ATP roundup: Reilly Opelka bags upset in Netherlands
June 13 - Reilly Opelka hammered 24 aces and knocked off top-seeded Daniil Medvedev of Russia 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5) on Friday to advance to the Libema Open semifinals in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.
Medvedev built a 4-1 lead in the second-set tiebreak before self-destructing with three consecutive double faults to finish the one-hour, 36-minute match. Opelka will face unseeded Belgian Zizou Bergs, who held off Estonian Mark Lajal 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4).
The other grass-court semifinal pits No. 2 seed Ugo Humbert of France against Canada's Gabriel Diallo. Humbert needed only 67 minutes to complete a 6-1, 6-4 win over Portugal's Nuno Borges, while Diallo reached his second ATP Tour semifinal with a 7-6 (6), 6-4 upset of third-seeded Russian Karen Khachanov.
BOSS Open
Led by No. 1 Alexander Zverev, the top four seeds advanced to the semifinals with straight-sets wins in the quarterfinals in Stuttgart, Germany.
Home favorite Zverev saved both break points he faced in a 7-5, 6-4 win against Brandon Nakashima and moved on to face No. 3 seed Ben Shelton, a 6-4, 6-4 winner over Czech Jiri Lehecka. Shelton fired 18 aces and guaranteed a spot in the top 10 for the first time in Monday's rankings with the victory.
Shelton's fellow American, No. 2 Taylor Fritz, will meet No. 4 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada in the other semifinal. Fritz fired 12 aces in a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Hungary's Marton Fucsovics, while Auger-Aliassime ended 17-year-old German Justin Engel's memorable run with a 7-6 (3), 6-3 victory.
--Field Level Media
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Reuters
28 minutes ago
- Reuters
Sinner seeks to put disappointment of French Open defeat behind him
June 15 (Reuters) - World number one Jannik Sinner wants to use the Halle Open as a chance to bounce back from sleepless nights after his agonising loss to rival Carlos Alcaraz in the French Open final this month. In a thrilling showdown, Sinner took the first two sets and had three match points in the fourth set, but Spaniard Alcaraz persevered to grind out a 4-6 6-7(4) 6-4 7-6(3) 7-6(10-2) win in five hours and 29 minutes - the longest final at Roland Garros. Asked if he had thought about the championship points he failed to convert, Sinner told reporters on Saturday: "Often. It happens. I don't know how it will look in the future. "I think that it is not the most important thing, but I nevertheless try to forget the negative things and see what I can do here" in Halle. "I think that for me to play another tournament is positive, because every match is a new beginning, and I must be mentally ready to give my all on the court. Therefore, it is great I can be here in Halle. Yes, I had already a few sleepless nights, but I think every day it gets better." The 23-year-old Italian is the reigning champion at Halle and will seek to defend his crown at the tournament, which starts on Monday, as he gears up for Wimbledon, which will be held from June 30 to July 13 at the All England Lawn Tennis Club. "The first practice session was OK. I hadn't played since Paris, so my general feelings on the court were not so perfect," Sinner said. "I think a good grass-court player can move well. The ball can bounce a bit funny because of the grass, and you have to serve intelligently. "But in general, it is a surface on which I took a step forward last year and we will see how it goes this year."
