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BARCELONA — Barcelona failed to capitalise on Real Madrid dropping points against Villarreal as the La Liga champions were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Atletico Madrid on Wednesday, while talisman Lionel Messi limped off with a groin injury.

Ivan Rakitic nodded Barca ahead in the 41st minute but the home side lost control after the break following an injury to midfield lynchpin Sergio Busquets and Angel Correa fired in the equaliser in the 61st, shortly after Messi had come off.

“Leo Messi has torn the groin muscle in his right leg. He will be out of action for approximately three weeks,” Barcelona officials said in a statement.

Earlier on Wednesday, Real’s 100 per cent start to the season came to an end as they drew 1-1 at home to Villarreal, which also halted their joint record run of 16 successive league wins.

Real remain top of La Liga on 13 points. Sevilla are second on 11 points, Barcelona third on nine points while Atletico are fourth, on eight points.

Barca had plenty of possession in the first half but Atletico, who knocked them out of the Champions League last season, forced them into tight spaces and constricted their ability to create openings.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be an easy game and we’d be attacking a team that sat back and worked hard. They gave us no space and made everything more complicated,” Luis Enrique told a news conference.

Messi was denied by Jan Oblak in one of few chances in a tight first half but Rakitic broke free of Atletico’s clutches to put Barca in front.

The champions did not kick on after the break, rocked by an exhausted Busquets being taken off and then Messi limping off.

A lapse of concentration from Barca defenders Javier Mascherano and Gerard Pique allowed Atletico substitute Correa to latch onto a through ball from Fernando Torres and fire in off the post.

Barca had 29 minutes to find a winner without Messi, and despite chances for Pique and Neymar, Atletico held firm.

Barca striker Luis Suarez, meanwhile, had fierce words for Atletico defender Filipe Luis, who uploaded a picture onto Instagram of his bloodied foot bearing stud marks from a clash with Suarez.

“Football is for men and what happened on the pitch stays on the pitch,” Suarez told reporters.

“If every time someone got hit it was uploaded to Instagram this would turn into a circus. I’m not going to be sending photos out after every game.”

Earlier, Cristiano Ronaldo spurned two early chances in a lacklustre first half by Real, who allowed Villarreal opportunities at the other end.

Villareal captain Bruno Soriano gave his side the lead on the stroke of half-time with a boldly chipped penalty after Sergio Ramos had handled in the area, although the Real captain made amends by equalising in the 48th minute.

“We were the much better side in the second half but you can’t always win every game in the last minute,” said Real Manager Zinedine Zidane.

As much as Jordan Spieth would love to complete a successful title defence at the Tour Championship this week, team victory at the Ryder Cup next week is an even bigger goal for the American

If forced to choose between the two, Spieth told reporters at East Lake in Atlanta on Tuesday that he would opt for Cup glory.

"That's kind of rude," the twice major champion said in response to the question, before answering it directly when he could have diplomatically brushed it off as a hypothetical.

"I don't have a Ryder Cup [win]. I think I will have a Ryder Cup at some point. You want what you don't have. I've watched the other side of that [Ryder Cup defeat in 2014] and it hurt.

"It was tough in that closing ceremony. When we boarded the plane back home, it was an empty feeling and we don't want that again," said Spieth, 23, who made his Ryder Cup debut in 2014. "We remember that. We want that celebration.

"I'm pretty confident how we're going to go about our business. I think we've got a fantastic team this year."

Spieth spent Sunday and Monday at Hazeltine National in Minnesota, site of next week's biennial showdown between the United States and Europe, seeking to squirrel away course knowledge.

The former world number one says he will have no trouble this week eliminating the Ryder Cup from his mind as he chases the tournament crown and also the $10 million bonus handed out to the winner of the season-long FedExCup points race.

But the Ryder Cup will be very much on the mind of others at East Lake in the elite 30-man field who are vying for the 12th and last spot on the American team.

Cup pressure

Their battle to impress captain Davis Love, who will name his final wild card selection on Sunday night, will provide an intriguing subplot to the event, with Bubba Watson, Justin Thomas and Daniel Berger among those on the short list.

Spieth played with all three at Hazeltine on Monday.

"You could see how badly each of them wanted to be there," he said. "I think being on the property excited them even more. We want whoever's playing the best to be the last pick and I think there are five or six options."

Spieth has particular sympathy for twice Masters champion Watson, the world number seven.

"I couldn't imagine being in his position," said Spieth. "I don't know if anybody's been passed up at that spot [but] he didn't seem upset about anything, like he was entitled to anything.

