logo
Tennis-Defending champion Krejcikova edges Dolehide at Wimbledon

Tennis-Defending champion Krejcikova edges Dolehide at Wimbledon

The Stara day ago
Tennis - Wimbledon - All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain - July 3, 2025 Czech Republic's Barbora Krejcikova in action during her second round match against Caroline Dolehide of the U.S. REUTERS/Toby Melville
LONDON (Reuters) -It was far from convincing, but Barbora Krejcikova kept her Wimbledon defence on track on Thursday - just - with a laboured 6-4 3-6 6-2 second round win over American Caroline Dolehide.
The Czech creaked rather than cruised into the third round, movingpast the American in a match as scrappy as a Henman Hill picnic after a seagull attack.
Court Two spectators, many blissfully unaware they were watching the reigning champion, might be forgiven — Krejcikova herself barely looked the part.
A season dogged by back and thigh niggles has left her short of sharpness, and her patchy 4-3 record for the season coming in was on full display in a match strewn with errors.
Still, the 17th seed did just enough to scrape through to gentle applause and a sterner test ahead: 10th seed Emma Navarro, who won't be quite so generous.
(Editing by Christian Radnedge)
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Baller League CEO sees his format as return to 'old football'
Baller League CEO sees his format as return to 'old football'

The Star

time38 minutes ago

  • The Star

Baller League CEO sees his format as return to 'old football'

LONDON (Reuters) -The CEO of the fast-growing Baller League says its style of fast-paced, small-sided, digital-oriented football is a return to the sport's grassroots not a betrayal of them. "We are the old era of football," Baller League boss Felix Starck told Reuters, saying his organisation's format harks back to the exuberance of kids playing with cones on streets. Critics say the Baller League, along with the similar Kings League, are a gimmicky distortion of the traditional 90-minute game, adding new rules and mixing online personalities with ex-professional players in teams. But Starck, in an interview with Reuters this week, said that football had been transformed into a 'product' and was therefore in need of a return to the "most-played sport in the world, which is small-sided football". The entrepreneur, whose Baller League began in Germany in 2024, hopes a new governing body will emerge for the format to ensure quality as well as entertainment. The Baller League expanded to the UK this year and wrapped up its first season last month, with online influencer Sharky coaching his SDC team to victory in a competition streamed by more than 1 million viewers on YouTube. The Baller League will also set up goalposts in the U.S. this year where, Starck said, "Football never kicked off' compared to traditional American sports. Starck said Spain was another logical future market, even though it is also the home of the Kings League, founded by Spanish international Gerard Pique. 'NOT AN EXPANSION RACE' But, the Baller League boss cautioned, 'This is not an expansion race ... We go to a country if we think it's going to be profitable and not just to go for expanding reasons. "Hype is the easiest thing to create but you have no sustainability ... longevity." Starck said the Baller League was more authentically sport-focused whereas other formats had "goofy Mario Kart rules". Though the Baller League has marketed itself as a "new era of football", the CEO said actually it also embodied the "old era". "We're trying to build a governing body around the most played sport in the world and give it some respect that it deserves and not have a president that never kicked the ball in his life take a penalty for no reason," he said, referring to a Kings League rule that allows club presidents to take penalties. "I don't believe we're building the same thing ... We should entertain on the pitch with the sport. And respect where the sport came from and how it evolved." (Reporting by Streisand Neto; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

Athletics-Yego battles to keep javelin's future alive in Kenya
Athletics-Yego battles to keep javelin's future alive in Kenya

