Russia on Monday named a deaf white cat who lives in Saint Petersburg's historic Hermitage Museum as its official prognosticator for the World Cup.

Achilles the Cat will hope to repeat the fabled exploits of Paul the Octopus and other "psychic" animals tasked with predicting winners of football's showpiece event.

"We will hold a special press conference and hand Achilles a Fan ID card," the Hermitage Museum's cat press secretary Mary Khaltunen told the R-Sport news agency.

The fact that Russia's most fabled collection of art has a spokeswoman for cats may be news to some.

But R-Sport says Hermitage Museum cats are legion — and apparently football experts.

The cats were first brought to the Hermitage when Peter the Great made its Winter Palace into the new imperial home in the 17th century.

Empress Elizabeth of Russia eventually issued a decree demanding "the shipment of cats to the court".

The Hermitage was turned into a private art collection after Catherine the Great's death in 1796.

The Hermitage's Cat Museum founder Anna Kondratyeva said Achilles went on sabbatical and "put on a belly" after also picking winners in last year's Confederations Cup in Russia.

It was not immediately clear how well he did.

But the 4.7-kilogramme (10.4-pound) feline would have to be in top form to repeat Paul the Octopus's correct prediction of all seven German wins at the 2010 World Cup.

The octopus also correctly picked final winner Spain by settling its tentacles over the Spanish flag when it was lowered into Paul's tank.

Achilles's selection process will be less dramatic: the cat will simply stick his snout into the winning bowl of food.

"Achilles was born deaf, which may explain his heightened intuition," R-Sport wrote.

AFP

Serena Williams’ return to the WTA Tour came to an abrupt end Monday as she crashed out of Indian Wells with a 6-3, 6-4 loss to her sister Venus.

Venus closed out the 29th career meeting between the two on her second match point as Serena sailed a forehand long to end the third- round showdown.

It was the first meeting between the sisters since they clashed in the final of the 2017 Australian Open, which Serena won before taking a 15-month hiatus due to her pregnancy.

Serena said she is still easing her way back into match fitness.

“It wasn’t very easy, obviously,” she said. “It was good to play and try to get in the rhythm and get into the swing again.

“I can’t really replicate the situation no matter how much I do in practice. I make those shots 10 times out of 10 in practice.

“It’s just the nerves, the anticipation you feel naturally. It’s a little bit of everything that comes in a match that just doesn’t normally happen.”

The 10th seeded Venus moves on to the round of 16 where she will face Anastasija Sevastova, who defeated 12th seeded Julia Georges 6-3, 6-3.

It is rare for the Williams sisters to play this early in a tournament and the earliest they have faced each other since their first encounter at the Australian Open in 1998.

They arrived outside the stadium together on a golf cart then walked through the tunnel with Serena entering the court first, as many in the crowd stood and cheered.

Serena is still shaking off the rust after the long layoff as she hit four aces but had her serve broken four times.

“I just have a long way to go,” Serena said.

Despite the loss Serena still leads their career series 17-12.

This was their first encounter with Venus as an aunt and Serena as a new mother after giving birth to her baby daughter, Alexis Olympia, on September 1.

Venus’s victory also comes 17 years after an ugly booing incident led to a 14-year boycott of the tournament by the sisters.

It brought closure to the once testy relationship between Indian Wells and the sisters who hail from the Los Angeles suburb of Compton. Serena returned to the tournament in 2015 and Venus a year later.

Asked about the incident finally being put to rest, Venus said, “It never crossed my mind.”

Serena said she is trying not to look too far into the season.

“I have a lot to improve on,” she said.

Elsewhere, Australian Open champ Caroline Wozniacki benefited from a challenge call in the final game en route to defeating Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-4, 2-6, 6-3.

– First major –

Wozniacki silenced the critics earlier this year when she claimed her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open, becoming the first Danish woman to win a major.

The 27-year-old world No. 2 Wozniacki moves on to the fourth round where she will face 20th seeded Russian Daria Kasatkina, who surprised reigning US Open champion Sloane Stephens 6-4, 6-3.

“I managed to get my feet going more, and to start playing more steady, and that paid off today,” said Wozniacki.

Wozniacki challenged a call in the final game when the line judge ruled that Sasnovich’s shot caught the line. Wozniacki asked for a second look and the review showed that the line judge mistakenly called the ball in.

Wozniacki said the court conditions were difficult but she managed to make adjustments.

“These courts are really difficult to play on. That’s also why you see a lot of upsets,” she said. “The ball bounces really high and it goes extremely slow.”

