
Chelsea agree deal to sign English winger Gittens from Dortmund
The clubs are currently in the United States for the Club World Cup, where they have both reached the quarter-final stage, and the agreement was made at Fort Lauderdale, with contractual details still to be settled.
Gittens joined Dortmund as a youth player in 2020 from Manchester City, making his senior debut in 2022, and has made 107 appearances for the German side in all competitions, scoring 17 goals.
"Jamie Gittens's career is an example of the development of top talents at Borussia," Dortmund managing director Lars Ricken said in a club statement.
"We discovered Jamie very early, practically signed him for free, continuously developed him in our youth performance centre, and also offered him playing time at the very highest level with the first team.
"Jamie has repaid the trust placed in him with commitment, performance, and goals."
Chelsea are looking to strengthen their left wing after they opted not to make Jadon Sancho's loan deal from Manchester United permanent.
($1 = 0.7331 pounds)
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Daily Mail
43 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Super Sonay! Emma Raducanu's great childhood rival - and daughter of kebab shop owner - steps out of her shadow with a big win
They grew up as tennis rivals, fiercely playing against each other at the National Tennis Centre in 2011 as nine-year-olds. But breakout star Sonay Kartal looks to be finally stepping out from under the shadow of her famous friend Emma Raducanu as she soared into the last 16 at SW19 for the first time yesterday. The 23-year-old wildcard eased past French qualifier Diane Parry with a flawless straight set 6-4, 6-2 victory. Meanwhile British No 1 Ms Raducanu was in action against number one seed Aryna Sabalenka on Centre Court last night. She was again cheered on by former tennis prodigy Benjamin Heynold, 24, with rumours of a possible romance between the pair continuing to spread. Ms Kartal said it was an 'honour' to be one of three Britons still standing at Wimbledon – despite a record start at SW19 for the nation with 23 home players – after Cameron Norrie also booked his place in the fourth round by defeating Mattia Bellucci in straight sets. Coming from humble beginnings in Brighton where her parents ran a kebab shop, rising star Ms Kartal is now on the brink of becoming a millionaire. If she makes the quarter finals she will have clocked up £400,000 in prize money – she has already pocketed £240,000 by making the fourth round, bringing her total career earnings to £972,000. Ms Kartal, who is 5ft 4in tall, vowed to come out swinging in her next match against the World No 50, Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, tomorrow. Talking about how she would handle the pressure, Ms Kartal said: 'I enjoy it. I think it's an honour. Obviously, you've got a lot of attention on you, it means you're doing good things. 'I feel like I'm going to go out on the court in the next round kind of with nothing to lose at the minute. 'I'm going to go swinging. I think the pressure that I'll feel is the pressure I will be putting on myself just wanting to perform as best as I can.' Ms Kartal said her 'closest family' was in her box on Court One cheering her on while her 'club members that I've known since I was six' were in the stands. 'That was super special,' she said. 'I couldn't necessarily see them, but I could hear a lot of familiar voices in the crowd, which was definitely nice.' Born in Sidcup, Kent, to Clare and Muharrem Kartal, she had a modest upbringing in Brighton where her father owned two Turkish restaurants. She started playing when she was six by following her brother to a training session after an invitation from a coach who ate in their father's restaurant. Earlier this week the player spoke out about how her family could not afford a full-time coach and that she was forced to go to some of the tournaments herself while her coaches undercharged her to help out. The British No 3 said: 'Obviously tennis is super expensive. When I was growing up, I kind of did quite a lot of tournaments on my own because I couldn't afford to pay a coach week in, week out. 'My coaches back in the day, they would charge me I guess the lowest fee and would try to help me out as much as possible.' While Ms Raducanu was riding high after her US Open win, Ms Kartal had little support until she received LTA backing aged 19 which meant she received Pro Scholarship Programme funding. Ms Kartal has previously said that she sees her former rival as an inspiration. 'I grew up playing Emma, so it proves to me that the dream of making it in tennis is not too far away,' she said. The British hopeful also saw her career blighted by injuries in her teenage years – a wrist problem from the ages of 14 to 17 left her struggling to pick up a racket, which was followed by two abdominal tears. Speaking about the difficulties of those years, Ms Kartal said last night: 'It was a bit hit or miss. I was injured for a few years on and off. I kind of never really got consistent. 'I was still playing at the club I'm at today down in Brighton. I was playing national events, the LTA events, doing the nationals for each age group. 'Then I would just go missing a little bit because I'd have an injury or something like that. So it was never consistent.' Ms Kartal's success this week has seen her rankings soar – this time last year she was just inside the top 300 in the world but now she sits in 51st place, and is likely to rise further. As well as being applauded for her impressive run at SW19, Ms Kartal, who has 14 tattoos, is also being hailed as a trendsetter with her throwback 70s baggy Adidas kit. After her win yesterday, she invited fans to make suggestions for designs her 15th tattoo to mark her impressive run. 'If people want to send me their ideas, I will most likely pick one of them and will probably chuck it on somewhere,' she said.


