the times | Monday May 23 2022 59
Sport
Cameron Norrie believes that some top
players will skip Wimbledon this year
after the ATP and WTA stripped the
championships of ranking points —
meaning it will feel “almost like an
exhibtion” event.
The British No 1 and world No 11
added to the growing backlash against
the decision by tour officials to punish
the All England Club for banning
players from Russia and Belarus after
the invasion of Ukraine. The ATP
claimed that it was “trying to maintain
rankings fairness” while the WTA
stated that “individual athletes should
not be penalised or prevented from
competing solely because of their
nationalities or the decisions made by
the governments of their countries”.
Unless a compromise is reached,
those who earned points at last year’s
of those things. We’re humbled, but
this is the fastest team in European
history. We can run quicker, we can
run low 37 seconds and we will have
more success.”
The Diamond League was both the
most important non-championship
meeting of the British season and a test
event for the Alexander Stadium,
which will stage athletics events and
the opening and closing ceremonies at
the Commonwealth Games
having undergone a £72 mil-
lion refurbishment. The
track is not the fastest, as
some athletes noticed.
“I am faster than
aliens,” said the Jamai-
can Yohan Blake, who
finished behind the
clearly human Aaron
Brown in the men’s 100m.
“The track was not quick. I
didn’t feel the bounce I
normally get. I have been running
very fast in training and that wasn’t
reflected out there today.”
Elsewhere, the Great Britain &
Northern Ireland women’s relay team
did win their race, while there were
morale-boosting early season wins for
the world, Commonwealth and
European medal prospects Dina
Asher-Smith in the women’s 100m and
Laura Muir, who led from start to
finish in the 1,500m. Keely
Hodgkinson confirmed her
recovery from a quad injury is
ahead of schedule with a
dominant 800m victory.
Hughes had a disappointing
meeting. Not only was he a
blameless part of the
relay team’s misadven-
ture, but he was disqual-
ified for a false start in
the individual 100m.
Even so, the men did
manage to notch a
triumph of their own
when the Birming-
ham boy Matt Hudson-
Smith held off a late challenge
from the American Bryce
Deadmon for an unlikely
victory in the 400m.‘How can Reece
defend Ujah? He
didn’t lose out’
Richard Kilty will have had better
meetings than Saturday’s when the
Diamond League came to Birming-
ham’s newly revamped Alexander
Stadium.
With Great Britain & Northern
Ireland’s men leading the 4x100m relay,
he and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake
made a hash of their final baton
change, allowing the Canadians to
romp past them. Afterwards, perhaps
inevitably, the talk turned to Reece
Prescod and CJ Ujah.
Prescod, the relay team’s reserve at
the Tokyo Olympics, had earlier
finished last in the men’s 100m. Last
week he forgave Ujah, whose failed
doping test after the discovery of
Ostarine and S-23 in his urine cost
Kilty, Mitchell-Blake and Zharnel
Hughes a silver medal. Once again,
Canada were the beneficiaries.
“Reece is not in a position to forgive
anybody because he hasn’t lost a
medal,” Kilty said. “What he said is
f***ing bullshit to be honest, it’s as
simple as that, I’m not going to be
politically correct.
“People say the sport needs more
honesty, but he hasn’t lost an Olympic
medal. Would he say that if he had?
Anybody who has lost an Olympic
medal knows it’s heartbreaking. People
can’t understand until they’ve gone
through it themselves. Only me,
Zharnel and Nethaneel know that.”
Adam Gemili, Ujah’s replacement on
the relay team, concurred.
“It’s very hard for myself and Reece to
truly understand,” Gemili said. “It
was hard for me, even though
I didn’t run, but Richard,
Nethaneel and Zharnel
had that taken away. We
have to support them.
“To see your friends
lose an Olympic medal
is tough, although if
they’d won the gold and
this had happened, it
would have been even more
heartbreaking. But it’s horrible
to see with any medal. We are
friends, we do hang out off the track and
we do check in with each other. You
have to be there for them.”
During the baton drop Kilty, running
the third leg, reached out to Mitchell-
Blake, whose unsteady hand never
quite looked sufficiently assured to
accept the baton. With the World
Championships in July, the Common-
wealth Games in July to August and the
European Championships in August,
there will be opportunities to work
through the early-season rustiness.
“Yes we were rusty and we can
all get sharper,” said Kilty, who has
been in training for
only six weeks after
tearing his achilles at
the Olympics.
