Wimbledon: Jannik Sinner crushes Luca Nardi; Barbora Krejcikova overcomes Alexandra Eala challenge
World No. 1 Jannik Sinner is on flight mode, having locked out all distractions. The 23-year-old demonstrated it effectively on a blazing hot day at Wimbledon, when his serve rocked.
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
The Italian dropped just four points on his first serve against compatriot Luca Nardi in the first round. Sinner won 6-4, 6-3, 6-0 in one-hour and 49-minutes.
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel.
The three-time major winner, whose best result here is a semifinal in 2023, has been working on his serve, which can be a weapon at a whole different level on this surface. Sinner has been watching other players. John Isner, who has the most aces in a tournament with 214 during the 2018 Wimbledon, and also the most career aces at 14,470, has been someone the top-seed is looking at.
Poll
Who do you think will win the Wimbledon title this year?
Jannik Sinner Aleksandar Vukic Barbora Krejcikova Taylor Fritz
Sinner, who goes up against Aussie Aleksandar Vukic in the second round on Thursday, didn't face a breakpoint in the match. 'I feel quite comfortable at the moment,' he said of his serve. Sinner's quick result was a relief for the tournament as top players struggled with the muggy conditions on the opening day and again on Tuesday.
The Italian, who tested positive twice in March last year for the banned steroid Clostebol, but was cleared of fault or negligence, is playing here for the first time after the news of the positive tests became public.
'I think people have forgotten already a little bit what happened,' said Sinner, who had his fair share of support on Court No. 1 on Tuesday. The Italian explained that the situation in the locker-room had also changed, with a lot of players, who had issues with the way the world No.
1 was treated, have put the situation behind them.
'Jay Shah Deserves Credit for How He Ran BCCI' | Arun Dhumal on BCCI's Commitment & Leadership
Perricard serves fastest; Fritz wins
In the opening game of a first-round match, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard thumped a 153 mph first serve.
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
It was five miles per hour faster than the previous Wimbledon speed record of 148 mph by American Taylor Dent hit 15 summers ago.
That was the Frenchman's takeaway from the three-hour 25-minute clash against the fifth-seeded American Taylor Fritz. Fritz, who didn't face a single breakpoint in the match, broke at love in the tenth game to close out 6-7 (6), 6-7 (8), 6-4, 7-6 (6), 6-4.
In other first-round matches, defending champion Czech Barbora Krejcikova, playing just her seventh match of the season, beat Philippines' Alexandra Eala 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 in two hours and 10-minutes.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
Musiala Injury update: Bayern midfielder sustains serious ankle injury after clash with Donnarumma in Club World Cup quarterfinal vs PSG
Jamal Musiala of Bayern Munich has been seriously injured during the quarterfinal match of FIFA Club World Cup 2025 against Paris Saint-Germain at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Saturday. The 22-year-old was seen in discomfort in the added time of the first half. Musiala, looking to latch onto the ball inside the penalty area, was beaten to it by PSG custodian Gianluigi Donnarumma but the Italian cleaned up the Bayern midfielder in the process. However, Musiala's ankle looked to be very seriously injured and the reaction of the players around him very quickly confirmed that. Donnarumma was in tears after having a look at the German's condition.
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
IND vs ENG: After captaincy and runs, Shubman Gill gets aura, Virat Kohli calls him ‘star boy'
No batsman has scored a double hundred and a 150-plus score in the same Test match in the game's 150-year-long history. Shubman Gill did that at Edgbaston. He did one better than the Aussie great Alan Border who had two 150s. No Indian batsman had scored 430 runs in a single Test. Gill went past Sunil Gavaskar's run tally of 344 against West Indies in that storied Port of Spain Test in 1971. On Saturday, cricketing history and folktales were being re-written by Shubman's bat. So far in the series he had runs and the captaincy band, now he had an aura too. India's retired batting megastar Virat Kohli put out an Instagram post while Shubman was on field plotting and planning England's fourth innings collapse. 'Well played star boy. Rewriting history. Onwards and upwards from here. You deserve all of this.' By stumps on Day 4, aided by Shubman's run spree, England, chasing 608 to win, were 72 for 3. It seems just a matter of a day that the Indian captain's epic knocks get recorded in history as match-winning innings. Virat's 'star boy' was getting praise from the locals too. Former England captain Nasser Hussain said: 'A hundred in the first Test, a double hundred and a hundred in the second. The Indian captain is in the form of his life. Gill has been chanceless and elegant in both innings.' After the Indian captain was finally out, adding 161 to his 269 in the first innings, two young England cricketers, wicket-keeper Jamie Smith and frontline batsman Harry Brook, made it a point to acknowledge the batting greatness amidst them. Both in the 20s, they are Shubman's contemporaries and had scored blazing hundreds in the Test themselves. Smith took his gloves off, waited for Gill to pass him and gave him a warm handshake. So did Brook, who ran across from the field and touched the peak of his England cap while extending his arm. India had designated Shubman as the heir apparent long back — now the world was doing it. 𝘽𝙖𝙘𝙠-𝙩𝙤-𝘽𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 🤩#ShubmanGill leads#TeamIndia brilliantly as captain, smashing another century in the 2nd innings, pure class in a high-stake battle! 