Tickets for Champions Trophy final go on sale online and at Dubai International Stadium

LOS ANGELES, United States: LeBron James became the first player in NBA history to score 50,000 career points on Tuesday, extending his lead as the league’s all-time record scorer by reaching a milestone tally that may never be surpassed.
The Los Angeles Lakers superstar went into the game against the New Orleans Pelicans with 49,999 regular and postseason points after a 17-point performance in Sunday’s win over the Los Angeles Clippers.
It did not take long for the 40-year-old NBA icon to get the solitary point needed to reach the 50,000-point barrier.
James, who is in dazzling form in the 22nd season of a glittering career, gathered a pass from Luka Doncic and unfurled a sublime 25-foot three-pointer to move to 50,002 points with the Crypto.com Arena crowd roaring their acclaim.
James had passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s previous all-time regular-season scoring record of 38,387 points in 2023 – itself a record that had stood for 39 years.
James is now nearly 6,000 points clear of Abdul-Jabbar’s total career points tally of 44,149, with Karl Malone third (41,689 points) and the late Kobe Bryant fourth with 39,283 points.
Michael Jordan is fifth on the all-time scoring list with 38,279.
Among active NBA players, only Kevin Durant with just over 35,000 points – roughly 15,000 points behind James – makes the top 10.

INDIAN WELLS, California: Carlos Alcaraz will take a softly-softly approach as he vies to become just the third man to win three straight titles at Indian Wells, where he could find a member of that exclusive club, Novak Djokovic, standing in his way in the quarterfinals.

“I will try not to think about it,” Alcaraz said of his bid to match the treble feat achieved by Djokovic in 2014, 2015 and 2016 and Roger Federer in 2004, ‘05 and ‘06.

“I will try just to enjoy it,” Alcaraz told reporters Tuesday as he prepped for the elite ATP Masters 1000 tournament that starts Wednesday alongside a WTA 1000 tournament.

“This tournament, every time that I come here, I enjoy so much practicing, playing. Everything for me here is so easy.

“So I will try not to think about it, just flow and see how it’s going to be, the tournament. But it is something that for me would be great to achieve.”

Alcaraz, coming off a quarterfinal defeat in the Qatar Open, is seeded second behind Germany’s Alexander Zverev, who finished runner-up at the Australian Open to Italian world No. 1 Jannik Sinner.

Sinner last month accepted a belated three-month ban after testing positive a year ago for traces of banned Clostebol.

The case initially saw him exonerated when authorities accepted his explanation that the drug entered his system when a physiotherapist using it to treat a wound gave him a massage.

The World Anti-Doping Agency appealed, the case dragging on through Sinner’s triumph at the Australian Open this year.

Alcaraz said Sinner’s absence doesn’t change his approach “at all.”

“I mean, Jannik’s not playing, but there are a lot of the best players in the world (that) are playing here,” he said. “I think the draw is really open.

“I’m just focused on my things, on myself, and I try to play good tennis here.”

The Spaniard could face a formidable quarterfinal test in Djokovic, who owns five Indian Wells titles overall.

Serbian superstar Djokovic leads their career head-to-head 5-3, including a quarterfinal triumph in four sets at the Australian Open.

All 32 seeded players receive a first-round bye, and Djokovic could face a tricky second-round opener against Nick Kyrgios.

The Australian, who fell to Djokovic in the 2022 Wimbledon final, will open against a qualifier.

Top-seeded Zverev is chasing a first Indian Wells title while third-seeded American Taylor Fritz lifted the trophy in the California desert in 2022.

Norway’s Casper Ruud is seeded fourth and Russian Daniil Medvedev — runner-up to Alcaraz the past two years — is seeded fifth.

The first-round spotlight will be on wild card Joao Fonseca, the 18-year-old Brazilian who upset Andre Rublev at the Australian Open and lifted his first ATP title in Buenos Aires in February.

Fonseca will open his campaign against Britain’s Jacob Fearnley, who has climbed from outside the top 500 in he world rankings this time last year to 81st.