"I think he really feels like he needs to do his job this week."

Spieth said he did not mind if Love chose a veteran or a rookie for the final spot.

"Doesn't make much difference, whoever's playing the best golf," he said.

AMMAN — Jordan didn’t get off to the best of starts at the Asian Beach Games after Anas Khalaf lost in the Muay Thai quarter-finals, according to the Jordan Olympic Committee News Service. Khalaf, 23, lost 3-0 to the host nation Vietnam’s Nwein Nhoun in the 51kg category.

“It was very tough match and I am disappointed to be out. But I hope to do better in the future,” Khalaf said. With the backdrop of a partisan crowd, Khalaf lost the first round 10-9 and then won the next too for the whitewash win.

Next up, Saif Aldin Zaqzouq meets China’s Wang Winfing in the quarter-finals of the 60kg category on Thursday at 11am Jordan time. Meanwhile, the rest of the delegation is arriving in Vietnam with Jordan also taking part in jiu jitsu, beach handball and wrestling.

AMMAN — Jordan golfer Shergo Kurdi has continued his superb form by winning an Under-19 tournament for in England, according to the Jordan Olympic News Service.

The 13-year-old secured his eighth victory of the year courtesy of a fantastic 72 at Fulwell Golf Club in Middlesex.

The win puts him in fine form ahead of Sunday’s Grand Finale of the prestigious Surrey Tour at Wimbledon Golf Club where a place in the top three, and a finish above his nearest rival Jack Osbourne, will secure the order of merit prize. He currently holds a half a point lead. 

LONDON — Ivory Coast midfielder Yaya Toure will not play for Manchester City again until the Premier League club receive an apology for comments made by his agent, manager Pep Guardiola said on Tuesday.

"He must apologise. If he doesn't, he won't play," Guardiola told reporters.

The 33-year-old player's agent Dimitri Seluk, who had said Toure felt "humiliated" after being left out of City's Champions League squad, hit back in similarly uncompromising fashion.

"What do I need to apologise for?," he asked Sky Sports television. "Guardiola wins a few games and thinks he is a king. I live in Europe so I can say whatever I like and Guardiola can't stop me.

"I will apologise to Guardiola if he will apologise to [former City manager] Manuel Pellegrini for what he did to him."

Toure, four times African Footballer of the Year, has been a mainstay of City's midfield since joining from Guardiola's Barcelona in 2010.

He has only played once this season, in the second leg of a Champions League play-off tie against Steaua Bucharest when City had a 5-0 lead from the first game.

"It was difficult to leave him out of the Champions League squad but [the] day after, his [agent] went to the media. [Toure] has not had the courage to call me. From that moment he was out," Guardiola said.

The pair also clashed at Barcelona, with the player later telling a Spanish radio station that he felt forced out.

"He pretty much ignored me until City's offer came in. That's why I eventually opted to leave. I didn't speak to Guardiola for a year," Toure said in 2011.

"I did not want to go and wanted to end my career at Barcelona. However, he had no faith in me."

Guardiola said then that he had tried to convince the Ivorian to stay.

Toure, who had been tipped to leave after Guardiola joined from Bayern Munich in the close season, announced earlier on Tuesday his retirement from international football.

"Writing this note was probably 'the most difficult match of my life'," he said, adding that the decision was not to do with his age, intensity of training or number of games.

"Football is everything to me. It gave me so many things in my career that now I don't feel able to set new goals, as a player with the Elephants," he said.

Toure scored 19 goals in more than 100 appearances for Ivory Coast and captained his country to their first African Nations Cup win for 23 years in 2015.

Manchester City, who have a 100 per cent record in the league after five games, play Swansea City in the third round of the League Cup on Wednesday. 

MADRID — Fernando Alonso says he is only thinking as far ahead as next season and any extension of his McLaren Formula One contract beyond 2017 will depend on how he feels about the sport.

“I’m 34 and I could go on for more years but it’s all about motivation and willingness,” the Spaniard told Cadena Ser radio. “I’m just thinking about next year.

“We will see how I feel when the time comes, if I sign a contract extension.”

The double world champion, seventh in Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix, said the aim was to fight for the championship next season, when the sport undergoes a major rules revamp.

Former world champions McLaren have not won a race since 2012 and endured a nightmare last season at the start of a new engine partnership with Honda after years with now-dominant Mercedes.

