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With the boxing world in mourning this week, there was a poignant moment when those in attendance applauded a 10-bell salute in memory of boxer Georgia O’Connor, who died aged 25 on Thursday.
O’Connor lost her battle with cancer and was a hugely popular figure among her fellow fighters.
The event was hosted by relative newcomers GBM, in what was the promotional outfit’s first stadium card and world-title headliner.
After each fight on the main undercard went to points, Harper made her ring walk at the late time of 23:10 BST.
Nicknamed ‘Belter’, she entered to Gerry Cinnamon’s folk song with the same title.
Several fans had already left, but those who remained gave her a hero’s welcome.
The gulf in class was apparent as early as the first minute when a left hook from Harper drew chants of “Yorkshire” from the crowd.
The former super-featherweight and light-middleweight champion pinned Zimmermann on the ropes and was landing to the head and body.
Hamburg’s Zimmermann had won all 13 professional bouts, having only started boxing aged 37, but in Harper she faced someone who had gone toe-to-toe with world-class operators such as Natasha Jonas and Alycia Baumgardner.
Zimmermann’s will to win did not match her talent as she rushed in her punches and struggled to make any openings.
She did land a solid uppercut in the sixth as a dejected Harper began to cut a frustrated figure.
Blood poured down from Zimmermann’s head after the accidental head clash in the final round, but Harper – who before the fight said she would be disappointed with a points win – could not find the telling blow.
Twenty-two seasons ago, LeBron James entered the NBA with almost unbelievable expectations, the fate of a franchise in Cleveland and a league hungry for a new star on his back.
Twenty-two years later, the Lakers’ star exceeded even the most outlandish predictions, winning championships in three different cities, scoring more points than anyone in league history and authoring the kind of sustained greatness that’s unmatched across sport.
And if you needed proof, more was offered Friday.
A panel of media voters selected James to the league’s All-NBA second team — the 21st year he’s been voted all-league on one of the three teams. His 21 All-NBA appearances is six more than Kareem-Abdul Jabbar, Kobe Bryant andf Tim Duncan, who are tied with the second at 15.
Despite turning 40 in late December, James played 70 games and averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds and 8.2 assists while shooting 51.3% from the field and 37.6% from three. His 78.2% shooting from the free-throw line was a career best.
Clippers guard James Harden made All-NBA third team, his eighth All-NBA selection and first since 2020.
League MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Denver’s Nikola Jokic, Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, Boston’s Jayson Tatum and Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell made first team All-NBA.
Jalen Brunson, Stephen Curry, Anthony Edwards and Evan Mobley joined James on the second team while Cade Cunningham, Tyrese Haliburton, Karl-Anthony Towns and Jalen Williams were with Harden on the third team.
James, who suffered a sprained medial collageral ligament in the Lakers’ final game of the first round, has a $52-million player option for next season. If he declines the option, he’d be an unrestricted free agent.
Al Hilal set to offer £100m for Bruno Fernandes from Manchester United, Florian Wirtz would prefer to join Liverpool over Bayern Munich, while Emiliano Martinez looks set to leave Aston Villa.
Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes will be given a deadline of next week to decide if he wants to leave the club, with Al Hilal set to offer around £100m for the Portugal international, 30, who would earn around £65m a season in Saudi Arabia. (Mail), external
Bayern Munich could launch a blockbuster move for Fernandes although the transfer fee United would want may prove to be a stumbling block. (Teamtalk), external
Argentina winger Alejandro Garnacho, 20, is increasingly likely to leave Manchester United this summer after becoming disillusioned at his role under head coach Ruben Amorim. (ESPN), external
Garnacho’s representatives are set to hold talks with Manchester United to discuss the Argentine’s future after he was dropped for the Europa League final loss to Tottenham. (Telegraph – subscription required), external
Manchester United also look set to sell England midfielder Kobbie Mainoo, 20, in a bid to ease financial pressure on the club. (Sun), external
Germany midfielder Florian Wirtz, 22, would prefer to move to Liverpool instead of Bayern Munich if he leaves Bayer Leverkusen this summer. (Athletic – subscription required), external
Bayern Munich believe Brighton and Japan winger Kaoru Mitoma, 28, is a viable alternative to Wirtz. (Sky Germany), external
Everton have held talks with Ipswich and England Under-21 forward Liam Delap, 22, over a summer move and are also interested in Liverpool and Scotland winger Ben Doak, 19. (Guardian), external
Real Madrid view Liverpool and Argentina midfielder Alexis Mac Allister as the natural successor to Croatia international Luka Modric, 39, who is leaving the Bernabeu this summer. (Fichajes in Spanish), external
RB Leipzig have been in contact with Arsenal’s newly appointed sporting director Andrea Berta about a potential deal to sell 21-year-old Slovenia striker Benjamin Sesko. (Sky Sports Germany – in German), external
Wolves and Brazil forward Matheus Cunha, 25, is still happy to join Manchester United this summer despite their failure to qualify for European football next season. (Sky Sports), external
Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, 32 is set to leave the club with Saudi Pro League teams and Manchester United interested in the Argentina international. (Teamtalk), external
Aston Villa, West Ham and Leeds are eyeing a move for Southampton andPortugal Under-21 midfielder Matheus Fernandes, 20. (Football Insider), external
One may be the loneliest number, but No. 2 is what sent Shaquille O’Neal urgently mincing off the “Inside the NBA” stage last month while the cameras kept running.
O’Neal copped to the truth Thursday night during his 18th appearance on “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon,” giving what might be more detail than anyone needed about that sudden departure in April.
First, he clung to the fib, saying, “I was drinking a lot of water that day. So I know I had the No. 2 run, but it was really a No. 1. So let’s just get that out of the way.”
He explained he was drinking olive oil at the time “to be sexy,” because he’d seen on Instagram that if he drank olive oil daily for 14 days, he would clean out his system and have a flat stomach. “So I was trying that.”
A laughing Fallon held his face in his hands.
“You know what,” O’Neal said. “I just made a mistake. I lied to you on national TV. It wasn’t a No. 1 run. It was a No. 2 run. I had to go bad. Oh, I had to go so bad.”
