Haddad Maria outlasts Svitolina in Bad Homburg thriller
Unseeded Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia edged out seventh seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (9-7) in an enthralling last 16 clash on the Bad Homburg grass on Wednesday.
Haddad Maia, who converted her fifth match point after 2 hours and 27 minutes of their first ever meeting, will face second seeded Italian Jasmine Paolini in the last eight on Thursday.
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Paolini is last year's Wimbledon runner-up and is honing her game ahead of the London grass grand slam beginning on Monday.
Eighth seed Ekaterina Alexandrova beat Greece's Maria Sakkari 6-3, 6-7 (2-7), 6-3 in the tournament near Frankfurt and next meets fourth seed Iga Świątek, who won in the last 16 on Tuesday.
Top seed Jessica Pegula takes on fellow American Emma Navarro, who was also already through having defeated Naomi Osaka on Tuesday, in Thursday's quarters.
The final last-eight clash will involve Linda Noskova after she progressed on Wednesday.
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Boston Globe
26 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Soon to be inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame, Maria Sharapova looks back on her special connection to New England
Advertisement Seventy-three minutes after it began, the match was over, a 6-1, 6-4 victory for the Russian wunderkind, a first career Grand Slam title. When she finally moved again, unfolding in triumph and raising her arms to the English sky, she did so much more than jog into a congratulatory hug from Williams. She took a step into a whole new tennis world ― one that catapulted her toward a life of fame and fortune, a 16-year career during which she won five Grand Slam titles. She was a worldwide phenomenon, her business acumen only augmenting her athletic prowess. On magazine covers and red carpets, in C suites and endorsement ads, she was everywhere. But before she took on the world, she had a stop to make. And the story of her visit to Connecticut immediately after that Wimbledon triumph is a window into everything Maria Sharapova is about, a connection to the New England area that resonates more than ever now that Sharapova Advertisement In tennis, or in life, she never skips a step. Foresight and commitment Anne Worcester always was on the lookout. A former CEO of the Women's Tennis Association, Worcester ran the Pilot Pen/Connecticut Open for more than 20 years. An innovative thinker who kept the many iterations of the tournament at the forefront of marketing and fan-driven experiences, Worcester relished giving area enthusiasts the chance to see the next big thing. She scoured the outer courts at other tournaments, was constantly in touch with coaches, agents, other players, anyone with a clue as to whose star was about to rise so she could get them to Connecticut. In 2004, Worcester eyed young Maria Sharapova, who was making ripples out of the famed Nick Bollettieri Academy in Florida. Sharapova's story, moving from Russia with her father when she was just 7 years old, when he had just $700 in his pocket, was inspiring. And her game? Utterly captivating. Six months ahead of the August tournament, Worcester made a deal with Max Eisenbud, Sharapova's agent, not only for Sharapova to be in the field, but for her to come to Connecticut July 6, the Tuesday after Wimbledon, for media day. Thinking Sharapova would maybe make it through a few rounds overseas, Eisenbud suggested Worcester book airline tickets from Florida, where Maria planned to return and then travel with her mother. The February announcement of her appearance, which would include a street clinic with local youth players, merited a short mention in the local newspaper, ignored by local news broadcasts. Advertisement Sharapova's final Grand Slam win came in 2014 in the French Open. David Vincent/Associated Press 'Buried. No images. Nobody cared,' Worcester recalled. 'Everyone thought I was crazy. I'd had Lindsay Davenport, Monica Seles, other big names in tennis come and do this. Nobody knew who Sharapova was. Even my title sponsor CEO, Ron Shaw, told me I was absolutely crazy, ' Until Sharapova started to win, and kept on winning. By the time she was hoisting the silver championship salver and choosing a dress for the Wimbledon gala, American morning shows that months earlier wouldn't return Worcester's call clamored to get her on the air. A star was born. But would she show up? 'Everyone thought she was going to renege. To her credit, she came,' Worcester said. 'She had to do media in London, she flew to New York on Monday. She honored her commitment to these kids. She went to every morning show that wanted her, People magazine, CNN, and then to a local Connecticut media day.' No skipping steps. 'Throughout my career I had to say no more often than I got to say yes, but for the times that I did commit to and events I did sign up for it was very important to stay true to my word, and that was the first big example of that,' Sharapova recalled in an interview with the Globe. 'Anne had been such an incredible supporter from such a very young age it was never a question whether I would be there or not.' Advertisement A star on and off the court Connecticut was ready for her. Worcester and her staff took a British tabloid headline ― 'Maria Mania' ― and ran with it, printing banners, balloons, and temporary tattoos for an arrival only days later. Paparazzi followed their limo ride from New York. Sharapova, much like she did on the court, took it in stride. When you don't skip steps, success often follows. In 2004, Maria Sharapova showed up for a youth sports clinic days after winning Wimbledon. Here, she helps 4-year-old Austin Chen in New Haven, Conn. MICHELLE MCLOUGHLIN/ASSOCIATED PRESS 'Most of all I would like to be recognized for working hard at my craft, for not giving up when things were tough, for win or lose to shake my opponent's hand and look them in the eye and have respect toward the game and quality of their tennis,' said Sharapova, 38. 'That was always important to me no matter how difficult a match was. And always grinding it out and finding a way, even on a tough day.' She showed up, and showed out. 'Maria really elevated professional tennis, really added to the celebrity, and brought so much poise and grace to tennis,' Worcester said. 'She never had a meltdown. Always graceful, articulate. She was very much in control. At a very young age, she had composure that you rarely see in any teenager, much less somebody who's living in a fishbowl. 'She was extremely competitive, extremely intense. Sometimes you'd look at her and she was boring a hole in her opponent. And that was such an interesting dichotomy that her personality was so full of grace and poise, because of her level of play and intensity and competitiveness.' Tara Sullivan is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at
