Author: Sean Ingle

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Andy Murray: ‘I don’t have any plans to go to Wimbledon. I don’t go to watch tennis as a fan’

Double champion unlikely to be at SW19 this year but is enjoying helping Britain’s next generation of tennis players

Andy Murray has always had a way of creating alchemy on a tennis court. But, even in retirement, he is discovering new tricks. For more than an hour he has little kids from West Byfleet junior school transfixed as he coaches them through the joys of mini-tennis. There are swings and wild misses, gentle advice and high fives. In fact Murray is so locked in, he even makes his familiar power-exhale noise while he gently lifts the ball over a tiny net.

In short, he is a natural – even if he doesn’t quite see it that way himself. “I think they were just buzzing to get a few hours out of the classroom to be honest,” he says, typically self-effacing, as he chats during a quick break. “But it’s great. I love seeing kids on a tennis court having fun.”

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Andy Murray to be honoured with statue to mark 150 years of Wimbledon in 2027

  • All England Club to recognise retired double champion

  • Statue will also mark 150th anniversary in 2027

Sir Andy Murray will enjoy a permanent legacy at Wimbledon after the All England Club announced they would be unveiling a statue in his honour at the 2027 championships.

Debbie Jevans, the chair of the AELTC, said that the club had been working closely with Murray and his team and would reveal the sculpture at the championship’s 150th anniversary in two years’ time.

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Kirsty Coventry takes over as Olympic president and promises to change lives

  • First woman in the role replaces Thomas Bach

  • ‘We are guardians of the Olympic movement’

Kirsty Coventry has promised to change lives and inspire hope during an official ceremony to mark her taking over from Thomas Bach as president of the International Olympic Committee.

The 41-year-old from Zimbabwe, who in March became the first woman and the first African to be elected to the most powerful job in sports politics, also paid tribute to the strong women in her life as she was given the golden key to the IOC by Bach.

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Coventry makes history and has steel to make IOC role more than a puppet show | Sean Ingle

Bach’s successor is already making a positive impression but will need all her resolve at mammoth organisation

A new day has broken, has it not? For several reasons, Tony Blair’s 1997 election victory speech comes to mind on what will be a historic and symbolic day for sport. Because in Lausanne on Monday, after plenty of handshakes and platitudes, the 41-year-old Kirsty Coventry will become the first female and first African president of the International Olympic Committee in its 131-year-old history.

It has been, by any measure, a dizzying ascent. In 2016, Coventry stepped out of an Olympic pool for the final time in Rio. Now, nine years later, she is the most powerful person in sport. Yet as she takes charge, there are some who suspect that the new dawn will look rather like the old one – and that her predecessor, Thomas Bach, and his administration, will remain puppet masters behind the throne.

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Emma Raducanu’s stalker blocked by Wimbledon after name found in ballot

  • Man given restraining order in Dubai on ticket waiting list

  • All England Club employs fixated threat specialists

Emma Raducanu’s stalker has been blocked from buying tickets for the Wimbledon Championships this month in the public ballot, it has emerged.

Security staff at the All England Club discovered that the man, who has never been named, was on the waiting list when they did a re-sweep of the ballot, after he was given a restraining order in Dubai in February.

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Raducanu says ‘expectations are low’ for Queen’s Club after fresh back spasm

  • ‘I just have to manage it,’ Briton tells reporters

  • Prize money for WTA 500 event to be £1m

Emma Raducanu has admitted she is unsure how her body will hold up to the rigours of the grass court season after another back spasm in ­training. The 22-year-old’s latest injury ­concern came as she was preparing for the first women’s tournament at Queen’s Club for 52 years, and left her unable to practise for several days.

It was Raducanu’s second back spasm in three weeks, after initially experiencing the problem against Danielle Collins in Strasbourg a week before the French Open, and as a result she goes into the Queen’s Club event with low expectations.

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Can watching sport really improve your wellbeing? The science suggests it can | Sean Ingle

Couch potatoes and die-hard fans rejoice; all that time and money spent on your sports addiction may just be worth it

And still the feast goes on. Since Rory McIlroy won a Masters for the ages, fans with multiple satellite TV subscriptions – and irregular sleeping habits – have been able to gorge on an extraordinary amount of dramatic sport. Seesawing shifts in momentum? Late twists? Huge shocks? We’ve had them all.

It says something when Barcelona’s epic 3-2 victory against Real Madrid in a Copa del Rey final was only their third-most exciting match in the past month; and when my sober-eyed colleague Robert Kitson describes Northampton’s 37-34 Champions Cup win at Leinster as “one of the all‑time great knockout heists”.

