Category: 6. Sports

Message sent. The top overall seeds for this weekend’s Tiszaujvaros World Cup made no mistake as they sewed up their spots in tomorrow’s final. The women’s event saw two semi-finals whittle down the field, with the top-14 in each, plus the two fastest athletes thereafter, qualifying. From three men’s heats, the top-9 in each would qualify with three “lucky losers” being added on the basis of their times. Ahead of the finals – which will be live tomorrow on TriathlonLive from 15:45 (CEST) – find out how the semi-finals played out below. 

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Women 

Semi-final 1

Ilaria Zane (ITA) was a last minute withdrawal due to illness, clearing the path for others to potentially make the final, and when the starter’s horn sounded, it seemed like Anja Weber (SUI) had been fired out of a cannon. Lisa Tertsch (GER) and Jessica Fullagar (GBR) tailed her round the first lap as they tried to get back onto her feet. Under Weber’s pressure, the field broke up, particularly on the final third lap, however it was Tertsch who led out of the water. Weber, Fullagar and Tilda Månsson (SWE) followed, ensuring most of the first heat’s heavy-hitters were at the front.

Månsson was the last of the trio to exit T1 within 10 seconds of Tertsch. Meanwhile, those outside the top-10 stared down the barrel of a 45 second deficit. During the bike, Månsson ran into difficulty to leave three at the front. Everyone else was over a minute back. The leaders would ultimately arrive in T2 with a lead of 1:23 over a chase pack that contained Lea Coninx (FRA), Costanza Arpinelli (ITA), Manami Hayashi (JPN), Carina Reicht (AUT) and more. Månsson was at the tail end of the chase group.

Her task all but complete, Tertsch could afford to power down over the 5km run. Fullagar was still with her and the two had such a yawning lead they could share a laugh as they figured out how many laps remained. The German, however, is nothing if not ferociously competitive and sure enough she burned away from Tertsch on the final straight to take the win, which may not be her last of the weekend.

Fullagar was next home while Månsson led the chase pack that had passed an also safe Weber. As all of the chase pack qualified, Mercedes Romero Orozco (MEX) took 14th place with the women directly behind hoping for one of the two lucky loser slots based on the overall times across the two semi-finals.

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Semi-final 2

Tilly Anema (GBR) led from Erin McConnell (IRL) and Zuzana Michalickova (SVK) out of the water. The Brit promptly turned a 6 second lead into a 10 second advantage with a smart T1. Breakaways have been her weapon of choice this year and today she had a perfect trial run ahead of potentially setting one up in tomorrow’s final. Selina Klamt (GER), Sophie Alden (GBR) and Jolien Vermeylen (BEL) then grouped around Michalickova as the leaders remained closer together than in semi-final 1. Sara Guerrero Manso (ESP) and Beatrice Mallozzi (ITA) were among those perilously balanced around the 14th place cut-off. 

A pack of seven at the end of the first bike with Barbara De Koning (NED) completing the group. A cohort of eleven were over 50 seconds back, adding real jeopardy to making the top-14. Alden led out of T2 as the lead group remained intact before Klamt took over at the front. With all seven safe leaders there was no need to over-exert themselves. Things were rather more fraught in the chase pack as Dominika Peszleg (HUN) led a group including Guerrero and Mallozzi, but eighteen had to squeeze into fourteen.

In the end, Klamt won comfortably to give Germany a double semi-final success. Interestingly, she clocked a faster overall time than Tertsch too, although there is only so much one can read into that. McConnell was next home ahead of De Koning. Alden and Michalickova subsequently followed while having a chat during what resembled a leisurely afternoon stroll.

Kelly Wetteland (USA) was the best of chasers with Guerrero and Peszleg in pursuit. Mallozzi arrived later but was also safe. Taking 14^th was Ana Maria Valentina Torres Gomez (MEX) while Alessia Orla (ROU) and Zuzanna Sudak (POL) followed with fast enough times to claim the final two slots for the final.

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Men 

Semi-final 1

Márk Dévay (HUN) did Márk Dévay things as he led out of the water from Igor Dupuis (FRA) and overwhelming favourite Csongor Lehmann (HUN). Dévay and Dupuis exited T1 with the better part of 10 seconds over Lehmann and the rest having already stretched the field on their quest for position in the top-9. Lehmann hit the front on the bike as part of a breakaway of five (alongside Gregor Rasva (EST) and Gergő Dobi (HUN)) and by the midpoint they led by 69 seconds. The chase of twelve therefore faced a real scrap for the final slots.

