they've been made to wait for it, but nearly ten weeks late, esperance are confirmed as champions league winners. and pakistan head coach mickey arthur says he's "disappointed and hurt" to lose his job after their world cup failure. welcome along, thanks forjoining us on sport today. we're going to start in toronto where simona halep came from a set down to begin her defence of her rogers cup title. it's halep's first match since the one she described as the "best of her career" when she won the wimbledon title last month. she beat qualifierjennifer brady in an epic 3—setter as colm harrison reports. simona halep was finally back in action, since it does make reversed after her break, no doubt, but also out of practice. jennifer brady was 3-0 out of practice. jennifer brady was 3—0 up, halep came back, although the american won the set 6—4. after

a string of uncharacteristic u nforced a string of uncharacteristic unforced errors, 72 places separate halep and brady. this was their first ever meeting. defending champion in canada was pushed all the way and she was mightily relieved to take the second is that evan—5 into level the match in the process. the decider was close and intense, there were no fewer than six breaks of serve with halep taking it all the way to the tie—break with brady, a player who has never been ranked higher than 60th in the world. but the world champion, number four came through the end, sealing her place in round three. this proved to be as tough a start of a title defence as halep could have had and it get any easier from here. coleman harrison, bbc news. in the men's singles, which is being played in montreal,

the early winners on wednesday included the defending rafael nadal. he's bidding to win the tournament for a fifth time, and beat the british qualifier dan evans in straight sets — but they were both hard—fought sets, with nadal taking the first on a tie—break, before winning the second 6—4. yeah, a tough one. i have been playing well. so i came on court knowing that it will be a tough match and, i'm happy about this, and that first sat. —— set. an important victory, i'm happy to be through. the number two seed dominic thiem is also through to the third round, but was taken to three sets by canada's denis shapovalov. thiem, who won his first masters series title at indian wells earlier this year, won the deciding set 6—3. he plays the number 14 seed marin cilic next.

on to football, and there were five more champions league qualifiers in europe on wednesday, and they included a win for olympiakos. they beat the turkish side istanbul bazak—sehir 1—0, with giorgos masouras scoring the only goal of the game early in the second half. istanbul finished the match with 10 men after irfan karvechi was shown a second yellow card. olympiakos will be favourites to go through after next week's 2nd leg in athens. elsewhere, two former winners of the trophy were in action. james forrest scored a potentially vital away goal for celtic as they drew 1—1 with the romanian side cluj. and sergio oliveira scored an 89th minute winnerfor porto as they beat krasnodar 1—0 in russia. african football's governing body, caf, have confirmed esperance of tunis as the winners of this year's champions league nearly 10 weeks after the second leg of the final against casablanca. both clubs have been punished

for the events which led to the game being abandoned but casablanca have been deemed as forfeiting the match. ben croucher reports. level i— all, but the game unfinished. early in the second half, the goal was ruled out for offside. the failure of the vai system offside. the failure of the vai syste m m ea nt offside. the failure of the vai system meant the decision can be reviewed and that led to a lengthy delay, one players and officials protested. after a stoppage lasting 80 minutes, the match was ruled a forfeit by casablanca and a victory to esperance who would echo the champions. however, on the fifth of june, caf ordered the match to be replayed and for aspirants to return the trophy in their medals. lastly, the trophy in their medals. lastly, the decision was thrown out by the court of arbitration for sports, leading to caf‘s final and latest decision. both clubs have been fine

with wydad find and additional fines for the use of flares by supporters. esperance has been fine $50,000 for the behaviour of their supporters. the upshot of all of this, esperance can finally celebrate a fourth african champion‘s league title. the new english premier league season kicks off this weekend, with sheffield united making a return to the top division after 12 years away, including a 6—year spell in the thid tier. the blades are, of course, one of the world's most historic clubs, former league champions and four—time fa cup winners, and this week on sport today we're

introducing you to some of the key figures who're hoping to surprise some of the premier league giants this season. today the focus is on two players, former england centre back philjagielka has returned to the club he left 12 years ago, while striker billy sharp is the hometown player hoping to make himself a hero this season. i've got a pretty good reputation here at sheffield. i will be trying to keep up with the younger lads, put pressure on during the match. the stadium will be full, it would be loud and it is ourjob to keep it that way throughout the season, and we did do that by giving the shepherd people what we want does make sheffield —— sheffield what they want. we just need to not overthink it. we have great togetherness and that is something we will need throughout the season. people say i am living a lot of