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After the flame has passed: is hosting an Olympic Games good for our wellbeing? | Sean Ingle

New research has shown there was a positive impact during London 2012 but the legacy effects appear to be short-lived

Does hosting an Olympics really improve our wellbeing? If so, by how much - and for how long? Are we really happier when Team GB win gold medals? And are the lofty claims of politicians that London 2012 would make us healthier born out by the facts?

While the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, was banging the drum for the capital hosting the Olympics in 2040 last week, academics at the LSE, Harvard and in Germany were answering these questions – and quietly busting a few myths about the legacy of 2012.

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Bottle it up: how venting emotion can harm performance in elite sport | Sean Ingle

Studies have shown that failing to control feelings has a negative effect on outcomes – but there are exceptions

Two scenes from an extraordinary week. The first: Justin Rose, a gentleman in a bearpit as Augusta hollered loud and long for Rory McIlroy. The second: the British tennis player Harriet Dart, causing a stink by asking for her French opponent to apply deodorant as “she’s smelling really bad” before succumbing to a 6-0, 6-3 thrashing.

Pressure does strange things, of course. But the wildly different reactions of Rose, Dart and indeed McIlroy, whose final round became part white-knuckle ride, part pass‑the‑parcel, raises an intriguing question: when the heat is on, should sport stars let their emotions out or bottle them up to improve their performance?

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MPs deliver warning over DCMS chase to recoup tens of millions in Covid loans

  • Loans scrutinised by public accounts committee
  • ‘Gap in oversight’ over £123.8m paid to rugby teams

There remains a “high degree of uncertainty” over whether tens of millions of pounds paid to rugby union clubs and other sports teams during the Covid-19 pandemic will ever be repaid, the House of Commons’ public accounts committee has warned.

In a report published on Wednesday, the committee also criticised the Department for Culture, Media and Sport for being “overly optimistic” in believing it will recover most of the £474m it paid out to 120 organisations in the sport and culture sectors to help them survive the impact of the pandemic.

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Premier League confirms extra June transfer window for Club World Cup

  • Summer window will open early from 1-10 June
  • It will then reopen on 16 June and close on 1 September

The Premier League has confirmed it will have two transfer windows this summer due to “exceptional” circumstances surrounding the Club World Cup.

The first transfer window will open early, and run between Sunday 1 June and Tuesday 10 June. It will then close briefly before reopening on Monday 16 June. The second transfer window will run as normal before closing on Monday 1 September.

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Kirsty Coventry’s in-tray: six big issues facing IOC’s new president

From protecting women’s sport to the return of Russia and keeping the Olympics relevant, the former gold medallist has tough challenges ahead

As a seven-time Olympic swimming medallist, Kirsty Coventry knows a thing or two about navigating choppy waters. But the new International Olympic Committee president now faces the biggest set of challenges to global sport since the 1980s, when boycotts rocked the Moscow and Los Angeles Games. As the 41-year-old prepares to take over from Thomas Bach in June, what issues will she face?

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Sent to Coventry: how Bach’s power helped Zimbabwean’s shock IOC win

Poll result defied candidates’ calculations and illustrated outgoing president’s influence but change may yet come

It might sound beyond ridiculous, given the scale of Kirsty Coventry’s seismic victory in the International Olympic Committee presidential election. But as the various royals, sporting dignitaries, politicians and billionaires left the Costa Navarino resort on Friday, some really believed the result could have turned out very differently.

Yes, the 41-year-old Zimbabwean ex-swimmer had won in the first round with 49 votes to become the first woman to lead the IOC. And yes, Juan Antonio Samaranch and Sebastian Coe, the other members of the “Big Three”, had come away with just 28 and eight votes respectively. But in the postmortem there were several stories about how the IOC machine had powered Thomas Bach’s chosen successor over the line.

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‘Transformational’ maternity leave scheme unveiled for top tennis players

  • Saudi Public Investment Fund pays for programme
  • 320 players can take up to 12 months off and access IVF

The Women’s Tennis Association has become the first international sports body to introduce up to 12 months of paid maternity leave for players, in what it has hailed as a defining moment for women’s sport.

Under the new policy, funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, players will also get access to grants for fertility treatments, including egg freezing and IVF.

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‘A sad day for tennis’: critics round on Sinner after three-month ban agreed

  • Italian will be suspended from the sport until 4 May
  • Kyrgios and Henman among those critical of decision

Jannik Sinner has agreed to accept an immediate three-month doping ban from the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) – a decision that was quickly met with criticism from inside the game, with Nick Kyrgios calling it “a sad day for tennis”.

Sinner, who successfully defended his Australian Open title last month, tested positive for the anabolic agent clostebol last year which he said had entered his system from a member of his support team through massages and sports therapy.

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