Jasmine Paolini was the star as she kept Italy in the tie and then prevailed in the doubles with Sara Errani

Christian Mbilli and Lester Martinez have been instructed to do it all again after their pulsating encounter on the undercard of Terence Crawford’s win over Canelo Alvarez.

Tough transfer window was followed by grim start to season that puts pressure on side in Sunday’s Sunderland tripThe statistic doing the rounds this week was that Chris Wilder has been sacked and reappointed as the Sheffield United manager since Boubacar Kamara scored Aston Villa’s last league goal four months ago. Villa have been slow out of the blocks …

Rugby World Cup semi-final updates, 7pm BST kick-offInterview: England’s Mo Hunt | And you can email NiallSome pre-game thoughts from the New Zealand head coach, Allan Bunting: “We know what this game means, it’s a step up and we’ve got to be accurate and across the board. The squad we’ve got now, we’ve been building for a while – set-pieces …

Every key bit of Premier League team news and the most important Fantasy Premier League statistics - all in one place.

McLaren driver crashed at Azerbaijan practice

Holders Italy reach third consecutive final with 2-1 victory over Ukraine in the Billie Jean King Cup.

Hunt powered from sixth to second with the fearless attitude that helped her return from a quadriceps ruptureMoments after Amy Hunt powered to a stunning world championship 200m silver medal, with a display of staggering bloody-mindedness, she had a message to those ­intending to follow in her path. “You can be an ­academic badass and a track …

Luca Zidane, the son of France's World Cup-winning playmaker Zinedine, switches his international allegiance from France to Algeria.

The Scottish FA's Key Match Incident Panel have released their findings following last week's Scottish Premiership action, with some controversial incidents involving Rangers, Hearts, Kilmarnock, Celtic, Hibs, Dundee Utd and more...

Defending champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson says she is "excited" to resume her bid for a third world heptathlon title after putting herself into medal contention in Tokyo.

Racing correspondent Jonathan Doidge brings us his horse racing tips for Saturday’s Ayr Gold Cup card, plus Newbury and Newmarket.

The clubs with the most expensively-assembled squads in world football have been revealed - and you may be surprised by who tops the list.

Duo training separately after missing out on Chelsea exitsMaresca: ‘My father worked 2am to 10am … this is sad’Enzo Maresca has told his exiled Chelsea players, Raheem Sterling and Axel Disasi, that they should try working through the night as a fisherman – like his father – if they want to understand real hardship.Sterling and Disasi have been …

American takes world 200m title in 19.52sec‘I can’t wait to be the only man to win five 200m titles’First Noah Lyles equalled Usain Bolt’s record of four straight 200m gold medals at a World Athletics Championships. Then he promised the greatest sprinter that has ever lived that he would surpass him in two years’ time.“I can’t wait for 2027 to …