Category Sports News

Madison Keys defeated Clara Tauson 6-1, 6-4, on Tuesday to reach the final four of the Canadian Open, marking only her second WTA 1000 semifinal appearance of her career.

After defeating second seed Iga Swiatek in the previous round, Danish player Tauson, who is seeded 16th in Montreal, won a significant victory.

The 22-year-old revealed she had done it while dealing with a personal tragedy after losing to sixth seed Keys.

My grandfather unfortunately passed away two days ago, so I really wanted to win for him today, Tauson said after the game.

“I really wanted to come out here and show my best tennis to him the day after I beat Swiatek,” I was told the following day.

“I’m hoping he’s watching.”

In the opening set against Keys, Tauson, who was 19th overall, was effective, turning in both of her break point victories and retiring in less than 30 minutes.

Naomi Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam champion, will face Tauson in the semi-finals after the Japanese star reached the final four of her career for the first time.

In the quarter-finals, Osaka defeated Ukrainian Elina Svitolina 6-2, 6-2 to reach her first WTA 1000 semi-final since 2022.

Svitolina attributed the “shameful” behavior to those who had staked money on the game to which she had received death threats following her defeat.

The 30-year-old wrote in an Instagram story where she attached screenshots of the messages, “I’m a mom before I’m an athlete.”

It’s shameful how you talk to women and mothers. Your mothers would be disgusted if they saw your messages.

Osaka defeated Svitolina in the top 10th-seeded match in less than an hour.

The former world number one made unforced errors, breaking twice, before putting her weight behind her to serve out after Svitolina had a chance to get one break back.

Osaka continued, “I think for me, I’m just having a lot of fun playing and I’m really glad to be here.” After adding two more break points to win in Montreal.

She is extremely tough, according to Tasson. This year, I played her in Auckland, and I had to reshuffle halfway because of my injuries. I’m so happy that I’m healthy, and I hope everyone who watches watches will find it exciting.

American second seed Taylor Fritz defeated Russian sixth seed Andrey Rublev to reach the semis of the men’s tournament in Toronto.

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will “not properly fall out,” according to McLaren Formula 1 boss Zak Brown.

After Norris ran into Piastri in Canada in June, Brown, the company’s chief executive officer, predicted that the pair would “swap paint again at some point.”

He continued, “I don’t believe they’ll fall out because of the communication, trust, and respect we all have for one another.”

We have two wonderful people, they say. The challenge is our passion. I’m anticipating them to compete against one another.

This season, Piastri has won six races while Norris has five, and they have won 11 of the previous 14 races.

On August 29 and 31, Brown and the Dutch Grand Prix will resume racing, with Brown saying that he anticipates that the game will continue to be fair.

Has your team-mate ever irritated you in any way, as I’ve said to both of them individually when I had the chance? Never’. And that is what both said, “Brown added.

There is therefore brewing competition. There is no sign of tension in our household. I’m sure there will be more tension as the championship develops, but like Montreal, I’m happy we got it out of the way because Lando owned it and Oscar recognized that it was wrong.

Brown expressed his “very confident it won’t be deliberate” when he said he was “very confident it won’t happen because he expects the two drivers to collide once more.

He continued, “I’m certain they’re never going to run each other off the rails, and that’s where you get into bad blood.”

And he claimed that McLaren would handle any tension in the same way they have handled the drivers’ relationship so far.

He said, “We’ll deal with it if something bubbles up,” he said. And how we operate, which is a transparent, deal-with-it immediately [manner] approach.

When you’ve witnessed fights between other team members, it seems like from the outside, and you kind of wonder, “have they jumped on that, or are they just kind of letting it build up?”

If we think anything is bubbling up in the balloon but haven’t seen any, we’ll take the air out right away.

Because both McLaren and McLaren have long-term contracts, Brown said it was crucial for them to stay in good terms.

Despite being 97 points behind Piastri, Brown thinks Max Verstappen has a chance of winning the title even though he is still in with a lead over Piastri.

However, he claimed that he and team principal Andrea Stella will talk about how to deal with the unavoidable situation where one McLaren driver wins the title while the other loses it if the championship is clearly clearly between just the two McLaren drivers.

According to Brown, “Only one can win the championship, and they both can smell it,” so I’m sure it’ll be difficult on the one who doesn’t win, assuming the other does.

“We’ll just sit down and actually have a conversation and say, “Right, one of you is going to win, and it’s going to be the best day of your life, one of you is going to lose, and you’re going to be devastated,” “How do you want us to handle that, and how do we want us to act?”

Because that’s how we think, it comes back to thinking about our people, we’ll be very considerate about that.