32 minutes ago
Cadillac counts down to its F1 debut with lessons from NASA
The clock is ticking until Cadillac joins the Formula 1 grid. Literally. 'On the wall of every office that we have is a countdown clock,' team principal Graeme Lowdon told The Associated Press in a recent interview. 'It's counting down to two things.' One is the first 'fire-up' of the car with its engine, and then the other is free practice at Cadillac's first official F1 session in Melbourne, Australia in March next year. It will be the start of a new mission for General Motors, and the end of a process to join F1 which included years of negotiations, a change of name and leadership, even a U.S. Justice Department investigation. As a British racing boss creating an American team, Lowdon feels like an 'inverse Ted Lasso,' the fictional U.S. soccer coach in London. Hired in part for his experience navigating the sport's complex process for approving new teams, Lowdon says he's worked hard to adapt to U.S. racing culture for a team which will build its cars out of Fishers, Indiana. There's also a design and manufacturing site near the British Grand Prix track at Silverstone, but Cadillac has a vision of running an 'American team,' Lowdon said. The idea is to get as many different perspectives on designing a race car as possible. 'Formula 1 is a very creative business,' Lowdon said. "With diversity of thought comes innovation and hopefully lap time." Past attempts to operate an F1 team outside of the sport's heartlands in England and Italy have rarely worked. Cadillac is taking lessons from the 1960s space race. Rather than read a list of racing failures, Lowdon looked for non-F1 projects with 'immovable deadlines, huge amount of public scrutiny, multiple sites, highly technical," he said. 'The best example I could find were the the Apollo missions.' 'I looked a lot into how NASA had done the management structure of the business. I thought there were some very clever things that they did that we could build into a new design of a Formula 1 team, a complete new way of managing it. The primary objective was to maximize peer-to-peer communication between engineers.' F1's other American team, Haas, is more reliant on Europe. Its HQ is in North Carolina but the team is largely based in Britain and designs its cars in Italy. While existing teams have their race drivers heavily involved in the design of 2026 cars, Lowdon said the fact that Cadillac hasn't confirmed who its drivers will be shouldn't be seen as a setback. There are 'three or four' names on Cadillac's shortlist halfway through the 2025 season and Lowdon says Cadillac has more leverage in contract discussions than usual. 'Because we're out of sync with the other teams, we're not under the same time pressure,' Lowdon said. 'No driver is sitting there saying, 'Oh yeah, Aston Martin are going to sign me next week,' if you don't sign them.' The new team could be a way back to F1 for drivers like Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas or Zhou Guanyu who lost their race seats for 2025. There's also been speculation about various Americans and ex-F1 drivers like Mick Schumacher. Bottas, a 10-time race winner for Mercedes, joked about the race to sign for Cadillac with a viral video on social media remarking on the 'nice seat' in a Cadillac SUV. 'I've known him for a long time. I know his sense of humor, I appreciate his sense of humor and he's got a big fan following,' Lowdon said. 'My phone got super busy almost immediately when (Cadillac's F1 entry) was confirmed. It was very clear that everyone wants to drive a Cadillac and so I guess Valtteri has just made it even more clear.'
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Notre Dame's Niele Ivey tweaks coaching staff, promotes Carlos Knox to assistant coach
Coming off her fourth consecutive Sweet 16 appearance, Notre Dame women's head basketball coach Niele Ivey made a tweak to her coaching staff ahead of the 2025-26 season. After two successful years as director of player personnel for the program, Carlos Knox has been promoted to assistant coach ahead of his third season in South Bend. Knox has been praised for helping develop many of ND's student-athletes, including 2025 WNBA Draft picks Liatu King and Maddy Westbeld. Last season, King broke the Notre Dame single-season record for rebounds per game (10.4) and was named to the all-ACC second team. The previous year, Westbeld was one of four players in the ACC to average at least 14.0 points and 8.0 rebounds. Before his time in South Bend, Knox worked almost a decade with the Indiana Fever in multiple roles and helped lead the team to eight consecutive WNBA playoff appearances, including the 2012 WNBA championship. Knox was a two-time NCAA scoring champion, NCAA All-American and NCAA Player of the Year for IUPUI. After college, he played for the Indiana Pacers from 1998-99 and played overseas in Croatia, Germany, Venezuela and Italy. He has also been a head coach in the International Basketball League, Continental Basketball Association and American Basketball Association. Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes and opinions. Follow Dave on X: Miller_Dave
