Category Sports News

French Open 2025

Location: Roland Garros, May 25 – June

After Jacob Fearnley defeated former champion Stan Wawrinka in his first main-draw match, British star Katie Boulter, 28, finally won the French Open championship at age 28.

Boulter, who is ranked 38th in the world, triumphed over Carole Monnet, who is ranked 231 in the world, 6-1, 6-1, 6-1.

Boulter, who could face Madison Keys, the reigning Australian Open champion, said, “I’m really pleased with myself.”

“I occasionally find this surface to be very challenging, but I’ve persevered and made an effort to make this surface as good as possible.”

This one will go in my books because it is special to me.

In addition to winning in front of a partisan opposition crowd, 55th-ranked Fearnley advanced to a 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 6-2 victory over the well-known 40-year-old Wawrinka.

Emma Raducanu, who had earlier fought through “feeling sick,” to defeat China’s Wang Xinyu in the second round, joined the pair.

On day two of the clay-court Grand Slam competition, Jodie Burrage was unable to finish a British clean sweep.

Fearnley had the advantage of youthful vitality, if not clay-court experience, over the three-time major winner when Switzerland’s Wawrinka made his French Open debut in 2005.

Ten years ago, Wawrinka defeated Novak Djokovic to win the title in Paris, but she has since fallen to 138th in the world rankings.

Fearnley, however, has never before this year competed on clay for the ATP Tour.

The Edinburgh-born 23-year-old has quickly moved up to a career high of 55 from where she was previously ranked outside of the top 500 just 12 months ago.

Fearnley broke early in the second and jumped out to a 4-1 lead before serving the set to love after clinching the opening set via a tie-break.

Wawrinka, who beat Andy Murray in the first set last year, fought back in the third set to keep the score at 2-2, much to the delight of the court’s audience.

Fearnley quickly restored his lead and won four straight games to seal the victory for them, but their joy was brief.

Fearnley remarked, “There were a lot of guys talking to me when I was able to get past the pro-Wawrinka crowd.” The majority of it was French. I don’t know if they were saying nice things.

Fearnley has already triumphed at Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and the Australian Open, three Grand Slams in a row, as well as his main draw debut.

French Open 2025

Location: Roland Garros, May 25 – June

After winning the French Open title for the first time in straight sets, Carlos Alcaraz claimed that he “expected a worse level” from himself.

In just one hour and 56 minutes, the four-time major champion from Spain won 6-3, 6-4, and 6-2 over Giulio Zeppieri, who is also a qualifier from Italy.

The 22-year-old wants to win the Roland Garros title for the first time since Rafael Nadal in 2020.

Alcaraz said he did not anticipate such a smooth start to his campaign despite winning 27 of his 29 clay matches since May of last year.

World No. 2 Alcaraz remarked, “I expected a worse level for me, honestly.”

It’s difficult to adapt and get used to the conditions in the first round of a tournament.

In the lead-up to the French Open, Alcaraz won titles in Monte Carlo and Rome, and he came in second place behind Holger Rune in Barcelona, his only defeat in 16 clay-court contests in 2025.

However, those performances came after David Goffin’s unexpected Miami Open defeat in March. With his only success this year on the courts, he won the Rotterdam Open.

Alcaraz compared his current form to Alcaraz’, “We all know the roller coaster that has been this year for me, making really good results before losing the first round.”

“But I believe I’ve found a really good path once more,” she said. I believe I’m just starting to get it as more people get ready for the games.

I believe I’m just maintaining the high standard throughout the entire match and the entire tournament once I begin the matches.

Kate Smith, a teen from Lisburn Rangers, has been named in the Northern Ireland squad for the upcoming Women’s Nations League games against Poland and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Smith, 18, will make his first senior international call-up in the wake of Maddy Harvey-Clifford’s injury-related resumption.

On Friday at 5:00 BST, Northern Ireland will host unbeaten group leaders Poland, followed by a trip to Zenica to face third-placed Bosnia-Herzegovina four days later (18:00 BST).

Kate is a young player that we have been keeping an eye on for some time. She received a good workout when she first joined the squad for our final training camp, and she deserves to play in these two games, according to Northern Ireland manager Tanya Oxtoby.

Before making final preparations for the League B Group 1 match in Belfast, the Northern Ireland squad met at their training facility in Leicester on Monday.

Oxtoby continued, “It’s great to bring the players back together.” The place is in a positive mood.