Come the end of the bike, the gap had grown to 1:55 and Lehmann and Dévay showed their WTCS class with textbook transitions. Such was their lead, they could have afforded to stop for an ice cream as would have been apt in the Tiszy heat. Like Tertsch, though, Lehmann was intent on asserting his status as favourite and pulled clear to win. It was all just too easy for him.

Jayden Schofield (AUS) led into the run from the chase group but a fight was brewing. Aurelien Jem (FRA), Izan Edo Aguilar (ESP) and Takumi Hojo (JPN) took over, with Baptiste Passemard (FRA) holding 9^th place, albeit tenuously. Jem floated along, Edo looked ice cool and Hojo was untroubled. However Passemard was struck by what looked like a stitch and fell behind Schofield, who in turn was under pressure.

The top-5 were therefore safe, as were Jem, Edo and Hojo. At the last, Schofield fended off a surge from Britain’s Dominic Coy to hold onto 9^th place.

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Semi-final 2

Another Hungarian, Gyula Kovács, led the swim and was the first onto the bike in heat 2. Behind, eighteen men were within 20 seconds so all was up for grabs. One individual not in that cluster was the top seed of the semi-final (and second seed overall) Maxime Hueber-Moosbrugger (FRA). The winner of the Samarkand World Cup was 24 seconds back. By the end of the first of the two bike laps, the front group of eighteen remained with no sign of Hueber-Moosbrugger. Indeed, he was a worrying 55 seconds back.

Bence Bicsák (HUN) was an experienced face in a sea of youngsters at the front. Whizzing around him were Kovács, João Nuno Batista (POR), Andree Buc (CHI) and David Lang (LUX). With a neat attack, Fabian Schönke (GER) earned a slight 8 second gap into T2. Batista cut that to 5 seconds as he led the chasers onto the run.

While Schönke faded, you could have thrown a net over the leading nine men at the end of the opening run lap. Buc, Batista and Lang were all there, as were Aoba Yasumatsu (JPN), Genis Grau (ESP) and Kovács. Bicsák hovered a few metres behind. The Hungarian athlete then made it ten at the front, but one of the leaders, Eduardo Nunez Gomez (MEX), faced a 10 second penalty for swim behaviour. Worse for him, with a lap to go the pace was not high enough compared to the first semi-final to secure a fastest loser slot.

At the finish, Bicsák nabbed a second Hungarian semi-final win. Samuele Angelini (ITA) and Nathan Grayel (FRA) also crossed in the top-9 however Nunez’s final time was ultimately not enough to qualify.

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Semi-final 3

Márton Kropkó (HUN) got one over Zalán Hóbor (HUN) in the three-lap swim but Hóbor overtook his countryman in transition. Japan’s Kyotaro Yoshikawa was the only man that could live with them at the start and the trio had over 15 seconds on the field to play with going into the bike. Top seed Jack Willis (GBR) was in the chase of nine men, as were Gergely Kiss (HUN) and Sylvain Fridelance (SUI), and halfway into the bike the gap was down to 8 seconds.

By the time T2 was in sight, the leaders were back together as a dozen. This set up the most dramatic finale of any of the semi-finals.

Kropkó hit the run first on a personal mission to complete the home sweep of men’s semi-final wins. Along with Willis, Fridelance, Seth Rider (USA) and Jonas Osterholt (GER), he led a top-5 that separated themselves from the rest. Kiss followed in a secure position with Hóbor and Zsombor Deváy (HUN) next. Yoshikawa, though, was in a struggle with teammate Koki Yamamoto for 9^th place.

With a lap to go, Thomas Windischbauer (AUT) passed both the duelling Japanese duo. Then came a flying Bradley Course (AUS) as he made his way past them too. Four men thus contested one slot, although Course – who had started the run behind – was moving fast enough to threaten the fastest losers from the first semi-final.

Up ahead, Kropkó took the win after some cat-and-mouse antics with Osterholt. Behind, however, Hóbor faded and Course found himself up to 8^th. And then from nowhere, there was Schofield. It had been a long day and it could have been a hallucination replaying semi-final 2, but in fact Luke Schofield (AUS) had produced a storming final lap to somehow appear in 9^th and qualify for the final alongside his brother. The thwarted Windischbauer and Yamamoto had nonetheless done enough to get 10^th and 11^th and slots as lucky losers slot alongside Coy by mere seconds.

