A Moscow-based sexologist and psychiatrist has suggested that tennis ace Daniil Medvedev’s new haircut could be a sign of a self-esteem and image boost as the Russian closes in on Novak Djokovic at the top of the rankings.
World number two Medvedev, who has shunned the entirely clean-cut look in favor of medium length hair for much of his rise to the top, had arguably the most important moment of his impressive career to date when he won his first Grand Slam title earlier this month.
The 25-year-old cruised past Djokovic at Flushing Meadows, denying the Serb the chance to become the first calendar Grand Slam king since Rod Laver in 1969 and fulfilling some of the expectations placed upon the only man behind him in the rankings.
Now a professor at the Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis, Alexander Poleev, has claimed that the charismatic Russian’s sensational victory was the motive behind a trip to the barbers.
“He won a Grand Slam tournament, which the Russians hadn’t done for 16 years,” professor Poleev toldMatch TV.
“[He was] looking for an image of a winner. [And] a sharp jump in self-esteem among athletes is very common.”
The sexology author said that modern great Rafael Nadal had performed a similar move by wearing a black t-shirt for the first time after one of his early tournament victories.
“Tennis is not long jumping or running,” he said, discussing the importance of image and marketing in the sport. “It’s about the opportunity to make millions by winning tournaments and advertizing.
“At the same time, the point here is not only and not so much about money, but about gaining social status. There is an opportunity for self-realization on such a scale that other sports do not [offer].
“I was a bit stressed coming into the match because actually every singles guy won so I was like, if I lose, that's not so good.”
“In swimming, too, no one bothers to become a champion, but you will only advertise swimming trunks and towels. It may be much simpler.
“After victory, Medvedev believed in himself, believed that he could become a winner in the next tournaments – and this requires a short haircut. In the heat, the hair gets in the way.”
Medvedev gave a less piercing slant on the subject when he was asked about his trim following a a 14-1 win for Europe over the World team at the Laver Cup, in which he played his part by beating Denis Shapovalov.
“My new look?,” he asked. “In the end, there is no particular change.
“I was simply on vacation and I thought about cutting my hair and making it shorter. It doesn’t seem like a different or strange look to me. I just cut my hair.”
A former top-flight footballer in Germany and Turkey has allegedly been involved in a fatal shooting that reportedly killed a 24-year-old and injured four others earlier this month.
Sezer Ozturk, who played for Turkey’s two biggest clubs, Fenerbahce and Besiktas footballer, has been named by Turkish media as the protagonist of the alleged deadly incident on September 19.
Local sports broadcaster NTV Spor detailed that witnesses who have already come forward have claimed that Ozturk became involved in a fight during a case of road rage.
The outlet said that the 35-year-old opened gunfire on a group of people near Istanbul’s northern district of Sile, claiming that unverified video footage appears to back up its report.
Yıllarca menajerliğini yaptım. Dünyanın en adaletli ve duygusal insanıdır. Birini aç görse uyuyamaz cebindekini verir. Gidip mahallede insanlara saldırmaz zarar vermez. Ayıptır linç etmeyin. Hak hukuk adalet lütfen. Önce ne olduğunu anlamak lazım. #sezerozturkpic.twitter.com/iwMPuZTzP8
The dead victim has been named as Halil Ibrahim Genc, with police said to be on the hunt for Ozturk after he allegedly went on the run following the incident.
Ozturk was born in Velbert, Germany and was a graduate of the Bayer Leverkusen academy that has also produced the likes of Chelsea star Kai Havertz and Bayern Munich’s Leroy Sane.
He joined Nurnberg before a switch to Manisaspor in his parents’ homeland of Turkey.
His most successful spell was at Fenerbahce, where he won the Turkish Cup in 2012 and 2013.
The former Turkey youth international never officially announced his retirement, although he has been without a club since 2015, when Besiktas released him.
An investigation has been launched after footage emerged that appeared to show a team’s away fans being blocked from entering a stadium amid a chaotic clash with police, with one account alleging that supporters were mistreated.
Footage shared by Sergey Kulakov, the general manager of Shinnik Yaroslavl, showed a group of his club’s fans being kept behind barriers outside Vladimir Torpedo’s stadium before a Russian Football National League (FNL) 2 match on Sunday.
