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Sublime Sinner marches on in Paris with drubbing of Rublev

Sublime Sinner marches on in Paris with drubbing of Rublev

Reuters2 days ago

PARIS, June 2 (Reuters) - Top seed Jannik Sinner continued his serene French Open progress with a 6-1 6-3 6-4 drubbing of Russian Andrey Rublev to reach the quarter-finals in ominous fashion on Monday.
Ruthlessly efficient from the baseline, the Italian dissected world number 15 Rublev's game in stunning fashion to make light work of the Court Philippe Chatrier night match.
The 23-year-old, bidding to win a third successive Grand Slam title after his triumphs in New York and Melbourne, has won 12 out of 12 sets so far on the Parisian clay and is beginning to look unstoppable in his quest for a first French crown.
Rublev did not play at all badly, but after failing to convert either of the two break points he had in the opening game he could make little impression.
World number one Sinner was at least pushed hard in the third set as Rublev threw caution to the wind but he pounced to break the Russian's serve in the 10th game to stretch his streak of wins in Grand Slams to 18 matches.

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Carlos Alcaraz told to quit tennis after 'complicated' girlfriend confession
Carlos Alcaraz told to quit tennis after 'complicated' girlfriend confession

Wales Online

time11 minutes ago

  • Wales Online

Carlos Alcaraz told to quit tennis after 'complicated' girlfriend confession

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‘Why should we have to downsize?': How boomers became the victim generation
‘Why should we have to downsize?': How boomers became the victim generation

