Latest news with #MarianoNavone
BBC News
01-07-2025
- Climate
- BBC News
'Grass is playing like clay' - Wimbledon's 'slow' courts
Wimbledon 2025Venue: All England Club Dates: 30 June-13 JulyCoverage: Live across BBC TV, radio and online with extensive coverage on BBC iPlayer, Red Button, Connected TVs and mobile app. Full coverage guide. Conditions have been tough for the players at Wimbledon, but for some it is not just the high temperatures making things difficult - it is also the grass they are playing of those competing at the Grand Slam this week have said the balls are bouncing differently, while one player said it is like playing on clay - traditionally a much slower has been an especially hot start to the tournament, with Monday setting a record for the warmest opening day when the temperature reached 32.3C, while the mercury rose to 33.4C on women's champion Barbora Krejcikova voiced her thoughts on the surface after battling back to win her opening match against Alexandra Eala."There's not enough water, and it gets really, really yellow, very, very fast," she said."I think with the heat, yes, the grass is more like stopping. The game is just different [to] what you are normally used to." 'This isn't grass anymore' - what have players said? Canadian Denis Shapovalov, the number 27 seed at Wimbledon, was knocked out by Argentina's Mariano Navone in the first was broken six times by his opponent as he suffered his earliest exit at the tournament since 2019."The balls are the worst, the grass tour has turned into a joke," he said after his defeat."This isn't grass anymore, the court is slower than a clay one. It's not even grass."Two-time champion Petra Kvitova said things had changed over the years."I'm not sure if it's only grass," she said after her final appearance at the All England Club ended in a defeat by 10th seed Emma Navarro. "Maybe it's the balls, as well. Overall it's getting slower."Eight top-10 seeded players have exited in the first round - the highest tally at a single Grand Slam event in the Open those to be knocked out was American third seed Jessica Pegula, who said the courts at Wimbledon "felt different" but added: "That's grass – they're all kind of different. It's a living surface, they're not going to play the same."Poland's former world number one Iga Swiatek, who beat Russian Polina Kudermetova 7-5 6-1 in her first-round match, feels the Wimbledon courts are playing slower but expects things to change in the coming days."It [Wimbledon] was slower, and kind of more slippery with the movement," she said. "But also with the heat and everything the ball bounced differently than how it will in the coming days, so I'm not really focusing on that. "With the change of the weather we will have to adjust every day to the different conditions." What is the effect of slower courts? Slower courts lead to longer rallies as players have more time on the ball. It can therefore also lead to longer matches, which can be more physically draining for doubles player Dom Inglot told BBC Sport that courts had been getting slower since 2001. Before that, you would see players hitting serve and volley predominantly rather than the long baseline rallies you more often see believes part of the change is down to Wimbledon wanting to make the courts more aesthetically appealing after years where the courts looked very worn by the second week, while also wanting to deliver a better spectacle for fans."The idea was Wimbledon had to compete with the great rallies you were seeing at the Australian Open, US Open, French Open," he said. "Serve and volley all the time was getting a bit mundane so they wanted more rallies and so there was discussion of do you change balls, do you change the court and I think they went with both."Inglot has been playing with this year's Wimbledon ball on hard courts and has found it is playing differently to last year's, and therefore expects that to be the case on also said the surfaces at different grass tournaments would play differently - including at the Wimbledon qualifying event at Roehampton and Queen's - and so doing well on those surfaces may not translate to doing well at the All England Club. A slower surface means players need to adapt their tactics. "It was ridiculous to think you could hit a kick serve that would jump off the surface like a kick works on clay or hard courts – that was not imaginable 10 years ago, now kick is working," he said."It used to be slice serves and flat serves but now you're using kick serves because you're starting to get the ball moving away from opponents." What type of grass is used at Wimbledon? Wimbledon has not commented on whether this year's courts are slower than in previous years. Since 2001 the Wimbledon grass is comprised of perennial pyegrass, which is said to have the durability and strength to withstand the wear of the modern official website says that during the tournament the height of grass is eight millimetres and is cut every day, while a "little bit of water" is put on the courts overnight.A number of factors affect the speed of a court which include the compacting of the soil over time, as well as the weather before and during the and dry days should make a ball lighter and faster, while cold and damp days would make it seem heavier and soil, it says, largely determines the bounce of ball, not the have been no changes to the specification of the ball since 1995, when there was a very minimal alteration in compression.
