66
QQQ Daily Mail, Tuesday, August 27, 2019ANDY MURRAY took just 42
minutes to register his first
singles win since his second hip
operation last night at the home
of a great rival.
A healthy crowd flocked to the
main court of Rafael Nadal’s
academy in Mallorca to see the
32-year-old Scot defeat 17-year-
old French unknown Imran
Sibille 6-0, 6-1 in the first round
of a Challenger event offering
£50,000 in prize money.
It was so comfortable
against a player who
had never before
played at this
professional level that
Murray conceded only
three points in the openingMurray nets
first singles
win since op
BOXING
By JEFF POWELL
CAMPBELL: DON’T BE
SHOCKED WHEN I WIN
LUKE CAMPBELL will not
be surprised if he beats
the best pound-for-pound
fighter in the world on
Saturday night.
Vasyl Lomachenko is fully
expected to retain his
world lightweight titles at
the O 2 , but Campbell says:
‘Don’t be shocked when I
beat him. I won’t be.’
Campbell has advantages
in height and reach and
expects to weigh more
than Ukraine’s former
featherweight world
champion when they
enter the ring. But he
knows that will not be
enough to beat a doubleOlympic champion. ‘I
know he’s a great fighter,’
says Campbell, 31. ‘But I
know I can beat him. Not
only because I have
physical advantages but
because I’m finally in my
prime. I feel better,
stronger, sharper than at
any time in my career.
Once I hurt him badly — I
hope to do it early — he’ll
back off and I’ll take over.’
l Lomachenko v Campbell
is live on Sky Sports Box
Office this Saturday.Night
Manager
cheers Jo
to victory
In full flight:
Jo Konta
throws
herself into
a backhand
GETTY IMAGESMIKE DICKSONset and almost appeared to give
away the one game he lost,
having taken the first 11.
After first-round defeats in
Cincinnati and Winston-Salem,
Murray has decided to drop
down a level to gain more
matches, having shelved his
doubles partnerships and
eschewed the chance to play at
the US Open.
It was Murray’s only win this
year aside from the first round
of the Brisbane International in
early January, and the first since
he had the surgery which he
hopes will permit him to have a
few more years playing singles.
The Scot, who expects to return
to the ATP Tour in China later this
month for events, should get a
more significant test in the next
round in Mallorca when he plays
the tournament third
seed and world No 115 Norbert
Gombos of Slovakia.Up and running: Murray TWITTERA
chance meeting at a
Manhattan hotel with
someone famous for being
a night Manager has
gained Jo Konta some
celebrity support at the US Open.
Tom hiddleston became a lucky mascot
in her guest box as she began her Flushing
Meadows campaign with an impressive
6-1, 4-6, 6-2 victory over Russia’s Daria
Kasatkina on the opening day.
The British actor has transferred from
the West end to Broadway with the harold
Pinter play Betrayal and was asked along
to support after their unexpected encoun-
ter. Konta was joined in the second round
by Dan evans, who worked hard to
defeat stylish Frenchman adrian
Mannarino 6-4, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3.
The British female no 1 said:
‘We only met a few days ago
and he turns out to be a big
tennis fan and so I invited him
down and he brought some of
his co-stars. I had some of my
friends there as well, so I had a
lot of great support in the box.
‘We just crossed paths. I did the
Good Samaritan thing and said,
“Don’t bother him, he’s obviously busy”.
and then he actually said, “I don’t usually
do this but I’m a massive fan,” and I was
like, “What, who? Who else is here?” We got
chatting and he’s super nice.’
The attendance of hiddleston (above),
who has been a visitor to Wimbledon’s Royal
Box, harked back to the days when andy
Murray’s runs here attracted everyone from
Sir alex Ferguson to James corden.
This was an important win for Konta,
who is keen not to have any repeat of
2017, when her run to the semi-finals of
Wimbledon was followed by a subsidence
in her form later on in the season.
In this summer she made the last four ofthe French Open followed by the quarters
at SW19, but came into the US Open
having lost in the first round of her last two
tournaments. Kasatkina, who made the
world’s top 10 last year, is similar in some
ways to the two players who upset Konta
in Paris and at Wimbledon, armed with the
unorthodox mix of angles and slices that
can sometimes prove her undoing.
as Konta said later, the most pleasing
thing was the way she managed to adapt
on this occasion, and the way she
recovered her composure after
becoming tetchy in the second
set when the Russian began to
draw errors.
In the end she was helped out
by Kasatkina’s shaky serve,
which contributed 12 double
faults, the last two coming on
the last two points, meaning
Konta did not even have to close
the match out.
