Just six months ago, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was handed a three-year contract as Manchester United manager. Three months later, Mauricio Pochettino was leading Tottenham out in Madrid for the club's first-ever appearance in a Champions League final.

Yet as the dust settled on a weekend which saw Javi Gracia become the first managerial casualty of the season in Premier League, with the Spaniard sacked by Watford after one draw and three defeats in their opening four league games, Solskjaer and Pochettino found themselves as joint-favourites with the bookmakers to become the next manager to leave their job this season.

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Solskjaer and Pochettino share the dubious distinction with Steve Bruce, who has endured a difficult start to his reign in charge of Newcastle, but it has been longer than anyone cares to remember since any Newcastle manager was able to work without some kind of uncertainty hovering over his job security. Bruce walked into the job at St James' Park knowing exactly what to expect, especially having previously managed bitter north-east rivals Sunderland, so the 58-year-old was always going to have to start well to silence his critics. His team didn't start well, but four points from Newcastle's last two games suggests that the bookmakers might soon start to lengthen the odds on Bruce joining Gracia on the managerial scrapheap.

Pochettino and Solskjaer now need a similarly positive reaction from their players after the international break in order to banish the storm clouds that are beginning to loom large over them. Results will ultimately dictate the fate of both men, as is the case with any manager, but while the circumstances surrounding Pochettino and Solskjaer's situations are different, they each have to shoulder a decent portion of the blame for the pressure they are now beginning to feel.

The doubts over Pochettino's future at Spurs are largely of his own making, with the Argentine speaking on numerous occasions over recent months about how even he doesn't know how long he will stay at the club or if, indeed, he wants to. In Singapore, during the club's preseason tour, Pochettino even went so far as to admit that he would have considered leaving his job had Spurs beaten Liverpool in the Champions League final last season.

Pochettino has helped Spurs navigate themselves up football's version of Everest during his five years in charge, transforming the club from perennial underachievers to Champions League regulars and North London's top club. Winning the Champions League would have been like reaching the summit, so perhaps he was, or is, ready for a new challenge. But by speaking so openly about potentially coming to the end of the road at Spurs, Pochettino has created uncertainty and given the likes of Christian Eriksen justification for rejecting a new contract at the club in order to pursue a new challenge of his own somewhere else. There are similar doubts over the futures of Jan Vertonghen, Danny Rose and Toby Alderweireld and, all of a sudden, Spurs look like a team on the verge of being broken up and the sense of everyone looking out for themselves is inescapable.

They sit in ninth position, with just one win from four so far in the league, and they went into the international break having thrown away a 2-0 lead at Arsenal to draw 2-2 against their biggest rivals. Pochettino went into that game denying rumours that he was preparing to quit, so the air of uncertainty is understandable and it is reaching the stage where it would be no surprise if the 47-year-old called time on his spell at Tottenham.

It is a different scenario with Solskjaer, who retains the backing of the United supporters and has yet to be subjected to suggestions that the club's owners, the Glazer family, are growing restless with recent results. But those results are why the bookmakers are being less than generous with their odds on Solskjaer losing his job.

United have made their worst start to a season since 1992-93, winning just once in four games, and they have offloaded several experienced players since the closure of the Premier League transfer window without replacing them. The optimism which flowed following the Norwegian's appointment as caretaker manager last December in the wake of Jose Mourinho's sacking has long since evaporated, largely because results have been so bad. United have not won away from Old Trafford in any competition since the remarkable 3-1 Champions League victory at Paris Saint-Germain on March 6 and they have kept just one clean sheet since the 0-0 draw with Liverpool in mid-February. Under Solskjaer, United have won just three of their last 16 games in all competitions, losing nine of them.

Solskjaer has embarked on a squad rebuilding process that has left United with just three forwards -- one of them the 17-year-old Mason Greenwood -- and no new midfielders, so he must now somehow find a way to keep his wafer-thin squad in contention in all competitions until the chance arrives to sign reinforcements in January. But the big question is whether the former United striker will survive long enough.

