Latest news with #Putney
The Sun
08-08-2025
- Sport
- The Sun
MMA star Alfie Davis out to win world title and $500k bonus for his kickboxing pupils… after they gave him tips to win
ALFIE DAVIS is out to bring a world title and $500,000 cash prize back home to his kickboxing pupils - after they gave him tips on how to win. Davis is in the final of the Professional Fighters League's winner-take-all finale bout next weekend in North Carolina against Gadzhi Rabadanov. 4 4 4 And not only is the lightweight belt on the line - but so is a bonus cheque of $500,000 (£375,000). He hopes to put some of the money back into his kickboxing academy - which he runs three days a week from a church hall in Putney. Davis coaches four-year-olds all the way up to senior fighters - all of whom are his biggest fans - and sometimes critics. He told SunSport with a chuckle: "They're like, 'So why in this fight did you do this? What happened here?' "I think they're just curious, but yeah, it's quite funny. Some of the youngsters do watch it and they can be - especially kids - the most critical. "They're just honest, so I've been done by kids a few times!" Some of the older lads in his class have also been studying 2024 PFL champion Rabadanov - who awaits Davis in the finale fight. "But equally one the boys in question is quite well educated and said, 'But some of his knockouts have only been recent.' "He wasn't a really a knockout artist previously before and a few of them were a bit dodgy knockouts - I wouldn't say lucky - but I don't think he's got a one shot kill. Ronda Rousey reportedly planning on a sensational return after uploading recent training video "I think that was the assessment that he also gave as well." Davis lost his PFL debut in November 2024 and entered the three-bout tournament this year as an outsider. And he got off to the worst start possible in the quarter-finals after suffering US visa issues. Eventually it was resolved by Wednesday - allowing Davis to board the first flight out to Florida - before having to make weight and fight 36 hours later. But he did so - beating Clay Collard - before upsetting ex-Bellator champion Brent Primus to reach the final. It puts him one win away from winning the title gold and the cash prize. That kind of money will go towards his wife and two sons - aged four and two - so long as he can avoid the temptation to splurge. Davis, 33, said: "I've got like a good person on my shoulder and a bad person! "I've been researching like how to invest the money, buying a bigger house, obviously I've got children. "It's a lot of money, so all of that stuff is the good person and then they've got a devil on my back that's like, 'Let's go and let's have it double large! I think it's gonna be a bit of both. "But, to be honest, my wife's spent most of the money already in her head as well, so I've got to contend with that as well! "But, yeah, there's definitely some things that I'd like to do in terms of investment." 4
Yahoo
06-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Tennis prodigy Flora Johnson surprised to reach Wimbledon second round
By Mohamed Hamza at Wimbledon Putney prodigy Flora Johnson admitted she surprised herself with her performance after reaching the second round at a windswept Wimbledon. Back in the girls' draw for the second time in as many years, Johnson took down Sarah Melany Fajmonova in straight sets, downing the Czech starlet 6-1 6-3 to become the first British junior to advance at SW19, boys' or girls'. Advertisement Johnson and Fajmonova had actually gone head-to-head in the French Open earlier in the season, with the latter winning out in Roland Garros. This time it was Johnson's turn to celebrate, but the 18-year-old admitted she hadn't expected to perform as well as she did, not least in such blustery conditions. 'It feels amazing,' said Johnson. 'I adapted quite well to the conditions. The wind was tricky and playing someone with a big serve on the grass was pretty difficult so I had to manage that and play with the wind. 'It was a bit surprising because I lost to her at Roland Garros. I wasn't expecting much but grass is my favourite surface. I feel I play pretty well on it. I had that confidence and the fact that the crowd was behind me made it pretty good.' Advertisement Johnson recently finished taking her A-Levels, in which she studied Maths, Economics, and French. She plans to study at the University of Ohio in the United States on a tennis scholarship later this year but until then, Johnson has vowed to give it her all as she targets a winning farewell to home shores. 'It's very exciting to be here at this time of year with all the grass court tournaments,' added Johnson. 'It's definitely something I won't forget. 'I've been enjoying my time on-court because it took my mind off exams. I didn't really come with many expectations because I just finished my A-Levels ls so haven't been playing as much and this is a last hurrah. Advertisement 'I'm just trying to play to make everyone proud. They all worked so hard to help me, my family and coaches. I play for them and to enjoy it out there.' For the latest action on the British summer grass court season, check out the LTA website.