She thrives on momentum, and has
the promise of another run at this event as
her draw is relatively benign through to
the second week. next up is another Rus-
sian, world no 61 Margarita Gasparyan.
evans was left one match away from a
potential third-round meeting with Roger
Federer, and now plays either Philipp
Kohlschreiber or Lucas Pouille. he said:
‘Mannarino was awkward, he gives you no
rhythm and makes you feel terrible. It
wasn’t a great one for the spectators but it
was good to come through.’
Middlesex’s harriet Dart came through
qualifying but her stay in the main draw
proved to be a brief one, beaten 6-3, 6-1 by
Romania’s world no 152 ana Bogdan.VANARAMA NATIONAL LEAGUE
P W D L F A GD Pts
Woking ......... 7 6 0 1 13 4 9 18
Bromley ....... 7 5 2 0 13 7 6 17
FC Halifax ..... 7 5 1 1 14 5 9 16
Solihull ........ 7 4 1 2 16 9 7 13
Maidenhead. 7 4 1 2 11 6 5 13
Dover ........... 7 4 0 3 10 9 1 12
Stockport C. 7 3 2 2 10 7 3 11
Torquay........ 7 3 2 2 11 12 -1 11
Sutton Utd ... 7 2 4 1 10 8 2 10
Barnet .......... 7 2 4 1 9 8 1 10
Dag & Red .... 7 3 1 3 10 12 -2 10
Notts Co ....... 7 2 3 2 12 8 4 9
Wrexham ..... 7 2 3 2 10 11 -1 9
AFC Fylde ..... 7 2 3 2 7 11 -4 9
Harrogate T. 7 2 2 3 9 10 -1 8
Hartlepool ... 7 2 2 3 10 12 -2 8
Eastleigh ...... 7 2 2 3 5 8 -3 8
Yeovil ........... 7 2 1 4 8 9 -1 7
Barrow......... 7 2 1 4 9 12 -3 7
Boreham ..... 7 1 2 4 9 10 -1 5
Aldershot .... 7 1 2 4 5 9 -4 5
Chesterfield 7 0 4 3 9 13 -4 4
Ebbsfleet ..... 7 1 1 5 8 16 -8 4
Chorley ........ 7 0 4 3 5 17 -12 4
AFC FYLDE... (0) 0 HARROGATE T (0) 0
1,317
ALDERSHOT.. (0) 1 SUTTON UTD (0) 1
J B-Agyepong 90 Collins 83 (pen) 1,662
BARNET ......(0) 2 TORQUAY... (2) 2
Mason-Clark 49 Koue Niate 5
J Taylor 89 Little 30 1,621
BARROW ......(1) 1 FC HALIFAX. (0) 2
Hardcastle 2 Nolan 50
1,451 McAlinden 64 (pen)BOREHAM WD (0) 1 EBBSFLEET. (2) 2
Marsh 76 Ball 13
533 Ugwu 16
DAG & RED... (0) 3 YEOVIL .....(0) 2
Quigley 64, 90 Murphy 46
Onariase 81 Worthington 82
1,453
DOVER ........(1) 1 WOKING.... (1) 2
Modeste 31 Hyde 42
1,358 Edser 88
HARTLEPOOL. (1) 4 WREXHAM.. (1) 2
Toure 43, 60 Wright 38
Noble 48 (pen), 52 Grant 56 (pen)
3,462
MAIDENHEAD (0) 1 BROMLEY.. (0) 2
Smile 65 Hackett-Fairchild 77, 89
1,511
NOTTS CO ....(1) 5 CHORLEY ....(1) 1
Tyson 30, Boldewijn 49 Baines 9
Dennis 53
Thomas 65, 71 5,082
SOLIHULL MRS (0) 1 EASTLEIGH. (1) 2
Hancox 69 Hollands 18, 50
1,779
STOCKPORT... (0) 2 CHESTERFLD (0) 0
Osborne 46
Bell 79 5,578
North: AFC Telford 1 Leamington
3, Alfreton Town 2 Southport 0,Blyth Spartans 1 Guiseley 4, Bos-
ton Utd 5 Altrincham 0, Brack-
ley 3 Gloucester 0, Chester FC 4
Hereford FC 1, Curzon Ashton 1
Spennymoor Town 1, Darlington
0 Bradford P A 1, Farsley Celtic 1
King’s Lynn Town 2, Kettering 3
Kidderminster 5, York 1 Gates-
head 1. South: Bath City 1 Oxford
City 2, Braintree Town 3 Dorking
Wanderers 2, Dulwich 2 Slough
3, Hampton & Richmond 1 Chip-
penham 0, Havant and W 0 East-
bourne Borough 0, Hemel Hemp-
stead 3 Billericay 0, Hungerford
Town 2 Dartford 2, Maidstone
Utd 4 Chelmsford 1, St Albans 2
Concord Rangers 1, Welling 4
Tonbridge Angels 2, Weymouth 3
Wealdstone 4.