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Annabel Croft: ‘I don't want to be a professional widow but I'm not ready for another partner'
Annabel Croft, one time girls' Wimbledon winner, tennis commentator, pundit and Strictly semi-finalist, recently found a piece of English homework from when she was eleven in 1978. It was entitled 'What I Would Like to Do'. She had picked up a tennis racket only two years earlier, during a family holiday in Spain. In the ensuing decade, little did she know that she would become Britain's brightest young female tennis star. 'I would like to be able to… win Wimbledon,' she wrote. 'Before I get to [sic] old, I would like to dance on stage… before I am to [sic] old I would like to get married because if you are too [sic] old you cannot have children… Also, your husband protects you.' This afternoon, we are sitting at the kitchen island in Croft's six-bedroom neo-classical home, designed by her late husband Mel Coleman twenty five years ago. The house, part of a gated estate in Kingston, is a short drive away from the grass courts of Wimbledon. When Croft was selected for the main draw there at the age of 15, she was the youngest to play there for 95 years. In 1984, a month before her 18th birthday, she won the girls' junior title. It's hard to square that Croft is now 58-years-old – 59 next month. She doesn't look that different from the press cuttings of thirty-five years ago, which are stacked up in the hallway as she prepares for a 28-date speaking tour about her life this September. She does a lot of walking and yoga these days, as well as playing tennis – and it shows. Wearing a Me+Em brown linen jumpsuit and mules, she has a baked-in tan (she founded her Annabel Croft academy in Portugal, which Coleman oversaw until he died two years ago). Her famous mane of hair, always tied back in a high pony or plait when she was the Raducanu of her day, now cascades around her shoulders. The French Open is on in the background. 'That was incredible,' she says after Aryna Sabalenka catches out Coco Gauff, before the ultimate glory was claimed by Gauff, who Croft is rooting for to win Wimbledon. Croft spent the first ten days of this year's Roland Garros commentating for BBC Radio Five Live. Tomorrow, two of her three children, Amber Rose, 30 (six months pregnant) and Charlie, 29 (about to get married), are coming over for lunch to watch the men's final between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, a game that lasted 5hr 29 mins; the second longest in grand slam history. Her youngest daughter, Lily, 26, lives in Dubai. This week, Croft is getting ready to begin commentating at the HSBC Championships at the Queen's Club, as women's events return there for the first time since 1973. Ten members of the women's top 20 will be playing, including Katie Boulter and Emma Raducanu. When I ask if she has 'special interests', she murmurs about Alcaraz and Raducanu, the former for being so utterly brilliant, thought of as the new Nadal, the latter because her trajectory has been so uneven, yet her promise never diminished. It has been two years since Croft did the splits on Strictly, reaching fourth place, dancing with the energy, stamina and natural skill that must initially have surprised both her partner, Johannes Radebe, now one of her best friends, and the judges. It felt like every step was imbued with the emotion of her personal tragedy. Mel Coleman died at Kingston Hospital in May 2023, just 12 weeks after he was diagnosed with Stage four colon cancer, which had spread throughout his body; 97 per cent of his liver was covered with tumours. Her husband of 30 years, they married in 1993 two days before her 27th birthday but they first met when she was just 21; she was in Sri Lanka making a TV show about learning to sail – Coleman was part of the sailing crew. She shows me an old VCR tape: 'The moment I first met him and shook his hand is captured right here.' Then, Coleman was an America's Cup and Admiral's Cup sailor, before switching to investment banking. Not long after meeting him Croft made the decision to retire from tennis. She was 21, ranked 24th in the world but had become tired of the tennis life, of hanging around in motels trying to scrabble enough for the bus fare to the next tournament: 'I knew I didn't want to live my life as a tennis player until I was 30. I was emotionally intelligent early on to have worked that out.' Sensing the happiness to be found in normal life off the circuit, and given, by then, she was something of a household name, she moved into entertainment: 'There wasn't a Sky TV, or Eurosport so I couldn't move straight into commentary. I had to find other ways to make money.' 'You can't sit back and wait for things to come to you' She began doing pantomime: 'I needed the panto to give me confidence. If you force yourself into uncomfortable places you suddenly realise it's not as terrifying as you thought.' Immediately after her retirement in 1988 she took over from Anneka Rice on Channel 4's Treasure Hunt. 'I was always someone who thought you can't sit back and wait for things to come to you. You have to make things happen. No one gets up in the morning and thinks 'I'm going to help Annabel today.'' 'We grew together,' she says of Coleman. She gestures around the house, and points outside to the tennis court: 'The court was the first thing we put in.' When Coleman died, the couple had been in the process of planning their retirement, selling this house and relocating down the road to a smaller one. Every night, at bedtime Coleman told her he'd miss her until the morning: 'I didn't know I had an incredible marriage, but I did,' she says. She is composed. Her grief is not as raw as it was after Strictly, now it 'comes in rain showers, but they are getting less – and then it's gone.' 