Archive June 23, 2025

Britain’s Emma Raducanu has praised Wimbledon for doing “an amazing job” to prevent a man who had been stalking her from buying tickets for this month’s championships.

As first reported by the BBC, the All England Club’s security measures spotted the man had been red-flagged, and blocked his attempt to enter the public ballot.

The man followed Raducanu to four successive tournaments in February and the 22-year-old was left in tears when she caught sight of him in the stands at the Dubai Tennis Championships.

He was later given a restraining order by Dubai police, and his name circulated among the tennis authorities.

“Wimbledon and everyone did an amazing job. I got a notification, the police contacted me and told me everything was OK”, Raducanu told BBC Sport in her first comments on the issue.

Raducanu shot to worldwide fame when she won the US Open as an 18-year-old in 2021.

She has previously been the victim of a stalker, with another man given a five-year restraining order in 2022 after he walked 23 miles to her home.

The Englishwoman has often had a greater security detail with her at tournaments since the upsetting incident in Dubai, and says she now feels “comfortable and safe” on tour.

“I’ve had great protection whenever I have been at these events recently”, she continued.

“I have a lot more protection around me – especially the ones here in the UK, where it’s busy and there’s more spectators around.

” I feel a difference, and that reassures me and makes me feel more comfortable. “

Sally Bolton, chief executive of All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) told BBC Sport they spend a lot of time on ensuring security measures are tight at Wimbledon.

Boulter and a number of female athletes across a range of sports have called for more action to be taken against those who abuse players.

” I’m glad Katie spoke out about it because it is something that we all go through, “Raducanu added.

” I try and not to read the comments or look at the messages because it makes you upset.

“It doesn’t matter how many positive comments you read, you are always going to remember the more negative ones – so I just try and stay away”.

Raducanu is competing at Eastbourne, one of the final grass-court events before Wimbledon begins on 30 June.

The new American owners of Rangers received approval to invest $ 20 million in the club on Monday, a significant development for the Ibrox club.

By Scottish football standards, it is a sizable sum of money. Is it sufficient, however, in the more specific context of Rangers’ conflict with Celtic?

In a time of unprecedented dominance, Glasgow’s green-and-white half has won 13 of its previous 14 Scottish Premiership titles.

However, Andrew Cavenagh, the new chairman of Rangers, claims that the club’s goal is to return to the Champions League.

It’s also unknown how much of the £20 million will go directly to the squad of new head coach Russell Martin because Cavenagh also stated they would be purposefully “opaque” about the transfer budget.

It is obvious that the San Francisco 49ers’ investment arm and Cavenagh brought in significant sums of money.

However, Rangers’ most recent financial results, which date back to October 2024, show a loss of £17 million for the previous fiscal year.

Costs have been reduced since then, but the new owners discovered a club that was losing money as of June 2024 and had only £1.7 million in the bank.

A staggering amount of cash was held by Celtic at the end of the same time period (£65 million as of December 31, 2024).

The key factors in this comparison are Celtic’s cunning ability to attract and sell young talent for a sizable profit.

Celtic players account for eight of the ten biggest sales in Scottish football history, according to transfermarkt.com, and they have all occurred within the last eleven years.

Celtic’s financial success is also credited to regular Champions League football, which has allowed them to financially outlive Rangers.

So, while not to be sniffed at, the sum of £20m won’t change Rangers’ spending power in comparison to that of their rivals.

Cavenagh is aware of this, claiming that the long-term goal is to provide financial stability with the potential for Ibrox expansion as a later project.

Come in, spend some money, sign some players, try to win something, and then experience the sugar crash that comes with that, Cavenagh said. “We are not looking for the sugar high.

A key figure in the management of sporting organizations, Vice-chairman Paraag Marathe, according to his own words to shareholders, “has a deep expertise in turning them around”

He has spent years working for the 49ers’ analytics and data department.

He has used that background to help Leeds United, who were only just promoted to the Premier League last season after conceding a season-long absence.

Leeds was forced to sell star players like Crysencio Summerville, Archie Gray, and Georginio Rutter for large sums of money and reinvest in the following year as a result of their unsuccessful promotion bid.

