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Cheerful Conte has Napoli dreaming again after clinical win at Milan | Nicky Bandini

It is too early to talk of a title tilt by the 2023 champions but their mastery of small details and swagger bodes well

When Antonio Conte looks this happy, you know it is time for rivals to start worrying. The Napoli manager grinned broadly as he strode about his old stomping ground at San Siro, acclaiming players, clapping backs and dispensing belligerent bear hugs. “This is one of the best groups I have worked with in my career,” he told the broadcaster Dazn. “I’m breathing clean, beautiful air. I’m breathing the passion and the enthusiasm.”

His team had just beaten Milan 2-0, moving seven points clear at the top of Serie A after 10 games. A fleeting moment – the teams immediately behind them are yet to play in this midweek round – but still an astonishing turnabout for a Napoli side who finished 41 points behind the champions, Inter, last season.

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The Spin | The magic of Mitch Santner and New Zealand’s historic series win in India

Bowler’s superb display to end India’s 12-year home dominance followed Kiwis’ glorious sporting weekend

Mitchell Santner bowls in his contact lenses but bats in his glasses. It feels like part of his cricketing personality. A bit of this, a bit of that, all of which adds up to a clear-eyed vision greater than the whole – a series-defining 13 for 157 greater than the whole as it turns out. Rather like New Zealand sport in fact, the small country with the big ambition, and one still rubbing its eyes after an eye-poppingly bonkers week of sporting success.

Firstly, that weekend, kicked off by Team New Zealand’s Taihoro, who regained the America’s Cup off the waters of Barcelona, sending Ben Ainslie back to the drawing board. Then the first Test win in India, guided by Rachin Ravindra; followed by the Silver Ferns snatching netball’s Constellation Cup from Australia’s Diamonds; the Paddle Ferns winning the Women’s Canoe Polo World Cup against Italy; and finally Sophie Devine’s New Zealand defeating South Africa in the T20 World Cup final in Dubai.

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Cyclist Rohan Dennis negotiating with prosecutors after allegedly causing wife’s death with car

Former world champion appears in Adelaide court 10 months after partner, a fellow worlds winner and Olympian, died outside their family home

The former world champion cyclist Rohan Dennis has delayed pleading to charges over the death of his wife, fellow Olympian Melissa Hoskins, so negotiations with prosecutors can continue.

Dennis, 34, was arrested after Hoskins, 32, was struck by his vehicle in front of their home at Medindie in Adelaide’s inner north on 30 December last year.

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Romelu Lukaku helps propel Napoli to statement San Siro win against Milan

  • Belgian striker and Kvaratskhelia on target in victory
  • Conte’s team now lead Serie A by seven points

Napoli extended their lead at the top of Serie A to seven points as goals from Romelu Lukaku and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia sealed a 2-0 win at Milan.

Lukaku and Kvaratskhelia both struck in the first half as Napoli extended their unbeaten league run to nine matches after their opening-day defeat at Verona.

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Mont Ventoux returns for 2025 Tour de France with Pogacar aiming for No 4

  • Race begins in Lille on 5 July and returns to Paris finale
  • Tour de France Femmes begins in Brittany on 26 July

Mountains, crosswinds, cobbles and time trials: none of the hazards of the 2025 Tour de France route, unveiled in Paris on Tuesday, are likely to derail the seemingly unstoppable Tadej Pogacar, winner of almost every race worth winning in 2024.

Next summer the Slovenian – once a cheeky prodigy but now a ruthless terminator – will be back at the Tour’s Grand Départ, for a race that starts in Lille on 5 July and returns to the traditional finale, after a one-year absence because of the Paris Olympics, on the Champs-Élysées in the capital on 27 July.

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The Breakdown | Sizing up four southern hemisphere giants before rugby’s autumn series

The Springboks want a clean sweep but Australia, Argentina and New Zealand may have more modest November targets

Four southern hemisphere giants are preparing for combat over the horizon. With 90% of all men’s World Cups, and having contributed more than 62% of the tournament’s semi-finalists since 1995, they arrive with reputations to uphold. Are they the forces they once were, or are they there for the taking?

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Ryder Cup buildup off to wonky start with US captain confusion and $750 tickets | Ewan Murray

Bradley’s pick was a panicked one after failing to entice Woods and the early noise around 2025 event resembles chaotic circus

A potential scenario, one which may be necessary to preserve some of the lofty status already bestowed on the 2025 Ryder Cup. Early noises around the event are so chaotic that Coco the Clown feels like an appropriate mascot for Bethpage as the US host Europe.