Solskjaer and Pochettino were seemingly untouchable in their current positions just six months ago, but football can change quickly. Just ask Javi Gracia. In May, he was being shortlisted as a potential new manager by Chelsea having guided Watford to their first FA Cup final since 1984. Now, he is out of work. That's the nature of the game for football managers, so it would be foolish to think there is no cause for concern for Pochettino and Solskjaer.

The Melbourne Renegades have signed England opener Tammy Beaumont as their replacement for absent skipper Amy Satterthwaite ahead of the new Women's Big Bash League season starting in October.

Beaumont played for the Adelaide Strikers in second and third seasons of the WBBL but did not play the last one. She was named in Wisden's Five Cricketers of the Year for 2019 and produced her sixth ODI century during the recent Ashes series in England.

Beaumont, 28, joins England team-mate Danielle Wyatt and New Zealand's Lea Tahuhu as the overseas players at the Renegades after Satterthwaite was ruled out of the tournament after recently announcing she was pregnant.

"I'm thrilled to be heading back to the Big Bash," Beaumont said. "I've played against a lot of the talent in the Renegades line-up so it'll be nice to be playing alongside them this time. The Renegades are a side on the rise and the Big Bash is such a tough competition so I'm looking forward to testing myself against some of the best players in the world."

Cricket South Africa (CSA) has appointed former Mumbai batsman Amol Muzumdar as batting coach for South Africa's three-match Test series against India, which starts on October 2 in Visakhapatnam.

The 44-year-old last played at the first-class level for Andhra in 2013 and has since held several coaching positions, besides being a TV commentator. Muzumdar's specialist role for this tour mirrors the one former Sri Lanka batsman Thilan Samaraweera played for New Zealand during their Test series in Sri Lanka last month.

"Amol is a perfect fit for us," CSA acting director of cricket Corrie van Zyl said. "He brings an intimate knowledge of Indian playing conditions and the challenges our batsmen are likely to face. He also assisted us at the spin bowling camp we held recently in India and thus has already built up a good working relationship with Aiden Markram, Temba Bavuma and Zubayr Hamza."

South Africa last toured India in 2015-16 and found it particularly difficult to tackle India's spinners, going past 200 in only one of the seven innings they batted in. A full encapsulation of their struggle against spin came in the last innings of the fourth Test, when they made an all-out commitment to defence, batting 143.1 overs as they were eventually bowled out for 143 chasing 481.

Muzumdar's 20-year career as one of the best players in Indian domestic cricket - he made 11,167 runs at 48.13 - is expected to help on that front.

"Cricket has always been and will continue to be my calling," Muzumdar said. "Having spent 25 years on the pitch as a player, I intend to spend the next 25 tapping and grooming talent on the cricket field. I am very excited about this new chapter to my coaching career."

Muzumdar holds high-performance coaching certificates from the BCCI, Cricket Australia as well as in the UK through both Lancashire and Yorkshire. He has been batting coach for Rajasthan Royals at the IPL, coached India's Under-19 and Under-23 sides at the National Cricket Academy, and was briefly a batting consultant for the Netherlands men's team. He had applied to be India's batting coach earlier this year but couldn't make the shortlist.

Muzumdar now joins a select group of Indians who have worked with other international teams, such as Sridharan Sriram (currently with Australia men's team), Sunil Joshi (spin consultant with Bangladesh men's team till recently), Wasim Jaffer (part of the coaching staff at the Bangladesh High Performance Centre) and Lalchand Rajput (worked as head coach of Zimbabwe and Afghanistan men's teams).

Bangladesh's poor showing, especially with the bat, against Afghanistan has led to a heated - and public - difference of opinion between captain Shakib Al Hasan and BCB president Nazmul Hassan. The statements - made in separate press interactions on Sunday, the fourth day of the Chattogram Test - come on the back of a disappointing World Cup, where Bangladesh finished eighth out of ten teams.

