Section:GDN 1N PaGe:38 Edition Date:190812 Edition:03 Zone: Sent at 11/8/2019 23:54 cYanmaGentaYellowb
••• The Guardian Monday 12 Aug ust 2019(^38) Sport
Motor sport
Gritty Chadwick claims
inaugural W Series title
in nail-baiting climax
Tennis
Murray looks to step
up improvement in
singles comeback
Nerveless throughout the season,
Jamie Chadwick did just enough at
Brands Hatch to claim the champion-
ship title of the inaugural season of
the W Series after a race that left her
fraught and frayed at the edges. The
21-year-old ultimately showed a class
and a maturity beyond her years,
enough indeed to head home with the
$500,000 (£415,000) winner’s prize.
However, it was only after the British
driver’s usual calm control had seemed
to almost evaporate after 30 minutes of
racing during which her championship
might have slipped away. “I have been
under this sort of pressure before,” she
said. “But it’s a lot diff erent when there
is half a million at stake.”
Coming out of this maelstrom
on top demonstrated Chadwick’s
strength of character. Her title brought
the W Series to a close after what can
be considered a very successful fi rst
year for the champion ship created to
promote women in motor racing.
Yet what was expected to be a
relatively straightforward coronation
turned into a nail-baiting climax.
Chadwick needed a podium fi nish to
be assured of the title but managed
only fourth. Britain’s Alice Powell
won the race, from the Finn Emma
Kimiläinen. Beitske Visser of the
Netherlands, the only driver who
could challenge Chadwick, was third
and with a 13-point defi cit, that was
not good enough.
However, when Visser passed
Chadwick during the race, the title
seemed momentarily to hang in the
balance before the British driver closed
it out. Knowing she had done enough
with fourth, Chadwick’s relief after she
climbed from the car was palpable. She
has won twice and fi nished on the
podium three times in fi ve races this
season but admitted the task of claim-
ing the title had proved hard to bear.
“I have mixed emotions, I can’t take
it all in, that was the worst 30 min-
Andy Murray, on the eve of his return
to singles competition for the fi rst time
since his hip surgery six months ago,
was relaxed as he discussed his come-
back in the Cincinnati Masters 1000
with an encouraging mixture of hope
and perspective.
“I have zero pain,” he said before
his fi rst-round match against Rich-
ard Gasquet. “I’m not expe cting to be
moving as well as I used to but I still
think I can probably move better than
I am just now. But that will take time.
I started playing singles again only a
couple of weeks ago.
“Obviously, when you’re playing
at the highest level against the best
players, they hit the ball big and it
takes time to get used to that again.
And there’s still some improvement to
come from my hip operation.”
After so many injuries and a clear
uncertainty about the hip procedure,
Murray’s return since his operation
has been swift. Last August in Wash-
ington the pain in his hip led him to
weep audibly in his chair after a long,
three-set victory against Marius Copil.
At the Australian Open in January
Murray announced the hip had forced
him to search for an exit route. After
what seemed like one fi nal breathless
The 21-year-old shows class
and maturity beyond her
years to take $500,000 prize
Giles Richards
Brands Hatch
Tumaini Carayol
Cincinnati
utes of my life, followed by the best
30 minutes,” she said. “I don’t know
what I was doing, the pressure just got
to me. I knew I had the championship
to fi ght for and I made mistakes.”
For a driver who is already a mul-
tiple championship winner, this one
meant the most, because it had been
the hardest fought. “This has been by
far the best of my wins,” she said. “This
year has been one of the toughest I
have had. Normally you can go under
the radar in junior motor sport. This
is the fi rst year I have been exposed to
that, you can’t make mistakes, you are
in an intense environment.”
She had opened the day well, taking
pole position by pipping Powell, to the
top spot, while Visser managed only
fi fth. It appeared the scene was set for
another dominant run for Chadwick
and, while Visser moved up to fourth
on the second lap, out front Chadwick
was holding her own with Powell
and Kimiläinen tucked up under her
rear wing.
