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Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Today in Sports - Novak Djokovic wins his first Wimbledon, beating defending champion Rafael Nadal
July 3 1920 — Suzanne Lenglen beats Dorothea Chambers a second straight year (6-3, 6-0) to win the women's singles title at Wimbledon. 1925 — Suzanne Lenglen wins her sixth and final women's singles title at Wimbledon, easily beating Joan Fry, 6-2, 6-0. 1931 — Max Schmeling knocks out Young Stribling at 2:46 of the 15th round to retain the world heavyweight title in Cleveland. 1951 — Sam Snead wins his third PGA Championship with a 7 and 6 victory over Walter Burkemo at Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club. 1966 — Atlanta pitcher Tony Cloninger becomes the first National League player to hit two grand slams in one game. He adds a single for nine RBIs in a 17-3 triumph over San Francisco. 1976 — Bjorn Borg beats Ilie Nastase 6-4, 6-2, 9-7, to win his first men's singles title at Wimbledon. 1981 — Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Chris Evert beats Hana Mandlíková 6-2, 6-2 for her third and final Wimbledon singles title. 1982 — Martina Navratilova begins her streak of six straight singles titles at Wimbledon with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 victory over Chris Evert Lloyd. It's the third Wimbledon singles title for Navratilova, all against Evert Lloyd. 1983 — Calvin Smith sets the 100-meter world record at Colorado Springs, with a run of 9.93 seconds. He breaks the previous record of 9.95 set by Jim Hines in 1968. 1983 — Wimbledon Men's Tennis: American John McEnroe wins 5th career Grand Slam title; outclasses Chris Lewis of New Zealand 6-2, 6-2, 6-2. 1994 — FIFA World Cup: In a huge upset Romania eliminates Argentina 3-2 from the round of 16 at the Rose Bowl, Pasadena, California. 2004 — Maria Sharapova, 17, wins her first Grand Slam title and instant celebrity by beating Serena Williams 6-1, 6-4. For the first time since 1999, none of the four major titles is held by a Williams. 2005 — Roger Federer wins his third consecutive Wimbledon title by beating Andy Roddick 6-2, 7-6 (2), 6-4. Federer is the third man since 1936 to win three straight Wimbledon crowns, joining seven-time champion Pete Sampras and five-time winner Bjorn Borg. 2006 — Annika Sorenstam wins the U.S. Women's Open after 10 years of frustration and wins her 10th major championship. Sorenstam, who shot a 1-under 70 in the 18-hole playoff, beats Pat Hurst by four strokes for the largest margin of victory in a playoff at the major since Kathy Cornelius won by seven shots 50 years ago. 2006 — Detroit Red Wings legend Steve Yzerman officially retires from the NHL, finishing with 692 goals and 1,755 points. 2007 — The Alinghi team from Switzerland — a country more often associated with Alpine skiing and winter snowscapes — successfully defends sailing's coveted America's Cup, beating Emirates Team New Zealand 5-2. 2010 — Serena Williams wins her fourth Wimbledon title and 13th Grand Slam championship by sweeping Vera Zvonareva in straight sets in the women's final. Williams, who finishes the tournament without dropping a set, takes 67 minutes to win 6-3, 6-2. 2011 — Novak Djokovic wins his first Wimbledon, beating defending champion Rafael Nadal 6-4, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3. Djokovic, already guaranteed to take over the No. 1 ranking from the Spaniard on July 4, extends his mastery over Nadal this season with a fifth straight head-to-head victory. 2016 — Serena Williams overwhelms Annika Beck 6-3, 6-0 in just 51 minutes on Centre Court at Wimbledon, advancing to the fourth round with her 300th career Grand Slam match win. 2018 — Feliciano Lopez makes history just by taking to the court at Wimbledon. The 36-year-old Spaniard breaks Roger Federer's record by appearing in a 66th consecutive Grand Slam singles tournament, continuing a run that started at the 2002 French Open. Lopez beats Federico Delbonis of Argentina 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. 2020 — The Major League Baseball All-Star game planned to be hosted by the Los Angeles Dodgers is cancelled due to governmental restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. _____
The Guardian
11-07-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Near-perfect Alcaraz puts on masterclass in doing whatever it takes to win
