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Iga Swiatek wins Wimbledon 2025: Here's how much prize money she, Amanda Anisimova take home
Iga Swiatek wins Wimbledon 2025: Here's how much prize money she, Amanda Anisimova take home

Hindustan Times

time13 hours ago

  • Sport
  • Hindustan Times

Iga Swiatek wins Wimbledon 2025: Here's how much prize money she, Amanda Anisimova take home

Iga Swiatek won the 2025 Wimbledon women's singles final against Amanda Anisimova with a 6-0, 6-0 victory on Saturday, securing her first Wimbledon title and sixth Grand Slam.. The match, lasting 57 minutes, was the first 'double bagel' Wimbledon final since 1911. Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales gives the winner's trophy to Poland's Iga Swiatek (AFP) The 24-year-old from Poland finished with a 55-24 edge in total points and accumulated that despite needing to produce merely 10 winners. Anisimova was shaky from the start and made 28 unforced errors. Read More: Jannik Sinner accepts 'Novak Djokovic injury' made it easier, sends 'Carlos Alcaraz' message ahead of Wimbledon final Swiatek already owned four trophies from the French Open's red clay and one from the U.S. Open's hard courts, but this is first title of her professional career at any grass-court tournament. And it ended a long-for-her drought: Swiatek last won a trophy anywhere more than a year ago, at Roland-Garros in June 2024. Kate, the Princess of Wales, was sitting in the Royal Box on Saturday and took part in the on-court ceremony afterward. Read More: 'Vamos Alcaraz': Internet erupts as Carlos books third straight Wimbledon final spot Swiatek is the eighth consecutive first-time women's champion at Wimbledon, but her triumph stands out from the others because it came in a stunningly dominant performance against Anisimova, a 23-year-old American who was participating in her first final at a major. Prize Money for 2025 Wimbledon Women's Singles Winner (Iga Swiatek): Swiatek earned £3,000,000 (approximately $4.07 million USD), an 11% increase from 2024. Read More: Jannik Sinner was facing a WADA suspension months ago. Now, he plays his first Wimbledon final - Timeline Runner-Up (Amanda Anisimova): Anisimova received £1,520,000 (approximately $2.06 million USD), an 8% increase from the previous year. The total prize money fund for Wimbledon 2025 was £53.5 million, with equal payouts for men's and women's singles. (With AP inputs)

Carlos Alcaraz's honest admission about Jannik Sinner relationship – 'Not close'
Carlos Alcaraz's honest admission about Jannik Sinner relationship – 'Not close'

Daily Mirror

time16 hours ago

  • Sport
  • Daily Mirror

Carlos Alcaraz's honest admission about Jannik Sinner relationship – 'Not close'

Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz will face Jannik Sinner in the Wimbledon final on Sunday, with the Spaniard making it clear he will never be friends with his Italian rival Carlos Alcaraz has explained why he and Wimbledon final rival Jannik Sinner will never be friends. The reigning champion, who secured his spot in his third straight SW19 final by defeating Taylor Fritz, is set to face the world No. 1, who eased to a straight-sets victory over Novak Djokovic in their semi. The pair, who have been at the pinnacle of men's tennis for the last couple of years, clashed for the first time in a grand slam final at the French Open. Alcaraz emerged victorious after a gruelling five-hour marathon, with Sinner now gunning for his first Wimbledon crown to make up for that gut-wrenching loss. ‌ Despite their mutual respect, Alcaraz insists that their intense rivalry will keep them from becoming pals. Speaking to Sky Sports Tennis last year, the Spaniard, 22, said: "Once we are on tour, travelling, at tournaments, on site, we are with our teams and on our own, so we don't speak too much. ‌ "But when we can, we talk a little bit besides tennis, about life. But not too much. It means we have a good relationship but we are not close friends. I think the respect we have puts us in a position that we have a really good relationship." Alcaraz maintained that stance during Sinner's three-month doping suspension, which ended in May. Sinner was sidelined after testing positive for anabolic steroid clostebol but reached a settlement with WADA, claiming accidental contamination by a team member while he was being massaged. ‌ Upon his return, Sinner expressed mixed feelings about the support he received from his peers, saying: "I received messages from players I didn't expect and I didn't receive anything from others I could expect something from." Alcaraz, as reported by Marca, was among the players not to reach out to Sinner during his ban. He admitted: "I haven't spoken to him during his disqualification. Everyone looks out for themselves. "We are not very close. In the end we are also rivals and I can't have a close friendship with a person I want to beat." ‌ Despite this, Alcaraz conveyed respect for Sinner's comeback, adding: "I have great respect for him. What he is doing now after being out for three months is incredible. I was very happy to see him back on the circuit. It's normal for him to feel disappointed. But it is what it is." Alcaraz's approach mirrors that taken by Djokovic when dealing with Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. The Serbian, who plans to continue playing despite his crushing loss to Sinner, once said of Nadal, per Corriere Della Sera: "Nadal is only a year older than me, we are both Geminis. At first we even went to dinner together, twice. But even with him, friendship is impossible." Regarding Federer, he said: "We have never been friends. Between rivals, it is not possible, but we have never been enemies. "I've always had respect for Federer, he was one of the greatest of all time. He had an extraordinary impact, but I've never been close to him."

