CELEBRITY
Serena advances in Toronto, joins Rybakina and Halep in second round
Three-times winner Serena Williams moved into the Toronto Open second round with a 6-3 6-4 win over Spain’s Nuria Parrizas Diaz on Monday while Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina and Simona Halep also advanced.
Williams, in only her second singles match since returning to action at Wimbledon in June after a year-long absence from competition, was forced to dig deep during a nearly two-hour match played in hot and humid conditions.
“Mentally I feel I’m getting there. I’m not where I normally am and I’m not where I want to be,” Williams told reporters.
“Physically I feel much better in practice, it’s just like getting that to the court. But literally I’m the kind of person who it just takes one or two things and then it clicks. So I’m just waiting on that to click.”
One of 14 major winners in the main draw of an event that is a tune-up for the U.S. Open, Williams clinched the opener on her fourth set point with a vintage smash that Parrizas Diaz had no chance of returning.
The second set was a much tighter affair and Williams did well to hold serve in a physically demanding 18-minute game during which she fought off four break points to get to 4-4 before sealing her first singles win since the 2021 French Open.
“It’s just one win, you know, it takes a lot. But I was happy, like I said, to have a win,” said Williams. “It’s been a very long time. I forgot what it felt like.”
Up next for Williams will be either Olympic champion Belinda Bencic, the 12th seed, or Czech Tereza Martincova.
‘VERY AGGRESSIVE’
Romanian 15th seed Halep, who retired from her second-round match last week in Washington due to illness, needed just 61 minutes to secure a 6-0 6-2 win over Croatia’s Donna Vekic.
The twice Canadian Open champion breezed through the first set in 21 minutes and never looked back as Vekic grew more frustrated as the match wore on.
“It’s not about the result it’s more about how I played,” Halep, who did not face a break point, said during her on-court interview. “I’ve been very aggressive and I played fast so that’s my goal and I am trying to do that every day.”
Kazakh Rybakina, who followed her Wimbledon triumph with a first-round exit at San Jose last week, beat Czech Marie Bouzkova 7-5 6-7(3) 6-1 for her first win as a Grand Slam champion.
Czech 14th seed Karolina Pliskova and Latvian 16th seed Jelena Ostapenko also advanced while Sloane Stephens was leading Sofia Kenin 6-2 6-7(5) 1-0 on centre court when play was suspended due to rain.
Canadian 13th seed Leylah Fernandez will kick off the night session in Toronto against Australian Storm Sanders before Venus Williams meets Switzerland’s Jil Teichmann.
-Reuters
Cristiano Ronaldo has become the first footballer to reach billionaire status, according to the latest Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which has valued the Portugal great’s net worth at an estimated $1.4 billion.
The 40-year-old striker’s financial ascent comes after he signed a new contract with Saudi side Al-Nassr in June reportedly worth more than $400 million.
Bloomberg said that Ronaldo earned more than $550 million in salary between 2002 and 2023, supplemented by a decade-long Nike deal worth nearly $18 million annually, and lucrative endorsements with Armani, Castrol and others that added more than $175 million to his fortune.
Ronaldo’s move to Al-Nassr from Manchester United in 2023 had already made him the highest-paid player in football history, with an annual salary of 177 million pounds ($237.52 million), plus bonuses and a reported 15% share in his Saudi Arabia club.
Argentina and Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi has earned more than $600 million in pre-tax salary during his career.
Ronaldo’s billionaire status places him among a rare group of athletes that includes basketball greats Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and LeBron James, golfer Tiger Woods and tennis player Roger Federer.
Ronaldo suggested he is not considering retirement any time soon.
“I still have a passion for this,” he said at the Portugal Football Globes gala on Tuesday. “My family says it’s time to quit and they ask me why I want to score 1000 goals if I’ve already scored 900-something. But I don’t think that way inside.
“I’m still producing good things, I’m helping my club and the national team. Why not continue? I am sure that when I finish I will leave full because I gave everything of myself. I know I don’t have many years left to play, but the few I have left, I have to enjoy them to the fullest.”
-Reuters
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Former England soccer captain David Beckham and actor Gary Oldman were knighted in King Charles’ annual birthday honours list on Saturday, while sculptor Antony Gormley was made a Companion of Honour.
Beckham, 50, joined Manchester United as a trainee in 1993, going on to make almost 400 appearances for the club where he won a string of titles and cups.
He subsequently played for Real Madrid, LA Galaxy, and Inter Milan, as well as captaining his country 58 times and making 115 appearances.
His marriage to fashion designer and former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham in 1999 cemented a celebrity status which went far beyond his sporting exploits.
Oldman, 67, started his career on the stage, where he was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, before rising to prominence in film. He won the best actor Oscar for playing Winston Churchill in the 2017 drama “Darkest Hour”.
He also had roles in the “Dark Knight Trilogy” and the “Harry Potter” movie series and more recently starred in the TV spy drama “Slow Horses”.
Other famous names receiving honours included damehoods for musical theatre star Elaine Paige, novelist Pat Barker and ceramics maker Emma Bridgewater.
Roger Daltrey, lead singer of rock band the Who and a patron of the Teenage Cancer Trust, received a knighthood for services to charity.
More than 1,200 people received honours for their achievements, with a particular focus on those who had given their time to public service, the government said.
King Charles’ official birthday will be celebrated with the annual “Trooping the Colour” military parade in London on Saturday. His actual birthday is on November 14
-Reuters
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One of three judges in Diego Maradona’s closely scrutinized homicide trial in Argentina resigned on Tuesday amid a scandal triggered by the alleged filming of an unauthorised documentary, bringing uncertainty to the future of legal proceedings.
The high-profile trial over the death of soccer star Maradona began on March 11 in the South American country where the World Cup winner is still revered.
-Reuters
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