To get ready for the games against two top-notch teams in Poland and Bosnia and Herzegovina, “we know we need to put the work in here over the next few days.”

The “Green and White Army” is a group of players who are all eager to participate, and we are aware of how crucial they can be in ensuring a positive performance.

With only two games left, Northern Ireland is three points clear of the Poles in their group.

Defenders: Abi Sweetlove (Linfield Women), Rebecca Holloway, Rebecca McKenna, and Ellie Mason (all Birmingham City Women), Laura Rafferty (Rangers Women), and Rachel Dugdale (Blackburn Rovers Women).

Louise McDaniel and Brenna McPartlan (both women from Burnley), Nadene Caldwell and Aimee Kerr (both women from Glentoran), Megan Bell (Hearts Women), Connie Scofield (Sheffield United Women, on loan from London City Lionesses), and Rachel Furness (Newcastle United Women) are the midfielders.

Headingley, Day 4, Rothesay County Championship Division One

Nottinghamshire 228 &amp, 393-8: Clarke 94, Coad 3-64

Yorkshire 159 &amp, 299: Wharton 58, Pennington 5-106

Yorkshire defeated Notts by 163 runs in the match (up 19 points).

Nottinghamshire improved to a fourth win in seven games, this one against Yorkshire at Headingley just before tea on day four, to improve to seventh place in the Division One championship’s top division.

In the third afternoon, Yorkshire’s struggling team had a 463-run lead and came away with a score of 176-5. They also lost four of those wickets in the evening session, including one against Pennington in the day’s final over.

Top-scorer Matthew Revis and George Hill shared a 54-run partnership to help Yorkshire avoid a fourth defeat in seven games, which was a strong start to the fourth day. However, they were in desperate need and were later bowled out for 299 in 121 overs, slipping to a 163-run defeat.

Shortly before the new ball, Freddie McCann’s part-time spin made a breakthrough by bowling Hill with the first ball of a one-over. After lunch, Pennington then defeated Revis for 45 before posting an impressive 5-106 from the previous 31 overs.

Nottinghamshire won 19 points from Yorkshire’s three, placing them halfway through the four-day campaign and well-positioned to win their first Championship since 2010.

They have won only five Championship games at Headingley since 2011 and none of them have come to that conclusion.

In easing batting conditions, Pennington took three of his wickets on Monday, keeping Yorkshire at the bottom of the table.

Revis and Hill, a 26-year veteran of the new England Lions, managed to survive the first 85 minutes of a gloomy and chilly day comfortably.

In his fourth appearance, the former made his season-highest score by playing confidently through the off-side off front foot and back on the cusp of the season’s best score.

You believed success would come, but All Notts had to do was be patient. Even if it initially arrived via the least expected route, it did.

The penultimate over, which was bowled by McCann, was brought into the attack because of his off-spin, which prevented the new ball from being due.

Hill’s eyes lit up as he dragged his first ball down. The delivery scooped through and downrooted the middle stump, giving the score of 230-6.

With the score of 244 and Revis’ return coming seven balls into the afternoon, Pennington forced Revis to fall back to South African Kyle Verreyne.

Dom Bess, Yorkshire’s stand-in captain, received 21 and Ben Coad, the other, for five, respectively.

The game’s outcome was all but certain by that point, with a score of 277-9.

Last pair Jack White and Jordan Thompson fought back for more than an hour and almost 20 overs before putting an end to that theory as light rain started to fall.

However, Verreynne, who caught White first in the innings and ninth in the match, put White in the lead.

Anthony McGrath, Yorkshire’s head coach:

We were always behind after the first day because we didn’t get a reward for our efforts.

Even though we had opportunities, “we just never managed to take that much further and then take any control in the game.” That has been a problem year-round.

“We have to look in ourselves, not just the players, but also the coaches,” he said. We must find some solutions because it’s all about performance, just like we talk and everything else.

Our supporters and followers, who follow us and have a lot of support, don’t care about ifs and buts; they want to see results.

Dillon Pennington, of Nottinghamshire:

We discuss simply doing whatever it takes for the team to win, and I, Mo (Abbas) and Brett (Hutton) all did so.

“It was a little difficult for me to get started in this game, but I felt good.” Despite a few run leaks, I had a good rhythm.

We made an effort to ball in the right places as much as we could without having to think about the weather. It was about stacking and just trusting that we would eventually get the wickets as the pitch improved.