by Tim Stannard 

1) Sister act as Serena & Venus move to Australian Open final

Soccer, schmocker!

It is tennis that is rightfully leading the way in the wide, wide world of sport on Thursday. Knowing that Serena Williams can be a little flaky on occasions, the appearance of the US tennis legend in the Australian Open final is a little eye-opening. But to be facing her sister, Venus, is an occasion that needs dropping jaws to be manually closed shut again.

.@VenusesWilliams returns to @AustralianOpen Final after 14 years-- https://t.co/b9o5zHBKTI #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/IkLOTH40sa — WTA (@WTA) January 26, 2017

Overnight on Wednesday, Serena made short shrift of veteran opponent, Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, in two sets in a semifinal clash to join Venus who overcame compatriot, Coco Vandeweghe, after being one set down.

The 36-year-old is now in her 15th major final, and has the unenviable job of stopping her sister from a record-breaking 23rd Grand Slam win on Saturday, in Melbourne. "She's my toughest opponent, no-one has ever beaten me as much as Venus has," said Serena.

As a side-bar, beIN SPORTS is the new home for WTA tennis, dontcha know, and Venus Williams is set to star in the St. Petersburg Ladies’ Trophy in Russia from Monday.

2) Bolt no longer triple triple champion

BREAKING NEWS! Usain Bolt is no longer a nine-times gold Olympic medalist, with a triple triple at the Beijing, London and Rio Games in the 100m meters, 200m meters and 100meters relay. This comes after the Beijing sprint relay gold was removed from the Jamaican runner after a failed doping test. But it was not Bolt himself who was found positive, but instead teammate, Nesta Carter.

#BREAKING Usain Bolt loses Olympic relay gold medal from 2008 after teammate banned for doping https://t.co/AL22iCG2aj — USA TODAY (@USATODAY) January 25, 2017

Carter was one of 454 selected doping samples retested by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) last year, and has been found to contain the banned stimulant methylhexaneamine.

3) Madrid looking for cold comfort in Copa  

Real Madrid made the crucial mistake in Spain of failing to win a game of football, by losing to Sevilla on Sunday after a 40-match unbeaten streak. Celta Vigo are in a freezing Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday in a first-leg, quarterfinal Copa del Rey clash to see if Coach Zizou is made of the right stuff, or if the team will have to be thrown into the crisis bin on Thursday morning with Keylor Navas and even the finger of judgement being pointed at Cristiano Ronaldo for the loss in La Liga that opens the title race up again nicely.

😃🚌👋 #RMCopa
The players have met up and will rest at #RMCity ahead of tonight's match!#HalaMadrid pic.twitter.com/Ob901QKL9n — Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadriden) January 18, 2017

The other big story of the day lies in the visiting camp with winger, Fabian Orellana, being told by Celta’s manager that he will never play for the club again after a still unknown but tantalizing incident. Eduardo Berizzo fumed that his player had shown an “unacceptable lack of respect." Orellana has since moaned that he is being treated a little unfairly.

Tune into beIN SPORTS live at 3:15 ET / 12:15 PT for Real Madrid against Celta Vigo. As a tempting warm up, fancy one of the best strikers in the world? That’s the plan with Gabon and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in action in a very must-win match against Burkino Faso in AFCON 2017.