'You know he died of sepsis?' she asks me. The cancer had spread – he eschewed the opportunity for chemo for a better quality of life, and it's thought a tumour perforated on a flight back from Portugal. On his return, he was admitted as an emergency. His death was as sudden as his diagnosis (both, she says, badly handled by Kingston Hospital). By July – 'literally within a few weeks [of losing him] I was on the phone to my agent. He said ' I've signed you up to Strictly. You're giving an interview tomorrow because they are announcing it.' I don't know what I would have done without being busy. I would have sunk.' Strictly, she says, saved her – it also gave her Radebe – 'we are bonded for life'. He calls her all the time. Sometimes they talk for two hours. 'He's part of the family now,' she says, and shows me a picture of him lined up with her children: 'Look! He's wearing Mel's sliders there.' Her 1978 A4 homework is on the table in front of us. 'Nice ideas,' her English teacher wrote. It's as though Croft foretold her life, minus the tragedy. 'But there is so much to be positive about,' she says. By September, she will be a grandmother and she has properly rediscovered dance. During the tour, she will dance on stage: 'I don't want to be a professional widow. I understand that a lot of people can identify with what I've been through, but I don't want grief to define me. 'I've wondered whether I went down the wrong path' 'People say I have been so generous with my emotions, but I have always been like that. Strictly was so helpful to me. I realised how much I loved dancing and I've wondered whether I went down the wrong path [with tennis] when I might have been a dancer instead.' Two years on from Strictly, she is in the process of downsizing: 'I mean, it's too big!' she says, 'it's ridiculous. I'm rattling around here. The house has served its purpose.' She is clearing three decades of family life, including Coleman's possessions, his clothes and shoes. The family baby grand which sat in the hallway for twenty-five years has already gone. She's gravitating towards her eldest daughter (and her imminent grandchild) in Battersea, near enough to her friends and to Wimbledon. 'Mel had always wanted a water view [because of his sailing] and I do too because it will connect me to him.' Croft grew up in Farnborough, Kent, in a comfortable home with two siblings, an older brother and a younger sister. Her parents, James, a chartered surveyor, and Susan, a housewife, were 'keen tennis players' but neither of them coaches or professionals. They had a tennis court in the garden but it was at a Spanish hotel tennis tournament that she caught the bug. Her mother then started driving her 20 minutes to Park Langley tennis club in Beckenham, dropping her off 'with 50p in my pocket for the cost of my lesson, a packet of crisps and a drink of squash, and I'd stay there all day. It was forehands on a Monday, backhands on a Tuesday, Wednesday was volleys, Thursdays serves and then playing points.' She shows me a collection of childhood log books with scores: lists and lists of tennis partners – mostly boys – whom she organised into being her opponents. But she'd play anybody, often 'wily old dogs'. What is telling about this is the extent of her drive. 'I'd have charts up on the fridge. It totally came from me. It should always come from the child. I met one of those boys recently and he said 'I used to love coming to you because you always bossed us around and set all the drills. You organised everything.'' As she started to hit a different league, she missed more and more school: 'My dad was always writing requests to the head mistress to ask for time off: 'Annabel won't be there on Friday, Annabel will miss this week for a tournament'. Slowly I dropped subjects until I was just down to maths, English and sport. I once sat a geography test, turned over the page and realised I didn't know a single thing.' At fifteen, she moved to Houston, Texas for five years to train with a coach, who was the mixed doubles partner to Billie Jean King.'I travelled around the world six or seven times – that was my education. But it's so gladiatorial. It's like a boxing match.' She plays me an audio clip of a match with 'an American girl' at the Albert Hall, with Des Lynam commentating: 'I'd had hypnotherapy before that'. She suffered badly from nerves. Would a sports psychologist have helped her? Made a difference to your longevity? I ask: 'I don't think so. I knew myself.' She is adamant that she made the right decision to retire. Today, there is an added pressure: Raducanu has recently had to deal with a creepy superfan who was evicted the Dubai Tennis Championships, 'but [sadly] that comes with the territory,' says Croft. 'There's way more security now, but what has changed is the birth of social media. Tennis players today, if they lose matches, get abuse from betting people who are going to lose a lot of money on somebody's match, and then they start attacking the player. That is a lot of stress and pressure. I wouldn't have been able to take that.' Her life in retirement was about pushing on, pushing through the pain barrier in a different way: 'Sometimes I'd be on the floor with a panic attack [with speaking engagements] but it was Bear Grylls who gave me the best advice. Mel is godfather to his first son. He said 'Annabel, don't try to be somebody you are not.' Perhaps it is because she is, as she says, 'a naturally sunny person' that she has fared so well on mainstream television. She shows me a tabloid from 1988 where she's on the front page wearing a bikini, publicising her role in the Channel 4 reality show Survivor, which involved a group of people attempting to survive on a deserted island. There are photographs in Hello – it's easy to forget how famous she was back then. 