Category: 6. Sports

When Leslie Allen was a student at Cleveland’s Glenville High School in the 1970s, her only option was to play tennis on the boys’ team. Girls weren’t provided for in this great sport or, indeed, any other.

It was a workable — but far from ideal — solution until she was blocked from competing in the state championships. A lawsuit against the Ohio State Athletic Association ensued and Allen’s career as a trailblazer, collegiate champion and Top 20 star was underway.

This week, Allen was back in her hometown for a series of engagements at Tennis in the Land powered by Rocket, a WTA 250 event celebrating its fifth staging.

While the focus of her visit was a panel at the tournament’s fourth annual Women in Business Forum, she also held mentoring sessions with young players Anna Bennett and Carmen and Ivana Corley, under the auspices of her foundation’s Win 4 Life motivational program. Another highlight was a meeting with girls from Glenville’s current tennis team, before they sat down to enjoy the matches.

Allen even paid her first ever visit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, accompanied by Romania’s Sorana Cirstea.

“It is absolutely incredible,” Allen told local NBC affiliate WKYC in a breakfast interview to promote the tournament. “I never really imagined that there would be professional tennis here in Cleveland. This venue is amazing, and it’s so open and accessible for people to come and see.”

In 1981, Allen defeated Hana Mandlikova to win the Avon Championships of Detroit — the biggest title won by an African American woman since Althea Gibson’s barrier-busting Grand Slam successes, more than two decades earlier. A career-high ranking of No.17 followed.

Fast forward to 2025 and a few hours’ drive away from the scene of her famous victory, Tennis in the Land provided Allen with a trip down memory lane at a personal and professional level.

Like many tournaments in the formative years of the WTA, the competition is staged in an untraditional “pop-up” setting — one that works an inner-city vibe and Cleveland’s proud industrial heritage, on the banks of the winding Cuyahoga River.

Specifically, the event is held at the Nautica Waterfront District, in an area known as The Flats, in the shadows of the historic Main Ave Bridge.

Back in the day, Allen recalls, it was something of a no-go zone, but today the area is an entertainment and leisure precinct that even includes an aquarium. Tournament organizers hope their tennis event will inspire a permanent facility the local community can use year-round.

“One morning, as a schoolgirl, I happened to hear on a TV that Title IX existed — and that changed everything for me,” said Allen, who graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in speech communications in 1977, before joining the WTA Tour.

“Even within this tournament, there are so many opportunities for people to be a volunteer, be an intern, be a ball kid.

“Now, to know that women’s sports are embraced here, it’s not an oddity, it’s something people love. … We’ve come a long way. When I look at the prize money players receive, and the places they get to play, I’m honored to think that I had a hand in this, that I helped this happen.”

 

Viktor Gyokores marked his home debut with a brace as we ran riot against Leeds United to make it two wins from two at the start of the Premier League campaign.

We found ourselves 2-0 ahead at the break thanks to a Jurrien Timber header and Bukayo Saka’s injury-time strike which took the game away from the visitors, and not long after the restart Gyokeres showed his pace and power to get himself off the mark in style.

Timber then added his second and our fourth of the afternoon as our set-piece prowess came to the fore again, before in stoppage-time 15-year-old debutant Max Dowman won a penalty which Gyokeres hammered home.

While Mikel Arteta would have been disappointed to see Martin Odegaard and Saka depart through injury, our impressive attacking display will have delighted him, especially with Eberechi Eze waiting in the wings.

Two-up at the break

The opening home game of the season is always a vibrant and colourful affair with a packed house excited to see their heroes in action, but the atmosphere was only boosted pre-match when Eze was presented to the crowd for the first time, moments after being announced as a Gunner.

Roared on by a full house, we started well with Odegaard in the thick of the action on his 200th Arsenal appearance and he shot into the side netting early on, before some excellent pressing from a Leeds goal-kick led to Martin Zubimendi nudging the ball into Gyokeres’ path, but the striker stabbed wide.

Having won the man of the match award in our win at Manchester United six days earlier, David Raya was again required to be on top form in the 20th minute when he instinctively pushed over a Pascal Struijk header from the visitors’ first corner of the evening.

However, on 34 minutes we had our first opportunity from a flag kick, and yet again we made it count. Declan Rice whipped it into a crowded box and Timber watched it all the way before guiding the delivery into the far corner, leaving Lucas Perri in the Whites goal with no chance.

From that point onwards, Leeds’ 14-game wait for a win on our turf never looked like ending on this particular day, even when Odegaard’s double-century ended prematurely as he was forced off with a shoulder problem. Saka took over the captaincy duties – and in first half stoppage-time he led by example by grabbing our second.

Once again our pressing caused Leeds issues and Rice nicked the ball off a defender, allowing Zubimendi to slip it to Timber. He then played a precise pass into the path of Saka, who thrashed the ball past a static Perri to get off the mark for the campaign and hand us a nice cushion going into the break.

Gyokeres’ golden moment

The feel-good factor was bouncing around Emirates Stadium during half-time, and it reached new heights two minutes after the restart when the moment everyone inside our home wanted to see happened.

Riccardo Calafiori lofted a ball into the left channel for Gyokeres to latch on to, and he began to charge towards the box. Struijk backed off and allowed him into the area, and after nudging the ball past the Leeds defender he arrowed it into the bottom corner to open his Gunners account in style.

There was another injury blow though when Saka pulled up heading towards goal and was forced off on 52 minutes, but that disappointment was tempered somewhat when we grabbed another goal three minutes later.

