on twitter. mike let me know. we are on twitter. mike embley will be here at two o'clock in the morning. but first, let's get all the sports news in sport today with tulsen tollett. hello, this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme. maria sharapova set to return from a doping ban but not everyone is happy about the russian‘s comeback. newcastle united win 4—1 against preston north end as rafa benitez guides the magpies back to the promised land of the premier league and he doesn't need snookers — marco fu makes the quarter—finals at the world championship in sheffield. hello and welcome to the programme where we've all that and more

to come but first 23 time grand slam champion serena williams has accused ilie nastase of racism and sexism following the comments he made about her unborn child, as well as a number of female tennis players. the romanian fed cup captain has been provisionally suspended by the itf. here's what serena had to say in a statement released on monday. now to the news that maria sharapova's return from a 15 month doping ban on wednesday has been questioned by her first opponent in germany this week, roberta vinci. the italian who was a beaten finalist at the 2015 us open says she doesn't agree that the russian deserves a wildcard to the porsche grand prix in stuttgart and other events in madrid and rome. sharapova was given a two—year ban last year, backdated to the 26th of january 2016, after testing positive for heart disease drug meldonium at the australian open. her suspension was reduced to 15 months in october, following her appeal to the court of arbitration for sport. she can return to play but without

any wildcard at. for me, she will play two or three tournaments. my personal opinion is this. i do want to think about it at a slight to stay focused on wednesday. that's it. rafael nadal is arguably the world's best player on clay courts but not perhaps the best archer as he prepares for his opening game at the barcelona open. nadal got the chance to recreate the moment the flame was lit at the barcelona olympics in 1992. he wasn't given an arrow strangely enough but he did look comfortable with the equipment in hand as he goes in search of a 10th title in the city. there has already been an upset in barcelona with nadal‘s spanish compatriot, tommy robredo, knocked out by japanese wildcard

yuichi sugita. 6—4, 6—3 the score in the first round. albert montanes defeated fellow spaniard guillermo garcia—lopez in straight sets for a perfect beginning to his final atp tournament. montanes said he'll retire from tennis whenever he's knocked out in barcelona where he lives. but the 36—year—old a wild card this week, will take on another compatriot, feliciano lopez, in the next round. newcastle united have been promoted back to the english premier league at the first attempt. rafa benitez‘s side were 4—1winners at home to preston north end on monday with ayoze perez scoring the first and the last of the goals for the magpies who join brighton and hove albion as the two automatic promotions and our sports correspondent katie gornall was at st james‘s park. this is a big club with big

aspirations. they get around 50,000 fa ns aspirations. they get around 50,000 fans regularly here. it is a club that feels like it belongs in the premier league. so often that is not the case. there was a lot of expectation around newcastle united this season because of the size of the stadium, the size of the club, the stadium, the size of the club, the manager they had in place and it hasn't been easy for him who had to ship out 20 players when they were relegated and to bring in 12 new players. he had to gel together at tea m players. he had to gel together at team and there is a feeling that he could be the man to maybe wake up what is a sleeping giant. i have to say that something quite interesting in the press conference was said, he was asked whether he would be leading newcastle next season. he said you never know. perhaps a coded message that he is in for some fun in the summer. to the asian champions league group stages and there was something of a shock in group c. leaders al ahli of saudi arabia travelled to tashkent knowing victory would take them through to the knock out stages but bunyodkor weren't following the script as they took

the lead after only eight minutes. akramjon komilov with the goal. bunyodkor doubled their lead after the half time interval when eldor shomurodov put it past ‘keeper yasser al mosailem to make it 2—0 and leave al ahli second now. al ain of the united arab emirates moved to the top of group c taking the lead in the first half against iranian‘s zob ahan, danilo asprilla getting the goal. al ain went on the attack and got another one after half time captain omar abdulrahman‘s brilliant solo effort making it 2—0. abdulrahman got his second and the uae team's third of the game sending them to the top of the table. so that means with one game remaining three teams can qualify with only the top two progressing. at present it's al ain who take the lead after their victory with al ahli second and a point further back zob ahan. in group d bottom of the table

al wahda of the uae stunned second placed al rayyan winning 5—1 at home despite the visitors taking an early lead. after that it was all one way traffic though with sebastian tagliabue putting the match beyond doubt with less than 20 minutes to go when he scored this individual effort and just to make sure khalil ibrahim al hammadi added a fifth to leave the qatari's al rayyan on the end of a big defeat much to the disgust of their manager michael laudrup. al hilal booked their place in the knockout phase as ramon diaz's side drew 0—0 against newly crowned iranian champions persepolis. both teams had plenty of chances throughout the game but it was the side from saudi arabia who made it through group d looks like this with one game remaining. al hilal still lead the way despite their goalless draw with persepolis with the surprise result al wadha thrashing second placed al rayan marco fu has beaten 2010