There was a lot of talk about a perceived weakness in the game of Carlos Alcaraz in the buildup to his semi-final with Taylor Fritz. His kryptonite, some suggested, is his tendency to wander, to lose a few games while his mind takes a breather, maybe even to drop a set. But what all those people overlooked was the fact that Alcaraz does whatever it takes to win and keeps doing it. This is a man who has won five grand slam titles and is now one win away not only from a sixth, but also from a third straight Wimbledon title, something only Björn Borg, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic have ever managed in the Open era. Sampras and Boris Becker, at their best, were the kings of this kind of efficiency. Knowing they were always likely to hold serve, they wouldn't bother wasting energy in their opponents' service games unless they won one of the first two points. Once they did, they would be fully engaged and, invariably, get the one break they needed to win the set. If they dropped a set, they'd just shrug it off. Alcaraz does not have the same kind of serve as those two former champions but he has their ability to do what he needs to do when he needs to. Up or down, he never panics, almost always chooses the right shot at the right time and, when someone does come up with something special, as Fritz did when he won the second set or held two set points in the fourth, he just resets, raises his game and gets the job done. Fritz had done brilliantly to make the semi-finals here for the first time, two points from defeat against Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard of France in the first round and taken the distance by Gabriel Diallo in round two. The American went into the match saying he knew what he needed to do and, in parts, he played outstanding tennis. But as close as Fritz came to taking it to a decider, as well as he played and as hard as he tried, a sense of inevitability still ran through the match. It's the variety in the Alcaraz game that sets him apart. The first point of the match was a drop shot; there were loads more of those, many on critical points. He served brilliantly – in the first and third sets he did not lose a point on first serve and in the third he only lost one point on serve overall – and he served and volleyed 20 times, winning 16 of them, taking advantage every time Fritz tried to block the ball back in play on his forehand return. Lob volleys, angles, fake drop shots, he produced the lot. When Alcaraz broke serve in the opening game of the match, thanks to a dead net cord, it was tempting to feel as if that was the match over, there and then. That's no disrespect toward Fritz, who never dropped his head, never gave up hope. Nevertheless, the crowd, wafting their fans almost in unison on another day of intense heat, were mesmerised, hoping for a good battle but feeling like they knew the end result. As Alcaraz maintained his advantage to take the first set, Leonardo DiCaprio sat enthralled in his sunglasses, Borg sat a short distance away, as relaxed as ever in the front row of the royal box. Fritz began to work his way into the match and lifted his own serving level, taking the attack to Alcaraz. A couple of stoppages in the crowd, which saw two fans needing treatment, broke Alcaraz's concentration a little and the American took advantage, snatching the break back for 7-5 to level the match. Momentum was with Fritz but what did Alcaraz do? He just reset, kept on smiling and raised his game again. There is still so much of the young kid about Alcaraz, the way he stands twirling his racket between points, the way he looks at the crowd, grinning in delight. Andre Agassi, the eight-time grand slam champion and 1992 Wimbledon winner, was waxing lyrical on BBC, relishing watching a man who makes tennis look fun. The third set was a masterclass from Alcaraz, near-perfect serving and one break, achieved with another drop shot, lob volley combination, as he almost toyed with Fritz at times. And even when the American played his best tennis of the match in the fourth set, forcing two set points in the tie-break, Alcaraz just delved into his box of tricks, returning a 134mph Fritz serve on the first of them and forcing an error on the second, before going on to clinch his 20th straight win at Wimbledon and his 24th consecutive win this year. Winning is what he does.
