England boss Steve Borthwick has told his players they must "accelerate" their progress after a 20-10 victory over Wales in Cardiff.
In Borthwick's third game as head coach, his team followed up victory over Italy last time out by getting the better of a Wales side who endured a disrupted build-up to their week three Six Nations challenge.
A contract dispute with the Welsh Rugby Union meant there was doubt until midweek that Saturday's game would even go ahead, amid talk of possible strike action.
Borthwick was hugely impressed by how Wales contributed so much, but it was his England who triumphed thanks to tries from Anthony Watson, Kyle Sinckler and Ollie Lawrence.
Captain Owen Farrell struggled with his kicking again, but England did enough.
They have won eight of their last 10 meetings with Wales in the Six Nations, but this result ended a run of two consecutive losses on the road against the Welsh.
England's last six victories over Wales had come by margins of six points or fewer, so by those standards this was a relative drubbing. In reality, it was nip and tuck until the final minutes.
Borthwick told BBC One he was "really proud of the team and what they did".
"That was a tough Test match. There wasn't much in it really," he said. "I think you've got to give those Welsh players such enormous credit and incredible respect.
"We've got quite a number of young men in there. There were a number of guys who played well. Now we've got to push on. There were bits in that performance that we can really push on with in this rebuilding.
"We need to accelerate. We've got two big games to finish the championship. For now, we've got to make sure we enjoy that win."
England have France at home on March 11, followed by Ireland away seven days later, taking on the teams ranked second and first in the world rankings.
It will be a lot clearer after those games where England stand, as they continue to build towards the Rugby World Cup under their new coach, who replaced the sacked Eddie Jones in December.
Farrell described England's showing as "a step forward", accepting his repeatedly wayward kicking was to blame for the visitors not pulling away.
"But it was a good test for us," he added. "We stuck in there, and we fought to the end and took control of the last 20 minutes I thought.
"There's bits starting to show, but we're laying some foundations at the minute and we want to keep building on it all."
Lawrence's try in the 75th minute put the game out of Wales' reach, with it having been on a knife edge to that point.
It meant England scored three tries away to Wales in Cardiff for just the second time in 12 Six Nations matches and for the first time since 2001.
Wales coach Warren Gatland saw good reason to be positive about his team's performance, even though they suffered a third successive loss in the championship.
Gatland said: "I can't be critical of the effort. We spoke in the changing room about being tough on ourselves, about some of the errors we made, things we can fix up and be better at.
"If we look at the mistakes we made that shifted the momentum back to England, they were at pretty critical moments.
"The message at half-time was to just stay in this arm wrestle and we'll get opportunities. The unfortunate thing is we turned the ball back over on too many occasions, dropped a couple of high balls and that was pretty frustrating, and a couple of penalties as well.
"Still for us there's work to do, but I thought there was improvement in some areas."
Top seed Hubert Hurkacz saw off a spirited Alexander Bublik in straight sets to seal his place in the final of the Open 13 Provence with a 6-4 7-6 (7-4) win.
The world number 11 wrapped up victory in his semi-final in Marseille without being taken to a deciding third set for the first time during his tournament run.
But he was still forced to fight for the result, after unseeded Kazakhstani Bublik pushed him hard in their encounter.
Hurkacz only broke serve once during the first set and had to hold his nerve in a second-set tie-break to finish the job.
He will face a homegrown opponent in Benjamin Bonzi in the final, after the latter won an all-French last-four encounter with wild card Arthur Fils.
The former saw off his fellow countryman 6-4 6-4 in a straight-sets triumph of his own.
England made it back-to-back Six Nations wins as they overcame a beleaguered Wales 20-10 at the Principality Stadium on Saturday.
Wales, whose preparations for the game were hampered after a dispute with the Professional Rugby Board and Welsh Rugby Union, have now suffered three straight defeats in this year's competition.
Captain Owen Farrell got England up and running with an early penalty from 45 metres, before winger Anthony Watson – making his first international start in almost two years – went over to cap a wonderful team move.
Farrell was unable to add the conversion from the touchline, which helped Wales reduce the deficit to five through Leigh Halfpenny's penalty.
Farrell squandered the chance to extend England's lead as he struck a penalty just wide of the posts, before Wales stunned the visitors within a minute of the second half when Louis Rees-Zammit intercepted a pass 40 metres out and raced over.
That try was converted by Halfpenny to put Wales ahead, yet England responded almost immediately as Kyle Sinckler powered over from close range, with Farrell adding the extra points.
