Cameron Norrie overcomes Jacob Fearnley to reach second week of French Open
Cameron Norrie reached the French Open fourth round with a bang after beating fellow British star Jacob Fearnley.
Norrie secured a likely showdown with Novak Djokovic after a straight-sets win in a surreal match played out to an ear-splitting backdrop of explosions and pyrotechnics.
The din was down to thousands of Paris St Germain fans gathering for the Champions League final outside the Parc des Princes, which is a stone's throw from Court Simonne-Mathieu and was showing the game on a big screen.
But Fearnley struggled to produce any fireworks as the more experienced Norrie extended his stay in the French capital into the second week.
It will be Norrie's first appearance at this stage and, with Jack Draper already through, Britain has two men in the fourth round for the first time in French Open history.
Tennis players usually like to play in silence but this end of Paris sounded more like a war zone.
Serving was proving difficult for both men with explosions going off almost every time one of them tossed the ball.
At one point during a crucial second-set tie-break, Norrie had to abort his service motion completely amid a series of loud bangs.
Fearnley may have overtaken Norrie in the world rankings, but the 23-year-old made a nervous start amid the deafening noise.
Norrie was a set and two breaks up before Fearnley, who has only just completed a first full year on the Tour, found his feet and levelled the second set.
But despite the disruption, 29-year-old Norrie held his nerve in the tie-break to move two sets up.
The noise finally subsided, and the crowd shrunk considerably, as kick-off approached leaving Norrie to complete a 6-3 7-6 (1) 6-2 victory in two hours and 43 minutes.
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Times
an hour ago
- Times
Harvest time for farmers' league as PSG make light work of Europe's best
The strange thing is, nobody really calls it the farmers' league. Maybe in a few memes, on the odd message board, in some of the more heated corners of social media, but no serious football person thinks of Ligue 1 as a competition for agriculteurs. What is a farmers' league anyway? It would be one in which the players are part-time, which France's are not, and the football crude, which French football is not. There is also a hint of unworthiness or weakness in there, yet French clubs have performed reasonably well in Europe this season. Monaco, Lille and Brest all made it out of the Champions League group stage, and while none of the three won their next knockout game, Brest were eliminated by this season's champions Paris Saint-Germain, Monaco lost a thrilling tie 4-3 to Benfica and Lille went down 3-2 to Borussia Dortmund. No shame there. In the Europa League, Lyon lost that crazy game to Manchester United in the quarter-finals, meaning only Lens and Nice in the lesser competitions truly disappointed. France's problem is with history. Until this weekend, no French club had won a European trophy since PSG claimed the Cup Winners' Cup in 1996. Even the country's previous European Cup win, by Marseille in 1993, was tainted by corruption. For too long the reputation of French football has been that it produces brilliant individuals, as shown by the performances of the national team, who graduate to clubs in wealthier, more successful, leagues and conquer Europe from there. Since 2010, only Liverpool and Manchester City have won the Champions League without a Frenchman on the pitch. So, no, it most certainly isn't the farmers' league. Still, the perception in Paris is of disrespect. Luis Enrique, PSG's coach, references the jibe frequently as though he hears it all the time. No doubt it is a useful motivational tool to tell his players the world thinks they are akin to labourers. It's just not true. Long before they utterly dismantled Inter Milan, excellent judges such as Liverpool's Arne Slot had PSG down as the best team in Europe and when Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta sniffily disagreed and placed his own team first he was widely ridiculed. Yet even if Ligue 1 really was just PSG and every other team made up the numbers — and, yes, that is sometimes how it looks from the outside — it wouldn't matter. If