Sports

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/46298722

British No. 1 Emma Raducanu and Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz will team up for the new-look US Open mixed doubles event in August, hoping to secure the $1 million prize on offer.

Former US Open winner Naomi Osaka will team up with Nick Kyrgios, while Britain's Jack Draper will play alongside Chinese world No. 4 Zheng Qinwen. Superstars Novak Djokovic - due to play with compatriot Olga Danilovic - and Jannik Sinner, paired with American Emma Navarro, are also on the list, with this new schedule effectively seeing the tournament become a three-week event.
World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka will partner Grigor Dimitrov, while five-time major winner Iga Swiatek will play alongside Casper Ruud.

United States Tennis Association CEO and executive director Lew Sherr said: "Seeing the teams that have already put their names on the entry list makes us all incredibly excited.

Italian pair Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, winners of last year's US Open mixed doubles title, initially described the decision as a "profound injustice". But they are on the entry list for the event.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/45960583

The Scottish FA can now ban clubs from the Scottish Cup if fans throw pyrotechnics - but chief executive Ian Maxwell insists it wants to avoid that outcome.

Punishments could range from fines and ticket allocation restrictions to the ultimate sanction of expulsion from the national cup competition.

And, earlier this year, Celtic and Rangers - as well as Motherwell - were charged by the SPFL after fans disrupted both League Cup semi-finals with flares and had 500 tickets removed from their allocation for the final.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/46027226

https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2Fathletic%2F6421570%2F2025%2F06%2F13%2Fclub-world-cup-referees-var-explained%2F

An amendment to Law 12.2 will see goalkeepers given eight seconds to release the ball from their hands or be punished with a corner being awarded to the opposing team.
The new eight-second rule will come into place at all levels of the game from July 1 and follows a trial period at this year’s Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana, the South American equivalents to UEFA’s Champions League and Europa League.

Match officials will have to think differently over the coming weeks but their appearance is also going to look a little out of the ordinary.
FIFA, with the blessing of IFAB, stresses this is only a trial but the motivation is primarily to “offer TV viewers a new experience” during matches. The camera feed’s footage will be transmitted via a private 5G connection to production teams, who will be able to then show replays of key moments. Only the six NFL stadiums being used at the Club World Cup, though, have the technological capabilities to use footage live, such as at the coin toss.

Semi-automated offside technology has been around since 2022 as a support tool for assistants, but FIFA’s advanced system, previously trialled at the Intercontinental Cup in December, provides “real-time alerts to match officials in the event of clear offsides”.

An audio signal will be sent to the assistants informing them that an offside flag can be raised but FIFA stresses this is not diminishing the touchline role. What it considers “challenging offside scenarios” will still need the VAR to clear the decision.

Spaniard saves three match points in fourth set before outlasting Sinner in deciding tiebreak

Carlos Alcaraz saved three match points on his way to a mind-boggling and memorable victory over top seed Jannik Sinner in a Roland-Garros final for the ages between the best two players in the world.

The defending champion looked down and out when he trailed by two sets to one and 3-5 0-40 on serve, but somehow survived to eventually defend his Paris crown 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(3), 7-6(10-2).

The contest lasted a mind-boggling five hours and 29 minutes - the longest singles final in Paris in the Open era, and the second longest across all four Grand Slams behind the Rafael Nadal-Novak Djokovic Australian Open final in 2012 that ended after five hours and 53 minutes.

It looked all over when Alcaraz led 5-3 and served for the title at 5-4 in the fifth set only for Sinner to force a deciding first-to-ten-point tiebreak. Alcaraz jumped into a 7-0 lead in the shootout and never looked back.

The Spaniard becomes only the third man in the Open era to win a Grand Slam singles title after saving match points, joining an exclusive club that includes Gaston Gaudio (Roland-Garros 2004) and Djokovic (Wimbledon 2019).

It's a fifth Grand Slam title and a second at the French major for Alcaraz.

He now owns two Roland-Garros trophies, two Wimbledon titles and one US Open at the age of 22. Alcaraz is the third youngest man in history to win five singles majors after Bjorn Borg (21) and Nadal (22).

https://www.rolandgarros.com/en-us/article/rg2025-mens-final-sinner-alcaraz

Young American Coco Gauff has won her first Roland-Garros title by shocking world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka in a gripping three-set women’s final on Court Philippe-Chatrier on Saturday evening.

The 21-year-old recovered from losing a dramatic 78-minute first set on a tiebreak to win 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-4 in two hours and 38 minutes for the second major trophy of her career.

Gauff adds a first Roland-Garros title to her US Open success from 2023.

The world No.2 is the first American to win the Roland-Garros singles title since Serena Williams in 2015, and the youngest American since Serena Williams in 2002.

More to follow.

https://www.rolandgarros.com/en-us/article/rg2025-womens-final-sabalenka-gauff

"Have you seen the center court of Wimbledon like that ever? Ever once? No. Thank you. I've been on the Grand Slams for 20 years, every single year. And I can tell you it's not the same in the other Grand Slams. I don't have the full explanation. What I can say is that this is something we really need to solve, even for the players. You know, you're in a Grand Slam."