The Independent
11-07-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
Carlos Alcaraz storms into third Wimbledon final with historic double in his grasp
Sign up to our free sport newsletter for all the latest news on everything from cycling to boxing Sign up to our free sport email for all the latest news Sign up to our free sport email for all the latest news Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice With Bjorn Borg observing stoically from the Royal Box, Carlos Alcaraz is now one match away from emulating the great Swede. The 22-year-old, tennis's biggest hotshot property, who is in the form of his life and is now on a 24-match win streak dating back to April, is chasing the 'double double': winning Roland Garros and Wimbledon back-to-back. Borg did it three times, in fact, from 1978-1980, but it's something Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer all missed out on. Yet just three years since he first burst onto the world scene in 2022, Alcaraz is on the cusp of a sensational feat. And despite flirting with a final-set decider in the semi-finals here against world No 5 Taylor Fritz, it felt somewhat inevitable that Alcaraz would hit his superlative heights when it mattered most. Down 6-4 in the fourth-set tie-break, Alcaraz sprinkled his typical dose of Centre Court magic to win four points in a row and take victory against the American: 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, 7-6(6). And given his bamboozling shot selection and poise beyond his years, he was fooling nobody with his humble post-match sentiments. open image in gallery Carlos Alcaraz roared into his third Wimbledon final ( Getty Images ) 'It was a really difficult match, it always is when I play against Taylor,' he said on-court afterwards. 'Playing the semi-finals here is not easy with the nerves and the pressure. 'I'm just very proud with the way I stayed calm and thought clearly. This is my dream, stepping onto these courts, at the most beautiful tournaments in the world.' Alcaraz is not one to arrogantly overlook any challenge before him and he did not do so here. Fritz, competing in his first Wimbledon semi-final but also riding a wave having won two grass court tournaments in Stuttgart and Eastbourne, started out on serve like a man oddly dazed by the occasion. The American was not at the races for all of four minutes at the start of the match. The sloppy start cost him the first set. Broken immediately with Alcaraz the beneficiary of a dead net cord mid-rally (as if the Spaniard needs luck on his side), Fritz was thrown straight into the eye of the storm in the first hour, with Alcaraz playing some breathtaking stuff. Frighteningly ruthless on serve, losing just four points behind it in the first set and zero after finding his first serve, and zealously inspired on return. One point summed it all up as Fritz dived in vain at the net, reaching for a pinpoint Alcaraz pass like a goalkeeper grasping at thin air for the ball, when the whole stadium knows it's heading for the bottom-corner. Alcaraz could not help but smirk, briefly. He'd go on to serve out the set to love, well on his way to Sunday's showpiece. It was no secret that if Alcaraz was, miraculously, able to maintain his stunningly high level for the rest of the match, Fritz had little to no hope. But gradually, the 27-year-old doggedly fought his way back into the contest, taking the ball early and flat to great effect. By the end of the second, it was Alcaraz's serve which was vulnerable, particularly during a stop-start game when two spectators fainted in the stands amid 31C temperatures. Alcaraz saved a break point, but the momentum had shifted. open image in gallery Taylor Fritz could not force a fifth set (Adam Davy/PA) ( PA Wire ) Critically, Fritz did not melt in the SW19 sunshine at the critical juncture, with a tie-break seemingly beckoning in the second. However, at 6-5 on serve, a momentary lapse in concentration and execution from Alcaraz presented three set points to the American; the Spaniard went long on the forehand and, much like Fritz in the opener, was punished for his erratic few minutes. Curiously, having taken his first set against Alcaraz in six attempts, Fritz took this moment to take a 10-minute bathroom break. An interesting call, given the tide of the match was with him. Alcaraz, unperturbed and waiting patiently at the back of the court, regrouped himself and came out the blocks with an extra spring. Cranking into gear, Alcaraz roared to his player box as he broke to love early in the third set, running 6' 4' Fritz ragged with a drop-shot and then a lob. open image in gallery Alcaraz is through to another Wimbledon final (Adam Davy/PA) ( PA Wire ) By the time Fritz surrendered the set on his own serve with a backhand long, we had barely played two hours, with both racing through their service games – bar the odd exception. The fourth set followed a similar trajectory to the second, nip-and-tuck throughout and both men serving supremely. Yet the edgier of the two was Fritz, with a few gesticulations to his box in moments of frustration. But a tiebreak which felt a formality in the second came to fruition in the fourth. Rather inevitably, Alcaraz reached new heights in the breaker. Just when it mattered most. Fritz, with some terrific play of his own, found himself a point away from forcing a fifth set at 6-4 before Alcaraz, somehow and someway, turned defence into attack in a blink of an eye. The Spaniard won four points in a row, unbreakable at the back of the court and exquisitely delicate at the net, to emerge victorious. He leant back and roared. 'Right now, I don't want to think about Sunday,' he said. I just want to enjoy this moment.' One of his biggest rivals, in Djokovic and Jannik Sinner, awaits. 'I will watch the semi-final,' he admitted. 'This is one of the most exciting matches on tour. Let's see who I'll play.'
