A little later than the hockey players, basketball players joined the fray; by the beginning of May they will have just completed their 1/8-final contests. Whether there will be upsets in overseas basketball remains to be seen. Well, we will watch the twists and turns of the fight with interest.
Meanwhile, in the Old World all the talk is about the European football championship, which will begin on June 12. In May and the first days of June, the participants of the final tournament will play final test matches and determine the definite lineup for the continental championship, which will be held at football grounds of Portugal. Moreover, unlike previous months, when FIFA set aside a certain day in the calendar for friendly matches, in May they will take place as convenient for the teams themselves.
In mid-May, national championships of all leading European football nations - England, Germany, Italy, Spain, and France - will finish; the fight for places on the podium in them is serious. There will also be the finals of the Champions League and the UEFA Cup. And also - the Final Four of the ULEB basketball Euroleague. In short, for many, May will be a moment of truth. And it is very interesting to watch.
AUSTRALIA The World Track Cycling Championship will be held in Melbourne on May 24-30.
AUSTRIA A women's tennis tournament of the third category with a prize fund of $170,000 starts in Vienna on May 17. On the same day in Sankt Pölten, men's tennis players will start competing for a prize fund of $375,750.
ENGLAND The closer the finish of the national football championship, the fewer those who doubt the victory of London's Arsenal. On May 1, the Londoners will play Birmingham at home and, probably, become champions early. Another interesting game - Blackburn against Manchester United.
On May 5 in London, Chelsea in the Champions League semifinal will try to take revenge on Monaco for a 1:3 defeat in France.
On May 8, Arsenal will play Fulham in London in the framework of the championship. And the brightest event will be the meeting between Manchester United and Chelsea. The last round will take place on May 15.
GERMANY Viktor Skripnik's club - Bremen's Werder - is getting ever closer to winning the national football championship. On May 1, the Bremen side will host Hamburg. It is not excluded that a victory will make Skripnik the country's champion ahead of schedule. Provided, of course, that Bayern loses points in Cologne, for which another Ukrainian, Andriy Voronin, plays.
On May 3 in Berlin, a highly representative women's tennis tournament with a prize fund of $1,300,000 - the German Open - will begin.
On May 8 in the German football championship, Bayern will host Werder. On May 22, the national championship will come to an end.
In Hamburg on May 10, a major men's tennis Masters Series tournament with a prize fund of $2,245,500 will start.
On May 17 in Düsseldorf, the team world championship in tennis among men's national teams will start. There are eight participants - Australia, the Netherlands, the USA, Argentina, Chile, Spain, the Czech Republic, and Germany. In the last two years, only South Americans - Chileans and Argentinians - have won. It is time for Europeans to have their say. And to get a large part of the prize fund of $1,850,000.
On May 26 in Gelsenkirchen, the final of the football Champions League will take place.
HOLLAND On April 29 in Amsterdam, the European Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championship will begin, ending on May 2.
ISRAEL In Tel Aviv on May 1, the best men's basketball club of Europe in the ULEB Euroleague will be determined. Despite numerous protests and fears of terrorist attacks, they did not move the Final Four from Israel to another country.
INDONESIA In Jakarta on May 14, the World Badminton Championship will start, lasting until the 25th.
SPAIN In the 35th round of the Spanish Championship (May 1-2) in football, the match Deportivo - Real should be highlighted. Both teams are in the leading group and have not lost hope for the final victory. The final chords will sound on May 23.
And on May 4, Deportivo will meet Porto in the return semifinal match of the Champions League. The first match ended with a score of 0:0.
On May 6, Valencia and Villarreal will determine one delegate from the country to the UEFA Cup final. First game - 0:0.
From May 7 through 9, the world of motor racing will focus its attention on Spain, where the next round of the Formula-1 World Championship will take place.
ITALY The central match of the remaining portion of the Italian football championship will take place on May 2 in Rome. Roma will host Milan of Andriy Shevchenko. Our forward is very close to winning both in the scoring race of the championship and in the championship itself. The 'red-blacks' need not to lose in the capital. On May 16, the championship will end.
On May 8, the popular cycling race Giro d'Italia starts in Italy, and will finish only on May 30.
Rome will host two tennis tournaments of the Masters Series. Starting from the 3rd, men will come together for a prize fund of $2,425,500. And women will divide $1,300,000 among themselves. They will start playing on May 10.
MOROCCO On May 17 in Casablanca, the traditional men's tennis tournament for the prizes of King Hassan II starts. The prize fund is a bit small for a king - $375,750.
MONACO Formula-1 will move to the principality at the end of May: on May 21-23, the next Grand Prix will take place.
RUSSIA The European Karate Championship will be held in Moscow from May 8 to 9.
ROMANIA Bucharest will host the European Judo Championship. The bouts will take place on May 14-16.
FRANCE The finish is already near, but there is still no clarity. In the French football championship, three teams - Lyon, Monaco, and Paris Saint-Germain - keep their chances for gold medals. On May 1, all will play away - against Bordeaux, Nice, and Strasbourg, respectively.
On May 6 in Marseille, the local club will meet English Newcastle in the semifinal of the UEFA Cup. The first match ended in a draw - 0:0.
On May 8, as part of the national football championship, Monaco will meet Marseille. This match will be the central one of the round. And a week later, one of the most significant matches of the national football championship will take place: PSG will host Lyon. A week later, the championship will end.
In Strasbourg, from May 17 to 23, a women's tennis tournament of the third category with a prize fund of $170,000 will be held.
And on May 24, the main tournament of the famous French Open, also known as Roland Garros, will begin in Paris. The tournament, whose prize fund has not yet been determined, will be common for men and women and will last for two weeks.
CZECH REPUBLIC On April 30, the second stage matches of the World Hockey Championship in the elite division will begin in Prague and Ostrava. The tournament, in which 16 national teams take part (among them Ukraine, Russia, Latvia and Kazakhstan), started on April 24. At the first stage, the teams divided into four groups determined among themselves a quartet of losers, which at the second stage will fight for survival in the elite, as well as 12 teams that will continue the fight for medals. The most important matches of the championship will take place on May 6, 8 and 9.
SWEDEN On May 19, the final match of the UEFA Cup will take place in Gothenburg.