Category: 6. Sports

Kate Middleton knows just how to make her son Prince Louis part of the fun.

While Prince George, 11, and Princess Charlotte, 10, have attended Wimbledon matches with their parents, seven-year-old Louis has yet to make his debut. But that hasn’t stopped the youngest Wales child from getting involved.

According to the Daily Mail, Princess Kate revealed during a 2023 Wimbledon appearance that Louis had been practicing his ball boy skills at home. “Louis was very upset he was coming today,” she revealed. “It’s Charlotte’s first time, George came last year. They’ve been eagerly watching.”

Kate reportedly shared with a young ball boy, Joel, that Louis had taken a special interest in copying the professionals on court.

“He tries to practise the standing and staying serious, like us,” Joel told PA News.

While they’ve taken on their father Prince Wiliam’s love for football, the Wales children share their mother’s passion for tennis. In 2019, Princess Catherine even arranged for private tennis lessons for Prince George with none other than Wimbledon champion Roger Federer.

As the prestigious tennis championship kicks off on Monday, June 30, it is yet to be confirmed whether the Prince and Princess of Wales will attend, or which of their children will join.

However, one member of the royal family made her return to the courtside after more than 20 years: Sarah Ferguson.

The Duchess of York was joined by her daughter Princess Beatrice as they watched the action from the Royal Box at SW19 on opening day. 

India’s campaign at the World Boxing Cup Kazakhstan 2025 began on a promising note, with Hitesh Gulia, Sachin Siwach, Minakshi and Muskan picking up opening-day wins in Astana on Monday.

Competing at the Beeline Arena, Indian boxers Hitesh Gulia and Sachin Siwach started off with unanimous wins in the men’s light middleweight (70kg) and lightweight boxing (60kg) categories, respectively.

Hitesh Gulia, a gold medallist from the opening leg of the World Boxing Cup in Brazil, outclassed Olympian Kan Chia-Wei of Chinese Taipei 5:0. Sachin, a bronze winner in Brazil, was convincing in his 5:0 win over Canada’s Keoma-Ali Al-Ahmadieh.

In women’s events, Minakshi began her campaign with a clean 5:0 win over Australia’s Madeleine Bowen in the light flyweight (48kg) division.

Meanwhile, Muskan edged England’s Kerry Davis in a closely contested 3:2 decision in the middleweight category (75kg).

Back in April, India had claimed six medals at the previous World Boxing Cup leg in Brazil.

The Indian women did not compete in Brazil. The tournament in Astana is the second of three scheduled events that help boxers accumulate ranking points throughout the year.

The Kazakhstan leg will run until July 7, with over 400 boxers from 31 countries, including Olympians, competing across 10 weight categories in both men’s and women’s divisions. India have sent a 20-member team.

The series will conclude with a final event in India this November, where stage winners and top-ranked boxers will compete for the World Boxing Cup title.

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (AP) — South Africa set Zimbabwe 537 runs to win the first test after Wiaan Mulder’s career-best 147 on Monday.

Zimbabwe was 32-1 at stumps on day three, trailing by 505 runs with two days to go and without concussed opener Brian Bennett. His replacement, Prince Masvaure, was 5 not out.

A solid start by Zimbabwe was spoiled by opener Takudzwanashe Kaitano edging Corbin Bosch to second slip on what turned out to be the last ball of the day.

Zimbabwe has six 500-plus scores in test cricket, most recently last December against Afghanistan at the same Queens Sports Club. But its highest fourth-innings total was 331 in a 2001 loss to New Zealand, also in Bulawayo.

Considering Zimbabwe was out for 251 in the first innings, South Africa already began the day in charge from leading by 216 at 49-1 in the second innings with Mulder 25 not out.

South Africa was reduced to 155-5 in the morning session but Mulder stood firm and his partnership with Kyle Verreynne, worth 104 in 131 balls into the afternoon, diminished Zimbabwe hopes.

Mulder reached his second test century before lunch, the 100 coming from 149 balls.

After 17 boundaries and two sixes, Mulder was out in the afternoon, caught right on the boundary by Kaitano after taking on Wessly Madhevere.

