Category Sports News

French Open 2025

Location: Roland Garros, May 25 – June

Aryna Sabalenka, the world’s number one, describes herself as “love” having a target on her back as the player to beat at the French Open women’s singles.

After a strong start in 2025, Sabalenka has stepped up to take control of her position.

The 27-year-old Belarusian has won two WTA 1000 titles, including three finals at the Australian Open, Indian Wells, and Stuttgart.

The three-time major winner will now enter the French Open, where she will look to improve her best-ever run to the 2023 semi-finals, where she is widely considered the winner.

Iga Swiatek, who has three-time defending champion, has given Sabalenka’s hand a boost this year’s struggles on the clay.

“Every time I go outside, I think to myself, “OK, let’s go.” Who should we check out to see if they are prepared for the pressure?

It actually makes it easier for me to stay focused and fight on the court no matter what.

Mirra Andreeva, a Russian teenager, defeated Sabalenka in the quarter-finals of last year’s competition after a stomach bug prevented her.

“I’ll definitely not be going back to eat the same meal as I did before that match.” The lesson is learned, Sabolenka joked on Friday.

Kamilla Rakhimova of Russia will face Sabalenka on Sunday in her first matchup. She has won two Australian Opens and one US Open.

Swiatek, the four-time champion, has become known as the “Queen of Clay” due to her impressive record on the surface, but she has not been so low in Paris since 2021.

The 23-year-old was unhappy with her form and did not rate her chances of returning to Roland Garros after falling to Danielle Collins in the third round.

She took a week off to reflect, but it seems like she’s changed her mind.

Swiatek, who starts against Slovakia’s Rebecca Sramkova and could face Emma Raducanu from Britain in the second round, said, “I had a lot of time to think about how I played and what my attitude was.”

Because I don’t feel like I’m getting the match right, I focused on changing some things and putting on more intensity.

Monaco Grand Prix

Dates: 23 May 2019 Start time: 14:00 BST on Sunday

A new rule, according to Max Verstappen, will “hopefully spice it up a little more” by making drivers must stop twice during the Monaco Grand Prix.

Following years of growing concern about the tendency to have uneven grands prix on the Cote d’Azur’s historic streets, a soporific race in 2024 was the catalyst for the change.

Monaco is the crown jewel of Formula 1, capturing the heady fusion of glamour, danger, beauty, and speed that makes the sport so enthralling.

However, drivers have a tendency to follow-my-leader and keep their tyres in tact to ensure they leave at the ideal time for a pit stop.

Before the race settled back into a case of, as Verstappen put it, “Drive to the end and just stay focused and not hit the barrier,” there was a frenzied period of laps during which the only position changes could occur.

The requirement of two stops is intended to add more risk for teams to make mistakes and positions to change, as they do frequently around pit stops as drivers get to use their pace and have the chance to play more games.

Will it, however, work?

Verstappen remarked, “It can go either way: it can be fairly straightforward or it can go completely crazy.”

A safety car was involved in a crash up the hill after the first corner in 2024, and almost everyone in the field was pitted at the end of the first lap and fitted with hard tires until the finish.

In his Ferrari, pole-sitter and leader Charles Leclerc controlled the pace for the final 77 laps because the tires’ life was so short.

Some people claimed that a year prior to the rule change was implemented, when a mid-grand prix rain shower caused significant jeopardy, and Aston Martin fumbled a chance to lead behind Verstappen’s Red Bull.

Verstappen was waiting for Alonso to come in behind him as the rain started. Alonso pitted his car against the track while it was still wet and dry, so they instead installed slicks. However, Verstappen was unable to recover from the rain, so he had to return in the following lap for wets.

Additionally, it was noted that, in reality, not much has changed in decades. Monaco has a history of at least 40-50 years where overtaking has been essentially impossible.

However, it was felt that a change was necessary after researching the possibility of changing the track layout to allow for an overtaking spot.

Lewis Hamilton, a seven-time world champion, once said, “You get the same result if you keep doing the same thing over and over again.” And since they’re trying something new, I think that’s cool. This weekend, we’ll find out whether or not it’s the answer.

Given the three different tire sets’ different levels of durability, the new rule opens up all kinds of intriguing possibilities.

When do you put on the soft tyre if, as George Russell of Mercedes says, you start on the hard tyre and there is a red flag at the start of the race?

“They have a huge advantage if someone starts on the soft and then has a safety car or red flag in the first five laps.

You will have to put your foot on the gas at some point because it isn’t clear cut and because there is such a benefit, if there is a timely safety car for some people. Unlike in the past, where you saw Charles managing the gap to me, Lando [Norris] and co. didn’t pit, which was not the most exciting race we’ve ever seen, like last year.