Ao Tanaka and Jayden Bogle were among the players who helped them win the title, and they did it cleverly and reasonably cheaply.

Marathe emphasizes that it is about being “smarter” rather than “hosing money at players,” making it seem the most instructive comparison to what might take place at Rangers.

Other clubs have reportedly expressed interest in striker Cyriel Dessers and midfielder Nicolas Raskin in addition to the $ 20 million injection.

Cavenagh did not provide any information about the summer plans, but it might be best to cash in and look to reinvest right away.

The clock is ticking, though, given that only four weeks until Rangers’ first competitive game, a massive one against Panathinaikos in Champions League qualifying, are scheduled.

Lyall Cameron, a former Dundee midfielder, is the only confirmed addition to the Rangers squad, despite the Rangers’ claim that they are close to signing Bournemouth right-back Max Aarons on loan.

There is a lot to be done because the senior players from last season’s departure, including Vaclav Cerny, Leon Balogun, Ianis Hagi, and Tom Lawrence.

Cavenagh claimed that this year, “the club is in a different position.” From a financial standpoint, “we can be patient.”

Rangers only need to consider what transpired when Ange Postecoglou arrived at Celtic Park in 2021 and immediately reclaimed the title.

The Australian, who had been instrumental in Celtic’s success under his leadership and Brendan Rodgers, added Kyogo Furuhashi, Daizen Maeda, and Reo Hatate despite losing the first Old Firm derby.

A head coach who can improve a squad as well as a few key signings can be very helpful. Particularly because Rangers’ shortcomings last term were more reliant on Celtic than the rest of the league.

Kevin Thomson, a former Rangers midfielder, believes that finding players with the right attitude and the right attitude is also a top priority.

According to him, “When you get to Rangers and Celtic, it comes down to what kind of players they recruit and how they handle it mentally.”

How do you constantly develop that edge?

Cavenagh claimed one of the four key qualities they were looking for in a hiring the former Southampton boss was the ability to improve players, as well as the style of play, win, and create a culture.

And while the new owners frequently mention that this is going to be a long-term project, they are undoubtedly optimistic about a long-term project.

Cavenagh remarked, “It’s possible or we wouldn’t be here,” adding that they share fans’ “sense of urgency.”

We don’t believe it will be simple. We will work hard to improve on-pitch performance and the club’s infrastructure, but it won’t happen right away.

As Tommy Fleetwood continues to wrestle with how to get over the winning line on the PGA Tour, American golf is trying to fathom how having a playing captain might work at this year’s Ryder Cup.

Both issues were brought into sharp focus by Keegan Bradley’s dramatic victory over Fleetwood at the Travellers Championship in Connecticut last Sunday. It was the Englishman’s sixth runner-up finish on the US-based circuit and this one “hurts”.

A lot.

Fleetwood stumbled on the home stretch to let in his tall, broad-shouldered American opponent for a win that emphasises a growing feeling that he should return to the US Ryder Cup playing roster for this September’s match against Europe at Bethpage.

If the contest was next week, Bradley’s inclusion as a player would be a no brainer. Indeed, even with high golfing summer to come, he has already done enough to warrant selection from his captain this autumn.

Ah. He is the captain.

Who might he leave out if he has to pick himself? And is it possible in the modern era to do both jobs well enough to be successful at both?

This was always a potential dilemma from the moment, a year ago, that the 39-year-old became a shock selection to lead America’s quest to regain that precious pot of gold.

And the Ryder Cup is a much bigger entity than it was in 1963 when Arnold Palmer was the last playing captain.

In those days they played morning and afternoon on each of the three days and Palmer played all six sessions, winning four points, in an overall 23-9 victory. It was routine stuff that barely resonated beyond the golf village.

The modern Ryder Cup is one of the biggest and most trancsendent sporting events on the planet. Captaincy is all consuming, potentially contentious and controversial and often pivotal to the final outcome.