In other women’s third round matches on Monday, French seventh seed Caroline Garcia defeated Australia’s Daria Gavrilova 7-5, 6-4.

Danielle Collins also won her third round match, defeating Sofya Zhuk of Russia 6-4, 6-4.

AFP

Greece’s Superleague has been suspended indefinitely and the country threatened to be banned from world football as the government scrambled to contain fallout from the extraordinary scenes witnessed on Sunday when the gun-toting oligarch owner of Paok Salonika stormed on to the pitch in a fit of fury to challenge a goal.

Athens’ leftist-led administration, facing widespread criticism of the lawlessness into which the country’s league has sunk, announced that all top-flight games would be brought to an immediate halt. “We have decided to suspend the championship indefinitely,” the deputy sports minister Giorgos Vassiliadis told reporters after holding emergency two-hour talks with the prime minister, Alexis Tsipras.
“The most important thing is that rules apply to everyone. We are in communication with Uefa and the championship will not resume unless there is a new and clear framework, agreed by all, to move forward with rules and regulations.”

Speaking hours after the announcement of an arrest warrant for Paok’s proprietor, Ivan Savvidis, the politician insisted the government would not renege on its decision whatever the “political cost”.

“We are not going back, we will continue the fight for transparency and a better football,” he said.

Fifa said that Greece could be suspended from world football if its national governing body fails to take “proper actions by the competent bodies to eradicate all sorts of violence in order to guarantee the smooth running of the national competitions”.

The silver-haired Savvidis twice charged on to the field, holstered handgun clearly visible, during the derby against AEK Athens. In the 89thminute when the referee, Giorgos Kominos, appeared to signal a goal for Paok but then disallowed it for offside, the oligarch lost his cool storming on to the pitch, bodyguards desperately trying to stop him, to confront Kominos. The oligarch – one of Greece’s most controversial figures – is believed to have then threatened the referee saying: “You’re over.”

Up until then, the game had been goalless. In the ensuing tumult AEK’s players walked off the pitch, citing security concerns, and the match was abandoned.

The incident has been acutely embarrassing for Tsipras. His government not only pledged three years ago, when it came to power, to crack down on tycoons and their notorious sway over the Greek economy but has repeatedly vowed to clean up professional leagues, like much of Greek football scarred by hooliganism and spectator violence. To make matters worse Savvidis, born in Georgia of Greek heritage and reputed to be one of Russia’s wealthiest men, has close ties to politicians that have helped him not only infiltrate football but facilitate acquisition of assets ranging from the strategic port of Thessaloniki, in the country’s north, to tobacco and media companies.

A former member of the Russian parliament, Savvidis is also said to be close to president Vladimir Putin. His ever-extending reach in Greece has been cause for growing alarm among western diplomats in Athens.

The government’s decision to act with such alacrity was directly linked to the fierce criticism it has faced in the wake of the incident. Commentators likened the oligarch’s behavior to the slow descent of Greece into “a post-Soviet democracy” under the leftists who, increasingly, have come under fire for tactics perceived to have eviscerated the rule of law.

By late Monday Savvidis was still being sought by police. A statement on Paok’s website said: “Ivan Savvidis is preparing to take all necessary steps to protect the club and all his executors and associates from the threats and attacks they are suffering.”

The tycoon’s press office announced that he was licensed to carry a gun. Under current Greek legislation, however, police are not allowed to enter soccer stadiums with firearms.

The Guardian

The promoter also expects the IBF and WBA heavyweight world champion to box around the world, providing he gets through Joseph Parker, on March 31, live on Sky Sports Box Office.

Hearn, who is in Carson, California, for Scott Quigg's world title fight against Oscar Valdez, admits Joshua does not have to fight across the pond but will if he wants to become a global star.

"As a heavyweight world champion and a major star in world boxing, [Joshua] should box over here at some stage," Hearn told Sky Sports.

"There's always been that myth really that in boxing you have to crack America, but I don't see why.

"Look at what we are doing in the UK, look at the spectacles we are creating, [Joshua] is very happy boxing in the UK.

"I just think it's a natural progression to fight in other countries and he wants to break down boundaries as well and part of that should be boxing in America, Africa, the Middle and Far East, but right now he is very comfortable doing what he's doing.

"I am not sure if the US is imminent but I would expect him to box in America in the next 12 months."

WBC world champion, Deontay Wilder, who will be heading to Cardiff to be part of the Sky Sports Box Office team, and New York heavyweight Jarrell Miller, are just two big-name Americans who have already been mentioned as opponents for Joshua.

Skysports