anything it makes their achievement this season even greater. Since PSG took control of domestic competition in France — they have won ten of the past 12 titles — their superiority has been viewed as the cause of weakness in Europe. Each time they have fallen short in the Champions League — and their record in the 12 seasons preceding this comprises five exits in the round of 16, four quarter-finals, two semi-finals and a losing final — it has been suggested that their domestic dominance is in part responsible. PSG have it too easy, runs the argument, and then when they need to raise standards against the European elite, the improvement simply isn't there. It's the same with Celtic; the domestic ease makes them soft. And maybe this has been true. If so, however, it is to the immense credit of Luis Enrique and this group of players that a way has been found to maintain such a high level against the elite of Europe when the domestic competition is not comparably challenging. PSG won this season's title in the first week of April and the Champions League on the last day in May, which flies in the face of the idea this squad needs toughening up. Now, of course, it will be said that Luis Enrique has been able to keep his players fresh with the domestic campaign done. Yet both arguments cannot be true. It can't be that Ligue 1 leaves PSG too lightly raced to compete, yet also keeps them fresh for battle. Equally, it really doesn't matter about the other 17 clubs. Transport any Premier League team across the channel to Ligue 1 and, if PSG were still involved, it would remain a damned hard competition to win. Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City and Aston Villa all found PSG too hot to handle at various times in this campaign. The Premier League rightly boasts of its strength in depth but it is usually just one, at most two, other clubs that keep a title race going. Liverpool found it hard to win the Premier League under Jürgen Klopp because of one team, City, not ten. That is the other myth of the French farmers' league. A farm only requires one really good farmer. If the men's 100m final was you, six men in flip flops with their legs tied together, plus Usain Bolt, you're still not getting gold. The Rugby World Cup is frequently decried for the same reason. Yet even if it were reduced to four teams, but the quartet comprised New Zealand, South Africa and France, Steve Borthwick would still have his work cut out leading England to glory. What we are now seeing in PSG is a French club fully realising its potential. Not just its wealth but its resources. The northern suburbs of the city, in particular, are arguably the greatest reserve of natural talent in Europe. We talk of England's North East or the football cages in south London, but the mystery with PSG has always been why they did not tap into the talent on their doorstep and why players such as William Saliba were so easily lost to French club football. Now PSG have moved on from their galactico period, young men like Senny Mayulu — the 19-year-old who scored the fifth goal against Inter — look like the future. PSG also have the clout to pluck the best products from their rivals. Désiré Doué came from Rennes, the club that also produced Eduardo Camavinga, Mikaël Silvestre, Mathys Tel, Sylvain Wiltord — and Ousmane Dembélé. Its production line fed players to England, both homegrown and scouted discoveries. Petr Cech, Jérémy Doku, Raphinha and Abdoulaye Doucouré all came to the Premier League from Rennes. Yet when the best young squad in Europe is being nurtured 200 miles away in Paris, that route may become less travelled. The hope is PSG, having first harmed the competition with domination, now pull Ligue 1 up with them. Earlier this month it was reported the French federation was considering having a final four tournament to decide the champions, adding a layer of jeopardy to the PSG procession. There were plans to restructure governance along the lines of the Premier League, while ditching broadcast rights holders in favour of an in-house streaming service. It sounded like French football was in crisis. Having the continent's best team may just change that. PSG's triumph could not have come at a better moment. It's harvest time in the farmers' league, one might say.
