Category: 6. Sports

Wimbledon 2025 – Carlos Alcaraz shows champion mentality in SW19

The sounds of SW19 flowed across the pristine grounds of the All England Lawn Tennis Club. The popping of champagne corks, the ovation for national heroes David Beckham and Gareth Southgate – this is the Championships in its essence.

It was a battle of the generations, tradition versus modernity, 16 years in age between the pair. Tradition has also been forced to adapt; for the first time in the competition’s 148-year history, the courts are not surrounded by line judges.

Alcaraz did not feel he was at his best level, yet champions will always find a way to win even when they are not in full flow. For the 22-year-old, his 2025 opener at Wimbledon was a prime example, despite being on an 18-match winning streak.

Fognini was determined not arrive at Centre Court as a spectator, playing in his last of 15 Championships. While he played with freedom and nothing to lose, Alcaraz grew frustrated and needed to keep cool in the heat to maintain his grip on the match.

It was a vintage performance for former Australian Open doubles champion Fognini, playing his serve-and-volley game to perfection, while his five return winners were a joy to witness on Centre Court.

After suffering in the fourth set, Alcaraz turned ruthless in the decider and won three games without a reply, before a medical emergency in the crowd paused the match. The Spaniard brought over a bottle of water, waited patiently and closed out the bout upon returning to the grass.

There was a silver lining for Fognini: his son, Federico, flew to London upon learning that his father would play Alcaraz. After the match, he asked the Spaniard for his shirt as a gift for his son. Even after the battle, the sportsmanship remains on Centre Court.

ORLANDO, Fla. (June 30, 2025) — The Orlando Pride (8-4-1, 25 points) and Viviana Villacorta have agreed to exercise the midfielder’s mutual option for the 2026 season, it was announced today.

Villacorta has appeared in 44 matches and recorded one assist since being drafted by the Pride with the No. 9 overall pick in the 2021 NWSL Draft. She made her professional debut during Orlando’s 2022 regular season opener and would go on to appear in 15 matches during her rookie campaign. After suffering a season-ending injury in 2023, the UCLA product made her return to the pitch in 2024 and appeared in four matches during the Pride’s NWSL Championship run.

Ben Slater’s 15th first class hundred spearheaded a solid Nottinghamshire batting display on the second day of the County Championship Division One match with Somerset at Taunton.

The home side extended their first innings score from an overnight 275-6 to a challenging 379 all out, Tom Banton dismissed for 84 and Matt Henry making an unbeaten 41 off just 29 balls, with four fours and three sixes.

By the close, Notts had posted 214-3 in reply, opener Slater contributing an unbeaten 116, off 224 balls, with 14 fours.

Like their opponents on day one, Somerset bowled few loose deliveries and every run had to be fought for on a day of soaring temperatures. Jack Leach conceded just 42 runs from 25 overs of left-arm spin and Craig Overton 31 from 13.

Banton was unbeaten on 57 at the start of play, having been dropped on two, and shouldered major responsibility for lifting Somerset to a competitive score.

With only nine runs added to the total, he lost partner Kasey Aldridge, caught at second slip by Freddie McCann low to his right off Mohammad Abbas.

Overton looked in good touch, scoring 24 and helping Banton add 44 for the eighth wicket, before being pinned lbw by Brett Hutton with the total on 330 in the 111th over, both sides having been forced to settle for two bonus points.

Left-arm spinner Liam Patterson-White had bowled tightly throughout the innings and reaped the reward of a second wicket when Banton, who had battled away for four hours and 17 minutes, striking eight fours, mistimed a reverse sweep straight to Abbas at backward point.

The remainder of the innings was all about Henry, who treated the 2,000 children admitted free from schools around the region, to some exciting hitting.

The New Zealander survived a chance to Joe Clarke on the long-on boundary and produced numerous clean strikes in a last wicket stand of 39, to which Jack Leach contributed just six before being caught at bowled off a leading edge by Farhan Ahmed.

The visitors had to negotiate a tricky 15 minutes before lunch, but reached the interval on 15 without loss from three overs, Leach having opened the home bowling attack with Henry.

The afternoon session saw Somerset bowl without much luck in rising heat – but they made a breakthrough with the total on 38 as Haseeb Hameed got a thin edge to a delivery from Henry to be caught behind by James Rew.

Slater was soon looking to capitalise on a pitch offering no more than occasional assistance to the bowlers and moved confidently to a half-century off 62 balls, with nine fours.

McCann contributed to a second-wicket stand of 66 before pushing forward to off-spinner Archie Vaughan and providing Rew with a second catch.

At tea, the scoreboard read 124-2, but the final session saw Leach strike with the vital wicket of Joe Clarke, on 18, as the Notts player aimed a big drive at a wide delivery and edged into the safe hands of Overton at slip.

Haynes had a heart in mouth moment next ball as it rapped his back pad and went straight to Overton. Somerset’s huge appeal for either leg before or a catch off an inside edge went unheeded and it proved a big moment as a meaningful fourth-wicket stand developed.

