Dead Sea Resort and gets under way with a ceremonial start at Abdali Boulevard in Amman from 7pm on Thursday. It will now be fought out over 21 special stages and 244.09 competitive kilometres in a route of 565.10km.

Support for the event comes from Abdali Boulevard, Mountain Dew, Hala and Bliss FM.

MONTE CARLO — Flamboyant Italian Fabio Fognini followed up his shock victory over Rafael Nadal with a 6-3, 6-4 final win over Serbian Dusan Lajovic to claim his maiden Masters title in Monte Carlo on Sunday.

The 31-year-old triumphed despite suffering from an apparent muscle problem to became the lowest seeded player, at 13, to claim the title since Gustavo Kuerten in 1999. 

Five weeks before the French Open kicks off at Roland Garros, Fognini produced some brilliant tennis on Monte Carlo’s red clay to snatch his ninth ATP singles title.

“I was preparing for the match as best I can because he has my ex-coach [Jose Perlas] and I knew it was going to be really tough, a lot of running,” said Fognini. “It’s an incredible achievement. I’m really, really happy.”

Lajovic, who had not lost a set this week before Sunday, did not have the weapons to counter Fognini’s tactical nous.

“It was my first time in a final, so a great experience for me,” the Serbian said. 

“Today was not easy to play, with a lot of wind. But Fabio is a guy who knows how to play in these conditions. He has great hands. 

“He’s moving really well. So I was feeling on the court that I had to work much harder than him to win the points. I think this was the key.”

Fognini made several unforced errors early on, allowing Lajovic to break in the third game. But the Serbian failed to capitalise as he dropped serve in the next game. 

Fognini won three games in a row and held off Lajovic to seal the opening set with a stunning backhand winner down the line.

It was the first set Lajovic conceded in the tournament and the Serbian appeared quite shocked, dropping serve in the first game of the second set.

After a brief fightback Lajovic, who was also looking to win his first Masters title, was overwhelmed again and Fognini again broke to move 3-2 up.

In the following game, the Italian had his right leg strapped by the trainer and Lajovic tried to make the rallies longer.

But Fognini cleverly ended some of them with dropshots as he held serve for 4-2.

He ended the contest on his second match point. 

He may have once been thrown out of the US Open for a misogynistic attack on a female umpire and indulged in a blistering rant at tennis’s NextGen, but Fognini insists his bad boy image is now a thing of the past.

“I have everything in my life. I’m healthy, I have a baby, I have a wife,” said the 31-year-old Italian.

Courtside was his wife Flavia Pennetta, a former US Open champion towards whom he spent the week happily blowing kisses while shaping hearts with his hands during breaks in play.

Fognini married Pennetta in 2016 and one year later they became parents to baby son Frederico.

Now a model family man, Fognini is concentrating more on his tennis than his temper.

“They are with me all the time,” said Fognini of his family.

“You feel happy because when you do your work and you do it great and win... I have to be happy.”

The first Italian to lift the Monte Carlo honours since Nicola Pietrangeli in 1968 no longer strikes fear into chair umpires and line officials.

The new family-friendly version of Fognini even came back onto court on Sunday nearly an hour after his win to meet with cheering ballboys and ballgirls, who engulfed him in a mass hug.

It was all a far cry from his infamous US Open meltdown two years ago.

After falling to countryman and qualifier Stefano Travaglio in the first round, Fognini launched a series of rages against Swedish umpire Louise Engzell.

He was fined $24,000 before being eventually disqualified from the Grand Slam event.

At last year’s French Open, he labelled the attention on the sport’s so-called NextGen of promising youngsters as “bulls***”

“There is such a fuss made about them, I don’t like it, I don’t agree.

“This Next Generation thing is bulls***. Winning 10-8 in the fifth on court 27, you have to go through that — not playing against Federer on Court Philippe Chatrier.”

He returned to the topic in February during the South American clay swing, saying the young stars should be scheduled on secondary match courts until they proved themselves.

“I see the current generation in a different way than mine and the previous one.

“Sometimes they do not say ‘hi’, they believe they are stars. I was pretty crazy as a teenager, but as the time went on I got used to the rules.