Speaking to newspersons in Dhaka, Nazmul raged, "Do I explain to them how to play Tests? How they prepared themselves, the way they planned, there must have been something wrong there. I feel the plan wasn't correct. We have to sit with the coach, the captain and the operations chairman [former captain Akram Khan] to understand why these things happened."

One of the president's grouses was about the selection, especially of players he feels are not cut out for Test cricket. "Soumya Sarkar, Liton Das and Sabbir Rahman are not Test player; we play them for specific reasons," he said. "I don't even want them to be Test players. Then what would happen to my T20 and ODI teams? We have Mominul [Haque] and Shadman [Islam], but we need more Test players in the side."

"Where are the pacers? We played in sporting wickets at the World Cup. Why the reversal in plans? I have to know who came up with these plans first" Nazmul Hassan

Speaking a short while later, Shakib said: "There is room for huge planning, and it is a long process. Whenever we play badly, we talk about these things. When we win, we don't talk about it. It is important to find the right balance."

On the wrong side of spin

The lack of practice against quality wristspinners, Shakib said, was one of the reasons for Bangladesh's poor batting. "We have both technical and mental shortcomings. We are not used to playing any kind of wristspin, although we planned and prepared against our legspinners in the nets," he said. "Unless you are successful in the middle, that practice doesn't work. I don't think anything was wrong in the approach, but there are problems in our execution, or playing with a big heart.

"When you are fearful, your execution doesn't quite come off. Liton hits everything well in T20s, but he couldn't do it in Tests. The coach also said that we should play with a bigger heart. We play with a lot of pressure and fear. At the end of the day, it is a cricket match. But it is not everything. We end up taking so much pressure on ourselves, we make performing harder. And when we can't perform, the pressure increases."

He, however, conceded, that "we are getting at least a thousand times more facilities now than compared to ten years ago, so our performance should also be a little more consistent".

Pace bowlers in the Test XI - yes or no?

Bangladesh went into the Test match without a single fast bowler. They had left out Mustafizur Rahman and picked three in their squad, but fielded not one of them; Sarkar, the part-time medium pacer, was in the mix, but bowled just four overs in the Test. Afghanistan, however, picked one, Yamin Ahmadzai, who got them their first wicket in the first Bangladesh innings, but was also bowled rarely.

"I said before the Test match that the pace bowlers must deserve a place in the team," Shakib countered. "Interestingly, I was seeing their stats today, and their economy rate is 4.41. If they bowl 90 overs, they will concede 400. We are out of the game on the first day.

"If they bring it down to 2.8 or 2.9 and they have a good strike rate, we can pick them. Just check their stats from their home Tests in the recent past, and you will see what I mean."

Nazmul, however, feels that the strategy is wrong, and pace bowlers should have been picked as he expected the Chattogram pitch to be similar to those in England during the World Cup. "First thing is, where are the pacers? We played in sporting wickets at the World Cup. Why the reversal in plans? I have to know who came up with these plans first," he said. "They [Afghanistan] have the best spinners. So we wanted to contest them with spin. The one person who had the courage to do that, took that decision. I don't know if it might be a case of overconfidence. I thought we were going to play on a sporting wicket."

The rot runs deeper

Quality fast bowlers have not come up the ranks, yes, but the quality of batsmanship has also gone down because of lack of practice against quality bowling, Shakib argued.

"We have to find out what is wrong with the player first. I think it is wrong to expect the same medicine to work for everyone. Whether it is because they are playing in the NCL [National Cricket League], or not because of playing in the NCL. It could be both," he said. "It maybe so that the bowling is so easy to play in the NCL that they end up hitting four or five double-hundreds, but when they come to international cricket, they can't score four or five runs."

For Nazmul, though, it is the shift from the three-year-old strategy that has been the bigger problem.

