“grand slam”
The Australian Open, the first of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, starts in Melbourne on January 12. It will last until January 26. Russian tennis players will play a rather important role and claim promotion to high stages, if not victory.
The best chances for men traditionally belong to Daniil Medvedev and Andrei Rublev; In the women’s group, the situation will be much more confusing as always and you need to pay attention to everyone. Yet the greatest hopes perhaps rest on Daria Kasatkina, Anna Kalinskaya and Mirra Andreeva.
True, it will be extremely difficult for them to win matches with Arina Sabalenka from Belarus, Iga Szwiatek from Poland and other foreign star tennis players.
However, the favorites in men’s singles were not the Russians, who are in the top 8 in the world rankings, but the Italian Jannik Sinner, the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz and the absolute record holder in Australia, the Serbian Novak Djokovic. Don’t lose there in the decisive stages.
The second Grand Slam tournament, the French Roland Garros, will be held on clay courts in Paris from 25 May to 7 June. Wimbledon will be played on grass courts in London between 30 June and 13 July, while the US Open, which will complete the series on hard courts, will be played in New York between 25 August and 7 September.
Makhachev versus Tsarukyan
Mixed martial arts fans are not recommended to miss the UFC 311 event. On January 18, MMA stars will gather in Inglewood, California, USA. The main fight will be the rematch between Russian Islam Makhachev and Armenian fighter Arman Tsarukyan, who also carries a Russian passport.
They had already fought in 2019, when Tsarukyan made his UFC debut, but Makhachev won by decision and the fight was considered the fight of the night.
Since then, Tsarukyan has won nine fights with only one defeat. Makhachev won all nine of his fights and will now defend the lightweight title of the world’s main promotion for the fourth time.
In the co-main fight, Merab Dvalishvili and Umar Nurmagomedov will fight – also a spectacular fight. The Georgian champion will make his first title defense against the Russian, who has won all 18 MMA fights.
Four Nations Tournament
In 2025, the first hockey tournament of national teams of global significance will be the “4 Nations Match” or “Four Nations Tournament”, a powerful competition under the auspices of the National Hockey League.
In fact, this is a revived World Cup, but the tournament is given a different name, largely due to the absence of Russia, which cannot be included in the number of participants due to the conflict in Ukraine, and the attitude of the world community towards it. .
To begin with, the first World Cup since 2016 really should have been held, at least Russia and the Czech Republic should have participated in it, and perhaps the NHL could have come up with more hybrid teams like the “team of young stars”. ” and “team of European stars” as nine years ago. However, theoretically the number of participants could also include Switzerland, Germany and even Slovakia.
As a result, the NHL decided to create a tournament in which only players from the strongest league in the world would participate, and with Canada, the USA, Sweden and Finland among the participants, it seemed that only Russia could form a full-fledged team. NHL players. Even the Czechs don’t have enough defenders; only three of them are playing consistently for their teams and two more have played 14 games between them in the current championship and spent more time at their farm clubs.
As a result, the Canadians, Americans, Swedes and Finns will play a 12-man round robin tournament in Montreal and Boston, after which the top two teams of the tournament will fight for the trophy in the final match.
In the group stage, three points will be awarded for a victory in regular time, two points will be awarded for a victory in extra time or a penalty shootout, one point will be awarded for such a defeat, and in the event of a loss in normal time, no points will be awarded to the team. Points in the table.
At the same time, overtime in the group stage will be played in a three-on-three format, but for ten minutes, not five, as in the NHL. In the final, the match will continue five-on-five during the overtime period until a goal is scored in 20-minute periods. You can have as many of these as you want.
The “Four Nations Tournament” is notable for being the first hockey competition held since the 2016 World Cup, in which the strongest hockey players on the planet will play at the national team level. And already in 2026 the NHL team will play in the Olympics. We can only hope that the Russian team will be there too.
Ice Hockey World Championship
The 88th Men’s Ice Hockey World Championship will be held between 9-25 May in Stockholm, Sweden, and Herning, Denmark. As in the previous three tournaments, the Russian and Belarusian teams suspended by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) will not be able to participate in the competition.
The 16 participating teams will be divided into two traditional groups of eight teams. The best four of them will advance to the quarter-finals, after which the medals and championships will be played in play-off mode.
Two players from outside their group will face each other in a series of no more than two wins for the right to stay in the elite league.
Club World Championship
Star players are increasingly complaining about the busy schedule, but FIFA will organize the first full-fledged Club World Cup in 2025. It will take place in the USA from June 14 to July 13.
32 teams from all over the world are divided into eight groups and the two best teams will advance to the 1/8 finals. Everything is like in the last world championship between national teams.
Europe will be represented by 12 clubs: Chelsea, Manchester City (both England), Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid (both Spain), Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund (both Germany), Inter, Juventus (both Italy). ), PSG (France), Benfica, Porto (both Portugal), Red Bull Salzburg (Austria).
World Aquatics Championship
^
Particular attention of Russian fans will be focused on the World Aquatics Championship, which will be held in Singapore from July 11 to August 3.
On the one hand, the tournament was originally supposed to be held in Kazan but was postponed due to the CBO; On the other hand, Russian athletes began to be allowed to compete in water sports, albeit with neutral status. But they will already be able to reach Singapore, and swimmers from Russia will definitely not be extras, they will compete for medals.
Africa Cup of Nations
The African Football Cup of Nations is the most unique, original and interesting competition. The next draw at the intersection of 2025 and 2026 will be held in Morocco between 21 December and 18 January.
So far, only one of the 24 participants is known: their owners. The regulations are as follows: six groups of four teams each. In addition to the first and second places, the best four among the third places will advance to the 1/8 finals. For a while, world championships were also held according to this order.
What are you thinking?
Source: Gazeta
Gregory Robert is a sports aficionado and a writer for “Social Bites”. He provides in-depth coverage of the latest sporting events and trends, offering a unique and knowledgeable perspective on the world of sports.