Walter Lewis

Former World No. 2 Ones Jaber is outraged that fans are more interested in men’s matches.
Is women’s tennis a special sport? That’s a controversial statement. But spectators, who prefer to watch men’s matches, seem to think so. This is especially true for Grand Slam tournaments where women’s matches are, as always, played in three sets, but men’s matches are played in five sets.

At this year’s Roland Garros, many tickets for the women’s matches were already sold out, because fans expected the men to play. And that caused bewilderment and outrage from former world number two Ons Jaber of Tunisia. Jaber was especially disgusted by the fact that the fans who handed in tickets knowingly consider women’s games uninteresting, although they themselves have never watched them.

“It’s time to change that perception. I find that people don’t watch a lot of women’s games; they assume in advance that it’s going to be a lousy game. But it’s not; there are a lot of extraordinary matches. The women train hard, put in a lot of effort, have the toughest matches.

I’ve met people who say, “Well, women’s matches are lousy.” When I asked them if they watched the women’s matches, they answered in the negative. How can you judge women’s matches without watching them? I hope that view will change because we make sacrifices that men on tour don’t have to make. We have to plan everything in our professional lives,” said Jaber at a press conference after reaching the 1/8 finals of Roland Garros 2023.

Ones also complained that the women’s matches at the current tournament for a long time were not put in the night session – in other words, the organizers did not give the respective games the status of central. The fourth-round match between Arina Sobolenko and Sloane Stephens was the first women’s match at Roland Garros 2023 to be played in the night session. “It’s about time we included a women’s match in the night session. It’s strange that we didn’t originally have both a women’s and men’s match in those sessions. At all the other Grand Slam tournaments, the women play in night sessions. I played pretty late in both Australia and the US Open. It’s not necessarily a good thing, but it’s at least fair to the two sexes,” said the athlete.

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Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic impressed tonight with another triple-double of 27 points (8-of-12 shooting, 10-of-12 free throws), 14 assists and 10 rebounds in 40 minutes on the floor. That means the following:

• Nikola Jokic repeated the 2003 accomplishment of the legendary Tim Duncan, leading his team to the final series in points, rebounds, assists and blocked shots.
• Nikola Jokic is the third player in NBA history with 450+ points, 200+ rebounds and 150+ assists in a given playoff run. Previously, Larry Bird and LeBron James did the same.
• Jokic became the second player in the NBA Finals series in the last 25 years with 10+ points and 10+ assists in any half. Who’s first? LeBron James.
• Jokic set the record for debutants in the Finals series for assists with 14.
• Nikola also became the second player in Finals series history to record a triple-double for a debutant. The first was Jason Kidd.
• List of players with 25+ points, 10+ rebounds and 10+ assists for 60{f918c8c230b22f000277847ce26df3ea9ac4bbcabd1c40ab7d79f6a33bb50390} of Finals series wins: Jimmy Butler, LeBron James, James Worthy and Nikola Jokic.

These are the achievements of the Serbian basketball player in Game 1 of the NBA playoff series with the Miami Heat, which was the 28-year-old’s debut game in the NBA Finals. Remarkably, Jokic got involved again (in already trademark style) in the second half, scoring 17 points (7-of-11 from the game), seven rebounds and six assists in the final 24 minutes.

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The stands greeted the verdict in the doubles match between Bouskova and Sorribes-Tormo and Kato and Sutjiadi with a disgruntled whistle.

Japan’s Miyu Kato and Indonesia’s Aldila Sutjiadi were disqualified in the Roland Garros 2023 1/8 finals doubles match against Marie Bouskova and Sara Sorribes-Tormo. In the first game they lost on a tie-break, and in the second game they led 3-1, after which the Japanese sent the ball to the other end of the court and hit the ball into a bogey. The girl got really scared and cried.

The chair umpire initially issued a warning, believing Kato didn’t do it on purpose, but the Czech and the Spaniard weren’t happy with that decision. They went up to the judge and said, “That’s a disqualification,” to which the judge replied, “She didn’t do it on purpose and she didn’t hurt the girl.

“But she’s crying, she’s crying,” Bouskova and Sorribes-Tormo insisted. The Japanese woman went over to apologize to Bolgirl – who, judging by her gesticulation, didn’t hold a grudge against her. However, the supervisor was still called to the court, and after a rather lengthy discussion, Kato and Sutjiadi were disqualified. “If you didn’t hit someone during the game and cause an injury, you have to be responsible for that,” the supervisor said. After the final decision was announced, Miyu couldn’t hold back tears either.

It’s not the first time this has happened, the most famous incident occurred with Novak Djokovic at the US Open – 2020, when he hit the ball in the throat of the linesman. And the Romanian Irina Bega a year ago in Paris was issued only a warning when she accidentally hit a child in the stands with a racket.

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Germany was close to a miracle, but for the 28th time the gold goes to the home of hockey.
Hockey is far from the most popular sport, so we can hardly expect big sensations at international tournaments. After the Russian national team was banned, the already thin pool of national teams who are seriously competing for gold in the World Championships shrunk even more, but the 2023 World Cup, which has long been held without any surprises, still had some surprising surprises in its final stage.

All of Europe’s top teams fell apart after the quarterfinals, the Americans, who had marched magnificently through the tournament, took only fourth place, and the Germans and Latvians suddenly ascended to the medal zone along with Canada, and for the Baltic national team the bronze was truly historic.