“The hunger is always there. After one year and a half without being close to the podium, I have more motivation. I come out as a lion in every race,” said Alonso, who joined from Ferrari at the end of 2014.

Whether he stays or goes could determine the fate of British teammate Jenson Button, who is making way for Belgian Stoffel Vandorne next year but has an option for 2018.

The sport will have wider tyres, new aerodynamics and faster cars in 2017.

“Today’s cars are less attractive, more boring than with respect to a few years back,” said Alonso. “It’s not the Formula One that we knew.

“Next year, with the change of rules, the cars are going to be five seconds faster and I’m hopeful that Formula One will be more attractive for the driver.”

The Spaniard, who won his titles with Renault, predicted that this year’s battle between Mercedes pair Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton would go down to the wire.

Rosberg won in Singapore to move eight points clear of triple world champion Hamilton, who was Alonso’s teammate at McLaren in 2007, with six races remaining.

“It’s going to go be close until the end,” said Alonso. “The reliability of the car will be key.”

The Spaniard said McLaren were stepping up the pace.

“Just 12 months ago, we left Singapore with the two cars having abandoned the race,” he said. “The line that we have followed since has been tremendously good and it’s up to us now to continue to work until next March to keep it up.”

Meanwhile, Formula One’s governing body is to investigate an incident that saw cars cleared to race while a marshal was still on track following a Singapore Grand Prix safety car period on Sunday.

The International Automobile Federation (FIA) said a report would be carried out to ensure such a situation was not repeated.

Autosport.com quoted a spokesman saying procedures were not “properly executed” by the clerk of the course and team of officials.

The marshal was helping remove track debris after the safety car was deployed at the end of the first lap following Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg’s crash into the pitwall at the start.

The cars were released again at the start of lap three but, despite race control confirming three times with the clerk of the course that the track was clear of people and material, a marshal was still out there.

Pictures showed him sprinting to the side of the circuit as the field, led by the Mercedes’ race winner Nico Rosberg, bore down on him.

“It was very dangerous,” Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff told reporters. “I’m really happy it ended up with nobody being hurt.”

The Austrian said race control had been asked to re-start races sooner, rather than cars having to spend too long behind the safety car, and that request had been heard.

Rosberg said the incident had been “pretty hairy”.

“I think just as we didn’t expect the re-start, he didn’t either because the re-start was somehow pretty abrupt. Luckily he got out of the way just about in time so it was OK.”

It was the second year in a row that concern had been raised by someone on the track.

Last year, a lone intruder ambled across the floodlit track midway through the race and then strolled by the metal fences as cars came past.

A 27-year-old British national was later sentenced to six weeks in jail for breaching the security fences.

SINGAPORE — Germany's Nico Rosberg celebrated his 200th Formula One race by retaking the championship lead from Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton after a pole to flag win in Singapore on Sunday.

After a chaotic start that brought out a safety car on the opening lap, Rosberg stayed clear of Red Bull's late-charging Daniel Ricciardo at the floodlit Marina Bay Street Circuit.

Triple world champion Hamilton completed the podium in third place.

"The whole car was on the edge, it always is here in Singapore, so it's very satisfying to finish like that," Rosberg told reporters.

The German's third victory in a row, and 22nd of his career, lifted Rosberg on to 273 points, eight clear of Hamilton, with six rounds remaining and Australia's Ricciardo a distant third on 179 in the title race.

Rosberg's win was his eighth of the season and first in Singapore, a Grand Prix that has only been won by world champions until now.

The German had started two points behind Hamilton and, despite leading comfortably halfway though the race, crossed the line just 0.488 seconds ahead of Ricciardo after having to complete the last 28 laps on the same soft tyres.

Red Bull opted for a bold tyre strategy to put pressure on Rosberg late on and Ricciardo was eating into the advantage at roughly three seconds a lap in the closing stages but ran out of road before the chequered flag.

"Of course Daniel tried to pull one up on me with the pit stop at the end, we knew it was going to be tight but we got there so I'm very happy," added Rosberg, who opened a 43-point lead on Hamilton at the start of the season before falling behind when the Briton won six of seven races.

Overheating brakes

Hamilton had his own private battle with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen behind the leading duo, the Briton losing third place to the Finn after a mistake on lap 34 but reclaiming the position with a timely pit stop to hold on to the finish.

"This weekend has been a tricky one for me but I'm just happy to get on the podium and get some points for the team," Hamilton said.

"The brakes were way overheating so I had to slow down. Once I did my second or third stop we managed to sort it out."

