AUSTRIA
In Vienna on October 10, a men's tennis tournament with a prize fund of EUR 586,250 starts and will run until October 17. A week later, a women's tennis tournament (prize fund - $585,000) starts in Linz and will end on October 30.
AZERBAIJAN
The World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships will be held in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, starting on the 5th and ending on October 9.
ENGLAND
The English football championship in October has not prepared many crucial and interesting matches for fans. On October 1, a match between Liverpool and Chelsea is expected, and on the 28th between Tottenham and Arsenal. These are, perhaps, all the highlights of the October rounds in the Premier League.
BELGIUM
In Hasselt on October 24, a women's tennis tournament of the third category with a prize fund of $170,000 will start. The tournament will end a week later.
HUNGARY
The World Wrestling Championships will be held in Budapest, the capital of the country. The championship starts on September 25 and ends on October 2.
GERMANY
In Filderstadt on October 3, a fairly strong women's tennis tournament will begin. Prize fund - $650,000. The tournament will end a week later.
The World Fencing Championships will start in Leipzig, the historical capital of the federal state of Saxony, on October 8, and will last a week - until October 15.
The German football championship is of interest to us not only because of the high level of the teams participating, but also because the Ukrainian forward Andriy Voronin plays for Leverkusen's Bayer. Lately, the "pharmacists", as representatives of this team are called because the club's general sponsor is a company specializing in the production of medicines, have been performing poorly. Because of this, head coach Klaus Augenthaler was forced to resign, and his functions are now performed by a well-known former footballer, ex-coach of the Germany national team Rudi Völler. But Völler is temporarily acting as head coach, and Voronin's new mentor should be another famous former footballer - Matthias Sammer.
Bayer's first October opponent in the German championship will be Arminia, which will come to Leverkusen. Then on October 15, Bayer will visit Mainz, for which Voronin played quite successfully in his time. A week later, a Bayer - Stuttgart confrontation awaits fans, and another seven days later - a Kaiserslautern - Bayer match. As for interesting matches involving other teams, on October 1 it is worth paying attention to the matches Kaiserslautern - Hamburg and Borussia D - Stuttgart. On October 15, the central match of the round will be Schalke vs. Bayern. A week later, an interesting confrontation is expected in the match Borussia D - Hamburg, and another week later - Hamburg - Schalke and Stuttgart - Hertha.
ISRAEL
On the last day of October - the 31st - the World Team Chess Championship will begin in this Middle Eastern country. It will last until November 11.
SPAIN
A major men's tennis tournament of the Masters series will be held on October 17-23 in the capital of Spain, Madrid. The prize fund of the tournament is EUR 2,082,500.
The Spanish football championship has several super matches in October. First, in the 7th round (October 16), the Madrid derby Atlético - Real will take place, along with the match Deportivo - Barcelona. Second, a week later, all of Spain will be watching the meeting between Real and Valencia. Against this backdrop, encounters like Barcelona - Zaragoza (October 2) look rather bland.
ITALY
The World Archery Championships will gather followers of Robin Hood in Italy from September 26 to October 2.
In the Italian football championship, the attention of Ukrainian fans is naturally focused to a greater extent on Milan, which includes the captain of the Ukraine national team Andriy Shevchenko. In October, Milan is to meet Reggina (October 2), Cagliari (October 16), Palermo (October 23) and Juventus (October 30). The last match will be the central one of the entire first round, as it is no secret that Milan and Juventus are the main contenders for the country's champion title. It remains to add that only one of the four matches - against Cagliari - the Milan players will play away. The rest - at home.
Among the other matches of the October rounds of the Italian championship, the following stand out: Juventus - Inter (October 2), Udinese - Lazio (October 2), Lazio - Fiorentina (October 16), Roma - Lazio (October 23) and Udinese - Inter (October 23).
CANADA
On the last day of October - the 31st - a women's tennis tournament of the third category (prize fund - $170,000) will begin in Quebec. The tournament will end a week later.
CHINA
The final stage of the Formula 1 World Championship will take place on October 14-16 at a rather new circuit located near Shanghai. After that, the drivers, technical teams and employees of other services will go on a short vacation to soon begin work on preparing the cars for new starts.
RUSSIA
The Russian ice hockey championship in the Super League is considered by many to be the second strongest in the world after the North American NHL. In October, many matches of the first stage will take place. Game days are scheduled for October 2, 4, 7, 9, 12, 14, 17, 19, 23, 25, 28 and 30.
Tennis life in Russia in October will also be rich in events. From October 10 to 16, the very prestigious Kremlin Cup tennis tournament will be held in Moscow. The prize fund for men is $1 million, for women - $1.3 million. On October 24, another tennis tournament - men's - with a prize fund of $1 million will start in St. Petersburg. The tournament will end a week later.
