Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/737583
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 12 OCTOBER 2016 23 Sport Answers to the MaltaToday crossword will be published next Wednesday WEATHER: Rather cloudy with isolated showers in the morning VISIBILITY: Good WIND: West force 5 veering Northwest and becoming force 2 to 3 by evening and backing East Southeast force 4 overnight SEA: Rough becoming slight SWELL: Low Northwest becoming Southeast Sea Temp.: 24°C A B C D E F G H 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 White to play and mate in four moves A B C D E F G H 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Last week's solution Sudoku rules are extremely easy: Fill all empty squares so that the numbers 1 to 9 appear once in each row, column and 9x9 box. PARTLY CLOUDY 27 º C / 21 º C UV INDEX: 5 Today's Weather Chess Sudoku Pursuits Across 1. Court game (10) 6. Make neat (6) 7. Arrived (4) 10. Navy (5) 11. Governed (5) 12. Outer edge (3) 13. Dull yellowish brown (5) 14. Artificial waterway (5) 16. Low in pitch (4) 18. Roof timber (6) 19. Meeting for consultation (10) Down 1. Scottish town (5) 2. Deadlock (9) 3. Involving electricity (8) 4. Curve (3) 5. Obscene (4) 8. US national cemetery (9) 9. Chair with sidepieces (8) 13. Young goats (4) 15. Big (5) 17. Writing instrument (3) Qc7+ Kh6 (or Kg8) Bxd2++ ..... Kg8 Ra8++ (or b8=Q++) TENNIS Sharapova returns to court in Las Vegas charity event MARIA Sharapova returned to the tennis court for two exhibi- tion matches on Monday, her first appearance since testing positive for the banned sub- stance meldonium at the Aus- tralian Open in January. The Russian former world number one played at the World Team Tennis "Smash Hits" event in Las Vegas, which raises money for the Elton John Aids Founda- tion. Sharapova, who has slipped to 93rd in the world rankings, part- nered American Taylor Johnson and lost her first match to Marti- na Navratilova and Liezel Huber. "It's very special to be back on the court," she told reporters be- fore the match. "It's been about seven months since I've played in front of spec- tators and played in a stadium environment. Obviously, very thankful for the invitation, hap- py to be part of this cause. "It's been around for 24 years and it's my first attendance. Thrilled to be part of it." Sharapova, whose ban was cut from two years to 15 months by the Court of Arbitration last week, can return to competition in April, one month before the French Open. The 29-year-old, who teamed up with John McEnroe to beat Navratilova and Andy Roddick in her second match, acknowl- edged that the journey back would be a tough one. "Yeah, I will look to play may- be a couple of exhibition events leading up to my first tourna- ment in April," she added. "I don't know what those will be, but I think that's one of the things that will be really impor- tant because match play, you can never really replicate it. You can practise as much as you want but there's nothing really like it." Maria Sharapova Djokovic storms through in Shanghai WORLD number one Novak Djokovic cruised into the Shanghai Mas- ters third round with a 6-3 6-3 win over Italy's Fabio Fognini on Tuesday, the Serbian's first match since his loss to Stan Wawrinka in last month's U.S. Open final. The defending cham- pion, who withdrew from last week's China Open with an elbow problem, showed little sign of injury against his unseeded op- ponent, winning 83 percent of his first serve points in a match that lasted an hour and 15 minutes. Djokovic started strongly, open- ing up a 3-0 lead to take control of the first set, but displayed signs of rust with 18 unforced errors. He suffered a minor blip when he was broken in the first game of the second set, but held his nerve and hit back with two successive breaks to seal the win, helped by his opponent making 40 unforced errors. Spaniard David Ferrer, the No. 10 seed, suffered a first-round upset loss to unseeded Feliciano Lopez who beat his compatriot 7-6(3) 4-6 7-6(4). Unseeded Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov served up another upset when he beat Frenchman Richard Gasquet, seeded 14th, 6-4 6-4, and 19-year-old Alexander Zverev's produced another shock when he defeated eighth seed Marin Cilic of Croatia. The German, who is the young- est player in the world's top 50, battled back to see off the vastly more experienced Cilic 3-6 6-3 6-2 in the day's final match. Australian Nick Kyrgios, ranked 14th in the world, brushed off the challenge of American Sam Querrey 6-4 6-4 in under an hour, firing down 14 aces and not facing a break point. Ninth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat unseeded Serbian Janko Tip- sarevic 6-3 7-6(6) to reach the third round while his compatriot and sixth seed Gael Monfils beat South African Kevin Anderson 7-6(4) 6-3. Novak Djokovic