Rice sent another corner into the box and Timber saw his header blocked, but after Leeds failed to clear, the Dutchman had a second chance to score and duly nudged the ball over the line to complete an unlikely brace, with a VAR check confirming the decision.

Dowman debuts

With the result in the bag, Mikel Arteta opted to hand Max Dowman his first-team debut aged 15 years and 235 days old, becoming the third youngest player in Premier League history after Nwaneri and Leicester City’s Jeremy Monga.

The winger showed no sign of nerves and he twice went close to getting on the scoresheet firstly skillfully collecting a pass on the right flank, dribbling inside and letting fly but saw the ball dip into the North Bank, and then when a free-kick bounced into his path, he fizzed it back toward goal and again was just off target.

However, in stoppage-time, Dowman’s pace and trickery saw him draw a foul from Anton Stach and Jarred Gillett pointed to the spot, allowing Gyokeres to power home the penalty to cap a fine evening’s work.

The winning margin put us top of the fledgling league table, and while it matters little in August, it means we head to Anfield next weekend to face the reigning champions Liverpool with plenty of wind in our sails.

FACTS AND STATS

Jurrien Timber became only the second Arsenal defender to register 3+ goal involvements in a Premier League match, with Nacho Monreal the other, whilst he is the first defender to both score and assist in the same Premier League match for us since Cedric Soares against Everton in May 2022.

Max Dowman (15y 235d) became just the third player to appear in a Premier League game before turning 16 years old after teammate Ethan Nwaneri v Brentford in September 2022 (15y 181d) and Jeremy Monga for Leicester City v Newcastle United in April (15y 271d).

Leeds United have now lost each of their last six away matches in the Premier League, their longest losing run on the road in the top-flight since a run of nine between October 1992 and February 1993 under Howard Wilkinson.

We are now unbeaten in our last 43 Premier League home games against newly promoted sides, equalling the competition’s record set by Chelsea (also 43 games between November 2001-November 2015).

Viktor Gyokeres scored his first Premier League goal with what was just his second shot in the competition, whilst his opener was his first goal in English football since netting for Coventry City against Birmingham City in the Championship in April 2023.

Gyokeres became just the second player to net 2+ goals on his home Premier League debut for us after Gabriel Jesus vs Leicester in August 2022.

Since the beginning of last season, we have scored 14 goals in the Premier League courtesy of defenders, the outright most of any team in the competition during this period.

Since the beginning of 2023/24, we have scored 33 league goals from corners, 10 more than any other team across Europe’s big five leagues and 13 more than any other Premier League team across this period.

Bukayo Saka has scored in our opening home league game in each of the last three seasons (vs Nottingham Forest in 2023/24, vs Wolves in 2024/25 and today against Leeds).

What’s next

We’re back in action next Sunday when we head to Anfield to take on the reigning champions Liverpool, before heading into the first international break of 2025/26. 

The
Asia Cup 2025 squad of Team India left many baffled. While the selected roster raised many questions, none was bigger than why Shreyas Iyer was not selected. Iyer, who had an exceptional IPL 2025 and was India’s top run-getter in the ICC Champions Trophy, made a strong case for selection with his consistent performances, but the player was overlooked.

Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar, who remains vocal about all happenings related to Indian cricket, has questioned the call of chief selector Ajit Agarkar. According to Manjrekar, Shreyas’ non-selection comes as shocking to him, and he termed Shubman Gill’s selection in the T20Is based on how he performed in the Tests difficult to comprehend.

“It’s something that I’ve seen over the years, not recently, this tendency of selectors to pick a player on performances of one format, where that person is accepted and picking him for another format”, Manjrekar conveyed through a video posted on his Instagram account_._ “When I see a player getting rewarded for his Test match performances by a player in the T20 side, I just find that devoid of cricketing logic. It just doesn’t make any sense.”

Manjrekar questions Ajit Agarkar’s decision to not select Shreyas Iyer

Manjrekar recalled the time when Iyer was dropped from the side because he was not prioritising domestic cricket, but he learned a lesson from that and came back better than ever. Thus he should have been rewarded for that, according to Manjrekar.

“Shreyas not making this T20 squad of India for the Asia Cup is just shocking. Because this is a guy who was left out of the Indian game for the right reason, because they felt he wasn’t committing himself as a master of domestic cricket. But it had the desired effect on Shreyas Iyer. When he came back against England at home in a one-day series, and the way he batted, you could see that he was just batting like he’s never batted before. Didn’t put a foot wrong in that comeback series. And then carried that form into IPL cricket,” he added.

Manjrekar further argued that Iyer was a standout performer for Punjab Kings in IPL 2025, and his consistency and strike rate should have secured him selection over Shubman Gill, who has excelled in Test cricket. He questioned why selectors would choose a player who has performed well in Tests over someone who has been phenomenal in T20s for a T20I series.

“I don’t think any batter has had that kind of form right through the IPL season. What with an average of over 50, a strike rate of over 170, plus being the game-changer in the side with the bat. And he gets rewarded with non-selection. So when you do that to a player who’s put in one of the best performances ever in the last few months in a format for which the Indian team is getting selected, and you leave it out of the format. Perhaps for a guy who has excelled in a completely different format, Test cricket. Pick a guy who’s done well in Test cricket,” said Manjrekar.

“And not just because somebody has done so well in test cricket, gets rewarded with a T20 place, especially at the cost of somebody like Shreyas Iyer. I think the selection these days of the squad and the playing 11 in Indian cricket hasn’t been great. It’s just amazing, despite the fact that India played so well in England, and there is a great possibility they might do so again in this Asia Cup. But what is wrong is wrong. And I think Iyer has been seriously wronged by the selectors,” he added.