"We were under a particular strategy before Steve Rhodes came. It was known that we would play against teams from the subcontinent in one kind of wicket and a different kind against the rest," he said. "I think everyone has a lot to learn from this. I thought the likes of Mushfiqur [Rahim], Shakib, [Mahmudullah] Riyad and Mominul will score centuries. No reason not to, since their [Afghanistan's] batsmen did."

Interestingly, while the Bangladesh batsmen have struggled, Rahmat Shah became Afghanistan's first Test centurion, Asghar Afghan hit back-to-back half-centuries, and debutant opener Ibrahim Zadran gave a good account of himself with innings of 21 and 87. Was it the pitch? Shakib said it was the "complete opposite" of what the Bangladesh team wanted, while the Afghanistan camp expected the track to be flat but were taken by surprise when it turned out to be bone dry. What went wrong there?

Nathan Lyon's spinning finger made a good metaphor for the Australian spin bowler's nerves by the end of the Old Trafford Test, its callus split in two, held together by superglue, painkillers and a fierce desperation to win the Ashes.

As his teammates all looked achingly towards one of the ground's big screens for confirmation of the final wicket with less than an hour's play remaining, Lyon's head was turned in the other direction - he could be forgiven for not bearing to look. After Edgbaston, where Lyon had dominated England with a second innings display redolent of the 2017-18 series in Australia, he and the team had looked set for a straightforward steamrolling. The story that has unfolded since has taken it out of Lyon in ways he has never had to deal with before.

First, he drew level with Dennis Lillee's Australian wickets tally at Lord's, then struggled to go past him, a sensation shared by none other than Shane Warne in 2000. Next, came Headingley with all its many traumas. Lyon fumbled the critical run out chance, was denied the crucial lbw, and sank to the floor in desolation when Ben Stokes fashioned victory in the following over. With that result arrived a torrent of abuse, referencing some of Lyon's more unkind comments about England in 2017 and the fact that he had effectively dropped the Ashes.

At Old Trafford, the crowds took to ironically cheering him whenever he caught the ball before ambling in for his next delivery, meanwhile hurling all sorts at him from closer range. For a team that had already weathered the persistent booing of David Warner and Steven Smith, this underlined, as the captain Tim Paine said, "It's a nice place to play cricket but it is bloody difficult in England if I am honest."

Also read: A scream, a win and an urn dearly earned

Certainly Lyon, his spinning finger cut open in the first innings then only barely held together in the second, could relate. "I split my finger in the first innings but in Test cricket you have to find a way to compete," Lyon said. "It's probably like a singer losing the vocals probably. I was pretty proud of that bowling effort, to take 20 wickets on that pitch.

"You hear it [the crowd] for the first over or two then it just becomes white noise, if that makes sense. I know that's hard to believe but when you're a professional sportsman - your job is to come out and bowl well, compete against whoever you're playing. To be honest with you, I didn't really feel it or hear it at the back end, so it doesn't worry me. We're sitting up there, we're going to have a couple of beers tonight and celebrate because the urn is coming home. I'm not sure what the 9000 people in that stand are doing tonight."

What Lyon was doing after Headingley was grieving the defeat, his role in it, and trying to deal with a myriad of personal issues back home, one of which has been an ill uncle. But somewhere, perhaps from Paine's early advice to him in the aftermath of defeat, or perhaps from a text message sent to him by Smith - relating his own learnings from his one-year ban from cricket - Lyon found a way to drag himself back into a frame of mind capable of doing a job in Manchester.

"Obviously you're devastated. I wear my heart on my sleeve and playing cricket for Australia means everything for me, it's not about personal success for me," he said. "But I've had some family issues over the past - my uncle's quite sick. You realise quite quickly it's just a game. It does impact a lot of people. Mistakes happen. I didn't meant to drop the run out or anything like that but I had him plumb next ball. That's just the game of cricket. You've got to pick yourself up and it's just the way you bounce back.