Wales pushed hard to claw their way back into the game, but England's victory was sealed with five minutes remaining when Ollie Lawrence went over in the corner.
Wales fail to end tough week on a high
Wales boss Warren Gatland said the threat of strike action by his players had taken the team "to the brink of disaster" this week.
The worst case scenario was avoided, however, after an agreement was reached with the Welsh Rugby Players' Association on several key issues, including wages and changes to the 60-cap rule that governed international selection.
The saga evidently took a toll on Wales' players, who fought hard but just lacked the quality and energy required to overcome Steve Borthwick's side.
England maintain fine run over Wales
England have now won eight of their past 10 Six Nations meetings with Wales. Their six previous victories before this all came by margins of six points or fewer.
This latest win moves them onto 10 points in the Six Nations table, five adrift of leaders Ireland.
Key Opta Facts:
- Watson scored his first try for England since March 2021 (v France) - he has now scored five tries in his last five Six Nations starts and five in six matches against Wales.
- Sinckler has scored just his second ever Six Nations try in what is his 28th appearance in the competition - both of his tries have come away from home (also v Italy in Rome in 2022).
- Alun Wyn Jones played in his 16th Six Nations match against England; no other player has featured more than 13 times against England in the Championship.
- England have won a Six Nations game against Wales in Cardiff for the first time since 2017 (21-16), with their tally of just 10 points conceded being their lowest in the Welsh capital since 2003 (26-9).
What's next?
Wales face Italy in Rome's Stadio Olimpico in a fortnight – the same day England take on France at Twickenham.
Barbora Krejcikova stunned Iga Swiatek to win the Dubai Tennis Championships, cruising past the world number one in straight sets to clinch her first WTA 1000 title.
By following up victories over Aryna Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula with a ruthless 6-4 6-2 dismantling of Swiatek, Krejcikova became just the fifth woman to beat each of the world's top three players at a single tournament in the last 40 years.
Krejcikova entered Saturday's meeting as the only player to have beaten Swiatek in her eight hard-court finals at tour level, having done so at the Ostrava Open last October.
The Czech looked to be drawing on that experience as she made a flying start, breaking in the opening game through a well-struck backhand.
Though Swiatek responded with a break of her own in the sixth game, a rare double fault from the Pole saw the momentum swing Krejcikova's way.
Another excellent backhand return gave Krejcikova the opening set's decisive break, after which a visibly frustrated Swiatek was handed a time violation by the umpire.
Things did not get much better from there for the three-time grand slam winner, with a series of masterful returns helping Krejcikova seal two dominant breaks before wrapping things up.
Having clinched a highly impressive win within 91 minutes, Krejcikova told Amazon Prime Video: "It means a lot.
"It was a great week for me, I was improving with every single game and today, I think I showed my best.
"I really have to admire Iga for what she is doing. To me, she is a big inspiration and she motivates me every day. It was a great final and I'm definitely happy with the result."
Daniil Medvedev defied Andy Murray in the Qatar Open final to clinch a second title in seven days as the resurgent Russian won the battle of former world number ones.
In-form Medvedev scored a 6-4 6-4 victory on Saturday as he followed up last Sunday's title in Rotterdam with another trophy success.
Three-time grand slam winner Murray, set to jump 18 places to 52nd in the new rankings, had saved eight match points en route to the Doha final.
He pushed Medvedev hard but could not get the better of a player who will nudge up one spot to seventh in the rankings on Monday.
Murray came back from 0-40 in the opening game to force deuce, but he could not hold serve, and Medvedev soon broke again to lead 4-1.
But back came Murray, and the Briton had a break point to square up the opener at 4-4, only for Medvedev to cling on.
The second set also began with Murray dropping serve, but the 35-year-old levelled up at 3-3 with a backhand winner at the end of a terrific rally.
That raised his hopes of a full-scale fightback and a third title success at this event, plus a first tournament victory since 2019 in Antwerp, but Murray was broken from 40-0 in the ninth game, and that looked to end his hopes.
Murray saved a ninth match point of the week, albeit thanks to a double fault from his opponent, but the Scot could not do so for a 10th time, with a lob from Medvedev giving him a big win and the 17th tour-level title of his career.
Medvedev, the 2021 US Open champion, told Amazon Prime Video in a courtside interview: "It was a very tough match. I'm happy to win, today was a big fight.
"Both of us sometimes were playing bad, then suddenly both of us were playing amazing, and I'm happy to win.
