Jamie Murray is through to the quarter-finals at Wimbledon plus much more on other British athletes.
It may have taken longer than expected but Jamie Murray is through to the quarter-finals of Wimbledon, while Mark Cavendish admitted he was relieved to finish stage four of the Tour de France unscathed. Here’s out review of the last 24 hours:
Jamie Murray and doubles partner Bruno Soares ensured their marathon match with Mate Pavic and Michael Venus ended in glory as they reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals.
Murray and his Brazilian partner looked set for a routine when on Monday when they led by two sets to love but were pegged back and in the end play was suspended due to darkness with the fifth at 13-13.
But Murray and Soares only needed four more games when the contest restarted on Tuesday, taking the match 6-3 7-6 4-6 4-6 16-14.
They will now play either eighth seeds Vasek Pospisil and Jack Sock or French duo Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in the quarter-finals.
“We were annoyed at ourselves last night for not finishing the match and it was stressful because those guys just hit everything as hard as they possibly could every single shot,” Murray said.
“But we stayed strong, we got through some sticky moments ourselves and overall I think we deserved to win. We'll look forward to the next match tomorrow with a clean slate.”
Mark Cavendish insists he was just happy to emerge unscathed after coming eighth in the fourth stage of the Tour de France.
The longest stage of this year's race always looked destined to culminate in a sprint finish in Limoges and so it proved – with Germany's Marcel Kittel ultimately taking victory in a dramatic photo finish with Frenchman Bryan Coquard.
Peter Sagan took third to maintain his overall lead and Cavendish had to settle for eighth having won Saturday's and Monday's stages to move joint-second on the all-time Tour de France victories.
"I was kind of in the wrong position," admitted Cavendish. "It was a bit sketchy – with 5km to go I nearly crashed and I lost my lead-out.
"Then I didn't want to hit it too early. I thought I'd be on Kittel's wheel, but the next thing it was about survival, trying to dodge people going backwards, all the lead-out men. It wasn't about concentrating on sprint but dodging riders.”
Britain’s Chris Froome sits in fifth place overall, 18 seconds off Sagan in yellow with today being the first notable uphill test of this Tour.
Andy Murray has been named as part of Great Britain's five-man team for their Davis Cup quarter-final with Serbia later this month.
The world No.2 will not confirm his involvement until after Wimbledon – where he faces a quarter-final against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Wednesday – but has been named in the squad for the clay-court tie in Belgrade, which takes place between July 15 and 17.
Murray is joined by older brother Jamie, Kyle Edmund, Dan Evans and Dom Inglot in the side, with GB's task made slightly easier after world No.1 Novak Djokovic announced he will not be involved for Serbia.
The winners of the match will face either Italy or Argentina in the semi-finals in September, with Britain looking to retain the Davis Cup following their first triumph since 1936 last November.
"In making himself available for the tie, Andy has once again shown incredible commitment to his country and his proven Davis Cup record is second to none,” GB captain Leon Smith said.
The British Olympic Association has announced the 12 athletes that will compete for Team GB across the three equestrian disciplines of eventing, dressage and jumping at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Three-time Olympic medallist William Fox-Pitt will feature in the eventing team along with debutants Kitty King, Izzy Taylor and Gemma Tattersall.
In the dressage team, reigning World, European and Olympic Champion Charlotte Dujardin is joined by fellow 2012 Olympic team gold medallist Carl Hester, 2015 European team silver medallist Fiona Bigwood and Spencer Wilton – with the latter two also making their Olympic Games debuts.
London 2012 gold medallists Nick Skelton is competing in his seventh Games, Los Angeles 1984 jumping team silver medallist John Whitaker will take part in his sixth and the latter will be joined by his younger brother Michael for his fifth Olympics.
Two-time Olympian Ben Maher has also been selected.
Read more here
Jamie Cooke and Joe Choong missed out on a podium spot by a second in the men’s relay at the Senior European Championships in Sofia on Tuesday.
It was their final appearance before the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and came after Jo Muir and Georgia Pipes, both making their Senior European Championships debut, had finished seventh in the women’s relay on the opening day of the Championships on Monday.
Cooke and Choong, selected in Team GB’s modern pentathlon squad for this summer’s Games, led by nearly 3.5 seconds after the pool but had slipped to second after the fencing, seven seconds behind leaders Russia.
The ride proved critical though as five knockdowns and seven time penalties saw the Brits slip to sixth in the overall standings and in the end Cooke and Choong had to settle for fourth behind Poland in third, with Russia taking the title and Czech Republic second.
Rio-bound Siobhan-Marie O’Connor says she is over the moon after breaking the 100m British breaststroke record at the weekend.
O’Connor posted a time of 1:06.34 to lower the previous record by 0.01 of a second at the Scottish National Swimming Championships in Glasgow in her final race ahead of travelling to Brazil for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
O’Connor told British Swimming: “I am over the moon with that. I’m in a really good block of training, probably the most consistent block of training I’ve had for a really long time. I’m tired and really surprised by that.
“I’ve worked really hard and I thought this week I’d be a bit flat, a bit sluggish but I felt really good there.
“My breaststroke has come on a lot and I’ve done a lot of work on technique and that really shows. I’m surprised and really happy and with this my last competition before Rio, it’s a good place to be.”
Sportsbeat 2016