After a frustrating 12 months on the ATP Tour, Britain’s Kyle Edmund took home the title at the New York Open and in doing so won $120,635 and perhaps more crucially, 250 FedEx ATP Rankings points that put him firmly back in the upper ATP rankings as Britain’s best male tennis player.

At 25-years-old, Edmund is ranked as the 45th best men’s tennis player in the world and he certainly earned his first ATP Tour title in 16 months, the Bahamas-based Brit beating Italian player Andreas Seppi in the final.

While the first set was an even affair decided by a late break and gutsy hold that saw Edmund take it 7-5, his dominance over the latter stages of Sunday’s contest saw him win eight of the last nine games as the 98-seeded Seppi was simply blown away by the power and precision of Edmund’s groundstrokes.

For Seppi, the defeat marks another setback, and in particular against Edmund, who he has a dreadful record against, winning just one of the six games they have shared.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee unveiled its in-season Top 16 overall seeds for the 2020 Big Dance, although there obviously will be plenty of change by Selection Sunday on March 15. The East Region No. 1 was San Diego State of the Mountain West, so perhaps oddsmakers will start taking the Aztecs seriously as they are also the only unbeaten team in the country.

SDSU’s best basketball alum is current Los Angeles Clippers star Kawhi Leonard, and the best team in school history was surely Leonard’s 2010-11 squad that finished 34-3 but lost in the regional semifinal to Connecticut. San Diego State has never reached a Final Four and didn’t even get an NCAA Tournament bid a year ago. It is +1400 to win the national championship.

Quite possible the Aztecs reach the Big Dance without a loss as they are clearly head and shoulders above the rest of the Mountain West, already clinching the regular-season title and winning their two toughest road tests at UNLV and New Mexico. At Boise State on Sunday could be tough, though, as likely will be February 29 at Nevada ahead of the Mountain West Tournament.

Football and poker go together like the tackle and the shin pad, like the through-ball and the dinked finish, like Tim Sherwood and memes. Often, when players have finished playing the most popular sport in the world for a living, they need something to replace the adrenaline rush that they’ve only ever felt when they score a goal.

That is where poker comes in. The rush of winning a big pot, the buzz of lifting a trophy, the strategy, mental training, atmosphere at the table and camaraderie outside the action – it’s a potent cocktail. Like Paul Gascoigne in 1996, footballers can’t help imbibing themselves of that cocktail.

The first of our three-part series looks at five British players who’ve swapped football boots for three-bets. They took one look at the biggest poker tournaments in the world and thought ‘I’ve played in the Champions League final – and I’m all-in!’

Teddy Sheringham

This week’s second half of the midwinter break fixtures in the Premier League see some fantastic fixtures, all of which look set to go ahead, as opposed to last week’s postponement of Manchester City vs. West Ham United.

Southampton and Burnley play out what should turn out to be a dead rubber by the end of the season, and Liverpool will likely canter to yet another victory at Carrow Road as the already-doomed Norwich City attempt the greatest escape since Steve McQueen took off on his motorbike. Aston Villa host Tottenham Hotspur in a game that is important for both relegation and Champions League place reasons. Those matches are, however, unlikely, to yield many shocks, but the three we’re previewing in detail very well might.

Wolves vs. Leicester (Friday 14th February, 8:00 pm GMT kick-off)

With these players having returned from their midwinter break, Friday’s night fayre is unlikely to get better than this game all season. We’re not joking – this could be one of the games of the Premier League season. It’s all set up for a classic.

This week’s second half of the midwinter break fixtures in the Premier League see some fantastic fixtures, all of which look set to go ahead, as opposed to last week’s postponement of Manchester City vs. West Ham United.

Southampton and Burnley play out what should turn out to be a dead rubber by the end of the season, and Liverpool will likely canter to yet another victory at Carrow Road as the already-doomed Norwich City attempt the greatest escape since Steve McQueen took off on his motorbike. Aston Villa host Tottenham Hotspur in a game that is important for both relegation and Champions League place reasons. Those matches are, however, unlikely, to yield many shocks, but the three we’re previewing in detail very well might.

Wolves vs. Leicester (Friday 14th February, 8:00 pm GMT kick-off)

With these players having returned from their midwinter break, Friday’s night fayre is unlikely to get better than this game all season. We’re not joking – this could be one of the games of the Premier League season. It’s all set up for a classic.

