G'day sports fans,

Australian of the Year: “I think standing ovations are one of the most ironic things in the world, by the way. But I’ll take them,” Dylan Alcott joked as he was named the recipient.

🇦🇺 Aussie Sport

🇦🇺 Athlete and disability advocate Dylan Alcott has been named 2022 Australian of the Year. 

Alcott, who on Thursday will compete in what will be his last Australian Open final, is the first person with a disability to win the award in the program’s 62-year history. 

On the tennis court, Alcott has won 23 quad wheelchair Grand Slam titles and a Newcombe Medal – awarded to the most Australian outstanding tennis players in a given year. (nine)

🎾 Ash Barty is two wins away from ending Australia’s 44-year Australian Open drought after easing past an error-prone Jessica Pegula in their quarter-final.

Meanwhile, Matteo Berrettini was again forced into a five-set thriller, finishing at 12:45am - which will have semi-final opponent Rafael Nadal licking his lips.

While the world number one was nowhere near her best - especially early in the match - Ash Barty was able to jump on a multitude of mistakes by Jessica Pegula, who was left frustrated by the Aussie’s best-in-class slice game.

Barty’s 6-2 6-0 win sets up a semi-final against former US Open finalist Madison Keys on Thursday. 

🎾 Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis are through to the semi-finals in the men’s doubles draw after they stirred up a crowd atmosphere never seen before at the Australian Open.

With the crowd pumped up, there was no way for officials to contain the mayhem with fans yelling out in the middle of points and even repeatedly in the middle of Venus’ service action.

🏉 Kurtley Beale will sacrifice an estimated $500,000 to return to Australian rugby, as the Wallaby eyes a fourth World Cup. (Fox)

Rugby Australia has been in talks with Beale for months and finally offered him a deal at the start of the year.

🏏 Australia has named its men’s T20 squad to face Sri Lanka next month with both Mitch Marsh and David Warner missing, while coach Justin Langer will also take a break. 

Selectors unveiled the 16-man squad on Tuesday without the two Australian World Cup heroes, while Josh Hazlewood has been picked for his return from injury, and Ben McDermott has been rewarded for his stellar BBL campaign. 

Travis Head has been picked in the squad, looking to play his first white ball game for Australia since November 2018. (Cricket)

🏏 No Australia player has indicated they want to opt out of touring Pakistan with selectors "well down the track" to finalising a Test squad, despite uncertainty about the resumption of the Marsh Sheffield Shield season. (Cricket)

🌍 World Sport

❤️ The Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final due to be held at the Olembe Stadium on Sunday will be moved after a fatal crush outside the ground on Monday.

At least eight people were killed and 38 injured as fans struggled to get access to a match between hosts Cameroon and Comoros in Yaounde.

All Nations Cup matches will remember victims with a minute's silence.

👴🏼 Watford are set to appoint former England boss Roy Hodgson as their new manager.

The Hornets are keen to make a swift appointment following Claudio Ranieri's dismissal on Monday with the club in the Premier League's bottom three.

🥊 Tyson Fury says he is "sick of listening to the excuses" of Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte as he seeks to finalise his next fight.

The Gypsy King wants Joshua to step aside from his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk, paving the way for a fight between Fury and Usyk to unify the heavyweight belts. 

"I am sick of looking at these bums, sick of listening to their excuses," he said on social media.

🏏 Middlesex chairman condemned for ‘outdated’ views at racism hearing

• Mike O’Farrell says black and Asian players prefer other careers

• Azeem Rafiq and Ebony Rainford-Brent say stereotypes ‘painful’

⚽️ Sadio Mane scored as Senegal beat nine-man Cape Verde 2-0 in the last 16 at the Africa Cup of Nations, but then was forced off with concussion.

There was outrage after Sadio Mané was allowed to continue playing for around 10 minutes, despite being knocked out.

✍🏼 Antonio Conte wants to bolster his squad and add another striker in January and Porto front man Luis Diaz has caught his eye with his £67million buy-out clause.

🏈 It doesn't get a whole lot better than that. The NFL's divisional-playoff weekend produced four of the most entertaining games of the entire season. All four were decided on the final play, and all four featured elite-level quarterback play. In the end, however, the NFL's 2021 season is down to four teams.

The NFC Championship Game will showcase the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium, site of Super Bowl LVI, while the AFC Championship Game will match the Cincinnati Bengals and Kansas City Chiefs. The games will include three division winners and one wild-card entrant into the NFL's 14-team playoff format.

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