Category Sports News

French Open 2025

Location: Roland Garros, May 25 – June

Coco Gauff, the second-ranked player in the world, won another impressive straight sets victory to advance to the quarter-finals, continuing her quest for her first French Open singles title.

In Paris, the American, age 21, defeated Russian 20th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova 6 , 7-5.

Gauff only managed five points in the first five games of the first set, which lasted 29 minutes.

Gauff, who finished second in 2022, has made it to the quarter-finals for the fifth time in a row, at Roland Garros.

Madison Keys and Hailey Baptiste, the Australian Open champions, will face her in the fourth-round meeting.

Mirra Andreeva, a teenager from Russia, also advanced in straight sets to the last eight.

Gauff started well against Alexandrova, but Alexandrova’s pressure was evident in the first set.

In a sixth game that lasted almost ten minutes before she finally converted her third set point, she had to withstand five break points.

Gauff faced break points for the first time in a close second set, but he came out on top to take the lead 4-3 to an improved opponent.

Gauff finished the game stronger and won with a run of three straight games as Alexandrova, who was first in Paris, faced immediate resistance.

Andreeva, age 18, is the youngest player to reach Roland Garros’ second consecutive women’s singles quarter-final since 1998’s Martina Hingis.

And she did it with victory over a rival she admitted to not like to practice with, let alone compete for a spot in a significant quarter-final.

After breaking Kasatkina’s serve in the eighth game, Andreeva edged a close first set with a certain-service game.

In the second set, she came out strong and won four games straight to tie the game at 5-3.

Andreeva, who lost to Kasatkina in the Ningbo final last year in China, remarked, “It was a hell of a match.”

I detest playing against her, and I’m so happy I won.

Standing in the early-evening sunshine at Ashton Gate, as the Bristol fans revelled in a first play-off finish in four years, director of rugby Pat Lam was in defiant mood.

After allowing himself a handful of seconds to dwell on the 52-26 win over Harlequins that secured the Bears’ play-off place, Lam’s attentions swiftly turned to Friday night and the semi-final showdown with local rivals Bath at The Rec.

“Bath have only lost four games this year – who have they lost to?” he rhetorically asked BBC Radio 5 Live, knowing full well his side have done the double over the runaway league leaders.

“So we know how to do it, and that’s what we’ll do. We know how to beat them. We have done it in so many different ways – rain, dry weather, home, away.

“When we came back up [into the Premiership in 2018], the supporters made it really clear we don’t lose to Bath, and we have won 11 out of 14 since.

“We know how to do it and it’s about getting it all right on Friday.”

Owner Steve Lansdown’s money has helped to tempt a host of superstars to Ashton Gate since their promotion in 2018, but Lam insists Bristol are no longer among the league’s big spenders, as the club cut its cloth during and after Covid.

“As far as spend goes, we spend eighth [out of the 10 Premiership teams],” Lam explained.

“Ourselves and Bath are the only two teams to be in the top four all season, yet Bath have spent nearly £3m more on their squad than we have.

“It reminds me of Connacht when we won the Pro12. So to get to this stage I am so pleased and proud of the players.

“Bath in six days’ time – I just have to do the gameplan, I don’t have to do any motivation or talking. The local boys – Ellis Genge, Yann Thomas – they will take control.”

In the end, the top four ended the final day of the regular season as it started, with Leicester, Sale and Bristol all doing enough to book their play-off places and join Bath in the semi-finals.

But while Leicester, who beat Newcastle 42-20, and Bristol enjoyed routine home wins, Sale had to dig deep against an Exeter side desperate to rally after a forgettable campaign.

Bath remain the bookies pick for the title, understandably so given their excellence all campaign and the depth of their squad. But Leicester are narrow favourites to join them in the Twickenham showpiece, thanks to the home advantage they will enjoy against the Sharks at an emotionally-charged Welford Road on Saturday.

However, Sale’s George Ford, who continued his supreme personal form, was unperturbed following the tricky 30-26 win at Sandy Park.