It was a weekend that would decide nothing in terms of silverware, but nevertheless one where the English Premier League table would start to take an end-of-season shape. There was a predictable wins for Liverpool, but the Merseysiders would not be the only team grabbing three precious points.

Southampton saw Burnley beat them at St. Mary’s to give the away side a boost up into the top half of the table at the expense of the South Coast side, while Wolves and Leicester drew 0-0 at Molineux to see both teams keep themselves in the reckoning for the European places.

That was especially true with the news over the weekend that Manchester city will enjoy no European competition for the next two seasons, receiving a £25 million fine in the process. The expulsion of the current EPL champions means that The Citizens could miss out on some of the world’s biggest players, as well as potentially a new contract for Pep Guardiola, who will have just 12 months to run on his current deal when the season ends. It also means, however, that 5th place could well yield a place in next season’s UEFA Champions League, with teams such as Sheffield United, Wolves and Everton all joining Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur in pricking up their ears at that news.

Aston Villa 2-3 Tottenham Hotspur

It was a weekend that would decide nothing in terms of silverware, but nevertheless one where the English Premier League table would start to take an end-of-season shape. There was a predictable wins for Liverpool, but the Merseysiders would not be the only team grabbing three precious points.

Southampton saw Burnley beat them at St. Mary’s to give the away side a boost up into the top half of the table at the expense of the South Coast side, while Wolves and Leicester drew 0-0 at Molineux to see both teams keep themselves in the reckoning for the European places.

That was especially true with the news over the weekend that Manchester city will enjoy no European competition for the next two seasons, receiving a £25 million fine in the process. The expulsion of the current EPL champions means that The Citizens could miss out on some of the world’s biggest players, as well as potentially a new contract for Pep Guardiola, who will have just 12 months to run on his current deal when the season ends. It also means, however, that 5th place could well yield a place in next season’s UEFA Champions League, with teams such as Sheffield United, Wolves and Everton all joining Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur in pricking up their ears at that news.

Aston Villa 2-3 Tottenham Hotspur

We live in an era where three men – Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are rewriting tennis history as they dominate the sport in a manner that is completely unprecedented. Between the trio, they have won 56 Grand Slam titles. Yet there was a time where three other men might well have done the same.

Two Americans – Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe – and one Swede, the eponymous Björn Borg, were constantly in the limelight as the 1970’s gave way to the 1980’s. In total, they won 26 Grand Slam titles between them, but it may have been so many more. This week, we look at why Björn Borg walked away from the game when he was at his untouchable best.

We look at the feats of messrs Djokovic, Nadal and Federer so commonly that it would be feasible to imagine that no other records existed before they came along, or still exist despite their recent dominance of the sport. John McEnroe, however, was one man who created history that still resonates on the ATP tour to this day. Winning seven Grand Slam titles, McEnroe also holds more records than you may be aware of.

For 20 years on the professional ATP Tour, John McEnroe carved out a period of success that, even now, seems scarcely believable. In the first ‘golden years’ of tennis, an era that produced such fearsome adversaries as Bjorn Borg and Jimmy Connors still saw ‘Mack’ win seven Grand Slams, four U.S. Open titles and three Wimbledon Men’s Singles title. They were just the headlines of a stunning career which began in New York City.

Sports betting operator SportPesa has lost two more high-profile sports sponsorships, leading the company’s CEO to blame Kenya for “bringing down” one of their own.

On Sunday, English Premier League club Everton announced that it would end its SportPesa shirt sponsorship at the conclusion of the current season, two years ahead of their deal’s planned expiration. The club said the “difficult” decision had been made following a comprehensive review of the team’s “vision and future growth plans.”

Everton thanked the Kenya-based SportPesa for helping the team “grow our footprint in Africa and further strengthen our special relationship with the continent.” The sponsorship deal Everton signed with SportPesa in 2017 was thought to be the most lucrative deal in the club’s history, worth around £7m per year.

Sunday also saw F1 racing team Racing Point unveil its new car signage, which didn’t contain any SportPesa logos despite the company signing a ‘multi-year’ title sponsorship with Racing Point one year ago.