Croatian MMA fighter Stipe Miočić will thus defend his title for the second time a year after he clinched it in Brazil against Fabricio Werdum

Franko Škugor missed out on bringing Croatia to a sensational victory over Spain and making it into the Davis Cup quarterfinals, but what he demonstrated this past weekend against Pablo Carrena Busta and in the narrow defeat by Roberto Bautista Agut, the 29-year-old Šibenik native rightfully hopes he will play more of such matches in the future and make it to the best one hundred players of the world

Croatia was considered the underdog in this duel

A heavy loss for Slaven Bilić at home on Wednesday at the feet of Manchester City, 0:4. This is the second time West Ham has crumbled against the same team, with coach Bilić offering no excuses after the defeat

Alongside Lučić-Baroni there are two more Croatian tennis players among the best 100

American Abigail Spears and Columbian Juan Sebastian Cabal became on Sunday the winners of the mixed doubles event at the Australian Open after defeating in the finals the Indian-Croatian pair Sania Mirza-Ivan Dodig 6-2, 6-3 in 63 minutes

For Dodig and Mirza this will be their second final at a Grand Slam tournament, having played in the final of Roland Garros last year, when they lost to Swiss Martina Hingis and Indian Leander Paes.

Lučić-Baroni beat Pliskova 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open

After she secured a quarter finals position in women’s singles on Sunday, Croatian tennis player Mirjana Lučić-Baroni repeated the same success on Monday in singles, winning 6-4, 6-2 against 21-year-old American Jennifer Brady

Captain of the Croatian football team Luka Modrić (31) may be out between three and four weeks due to an injury of the inner thigh muscle of the right leg which he sustained at the Real Madrid game versus Malaga, the Spanish media estimated on Sunday, a day before the Croatian footballer will undergo medical tests in Madrid