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Wimbledon news: Carlos Alcaraz's 21st straight win puts him in Rafael Nadal company
The post Wimbledon news: Carlos Alcaraz's 21st straight win puts him in Rafael Nadal company appeared first on ClutchPoints. Carlos Alcaraz may not be perfect, but he is not about to derailed as he attempts to win his third consecutive Wimbledon championship. He was pushed hard in his third-round match by Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany before he came up with a four-set victory. Alcaraz has now won 21 straight matches and 17 in a row at the All-England Tennis Club. He defeated Struff 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the round of 16. Advertisement He joined Rafael Nadal, Jim Courier and Juan Martin del Potro as the only players 23 years old or younger to win at least 21 matches in a row. Alcaraz is coming off a recent triumph in the French Open. If he can win his third straight Wimbledon title, he will become the first players since Bjorn Borg to win the French Open-Wimbledon double in consecutive years. Alcaraz was pushed hard by Struff. While he was able to win the first set with relative ease, he lost the second set and the other two sets were quite challenging. 'I knew at the beginning it was going to be really difficult,' Alcaraz said, per 'That I would have to be really focused on every shot and on my service games and return. I think his game suits pretty well to the grass. Big serves. Approaching the net as much as he can. I am really pleased with everything that I have done today. Fighting, running, making great shots. I tried to make the opportunities he gave to me in the match and I am just proud with the way I won in four sets.' Advertisement Alcaraz uses serve and quickness to defeat Struff Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports Alcaraz was able to gain an advantage with his serve throughout the match. It seemed that Struff was often just trying to block it back rather than attack. Additionally, Alcaraz was able to move Struff from side to side on a consistent basis, and the more the German was forced to move, the greater the advantage for the Spaniard. The match looked shaky in the second set for Alcaraz. He struggled quite a bit with his own serve in that set, winning just 53 percent of his points when he put the ball in play. He also had a difficult time handling Struff's serve in that set. Advertisement However, once the two players moved on to the third set, Alcaraz picked up his concentration level and regained control of the match. Alcaraz will next play Andrey Rublev in the next round. Rublev defeated Adrian Mannarino of France with a comfortable 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 win. Rublev's best result at Wimbledon came in 2023 when he advanced to the quarterfinals. Related: Aryna Sabalenka's consistency reaches Serena Williams heights at Wimbledon Related: Naomi Osaka's 'negative' admission after difficult Wimbledon loss
Daily Mail
10-07-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
JONATHAN BROCKLEBANK: Much of Auntie's sports coverage grinds my gears. But Wimbledon? After decades of joy it's the best thing the BBC do
In the year I started watching Wimbledon a Romanian hothead called Ilie Nastase remonstrated most amusingly with an umpire who dared to address him by his surname. 'Don't call me Nastase. You call me MISTER Nastase,' raged the original superbrat. Across the net from him, ice cool reigning champion Bjorn Borg waited to complete the demolition, his bearded face a study of inscrutability. The Swede was 21 years old. I was nine – and mesmerised. Another fiery-tempered upstart made his Wimbledon debut that year. John McEnroe, my first tennis hero, was put to the sword in the semi-final by fellow American Jimmy Connors who, I remember, emitted a squawk every time he served. My mum used to say Connors had the best legs in tennis. I thought he maybe had the coolest racquet – a futuristic metal one when everyone else was using wood. Both of us hoped that grunt wouldn't catch on. In the ladies' singles championship Britain's Virginia Wade went all the way, lifting the Venus Rosewater Dish after a tense three-set final against Betty Stöve. Wade turned 80 yesterday. Decades passed before there was another homegrown singles champion at Wimbledon. Watching the UK cannon fodder fall in the early skirmishes became one of the traditions of this tournament until a boy from Dunblane arrived with a fanciful re-write of the script. But I am getting ahead of myself. For this viewer, year dot for Wimbledon was 1977 and I have devoured every edition of it ever since. I remember where I was – Aviemore – when Borg faced McEnroe in the classic 1980 final. I ducked out of a wedding reception eight years later to watch Steffi Graf end Martina Navratilova's decade of dominance. It was in the elegant German, dare I say it, that I discovered the best legs in tennis. Even in 2025, tennis rules my early July diary. 