It was a battle of WTA Tour’s two leading players. But the American, who is ranked number two won 6-7, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 to claim her second Grand Slam victory of her career. The first came in 2023 when she defeated same Sabalenka to win the US Open.

Coco Gauff becomes the youngest player to win both the women’s singles title at the US Open and Roland Garros since Serena Williams did so in 2002.

She is also the youngest player to win women’s singles Grand Slam titles on multiple surfaces since Maria Sharapova did so at Wimbledon 2004 and US Open 2006.

Gauff thanked her fans for their support, “I didn’t think honestly that I could do it,” she added.

Aryna Sabalenka, who has lost successive Grand Slam finals, broke down in tears, “Honestly guys, this one hurts so much, especially after such a tough two weeks playing great tennis under these terrible conditions. To show such terrible tennis in the final does really hurt, but it’s okay.

“Anyway, congratulations to Coco. In these tough conditions, you were a better player than me.”

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Miss Okafo defeated her Delta state counterpart, Miss Peace by 3 – 2 sets to win the gold medal

This is the 1st medal Abia has gotten this 2025 sports season.

Team Abia officials are expecting more medals from Abia volleyball team that travelled to Bayelsa for volleyball championship

This is as the state is preparing for the official inauguration of sports associations, Abia State governor’s secondary school games both coming up in this 1st quarter and the ball games zonal elimination coming up on 23rd February at Enugu which is a prelude to the forthcoming national sports festival at Ogun state this may 2025.

Please see details: https://youtube.com/live/w9EjFKnNgj4

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Barty, who is only 25, revealed her plans in an Instagram video where she spoke to her friend and former doubles partner Casey Dellacqua.

Barty, who has won three grand slam titles and is currently the Wimbledon and Australian Open champions, said her retirement is to enable her ‘pursue other dreams.’

The post Barty Retires from Tennis at 25 first appeared on National Ambassador News.

United States of America regulations require non-citizens to have a Covid vaccination before entering the country.

Recall that the Serbian could not participate in the first Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open, after he was deported for not being vaccinated.

The post Djokovic Pulls Out of Indian Wells & Miami Open first appeared on National Ambassador News.

The US Open will be held behind closed doors in New York from 31 August.

“I have made the difficult decision not to return to New York this year,” said Andreescu, who beat Serena Williams in last year’s final.

“I have taken this step in order to focus on my match fitness and ensure that I return ready to play at my highest level.”

Andreescu added that “unforeseen challenges” including the cancellation of events because of the coronavirus pandemic have “compromised my ability to prepare and compete to the degree necessary to play at my highest level”.

World number six Andreescu is the fourth women’s top 20 player to pull out of the US Open after world number one Ashleigh Barty, Elina Svitolina and Kiki Bertens, who are ranked fifth and seventh respectively.

World number two Simona Halep, from Romania, is not expected to play either.

However, 23-time Grand Slam champion Williams says she still plans to compete at the tournament.

Men’s world number one Novak Djokovic has confirmed he will play but defending champion Rafael Nadal pulled out citing concerns over coronavirus earlier this month, while Roger Federer is absent recovering from injury.-BBC

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Federer, 38, moved up four places after earning £86.2m in the past year – about £81m of it in endorsements.

Cristiano Ronaldo (£85m), Messi (£84m) and Neymar (£77.5m) come next, while American basketball player LeBron James (£71.5m) completes the top five.

Boxer Tyson Fury was the highest earning Briton in 11th (£46.2m).

Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton came 13th with earnings of £43.7m.

Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka was revealed to be the highest paid female athlete earlier this month. She is 29th overall on the list, which was released on Friday.

“The coronavirus pandemic triggered salary cuts for soccer stars Messi and Ronaldo, clearing the way for a tennis player to rank as the world’s highest-paid athlete for the first time,” said Kurt Badenhausen, senior editor at Forbes.

“Roger Federer is the perfect pitchman for companies, resulting in an unparalleled endorsement portfolio of blue-chip brands worth $100m a year for the tennis great.”