The power of Owen Farrell is something to behold. When the cameras panned to him at the Allianz on Saturday, the entire crowd reacted, some with pantomime booing, others with cheering. The one thing they weren’t was indifferent.

Farrell, who arrived in Sydney on Friday, took it well, smiling and laughing. The guy is pure box office. We’re all still talking about why he’s been parachuted into this squad. The coach’s son, yes, fine, we get it. But what else is going on here?

Some observers say that this was always going to happen and that Farrell will definitely be in the Test 23 for Brisbane. They’re convinced of it. The intrigue is fantastic.

His father’s official explanation in midweek is that he felt his squad was a little short at inside centre with Sione Tuipulotu and Bundee Aki the only options. Terrific ones, in fairness.

Is there more to it? Does he have doubts about Fin Smith’s readiness to back up Finn Russell on the bench? Does he have issues around the leadership of the squad – is everyone too nice and/or too quiet?

If those are views he shares, then Saturday might have only reinforced them. Smith struggled in running the backline and the direction of the team was all over the place for most of the evening.

So, enter Faz Jnr, but when? Not on Wednesday against the Brumbies, says his father. He might still be getting over the jet-lag.

Next Saturday in Adelaide against the invitational Australia-New Zealand team? All things being equal, definitely.

What about after that? If you believe that Owen can step into a Lions Test match squad (covering 10 and maybe 12) after not playing in nine weeks, having not played particularly well before that and having not featured in an international game for 20 months, then you’re convinced that he can return to his best stuff at the mere sight of the red jersey, as if the last year doesn’t matter.

Maybe he can. And maybe he will be given the chance for a fairytale tour, but the stakes are monstrously high. Smith’s struggles made Owen’s elevation a bit more likely. But will he be any good?

+++ England’s Daniel Brown (-16) takes the lead +++ Jordan Smith
(ENG, -15) in second place +++ Matti Schmid (-10, T12) and amateur Tim
Wiedemeyer (-9, T17) best Germans +++ Marcel Siem and Martin Kaymer
out of title contention +++ €56,000 already raised for “Eagles
for Education” +++

Munich. “Moving Day” under the best conditions: Round
3 of the BMW International Open shook up the leaderboard
significantly. Rising all the way to the top was England’s Daniel
Brown, who carded a 65 on Saturday to take the lead at 16 under par.
His round of 65 was the best score of the day, matched by Dutchman
Joost Luiten (-13, 3rd) and Spain’s Ivan Cantero (-11, T9). Just one
stroke behind Brown is fellow Englishman, Jordan Smith (-15), who shot
a 66.

From a German perspective, the biggest movers were Matti
Schmid 
(-10, T12) and amateur Tim Wiedemeyer (-9, T17). Marcel
Schneider (today -2, total -8, T20), Martin Kaymer (-2, -6, T34),
Yannik Paul (-1, -5, T41), Marcel Siem (+2, -5, T41), and Hurly Long
(-1, -4, T53) were unable to improve their positions.

Brown made just one bogey on Saturday and claimed the top spot on the
leaderboard thanks to a fantastic back nine featuring four birdies and
one eagle. The 30-year-old, who celebrated his only win on the DP
World Tour in 2023, credited his performance to a sense of ease: “I
actually didn’t play or control the ball as well as I did yesterday,
but the final holes went really well. I was just in a flow, felt no
pressure all day, was very relaxed, and had fun with my caddie.”

The largest deficit ever overcome by a BMW International Open winner
on Sunday is five shots – a feat achieved by five players since the
tournament began in 1989: Mark McNulty (IRL, 1994), Frank Nobilo (NZL,
1995), David Horsey (ENG, 2010), Fabrizio Zanotti (PAR, 2014), and,
most recently, Pablo Larrazábal (ESP, 2015).

Although Matti Schmid posted the best round among the German players
with a 68, the Regensburg native remains six shots behind Brown – just
outside the comeback “window.” Two late bogeys on holes 16 and 17 kept
him from scoring even lower in an otherwise flawless round. Still, the
27-year-old was thrilled with the atmosphere on course and hasn’t
given up hope: “There are so many golf fans out here creating an
incredible level of support. You can only draw energy from an
atmosphere like this. Every good shot is cheered. It definitely gives
you a positive feeling. On the front nine I hit almost nothing and had
a lot of bad drives. But I had a great short game and putted well. The
back nine was really solid. Overall, I’m happy with that. You really
have to hit good shots here to score well. But with the par-5s and
hole 16, which is attackable, there are birdie chances out there.
Martin Kaymer shot 8 under in the final round back in 2021 – something
like that is what we’ll need.”