Fallon begged him to keep telling the lie. O’Neal asked whether the host had seen him squeezing his butt cheeks as he scooted away from the “Inside the NBA” desk.
Then Fallon showed a photo of what the crew did to O’Neal the next day: It put a blue porta-potty in studio on his side of the table.
Blessedly, the conversation then moved in a different direction.
Things were a bit more serious but no less amusing back in April when O’Neal got up while a co-host was in the middle of talking and — in a big hurry — walked awkwardly in front of his fellow panelists and out the stage door. Ernie Johnson Jr., Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley weren’t sure what was going on.
“You all right, big fella?” Barkley asked with a look of concern on his face.
As the camera (cruelly) followed him, O’Neal blurted to his co-hosts to “go ahead, keep talking” while one reminded him, “Hey, we’re on TV.”
“It’s that olive oil you’ve been drinking,” Barkley said. “Hey, take some matches with you.”
As the remaining hosts broke into giggles, Kenny Smith said, “After 40, you can’t hold it no more.”
“That wasn’t something planned, was it?” Ernie Johnson Jr. wondered.
Smith also noted that O’Neal had been drinking olive oil to clean out his system, saying, “Oh, he’s cleaning out his gut all right!”
“I did not like his gait as he left!” Johnson said.
And Barkley simply couldn’t move past the idea of the smell.
“Please turn his mic off, that’s all,” Smith quipped. Then, as Smith tried to return to talking about L.A. Clippers forward Kawhai Leonard, the team in TNT’s Studio J came through with the instant replay of Shaq bailing out. Instant. Freaking. Replay.
IN SLO-MO.
The three very professional analysts immediately began very professional analysis of O’Neal’s shambolic gait.
The big man returned fairly soon after that, mumbling something about drinking too much water and about Barkley talking way too long when he really needed to cut to a break.
“Sorry about that, America,” he said.
Seriously Shaq, you have absolutely no reason to apologize. As long as you remember the matches.
Inevitably there has to be goals. While it’s hard to see any other outcome beyond Celtic winning against Aberdeen, especially when in Glasgow, there is always a tiny bit of optimism when it comes to fandom!
That said, making it through extra-time and enjoying a couple of goals is the best I could manage.
For a team that knows finding success on cup final day so well, Aberdeen will need to be ready to lay bodies on the line and hope that fortune favours them for any other likely outcome.
Prediction: Celtic win on penalties, 2-2 AET
Leanne Crichton, former Scotland midfielder
I anticipate a fiercely contested Scottish Cup clash between Celtic and Aberdeen, with both sides bringing high intensity and emotion to the occasion.
Aberdeen will no doubt be determined to end their season on a high and I expect them to throw everything at the game in search of a statement victory. However, Celtic’s experience and quality, particularly in big matches under Brendan Rodgers, should ultimately shine through.
With their attacking depth and composure in key moments, I’m backing Celtic to deliver another trademark Hampden performance and lift the trophy once again.
Georgia O’Connor, a British boxer who was unbeaten in her young professional career, has died at age 25.
The promotion company BOXXER said in a statement Thursday that it was “heartbroken by the passing” of a fighter it had represented for all three of her professional bouts.
“A true warrior inside and outside the ring, the boxing community has lost a talented, courageous and determined young woman far too soon,” the company wrote. “Georgia was loved, respected and admired by her friends here at BOXXER. Our thoughts are with her loved ones at this difficult time.”
No cause of death has been given, but O’Connor had revealed on Jan. 31 on Instagram that she had been diagnosed with cancer.
“I’m still smiling and that smile will NEVER fade, no matter what,” she wrote. “We’ve already got an amazing oncologist on my case and we’ve made sure I’m going to have the best treatment and healing possible. Starting NOW.”
A GoFundMe page, which O’Connor had said was set up by her parents to help cover her medical bills, described the cancer as “rare and aggressive.”
“Doctors are calling it ‘incurable,’” the fundraiser’s description states.
Georgia O Connor attends an event at the Royal Albert Hall on March 7 in London.
(Jordan Peck / Getty Images)
“From the moment I was diagnosed with cancer, Adriano didn’t hesitate,” O’Connor wrote Feb. 3 on Instagram. “He quit his job without a second thought and made it his mission to fight this battle alongside me. Not just by my side, but leading the charge, doing everything in his power to save me.”
O’Connor was born Feb 18. 2000, in County Durham, England. Her father introduced her to boxing very soon afterward, she told SkySports in 2021.
“My dad put a pair of gloves on me before I could walk,” she said. “He always wanted me to be able to look after me. He never wanted me to be a superstar, my family aren’t like that. He just wanted me to defend myself because the world isn’t a nice place.”
She added: “I was a three-time national taekwondo champion, undefeated in kickboxing, but my heart has always been with boxing.”
As a youth boxer, O’Connor won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Youth Games in 2017 and a silver and bronze at the Youth World Championships in 2017 and 2018. She won all three of her professional fights, between October 2021 and October 2022, later revealing she did so while suffering from what was eventually diagnosed as ulcerative colitis.
“I was going to the toilet between 15 and 20 times per day,” O’Connor wrote Feb. 9, 2024, on Instagram. “… I had pain in my joints and unbearable bowel cramps almost every day. I had 3 professional boxing fights during this time, all of which I somehow managed to win without any form of medication or treatment.”
O’Connor also revealed in February on Instagram that she had suffered a miscarriage within “the last few months.”
England Boxing paid tribute on Thursday to one of its rising stars in a statement .
“A hugely talented boxer and much-loved member of the boxing community, Georgia inspired many with her achievements in the ring and her spirit outside of it,” the sport’s governing body in England wrote. “Her dedication, passion, and talent made her a role model for young athletes across the country. Georgia’s legacy will live on in the hearts of those she inspired, and she will be deeply missed by all who knew her.”
International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Organization super bantamweight champion Ellie Scotney addresssed her late friend on Instagram.
“Being a pure soul and a good person gets thrown around so much, but you my friend are the definition of every word of that and so much more,” Scotney wrote. “I still can picture that timid shy but larger than life young girl walking on her tip toes a few steps in front of me, little did I know that very same girl was going to show not just me but the whole world how special life is and mostly how to live by every second.