At the mid point, however, under
pressure for the lead and unwilling to
risk a clash, Chadwick gave Powell and
Kimiläinen space to squeeze up the
inside, late-braking through Paddock.
It was close, Powell and Chadwick
touched but ultimately the latter
played the percentages like a seasoned
pro and focus ed on the big picture.
She was consequently exposed
to Visser but the British driver held
third until a late safety car bunched
up the fi eld and when racing restarted
Chadwick put her wheels wide on the
grass at the entry to turn six, letting
Visser through. With just over three
laps to go Visser still needed to win
but was a full four seconds off Powell.
It was too far and Chadwick held her
nerve and fourth, enough for the title.
She had the title and the champi-
onship, which boasted fi ve diff erent
winners in six races, the conclusion
it deserved. Chadwick was taken
on earlier this year as development
driver for the Williams F1 team and
was convinced that the W Series was
very much on the right track. “This
year has provided a platform that I
never thought I would have,” she said.
“As the fi rst year in the series goes it
is incredible what I have managed to
achieve.”
▼ Jamie Chadwick is all smiles after
taking the title at Brands Hatch
DAN ISTITENE/GETTY IMAGES
fi ght in a fi ve-set fi rst-round defeat by
Roberto Bautista Agut , he was awk-
wardly ushered off the court to videos
of his peers celebrating his career, as if
he had already retired.
Since the 28 January operation,
however, Murray has been consistently
ahead of schedule. In June he marked
his surprise doubles comeback at
the Queen’s Club with a title along-
side Feliciano López. At Wimbledon
Murray was n ot even certain he would
compete in the US swing in any capac-
ity, yet he decided to return to doubles
action immediately in Washington.
Serena’s injury woe Bianca Andreescu delivered Canada a home champion
at the Rogers Cup in Toronto but her victory did not come in the way she may
have hoped yesterday. The 19-year-old took the title after Serena Williams had
to retire with a back injury after only 19 minutes of the fi rst set. Andreescu was
leading 3-1 at the time. Williams was in tears as she was treated by the trainer and
she will now turn her attention to the US Open which starts this month.
JOHN E SOKOLOWSKI/
USA TODAY SPORTS
During his appearances in Washing-
ton and Montreal he trained for singles
throughout before accepting a singles
wildcard into Cincinnati. He attributes
the swift recovery to his hip’s response
to his workload.
“Pain-wise, obviously, I don’t have
pain in my hip, so that was one,” Murray
said. “Recovering from practices that
I had? Fine, there were no issues later
in the day with my hip. And then
performances in practices with top
singles players. At some stage you
have to take the step to try to play. My
team felt like this was the right time to
do that. That’s why I’m giving it a go.”
Far from an isolated test event,
Murray’s comeback is already picking
up steam. Though his participation
in best-of-fi ve-sets matches at the
US Open remains in the balance, he
announced yesterday that he will
compete at the Zhuhai Open and
then the China Open in Beijing after
the US Open, starting on 23 September.
Still, Murray soberly acknowledges
that his progress may not continue to
soar. If his level is not competitive with
the top players and the bad draws that
inevitably lie ahead, the Scot admitted
he would consider dropping down to
ATP Challenger events.
“If things don’t go well and I feel like
it might take me a little longer to get
up to this level, then that’s defi nitely
an option. That’s something I’d be fi ne
with doing. Ultimately I’d like to be
competing at this level. The quickest
way to get up to speed is by being on
the practice and match court with top
players in my opinion.”
As Murray completed his fi rst sin-
gles press conference in more than six
months he shrugged before departing
with perspective. “It’s gonna be dif-
fi cult but, yeah, that’s just what you
have to deal with. That’s the situation
I’m in and I would have signed up for
being in this position that I’m in right
now six months ago. Absolutely.”
▲ Andy Murray only started playing
singles again a couple of weeks ago
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