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Wimbledon draw LIVE: Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Murray and Raducanu to…..
The tournament have banned Russian and Belarusian players due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and so the likes of Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, Aryna Sabalenka and Victoria Azarenka are all absent. While Roger Federer, Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev, Naomi Osaka, Leylah Fernandez and Venus Williams are absentees due to injury. But there are still a whole host of star names in the men’s and women’s draws today, and we could be treated to some thrilling early-round ties.
Murray, Nick Kyrgios, Stan Wawrinka and Serena are among those who aren’t seeded. That could throw up some all-star match-ups in the first week at SW19. Djokovic, the winner of the last three Wimbledons, and Nadal the Australian Open and French Open winner this year are the stand-out favourites to win the men’s title, though Carlos Alcaraz could be a threat.
Wimbledon draw LIVE: Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Murray and Raducanu to…..
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In the women’s draw Iga Swiatek, the world No 1 and French Open champion, is the woman to beat. She’s only ever got to the fourth round of Wimbledon but the Pole, still just 21, is on a blistering run of form of over 35 matches unbeaten. Reigning champion Ashleigh Barty retired earlier this year while Serena Williams still searches for a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam triumph but has not played a singles match since last year’s Major.
Introducing the top 10 ladies' singles seedings… #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/C26xqAlbyZ
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It is also meanwhile hoped two-time champion Murray, British No 1 Cameron Norrie and Dan Evans can enjoy some extended runs, while US Open winner Emma Raducanu will hope to delight Centre Court again as she did last year, though injury may dictate her chances of the teenager winning another Slam so early in her career.
READ MORE:Rafael Nadal warned Grigor Dimitrov that he will be “very expensive” if the…
Women’s draw
That concludes the women’s draw, with a number of exciting match-ups set to unfold at the All England Club this year.
Here are the picks of the bunch, with the men’s draw set to follow shortly…
Iga Swiatek vs Jana Fett (Q)
Sonay Kartal v Dana Kovinic
Harriet Dart vs Rebeka Masarova
Simona Halep vs Karolina Muchova
Serena Williams vs Harmony Tan
Katie Boulter vs Clara Burel
Katie Swan vs Marta Kostyuk
Emma Raducanu vs Alison van Uytvanck
Heather Watson vs Tamara Korpatsch
Jodie Burrage vs Lesia Tsurenko
Seeded players drawn
Emma Raducanu is in the bottom half of the draw, meaning that she will avoid top seed Iga Swiatek until the final, if she manages to make it that far.
The seeded players have all now been pulled out of the hat, with the round of 16 potentially set to look like this:
Iga Swiatek vs Barbora Krejcikova
Garbine Muguruza vs Jessica Pegula
Paula Badosa vs Simona Halep
Coco Gauff vs Karolina Pliskova
Danielle Collins vs Emma Raducanu
Angelique Kerber vs Ons Jabeur
Maria Sakkari vs Jelena Ostapenko
Belinda Bencic vs Anett Kontaveit
Men’s draw
There will be some mouthwatering first-round clashes at Wimbledon this year, with plenty of big meetings being thrown up over the course of this morning’s draw.
Here are the standout match-ups…
Novak Djokovic vs Soonwoo Kwon
Jannik Sinner vs Stan Wawrinka
Andy Murray vs James Duckworth
Carlos Alcaraz vs Jan-Lennard Struff
Cameron Norrie vs Pablo Andujar
Paul Jubb vs Nick Kyrgios
Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Alexander Ritschard
Dan Evans vs Jason Kubler
Rafael Nadal vs Francisco Cerundolo
Max Verstappen has once again claimed that he is the target of ‘British bias’ in the media after watching the fallout from his battle with Lando Norris. The three-time world champion’s defending was criticised by a number of drivers, including Lewis Hamilton.
Verstappen and Norris shared a titanic battle at the Circuit of the Americas last weekend, but the flashpoint came at Turn 12 as the Dutchman deployed a signature tactic, lunging deep into the corner to get to the apex first before running both himself and his title rival off the road.
Norris opted to keep his foot in and overtook the Red Bull driver around the outside, although this decision landed him a five-second time penalty that dropped him back behind Verstappen in the general classification. This sparked a major debate with other drivers – Hamilton included – calling for the FIA to take action and outlaw this style of defending.
Verstappen has been frustrated by this debate. Quizzed by Viaplay in Mexico on whether he’d like to see the rules changed, he replied: “No, not really. But I have the wrong passport.” Asked if he was referring to a British passport, he confirmed as much.
“Yeah, it’s the wrong country, on that aspect… with complaining” he replied. “I love my passport but on that aspect, I should have had a different passport, actually.” The Dutchman also complained of ‘British bias’ earlier this season following comments made by Adrian Newey.
When asked about the debate surrounding Verstappen’s on-track conduct, former title rival Hamilton was quick to point out that the Dutchman has been employing these tactics for some time, dating back to their no-punches-pulled fight in 2021.