The Star

time39 minutes ago

  • The Star

Athletics-Yego battles to keep javelin's future alive in Kenya

FILE PHOTO: Paris 2024 Olympics - Athletics - Men's Javelin Throw Final - Stade de France, Saint-Denis, France - August 08, 2024. Julius Yego of Kenya in action REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo (Reuters) -Julius Yego, the former world champion famously known as "Mr. YouTube", faces a lonely battle to preserve javelin's future in Kenya as he prepares for Saturday's Neeraj Chopra Classic with the weight of an entire sport on his shoulders. The 2016 Rio Olympics silver medallist stands as Kenya's sole representative in javelin at World Athletics Championships, a contrast to his country's dominance in distance running that has produced athletes like Eliud Kipchoge and Faith Kipyegon. "India, of course, being a very big economy, has really been able to help Chopra. I would say maybe the Kenyan story is a little bit different because there isn't much support in the sport as such," Yego told Reuters. "You can see it's only me who is still there. I'm in the last stages of my career and then we haven't got big support as I would want it to happen, but hopefully it will continue. "I can't even push when I'm not there (retired). So I can't even be part of the people who really want to make the change when I'm not active," added 36-year-old Yego, who won the world title in 2015. Coming from countries with less exposure in athletics, Yego finds kinship with Chopra in their shared mission to expand javelin globally. "We want to make the sport grow even bigger because it is a footprint that matters a lot. What we have done so far and what will happen after us, we want the sport to continue even when we are no longer there," the 36-year-old said. With the worlds looming in Tokyo in September, Yego said he was operating at "90% fitness" due to injury concerns and with a couple of months to go before the competition starts, he does not want to rush into anything. The Kenyan also reflected on his country's depth of talent in athletics, praising triple world and Olympic 1,500 metres champion Kipyegon's recent achievements. Kipyegon last month fell short in her attempt to become the first woman to run a mile in under four minutes when she clocked 4:06.42 in a Nike "Breaking4" project that, though faster than her own world record, will not be ratified. "Kenya has big talent, especially in track. Faith's done so well. She's done great in her push to break the four-minute barrier," he said. However, he expressed a particular interest in nurturing "the next generation of javelin throwers." Apart from Yego, Irene Jepkemboi can be his country's next hope in the sport after she became the first Kenyan female athlete to surpass the 60-metre mark in the javelin last month. (Reporting by Suramya Kaushik in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken Ferris)

Tennis-Fritz fireworks end Davidovich Fokina fightback and seal last-16 spot
Tennis-Fritz fireworks end Davidovich Fokina fightback and seal last-16 spot

The Star

timean hour ago

  • The Star

Tennis-Fritz fireworks end Davidovich Fokina fightback and seal last-16 spot

Tennis - Wimbledon - All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain - July 4, 2025 Taylor Fritz of the U.S. celebrates winning his third round match against Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq LONDON (Reuters) -For a brief moment it looked like Taylor Fritz's Independence Day celebrations could be ruined but some final-set fireworks propelled the American into the last 16 at Wimbledon with a 6-4 6-3 6-7(5) 6-1 win over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina on Friday. It had all looked to be going so well for the world number five, who had been taken to five sets in his last two encounters but raced into a two-set lead against Spain's Davidovich Fokina on a sunny Centre Court. He was a break up in the third and serving for the match when his normally reliable delivery spluttered as the 27th-ranked Spaniard finally converted a break point and then forced a tiebreak which he won in a tense tussle. With his tail up, it felt like momentum had switched, but Fritz, whose languid manner never gives up a hint of frustration, swiftly rediscovered his form and turned the tide, breaking three times in the final set to wrap up victory. Bidding to become the first American men's Grand Slam winner since Andy Roddick in 2003, Fritz has shown that if stamina alone determined the Wimbledon champion, he would be hard to beat. His Wimbledon campaign began on the back of winning his fourth Eastbourne title on Saturday. Then his first match at the All England Club on Monday was carried over into Tuesday, and his second-round tie on Wednesday was heading the same way before he finished off Gabriel Diallo to earn a well-deserved rest day. While there was almost certainly a part of him that was grateful for not being dragged the distance for a third match in a row, the 27-year-old American said he was feeling great ahead of a fourth-round meeting with Australia's Jordan Thompson. "This is going to sound crazy but my body is actually feeling better after each match," he said. "I feel like somehow it felt the worst after my first round but now it's getting better." The first three games on Friday were gritty and attritional and lasted 17 minutes, suggesting Fritz was already digging trenches for another lengthy battle. But then the whole feel of the match changed as Davidovich Fokina struggled to create any sort of pressure on Fritz's serve and the American rode an early break to take the first set and immediately got his nose in front in the second. After two marathon encounters it looked like Fritz was going to sprint to the finish line, but out of nowhere the 26-year-old Spaniard finally found a way to upset the American's serve. Trailing 5-4, he conjured two break points and while the first got away - the seventh he had spurned in the match - Davidovich Fokina pressured Fritz into dumping a backhand into the net to hand the 26th seed a lifeline. He took the tiebreak when Fritz netted another backhand under pressure, roaring and fist-pumping to polite applause from a crowd who were perhaps inclined to see this match wrapped up quickly with Carlos Alcaraz and home favourite Emma Raducanu still to come on the Centre Court schedule. If that was their wish it was granted as the comeback that had flickered into life was snuffed out almost immediately with Fritz racing through the fourth set and finishing it off when the Spaniard whipped a forehand long. (Reporting by Toby Davis; Editing by Ken Ferris)

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store