A brace by Portuguese Pedro Neto led Chelsea to continue returning to the right track, when it inflicted its host Everton's first loss of the season with two clean goals, in the seventh round of the English Premier League, on Saturday, but lost its Argentine goalkeeper, Emiliano Martinez, who was out injured.
The Blues corrected their slow start with a second successive victory after a victory over Bournemouth (5-1), after a bad start that witnessed two losses away from home against their neighbor Arsenal (1-2) and Brentford (0-3).
Cole Palmer's colleagues killed two birds with one stone; They succeeded in breaking up the partnership with Everton, which had a superior goal difference before the match, raising their score to 13 points in fourth place temporarily, and emerging with a clean sheet for the first time in 23 league matches.
As for the Liverpool City Club team, it suffered its first loss, after a series of draws. He came away with one point in four matches out of five before Saturday's match.
Unusually, the Spanish team, Xabi Alonso, entered the match without playing matches in the middle of the week, due to its absence from European competitions due to its disappointing tenth place in the league last season.
At Hill Dickinson Stadium, the rough encounter had a technical surprise start; The first 25 minutes witnessed only decent chances, before Everton's attacking awakening, through a header from German Merlin Rolle (26), and a dangerous shot by its star Jack Grealish (30), executed brilliantly by goalkeeper Martinez.
The London club almost scored against the course of play, through a missile shot by Ecuadorian Moises Caicedo (40), which was blocked by the crossbar.
As for Neto, he alerted the “Toffees” with a strong shot at the end of the half, which was blocked by Jordan Pickford (45 + 1), before he opened the scoring in the first minutes of the second half with a low shot that went under Pickford following a cross from the Dutchman Jurel Hato.
The guests' joy was spoiled when their goalkeeper, Martinez (75), left the field on a stretcher after a long intervention by the medical team, following a strong collision with Garrad Branthwaite.
Neto secured Chelsea's victory in the last minute of regular time, taking advantage of a shot that the opponent's defense missed.
Polish Iga Szwiłtek stumbled due to a left leg injury, leaving the Wuhan Open Tennis Championship in the semi-finals after losing to her compatriot and childhood friend, Maya Chwalinska, with a score of 7-5, 6-1, on Saturday.
Sheviontek, who has won six Grand Slam titles, was forced to ask for treatment time while she was 6-5 down in the first set, before continuing the match with her left thigh wrapped in a bandage, but she found it difficult to support her leg, and she struggled to chase balls across the court.
The confrontation had a special character, given the old relationship between the two players, who had previously formed a duo in the junior women’s competitions, and reached the girls’ doubles final together in the Australian Open in 2017.
The loss came at a sensitive time for Cheviontek, who is seeking to save her season and enhance her chances of qualifying for the final tournament of the Women's Tennis Association, after she suffered a decline in her results during the current year. The Polish woman had reached the Wuhan semi-finals for the first time in her career, after surpassing American Ann Li in the quarter-finals, achieving an achievement by reaching the semi-finals in all ten current 1000-point tournaments.
On the other hand, Hvalinska is preparing to play the final match against Britain's Sunai Kartal, who defeated Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko in two sets without a response, while Švūntek's readiness for the upcoming competitions remains dependent on the evaluation of her injury and the extent of her recovery.
Spaniard Rafael Khodar defeated Russian Danil Medvedev 6-3, 6-4, in the second semi-final of the Shanghai Tennis Tournament, a victory that strengthened his ninth place in the season rankings that determine the eight finalists to the final Masters tournament in Turin (November 15-22).
Khodar's victory paved the way for an all-Spanish final for the Chinese championship, after his compatriot Alejandro Davidovich Fokina ousted world number one German Alexander Zverev earlier, on Saturday.
If Khodar wins on Sunday over Davidovich, he will rise three places to occupy sixth place, ahead of Medvedev.
The final title match will be an all-Spanish encounter for the ninth time historically in the 1000-point tournaments and the first since 2017.
Khodar, who has an exceptional first season on the ATP Tour, will play his first final on Sunday in a tournament of this size.
As for Davidovich, he is competing in his second final at this level, after losing in two sets to Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas in 2022 in the Monte Carlo 1,000-point tournament.
The two Spanish players have so far only won 250-point tournaments, in Marrakesh (on clay) for Khodar, and in Mallorca (on grass) and Chengdu (on hard courts) for Davidovic.
