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The Hundred women’s competition, The Oval

Oval Invincibles 109-7 (100 balls): Lanning 45 (35); Gardner 2-10

Trent Rockets 113-4 (84 balls): Scrivens 34 (27); Wellington 1-15

Rockets won by six wickets

Trent Rockets kept their slim qualification hopes alive with a six-wicket win over Oval Invincibles in the women’s Hundred.

Rockets made hard work of chasing just 110 at The Kia Oval after a flurry of middle-order wickets, but Heather Graham held her nerve with an unbeaten 19 from 11 balls and they reached their target with 16 balls to spare.

The visitors had a flying start from Bryony Smith and Grace Scrivens, who added 51 in 35 balls together, but the Invincibles fought back to remove Smith for 24 and claimed the huge wickets of Nat Sciver-Brunt for two and Ash Gardner for 11.

Scrivens then fell for 34, but Graham and Jodi Grewcock, with 21 not out, settled the Rockets’ nerves and sealed their first win against the Invincibles.

In contrast to the Rockets’ rapid start, Invincibles had crawled to 13-1 from their powerplay, which included 16 dot balls, as captain Lauren Winfield-Hill fell for seven from 14.

Former Australia skipper Meg Lanning revived the innings as she kicked on to 45 from 35 balls, but Ash Gardner changed the course of the game as she dismissed Lanning and Marizanne Kapp in the space of three balls.

Paige Scholfield clubbed the last ball for six to take Invincibles to 109-7 but her 16 not out was the second highest score of the innings as they failed to put partnerships together throughout.

Despite being set a below-par total, it did not feel like a straightforward chase for the Rockets, whose batting has been inconsistent throughout the tournament.

They changed their opening partnership, swapping Nat Wraith in favour of Scrivens, and the 21-year-old showed impressive composure despite taking the backseat to Smith in their opening stand.

Smith seized the initiative by whacking Kapp for four first ball but Scrivens took ownership of the chase thereafter with five fours in her 27-ball knock.

Sciver-Brunt and Gardner were furious with their soft dismissals, both caught on the boundary off Kapp and Amanda-Jade Wellington respectively, and it felt like the game had tipped in the Invincibles’ favour, considering the Rockets’ reliance on their senior all-rounders.

Scrivens also holed out off Alice Capsey, perhaps just lacking a little game awareness at a crunch moment, but 20-year-old Grewcock stepped up.

It’s a bottom-of-the-table contest in the women’s Hundred as Welsh Fire, who are already eliminated, take on Birmingham Phoenix at Edgbaston at 15:00 BST.

The men’s game follows at 18:30 BST with Fire needing a win to keep their very slim qualification hopes alive while a victory for Phoenix, who are fifth, would boost their top-three chances.

British men’s number one Jack Draper has been handed a US Open first-round match against a still-to-be-determined qualifier as he looks to eclipse last year’s breakout Grand Slam run in New York.

Draper, 23, lost to eventual champion Jannik Sinner in the semi-finals – and the fifth seed may have to face the Italian world number one again in this year’s quarter-finals.

Emma Raducanu, who is Britain’s leading women’s player, will also begin against a qualifier as she returns once again to the scene of her unforgettable title triumph in 2021.

Raducanu, 22, could come up against 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, who she recently played doubles with in Washington, in the third round.

Four other Britons have earned direct entry to the singles draws through their ranking.

Katie Boulter and Sonay Kartal have both been drawn against seeded players – Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk and Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia respectively – in their first-round matches.

Unseeded Cameron Norrie has been paired with another dangerous floater in American Sebastian Korda, while Jacob Fearnley faces Spanish veteran Roberto Bautista Agut.

The burning question in the men’s singles is an obvious one – who can stop Sinner and Spanish second seed Carlos Alcaraz carving up another Grand Slam title between them?

The pair have surged well clear of the rest of the ATP Tour in terms of quality over the past two seasons, forging a compelling rivalry which looks set to dominate in the coming years.

Nobody has managed to stop Sinner and Alcaraz sharing the past seven major titles, underlining their superiority by contesting the past two finals at the French Open and Wimbledon.

Sinner, 24, pulled out of their Cincinnati final on Monday through illness but was practising at Flushing Meadows on Thursday.

Novak Djokovic, who goes again for a standalone record 25th Grand Slam title, remains the third favourite, despite age seemingly catching up with the 38-year-old Serb.

Djokovic has not won a major since the 2023 US Open, coming up short against Sinner in the business end at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon this year.

The seventh seed can not face Sinner until the final, having been put in 22-year-old Alcaraz’s side of the draw instead.

If Djokovic is to finally move clear of Margaret Court in terms of major titles, he might have to beat Alcaraz – who won the first of his five major titles at Flushing Meadows in 2022 – in the semi-finals.

Both Djokovic and Alcaraz, however, have landed tricky-looking opponents in the first round.

