60 2GM Monday June 13 2022 | the times
SportTennis
love for the set as Berrettini, who had
been hitting his serve and ground-
strokes with fierce power until this
point, suddenly had a dreadful game.
After dropping his serve in the first
game of the third set, Murray called the
physio to the court and had to lie on his
back for treatment. His effort to win
another three games after this was
appreciated by the German crowd but
he had no chance of winning six when
he could only roll in serves at barely
80mph. Normally his first serve is
around the 125mph mark.
“It has been a good week,” Murray
said. “Not the way I wanted to finish. I
felt I was playing well enough to win
and got myself into a good position
going into the third set. A frustrating
end to what was a good week.”
The All England Club will be relieved
to hear that the chances of Rafael Nadal
appearing this year are looking more
promising by the day. The French Open
champion’s uncle and former coach,
Toni, revealed that Nadal was quickly
recovering from the radiofrequency
ablation treatment on a nerve in his left
foot last Tuesday and intends to train
on a grass court in Mallorca today.
“At first he said, ‘Everything hurts.’
But when we talked yesterday, he said
it’s going much better,” Toni said. “Hewants to train. If he has a small chance,
he will play at Wimbledon.”
Roger Federer will not be on the
British grass courts this year as he
continues his long rehabilitation from
knee surgery last August, but he has
issued a promising update on his plans
to return. The 40-year-old told the
Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger that
he “definitely” intends to play on thetour next year and will create a
schedule after he plays this autumn at
the Laver Cup in London and the Swiss
Indoors in Basel.
“After Basel, the season is over,”
Federer said. “It’s important for me to
get fit again so that I can train fully.
Once I’ve done that, I can choose how
many tournaments I play and where.
“The Laver Cup is a good start, I don’t
have to play five matches in six days. I
will have to be able to do that in Basel.
That’s why I have to prepare for it in
practice. I’m curious myself what’s still
to come. But I’m hopeful. I’m not far
away. The next three or four months
will be extremely important.”
Meanwhile, organisers of the
Stuttgart Open are investigating a
racism claim made by Nick Kyrgios
after his semi-final defeat by Murray on
Saturday. The 27-year-old Australian
said that he had heard “racist slurs from
the crowd” during the match.
“We stand for creating an inclusive
environment for all,” a tournament
statement read. “Discrimination of any
kind is not tolerated. We have
expressed our regret towards Nick
Kyrgios and his team and assured that
any kind of discrimination is
unacceptable. The incident is currently
under investigation.”Evans eases to
Nottingham
Open triumph
Stuart FraserUphill battle for SW19 seeding6 Murray must play at the Queen’s
Club if wants to chase a Wimbledon
seeding because the list is taken
from the top 32 eligible players in
the world rankings on June 20.
6 At present Murray is ranked No 47
on 1,020 points. The ban of Russians
and other withdrawals mean that
the seedings cut is estimated to be
No 36, which requires an
approximate total of 1,100 points.
6 Murray must first win his opening
match to defend the 45 points he
earned at Queen’s last year. Another
two wins to reach the semi-finals
would give him a total of 1,155
points, which should be enough, but
this will depend on other results.Triathlon Jonny Brownlee’s hopes of
competing at the Commonwealth
Games have been thrown into some
doubt after he suffered a broken
elbow in Leeds on Saturday.
Brownlee and Alex Yee, his fellow
British Olympic gold medallist,
crashed out of a World Triathlon
Championship Series event shortly
after the cycling portion began.
“Not how I thought the weekend
was going to go,” Brownlee wrote on
social media afterwards. “Another
athlete crashed in front of me and I
had nowhere to go. Hit the ground
hard and broke my elbow.”
New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde, who
went on to win the race, took the
Dan Evans added to the general
optimism surrounding British tennis at
the start of this grass-court season by
winning the Rothesay Open in
Nottingham without dropping a set.
The British No 2, ranked No 35 in the
world, comfortably saw off Australia’s
Jordan Thompson 6-4, 6-4 yesterday
for a timely confidence boost. While
Thompson, ranked No 74, was the only
top-100 opponent that Evans faced in
five matches at this second-tier ATP
Challenger, the manner of his perform-
ances on home soil still provided much
satisfaction.
Evans heads straight to the Queen’s
Club Championships in London, where
he is one of seven Britons in action. Paul
Jubb, the 22-year-old ranked No 231,
defeated the American world No 87,
Steve Johnson, 7-6, (7-4), 7-5 in the final
round of qualifying to make this the
largest contingent of home players at
Queen’s since 1996.
Sadly, no spectators were permitted
entry to watch this fine victory for Jubb.
The tournament site was closed to the
public over the weekend, meaning that
the entirety of qualifying was unusually
played behind closed doors. Organisers
said “the site build was impacted by the
jubilee weekend bank holidays”, and
workers were noticeably scrambling
yesterday to have the venue ready for
the start of the main draw today.
Cameron Norrie leads the Britons inaction. The world No 11 finished
runner-up here to Matteo Berrettini
last year and is feeling more assured
with his grass-court game before his
opening match against the 2014
champion, Grigor Dimitrov.
“Last year ticked a lot of boxes and I
was really close to taking Matteo out in
the final,” Norrie said. “I have been
watching a couple of my matches from
last year, just knowing I can play well on
this surface. I was enjoying it and loving
it so I am looking forward to playing
again in my home tournament. I live
very close so it is nice to be able to sleep
in my own bed for this one.”
