Latest news with #CourtNo1
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Sport
- Telegraph
Live Wimbledon 2025: Live updates from Cameron Norrie v Frances Tiafoe
1:21PM Norrie 1-1 Tiafoe* Tiafoe takes the first two points comfortably and then sends Norrie the wrong way with a lovely backhand pass for 40-love. He tries a drop shot after a quick rally but it falls short. 15-40. Norrie replies in kind with a more successful drop shot, which the American reaches, but Norrie finishes at the net. Norri gets the next serve back but is forced wide by the Tiafoe slice and the American wins the game with a shot into the open court. Tiafoe holds serve. 1:16PM Norrie* 1-0 Tiafoe Tiafoe puts one of those white sleeves on his arm, the sort we have seen Jacob Fearnley wearing. But it doesn't help him return any of four serves he has to face, the first of which he sends wide, the next three of which he crashes into the net. Love game. Good start by Norrie. Norrie holds serve. 1:05PM Players on court Tiafoe is making his way through the newly-built tunnel that leads from the changing rooms to Court No 1. He has big headphones – and game face – on. He knows he's in for a battle, against a redoubtable opponent and the 12th man that is the home crowd. He is suddenly joined in the tunnel by Norrie, who appears magically from off camera, as though he has been hiding behind a pot plant. Mind games early on. Good to see. The players are now walking out on court. Tiafoe wins the toss, calls tails, and elects to receive. We will soon be under way. 12:50PM Norrie and Tiafoe evenly matched Norrie vs Tiafoe promises to be a fascinating match-up as neither player had a particularly eye-opening build-up to Wimbledon. Norrie crashed out early at both Queen's and Eastbourne, while Tiafoe lost his only match on grass – his least favoured surface – at Queen's. That said, they both returned to winning ways in the first round here, which is no mean feat considering the rate at which seeds have tumbled out already. Tiafoe came through in three sets against Elmer Moller, while Norrie claimed the scalp of an in-form Roberto Bautista Agut in four. The British No 3 produced 18 aces with a 71 per cent first serve percentage. He attacked the net 36 times and won 27 of those points, while concerting four of seven break points. If he reproduces that form Norrie will be more than a match for the American, who has won two of their three previous meetings, but has never faced the British No 3 grass. 12:36PM Wimbledon limbo It's a curious kind of limbo for the ground staff at the moment as the weather fails to make up its mind. I can see a gang of them gathered indecisively on Court 14. The covers are off but the net-posts aren't in yet. My suspicion is that we won't see a lot of play until No1 Court starts under the roof at 1pm. 12:29PM Play to get under way shortly The announcer at Wimbledon has just said that there will be no match play before 12.45pm, which one assumes is their way of saying that play will get under way at 12.45pm. Either way Norrie v Tiafoe will definitely get under way at 1pm on No 1 Court and you can follow it blow by blow right here. 12:19PM Bloodbath among the seeds Not three days in and it has been quite the Championships so far. There are 10 British players in the second round, which is virtually unheard of, while 23 seeds have crashed out in the first round. Coco Gauff and Paula Badosa have gone on the women's side, while Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev, Matteo Berrettini, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Holger Rune an Francisco Cerundolo are just some of the men who have also packed their bags already. Alexander Bublik's exit is also quite a surprise. The Kazak, who knocked Jack Draper out of Queen's, was fancied by many to go deep in the competition but Draper can at least relax in the knowledge he won't have to face him again for a while. 11:57AM Play pushed back With the first deadline of 11.45am having been passed for play to get under way on the outside courts, they have now pushed the earliest start time back to 12.15pm. That looks ambitious though. The covers are still on, and although there is some activity among the ground staff, the skies remain leaden. Correction! The covers are now being rolled back. This is England. We don't worry about grey skies. It's 22C out here. Positively tropical! 