“Even when life was on a timer, you never let anything dim that light of yours. A smile that never ever fades, and a heart that will forever live on in so many ways. There was nothing you couldn’t do, the world at your very feet no matter what room you entered. I was so blessed with not just a friend for 10 years, but a sister for life.”
Brian Bennett hit the fastest Test century by a Zimbabwe batter but England remain on course for victory in the one-off Test, after making the tourists follow-on on day two at Trent Bridge.
Top-seeded Corona won with ace Seth Hernandez on Tuesday but now must get past Big VIII League rival Norco on the road with Ethin Bingaman pitching against freshman standout Jordan Ayala. This is the game the Panthers might be most vulnerable.
St. John Bosco, the Trinity League champion, is playing at Villa Park in a noon matchup. Villa Park defeated Aquinas on Tuesday. Los Alamitos is playing at Santa Margarita in a matchup of teams that didn’t win league titles.
Mira Costa, with a 26-game winning streak, faces Mission League champion Crespi on the road in a 2:15 start at Hartunian Field. The Celts have No. 2 pitcher Tyler Walton ready to go.
The winners advance to Tuesday’s semifinals. …
The City Section Division III baseball championship will take place Friday at Stengel Field, with University playing Jefferson at 3 p.m. Then the Division II final has Port of Los Angeles playing Chavez at 6 p.m. …
Grant Leary of Crespi won the Southern Section individual golf title on Thursday, shooting a 66.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].
Novak Djokovic moved one win away from his 100th ATP Tour-level singles title with a hard-fought victory against Britain’s Cameron Norrie in the semi-finals at the Geneva Open.
Djokovic, who celebrated his 38th birthday on Thursday, is bidding to become just the third man in the Open era – after Jimmy Connors and Roger Federer – to win 100 ATP titles.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion took a step closer to that milestone with a resilient 6-4 6-7 (6-8) 6-1 win over Norrie.
Djokovic, who has not won a title since claiming Olympic gold in Paris last summer, will face Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz in Saturday’s final.
“It was the toughest match of tournament for me so far, for sure,” the world number six said in his on-court interview.
Playing in his first semi-final of the season, Norrie won just two points on Djokovic’s serve in the first set as the Serb raced through the opener.
It was the Briton, however, who took control in the second set, challenging Djokovic’s serve for the first time to move 4-1 in front.
A double fault by Djokovic at 5-2 brought up a set point for Norrie, but he missed his chance and allowed Djokovic to break back and level the set at 5-5.
The world number 90 redeemed himself in a cagey tie-break, saving a match point before an unforced error from Djokovic took the last-four tie to a deciding set.
Djokovic reasserted his dominance by grabbing the first three games of the third set – a gap that Norrie was unable to close as he was broken again to allow Djokovic to serve out the victory after two hours and 15 minutes.
“I’m really glad how I regrouped in the third and played the best set of the tournament,” added Djokovic, who is playing in his first event since splitting from coach Andy Murray.
“It means a lot [to reach the final]. So let’s go for a title.”
It has been a disappointing clay-court season for Djokovic, who suffered immediate exits in Madrid and Monte Carlo.
However, an ATP 250 title in Geneva could be the perfect confidence booster before the French Open, where he will be chasing a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam title.
Djokovic will face American Mackenzie McDonald in the first round at Roland Garros, which starts on Sunday.
NEW YORK — In the interest of doing things differently last October, the Dodgers made a subtle, but profound, change in their travel plans.
In previous postseasons — many of which ended with disappointing early eliminations — the Dodgers would use one wide-body plane to shuttle players, coaches, executives, staff, broadcasters and other members of their bloated playoff traveling party from city to city.
Last year, they opted for a different flight pattern.
Everyone else, meanwhile, flew on a second, separate chartered commercial jet.
“I think it’s just [a way for us to make sure] more of the time we spend is together,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said during last year’s postseason. “Making sure we stayed together as a group.”
Given the results, the Dodgers decided to keep the change in place for this season.
What started as a one-month experiment then, has become a permanent routine for the defending champions now.
This year, in a significant shift to the way they travel, the Dodgers are using two planes on a full-time basis for their regular-season road trips: One for players, just like they did last October; and another for everyone else, from manager Dave Roberts and the rest of his coaching staff to the dozens of other team personnel that make up each trip.
“It was driven by them,” Roberts said of the players, noting their interest in continuing the two-plane itinerary this year. “And we facilitated it.”
“It’s reimagining team travel,” added Scott Akasaki, who as the Dodgers’ senior director of travel has overseen the transition. “It’ll be interesting to see what the positive things that come out of it are.”
Indeed, as club officials looked ahead to their 2025 title defense this winter, they quickly warmed to the idea of making the two-plane system permanent.
Already, they had bought into the positive impacts it had on team chemistry during the playoffs, believing it to be a contributing factor to the heightened level of camaraderie players cited as a driving force behind their 2024 championship.
But as they mapped out ways to ease the burdens of a grueling 162-game season, they recognized other logistical benefits that could result from the added travel investment.
“Our ownership was incredibly supportive of the idea,” general manager Brandon Gomes said. “And yeah, it seems like it’s gone well so far.”
For starters, players now have more comfortable seating arrangements on flights, able to spread out on an aircraft that includes only a handful of additional clubhouse support staff.
“It’s providing an environment where our players are more apt to get rest and recovery, with just less people on the plane and more room to move around,” Akasaki said.
And after the team experienced several lengthy travel-day delays last year because of mechanical problems with their charter, they now have a “fail-safe” contingency plan, as Gomes described it; always having a second plane available to transport team members to their next city as scheduled.
“In theory, the players and critical staff can hop on the working plane and go,” Akasaki echoed, “while the remaining folks stay behind until the mechanical problem gets resolved.”
Four road trips into this year, however, no trickle-down effect has been as lauded as the changes the Dodgers have made to their actual travel schedule.
In the days of traditional single-plane travel, the Dodgers would typically wait to fly out of Los Angeles if they had an off day between the end of a homestand and the start of a road trip. It meant one extra night at home, but a later arrival into cities on the eve of an away series.
“When you’re spending your off day on the plane,” veteran third baseman Max Muncy said, “you don’t ever feel like you’re as recovered.”