Telegraph

time16 minutes ago

  • Telegraph

‘Why should we have to downsize?': How boomers became the victim generation

We're looking for readers in different generations to talk about change within their families, such as a grandparent and grandchild's experiences of buying their first home. To get involved, email us at money@ Baby boomers have nothing to complain about. Bumper pensions. Free university education. House prices that have gone through the roof. Some of them even got to see The Beatles. This, at least, is the idea that's caught fire over the last 20 years, a period in which the debate about inequality in Britain has been reframed as a tug-of-war between generations. Boomers – the post-war cohort born between 1946 and 1965 – are blamed for hoarding wealth after winning the economic lottery. The losers are said to be Generation Z and millennials – born between 1980 and 2009 – who face sky-high mortgages and record-breaking rents, stagnating wages, massive student debt and outrageous student loan repayments, plus an unstable jobs market. There is a stigma attached to being a 'boomer', which has become shorthand for greedy, entitled and out of touch. Boomers have been accused of 'stealing their children's futures' by taking more than their fair share. Many believe they are unfairly victimised – pilloried for their wealth, and told to downsize out of their house to make way for younger families. But are they right to feel that way? 'Divisive and harmful tensions in society' A report by the House of Commons' Women and Equalities Committee in February confirmed what many older citizens have experienced first-hand. It found 'clear evidence' of ageist stereotyping across British media, with debates about intergenerational fairness tending to pit younger and older generations against each other in a 'perceived fight for limited resources'. The report went on: 'Older people are also frequently stereotyped as wealthy 'boomers' living comfortable lives in homes they own while younger generations struggle on low incomes, unable to afford to enter the housing market and struggling with high rents.' These 'narratives', the committee said, have fuelled 'divisive and harmful tensions in society'. This resentment doesn't come from nowhere. Recent figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that boomers are by far Britain's richest cohort. The average wealth of households aged 65 to 74 is £502,500 – more than 30 times that of Gen Zs aged 16 to 24, who typically have £15,200. Boomers' wealth is also 4.6 times greater than those aged 25 to 34, who are mainly younger millennials, with £109,800. This may not seem very surprising given older people have had a lifetime to accumulate savings, homes and pensions. 'There's an extremely strong life-cycle component to wealth,' says Simon Pittaway, a senior economist at The Resolution Foundation think tank. 'Most people start working lives with very little, build it up through peak working years then run it down in retirement. 'This has been the case for a long time. But we're seeing that profile getting starker.' The gap between the generations has grown since the financial crisis, which is often blamed on the boomers, who, the argument goes, were steering the ship at the time. A Resolution Foundation study found that between 2006-08 and 2018-20, median wealth among Britons in their 60s rose by 55pc in real terms, but median wealth for those in their 30s fell by 34pc. At the same time, the share of Britain's wealth held by the under-40s has fallen from 7.5pc in 2010 to 4pc today. It's statistics like these that mean boomers are often implored to give away their hoarded wealth, or downsize into smaller properties to make room for young families. 'Older people aren't hoarding – they're just afraid of change' John Griffiths, 80, insists his generation is in fact supremely generous – and shouldn't be discriminated against for having done well. 'It's a gimmick in the financial media to blame the boomers,' he says. 'It's not our fault property went up the way it did in the 60s and 70s. [The house price rises] drove most of us out of London.' Griffiths was born shortly after VE Day in May 1945, putting him right on the cusp of the boomer bracket. 'I tend to count myself as one of them,' he says. After training as a chemical engineer, he spent 20 years in the gas industry and the North Sea designing and building offshore oil facilities. He went on to found his own marine energy consultancy, advising clean energy firms and governments on how to best harness the power of waves and tides. He retired five years ago at the age of 75. His successful career has allowed him to pass on lump sums totalling £500,000 to his three children, who are in their 40s and 50s and have children themselves. A large part of his financial security derives from property wealth. The house in Wimbledon that he bought with his wife Valerie in 2006 for £545,000 is now worth £1.3m. Homeowners aged 60 and over hold more than half of the nation's owner-occupied housing wealth, totalling an estimated £2.89 trillion, according to estate agents Savills. Two thirds (67pc) of homeowners aged 65 and over have two or more spare rooms in their property, even as a shortage of affordable housing prevents young families from buying their first home. The Tony Blair Institute think tank has called for larger properties to be taxed more to encourage owners to downsize. But Griffiths believes pressuring older people to vacate their homes is unfair. 'It doesn't sit well with me. I don't think older people are hoarding. They stay where they are because they're afraid of change. 'Many don't have supportive families to help them, and are stuck where they are.' The rise of boomer bashing Dr Jennie Bristow, a reader in sociology at Canterbury Christ Church University, traces boomer bashing back to the collapse of traditional political frameworks at the end of the 20th century. 'From the 1990s, we started trying to explain societal problems that went beyond Left and Right,' she says. 'It's still playing out now in the culture wars.' It was a time when demographic anxieties were spreading across the Western world. Ageing populations mean relatively fewer younger workers supporting the swelling ranks of elderly pensioners through the welfare system. Old-versus-young became the salient faultline. 'The narrative that emerged was that the 2008 financial crisis was due to policy decisions, and also cultural individualism, that was personified by the baby boomer generation. These are the people who are hoarding wealth and will benefit from big pensions. 'For the Right, it's an argument for restructuring the welfare state. And for the Left, it's used as a reason for more welfare and less Thatcherite individualism. It brought those two opposites together.' Bristow believes anti-boomer sentiment peaked in 2010, the year that David Willetts, a former Tory MP turned public intellectual, published an influential book called 'The Pinch: How the Baby Boomers Stole Their Children's Future'. She says the tendency to blame the boomers has turned into a 'frenzy' that ignores inequalities within generational cohorts. 'The boomers associated with the 1960s generation, born straight after the war, did reap a lot of the benefits of that time. There were a lot of possibilities, economic opportunities, and they ended up with good pensions. But not everyone was part of this. It was actually quite a narrow section of society. 'Younger boomers came of age in the far more pessimistic 1970s. Yes, people got grants for university, but only 7pc of the cohort went.' 'I get sick of boomers blaming young people' Richard Merry was born in 1955, putting him right in the middle of the boomer generation. After leaving school at 16, Merry joined the armed forces, eventually becoming a member of a special army unit that sent him all over the world during a 50-year career. He has worked hard to retire three years ago in relative comfort, but acknowledges that younger generations have a tougher ride in many ways. 'People just don't earn that sort of money any more,' the 69-year-old says. 'I get a little bit sick with the boomers saying that it's young people's own fault for not getting on the property ladder.' Merry bought a three-bedroom semi-detached house in south-east London for £77,000 in 1990. It is now worth over £1m. It was easily affordable on his salary of around £32,000, equivalent to £80,000 today. 'My children, both in their 30s, work incredibly hard and lead tough lives. You simply can't compare property prices and deposits now to what they were.' But it's not all plain sailing for his generation. Care costs, for instance, are 'crucifying' the boomers, he says. His own mother's old age care cost £320,000 over three years – money that would have gone to Merry and his sister. They had to sell their mother's home to pay for it. 'All the talk is that boomers are hoarding wealth, but we're going to be skinned alive when it comes to care costs.' On tax and earnings too, it hasn't been the easiest of rides. 'People at the bottom benefitted from increases in the minimum wage, but middle earners like me have had the stuffing kicked out of them.' Boomers have 'rigged the game in their favour' On the contrary, Angus Hanton, of the Intergenerational Foundation think tank, believes boomers have 'heavily rigged the game in their favour' over decades by repeatedly voting in governments that have given them a good deal. 'Boomers have fought tooth and nail to protect their interests,' he says. 'We can see that most starkly in how the tax system is structured – what's taxed heavily is earned income. Younger working people pay income tax at a high rate from a low level of earnings, plus National Insurance and student loan repayments, which is basically a tax. 'But unearned income is taxed very lightly – money in Isas and Sipps, and capital gains tax is half the rate of income tax.' Hanton, a boomer himself, rejects the idea that the focus on competing age groups squeezes out other factors from the conversation – like class, race or gender. 'Generational inequality is a really important lens and we shouldn't refuse to look through it just because there are other lenses available.' Evidence suggests that many younger people are looking at the world – and their claim on the material wealth of their elders – through this lens. Research by Moneyfarm, an investment platform, found that two in five millennials fear their parents were frittering away 'their' inheritance, while a fifth said their 'spendthrift' parents were selfish for failing to consider their children or grandchildren's economic wellbeing. Meanwhile, 61pc of Gen Z feel they have to work harder than their parents did, according to YouGov polling. The reality is that many young people will benefit indirectly from the economic success of their parents and grandparents. A much-cited report from estate agents Knight Frank found that millennials are set to become the 'richest generation in history', thanks to the steep rise in the value of property assets accumulated by the generations before them which will be passed on when they die. Yet Bristow points out that even if millennials as a group are in line for a huge windfall, the only ones who will actually benefit are those with well-off parents who rode the property wave. Boomers, too, all tend to be tarred with the same brush. 'You can look at it two ways, generationally,' she says. 'Not all older people are wealthy. So saying boomers have stolen their children's future doesn't stack up.'