“Younger tennis players are not humble.”

AMMAN — Three more Jordanians have advanced to the quarter-finals of the ASBC Asian Confederation Boxing Championships taking place in Bangkok, Thailand, according to the Jordan Olympic Committee News Service.

Ziad Ishaish, Mohammed Younis and Ahmad Al Matbouli all won their fights on Sunday to reach the last eight. Ishaish, who won the 2018 Asian Games bronze, beat Chinese Taipei’s University World Champion, Pan Hung-Ming, with a unanimous decision in the -69kg weight and he will face Japan’s Sewan Okazawa on Tuesday.

Younis beat his opponent Faizullah Aryubi, of Afghanistan, in the light heavyweight (-81kg) competition, again receiving the verdict from all five judges to face Kyrgyzstan’s Erkin Adylbek in the quarter-finals.

Ahmad Al Matbouli made it a memorable day for Jordan with a victory in the -60kg division following another dominant display to beat Afghanistan’s Ali Reza Ahmadi. He will next fight Mongolia’s Tsendbataar Erdenebat, the 2018 Asian Games champion. Mohamed Gharaghir could not make a clean sweep of wins, losting his fyweight (-52kg) contest to North Korea’s Utah Baum.

The trio of victors join countrymen Obada Al Kissbeh (-64kg), Hussein Ishaish (-91kg) and Oday Hindawi (+91kg) in the quarter-finals.

AMMAN — Jordan’s taekwondo team continues to blaze a trail of glory in 2019 after winning six medals, including three golds, at the Sofia International Taekwondo Championship, according to the Jordan Olympic Committee News Service.

Natali Al Hmaidi led the way by winning gold in the -63kg weight and was joined at the top of the podium by Saleh Al Sharabati (-80kg) and Juliana Al Sadeq (-67 kg). Anas Al Sadiq (-87kg) and Zaid Halawani (-63kg) added silver medals, while Abdul Rahman Abu Samen took bronze in the -54kg weight.

The success is another timely measure of the progress being made by the Jordan Taekwondo Federation as it steps up its bid to qualify fighters for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The medals also provide a big boost ahead of the World Championships taking place in Manchester, England, from May 15-19. 

AMMAN — Musab Al Momani has put himself in the Jordan history books by winning the Kingdom’s first ever discus medal at the 23rd Asian Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, to the Jordan Olympic Committee News Service announced.

Momani threw for 58.27 metres, his best this season, to take the bronze medal behind Iranian throwers Behnam Shiri (60.89m) and Ehsan Haddadi,  who won the gold medal with a championship record of 65.95m. The championships run until April 24 and feature more than 1,000 athletes from 43 countries.

TURIN, Italy — Cristiano Ronaldo is “1,000 per cent” certain to remain at Juventus, he said after they clinched the Serie A title on Saturday with a 2-1 win over Fiorentina.

Ronaldo, dismissing suggestions that he could cut short his three-year contract, said he was delighted to have won Serie A at the first attempt, adding to his three English Premier League titles with Manchester United and two La Liga crowns with Real Madrid. 

“I’m really happy to have won the Italian title in my first season here. It has been a great season for this Juventus, we also won the Italian Supercup,” said the Portuguese forward, who has scored 19 league goals. 

“We didn’t do so well in the Champions League but there is always next year,” he added. “I will stay, 1,000 per cent.”

Defender Leonardo Bonucci, meanwhile, explained how Juventus had managed to bounce back from their shock Champions League quarter-final exit against Ajax on Tuesday when they lost 2-1 at home and went out 3-2 on aggregate.

“I’m sorry about the Champions League but we transformed the disappointment into anger and energy. This scudetto, the eighth in a row, is something unique,” he said. “We really want to celebrate, this success makes the season’s sacrifice all worth it. 

Coach Massimiliano Allegri said winning with five games to spare was a “testimony to our great season”.

“We put aside the elimination that brought us disappointment and bitterness. Fortunately, we had this match that allowed us to close the championship,” said the 51-year-old who has been in charge for the last five campaigns.

