Williams prepares for tourney with practice at Wimbledon
Serena Williams walked out on Centre Court under a closed retractable roof on Friday afternoon, taking advantage of Wimbledon’s new policy of allowing players to practice there and at No. 1 Court before the tournament begins next week.
Accompanied by coach Eric Hechtman — who has worked with her older sister, Venus, and replaces longtime coach Patrick Moratoglou, now with Simona Halep — and hitting partner Jarmere Jenkins, Williams returned to the site of her last official singles match anywhere, nearly a full year ago at the All England Club. That ended after less than a set, when Williams slipped on the slick turf and injured her right leg.
Wearing an all-white outfit and visor, Williams followed No. 1-ranked Iga Swiatek into the main stadium and went through about 45 minutes of training, from groundstrokes to volleys and overheads to her best-in-thegame serve. The courtside “mph” monitors were switched off, so there was no way to tell just how fast her serves were zipping, but the echoes produced by her hardhit shots reverberated off the arena’s thousands of empty green seats and the white cover overhead as a light rain fell outside.
The scene played out a few hours after the draw determined that Williams will begin her Wimbledon comeback by facing Harmony Tan, a 24-year-old from France who is ranked 113th and owns a 2-6 career record in Grand Slam matches.
Because of her lack of activity over the past 12 months, Williams — who has been No. 1 in the rankings for a total of 319 weeks — is outside the WTA’s top 1,200 and could have ended up anywhere in the field. She only returned to the tour this week by playing two doubles matches at a tune-up event in England.
While the 40-year-old American’s track record would merit a seeding, the All England Club adheres strictly to the rankings for seeds.
Williams has won seven Wimbledon championships, part of her total of 23 Grand Slam singles titles, a record for the professional era. Tan, meanwhile, will be making her debut at the grasscourt tournament.
If Williams gets past Tan, next up could be a match against Sara Sorribes Tormo, who is seeded 32nd but has never been past the third round in 19 past major appearances.
The third round potentially would put Williams against a tougher test: No. 6-seeded Karolina Pliskova, who was the runner-up to Ash Barty last year at Wimbledon and also reached the final of the 2016 U.S. Open — beating Williams in the semifinals there.
• The potential men’s quarterfinals are top-seeded Novak Djokovic vs. No. 5 Carlos Alcaraz, No. 3 Casper Ruud vs. No. 7 Hubert Hurkacz, No. 2 Rafael Nadal vs. No. 6 Felix Auger-Aliassime, and No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. No. 8 Matteo Berrettini.
Djokovic won his third consecutive Wimbledon title — and sixth overall — by beating Berrettini in last year’s final.
Djokovic starts Centre Court play on Monday against 75thranked Kwon Soon-woo of South Korea.
Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova advanced to her first grass-court final in four years by beating Beatriz Haddad Maia 7-6 (5), 6-4 at Eastbourne on Friday.
Kvitova will face defending champion Jelena Ostapenko in the final. The eighth-seeded Latvian defeated 12th-seeded Camila Giorgi 6-2, 6-2 in the other semifinal.
Haddad Maia won 12 straight matches on grass including backto-back singles titles in Nottingham and Birmingham over the last two weeks.
The 14th-seeded Kvitova reached her first final of 2022 and first grass-court final since Birmingham in 2018.
Kvitova earned the only service break of the match to begin the second set against the Brazilian.
The Czech player’s only career loss in five grass-court finals was to Marion Bartoli at Eastbourne in 2011, when Kvitova went on to win Wimbledon for the first time.
Ostapenko was the 2017 French Open champion and 2018 Wimbledon
semifinalist.
In the men’s event, thirdseeded Taylor Fritz will face Maxime Cressy in the final.
Fritz beat defending champion Alex de Minaur 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-3 after Cressy outlasted British wild card Jack Draper 7-6 (5), 6-7 (2), 6-3 in the other semifinal.
Stefanos Tsitsipas advanced to the final of the Mallorca Championships after beating Benjamin Bonzi in straight sets on Friday.
The second-seeded Tsitsipas saved all three break points he faced to beat Bonzi of France 6-4, 6-4. The final will the first on grass at tour level for the Greek.
Tsitsipas will face Roberto Bautista Agut after the Spaniard beat Antoine Bellier 7-6 (5), 6-2. On Thursday Bautista Agut upset top-ranked Daniil Medvedev in straight sets.