Daily Mail
43 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Emma Raducanu shows that she CAN scale tennis' giddy heights once again... for the first time since her US Open triumph, she looked the player we all thought she could be, writes OLIVER HOLT
The strange and magical alchemy that transformed an 18-year-old qualifier into a US Open champion four years ago, and then was lost, danced and flickered again on the hallowed lawn of Centre Court on Friday night. For two hours dead of a captivating, intoxicating, magnificently enthralling game of tennis against world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka, Emma Raducanu was everything we once thought she might be when she won at Flushing Meadows in 2021 without dropping a single set. More importantly, perhaps, Raducanu, the world No 40, played a quality of tennis against the dominant player in the women's game that hinted, for the first time since those surreal three weeks in New York City, at everything she might yet be again. Over two fantastic, roller-coaster, nail-biting sets of the most dramatic and highly-charged match this tournament has seen so far, Raducanu pushed Sabalenka to the limits of her formidable ability in a 7-6, 6-4 defeat. The first set, a 74-minute epic, was one of the best passages of sport anyone will see all year. At its heart was a remarkable game, with Raducanu 5-4 down in the first set, where she saved seven set points and then won the game. In those moments, it felt as if she was reaching down and picking up all the broken dreams that have littered her path since that triumph in New York and casting them away at last. 'I had to fight for every point like crazy,' Sabalenka said after the match. 'I am happy to see her healthy. I'm pretty sure she can reach the top 10 again. My ears are still hurting.' Sabalenka, a three-time Grand Slam winner, had come into the match as an overwhelming favourite after reaching the finals of both the Australian Open and the French Open and cementing her status as the dominant player in the women's game. Most expected that she would overwhelm Raducanu with the sheer power of her hitting, which has helped to establish her ahead of Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek as the woman best placed to be the heir to her heroine, Serena Williams. Any optimism about Raducanu's prospects was tempered by the fact that she has failed to win a set in eight matches against Sabalenka, Gauff and Swiatek, although, if there was a straw to clutch, it was that none of those matches were played on grass. Twilight had fallen when the players walked on to the court just before 8pm and the Centre Court roof had been closed. There was a trill of excitement when the floodlights were switched on and another exaggerated murmur when Raducanu won the first point. There was more encouragement for the crowd when Raducanu pounced on a Sabalenka second serve in that opening game and crunched a forehand winner down the line to earn break point. Sabalenka saved it but it felt like a dent in her aura of invincibility. Raducanu had started well. She served a double fault in her opening service game but she served an ace, too, slicing the serve out wide and leaving the Belarusian flat-footed. She held serve comfortably enough. At 2-2, Raducanu put Sabalenka's serve under pressure again. Another superb forehand winner down the line gave her a second break point. Sabalenka saved it with an ace. An unforced error from the No 1 seed gave Raducanu another break point. Sabalenka saved that, too. Sabalenka showed the first signs of becoming irritated by the crowd's partisan support for her opponent and she gifted Raducanu a third break point. When she hit a shot into the net, the roar from Centre Court was so loud it almost lifted the roof off. Raducanu was alive with confidence. The crowd willed her on. A Sabalenka return landed just out and when the big screen showed its trajectory, there was a huge collective yell of triumph and relief. 