“We knew they were much improved the last few weeks, and we were anticipating a game like that,” he told BBC 5 Live.

“It was like a quarter-final for us, and finals rugby is never easy anyway. There are parts of our game we will need to fix up for next week, and we will do that.”

Premiership Rugby revealed in the week that fly-halves are again the league’s highest-paid position, with the playmakers earning an average of more than £230,000 a season.

It’s not hard to see why. On show over semi-final weekend will be three of the world’s best: Finn Russell for Bath, Handre Pollard for Leicester and Ford for Sale – who are all in great form – while Bristol’s AJ MacGinty is also a class act and won the man-of-the-match award against Harlequins.

On a recent Rugby Union Weekly podcast we discussed the question: if you could pick any of those fly-halves in your side to win a Premiership final, who would you choose? All three co-hosts picked someone different.

Whichever club ends up winning the Premiership title on 14 June is likely to owe a few more quid to the big earners.

Arguably the biggest story of the weekend didn’t take place in Britain or Ireland but in Durban, South Africa, as the Sharks reached the last four of the United Rugby Championship by beating Munster 6-4 in a penalty shootout following a 24-24 draw.

Munster emptied the tank on a daunting away fixture, as they always seem to do when the stakes are high, but were edged out after the Sharks superbly converted all six of their place-kicks.

But the shootout was riddled with controversy as first Jack Crowley exchanged words with Jaden Hendrikse after the latter opened the scoring, before Hendrikse went down with cramp just after nailing his second kick to put the Sharks 4-2 up.

The conveniently-timed injury meant Crowley initially could not take his second shot at goal, despite the Irishman telling referee Mike Adamson he was prepared to kick with the prone Hendrikse a matter of metres away.

Whether Hendrikse was genuinely injured or not was fiercely debated post-match, but his wink towards Crowley – rugby’s most notable since Bloodgate – means he will not get the benefit of the doubt in many quarters.

The Sharks will travel to fellow South African side Bulls in the last four, while Leinster host Glasgow in a repeat of their Champions Cup quarter-final in April, which Leinster won 52-0.

The stellar careers of Ben Youngs, Mike Brown and Dan Cole all rumble on for another week at least, but it was goodbye to another great of the English game this weekend as Alex Goode left the stage after his 402nd and final appearance for Saracens.

As discussed last week, rarely in the past has such a high-calibre group of players all retired together, with Danny Care, Anthony Watson and Joe Marler also calling it a day this season.

The law firm bringing the lawsuit claims that more than 520 additional former rugby players have signed on to file a concussion lawsuit against the sport’s authorities.

According to Rylands Garth, there are currently 319 former rugby league players, compared to 784 who were from rugby union.

Former England players Gavin Henson, Colin Charvis, Ryan Jones, England and the British and Lions scrum-half Harry Ellis are among the players who are suing World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union, and the Welsh Rugby Union for damages.

Former British and Irish Lions duo Lee Byrne and Phil Greening were confirmed to be parties to the concussion lawsuit in November.

The former players assert that the governing bodies lacked responsibility for taking appropriate steps to protect them from serious brain injuries.

The British Amateur Rugby League Association (BARLA) and the Rugby Football League (RFL) are both facing similar legal proceedings.

Roy Heaney, who played for Wigan and Salford in the 1980s and was diagnosed with early-onset dementia and probable CTE, is one of the claimants in the rugby league case.

He claimed that his rugby league career was insufficient because he frequently had concussions and that the care he received while training and playing games was insufficient.

Before the case might go to trial in the following year, new players had one more chance to join the legal proceedings on Friday, May 30.

Max Verstappen claims that the collision between him and George Russell during the Spanish Grand Prix was “frustrational” and “shouldn’t have happened.”

Russell claimed that Russell “let himself down” by posing purposefully into the British driver’s Mercedes in Barcelona.

The incident, which dropped the Dutchman from fifth to tenth in the final result, resulted in the Red Bull driver receiving a 10-second penalty for the incident, which had previously resulted in him winning four championships.