Slater remained unmoved and brought up a hugely valuable century with a square cut for two off Vaughan, having faced 171 deliveries and extended his boundary count to 14.

It was an innings of patience and sound shot selection on a pitch, which like the first day, required application with both bat and ball.

By stumps, the partnership with Jack Haynes (34) was worth 71 and Notts could reflect on a decent afternoon’s work.

ECB Reporters’ Network supported by Rothesay

The Tamil Nadu Premier League is a men’s T20 cricket tournament that is held annually in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Organised by the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association, the tournament has provided a competitive platform for local talent since its inception in 2016.

The TNPL has had eight teams competing in the tournament since its inception in 2016 and Dindigul Dragons are the defending champions, having won the title in 2024.

Tuti Patriots won the inaugural season of the TNPL after beating Chepauk Super Gillies in the final. The inaugural champions were renamed as Salem Spartans ahead of the 2020 season.

Chepauk Super Gillies, the runners-up of the first season, are the most successful cricket team in the tournament, having won it on four different occasions.

After winning the TNPL for the first time in 2017, Chepauk Super Gillies would win it again in three consecutive seasons from 2019 to 2022. The 2020 edition was not held due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Christophe Gleizes travelled to Algeria in May 2024 to report on the golden era of the local football club, Jeunesse Sportive de Kabylie (JSK), during the 1980s. He had also planned to cover the commemorations marking the tenth anniversary of the death of Cameroonian JSK player Albert Ebossé, and was on assignments for So Foot to interview Mouloudia Club d’Alger coach Patrice Beaumelle and write a profile of footballer Salah Djebaïli.

Christophe Gleizes’ seven-year prison sentence is the most severe sentence imposed on a French journalist in more than a decade, according to RSF information. In 2010, journalist Daniel Lainé received a similar sentence after reporting on sex tourism in Cambodia for the French TV channel TF1 before being acquitted in 2014. According to RSF data, around one hundred journalists worldwide have been targeted for reporting on issues related to sports, with two still imprisoned today.

Sign the petition to free Christophe Gleizes

There is no justification for imprisoning a journalist for delivering trustworthy news. Sign the petition calling for his immediate release and help us #FreeGleizes. 

One of the many delights of leafy south Birmingham is when an international cricket team is in town and residents stumble across them training on the Colts Ground at Edgbaston. Folks could be heading for a stroll in Cannon Hill Park, or their weekly shop at Aldi, only to suddenly find themselves watching Jasprit Bumrah let fly.

Sadly, the fences were covered with tarpaulins after some hecklers over the weekend. There was a decent subplot playing out inside as India trained, too, over whether Bumrah will play the sold-out second Test that starts . Having bowled these past few days, the man himself offered a passing “hopefully”.

Things are not so straightforward here. The plan has long been that India’s spearhead plays three of the five Tests to manage his lower back, something reaffirmed by Gautam Gambhir, the head coach, after the loss at Headingley. Now trailing 1-0 in the series, and with Bumrah having had a week to recover from that match, one would think this is the time to play the second of those three cards.

Yet with the third Test starting a week on Thursday at Lord’s, the ground where every touring cricketer wants to play, it sounds like he may yet be held back.

Ryan ten Doeschate, India’s assistant coach, hinted as much, saying Bumrah was “ready to play”, before going on to add that, with possible rain in Birmingham at the weekend, and Edgbaston a typically flat surface, they are still to decide their configuration.

“We feel we can go 1-1 or keep the score at 1-0 without Jasprit,” said Ten Doeschate. “That is putting the eggs at the back [of the series]. But we are going to need him at some stage. You have to decide when to play your strongest suit. Whatever team we put out there, we can compete in this Test match.”

Thoughts go back to England’s disastrous Ashes tour in 2021-22, when they went 1-0 down and then immediately rested Mark Wood for the second Test in Adelaide. Wood took 17 wickets during that 4-0 defeat but 12 of them came after the urn was lost. Sometimes teams can overthink the future at the expense of the situation staring them in the face, even if England are wary of seeing this as an opportunity.

“The worry for us would be to focus too much on [Bumrah],” said Chris Woakes, who will lead the England bowlers on his home ground. “You have to look at their whole attack, and what they bring to the table, and how you can combat the skills they bring. India have got guys that can come in and cause us issues.”

Even with possible rain showers, India eyeing a draw against an England team that scores at 4.5 runs per over – something that in turn broadens the canvas for taking 20 wickets – is high risk.

Ten Doeschate also hinted at India playing two slow bowlers the options being an attacking wrist-spinner in Kuldeep Yadav or the off-spinning all-rounder Washington Sundar.

If the latter, it would probably be with half an eye on scoring the lower-order runs that were missing at Headingley – a potentially negative outlook when taking only 15 of the 20 English wickets was the bigger problem.