The introduction of a new sixth compound this year, which made its debut in Imola last weekend and is currently being used in Monaco this year, makes any strategy decision more difficult.

In Imola, the so-called C6 (soft) surpassed the C5 (medium) in terms of qualifying. Will Monaco experience the same fate? If so, it’s a difficult choice because teams only have three sets of mediums for the entire weekend versus eight sets of softs.

Alonso remarked, “The C5 is a better tyre, given that the C6 has a little bit more grip.

Maybe the C6 was a little fragile in Imola because of the stress you put on the high-speed corners and other things.

“But here there are no high-speed corners, so I believe I prefer the C6’s sticky tire over the C5’s.” You can’t test those things, which is the issue. You must commit to FP1 already.

Madcap gambles are a possibility.

A backmarker might make his two stops out of the way in the first couple of laps, then reverse and drive to the end in the hopes that he can fill in as the events progress, perhaps with the aid of some safety cars.

Then, as a result, teams have the opportunity to use tactic with their two vehicles, using one to create a gap for the other by backing up the field, so the lead driver can pit without sacrificing position.

Carlos Sainz, the Williams driver, added, “Montegro always has a lottery element.” That component will be slightly bigger this year.

Everyone who doesn’t start off pole, in my opinion, is welcoming the two-stop. Only the person who will be on pole will be cursing a little because he must complete a two-stop in order to avoid many unknowns when he starts off pole.

“But I believe the teams can avoid it,” he added. I believe that the drivers could possibly make us push a little more.

The Championship play-off final, which is regarded as the richest game in football, has always been a game of enormous significance with the goal of earning promotion to the Premier League.

The stakes could be even higher this year.

If Sheffield United beat Sunderland on Saturday at Wembley, the level of influence wielded by American investors in the Premier League will reach an unprecedented level, with all three promoted clubs controlled from across the Atlantic.

Amazingly, the Blades would become the 12th US-owned club in the Premier League, making them the closest to the two-thirds of the 14 required changes to the league’s rules.

It may not be long before the tipping point is reached, as a third of EFL clubs are partially or entirely US-owned, and a number of English clubs are available for sale or seeking new investment.

In December Everton became the 10th Premier League club to fall under American control when they were bought by the Texas-based Friedkin Group, joining Liverpool, Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Manchester United, Crystal Palace, Bournemouth, Ipswich Town and Fulham.

Although Ipswich has since since been relegated, the promotion of Burnley (AIK Capital) and Leeds United (owned by the investment arm of the San Francisco 49ers) made it possible for Sheffield United (COH Sports) to become top-flight clubs in the future.

The Tampa-based Glazer family set a precedent for other US investors by purchasing Manchester United twenty years ago in a contentious, highly leveraged buyout.

However, those who followed in their footsteps have had little to do with the hundreds of millions of pounds of debt that was imposed on United, the £1 billion it has cost to service it, and the dramatic decline that United has experienced both on and off the field.

to earn money

With most US investors in English football keeping a low profile and attending few matches, the motive seems to be financial rather than reputational.

After launching their teams in English football, former owners of Sunderland, Swansea, and Aston Villa have lost significant sums of money, but others have had much better luck.

The Glazers have made a sizable profit from their ownership of the club, despite the dislike of many United fans, thanks to dividends and the sale of club shares, which have increased in value. Sir Jim Ratcliffe spent £1.25 billion on a 28% stake last year.

Despite their worst season in decades, and hundreds of millions of pounds of financial losses, United were recently rated the second most valuable club in the world at $6bn (£4.4bn).

Due to closed leagues, there are few opportunities to invest in US professional sports, and they are very expensive when they do. This is why the global game of football is appealing, especially given NBC’s coverage of the Premier League, the Welcome to Wrexham documentary series, and the Ted Lasso TV show, which are all generating interest.

Lionel Messi’s participation in the MLS and the USA hosting this year’s Club World Cup and World Cup 2026 will also help the game expand, according to investors.

US investors also believe that more revenue can be extracted from English football, whether through media rights, ticketing or sponsorship.

Former NFL player JJ Watt is one of the US celebrities to join the ranks of British football clubs as a minority investor in Burnley.

He told BBC Sport in March that if you looked at an American football (NFL) team, they were all worth between $ billion and $ billion.

” You come over here (to the UK) and the valuations are different and there’s more opportunity.

“I wanted to be involved, participate in the board meetings, learn and develop, while also contributing to the club’s development by increasing viewership.”

The history, tradition, passion, and supporters are another key element of English football, according to the coach.

According to sport finance expert Christina Philippou, US investors are also” bullish “about the potential of virtual reality technology when it comes to giving fans a match-going experience, without going to the stadium.