Jannik Sinner was facing a WADA suspension months ago. Now, he plays his first Wimbledon final
Jannik Sinner was facing a WADA suspension months ago. Now, he plays his first Wimbledon final

Hindustan Times

timea day ago

  • Sport
  • Hindustan Times

Jannik Sinner was facing a WADA suspension months ago. Now, he plays his first Wimbledon final

Jannik Sinner, World No 1, will play his first Wimbledon final on Sunday. The 23-year-old will take on Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz after dominating Novak Djokovic in the semi-final on Friday. Sinner and Alcaraz are the undisputed new kings of men's tennis, claiming the past six majors between them. Italy's Jannik Sinner celebrates after victory over Serbia's Novak Djokovic(AFP) However, Sinner's recent journey has been quite dramatic. The Italian escaped a potential WADA ban back in 2024. He tested positive for clostebol, a performance-enhancing anabolic steroid, twice in March 2024 during and after the Indian Wells tournament. The case, undisclosed for months, drew scrutiny from players like Nick Kyrgios and Tara Moore, who questioned why Sinner continued competing and whether top players receive preferential treatment. Sinner accepted a three-month ban from WADA to resolve the matter, avoiding a prolonged legal battle. He said: 'This issue lingered for nearly a year, with a resolution possibly delayed until year's end. I acknowledge my team's responsibility and respect WADA's strict rules to protect tennis. I've accepted their three-month sanction offer to settle this," What is Clostebol? Clostebol is an anabolic steroid found in over-the-counter ointments like Trofodermin, used in Italy for cuts and scrapes. It's banned due to its performance-enhancing potential, as seen in cases like baseball's Fernando Tatis Jr, who faced an 80-game MLB suspension in 2022. Sinner's explanation Sinner's legal team attributed the positive tests to inadvertent contamination from his physiotherapist, Giacomo Naldi, who used Trofodermin spray for a finger cut during Indian Wells. Naldi, treating Sinner's psoriasiform dermatitis (causing skin lesions), performed daily massages without gloves, likely transferring clostebol. Timeline of Events February 12, 2024: Sinner's fitness coach, Umberto Ferrara, purchases Trofodermin in Bologna. March 3: Naldi cuts his finger on a scalpel, later using Trofodermin from March 5–13. March 5–13: Naldi massages Sinner daily, handling his skin lesions and ankle injury, without washing hands after applying the spray. March 10: Sinner's urine samples at Indian Wells test positive for clostebol. March 18: An out-of-competition sample tests positive. April 4–17: Sinner is notified of the violations, successfully appeals provisional suspensions. May 30: ITIA charges Sinner with doping violations. June 19: Sinner's team submits explanations. August 20: An independent tribunal clears Sinner, finding no fault. Why was Sinner allowed to compete? Sinner faced provisional suspensions but appealed immediately, with bans lifted within days. The ITIA's investigation, including 10 interviews and three expert opinions, supported his contamination claim. Jannik Sinner forfeited $325,000 in Indian Wells prize money and 400 ranking points due to the in-tournament positive test, but faced no ban initially. WADA appealed the ITIA's ruling to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, arguing Sinner was responsible for his team, leading to his acceptance of the three-month ban.

Can AI help detect doping in sports?
Can AI help detect doping in sports?

Euronews

time4 days ago

  • Science
  • Euronews

Can AI help detect doping in sports?