Last week, two-time Grand Slam champion Osaka, 22, ended Serena Williams’ run of four years as the highest paid female athlete after earning £30.7m, £1.15m more than 38-year-old Williams.-BBC

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The three-time Grand Slam champion, 32, was aiming to play in his first Grand Slam singles event since Melbourne 12 months ago, when he announced that his career might be over because of injury.

He will also not play for Great Britain in next month’s inaugural ATP Cup.

“Unfortunately I’ve had a setback and as a precaution need to work through that before competing,” the Scot said.

“I’ve worked so hard to get myself into a situation where I can play at the top level and I’m gutted I’m not going to be able to play.”

Murray has not been in action since Britain’s opening tie at the Davis Cup finals last month because of the pelvic issue.

The former world number one, who underwent hip surgery 11 months ago, did not travel to Miami for his scheduled December training block.

Murray has been on court over the past week, but the injury has not cleared up as quickly as the world number 125 had hoped.

Murray and his team – consisting of coach Jamie Delgado, fitness coach Matt Little and physio Shane Annun – decided he should not rush back for the start of the 2020 season next month.

That has ruled out a remarkable return to the Australian Open in Melbourne where, little under a year ago, Murray broke down in tears during an emotional pre-tournament news conference and admitted he thought an ongoing hip injury would force him to quit.

However, he had a “life-changing” operation to resurface his hip later that month – in which a metal cap is put over the femur head – allowing him to return to the doubles court last summer.

Murray made a competitive comeback in the singles in August, going on to win the Antwerp Open title two months later in just his seventh tournament back.

Since that victory over fellow three-time Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka, he has only played one more singles match – a laboured three-set victory over little-known Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor at the Davis Cup finals.

“After the Australian Open earlier this year, when I wasn’t sure whether I’d be able to play again, I was excited about coming back to Australia and giving my best, and that makes this even more disappointing for me,” Murray said.

Murray will not play a match until February at the earliest, with his first tournament now scheduled to be the Open Sud de France in Montpellier.

Instead of going to Australia he will remain at home and continue hitting on court to build up his fitness.

The Australian Open runs from 20 January to 3 February in Melbourne, while the ATP Cup begins on 3 January and takes place in three cities across Australia.

Sydney, Brisbane and Perth will host matches, with teams from 24 countries competing.-BBC

The post Andy Murray to miss 2020 Australian Open and ATP Cup due to injury first appeared on National Ambassador News.

Nadal, who beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 7-5 in the afternoon session, needed Daniil Medvedev to beat Zverev to secure a place in the last four.

However, Zverev came through 6-4 7-6 (7-4) to eliminate Nadal and set up a meeting with Dominic Thiem.

Tsitsipas will face Roger Federer in the other semi-final on Saturday.

Swiss Federer, who is bidding for a seventh title at the tournament, plays Greek Tsitsipas from 14:00 GMT in a match which is live on BBC Two.

Germany’s Zverev takes on Austrian Thiem from 20:00.

World number one Nadal had knocked Russian fourth seed Medvedev out of the tournament with his hard-fought victory over Tsitsipas.

Ultimately, it was a lifeless performance in his opener against defending champion Zverev on Monday that cost Nadal.

Seventh seed Zverev has had a mixed season but put in a convincing performance against Medvedev to advance to the semi-finals.

The German broke Medvedev in the opening game of the match and capitalised as the Russian’s serve faltered in the closing stages.

After staving off a break point, Medvedev held his nerve to force a tie-break, but a double fault allowed Zverev to serve out the match.

Zverev, who did not face a break point all match, fell to his knees after the final point, and said afterwards he could “still improve” on his performance.

“This arena is where I play my best tennis, we don’t play in this atmosphere anywhere else in the world,” he said.

“I think I’ve played two great matches. Only the best four players left are in the semis.”

Nadal showed the grit, determination and never-say-die attitude that have been the hallmarks of his illustrious career to beat Tsitsipas in two hours and 52 minutes at the O2 Arena.