"It was tough for Andy to put the ball through me many times. Now it has to continue, so I'm going to try for as long as I can."
Andy Farrell was relieved Ireland "found a way" to overcome an impressive Italy side as his team stayed on course for a Grand Slam by winning 34-20 in Rome.
Mack Hansen crossed for two tries, including a late clincher to end Italian hopes, with James Ryan, Hugo Keenan and Bundee Aki also going over as the visitors picked up a bonus point.
It means Ireland are three-fifths of the way to a clean sweep in this season's Six Nations, with Scotland away in a fortnight's time followed by England coming to Dublin.
Head coach Farrell could not be sure his team would survive unscathed against Italy until the closing stages, and he gave the hosts plenty of credit for that.
Farrell said: "I suppose the positive is the chances we did create, but the negative is we didn't take them all.
"What was it, four or five tries we left out there? But all credit must go to Italy, that was a proper Test match, that was tough, they're a proper side.
"Everyone can see the progression, but when you're here and you're facing it... they were tough, they were resilient, and the forwards gave us absolutely nothing.
"Defending their own line they were very physical, and in attack they were cutting us open from time to time, so congratulations to them, I thought they were great.
"We let them into the game through lack of discipline at times and didn't control the game as well as we should do in that regard.
"But Test match rugby doesn't go your way the whole time, and we found a way, even though we threw away four or five tries. It's nice the bonus-point win away from home."
Scotland, who tackle France on Sunday in Paris, have also begun this championship with successive wins.
It could, depending on Scotland's performance this weekend, be a clash between two unbeaten sides in Edinburgh on March 12.
"Going to Murrayfield is a really tough place to go," said Farrell, "as is here in Rome."
Ireland kept their Six Nations Grand Slam charge on track after a 34-20 victory over a spirited Italy in Rome.
Mack Hansen crossed twice while stand-in captain James Ryan, Hugo Keenan and Bundee Aki also went over at Stadio Olimpico for Andy Farrell's side, who recorded their third straight bonus-point win in this year’s tournament.
Although without the injured Johnny Sexton, the visitors registered their 23rd Six Nations win over Italy in 24 attempts – and 10th on the bounce.
Despite a determined display, the hosts continued their dismal record on home soil, where they have now suffered 24 successive defeats since beating Ireland 10 years ago.
Ireland came flying out the blocks, and although TMO denied James Lowe the opening try after just 90 seconds, the Leinster wing soon turned provider for Ryan to cross.
Having pushed reigning champions France all the way in their Six Nations opener, Italy responded with Stephen Varney going over after a rapid burst from Lorenzo Cannone.
But the visitors soon established control. Keenan broke through and rode challenges to regain the lead, while a series of sharp offloads enabled Aki and Hansen to cross in the corners.
Italy gave themselves hope before the break as Pierre Bruno intercepted Aki's offload on halfway to dash for the line.
A tight second half ensued with the hosts drawing on all their defensive resolve to prevent Ireland from extending their advantage as Paolo Garbisi and Ross Byrne exchanged kicks.
But the visitors finally put the result beyond doubt nine minutes from time when a neat offload released Hansen, who made no mistake in claiming his second try.
More than 60 golfers teed-off at the Caymanas Golf Club in St Catherine for the first Jamaica Golf Association's (JGA) qualifier for 2023.
Tee-time was 7:30 am.
A special feature of this year's tournament is that the eight competitors in the Men & Men Senior 0-6 (WAGR) category will play 54 holes over the two days in a bid to gain world amateur golf ranking points.
The Jamaica Golf Association (JGA) got approval last year to play 54 holes over two days instead of the normal three days in order to gain ranking points from the R&A and the USGA (Royal & Ancient Golf Club, Unites States Golf Association).
This will allow them earn ranking points quickly and able to participate in more tournaments across the region and the world that are open to ranked golfers.
Two of the local golfers that have world golf ranking points are Justin Burrowes (347) and William Knibbs (741). Both were invited to play in this year's Latin America Amateur Golf Championships in January as the two highest ranked amateur golfers in Jamaica at the time.
In this weekend’s tournament Burrowes, who is the defending champion, expects to be tested by the format.
"I am looking forward to get going this weekend. I haven't played a 54-hole tournament in two days since this tournament last year so I am looking forward to the test,” he said.
“Expectation-wise I try to keep it very simple. I just want to go out and execute as best as possible and count the scores at the end. It’s going to be long but I think it provides a good test and it will show me where my game is at and where I need to improve on.