"I would've loved to win five-nil, don't worry about that. That means a lot of parties. But you've got to give credit where credit's due. Both sides have played some really decent cricket. You've got to respect the opposition. We're playing against some absolute superstars of the game. You look at Archer, Root, Stokes - that's just three and we could sit here all night and talk about them - but they're absolute superstars of the game. I think this series is rivalling the '05 series, as a spectator back then you were riding the waves with the Australian cricket team. The sport in this country, England, alone over the past five months has done wonders for cricket.

"You get the chance to come out here and play cricket for Australia and represent your family, friends and everyone back home. I guarantee when I get my phone back I'll have a fair few messages from mates staying up - I think it's about 3.30am back home. It's quite a special moment that a sport can bring a nation together. I daresay that the boys in that change room up there, where we're going to celebrate tonight, have brought a nation together."

In both the first innings and on the final day, Lyon was not the dominating figure of the last Ashes series or Edgbaston, rather a supporting character to the unstinting brilliance of Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, with help at vital times from Mitchell Starc and, finally, Marnus Labuschagne. Their collective performance was enough for Lyon to make the sort of blanket statement that comes with winning Ashes series.

"Everyone is going to think this is a big statement but I think the bowling squad in that change room there is the best in the world," Lyon said. "I believe that and I'm very confident that we are the best in the world. To have the fast-bowling stocks that we've got as the Australian Cricket Team at the moment we're very lucky. But in saying that the boys are working their backsides off. There's no surprise they're out there reaping the rewards they deserve.

"You've got Pat Cummins, the best bowler in the world in my view but then Josh Hazlewood, jeez, if he's not second I don't know what is. That's my personal view. But then you've got Starcy, Patto, Sidds, Michael Neser as well. We had an hour to do our skill [get the last wicket] and, to be honest with you, I was quite confident in our skill, we'd be able to get the job done.

"It's about positive thoughts and backing the bowlers, even the decision from Tim Paine to give Marnus a bowl was a very brave and ballsy decision but it paid off. Marnus is a guy who wants to do well for the Australian cricket team, he wants the ball in his hand. Hats off to him, spinning into the rough into a left-hander. Personally, I'd rather bowl to a right-hander on those wickets. Hats off to Marnus and hats off to Tim."

But for all that bravado there were nerves, of course there were. Lyon knew from his square position that Craig Overton's lbw was not going over the top of the stumps, but the interminable moments before the final confirmation arrived were torturous given all that had come before, as the words in the team huddle emphasised. "'Is it out? Is it out? What do you reckon Josh? Is out out? Is it sliding'?" Lyon recalled.

"I felt pretty confident from point. I know I can't see the line or anything but I can see the length and I knew it wasn't going over the top, so I was pretty confident. But I was nervous. All I was hoping was three reds or umpires call and it was out. It's a dream come true. I've wanted this. Personally and as a team, it's pretty special that the urn's coming home.

"As a kid growing up, and as soon as i got my baggy green - the biggest goal in my career has been to win the Ashes away. We're 2-1 up and I want to go 3-1 up and when we hold the urn up at The Oval, it's going to be an amazing feeling. Yeah we're going to enjoy this tonight and take in this moment, but there's still a lot of work to do if we want to become a great cricket side and get to where we want to go to."

England have reacted to their 185-run defeat in the fourth Test at Old Trafford by naming an unchanged 13-man squad for the fifth and final Test at The Oval, starting on Thursday. It is a contest in which England can still square the series 2-2, even though the Ashes have already been retained by Australia.

Despite the glaring shortcomings of England's batting throughout the series, the fight shown on the final day at Old Trafford, where England took their rearguard into the final hour thanks to battling cameos all down the order, has encouraged the selectors to offer a final chance to a batting line-up that, aside from positional changes for Joe Denly and Jason Roy, has remained the same throughout.