÷CRICKET
T20 BLAST - NORTH GROUP — Emir-
ates Old Trafford: Derbyshire 162-
3 (20 overs, Madsen 69, Godleman
57), Lancashire 151-9 (20 overs,
Livingstone 58). Derbyshire (2pts)
beat Lancs by 11 runs.
P W L T NR Pts RR
Lancashire....... 13 7 2 0 4 18 0.77
Derbyshire ...... 14 7 5 0 2 16 0.02
Notts ................ 12 6 3 0 3 15 0.67
Worcs ............... 12 6 4 0 2 14 0.28
Leics ................. 13 4 6 0 3 11 -0.47
Northants ........ 12 3 5 0 4 10 -0.21
Durham ............ 12 4 6 0 2 10 -0.30
Yorkshire ......... 12 2 5 1 4 9 -0.20
Warwicks ......... 12 3 6 1 2 9 -0.48SOUTH — The SWALEC Stadium,
Glamorgan 174-4 (20 overs, Marsh
52, Ingram 50), Sussex 176-3 (16.5
overs, Carey 61). Sussex (2pts) beat
Glamorgan by 7 wickets.
P W L T NR Pts RR
Sussex .............. 13 8 2 1 2 19 0.91
Gloucs .............. 12 5 3 1 3 14 0.24
Kent.................. 12 6 4 0 2 14 0.08
Somerset ......... 12 6 5 0 1 13 0.81
Middlesex ........ 12 6 5 0 1 13 0.21
Hampshire ....... 12 4 5 1 2 11 0.09
Essex ................ 12 3 4 1 4 11 -0.78
Surrey .............. 12 4 6 1 1 10 -0.36
Glamorgan ...... 13 0 8 1 4 5 -1.68
2ND TEST — Colombo, Sri Lanka
244 & 122, N Zealand 431-6 dec.
New Zealand won by an innings and
65 runs.
÷CYCLING
LA VUELTA — Stage 3 (Ibi tp
Alicante, 188km): 1 S Bennett (Ire)
Bora-Hansgrohe 4hrs 25m 2s, 2 E
Theuns (Bel) Trek-Segafredo, 74
N Roche (Ire) Team Sunweb both
at same time. Overall: 1 Roche
9hrs 51mins 14secs, 2 N Quintana
(Col) Movistar Team at 2secs, 148
S Bennett (Ire) Bora-Hansgrohe
at 17mins 47secs.
÷TENNIS
US OPEN (Flushing Meadows,
New York) — Selected 1st rnd- Men: (1) N Djokovic (Ser) bt R
Carballes Baena (Sp) 6-4 6-1 6-4;
R Opelka (US) bt (11) F Fognini (It)
6-3 6-4 6-7 (6-8) 6-3; J Brooksby
(US) bt T Berdych (Cz) 6-1 2-6 6-4
6-4; (5) D Medvedev (Rus) bt P
Gunneswaran (Ind) 6-4 6-1 6-2; D
Evans (GB) bt A Mannarino (F) 6-
4 6-3 2-6 6-3. Women: V Williams
(US) bt S Zheng (Chn) 6-1 6-0; (16)
J Konta (GB) bt D Kasatkina (Rus)
6-1 4-6 6-2;(3) Karolina Pliskova
(Cz) bt T Martincova (Cz) 7-6 (8-6)
7-6 (7-3); A Bogdan (Rom) bt H
Dart (GB) 6-3 6-1; (2) A Barty (A)
bt Z Diyas (Kaz) 1-6 6-3 6-2.
÷TODAY’S ACTION
(7.45 unless stated)
CARABAO CUP — Second Round:
Bristol R v Brighton, Burton A
v Morecambe, Cardiff v Luton,
Crawley Tn v Norwich, Crewe v
Aston Villa, Crystal Pal v Colchester,
Fulham v Southampton, Grimsby
v Macclesfield, Leeds v Stoke,
Newport C v West Ham, Nottm
F v Derby, Oxford Utd v Millwall,
Plymouth v Reading, Preston v
Hull, Rochdale v Carlisle, Sheff Utd
v Blackburn, Southend v MK Dons,
Watford v Coventry.
LEASING.COM TROPHY — Northern
Grp E: Mansfield v Everton U21.
Southern Grp H: Northampton v
Arsenal U21 (7.30).
CRICKET — t20 Blast - North
Group: Durham v Warwickshire
(Emirates Riverside, 6.30pm).
South Group: Surrey v Somerset
(The Kia Oval, 6.30pm).SPORT IN BRIEF
MIKE DICKSON
at Flushing MeadowsUS OPEN TENNIS
Tennis