CBC
01-07-2025
- Sport
- CBC
Canada's Shapovalov suffers 1st-round upset at Wimbledon
Denis Shapovalov, of Richmond Hill, Ont., was upset in the first round at Wimbledon on Tuesday, falling 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-4 to Argentina's Mariano Navone. The 27th seed double-faulted 11 times and won just 53 per cent of his second-serve points. Navone, ranked No. 41 in the world, broke Shapovalov six times in the match. It's Shapovalov's earliest exit at the All England Club since 2019. Fellow Canadians Leylah Fernandez, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Gabriel Diallo remain in singles competition.
The Guardian
26-06-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
‘I know everything is possible': Teenager Joao Fonseca on Wimbledon, football and Federer
When the 18-year-old Brazilian Joao Fonseca beat the world No 9 at the time, Andrey Rublev, in this year's Australian Open first round the hype machine went into overdrive. Here was the next big thing, a man who could bridge the gap to the world's top two, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. When he went out in round two, questions were asked about the wisdom in talking up a man appearing in his first grand slam draw. One month later, Fonseca proved he has the mental strength and resolve to match his undoubted talent. Facing Argentina's Mariano Navone in the quarter-finals in Buenos Aires, in front of a hostile home crowd, he saved two match points and then went all the way to win his first ATP Tour title. He handled the occasion brilliantly, loving every minute. The hype is real. 'That was my biggest title and it was the most important of my career,' says Fonseca, breaking between practice sessions for his main draw debut at Wimbledon next week. 'I won against four Argentinians in Argentina, which is very difficult because the crowd there is loud, and I needed to reverse a lot of situations. Navone had match points against me and he served for the match. 'The week was super important for my maturity and for my experience because, at that time, people were thinking: 'OK, this guy is good, he's talented, he can hit the ball hard, but let's see if he has mentality and physicality'. I won because of these two things. It was important for myself to understand I was ready to fight until the last point.' Fonseca's easy playing style, mixed with raw power, has already drawn comparisons with Roger Federer, who happens to be his idol. A former junior world No 1, Fonseca won the Next Gen Finals last year and has climbed more than 650 places in the past 18 months to sit just outside the world's top 50. If pressure and expectations are growing week on week, he sees it as an honour and a privilege rather than a burden. 'My coach [Guilherme Teixeira] always says to me that I like playing with pressure,' he says. 'Sometimes I stay very nervous and sometimes the pressure puts my heart on alert and I play better. You just need to adapt and, when the nerves are coming, you need to find a way to win. 'I do some breathing exercises. It helped me sometimes. I think it [comes with] experience and maturity. It's going to help me to be a better player and a better person.' Fonseca was born in Rio de Janeiro and grew up with plenty of advantages. His mother, Roberta, played volleyball as a junior while his father, Christiano, co-founded IP Capital Partners, Brazil's first independent asset management firm. Together with a family friend, they still take care of his management affairs and travel with him when they can. When he said he no longer wanted to go to university – Jannik Sinner also told him he was too good not to turn pro – they backed him completely. The family are close and keep him grounded. 'Both of my parents always supported me to go outside, stay off social media or cell phones,' he says. 'We have a house in the mountains, a lot of nature, and we did a lot of cycling, soccer. I loved to go there with my brothers and friends, just to play some sports. That was really nice for my maturity, to be responsible, to not stay very much on the phone. 'I know my generation is really into the phone so it helped me. I like to stay with my phone, of course, but I'm not into social media any more. I know when I can stay with my phone and when I can't.' Like most Brazilians football is in his blood, but Fonseca is happy he chose tennis. 'I used to play a lot of soccer when I was younger. My brother plays sometimes and I just say: 'OK, I want to play, but I can't'. In an athlete's life, you need to make a deal with yourself. When I was 14, 15, I said to my coach: 'I want to play football'. He said: 'You're going to be injured, you can't'. I said: 'OK'. You need to be responsible.' His tennis is dazzling. Andre Agassi, the former world No 1 who will captain Fonseca at the Laver Cup this year, describes his 'easy power'. 'He can just generate with the same swing and inject pace into it,' he told The Tennis Channel recently. 'With Carlos Alcaraz, you can see the pace getting injected. When Fonseca does it you don't even see it coming. It's like he's throwing a jab, but it's a straight right, except it's a jab. It's pretty crazy watching him.' Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion Not surprisingly, Fonseca is a man in demand. He was an obvious fit for On, the Swiss running shoe and clothing manufacturer, joining Iga Swiatek and Ben Shelton as its first tennis signings in 2023. The lure of getting closer to Federer (an On shareholder) was too good to resist. 'I already had the shoes … and it was Roger,' he says. 'I wanted to meet Roger. I have still never met him, but I'm going to meet him, I think, I hope.' His coach loves Rafael Nadal for his work ethic and has instilled that in Fonseca, but the Federer influence is strong. 'He was just super talented,' he says. 'He could hit the ball [so] easy. He is a very simple guy. I loved watching his interviews, the way he expressed himself, and the charisma.' Not surprisingly, he idolised his fellow BrazilianGustavo Kuerten, the three-time French Open champion and former world No 1, following his example in always stopping to engage with fans. 'When I was younger, I had an occasion that I asked for a photo and the guy was not nice to me. I always try to be very nice with the kids. Three years ago, it was me asking, so I know how it is.' Winning Buenos Aires changed Fonseca's goals, with a new focus on being seeded (inside the top 32) at next year's Australian Open. Like everyone else, he watched the Roland Garros final between Sinner and Alcaraz in awe, appreciating just how much he needs to improve to get to the top. He also understands there will be ups and downs and will take grass, and Wimbledon, as it comes. 'I know there's going to be some bad weeks,' he says. 'The first weeks on clay I was not playing my best. Then in the French Open, I started playing much, much better. 'I know everything is possible. I can lose first round. I can win the tournament. I just need to focus match after match. Hopefully, I can do good things.'