With the exception of Ben Stokes, who is averaging 59 following hundreds at Lord's and Headingley, and Rory Burns, who has cemented his status as England's first-choice opener with 323 runs at 40.37, the remainder of England's batting line-up has been consistently poor.

The captain, Joe Root, has picked up three ducks to go along with three hard-fought fifties to average 30.87 - almost 20 runs fewer than his Test average at the start of 2019, while Denly, Root, Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow have all averaged between 25.50 and 13.75.

There had been speculation that England would ring a few changes for The Oval, with Surrey's Olly Pope one name in the frame to replace Roy, while their team-mate Ben Foakes, who made a century on Test debut in Sri Lanka last year, was a potential replacement for Bairstow as wicketkeeper.

However, it may be significant that the Oval Test will be the final match of Trevor Bayliss's tenure as England coach, and therefore there is little to be gained from wholesale changes at this stage of England's cycle. Instead, the match offers a final opportunity for an under-performing set of players to fight for their short-term Test futures, with tours of New Zealand and South Africa looming large on the horizon.

Craig Overton, whose battling innings of 21 from 105 balls gave England hope on the final day at Old Trafford, retains his place in the squad and will once again compete for the role of third seamer, alongside Chris Woakes and the left-armer Sam Curran, another Surrey home boy.

"It's obviously disappointing," Overton said, after falling to Josh Hazlewood as the last wicket of England's second innings. "We set out at the start of the day to show some character and the boys did that. Everyone got stuck in to take it that deep on a day-five wicket against a world-class bowling attack. We are proud, but it's disappointing that we couldn't get over the line."

Despite the loss of the Ashes, the series remains live at 2-1 with one to play, and Overton said that England would be gunning for a share of the spoils when the fifth Test begins.

"That's been the message," he said. "It's disappointing that we've lost but the character we showed today, take that to The Oval and make sure we get that win to stop them winning the series, only retaining."

However, England may yet have to take the field at The Oval with the talismanic Stokes under an injury cloud. He injured his shoulder while bowling during the Old Trafford Test, and will be monitored by the ECB in the coming days.

If he is deemed unfit to bowl, then Stokes will play as a batsman only, with the all-round abilities of Woakes or Curran coming into the mix at the expense of one of the specialist batsmen in the side.

England squad: Joe Root (capt), Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Joe Denly, Jack Leach, Craig Overton, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes

American and New Zealander triumph in New York City race as we highlight some key results in our post-weekend round-up

On a busy weekend which included the Simplyhealth Great North Run, Great Tees 10km and Great CityGames other action included.

New Balance 5th Avenue Mile, New York, September 8

Jenny Simpson and Nick Wills continued their excellent record. Simpson won a record eighth overall (and seventh consecutive) title in a 4:17 course record ahead of Elinor Purrier on the same time though in tenths the times were unofficially 4:16.1 and 4:16.2.

Rebecca Mehra was third (4:22). Jess Judd finished fifth in 4:27 and Amy-Eloise Neale eighth in 4:28.

Willis had a record fifth win as he shared the winning time of 3:52 (unofficially 3:51.7) with Sam Prakel and Chris O´Hare.

A record 9172 runners completed the 39th edition of the race in numerous waves.

European Masters Championships, near Venice, September 5-15

Over the first four days, Britain won 33 gold medals and 90 medals and sit third on the medal table behinds hosts Italy (41 golds and 102 medals) and Germany (38 and 104).

The most successful event has been the 1500m with wins for M40 Matt Barnes, M50 Mark Symes, M55 Guy Bracken, M60 Paul Fletcher, M75 Victor Shirley, W40 Zoe Doyle, W55 Clare Elms and W70 Ros Tabor, while Fletcher also won the 10,000m and Elms the cross-country.

Other cross-country wins were achieved by W50 Lucy Elliott and W70 Penny Forse and the W50 and W55 teams while Andrew Leach easily won the M55 10,000m.

