D2 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.SATURDAY, MAY 28 , 2022
SOCCER
Liverpool star Mané’s
future is a hot topic
Sadio Mané ’s last game for
Liverpool could be S aturday in
the Champions League final
against Real Madrid in Paris.
The Senegal forward’s future
was a hot topic Friday when
Liverpool Manager Jurgen Klopp
held a news conference.
Klopp was unwilling to make
any guarantees about Mané, 30,
staying at Liverpool amid
reported interest from German
champion Bayern Munich.
“This is the wrong moment to
speak about that,” Klopp said.
“Wherever Sadio will play next
season, he will be a big player.”
Mané, who has been at
Liverpool since 2016, has a year
left on his contract....
Manchester City’s Zack Steffen
will miss the United States’ four
World Cup prep matches next
month for what the team said
were family reasons, and he was
replaced on the roster by D.C.’s
Sean Johnson.
Steffen, 27, w as considered the
top American goalkeeper going
into qualifying b ut has been
struggling with a back injury.
PRO FOOTBALL
Tight end David Njoku got the
long-term commitment he
wanted from the Cleveland
Browns, agreeing to a four-year
contract extension.
Njoku reportedly will be
among the NFL’s highest-paid
tight ends. Financial terms were
not immediately known.
A first-round pick in 2017,
Njoku caught 3 6 passes for 475
yards and a team-high four
touchdowns last season....
T he Los Angeles Chargers
concluded the first week of
organized team activities with
first-round pick Zion Johnson
signing his rookie contract.
The Chargers announced that
the guard received a standard
four-year deal with the team
holding a fifth-year option.
PRO BASKETBALL
Kelsey Mitchell scored 22
points, Danielle Robinson had 10
points and 11 assists and the
Indiana Fever held off the Los
Angeles Sparks, 101-96, i n WNBA
play in Indianapolis for interim
coach Carlos Knox ’s first victory.
Indiana (3-7), which fired
coach Marianne Stanley on
Wednesday, snapped a five-game
losing streak.
Nneka Ogwumike scored 30
points and grabbed 10 rebounds
for Los Angeles (3-6), and Katie
Lou Samuelson added a career-
high 19 points.COLLEGES
In Charlotte, Adam Cecere was
4 for 4 with two home runs,
Brendan Tinsman added four
RBI, and No. 6 seed Wake Forest
(40-17-1) m atched an ACC
baseball tournament record with
seven homers in a 16-3 victory
over third-seeded Miami....
Gallaudet University’s Eric
Gregory posted the fastest heat
time in the 400-meter dash at the
NCAA Division III outdoor track
and field championships in
Geneva, Ohio, with a mark of
46.21 seconds.
I t is the ninth-fastest time in
Division III history and a s chool
record. On Saturday, Gregory will
run in the 400 final and the 200-
meter dash final. Gregory s et the
D-III record in the 200 on May 8
with a time of 2 0.62.MISC.
Koen Bouwman of the
Netherlands won the penultimate
mountain stage of cycling’s Giro
d’Italia and Richard Carapaz
kept the overall lead entering the
final two days of the race.
Bouwman edged Mauro
Schmid and Alessandro Tonelli
in a controversial sprint to the
line at the end of the 19th stage, a
178-kilometer (111-mile) route
from Marano Lagunare to
Santuario di Castelmonte.
Schmid complained that
Bouwman cut him off around the
final corner, causing him to force
Andrea Vendrame and Attila
Valter wide when they were also
vying for the stage win.
Carapaz, the 2019 champion
and Olympic gold medalist in
Tokyo, is three seconds ahead of
2020 runner-up Jai Hindley....
R oss Chastain , who led for just
four laps, got a push from Grant
Enfinger on the final lap to win
the North Carolina Education
Lottery 200 in double overtime at
Charlotte Motor Speedway for his
fourth career NASCAR Truck
Series victory.
— From news servicesDIGESTTELEVISION AND RADIO
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STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS
8 p.m. Eastern Conference semifinal, Game 6: Carolina at New York Rangers »
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WNBA
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AUTO RACING
7 a.m. Formula One: Monaco Grand Prix, practice » ESPN2
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PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL
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GOLF
7:30 a.m. DP World Tour: Dutch Open, third round » Golf Channel
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7:20 a.m. IIHF World Championship, semifinal: United States at Finland »
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SOCCER
3 p.m. UEFA Champions League, final: Liverpool vs. Real Madrid »
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TENNIS
5 a.m. French Open, third round » Tennis Channel
11 a.m. French Open, third round » WRC (Ch. 4), WBAL (Ch. 11)
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NCAA MEN’S LACROSSE TOURNAMENT, SEMIFINALS
Noon Cornell vs. Rutgers » ESPN2, WTEM (980 AM)
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COLLEGE BASEBALL, CONFERENCE TOURNAMENTS
9 a.m. Big Ten, semifinal: Penn State vs. Iowa » Big Ten Network
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3:45 p.m. Pac-12, Day 4: Oregon State vs. TBD » Pac-12 Network
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NCAA SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT, SUPER REGIONALS
Noon Game 2: Florida at Virginia Tech » ESPN
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11 p.m. Game 2: Northwestern at Arizona State » ESPN2
BY HOWARD FENDRICHparis — Rafael Nadal knew this
was bound to happen. So, too, did
his uncle, Toni Nadal, who
coached Rafael to most of the
nephew’s men’s-record 21 Grand
Slam titles.