Last year's race winner Sebastian Vettel drove brilliantly from last on the starting grid to claim fifth place in the other Ferrari, the German coming home ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso in a McLaren.

The safety car was deployed immediately after the start when Nico Hulkenberg's Force India, eighth on the grid, suffered a heavy crash after making contact with Carlos Sainz's Toro Rosso.

Rosberg got away cleanly to lead from Ricciardo, with Hamilton in third and Raikkonen behind him after Verstappen suffered a woeful start to slip back to eighth from fourth on the grid.

The race restarted and Rosberg would have been startled to see a marshal at the end of the start-finish straight picking up debris, the man just managing to get off the circuit before the Mercedes reached him.

There were no more safety cars, throughout a 61-lap race that has yet to be completed without one, but the different tyre strategies of the leading cars made for a tactical and exciting race on a circuit that offers very few overtaking opportunities.

Mexican Sergio Perez was eighth for Force India with Russian Daniil Kvyat ninth for Toro Rosso.

Denmark's Kevin Magnussen scored the final point for Renault in only the second finish in the points for the team this season. 

AMMAN — The 2016 Lexus Tennis Festival started in Amman over the weekend with around 240 players participating in tournaments for all categories and age groups. 

The eight-day 2nd annual Tennis Festival is being held from September 16 at The Tennis Academy courts. It will also include a Family Tennis Day hosted by guest of honour, Moroccan tennis ace Karim Alami.

“I am honoured to be part of the second annual Lexus Tennis Festival. I am very excited to meet all the young Jordanian players. I have heard great things about your country and can’t wait to spend some time in Jordan,” Alami said in a statement made available by the organisers, The Tennis Academy Amman (TTA), Jordan’s leading tennis training institute. 

In a statement to the press, TTA founder Khalid J. Naffa’, Jordan’s former top ranked player, noted his enthusiasm at hosting the festival for the second year. “Here at the academy we stand firm by our belief that sports, and tennis in particular, build character, teach perseverance, and help mould a whole new generation of leaders we can be proud of. It is our mission to build champions both on and off the court: That’s what the TTA is all about: exposing our young athletes to the best of the best, and instilling in them a belief that they must be the best that they can be.”

Naffa’added : “In that spirit, the festival is back for a second year, boasting a very special line-up of tennis stars, ATP players, and an exciting new addition: The first ever Amman Tennis Masters tournament, featuring international players from across the globe that will battle for the championship.”

Born in Casablanca, Alami turned pro in 1990 when he was just 17 years old. A year later, he represented his country in the 1991 Davis Cup, which was the beginning of a long and prosperous career that saw him reach a rank of World No. 25. He competed in all four Grand Slam championships, and represented his country at the Sydney Olympics. Perhaps his most famous tennis victory came in 1994 when he beat World No. 1 and Tennis Hall of famer, the legendary Pete Sampras, in the 1st Round of the Doha Open. In 1996, Alami made history by becoming the first Moroccan tennis player to win an ATP title. 

Alami retired in 2002 and has gone on to impress in the tennis world as the tournament director for the ExxonMobil Open in Doha, Qatar.

Tennis Festival matches will begin at 9am on the weekends and last until 10pm. During weekdays, including Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, the matches will begin at 4pm until 10pm. The family day with Alami will be held on Friday, September 23 at 2:30pm and will be followed by the final match of the Amman Masters Tournament at 4:30pm.

Last year’s festival featured an exhibition match between top international players former world #13 Jarkko Nieminen and Tunisian tennis star Malek Jaziri, as well as a Family Tennis Day with legendary and multiple Grand Slam Champion Mary Pierce. The French champion, is a winner of four Grand Slam titles, including the 1995 Singles Australian Open, the 2000 Singles French Open, the 2000 doubles French Open, and the 2005 mixed doubles Wimbledon title.

SINGAPORE — Locked in an intense fight for the Formula One championship, and preparing for his 200th career start, Nico Rosberg pulled out a stunning lap to snatch pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix on Saturday.

Rosberg, who trails championship leader and Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton by two points, put himself in the best possible position for a third consecutive race victory by qualifying more than half a second faster than Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo in second.

"For my 200th appearance, definitely one of my top three laps ever," Rosberg said. "It wasn't clear in qualifying how we would stack up against Red Bull so I really had to give it everything and pull it out of the bag, which is cool."