“By that last hand-
off, we were winning
by the same dis-
tance we were
ahead of Canada in
the Olympics, but
the baton just didn’t
stick. We’ve done this so
many times and it’s just oneAthletics
John AizlewoodIt was a frustrating day for Kilty, right,
who saw Mitchell-Blake drop the baton
when GB were leading the 100m relay11.11
Dina Asher-Smith’s time
as she won the 100m —
her first victory over the
distance since British
Championships in June
last yearUjah’s failed drug test
cost Britain silver in TokyoNorrie: Wimbledon feels like an exhibition
Stuart Fraser tournament will have no chance to
defend them. Novak Djokovic, for
example, would drop 2,000 points and
lose the world No 1 ranking as a result.
“Wimbledon is still such a special
event,” Norrie, 26, said. “But I think
you’ll see a lot of top players not playing,
just resting and getting ready for the
hard-court events, especially those that
don’t worry too much about money.”
Chris O’Connell, the world No 124
from Australia, was the first player to
indicate that he will not be at Wimble-
don, preferring to play concurrent
second-tier events which offer points
and the chance to reach the top 100. A
prominent agent also said that some
high-profile female players have
warned that they are considering giving
SW19 a miss. The entry list is due to be
published at the end of next week.
There is anger among many players
that no wider consultation process took
place, with the tour holding most of its
discussions with the group on the
player council, including Djokovic, Ra-
fael Nadal and Victoria Azarenka. Nor-
rie, who won the Lyon Open on Satur-
day, beating Alex Molcan in three sets,
said that “players not on the council did
not have much choice or information”.
“Obviously it’s an extremely difficult
situation with everything going on with
the war, but for me it’s tough,” he said.
“You’re not really playing for anything,
you’re playing this almost like an
exhibition. I would have liked to see it
have points and something on the line.”
Sloane Stephens, the 2017 US Open
champion who sits on the WTA player
council, is one of the few to have pub-
licly backed the decision. Ranked
No 64, she is set to lose 130 points after
reaching the Wimbledon third round
last year, but believes it was right to up-
hold the principle of equal competition.TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER MARC ASPLANDTeenager’s
stunning run
Alcaraz’s results since
Australian OpenRio Open
bt J Munar (Sp)
2-6, 6-2, 6-1
bt F Delbonis (Arg)
6-4, 7-6 (7-1)
bt M Berrettini (It)
6-2, 2-6, 6-2
bt F Fognini (It)
6-2, 7-5
bt D Schwartzman (Arg)
6-4, 6-2Davis Cup qualifier
bt M Copil (Rom)
6-4, 6-3Indian Wells Masters
bt M McDonald (US)
6-3, 6-3
bt R Bautista Agut (Sp)
6-2, 6-0
bt G Monfils (Fr)
7-5, 6-1
bt C Norrie (GB)
6-4, 6-3
Lost to R Nadal (Sp)
4-6, 6-4, 3-6Miami Masters
bt M Fucsovics (Hun)
6-3, 6-2
bt M Cilic (Cro)
6-4, 6-4
bt S Tsitsipas (Gre)
7-5, 6-3
bt M Kecmanovic (Serbia)
6-7 (7-5), 6-3, 7-6 (7-5)
bt H Hurkacz (Pol)
7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-2)
bt C Ruud (Nor) 7-5, 6-4Monte Carlo Masters
Lost to S Korda (US)
6-7 (7-2), 7-6 (7-5), 3-6Barcelona Open
bt Kwon Soon-woo (S Kor)
6-1, 2-6, 6-2
bt J Munar (Sp) 6-3, 6-3
bt S Tsitsipas (Gre)
6-4, 5-7, 6-2
bt A De Minaur (Aus)
6-7 (7-4), 7-6 (7-4), 6-4
bt P Carreno-Busta (Sp)
6-3, 6-2Madrid Masters
bt N Basilashvili (Georgia)
6-3, 7-5
bt C Norrie (GB)
6-4, 6-7 (7-4), 6-3
bt R Nadal (Sp)
6-2, 1-6, 6-3
bt N Djokovic (Serbia)
6-7 (7-5), 7-5, 7-6 (7-5)
bt A Zverev (Ger) 6-3, 6-126 wins; 2 losses; 4 titles88.5%
Alcaraz’s win rate on
clay in the past year
— the highest such
figure of all ATP
Tour players