Joey Dunlop remembered on 25th anniversary of his death
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The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Emma Raducanu tipped for a top-10 return after running Aryna Sabalenka close
Emma Raducanu came up just short on an electrifying night on Centre Court before being tipped to return to the top 10 by opponent Aryna Sabalenka. Raducanu reminded the tennis world what a special talent she is to push the top seed in a 7-6 (6) 6-4 defeat under the roof in a raucous atmosphere. The first set alone took 74 minutes, with Raducanu saving seven set points and creating one of her own, while she led 4-1 in the second before Sabalenka recovered to set up a fourth-round clash with Elise Mertens. Raducanu will now drop to British number three behind Katie Boulter and Sonay Kartal, who is the last home woman left in singles, but that will not be the case for long if she can maintain this level. The former US Open champion has made it her goal to close the gap to the world's best and, having lost twice heavily to Iga Swiatek in the other two grand slams this year, she can feel very differently after her performance here. 'She played such incredible tennis and she pushed me really hard to get this win,' said Sabalenka. 'I fight for every point like crazy. 'I'm super happy to see her healthy and back on track. I'm pretty sure that she will be back in the top 10 soon.' For the second time in just over 24 hours, a leading British hope came into the press room with eyes red from tears, but, unlike Jack Draper, Raducanu will leave Wimbledon feeling she is closer to the very top rather than further away. 'It's hard to take a loss like that,' said Raducanu, who revealed she had sought solace in a locker room KitKat. 'At the same time, I'm playing Aryna, who is number one in the world, a great champion. I have to be proud of my effort today. 'It's nice of her to say that, but I think it was pretty clear the difference. In the big moments, she was able to convert, she was able to hit some incredible shots. I just need to keep working and get back to the drawing board and improve a lot more. 'It does give me confidence because I think the problem before was that I felt like I was gulfs away from the very top. Having a match like that where I had chances in both sets, it does give me confidence.' Unlike Draper, Raducanu is naturally at home on grass, with her exceptional ability to take the ball early, particularly on return, mitigating her lack of pure power. She gave Sabalenka a decent run for her money in their only previous meeting, in Indian Wells last spring, and a clean return winner off a second serve in the opening game showed the Belarusian that she very much meant business. Raducanu broke to lead 4-2 before ceding her advantage in a rush of errors – something she later blamed on problems with string tension in the indoor conditions. A remarkable 10th game saw Sabalenka fail to take seven set points, six of them through backhand errors, and the home crowd were on their feet when Raducanu broke to lead 6-5. But Sabalenka is a much stronger mental competitor these days and she played a classy game to break back before saving a set point in the tie-break with the coolest of drop shots. Raducanu dealt with the disappointment of losing the set extremely well and hit a purple patch to move into a 4-1 lead. She played her best tennis of the match to create a chance for the double break but just missed a forehand long, giving Sabalenka the chink of light she needed to power through to the next round. 'I don't think I could have made different choices, I think I should have just executed better,' added Raducanu, who will now turn her attention to the North American hard court swing. 'I'll probably find it tough to sleep tonight, or I'll be so exhausted and crash, I don't know. It's going to take me a few days to process that. But at the same time it really motivates me.'