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Jack Draper's four key strengths recall ‘King of Clay' Rafael Nadal
It all feels rather neat. As one left-hander with a nuclear forehand leaves the stage – via Rafael Nadal's touching farewell ceremony at Roland Garros last week – another is emerging from the pack. That second man is 23-year-old Jack Draper, the Surrey lad who has turned himself from an also-ran at this time last year to a proper contender, with his ranking closing in on No 4 in the world. It would be going too far to suggest that Draper is Nadal's heir apparent. He had barely seen a clay court until he reached voting age, and is still developing his relationship with this quirkiest of surfaces. But when you sat behind the court during Saturday's third-round match, in which Draper destroyed Brazilian wunderkind Joao Fonseca with his dive-bombing forehand, you found yourself in flashback territory. Telegraph Sport analyses the striking similarities. The Semtex forehand It's all about the trajectory. When the ball comes looping off Draper's racket, it looks as if it's flying into the next postcode. But then the top-spin grips, and the ball starts hurtling back towards the ground like Wile E Coyote after his legs have stopped spinning. On so many occasions in the Fonseca match, Draper's forehand dipped and landed in the final six inches of the court, before exploding upwards again at a sharp angle. As an opponent, you have two choices, and neither of them are good ones. 1. You can retreat way behind the baseline, and wait for the ball to come down at the end of its first bounce. Now you've become a passenger in the rally. You're giving Draper an age to wind up his shots and make decisions, while opening up the angles for him to push you left and right at will. 2. You can step in and take the ball early, but this requires perfect timing as it jumps off the court like a startled cat. Should Draper come through Monday's meeting with Alexander Bublik, he would probably earn a quarter-final with world No 1 Jannik Sinner. And the big question is whether Sinner – owner of the tour's smoothest groundstrokes – can pull off this feat regularly. So what does Draper himself think of the forehand comparison? 'It's tough for me to appreciate it because I'm the one hitting the ball,' he replied. 'But I see it when I'm on YouTube watching the highlights. I can appreciate it is getting better and better but I watch Rafa sometimes and I'm thinking, his forehand's a joke. So I want to get to that level but I definitely understand the comparison of how it's kicking up and the spin and the speed of it.' Draper 💥 #RolandGarros — Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) May 29, 2025 Draper's deft dropper If people don't remember Nadal as a drop-shot artiste, that's because they were distracted by his world-beating forehand. In fact, he was a master at shoving people back with that same high, heavy trajectory that Draper employs, and then popping the ball into the empty forecourt with minimal fuss. Draper has been developing the same tactic during this tournament. He used six drop shots in round one against Mattia Bellucci, 12 in round two against Gaël Monfils, and no fewer than 15 against Fonseca. Is Draper simply learning on the job, like some tennis intern? Perhaps, but he may also be tailoring his approach to the opponent. Where Bellucci remained fleet-flooted throughout, Monfils started cramping early in Thursday's match, and the 18-year-old Fonseca showed his physical immaturity. 'Do me a favour,' yelled a frustrated John McEnroe on commentary after a tiring Fonseca had declined to chase another short ball. 'Could you at least try for those?' Built like a rugby player 'Rafa is a physical freak,' said Mark Petchey, now Emma Raducanu's coach, when Telegraph Sport interviewed him for a long read on the Nadal forehand in 2021. Here was another under-rated virtue of the King of Clay. He made generating massive forces look so comfortable that few realised how hard he worked on every shot. But his injury-wracked career was testament to the strain he placed on his body, especially by comparison with Roger Federer's more classical, lower-impact style. Draper is a bigger man. At 6ft 4in and pushing 14 stone, he is probably the burliest figure in the world's top 20, with the build of a rugby flank-forward. Seeing him loom over Fonseca at Saturday's coin-toss, the phrase 'man and boy' came immediately to mind. Size has its drawbacks. Draper has already collected more serious injuries than most players his age. And if he is taken to five sets by Sinner on a hot day, one suspects that he might tire first, despite his unsparing approach to fitness training. Yet Draper's physicality is also a weapon. Not only does he intimidate opponents, but he has also outworked them over the first three rounds of this French Open. Even Bellucci, who stayed the course better than Fonseca and Monfils, looked weary by the end. At just 5ft 9in, he had to keep jumping