Playing is exhausting too. Combining both roles effectively seems nigh on impossible. Or at least it was thought to be until Bradley got the call from the PGA of America’s then boss Seth Waugh last year.

“We want you to be the first playing captain since Palmer”, was the gist of Waugh’s stunning call to a player who had been cruelly overlooked as a player for the 2023 defeat in Rome.

It was and remains a bizarre selection, a reflection that with Tiger Woods wanting to wait for the 2027 match, the US cupboard of candidates was bare.

“In my opinion there is just no way that you could be a captain nowadays of a Ryder Cup or a Presidents Cup and play”, said Trevor Immelman after commentating for CBS on Bradley’s latest victory.

“There are so many responsibilities at the feet of the captain. So many decisions that have to be made before the tournament and then during the week.

” You want your players to be single-minded, focused on themselves. To be focused on the high pressure situation they are in.

“But now you’ve got a guy in Keegan Bradley, who absolutely should be playing”.

South African Immelman captained the International team in the 2022 Presidents Cup and is in charge of the official world rankings which have Bradley riding high at number seven with only five Americans ahead of him.

And if you think the OWGR is compromised by the LIV induced split in the men’s game, Data Golf, which reflects all tours, currently puts only four Americans above the US captain. He lies ninth on the qualifying list for the 12-man team.

“You cannot even start an argument with me trying to explain that he is not among the 12 best American golfers”, Immelman added.

“So they’re in a tough spot. The water’s just got a little murky for them, because how does he not play, right now”?

Bradley insists there is planning in place for this situation, saying he would be a playing captain who would lean heavily on his assistants.

Europe, meanwhile, have the inspirational and analytical Luke Donald watching on, no doubt wondering whether he can exploit all this uncertainty to help land a rare away win.

Donald has witnessed a series of European wins on American soil this year from the likes of Rory McIlroy (three times including the Players and Masters), Ludvig Aberg, Sepp Straka (twice), Thomas Detry and Viktor Hovland.

And Fleetwood should have added to the list at TPC River Highlands last week after dominating the Signature Event until suffering two bogeys in the last three holes.

The certainty of his game that had garnered a winning position evaporated on the closing stretch and he three putted from off the front of the final green to allow Bradley his birdie chance for glory.

The atmosphere was akin to a Ryder Cup. The galleries were packed, Bradley, the local hero who is accompanied by vociferous chants of “U-S-A, U-S-A” wherever he plays, was nerveless.

He emphasised his playing credentials for late September by slotting home from slightly shorter range than where Fleetwood had missed on a near identical line. Heartbreak for Tommy.

Getting over the line is never easy but the Englishman seems to find it harder than most for a man of his undoubted and considerable ball-striking talents.

He has top-five finishes in all four majors but while he has won seven times on the DP World Tour in a 15-year career, this is the closest he has come to breaking his duck on US soil.

At the key moments his putting becomes tentative when for other world class talents it tends to be clinical. There is a considerable hurdle to be leapt for him to graduate to the glory that is commensurate with the rest of his golfing gifts.

But happily from a European point of view he is a different animal in the Ryder Cup, where matchplay dictates positivity on the greens. He won four out of five points in Paris on debut in 2018.

Two years ago he won three points out of four and calmly secured the winning moment against Rickie Fowler in the cauldron of an ever tightening final day in Rome.

Fleetwood only lost once of his three matches, falling 19 points to 9 against Whistling Straits in 2021.

Donald will be delighted to have him on his team once more this year because it’s likely that he and McIlroy will form a successful partnership.

In some ways, Fleetwood is a contemporary version of Colin Montgomerie and Lee Westwood, who were typically men dressed in European colors and never quite reached their full potential at the biggest events.

What are the chances of Fleetwood and Bradley colliding again in Bethpage’s bear pit this fall? What a wonderful prospect, and despite Sunday’s defeat, Bradley is still one of eight players worldwide in the Data Golf standings.

Bradley lost to Gleneagles in the following game after winning the last time they met at Medinah in 2012.

Since then, he has not played for the US Ryder Cup team, but he is likely to do so in his capacity as captain. Nobody has better motivation than that.