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Gwinn injury throws shadow over Germany's win at Women's Euros
July 4 (Reuters) - Germany overcame a sloppy start to cruise to a 2-0 win over Poland at the Women's Euros on Friday but the victory was overshadowed by what looked to be another serious knee injury for team captain Giulia Gwinn, who was helped off the field in tears just before the break. Gwinn, who has twice suffered anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries, was distraught after twisting her leg while preventing what looked to be a certain Polish goal and had to be replaced in the 40th minute by Carlotta Wamser, who came off the bench cold for her Euros debut in defence. "The worst we can do is to speculate," Germany coach Christian Wueck told reporters. "Tomorrow at 0900 or 1000 is the MRI and the doctors can tell us more. I didn't see the incident, I just know it prevented an almost certain goal." Many of Gwinn's teammates looked shocked as they went to comfort her before she was assisted from the field five minutes before the break, but Wueck said they were quick to focus again. "I think that the injury was not really a topic (at the break) and we discussed the game. We talked about how we wanted to score against the Poles and what we wanted to do better," he explained. "We have 23 players and we are convinced that every single one of them can be a replacement for someone else, and Carlotta showed that." Germany were much more effective in the second half and wrapped up the three points thanks to a goal and an assist from Jule Brand, and at the end of the game they huddled briefly before running down the tunnel. "We went to Giulia, I said 'we're going straight to her, to take her in our arms and talk to her', and afterwards we could go back out to the fans," Wueck said.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Here's why the seeded stars are dropping like flies at Wimbledon - and it's NOT because of the surface
As Jack Draper 's cross-court forehand dropped beyond the chalked line on Thursday evening not only did another British hopeful's Wimbledon dreams fade away but his defeat cemented a curious piece of history that's left everyone searching for answers. Draper, the No4 seed, became the 36th seeded singles player across the men's and women's draws to be eliminated before the third round, the most in Grand Slam history, surpassing the previous record of 35 at the 2020 French Open. It's been the story of the Championships. Twenty-three seeds went out in round one alone, including eight top 10 seeds, including Alexander Zverev and French Open champion Coco Gauff, the most in any Slam since the start of the Open in 1968. Only one of the top five women's seeds began the fifth day still in the tournament, Aryna Sabalenka, who went on to beat Emma Raducanu 8-6, 6-4, and soon No6 seed Madison Keys lost in straight sets to the oldest woman left in the draw, the 37-year-old Laura Siegemund. The talk over the first few days was that the Wimbledon courts were to blame. They were too slow. 'This isn't grass anymore, raged Denis Shapovalov, the Canadian 27th seed who was knocked out in the first round, 'the court is slower than a clay one.' American third seed Jessica Pegula, who lost in less than an hour in the first round, said the courts 'felt different'. Iga Swiatek thought the ball 'bounced differently'. That was to be expected. Wimbledon began in the midst of a heatwave with temperatures north of 32 degrees on the opening day making it the hottest in history. Head groundsman Neil Stubley said the heat would make it play slower as the dry grass grips the ball harder. He revealed his team put stuff in the soil that makes water 'wetter' so it can soak up more moisture from it when the mercury starts to rise. It all felt a bit too much like players looking for excuses. Wimbledon's grass is cut to the same 8mm length every morning. 'I think it's the same as previous years,' said No11 seed Alex de Minaur, fiance of Britain's Katie Boulter. 'It is on the slower side but that's something we all know and are used to. It's about finding ways to use it to your advantage.' 'I can assure you Novak's shots did not feel slow,' added Dan Evans after his second-round defeat to Djokovic. What's more likely a cause of so many upsets is the quick turnaround from the clay court season to the grass with just three weeks between the end of the French Open and the start of Wimbledon. Two completely different surfaces, with different skillsets required as clay plays a lot slower, with higher bounces and more spin to the slicker, lower skid of the grass. It's why only six men in history, with Carlos Alcaraz the most recent, have won the 'Channel Slam' – the French Open and Wimbledon back-to-back – and why no woman single's player has completed it since Serena Williams ten years ago. 'This slam out of all of them is the most prone to have upsets because of how quick the turnaround is from clay,' said Gauff, who triumphed at Roland Garros but only played one match on grass before her first-round exit here. It wasn't much better in Paris where 33 – including 20 in the women's draw – were knocked out before round three. 'I feel a little bit of pressure because obviously you feel like the opportunity [of an upset] is there,' admitted 13th seed Amanda Anisimova. The real reason, perhaps, is a simple one. The standard of tennis is just improving. There's less of a gap between the good players and the decent ones. 'The level of tennis increased a lot,' said 14th seed Andrey Rublev, who reached the fourth round on Friday. 'The players even 80 or 90 in the world all know how to play tennis. 'When I started, you could see the difference between top 10 and then the rest. Now you see the difference between Alcaraz and Sinner but from number 3 or 4 in the world, it's more or less the level is there.' It was left to former world No1 and Australian Open and US Open champion Naomi Osaka, now unseeded, to sum it up best: 'I think everyone's really good. That's kind of the issue.'