Allegri said his team, who fell behind after six minutes, needed to deal better with setbacks.

“We came from Tuesday’s disappointment, then entered the field and conceded a goal,” he said. “We have to work on dealing with the unexpected, on Tuesday we suffered four devastating counter-attacks, today we did the same after we conceded the goal.”

He said injuries had prevented Juventus from producing better performances.

“In general, during the season, we were unable to find continuity,” he said. “There were constant new injuries and recurring fitness problems, so at times I had only 14 players to train with. Despite it all, we won by a big advantage.”

Allegri has said several times that winning Serie A for an eighth year in a row would be “something extraordinary” but, for all the impressive statistics and records, it turned out to be all rather mundane.

The Turin side extended their dominance of Italian football while equalling the record for the earliest title win jointly held by Torino, Fiorentina and Inter Milan.

Juventus, who have the joint-best attack and best defence in Serie A, also became the first team in one of Europe’s big five leagues to win eight titles in a row and are still on course to equal their own domestic Serie A record of 102 points.

Yet, despite Allegri’s protestations about how winning should never be undervalued, it was strangely unsatisfying, especially as it came four days after they were knocked out of the Champions League — the competition they really wanted to win.

This was partly because the outcome was so predictable — adding Cristiano Ronaldo, still regarded as one of the world’s two best players at the age of 34, to an already dominant team was never likely to improve the league’s competitive balance. 

But there were also none of the awe-inspiring displays served up by teams such as Manchester City or Barcelona, nor the raw passion of Juergen Klopp’s Liverpool.

MANCHESTER — Pep Guardiola will target the quadruple again next season with Manchester City despite the disappointment of this week’s Champions League exit against Tottenham.

Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino and Liverpool’s Juergen Klopp — Guardiola’s closest challenger for the Premier League title — have both advanced to the semifinals of Europe’s leading club competition.

But, unlike Guardiola, that duo have placed far less emphasis on the domestic cup competitions, fielding weakened sides in the early rounds of the League Cup and FA Cup.

By contrast Guardiola, has always fielded full, or near-full, strength teams, leaving him open to accusations fatigue is hampering his team in the season’s closing stages.

Nevertheless the City manager, who won the League Cup against Chelsea and faces an FA Cup final date with Watford next month, is adamant he would never deliberately attempt to be knocked out of a competition.

“I don’t understand in my profession, it is not to say I don’t want to win, I don’t understand that,” said Guardiola.

“If I lose it’s because the opponent beat me or beat us. I’m not going to drop any competitions because maybe in the future it will be better.”

‘Never get perfection’

The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss whose City side, thanks to a quirk of the fixture list played Tottenham again in the Premier League on Saturday, added: “Who knows what’s going to happen in the future?

“I will dream next season of fighting for the four titles, that’s my dream.”

Despite the traumatic nature of the aggregate reverse on away goals against Spurs, City are still just six wins — five in the league and the FA Cup Final — away from becoming the first English team ever to win a domestic treble

Rather than forget the disappointment of midweek, the City manager hopes the memory of that painful loss will inspire his side, although the Catalan boss accepted he could not be sure of his star-studded team’s reaction.

“I don’t know,” he said. “Before the game you don’t know how you will play, you never know how you’ll react, we were out other times, and we reacted well.

“Perfection you never get, never, but you have to try to achieve it. Perfection would be 4-0, it was 4-3, or 7-0,” Guardiola explained. “We create chances to score seven. So perfection never exists, but you have to try.”

Just like City’s Champions League exit two years ago, when they scored five times in the home leg with Monaco only to go out on away goals, Guardiola’s disappointment was amplified by the fact they scored four times against Spurs on Wednesday in a losing effort.

“We have to improve the defensive department in this stage of the competition, and be more solid but in general we want to improve,” he said.

“But the way we play, we’ve scored 154 goals, but the way we play with a good game for everyone here and around the world we’re not going to change.”

After an astonishing encounter at the Etihad Stadium, Tottenham Hotspur reached the semifinals of the Champions League on away goals following a 4-3 defeat to Manchester City on Wednesday.

