MONACO: Max Verstappen capitalized on Ferrari pole-sitter Charles Leclerc’s cruel last-minute withdrawal to win Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix and go top of the drivers’ world championship for the first time.
Carlos Sainz for Ferrari took second with Lando Norris of McLaren completing the podium.
Red Bull’s Verstappen displaced Lewis Hamilton at the top of the 2021 standings after the Mercedes world champion finished in seventh.
The Dutch driver pitched up in the Principality trailing Hamilton by 14 points, and leaves it four points ahead.
“It’s so special to win. The first time for me on the podium here. It was all about looking after the tires. I was pretty much in control,” said Verstappen after taking the chequered flag waved by tennis superstar Serena Williams.
Hamilton had a low key weekend, qualifying in seventh and finishing in seventh.
His teammate Valtteri Bottas was in contention to pounce on any mistake by Verstappen.
But then his race came to an embarrassing end when a routine pitstop took a disastrous turn as a wheel refused to come off.
The Finn’s frustration will have been nothing to the heartache Leclerc suffered just before the start when he reported a gearbox problem on his Ferrari.
For the locally-born Leclerc it was a cruel end to his dream of winning his home grand prix.
“In the garage it was very difficult to feel ok, but I guess now I’m getting used to this feeling here unfortunately,” said Leclerc.
“I’ve never finished a race here — this year, I don’t start it. It’s a difficult one to take and I also feel for the team.”
His last minute absence was all the more unexpected as a couple of hours earlier Ferrari had announced repairs had been carried out without a grid penalty after Leclerc’s accident in qualifying 24 hours earlier.
For the 23-year-old it was just the latest misfortune at Monaco.
Despite his familiarity with the narrow, unforgiving street circuit his record at his home race remains bleak.
His ill luck at the Mediterranean jewel in F1’s crown had already resurfaced on Thursday after gearbox problems ruined his opening practice session.
From then on his fortunes flipped. He topped FP2, then qualified in pole for the first time since Mexico in 2019.
But his crash, which ended qualifying prematurely left him anxiously waiting for the all-clear from the mechanics working on his damaged car.
That came on Sunday morning, only for heartache to follow as he made his way around the circuit to the start when he came on the team radio reporting he had a problem, saying “No, no, no — the gearbox guys.”
Back in the pits Ferrari mechanics pounced on the car to see if anything could be done to even allow him to start from the pitlane.
When it became obvious that wasn’t possible, a dejected Leclerc emerged from his stricken car’s cockpit to head for the grid and the pre-race ceremonies, receiving a consoling hug from Prince Albert II of Monaco.
Leclerc’s absence will have come as a bitter disappointment to his supporters in the 7,500 crowd allowed to watch the race from the grandstands as coronavirus restrictions are gradually lifted.
Verstappen inherited pole position which takes on greater significance in Monaco where overtaking opportunities are as rare as a royal flush at Monaco’s mythic Casino.
And so it proved with the Red Bull driver becoming the 12th winner from pole in the last 16 editions to enhance his claims as the main obstacle between Hamilton and a record eighth world title.
The F1 circus next heads to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku in two weeks’ time.
Verstappen makes most of Leclerc’s Monaco misery to take championship lead
https://arab.news/w53nr
Verstappen makes most of Leclerc’s Monaco misery to take championship lead
- Verstappen displaced Lewis Hamilton at the top of the 2021 standings
- Carlos Sainz for Ferrari took second with Lando Norris of McLaren completing the podium
Al-Dafrawy lights up Riyadh with stunning first-round submission at PFL MENA 2
RIYADH: The 2024 PFL MENA welterweight champion, Omar Al-Dafrawy, delivered another show-stopping performance in front of a roaring Saudi crowd on Thursday night when he secured a spectacular first-round submission win over Italy’s Daniele Miceli.
Miceli wasted no time shooting for an early takedown, but Al-Dafrawy turned the tables with a textbook triangle choke. Miceli tried to power out, but the Egyptian champion tightened the hold and forced the tap just 1:15 into the fight.
Speaking exclusively to Arab News after his victory in the PFL MENA Riyadh main event, held at The Green Halls, Al-Dafrawy declared: “The plan is to fight the PFL Europe champion of 2024, so if he’s ready to come down here and grace the land, I’ll show.”
This was the third triangle choke on Al-Dafrawy’s record. He said: “I think I am probably the biggest superstar in the Arab World right now, whether you like it or not. No one has the skill set that I have. No one is as eager as I am. I took six fighters on short notice in the last PFL MENA in Jeddah, six fighters, all of them over 15 wins.”
Describing himself as “dangerous,” he added: “I’m getting the respect that I deserve where I go, so there’s no reason that I don’t rise to the occasion.”