“I feel like I have worked on some of the areas where I have been weak on in the last six months so I am looking forward to put that to the test in a tournament and we will see how that goes."
The other six golfers who will compete in the Men & Men Senior category are Sean Morris, Zandre Roye, Trey Williams, Tenny Davis, Robert Sterling and Wayne Chai-Chong.
Roye and Knibbs placed second and third, respectively, in last year's tournament.
The remainder of the golfers on the course will play 36 holes over the two days.
The will play in several categories including Men & Men Senior 0-6, Men & Men Senior 7-12, Men & Men Senior 13-24, Men Super Senior 0-12, Men Super Senior 13-24, Masters, Junior Boys 18 and Under, Junior Boys 14-15 and Junior Boys 11-13.
Jodie Mun-Barrow is the defending Ladies champion.
Russell Westbrook relished a "great debut" for the Los Angeles Clippers, despite their narrow 176-175 defeat by the Sacramento Kings in an NBA classic.
Westbrook, who signed earlier this week after his departure from the Los Angeles Lakers, scored 17 points on his first Clippers start in a thrilling encounter at United Center, while his 14 assists were the joint-highest in a team debut in franchise history.
The nine-time All-Star and former MVP also registered a team-high seven turnovers before fouling out in the second overtime of what was the second-highest scoring game in NBA history.
Only the Detroit Pistons' 186-184 victory over the Denver Nuggets in 1983 had seen more points in a game, and Westbrook reflected on a chaotic bow.
"It's crazy," he said. "I don't know if I've ever been a part of a game with that many points.
"Overall, it's a great debut, but just didn't get the win. And that's the sad part about it, but taking that out of it, just being able to go out and compete, the support system around this was at an all-time high. So, I'm very appreciative of that.
"[I'm] just trying to find ways to be effective while I'm on the floor, whatever is asked of me - screening, rolling, handling, cutting. [I] just try to do different things to impact the game and using my IQ to be able to make plays for others."
The Clippers were in search of a point guard after trading away Reggie Jackson and John Wall on the deadline earlier this month, with Paul George campaigning for the franchise to secure Westbrook's services.
And the small forward was full of praise for the impact of his former Oklahoma City Thunder team-mate, saying: "The reason why I was high on Russ being a part of this team was because of what he brings, and you saw the flashes of it tonight.
"We needed a point guard. We needed somebody that you saw tonight, somebody to get us in offense, somebody to get us easy baskets and a floor general. That was just a necessity that we needed."
Klay Thompson drained 12 threes to achieve an NBA first in the Golden State Warriors' win over the Houston Rockets, showing he is "still so hungry to be great".
It was the second time in Thompson's past six games he had made 12 threes, something no player had previously done multiple times in the same season.
Indeed, Thompson missed his only two two-point attempts, making his 42 points the most ever scored by a player without making a two-point attempt.
The Warriors guard, taking responsibility while Stephen Curry is out injured, was aware of that statistic as he met the media after a 116-101 victory.
"I did something that no one else has ever done before," Thompson said.
"I looked at Steph immediately when I did it, because that man's got all the records, so it's fun to push the game forward with him.
"I'm still so hungry to be great. I'll never be satisfied."
Thompson is averaging career highs in three-point shots attempted (4.4) and made (10.7), while only Buddy Hield (234) has made more than his 210 for the season.
This is in Thompson's first full season back after missing more than two years through injury.
Coach Steve Kerr suggested Thompson "can't just expect to be the same player that you were five years ago", but the 33-year-old is just enjoying himself.
"It's incredibly gratifying," he said. "I always reflect on the year I was not playing. I think about the time I was sidelined, watching.
"Now, it's easy to put everything in perspective and appreciate being able to move my body and play with great pace and flow and not even hesitate or think about anything."
Zach LaVine insists the Chicago Bulls will "throw everything at these last 22 games" after returning to winning ways with a 131-87 victory over the Brooklyn Nets.
LaVine scored 32 points at United Center as the Bulls ended a six-match losing streak, inflicting their opponents' heaviest defeat and holding them to their lowest score of the season.
DeMar DeRozan chipped in with 17 points on his return from injury, as did Patrick Williams, while Nikola Vucevic and Andre Drummond each had 13 points and 10 rebounds.
Patrick Beverley also made his start since signing with the Bulls, having negotiated a buyout with the Orlando Magic having been traded by the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Bulls moved to within 1.5 games of a play-in place in the Eastern Conference, and LaVine urged his team-mates to replicate their performance levels against the Nets going forward.
