Category Sports News

Casper Ruud, a Norwegian tennis player, has criticized the ATP’s ranking system, calling it “like a rat race” that makes players compete with their injuries.

Ruud, a two-time French Open champion, lost to Portugal’s Nuno Borges 2-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-0 on Wednesday in a second-round meeting.

The seventh seed comfortably won the opening set, but his knee injury, which he has been carrying since April, prevented him from playing until the match’s conclusion.

He claimed that “it’s been with me for the entire clay season.”

“As we all know, it’s a hectic clay season, and I decided to sort of push it away by taking some painkillers and anti-inflammatory medications to combat it, which have been effective in some ways but not enough.

I’ll need to wait a while for it to heal and rest for a while.

Ruud claimed that it is challenging to allow an injury to heal while competing on the ATP Tour.

He said, “It’s kind of like a rat race when it comes to the rankings as well.”

You feel compelled to play in accordance with the ATP’s requirements for the mandatory events.

The ATP has been contacted by BBC Sport for comment.

Players are required to compete in a certain number of tournaments each year under the ATP and the WTA Tour’s mandatory requirements.

The only exception is Monte Carlo, which requires the top-ranked ATP players to compete in eight of the nine required Masters 1, 000 events annually.

Ruud missed his first major clay-court competition of the year, Monte Carlo, but he did play in Rome’s Italian Open following his first ATP Masters title triumph in Madrid.

The world no. 8 also worried that he would lose out on qualifying points for a tournament, which are used to determine a player’s seeding and eligibility for direct entry.

Ruud continued, “You feel like you lose a lot if you don’t show up and play, both economically and pointlessly, ranking wisely, and playing opportunity wise.”

Before the Uefa Conference League final, Riot police in the Polish city of Wroclaw halted verbal altercations between Chelsea and Real Betis fans using a water cannon.

On Wednesday afternoon, hundreds of supporters clashed in Wroclaw Market Square, with Lower Silesian Police reporting that 28 supporters had been detained.

Police said that number would increase, with ongoing fan arrests being made.

At Stadion Wroclaw, at 20:00 BST, will be the third-tier European competition’s final.

More than 70, 000 fans are expected to show up in the city in south-west Poland for the final, according to local authorities, including those who are fans of fan zones and other events.

Through the city’s four main fan zones are expected to pass tens of thousands of fans.

After the conflict broke out after 3 p.m. local time, Lower Silesian Police posted on X that “the police very quickly intervened to break the two groups and stop the escalation of aggressive behavior.”

“The officers used direct coercion and technical means, such as a water cannon.” No injuries have been reported from the investigations so far.

They later stated in a statement that “We can confirm the arrest of 28 people in the incident.” No one will ever be free of legal retribution, and the police will take appropriate action.

Near Solny Square on Tuesday evening, Chelsea and Betis supporters braced several times during altercation.

Riot police dispersed the crowds with tear gas before going over. As the confrontation lasted for about five minutes, glass bottles and chairs were thrown.

Two more incidents of violence occurred in the evening, with no serious injuries being reported in the evening. Four Spanish supporters, among them, were among the seven supporters who were detained.

“On our streets, there is zero tolerance for violence”! Donald Tusk, the prime minister of Poland, posted an article on X.

After losing to the ASEAN All-Stars, Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim thinks it will make sense for his players to leave Kuala Lumpur with the sound of boos ringing in their ears.

The Premier League team flew 6,600 miles to Malaysia only to discover there was no respite from their troubles after winning over Aston Villa on Sunday, which came to an end to a desperate campaign.

In the opening game of their post-season tour to Asia, United’s old goalscoring failings struck again less than 24 hours after Wolves’ striker Matheus Cunha was cleared to undergo a medical before completing a £62.5m move to Old Trafford.

A second-half goal from Myanmar’s Maung Maung Lwin earned the South East Asia XI victory in front of a total of 72,550 people at the Bukit Jalil Stadium, causing boos from the majority of the fans who had paid up to £260 to watch United play their first home game there since 2009 to a significant portion of the crowd.

Since the first game I was here, Amorim said, “I always feel bad for the team’s performance.”

“We need the boos, maybe because the fans were present every game we lost in the Premier League,” he said. Every time we finished, I felt like the supporters were there. Watch out for the upcoming season.

The United manager firmly stated: “You have to wait for that for the next season. ” He refused to provide any updates on the Cunha situation.

It should be discussed by you guys (the media). Nothing that I won’t confirm. There isn’t anything new.

“We will see,” according to the statement. “There will be some changes.”

