BERGAMO, Italy: Real Madrid got their Champions League title defense back up and running on Tuesday after coming through a tough battle to win 3-2 at Atalanta.
Goals from Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham were just enough for Madrid to triumph in a red-hot atmosphere in Bergamo and move up to nine points from six matches.
Carlo Ancelotti’s side would have been at risk of dropping out of the play-off places but came through a tough test at Serie A leaders Atalanta.
The away side are now three points from the top eight positions which give direct qualification for the last 16 with two matches remaining in their league campaign and a round of fixtures coming up on Wednesday.
Madrid inflicted on Atalanta a first defeat in this year’s revamped competition and are now only two points behind Gian Piero Gasperini’s ambitious team who performed well against 15-time European champions Madrid but now sit ninth.
Atalanta scored through a Charles De Ketelaere penalty which levelled Mbappe’s opener in first-half stoppage time and a fine Ademola Lookman strike in the 65th minute which put the hosts back in the match after Vinicius and Bellingham’s quickfire goals.
The hosts even came to within inches of snatching a dramatic draw deep in added time when substitute Retegui somehow shot over Lookman’s fizzing cross from from practically on the goalline.
Real Madrid revive Champions League title defense with win at spirited Atalanta
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Real Madrid revive Champions League title defense with win at spirited Atalanta
- Goals from Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham were just enough for Madrid to triumph in a red-hot atmosphere in Bergamo
Siniakova ends Andreeva Indian Wells defense in third round
- Siniakova, a former doubles number one, will face either Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina or American Ashlyn Krueger for a place in the quarter-finals
INDIAN WELLS, United States: Unseeded Katerina Siniakova ended a frustrated Mirra Andreeva’s Indian Wells title defense on Monday, rallying for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over the eighth-ranked Russian.
The 18-year-old Andreeva had opened her repeat bid with an imperious 6-0, 6-0 demolition of Solana Sierra.
But she was in trouble early and often against 44th-ranked Siniakova in a rollercoaster contest that featured seven service breaks for each player and 43 break chances between them.
When she sailed a swinging volley long to surrender the second set, Andreeva threw her racquet in disgust.
She regrouped to break Siniakova for a 3-2 lead in the third, but Siniakova won the next four games.
The Czech saved a pair of break points in the final game before sealing the match with a shot that struck the net cord and dribbled over as Andreeva could only watch, disappointment sparking another outburst from the Russian as she departed the court.
Siniakova, a former doubles number one, will face either Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina or American Ashlyn Krueger for a place in the quarter-finals.
In other early matches, fifth-seeded American Jessica Pegula shook off a slow start to beat Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Pegula, coming off her fourth career WTA 1000 title at Dubai last month, fired 11 aces with just one double fault as she rallied for the win.
“I think today I had to kind of snap myself back and kind of lock in to not let that get away from me,” said Pegula, who said she was in danger of letting negativity and frustration get the better of her.
“I didn’t think I was playing bad. It was just letting a couple chances, couple breaks here and there (get away), maybe a couple shots that I could have been more aggressive on.”
Later on Stadium Court, world number two Iga Swiatek took on Greece’s Maria Sakkari — the woman she beat in the Indian Wells finals in 2022 and 2024.
Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina, who lifted the Indian wells Trophy in 2023, played Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk in the final match of the night.