Also well aware this moment
would come, of course, was Felix
Auger-Aliassime, the promising
player who brought aboard the
man known to many simply as
Uncle Toni for some extra assis-
tance last year.
Once Toni and Rafael ended
their professional partnership,
and once Auger-Aliassime hired
Toni to work in tandem with full-
time coach Frederic Fontang, they
all figured that somewhere, some-
time their paths would cross. Now
it will happen in the French Open's
fourth round: Nadal vs. Auger-
Aliassime. Which in some ways is
also Nadal vs. Nadal.
So the 13-time champion at Ro-
land Garros was asked, might
there be some awkwardnessthere? Probably no way you’ll be
chatting with your uncle ahead of
Sunday’s meeting against the
ninth-seeded Auger-Aliassime, a
21-year-old from Canada, right?
Nadal shook his head and said
he spoke to Toni straight after
beating Botic Van De Zandschulp,
6-3, 6-2, 6-4, on Friday.
“For me, it’s very simple. He’s
my uncle. I don’t think he will be
able to want me to lose.... B ut he’s
a professional, and he’s with an-
other player,” said the fifth-seeded
Nadal.
“It’s not a story at all for me. I
know what the feelings are that we
have between each other. I know
he wants the best for me. Now he’s
helping another player,” he said.
“But honestly, for me, it’s zero
problem.”
Auger-Aliassime resolved one
little bit of intrigue, saying h e ex-
pected Uncle Toni to sit in a neu-
tral spot in the stands, rather than
choosing between one player’s
guest box or the other’s.
As for what sort of insights Tonimight reveal about his former
player to his current one, Auger-
Aliassime smiled. Not too many
unknowns at this point about Ra-
fael, days shy of 36, n ot after so
many years on tour.
“I know what he does well. We
all know,” said Auger-Aliassime, a
2021 U.S. Open semifinalist who
advanced Friday by defeating Filip
Krajinovic, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-2), 7-5.
“But nobody — Toni, Fred or me
— has the answers,” he said.
If Nadal wins, he could find a
familiar face in the stadium for the
quarterfinals: defending cham-
pion Novak Djokovic.
Both the top-seeded Djokovic,
who beat Aljaz Bedene, 6-3, 6-3,
6-2, a nd now takes on 15th-seeded
Diego Schwartzman, and Nadal
have won all nine sets they’ve
played on the red clay of Paris. And
both have lost just 23 games total.
A sked earlier in the tourna-
ment about that “pretty good lefty
in your quarter of the draw,” Djok-
ovic j oked: “I don’t know who you
are talking about.”Also in their half of the bracket:
No. 6 Carlos Alcaraz, a 19-year-old
who leads the tour with four titles
in 2022 and became, at the Madrid
Open this month, the only player
to beat both Djokovic and Nadal at
the same clay-court event.
Alcaraz is t he youngest man in
the French Open’s fourth round
since Djokovic in 2006, getting
there with a display of deft drop
shots and other slick strokes in a
6-4, 6-4, 6-2 victory over 21-year-
old American Sebastian Korda. Al-
caraz now goes up against No. 21
Karen Khachanov, whose 6-2, 7-5,
5-7, 6-4 win made No. 10 Cameron
Norrie the first of the top 12 men’s
seeds to be sent home.
Three American women
reached the fourth round: 18-year-
old Coco Gauff, 20-year-old Aman-
da Anisimova and 2017 U.S. Open
champion Sloane Stephens.
Gauff, the youngest player left
in the field, was a 6-3, 6-4 winner
against the oldest, Estonia’s Kaia
Kanepi, who at 36 is twice her age.
— Associated PressFRENCH OPENIt will be nephew against pupil in the fourth roundASSOCIATED PRESSThis has been a good week in
north Texas for Scott Stallings,
first qualifying for the U.S. Open
that will be played less than an
hour from where he was born and
now sharing the lead at Colonial
with top-ranked Scottie Scheffler
and Beau Hossler.