“It’s always been a grey area, that’s why he’s got away with it for so long,” Hamilton explained ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix. “They probably need to make some adjustments for sure.
“Also, we do have inconsistencies through rulings, weekend in, weekend out, obviously depending on which years it is. I mean, as a sport, we do need to level up on all areas and if you look at other global sports, they have full-time refs, for example, and I’m sure that wouldn’t be a bad thing for our sport.
“I experienced it many times with Max, you shouldn’t be able to just launch the car on the inside and be ahead and then you go off and still hold your position. So, they need to definitely work on this.”
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$200M Jeff Gordon teams up with Chase Elliott and Co. to decode the HMS driver behind the “Don’t judge me” old tweet
Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon teamed up with Chase Elliott and other HMS drivers in a lighthearted fun exercise for fans where they attempted to solve the mystery behind an old tweet from their current driver.
The anonymous tweet reads, “Don’t judge me, but I can’t wait to see the new twilight movie haha,” and it’s believed to belong to one of the HMS’s driver lineups, which includes Elliott, Kyle Larson, William Byron and Alex Bowman.
Jeff Gordan, who has a net worth of $200 million (according to Celebrity Net Worth), and HMS drivers tried to guess, but none of them were correct. Bowman and Elliott named Byron, while Byron went with Elliott, but it was Larson. He accepted that it was his tweet in 2011 and revealed that he likes Catherine Hardwicke’s Twilight movie.
HMS shared the video of the fun investigative activity on Instagram with a caption:
“Hold on tight, spider monkey”
Watch the Jeff Gordon and HMS’s guesses below:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBjQ7EzP3A7/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=e5182e01-3688-440a-ae00-0bf669973e15&ig_mid=01331E07-1F15-4C86-B3DB-7587302F0125
Three out of four HMS drivers are still in contention for the 2024 NASCAR Cup championship. Larson and Byron are in good position in the playoffs points table, with 35 and 27 points above the cutline.
However, 2020 Cup champion Elliott is in danger of getting eliminated from title contention, as he’s 53 points behind the cutline heading to this weekend’s Homestead-Miami race.
In an interview with NBC Sports earlier this season, Jeff Gordon spoke about the competition between their two best drivers, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, for the regular season championship. Gordan wanted to see both top drivers perform well and race aggressively against each other while maintaining sportsmanship in their chase for the regular season title.
However, neither Larson nor Elliott won the championship; it was Tyler Reddick who clinched the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series regular season championship. Speaking to NBC Sports, the four-time NASCAR Cup champion Jeff Gordon said:
“I think it’s pretty clear at Hendrick how we expect teams and drivers to race against one another and how they’ve got to go and compete not only against their competitors but against one another.
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“Kyle Busch is an a**”: Brad Keselowski publicly chastised his fierce NASCAR rival in front of over 150,000 spectators
Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski birthed one of the fiercest rivalries in NASCAR. The duo had multiple run-ins throughout their careers, but the seed of their feud was sown at the 2010 Xfinity Series race hosted by the Bristol Motor Speedway. In the aftermath, Keselowski publicly castigated Busch in front of over 150,000 fans during driver introductions.
Busch kicked off his Food City 250 from third place in his #18 Toyota while Keselowski began in 13th. However, as the 250-lap battle inched closer to its conclusion, the then-Penske Racing driver held the domination while the former #18 Joe Gibbs Racing driver fought hard for the lead.
After struggling to overtake for nearly a dozen laps, Busch, with 31 laps until the checkered flag dropped, lunged ahead of Keselowski, only to be wrecked from behind and lose the spot again.
However, the JGR driver quickly retaliated and spun out Keselowski’s #22 Dodge. The move propelled the #18 Toyota to the victory lane while the Penske driver fell from a potential win to settling in 14th place.
The bitter feeling inside Brad Keselowski surfaced during the Bristol Cup Series race driver introductions the following day. After Kyle Busch introduced himself, his fierce rival took the mic and blasted Busch with his “a**’ comment.
“Brad Keselowski, driver of the Penske Racing Dodge. Kyle Busch is an a**,” he said.
However, when asked why he slammed Busch, Keselowski said that Juan Pablo Montoya challenged that he can’t call the JGR driver an “a**”. It’s worth mentioning that the crowd’s roar on the Penske driver’s introduction notched 104.2 decibels.
“Sometimes you just don’t like a guy”: Kyle Busch publicly slams Brad Keselowski during their 2017 title fight
The bitter rivalry between Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski was such that both made unapologetic comments about the other from time to time. Despite the latter publicly extending an olive branch to the former in 2015, their relationship remained sour.
Max Verstappen addresses ‘British bias’ at Mexican GP after Lewis Hamilton put-down
$200M Jeff Gordon teams up with Chase Elliott and Co. to decode the HMS driver behind the “Don’t judge me” old tweet