Hamilton, who struggled relative to his teammate throughout practice at the Marina Bay street circuit, qualified third, seven-tenths of a second off Rosberg's time.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen qualified fourth.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was fifth, and teammate Sebastian Vettel will start last in Sunday's race after his car had an anti-roll bar failure in the Q1 session.

"I was a bit annoyed because first we decided to go for another lap but it wasn't really any quicker," said defending champion Vettel, a four-time winner in Singapore. "Then we decided to pit to try and fix it but there was no time to do it."

Though Rosberg's time was stunning, Red Bull retained confidence about its prospects of a race victory. Both Ricciardo and Verstappen will start the race on harder tyres than Mercedes, so their first stint before pitting should be longer. That will allow them greater flexibility of strategy at a venue that has had safety car periods in all of its previous races.

"We are a bit surprised we are the only ones [on that tire strategy]," Ricciardo said. "We feel it's a good thing but let's see if it makes a difference tomorrow.

"We have created a good opportunity by starting on the front row, and our race pace has been good [in practice]. Track position and safety cars can determine a lot here."

Hamilton struggled in practice, with several instances of missed braking points, tyre lock-ups, and trips down escape roads.

"It's not been my weekend so far," Hamilton said. "I haven't been able to string them [laps] together.

"I've been on the back foot all year long, so it's really no different tomorrow, and I'll try to fight my way through."

Verstappen was also unhappy with his rhythm during qualifying, complaining that he was unable to get sufficient heat in his tyres despite the tropical conditions and high track temperatures. He was in better spirits during the final practice as he laughed over the team radio about almost hitting a large monitor lizard that scuttled across the circuit.

Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz Jr. qualified sixth — equalling his season best — followed by teammate Daniil Kvyat in seventh.

Force India's Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez qualified 8th and 10th, separated by McLaren's Fernando Alonso.

Rosberg's 29th career pole took him level with the great Juan Manuel Fangio on the all-time list, and provided a fillip for his confidence on a track where he has never shown his best. This was his first pole in Singapore, where his best finish was second back in 2008, when he was with Williams.

He paid credit to his team for being able to diagnose and overcome the problems that saw the team perform relatively poorly in qualifying here last year.

"We really came away and learned what went wrong last year," Rosberg said. "We were nowhere in qualifying so it really shows the quality of the team to be able to turn something like that around and be so successful."

AMMAN  — Jordan’s national football team dropped seven places to 86th in the latest FIFA Rankings issued on the weekend.

The Kingdom also dropped to 10th in Asia trailing Iran (37), Australia (45), South Korea (47), Uzbekistan (49), Saudi Arabia (52), Japan (53), the UAE (66), China (78) and Qatar (85).

Argentina is still No. 1 ahead of Belgium, Germany, Columbia, Brazil, Chile, Portugal, France, Uruguay and Wales in the top10. 

Jordan recently played three friendlies as part of their training agenda for the 2019 Asian Cup qualifiers kicking off in March 2017. They held Bahrain 0-0, Lebanon 1-1 and lost to Qatar 3-2 to Qatar in the first of 7 friendlies. The squad’s last tournament was the King’s Cup, an international football tournament organised in Thailand where they lost to the hosts in the final. 

The national team was represented by a mostly new line-up without pros playing aboard as the coaching staff tried to give younger team members competitive experience. Coach Abdullah Abu Zameh was quoted by the Jordan Football Association website as saying: “We are striving to build a new team, and giving new players competitive experience needs time.” 

Jordan was eliminated from the 2018 World Cup qualifiers doubling as part of the qualification for 2019 Asian Cup. After putting behind elimination from 2018 World Cup qualifiers, Abu Zam’eh, has recalled mainly younger players including Olympic team players.

The national team will regroup for friendlies and camps until the start of the Asian qualifiers from which group winners and four best runners-up (total 12 teams) advance to the 2019 AFC Asian Cup finals and the final round of qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The next best 24 teams from the preliminary stage of the joint qualifiers will compete in a separate competition for the remaining slots (12 slots or 11 slots + one slot for the host) in the 24-team 2019 Asian Cup. 

In past Asian Cup editions, Jordan reached the championship three times since first taking part in qualifiers in 1972. The pinnacle was at the 13th Asian Cup, when they lost to Japan in the quarter-finals and jumped to the best ever FIFA Rank of 37th in August 2004. 

The Kingdom had the most memorable World Cup qualifying journey in 2013 when they lost a possible chance to play at the World Cup for the first time and advanced to play then World’s 6th ranked Uruguay in an intercontinental qualifying tie for a place in the 2014 World Cup.