Jay Monahan on Rory McIlroy's schedule: 'I don't have any concern'
"The beauty of our model is that our players have the ability to select their schedule," Monahan told reporters on Wednesday at Muirfield Village Golf Club, site of this week's Memorial Tournament. "What Rory McIlroy has done, I think he's played in this tournament every year since 2017. And you look at the tournaments that he's supported. I don't have any concern, because you look at this on balance over time, his support of our tournaments and our partners is extraordinary."
In addition to skipping this week's 50th edition of the Memorial, the world's No. 2 player also bypassed The Sentry and the RBC Heritage, both signature events.
McIlroy, 36, raised a few eyebrows by opting to skip the Memorial Tournament in favor of next week's RBC Canadian Open.
The native of Northern Ireland has admitted to a preference of playing the week before a major championship. The Memorial Tournament and Canadian Open flipped places on the calendar this year, with the Canadian now leading directly into the June 12-15 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania.
McIlroy completed the career Grand Slam by winning the Masters last month. He earned his first green jacket and fifth career major in dramatic fashion, overcoming two double bogeys in the first round and two more on Sunday before beating England's Justin Rose in a playoff.
"Look at the season that Rory has had. He's had a life-altering season," Monahan said. "He's won the Players Championship, you win the Masters Tournament, you win the (career) Grand Slam and you win the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am."
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20 hours ago
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New Straits Times
21 hours ago
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Kalinskaya to face Fernandez in DC Open women's final
WASHINGTON: Anna Kalinskaya prevented a rematch of the 2021 US Open final by ousting Britain's Emma Raducanu to book a berth against Canada's Leylah Fernandez in Sunday's DC Open final. The 26-year-old Russian, seeking her first WTA title, downed Raducani 6-4, 6-3 in Saturday's Washington hard court semi-finals to reach her third career tour final. It denied what would have been the first meeting between Raducanu and Fernandez since they met as teen phenomenons four years ago in the final at Flushing Meadows, Raducanu taking a 6-4, 6-3 victory. Left-hander Fernandez rallied to defeat third seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan 6-7 (2/7), 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/3) after three hours and 12 minutes to book her spot in Sunday's championship match. Fernandez won her only meeting with Kalinskaya, taking a first-round victory in 2021 at Guadalajara. World number 36 Fernandez seeks her fourth career WTA title and first since the 2023 Hong Kong Open. Raducanu, ranked 46th, has not reached a WTA final since her Grand Slam breakthrough in New York. Fernandez reached her seventh career WTA final and first since June 2024 at Eastbourne. Kalinskaya reached her only tour finals last year at Dubai and Berlin. World number 12 Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon winner, and Fernandez each surrendered only one break in their marathon match. Rybakina fired winners on the final four points of the first tie-break, the last a service winner, to claim the opening set after 53 minutes. In the second set, Rybakina broke on a backhand drop volley winner to take the opening game and took a 3-1 lead. Fernandez fought back from 0-40 down to hold in the fifth game then broke Rybakina in the 10th when she was serving for the match to pull level at 5-5. In the second tie-breaker, Fernandez seized a 5-0 lead and forced a third set on a Rybakina double fault. Both held into a third tie-breaker, in which Fernandez seized a 4-0 lead and ended matters when Rybakina swatted a forehand beyond the baseline. Rybakina, the WTA season ace leader, fired 17 aces, two off her career high, and seven double faults but had 64 unforced errors and 44 winners. Fernandez had 12 aces against three double faults and took 66% of her second serve points. In the other semi, Raducanu sent a backhand long to surrender the first break of the match in the ninth game of the first set. Kalinskaya fought off two break points in the 10th game and held on an overhead smash to claim the set in 53 minutes. World number 39 Kalinskaya fired a backhand cross-court winner to break Raducanu in the opening game of the second set but the Briton responded by breaking back at love to 1-1. Kalinskaya broke again for a 3-2 edge when Raducanu sent a backhand beyond the baseline, then saved a break point in the eighth game and held to end the match when Raducanu netted a forehand after 94 minutes. The later men's semi-finals send French lucky loser Corentin Moutet against Australian seventh seed Alex De Minaur and Spanish 12th seed Alejandro Davidovich-Fokina against US fourth seed Ben Shelton. — AFP
New Straits Times
2 days ago
- New Straits Times
Raducanu and Fernandez beat the heat to reach DC Open semis
Washington: Britain's Emma Raducanu reached the brink of her first WTA final since winning the 2021 US Open, ousting Greece's Maria Sakkari 6-4, 7-5 on Friday at the DC Open. And the woman she defeated four years ago in that Flushing Meadows championship match, Canada's Leylah Fernandez, could be her opponent for the Washington hard court crown. Raducanu, who missed most of 2023 after hand and ankle surgery and part of last year with a left foot injury, reached her first WTA semi-final since last year at Nottingham by dispatching Sakkari in sweltering conditions of 95F (35C). "It was one of the toughest matches conditions-wise I've ever played in," Raducanu said. "Those points in the second set, I was getting a bit wobbly I'm just happy I could close it out and it was two sets. "I think the humidity here, as well, it just makes it feel completely like you have just opened an oven and it just stayed open and your head is in there. That's how it feels." Raducanu, in her only tour-level final, won the 2021 US Open as a teen qualifier over teen Fernandez, who advanced to the DC Open semi-finals by battling through leg cramps in the second set and saving a set point to oust American Taylor Townsend 6-4, 7-6 (7/4). Left-hander Fernandez will next face the winner of a later match between third seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan and Polish fifth seed Magdalena Frech. In Saturday's other semi-final, Raducanu will face the later winner between Danish fourth seed Clara Tauson and Anna Kalinskaya. Raducanu, Britain's first women's Grand Slam singles champion since Virginia Wade in 1977 at Wimbledon, beat four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka in the second round before downing Sakkari in the quarter-finals, but not before a medical timeout in the second set. "Brutal conditions. Right in the peak heat of the day. It was incredibly difficult," Raducanu said. "I had to call a doctor on. Wasn't feeling too good in the second set. "When it's at that stage you know you're going to suffer and you have to just go until you physically can't anymore. It could be a little dangerous but you just leave it all out there on the court as an athlete." Raducanu rallied to win the final five games of the match. "You get to a point where you're so tired that you don't really know what you're doing anymore, and I think maybe that helped," Raducanu said. "I just really had to be smooth and conserve energy.... You just have to really be so focused." Raducanu said reaching the semis was a "big benchmark" after years of injury. "I have played three great matches to be here in the semifinals, and it is the first semis in a long time," she said. "I'm really proud of that and just happy that all the hard work I've been doing is starting to pay off." Fernandez surrendered a break with a double fault to trail Townsend 3-4 in the second set and despite leg cramps broke the American on her eighth opportunity in the 10th game to level matters at 5-5 on the way to the tie-breaker. Fernandez has won three WTA titles, the 2021 and 2022 Monterrey Opens and the 2023 Hong Kong Open. Her most recent final was last year at Eastbourne.
