Sports x 07CONTACT US AT: 8351-9190, WINDYSJF@HOTMAIL.COM

Monday July 17, 2017

JOSE MOURINHO ruled out any attempt to bring Cristiano Ron-aldo back to Old Trafford after Manchester United opened their U.S. tour Saturday with a 5-2 rout of the Los Angeles Galaxy.

United manager Mourinho is keen to bolster his ranks further after already strengthening his squad with the additions of Victor Lindelof and Romelu Lukaku. But the Portuguese manager poured cold water on the possibility of an attempt to prise United legend Ronaldo away from Real Madrid.

“I’m not going to waste my time thinking about players who are mission impossible,”

Mourinho told reporters after the win.

Earlier, England striker Marcus Rashford scored twice with Marouane Fellaini, Anthony Martial and Henrikh Mkhitaryan bagging United’s other goals in a one-sided victory in front of 25,667 fans at the Stub Hub Center.

New striker Lukaku was unable to get in on the goals after a 45-minute debut in the second half.

Lukaku missed one golden chance four minutes into his United debut, with his shot saved by Galaxy goalkeeper Brian Rowe.

However, Mourinho was sat-isfi ed with Lukaku’s “unselfi sh” display in leading the line.

“Lukaku is a target man, he plays with his back to oppo-nents,” Mourinho said. “A good thing today for me is to see that he’s a team player. He’s not self-ish. He’s not obsessed with goals. He was not that worried about himself, he was worried about the improvement of the team.”

Rashford meanwhile reminded Mourinho of his eye for goal with a confi dent fi rst-half display.

The teenager opened the scoring after only two minutes, punishing an error from Ariel Lassiter near the Galaxy penalty

area to dart in on goal and place his fi nish beyond goalkeeper Jon Kempin.

The 19-year-old doubled his tally in the 20th minute, latch-ing onto a clever pass from Juan Mata to make it 2-0.

Mourinho revealed that Rash-ford was still growing. “It’s just the natural evolution of a kid,” Mourinho said.

“He’s already taller than when I arrived 13 months ago. He’s put on some muscle but without any kind of specifi c work because his speed is his most important quality and we don’t want to lose that.”

(SD-Agencies)

GARBINE MUGURUZA of Spain powered her way to her fi rst Wimbledon championship by playing fearlessly and domi-nating down the stretch, putting together a 7-5, 6-0 victory over a fading Venus Williams by claim-ing the fi nal’s last nine games.

“It’s great to go out there and play somebody that you admire,” Muguruza said. “I knew she was going to make me suffer and fi ght for it.”

This was Williams’ 16th Grand Slam fi nal and ninth at the All England Club. At 37, she was bidding for her sixth title at the grass-court major, 17 years after her fi rst. And she was so close to gaining the upper hand against Muguruza, holding two set points at 5-4 in the opener. But Mugu-ruza fought those off and never looked back.

“She competed really well. So credit to her,” Williams said. “She just dug in there.”

For Muguruza, this fi nal was her third at a major.

In her fi rst, at Wimbledon in 2015, she lost to Williams’ younger sister, Serena. But in her second, at the French Open last year, Muguruza again faced Serena — and won. That was the most recent fi nal Muguruza had played in at any tournament until Saturday, an indication of the sort of up-and-down 12 months she’s had.

But with stand-in coach Conchita Martinez pushing her to play each point on its own merits — don’t look back, don’t think ahead — Muguruza was able to regain her best form these two weeks. Taking the ball early, being aggressive from the start

RAJON RONDO, who spent last year dipping in and out of the Chicago Bulls’ rotations, has agreed on a one-year deal with the New Orleans Pelicans, a person with knowledge of the situation confi rmed to USA TODAY Sports.

The person requested ano-nymity because the deal wasn’t announced publicly.

Rondo, an 11-year vet, had a

tumultuous run with the Bulls last season before suffering a fractured thumb in their fi rst round postseason matchup against the Boston Celtics. It was largely Rondo who helped engineer a 2-0 lead before the injury occurred.