Spurs, who won the first leg 1-0 and progressed after the tie finished 4-4 on aggregate, will play Ajax Amsterdam for a place in the final against Liverpool or Barcelona after one of the most remarkable matches in the competition’s history.

Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino predicted the meeting with the exciting and young Dutch side would be an “open and exciting game”, but it will take something for it to offer more entertainment than this non-stop wave of drama and emotions.

It started in manic fashion with four goals in the opening 11 minutes of the game. It was a gripping spectacle right up until the dramatic finale when City had a stoppage time goal from Raheem Sterling, which would have sent them through, ruled out for offside after a VAR review.

City fans had celebrated what looked like the goal that sent them into the last four before the replay confirmed that Sergio Aguero was offside in the build-up.

It was a perfect example of the benefits of using technology but it was also hard on Pep Guardiola’s side who had been the stronger over the 90 minutes.

“It is cruel but it is what it is and we have to accept it,” said Guardiola, whose dream of winning four titles this season is now over.

His counterpart, Pochettino, who was without his top scorer Harry Kane, said his team had shown all their character.

“My players are heroes. We made history,” said the Argentine, whose team reach the last four for the first time since the creation of the Champions League and since their 1962 appearance in the semifinals of the European Cup.

The contest exploded into life in the fourth minute when Sterling put City in front, receiving a ball from Kevin De Bruyne on the left flank and then cutting inside onto his right foot before beating Hugo Lloris with a beautiful, curling shot into the far corner.

Three minutes later though, Spurs drew level when City’s French defender Aymeric Laporte’s attempted clearance fell straight at the feet of Son Heung-min whose low shot flew in off the leg of City keeper Ederson.

Laporte was also at fault for Spurs’ second in the 10th minute when he gifted the ball to Lucas Moura, the Brazilian feeding Christian Eriksen who found Son, the brilliant South Korean finishing superbly into the far corner.

Struck again

There was no respite as City responded immediately as Aguero fed Bernardo Silva and the Portuguese winger’s left-foot shot deflected off Danny Rose and beat the wrong-footed Lloris to make it 2-2 on the night.

The dangerous Sterling struck again in the 21st minute to level the aggregate score, ghosting in at the back post to convert a low cross from De Bruyne that had zipped across the face of the goal.

A thundering strike from Aguero in the 59th minute put City in the driving seat again — the Argentine blasting in at Lloris’s near post after a magnificent burst forward, and perfectly weighted and timed pass from De Bruyne.

City, who went out at the same stage to Liverpool last season, were stunned though in the 73rd minute when Spurs substitute Fernando Llorente bundled in a Kieran Trippier corner to restore the London club’s advantage through away goals.

With officials unsure if the ball had bounced off the Spaniard’s hand or rolled off his hip in the goalmouth scramble, VAR was called into action and the goal stood for Spurs — a decision Guardiola questioned after the game. 

Then came the stoppage time video torture for the home support — Aguero burst down the right flank and delivered a low cross for Sterling to slot home what would have been his hat-trick goal.

The VAR call was correct and the Premier League champions were out — to the delight of Pochettino and his players who celebrated wildly in front of the travelling Spurs support. 

“They deserve a lot of praise. I am so happy because the effort is massive from the squad who have lived with everything. If we have one thing to describe this team, we always keep the same spirit, ideas and philosophy and that is the most important thing,” Pochettino said.

Now the pair will meet again on Saturday at the same venue in the Premier League, with plenty at stake for both teams.

It should be another classic but it is hard to see how it could be quite as engrossing as this one.

Liverpool in last four

Liverpool face a testing Champions League semifinal against Barcelona, but have made a statement by reaching the last four for the second straight year and are equipped to deal with the very best, manager Juergen Klopp said.

Liverpool beat Porto 4-1 at the Dragao Stadium on Wednesday to advance 6-1 on aggregate with their attacking trio of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino all on target once again. 

Salah, who endured a goal drought in March, confirmed he was getting close to his best again when he coolly slotted the ball past Casillas after collecting a perfect diagonal through ball from Trent Alexander-Arnold in the 65th minute.