He was edged out of a tight first set in the tie-break before starting to hit more winners than unforced errors and tip the balance of the match in his favour.

Greek sixth seed Tsitsipas was the player under all the pressure on serve, facing nine break points in the match with Nadal needing to convert just one in each of the final two sets.

Nadal himself served supremely and did not face a single break point, but the 19-time Grand Slam champion has yet to win the season-ending tournament.

“I did all the things I could do, fighting until the end,” Nadal told the crowd.

Tsitsipas, 21, was already assured of reaching the last four on his ATP Finals debut whatever happened against Nadal and, despite a lengthy battle against the top seed, says he still has “left something in the tank” for the weekend.

“During the match I thought about it a couple of times, but at the end I really wanted to win, and that win means a lot to me because it’s against a tough player, the current world number one,” said Tsitsipas, who won the ATP Next Gen finals last year.

“I didn’t really go full, full. I could have gone even more full than that but I’m not disappointed by that.

“I wanted to win but probably wasn’t willing to die on the court for that.”-BBC

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The 32-year-old Serb will be replaced as world number one by Rafael Nadal on Monday despite sealing his 34th Masters title, his fifth in Paris and fifth overall ATP victory of the year.

He maintained his record of not losing a set in the week as he wrapped up the match in one hour, five minutes.

It was Djokovic’s fourth win against world number 28 Shapovalov, 20.

In his 50th Masters final, Djokovic took a 3-0 lead against Shapovalov – playing his first – and took the set in 29 minutes.

The Serb, who lost in last year’s Paris final to Karen Khachanov, broke in the seventh game of the second set.

Left-hander Shapovalov won his first ATP title with victory in the indoor Stockholm Open last month and had his only break point of the final in the next game.

However, he was guilty of three consecutive backhand errors as Djokovic held and soon sealed the title, putting him level with John McEnroe in fifth place on the all-time list of ATP winners.

Shapovalov is projected to climb to a career-high 15th in the rankings.

Nadal will become world number one on Monday for the first time in a year, but the 33-year-old Spaniard is a doubt for the ATP Tour Finals starting in London on 10 November after an abdominal muscle strain forced him out of his semi-final with Shapovalov.-BBC

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The baby, described by his grandmother Judy Murray as a “lovely, happy, healthy baby boy”, was born last week in London, where the family live.

Sir Andy and Kim, both aged 32, married in the tennis star’s hometown of Dunblane in 2015.

They already have two daughters, Sophia, who was born in 2016, and Edie, born in 2017.

Speaking on BBC Scotland’s Mornings with Kaye Adams programme, Sir Andy’s mother Judy said: “It’s lovely news, lovely to have a little boy to go with the two little girls.”

She said baby was born “a few days ago” and added: “I’ll leave it to Andy and Kim to fill in all the details.”

The three-time Grand Slam champion Murray won his first singles title since career-saving hip surgery by beating Stan Wawrinka at the European Open in October.

He had surgery in January and was playing in just his seventh tournament since returning to singles.

After the tournament he joked: “I’ll have three kids under four years old. When I’ve been off the tour my family has got bigger so I need to get back on the road so we don’t get out of control!

“I’m excited for the third kid. My wife’s been a huge support for getting me back on the court and making me fight to keep playing.”

Sir Andy is representing Great Britain in the Davis Cup, which starts on 18 November.-BBC

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Japan’s Osaka, 22, beat Petra Kvitova in three sets in her opening match on Sunday and was due to play world number one Ashleigh Barty on Tuesday.

The Australian Open champion will be replaced in the Red Group by alternate Kiki Bertens, the world number 10.

“I’m disappointed to have to withdraw. This is not how I wanted to end this tournament or my season,” said Osaka.

“I look forward to getting healthy and hope to be back here in Shenzhen next year.”

The WTA Finals sees the world’s top eight players compete in two round-robin groups of four, with the winners and runners-up advancing to the semi-finals.

The tournament, which also includes a doubles event featuring the year’s top eight teams, has a record total prize fund of £10.8m.

