Live Sport on TV this weekend – November 18th & 19th
Saturday
Tennis
ATP Finals – Turin – Amazon Prime
Semi-finals
Jannik Sinner v Daniil Medvedev – 13.30
Jannik Sinner is unbeaten this week playing in his home country, beating Novak Dvokovic in his first game. Daniil Medvedev lost his last round-robin game against Carlos Alcaraz, but he had already qualified for the semi-final. The head-to-head stats is 6-2 in favour of Medvedev, but Sinner has won the last two encounters, both in October this year, in Beijing and Vienna. With hometown advantage and full of confidence, Sinner to advance to his first ATP final.
Carlos Alcaraz v Novak Djokovic – 20.00
The first ATP Finals semi-final sees a rematch of both Wimbledon, where Alcaraz won and the US Open where Djokovic prevailed. Both players seem to have come off their high levels in both those tournaments. It has been a long season and the Spaniard has had various niggling injuries and Djokovic, though he won in Paris, was beaten by Jannik Sinner in his first match in Turin. An intriguing and close match, but with Novak rising to the occasion to make the ATP finals yet again
Horse Racing
Cheltenham
Paddy Power Gold Cup – ITV4 – 14.20
Unusually for a top steeplechase at Cheltenham and one sponsored by an Irish bookmaker there is likely to be a home trained winner. Paul Nicholls has two good chances with likely favourite, Stage Star, ridden by Harry Cobden and Il Ridoto, ridden by Freddie Gingell. Go for the brothers Skelton, trainer Dan and jockey Harry, and their horse Unexpected Party.
Rugby Union
English Premiership – Leicester v Northampton – TNT Sports 1 – 15.05
Leicester have been struggling this season, languishing second to bottom of the Premiership. Even when their World Cup stars returned last weekend, including Hander Pollard and Jasper Wiese from the World Cup winning Springboks and their England contingent of Ollie Chessum, George Martin, Dan Cole, Freddie Steward and Ben Youngs, the Tigers found Quins the more coordinated side. Now they’ve had another week together, I think they will be too strong for Northampton, who themselves had a good win against Exeter last weekend with their England stars Courtney Lawes and Alex Mitchell to the fore. Leicester to win this East Midlands derby and get their season back on course.
English Premiership – Harlequins v Saracens – TNT Sports 1 – 17.30
Quins won well away at Leicester last weekend and Saracens demolished Northampton. The individual match up that everyone wants to see is between the two fly-halfs, Marcus Smith of Quins and Owen Farrell of Saracens. England supporters are divided on who they would like to see as the national team’s fly-half. Me, I’m in the Marcus Smith camp as he’s always the more interesting player to watch, though oddly enough Farrell tends to be a bit more expansive when playing for Saracens. Other matchups are in the threequarters with Elliot Daly and Nick Tompkins against Tyrone Green, Louis Lynagh and Andre Esterhuizen. In pack you’ll have Billy Vunipola and Maro Itoje versus Dino Lamb and Alex Dombrandt. Should be a fascinating game and difficult to call, but I think Quins will continue their good start to the season and win with their more enterprising style of rugby.
Sunday
Cricket
World Cup Final
India v Australia – Ahmedabad – Sky Sports Cricket – 08.30
The two best sides have made it through to the final, but there can only be one winner, India. Although David Warner, Mitch Marsh and Glenn Maxwell have produced some big scores, including Maxwell’s heroic double century against Afghanistan, the Australian batters haven’t been as consistent as Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul have been for India. India’s fast bowling attack has been none too shabby with Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj, but when these two sides met earlier in the World Cup, it was India’s spinners, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravi Ashwin, who did the most damage when India won by six wickets. Australia’s formidable fast bowlers, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc reduced India to 2 for 3 in the first two overs, but Kohli and Rahul put on 164 to put the home side in control. Australia played three warm up matches in India before the tournament began which they lost 1-2. So over the last couple of months the two teams have got to know each other very well and 3-1 to India will become 4-1 on Sunday.
Tennis
ATP Finals – Turin
Final – Amazon Prime – 17.00
Jannik Sinner v Novak Djokovic
Sinner has beaten Djokovic once already this week in a tight three setter. Can he do it again? He has the advantage of the home crowd and the confidence of an unbeaten week in Turin. But that’s all the incentive Novak needs to find his best form and prove why he’s the number one player in the world. Djokovic in three sets.
Formula 1
Las Vegas Grand Prix – Sky Sports F1 – 06.00
You’ll have to get up early in the UK to see the circus come to town. If they can avoid the celebrities and the manholes, then we could have an interesting race but with inevitable result – Max Verstappen to win his 18th GP season out of 21. Let’s hope next season is more competitive.
Football
European Championships Qualifying
Scotland v Norway – Viaplay Sports 1 – 19.45