USA
In Philadelphia, on October 31, a women's tennis tournament of the second category (prize fund - $585,000) will begin, which will end in a week.
THAILAND
The Thailand Open tennis tournament, held among women, is traditionally classified as a second-category tournament. The prize fund of the tournament, which will take place on October 10-16, is $200,000.
TURKEY
On October 8, a friendly match between the national football teams of Turkey and Germany will take place in Istanbul. On the same day in Riga, the Latvia team will play against the Japanese. Four days later, the Japan national team will be visiting Kyiv, and friendly matches will also take place in several other cities around the planet. In Doha, the Qatar national team will host the Iraq team, and in Hamburg, the Germany national team will meet the Chinese team. But the most serious attention, of course, will be focused on official meetings - within the qualifying tournament for the 2006 World Cup. In these days, almost all participants of the final tournament of the 2006 World Cup should be determined. Let us recall that earlier 10 national teams secured their ticket to the World Cup. These are the host of the World Cup - Germany, as well as Argentina, Brazil, Iran, Korea, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, the USA, Ukraine, and Japan. All that remains is to wait for 22 more teams.
UZBEKISTAN
The traditional women's tennis tournament 'Tashkent Open' will take place on October 3-9 in the capital of Uzbekistan. The prize fund is $140,000.
FRANCE
Three men's tennis tournaments will be held on French soil in October. On the 3rd, a tournament in Metz with a prize fund of €323,250 will begin; on the 24th, a tournament in Lyon will start (prize fund - €680,250); and on the 31st, a super tournament in Paris with a prize fund of €2,082,500. The duration of each tournament is one week.
The country's football championship in October will give fans four rounds. The first of them (and in general, the 10th in the championship) will take place on October 1. The most interesting matches can be considered 'Lille' - 'Monaco', 'Paris Saint-Germain' - 'Nantes', and 'Rennes' - 'Lyon'. The next round, taking into account the national team matches that will take place on October 8 and 12, will be held on the 15th.
The central match of the round, of course, is 'Marseille' - 'Paris Saint-Germain'. No matter where these two clubs are in the standings, matches between them are always fundamental. Marseille has long been competing with Paris for the title of the most significant city in the country. And although it loses to the capital, its desire to win someday does not disappear. The complex relationship between the cities is also transferred to the football field. This year, Parisians look quite confident, while Marseille started poorly, despite having invited a large group of new performers.
In the next round (October 22), it is worth highlighting the matches 'Lille' - 'Nantes' and 'Saint-Étienne' - 'Marseille'. And a week later, attention should be paid to the match between Marseille and Lille.
SWITZERLAND
In the small town of Nyon, which, nevertheless, is the football capital of Europe, on October 4 the draw for the group stage of the UEFA Cup will take place. In the event of a favorable conclusion to the matches involving three Ukrainian clubs - Shakhtar, Dnipro, and Donetsk Metalurh - attention to the draw ceremony will be especially close. Let us recall that the UEFA Cup group tournament differs from the similar tournament of the Champions League. In the League, four teams are placed in one group, each of which meets every other team in the group twice - at home and away.
In the UEFA Cup, five teams are placed in one group. Where each team will play its four matches is determined by the draw. Each team will play two opponents at home and two away. For example, last season Dnipro hosted Belgian Club Brugge and Austrian Austria Vienna in Dnipropetrovsk, and also traveled to Dutch Utrecht and Spanish Zaragoza.
In October, the matches of the first round of the UEFA Cup group stage will take place on the 20th. And on October 18-19, the next matches of the Champions League group stage - the third round - will be held.
In Switzerland, two representative tennis tournaments will be held in October. On the 17th, a women's tournament of the first category with a prize fund of $1,300,000 will begin in Zurich, and the day after it ends - on October 24 - a men's tennis tournament with a prize fund of €850,250 will start in Basel. The tournament will end on October 30.
SWEDEN
On October 10, a men's tennis tournament with a prize fund of €680,250 will start in Stockholm, the capital of the country. It will end seven days later.
JAPAN
In Tokyo, on October 3, a major tennis tournament will begin - the Japan Open. The prize fund for men will be $765,000, for women - $650,000. The tournament will end in a week.
At the Suzuka circuit, on October 7-9, the penultimate round of the Formula 1 World Championship will take place. Apparently, by that time, the first and last name of the world champion will be definitively known. It is unlikely that anything can prevent the young Spaniard Fernando Alonso from achieving his first major victory and joining the ranks of the legendary champions of past years - Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve, and Mika Häkkinen.