Sports weekend with Izvestia

Football

The Russian Championship. Orenburg – Krasnodar, Rostov – Zenit

In the penultimate round of the national championship, the champion can be determined. This will happen if Krasnodar wins away from Orenburg, and Zenit St. Petersburg loses away to Rostov. In all other cases, the intrigue in the fight for gold will last until the last 30th round. In any case, the matches involving the two leaders will be key next weekend. Based on their results, we will find out which of the two contenders for the championship will approach the decisive games as the leader.

May 17, 14:00, Gazovik Stadium (Orenburg). May 18, 19:00, Rostov Arena (Rostov-on-Don). Live broadcasts on Match TV and Match Premier

Hockey

Gagarin Cup. The final. The third match. Traktor – Locomotive

The main event of the entire hockey season in Russia is in full swing. Two matches have already been played in the final series of the KHL playoffs. Both were held in Yaroslavl, where the local "Locomotive" hosted the Chelyabinsk "Tractor". Now the teams are going to the Urals, where they will play twice at the Traktor home arena. The first of these meetings will be held on May 17th. The series goes up to four wins for one of the teams and can last up to seven matches.

GRU operation: in what condition are the new contenders for the Gagarin Cup approaching the finals

The series between Lokomotiv and Traktor starts on May 13

May 17, 16:30, Valery Belousov Traktor Arena (Chelyabinsk). Live broadcasts on Match TV, KHL TV, KHL Prime and Kinopoisk

Tennis

Women. Doubles. WTA-1000 Tournament in Rome

The next millennial in the tennis season is coming to an end. This time, a Russian couple is competing for the trophy in the Italian capital. On May 16, the silver medalists of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, Mirra Andreeva and Diana Schneider, will play in the semifinals with Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini. If our team wins, then a day later they will meet in the finals with the Australian couple Storm Hunter and Ellen Perez, or with the Russian Veronika Kudermetova and the Belgian Alice Mertens.

May 16, semifinals: 2:30 p.m., Andreeva/Schneider – Errani/Paolini; 20:00, Kudermetova/Mertens – Hunter/Perez. May 17, 3 p.m., final. Foro Italico Stadium (Rome, Italy). Live broadcasts on WTA websites

Basketball

VTB United League. The semi-finals. The fifth match. Zenit – Lokomotiv-Kuban

The VTB United Basketball League playoffs are also nearing their end. The first participant of the final series, which will begin at the end of May, has already been determined. They became CSKA Moscow, which defeated Kazan UNICS in the semifinals after four matches. The same number of matches were played in the other semi-final, but the showdown between Zenit St. Petersburg and Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar is still far away. The score in the series is 2:2. The teams will have to play at least two games. One of them will take place on May 16 in St. Petersburg.

Before the third victory: what to expect from the United League playoffs

Zenit, CSKA and UNICS are unlikely to experience problems, Uralmash is ready to give battle to Loko

May 16, 19:00, Arena Stadium (Saint Petersburg). Live broadcasts on Match TV

Hockey

The Stanley Cup. The second round. Fifth and sixth matches

The second round of the NHL playoffs is coming to an end, which should determine the Stanley Cup semifinalists. One of them is already known — Vasily Podkolzin's Edmonton Oilers beat out the Vegas Golden Knights after five matches. Two more series may end on the night of May 16 following the results of the sixth matches, if the Carolina Hurricanes of Andrei Svechnikov, Dmitry Orlov and Peter Kochetkov win against the Washington Capitals of Alexander Ovechkin, and the Dallas Stars of Ilya Lyubushkin and Evgeny Dadonov prevail over the Winnipeg Jets of Vladislav Namestnikov. Otherwise, on the night of May 18, these couples will have their sixth match. By the way, it is possible that another Russian, Alexander Nikishin, will make his debut in the upcoming games for Carolina. Meanwhile, there will definitely be the sixth match in the series between the Florida Panthers of Sergey Bobrovsky and Dmitry Kulikov and the Toronto Maple Leafs. If successful, Florida will move on. If Toronto wins, then on the night of May 19, everything will be decided in the last seventh match. Interestingly, Toronto remains the last team in the current playoffs without a single Russian. So in the event of its relegation, it will be possible to say for sure that one of our compatriots will win the Stanley Cup for the tenth time in a row.

May 16: 02:00, Capital One Arena (Washington, USA) ; 04:30, Canada Life Centre (Winnipeg, Canada). May 17: 03:00, American Bank Arena (Sunrise, USA); 22:00, Lenovo Center (Raleigh, USA); 23:30, American Airlines Center (Dallas, USA)