Al-Dafrawy said he challenged any fighter, Arabian or international, in his bid to become “the best in the world.”
In the co-main event, 2024 PFL Welterweight runner-up Mohammad Alaqraa piled on relentless pressure to earn a dominant unanimous decision victory over Omar Hussein. Judges scored the contest 30-27 across the board to advance Alaqraa advances to the welterweight tournament semifinals.
Elsewhere on the card, Saudi Arabia’s own Hattan Al-Saif (4-0 amateur) once again thrilled local fans with a second-round TKO over Nour Al-Fliti in their atomweight amateur bout. Al-Saif overwhelmed Al-Fliti with knees and kicks before the session was waved off due to injury in round two.
In an action-packed bout, Mohamed Zarey dug deep to defeat Ayman Galal by unanimous decision and punch his ticket to the welterweight semifinals. Zarey survived an early barrage to claim the biggest win of his PFL career and will now face Alaqraa.
On the bantamweight side, Xavier Alaoui leaned on his wrestling to shut down Ziad Ayman with a 30-27 sweep on the scorecards, moving into the next round. Mokhtar Benkaci needed just 57 seconds to dispatch Marcel Adur with a left hook to the body for a first-round TKO.
Badreddine Diani outpointed Ahmed Abdelbast Darwish in a closely contested three-round battle, earning a unanimous nod and advancing to face Amir Fazli, who himself scored a knockout over Rostem Akman in round two of their quarterfinal.
In another bantamweight thriller, Nawras Abzakh displayed power and precision, stopping Ali Yazbeck with ground and pound in the second round to move one step closer to a PFL belt. Islam Youssef, stepping in at short notice, delivered a spectacular flying knee knockout to Benyamin Ghahreman with five seconds left in round two.
Kicking off the night, Abdelrahman Alhyasat remained undefeated by submitting Anthony Zeidan with a rear naked choke in round two of their lightweight bout.
The PFL MENA semifinals are now set, promising even more fireworks as regional champions pursue title glory.
Coach Ivanizevic slams Tsitsipas after early Wimbledon exit
- Stefanos Tsitsipas was forced to retire from his Wimbledon first-round match while trailing to French qualifier Valentin Royer
- ‘He wants to but he doesn’t do anything. All ‘I want, I want’, but I don’t see that progress… I was shocked’
Goran Ivanizevic gave a scathing assessment of Stefanos Tsitsipas, saying he has “never seen a more unprepared player” in his life following the Greek world number 26’s opening round exit at Wimbledon.
Tsitsipas, the 2021 French Open and 2023 Australian Open runner-up, was forced to retire from his Wimbledon first-round match while trailing 6-3 6-2 to French qualifier Valentin Royer on Monday due to a back injury.
The 26-year-old, who said he had no answers to his ongoing fitness problems after his elimination, appointed Croatian Ivanizevic as his coach in May after a string of disappointing results at the Grand Slams.
Tsitsipas, a former world number three, has reached only one quarter-final in his last nine Grand Slam tournaments.
“It’s simple and it’s not simple. I’ve talked to him a lot of times. If he solves some things outside of tennis, then he has a chance and he’ll return to where he belongs, because he’s too good a player to be out of the top 10,” Ivanizevic told Serbian network Sport Klub after Tsitsipas’ exit.
“He wants to but he doesn’t do anything. All ‘I want, I want’, but I don’t see that progress... I was shocked, I have never seen a more unprepared player in my life. With this knee, I am three times more fit than him. This is really bad.”
Ivanizevic, who won Wimbledon as a player in 2001, helped Novak Djokovic claim nine of his 24 Grand Slam titles before leaving his team in March last year. He then had a short stint with Kazakh world number 11 Elena Rybakina this season.
Doug Ghim clings to one-shot lead at John Deere Classic
- Ghim, a 29-year-old Illinois native, is hoping to land his maiden PGA Tour victory in his home state
- The round of the day belonged to defending champion Davis Thompson, whose bogey-free 63 catapulted him to 11 under
SILVIS, Illinois: Doug Ghim shot a 3-under par 68 and held onto a one-stroke lead over Max Homa and a group of contenders at the John Deere Classic on Friday in Silvis, Illinois
Homa is part of a five-way tie for second after also posting a 68 late Friday afternoon at TPC Deere Run. He matched Ghim at 12 under with a birdie at the par-5 17th hole, but after finding a bunker off the 18th tee he failed to save par and dropped back a shot.
Ghim, a 29-year-old Illinois native, is hoping to land his maiden PGA Tour victory in his home state.
“They couldn’t make it today but I’m anticipating family coming (Saturday), and I’m excited about that,” Ghim said.
Ghim made an eagle for the second straight round, holing out from 179 yards away at the par-4 15th.