Verstappen said on Sunday that the collision was “a misjudgement” and that he would “bring some tissues next time.”

However, the 27-year-old said on social media that “we had a good race in Barcelona until the safety car came out.”

My frustration was fueled by our safety car restart’s decision to use a tire that wasn’t appropriate.

“I always put my best foot forward for the team,” he says. You both win and lose simultaneously.

Verstappen’s penalty resulted in him 49 points adrift of McLaren’s championship leader Oscar Piastri, who defeated teammate Lando Norris to win the race on Sunday.

Verstappen had hoped to finish in third place in Barcelona when the safety car arrived late in the race.

All the leaders and the majority of the field pitted for new soft tires, but Red Bull chose to use Verstappen’s.

Verstappen was forced to leave on softs after eight racing laps, but he questioned the decision upon returning to the track, and team principal Christian Horner acknowledged that in retrospect, the best course of action would have been to do so.

Verstappen nearly lost control at the corner’s exit shortly after the restart. He was immediately followed by Charles Leclerc on the straight, where the two vehicles barely reacted as their trajectories converged, and then Russell into the corner where they slammed their front wheels.

Verstappen alleged that Russell had allegedly barged him off the track, and Verstappen expressed anger over the Leclerc incident. However, Red Bull decided to ask him to let Russell pass so that he could avoid paying a penalty after stewards opened an investigation into his leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

Verstappen opposed it, but race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase informed him that it was “the rules.”

Moments later, at Turn Five on lap 64 of 66, Verstappen and Verstappen collided, but the two men were arguing that Verstappen had significantly decreased his speed and appeared to be allowing [Russell] to overtake, but Verstappen “suddenly accelerated and collided with]Russell]”.

Verstappen was “apparently upset and enraged” and “frustrated,” according to Horner, who said they would have an internal discussion.

Verstappen will have to keep his nose clean over the next two races in Canada and Austria due to the three penalty points he received.

Glenn Maxwell, an all-around Australian player, has departed from his one-day internationals to concentrate on the T20 World Cup in the coming year.

Since making his debut in 2012, the 36-year-old has won 149 ODIs, including a T20 Word Cup in 2021, and two World Cups in 2015 and 2023.

His 201-run ODI innings against Afghanistan at the 2023 World Cup, which is undoubtedly his best ODI innings ever, was his best performance since then.

Maxwell won the match with Australia on 91-7, and despite experiencing severe cramp, he hit an unbeaten 201 from 128 balls to win the match and advance to the semi-finals.

Before Australia defeated India in the final, Maxwell also scored the fastest century in World Cup history in 2023 off 40 balls against the Netherlands.

His most recent international match was at the Champions Trophy in March, when Maxwell “felt like I was letting the team down a little” due to his fitness.

He then discussed the 2027 World Cup with Australia’s chair of men’s selectors, George Bailey, and said, “I don’t think I am going to make that. It’s time to start planning for people in my position to have a crack at it and make the position their own.”

Maxwell, who is known as “The Big Show,” ends his ODI career with 3, 990 runs, an average of 33.81, four hundred and 23 half-centuries.

He has a 126.70 ODI strike rate that is second best in all time, and he has taken 77 wickets off of him.

Todd Greenberg, the head of cricket Australia, expressed his congratulations to Glenn on what has been one of the format’s most exciting and influential one-day international careers.

Glenn’s ballistic batting has “lit up the cricket world” and contributed to Australia’s continued success in the 50-over match, including his heroic contribution to the 2023 World Cup victory.

Crowds have flocked to the grounds to watch Glenn bat, just like other great players of the game, and kids have been inspired to pick up a bat after seeing him use breathtaking array of shots to put the opposition to the sword.

Maxwell played for the Punjab Kings in April, but a hand injury prevented him from playing for the rest of the IPL.

He has represented 116 T20 nations and is hoping to compete in the 2026 T20 World Cup, which will be held in India and Sri Lanka between February 8 and March.

His talent and skill are outstanding, George Bailey added. His longevity, underappreciated ball-handling skills, and energy on the field are all outstanding.