Using two planes for road trips has allowed the Dodgers players to leave right after the final game of a homestand, which so far this season has been followed by an off day. “When you’re spending your off day on the plane,” veteran third baseman Max Muncy said, “you don’t ever feel like you’re as recovered.”
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
With the benefit of a second plane, the Dodgers can do things differently now.
Though each of the team’s first four homestands this year have been followed by an open date, the players’ plane has departed immediately after all four getaway-day games, getting them into road cities the same night (or, in the case of Wednesday’s flight to New York this week, early the next morning) before the rest of the traveling party arrives the following afternoon.
“I think it’s better,” Freeman said. “It gives us actually a whole day off.”
“It’s nice to just have the off day [without having to fly],” Muncy added. “You’re tired on the off day, but then you can get a full night’s sleep to rest and recover. That felt pretty good.”
Sometimes, that extra day affords players with rare additional personal time — giving someone like Muncy, a Dallas-area native, a full afternoon to see family before last month’s Easter weekend series in Texas.
But even for other guys, Muncy added, “it was, let me go lay out by the pool, or let me go grab some lunch somewhere, and then we’ll go get a nice dinner. It just gives you the whole day to kind of recover. I think it’ll be a better change for us.”
Accounting for a second plane, of course, does add complexities to the planning of each road trip. The truckloads of equipment the Dodgers travel with has to be specifically sorted and loaded onto the correct flight. The team has to coordinate between two airline partners, chartering a Boeing 757 from Delta and a Boeing 737-800 from United, to handle travel parties sometimes upwards of 100 in all. Akasaki now even has a bigger team of people who help with the planning process, too.
“From Andrew [Friedman, president of baseball operations] on down, it was like, ‘Hey, this is a big thing, and it’s a lot for one person to handle,” Akasaki said. “So [they asked], ‘What do you need to keep this all organized?’ That’s been very helpful.”
The team also had to account for potential other negatives. There were considerations made over the environmental impact of using a second plane, according to one person involved in the process but not authorized to speak publicly. There were more simple day-to-day changes to the rhythm of the team’s season as well.
“Like, you can’t have that organic conversation in the back of the plane between a staff member and a player like you used to,” Akasaki noted.
But, in the end, the pros outweighed the cons.
“You can still have that [conversation] in the clubhouse,” Akasaki noted.
Plus, for an organization that has long tried to maximize its monstrous financial resources to become a premier destination for star talent in baseball, being able to pitch prospective free agents on the luxury of using two planes certainly “doesn’t hurt” either, Gomes quipped.
With the Dodgers’ new travel system believed to be unique among MLB clubs, Roberts noted that “there’s a lot of other teams already asking about the two planes.”
And to this point, players said, the reviews have been positive.
“It’s still early,” Muncy noted. “I’ve only ever done it the one way since I’ve been here, so I don’t know what the other way is like” over the course of a full season.
But, Freeman joked with a grin, “I haven’t heard one complaint about it.”
Race director James McIlroy said Cheptegei’s involvement is the “culmination of a few years’ hard work behind the scenes”.
“To have the reigning double Olympic champion and double world record holder headline a very fast race, we believe it to be the fastest in the world, it’s going to be fantastic,” McIlroy told BBC Sport NI.
McIlroy explained that previous attempts had been made to bring Cheptegei to the event.
“This isn’t the first conversation we’ve had on it. He was going to come for a couple of years but the diary had to suit timing wise.
“Obviously the Olympic Games last year in which he was retaining his title didn’t help us for 2024.
“Once he confirmed the Amsterdam marathon, we were confirmed as well, which was fantastic news for us.”
McIlroy is expecting other big names to sign up for this year’s event but acknowledges Cheptegei will be the main attraction.
“Effectively what you have got is the most high-profile runner in the world currently running on one of the most beautiful roads in the world.
“We know he’s bringing two pacemakers. He has said he’s going to run a very fast time by his own admission.
“He has run two half marathons in the last two years, one in New York City and one in New Delhi. They are both massive races so to be featured in the same breath as those races is fantastic.”
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. One day it’s hot, the next day it’s cold. I think the Earth might have the flu.
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Let’s face it, the Dodgers haven’t been playing all that brilliantly lately. They are 10-9 in May and had a four-game losing streak at one point. The fault for this is mainly the pitching, which has been in shambles lately. What’s gone wrong, and how can the Dodgers, uh, deshambleize?
One of the best things about baseball is they keep track of every conceivable stat. So let’s take a look at some numbers.
Most runs given up in the first inning this season:
If you are near the lead in giving up runs at the beginning and end of games, then you are fortunate to be 31-19. It’s not sustainable, but it seems unlikely the Dodgers’ pitching will be like this all season, particularly when guys start making their way off the IL. And let’s look at the IL for pitchers again:
Dodger pitchers on the IL and when they are expected to return:
Tyler Glasnow, shoulder (before All-Star break) Brusdar Graterol, shoulder surgery (September) Michael Grove, shoulder surgery (2026) Edgardo Henriquez, broken foot (June) Kyle Hurt, Tommy John surgery (2026) Michael Kopech, shoulder impingement (later this month) Evan Phillips, elbow (unknown) River Ryan, Tommy John surgery (2026) Roki Sasaki, shoulder (unknown) Emmet Sheehan, Tommy John surgery (around the All-Star break) Blake Snell, shoulder (before All-Star break) Gavin Stone, shoulder surgery (2026) Blake Treinen, forearm (July) Kirby Yates, strained hamstring (early June)
Shohei Ohtani is expected back as a pitcher soon after the All-Star break.
Three members of the season-opening rotation are on the IL. Three members of the season-opening bullpen are on the IL. Not a recipe for success.
Glasnow and Snell have begun throwing, so they could be back before the break. Kopech is close to a return. Phillips had a setback in his recovery, but all signs are positive for everyone else.
“It still doesn’t feel like last year, but we’re in May, so not gonna jinx it and get into any comparisons,” Andrew Friedman, president of baseball operations, told reporters. “For the most part, the things that we’ve gone through are shorter-term. Last year, they were significant and resulted in surgery. In some ways, maybe we’re over-indexing some and just being a little bit more cautious and trying to make sure it doesn’t get to that point.
