MELBOURNE: There’ll be a British man in the Australian Open semifinals for the seventh time in nine years. This time it’ll be Kyle Edmund, not Andy Murray.
Edmund upset No. 3-ranked Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Tuesday to reach the semifinals for the first time. Edmund had never played in a major quarterfinal, had never won five consecutive matches at tour level, had lost both of his previous matches against Dimitrov and had never beaten a top five player.
He checked all those boxes on Rod Laver Arena, setting himself up for a match against either top-ranked Rafael Nadal or No. 6 Marin Cilic for a spot in the final of the season’s first Grand Slam.
After breaking Dimitrov’s serve in the ninth game of the fourth set, Edmund set up match point with an ace. Then he had to wait before a video challenge confirmed that Dimitrov’s last shot — a floating backhand — was out.
“I just held my nerve in that last game and prayed that last ball would be out,” Edmund said. It was out, and so was Dimitrov, who lost a thrilling five-set semifinal here last year to Nadal and had only just beaten Edmund two weeks ago at the Brisbane International.
“When you’re on these types of stages, reaching the last stages of the best tournaments in the world, it’s very pleasing. But of course I want to keep going,” Edmund said.
Murray reached five Australian Open finals, but has never won the title at Melbourne Park. He’s missing the season-opening major this year after deciding to have surgery on his hip. That leaves Edmund as the center of attention for the tennis-loving British public.
“I know what it feels like to be Andy Murray the last eight years,” he said. “It’s probably the first time I’ve done well on my own, so there’s more attention there. Of course you take it in stride.”
Britain’s Kyle Edmund upsets Grigor Dimitrov to reach Australian Open semifinals
Britain’s Kyle Edmund upsets Grigor Dimitrov to reach Australian Open semifinals
Pakistan says ‘expects’ full US security for cricket team at World Cup following Daesh threat
- The statement comes after Daesh Khorasan called for ‘lone wolf’ attack against the Pakistan-India match in New York
- The foreign office spokesperson says Pakistani authorities are in contact with US officials to facilitate the team’s visit
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign office said on Friday it expected the United States government to ensure full security for the national cricket team during the upcoming World Cup after a high-profile militant group threatened to target their match with India on June 9.
Media outlets around the world reported on the possibility of a “lone wolf” attack on the cricket stadium in New York after Daesh Khorasan released a message calling for independent attackers to act.
The 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup is scheduled to be co-hosted by the West Indies and the US from June 1 to June 29. The Pakistan team is expected to arrive days ahead of their first match against the USA on June 6 in Dallas, Texas.
The players have just finished their tour to England where they lost the T20 series 2-0 to the home team.
Asked about their safety, foreign office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch told her weekly media briefing the Pakistani authorities were in contact with the US authorities to facilitate the cricket team’s visit.
“We expect the government of the US to fully provide security to Pakistan’s cricket team and Pakistani nationals who live in the United States,” she said.
Daesh Khorasan is a regional affiliate of the Daesh group that operates primarily in Afghanistan, though it is also suspected to have a presence in Pakistan and other parts of South Asia.
The group has been involved in various attacks in Pakistan, targeting public spaces, religious minorities and government installations, contributing to regional instability.
Their operations are part of a broader campaign to establish their influence and demonstrate their reach beyond the Afghan borders.
Drinking culture in English cricket ‘excluding’ British Muslims from attending, playing
- Former player Azeem Rafiq speaks at Hay Festival
LONDON: Cricket’s culture of drinking alcohol is alienating British Muslims, whistleblower Azeem Rafiq said at a literature festival this week.
Pakistan-born former off-spinner Rafiq, who first raised allegations of racism and bullying in September 2020 related to his two spells at Yorkshire County Cricket Club, was speaking at the Hay Festival on Thursday.
He said club cricket in England “revolved around alcohol,” which was “excluding Muslims specifically, but everyone who doesn’t drink,” The Times reported.
He added: “Every part of it, the minute you turn up to a club to the minute you leave, is around alcohol. The game needs to evolve its economy so it doesn’t at recreational level revolve around alcohol.”
This feeling of exclusion had led many British Asians and Muslims to set up their own cricket clubs away from mainstream club cricket, Rafiq added.
He told the festival that around 30 percent of players at recreational level were of British Asian heritage, but that this number plummeted to around 4 percent at professional level.
“The reason Asian people have gone and set up on their own is because they felt excluded from the system,” he said, adding that separate systems were “exactly the type of thing the racists want.”
The Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket report, known as the ICEC, was published last June and found the sport in England was “infected” with institutional racism, sexism and class-based discrimination.
Actor and comedian Stephen Fry, who was on the same panel as Rafiq, echoed its findings.
He slammed the influential Marylebone Cricket Club, the former custodians of the game, as having a public face that “stinks” of “privilege and classism.”
He added: “It (MCC) has a public face which is a deeply disturbing sort of beetroot-colored gentleman in yellow and orange blazer sitting in front of the Long Room at Lord’s Cricket Ground and looking as if they had come out of an Edwardian cartoon.
“The game will not survive (if it continues) giving off an atmosphere that puts people off.”
French security authorities foil a plan to attack soccer events during the Paris Olympics
- A Chechnyan man was arrested on May 22 on suspicion of being behind a plan to attack soccer events that will be held in Saint-Etienne
- The planned attack was to target spectators and police forces
PARIS: France’s security authorities have foiled a plan to attack soccer events during the upcoming Paris Olympics, the country’s interior minister said Friday.
It was the first such thwarted plot targeting the Games, which start in eight weeks as France is on its highest threat alert level.