Stallings shot a 6-under-par 64
without a bogey on a relatively
calm Friday at Hogan’s Alley in
Fort Worth. That put the Massa-
chusetts-born and 206th-ranked
player in the world at 9-under 131
along with Dallas-area resident
Scheffler and former University of
Texas player Hossler, who both
had bogey-free 65s.
Scheffler, in one of the last
groups of the day after Stallings
and Hossler played in the morn-
ing wave, tied them with a 14-foot
birdie putt at the par-4 17th and
saved par at No. 18 after his final
drive went left into the rough.
Scheffler and Hossler were
among the Colonial-record eightplayers to share the 18-hole lead at- Stallings began the second
round as one of the seven others
within a stroke.
Patrick Reed matched his
opening 66 with another and was
alone in fourth place at 8-under - Pat Perez (66) and Chris Kirk
(67) were 7 under.
After missing the cut at last
week’s PGA Championship, as
Scheffler did, the 37-year-old
Stallings came to the Dallas area
to play in a 36-hole qualifier Mon-
day for the U.S. Open in Brookline,
Mass. He shot 8 under and placed
11th to get into his third U.S. Open
and 12th major overall.
Stallings had no bogeys Friday
and no birdies until four in the
middle of the round — at Nos. 8, 9,
11 and 12. The three-time PGA
Tour winner added another at
No. 14, then finished by rolling in
a 28-foot birdie putt.
Hossler, in his 136th PGA Tour
event and still looking for his first
victory, had a more steady second
round after the exciting finish
Thursday, when he had two eagle
2s over his last four holes.
Fifth-ranked Justin Thomas
missed the cut at 3 over a week
after winning the PGA Champion-
ship.
l LPGA TOUR: Caroline Mas-
son beat top-seeded Minjee Lee, 2
and 1, in 100-degree heat in the
Match Play to finish 3-0 in the
group stage and advance to sin-
gle-elimination play.
Masson will face Andrea Lee on
Saturday in the round of 16 at
Shadow Creek in Las Vegas. An-
drea Lee beat Stephanie Meadow,
2 and 1, to take her group at 2-0-1.
After Minjee Lee, coming off a
victory two weeks ago in the
Founders Cup, won the 14th and
15th to pull within one, Masson
ended it with a par on the 17th.
l PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS:
Tournament housemates Scott
McCarron and Stephen Ames
each shot 5-under 66 in stormy
and cold conditions at Harbor
Shores to share the second-
round lead in the Senior PGAChampionship.
The 56-year-old McCarron had
eight birdies, five in a back-nine
30 on the Jack Nicklaus-designed
layout in Benton Harbor, Mich.
The 58-year-old Ames, who had a
double bogey for the second
straight day, made six birdies over
the final 11 holes.
McCarron and Ames were at
8-under 134, two strokes ahead of
64-year-old Bernhard Langer
(68), Brian Gay (68), Mike Weir
(71) and Steven Alker (72).
l DP WORLD TOUR: Ricardo
Gouveia of Portugal shot 6-under
66 to take a one-stroke lead after
the Dutch Open’s second round.
Li Haotong of China was alone
in second place after shooting a
back nine of 29 — containing five
birdies and an eagle — for a 63, the
lowest round of the day.
Joost Luiten, the overnight
leader after a first-round 65, shot
10 strokes more to drop off the
leader board and into a share of
19th place at Bernardus Golf in
Cromvoirt, Netherlands.GOLF ROUNDUPStallings, Scheffler, Hossler share lead at Colonialshot is more a chess move than a
power play.
When expertly executed, as
Alcaraz has multiple times in his
march to the French Open’s
fourth round, it is a thing of
heartless beauty — a chef’s kiss
on the red clay of Roland Garros.
Its resurgence on the pro tour
is the result of a few trends.
Given the velocity with which
the game’s biggest hitters are
blasting their serves and ground-
strokes, players are standing far-
ther behind the baseline to coun-
ter the blows.
In doing so, essentially ceding
so much of the court by backped-
aling nearly to the back fence,
players almost invite a drop shot.
Moreover, not many players
are as confident charging the net
as they are bludgeoning the ball
from the baseline. So a well-exe-
cuted drop shot not only can take
a player by surprise, it also can
exploit a shaky vulnerability.
“It’s not fun. It’s really not fun,”
said 2019 U.S. Open winner Bian-
ca Andreescu, 21, asked about
seeing more drop shots on the
pro tour. “The loopy balls, super
flat... h aving that change of
rhythm can really disrupt your
opponent.”
The sixth-ranked Jabeur, 27,
who led the women’s tour in
clay-court victories heading into
this year’s French Open, uses the
drop shot in a different way than
Alcaraz.