“But I said this a lot, and I think anyone who doesn’t say it is not being honest, there’s a lot we don’t know about injury stuff, and I think it’s important not to pretend like we have all the answers. There’s a lot to it that is really challenging, and we’re hoping to continue to grow and learn from experiences and just try to make the smartest, best move we can, knowing we’re going to make mistakes. … It’s by far the No. 1 thing that keeps me up at night.”
Sometimes, a low bullpen ERA can be misleading. Let’s say a reliever comes in with the bases loaded and one out. He gives up a bases-clearing triple, then strikes out the last two batter. The reliever’s ERA is 0.00, but did he do his job? No, so we also need to check a stat called inherited runners who scored, or IRS%. In the example given, the reliever’s IRS% is 100%. The league average this season is 32.9%.
Here are the best teams this season in IRS%:
1. Toronto, 20.8% (15 of 72 inherited runners scored) 2. Yankees, 23.1% (18 of 78) 3. Dodgers, 23.4% (11 of 47) 4. Baltimore, 24.7% (18 of 73) 5. Seattle, 27.3% (12 of 44) 30. San Francisco, 42.9% (21 of 49)
Dodgers’ ERA as a starting pitcher this season:
Ben Casparius, 0.00 (one inning) Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 1.86 (58) Blake Snell, 2.00 (9) Tony Gonsolin, 4.05 (20) Dustin May, 4.09 (50.2) Matt Sauer, 4.50 (4) Tyler Glasnow, 4.50 (18) Roki Sasaki, 4.72 (34.1) Landon Knack, 6.61 (16.1) Jack Dreyer, 6.75 (5.1) Clayton Kershaw, 11.25 (4) Justin Wrobleski, 14.40 (5) Bobby Miller, 18.00 (3)
Yamamoto has carried the rotation this season.
Finally, the Dodgers are 10-9 this month. Have they had any months where they finished .500 or worse since 2017?
Ten worst months by the Dodgers since 2017:
September, 2017: 12-17, .414 April, 2018: 11-14, .440 July, 2024: 11-13, .458 May, 2018: 14-14, .500 June, 2023: 12-12, .500 August, 2018: 14-13, .519 May, 2025: 10-9, .526 June, 2022: 14-12, .538 July, 2021: 14-12, .538 April, 2017: 14-12, .538
Note: This does not include short months (March or October) when they may have gone 0-1 or 2-3.
So, except for 2019, every full season since 2017 has included one mediocre month. Maybe the Dodgers are getting it out of the way in May this season.
This stretch of games calls for patience. The Dodgers have made moves to improve their offense this month. But there’s not a lot to do to improve the pitching except wait for guys to get healthy. It’s hard to be patient when there are four teams playing so well in the NL West, with one of the four guaranteed not to make the playoffs. Think of it this way: They say patience is a virtue, and couldn’t we all use a little virtue in our life?
Who do you want to hear from?
We’ve been doing the “Ask…. “ series for quite a few years now, where Dodgers from the past answer questions posed by readers. I have a couple lined up that I won’t reveal just yet, but what I’d like to know is: Who would you like to hear from? Is there a former Dodger for whom you have a question? Email me at [email protected] and let me know. No promises, since the person has to agree to do it, but I can try.
And before you send me this name, Sandy Koufax is off the table. I’ve asked more than once, and he just doesn’t do interviews. And I respect that. But any other former Dodger is fair game. Except the ones who are no longer with us, I guess that technically makes them a member of the Angels now.
I’m probably forgetting a few, but you get the idea. And, now you know not to ask for the people listed. Again, email me at [email protected] and let me know who you’d like to hear from.
All-time leaders
The flip side of the previous leaders: Dodgers’ all-time worst in batting average with two out and runners in scoring position, minimum 150 at-bats, excluding pitchers.
Franchise 1. Dave Anderson, .179 2. Rick Monday, .185 3. Austin Barnes, .188 4. Steve Yeager, .190 5. A.J. Ellis, .193 6. Joc Pederson, .194 7. Yasmani Grandal, .198 8. Dave Hansen, .200 9. Ollie O’Mara, .200 10. Jim Bucher, .204
Los Angeles only 1. Dave Anderson, .179 2. Rick Monday, .185 3. Austin Barnes, .188 4. Steve Yeager, .190 5. A.J. Ellis, .193 6. Joc Pederson, .194 7. Yasmani Grandal, .198 8. Dave Hansen, .200 9. Greg Brock, .209 10. Tim Wallach, .211 11. Yasiel Puig, .215 12. Frank Howard, .217 13. Max Muncy, .218 14. Cody Bellinger, .220 15. John Roseboro, .222
Scheduling note
Memorial Day is Monday, so there will be no newsletter that day as we honor those who gave their lives for this country. Dodgers Dugout will return next Friday.
Up next
Friday: Dodgers (*Clayton Kershaw, 0-0, 11.25 ERA) at New York Mets (Griffin Canning, 5-1, 2.47 ERA), 4:10 p.m., Apple TV+, AM 570, KTNQ 1020
Saturday: Dodgers (Tony Gonsolin, 2-0, 4.05 ERA) at New York Mets (*David Peterson, 2-2, 2.86 ERA), 4:10 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020
Sunday: Dodgers (Landon Knack, 2-1, 6.17 ERA) at New York Mets (Kodai Senga, 4-3, 1.43 ERA), 4 p.m., ESPN, AM 570, KTNQ 1020
Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at [email protected], and follow me on Twitter at @latimeshouston. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Charles Leclerc set the pace in first practice at the Monaco Grand Prix, despite consistently complaining about the behaviour of his Ferrari.
Leclerc, who won his home race for the first time last year, said at various times that Ferrari were “nowhere” and that there was “something wrong with the car”.
But he ended the session 0.163 seconds ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
McLaren’s Lando Norris was third, 0.326secs off the pace, with Williams’ Alex Albon fourth and championship leader Oscar Piastri fifth.
Leclerc, who was pessimistic about Ferrari’s hopes for Monaco, had an incident-packed session.
He started it by taking to the escape road at Mirabeau on his very first lap, and soon afterwards hit the rear of Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin at the Loews hairpin, after the Canadian veered into the Ferrari’s path while on a slow lap.
