Paris tournament: Alcarras reaches the semi-finals with a dramatic victory over Fritz

Spaniard Carlos Alcarras, ranked third in the world, qualified for the semi-finals of the Paris Masters Tennis Championship, with an exciting and dramatic victory over American Taylor Fritz in two sets to one.

The match witnessed great excitement, as the results of the rounds were 6/7 (11/12), 7/5 and 6/3, making Alcarras advance to the semi-finals awaiting the winner of the confrontation between the Norwegian Caspor Ruud and the Portuguese Nuno Borges.

With this victory, Alcarras reaches the semi-finals of the Masters 1000 tournament, for the fifteenth time.

The Caribbean Football Association announced, on Friday, its support for Gianni Infantino for another term as President of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), in the elections scheduled for next March.

Infantino recently made two visits to the Caribbean region, one of them this week, with the aim of ensuring support for this bloc, despite the continuing controversy over his investment plan for the World Cup, which was not successful.

The federation said in a statement: “The Caribbean Football Association confirms that it has reached its collective position through consultation with its member associations. In the same spirit, the federation continues to call for enhanced transparency, good governance, and fundamental reforms within the football family.”

The Caribbean Football Association has 31 member states, 25 of which have voting rights.

This is the second major voting bloc to publicly announce its support for Infantino. Last month, the Asian Football Confederation, which represents 47 member associations, announced its support for him for another term.

The deadline for submitting candidate nominations is November 18. Infantino's first competitor appeared on Thursday, when Kozo Tashima, a member of the FIFA Council, who worked alongside Infantino for about 11 years, announced his intention to run for president of the federation.

The French director of the Italian Ferrari Formula One team, Frédéric Vasseur, on Friday put an end to the escalation between his British drivers, Lewis Hamilton, and Charles Leclerc from Monaco, in the midst of an ego conflict that came to light after an incident that brought them together during the Mexican Grand Prix last Sunday.

Vasseur said that an urgent meeting was held on the sidelines of the Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo to ease tensions between Hamilton and Leclerc, which allowed "to discuss the matter and clarify my position and their positions. That was a good thing, and now let's turn the page."

He added during a press conference in Interlagos: “I am not asking them to be best friends. I am asking them to behave and work professionally. The guidelines remain the same. They must respect each other” during the races.

The French engineer, who joined Ferrari in 2023 and is constantly facing criticism from the Italian press, continued: They must also respect the team and its workers, as that comes first.

The traditional competition between drivers of a first-class team such as the legendary “Prancing Horse” was largely under control, before Hamilton and Leclerc entered into a direct conflict from the first turns of the Mexican Grand Prix on Sunday.

Hamilton and Leclerc started from first and third positions, respectively, and almost collided and briefly went off the track, ending the race in second and fourth places instead of achieving a possible double, leaving the victory to Dutch Red Bull driver Max Verstappen.