Category: Tennis

• Tennis player suspended for second time after Cas appeal

• Moore blamed contaminated meat for failed drug test

The British tennis player Tara Moore, who was previously cleared of an anti-doping rule violation, has been handed a four-year ban after the court of arbitration for sport upheld an appeal filed by the International Tennis Integrity Agency.

Moore, Britain’s former No 1-ranked doubles player, was provisionally suspended in June 2022 owing to the presence of prohibited anabolic steroids nandrolone and boldenone in a blood sample.

In the fevered environments within sporting arenas, anything that can help an official has to be a good thing

We are all suckers for a good story. And there was certainly a cracking two‑parter at Wimbledon this year. First came the news that 300 line judges had been replaced by artificial intelligence robots. Then, a few days later, it turned out there were some embarrassing gremlins in the machine. Not since Roger Federer hung up his Wilson racket has there been a sweeter spot hit during the Wimbledon fortnight.

First the new electronic line-judging system failed to spot that Sonay Kartal had whacked a ball long during her match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova – which led to the Russian losing a game she otherwise would have won. Although, ironically, it happened only because an official had accidentally switched the system off.

Italian overcame heartbreak in French Open final and now moves on to his favoured hard courts for US Open buildup

With his hopes of a third consecutive Wimbledon title desperately fading with every point, Carlos Alcaraz sat down in his chair on Centre Court after conceding the third set of his final with Jannik Sinner and bluntly unloaded his thoughts on his team: “From the back of the court, he is much better than me. Much better than me! Much [better]! It’s like this,” Alcaraz said, gesturing with his hands to demonstrate the vast gap between his greatest rival and himself.

His assessment was not wrong. From a set down, Sinner put together a supreme performance to overturn five consecutive losses against Alcaraz and win his first Wimbledon title, avenging the most difficult loss in his career – his French Open final defeat by Alcaraz in June – at the earliest opportunity. No one in the world strikes the ball with anything close to the destructive power, cleanliness, consistency that the Italian employs to dominate on the court and he used his incessant aggression to constantly rob time from his opponent, making it so difficult for him to impose his own varied game.

Our photographer looks back at two glorious weeks of tennis in SW19 and has picked out some of his favourite photos from the thousands he took during Wimbledon 2025. The tournament culminated with two new names being engraved on the singles winners’ trophies as Iga Swiatek and Jannik Sinner added the Wimbledon titles to their previous grand slam victories

After suffering a heartbreaking defeat to Carlos Alcaraz in the French Open final, Jannik Sinner rebounds to beat him in the Wimbledon final, taking the title by three sets to one

“Fritz was asked to compare the two after the semi-final,” writes Kerrith Britland. “He said something along the lines of Sinner is more predictable but a more consistently big ball striker, while Alcaraz has more access to angles but can go massive too.

While I think the RG loss would’ve been tough to swallow for Sinner, I don’t think he expected to do as well as he did after the three months out and against Alcaraz on his favoured surface. I reckon he wants this one bad though. With that Dimitrov bullet dodged, Sinner might think the powers that be are on his side today.

• Venus accepts wildcard for DC Open singles draw

• 45-year-old hasn’t played since 2024 Miami Open

Venus Williams accepted a wild-card invitation to play singles at this month’s DC Open, which would be the seven-time grand slam champion’s first tournament in more than a year.

Williams, who turned 45 in June, is listed as “inactive” on the WTA Tour’s website.

• Updates from SW19 | Anisimova stuns Sabalenka

• Mail Daniel | Gallery: joyous disorder at Wimbledon

Is there a cultural reason Americans enjoy using what we in the UK consider to be surnames as first names? I know we’ve noted it – so too did Billy Connolly – but is there a reason? Perhaps Fritz Taylor can advise.

Nothing to do with tennis, but I’ve got the cricket on my second screen and they’re telling us about the Ruth Strauss Foundation. My eyeballs may be sweating, but Andrew Strauss: what a father, what a husband, what a man. Support him if you can.

• Updates from SW19 | Fritz has class to upset Alcaraz

• Mail Daniel | Gallery: joyous disorder at Wimbledon

Our players are out on Centre. Anisimova actually leads the head-to-head 5-3, so won’t be feart, but Sabalenka has won three of the last last four. My feeling is that she controls her power slightly better, but she’s also more prone to collapse and likely to be the less chill of the two.

I did not, I must say, expect Bencic to bin Andreeva yesterday. Partly, Bencic is someone on whose performance I’ve never felt able to rely, but mainly, I felt like Andreeva was ready to win – as much as anything because, for the first time, those were the vibes she and her coach were exuding. Which isn’t to say I expected her to, but I did think it’d take Swiatek or Sabalenka to stop her.

Tennis players have been sceptical about AI line judges – like they were when Cyclops was introduced 45 years ago

By That 1980s Sports Blog

There was never a dull moment with Ilie Nastase. Walking across Centre Court before his first-round match at Wimbledon in 1980, the Romanian had his eyes firmly set on a box at the side of the court. He bent down to look at the device, the crowd tittering as he examined it. This was no ordinary box. It was a £2,000 machine installed to improve officiating and eliminate controversial decisions. But, just like the move away from line judges this year, not everyone was impressed.

Now for the science bit. Invented by Bill Carlton and Margaret Parnis in the late 1970s, the machines – for ever known as Cyclops – were only used on service line calls. Two boxes were set up either side of the service box backline on both sides of the net, one sending infrared lines across to the other. If any beams on the “out” side of the line were broken, a red light would show and a bleep would sound to the line judge, who sat beside the box wearing headphones. The official would shout “fault” as usual and everyone would happily accept the decision and move on. Well, that was the plan.

• Latest updates as the fourth round begins at SW19

• Email Daniel | Swiatek stakes claim with victory

Also going on:

Good morrow one and all and welcome to Wimbledon 2025 – day seven!

• Australian beats Italian Luciano Darderi 6-4 6-4 3-6 6-3

• Battling veteran now faces No 5 seed Taylor Fritz

Jordan Thompson’s adventures at Wimbledon have continued with the wounded Australian storming into the fourth round of his favourite event for the first time in his career.

Still troubled by a debilitating back injury that had him protesting after his two previous courageous five-set wins that even “snails move faster”, Thompson looked in much sharper nick as he had too much grass-court nous for Italian Luciano Darderi in their third-round clash on Friday, prevailing 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

• Australian beats France’s Arthur Cazaux 4-6 6-2 6-4 6-0

• No 1 says grass tournament is like a ‘second home slam’

Alex de Minaur has been left relieved to blast back from being a set down and avoid joining the legion of seeds who have already been scattered at this shock-laden Wimbledon.

In perfect sunny conditions on Thursday morning, Australia’s big hope brushed off a woeful first set against French qualifier Arthur Cazaux before regrouping, asserting his superiority and eventually prevailing 4-6 6-2 6-4 6-0 to ease into the third round again.