That damaged the Ferrari’s front wing, but Leclerc was able to continue. Stroll, though, took no further part in the session because of rear suspension damage and the need to change his gearbox.
Previously limited to fastballs and splitters, Shohei Ohtani threw a handful of sliders and curveballs in his mid-week bullpen session, but that doesn’t mean he will be a two-way player again before the All-Star break.
Ohtani is lined up to potentially face hitters in a simulated game Saturday in New York, but that doesn’t mean he will pitch in the upcoming four-week stretch that could determine the course of the Dodgers’ season.
As encouraged as the team is with his progress and as desperate as the Dodgers are for one of their sidelined frontline starters to return, they will continue to slow play Ohtani’s return to the mound, according to a person familiar with the team’s thinking but not authorized to speak publicly.
The Dodgers could use Ohtani’s arm, but they absolutely need his bat, and they don’t plan on jeopardizing his offense by exposing him to any unnecessary risks on the mound.
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NBA PLAYOFFS RESULTS
All Times Pacific
Conference finals
Western Conference
No. 1 Oklahoma City vs. No. 6 Minnesota at Oklahoma City 114, Minnesota 88 (box score) at Oklahoma City 118, Minnesota 103 (box score) Saturday at Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., ABC Monday at Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., ESPN Wednesday at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ESPN* Friday, May 30 at Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., ESPN* Sunday, June 1 at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., ESPN*
Eastern Conference
No. 3 New York vs. No. 4 Indiana Indiana 138, at New York 135 (OT) (box score) Friday at New York, 5 p.m., TNT Sunday at Indiana, 5 p.m., TNT Tuesday at Indiana, 5 p.m., TNT Thursday, May 29 at New York, 5 p.m., TNT* Saturday, May 31 at Indiana, 5 p.m., TNT* Monday, June 2 at New York, 5 p.m., TNT*
*if necessary
ANGELS
Taylor Ward hit a go-ahead grand slam, Logan O’Hoppe also homered in a five-run seventh inning and the Angels rallied past the skidding Athletics 10-5 on Thursday for their seventh consecutive victory.
Ward and O’Hoppe both connected off reliever Grant Holman (4-1), sending the A’s to their ninth loss in a row. O’Hoppe had four homers in the series.
It was the second go-ahead slam in 10 days for Ward, who finished with three hits and five RBIs. He has an extra-base hit in eight straight games — one shy of the club record set by Darin Erstad in 1998.
Ward has 17 RBIs in his last 10 games. He and O’Hoppe each have 14 homers this season. Zach Neto also had three of the Angels’ 13 hits.
From Ben Bolch: The Bruin Bombers. The Bash Brothers. The Splash Brothers.
Jordan Woolery and Megan Grant are open to any nicknames that reflect their standing as college softball’s most formidable hitting duo.
“Whatever anyone wants to call us,” Woolery said, “we don’t even care.”
Any credible nickname must recognize their staggering power. Bonus points are available for a reference to their native Bay Area. What’s not negotiable is the conveying of their connection, both as the best of friends and their proximity in UCLA’s batting order.
Woolery hits third, followed by Grant in the cleanup spot. It has been that way in every lineup card this season except for the three games in which Grant was either limited to pinch-hitting duties or sidelined because of a minor hamstring injury.
The payoff of pairing them together has been historic, a combination as proven as peanut butter and jelly or Simon and Garfunkel.
From Ryan Kartje: The first thing that catches your eye as you enter new Dedeaux Field — once you’ve navigated the ground floor of the parking structure, past the temporary batting cages in the construction zone beyond center field, down the path strewn with electric scooters, around “CONSTRUCTION ACCESS GATE #3” and onto the warning track of USC’s soon-to-be baseball home — is the actual field itself.
A new playing surface wasn’t something Trojans baseball players were clamoring for. They loved old Dedeaux Field and its charms. But plans for a football practice facility necessitated speeding up the timeline for upgrades on the half-century-old venue, and USC’s baseball program, with twice as many titles as any other school in NCAA history during that time, was told to make the best of it.
Of course, no one within the program was complaining about the prospect of a shiny new ballpark — least of all Andy Stankiewicz, the Trojans’ coach. But with a blank canvas on which to build a new version of Dedeaux Field, there was some upside. One is that every square inch of the park, down to the dirt, could now be given careful, meticulous consideration — with no expense spared.
“Every detail, every material was hand-picked,” says Scott Lupold, USC’s director of turf. He believes there will be no equal in the ranks of college baseball fields when his work is finished. The grade of the infield, he says, is perfectly flat. The gleaming green grass — Tahoma 31 Bermudagrass — is the finest on the market, the same you find in Dodger Stadium. And the dirt? You might catch yourself wondering if it’s dirt at all. “We were literally able to design every aspect of the surface how we wanted it,” Lupold says. As sports turf goes, this is his Sistine Chapel.
The College Football Playoff will go to a more straightforward way of filling the bracket next season, placing teams strictly on where they are ranked instead of moving pieces around to reward conference champions.
Ten conference commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director came to the unanimous agreement they needed Thursday to shift the model that drew complaints last season.
The new format was widely expected after last season’s jumbled bracket gave byes to Big 12 champion Arizona State and Mountain West champion Boise State, even though those teams were ranked ninth and 12th by the playoff selection committee.
NHL PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE, RESULTS
All times Pacific
Conference finals
Western Conference
Central 2 Dallas vs. Pacific 3 Edmonton at Dallas 6, Edmonton 3 (summary) Friday at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN Sunday at Edmonton, noon, ABC Tuesday at Edmonton, 5 p.m., ESPN Thursday, May 29 at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN* Saturday, May 31 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., ABC* Monday, June 2 at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN*
Eastern Conference
Metro 2 Carolina vs. Atlantic 3 Florida Florida 5, at Carolina 2 (summary) Florida 5, at Carolina 0 (summary) Saturday at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT Monday at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT Wednesday at Carolina, 5 p.m., TNT* Friday, May 30 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT* Sunday, June 1 at Carolina, 5 p.m., TNT*
* If necessary
THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY
1884 — Knight of Ellersie, ridden by S. Fischer, wins the two-horse Preakness Stakes by two lengths over Welcher.