Better catching would help, with Monday’syesterday’s training session suggesting Yashasvi Jaiswal will be whipped out of the gully position after three costly drops in Leeds.

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As well as scoring five centuries before their tail folded twice, those missed chances offer India hope of turning this series around.

They at least know the XI they will be up against, England confirming an unchanged team two days out from the toss and thus holding back the recalled Jofra Archer until Lord’s at the earliest.

“I’m sure he’s champing at the bit to get back out there and show people what he has already done in whites,” said Woakes. “We all know how good he can be, but he’s at an age [30] where his best is probably still ahead of him.”

Archer was not on the ground on Monday after a “family emergency” delayed his arrival, England then going on to confirm that none of the unused squad players will be parachuted into the current round of county matches anyway.

Given the slog the bowlers are enduring with the Kookaburra ball this week, Archer, Sam Cook and Jamie Overton may be thankful for the reprieve.

The only real difference for England this week is Moeen Ali among the backroom staff, having taken up the offer to further his coaching experience. It may not be Moeen’s only encounter with India this year, with South Africa understood to be interested in him joining their coaching staff for a Test tour there in November.

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — A French journalist has been sentenced to seven years in prison in Algeria over an interview with a soccer official accused of ties to a banned separatist movement, in a case rights groups say criminalizes routine reporting.

Christophe Gleizes, a 36-year-old freelance sportswriter, was arrested and placed under judicial supervision more than a year ago for entering Algeria without a proper visa, “glorifying terrorism,” and “possessing propaganda publications harmful to the national interest,” Reporters Without Borders said in a statement on Sunday.

He was tried and convicted, although prosecutors have not publicly announced the charges and Algerian officials have not commented on the case.

However, authorities have in the past faced criticism from rights advocates who say Algeria uses anti-terrorism laws to target political speech.

Thibaut Bruttin, Reporters Without Borders director general, called authorities’ decision to hold Gleizes for 13 months before sentencing an example of “absurd judicial control” and called the seven-year sentence “nonsensical.” The press freedom group said Gleizes planned to appeal the sentences on Monday.

The charges against Gleizes, the group said, stemmed from contact he had with the head of a soccer club who was also a member of a political movement that Algeria designated as a terrorist group four years ago.

Gleizes, had contributed to the magazines So Foot and Society, had gone to Algeria last year to report on JS Kabylie, Algeria’s most historically dominant soccer team.

JS Kabylie and its successes are deeply enmeshed in the movement to win cultural recognition for Algeria’s Amazigh minority in the mountainous Kabylia region. The region has for decades been an epicenter of rebellion in Algeria. Authorities have in recent years clamped down on the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylia, a separatist group whose leader has been sentenced to death in absentia for “attacking national unity.”

The French journalist’s sentence comes as relations between France and Algeria reach new levels of hostility. The two countries are sparring over migration, extradition, trade and France’s change in position over the status of the disputed Western Sahara.

France’s Foreign Affairs Ministry called Gleizes’ sentence harsh, saying it planned to provide consular support and had applied to visit him in prison.

While the case was received with shock in France’s media, few in Algeria were aware of Gleizes’ detention before the sentence was announced.

“This is a murky affair,” said Karim Adli, a sports journalist based in the city of Tizi Ouzou.

LONDON — There were twists and turns. There were net cords and underarm serves. There was physical distress and an unfortunate charge straight into the net. And after 2 hours and 41 minutes, at the end of a wild three-set ride, there was only one winner: Madison Keys, who held off Elena-Gabriela Ruse 6-7(4), 7-5, 7-5 to reach the Wimbledon second round.

Wimbledon: Scores | Order of play | Draw

It was the second time in a Grand Slam this year that the No. 6 seed had survived a stern examination from Ruse — and despite coming so close to defeat, the déjà vu could be positive for Keys. She trailed Ruse by a third-set break in the second round of the Australian Open in January, before escaping 7-6(1), 2-6, 7-5. Less than two weeks later, she had gone on to lift her first major trophy.

In the rematch, Ruse came out swinging as though she had unfinished business. The Romanian led throughout the first set, and despite Keys twice pegging her back from a break down, snatched it in a tiebreak. But Ruse began visibly ailing in the second set, calling for a medical timeout after the third game and collapsing to the ground in the ninth game.

The match only got wilder from there. Ruse battled on, levelling at 5-5 from 5-3 down despite her issues — only for Keys to close the set out anyway. In the decider, Keys had to navigate all manner of unexpected obstacles as she sought to protect another early lead. At 2-0, holding two points for a double break, Keys was denied by a Ruse underarm serve that caught the outer edge of the line. Serving for the match at 5-4, she was broken back as, chasing down a short Ruse ball, the American charged straight into the net.

In light of that, Keys’ resilience in shaking off the setbacks to make one last push for victory was remarkable — and the scream of relief she let out after Ruse ballooned a return long on match point was possibly the only predictable aspect of the match.

More to come…