Via this theoretic plan, Keegan Bradley continues his ascent back towards the summit of professional golf. He qualifies for the team of which he is, for the time being, the captain. Because it is supposedly impossible to combine playing for a modern-day Ryder Cup team with captaining one, Bradley has to pass on his duties.

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Mario Balotelli returns to Serie A after four years to sign for struggling Genoa

  • 34-year-old striker joins as free agent
  • Genoa are third-bottom in the standings

Mario Balotelli has signed for Genoa as a free agent, the Serie A club said on Monday, marking a return to the Italian top-tier for the striker after more than four years.

Genoa, third from bottom in the standings, have scored just seven goals in nine league games. The club’s manager, Alberto Gilardino, will hope that the 34-year-old can add to the 52 goals he has netted in 141 Serie A games.

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Juventus’ Yildiz seizes the stage in a glorious eight-goal Derby d’Italia | Nicky Bandini

An all-time classic clash between Inter and Juventus was rounded off by the Turkish teenager’s two-goal cameo

It had been a bonkers, record-setting, night – one of the highest-scoring matches ever in a rivalry that goes back 115 years – but not all the protagonists were enjoying themselves. “Thanks for the show!” said Zvonimir Boban in the Sky Sport studio to Simone Inzaghi at full-time. The Inter manager winced and forced a laugh. “The neutrals like you enjoyed yourselves. Me, a little bit less.”

Inzaghi had seen his team fritter away a two-goal lead in the final 20 minutes against Juventus, letting 4-2 become 4-4. To write it that way does a disservice to Kenan Yildiz, the teenager who came off the bench to score twice and turn the game on its head – writing his name into Derby d’Italia lore. Yet to tell it any other way would ignore the truth that Inter could have been out of sight before he did.

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Rugby league’s 2025 Ashes series makes late switch to England’s shores

  • Australian officials revived interest in first tour since 2003
  • One of three Tests expected to take place in London

Australia, the reigning world ­cham­pions, are set to tour England in 2025 – the first time in more than 20 years – after late talks were held about switching the location of the next Ashes series.

There has not been a traditional three‑match series since 2003, when Great Britain lost 3-0 at home despite leading with less than five minutes remaining in all the games. That wait looked to have ended after ­confirmation last year England would tour Australia. But the series now appears to be taking place in England.

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Australia rest first-choice Test players for Pakistan T20 series

  • Josh Inglis only inclusion who is a chance of making Test squad
  • Australia to host three ODIs before three T20s against Pakistan

Australia have opted to leave out all of their first-choice Test XI for the upcoming Twenty20 series against Pakistan so they can prepare for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

After facing Pakistan in three ODIs, starting on 4 November, Australia will then take on the same opposition in the shortest format of international cricket.

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European football: Yildiz double earns Juventus point in 4-4 thriller at Inter

  • PSG blitz Marseille with three-goal first half
  • Kane and Olise on target as Bayern Munich win 5-0

Piotr Zielinski converted two penalties for Inter as they played out a thrilling 4-4 draw with Juventus, for whom Kenan Yildiz scored a late brace, in Serie A on Sunday.

The five-goal opening half began with Marcus Thuram earning a penalty, which Zielinski converted to give Inter the lead after 15 minutes. Juve equalised five minutes later through Dusan Vlahovic and then took the lead with a strike from Timothy Weah, all within a six-minute span. After Henrikh Mkhitaryan equalised for Inter in the 35th minute, Zielinski scored his second from the penalty spot two minutes later, handing Inter a 3-2 lead going into the break.

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Norwich deny Middlesbrough with storming comeback in six-goal thriller

Norwich launched a storming comeback to secure a 3-3 draw with Middlesbrough in a thrilling Championship clash at Carrow Road.

The Canaries looked down and out when the visitors took a two-goal lead into the interval after going behind early on. But after seeing Tommy Conway being denied what would have been a hat-trick from the penalty spot midway through the second period, the hosts found another lease of life, with Borja Sainz scoring his second to pull one back almost immediately.

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Francesco Bagnaia closes title gap with win in rain-soaked Thailand MotoGP

  • Ducati rider makes most of treacherous conditions
  • Title race tightens with two races of season to go

Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia put in a sure-footed display at a rain-drenched Buriram International Circuit as he romped to victory in the Thailand Grand Prix on Sunday and slashed his gap to Jorge Martín, the championship leader, down to 17 points.

Bagnaia, the defending MotoGP champion, took advantage of errors by Pramac Racing’s Martín and Marc Márquez of Gresini Racing to take the chequered flag and clinch his ninth win of the season. Martín finished second while the GasGas Tech3 rookie Pedro Acosta was third.

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