CELEBRITY
With defeat to Raducanu, Serena running out of time to find form for US Open
Serena Williams’ farewell tour suffered another bump in the road on Tuesday with a 6-4 6-0 opening round loss to Emma Raducanu at the Cincinnati Open, one of the last tune-up events before the final Grand Slam of the American great’s career.
Williams has just one professional tournament remaining before the U.S. Open, where she will have one last chance to tie Margaret Court’s record of 24 Grand Slam titles.
After a sluggish start in the WTA 1000 event in Cincinnati, Williams gave the sold-out crowd something to cheer about in the first set when she crushed back-to-back aces to cut reigning U.S. Open champion Raducanu’s lead to 4-3.
But the British 19-year-old fired back an ace of her own to snag the first set and followed that up with a break of serve to open the second.
Raducanu rolled on from there, smacking an unreturnable serve on match point to end their first career meeting, setting up a clash against two-time former major winner Victoria Azarenka.
Williams waved to the crowd before walking off court and did not speak to the media later.
“I think we all just need to honour Serena and her amazing career,” Raducanu said on court.
“I’m so grateful for the experience of getting to play her and for our careers to have crossed over. Everything she has achieved is so inspirational and it was a true honour to get to share the court with her.”
Williams, who will turn 41 next month, was world number one and had already won four major titles when Raducanu was born in November 2002. She won her last major in 2017 while pregnant with her daughter Olympia, who was in attendance.
OSAKA OUT
Earlier in the day, Naomi Osaka’s U.S. Open preparations suffered another setback as the former world number one was swept aside 6-4 7-5 by China’s Zhang Shuai.
It was Osaka’s third tournament back from an Achilles’ tendon injury and it has been a stuttering return to action for the twice U.S. Open champion, who also exited in the opening round in Toronto last week, retiring with lower back pain.
Osaka got her serve working, firing down 10 aces, but not much else, with the four-time Grand Slam winner piling up 29 unforced errors and converting just one of four break chances.
Zhang next meets Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova, who beat Leylah Fernandez, the losing finalist at last year’s U.S. Open, on Monday.
American teenager Coco Gauff, runner-up at this year’s French Open, rolled her left ankle late in the first set of her match against qualifier Marie Bouzkova and eventually retired while trailing 7-5 1-0.
Amanda Anisimova withdrew from her match against fellow American Shelby Rogers due to a left ankle injury while second seed Anett Kontaveit progressed to the round of 16 after a rain-interrupted 3-6 7-5 6-4 win over qualifier Tereza Martincova.
Joining her was France’s Caroline Garcia, who upset fourth seed Maria Sakkari 7-6(2) 6-7(6) 6-1.
Swiss Olympic champion Belinda Bencic lost 6-2 6-7(3) 6-4 to Romanian Sorana Cirsteain another upset while former world number one Karolina Pliskova registered a 7-5 6-1 victory over 42-year-old Venus Williams.
Two-time major winner Simona Halep, former French Open winner Jelena Ostapenko and former U.S. Open runner-up Madison Keys also moved into the second round.
-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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