Variety is the hallmark of her
game, and she has always loved
sprinkling in lots of drop shots to
delight herself and bedevil her
opponents, much to the conster-
nation of her early coaches in
Tunis.
“I have had a lot of not just
coaches but people saying that
what I’m doing is not right and I
should stop doing drop shots.”
Jabeur recalled on the eve of the
French Open, where she was
upset in the first round.
She complied for a few years,
she said. But abandoning the
shot made her unhappy, and it
didn’t improve her results, so she
overruled the naysayers.
“Listen, it’s my career. I’m
controlling this,” Jabeur recalled
declaring. “I mean, I’ll listen to
the coach, of course. But I had to
have this [drop shot].”
In the view of Brad Gilbert, a
former touring pro and coach, it’sFRENCH OPEN FROM D1a smart play for the 5-foot-6
Jabeur, who lacks the power of
many of the women she faces. So
she finds other ways to conquer
opponents.
“She’s a guile player, not a
power player, with a game that’s
based on having great touch,”
said Gilbert, a n ESPN commenta-
tor.
For Alcaraz, who positively
pulverizes the ball, the drop shot
plays a different role.
It is the “two” of his devastat-
ing “one-two punch” — a fore-
hand blasted from his cannon-
arm, followed by a gently arcing
ball that his strings barely brush.
“When he’s winding up to
crack a forehand with that devas-
tating power, he gets you on your
back heels,” Gilbert said. “You
think he’s going to keep blud-
geoning the forehand, then he’ll
drop in a dropper. And he’ll do it
on huge points, at five-all in a
tiebreaker, when you just can’t
believe it. And it won’t miss!”
In April, Alcaraz hit 50 drop
shots, according to the ATP —
winning the point 70 percent of
the time (35 of 50) — en route to
becoming the youngest victor of
the Miami Open. He followed
that with clay-court tournament
titles in Barcelona and Madrid,
where he toppled 13-time French
Open champion Rafael Nadal,
top-ranked Novak Djokovic and
third-ranked Alexander Zverev
in succession.
Though it requires no power to
speak of, the perfect drop shotisn’t easy to pull off.
It requires expert technique
and timing.
That starts with disguising the
shot by hiding the subtle change
in grip that’s required. Most play-
ers hit it off the backhand for that
reason, because it’s easier to
mask the grip. Alcaraz, however,
is more inclined to hit it off his
forehand a split-second after a
forehand blast.
“His groundstrokes are super
heavy... o ne of the heaviest on
tour,” second-ranked Daniil Med-
vedev said of Alcaraz. “So when
you’re waiting for his ground-
stroke, you are going to be on the
back of your feet, so he can use a
drop shot much better than some
other guys.”
According to Gilbert, it’s far
better to hit a drop shot from an
offensive position than on a dead
run in desperation.
“Guys like [Ivan] Lendl and
[Jim] Courier had monster fore-
hands, then at the last minute
they underspin it, and you’re
frozen,” Gilbert said.
Winning drop shots r equires
expert spin, achieved by slashing
under the ball or on either side to
prevent it from bouncing in an
opponent’s strike-zone.
It also requires quick thinking
— the ability to compute in an
instant an opponent’s position
on court, closing speed and com-
petence (or lack of it) at the net —
as well as enough creativity and
courage to envision the shot.
Hall of Fame inductee ChrisEvert, who won 18 Grand Slam
titles in the 1970s and 1980s, had
an outstanding drop shot be-
cause she practiced it intently,
while few others did, Gilbert
said.
Federer also mastered it after
overcoming his resistance and
deciding it worthy of adding to
his repertoire.
Two key things make Federer’s
drop shot effective, according to
his former coach Paul Annacone,
a Tennis Channel analyst who
also coached Federer’s idol, Hall
of Famer Pete Sampras.
“He is a master at taking your
time away by taking the ball
early,” Annacone explained of
Federer. “This keeps you on your
heels, giving you less time to
react, and it opens up the door to
use the drop shot because of
stealing your time.”
Moreover, Federer typically
stands on or inside the baseline,
Annacone noted, which is the
ideal court position for hitting a
drop shot.
“Combine that with his ability
to soften the hands and deaden
the contact,” Annacone wrote,
“and you have terrific ingredients
to execute that deft touch.”
But used too often, the drop
shot becomes predictable, leav-
ing even the most skilled practi-
tioner looking foolish when an
opponent wise to the tactic
sprints forward in time to blast
back a winner or, in cheeky
fashion, out-drop-shot the drop-
shotter.In tennis, the drop shot has become a back breakerCHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
Carlos Alcaraz, 19, keeps foes off balance by mixing i n d rop shots with his thunderous groundstrokes.