In 2018, the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film went to "Icarus," directed by Bryan Fogel. The film, which originally set out to investigate doping in cycling, ended up uncovering one of the biggest sports scandals in recent history: a state-sponsored doping programme carried out by Russian authorities for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. The revelations came from Dr Grigory Rodchenkov, head of Russia's national anti-doping laboratory during the Olympic Games. He revealed how anti-doping officials and intelligence agents had systematically replaced urine samples containing performance-enhancing drugs with clean samples collected months earlier. Dozens of athletes were part of the programme. None were caught, and in 2014, Russia topped the podium with 13 gold medals. It was stripped of several medals when the doping scheme was made public. But why was this possible in the first place? How does doping detection actually work? And can artificial intelligence (AI) make it more effective? To answer these questions, Euronews Tech Talks interviewed Wolfgang Maass, a professor of business informatics and computer science at Saarland University in Germany and Francesco Botrè, Director of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), an accredited anti-doping laboratory in Rome. How does doping detection work? Botrè explained that doping detection relies on two approaches: markers of exposure (direct detection) and markers of effect (indirect detection). 'Markers of exposure mean finding the bullet; markers of effect mean finding the wound or the scar, and saying 'this could only be done by a knife,'" he said. In practical terms, this means that anti-doping officials either detect the banned substance itself or identify biological changes consistent with performance-enhancing drugs. Detection can involve either a single test or longitudinal monitoring, depending on whether the athlete is tested once or multiple times. For longitudinal analysis, athletes' data are stored in the Athlete Biological Passport (ABP), which helps officials to monitor unusual biological variables over time. Can AI help detect doping? 'What AI in principle can do is to find patterns that are hard to detect by humans,' Maass said. That's where his team's AI models come in. Maass began experimenting with anti-doping machine learning systems around 2016 and has since collaborated with WADA on various projects. His technology aims to address two major challenges in doping detection: identifying EPO (erythropoietin), a hormone that stimulates the production of blood cells, and preventing sample-swapping incidents such as the one that occurred in the Sochi Winter Olympic Games. To enhance EPO detection, Maass' AI model analyses not just isolated data, but the athlete's entire metabolic pathway. This allows the software to compare data with the athlete's unique biochemical profile, assessing whether anomalies suggest the use of EPO or are simply the result of some personal natural characteristics. Similarly, to detect sample swapping, the AI system compares the athlete's current test data with their historical biological profile to detect inconsistencies over time. According to Maass, these technological tools are not only effective but also faster and cheaper than the methods and machines currently employed in laboratories. Botrè also showed great enthusiasm for the development of AI. He said AI tools could help interpret the combined effects of multiple doping substances in an athlete by analysing large amount of data and identifying patterns. According to him, this could provide insights into how performance-enhancing drugs mix, a topic that cannot be studied through traditional research because it is considered unethical to inject or deliberately administer multiple banned substances to a person for scientific purposes. The real challenge: Data and funding When asked about the hurdles in developing AI programmes for doping detection, Maass pointed to two key issues: access to data and funding. As Botrè noted, it is difficult to do studies on doping while respecting ethical and health security criteria, so accessing the necessary data to train an AI model is very complicated. Both Maass and Botrè believe athletes who use performance-enhancing drugs are likely already using AI to try to beat existing doping detection systems. 'If we have a new method, and we have to publish it, we have to wait for the feedback of the scientific community, and we have to wait for their approval by WADA. In the meantime, they are doping. And if they find a way to cheat this method, well, they do not publish it, there is no Journal of Doping Science,' Botrè said. 'Doping is a dirty matter, but we have to fight it with clean hands,' he added.

French kisses: Fencer beats doping allegations with an unusual contamination explanation
French kisses: Fencer beats doping allegations with an unusual contamination explanation

Yahoo

time5 days ago

  • Sport
  • Yahoo

French kisses: Fencer beats doping allegations with an unusual contamination explanation

French fencer Ysaora Thibus, shown in 2022, was cleared of doping charges after it was determined that kissing introduced a banned substance into her system. (Devin Manky / Getty Images) French fencing champion Ysaora Thibus was not to blame after she tested positive for a banned substance last year. The culprit? Nine days of contaminated kisses. That is what the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled this week when it dismissed an appeal by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which had been seeking a four-year ban for the 2022 world champion in women's foil after the prohibited anabolic substance ostarine was found in her blood during a January 2024 blood test. Advertisement The CAS said in a news release Monday that it accepted Thibus' explanation that the ostarine had entered her bloodstream because her then-partner had been using a product containing the substance without her knowledge. The two had exchanged bodily fluids through kissing. Read more: Steroids? Sure! Doping? Bring it on! 'Enhanced Games' push to be the Olympics* — with drugs The evidence "scientifically established that the intake of an ostarine dose similar to the dose ingested by Ms. Thibus' then partner would have left sufficient amounts of ostarine in the saliva to contaminate a person through kissing," the court said. "The Panel also accepted that Ms Thibus' then partner was taking ostarine from 5 January 2024, and that there was contamination over 9 days with a cumulative effect." The court concluded that Thibus had not intentionally violated the rules. "It is not questionable that Ms Thibus bears no fault or negligence," the news release states. Advertisement Thibus had maintained her innocence throughout the process. Joelle Montlouis, one of the fencer's attorneys, told French news outlet L'Equipe that the ruling was a "great victory" for her client. 'She showed remarkable courage and held firm, against all odds, until the end of the procedure," Montlouis said in French, translated via software. "At no time did we deviate from our course: From the first instance to the CAS, we maintained the same line, the same backbone, faithful to the reality of the facts.' Read more: Lopez: Three years away from the Olympics, L.A. is tripping over hurdles and trying to play catchup Ostarine was detected in Thibus' blood during an in-competition check by the International Testing Agency at a fencing event Jan. 14, 2024, in Paris. Advertisement The agency initially charged Thibus with an anti-doping rule violation, but an International Fencing Federation tribunal later cleared her and allowed her to compete in the Paris Olympics, where she was eliminated after the second round of competition. WADA, the anti-doping agency, rejected Thibus' kissing explanation and appealed the ITA decision in July 2024. The arbitration court held an in-person hearing in March before making its ruling. In a somewhat similar case in 2009, WADA and the International Tennis Federation appealed to have Richard Gasquet serve a two-year ban after testing positive for cocaine. But the arbitration court ruled in the French tennis player's favor, accepting his explanation that he inadvertently consumed the drug — which was present in a "minute" amount, the CAS said — by kissing a woman at a nightclub. 'I'm absolutely relieved," Gasquet said at the time. "This is the end of a crazy story.' Advertisement The Associated Press contributed to this report. Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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