TENNIS: Rafael Nadal hopes his chronic foot problem will ease enough to allow him to challenge for a 14th French Open title.

The 35-year-old is attempting to reclaim the crown taken from him by Novak Djokovic 12 months ago but arrived in Paris in the unusual position of not having won a clay court title so far this season.

Nadal was beaten by his Carlos Alcaraz at the Madrid Open and then lost to Denis Shapovalov at the Italian Open in Rome last week.

CYCLING: Arnaud Demare took his third victory of this year’s Giro d’Italia on stage 13 after the peloton thwarted a spirited breakaway within sight of the finishing line in Cuneo.

Demare once again proved the class of the sprinting field in this race as he held off Phil Bauhaus and Mark Cavendish after his Groupama-FDJ team delivered him to the front, securing his 10th career Grand Tour stage win, eight of them in the Giro.

CRICKET: New Zealand’s England tour got off to a false start today, with three squad members testing positive for Covid-19 and the opening day of their first warm-up match washed out.

Batter Henry Nicholls, seamer Blair Tickner and bowling coach Shane Jurgensen were sent for five days of isolation after returning positive antigen tests.

The remainder of the squad received the all clear but the rain put an end to their Sussex match at Hove on day one of a scheduled four.

RUGBY LEAGUE: St Helens say they will hand out lifetime bans to fans who threw objects on to the pitch at the end of Thursday night’s 12-10 win at Warrington.

The victory was marred by the behaviour of fans who set off flares and threw beer at home supporters.

The club also say alcohol was thrown at a Warrington player and have called on fans to help them investigate the incidents.