It was Salah’s first Champions League goal since December, and his first away from Anfield in the competition in 12 months.

With their defence marshalled by the hugely impressive Virgil Van Dijk, Liverpool, who reached the final last year, are now undefeated in their last 17 games in all competitions as they seek a Premier League-Champions League double. 

“We have been together for a while, we needed to be more mature,” Klopp said.

“The boys made their own experience in this competition, especially last year. It’s the second time in a row we are in the semis.

“That says something, it’s a big statement for the club. OK we play Barca, maybe it’s not too easy,” the German added with a smile. 

Liverpool certainly made it look easy in the second half against Porto after a tough opening 25 minutes.

Yet, after Sadio Mane latched onto a Mohamed Salah ball to open the scoring following a VAR review, Liverpool were in charge and never lost their composure.

“I was thinking it’s offside, to be honest. And I told the boys ‘keep going, keep going’ and they say ‘no, you have to wait because it’s a goal’”, the Senegalese said. 

“I was surprised. It was an important goal but the main point today was to qualify for the semis.” 

Klopp said they were expecting the early Porto onslaught. 

“It was very, very difficult. We knew that before, that it will be a proper whirlwind here and that’s what they did,” Klopp said.

“We know these games in the Champions league, they [Porto] are a completely different animal in home games. And it was clear that we had to be ready for that,” he added. 

“A difficult game but we won it and so I am completely fine. Going to the semifinals, I think we are the only ones who were last in the semifinals and again in the semifinal so that’s really special for us.”

Juventus have been sent back to the drawing board after their Champions League ambitions were shattered by an Ajax Amsterdam side whose transfer spending this season has been roughly one-fifth of their own.

The Turin club have dominated Italian football, winning Serie A for the last seven seasons, and their signing of five-times World Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo in July was interpreted as a bold statement of their European intentions.

But those dreams were left in tatters after Juventus were beaten 2-1 at home in their quarter-final second leg on Tuesday, going out 3-2 on aggregate.

Not only were Juventus beaten but they were outclassed by a team whose fluid, geometric passing left them chasing shadows and who possessed something Juventus lacked — a clear playing style.

The current Juventus side is arguably the least appealing since Massimiliano Allegri took over in 2014, depending largely on the talent of Ronaldo to unlock matches.

Playmaker Paulo Dybala, in particular, seems to have been inhibited by Ronaldo’s presence and the Argentine’s season took another frustrating turn on Tuesday when he was taken off at halftime with a thigh injury.

Allegri, however, said that Juventus were “absolutely not” over-dependent on Ronaldo. “He has given us a lot over the course of the campaign, but when you reach the quarter-final, you need every player,” he said.

Instead he blamed injuries to players such as key defender Giorgio Chiellini, winger Douglas Costa and forward Mario Mandzukic, previously described by Allegri as Ronaldo’s ideal striking partner.

“It’s better to have as many options as possible, because these ties are decided by details, substitutions and options off the bench,” he said.

Those complaints may sound hollow, however, when the transfer spending of the respective sides is compared.

According to the specialist website Transfermarkt, Ajax have spent just over 51 million euros ($58.80 million) this season while Juventus have splashed out 261 million euros.

Of that, around 100 million euros was on Ronaldo, 40 million each on Joao Cancelo and Costa, 35 million euros on bringing Leonardo Bonucci back from AC Milan and 12 million on reserve goalkeeper Mattia Perin.

Fans of other Serie A sides are unlikely to be sympathetic, either, after seeing Juventus snap up their top players.

Examples include Miralem Pjanic and Gonzalo Higuain, who joined from AS Roma and Napoli respectively in 2016, and Federico Bernardeschi from Fiorentina.

But, rather like Paris St Germain in France, Juve’s dominance of Serie A appeared to leave them unprepared for the European challenge.

Ajax took the game to Juventus in a way that none of their domestic rivals would have dared, and Allegri’s team were incapable of dealing with it.

“Football can be brutal, we conceded an unlucky goal and after that, we became afraid and we were stretched in the second half,” he said.

“There are many young players in the squad who need to play and gain experience. Some might have paid for having two such big matches in the space of a week.”