Rondo fell completely out of the Bulls’ rotation last season for a stretch of fi ve games in Janu-ary before coach Fred Hoiberg

came to rely on him as a veteran presence. Rondo was routinely praised by his teammates for mentoring the team’s younger players.

Rondo averaged 7.8 points and 6.7 assists last year with the Bulls, marks that were sig-nifi cantly lower than his career averages of 10.7 points and 8.5 assists.

(SD-Agencies)

ARSENAL ended its pre-season tour of Australia with a 3-1 win over Western Sydney Wanderers at the ANZ Stadium in Sydney on Saturday.

Goals from Olivier Giroud, Aaron Ramsey and Mohamed Elneny put the Gunners three up at the break, before Steven Lustica got one back for Wan-derers in the second half.

By contrast, the Gunners couldn’t add to their tally after the break, despite record-signing Alexandre Lacazette making his fi rst start for the club.

Lacazette’s fi rst start came in a strong Arsenal starting XI, also featuring Ramsey, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Granit Xhaka.

Signifi cantly, Arsenal’s adher-ence to the 3-4-2-1 formation they switched to late last season was obvious, with midfi elder Elneny drafted in to play as a center-back alongside Laurent Koscielny and Nacho Monreal.

It didn’t take long for Laca-zette to catch the eye, as the club’s record signing turned and accelerated superbly in the box, before fi ring in a low shot that was well saved.

Lacazette’s chance was part of a bright start from the Gunners. Oxlade-Chamberlain’s pace and direct running were stretch-ing Wanderers out wide, while Alex Iowbi showed off some neat touches and guile in cen-tral areas. As Arsenal gained in confi dence, Ramsey and Xhaka began to exploit defensive gaps with some quality passes between the lines.

Had it not been for some heavy touches in the box, the Gunners would have been comfortably in front early on. First, Lacazette couldn’t control a deep Oxlade-Chamberlain cross in time to prevent a defender blocking his shot, then strike partner Giroud reacted sluggishly to a poor clear-ance in front of goal.

The latter soon spurned another chance when his header went straight at the Western Sydney goalkeeper Vedran Janjetovic after rising to meet Xhaka’s precise free-kick.

(SD-Agencies)

Muguruza claims 1st Wimbledon title

of each point and not relenting, Muguruza did to Williams what the American and her sibling often do to their opponents.

Here was how Muguruza’s on-court approach was described by Spanish Fed Cup and Davis Cup captain Martinez, whose 1994 Wimbledon title was the country’s most recent for a woman until Saturday: “She’s very brave.”

“I was just very composed,” the 23-year-old Muguruza said. “Once I go to the big court, I feel good. I feel like that’s where I

want to be, that’s what I practice for. I’m happy to go to the Centre Court and to play the best player. That’s what motivates me.”

With the roof shut because of rain earlier in the day, each thwack of racket strings against ball by the two big hitters created echoes around the old arena.

Williams began the proceed-ings with an ace. But Muguruza showed she would not be over-whelmed, returning a serve at 182 kph on the match’s second point, and another at 184 kph in the third game — then win-

ning both ensuing exchanges.Still, Williams was so close

to taking the fi rst set, ahead 5-4 while Muguruza served at 15-40. On the fi rst chance, a 20-stroke point ended when Williams blinked fi rst, putting a forehand into the net. On the second set point, Williams sent a return long.

“She was getting every one of Venus’s shots back. Not only getting it back, but it was deep in the court,” said David Witt, Wil-liams’ coach, who thought nerves affected his player. (SD-Agencies)

Spain’s Garbine Muguruza (L) and Venus Williams of the U.S. pose with their respective winner and runner-up trophies after the fi nal at Wimbledon on Saturday. SD-Agencies

Manchester United’s Romelu Lukaku (top) in action with Los Angeles Galaxy’s Ashley Cole during their match in Los Angeles on Saturday. SD-Agencies

Mourinho rules out Ronaldo move after United win in LA

Rondo agrees to one-year deal with Pelicans

Rajon Rondo

Arsenal wins in Sydney