hello, this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: rafael nadal recovers from a scare in beijing against lucas pouille to advance to the second round. brian dozier hits the first home run of the american league wild card match as the minnesota twins take an early lead over the new york yankees. and despite only having partial movement in his right arm, robert kubica may be back in formula one next season. hello there and welcome to the programme, where we start with tennis and the news that world number one rafael nadal had to save two match points in his first round match against france's lucas pouille in beijing before securing his passage to the next round. austin halewood has a wrap of the action from china. back on court. the world number one rafael nadal in his first match since winning the us open, but the

rustiness showed. france's lucas pouille taking the first set. and the unthinkable continued. matchpoint to pouille, a let off to nadal. but after taking the second set of vital rake and decide is set the spaniard up for a win. rafael nadal through to the second round, just. one martine del potro has continued the form he showed it reaching the semifinals of the us open last month. the argentinian dominated from the frontline, taking the first set on a tie—break. and in typicalfashion, del potro the first set on a tie—break. and in typical fashion, del potro finish off with a serve the bookies place in the second round. and he will face number three seed record dimitrov after he came off in three sets against his bosnian opponent. maria sharapova received a wildcard

entry in beijing and still ranked outside the world's top 100. she is looking to gauge her progress since returning from a 15 month doping ban. she came through in three sets against fellow russian. next she will face simona halep. as the bikie and opponent retired midway through their second set, setting up another showdown with sharapova. —— her slovakian. i will not do anything special. it's always a tough match against her, so i expect a tough one and maybe i can win it this time. i am looking forward actually to play against her again and try my best. playing simone is always a difficult match. our us open battle was one of

the toughest matches i faced against her. you can always take a little bit from each match you play in the past that every new day set up a new challenge and no matter what the re cord challenge and no matter what the record is against an opponent, no matter how good or bad the matches have been, it's a chance for both of us have been, it's a chance for both of us andl have been, it's a chance for both of us and i really look forward to it. that match gets underway in beijing's national tennis stadium on wednesday. nick kyrgios is first out in his match with mischa zverev. the pick of the men's schedule is in the evening when grigor dimitrov plays juan martin del potro. meanwhile, at the japan open in tokyo, milos raonic is into the second round. the canadian saw off his first round challenge from viktor troicki. the world number 12 and third seed beat the serb 6—3, 6—4 and next up he'll face japanese rising star yuichi sugita. but the japan open has already had a big casualty in the first round. number two seed dominic thiem was beaten in three sets by american steve johnson.

in other tennis news, briton dan evans has been banned for one year after testing positive for cocaine. the davis cup playerfailed a doping test at the barcelona open this year and his ban has been back—dated to when the sample was collected on the 24th of april. the 27—year—old was ranked 50th in the world injune when he admitted failing a doping test and reached his first atp tour final this year in sydney. the international tennis federation have accepted that he would no significant fault or negligence. he a lwa ys significant fault or negligence. he always said that he took this out of competition and yet he tookjust four days before he was due to play a match in barcelona. his argument, which has been accepted, is that the legal medication he was taking was inadvertently contaminated by some left over cocaine which it had stored in his bag and once they accepted that version of events he will be able to return to the two of

april the 24th next year. the opening game of this year's major league baseball post season is underway in new york, as the yankees take on the minnesota twins in the american league wild card match. the game is currently tied at three of peace. —— three a piece. and the winner will play the cleveland indians in the divisional series. on wednesday the national league wild card match features the colorado rockies at the arizona diamondbacks we know they're pitching staff, but at the same time they know about our pitchers. you could say it is an advantage or disadvantage both ways, but i think both teams are just ready to go and ready to play each other. two great teams. they might do something different. there's going to be guys who worry different situations. i think we are going to see much more match oriented

baseball. it will be different. but i will prepare for each of those fixtures very closely the same way asi fixtures very closely the same way as i would in the season. the yankees are currently in action in new york, but a man who was a franchise legend there for 20 years is derekjeter. the 43—year—old is now the ceo and part owner of the miami marlins franchise after a $1.2 billion takeover of an organisation that has seen eight consecutive losing seasons, the worst in major league baseball's history. it's a process that has been some time in the making forjeter. fortu nately fortunately when you play this game time runs out and everyone gets an opportunity for a short period of time. so i wanted to be in a position where i could be involved in an art as an group. so i set my sights on that, started thinking about it, learning as much as i