Women’s singles:

Aryna Sabalenka [1] v Rebeka Masarova (Swi)

Barbora Krejcikova (Cze) v Victoria Mboko [22] (Can)

Venus Williams (US) v Karolina Muchova (Cze) [11]

Petra Kvitova (Cze) v Diane Parry (Fra)

Ajla Tomljanovic (Aus) v Coco Gauff (US) [3]

Amanda Anisimova (US) [8] v Kimberley Birrell (Aus)

Emiliana Arango (Col) v Iga Swiatek (Pol) [2]

Full women’s singles draw

Men’s singles

Jannik Sinner (Ita) [1] v Vit Kopriva (Cze)

Alexander Bublik (Kaz) [23] v Marin Cilic (Cro)

Lorenzo Musetti (Ita) [10] v Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard (Fra)

Alexander Zverev (Ger) [3] v Alejandro Tabilo (Chi)

Novak Djokovic (Ser) [7] v Learner Tien (US)

Emilio Nava (US) v Taylor Fritz (US) [4]

Ben Shelton (US) [6] v Qualifier

Reilly Opelka (US) v Carlos Alcaraz [2] (Spa)

The one certainty from the Welsh Rugby Union’s “radical” plans for the professional game in Wales is little will remain the same.

The governing body presented a 90-page document on Wednesday that will shake up everything – academies, the women’s game and, of course, the regions.

The WRU published four potential models and said keeping the current structure – as many agree – is no longer an option given the slump in Welsh rugby fortunes.

As the Union bosses pressed their case for change at the Principality Stadium, the pitch was being resurfaced before the autumn internationals, by which time a final decision is due.

This is the key question at the forefront of every fans’ thoughts and chief executive Abi Tierney admitted the process will hurt and “not everyone will be happy”.

The first decision is whether to have four, three or two professional clubs and should they be equally funded.

The WRU insists a final decision has not been made and will listen to views in the consultation period starting 1 September.

Ideally, the Union wants regions to come to an agreement via mergers but that looks unlikely.

In the west, Ospreys are pressing on with plans to redevelop St Helen’s in Swansea and Scarlets have announced new investors.

In the east, Cardiff are already owned by the union while Dragons owners insists elite rugby “must remain in Gwent”.

Tierney suggested a tender process was possible if cutting to two was the final choice – as the executive board has recommended.

A decision is due in late October but the timescale to implement any change is another unknown because of the various options.

Creating two new entities, for example, would take far longer than simply tinkering with the funding for the current four.

“If the WRU board propose a two plus two model and there’s no change to SRC (Super Rygbi Cymru) and very limited build-out of the infrastructure to support performance in Wales, that’s going to be pretty easy to implement,” said chairman Richard Collier-Keywood.

“The two [club] model is probably harder to implement.”

All options include a commitment to continue funding the four regions under the current participation agreement to 2027.

But if two teams are told in October that they have no future beyond 2027, would they bother to continue for another two seasons?

The WRU is committed to the United Rugby Championship for at least two more seasons and league bosses are part of the consultation process.

Both the league and European competitions would be impacted by changes in Wales and strongly prefer an even number of Welsh sides, whether four or two.

Some fans have mooted the possibility of resurrecting the infamous rebel season of 1998-99 when Swansea and Cardiff defied the WRU and played clubs in England.

But without the governing body’s funding, the chances of any region being allowed into, for example, Prem Rugby in England are slim – and that is if English clubs wanted it.

Even the WRU’s radical changes would given two teams far greater spending power than regions have now, they would not have dramatic spending power.

The document estimates a squad budget of £7.8m would be “competitive to PRL and Top 14” rivals.

English clubs currently have a salary cap of £7.8m plus one marquee player while the French sides operate with £9.2m, but with various exemptions and credits.

However, two Welsh clubs would still be operating on less than Irish and Scottish rivals.

Wales players threatened to strike during the 2024 Six Nations and the WRU is eager to avoid any similar threat.

But all players in Wales will kick off the new season in September unsure of their long-term future.

The governing body has vowed to honour all contracts signed before May but a reduction to two teams would reduce the playing opportunities to 50 players each.

Coaches, backroom team, operations and administration staff are also all coping with uncertainty.

Cardiff listed 247 employees in their most recent accounts, Scarlets 164, Ospreys 119 and Dragons 106.

“Being able to do it in a transitioned and a managed way rather than an overnight way, we can look at how we can bring roles together and we can redeploy roles,” said Tierney.

“A lot of those teams are already to the bone, you know, so there’s opportunities for us to strengthen those teams in this new model.

Ospreys are embarking on a £5m revamp of St Helen’s in time for the 2026-27 season alongside Swansea Council.

But the future of rugby in the west must be sorted before the pace of work can step up and Swansea council’s public funding is conditional.

Given Carmarthenshire council owns Parc y Scarlets and Cardiff Athletic Club are landlords of the Arms Park, Dragons are the only one of the four current regions to own their own ground.

Any changes could have a knock-on effect for Newport County, given the League Two football club have a 10-year rolling lease for Rodney Parade, a requirement of the English Football League.