11:49AM Norrie v Tiafoe at 1pm Although the rain has stopped coming down as hard now, it is still drizzling lightly and so the covers remain in place on the outside courts. It's a real shame for those fans who have made the effort to get up at the crack of dawn and in some cases, camp overnight, in order to see some of the world's greatest players perform live. It is expected to clear up in the next two hours or so, so their journey won't have been completely wasted. For those lucky enough to have tickets for Centre Court or No 1 Court their viewing will remain unaffected as matches can take place under the cover of their retractable roofs, so it will be business as usual on the show courts, where action gets under way. Aryna Sabalenka, the No 1 seed, is up first against Marie Bouskova of Czech Republic on Centre Court at 1.30pm, while before that, on Centre Court, British No 3 Cameron Norrie takes on Frances Tiafoe of the United States on No 1 Court at 1pm. This promises to be a cracking contest and the first match we will be covering on this blog. The subsequent match between Katie Boulter and Solana Sierra of Argentina will also be covered right here. And as we speak Boulter has just arrived with her coach, carrying her massive Wilson tennis bag, which is almost bigger than her. She looks in great spirits, smiling at everyone as she walks into the players practice area, and why shouldn't she be happy. She played brilliantly in the first round and will be confident of another victory today.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Sport
- Daily Mail
A strange feeling of indifference towards Jannik Sinner's doping ban has swept tennis - he is lucky the sport is so happy to move on, writes RIATH AL-SAMARRAI
Three soft months for a ban and three soft sets for an opening win. As with so many things this year, Jannik Sinner appears to be benefitting from a distinct lack of opposition. In the serves and volleys of a tennis tournament, that meant a straightforward first-round assignment for the top seed against his fellow Italian Luca Nardi on Tuesday. It was a bit of a mauling. But in the trickier conversations about Sinner's reputation, or specifically the question of whether two positive tests for steroids should lessen his standing, a strange level of indifference appears to have swept his sport. Certainly, there was no outward sign of rebellion from the Court No 1 crowd, which was lukewarm in its reception but, predictably, didn't venture any behaviours that the curators of these lawns might deem unseemly. He was clapped on and clapped off again. All of which appeared incredibly generous to a player who should count himself lucky to be part of a sport so eager to move on. That, of course, followed the even greater fortune of a featherweight suspension squeezed between the first and second Slams of the season. Now that we are at the third, and less than two months on from the expiration of his ban, it has curiously been allowed to feel a lot like old news. After this moderate workout against Nardi, he was asked about a remodelled service motion, his thoughts on automated line judges and the lessons learnt since he lost the French Open final to Carlos Alcaraz. Like a mid-court forehand, they were comfortably returned to the sender, before he faced one on any concerns he might have had about the crowd's reaction to his presence. 'To be honest, no,' he said. The follow-up centred on the response of fans in general and also his fellow professionals, a number of whom had initially been furious about the seemingly favourable way his case had been handled. 'I mean, I think people kind of have forgotten already a little bit what happened,' he said. 'There are still things, new notifications, whatever, coming. That's the good and the bad of social (media) that something happens and people don't know anymore what happened yesterday. 'In the other way, I have good relationship with more or less all players like I had before. Of course, in the beginning was a bit different. But I think they all saw that I'm a very clean player. 'I was never intending to do anything bad. It was an incident, yes. It happened. But the result also says that I haven't done anything on purpose. It's all good.' Sinner let his fitness coaches go after he was found to have an anabolic steroid in his system That so many have 'forgotten' might draw a few rolled eyes from those in track and field, or cycling, where a positive test can amount to a reputational death, irrespective of elaborate reasonings pointing towards careless members of an entourage. For Sinner, the show goes on, with the benefit that he never had to leave second gear against Nardi, who once beat Novak Djokovic but at the age of 21 is yet to win a match at a Slam. The world No 95 kept it level for eight games before wilting under the relentless pressure of Sinner and then crumbling altogether in a 6-0 third-set drubbing. Unlike Alcaraz, who needed five sets to get past Fabio Fognini on Monday, Sinner's exposure to the burning heat would last less than two hours without facing a break point. He next plays Aleksandar Vukic, the world No 93, in the second round.