1922 — Future world heavyweight boxing champion Gene Tunney suffers his only professional defeat in 15-round unanimous points decision against Harry Greb at Madison Square Garden, N.Y.
1936 — Rushaway, ridden by John Longden, wins his second derby in as many days, taking the 1 1/4-mile Latonia Derby at Latonia in Covington, Ky. Rushaway had won the 1 1/8-mile Illinois Derby, run at Aurora, Ill., the previous day.
1941 — In his 20th world heavyweight boxing title defense Joe Louis knocks out Buddy Baer in round 1 at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
1953 — Native Dancer, ridden by Eric Guerin, avenges the loss in the Kentucky Derby by edging Jamie K. by a neck to win the Preakness Stakes.
1964 — Dale Greig runs female marathon world record (3:27:45).
1968 — AC Milan of Italy win 8th European Cup Winner’s Cup against Hamburger SV of West Germany 2-0 in Rotterdam.
1976 — Boston center Dave Cowens dominates the opener of the NBA Finals against Phoenix with a 25-point, 21-rebound performance and the Celtics defeat the Suns, 98-87.
1981 — Puerto Rican boxer Wilfred Benítez (22) becomes the youngest 3-division world champion in history by knocking out WBC World Super Welterweight champion Maurice Hope in 12 rounds in Las Vegas.
1991 — Paul Dougherty scores two goals and adds two assists to help the San Diego Sockers win their fourth consecutive Major Indoor Soccer League championship with an 8-6 victory over the Cleveland Crunch.
1997 — In the first all-freshman singles final in NCAA history, Stanford’s Lilia Osterloh beats Florida’s M.C. White 6-1, 6-1 to win the women’s singles tennis championship.
2001 — 9th UEFA Champions League Final: Bayern Munich beats Valencia (1-1, 5-4 on penalties) at Milan.
2005 — Anastasia Myskina is the first defending champion at the French Open to be eliminated in the opening round, losing to Spain’s Maria Sanchez Lorenzo 6-4, 4-6, 6-0.
2007 — UEFA Champions League Final, Athens: Filippo Inzaghi scores twice as AC Milan beats Liverpool, 2-1 for 7th title.
2009 — Alabama sophomore Kelsi Dunne becomes the first player to throw back-to-back no-hitters in NCAA postseason play. Dunne holds Jacksonville State hitless for the second straight day in a 9-0 softball victory. The two no-hitters tie the NCAA postseason record. It’s Dunne’s fourth of the season and a school-record six for her career.
2013 — Patrick Roy is named head coach of the Colorado Avalanche, his former team where he won two Stanley Cups.
2018 — NFL owners approve new NFL national anthem policy whereby players required to stand if they choose to be on the field for pre-game presentations.
2021 — Phil Mickelson wins the 2021 PGA Championship by two strokes to become the oldest major winner (50) in PGA history.
THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY
1901 — The Cleveland Blues, later known as the Indians, scored nine runs with two outs in the ninth inning to beat the Washington Senators 14-13.
1910 — In the top of the ninth inning in a game against Boston, Cincinnati’s Dode Paskert stole second base, third base and home plate. The theft gave the Reds a 6-5 win.
1924 — Washington’s Walter Johnson struck out 14 in a 4-0 one-hitter over the Chicago White Sox for his 103rd shutout.
1925 — Cincinnati pitcher Pete Donohue had five hits — four singles and a homer — in beating the Philadelphia Phillies 11-2.
1935 — The first major league night game, scheduled for Cincinnati, was postponed because of rain.
1948 — Joe DiMaggio hit three consecutive home runs, the first two off Bob Feller, to lead the New York Yankees to 6-5 win over Cleveland.
1962 — New York’s Joe Pepitone hit two homers in the nine-run eighth inning of the Yankees’ 13-7 triumph over Kansas City.
1970 — The San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants battled for 15 innings, with the Padres winning 17-16. Nate Colbert led San Diego with five hits and four RBIs.
1984 — The Detroit Tigers won their 16th consecutive road game, 4-2 at California, tying an AL record.
1991 — Tommy Greene, making the 15th start of his major league career, pitched a no-hitter and the Philadelphia Phillies beat Montreal 2-0.
2000 — The Orioles defeat the Mariners‚ 4-2. Seattle’s Rickey Henderson draws his 2‚000th career walk in the 9th inning‚ making him the third player to reach that level‚ after Babe Ruth and Ted Williams.
2002 — Dodgers slugger Shawn Green became the 14th man in major league history to homer four times in a game and set a big league record with 19 total bases. He went 6-for-6, scoring six times with seven RBIs in a 16-3 win at Milwaukee.
2003 — Jeremi Gonzalez earned his first major league victory in nearly five years as Tampa Bay beat the Angels 3-1. Gonzalez won for the first time since June 28, 1998, while with the Chicago Cubs. He had elbow surgery in 1998 and ’99 before the Cubs released him in 2001.
2005 — Left-hander Mark Mulder of the St. Louis Cardinals becomes just the 12th National League pitcher since 1976 to throw a complete game shutout of 10 innings or more when he blanks the Houston Astros, 1-0, in 10 innings. Greg Maddux posted the last extra-inning shutout in the National League in 1988.
2009 — Jason Giambi hit his 400th homer in the Oakland Athletics’ 8-7 loss against the Arizona Diamondbacks, becoming the 44th player to reach the milestone.
2011 — Corey Hart hit his first three home runs this season and drove in seven to tie both club records, lifting Milwaukee to an 11-3 win over Washington.
2018 — The Seattle Mariners sign a new 25-year lease to continue playing at Safeco Field. The lease will take effect at the expiration of the current 20-year lease at the end of the season, a lease which was signed when the ballpark opened in 1999.
2023 — Gerrit Cole records the 2,000th strikeout of his career when he fans Jorge Mateo of the Orioles in the 2nd inning, becoming the third-fastest pitcher to the mark in terms of both games pitched (278) and innings pitched (1,714 2/3).
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Channel 5 will show four home England T20s per year for the next four years under a new deal with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), keeping the matches on free-to-air television.
The two men’s and two women’s matches, previously shown on the BBC, will also be available on Channel 5’s streaming service 5.