European tour bans golfers who compete in LIV series
The European tour banned golfers who competed in the Saudi-backed breakaway LIV series from three upcoming tournaments, including the Scottish Open, on Friday and fined them $120,000.
The tour said any players who took part in the inaugural LIV event in England this month would be suspended from the Scottish Open, Barbasol Championship and Barracuda Championship, and fined 100,000 pounds ($123,000). All three of those events are co-sanctioned by the European tour and the PGA, which has suspended players who competed in LIV.
There could be “further sanctions” if the players continue to compete in LIV without authorization, the European tour said.
• After another sparkling start, In Gee Chun finally hit a wayward tee shot — into the thick rough on the eighth hole at Congressional Country Club. It was the closest she’s come to a shaky stretch through the first two days of the Women’s PGA Championship.
Chun shot a 3-under 69 on Friday.
Defending champion Harris English shot a second-round 65 Friday to move into a tie for first place at 9-under 131 after the morning rounds at the Travelers Championship.
Patrick Cantlay, playing in the same group as English, led by two strokes heading into their final hole. But he found bunkers on his first two shots at the par-4 No. 9 and and finished with a bogey, while English sank a birdie from roughly 20 feet to finish his 5-under round.
Cantlay, who shot a 60 at TPC River Highlands as an amateur in 2011, had a 67 Friday after an opening-round 64.
• Li Haotong kept his onestroke lead at the BMW International Open as Ryan Fox moved up to second with a strong round of 8-under 64 on Friday.
Li’s 5-under 67 wasn’t quite the spectacular 10 under from the day before. It still came with plenty of drama, including an eagle on the par-five sixth for the second day in a row, plus four birdies and two bogeys on the other holes of the front nine.
Hornets, Clifford agree to head coaching contract
A person familiar with the situation says Steve Clifford has agreed to a multiyear contract to return as head coach of the Charlotte Hornets.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Friday because the team had yet to announce the move.
Charlotte previously agreed to terms on a four-year contract with Golden State assistant Kenny Atkinson to become head coach, but Atkinson later informed the team he was not taking the job.
The 60-year-old Clifford spent five seasons coaching the Hornets, compiling a 196-214 record with a team that included Kemba Walker. He led the Hornets to two playoff appearances prior to being fired in 2018 when Mitch Kupchak arrived as general manager. Clifford coached the Magic from 2018-21 and worked last season as a coaching consultant for the Brooklyn Nets.
The Hornets finished sixth, 10th, ninth, 17th and 17th in defensive rating during Clifford’s five seasons. Charlotte was 22nd in the NBA this past season under James Borrego, who was fired in April.
Report: Blackhawks to name Richardson as coach
The Chicago Blackhawks are expected to name Montreal Canadiens assistant Luke Richardson as their new head coach, sources confirmed to the Chicago Tribune on Friday.
The Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli first reported the news.
Richardson, 53, becomes the 40th head coach in Hawks history and replaces interim coach Derek King. Richardson is tasked with kickstarting a new era for the franchise.
The Hawks confirmed that they interviewed four candidates, including Richardson, King, Vancouver Canucks associate coach Brad Shaw and Pittsburgh Penguins assistant Todd Reirden..
Ledecky gets another gold at world championships
Katie Ledecky extended her record haul of medals and Australia set a world record in the mixed 4x100 meters freestyle final at the world swimming championships on Friday.
American star Ledecky won the 800 freestyle final for the fifth time at the worlds to seal her fourth consecutive 400/800/1,500 triple at the event.
She clocked 8 minutes, 8.04 seconds to finish more than 10 seconds ahead of her rivals. Australia’s Kiah Melverton was 10.73 behind in second and Italy’s Simona Quadarella 10.96 behind for third.
It’s Ledecky’s 19th gold at a worlds and her fourth this week including the 4x200 freestyle relay.
Her 22 medals are the most for a female swimmer in world championships history. Only Michael Phelps, who won 26, has more.
Australia’s mixed relay team of Jack Cartwright, Kyle Chalmers, Madison Wilson and Mollie O’Callaghan clocked 3:19.38 in the 4x100 to shave two-hundredths of a second off the record set by the United States at the last worlds in Gwangju, South Korea, in July 2019.