Wins at 100m were achieved by M35 Jonathan Browne, M55 Don Brown, M60 John Wright, M65 Steve Peters and W65 Caroline Powell.

There were long hurdles wins for M45 Ed Betts, M65 Ian Broadhurst (300m hurdles British record 47.48), W35 Nisha Desai, W55 Julie Rogers, W60 Jane Horder and W70 Jean Fail (UK 200m hurdles record 49.42).

In the field, Evaun Williams won both the W80 shot and hammer while W55 Jo Willoughby won the W55 triple jump in an UK record 10.45m.

Anthony Treacher won the M75 triple jump. Iris Holder the W75 triple jump, Andrea Jenkins the W40 weight and Ian Richards the M70 5000m walk.

Daily reports from the event are elsewhere on the AW website with coverage in the September 12 and 19 issues of the magazine too.

Jungfrau Marathon, Switzerland, September 7

Robbie Simpson won this prestigious mountain marathon in 2:59:30 as former English national cross-country champion Steve Vernon was ninth.

Woodford Green Open, Woodford, September 2

Ros Tabor warmed up for her European Masters 1500m win with a British W70 mile record of 6:48.50.

Breezy conditions meant she was not able to achieve the time (6:37.56) she ran in July in the Soar mile  when aged 69, she ran a time that would have bettered American Sharon Gerl’s world mark of 6:38.30.

Lake Vyrnwy Half-Marathon, Wales, September 8

Jonny Mellor won in 64:36 just 10 seconds ahead of Andrew Davies as the first seven broke 70 minutes.

Alison Lavender won the women’s race in 77:58.

City of Salford 10km, September 8

Mohammed Abu Rezeq won in 30:27 while W40 Kirtsy Longley maintained her good form with a 34:29 women’s victory.

Beckum Germany, September 8

The 2012 Olympic champion Jenn Suhr cleared 4.75 to win the women’s pole vault meet here. Behind her three athletes managed 4.70m – French Ninon Guillon-Romarin, Slovenian Tina Sutej and Sweden´s Michaela Meijer.

Taiyuan China, September 8

There were wins for Bahrain’s Marius Kimutai (2:09:43) and Ethiopia’s Belainesh Yami Gurmu (2:29:48).

Tallinn, Estonia, September 8

There was half marathon wins for Evans Cheruiyot (60:29) ahead of Israel’s Maru Tefera (60:52) and Janet Ruguru in the women’s race in 70:19.

Kenyans Josphat Letting (2:12:42) and Pamela Rotich (2:32:16) won the marathon.

Daniil Medvedev cupped his ear once again towards the US Open crowd - but this time it was with a smile and the knowledge he had won them over.

His previous "bad" behaviour had been forgiven with a heroic performance in his five-set defeat by Rafael Nadal in the final in New York.

Earlier in the tournament he had been booed, but on Sunday the crowd chanted his name while he fought back from two sets and a break down before succumbing in a five-set thriller.

"I knew I had to leave my heart out there for them," the 23-year-old Russian said after the 7-5 6-3 5-7 4-6 6-4 defeat.

"I had to do that for myself first of all, but also for them. I think they saw it and they appreciate it. I'm thankful to them for this."

Medvedev has had a tempestuous relationship with the crowd on Arthur Ashe Stadium over the past fortnight, having been booed earlier in the tournament for trolling them with his provocative post-match celebrations and interviews.

He has since looked to shake off the role of pantomime villain and apologised for his behaviour, which has included angrily snatching towels from ball people and curtly 'thanking' the American fans for jeering him.

And this gutsy display on the biggest stage of his burgeoning career, plus the humour and humility he showed in his runners-up speech, has endeared him to the American fans as well as, no doubt, a much wider audience.

On Ashe, standing ovations greeted him breaking back to level during the third set and again when he held off two break points to hold for 5-4.

A loud chant of "Med-ve-dev, Med-ve-dev, Med-ve-dev" rang around for the first time after he held serve to take a crucial 6-5 lead in the third set and continued to be heard through to the end of the match.