The post Naomi Osaka pulls out of WTA Finals with shoulder injury first appeared on National Ambassador News.

The 15-year-old American beat Jelena Ostapenko 6-3 1-6 6-2 and is projected to move inside the world’s top 75.

Gauff only qualified for the main draw as a lucky loser after losing in the final round of qualifying.

“It has been an amazing week, I hope to come back here again. I will remember this moment for the rest of my life,” said Atlanta-born Gauff.

The youngster, who rose to fame at Wimbledon this year when she beat five-time champion Venus Williams in the first round, emulates Nicole Vadisova, who was 15 when she won her maiden WTA title in Tashkent in 2004.

Gauff held off two break points in her opening service game before breaking Ostapenko in the next to take control of the opening set.

However, 22-year-old Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champion, hit back in the second set, breaking Gauff three times before levelling the match with an ace.

The teenager rallied in the decider though, breaking twice to lead 5-0. However, Ostapenko saved two match points and then broke Gauff to love to trail 5-2.

Her father and coach, Corey Gauff, then came onto court to give his daughter some encouragement. He said: “Just relax, you’re not going to sprint to the finish line, you’re going to walk to the finish line.

“Trust your shots. Calm down, take your mind to another place, to a practice match. Just play, don’t think about negatives just think about positives. Yesterday if you know you had 5-2 you’d take that, you’re in control.”

She immediately broke back, winning the match and title when Ostapenko sent a forehand long.

“Thank you so much to my family and team for their support, you are always with me every step of the way,” she said.

The post Coco Gauff wins first WTA title first appeared on National Ambassador News.

Gauff, 15, needed only an hour and five minutes to beat Japan’s Hiroko Kuwata in a 6-1 6-2 win.

It will be her third WTA main draw appearance after Miami and Wimbledon.

After her SW19 exploits, where she beat Venus Williams on her way to the last 16, Gauff’s qualifier was watched by a near sell-out crowd in the US capital.

And she received a standing ovation after clinching victory with a wonderful cross-court winner against 28-year-old Kuwata.

Now ranked 143rd in the world after her success at the All England Club, Gauff was unsure whether she would even get into Washington qualifying because she had to use her pre-Wimbledon ranking of 313th to gain entry.

The Washington Open, a combined WTA and ATP event, is one of the key warm-events on the American hard-court swing which culminates in next month’s US Open.

Gauff was the youngest woman to reach the second week of Wimbledon since Jennifer Capriati in 1991.

The post Coco Gauff reaches Citi Open main draw in Washington first appeared on National Ambassador News.

She has not played since pulling out of an event in her native Russia at the end of January.

She told the BBC, “Sometimes the right decisions aren’t always the easiest ones,”

Sharapova, a five-time Grand Slam winner, who won the French title in 2012 and 2014, returned to the tour in April 2017 after she was banned for 15 months  for taking a banned drug.

In the opening Grand Slam of this year, the Russian could not go beyond the round of 16 as she  was beaten by Australia’s Ashleigh Barty in the round of 16.

This year’s French Open begins on 26 May and runs to 9 June.

The post SHARAPOVA WITHDRAWS FROM FRENCH OPEN first appeared on National Ambassador News.

Osaka announced their split 16 days after winning the Australian Open.

“Everyone thinks it was a money-related issue, but it wasn’t,” said Osaka.”I wouldn’t put success over my happiness. I’m not going to sacrifice that just to keep a person around.

“That’s one of the most hurtful things I’ve ever heard.”

Japan’s Osaka, 21, had worked with Bajin for just over a year when she announced the split on Twitter.

Bajin, the 2018 WTA coach of the year, is a former hitting partner of Grand Slam champions Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka and Caroline Wozniacki.

Under him, Osaka rose from world number 72 at the start of 2018 to the summit of the rankings little over a year later.

The post Naomi Osaka Split With Coach To Be Happy first appeared on National Ambassador News.

With the ATP Finals coming up next month, Nadal said on his Facebook page he had made the decision to pull out of the tournament after getting medical advice.