champion neil robertson 13 frames to 11 and progressed to the quarter finals of the world snooker championship where he'll now meet defending champion mark selby as jamie broughton reports 14 1a years after his first. 14 years after his first. marco fu is enjoying the best ever season of his career. he won the masters and the uk semifinals. this second round match between him and robinson was tied at eight friends or with neither man having played that well. he found some fluency. having won the opening two frames, robinson was looking to build a big lead but marco fu fought back. the man from hong kong then made his second century of the match. to level

proceedings at the midsession interval. after the break, marco fu had a chance to win the frame 21 which had been scrappy but failed to ta ke which had been scrappy but failed to take it. the tension grew and robinson couldn't contain his emotions any more. come on! robinson was fired up but he couldn't produce his best form when he needed it most. in the end, marco fu stayed calm under pressure and played the better snooker to win the match. he 110w better snooker to win the match. he now faces the defending champion mark selby, in the semifinals. i think he is consistent. a bit like rafael nadal. he plays every shot at the same. whether it is matchpoint 01’ the same. whether it is matchpoint

or not, it's the same. he is resilient. he plays every shot and treat every shot with the same respect which is very, very hard to do. i think that's the most consistent way to do it no matter where you go, the crucible especially, you need a great frame of mind to have success. i think mark certainly has done that. pakistan captain misbah ul haq became just the sixth batsman in test history to be left stranded on 99 not out as pakistan were dismissed for 407 on day four of the first test against the west indies in kingston. after resuming on 201 for four at the start of the day pakistan debutant mohammad abbas was trapped lbw denying misbah an 11th test century. in response the hosts have struggled to 93 for four trailing by 28 runs with yasir shah taking all four wickets in the final session to leave the west indies in disarray. that is all we have time for. until

next time, i've now. —— goodbye for 110w. hello. we may be hurtling towards the end of april, but the weather feels like it has plunged us back into winter. a very chilly feel over the next couple of days. a frosty start to tuesday. plenty of wintry showers around, and this cold air has come all the way from the arctic. it has worked its way southwards across the british isles, brought in our direction by pretty strong northerly winds. notice the tightly squeezed isobars across the north and north—east of scotland, particularly. gales here, at times, and in areas exposed to that northerly wind, we start off tuesday with lots of showers. northern half of scotland seeing a mixture of rain, sleet, hail and snow. most of the snow over high ground, but even to low levels there could be snow for a time. some icy stretches, as well,

in some of those showers across north—east england. also some showers feeding into northern ireland. but for south—west scotland, down the spine of england, we start the day with fewer showers, more in the way of dry weather and sunshine. chilly, though — three degrees in birmingham and coventry, and some showers feeding into cornwall and devon. and as we go on through the day, the showers will gradually become more widespread across the country, so just about anywhere you could catch one. the odd rumble of thunder, some rain, some sleet, some hail, some snow, mostly over the hills. 7—13 degrees on the thermometer, but on the strength of the winds, take aberdeen, for example, it will feel freezing even in the middle of the afternoon. another cold night to come, tuesday night into wednesday. the showers, though, becoming mostly confined to eastern areas. again, some of them will be wintry. these are the temperatures to expect if you live in the middle of our big towns and cities. out in the countryside, we are looking at lows of minus six or minus seven, a widespread frost. but some subtle changes into wednesday. this ridge of high pressure begins

to build its way in from the west, and that will cut off the worst, if you like, of that biting northerly wind, so maybe not as chilly on wednesday. still some showers, but most of these across eastern areas. some sunshine, as well, but thicker cloud starting to roll into northern ireland and western scotland. a few spots of rain. it will mostly be rain, because temperatures will be creeping upwards. 10 degrees in stornoway. and that is the story for the end of the week, the cold air slowly but surely being eroded by some milder air pushing in from the atlantic. so we can expect those temperatures to begin to creep upwards through thursday and friday. there will be fewer showers, often a lot of cloud, but those temperatures returning to something closer to what we would expect at this time of year. bbc news, broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the globe. my name's mike embley. our top stories: president trump warns of new sanctions on north korea over its nuclear and missile tests. with both candidates preparing to contest the final round for the french presidency, the national front‘s marine le pen announces she's stepping aside as leader.

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