🎯 Is another double ton loading from Gill? 🤔#ENGvIND 👉 2nd TEST, Day 4 | LIVE NOW on… — Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) July 5, 2025 By single-handedly putting his team in winning position after the close defeat in the first Test, the new skipper had secured his position as leader in the dressing room. At Edgbaston, courtesy his two knocks that had gravitas of a Test match batting and chutzpah of T20 cricket, he had got the respect of his rivals and new fans abroad. Till the last Test, which India lost, the broadcaster would keep playing reruns of Kohli's innings after the game. During this Test, those old tapes have been moved to the archives since they have found a star capable of keeping the television set switched on even after the match hours. Shubman has the range of strokes to keep the connoisseur of the game, the Test match watchers, and even the casual watchers, there to fours and sixes, glued to their seats. 𝐑𝐨𝐚𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 🥶#ShubmanGill delivers a captain's classic, cracking a fluent 150 and steering India with flair against England! 🤩#ENGvIND 👉 2nd TEST, Day 4 | LIVE NOW on JioHotstar ➡ — Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) July 5, 2025 There was one stroke in the morning session that had even had the notoriously partisan Hollies stand letting out 'ohs' and 'ahs' and applauding. It was a full ball by Josh Tongue, the tall English speedster. Shubman knelt, like they do while proposing, and let his bat come down as smoothly as a waterfall and timed the ball perfectly. The ball crossed the cover boundary, but Shubman still retained his pose, giving enough time for the photographers to get that perfect frame. In the day's final session, he was again kneeling on left leg and hitting the spinners for sixes on the leg-side. Shoaib Bashir, the wily young off-spinner who foxed Rishabh Pant on Thursday, tempted the Indian captain by floating the ball. Confident about his batting, Shubman swung his bat and hit against the spin to send the ball in the stands. He hit 13 fours and 8 sixes in all. Unlike the previous Indian batting greats — Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli – Shubman caters to all tastes. Watching him is like being on a roller-coaster – Test one session, T20 the next. Shubman at Edgbaston was growing in stature on the field and in the dressing room on this tour. Coach Gautam Gambhir and selection committee chief Ajit Agarkar have empowered him to take the tough selection calls. In the second Test, every cricket pundit wanted him to play the wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav, but he went with all-rounder Washington Sundar. The ploy seems to have worked. Whatever Shubman touches these days turns gold. 𝘼 𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙖𝙧 𝙎𝙝𝙪𝙗𝙢𝙖𝙣 𝙂𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚! 🔥 The Indian skipper shatters records with unmatchable skill and elegance! 🤩#ENGvIND 👉 2nd TEST, Day 4 | LIVE NOW on JioHotstar ➡ — Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) July 5, 2025 But how has Shubman hit this purple patch after becoming the captain? Before this series his highest score in a Test was 128; here in England his four innings have scores 147, 269 and 161. The 25-year-old has said that before this series, he had been trying too hard to score runs but here on these scenic England grounds he has exhaled. 'A lot of people say that when you focus too much, you sometimes miss your peak time. So, in this series, I tried to go back to my basics. I tried to bat like I used to in my childhood,' he said after his double hundred here. By turning the clock back, Shubman has become the future of Indian cricket. The boy-to-man journey has happened by rekindling a boy's love for batting.
India Gazette
an hour ago
- India Gazette
India's white-ball tour to Bangladesh postponed to September 2026
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], July 5 (ANI): The Indian team's white-ball tour to Bangladesh has been postponed from August 2025 to September next year, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced on Saturday. The BCCI, in a statement, announced that it and the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) have reached a mutual agreement to defer the series, consisting of three Tests and ODIs each. 'The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have mutually agreed to defer the white-ball series, three ODIs and three Twenty20 Internationals, between Bangladesh and India in August 2025 to September 2026,' the statement said. This decision has been reached following discussions between the two Boards, taking into account the international cricketing commitments and scheduling convenience of both teams. The BCB looks forward to welcoming India in September 2026 for this eagerly anticipated series. Revised dates and fixtures for the tour will be announced in due course. India's last ODI assignment was the ICC Champions Trophy, where they emerged victorious after beating New Zealand in the finals by four wickets. Skipper Rohit Sharma won the 'Player of the Match' award in the final for his match-winning knock of 76, while Shreyas Iyer (243 runs in five innings at an average of 48.60 with two fifties) and Virat Kohli (218 runs in five matches at an average of 54.50, with a century and a fifty) starred with the bat as well, playing some crucial knocks. Among the bowlers, spinner Varun Chakravarthy and pacer Mohammed Shami (nine wickets) each were the shining stars for the Men in Blue. India last travelled to Bangladesh in 2024, where both teams locked horns against each other in a three-match T20I (3-0) and a two-match Test series (2-0). The visitors registered a clean sweep over the Bangla Tigers as they didn't lose a single game on the tour. (ANI)