United’s worst campaign since the 1973-1974 relegation season ended in 15th place overall, with 42 points.

To avoid being eliminated from the Champions League next season, they also lost to Tottenham 1-0 in the Europa League final in Bilbao.

The trip, which is scheduled for September, will likely bring in about $10 million (£7.8 million) for the club, which comes at the conclusion of a United campaign that includes all competitions.

United’s rebuilding is moving along at a rapid pace despite Amorim’s refusal to provide any information regarding the Cunha situation.

Tom Heaton, a veteran back-up goalkeeper, is set to sign a one-year contract extension, while United are waiting to find out next week whether their efforts to sign Ipswich striker Liam Delap have succeeded.

Delap has attracted a lot of interest since Ipswich’s promotion to the top of the championship to the tune of £30 million.

Delap’s decision is believed to be between Chelsea and United, and the player wants to be resolved before the European Under-21 Championships this summer.

On June 6, England U21 coach Lee Carsley will announce his squad for the five-day tournament that will begin in Slovakia.

Bruno Fernandes, the captain, is traveling to Hong Kong with the rest of the squad for the final leg of United’s Asia trip on Friday, but it is not known whether a big-money offer from Saudi Arabia might turn him in.

Despite being told he can find a new club, winger Alejandro Garnacho will also be traveling with the airline.

Chief Executive Omar Berrada stated in an interview with United’s media before the defeat that the team had a vision for their goals.

He said, “I can’t give specifics, but I can assure you that we have been planning for every scenario for a while.”

“Now that we know what we need to do, we have a very clear idea of where to put money into the squad to grow.”

Now it’s just a matter of carrying out that plan while also pursuing ambition.

If Delap joins United, Rasmus Hojlund’s future will become a hot topic.

Hojlund made 32 Premier League starts this year, scoring four goals, leaving Amorim hoping that some sort of change will take place in the Dane’s form over the summer.

He said, “Sometimes you take a vacation and then you return [back] on the first day, start a new season, and even the environment on the training ground can help all these players have more confidence.”

We do not have any objectives, they say. We’ll make an effort to assess and prepare for that.

The 40, 000-capacity Hong Kong stadium has about 10,000 tickets still to sell for Friday’s game.

Amorim drew on his experiences as a Benfica-supporting youngster in Portugal to explain why local fans should pay to watch United after seeing what they had just witnessed.

He said, “If you can afford it, which is important, then you support your club.”

I was a member of my club when I was a young child, and I always had it.

“Before Benfica in the 1990s, they had a lot of trouble supporting them.” But I kept going.

When Jack Draper and Gael Monfils square off at the French Open on Thursday, a shocking statistic will once more come to mind. The clay-court Grand Slam should do more to promote the women’s game, in light of this.

A women’s singles match hasn’t been on Court Philippe Chatrier’s primetime night slot since 2023, which totals 19 matches in a row.

Only four matches have been played from the women’s draw since the tournament started hosting night sessions in 2021.

The imbalance, which former world number two Ons Jabeur believes has an impact on women’s sport as a whole, is striking and regularly in the news.

It’s unfortunate for all women’s sports. Following her first-round exit on Tuesday, Jabeur, a three-time Grand Slam champion, said, “Not for tennis, but in general.”

“I hope whoever makes the decision doesn’t believe their daughters want to be treated this way.

It’s a little ironic, I say. They don’t broadcast women’s tennis, they don’t broadcast women’s tennis, and they then ask, “Ok, but most of the time, they watch men. They will naturally notice more because you show them more. Everything comes together.

Aryna Sabalenka’s fourth-round victory over Sloane Stephens two years ago was the final women’s singles game to take place at Roland Garros that evening.

The French Tennis Federation (FFT) did not respond to Jabeur’s comments with a response.

On Monday, FFT President Gilles Moretton defended the tournament’s schedule.

Moretton said, “Sometimes, we need to put the better match, we think could be for the spectators, for the night session.”

I don’t know, maybe there will be many female matches on the night sessions. We’ll see if. Depends on the schedule, which team will play which, and which match will be the best.

Holger Rune, the 12th seed of Denmark, takes on Emilio Nava, the world number 137, in the Roland Garross on Wednesday night.

Only four of the 44 matches to take place under the direction of Court Philippe Chatrier have been women’s singles encounters since 2021:

The WTA advised all combined tournaments to offer a balanced match schedule that showcases the best of both men’s and women’s tennis, and in premium scheduling slots, according to the WTA.

Fans of women’s tennis’s current generation and depth of talent are extraordinary, and they deserve and also anticipate the opportunity to witness these elite performances, athleticism, and excitement on the sport’s biggest stages.