'Let's go Emma,' they sang, 'let's go.' Raducanu had a 4-2 lead. Sabalenka's body language was fretful and exasperated. She seemed surprised by the level of Raducanu's resistance. Actually, she seemed more than surprised. She looked bewildered. As if she did not know where this performance had come from. But then the spell wore off. Raducanu seemed irritated by a line call and let her irritation linger. She served and Sabalenka slammed a backhand winner down the line, Raducanu floated a weak backhand long and then hit a forehand wildly long. Her metronomic, nerveless hitting deserted her. Sabalenka broke her serve to love. In the blink of an eye, Raducanu was 5-4 down. Her ground strokes became erratic. One in a series of unforced errors gave Sabalenka set point. Raducanu saved it with an ace. She saved a second set point, too. And a third. And a fourth. And a fifth. And a sixth. And a seventh. And then she held for 5-5. And when Sabalenka's backhand hurtled long, another roar to rent the roof in two rang around the famous old arena. It was compelling theatre. Raducanu started the next game with two brilliant backhand winners down the line. Then, more drama. Chasing a drop shot from Sabalenka, Raducanu fell heavily. She has such a wretched injury history, it was impossible not to worry. But she got up. And then she broke Sabalenka's serve. Raducanu saved a number of set points in the first set before succumbing in a tie break Raducanu served for the set but Sabalenka played a stunning game of crushing winners and top-spin lobs and broke back to force the set into a tie-break. For the first time, it felt as if Raducanu was wilting a little in the face of her opponent's power. The tie-break was a nail-biter. Sabalenka thought she had gone to set-point with a drive-volley winner. She clenched her fist. The replay showed it was out. Raducanu moved to set-point instead. Sabalenka saved it with a beautifully, nervelessly executed drop-shot. Soon, Sabalenka had an eighth set point. And this time, finally, Raducanu's resistance was broken. The first set had lasted 74 minutes. The drama abated for a while but then Sabalenka made a string of unforced errors and handed Raducanu a break and a 3-1 lead in the second set. Raducanu found inspiration again now. She had points for 5-1 and 5-2 but could take neither and Sabalenka cut her lead to 4-3. Sabalenka sensed Raducanu was tiring now and moved up a gear. Raducanu sensed it, too. Sabalenka rattled off five games in a row to seal the match but it did not feel as if Raducanu had lost. She had got up off the floor. She looks as if she is a player reborn. She looks, at last, as if that world of possibility that stretched out before her four years ago may one day be hers to conquer again.


Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Twins' rally against Rays capped by Harrison Bader walk-off solo homer
July 4 - Harrison Bader hit two home runs, including a walk-off blast to lead off the bottom of the ninth, to lift the Minnesota Twins to a 4-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday afternoon in Minneapolis. Bader belted the first pitch he saw in the ninth to clinch the win for the Twins, who scored the final three runs of the game. Byron Buxton doubled and drove in a run for Minnesota. Josh Lowe and Junior Caminero each went 2-for-4 with an RBI for Tampa Bay. Yandy Diaz doubled and drove in a run. Twins right-hander Louis Varland (3-3) earned the victory with two scoreless innings of relief. He was one of four pitchers to follow starter Chris Paddack, who allowed two runs on five hits in five innings. Rays right-hander Kevin Kelly (0-1) gave up one run on one hit in two-thirds of an inning. Bader broke a scoreless tie with a solo home run in the bottom of the fifth. He hammered a sinker for a 412-foot shot into the second deck of the bleachers in left field. The blast marked Bader's first homer since June 17. The Rays rallied with a pair of runs in the sixth to grab a 2-1 lead. Lowe led off the inning with a single and scored moments later on Diaz's double to center. Two batters later, Caminero singled to center to drive in Diaz for the go-ahead run. Tampa Bay increased its lead to 3-1 in the seventh. Lowe poked a single into right field past diving Twins second baseman Willi Castro to drive in Chandler Simpson. The Twins scored twice in the bottom of the seventh to tie the score at 3-all. Buxton started the rally with a run-scoring double to left. The Rays brought in left-handed reliever Garrett Cleavinger with runners in scoring position and two outs, but he inadvertently plunked Castro to load the bases then hit Brooks Lee with a pitch to bring home the tying run from third base. --Field Level Media