'Can't you get an earlier bus?' I said to my daughter when she asked if I could collect her at 3pm tomorrow from the station in Glasgow. 'You know there's a Wimbledon final on.' She's getting an earlier bus. There is one constant through all those years of summer viewing that perhaps does not receive all the credit it deserves. Indeed, every July, it is more used to moans. I refer, of course, to the BBC which, frequently in the last fortnight, has screened Wimbledon matches on channels one and two for most of the afternoon. 'Does our national broadcaster think the whole of Britain is obsessed with the events at SW19?' goes the typical complaint. 'Hour after hour of insufferable tennis … etc.' Really? Have you tried watching cricket? I may be biased. I adore tennis, consider it my healthiest, most rewarding addiction and thank heaven the BBC has been my faithful enabler these last five decades. But let us look at the issue in an unbiased way. In recent years all manner of showpiece sporting events have been snapped up by subscription channels placing financial and practical obstacles in the way of our viewing pleasure. Golf fans can no longer watch the US Masters from Augusta without a subscription. The Open, which begins later this month, is behind a paywall. For years I was able to enjoy the other tennis grand slam tournaments, the French, the US and the Australian Opens, without signing up to a channel I'd never watch for anything else. Impossible now. Last month, when the best two players in the world, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz faced off in the final at Roland Garros for what turned out to be one of the greatest tennis matches ever played, I was dismayed to find there was not even a one-day subscription option available. No, anyone wanting to watch the French Open final had to pay £30.99 for the first month to Discovery+ and then remember to cancel it the following month. Still, had I known how seminal a match it would be, I'd probably have paid it. But this isn't the outfit screening the golf. You have to take out a subscription with Sky Sports to see that. We are living in an age where the desire to enjoy televised sport must be counterbalanced with the hassle and the expense of bringing it into our living rooms. Fine, perhaps, if you are a sports nut who knows you'll get your money's worth over the course of a year. Not so much fun for those with neither the time nor the inclination to be glued to sport every day. What a blessed relief then, never to endure this rigmarole with my beloved Wimbledon whose status as a 'Crown Jewel' event ensures it must be available for free-to-air terrestrial television. But what the 1996 Broadcasting Act doesn't ensure is that the BBC is the terrestrial channel which must have exclusive rights to the tournament. After 2027, its contract expires and the cost of securing an extension to the reported £60 million it currently pays is expected to be well above that. Even from two years away I can hear the chorus of outrage. Wimbledon is costing licence fee payers 'how much?' When the uproar kicks off, I hope people also remember to wonder how much the BBC pays for the rights to screen Glastonbury every year and why it considers sending almost 500 staff to cover a pop festival an effective use of their time and our money. To each their own, but I know which one I'd be waving off to a subscription channel – and sooner than 2027. None of this, of course, is to say the BBC's Wimbledon coverage is beyond reproach. In Andrew Castle, they have perhaps the most irritating commentator in all sport. Rightly, the other day, he identified John McEnroe as the perfect man to put on the spot about the introduction of electronic line calling this year. Wrongly – indeed, infuriatingly – he interrupted the former champion with his own tuppenceworth every time he tried to answer. Take a wild guess, Andrew – which of the two of you would the average viewer prefer to be talking right now? The BBC's iPlayer coverage is completely out of whack. You choose the match you want to watch, then a voice comes on telling you they're switching to another match, or stopping for the news, or moving over to BBC2. 'Live coverage of this match continues, of course, on iPlayer.' But I'm on iPlayer watching live coverage and you've just discontinued it! Much else about the Beeb's coverage of my favourite sporting event grinds my gears but, ultimately, I remember to be grateful. There are simply too many wonderful memories down the decades to feel any other way. McEnroe's stately progress from on court enfant terrible to wizened Wimbledon sage; the Becker years; the Williams' sibling rivalry; the rise of Federer – the best player the world had seen – and the arrival a few years later two men who would ultimately put even his sublime talents in the shade. It was at the height of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era that a fourth man, Scotland's Andy Murray, contrived to put a title bid together in 2013. His victory that year was the most pleasurable afternoon I've spent watching television. Wimbledon? It's the best thing the BBC do.
