Rafael Nadal moved a step closer to setting an ATP record as he eased into the semi-finals of the Barcelona Open with a straight-set victory over Germany's Jan-Lennard Struff.

Nadal, 32, is bidding to become the first player to win the same event 12 times and breezed through this quarter-final match, winning 7-5 7-5.

The former world number one will next face 2017 finalist Dominic Thiem.

"I'm feeling better in my game," said the Spaniard.

"I hope to keep improving here at home," added Nadal, who last week suffered a shock semi-final defeat to Italian Fabio Fognini at the Monte Carlo Masters - an event he has also won 11 times.

Nadal also had a struggle in the early rounds in Barcelona, losing a set at the event for the first time in four years in his win over Leonardo Mayer on Wednesday.

Austrian Thiem also had a comfortable passage into the semi-finals, overcoming Argentine Guido Pella 7-5, 6-2.

Meanwhile, Japan's two-time champion Kei Nishikori beat Spain's Roberto Carballes Baena 6-4 7-5 to reach the semi-finals of the tournament for the fourth time.

Nishikori will take on Russian Daniil Medvedev on Saturday after the seventh seed defeated lucky loser Nicolas Jarry of Chile 6-3 6-4.

Successive Tournament Wins Cement Farag and El Welily Grips on World Ranking Top Spots
By MATT COLES – PSA World Tour

World No.1s Ali Farag and Raneem El Welily took the honours on an all-Egyptian finals night at the El Gouna International, PSA World Tour Platinum event as they beat Karim Abdel Gawad and Nouran Gohar in their respective finals at the spectacular Abu Tig Marina.

Farag avenged his defeat to the former World Champion in December’s Black Ball Open by winning his maiden El Gouna crown.

Farag, who turned 27 this week, finished runner-up to compatriot Marwan ElShorbagy 12 months ago, but he built on a strong start to win 11-9, 12-10, 11-3, picking up his 17th PSA Tour title in the process.

Gawad had his opportunities, leading 9-7 in the first game and 6-2 in the second, but Farag came back both times to take a two-game lead.

An ankle injury suffered by Gawad in the second prevented him from really getting his teeth into the third, and Farag made no mistake to etch his name onto the trophy, his first title on home soil since February 2015.

“I’ve played Karim in so many great finals in Egypt,” Farag said after his win.

“It was really a shame what happened at the end of the second and in the third. I’m sure if he was better physically, it would have been a totally different story. I think he had an amazing week, he’s playing well this season, and it’s great to have him on tour.

“This season has been amazing for me, I couldn’t have asked for a better one. I might have won a lot of big titles, like the World Championships and claiming that No.1 spot at the ToC, but this one is a very special one as I’m sharing it in front of my people.”

World No.1 Raneem El Welily successfully defended her El Gouna International title after overcoming fellow Egyptian Nouran Gohar to lift her third successive PSA Tour trophy.

El Welily beat World No.2 Nour El Sherbini in last year’s final, and was up against the woman who ended El Sherbini’s run in this tournament at the quarter-final stage. The 30-year-old took the opening game, despite being under immense pressure from her hard-hitting opponent.

Gohar, nine years El Welily’s junior, struck back in the second as El Welily went walkabout mentally and surrendered a 5-2 lead to lose 9 of the next 11 points as Gohar levelled.

The momentum then shifted in El Welily’s favour as she came back to take the third 12-10 on the tie-break, and their battle continued into the fourth game where Gohar, sporting heavy strapping on her left knee, required an injury break after a lunge into the front corner to send El Welily 8-6 up.

The World No.7 returned to court, but it was clear that she was having to protect the knee as she lacked the same explosivity in her movement, and El Welily closed out the win to earn the 22nd PSA Tour title of her career.

“I think that the blood injury break turned me down a little bit, so I’m glad I managed to come back after being 6-2 down [in the third],” El Welily said afterwards.

“It’s definitely hard pushing yourself this way, but when you’re in a final of such a great tournament, you do your best to stay in, and you do your best to win. That’s what I was thinking at that point.

“All thanks to [Tournament Promoter] Amr Mansi and his entire for putting on such a great event. It’s always special here in El Gouna, We always love being here, and I think I speak for the players when I say we really enjoy being here.

“Not just for the organisation, but also for the good weather, the great crowd, and there’s nothing better than playing in front of your home crowd.”

This is the second PSA Tour event in a row in which Farag and El Welily have taken silverware, and both players win $22,800 for their triumphs in El Gouna.

Farag, Gawad and El Welily will next be in action at the British Open in Hull between May 20-26, while Nouran Gohar will be playing in the Manchester Open, which starts on May 9th.