"I think that's what we have to do from here on out and throw everything at these last 22 games, because we understand where we are," LaVine said. "We have to put that type of energy into it."
Coach Billy Donovan added: "I thought, collectively, the group was pretty connected on both ends with the way they played.
"I thought our effort to get out there and contest and challenge shots and try to make it difficult was good. I thought the group that started the game was really good."
De'Aaron Fox led the Sacramento Kings to victory in the second-highest scoring game of all time but had no interest in repeating the experience.
The Kings beat the Los Angeles Clippers 176-175 in double overtime on Friday, with the two teams combining for 351 points.
Only the Detroit Pistons' 186-184 victory over the Denver Nuggets in 1983 had seen more points in a game.
Indeed, only those Pistons and Nuggets teams had previously reached 175 points as both the Kings and the Clippers did in this encounter.
It was the first game in NBA history to go to overtime after both teams had scored 150 points, with the game then tied at 153-153.
Three players across the two teams had 40-point games, but Fox was the undoubted star.
He had 42 points, along with 12 rebounds and, vitally, five steals – with many of those coming down the stretch as the Kings recovered from 11 points down with three minutes left in regulation.
Fox acknowledged it was the best regular season game he had been a part of but also called it a "grind" before adding to some laughter: "Obviously, we don't want to play in a game like this again.
"I think we have to be more consistent defensively, and we've talked about this, we've talked about this all year. But that is what it is, right there."
Fox, described as "unbelievable" by coach Mike Brown, recognised the standard of the offense, too, though.
"It was very high-level offensive play today from just about everybody who is out there," Fox said before explaining what he thought was the key.
"We were able to win this game because we lasted a bit longer, we're younger, and we just tried to keep the tempo up, even in the fourth, even in both overtimes," he said.
"We wanted to keep the tempo up, keep it up. I felt like we were able to get some easy buckets out of that.
"Once we started causing turnovers and just creating chaos in the game, that's where we were successful."
Russell Westbrook was making his debut for the Clippers, but that was of no concern to Fox, who said: "Is it about Westbrook, or is it about us?
"Because I don't give a f*** who's over there. It doesn't matter.
"You see the talent in this league, there are a lot of talented teams. Obviously we added talent to this team, but we come in and we worry about us."
Clippers coach Ty Lue was at least enthused by what he saw from Westbrook, who finished with 17 points and 14 assists.
"I thought he was great," Lue said. "He's still learning the offense, still learning where guys like the basketball, running the plays and things like that. I thought he did a really good job."
The Sacramento Kings emerged victorious in the second-highest scoring game in NBA history as they defeated the Los Angeles Clippers 176-175 in double overtime on Friday.
With a grand total of 351 points, it eclipsed the previous second-highest score by 14 points, set back in 1982 as the San Antonio Spurs beat the Milwaukee Bucks 171-166. Only the Detroit Pistons' 186-184 victory over the Denver Nuggets in 1983 had more.
In a wild back-and-forth affair, both teams had hit 110 points by three-quarter time, and after the Kings trailed by 11 with three minutes left, the visitors rallied back with a 17-6 run to close regulation and tie it up at 153-153.
All-Star Domantas Sabonis fouled out in the first overtime period with 20 points (eight-of-14 shooting), 10 rebounds and four assists to his name, leaving Malik Monk and De'Aaron Fox to run the show.
A pair of clutch Monk free throws forced a second overtime, where Monk again rose to the occasion with a deep three to cut the Clippers' lead to one with a minute to play, setting up Fox for the go-ahead basket with 36 seconds on the clock.
Monk finished with a career-high 45 points on 15-of-24 shooting, while Fox finished two points shy of his career-high with 42 on 17-of-27 shooting with 12 assists.
Both the Kings and Clippers set new franchise-records for their most points in a single game.
Kawhi Leonard finished one point away from his career-high with 44 points (16-of-22 shooting), three steals and two blocks, and he also tied his career-high for minutes played with 46.
With the win, the Kings strengthened their position sitting third in the Western Conference at 34-25, while the Clippers (33-29) are 2.5 games back in fifth.
Randle ties career-high
New York Knicks All-Star Julius Randle tied his career-high with 46 points during Friday's 115-109 road win against the Washington Wizards.
Randle shot 16-of-29 from the field, including seven-of-14 from deep, making up for an off shooting night by running-mate Jalen Brunson (six-of-20).