A late 51 from 70 balls by stand-in Proteas captain Keshav Maharaj, the only other 50-plus score in the second innings, pumped up the total to 369 after the first innings was declared on 418-9.

Maharaj was bowled by Wellington Masakadza, who took 4-98. Tanaka Chivanga and Vincent Masekesa got two wickets each.

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AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket

Family affair as the Marias next head to Wimbledon

Maria, née Malek, turned pro in 2001, making her WTA main draw debut five years later.

A first Grand Slam appearance at the Australian Open in 2009, was followed by a second three years later, reaching the second round in both.

After marrying Charles-Edourad Maria in April 2013, Maria took a sabbatical to have Charlotte, inadvertently but happily becoming a trailblazer and mentor to those such as Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka who followed.

But player and coach, husband and wife, both felt there was more to give.

Sure enough, with a little patience and hard work and with an additional mini supporter along for the ride, Maria’s first tour title win came in 2018, at the Mallorca Open. The meat in the tour-title sandwich was two wins in Bogota in 2022 and 2023, which both came after having baby Cecilia‍ in April 2021.

A couple of months after winning her second career title, Maria became the first mother of two this century to reach a Grand Slam semi-final, thanks to a Wimbledon run where the German was only thwarted by second seed and world No.2, Ons Jabeur. But it still took three sets.

Noted for her second return to tennis, and subsequent successes, after maternity leave, Maria was voted the WTA’s Comeback Player of the Year in 2022.

The Bad Saulgau native also became an Olympian for the first time at Paris 2024 where she competed in both singles and doubles.

So there’s clearly still more in the tank, highlighted by the win at Queen’s – an even more notable moment with women playing at the iconic venue for the first time since 1973 – leaving Maria fizzing with positivity ahead of Wimbledon 2025.

“In [2022] when I played Wimbledon, I mean, I was fighting for every point, but there were sometimes like a few doubts,” Maria said. “This week, I really found my confidence. I was believing in myself from the first till the last point that I could win this. Every single match.”

With the continuing upward trajectory of recent performances and with her family by her side, Maria can only be excited about taking to the hallowed turf in southwest London’s Wimbledon once again, and has inspirational advice for those who might think their dreams are too late.

“Everything is possible if you believe in it and you go your way,” she said. “Doesn’t matter which it is, everybody has a different one, but you have to keep going and that’s the most important thing I want to show to my kids.”

Perhaps something she doesn’t want to show her kids, or at least young Cecillia – just to keep the pressure off – is the famous Venus Rosewater Dish given to the winner of the women’s tournament at Wimbledon – that’s nice and big and shiny too – but it really is a whole other ball game to win that one.

But like many of her opponents are finding out; you wouldn’t put it past her.

England have named an unchanged XI for the second Test against India at Edgbaston, which gets underway on Wednesday, meaning that Jofra Archer’s much-vaunted return to Test cricket has been deferred at least until next week’s third Test at Lord’s.

The team was confirmed two days out from the start of the contest, as has become the norm for England under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, and comes in the wake of their impressive five-wicket victory in the first Test at Headingley.

England successfully chased down 371 to win that match, after India had made much of the running across the five days, including through five individual hundreds – two of which came from their wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.

However, England’s bowlers struck back in both India innings, claiming 7 for 41 in the first innings and 6 for 31 in the second, to set up what proved to be an obtainable target.

Josh Tongue was instrumental in this with seven lower-order wickets across the two innings, while Brydon Carse impressed with his pace and stamina in a rare outing with the new ball. England’s attack leader, Chris Woakes, claimed just one wicket in the Test but made important first-innings runs, and has been backed to rediscover his rhythm after missing much of the early season with an ankle injury.

Archer had been in line for his first Test since February 2021 when he was last week named in England’s 15-man squad for the second Test. However, despite coming through unscathed from his first red-ball outing for Sussex since May 2021, he will now wait for a potential comeback at Lord’s. Given there are only three days between the culmination of this Test and the third, Archer could well make his 14th cap at Lord’s, where he debuted back in 2019.

He bowled 18 overs and took 1 for 32 in a draw with Durham at Chester-le-Street. Following a long battle with stress fractures of the elbow and back, the 30-year-old’s call-up was a welcome sign of progress having last been involved with the Test side during the 2021 tour of India.