“I guess holing out two days in a row is always nice,” he said. “It’s been couple years since I think I holed out from the fairway. To get two back-to- back days is a great.”
He reached 13 under for the tournament with back-to-back birdies at Nos. 4-5, but Ghim bogeyed his closing hole, No. 9.
Homa entered the week an abysmal No. 122 in the FedEx Cup standings amid a disappointing season, but now he’s in the mix for his first win since 2023.
“I don’t think really much changes” on the weekend, Homa said. “I mean, just play the golf course. You’re going to have to shoot really low. If you went out there and tried to do something specific, I’m not so sure that is going to work. Somebody can go out there and shoot 11-under out there and jump everybody.
“So just go do what we did today and play another round of golf. Just keep waiting until the back nine on Sunday basically.”
The round of the day belonged to defending champion Davis Thompson, whose bogey-free 63 catapulted him to 11 under. Tied with Homa and Thompson are Brian Campbell (66), David Lipsky (67) and Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo (66).
“(On Thursday) I hit a lot of great putts early but they were just burning the edges,” said Thompson, who made four birdies on each nine Friday. “Then I was able to make a few on the back nine (Thursday) and just ride that momentum into today.”
Colombia’s Camilo Villegas (66) and Si Woo Kim of South Korea (67) are part of a group at 10 under as the second round finished up late Friday.
Rickie Fowler dropped four shots in a four-hole span on his back nine, with two bogeys and a double bogey, but he birdied No. 17 to finish up a 1-over 72 and get to 5 under, which wound up being the cut line at the end of the day.
Notable names who missed the cut included Tom Kim of South Korea (4 under), Australian Jason Day (2 under), J.T. Poston (1 under) and Canadian Adam Hadwin (2 over).
Germany off to winning start after beating Poland 1-0 in Women’s Euro 2025
- Germany are one of three big contenders for overall victory in Switzerland alongside world champions Spain and holders England
- Peter Gerhardsson’s team are now unbeaten in 13 games after a second straight win over the Danes, with Sweden running out emphatic 6-1 winners in the Nations League last month
ST. GALLEN, Switzerland: Germany made a winning start to their Women’s Euro 2025 campaign with Friday’s 2-0 win over Poland which moved the eight-time continental champions top of Group C.
Christian Wueck’s side lead Sweden, 1-0 winners in a Scandinavian derby with Denmark, on goal difference after coming through a hard-fought group opener in St. Gallen thanks to goals in the second half from Jule Brand and Lea Schueller.
Germany are one of three big contenders for overall victory in Switzerland alongside world champions Spain and holders England.
But the “Frauenteam” were far from their best for most of the match, with Wueck frequently bellowing at his charges to up their game.
And they lost captain Giulia Gwinn to what looked like a knee injury before half-time following a nasty fall in a challenge with Ewa Pajor.
“She’s injured her knee and will undergo an MRI tomorrow, at which point we’ll know what’s happened,” said Wueck.
“It was a tough, hard-fought victory. Poland made it very, very difficult for us with their style of play... We’re happy with the result and we know that we can do better.”
Germany had won all six previous encounters with Poland but the game was even until Brand cut inside and unleashed an unstoppable shot six minutes after half-time.
And Brand was on hand in the 66th minute with a perfect cross for Bayern Munich striker Schueller, who made sure of the points with a simple header.
Germany have now won six matches on the bounce, scoring 26 goals in that run, but looked some way below the standard shown by tournament favorites Spain on Thursday, with England facing France on Saturday.
Poland acquitted themselves admirably in their European Championship debut but Barcelona’s Pajor, who has scored 51 goals for club and country this season, was uncharacteristically wasteful with her finishing.
Pajor walloped a great chance at Germany goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger just before Schueller doubled Germany’s lead and did the same with a close-range header with nine minutes remaining.
Filippa Angeldahl scored Sweden’s winner in the 55th minute in Geneva after exchanging passes with Kosovare Asllani and firing into the far corner.
Sweden should have doubled their lead 10 minutes later when Madelen Janogy headed Hanna Lundkvist’s pinpoint cross narrowly wide, while moments before Stina Blackstenius was denied by Frederikke Thogersen’s brilliant goalline clearance.
“It was an enormous sense of joy and relief. There are so many nerves when you start a tournament that it was a wonderful feeling to score that goal,” Angeldahl told reporters.
Peter Gerhardsson’s team are now unbeaten in 13 games after a second straight win over the Danes, with Sweden running out emphatic 6-1 winners in the Nations League last month.
Sweden kept a tight handle on Denmark’s skipper Pernille Harder, although she did smash an effort off the crossbar with nine minutes remaining.
The Bayern Munich forward was also involved when VAR decided not to award a penalty to Denmark in the opening minutes for a potential handball by Madelen Janogy, who was marking Parder.