Result – Men’s Final: El Gouna International
[1] Ali Farag (EGY) bt [4] Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY) 3-0: 11-9, 12-10, 11-3 (46m)

Result – Women’s Final: El Gouna International
[1] Raneem El Welily (EGY) bt [8] Nouran Gohar (EGY) 3-1: 11-8, 7-11, 12-10, 11-6 (61m)

Pictures courtesy of  PSA World Tour

Jimmy Banks, a defender and winger who made two appearances for the United States at the 1990 World Cup, died Friday. He was 54.

Banks died of pancreatic cancer at Columbia St. Mary's Hospital in Milwaukee, the U.S. Soccer Federation said.

Banks had 36 international appearances from 1986-91. He did not play in the opening loss to Czechoslovakia at the 1990 World Cup, but was inserted into the lineup following Eric Wynalda's red card in the opener and started in losses to Italy and Austria.

"It's frustrating that we didn't make it to the second round," Banks said after the U.S. was eliminated. "We have the feeling we didn't play as well as we could have."

The U.S. had qualified for soccer's showcase for the first time since 1950, and Banks and Desmond Armstrong were the first two African Americans to make a U.S. World Cup roster.

"At a time when few African American players were reaching the elite level of the sport, Jimmy's rise ... inspired a new generation to reach the same level," U.S. Soccer Federation president Carlos Cordeiro said in a statement. "His time as a player, coach and mentor will leave a lasting impact on the sport in this country, particularly his tireless efforts to grow the game through his inner city soccer programs."

Banks was born in Milwaukee and played college soccer for future national team coach Bob Gansler there.

At a time when the U.S. did not have a major outdoor league, Banks played for the Milwaukee Wave of the American Indoor Soccer Association from 1987-93.

He coached the Milwaukee School of Engineering from 1999-2019, making two NCAA Division III tournament appearances.

Banks is survived by sons Demetrius, J.C. and Jordan.

Liverpool returned to the top of the Premier League with a 5-0 demolition of relegated Huddersfield Town at Anfield on Friday night that left them on 91 points for the season.

Liverpool came into the match looking to reclaim top spot after Manchester City moved into first following a win over Manchester United on Wednesday, and they were in front seconds after the opening whistle when Naby Keita beat Jonas Lossl from a bad giveaway by the Huddersfield defence.

Keita's goal, which came in the 15th second of the match, set a new record for the fastest ever scored by Liverpool in the Premier League.

The hosts doubled their lead just past the 20-minute mark when Sadio Mane headed an Andrew Robertson cross in from the top of the six-yard box to make it 2-0.

Mohamed Salah made it 3-0 right before half-time, lofting a delicate volley over the keeper from a Trent Alexander-Arnold long ball for his league-leading 20th goal of the season.

The strike also made Salah the first African-born player to score 20 goals in consecutive seasons in the English top flight as Jurgen Klopp's team had the result done and dusted by the break.

"We are happy with the points we have and now we are focused on the next game. We have a mindset that works and we try to create problems for each opponent by working hard," Klopp said.

"It's obviously an outstanding group of players, who did well against a Huddersfield side who are much better than the result shows. They had proper counter-attacks so we needed to be patient and we scored wonderful goals."

Daniel Sturridge, in for the injured Roberto Firmino, looked to have made it 4-0 shortly after the restart when he turned home an Alexander-Arnold cross on a counter-attack, but the referee had the flag up for offside on the play.

Liverpool's fourth, and Mane's second, came shortly after though when the Senegal international backtracked to catch up to a Jordan Henderson ball into the box and head it past Lossl to extend the lead.

Klopp made two changes after the goal, giving Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain his first senior minutes since suffering a devastating knee injury against Roma in the Champions League one year ago and also bringing on Xherdan Shaqiri for the final 20 minutes.

Oxlade-Chamberlain nearly had a dream start to his return when Salah sprang him in the penalty area only for Lossl to stuff his close-range shot on the line and preserve the 4-0 scoreline, before Mane's effort at a third headed goal came crashing back off the post.

Salah made it five as full-time approached, weaving through the Huddersfield defence to be first to a Robertson square ball in front of goal and tap home to edge in front of teammate Mane in the race for the Golden Boot with 21 and 20 goals, respectively.

Robertson now has 11 assists on the season to become the first Premier League defender with double-digit assists in a season since Antonio Valencia did it for Man United in 2011-12.

The three points puts Liverpool on 91 for the season with two games to play, but they'll need Manchester City to drop points in one of their remaining three matches to have a chance at winning the Premier League for the first time since the 1989-90 season.

