- Friday, 12 September 2025
BBC
Djokovic beaten in Monte Carlo second round
April 13: World number one Novak Djokovic went down to a shock defeat by Alejandro Davidovich Fokina on his return to the ATP Tour at the Monte Carlo Masters.Djokovic was playing in his first tournament since February after missing the US hard court swing because of restrictions over his Covid-19 vaccination status.Davidovich Fokina won 6-3 6-7 (5-7) 6-1 to reach the third round.Djokovic had his serve broken nine times by his Spanish opponent.It is the first time the 34-year-old Serb - whose last match was a quarter-final defeat in Dubai - has lost an opener at a tournament since 2018."This win is so special to me because I grew up watching Nole [Djokovic] and I'm a big fan of his," said world number 46 Davidovich Fokina."I knew Nole didn't have the confidence because he didn't play a lot this season. I had my chances in the beginning of the match and I took them."When he won the second set it was tough mentally, but I work hard to be focused. I had to be prepared for the war."Earlier, Britain's Dan Evans cruised past Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi in straight sets to reach the second round in Monte Carlo.The British number two was dominant in the first set but the second was more open, Bonzi taking a 4-1 lead before Evans rallied to win 6-0 7-6 (7-4).Evans, a semi-finalist last year, will face David Goffin in the next round after he defeated Jiri Lehecka in straight sets.
Victoria awarded 2026 Commonwealth Games
April 13: The 2026 Commonwealth Games have been officially awarded to the Australian state of Victoria.It will mark the sixth time the Games have been hosted by Australia, but it is the first time a state or region has been awarded the multi-sport event.The 2026 Commonwealths will be staged across several cities, including Melbourne, which hosted the 2006 Games.Sixteen sports have been confirmed on the initial programme, with up to seven more sets to be added.The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) entered an 'exclusive dialogue' period with Victoria's authorities in February."The Commonwealth Games Federation is absolutely delighted to award the 2026 Commonwealth Games to Victoria," said CGF president Dame Louise Martin."Commonwealth Games Australia and the Victorian Government have set out a bold and innovative vision that provides an exciting new blueprint for hosting our major multi-sport event."Australia's Gold Coast hosted the last edition of the Games in 2018. The 2022 Commonwealth Games will take place in Birmingham from 28 July-8 August.
Psychedelic frees up depressed brain, study shows
By Philippa Roxby, April 13: Psilocybin, a drug found in magic mushrooms, appears to free up the brains of people with severe depression in a way that other antidepressants do not, a study has found.The results, based on brain scans of 60 people, mean the drug could treat depression in a unique way, the researchers say.Psychedelics are being studied to treat a range of mental health disorders.Patients with depression are warned not to take psilocybin on their own.A synthetic form of the drug is tested on people in trials under strict medical conditions, with psychological support from experts provided before, during and after it is taken.Prof David Nutt, study author and head of the Imperial College London's Centre for Psychedelic Research, said the latest findings on psilocybin were "exciting" and "important".With depression, the brain can get stuck in a rut and locked into a particularly negative way of thinking, he said.But when given psilocybin, people's brains opened up and became "more flexible and fluid" up to three weeks later.This could be seen in increased connections between regions of the brain when patients were scanned. These patients were more likely to experience an improvement in mood months later.Similar changes were not seen in the brains of people treated with a standard antidepressant."This supports our initial predictions, and confirms psilocybin could be a real alternative approach to depression treatments," Prof Nutt said.Brain activityPsychedelics are a type of hallucinogenic substance which affects all the senses, altering a person's thinking, sense of time and emotions.While regular antidepressants are taken every day, psilocybin may only need to be taken once or twice to produce the same effect - but further research on more patients for longer is needed to confirm that.The results, published in Nature Medicine, are taken from two studies. In the first, everyone received psilocybin; and in the second - a randomised controlled trial - some were given the drug while others were given a different antidepressant.All participants also received talking therapies with registered mental health professionals. Brain scans were taken before, and then one day or three weeks after taking the therapy.Prof Robin Carhart-Harris, the senior study author, said: "We don't yet know how long the changes in brain activity seen with psilocybin therapy last, and we need to do more research to understand this."We do know that some people relapse, and it may be that after a while their brains revert to the rigid patterns of activity we see in depression."Earlier findings from the studies showed a reduction in symptoms of depression with the psilocybin therapy - but the researchers were not sure how and why it worked.Now they want to test their theory of changes in brain connectivity on other mental health illnesses, such as anorexia.