During the attempted launch of the European Super League (ESL) in 2021 three American Premier League club owners – Manchester United’s Joel Glazer, Liverpool’s John W Henry and Arsenal’s Stan Kroenke – formed part of the ill-fated organisation’s leadership group.

The breakaway club quickly fell apart after causing a crisis and receiving a lot of fan and club acclaim.

However, it was a clear step in the direction of American pro sports, which operate in closed, franchise-based systems without promotion or relegation, to propose that the founding clubs would have been guaranteed entry to the ESL without having to qualify each year.

That sense of a culture clash with the traditions of the English football pyramid was only reinforced in 2022 when Chelsea’s American co-owner Todd Boehly expressed his hope that the Premier League took” a little bit of a lesson from American sports “in a bid to boost broadcast revenue.

His contentious suggestions included a “north versus south All-Star match” and relegation play-offs.

Gary Neville, a former defender for Manchester United and England, claimed that US investment in English football was “a clear and present danger to the pyramid and the fabric of the game.” They just don’t get it. “

The increasing number of American owners in the Premier League is concerning, according to Niall Couper, CEO of Fair Game. Many people depart from their franchise mindset, which emphasizes profit, closed competition, and commercialization at the expense of the community and tradition.

Amid understandable concerns over the impact their approach may have on ticket prices, stadium naming-rights deals and the possible scrapping of promotion and relegation, do US owners deserve more credit?

Fenway Sports Group’s investment in players, infrastructure, financial management, and recruitment strategy has helped restore the club to its former glory since taking control of Liverpool in 2010.

Concerns over American investors were unfounded, according to Leeds’ American chairman Paraag Marathe, the president of the club’s owners, 49ers Enterprises, in a statement that club owners needed to “protect it” because English football is “special, unique, and rare.” “If it isn’t broken, don’t try to fix it”, he said.

Some have suggested that stronger player union representation, salary caps, pre-season drafts, and other factors that have made American leagues more competitive, unpredictable, and sustainable could help English football.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy responded to a question from Premier League owners asking whether she was concerned about the number of US-run clubs in the league. They can be very robust about coming forward with those views, but they also work together in the interest of football as a whole.

So I’m relieved that we have owners from all over the world. It demonstrates that the Premier League is truly a world leader in terms of what we can export to the world.

It would come as no surprise if American Premier League owners made an effort to do the same, especially considering that some of them also hold US franchises in the NFL, NBA, and MLB. Major US sports leagues regularly play regular-season games overseas.

Last year Liverpool chairman Tom Werner told the Financial Times that he hoped to see Premier League games played in New York, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Riyadh and Rio de Janeiro, raising fears among some fans of an attempted resurrection of the ‘ 39th game ‘ concept that was considered and then abandoned by the Premier League in 2008 after a fan backlash.

Birmingham City’s chief executive also stated to the BBC that a regular season game against League One rivals Wrexham would be “a great idea.”

The recent revival of concepts like the 39th game abroad is a foreshadowing sign, Couper said.

“It shows a willingness to prioritise global markets over local fans and to turn our national game into a global entertainment brand rather than a sacred institution”.

Premier League owner Bill Foley said he opposes traveling to league games, and Premier League GM Richard Masters revealed to BBC Sport that there were no plans to reintroduce such a concept.

La Liga from Spain has stated that it plans to hold games in the US in the coming season, but some remain concerned about whether Fifa will change its rules to allow this.

The UK government was reportedly considering tabling an amendment to the Football Governance Bill in order to prevent any possibility of staging league matches overseas, but it has chosen not to do so.

In an effort to maximize media rights revenues, US-run Premier League clubs have also been rumored to be pushing in secret to end the Saturday 3pm TV blackout, which prevents domestic matches from being broadcast live.

Despite opposition from Manchester City and Newcastle United, all but one of the US-owned Premier League clubs voted last year to approve changes to the rules governing commercial deals.

That may have heightened worries that 14 of the clubs, which are controlled by the US, could cast a coalition to pass changes when they become available.

However, insiders guard against an assumption that just because a group of owners are from one country, they will collude to ‘ Americanise ‘ English football.

They make the case that there are significant differences between the groups of US-owned clubs, some run by individuals, others by families, businesses, or consortiums.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola wants to help Phil Foden return to prime form after the midfielder spoke about his struggles this season.

Foden, 24, said off-field issues and an ankle injury suffered against Manchester United in April contributed to him being below his best and he wants to get his head “mentally right”.

“It’s true, Phil said that and of course he has not been [at his best],” said Guardiola.

“[He hasn’t been at his best] not [just] for him, all of us, his family, for us – he’s a baby boy from the academy and become a star with us.

“We want to help him, that’s the most important thing. He needs rest and it’s going to happen now after Sunday.”

Foden scored 19 Premier League goals to help City achieve an unprecedented fourth English top-flight title in a row last season.