Germany was a minute or so away from the Olympic triumph in PyeongChang, and throughout its history, the German national team has taken silver and bronze at the World Cup and twice won the European Championship, but almost all of the achievements of the Bundestimm (except for silver at the Korean Olympics) before the 2023 World Cup belonged to the old times. The Germans took second place at the World Cup in 1953 in a competition with only two teams (Sweden and Switzerland), and then the championship was played in a round robin system, well, Germany played in the finals of the World Forum back in 1930, and then the tournament took part neither Russians, nor Swedes, nor, of course, the Finns and Americans, and the Czechoslovaks have not yet been formidable force.

But here we are in 2023, and the Germans are back in the finals. It is true that on its way to it, the German team defeated only one top contender (USA in the semifinals), but in the decisive game the Germans had to beat Canada, the main boss of international hockey, for the first gold in history. “The Maples reached their fourth straight and seventh World Cup final in the last eight tournaments and came close to their 28th title in history.

Throughout the two periods of the match, there was quite the feeling that Germany was capable of pulling off a miracle. In the eighth minute, the Germans took the lead when Jon-Jason Peterka took the puck at the blue line and flicked it past Sam Montembo. The Canadiens called for an offside call, but the goal was legitimate.

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Arteta, Xavi, Kompany and even ten Hague! The Spaniard is still in business, but the legacy is already catching up with him.
A nice scene: moms and dads, boys and girls stand along the potholed driveway in front of the soccer club’s training base. From time to time an expensive car pulls up, the driver lowers his window and the children look inside to see their idol up close and ask for his autograph. This is what everyday life looks like for fans of Burnley, which has secured entry into the Premier League.

Judging by the experience of Sean Dyche, there will soon be a pub in the city under the name of the new coach of the “Claretians” – Vincent Kompany. At the same time in the APL, Mikel Arteta and Arsenal were fighting for the championship with Manchester City, although it would be too daring to imagine such a thing even in the autumn. In Spain, Xavi, in his first full season at the helm of Barça, won La Liga by a huge margin over the Madrid giants.

Pep is the guru.
It doesn’t take more than one try to remember what this trio have in common. They all owe their coaching skills in one way or another to Josep Guardiola, all of them preaching “Pep’s philosophy” in their approach to the profession. It would be offensive to believe that the coaches who worked with him are trying to simply copy the Spaniard’s style in the smallest detail, because each of them has an individual style of working. But the influence of the former Barcelona and Bayern coach should not be underestimated.

In the same vein, Xavi answered The Athletic’s question. This is not surprising: under Pepa’s guidance, the Spaniard became part of one of the greatest teams in history and won everything possible. “I thought he was the best coach in the world even before the first trophy, and for me he is still number one. I don’t want to compare us: he’s had an incredible career, and I’m just starting out,” the Barcelona coach said modestly.

Xavi’s coaching career began at Al-Sadd in Qatar, where he showed his main obsession to the players from the get-go. “He always shows us the statistics on ball possession, and that figure invariably seems too low. His ideas were very clear from day one: he wants us to have the ball and not for the opponent to touch it,” described the philosophy of Xavi Santi Cazorla, the former Arsenal and Spain midfielder.

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There are arguments in favor of both. The choice is yours!
Real Madrid’s legendary roster of the 2010s is melting before our eyes. And now there is nothing left of the attacking trio: Cristiano Ronaldo left in 2018, the club finally parted ways with Gareth Bale a year ago, and now Karim Benzema is leaving Madrid. Bale is the most controversial character of the trio, but his former partners are rightly considered legends of Real Madrid.

Legendary players in general are usually evaluated after the fact. Ronaldo and Benzema continue their careers, but we will not see them at Real Madrid anymore, so we can sum up the Madrid numbers.

Here are Ronaldo’s main numbers: nine years, 438 games, 450 goals, 131 assists, 15 trophies. Benzema stayed at Real for a long time, so he has this: 14 years, 647 matches, 353 goals, 165 assists, 25 trophies.

And which of this pair of top strikers is more legendary for Real Madrid? Let’s compare!

1 PLACE.
Ronaldo is more legendary for Real Madrid

Seriously? Do we need to explain why Ronaldo is more of a Real Madrid legend? That’s like explaining that two times two equals four, but let’s spell out the obvious anyway.

Legendary is composed of soccer and non-football components. The degree of popularity is not always directly proportional to the level of play. When it comes to image, Ronaldo remains number one in modern soccer. The most popular person on social networks (I’m not talking about athletes, but people in general). The whole world walks around wearing Ronaldo’s shirts. You can still compare him with Messi, but certainly not with Benzema. In this respect, the status of a legend is a little premature to try on the Frenchman.

And now, about soccer. What is more correct to take into account. Of course, Benzema is a great player and since he has been at Real longer, he won more titles with him. But if we compare players individually, the Golden Balls and personal statistics will still be more indicative than the number of team titles. Otherwise, we may come to the conclusion that Carvajal is more legendary than Ronaldo. That’s ridiculous.

One last thing. The first and second team roles are distributed according to the ability of the players. Benzema and Ronaldo have played a huge amount of time together, nine seasons. It is obvious who has been the key player all that time. Ronaldo was played for a reason – he made himself the main and others a bit secondary. Sometimes he clearly overdid it, but if we are talking about legendary, we are talking about those who took the game and decided. In this respect, Benzema lost the internal competition for leadership.

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