Ding was hit with a fine for ‘publicly criticising snooker parties in social media posts’ at the 2024 Scottish Open.

The former world number one criticised the tables at the Edinburgh event on Chinese social media site Weibo after losing 4-3 to Luca Brecel.

‘I have never played on a s*** table like this – the bounce on the cushion was the same as that of a spring. How can one control the cue ball on such a table?’ Ding wrote, via the South China Morning Post.

Ding was fined £4,000 for his comments, although £2,500 of which was suspended to March 13, 2025. He also had to pay £975 in costs.

Burden was hit with a £1,500 fine and given a formal warning as to his future behaviour due to ‘inappropriate behaviour’ in a World Seniors Championship qualifying match in April.

The 48-year-old went on to win the World Seniors Championship at the Crucible in May and remembers the incident as ‘punching the table a couple of times and swearing.’

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/46747963

Andy Murray is set to be honoured at Wimbledon with a statue, and it is hoped it will be ready to unveil at the 2027 tournament. The 38-year-old, who is a two-time Wimbledon winner and ended the long wait for a men’s singles champion in 2013, retired after the 2024 Paris Olympics. Chair of the All England Club, Debbie Jevans, said discussions over the statue had begun with Murray and his team.

A statue in honour of Andy Murray is set to be built at Wimbledon, with the All England Club hoping to unveil it in 2027 to mark the 150th anniversary of the first championship.

Murray became the first British men’s singles champion at Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936 when he beat Novak Djokovic in straight sets in the 2013 final.

Mark Williams knows a thing or two about snooker, so when he described Michal Szubarczyk as "one of the best 14-year-olds I’ve seen in my life" he certainly ramped up expectation ahead of the Polish wonderkid's debut season on tour, when he will make history as the sport's youngest ever professional.

Veteran Williams made that comment after the EBSA European Championship in Turkey in March, where Szubarczyk won the Under-16 and Under-18 titles as well as finishing runner-up to Liam Highfield in the senior event. Williams added: "He's up there with Ronnie O’Sullivan at that age. Maybe not as good, but not far away. Every time I watched him he was knocking in 80s, 90s, 100s. It was frightening."

Michal and his family will make sure that the teenager balances school with snooker. "In Poland there is a duty of education until the age of 18, and my parents will definitely make sure that I will make it," said Michal, who names maths as his favourite subject. "I will have individual learning conditions, adapted to my frequent trips."

They will remain based in Poland and travel to the UK ahead of tournaments to practise. He added: "Of course I would like to move to the UK, but I can't do it just like that, it is impossible for now. I will fly to England for sparring whenever possible, mainly at Victoria's academy in Sheffield. Victoria treats me and my dad very warmly, we are grateful for her hospitality and I like the atmosphere there. I would like to meet a few players who I can practise with more often and get some match advice from them.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/46298722

British No. 1 Emma Raducanu and Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz will team up for the new-look US Open mixed doubles event in August, hoping to secure the $1 million prize on offer.

Former US Open winner Naomi Osaka will team up with Nick Kyrgios, while Britain's Jack Draper will play alongside Chinese world No. 4 Zheng Qinwen. Superstars Novak Djokovic - due to play with compatriot Olga Danilovic - and Jannik Sinner, paired with American Emma Navarro, are also on the list, with this new schedule effectively seeing the tournament become a three-week event.
World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka will partner Grigor Dimitrov, while five-time major winner Iga Swiatek will play alongside Casper Ruud.

United States Tennis Association CEO and executive director Lew Sherr said: "Seeing the teams that have already put their names on the entry list makes us all incredibly excited.

Italian pair Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, winners of last year's US Open mixed doubles title, initially described the decision as a "profound injustice". But they are on the entry list for the event.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/46027226

https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2Fathletic%2F6421570%2F2025%2F06%2F13%2Fclub-world-cup-referees-var-explained%2F

An amendment to Law 12.2 will see goalkeepers given eight seconds to release the ball from their hands or be punished with a corner being awarded to the opposing team.
The new eight-second rule will come into place at all levels of the game from July 1 and follows a trial period at this year’s Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana, the South American equivalents to UEFA’s Champions League and Europa League.

Match officials will have to think differently over the coming weeks but their appearance is also going to look a little out of the ordinary.
FIFA, with the blessing of IFAB, stresses this is only a trial but the motivation is primarily to “offer TV viewers a new experience” during matches. The camera feed’s footage will be transmitted via a private 5G connection to production teams, who will be able to then show replays of key moments. Only the six NFL stadiums being used at the Club World Cup, though, have the technological capabilities to use footage live, such as at the coin toss.

Semi-automated offside technology has been around since 2022 as a support tool for assistants, but FIFA’s advanced system, previously trialled at the Intercontinental Cup in December, provides “real-time alerts to match officials in the event of clear offsides”.

An audio signal will be sent to the assistants informing them that an offside flag can be raised but FIFA stresses this is not diminishing the touchline role. What it considers “challenging offside scenarios” will still need the VAR to clear the decision.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/45960583

The Scottish FA can now ban clubs from the Scottish Cup if fans throw pyrotechnics - but chief executive Ian Maxwell insists it wants to avoid that outcome.

Punishments could range from fines and ticket allocation restrictions to the ultimate sanction of expulsion from the national cup competition.

And, earlier this year, Celtic and Rangers - as well as Motherwell - were charged by the SPFL after fans disrupted both League Cup semi-finals with flares and had 500 tickets removed from their allocation for the final.

Spaniard saves three match points in fourth set before outlasting Sinner in deciding tiebreak

Carlos Alcaraz saved three match points on his way to a mind-boggling and memorable victory over top seed Jannik Sinner in a Roland-Garros final for the ages between the best two players in the world.

The defending champion looked down and out when he trailed by two sets to one and 3-5 0-40 on serve, but somehow survived to eventually defend his Paris crown 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(3), 7-6(10-2).

The contest lasted a mind-boggling five hours and 29 minutes - the longest singles final in Paris in the Open era, and the second longest across all four Grand Slams behind the Rafael Nadal-Novak Djokovic Australian Open final in 2012 that ended after five hours and 53 minutes.

It looked all over when Alcaraz led 5-3 and served for the title at 5-4 in the fifth set only for Sinner to force a deciding first-to-ten-point tiebreak. Alcaraz jumped into a 7-0 lead in the shootout and never looked back.

The Spaniard becomes only the third man in the Open era to win a Grand Slam singles title after saving match points, joining an exclusive club that includes Gaston Gaudio (Roland-Garros 2004) and Djokovic (Wimbledon 2019).

It's a fifth Grand Slam title and a second at the French major for Alcaraz.

He now owns two Roland-Garros trophies, two Wimbledon titles and one US Open at the age of 22. Alcaraz is the third youngest man in history to win five singles majors after Bjorn Borg (21) and Nadal (22).

https://www.rolandgarros.com/en-us/article/rg2025-mens-final-sinner-alcaraz