The Independent
01-07-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
Jack Draper wins at Wimbledon to start biggest fortnight of his life – as seeds tumble around him
With the sun setting past teatime on a baking Wimbledon day, and the shade gradually emerging across the court, Britain's top singles player entered the arena in a primetime slot. Burberry models and social media influencers posed and pouted courtside, eager to show off their prized viewing spot. Only 23 years young, Jack Draper had better get used to this. Yet as first rounds at Wimbledon go, this was as comfortable as they come. Frankly, Draper could play on this stage for another decade and won't have an easier match at the All England Club. While world No 4 Alexander Zverev crashed out 200 metres south of the grounds on Centre Court – the 12th men's seed to be eliminated in the first round here – Draper's mission against Sebastian Baez on Court 1 was simple: total destruction. So much so that he forced his opponent into submission. A scoreline of supremacy read 6-2, 6-2, 2-1 (ret.), with the Argentinean retiring due to a knee injury. With a bit of luck, Draper will be back home in Putney in time for Tuesday night's highlights show. Seventy-four minutes and done. Mission accomplished. The quick duration is not insignificant. At Grand Slams, playing best-of-five sets every other day, any chance of respite should gratefully be grasped. Draper's conditioning has deserted him before, not least when he vomited on court in the US Open semi-finals last summer. But this is the new and improved Draper: a well-oiled powerhouse and physical specimen. Here, he was keen not to waste anyone's time. Although that was not the party line. 'I wanted to play a bit longer, in all honesty,' he said, with a smirk, on-court afterwards. 'I was getting my tennis together a bit. It's no way to win like that, I wish Sebastian the best of recoveries.' Now the world No 4, Draper's rise from 28 in the world one year ago has been meteoric. With his run to the final four in New York and an illustrious title at Indian Wells behind him, the 23-year-old not only believes effusively in his hard graft and ability. Now, he has the results and the ranking to back it up. What's next? A tougher test, in the form of 2017 finalist Marin Cilic, in the second round on Thursday. Draper has not actually progressed to the third round at SW19 before; a record he'll be desperate to extinguish, with the weight of expectation around him now expecting at least a quarter-final. In this brief opening glimpse, it's hard to argue against the notion he'll have too much firepower for 36-year-old Cilic. Injured or not, Baez was never going to threaten the Briton today. By ranking, there were only five players who could've posed a tougher test for Draper in the opening two rounds. But the reality is that the world No 38 was on a five-match losing streak and had not won on a grass court in over two years. Truth be told, there are clay court specialists, and then there's Sebastian Baez. The Argentine is only a year older than Draper but actually has four more ATP tour titles to his name. However, six of those seven have come on the red dust; a surface Baez makes his unequivocal priority every season. In fact, this contest was his first match with pristine green under his shoes this year. Early on, you could tell. Draper broke in the first game of the match, dictating and dominating with his humdinger of a forehand: a shot so powerful it can go radically go astray in moments of tension, it is the Brit's biggest weapon when it's on song. Coupled with his whipped lefty serve, it makes for a handy one-two on the low-trajectory Wimbledon grass. Another break soon followed, signs of Baez's imminent surrender incoming. Having lost the opening set, Baez experienced a sudden slip changing direction, another sign of a player unaccustomed to the nuances of grass-court movement. Draper pounced quickly on his prey, immediately hitting a drop-shot to perfection. Beyond his imposing muscularity, the Brit's improved matchplay instincts are also worthy of merit in explaining his impressive last 12 months. He broke again to start the second, while Baez saw a group of medical staff who tended to his right knee. The Argentine opted to continue but was powerless to halt Draper's assault. The British No 1 went a double break up with a sparkling forehand crosscourt on the run, to the roar of 10,000 in Wimbledon's second biggest court. After an hour, Draper was a set from home. A quick break to love saw Draper lead 2-1 in the third set when Baez called it a day, due to a right knee injury. In sum, Draper lost four points against his serve all evening. And with big-serving dark horse Alexander Bublik, a potential third-round opponent, surprisingly exiting earlier on Tuesday, Draper's route to the second week looks a bit more rosy than 24 hours ago. For this to be the biggest fortnight of his life, things have to fall into place. Perhaps these are early, hopeful omens. Nightmare draw, you say? Not yet, that's for sure.