Amateur Tim Wiedemeyer continued to impress. In his hometown, the
20-year-old shot a 69 and now sits at 9 under par, maintaining his
spot inside the top 20. “The atmosphere out there was great,”
Wiedemeyer said. “There were a lot of people I know in the crowd. It’s
just a cool vibe, and the support really helps you play well. After
making the cut, everything was pretty relaxed anyway. I mean, I’ve got
nothing to lose here. I know where I stand –  I’m still an amateur.
I’m just having fun, learning a few things, and we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”

Martin Kaymer – still the only German winner of the BMW International
Open since 2008 and the youngest in tournament history – likely won’t
add a second title this year, but was still satisfied with his
performance in Munich: “Two under par is okay, but it doesn’t get you
anywhere,” said the two-time major champion. “You really need one low
round in this tournament to climb the leaderboard. I didn’t hit enough
fairways today. If I do tomorrow, I can create a lot of chances. I
might play a bit more aggressively. I feel good around the greens and
have had lots of up-and-downs this week. So I think I can allow myself
to take a few more risks.”

Marcel Siem, who had put himself in a strong weekend position after
the first two rounds, experienced what he described as “a day to
forget.” Two bogeys at the start and a triple-bogey on the par-5 6th
derailed his round early. A spectacular eagle on the par-4 16th and a
birdie on the final hole couldn’t salvage the day. “Of course it’s
frustrating and sad to know you have no chance to win anymore,” Siem
said. “Then I tried to make the impossible possible and just focused
on eagles and aces to somehow get back into it for Sunday. But it is
what it is – I’ve only got myself to blame.”

Siem’s eagle was one of 56 made so far in the tournament. That means
the “Eagles for Education” donation total from last year (€55,000) has
already been surpassed in Round 3. For every eagle made during the
tournament rounds, the BMW Group donates €1,000 to the Philipp Lahm
Foundation for Sport and Education. The shared goal is to equip
children and young people with key skills in movement, nutrition, and
personal development.

The final round at Golfclub München Eichenried begins on Sunday at
7:10 AM. The final pairing, featuring Brown and Smith, tees off at
1:10 PM. Please refer to the attachment for the full list of tee times.

Britain’s last remaining hope in the women’s singles, Sonay Kartal, is first up on Centre Court on day seven of Wimbledon 2025.

Kartal, who is enjoying her best run in a Grand Slam, will look to extend her dream run into the second week when she faces Tokyo 2020 mixed doubles gold medallist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Sunday (6 July).

Next up on Centre Court is world number one Aryna Sabalenka. Fresh from dispatching Emma Raducanu, the two-time Australian Open champion now faces Belgium’s Elise Mertens.

Two-time reigning Wimbledon men’s singles champion Carlos Alcaraz ends the Centre Court action on Sunday. He takes on 14th seed Andrey Rublev, who won gold in Tokyo with Pavlyuchenkova. The pair met twice in 2024 with a win apiece, but the Spaniard leads 2-1 in the head-to-head.

Also in action on Sunday are USA’s fifth seed Taylor Fritz, incoming top 10 debutant Amanda Anisimova, and Cameron Norrie who flies the flag for the home nation in the men’s singles.

Read on to find out the start times and all the matches at the Championships.

The most vivid sequence, perhaps the only real piece of content in this 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 third round victory for Jannik Sinner against a semi-fit Pedro Martínez, came midway through the second set on Centre Court.

To that point the entire contest had felt like the tennis equivalent of watching an injured lemur being run down, idly, by a slightly bored big cat. Martínez had come into this match with an injured shoulder. Hmm. How’s that going to work out? And pretty much from the start each break saw the Spaniard’s shirt off, shoulder pounded furiously by medical orderlies, eyes boggled, chest hair damp with sweat, while a few yards away Sinner sat completely still and unmoved, a neat man in a cap, thinking.