Security personnel in riot gear formed a line and officers were seen moving towards the mob before dragging individuals away and into a van in what Kulakov claims was a late decision to block the traveling supporters from attending the match.
“It turns out that in Vladimir you cannot root for the teams that come to their city,” said Kulakov, providing an overhead view of the fractious scenes.
“At least, that’s what the [Torpedo] security officer thinks, who said at the pre-match meeting: ‘We will not let them in.’ The man said [it], the man did [it].”
Kulakov appeared to claim that Shinnik had told him the order was partly made by the Rospotrebnadzor – the Russian ministry for consumer rights and human welfare.
“He said the same thing on the eve of the game, justifying the decision [by saying] the ban [was imposed by] Rospotrebnadzor,” said Kulakov.
“FC Shinnik made an official request [to see] the so-called decision of Rospotrebnadzor, but did not receive it since such a decision does not exist.
“Yesterday, we agreed with the director of the club that the fans would be allowed in as, I repeat, there [were] no decisions [by] Rospotrebnadzor.”
Kulakov added that he had a longstanding “good relationship” with his Torpedo counterparts, but warned that the actions of individual club employees “cannot be called anything other than lawlessness.”
“We will contact the RFU and the FNL on this issue,” he pledged. “Football for the fans.”
Torpedo manager Alexander Akimov, who oversaw a 2-0 defeat for his lowly side against the runaway league leaders, appeared to suggest that Shinnik fans had arranged a procession dangerously near a centuries-old architectural monument that belonged to the club.
“We were waiting for the fans in a normal, adequate manner,” he told newsvladimir. “Law enforcement officers did the right thing to detain them.”
A fan account produced a photo showing an alternative view of the confrontation and said that away fans routinely have their “access blocked” regardless of “whether citizens violate the law or not”.
“Fans of Shinnik go to Vladimir… in an organized group on two buses of about 100 people,” it alleged. “The rest get there on their own.
“Even at the entrance to the city on the buses, they notice that an unknown car is following them. They arrive at a place not far from the stadium and organize a five-to-seven-minute walk to [the ground]. The car continues to follow the fans.
“When approaching the stadium, a policeman with a megaphone suddenly appears and shouts loudly. Some do not notice him, but most of them go to the sidewalk.
“Guest fans reach the stadium, pass through the frames of metal detectors and see the controllers waiting in the territory of the arena. Suddenly, the security forces take the group into a cordon.
“Conversations with the police begin, attempts to find out: ‘What’s the matter?’ They do not lead to anything: the [security leader] shrugs his hands – he has an order to localize the group and he cannot do anything about it.
“Then the security forces pull their first victim out of the crowd. People are outraged… and call on the police to stop the lawlessness. At the same time, they do not commit any violence or aggressive actions in relation to representatives of the authorities.
“Instead of answering, [they] begin to pull people out one at a time in order to shove them roughly into the paddy wagon, where there was not even a light.”
The account claimed that a woman needed an ambulance and about 100 people were taken to an outdoor cage where they were ignored by police in cold and rainy conditions for around three hours.
Small groups of people were then allegedly “interrogated for 40-to-50 minutes”.
“Some are released after drawing up a protocol on an administrative offense, but very reluctantly and only after watching a video from the stadium,” they said.
“Others are transferred to the assembly hall for later, while some are sent straight to the cell.
“[Some] who do not have documents with them are filed with a violation of antiquated measures – they were in a public place without a passport – and a fine of 5,000 rubles [$69] is imposed.”
The account claimed that a bus was forced to leave without fans while another waited, with some supporters only released at 2am and others “awaiting trial”.
League bosses issued a statement saying they were “clarifying all the circumstances of this episode”, adding that the “restrictive measures taken against the guests look excessive at first glance.”
“The Russian Football Union and the Football National League will [announce] all the details of the [investigation] as new information becomes available,” they said.
Blogger Yevgeny Savin, who is the founder and president of Moscow-based FNL 2 club FC Krasava, shared Kulakov’s footage with his Instagram following of more than 775,000 and said: “No one here whitewashes fans and so on, but football without fans, with empty stands, is dull sh*t – and in FNL 2, it is doubly dull sh*t. My opinion.”
Two days after pulling out of a rematch, Aljamain Sterling has accused Petr Yan of targeting his fiancee in their UFC title scandal – and the Russian has branded him a coward again as their long-standing online row contines.
