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JEDDAH: Jeddah turned into a sea of yellow and black on Monday night as thousands of Al-Ittihad fans poured onto the streets to celebrate their team’s triumphant capture of the 2024–2025 Saudi Pro League title.

The win was the club’s 15th top-flight crown.

The celebrations erupted following a 1-0 victory over Damac in the final round at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium, where 60,000 passionate fans created an electric atmosphere with four enormous tifos unfurled across the stands to salute the champions.

The jubilant scenes stretched across the city, with supporters waving flags, chanting, setting off fireworks and honking car horns along the Jeddah Corniche.

Many gathered at the Al-Ittihad Club premises and celebrated long into the night.

The title marks a significant milestone for the historic club, whose fans have remained fiercely loyal throughout the season. To show their appreciation for the support, the club invited a number of dedicated supporters to take photos with the league trophy at the team’s training ground.

While fans had hoped to celebrate the achievement with players in an open-top bus parade, Al-Ittihad management announced the festivities would be postponed until after Friday night’s King’s Cup final against Al-Qadsiah, also set to take place in Jeddah.

Club President Loay Mashabi, who oversaw Al-Ittihad’s title victory in his first year in charge, expressed his emotions after the final whistle, saying: “I don’t know if I will ever experience a joy greater than this; making millions of fans happy is a responsibility I carry with pride.”

PARIS: Rising Russian teen star Mirra Andreeva booked her ticket to the second round of the French Open on Tuesday, recovering from an early double break before reeling off a straight sets win over Spain’s Cristina Bucsa.

Sixth seed Andreeva, who had an impressive run to the semifinals at Roland Garros last year, advanced 6-4, 6-3 past her 98th-ranked opponent with two aces and four breaks of serve.

“I just tried not to think about last year’s results,” said the 18-year-old.

“It’s always tough to start a tournament. I felt like she was playing good today. My goal was just to keep fighting, playing, and showing everything I can, trying to put a lot of balls in the court. Then in the end, point by point, I managed to find my rhythm.”

Playing her first Grand Slam match as a top-10 seed, the player from Siberia needed to come back from 3-0 down in the first set in damp and chilly conditions in Paris.

“If it’s cold I suffer a bit in (the) warm-up,” said Andreeva. “But to be honest I don’t feel the difference when either it’s hot or cold.”

Andreeva pulled out a winner down the line to revive her game when Bucsa was serving at 3-0, 30-0.

She won 10 of the next 12 games to take a 4-1 second-set lead and needed just one break of serve in the second, sealing victory with 25 winners to Bucsa’s 16.

She next plays either American Ashlyn Krueger or Suzan Lamens of the Netherlands for a place in the third round.

The Russian reached the quarter-finals on clay in both Madrid and Rome, losing both times to American Coco Gauff.

“It’s not what I would wish for. But I can say that overall these two tournaments on clay that I played, they were not that bad,” she said.

“There are a lot of positives that I can take and a lot of experience that I also can take with me. Now I’m going to try to do everything I can the best way I can while I’m playing here.”