Sabalenka fights off Raducanu, Alcaraz marches on, Keys and Osaka crash at Wimbledon
- A record 36 seeds in the men’s and women’s singles failed to reach round three and the upsets continued Friday as women’s sixth seed Madison Keys and four-time major winner Naomi Osaka departed
LONDON: Women’s top seed Aryna Sabalenka fought off inspired home favorite Emma Raducanu in a cauldron-like Center Court atmosphere to keep her Wimbledon quest on track but it was the end of the road for two other Grand Slam champions on Friday.
Sabalenka edged a ferocious contest under the roof after requiring eight set points in the opening set and then roaring back from a 4-1 deficit in a sizzling second.
“Wow! What an atmosphere, my ears are still hurting, it was super loud,” a relieved Sabalenka said on court after wrapping up the win on her third match point.
Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz, chasing a third successive Wimbledon title, was also put through the wringer by Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff before sealing a last-16 spot with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win.
A record 36 seeds in the men’s and women’s singles failed to reach round three and the upsets continued on Friday as women’s sixth seed Madison Keys, the Australian Open champion, and four-time major winner Naomi Osaka departed.
Japan’s Osaka looked every bit the Grand Slam great for a set before losing 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 to Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. American Keys racked up 31 unforced errors in a 6-3, 6-3 loss to Germany’s Laura Siegemund, at 37 the oldest woman left in the singles draw.
Sabalenka is the only top-10 seed left in the top half of the draw and, with only three remaining in the bottom, she might be starting to think this could be her year.
If she does win the trophy to add to her two Australian Opens and one US Open, she will look back on Friday night under the Center Court roof as perhaps the turning point.
Had she lost the opening set the partisan crowd might well have roared former US Open champion Raducanu to victory.
Even after clinching the first set with a deft volley, Sabalenka found herself in trouble as 40th-ranked Raducanu blazed ahead and had a point for a 5-1 lead. But she then switched on the after burners to overwhelm the flagging Briton.
“Emma played such incredible tennis and she pushed me really hard to get this win,” said the 27-year-old Belarusian. “I had to fight for every point to get this win.”
Home hopes
Raducanu’s loss ended hope of a British hat-trick on day five after Sonay Kartal and Cameron Norrie sailed through to the last 16 in impressive fashion.
Local favorite Kartal moved on with a remarkable display against French qualifier Diane Parry, claiming nine games in a row to come from 1-4 down to win 6-4, 6-2.
Norrie kept the home flag flying in the men’s singles by beating Italian Mattia Bellucci 7-6(5), 6-4, 6-3 to set up a meeting with Chilean qualifier Nicolas Jarry, who overcame Brazilian wonder kid Joao Fonseca 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(4).
Kartal had earlier reeled off nine games in a row after a slow start to beat French qualifier Diane Parry 6-4, 6-2 and set up a clash with Russian Pavlyuchenkova.
French Open winner Alcaraz extended his winning run to 21 matches by beating Struff but it was a Jekyll and Hyde performance as he again showed vulnerability.
“I was suffering in every service game... 0-30s and breakpoints down. It was stressful. Every time he could push me, he did. I was trying to survive,” Alcaraz said.
The 22-year-old will face Russian 14th seed next after he beat French qualifier Adrian Mannarino 7-5, 6-2, 6-3.
Taylor Fritz, Ben Shelton and Amanda Anisimova ensured there would be some Fourth of July celebrations for Americans.
After being taken the distance in his first two matches, fifth seed Fritz had a slightly easier ride as he beat Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-4, 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-1 to reach the last 16 where he will face unseeded Australian Jordan Thompson.
Despite spending more than nine hours on court, Fritz said he felt fresh ahead of his Sunday assignment with Thompson.
“This is going to sound crazy,” said Fritz, who has been suffering tendinitis in his knee and had to deal with a bruised arm after a fall. “My body is actually feeling better after each match. I feel like somehow it felt the worst after my first round but now it’s getting better.”
Anisimova, the 13th seed, also reached the fourth round with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 win over Hungarian Dalma Galfi.
Shelton, who was left seething after his second-round clash with Rinky Hijikata was suspended late on Thursday with him about to serve for the match, needed around one minute to finish the job on Friday, hitting three aces and an unreturned second serve to take his place in the last 32.
French showman Gael Monfils also had to resume his match but the 38-year-old could not prevent a 6-4, 1-6, 4-6, 7-6(5) 6-4 defeat by Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics.
“I don’t really know. I wish I could win this match today but that’s sport. I’m going to rest a couple of days and go back on court and try to be ready for the US tour.”
It was the end of the road for Monfils’s wife Elina Svitolina too as the Ukrainian 14th seed fell 6-1 7-6(4) against 24th seed Elize Mertens.