They will still be broadcast on Sky Sports, which shows all of England’s home matches.
Channel 5 will also stream highlights of the T20 Blast.
The first match on the channel is the women’s T20 between England and West Indies at Chelmsford on Monday.
It will also show England’s men against the Windies on Sunday 8 June, then Nat Sciver-Brunt’s England against India on Saturday 28 June and the men’s match against South Africa on Sunday 14 September.
There will also be in-play clips of all matches on the BBC Sport website and app, plus live TV coverage of eight double-headers in each season of The Hundred.
The BBC’s audio deal also means Test Match Special will have commentary of home internationals until at least 2028, along with the new four-year contract to broadcast men’s and women’s county cricket.
Brigham Young quarterback Jake Retzlaff has been accused of raping a woman at his Utah residence in November 2023.
In a civil lawsuit filed this week in state court in Salt Lake County, a woman identified in documents as Jane Doe alleges that Retzlaff “raped, strangled, and bit” her after she and a friend came over to his place to play the video game “Fortnite.” The claimant is asking for more than $300,000 in damages over claims including assault, battery and “emotional distress, humiliation, embarrassment, mental distress and anxiety.”
Retzlaff’s attorney, Mark Baute, said on Wednesday in a statement to media outlets that Retzlaff is “factually innocent.”
“We look forward to proving that innocence,” Baute said. “Jake’s focus this year will be on football. We don’t try cases in the media, we will respect the process and establish Jake’s innocence through the judicial system.”
Retzlaff played two years at Corona Centennial High before spending a year each at Riverside City College and Golden West College in Huntington Beach. He has played 17 games in two seasons at BYU and led the Cougars to an 11-2 record last year. He has one year of college eligibility remaining.
BYU said in a statement to The Times that it learned about the lawsuit Wednesday.
“The university takes any allegation very seriously, following all processes and guidelines mandated by Title IX,” BYU wrote. “Due to federal and university privacy laws and practices for students, the university will not be able to provide additional comment.”
According to the lawsuit, Doe and Retzlaff met via social media in October and began messaging. They met in person in late November when Retzlaff invited the Salt Lake County resident to his place in Utah County. She and a friend came over “that evening and went to his room to play Fortnite,” the lawsuit states.
The filing states that Doe interacted with “Retzlaff’s friends and teammates” while playing the video game. Later, after her friend left, Doe and Retzlaff were kissing while watching a movie when “Retzlaff began escalating the situation, attempting to touch her breasts and genital area,” according to the complaint.
The lawsuit states that Doe “tried to de-escalate the situation and attempted to slow things down, trying to pull away, and saying ‘wait.’ She did not want to do anything sexual with him.”
Retzlaff’s physical contact started “causing her pain,” the complaint states, and Doe objected — saying “no” and “wait, stop” — and “wanted to leave, but was scared and felt like she could not get away.”
According to the lawsuit, Retzlaff would go on to allegedly pull Doe’s hair, forcefully kiss her, bite her lip (which allegedly caused a cut) and “put his hands around her neck and started to press down so that she could not breathe,” among other alleged actions before raping her.
Doe left after Retzlaff fell asleep, the lawsuit states. She went to a hospital “a few days later,” according to the lawsuit, and had a rape kit performed and photos taken of her injuries. She also spoke with the Provo Police Department but initially did not give Retzlaff’s name because “she was scared and in shock and not ready to confront him,” the lawsuit states.
“At some point after speaking to the police, an officer reached out to her asking for the name because someone else filed a complaint against a football player and the police wanted to see if it was the same person,” the lawsuit states.
“At that point, [Doe] shared Retzlaff’s name, and the Provo police then encouraged her not to do anything because, as they claimed, ‘sexual assault victims never get justice.’”
In a statement released Wednesday night, the Provo Police Department said it “is aware of a civil suit involving an allegation of rape made by an anonymous plaintiff against a BYU football player” but “has not been served any legal filing relating to this civil case.”
The department said it was able “to identify a possible correlating case report” based on the details of the civil case. The initials of the woman who called in that report match those of Retzlaff’s accuser. The Times does not name victims of sexual assault unless they choose to be identified.
“Our records show that on November 27th, 2023, our department received a phone report from a woman … who gave a similar account. She was treated with courtesy and care,” the department stated.
“The complainant in that case was given several opportunities to identify her abuser. She declined to do so, as is her right, and the case was subsequently closed. Collected evidence was examined, and it revealed no actionable investigative leads. Our victim advocates followed up several times to offer services but received no response.”
The department continued: “The civil suit states that Provo Police personnel discouraged the victim from proceeding, by telling her there is no justice for victims of sexual abuse. From everything we have reviewed, this is not true. We have a team of dedicated investigators and victim advocates whose sole mission is to provide justice to victims of sexual abuse. They do not send people away, warning them there is no justice for victims.
“Our Special Victims Unit investigations regularly result in criminal accountability for offenders. We hope the plaintiff chooses to make a statement to further the criminal investigation if desired.”
The mixed team final will make its competition debut at the Artistic European Gymnastics Championships.
The championships, in Leipzig, Germany, begin on Monday.
British Olympian Ruby Evans believes the mixed team event – which has also been added to the Los Angeles Olympics programme for 2028 – is an “exciting” addition.
Evans says it “adds a different challenge and a bit of variety to the championships”.
But what is it and how does it work?
One female and one male gymnast from each federation will compete in the event – in which scores in individual events are added together to make a team total.
Female gymnasts will score on vault, balance beam and floor, while male gymnasts compete on floor, parallel and horizontal bars – and the 16 mixed teams with the best scores in individual qualification go through to the final. The make-up of the teams is not decided in advance – it is determined by the qualification scores.
Jake Jarman, an Olympic floor bronze medallist for Team GB in Paris last year, said: “It’s a great way to bring men’s and women’s gymnastics together. It’s going to be really interesting to see the mixed team event debut and see how it goes down with the audience and fans.”
You can watch the mixed team final live on BBC iPlayer from 15:50 BST on Wednesday, 28 May.
Former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash tells BBC Sport’s Russell Fuller Britain’s Jack Draper is the only player on the men’s tour who poses a serious threat to the dominance of Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz and Italian Jannik Sinner.