The Independent
20-06-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
Jack Draper seals huge Wimbledon boost after Queen's quarter-final victory
On one level, it is mission accomplished for Jack Draper at Queen's Club this week. Of course, there is still at tournament to win, a prestigious tournament at that, especially for a British player. Rather tantalisingly, Draper remains on an collision course with world No 2 Carlos Alcaraz in the final on Sunday. But around these parts, there is always one eye firmly set on the big grass court dance, five miles south, in ten days' time. The surprise first-round exit of current world No 4 Taylor Fritz this week and the non-activity of No 5 Novak Djokovic, handed No 6 Draper a golden opportunity to seal a top-four seeding for Wimbledon. With that comes an easier quarter-final at SW19 – by ranking, avoiding the likes of Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner until the semis – should he get there. And with a patchy if not convincing 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 quarter-final victory against Brandon Nakashima on Friday, Draper has secured the points he needs to return to the world No 4 spot on Monday. The boy from Putney will be the fourth seed at the All England Club; quite the rise from No 28 last year. Tennis players tend not to worry too much about the potential pathways and ramifications. Much like the age-old footballer saying, it's simply 'focus on the next game.' And given Draper has never gone beyond the second round at his home Slam, that will remain the case come the first week of the Wimbledon fortnight. But it's unquestionably an advantage if, like us in the media and fans of the sport, you like to glance a little further forward. Of immediate concern, though, will be the big-serving game of Jiri Lehecka – who defeated British No 2 Jacob Fearnley earlier in the day – in the HSBC Championships semi-finals on Saturday. The second seed this week at Queen's, Draper is now just a match away from setting up an intriguing Sunday showpiece against Alcaraz, who he beat here last year. On a stifling but overcast afternoon in west London, Draper came out all guns blazing against fellow 23-year-old Nakashima, ranked 32 in the world, who he beat on route to his first tour title on the grass of Stuttgart last year. The Brit broke in the third game, courtesy of a shanked Nakashima forehand into the crowd, and staved off six break back opportunities for the American in a tight first-set, with Draper's form ebbing and flowing sporadically. A key trait of any top player, however, is to convert when playing under-par and Draper, despite a curious overuse of the drop-shot against the speedy Nakashima, sealed the opener in overcast conditions with an ace. The second set was tighter still. The cool-headed, unflappable Nakashima had more opportunities against serve, before Draper found his mark with aplomb under pressure. Yet just a game away from a tiebreak, the Brit's forehand went mysteriously astray and Nakashima, to the sound of groans on the Andy Murray Arena, claimed the second as Draper went long on the backhand wing. Nakashima's notable robustness in the rallies – no point was given up cheaply – seemed to be sapping the life out of Draper, two days on from his final-set tie-break win against Alexei Popyrin. But at 3-3, suddenly, a second wind. Draper's returns had a smidge more oomph, his body language picked up and Nakashima could not reacclimatise quick enough. Draper's first break point chance flew agonisingly wide by a few millimetres but his second was clinched brilliantly, via a trademark forehand thump down the line. Serving for the match, Draper saved two break points – one with a forehand plum on the line – and roared to the crowd for encouragement, and eventually sealed a hard-fought victory with a volley at the net. The relief on his face was clear as day. It is a testament to Draper's newfound equanimity that his game – and perhaps more pertinently, his mind – hit the mark needed once more at the end of the match. It is the sort of asset which is swinging sets, and matches, in his favour. And it very much makes Draper, the fourth-best player in the world, a bona fide threat on the grass.