up to meet that high-bouncing forehand somewhere near his strike zone, and all the effort drained the energy from his legs. When asked this week about the inspiration he takes from Nadal, Draper replied: 'It's partly about his game but more so his competitive nature, his doggedness, his ability to never go away. Andy [Murray] is the same but I loved Rafa to be honest, the grunt, everything. He was someone who massively inspired me to become the player I am and hopefully I can get to his level.' Relentless focus There's another reason why Nadal was able to accumulate such extraordinary statistics at Roland Garros (14 titles), Monte Carlo (11), Barcelona (12) and Rome (10). He was playing on the surface that rewards incremental superiority, stroke by punishing stroke. On hard courts, you can recover from the corners more easily in defence, and you can try to counterpunch your way out of trouble. Clay is all about building a positional advantage, which often means creeping forwards during a rally until the whole court is at your mercy. People think that Nadal hit spectacular shots, but he actually hated taking risks, and only did so when he had no alternative. It is a model that both Draper and Cameron Norrie – the other British left-hander who has reached the fourth round here in Paris – are learning from. 'I was able to play consistent kind of vintage Norrie tennis,' said Norrie on Saturday night, after defeating Draper's fellow Briton and great junior rival Jacob Fearnley. 'Just playing seven out of 10 for 3½ hours.' We have already addressed Draper's physicality, but his mentality is equally as important. Asked this week about facing a succession of mercurial opponents, he replied: 'Being a consistent player is something I've wanted to achieve for a while now and I think I'm doing it better and better. I don't need to play my best level to win matches because I know my base level is high. 'If I'm able to play point by point I know it's tough for guys to beat me. Especially someone if they're up and down, like Monfils or Bublik, they're gonna play some great tennis and, yes, they could beat me for sure. But I know it's going to be very tough because I'm always going to be at that level.' According to Jez Green – who used to be Andy Murray's fitness trainer – the ideal clay-court mindset has an element of masochism, because anyone who comes out on this slow surface and tries to fire winners in all directions is unlikely to prevail. 'Rafa's mindset is perfect because he enjoys the whole experience of suffering,' said Green. 'He loves that clay-court feeling of building points slowly, churning out victories through sheer effort, taking the long way around.' So if Draper is going to continue his heroics next week, he will need to keep embracing the grind.
Scottish Sun
an hour ago
- Scottish Sun
Neymar SENT OFF for attempting to score Maradona-style Hand of God goal after old club PSG win Champions League
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) NEYMAR channelled his inner Diego Maradona as he was sent off for a blatant handball. The forward, 33, is currently back at his boyhood club Santos after a nightmare spell with Saudi Arabia's Al-Hilal. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 4 Neymar punched the ball into the back of the net 4 The former PSG and Barcelona superstar was sent off Credit: Getty 4 It could prove to be his last appearance for boyhood club Santos Credit: Reuters The Brazilian side lost 1-0 to Botafogo yesterday to leave them 18th and in the relegation zone after 11 games of the season. Their issues were compounded when captain Neymar got red carded for doing his best Hand of God impression. With the score goalless after 75 minutes, the Botafogo goalkeeper palmed a cross towards him and it struck his midriff. A defender was going to beat him to the loose ball and clear, only for Neymar to jump forward and punch it into the back of the net from close range. READ MORE IN FOOTBALL FRONT FREE Free agent XI may be greatest unemployed team ever with Ronaldo, Messi & Neymar The referee saw it clearly, giving the superstar a second yellow and red card. With Santos down to ten-men, the visitors then scored the winner just ten minutes later. And it could prove to be Neymar's last appearance for the club as his short-term contract expires on June 30. He is suspended for their next game against Fortaleza and the fixture after versus Palmeiras is on July 12. JOIN SUN VEGAS: GET £50 BONUS Neymar has failed to roll back the years on his return to Brazil, missing eight matches through injury and scoring just three goals in 12 games. It comes after a disastrous time with Al-Hilal as his £2.5m-a-week contract was ripped up after just seven appearances and one goal in 18 months amid fitness issues. Neymar breaks down in tears and reveals 'each day I am away is a day of suffering' after injury hell And to add insult to injury, Neymar's old club PSG won the Champions League on Saturday night by smashing Inter Milan 5-0.