LIVERPOOL, England -- Mohamed Salah was tweeting pictures from a pizza restaurant in New York City on Tuesday afternoon before he went on to share the spotlight with Taylor Swift and Emilia Clarke at the Time 100 Gala at the Lincoln Center later that evening.

He then flew back across the Atlantic on Wednesday, reporting for training at Liverpool on Thursday, so it's fair to say that the forward ignored a few of the classic "dos and don'ts" when it comes to preparing for a big game ahead of his team's 5-0 victory against Huddersfield Town on Friday. But by the end of the game, which saw Jurgen Klopp's side reclaim top spot in the Premier League and move two points clear of Manchester City, nobody was questioning Salah's decision to spend two days in the United States ahead of a fixture that Liverpool simply had to win.

Had it gone wrong, with Liverpool dropping points or Salah picking up an injury that risked his participation against Barcelona in next week's Champions League semifinal first leg, then the 26-year-old would doubtless have been forced to defend himself against accusations of taking his eye off the ball. Certainly, it is difficult to imagine Manchester United's Paul Pogba making a similar trip without finding himself deluged by criticism and suggestions of poor preparation and misguided priorities.

But perhaps the difference between Salah and Pogba is that the Liverpool forward, whose two goals against Huddersfield made him the top scorer in the Premier League this season with 21 so far, always delivers, no matter the circumstances. He might not score in every game, but even when he does not hit the back of the net, Salah makes a contribution as a team player, as highlighted by his eight Premier League assists this term.

It was the same against Huddersfield, with Salah creating the opening goal for Naby Keita after just 16 seconds by feeding his teammate after a defensive mistake by Jon Gorenc Stankovic. The fact that Salah went on to score twice himself felt like a footnote to his performance, which belied any hint of jet lag following his trip to New York, which was approved by Klopp due to the manager's insistence that the player is an influential figure in the battle against racism and Islamophobia.

"Mo is a very smart person and his role is very influential," Klopp said. "In the world at the moment, it is very important that you have people like Mo."

Perhaps in the world of modern sport, where players are surrounded by every kind of expert capable of making them discover that elusive extra 1 percent, a 48-hour trans-Atlantic trip really is nothing to worry about in terms of performance and recovery. After all, international footballers can make the journey from Bolivia to Burnley and still get off a plane ready to play 90 minutes of Premier League action, so New York to the northwest of England really isn't that much of an ordeal.

But it also goes to show how the likes of Salah can rise to the occasion, no matter how draining or gruelling their schedule. The former Chelsea and Roma forward has not hit the heights of last season, when he scored 32 goals in 36 Premier League games, but nobody else has registered more league goals than him this campaign.

Sadio Mané's two headers against Huddersfield took him to 20 league goals, to move ahead of Sergio Aguero and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (both on 19) as Salah's closest challenger for the Golden Boot, but don't be surprised if the Egyptian wins it again. This was his 100th appearance for Liverpool in all competitions since his £36.9 million transfer from Roma in July 2017 and, by scoring twice to take his tally for the club to 69, he claimed the Anfield record for most goals in his first 100 games.

Whether Salah's goal-scoring feats are enough to win silverware for his team is another matter, however. Although this win moved Liverpool on to 91 points, City can climb ahead of them again on Sunday with a victory at Burnley.

Two more victories, against Newcastle and Wolves, will see Liverpool end the season on 97 points, but it still might not be enough to win the title for the first time since 1990. It definitely won't be enough if City win their final three games to end up with 98 points.

Liverpool have lost just once in the league all season -- against City at the Etihad -- and they have now scored 104 goals in all competitions. Neither they nor Salah could have feasibly done much more, but they could still fall short.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk on Friday defended the team's decision to draft defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, calling him a "great man" who has learned from the 2016 assault case that has triggered some criticism of Tennessee's first-round pick.

Simmons was moved to tears as Strunk addressed the aftermath of the March 2016 case -- in which a 17-year-old Simmons was caught on video striking a woman who was fighting his sister -- and vouched for his character. Simmons pleaded no contest to simple assault and was allowed to enroll at Mississippi State, where he was suspended for one game. He has repeatedly expressed remorse for what happened and gratefulness for getting a second chance with the Bulldogs.

Strunk said she watched the graphic video but still felt comfortable signing off on the team's selection.

"We discussed the incident and watched the video together," she said. "It begins with trust from Mike (Vrabel, the Titans head coach) and Jon (Robinson, the Titans general manager). I needed to be comfortable because at the end of the day I had the final decisions. It didn't take me long to see that this young man had an incident in high school. We all can look back on our lives in high school and wish we had done things differently."