'I want to simplify my life' I can see why she invites such love and loyalty: 'My oldest friend from when I was seven often comes to stay with her husband.' Her children have gathered around her. Her son Charlie phones her every day during his coffee break: 'They are always asking 'what are your plans, who are you having dinner with? Come and join us!'' But she's a very long way from thinking of another partner, 'I can't think about it at the moment. I just really can't.' 'I want to simplify my life, maybe go on walking holidays and be close to family to help. I don't have a driving ambition anymore [but] I am probably kidding myself when I think I would be happy if I just did nothing. If there is one message I have in my tour, it is do something that makes you happy because you never know what is round the corner.' Coleman was an investment banker for about 18 years, commuting on the tube and sitting behind a desk, but he was 'a free-spirited yachtsman' whom Croft says should never have had an office job: 'I used to call him Crocodile Dundee.' The white van they converted into 'Vannabel' for camping holidays sits on the drive: 'It's a difficult one. I don't know what to do with it.' Coleman's treatment during his illness has left its mark. The delivery of his diagnosis was blunt, but it was his end-of-life care that was truly horrific. The news of his imminent death was broken to Croft and the family callously by a nurse, as Coleman lay within earshot. This time, it was Croft who wanted to protect him, the 6ft 4in towering man she nicknamed 'Mr Incredible', who only three months earlier had been entertaining everyone, able to fix everything in the house. The lack of kindness in this worst moment was incomprehensible to her. She says 'I have had several meetings since and I've received an apology from the hospital.' She still finds it hard to discuss: 'It's such an awful subject. We don't need to talk about it now. Maybe sometime over a glass of wine.' Mercifully, she says, in the 12 weeks leading up to Coleman's death, both of them had been supported by Dr Isabella Cooper, a biochemist specialising in mitochondria, leading a team of cancer researchers at Westminster Hospital. Through a strict ketogenic diet (based on eliminating sugar, low carb, meat heavy) Dr Isabella Cooper reduced the tumour coverage on Coleman's liver from 97 per cent to 70 percent. It appeared that his new diet was holding the disease back, before the sepsis set in: 'I'm at peace with the fact that Mel died with hope, rather than no hope.' Croft says. 'Isabella gave us so much hope. She was the only person who gave Mel hope. And if one positive thing can come out of losing Mel, I would love to give a platform to her work.' She still talks to Cooper every day and now follows a mostly sugar-free diet. She opens her fridge to show me streaky bacon without sugar additives and smoked salmon with no hidden sugars: 'I have a huge appetite,' she says. You've got to be kidding? 'Oh yes! I ate the same amount as Mel.' 'But I have a very high metabolism and my children say to me 'slow down'.' There is something very old school about Annabel Croft, much like Wimbledon itself. This month Croft will again be part of the BBC's commentary lineup at the tournament. Shortly after Strictly, she appeared at the Princess of Wales' trophy presentation, interviewing the Wimbledon winners. 'The standards at Wimbledon are incredibly high,' she says. 'Everything is immaculate, from the manicured plants to the seating to not a cable being out of place.' However, this year will be the first tournament without human line judges, replaced by AI-powered cameras: 'I'm torn. I'd rather have the correct line call if somebody's Grand Slam is riding on a bad call [from a judge]. People do have less attention span and it will speed tennis up, but the line judges are full of personality and it makes tennis entertaining.' I can't draw her to express a view on the thorny issue of trans women competing in female categories. 'I'm not in a place where I want to attract unwanted aggression towards me.' But I can tell she does have views, 'Maybe if I'd retired I'd express a view. I do think there isn't enough debate anymore – or humour. Certain subjects have been shut down, we have not been allowed to debate them.' Croft is a big fan of TCW (formerly called The Conservative Woman) the online magazine and podcast created by her friend Kathy Gyngell to defend freedom of speech and challenge Left-liberal thinking: 'I adore her. She is a woman who will stand up for what she believes in. She is the brightest woman I have ever met. I admire her courage.' Courage is a good word for Croft too – and resilience: 'Ooh I should use that word more.' In the space of two years, she has gone from not knowing how online banking works – 'Mel did all of that' – to being able to take the back of the tumble dryer to fix it: 'I remember seeing him do it. When it broke down, I went and got his tool box.' Water streamed through the roof shortly after he died – she dealt with that. She can pump up a car tyre as well. 'Mel's watching over me and teaching me a lot. I probably would have gone my whole life never doing these things had Mel been around. But I can do it all now. I've learned I can do things on my own, things I didn't ever think I could.'