Nadal’s 16-match winning streak was ended in the Shanghai Masters final on Sunday by world number two Roger Federer, who will now have the chance to make up some ground in the rankings chase.

“I sadly announce that I have to pull out of the Swiss Indoors Basel, after seeing my doctor in Spain just after landing from Shanghai,” said Nadal on Tuesday.

“I am suffering from an over stressing of the knee and the problems where already present at the tournament in Shanghai which now forces me to take a time off on advice of my doctor.”

Nadal, 31, leads Federer by 1,960 points in the rankings but the 36-year-old Swiss can gain 500 points if he wins at Basel with another 1,000 up for grabs at the Paris Masters.

Their battle for the year-end top spot could go down to the wire with the winner of the season-ending ATP Finals, which will be held from Nov. 12 to 19 in London, to receive up to 1,500 points.

Nadal and Federer have each won six titles this year, splitting the four grand slams between them.

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The world’s number one tennis player is an icon in Spain, and had spoken earlier of how he was moved close to tears by Sunday’s banned referendum and ensuing police crackdown and clashes, with hundreds injured.

The 16-time Grand Slam champion was critical of the plebiscite in the lead-up, but appeared to change tack following his hard-won victory over France’s Lucas Pouille in the first round of the China Open.

“We need to start separating things,” the 31-year-old said in Beijing Tuesday, using his hands to underline the point.

“Sport and politics are not the same, in my opinion. And it is sad what’s happening, but that’s all.”

Nadal, who grew up and lives on the Balearic island of Mallorca, and is a Catalan speaker, described the situation as “very delicate”.Spanish police officers drag a man as they try to disperse voters arriving to a polling station in Barcelona, on October 1, 2017 during a referendum on independence for Catalonia banned by Madrid. (Photo by AFP)

Barcelona on Sunday played their Spanish football league game against Las Palmas in an eerily empty Camp Nou as chaos unfolded on the streets.

Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu said the decision to play the match behind closed doors was a protest against the violent clashes between police and activists in Catalonia, rather than a security issue.

Two of the club’s board members later resigned, having reportedly favored Barca refusing to play altogether, even if it meant incurring a sporting sanction of forfeiting the match.

The club’s star defender Gerard Pique, a Spanish international, has been targeted by some Spanish supporters angry at his vocal pro-independence stance.

AFP

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The 26-year-old, who is ranked 58 places higher than her Romanian opponent, succumbed in just 64 minutes.

Konta has endured a miserable run since making the Wimbledon semi-finals, winning only twice across six events.

She is currently in the eighth and final qualification spot for the season-ending WTA Finals in Singapore.

Garbine Muguruza, Simona Halep, Karolina Pliskova, Elina Svitolina, Venus Williams and Caroline Wozniacki have already secured their places, with French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko a place ahead of Konta.

If Konta does make the season finale, she will need a drastic improvement to make any impression against the elite of the women’s game.

She lost her serve to love at the first two times of asking in the opening set, before Niculescu held to love for a 5-0 lead.

Two more breaks followed in the second set as Konta ended with 38 unforced errors across 15 games.

Analysis

There were no positives to take from Konta’s performance in Beijing.

She appears to be suffering a chronic crisis of confidence, and a match against Niculescu was one of the worst draws she could have faced.

The Romanian may be 65 in the rankings, but is spectacularly unorthodox. Her signature shot is a sliced forehand, which denies an opponent any pace or rhythm: she is not someone Konta would relish playing even when on top of her game.

As far as qualification for the WTA Finals in Singapore is concerned, Konta is still well placed in the eighth and final position.

The players in ninth and 10th also lost their opening matches, and will no longer be able to overhaul Konta in the last three weeks of the season.

Sloane Stephens, CoCo Vandeweghe and Caroline Garcia are now the players to watch in Beijing. They could all knock Konta out of eighth place – but only by winning the title.

The post Johanna Konta goes out in first round of China Open first appeared on National Ambassador News.