Alizé Cornet reacted with tears of joy to her eighth-final success at the Australian Open. The reason: for the first time in her long career as a professional tennis player, she reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament. Of all things, in the year in which she wants to hang up her tennis racket: "This could be my last season, that's true," quotes the Süddeutsche Zeitung the 32-year-old. But that's not all: while the Frenchwoman was known for many years as a drama queen on the court, she has undergone a personal transformation in recent years. For example, she was one of the first to speak out about missing Peng Shuai, and now she congratulated ex-competitor Jelena Dokić on how she fought her way back into life - after many years of physical and psychological abuse. What a gesture!
It's teatime on the Hahnenkamm. Britain's Dave Ryding became the first Briton ever to win a World Cup race. In the ski slalom in Kitzbühel, the 35-year-old raced to the top in a complete surprise. The victory is all the more spectacular in view of Ryding's career beginnings. As a child, he practiced on an artificial slope made of plastic bristles in the northwest of England - without snow. Dear kids from flat East Frisia, take a leaf out of their book: In a few years, it will be East Frisian tea time on the Hahnenkamm!
Whether wrestling is real sport or not, this world championship match touches us: AC Mack is the first LGBTQ representative to become a world champion in professional wrestling. In 2016, he started wrestling and all kinds of people told him it wasn't going to work out, the dark-skinned new champion said. "Not with the way you look, not with the color of your skin, not with who you like to sleep with." He showed all the critics and mockers after his fight - in the middle of the ring he kissed his partner.
At the Four Hills Tournament, he became a shaky candidate as the favorite. But now Karl Geiger is back in top form. After two victories in Titisee-Neustadt, Geiger is suddenly traveling to the Olympics in Beijing as one of the big favorites again. He hopes for "cool games", says the 28-year-old. He is in better shape than ever before - let's hope for successful gilding.
In the end, the president of the German Handball Federation, Andreas Michelmann, also caught a Corona infection. How could the European Championship end otherwise? But the most unusual European Handball Championship from the German point of view gives hope. Three players sick? Oh, let's just fly in three new ones. Four confirmed cases again? Wait, I'll call a few people and get some more. The German Handball Federation has impressively shown the competition that it has sufficient supplies of internationally competitive players. That gives us hope for 2024, when Germany hosts the European Championship.
With the sheikh, you don't necessarily have to be rich. At least not when it comes to admission to the World Cup games at the end of the year. The first ticket sales phase has just begun. Foreign fans have to pay around 60 euros for the cheapest tickets, around a third less than for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. It's even cheaper for locals: They can get into the stadium for as little as 10 euros, the lowest price since the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.
Wash jerseys, not money: The German state of Bremen wants to turn off the washing machine for money laundering in professional sports. Justice Senator Claudia Schilling (SPD) has drafted a bill that is to be submitted to the Bundesrat in February. Professional sports clubs and player advisors are to be treated like banks or notaries when dealing with money. Schilling told the Business Insiderthat professional sports are particularly at risk of being "corroded by criminal money." So let's hope the law is tough enough.