Brown refuted the claim that the narrative “almost” Norris was mentally more fragile than Piastri because he thought it was “untrue.”

“Lando’s open, he kind of wears his emotions on his sleeve, so to speak,” Brown said. He’s in a great place, but everyone’s unique. He’s never been in a better state, in my opinion. He does a fantastic job.

After a few victories slipped away last year, he compared the current commentary on Norris to a previous one, which some observers claimed he was unable to take the lead.

When Sheffield Wednesday reached the Championship play-off final in 2016, the clubs’ fans believed they were on the verge of a new era of success under Thai owner Dejphon Chansiri.

But in the years since losing that final, Chansiri’s reputation and supporters’ morale have taken a steady hammering.

Late payments to HMRC, delayed salaries for players and staff members, and transfer embargos have clipped the club’s wings.

There were concerns about whether their first match of the season against Leicester on Sunday would go ahead, but it is understood the players will fulfil the fixture.

Now, with a skeleton squad, enforced stand closure and dire financial prospects, fans have told the BBC what they feel Chansiri’s failure to sell is doing to the club, the city, and its people.

“We’re all struggling,” says Hillsborough season ticket-holder Gaz Robinson. “It’s been terrible for everybody – mentally exhausting.

In Chansiri’s early years in charge following his 2015 takeover, Wednesday spent heavily as they targeted a return to the Premier League for the first time since 2000.

But in the 2020s the level of spending has receded significantly, debts and creditors have risen sharply, and though Chansiri has indicated he is open to selling the club, no takeover has materialised.

That has led to fans worrying they might not have a club left to support if things do not change soon.

“Absolutely everything has gone wrong,” says Natalie Briggs, who has been landlady of The Park pub – a few minutes’ walk from the stadium – for 10 years.

“Twelve months ago some people were still 50/50 about whether he [Chansiri] should stay or go. But now it’s got to a stage where everyone wants him gone.

“He claims to be a family man, yet he can’t see that he is destroying the biggest family of all – the family that he bought into. He made that decision. And where is he now? Nowhere to be seen.

The impact of the crisis on those who have followed the club for decades is stark, and fans are determined to face Chansiri head-on.

“There have been bad times before, but this is certainly the worst in my life,” says 84-year-old retired ambulance driver Bill Button, who first went to a match at Hillsborough 79 years ago.

“It’s doing my head in. I just don’t know where Chansiri is coming from. We won’t buy a new shirt for the simple reason that the money is going in his pocket. You’ve got to hit his pocket. If not, it won’t make any difference.”

Button’s season ticket is located in the disabled section of Hillsborough’s North Stand, which has now been closed after the Safety Advisory Group refused to renew its safety certificate until renovation work is undertaken.

The club has not provided Bill with any information about what is happening with his season ticket.

“I’ve rung up many times and just get hold music,” he says. “They can’t even give you an answer for anything.

While fans’ anger is primarily directed at Chansiri, some are frustrated the club has not been protected from one man’s decision-making by the English Football League (EFL), whose owners’ and directors’ test Chansiri passed in 2015.

“What we’ve seen from the EFL is nothing,” says fan Ryan Goodison. “And we’re not alone in that. Look at what has happened at Morecambe.

“I think Chansiri would rather see no Sheffield Wednesday than Sheffield Wednesday without him, and I don’t know what the EFL can and can’t do because obviously it’s a private business. But if there is nothing they can do, then what is the point?

“I’m 40 and been coming to Hillsborough since I was five. For that to suddenly be possibly taken away is awful.”

The EFL’s measures for assessing potential owners’ credibility have been amended since Chansiri bought Sheffield Wednesday, but are based on whether individuals are able to provide proof of funds at the point of purchase, rather than whether owners can continue to fund their clubs throughout their tenure.

The incoming Independent Football Regulator (IFR) will have the power to potentially revoke operating licenses from club owners during their tenure in some circumstances.

This summer, Chansiri claimed he had turned down two potential bids for the club worth £30m and £40m.

Fans who spoke to the BBC said they believe the 57-year-old’s valuation of the club is too high, and insisted they will protest against him inside and away from stadiums for the foreseeable future.

“We are going to be protesting in our own way,” Robinson says. “The atmosphere is going to be toxic.

“But we all have jobs and we don’t want a criminal record so we need to act appropriately. We have to show that we are above some things and have more respect than the owner has for us.

“This is our everything – to him it’s a plaything. We have to show him that his time is up, that we don’t want or need him any more, and that he needs to leave.”

Whether Chansiri will seal his own exit in time to avoid a likely points deduction, a descent down the divisions, and further misery for fans, remains unclear.