He won the Professional Footballers’ Association and Football Writers’ Association player of the season awards, as well as being named in the PFA team of the year.

But he has managed only 10 goals across all competitions this term and has failed to score in his past 19 games for club and country – a run stretching back to January.

Foden said the season has been “difficult” and “frustrating”, adding that if “everything was OK” he would “definitely” have been better on the field.

Guardiola added: “Step by step he is going to come back. I just want to help him, that is what we want.

Foden was left out of the forthcoming England games by manager Thomas Tuchel, with the Three Lions facing Andorra in a World Cup qualifier on 7 June and friendly against Senegal at the City Ground three days later.

Asked if there was a conversation between club and country about the omission, Guardiola said: “I don’t know about England national team. It’s true he has been struggling a long time with his ankle.

“What happened with the national team belongs to Thomas.”

City have a short turnaround after the Fulham game, travelling to the newly expanded Club World Cup in the United States, beginning their group campaign against Moroccan side Wydad AC in Philadelphia on 18 June.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola wants to help Phil Foden return to prime form after the midfielder spoke about his struggles this season.

Foden, 24, said off-field issues and an ankle injury suffered against Manchester United in April contributed to him being below his best and he wants to get his head “mentally right”.

“It’s true, Phil said that and of course he has not been [at his best],” said Guardiola.

“[He hasn’t been at his best] not [just] for him, all of us, his family, for us – he’s a baby boy from the academy and become a star with us.

“We want to help him, that’s the most important thing. He needs rest and it’s going to happen now after Sunday.”

Foden scored 19 Premier League goals to help City achieve an unprecedented fourth English top-flight title in a row last season.

He won the Professional Footballers’ Association and Football Writers’ Association player of the season awards, as well as being named in the PFA team of the year.

But he has managed only 10 goals across all competitions this term and has failed to score in his past 19 games for club and country – a run stretching back to January.

Foden said the season has been “difficult” and “frustrating”, adding that if “everything was OK” he would “definitely” have been better on the field.

Guardiola added: “Step by step he is going to come back. I just want to help him, that is what we want.

Foden was left out of the forthcoming England games by manager Thomas Tuchel, with the Three Lions facing Andorra in a World Cup qualifier on 7 June and friendly against Senegal at the City Ground three days later.

Asked if there was a conversation between club and country about the omission, Guardiola said: “I don’t know about England national team. It’s true he has been struggling a long time with his ankle.

“What happened with the national team belongs to Thomas.”

City have a short turnaround after the Fulham game, travelling to the newly expanded Club World Cup in the United States, beginning their group campaign against Moroccan side Wydad AC in Philadelphia on 18 June.

Investec Champions Cup final: Northampton Saints v Bordeaux-Begles

Venue: Principality Stadium, Cardiff Date: Saturday 24 May Kick-off 14: 45 BST

England’s George Furbank returns to the Northampton team for only his second appearance since December as he starts at full-back in Saturday’s Champions Cup final against Bordeaux-Begles.

Curtis Langdon is also in the starting XV after concerns that an injury picked up in last weekend’s win over Saracens may rule the hooker out.

Ollie Sleightholme is another to make a comeback on the biggest stage, with the wing named on the bench and set to make his first appearance since suffering an ankle injury on England duty in March.

Alex Coles is fit to take up a role as blindside flanker, while Henry Pollock plays at number eight with Ulster-bound South African Juarno Augustus ruled out.

Furbank, who was appointed captain after Lewis Ludlam’s departure at the end of last season, has missed much of the campaign after breaking his arm in the away win over the Bulls at the end of last year.

Having had metal plates inserted in his arm, the 28-year-old made an initial return in Saints ‘ quarter-final victory over Castres in April, but suffered a setback in that match and it was feared his season might be over.

Bordeaux-Begles, contesting their first Champions Cup final, name an unchanged starting XV from the side that beat Toulouse in the last four.

Maxime Lucu and Matthieu Jalibert, both France internationals, are the half-back partnership, while Damian Penaud and Louis Bielle-Biarrey are part of a dangerous backline.

Replacements: Wright, Haffar, Millar Mills, Prowse, Scott-Young, James, Litchfield, Sleightholme

Bordeaux-Begles: Buros, Penaud, Depoortere, Moefana, Bielle-Biarrey, Jalibert, Lucu, Poirot, Lamothe, Falatea, Coleman, Cazeaux, Diaby, Petti, Samu

Replacements: Sa, Boniface, Tameifune, Bochaton, Vergnes-Taillefer, Gazzotti, Retiere, Janse van Rensburg

Referee: Nika Amashukeli (Geo)

Andrew Brace (Ire) and Andrea Piardi (Ita) serve as assistant referees.