There was the traditional middle Saturday sports-stars shindig in the royal box, albeit one that dished up pretty much the same approved gallery that seems to have been coming here since 1903. Ainslie. Redgrave. Hurst. Kenny. A certain IT Botham (how many Test wickets have you lot got then?). It was also a day to close the roof on Centre Court as a light drizzle fell outside. The roof really is a magnificent suburban spectacle, the greatest side return conservatory in south-west London. Beneath it Centre Court becomes Kew Gardens, steamy, fragrant, echoey with lunchtime chitter-chatter.

Sinner is a slightly strange sight even in the warm-up. Here we have a super athlete, the boy who could have gone with skiing or football but decided instead to become world No 1 at his third-favourite boyhood sport, but who is also gangly and skinny-legged, with the air on court of a slightly hunched and mannered junior actuary. Right up, that is, until he starts stretching his limbs and doing standing jumps and – hang on – suddenly he’s floating above the Wimbledon turf like a white-shorted vampire.

Sinner is also a fascinating world No 1, in large part because he lacks any really obvious point of fascination. Sinner is very, very good at tennis. How is he good? By being good at tennis. His victories are often described as suffocating. But he isn’t exactly relentless or repetitive. There are angles, aggression, power, off-your-seat winners. His tennis is great product, like a meal in a high-end restaurant in an air-conditioned mall where everything is fine, good, top-notch, well done but still somehow hard to think about too much in the abstract.

Martínez came out ready to mix it up, his only real chance of making any impact. There were some netted volleys, missed first serves, an early dropped service game. Seven minutes in he already looked surrounded. So he came to the net and volleyed more. He chucked in a 76mph high-kick first serve. Twenty minutes in: 5-0 Sinner. A 6-1 first set felt like a minor salvage job.

The second seemed to heading the same way until, at 4-2 down, and with Martínez already serving like a man leaning back in a rocking chair and listening to his neck creak, that brief moment of tension arrived. It looked like a combination of endorphins and what-the-heck professional pride. Either way Martínez managed to muster a couple of games that lasted almost as long as the match to that point.

The first extended deuce did feel like like an act of mild torture. Martínez began to groan and breathe heavily. But he took the game to huge cheers, showed heart and skill, punched the air, and even grinned occasionally.

Sinner’s calm through this was also notable. He aced out break points. He stuck to the processes, still wearing the same shrewd, wary look. His footwork, side to side, never back, is deceptively quick and precise. He has that astonishing way of taking balls bouncing just in front of him on the forehand side, taking balls at full power right by his ankles just by bending his knees and whipping those unusually fast hands.

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Sinner steered Martínez gently to 5-3, with an injection of precision, finding angles with his backhand drives, then closing the set with a perfect diagonal half-court volley. At times the power of his groundstrokes was startling. Playing against him involves always shuffling backwards. It must be utterly exhausting, There are of course elements of beauty too. The sudden slice, the drop shot when he’s pummelled you back, the inside-out forehand winner with no change of body position, just a small shift of the wrist.

Martínez was done by now. The final set disappeared in a haze of creaks and groans, with an effortless reassertion of crisp, clean baseline control. And at the end the question of how to beat Sinner, how to ruffle his low-tick intensity, was no closer to being answered, at least for anyone not called Carlos Alcaraz.

Sinner has been No 1 for more than a year now, although Alcaraz is favourite to win this tournament, in part because of his excellent head-to-head record. It already feels like a final this Wimbledon is hungry for, a place that has always thrived on rivalries and face-offs.

The styles are a good match. Alcaraz’s superpower against Sinner is being good enough to change the angles, to come forward and leave the baseline graveyard. But it will also help Sinner that he was able to move through this match without taking anything out of himself.

At the end he talked up the quality of the rallies and shrugged at Martínez’s physical state, praising his ability to carry on. No Italian player has ever won a Wimbledon singles title. On current form the list of people with a fair shot at preventing that sequence from ending this year still stands at one.

“That was an extremely tight Qualifying session, with two very close and competitive performances by Oscar and Lando, although not quite enough to take Pole.   

“Ferrari have been strong all weekend, and Max and George pulled off an exceptional performance, especially in their last run. This has created a very compact top six, which creates some uncertainty for tomorrow. The team executed the sessions very well, putting together a good performance in tricky conditions with the ever-changing wind, and the engineers worked well to constantly tune the set up to find the optimum solution for Qualifying. Undoubtedly, though, it remains very close.  

“We’ll be working hard overnight to put ourselves in the best condition possible for a strong result, but it should be an exciting race for the fans at Silverstone tomorrow. ”