Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova reached her first grand slam final with a 7-5 6-3 victory against Tamara Zidanšek at the French Open. With all four semifinalists in the women’s singles draw never having reached this stage of a grand slam before, it was Russia’s Pavlyuchenkova was secured the biggest win of her career with a hard-fought victory.…… MORE
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Thursday said kneeling to protest against discrimination before sporting events was a custom related to slavery and alien to the central European country, adding that pressuring athletes everywhere to follow suit was “provocation.” Hungary, one of 14 host nations to the upcoming Euro 2020 soccer championship, has been ruled…… MORE
A pumped up Novak Djokovic let out a series of guttural screams after edging past Italy’s Matteo Berrettini on Wednesday to reach the semifinals of this year’s French Open. The Serbian, bidding for his 19th grand slam title, was forced to dig deep to hold off the resurgent Berrettini, eventually winning 6-3 6-2 6-7(5) 7-5.…… MORE
It has been delayed by a year, but that seems to have only ramped up the excitement levels for the 2020 European football championships. Still called Euro 2020 despite now being held in 2021, the all-European tournament was postponed from last summer because of the coronavirus pandemic. It all kicks off on Friday, June 11…… MORE
The previous women’s 10,000-meter record was only set on Sunday, but Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey has already bettered it. Gidey’s time of 29:01.03 in the Dutch city of Hengelo on Tuesday took five seconds off the record set by the Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan on the same track last week. Competing in the Ethiopian Olympic Trials, Gidey…… MORE
Coco Gauff’s dream run at the French Open came to an end on Wednesday as she lost in straight sets to Barbora Krejcikova 7-6 (8-6) 6-3. The 17-year-old was playing in her first grand slam quarterfinal, but trailing 4-0 in the second set, a frustrated Gauff smashed her racquet on the clay court after she…… MORE
Australia’s baseball team has pulled out of Olympic qualifiers, citing the “insurmountable” challenge of traveling to Mexico during COVID-19. “Attending the Final Olympic Qualifier in a COVID world was always going to present significant challenges,” Baseball Australia chief executive Glenn Williams acknowledged in a press release Wednesday. The late-June qualifying event was to be held…… MORE
Brazilian national team players and staff published a letter on their social media accounts Wednesday criticizing the organization of the Copa America tournament, but assuring they would still participate should the tournament go ahead. The championship, South America’s biggest international football tournament, is set to start on June 13 in Brazil. “We are a cohesive…… MORE
For 17-year-old Coco Gauff, breaking records is a regular occurrence. The American tennis star was at it again on Monday, becoming the youngest woman to reach a grand slam quarterfinal since 2006 at the 2021 French Open. She breezed past Ons Jabeur in just 53 minutes at Roland Garros, 6-3 6-1, to reach her first…… MORE
Ukraine plays its first European soccer championship group game against Netherlands on June 13 and the players will be wearing shirts that feature a map of their country that includes Crimea — a region annexed by Russia in 2014. It’s a move that has irked Russia. Andrii Pavelko, president of the Ukrainian football association, released…… MORE