Gerald Darmanin said in a statement that members of the General Directorate of Internal Security arrested an 18-year-old man from Chechnya on May 22 on suspicion of being behind a plan to attack soccer events that will be held in the southern city of Saint-Etienne.
According to the initial investigation, the man was preparing an attack targeting the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium in Saint-Etienne that will host several soccer matches during the Summer Games. The planned attack was to target spectators and police forces, the statement said. The suspect wanted to attack the Olympic events “to die and become a martyr,” the statement also said.
The Paris Olympics will run from July 26-Aug. 11. Soccer matches will take place in cities across France before the final in Paris’ Stade de France.
France is on in its highest security alert ahead of the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, which are expected to draw millions of visitors.
Darmanin, the interior minister, did not cite a specific security threat against the soccer event, but has said there are multiple potential threats, including those from Islamic extremist groups, violent environmental activists, far-right groups and cyberattacks from Russia or other adversaries.
The Paris Olympics organizing committee said it was made aware of the arrest and praised intelligence and security services. ‘’Security is the highest priority of Paris 2024. We are working daily in close coordination with the Interior Ministry and all stakeholders — and will continue to be fully mobilized,” it said in a statement.
Security concerns are notably high for the exceptional opening ceremony, which brings more than 100 world leaders to the French capital. It involves boats carrying athletes along the Seine River on a 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) open-air parade and huge crowds watching from the embankments.
In April, French President Emmanuel Macron said the July 26 opening ceremony could be moved instead to the country’s national stadium if the security threat is deemed too high.
Organizers had originally planned to host as many as 600,000 people, most watching free of charge from riverbanks. But security and logistical concerns have led the government to progressively scale back its ambitions. Earlier this year, the overall number of spectators was reduced to around 300,000.
The French government also decided that tourists won’t be given free access to watch the opening ceremony because of security concerns. Free access will be invitation-only instead.
Extra security is also on hand for the Olympic torch relay, which passed on Friday through the monastery outcropping of Mont-Saint-Michel, which sees thousands of tourists daily.
Rublev falls to Arnaldi in the French Open third round while Gauff, Sinner move on
- Rublev showed frustration throughout over his lack of precision, committing 37 unforced errors and four double faults
- After netting a forehand in the third set, he smashed his racket on his knee four times
PARIS: Sixth-seeded Andrey Rublev was knocked out of the French Open by Matteo Arnaldi 7-6 (6), 6-2, 6-4 in the third round on Friday.
Rublev showed frustration throughout over his lack of precision, committing 37 unforced errors and four double faults. After netting a forehand in the third set, he smashed his racket on his knee four times.
“I am completely disappointed with myself, with the way I behaved, the way I performed, and I can’t remember ever behaving worse in a Grand Slam tournament,” he said. “It was the first time I ever behaved that badly.”
Rublev entered the French Open as a contender after winning the Madrid Open this month.
Arnaldi, ranked 35th, will face Stefanos Tsitsipas or Zhizhen Zhang, who were scheduled to play later Friday.
No. 2 Jannik Sinner progressed by downing Pavel Kotov 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
On the women’s side, No. 3-seeded Coco Gauff advanced to the fourth round after beating Australian Open semifinalist Dayana Yastremska 6-2, 6-4.
Gauff pressured her opponent into committing 38 unforced errors on Court Philippe Chatrier, and converted five of her 11 break points.
After several seeded players were knocked out on Thursday, Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto pulled off another upset by defeating No. 17 Liudmila Samsonova 7-6 (4), 6-2 on Court Suzanne Lenglen. Cocciaretto, ranked 51st, reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.
She will play Gauff next. Gauff won both of their previous meetings but said, “She is definitely a fighter.”
Gauff is the reigning US Open champion and was a finalist at the French Open in 2022.
Qualifier Olga Danilovic, ranked 125th, beat Donna Vekic 0-6, 7-5, 7-6 (8) to make her first fourth-round appearance at a Grand Slam tournament.
For the fourth consecutive day, rain interrupted play. There was a delay of about 1 1/2 hours on Friday.
Babar defends loss in England, vows to step-up Pakistan performance in T20 World Cup
- Accepts that players are performing individually but unable to click as a team
- Babar Azam says players will ponder over mistakes like succumbing to pressure
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan skipper Babar Azam on Friday defended the cricket team’s performance against England, vowing to fix all mistakes ahead of the Twenty20 World Cup scheduled to begin on June 2.
England thrashed Pakistan by seven wickets at the Oval on Thursday in their last match before the race for the T20 World Cup title begins. Victory gave England a 2-0 win in a four-match T20 series with two games washed out without a ball bowled.
“I agree that we made mistakes in the middle overs during battling and bowling both,” Azam said at a press conference on Friday. “We will try and fix this as soon as possible.”
The skipper said it was important to take chances during high-scoring matches, adding that all team members would sit and discuss how they had read the situation wrong and succumbed to pressure after losing back-to-back wickets.
“We need to settle down after losing wickets to gain momentum again.”
Babar admitted that the team was struggling throughout the middle overs and urged his teammates to step up and take responsibility for the loss. He said though the team had collapsed during batting and bowling, their confidence remained high as they got to learn new things after facing a series loss.
When asked if the team was selected on merit, Azam said no one was given an extra edge and all players were chosen after a thorough discussion between seven selection committee members.
“We have to back the players that got selected,” Azam said.
Azam assured that the cricket team was right on track and that winning and losing were part of the game. However, he accepted that even though all the players were performing well individually, they were “unable to click as a team.”
“We are performing individually but not as a team,” he concluded. “We are lagging here.”
The Pakistan team flew out to the United States earlier today, Friday, for the T20 World Cup series.
