Category: Tennis

• The 37-year-old unlikely to feature in the singles again
• His final push for glory will be alongside Dan Evans

Andy Murray has almost certainly played his last singles match after revealing he was set to play only doubles at the Paris Olympics.

The 37-year-old confirmed on Tuesday that his fifth Games would be his final event, but he has still not fully recovered from the surgery to remove a spinal cyst he had a week before Wimbledon. Murray will instead focus on doubles alongside Dan Evans as he chases a fourth Olympic medal.

• Briton confirms he will call time at Roland Garros
• Thirty-seven-year-old won gold in 2012 and 2016

Andy Murray will retire from professional tennis after this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris.

It had been widely expected that the 37-year-old Scot would call time on his career after the Games as he looked to go out at the top.

• Spaniard fights back to take victory in three sets
• Olympic preparations continuing well for Nadal

Rafael Nadal has reached his first final since the 2022 French Open by rallying to beat Duje Ajdukovic at the Nordea Open on the clay in Bastad.

The 38-year-old Spaniard lost the first set and was a break down in the second, but came back to beat the Croatian 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 to set up a meeting with Nuno Borges in Sunday’s final.

• Nadal comes through physical test to reach Bastad semis
• Holger Rune’s Olympic hopes in doubt over knee injury

Rafael Nadal stepped up his preparation for the Paris Olympics, winning a four-hour battle with Mariano Navone to progress into the Nordea Open semi-finals.

The 22-times grand slam champion has not lifted silverware since his French Open triumph in 2022, after a spate of injuries meant he missed the majority of last season. He is now just two wins away after beating fourth seed Navone 6-7 (2), 7-5, 7-5 in a marathon encounter in Bastad, Sweden.

Two-time Wimbledon champion has improved serve and become the most complete 21-year-old the game has seen

As Carlos Alcaraz pulled up at the Wimbledon champions’ dinner, an annual event to celebrate the tournament victors, his mind could not have been further from thinking about everything he had achieved throughout that day. After demolishing Novak Djokovic in straight sets to defend his Wimbledon title and working through his obligatory post-match duties, from press to anti-doping, Alcaraz prepared for the evening with an eye on Berlin, watching between a TV and a tablet.

In the courtyard of the Old War Office buildings in Whitehall, now a Raffles hotel, Alcaraz and his team remained in their car. The final minutes of the Euro 2024 final were ticking down and Mikel Oyarzabal had scored a potential game winner; he refused to leave until he was certain that the goal would stand. When Alcaraz finally entered the building he was led by a photographer to take pictures before the dinner began. Throughout that period, a phone that was streaming the game live was passed to Alcaraz’s team and back to him whenever possible.

American tennis player who won 15 grand slams during his career including the Wimbledon men’s singles title in 1953

The American tennis player and former Wimbledon champion Vic Seixas, who has died aged 100, did not win 15 grand slam titles during a 30-year career by serving his opponents off the court or overpowering them from the ground. Instead Seixas relied on extraordinary conditioning, an indefatigable workrate, hair-trigger reflexes and sheer force of will to compensate for any technical shortcomings.

Seixas’s fleet-footed athleticism, aggressive net-rushing and superb volleying were tailor-made for the All England Club, where the grass courts were then sown with a seed mix conducive to faster play. He made a surprise run to the semi-finals on his Wimbledon debut in 1950, losing to the eventual champion Budge Patty, then won it three years later as the second seed, coming through a five-set quarter-final epic against Lew Hoad, and another five-setter against Australia’s Mervyn Rose in the semis, before a straight-sets destruction of the unseeded Dane Kurt Nielsen in the final.

Princess, who is joined by daughter Charlotte, will present winner’s trophy to either Novak Djokovic or Carlos Alcaraz

• Alcaraz v Djokovic: Wimbledon 2024 men’s singles final – live

The Princess of Wales is attending the Wimbledon men’s final with her daughter, Princess Charlotte, in her second public engagement since announcing her cancer diagnosis.

Catherine, who is a patron of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, will present the trophy to the winner of the clash between Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz.

• Brit ‘speechless’ after win over Martín de la Puente
• Hewett had previously lost in 2022 and 2023 men’s finals

Alfie Hewett secured an emotional maiden wheelchair singles title at Wimbledon after a comprehensive 6-2, 6-3 victory over Spain’s Martín de la Puente to complete a career grand slam.

Hewett had experienced disappointment in the 2022 and 2023 singles finals at the All England Club. However, the British star erased the memories of his defeat on Court One to Tokito Oda last year with a sublime display of hitting to delight a pumped up home crowd with a long-awaited singles success in SW19.

• Pair who teamed up in April win 6-7 (7), 7-6 (8), 7-6 (9)
• Patten is third Briton to win men’s doubles in Open era

Henry Patten completed a remarkable Wimbledon run by becoming the first British winner of the 2024 championships with men’s doubles success alongside his Finnish partner, Harri Heliövaara.

Patten and Heliövaara had only teamed up in April, but dumped out a succession of seeds on the way to a maiden grand slam final together. Up against the Australian pair Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson, Patten and Heliövaara saved three championship points in the second set before they sealed a superb 6-7 (7), 7-6 (8), 7-6 (9) victory in front of a jubilant Centre Court crowd.

The Czech won her second grand slam title after beating the Italian over three sets in a closely contested final

Jasmine Paolini has won the toss. She elects to serve. They hit up.

“You want the memories of the day to be positive,” says Ash Barty. This is in reference to the nerves players feel as they prepare to make the short walk down the stairs to centre court, a journey they make now. Barty’s point: you have to surrender to this and understand that this is not just another day – it isn’t.

• Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson win 6-4, 6-4 in semi-final
• 15th seeds have only dropped one set in five matches

Wimbledon fortnight did not start well for Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson, but there could be a golden finish for the Australian duo. The pair have won their way into the final of the men’s doubles, and will believe they can win it after sweeping aside the top seeds.

Purcell and Thompson beat Spaniard Marcel Granollers and Argentine Horacio Zeballos 6-4 6-4 in 71 minutes on Thursday to book a place in the final on Saturday (early Sunday AEST) at the All England Club.

• Live SW19 updates as the singles quarter-finals continue
• ‘Devastated’ De Minaur pulls out | And send Daniel a mail

Hard to argue with this.

Come on! Yes, and reluctantly, “let’s go”. Heliovaara/Patten take the breaker 7-5 and here comes the decider. i am, fo course, still impartial, but it’s not every day your mate’s in a Wimbledon quarter.