sheffield's fans' dreams, and i have. it's fantastic. i scored a goal and it was a bold boy, he got my attention, i locked eyes with him andl my attention, i locked eyes with him and i could see the emotion and the ivy and i could see the emotion and the joy on his face of me scoring the goal and i gave him a high—5. the was a nice moment for me because i had been in his shoes as well. i'm not going to hide away from it, the first thing we need to do is try and stay up. i know if we can do that, every sheffield fan will be delighted. to cricket, and pakistan will not be renewing the contract of their head coach mickey arthur, with the pcb saying it is "time for new leadership". there has been speculation that arthur, who led pakistan to the 2017 champions trophy could take over

with england as a replacement for their outgoing world cup winning coach trevor bayliss. arthur, who has also coached south africa and australia, has been spoken to by england as a potential successor. the former world featherweight and super—bantamweight boxing champion carl frampton has been talking about the freak accident in which he broke a bone in his hand. it's ruled him out of next weekend's comeback fight against emmanuel dominguez. frampton says he was lucky not be more seriously injured, after a free—standing pillar at his hotel in philadelphia fell on him. i feel a ifeel a bit i feel a bit sorry for myself but to be honest right now, you know, i'm not angry, it was accidental. something was just not into it but, you know, things not screwed into the floor. i've lost a purse, i've lost 12 weeks away from kids, i'm

angry more than anything. finally, the tour de france champion egan bernal received a hero's welcome as he returned to colombia for the first time since his victory in paris last month. thousands of screaming fans held a victory party in his hometown of zipaquira. some 3,000 supporters dressed in the famous yellow of the leaders jersey chanting his name and cheering as he walked on stage. the 22—year—old is the youngest to win the tour in 110 years, and is the first from latin american. you can get all the latest sports news at our website, that's bbc.com/sport. but from me — adam wild — and the rest of the sport today team, goodbye.

good morning. yet again it was scotland and northern ireland that bore the brunt of the showers for wednesday. the area of low pressure that was responsible, that's now drifting off into the north sea, allowing this brief ridge of high pressure to build before this deepening area of low pressure starts to push into the south—west during the early hours of friday morning. and it's going to stay with us friday, into the weekend as well, heavy rain and gales are going to be a feature of the forecast. but, for the next few hours, we've still got a few showers through scotland and northern ireland in particular. and a little bit of patchy mist and fog forming in western areas. elsewhere, we'll see lengthier spells and temperatures falling down to a comfortable 11—13 degrees just first thing on thursday morning. there will be some early morning sunshine and generally, thursday not a bad day for many. some lengthy, dry prolonged spells around. we still can't rule out a few isolated showers in scotland

and northern ireland and maybe one or two into north wales and cropping up in the midlands. but, with some sunshine we will get some warm highs of 2a degrees, that's 75 fahrenheit. but that low pressure is going to start to push into the south—west during the early hours of friday morning, it's going to be some heavy rain and strong to gale force gusts of winds, particularly on exposed south—west coasts. so that rain at iam will start to push its way up through cornwall, across wales, up into the midlands. so for the early morning rush hour, it'll be leaving north wales, the north midlands and will be sitting across northern england. don't forget the yellow and greens denoting heavier pulses of rain. some areas could see 20—30 millimetres before the morning is through. and, with the additional prolonged showers that we've seen, that could bring some localised flooding. so the frontal system clears to the north of scotland, behind it, a trail of showers and some blustery winds gusting in excess of 50—60 miles an hour in exposed coasts in the south—west. eastern england will stay largely fine and breezy, but 2a—25 degrees is 77 fahrenheit, it will be quite a humid

feel to things. now friday into saturday, we will see that area of low pressure sitting across the extreme north. and the southern flank of that low is where we are likely to see the strongest in the winds. saturday, plenty of frequent showers across scotland, northern ireland, north—west england, the rainfall totals really starting to add up and some gales further south. but still, those highs of 22 degrees. the frontal system really not moving very far, very fast, that low pressure dawdles its way steadily eastwards, we've still got plenty of showers with us on sunday. the best of the drier weather into the south. take care.

welcome to bbc news. i'm mike embley. our top stories: president trump praises the emergency workers and survivors of saturday's mass shootings in the el paso, and says despite criticism he's been warmly welcomed. we had an amazing day. as you know, we left ohio and the love, the respect for the office of the presidency, it was... i wish you could have been in there to see it. canadian police believe they have found the bodies of two teenage fugitives suspected of three murders. the us calls for calm and restraint over kashmir, as tensions between india and pakistan continue to escalate. and vodka with a twist. we look at the first consumer product made from ingredients grown inside the chernobyl exclusion zone.