Digest

TENNIS

Tsitsipas targeting top-3 breakthrough

Greek star Stefanos Tsitsipas is eyeing a topthree finish next season as he hopes to break the rankings stranglehold of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.

The 21-year-old concluded his 2019 season with a bang, lifting the ATP Finals crown in London to end the year at No 6 in the world.

"I'm currently living in the best period of my life, with the best people around me. I really feel like this is very important for my balance and for my thinking," said Tsitsipas at an exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi this week.

"One of my goals for next year would be a Grand Slam title, finishing in the top three by the end of the year, making the Nitto Finals again and winning a Masters 1000.

"We have Nadal, Djokovic, Federer, who are there, and have always been there. And what I need to do is go the extra mile and surpass them and that's going to be the biggest challenge for next year, I need to surpass one of them in order for me to finish in the top three next year."

BASKETBALL

Towns 'day to day' with knee injury, say Wolves

Minnesota center Karl-Anthony Towns missed the Timberwolves' game on Wednesday night against the New Orleans Pelicans because of a left knee sprain.

Coach Ryan Saunders called Towns "day to day" with the injury.

Minnesota hasn't played since a 124-117 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Dec 13 when Towns had 39 points and 12 rebounds. In the fourth quarter, Towns went down hard after a missed dunk attempt while being guarded by Montrezl Harrell.

Towns leads the Timberwolves at 26.5 points and 11.7 rebounds per game this season. He missed two games after being suspended for a confrontation with Philadelphia's Joel Embiid.

SOCCER

Ronaldo's 'NBA-style' header fires Juve top

Cristiano Ronaldo's scoring streak continued on Wednesday as the Juventus forward netted a superb soaring header to secure a 2-1 victory at Sampdoria, putting the defending champion back atop the Serie A standings.

Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon matched Paolo Maldini's alltime record of 647 Serie A appearances in the game, but Ronaldo found a way to steal the spotlight again.

The Portugal star leaped above a defender and hung in the air to meet a cross before planting a header into the top of the net for the winning goal on the stroke of halftime. Earlier, Gianluca Caprari had canceled out Paulo Dybala's opener for Juve.

"The goal was nice, but I am especially happy to have helped us to get the three points," said Ronaldo, whose team leads second-place Inter Milan by three points. "The important thing is to help Juventus win titles."

Sampdoria coach Claudio Ranieri said all he could do was applaud.

"When someone scores a goal like that you have to just watch and admire," he said. "Ronaldo scored in the style of an NBA player, he was in the air for an hour and a half."

Russia gets new shirt after fans' objections

Russia's national team is getting a new uniform for the European Championship after fans objected to a design featuring the national flag upside-down.

The Russian soccer federation rejected the design last month after a fan backlash to the Adidas design, which had red sleeves trimmed with blue and white stripes at the bottom.

That red-blue-white order mimics the stripes on Serbia's flag, while Russia's has white on top and red on the bottom.

Russia's players wore their old kit for two extra games of European qualifying as other teams tried out their new uniforms.

Federation president Alexander Dyukov said Adidas produced a new design and promised that Russia will no longer have to share variations on a basic design with other countries. It will instead get bespoke shirts.

BOXING

Ex-champ Broner hit with $830K judgment

An Ohio judge awarded $830,000 to a woman who claimed former multiple world champion Adrien "The Problem" Broner sexually assaulted her at a Cleveland nightclub.

The default judgement was delivered on Tuesday after Broner failed to defend himself in the lawsuit.

The Cincinnati native was accused in the lawsuit and a criminal case of pinning a woman he didn't know on a couch in June 2018 and kissing her against her will as she struggled to free herself. The lawsuit said one of Broner's friends pulled him off the woman after someone took a photo of the assault.

Broner, 30, was originally charged with sexual imposition in Cuyahoga County. He pleaded guilty in April to misdemeanor charges of assault and unlawful restraint and was sentenced to probation.

An undefeated Broner won the world welterweight title in June 2013 against Paul Malignaggi but lost it the following December in a bout against Marcos Maidana. He lost a title fight by unanimous decision against welterweight Manny Pacquiao in January. Broner has a career professional record of 33-4-1 with 24 knockouts.