In his first game since returning from an injury he suffered on January 18, Mitchell Robinson returned to the Knicks' starting line-up and put together a 10-point, 12-rebound double-double, while finishing with a game-high plus/minus of plus 13.
Klay catches fire
Future Hall of Fame marksman Klay Thompson put on a shooting display against the Houston Rockets as he drilled 12 three-pointers in the Golden State Warriors' 116-101 victory.
All 12 of Thompson's field goals came from long range, finishing 12-of-19 from the field and 12-of-17 from deep for his game-high 42 points.
There have only been eight instances in NBA history of a player hitting 12 threes in a single game. Thompson has three of them – two of which have been this month – and he is the only player to make 14.
It will be third time lucky for followers of Jake Paul and Tommy Fury on Sunday as their twice-rescheduled bout finally takes place in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia, and there are more than a few scores to settle.
Boxing has changed a lot recently, as demonstrated by the sheer interest generated by a fight between a YouTube personality and a Love Island runner-up.
While purists may sneer at Paul's lack of boxing clout and his stated ambition of becoming world champion, the fighters' rivalry has undeniably set tongues wagging.
Their feud can be traced back over two years and involves accusations of faking injuries, interventions from Tyson Fury and pledges from both men to end the other's career.
Here, Stats Perform takes a look back at the taunts, the postponements and the controversies that have marked their rivalry.
March 2021: Tyson throws down the gauntlet
Tommy Fury's all-conquering brother Tyson Fury is often good value on social media, and the Gypsy King got the ball rolling for one of boxing's most talked-about feuds.
After Tommy Fury dispatched Scott Williams, his older brother offered congratulations on Twitter, suggesting Paul – who was gearing up to face former mixed martial artist Ben Askren – as his next opponent.
Paul responded by claiming he didn't know the elder Fury had a brother, but the duo would quickly become familiar with one another.
May-November, 2021: Paul gets personal, bout gets made
After British fighter Fury pledged to face Paul "any time, any place", the American stepped up his taunts and insults.
"Tommy, no one gives a f*** about you if it wasn't for your older brother, who I respect, or your catfish girlfriend [Molly-Mae Hague, a fellow Love Island contestant]," he said. "We all made you famous. You didn't make yourself famous."
Paul then provoked Fury by sharing a message he alleged he had received from Hague, asking him to give her a tour of the United States, which she claimed to be fake.
Paul told Fury to "make the right choice" and sign a deal to face off before the end of 2021, with a bout agreed shortly thereafter.
December 6, 2021: Fury's fitness woes
It's fair to say the reaction to the bout – initially set for Tampa, Florida on December 18, 2021 – was mixed. The prospect of a 'genuine' boxer – even one whose previous victories had largely come against journeymen – stepping into the ring with a YouTuber drew extreme reactions.
While Fury acknowledged he only agreed to the fight for financial reasons, promoter Eddie Hearn said: "If Tommy loses, he should go to a desert island and stay there for life."
With less than a fortnight to go before the fight, a chest infection and a broken rib prompted a "heartbroken" Fury to withdraw, attracting Paul's ire.
"He was scared," Paul said, before knocking down Fury's late replacement Tyron Woodley in the sixth round.
June 2022: Madison Square mayhem
Fury returned to the ring to beat Daniel Bocianski in April 2022, but negotiations for a rearranged meeting with Paul rumbled on, with a breakthrough reached in June.
"It's official, I'm taking little Fury's head off," Paul wrote on Twitter as the fight was pencilled in for August 6 at Madison Square Garden.
While Fury avoided fitness issues, the Manchester-born fighter was denied boarding when attempting to travel Stateside, with visa problems causing another postponement.
Referring to Fury as "Tommy Fumbles", Paul accused his opponent of deliberately avoiding the fight. Paul then returned to action in October, recording his most impressive win yet against former UFC champion Anderson Silva.
January 27, 2023: Third time lucky?
"The moment of truth has finally arrived," Paul announced last month. "On February 26, I will get in the ring with a 'real boxer,' and show the world the truth."
With Paul now 6-0 in professional bouts, a deal was finally agreed for him to face Fury in Diriyah.
Englishman Fury was in bullish mood.
"Jake Paul's boxing career ends on February 26 and I can finally move on with mine," Fury declared. "The world is about to see what happens when a proper boxer faces a YouTuber."
Shortly before the bout was confirmed, Tyson Fury weighed in once more. "It's going to be fun, and I expect Tommy to chin him," he said. "If he doesn't, he can stay in Saudi Arabia!"