Swiatek emphasized her preference for daytime play on Tuesday.

“We discuss it every year.” My position is unchangeable. She said, “I enjoy playing days, so I’m happy that I’m done and can take a longer break.”

Coco Gauff, the second-seeded American, suggested that more women could compete in the evening session, which was similar to Swiatek’s contention that women shouldn’t play too late.

Maybe there could be a women’s match if there is only one game scheduled for 8:15 p.m., said Gauff.

Over the past few years, discussions about the gender imbalance in the French Open night sessions have become a regular theme.

Why hasn’t anything else, then? Because of the pressure, Roland Garros organizers are reluctant to put it off.

The primetime slot on Amazon Prime, which airs across France, only has one match.

The Australian Open and US Open both use two-night matches, but both risk stretching the play into the early morning hours of the next morning.

Amelie Mauresmo, a former women’s world number one, points out that having just one match is the main reason for her choices in defending her choices.

After losing to the ASEAN All-Stars, Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim thinks it will make sense for his players to leave Kuala Lumpur with the sound of boos ringing in their ears.

The Premier League team flew 6,600 miles to Malaysia only to discover there was no respite from their troubles after winning over Aston Villa on Sunday, which came to an end to a desperate campaign.

In the opening game of their post-season tour to Asia, United’s old goalscoring failings struck again less than 24 hours after Wolves’ striker Matheus Cunha was cleared to undergo a medical before completing a £62.5m move to Old Trafford.

A second-half goal from Myanmar’s Maung Maung Lwin earned the South East Asia XI victory in front of a total of 72,550 people at the Bukit Jalil Stadium, causing boos from the majority of the fans who had paid up to £260 to watch United play their first home game there since 2009 to a significant portion of the crowd.

Since the first game I was here, Amorim said, “I always feel bad for the team’s performance.”

“We need the boos, maybe because the fans were present every game we lost in the Premier League,” he said. Every time we finished, I felt like the supporters were there. Watch out for the upcoming season.

The United manager firmly stated: “You have to wait for that for the next season. ” He refused to provide any updates on the Cunha situation.

It should be discussed by you guys (the media). Nothing that I won’t confirm. There isn’t anything new.

“We will see,” according to the statement. “There will be some changes.”

United’s worst campaign since the 1973-1974 relegation season ended in 15th place overall, with 42 points.

To avoid being eliminated from the Champions League next season, they also lost to Tottenham 1-0 in the Europa League final in Bilbao.

In their French Open second-round encounter, Emma Raducanu’s miserable performance against Iga Swiatek persisted.

The British number two lost all five of her matches to the five-time Grand Slam champion after falling to 6-1, 6-2 on the clay in Paris.

The conflict between the top-ranked players on the WTA Tour and the 41st-ranked Raducanu was once more rehashed.

As fifth seed Swiatek rattled off five games in a row, 22-year-old Raducanu quickly lost her way after being unable to convert a break point in the opening game.

As the 23-year-old from Poland secured the opening set in 35 minutes, Raducanu’s second serve was put under serious pressure and her groundstrokes grew more ragged.

Swiatek, who has won four of the previous five Roland Garros titles, is known as the “Queen of Clay” for her impressive performance in this match, which gave her 2-1 lead in the second set.

There are some questions about her level after a subpar clay-court swing, though, and they came up again when Raducanu threatened to retaliate right away.

In a drawn-out fourth game, Swiatek was able to save three break points, one of which is crucial between players of her status and Raducanu, by maintaining her intensity under pressure.

Over the past three months, Raducanu has made positive progress from the outside.

After suffering from injuries for a while, the 2021 US Open champion has since climbed back into the top 50 and made progress by reaching the Miami Open quarter-finals and the Italian Open last 16.

Since appointing Mark Petchey as her coach in an “informal” arrangement in March, that has been a benefit of playing with more freedom.

However, she was unable to accomplish that against Swiatek.

Swiatek’s depth of return and ability to change angles contributed to a more rigid approach, but Raducanu’s ball-striking was also subpar.

It was difficult to keep up the rallies with Swiatek, which demonstrated how difficult it is for Raducanu to find returning ball after ball in the face of intense competition from the leading stars.

Coco Gauff, the second-ranked American, was the subject of a similar incident earlier this month on the clay in Rome.

Even though Raducanu has undoubtedly made progress with her resilience, it is clear that she still has a way to go despite only winning three of her 14 professional matches against top-10 players.

One of the most challenging challenges in the game is to defeat Swiatek on the red dirt because clay is not her natural surface.