Category: Tennis

• Australian beats Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (7-3)

• Spaniard blows three chances to win first ATP Tour title

Alex de Minaur rallied from a set down and saved three match points to claim the Washington Open title with a 5-7, 6-1, 7-6(3) win over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the final of the ATP 500 event.

The Australian No 1, who lost the 2018 final to Alexander Zverev, felt he rode his luck to secure his 10th career title and ensure he will enter the top 10 in the world rankings ahead of next month’s US Open.

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• Australia’s No 1 beats Frenchman 6-4, 6-3 to book place in decider

• World No 13 to meet Ben Shelton or Alejandro Davidovich Fokina

Alex de Minaur is through to the final of the Washington Open after demolishing Frenchman Corentin Moutet.

In promising signs ahead of next month’s US Open, the Australian No 1 and seventh seed stormed to a 6-4, 6-3 victory at the event where he reached his maiden ATP 500 final back in 2018.

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• Briton falls 6-4, 6-3 after dropping first sets of tournament

• Russian to face Canada’s Leylah Fernandez in final

Anna Kalinskaya outclassed Emma Raducanu 6-4, 6-3 at the Washington Open to advance to the final, where she will face Leylah Fernandez.

After a strong start from both players, Kalinskaya secured the first break to lead 5-4 and served out the opening set, handing Raducanu her first dropped set of the tournament.

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• Briton ‘toughed it out’ to earn 6-4, 7-5 quarter-final win

• Physio checked on Raducanu as temperature hit 36C

Emma Raducanu booked her place in the semi-finals of the Washington Open for the first time with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Greece’s Maria Sakkari on a day where both players had to battle high temperatures.

After losing the opening game, Raducanu dropped serve but managed to break straight back. Raducanu broke again to make it 4-3 courtesy of a scuffed drop-volley by Sakkari, who fought back once more following another double fault by the Briton. After getting her nose in front again, Raducanu held serve to take the opening set.

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• Venus Williams loses to Magdalena Frech in DC

• Williams, 45, was chasing first streak since 2019

• Raducanu beats Osaka; Fernandez ousts Pegula

Venus Williams’ bid for her first winning streak since 2019 ended with a 6-2, 6-2 loss to 24th-ranked Magdalena Frech at the DC Open on Thursday night.

Williams is 45, and her victory in the first round Tuesday night against 35th-ranked Peyton Stearns made the seven-time grand slam singles champion the oldest woman to win a tour-level singles match since Martina Navratilova was 47 in 2004.

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• Briton wins 6-4, 6-2 to make last eight in Washington

• Cameron Norrie and Dan Evans go out in straight sets

Emma Raducanu will reclaim the British No 1 ranking after winning her first meeting with the four-time grand slam champion Naomi Osaka in confident fashion. The clash was hotly anticipated but proved to be not that much of a contest, with Raducanu comfortably clinching a 6-4, 6-2 victory to reach the quarter-finals of the Citi Open in Washington.

Speaking on Sky Sports, Raducanu said: “I thought it was going to be a really difficult match. Naomi’s won four slams, she’s been world No 1, won Masters [titles]. She’s so dangerous and on the hard courts I think she’s particularly comfortable. I knew I was going to have to play really well and manage my own service games, which I’m really proud of how I did.

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• Player served three-month suspension over positive test

• Umberto Ferrara blamed incident on physiotherapist

The Wimbledon men’s singles champion Jannik Sinner has reappointed his former fitness coach Umberto Ferrara with immediate effect, the Italian world No 1 confirmed on Wednesday.

Sinner parted ways with Ferrara and physiotherapist Giacomo Naldi last year following the investigation into his positive tests for banned substance clostebol.

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• Briton pulls through gruelling encounter to advance

• Norrie reaches men’s last 16 after seeing off Musetti

Emma Raducanu began her buildup towards next month’s US Open with an impressive straight-sets win over seventh seed Marta Kostyuk at the DC Open in Washington.

Playing her first singles match since stretching world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the third round of Wimbledon, Raducanu held off the Ukrainian world No 27 to pull through a gruelling encounter 7-6 (4), 6-4.

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• Williams, 45, earns first singles win since 2023

• Oldest WTA winner since Navratilova in 2004

• Beatsworld No 35 Stearns after 16-month layoff

Venus Williams wanted to send a message – to herself and to others – about coming back from a long layoff, about competing in a sport at age 45, about never giving up. Yes, there was something special about just being back on a tennis court Tuesday night.

There also was this: She really, really wanted to win.

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• Former world No 13 completes first ATP Tour match in four months

• Australian joins Gael Monfils in first-round doubles defeat at DC Open

Nick Kyrgios has come through his first match since March, and just his sixth this year, completing almost an hour on court in a men’s doubles defeat at the ATP Tour’s DC Open.

Partnering French veteran Gael Monfils, and playing in front of NBA star Kevin Durant, Kyrgios had a tough opening draw against third seeds Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Hugo Nys.

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• 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.

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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.

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