The Sunday Times May 22, 2022 17the aerodynamicists to come through
with some more bits for us to
progress.”
With the heat and the tyre issues in
play, the strategists could be the most
important boffins of all. Russell, 24,
certainly expects an interesting
afternoon today.
“It’s going to be a chaotic race,” he
said. “There are going to be a number
of stops for everybody. Max looks
much quicker than the rest, but I think
we’ve got a real shot against Ferrari.
Unless they find some gains overnight
I think we’ll be in the mix with them.
We’ll be going for it and trying to fight
for a podium.”
Red Bull, meanwhile, are carrying
ON TV TODAY
French Open
Eurosport, 1pmMany are baffled by the tours’
decision when it affects such a large
number of players. There is also
anger that the player councils — of
which Federer, Rafael Nadal and
Belarus’s Victoria Azarenka are
members — did not embark upon a
wider consultation process. The ATP
batted away concerns by stating that
“some sacrifices and compromises
are unfortunately required”.
“The rankings underpin the entire
season together and ensure its
fairness,” an ATP document read.
“Maintaining ranking points at a
tournament like Wimbledon, which
carries the highest level of ranking
points, when the event is not open to
all players, would have major knock-
on effects. It would lead to a
significant distortion in determining
which players can enter
tournaments, seedings, qualification
for the year-end finals, year-end
bonus pool and year-end ranking
positions. This would undermine the
credibility and integrity of our sport.”
Attempts by the UK government
this week to persuade the ATP and
WTA not to strip Wimbledon of
ranking points fell on deaf ears. The
culture secretary, Nadine Dorries,
wrote to tour officials warning them
of the dangers of such a move and
responded to Friday’s
announcement by proposing a
rethink. “We deeply regret today’s
decision and urge the ATP, WTA andGRID FOR
SPANISH GRAND PRIXDriver Team Pts
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 104
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull 85
3 Sergio Perez Red Bull 66
4 George Russell Mercedes 59
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 53
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 36
7 Lando Norris McLaren 35
8 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 30
9 Esteban Ocon Alpine 24
10 Kevin Magnussen Haas 15
Constructors’ championship
1 Ferrari 157
2 Red Bull 151
3 Mercedes 95
4 McLaren 46Driver Team Time
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari (Q3) 1min 18.750sec
2 Max VerstappenRed Bull +0.323sec
3 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +0.416sec
4 George RussellMercedes +0.643sec
5 Sergio Perez Red Bull +0.670sec
6 Lewis HamiltonMercedes +0.762sec
7 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo +0.858sec
8 Kevin MagnussenHaas +0.932sec
9 Daniel RicciardoMcLaren +1.547sec
10 Mick SchumacherHaas +1.618sec
11 Lando Norris McLaren (Q2) 1min 20.471sec
12 Esteban Ocon Alpine +0.167sec
13 Yuki Tsunoda AplhaTauri +0.168sec
14 Pierre Gasly AplhaTauri +0.390sec
15 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo +0.623sec
16 Sebastian VettelAston Martin(Q1) 1min 20.954sec
17 Fernando AlonsoAlpine +0.089sec
18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +0.464sec
19 Alexander AlbonWilliams +0.691sec
20 Nicholas Latifi Williams +0.961secCHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
on a fight of another kind. The FIA has
cleared Aston Martin of acting illegally
after accusations that they had cloned
many aspects of Red Bull’s RB18 car in
their latest upgrade, but some
suspicions remain. Horner confirmed
that his team will be holding an
internal investigation into whether
intellectual property had been leaked
to their rivals.ON TV TODAY
Spanish Grand Prix
2pm. Sky Sports F1Once again, the build-up to a grand-
slam tournament has been
completely overshadowed by events
off the court. Before January’s
Australian Open, it was the
deportation of Novak Djokovic that
stole the limelight. Now, with the
French Open about to get under way
today, the talk of the tennis world is
about the ramifications of the
decision by tour officials to strip
Wimbledon of ranking points.
Calculator apps on mobile phones
must have experienced a spike in
usage at Roland Garros yesterday.
Players who are now suddenly
unable to defend points at
Wimbledon next month, no matter
how they perform, were intrigued to
discover the extent of their
impending fall down the rankings.
Even the sport’s biggest stars
cannot avoid the consequences of the
ATP and WTA’s preference to
“maintain rankings fairness” for the
small group of Russians and
Belarusians banned from submitting
an entry to the All England Club this
year, because of the Russian invasion
of Ukraine. Djokovic, who has
previously branded Wimbledon’s
decision as “crazy”, is among the
biggest losers, all but guaranteed to
lose his world No 1 ranking because of
his inability to retain the 2,000
points he earned for winning the title
last year. Ironically, the player most
likely to replace him is the banned
Russian, Daniil Medvedev.