could towards the end of my career andi could towards the end of my career and i looked down at tampa and i've been over that minor leak complex yearin been over that minor leak complex year in and year out, learning as much as i possibly could. so one thing i've learned is that universally it was said to me from owners in baseball and other sports that regardless of how much success you have in any particular business, this is a whole mother beast —— whole other beast. the williams formula one team will give robert kubica two days of testing to see if he's able to return to the sport. the pole has only partial movement in his right arm after a serious rally accident seven years ago. he tested for renault earlier this year but they had doubts over his fitness. williams now want to assess him this month as a potential replacement for felipe massa. some other world cup news and president vladimir putin expressed concern over delays to some of russia's preparations for the 2018 world cup. russia's sports minister confirmed that a backlog of work has been noted at 12 construction sites. next year's world cup will be held at 12 venues in 11 russian cities with the competition

due to start injune. translation: of course the most important issue is the readiness of venues. important issue is the readiness of venues. best of all alike behind the schedule preparation for the world cup is unacceptable. my colleagues andi cup is unacceptable. my colleagues and i looked at the models. we talked to the governors about the state of things. overall it is quite satisfying. quite satisfying. but there are still some delays. they are not critical, nothing terrible here, but as i've always said, i've said it many times and i want to repeat today, the most difficult thing is to resolve tasks at the final stage. spain will be without alvaro morata for their world cup qualifier against albania on friday. the chelsea striker is expected to be sidelined for a month with a hamstring injury. morata went off during chelsea's1—0 defeat against manchester city at the weekend. he's scored seven goals sincejoining the premier league champions from real madrid in the summer. real madrid forward gareth bale

is another casualty. he'll miss the rest of wales's qualifying campaign with a calf strain. a scan has revealed the severity of the injury and means he'll miss the game against georgia on friday as well as the match with the republic of ireland three days later. and irish assistant manager roy keane says they have their own problems. it is part of the game. he is as big a loss to us as any other. we have another game on friday night, so if you want to discuss the wales game you want to discuss the wales game you are talking to the wrong guy. friday night we have an international and we have our own injury problems. so you deal with it. he is always straightforward. going back to major league baseball. the wildcard layoff, the minnesota twins against the new york yankees. it is

3-3 at against the new york yankees. it is 3—3 at the moment and so far the yankees could be ahead after the first innings, but we shall see. for anything else go to the website. from me and the wonderful team, goodbye for now. hello. wednesday's weather gets off to a fine start for some of us, but things will have changed by wednesday night. wet and windy again. a chilly start, particularly in rural spots, and there will be an area of rainfall, having moved south of scotland overnight and stretching through parts of northern ireland. it's this weather front here, but it's this low pressure moving along across central swathes of the uk on wednesday night, turning things wetter and windier. along with this weather fronts searching through scotland and northern ireland, showers heavy and thundery in the far north of scotland and northern isles, some very gusty winds to begin the day. though both fronts will ease as we go through the day.

across a large part of england and wales, getting off to a chilly but fine start. a lot of sunshine around. there will be a few showers running into parts of north—west england, with increasing cloud here. increasing cloud in northern ireland as well, some outbreaks of rain particular to the north. and the stretching through parts of south—west scotland and galloway. for much of northern scotland, some sunshine. very windy in the far north and northern isles to begin with. 50—60 miles per hour gusts. but the heavy showers gradually ease during the day. elsewhere, rain starting to pick up. cloud increases and wet in northern ireland in the afternoon. south—west scotland, northern england, some outbreaks into northern parts of wales as well. temperatures generally in the mid to low teens. low pressure bringing rain across many parts of the uk on wednesday night. looking very wet into lancashire, for example. we need to watch that. in the southern flanks, some gales developing. we could see gusts of

50—60 miles per hour. so the chance of disruption as thursday begins. thursday very windy. rain soon clearing away from southern england. a few showers into northern scotland and the irish sea coast, maybe parts of north—west england the north midlands as well. many places dry with sunny spells. temperatures again around the mid—low teens. a windy day. on friday, high pressure building. things starting to quieten down a bit. lighter winds, variable cloud, sunny spells, many places dry. it doesn't last long, though. into the weekend, another area of low pressure. not quite as strong, but still some rain—bearing weather fronts pushing across the uk. so expect a lot of cloud on saturday and some outbreaks of rain spreading south and east as the day goes on. breezier, again, and temperatures around 13—16 degrees. as that eases away on sunday, still some sunny spells around. one or two showers, but it is a quieter weather picture on sunday. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe.

my name is mike embley. our top stories — police say the man behind the mass shooting in las vegas elaborately planned his attack — moving in weapons and planting cameras around his hotel room. while friends and families struggle to come to terms with their loss. a navy veteran, teacher and police officer were amongst the 59 victims killed. the leader of catalonia has told the bbc the region will declare independence from spain within days. and president trump visits puerto rico, thirteen days after hurricane maria. we report from the capital san juan.