Coco Gauff fights off Madison Keys to reach French Open semi-finals
Coco Gauff fights off Madison Keys to reach French Open semi-finals

Powys County Times

time25 minutes ago

  • Powys County Times

Coco Gauff fights off Madison Keys to reach French Open semi-finals

Coco Gauff passed her biggest test so far at the French Open as she scrapped her way past fellow American Madison Keys to reach the semi-finals. A scruffy match featuring a combined 101 unforced errors and 14 breaks of serve ended 6-7 (6) 6-4 6-1 in favour of the world number two. Gauff had previously not dropped a set as she quietly made her way through the friendlier side of the draw. But in a nervy first set on both sides of the net, Gauff overturned a 4-1 deficit to force a set point at 5-4, only to be taken to a tie-break which Keys won. COCOMEBACK 💥 Gauff is into the #RolandGarros semis. — Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 4, 2025 Gauff went 4-1 up in the second but found herself pegged back, before a break and a hold took the match into a decider. The confidence had drained from Australian Open champion Keys while Gauff finally located her serve, having coughed up nine double faults over the first two sets. A pass down the line brought up three match points and the 21-year-old roared with delight when Keys went long, giving her the victory in two hours and 11 minutes. 'Maddie was playing well, she's hitting the ball so fast and so low so I was just trying to fight for each point,' said Gauff, the runner-up at Roland Garros in 2022. 'I knew I had to be able to run today and as soon as the ball came short, punish her for it. 'It means a lot, getting through this tough match. I'm very happy to get through and be in the semi-finals again. I'll savour this one today and be ready for tomorrow's match.'

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