Finally, the world-renowned coach gave the only explanation he could think of for why important matches in Paris are played in front of largely empty stadiums:

"On the center court you have some of the best players in the world, and it's completely empty and there are tickets. The tickets are sold. One explanation that I heard, I don't know if it's true, is that French people are too attached to lunch. From 12 to maybe 4 o'clock. It's empty. And that's a really big problem."

cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/post/834520

FIFA has once again slashed ticket prices for the Club World Cup’s opening night fixture, with concerns mounting that the launch game starring Inter Miami and Lionel Messi will be overshadowed by masses of empty seats at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens in Florida.

According to sources briefed on FIFA’s attempts to sell tickets for the tournament, all of whom wished to remain anonymous when disclosing commercially sensitive information, tens of thousands of seats remain unsold for the fixture between MLS side Inter Miami and Egyptian team Al-Ahly at 8pm (ET) on Saturday, June 14. Hard Rock Stadium has a capacity of 65,326. The sources added that FIFA has been concerned in recent weeks that the opening game of the tournament has not been selling as well as they had expected. It was even suggested that tickets sold for the opening game are at less than 20,000 — but FIFA insists this is false, saying the figure is “much higher” but it did not specify numbers.

FIFA said in a statement: “We are introducing many new, successful clubs from all over the world to the world through this tournament being staged in the 11 cities across the United States. Overall, we anticipate great attendances throughout the competition for this first-ever edition – a tournament that we believe will grow edition-on-edition.”

FIFA had hoped for a big launch night turnout after involving MLS team Miami, whose star player Messi is marketed as the face of soccer in the United States, while they also expected this to be enhanced by playing the game in the team’s home market.

However, FIFA has sold general sale tickets for the revamped 32-team Club World Cup under a dynamic pricing model, a system whereby prices fluctuate based on demand, and the tumbling prices for certain games are indicative of FIFA’s struggles to penetrate the market.

As of Tuesday night, Inter Miami’s game against Al-Ahly had dropped to only $55, according to prices on Ticketmaster, the portal FIFA are using to sell tickets for the tournament. This is half of what they were available for in May, while tickets were $230 for the cheapest seat in January and $349 after the draw in December. FIFA is now hoping that the reduced prices draw people in during a publicity blitz in the final week before the tournament.

Additionally, some sources have questioned whether it may have been wiser to take Inter Miami out of their home market where their star names would be more of a novelty, particularly if attempting to sell games at higher prices than Inter Miami home fans usually pay at a different venue to their normal home field at Chase Stadium. Others counter that FIFA were reasonable to hope that Inter Miami fans would rally behind their team in a home market.

FIFA is holding prices at a higher price point for later in the group stage in the hope that interest picks up in the tournament as it progresses. For example, Inter Miami’s third and final game of the group phase against the Brazilian side Palmeiras has tickets starting at $113. However, their second game of the group against Portuguese team Porto in Atlanta has tickets available for $58, in a game that kicks off at 3pm ET on the afternoon of Thursday, June 19.

Among the highest selling group games in the tournament so far involve Real Madrid, with no tickets available for less than the $132 lowest entry for the Spanish club’s game against Mexican side Pachuca (in Charlotte) while prices start at $310 against Saudi Arabian team Al Hilal (in Miami) and $253 against the Austrian team RB Salzburg (in Philadelphia). These prices appear to have increased since Madrid confirmed the involvement of new coach Xabi Alonso and summer signing Trent Alexander-Arnold in the tournament. The match involving Argentine team Boca Juniors against Bayern Munich is also trending particularly well, boosted by the substantial Argentine population in Miami, with the cheapest seat currently showing at $136.

FIFA said: “It is accurate that matches involving Boca and Real have high demand from fans. But they are not the only clubs to feature in such a list and, in fact, the highest selling match features other clubs for this first-ever edition. The strong international appeal has seen supporters from more than 130 countries book their ticket to the competition. The top 10 countries per ticket sales are the United States, followed by club fans from Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Canada, Germany, Saudi Arabia, France, Japan and Spain.”

Clubs competing in the tournament have a $1bn pot to fight for, with the winner in line to win as much as $125m.

Alonso has returned to Real Madrid as their head coach on a three-year deal (Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images)

Alonso has returned to Real Madrid as their head coach on a three-year deal (Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images)

Other ticket prices elsewhere have dropped dramatically. The lowest-priced ticket appears to be the match between Argentine side River Plate and Japanese team Urawa Red Diamonds, which is selling for as low as $24 for the match at Lumen Field in Seattle at 3pm ET on June 17.

Other games including new European champions Paris Saint-Germain against Brazilian side Botafogo are available for $33 at the 90,000-capacity Rose Bowl in Pasadena while there are also concerns for huge swathes of empty seats for games including Benfica vs. Auckland (in Orlando), Palmeiras vs. Al-Ahly (in New Jersey), Ulsan vs. Mamelodi Sundowns (in Orlando) and Mamelodi vs. Fluminense (in Miami), all of which are now selling for prices between $26 and $40.

Speaking in April, the FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who has been the biggest proponent of the tournament, insisted he was “not worried at all about ticket sales.”

He said: “When I see some of the stadiums in the United States filling itself when some teams are coming to play some friendly games, exhibition games, then I’m not worried at all to fill a stadium when teams are coming to play a World Cup, to play for, you know, something, something real.”

Inter Miami have been approached for comment.