January 29-30, 2023: Paul's doubts and baby controversy
Despite an agreement being reached for the fight, Paul told BBC Sport he "definitely" harboured doubts as to Fury's willingness to appear.
Paul attracted heavy criticism in the immediate aftermath of the bout being made, after 'announcing' the birth of Fury and Hague's child on Twitter before the couple staged their own reveal.
When Hague posted an image of newborn daughter Bambi on social media, Paul commented: "Just in time to watch your dad get knocked out."
February 23, 2023: 'Double or nothing' deal as foes face off
Despite Paul's doubts, Fury hailed "the best camp of my life" on social media before jetting off to Saudi Arabia last week.
The duo finally came face-to-face at Thursday's press conference, shaking on a "double or nothing" offer from Paul, who suggested Fury should receive no payment if he loses.
Paul and Fury were separated amid a minor fracas as both taunted the other about their previous fights, with the latter sending out a warning.
"This is in my heart, blood and soul, and you're going to feel that," Fury said. "You should have stuck to easy money fighting old men."
For a fight two years in the making with the backdrop of a deeply personal rivalry, the stage is finally set.
The Milwaukee Bucks are waiting for an update on Giannis Antetokounmpo after their two-time MVP was forced to leave Friday's game early after a clash of knees.
Antetokounmpo played just six minutes before he signalled to the bench to take him out, but the Bucks did not miss a beat as they blew out the Miami Heat 128-99.
All-Star Jrue Holiday picked up the slack with a team-high 24 points on nine-of-14 shooting, adding seven assists and five rebounds, while Bobby Portis chipped in 18 points (seven-of-11 shooting) and 11 rebounds off the bench.
For the Heat, Kevin Love was given a spot in the starting line-up after being bought out by the Cleveland Cavaliers, and he finished with eight rebounds, four assists and zero points, missing all four of his three-point attempts.
Touching on the status of his star player after the win, Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer said he is still not sure of the severity.
"I haven’t gotten the full breakdown, but I’m pretty sure either on a drive or on a screen or something like that, he knocked knees with somebody and just wasn’t able to return," he said.
Antetokounmpo was only able to make a ceremonial start in the All-Star Game as he used the break to recover from a wrist injury, and Holiday said he would like to see the franchise exercise some caution with him, given their strong position.
"Sometimes you have to stop him from himself," he said. "Being able to calm down and maybe even not play a couple of games, knowing that we're the number two [seed], knowing that we're all right.
"I know he doesn't like it. He tries to play every single game, which I completely understand. I feel like I'm the same way."
Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra agreed that the Bucks can survive without Antetokounmpo if necessary.
"It didn't slow them down one bit when Giannis went out," he said. "They just put it in overdrive."
The win improves the Bucks' record to 42-17, just one game behind the league-leading Boston Celtics (43-17), while the Heat sit seventh in the East at 32-28.
The top two seeds at the Rio Open remain on a collision course after both Carlos Alcaraz and Cameron Norrie advanced to the semi-finals on Friday.
World number two and top overall seed Alcaraz was strong in his 6-4 7-6 (7-0) victory over Serbia's Dusan Lajovic, improving his unbeaten record in 2023 to 6-0.
Alcaraz has his eyes set on his second title win in a row after also emerging triumphant in last week's Argentina Open.
Meanwhile, Norrie had to fight back from an early deficit to eliminate Hugo Delien 4-6 6-1 6-4, with the world number 13 and second seed now boasting eight wins from his past nine matches. The only loss during that stretch was to Alcaraz in the Argentina Open decider.
For a chance to avenge that loss, Norrie will have to beat Bernabe Zapata Miralles after he overcame Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-4 2-6 6-4 in an all-Spanish quarter-final.
Alcaraz will contend with Nicolas Jarry, after the unseeded Chilean knocked out his second seeded opponent of the tournament, this time getting the better of Sebastian Baez 6-3 7-6 (7-3).
Former Utah Jazz head coach Quin Snyder is nearing an agreement to fill the Atlanta Hawks' head coaching vacancy.
According to a report from The Athletic's Shams Charania, Snyder is expected to command a salary in the range of $8million per year to replace Nate McMillan, whom the Hawks fired Tuesday with the team sitting in eighth place in the Eastern Conference at the All-Star break.
The 56-year-old Snyder is arguably the top available coach on the market after leading the Jazz to six consecutive postseason appearances before resigning in June. Utah compiled a 294-178 regular-season record over that six-year stretch, the highest winning percentage among Western Conference teams and the third highest in the NBA.