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Jack Draper has proven his doubters wrong and is ready to win Wimbledon
To pinpoint the exact moment where British No 1 Jack Draper launched his ascent to the upper echelons of men's tennis, you'd need only go back 12 months this very weekend. Off the back of a disappointing first-round exit at the 2024 French Open, Draper broke his ATP title duck with a statement triumph on the grass in Stuttgart. That week, as he has since acknowledged, something clicked in his big-hitting, flamboyant lefty game. A few days later, the Brit outgunned Carlos Alcaraz at Queen's. While the Spaniard would go on to win his second title at SW19 a few weeks later, Draper slumped to a disappointing second-round loss to compatriot Cameron Norrie. However, what has followed has been splendid. A US Open semi-final, a title in Vienna last October and a Masters 1000 victory in Indian Wells in March – a tournament seen by many as the fifth Grand Slam. Yet, most impressive of all? A newfound physical and mental resilience to compete with the very best, week in, week out. The net result? A career-high ranking of world No 4 for the 23-year-old from Sutton. Frustratingly, he will enter Queen's on Monday at No 5, behind Novak Djokovic, with his Stuttgart points dropping off. But the race to be fourth seed at Wimbledon – with the prospect of avoiding the likes of Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev and Alcaraz until the semi-final – is very much on, as Draper returns to Queen's this week. The summer of '24 was a huge turning point. Draper, the son of former LTA chief executive Roger and ex-British junior tennis champion Nicky, has struggled immensely with injuries and physical fitness since turning professional in 2021. Shoulder and hip issues – remember Andy Murray 's issues with the latter – have plagued him, while he has regularly vomited on court in humid conditions. 'Coming into last year, the only goal was to stay fit and healthy,' Draper's long-term coach, James Trotman, told the ATP website in March. Interestingly, Draper's short-term coaching trial with South African ex-pro Wayne Ferreira last summer did not last more than a few months, with the Brit ultimately placing complete trust in Trotman, who is double his age at 46. 'We were at the point where it didn't matter how good he could be, or was going to be, our focus was to keep him fit. It's challenging to build up trust in your body again. It's not something that happens instantly. This has been a long journey. 'It wasn't just one injury, it was three or four on the back of each other. I thought that was enough. 'What are we going to do here, Jack? Who are the people we're going to put around you?' That was the first objective. It's okay to fail, but if we do, it's not because we're not trying.' Sporting a backwards cap at all times – Lleyton Hewitt-esque – Draper emits something of a braggadocio persona; yet that could not be further from the truth. First emerging in the public eye in 2018, Draper reached the final of junior Wimbledon, winning a marathon semi-final 19-17 in the final set after four hours and 23 minutes. His heart in the heat of battle has never wavered. Quickly, he was elevated to the role of hitting partner for the Great Britain Davis Cup team. 'There was a lot of potential there,' Trotman said of Draper, the junior. 'He was very small until the age of 15 or 16. He grew up as a smaller player, having to compete against bigger guys, having to defend and find ways of being competitive against the stronger players who could hit him off the court. 'His identity from a young age was to be a little bit more defensive. All of a sudden, he grows to 6' 4' and he's serving out of a tree and hitting the ball big. A big part of that coaching journey that we're still on today is to try and impose his weapons on the court and take the racquet out of his opponent's hand.' Draper was also able to learn from Murray during the latter stages of his career as part of the Davis Cup team, while showcasing his personality. Notably, GB's celebrations on the way back from the 2023 victory over France, where a young Draper, in a bucket hat and sipping a beer, belted out The Proclaimers' classic '500 Miles', with the viral video showing an unimpressed Murray. Whilst his raw ability – his fierce serve and swashbuckling forehand are his two greatest assets – has never been in doubt, his fitness over best-of-five set tennis has often been placed under the microscope. In fact, not unlike the early stages of Murray's career. Pleasingly, Draper dedicated his most recent off-season, when nursing a hip injury, to his physical conditioning and notably employed a breathing coach. 'I had a lot of problems with my sinuses when I was younger so I breathe a lot through my mouth,' explained Draper, having come through three back-to-back five-set matches at the Australian Open in January. 'When you are anxious or have long points and you have to recover quickly, it's not efficient to breathe through your mouth. So, I've been trying to reverse what I do and breathe through my nose a lot more.' Fast-forward six months, Draper is one of the fittest athletes on tour. So much so that the effervescent Alexander Bublik, prior to beating the Brit in the fourth round, said to him at Roland Garros: 'Are you getting ready for UFC?!' Now firmly rooted in the top 10 in the rankings, Draper does not want his upward trajectory to stop. The Putney resident was back on court at Queen's ahead of the tournament, hitting with former world No 14 Kyle Edmund, who knows a thing or two about career-impacting injuries. Draper will play just one warm-up tournament, at Queen's, before Wimbledon. While still a step short of Sinner and Alcaraz's insane level of consistency, as shown by their magnificent five-hour-plus Roland-Garros final, the Briton has the potential to cause an upset if either player has an off day. He has beaten both Sinner and Alcaraz at Queen's, in 2021 and 2024. His hard-hitting game is well-suited to the quick nature of grass-court tennis. And should the draw surprisingly open up at any point, he will be ready to pounce at SW19.