Serena Williams and Roger
Federer will both find themselves
unranked on July 11, although that
was always likely going to be the case
for the latter, who is set to make his
long-awaited comeback from knee
surgery at the Laver Cup in
September. Williams, 40, is still to
confirm whether she will be at
Wimbledon or not.
Lower-ranked players are
particularly unhappy, denied the
opportunity to earn vital points
which can change the trajectory of
their careers. The straight-talking
Frenchman Benoît Paire posted a
tweet minutes after Friday’s
announcement which simply read,
“DECISION STUPIDE!!!”, while
Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics is set to
tumble well outside of the top 100
after reaching last year’s quarter-
finals. “No ranking points in
Wimbledon and ranking points will
drop from 2021,” the 30-year-old
posted yesterday. “No chance to
defend them. Are you serious ATP
tour? From [number] 60 I will drop
to 130. Thank you!”‘A cheque close
to £50,000 for
first-round losers
will still appeal to
many lower down
the food chain’Tournament will be
as popular as ever,
even if ranking-points
blow depletes fieldthe ITF to consider their stance on
ranking points at the
Championships,” Dorries said. “It
does not send the right message to
either [Vladimir] Putin or the people
of Ukraine.”
Now, we wait to see what impact
this has on the strength of the player
field at Wimbledon. A cheque in the
region of £50,000 for first-round
losers will still be appealing enough
for many competitors lower down
the food chain, but one prominent
agent told The Sunday Times on a
condition of anonymity yesterday
that he believes some of the top
female players “don’t want to play”.
The entry list is due to be published
during the week starting May 30.
Wimbledon will retain its grand-
slam status, and the prestige of being
the oldest tennis tournament in the
world is likely to remain an attraction
to the wider British public, who are
not so concerned with the ins and
outs of the ranking system. This was
evident at Rio 2016 when Andy
Murray won an Olympic gold medal
with no points at stake. “I’d still want
to be the Wimbledon champion, with
or without points,” Jo Durie, the
former British No 1, tweeted.
There is at least once source of
relief for Wimbledon at this
challenging time. The prospect of
legal action had been explored by
some Russian and Belarusian players
when the ban was announced last
month, but Medvedev has now
confirmed that he has no intention of
taking matters to the Court of
Arbitration for Sport.
“I’m not a lawyer, but I guess if you
ask a lawyer, probably there is some
room to make in this,” the 26-year-old
US Open champion said. “But me
personally, I won’t go to court.”Fans won’t desert Wimbledon
... but a few players could
STUART
FRASERTennis Correspondent, ParisSimon Yates won his second stage
of this year’s Giro d’Italia yesterday
as Richard Carapaz moved into the
race lead for Ineos Grenadiers.
Yates, the 29-year-old from
Bury, right, took the time-
trial in stage two but his
hopes of winning a
second career grand
tour began to unravel
when he was injured
on Mount Etna three
days later. He fell out of
overall contention during
the ninth stage.
Despite being out of the
running for the general
classification (GC), however, Yates
surged on the final climb to Parco
del Nobile yesterday to finish 15
seconds ahead of Jai Hindley,
Carapaz and Vincenzo Nibali, who
all crossed the line together in the
14th stage of 21.“My original plan was to make
the breakaway today but it didn’t
work that way,” Yates said. “In the
final move I had the advantage of
not racing for GC any more.”
The 147km route from
Santena to Turin
included ascents of the
Superga and
Maddalena hills.
Carapaz, the race
favourite and 2019
Giro champion,
attacked on a steep
climb with nearly 30km to
go, then had to hang on when
Hindley, Nibali and Yates caught
him. He leads Hindley by seven
seconds, and João Almeida was
third overall, 30 seconds back.
Tom Dumoulin, the 2017 Giro
winner, abandoned midway
through the stage after struggling
with back pain recently.YATES SURGES CLEAR ON FINAL CLIMB TO
TAKE SECOND STAGE WIN AT GIRO D’ITALIAEmma Raducanu was pictured
yesterday on the Roland Garros
practice courts with Louis Cayer, a
veteran coach and performance
adviser at the LTA.
Raducanu, 19, goes into the
French Open without a full-time
coach after ending her association
with Torben Beltz last month. TheBritish No 1 has endured a string of
injury setbacks since winning the
US Open last September.
Meanwhile, Britain’s top-ranked
male player heads to Paris in high
spirits after winning the Lyon Open.
Cameron Norrie, the world No 11,
beat Slovenia’s Alex Molcan 6-3, 6-7
(3-7), 6-1 in yesterday’s final.VETERAN COACH LENDS RADUCANU
A HAND BEFORE THE FRENCH OPENRaducanu with Cayer, the LTA performance adviser, at Roland GarrosJOAN MONFORT