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QQQ Daily Mail, Monday, August 12, 2019SINGLE-MINDED
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TENNIS
By KIERAN GILL
Rivals blast Bryson
for two-minute putt
as Reed wins title
Andy signs up for two more events
but injury strikes for tearful Serena
AS ANDY MURRAY yesterday
ramped up his singles comeback
by adding two more events to his
schedule, the great career of his
Wimbledon mixed doubles
partner appeared to be trending
in the opposite direction.
Serena Williams withdrew in tears
from last night’s Canadian Open
final after only four games as she
battled debilitating back spasms.
It is the latest setback in a year
full of injury issues for Williams,
who has two weeks to recover
before the US Open.
That New York Grand Slam may
come too soon for Murray, but
he faces Richard Gasquet in the
first round of the Cincinnati
Masters this week and will
play two events in China in
September and
October.
Murray has
beaten
33-year-old
Frenchman
Gasquet, whohas been ranked as high as No 7
but is now down at 66 in the world,
in each of their last six meetings.
The 32-year-old Scot is stepping
up his recovery after career-
saving hip surgery in January and
yesterday practised with former
coach Amelie Mauresmo.
Murray confirmed yesterday:
‘As I look to play more
singles events later in the
year, I’m happy to
announce I’ll be playing
at the inaugural Zhuhai
Championships. I’m also
going to play Beijing the
week after Zhuhai.’
Williams was after
her first title since
becoming a
mother but,
trailing home
favourite Bianca
Andreescu 3-1,officials figure it out and penal-
ize slow play?’
The problem is that players
are given two warnings before
the one-stroke penalty applies,
and by that stage the slow and
the inconsiderate have suddenly
decided they can play quicker
after all. ‘I think the guys that
are slow get too many chances,’
McIlroy said. ‘If you’re put on
the clock, that should be your
warning. Another bad time, it
should be a penalty. That would
stamp it out right away.’Arguments about slow play
have been raging for 30 years
but, with the two best players
demanding action, perhaps
something might finally get
done.
Regarding the Northern Trust
event, Reed held off a faltering
Jon Rahm and Mexican Abra-
ham Ancer to claim his first vic-
tory since the 2018 Masters.
McIlroy and Justin Rose began
with hopes of winning, before
settling for top 10 finishes after
making too many mistakes.A
vIcToRy for
American Patrick
Reed in the first
of the three
FedEx cup play-
off events in New york
last night was totally
overshadowed by an
extraordinary slow play
row involving golf ’s tor-
toise-in-chief, Bryson
Dechambeau.
A social media firestorm that
broke out on Saturday after the
American was filmed taking a
grotesque two minutes and 16
seconds to hit a simple 8ft putt
— adding insult to injury, he
even missed it — developed into
something more yesterday as
several players sought him out,
including the increasingly vocal
world No 1, Brooks Koepka.
Blithely ignoring the rules but
somehow avoiding punishment,
the man dubbed the Mad Scien-
tist turned into the Evil Genius
in the eyes of many of his peers.
Playing partner Justin Thomas
had his say while, on Twitter,
Englishman Eddie Pepperell
characteristically took no
prisoners.
Referring to Dechambeau’s
two playing partners, Tommy
Fleetwood and former USPGA
champion Thomas, he tweeted:
‘Just look at Tommy and Justin,
both looking completely bored.
Slow players do this to their
playing partners, making the
game less enjoyable. Problem is,
the unaffected, single-minded
twit in this instance doesn’tcare much for others.’ Decham-
beau reacted like most people
do when told they are too slow:
badly.
Displaying an astonishing lack
of self-awareness, he claimed:
‘It’s really unfortunate the way
it’s perceived because there’s a
lot of other guys that take a lot
of time. I’m not a slow player.’
Presumably Koepka put
Dechambeau straight after
making a beeline for him on the
practice putting green. on Pep-
perell’s stinging criticism,
Dechambeau added: ‘When you
start personally attacking peo-
ple on Twitter, it’s like, show
some balls and speak to me to
my face.’
Thomas admitted he wished
he had. ‘I should have said some-
thing to him in person,’ said the
American. ‘I like Bryson as a
person but he’s a slow golfer. A
lot of people that I like are slow.
They need to play faster.’
They almost certainly would if
one stroke penalties were
applied, a point made by
Koepka. He was visibly frus-
trated playing in the final round
of the open with another tor-
toise — JB Holmes — and kept
up the verbals.
‘What I don’t get is that if I hit
the ball in the water, that’s a
one stroke penalty,’ he said.
‘And then you have 40 seconds
to hit a shot. That’s in our rule
book too. So why can’t the rulesTHEY were supposed to
be the three big
tournaments to crystalize
matters regarding
Europe’s Solheim Cup
team. Instead, nothing
happened. All three were
dominated by the mighty
Far East contingent,
leaving captain Catriona
Matthew with quite a
dilemma before she
announces her four
wildcards this afternoon.
The eight players to
qualify automatically
include England’s Georgia
Hall and Charley Hull, plus
rookie Anne van Dam
from Holland, the longest
hitter in the game.
Celine Boutier from
France and Bronte Law
are certainties for two
picks, with Mel Reid likely
to make it four players
from England in the side.
But Matthew is so short of
options the final wild-
card could go to one of
her vice-captains,
Norway’s Suzann
Pettersen — who has just
returned from 20 months
off after the birth of her
son. The match is at
Gleneagles next month.
The final qualifying event,
the Ladies Scottish Open,
was yesterday won by
Mi Jung Hur from Korea.
Hinako Shibuno from
Japan came out on top at
the Women’s Open and
Korea’s Ko Jin-young won
the Evian Championship.Cupboard
is bare for
final slot
at Solheim
GOLF
By DEREK LAWRENSON
Golf CorrespondentHe’s back: Murray trains
with former coach
Amelie Mauresmo IPS/REXDEREK LAWRENSONSlow going:
DeChambeau
takes his
time on the
green
GETTY IMAGESshe succumbed to injury. The
37-year-old (below) wept in her
chair and could barely get
through her runners-up speech.
‘It started yesterday in my match
and it just got worse. My whole
back just completely spasmed, to
a point where I couldn’t sleep and
I couldn’t really move,’ she said in
her press conference in Toronto.
‘I’ve had this before and it’s 24-36
hours where I’m in crazy spasm
and then it’s gone.’
Asked whether she would play
this week in Cincinnati, Williams
replied: ‘Yeah. As of now, I’m
going to go to see what happens.’
This time last year Andreescu was
outside the top 200 but the
19-year-old now sits at No 14 in the
world. With three titles this year
all on North American hard
courts, Andreescu looks a serious
threat to win the US Open.
Over in Montreal, Rafael Nadal
thrashed Russia’s Daniil Medvedev
6-3, 6-0 to win the men’s Canadian
Open, his 35th Masters title.