A rematch between the Jamaican-American and Yan had been planned for October 30 at UFC 267 after Sterling became the elite MMA championship’s bantamweight king earlier this year when his rival was disqualified for an illegal knee in the fourth round of their clash, when the dethroned champion appearing to be ahead on the cards.
An immediate chance to win back his strap was not forthcoming for Yan, and a spat raged between the duo.
When Sterling held up the division to complete neck surgery, ‘No Mercy’ accused him of being scared of a second meeting.
UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling has been pulled from his title defense against Petr Yan at UFC 267, sources tell @bokamotoESPN.
Sterling was denied medical clearance by doctors and UFC is discussing the creation of an interim title in Sterling’s absence, per sources. pic.twitter.com/WpZJHAmIeF
That had been finally penciled in for a month from now. But the New York native backed out at the weekend, blaming “lingering” issues with his neck while failing to set a timetable for the bout to be rescheduled.
Yan released a video on Instagram to address the matter, calling Sterling “a sneaky coward” and pledging not to wait for him.
Sterling has now hit back, taking to Twitter to claim that the 28-year-old “p*ssy” has blocked him on social media “after talking sh*t about me and my fiancée”.
“Guess he was upset I didn’t respond the way he wanted me to,” Sterling added, before signing off with a #NoMercy hashtag.
“Stop lying,” Yan blasted back. “I will never say anything bad about someone’s family,”in the replies section this morning.
“And yes, you are blocked until you will grow the balls to fight me. For now, I’m done wasting my time on you, coward.”
Stop lying I will never say anything bad about someone’s family. And yes you are blocked until you will grow the balls to fight me, for now I’m done wasting my time on you coward
Popular Yan has found no end of backers following that correspondence.
His comment has been liked almost 2,000 times within hours, with many MMA fans telling Stirling to “give up the belt”.
“The UFC needs to strip Aljo immediately,” said one. “Or make an interim belt starlight away for the next event, so the next time this fake champ pulls out he is definitely stripped of what doesn’t belong to him in the first place.”
Ufc needs to strip aljo immediately. Or make an interim belt starlight away for the next event. So the next time this fake champ pulls out he is definitely stripped of what doesn't belong to him in the first place.
Gymnastics star Simone Biles has claimed that black women “have to be greater” and said that their achievements are “dimmed down” even when sporting records fall by the wayside.
A four-time gold medalist at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Biles endured a turbulent time at this summer’s Tokyo showpiece, briefly looking as if she might walk away empty-handed as she dealt with personal struggles.
The elastic-limbed 24-year-old eventually secured a silver medal in the team event and bronze in the balance beam final, and she has now suggested that she believes she has to considerably out-perform white athletes to earn the credit she deserves.
“As a black woman, we just have to be greater,” said Biles, speaking to writer and poet Camonghne Felix for New York. “Because even when we break records and stuff, they almost just dim it down – as if it’s just normal.”
Felix, who is a former speechwriter for Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic Party politician and governor of New York from 2011 to 2021, clearly agrees with Biles.
“I have a theory that if someone were to try and account for the exact amount of labor black women have forcefully and freely contributed to the US economy and culture, if America had to match us cent for sweat drop, it would be a number so great it would bankrupt all of this country’s resources,” she wrote.
“And if we’ve done it right, in the next generation, there will be no mules. We’ve done enough – the world will have to meet us on our terms.”
Biles is said to have been inspired by best-selling book ‘The Subtle Art of not Giving a F*ck’ as she has faced the pressures involved in her sensational career and being under the spotlight.
Before tying with Shannon Miller as the American female gymnast with the most medals of all time, Biles thought about leaving the sport when disgraced team doctor Larry Nassar hit the headlines for an appalling campaign of sexual abuse.
“I should have quit way before Tokyo, when Larry Nassar was in the media for two years,” she admitted, speaking after addressing the US Senate over the FBI’s handling of the Nassar case. “It was too much.
“But I was not going to let him take something I’ve worked for since I was six years old. I wasn’t going to let him take that joy away from me. So I pushed past that, as long as my mind and my body would let me.”
When she was asked whether she would alter any aspects of her gymnastics journey, Biles replied: “No, I wouldn’t change anything because everything happens for a reason.
“And I learned a lot about myself — courage, resilience, how to say no and speak up for yourself.”