CNA
30-05-2025
- General
- CNA
Changed Musetti survives tough start to reach French Open fourth round
PARIS :Now with a clear idea of what his task on court is, Italian craftsman Lorenzo Musetti overcame a sluggish start to qualify for the fourth round of the French Open with a 4-6 6-4 6-3 6-2 victory against Argentine Mariano Navone on Friday. Full of confidence after reaching at least the semi-finals in all three Masters events on clay this season, eighth seed Musetti was caught off guard by his opponent early on before finding his groove on a sunkissed Court Suzanne Lenglen. Musetti will next face either France's Quentin Halys or Dane Holger Rune. "Today it felt completely different in terms of conditions from the last two matches, the ball was bouncing not that high (before) and today at the beginning I was a bit surprised," said Musetti. "Then I started feeling better on court and improved my game." Musetti has broken into the top 10, a feat he attributes to a change in his attitude. "I put some order in my tennis chaos. My game is varied, so it's not easy for me to make a decision. The click is now I know what to do on court. I grew up in the attitude and the mental side. A match like this a few years ago I don't know if I would have come back," he said. Musetti is part of Italy's golden generation that also features world number one Jannik Sinner and last year's French Open runner-up Jasmine Paolini. "It has to be pasta or pizza... Jokes aside, we have a bit of luck because we live the best years of our tennis, men and women, being part of this group last year was amazing; we won the Billie Jean King Cup and the Davis Cup. This emotion will live forever in our hearts," he said. Navone's powerful baseline play put the Italian on the back foot in the opening set and the Argentinian broke in the first game. Musetti broke back for 3-3, only to drop serve in the next game as his usually brilliant forehand let him down. But Navone gradually ran out of gas, allowing his opponent to step into the court more easily and Musetti did not need much more to turn things around and race to victory.
Reuters
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Reuters
Changed Musetti survives tough start to reach French Open fourth round
PARIS, May 30 (Reuters) - Now with a clear idea of what his task on court is, Italian craftsman Lorenzo Musetti overcame a sluggish start to qualify for the fourth round of the French Open with a 4-6 6-4 6-3 6-2 victory against Argentine Mariano Navone on Friday. Full of confidence after reaching at least the semi-finals in all three Masters events on clay this season, eighth seed Musetti was caught off guard by his opponent early on before finding his groove on a sunkissed Court Suzanne Lenglen. Musetti will next face either France's Quentin Halys or Dane Holger Rune. "Today it felt completely different in terms of conditions from the last two matches, the ball was bouncing not that high (before) and today at the beginning I was a bit surprised," said Musetti. "Then I started feeling better on court and improved my game." Musetti has broken into the top 10, a feat he attributes to a change in his attitude. "I put some order in my tennis chaos. My game is varied, so it's not easy for me to make a decision. The click is now I know what to do on court. I grew up in the attitude and the mental side. A match like this a few years ago I don't know if I would have come back," he said. Musetti is part of Italy's golden generation that also features world number one Jannik Sinner and last year's French Open runner-up Jasmine Paolini. "It has to be pasta or pizza... Jokes aside, we have a bit of luck because we live the best years of our tennis, men and women, being part of this group last year was amazing; we won the Billie Jean King Cup and the Davis Cup. This emotion will live forever in our hearts," he said. Navone's powerful baseline play put the Italian on the back foot in the opening set and the Argentinian broke in the first game. Musetti broke back for 3-3, only to drop serve in the next game as his usually brilliant forehand let him down. But Navone gradually ran out of gas, allowing his opponent to step into the court more easily and Musetti did not need much more to turn things around and race to victory.