Utah was not able to achieve the same success during the postseason, however, as the Jazz failed to advance past the conference semifinals in each of those six playoff trips.
Atlanta's interest in Snyder, a Hawks assistant under current Milwaukee Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer in 2013-14, was already known after general manager Landry Fields told reporters Wednesday the former Duke player and assistant coach was among those the team was considering to replace McMillan.
McMillan took over as Atlanta’s interim head coach after the team fired Lloyd Pierce during the 2020-21 season and went 27-11 to lead the Hawks to the East’s fifth seed. Atlanta later upset top-seeded Philadelphia in the second round to reach the conference finals before losing to Milwaukee in six games.
The Hawks removed the interim tag from McMillan shortly after that strong run, but Atlanta was knocked out of the playoffs in the first round in 2021-22 and struggled to find consistency this season. Atlanta took a 29-30 record into the All-Star break after entering the campaign with high expectations, fuelled by the offseason acquisition of guard Dejounte Murray to pair with All-Star Trae Young.
McMillan amassed a 98-80 regular-season record with Atlanta, who tabbed assistant Joe Prunty to serve as interim coach for Friday's game against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Reigning Korn Ferry Tour Championship winner Justin Suh has a chance to win his first PGA Tour event after finishing Friday's second round of the Honda Classic with the outright lead.
Suh, 25, produced a near-perfect campaign last season on the Korn Ferry Tour, finishing number one overall in points, winning the Tour Championship and being voted the tour's Player of the Year.
He has made the cut in eight of his 11 events to start his PGA Tour career, and after collecting his first top-20 in January's Farmers Insurance Open, he is looking to break through in a big way.
After his opening 66 at PGA National, Suh followed it up with a six-under 64 to reach 10 under overall and take a one-stroke lead into the weekend.
Alone in second place is Chris Kirk, who sits one shot back at nine under after posting a 62 for Friday's round of the day.
England's Ben Taylor is joined by American Monday qualifier Ryan Gerard in a tie for third at eight under, while the trio of Ben Martin, Eric Cole and Brice Garnett round out the top-five at seven under.
After finishing the opening round tied for the lead, both Billy Horschel and Joseph Bramlett fell back into a tie for 28th, following their 65s with a pair of 73s.
With none of the world's top-17 golfers in the field, world number 20 Shane Lowry will feel he still has a chance from his position at four under, tied for 16th, while 18th-ranked Im Sung-jae is at two under.
Andy Murray will play Daniil Medvedev in the Qatar Open final after the 35-year-old came through yet another lengthy contest in his semi-final against Jiri Lehecka.
Murray appeared to be on course for a routine win after taking the first set 6-0, but was broken early in the second, eventually losing 6-3 to take him to a fourth three-set contest in four matches this week in Doha.
Lehecka should have won a hard-fought decider when 5-4 and 40-0 up on his own serve, but Murray's trademark resilience saw him break back despite facing five match points against, before ultimately winning the tie-break 8-6.
"I don't know how I managed to turn that match around," Murray said after the win. "In the 5-4 game, I think I played most of the match points really well. He missed one bad shot on the deuce point in that game at 5-4, but I played the match points pretty well.
"It's been an amazing start to the year. I have never experienced this in my whole career, like this many matches... It was sort of looking [like it might be a quicker match] for 30 minutes and then it turned into something completely different. Yeah, just amazing that I managed to turn that around."
Murray equalled Jimmy Connors for the fifth-most ATP hard court wins in the Open Era (489), and will play Medvedev in the final after the Russian's 6-4 7-6 (9-7) win against Felix Auger-Aliassime.
The Canadian had three set points in the second set tie-break to try and force a decider, but Medvedev showed determination to turn it around and seal his place against Murray in the final.
At the Open 13 Provence, number one seed Hubert Hurkacz is through to face Alexander Bublik in the semi-finals, with both also having to come through three-set matches in a deciding tie-break.
Hurkacz was finally able to overcome Mikael Ymer 6-3 3-6 7-6 (8-6) before Bublik defeated Grigor Dimitrov 7-5 3-6 7-6 (8-6).
Third seed Alex de Minaur was shocked by Benjamin Bonzi, who broke the world number 23 four times on his way to a 6-2 6-4 victory to avenge his third-round defeat at the Australian Open.
Bonzi will meet qualifier Arthur Fils in the final four after the French 18-year-old beat former world number three Stan Wawrinka 6-2 6-3 to reach a second straight tour-level semi-final.
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