A plucky tale emerged yesterday
from the Rosmalen Grass Court
Championships in the Netherlands.
Tim van Rijthoven, a local 25-year-old
who had never won a match on the ATP
Tour before last week, belied his
ranking of No 205 to beat the new
world No 1, Daniil Medvedev, 6-4, 6-1
for the title.Evans did not drop
a set on his way to
winning the titleBeaten Murray’s injury scare
BERND WEI’BROD/DPA/APMurray cut a frustrated figure during the Stuttgart Open final as an injury meant that he was unable to serve at full powerMatteo Berrettini (It) 656
Andy Murray (GB) 473Stuart Fraser Tennis Correspondent
Andy Murray received blows on two
fronts yesterday in his bid for another
Wimbledon hurrah. This defeat by
Italy’s Matteo Berrettini leaves him
facing an uphill battle to be seeded at
the All England Club, while there is
uncertainty over his fitness after he
suffered an abdominal muscle injury.
This was a deeply disappointing end
to a week that had looked so promising
for the 35-year-old. In reaching his
first grass-court final since winning
Wimbledon for the second time in 2016,
he had shown why he is still a force to be
reckoned with on a surface that
remains alien to so many younger
players, most of whom have barely set
foot on it until turning professional.
Murray had moved to within a set of
a 47th ATP title when he levelled the
match at one set all, but his body could
not last the distance. Throughout the
decider he received treatment on his
abdominal area and the pain left him
unable to serve at full power. Admira-
bly he held out to the end before going
down 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 in two hours and
40 minutes.
This twinge comes after a busy run of
nine matches in the past 14 days — he
reached the semi-finals of the Surbiton
Challenger before heading to Stuttgart.
There was understandable concern
from some of Murray’s supporters
when the physio was seen to be rubbing
the area around the hip after his
problems in recent years, but it appears
to be an unrelated issue.
“I got some pain in my ab when I was
serving,” Murray said. “Not something
I have ever had before. I need to get it
checked when I get home.”
Murray was due to fly back to
London from Stuttgart last night before
making a decision on his participation
at the Queen’s Club this week. He will
climb 21 places to a world ranking of
No 47 today but his failure to earn
another 100 points in Stuttgart leaves
him with a slim chance of a Wimbledon
seeding if he is not fully fit.
“Obviously I have played a lot of
matches, the most in two weeks since
2016,” Murray said. “It is probably
normal that I would feel some stuff in
my body but I don’t really know the
severity of it. I’ll need to get it checked
out. Hopefully it is all right.”
Murray battled hard after losing the
opening set of the final. It was a tough
task against Berrettini, the world No 10
and last year’s Wimbledon runner-up,
who was playing at a high level after a
three-month absence following minor
surgery on his right hand.
Towards the end of the second set,
Murray saved three break points in a
service hold for 5-4. He then broke to
instantly better fighter now,” the
Londoner said. “When you win the
world title they say you become next
level. Dillian Whyte, Joseph Parker —
all the names out there, they’re all on
my hit list.
“This is what I dreamt of as a little
kid, and now finally making it
happen... it’s about time. I’ve got to
thank [promoter] Don King for this
great opportunity, and everyone that
made this happen — just amazing.”
Joshua lost his WBA (Super), IBF,
WBO, and IBO heavyweight titles to
Usyk in September last year and the
rematch is set to take place in Saudi
Arabia in August, with a formal
announcement expected this week.Broken elbow could put Brownlee out of Games
blame for the crash in question and
apologised to the British pair for
prematurely ending their day.
“It’s a bittersweet victory,” Wilde
told the BBC. “I know Jonny was
pretty mad, he gave me some words,
but that’s fair enough. I’m gutted for
those guys. It’s totally my fault, I’m
more than happy to own up to that. I
feel really bad.”
The Commonwealth Games begin
next month and the men’s individual
triathlon is scheduled for July 29, with
the mixed relay on July 31.
In the women’s race in Leeds,
Britain’s Georgia Taylor-Brown and
Sophie Coldwell finished second and
third respectively.Gymnast wins civil case
against British Gymnastics
Gymnastics A former elite gymnast
has won her civil case against the
sport’s national governing body.
British Gymnastics (BG) admitted
full liability after Eloise Jotischky, 19,
said that her former coach at
Heathrow Gymnastics Club in west
London, Andrew Griffiths, employed
inappropriate weight management
techniques and subjected her to
verbal harrassment. A settlement was
reached and Jotischky received a full
apology from the BG chief executive.
An independent investigation into
allegations of abuse within British
gymnastics is preparing to deliver
its findings.Dubois has ‘hit list’ as next in line for Joshua or Usyk
Boxing Daniel Dubois is the new
mandatory challenger to the winner
of Anthony Joshua’s rematch with
Oleksandr Usyk after he claimed the
WBA regular heavyweight title.
However, the 24-year-old said
those were not the only big names on
his “hit list” after he had knocked out
the American Trevor Bryan in the
fourth round of their championship
bout in Miami on Saturday night.
Dubois is now 18-1 after that
clinical victory, with 17 knockouts —
his only defeat came against fellow
Briton Joe Joyce in November 2020
— and eyeing up a place in the upper
echelons of the heavyweight class.
“This, I believe, will make me an