Archer was not present for Monday’s training session at Edgbaston due to a family emergency, and will rejoin the squad on Tuesday. None of England’s non-playing squad members – Archer, Sam Cook, Jamie Overton and Jacob Bethell – are expected to be released to play for their counties in the latest round of Championship matches that got underway on Sunday.

Chris Woakes, who is preparing to play his fourth Test at his home ground, anticipates a step-up in performance from England following the confidence boost of successfully chasing down 371 on the final day at Headingley.

“It’s always good to get over the line and get a win,” Woakes said. “That does breed some confidence within the group to show that we’re doing some things right. We’re also a group that we know we need to improve. There’s areas that we did last week that we know we can do better. So yes, we’ll look at putting those things right.

“But certainly as a team, we’re pretty happy with how we go about things and the style of cricket and the brand of cricket we want to play. We know that that’s been successful over the last few years and we’ll stick to that. But there’s definitely still tweaks that we know we can do a bit better as a team. So we’ll be looking to do that.”

England: 1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope, 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Ben Stokes (capt), 7 Jamie Smith (wk), 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Brydon Carse, 10 Josh Tongue, 11 Shoaib Bashir

The temperatures did not stop more than 10,000 people joining the queue for day one, at which point the All England Club advised people to stop travelling.

Two-time Wimbledon runner-up Ons Jabeur was forced to retire from her opening-round match after becoming unwell.

The Tunisian took a medical time-out in the first set, during which she had her blood pressure taken and had an ice towel draped around her neck.

She decided she could not continue when trailing 7-6 (7-5) 2-0 against Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova, in a match which took place during the midday heat following an 11:00 BST start.

There were varying opinions on the temperature among the players.

“Honestly, I didn’t feel that hot out there. It was hot. I was sweating, but I didn’t really feel like it was that hot, you know,” said American Frances Tiafoe.

“I don’t know if wearing all white really helps as well, but I didn’t really feel that hot. After this I’ll go to [the Washington] Open and play in DC, with the humidity there there’s no faking that. That’s going to be really hot.”

But German Eva Lys, who also came through her first-round match, said: “[It was] tough. Really, really tough. I was sweating a lot, so my racquet was very slippery.

“It’s the first time playing with heat on grass. I feel like it’s really tough on the legs. This is especially what I felt in the third set. I think the spectators didn’t have it easy either, I feel like everyone is kind of struggling with the heat right now.”

BBC Weather’s senior meteorologist George Goodfellow said similar conditions are expected on Tuesday, which will be “dry, sunny and very hot again, with just a very slight breeze at most”.

Goodfellow added: “The high will likely be similar to today, above 30C. We’re going with 33C at Kew Gardens – the nearest observation site to Wimbledon.

“After tomorrow, temperatures will return to nearer normal for the time of year, but that still means above 20C.”

Jay Shah, Chairman of the ICC, reflected that these encouraging numbers were a testament to the continued popularity of the most traditional format of the game.

“The remarkable viewership numbers for the ICC World Test Championship Final, across both broadcast and digital platforms, are a powerful testament to the appeal of high-quality Test cricket and the elevated context of the WTC Final. This format continues to command a loyal and passionate global following and remains an integral part of our sport’s identity.

“What makes this success even more special is the enthusiasm shown by fans in regions beyond the two competing nations, reaffirming that cricket’s reach is truly international, and that the purest form of the game can thrive beyond national affiliations.

“A special mention to JioStar, whose innovative and immersive coverage, captured the drama, emotion, and atmosphere of the ‘Ultimate Test’ in a way that deeply resonated with audiences around the world.”

The news that Jonny is still a Red, and is our new head of loans and pathways, thus calling time on his playing career, was warmly welcomed by fans and peers alike, recognising the defender’s illustrious 19-year career.

Evans played for United 241 times across two stints and won the Premier League three times, the Champions League and the FA Cup.

He now embarks on a new chapter of his career, off the pitch, to assist in the development of players coming through our ranks in the same way he did back in 2006.

And he does so with the full backing of United, our fans, and clubs for whom he previously turned out for across his playing days.