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Neeraj Chopra Starts Favourite In Diamond League Finals, Eye Historic Feat

Another historic feat awaits Olympic champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra as he will start as favourite in the prestigious Diamond League Finals in Zurich on Thursday. Chopra had made a spectacular return from a one-month injury lay-off by winning the Lausanne leg of the Diamond League series and qualifying for the two-day finals. He became the first Indian to clinch a Diamond League meet title. He had missed the Birmingham Commonwealth Games (July 28 to August 8) due to a minor groin injury he had suffered during his silver-winning performance in the World Championships in USA in July.

Robert Lewandowski scores historic hat-trick as Barça puts five past Viktoria Plzen while 101st minute goal gives win to Atlético

By Ben Morse, CNN

Barcelona player ratings v Viktoria Plzen: Lewandowski 10, Dembele 9, Kounde 8

Robert Lewandowski struck a hat-trick in his first Champions League game for Barcelona to power the Catalans to an emphatic 5-1 home win over Viktoria Plzen on Wednesday.

Aryna Sabalenka overpowers Karolina Pliskova to reach second straight US Open semifinal

The Belarusian underestimated her opponent in their two meetings last year, when Pliskova defeated her in the Wimbledon and Montreal semi-finals, but she was in dominant form in New York as she fired down seven aces and never dropped serve. "Always tough matches against Karolina," said Sabalenka. "The first set was really high level for me and (I) put a lot of pressure on her." Nothing went right for 2016 finalist Pliskova during the first set as she racked up 15 unforced errors and five double faults in 28 minutes. But the Czech's form improved considerably in the second set as she fended off the only break point she faced in the eighth game.