That recognition was testament to the ability and character which has marked out the wiry Russian, set to rise to fourth in the world on Monday, as a star in recent months.

Another prolonged ovation greeted him as he collected his prize.

"I know early in the tournament I said something in a bad way, and now I want to say it in a good way, it is because of your energy I am here," he told the crowd.

On his earlier post-victory speeches which antagonised the American fans, he added in a later news conference: "I'm not proud of them, but I was being myself.

"But getting the crowd back, which I was surprised about, again I was being myself.

"I was fighting for every point. I think they appreciated it.

"Being break down in the third, I won the game, and I felt that these guys wanted some more tennis.

"They were cheering me up like crazy."

Medvedev has been the form player on the ATP Tour in the North American hard court swing, leading to many tennis fans picking him out as the man most likely to threaten the 'big three' at Flushing Meadows.

After losing in the Washington and Montreal finals, Medvedev claimed the title in Cincinnati and continued his winning streak in New York to reach his first major final.

The Russian is only the third man - after Ivan Lendl and Andre Agassi - to reach all four of these finals in the Open era.

Those exertions, plus the efforts he needed to keep Nadal at bay in the physical first set, looked to have caught up with him early in the match, Nadal breaking for a 4-2 lead which was enough to seal the second set, and again for a 3-2 lead in the third.

But after immediately wiping that out to level, Medvedev took an anxious Nadal's serve to claw a set back.

That was only the start of the story as the pair slugged it out for another two hours before Medvedev, who also fought back from 5-2 down in the decider, finally succumbed after a match lasting almost five hours.

"Absolutely phenomenal performance from Medvedev," said Pat Cash, the former Wimbledon champion and BBC Radio 5 Live analyst.

"He has shown how mentally tough he is. His determination is spectacular and he has shown that is an absolute superstar athlete."

Rafael Nadal said it was "impossible" to hold in his emotions after winning the US Open title in an "unforgettable" five-set battle with Daniil Medvedev.

Nadal, 33, beat Russian Medvedev 7-5 6-3 5-7 4-6 6-4 in four hours 50 minutes in New York to win his 19th Grand Slam.

The Spanish second seed was tearful as a video of his major wins was played on the big screens on Arthur Ashe Stadium.

"This trophy means everything to me today," said Nadal, who has now won four titles at Flushing Meadows.

"Personal satisfaction of the way that I resisted all these tough moments is very high.

"The emotions have been there watching all the success, all the moments that came to my mind in that moment. Yeah, I tried to hold the emotion, but some moments was impossible."

Nadal was cruising at two sets and a break up before fifth seed Medvedev, 23, fought back to take Sunday's final into a decider.

But it was Nadal's intensity and mental resilience that took him over the line, built up throughout a career in which he has now won 83 ATP singles titles.

"The way that the match became very dramatic at the end, that makes this day unforgettable, part of my history of this sport," Nadal said.

'I'm not thinking of 20th Grand Slam'

Unsurprisingly, the Spaniard faced questions post-match about his thoughts on trying to equal Roger Federer's record of 20 men's Grand Slam titles.

Nadal - five years Federer's junior - is one behind the Swiss great and three ahead of Novak Djokovic's 16.

"I don't look at it that way," he said. "I always say the same: I would love to be the one who wins more, but I am not thinking [about it].

"I feel honoured to be part of this battle [with Federer and Djokovic]. But I really believe that I will not be happier or less happy if that happens or does not happen.

"I am not going to practice every day or not play tennis for it. I am playing tennis because I love to play tennis.

"I can't just think about Grand Slams, no? Tennis is more than Grand Slams. I need to think about the rest of the things.

"I play to be happy. Of course, the victory today makes me super happy. But a few weeks ago, I won in Montreal and [that was] an important moment for me, too.

"All the things that I achieved in my career are much more than what I ever thought and what I ever dreamed."