Robinson and the Titans conducted extensive interviews with Simmons and people at Mississippi State to better grasp the defensive tackle's character, and Tennessee as a group decided he deserved a second chance. Strunk pointed to Nashville as a place that gives people second chances.

"The best thing is he's lived the life of, 'I am truly sorry and I'm going to be a good man.' That made it easy for me to become comfortable with Jeffery," she said. "We are getting a great football player, that goes without saying, but we are getting a great man. Our locker room is so important. We only have good men in there and this young man is a good man."

Simmons was visibly emotional as Strunk vouched for his character.

"I made a mistake and I regret it," he said at the introductory news conference. "To hear her say all of that, I am grateful. The key word she said was trust. I tell her in front of you guys that she can trust me. I won't let her down or either one of these guys [Robinson or Vrabel] down. I am grateful."

Simmons was considered a top-five draft prospect this past fall but his stock dropped due to a combination of the 2016 assault case and a torn ACL suffered while training after the season.

Although he isn't likely to be on the active roster when the season starts, the team expects him to have a significant impact in the future.

Defensive end Brent Urban, who the team signed Friday, should pay more immediate dividends. The the 6-foot-7, 300-pound free agent previously played for Titans defensive coordinator Dean Pees in Baltimore.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Acknowledging the irony that he will begin his NFL career with the same team that used to employ the quarterback he once called "a clown" on Twitter, new San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa expressed remorse for that post about Colin Kaepernick on Friday afternoon.

Bosa called Kaepernick a clown on Twitter in August of 2016, a tweet that was deleted in the run up to Thursday's draft as part of a scrubbing of potentially controversial posts from his social media.

In his introductory news conference with the Bay Area media on Friday, Bosa said that the tweet wasn't meant to be a statement on Kaepernick's social justice efforts and apologized.

"It wasn't directed towards (Kaepernick's stance)," Bosa said. "It's not like I'm saying his stance and what he was doing, that's not what I was calling or talking about at all. It was just a specific thing that happened and me as a young kid a thought popping in my head and boom, decided to tweet it out. Bad decision. I respect what he's done. If it empowers anybody then he's doing a good thing. So, I apologize for that."

Bosa's approach to social media came under scrutiny for the past few months for tweets like the one aimed at Kaepernick and others that garnered attention for his conservative-leaning political views and support of President Donald Trump.

Much like other prospects, Bosa said his agent had his social media accounts scrubbed of any content that could be deemed controversial as the draft drew near. In a recent interview with ESPN, he said he "had to" because "there is a chance I might end up in San Francisco."

That proved prescient on Thursday night when the Niners used the No. 2 overall pick on Bosa. Soon after, Bosa said he "loves" the Bay Area and referred to his past Twitter remarks as "insensitive."

On Friday, Bosa expounded on his social media history and said he views living in the Bay Area as an opportunity for personal growth.

"I definitely made some insensitive decisions throughout my life and I'm just excited to be here with a clean slate," Bosa said. "I'm sorry if I hurt anybody. I definitely didn't intend for that to be the case but I think me being here is even better for me as a person because I don't think there's any city that you could really be in that would help you grow as much as this one will.

"I'm going to be surrounded by people, all different kinds, so I'm going to grow as a person and I'm going to be on my own. College, you have kind of like that support system around you. Now I'm here, I'm going to be on my own, I'm going to grow up, I'm going to learn a lot of new things."

While Bosa has not yet had the chance to meet his new teammates, he will soon as the Niners are scheduled to begin their rookie minicamp next Friday. He said he doesn't anticipate having to explain himself to his teammates when the time comes.

"I think once I get in and I meet the guys and they learn who I am, I don't think there's going to need any explaining," Bosa said. "I think they're going to see who I am as a person and that will be enough."

As they do with all of their potential draft picks, the 49ers said they thoroughly vetted Bosa before drafting him, including his use of social media. They had lunch with Bosa in Columbus after his pro day, hosted him on one of their 30 allotted pre-draft visits and also spent time with him at the scouting combine.

In addition, general manager John Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan said their staff did extensive work interviewing those who know Bosa best. They came away with little question about how Bosa would fit in their locker room.

"We did a lot of talking to coaches, we did a lot of talking to Nick's teammates," Lynch said. "And what they'll tell you is he's one of the most beloved players that's ever been through there. To the rest of his teammates, to his coaches and all that. And that spoke volumes to us."

As for future social media use, Bosa said he intends to pick and choose his spots before pressing the send button.

"I've learned a lot the past couple of months," Bosa said. "I'm definitely going to think a lot more before I send something out."