Jamie Murray progressed to the third round of the Wimbledon doubles competition on Sunday, while it was a promising second day for Chris Froome at the Tour de France. Here’s our review of the last 24 hours.
Jamie Murray sailed through to the third round of the men’s doubles at Wimbledon with Brazilian partner Bruno Soares, drawing a close to the British action on the first Middle Sunday since 2004.
Doubles World No.1 pairing Murray and Soares, who won the Australian Open earlier this year, needed just 69 minutes to defeat Argentinean duo Federico Delbonis and Diego Schwartzman in straight sets 6-3 6-3.
“It’s bigger than the mixed doubles for sure,” said 30-year-old Murray. “It’s the tournament I want to win most this year and I’ll be trying my hardest to do it.
“We’re excited to be in the second week and be fighting for the trophy.”
Earlier in the day, Heather Watson, who will join the Murray brothers in Rio, and Naomi Broady booked their place in the third round of the women’s doubles with a tight 7-6 (9-7) 7-6 (12-10) victory over Russian Alexandra Panova and American Shelby Rogers.
Rio-bound Johanna Konta also progressed alongside partner Maria Sanchez where they will play Croatian Darija Jurak and Australian Anastasia Rodinova.
Monday’s action at the All England Club will also see Andy Murray face Nick Kyrgios on Centre Court. Read more here.
Chris Froome emerged from stage two of the Tour de France unscathed as he seeks his third title, while Mark Cavendish enjoyed his first ever day in the yellow jersey en route to Cherbourg.
The Manxman won a thrilling stage one sprint on Saturday for the first time to claim the famous jersey, and rode near the front of the peloton for most of the stage despite falling away on the ascent.
But it was an important day for Froome, who escaped incident while two of his main general classification rivals, Alberto Contador and Richie Porte, fell down the standings after a crash and a wheel change respectively.
Froome now sits in fifth overall, 14 seconds behind overall leader Peter Sagan who won the stage after a sprint finish.
“It’s unfortunate for Alberto and Richie, but it goes with the territory in these kinds of stages,” he said.
“That’s why we make a really big effort to ride up front, with Ian Stannard and Luke Rowe protecting me and giving me the best chance of staying out of trouble.
“It was pretty full-on coming into that final stretch, but I’m pretty happy that I’ve managed to stay upright and not lose any time to the other GC contenders.
“It’s unfortunate they [Contador and Porte] have lost time, and those are pretty significant gaps, but it’s too early to rule anyone out of contention.”
Heather Olver and Lauren Smith were unable to cap off an exciting week in Calgary with a title win, as they lost out to Australian pair Setyana Mapasa and Gronya Somerville in the Canada Open badminton final.
The duo, who were named as Team GB’s women’s doubles pairing for the upcoming Rio 2016 Olympic Games, are ranked 27th in the world, and were given a bye into Friday’s quarter-finals.
Seeded second for the tournament, Olver and Smith eased past home pairing Phyllis Chan and Yi Tai on Friday with a 22-20 21-15 victory, before convincingly beating Hung Yi-Ting and Su Hsiang Ling in the last four.
But they finally came unstuck against Mapasa and Somerville, going down in straight sets 21-15 21-16.
The Australian duo shot into a 4-1 lead in the opening game, but Olver and Smith were able to haul them in briefly to level things at 7-7.
However, once Mapasa and Somerville stretched the score to 10-7 they were able to keep the British pairing at arm’s length for the remainder of the game, and four straight points to take the score to 19-14 meant the opener was all but won.
The second game followed much the same pattern after a nip-and-tuck opening, with the Australians taking the score out to 12-7 and 17-13 before triumphing after 37 minutes overall.
George Nash admits he feels the weight of history and responsibility on his shoulders as he prepares for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Nash will join Alex Gregory, Mohamed Sbihi and Constantine Louloudis in a new-look British rowing men’s four - a boat for whom tradition dictates much is expected.
Ever since Sir Steve Redgrave won the last of his five Olympic medals in Sydney in the event, Team GB have been victorious - a run of four straight Games.
The newly-constituted ‘awesome foursome’ won the European title in Germany earlier this year but last year all four members were in the men’s eight that won World Championship gold.
“It’s a massive privilege to be part of his crew, especially with all it’s history,” said Nash.
“We’ve won four on the bounce and to achieve a fifth straight victory would be a dream come true.
“The four is viewed around the world as the British event. It brings pressure and we will embrace that rather than fear it. I think the rest of the world feels as much pressure to topple us to be honest.
“You could see all that history as a burden but I think we prefer to take confidence from it. We know just a select few athletes have come through this process but they’ve also delivered and that gives you a big boost.”