The Independent
18-06-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
Jack Draper overcomes Alexei Popyrin to battle into Queen's quarter-finals
When Jack Draper played at Queen's last year he was still something of an unfinished article. Then ranked 31st in the world, he was rapidly establishing himself as a name to watch, but the 22-year-old was a rough diamond of a player. The bare bones of the game – huge serve, vicious forehand – were there; all the component parts to make it tick were not. A year on from his last appearance at his home tournament – literally only a few miles away from his home in Putney – Draper is a different prospect. If not the finished article, then considerably closer to it. And still only 23. He has been one of the most consistent players in the world this year, winning a maiden Masters in Indian Wells, getting close to a second on his hitherto-worst surface, on clay in Madrid. The Londoner has looked undaunted on the biggest stages and has reaped the rewards of his increased endurance and fitness, honed by successive five-set slogs at the Australian Open in January, and his ability to seemingly improve week-on-week. Now the world No 6, a couple of spots down from his peak earlier this month at No 4, Draper is in a very different position to a year ago. His rise has been stratospheric; he has spoken measuredly about taking it in his stride. 'Since I was a young guy, I have always wanted to be at the top of the game, and I knew eventually that [expectation and pressure] would come with it,' he said after his first-round win. 'I feel confident, happy. I feel this is exactly where I want to be, regardless of any external noise.' But it was external noise that he would in fact rely on on Wednesday: the combined cheers and roars of 7,700 people inside a packed Andy Murray Arena, who collectively got him over the line in a hard-fought three-set win over Alexei Popyrin. The pair would trade blows for over two hours under the merciless heat (yes, really) of the London sun. Shouts of 'come on Jack' punctuated the air from the moment Popyrin first prepared to serve, and it was Draper who settled quickest, lasering a backhand down the line to win the first rally, and earning an early break point chance. That came and went, as did another at 3-3. In many ways this was a match of missed chances and fine margins for both players. Such is the nature of grass-court tennis. But at 3-3 those missed chances were to prove potentially ruinous as an inspired Popyrin, who returned brilliantly for nearly the whole contest, took advantage of a couple of loose strikes by the Brit to break. The crowd, totally absorbed, was stunned. Popyrin went on to take the set, albeit after two successive double faults on set point, as both players struggled with the weight of expectation. It is evident Draper holds himself, and his game, to enormously high standards – as his various on-court outbursts and racket-smashings this year have made clear. With neither player budging on serve in the second set, he double-faulted at 2-2, roaring in frustration. The match hung on a knife edge. But he regrouped, muttering to himself at the change of ends, and with renewed vigour attacked Popyrin's serve. Draper is not always the most composed character on court and it was clearly the pep talk he needed. A break at the first time of asking altered the complexion of the match, and he ran away with the second set. This was a match of small, barely perceptible shifts in momentum. With Popyrin serving at 4-5 in the decider, the crowd hushed, and Draper seized his chance, blasting a winner down the line to earn two match points. But a wild forehand erased one and the Australian served brilliantly to stave them off; once again it felt like the match could go either way. A tie-break seemed inevitable. When Popyrin snatched an early mini-break the endless shouts of 'come on Jack!' began to sound less encouraging and more imperative, the crowd not only willing the second seed on but wholly convinced he could do it. A bad miss at the net indicated the nerves were there; 7,700 people groaned in unison. But Draper broke back and, whipping a thunderous overhead smash into the open court, gestured to the crowd to roar their approval. They duly did. Draper changed his racket at 5-5. Whether it was the new strings, or his self-belief, the moment proved decisive. A huge backhand down the line brought up match point; now on his serve, a venomous ace sealed it. At least this time, Draper took his chance when it mattered. 'There's days where I need that extra support, today was one of them,' he said afterwards. 'It was a bit up and down but you guys helped me through that.' It remains the case that a player who not long ago was the challenger, the young gun taking on the world's best, now is one of the world's best. He has reached the elite; now it is about entrenching himself there, finding those infinitesimally small margins that still separate him from the very best.
