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    French Open: Aryna Sabalenka Wants to Win but Iga Swiatek Remains

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    Sabalenka has had success on clay, but Swiatek can be dominant.When Aryna Sabalenka was a teenager in Minsk, Belarus, she would have long conversations with her father, Sergey, a former Belarusian hockey player who introduced her to tennis when they drove by some empty local courts. They did not discuss specific results or rankings so much as aspirations. Sergey, Sabalenka has said, was anxious for her to win at least one major title before she turned 25.“We were just talking about goals and what I want and how big I want to go in the sport,” Sabalenka, 27, said in an interview during the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells in March. “We were having our chats, and it was, of course, his dream because he was the one pushing himself really hard to make sure that I stay there because it wasn’t something cheap back then in Belarus.”Sergey died suddenly in November 2019, more than three years before Sabalenka captured the first of her back-to-back Australian Open titles. In 2023, she defeated Elena Rybakina in the final and in 2024 she ousted Zheng Qinwen. She also won last year’s U.S. Open by beating Jessica Pegula.But Sabalenka, world ranked No. 1, has never won the French Open, which begins on Sunday, or Wimbledon, titles she covets most. The closest she has come at Roland Garros was a 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 7-5 semifinal loss to Karolina Muchova in 2023. Last year, while suffering from a stomach illness, she lost in the quarterfinals to Mirra Andreeva.At last year’s French Open, Sabalenka, suffering from a stomach illness, lost in the quarterfinals to Mirra Andreeva. She has won just three of her 20 career titles on clay.Dimitar Dilkoff/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesSabalenka has also missed two of the last three Wimbledons — she withdrew with a shoulder injury last year and was barred from playing in 2022 when Russians and Belarusians were prohibited because of Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Two years ago she lost to Ons Jabeur in the semifinals.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Paige Bueckers: A Basketball Star is Born

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      Last Sunday, the University of Connecticut basketball player Paige Bueckers achieved what she set out to do when she joined the team almost five years ago: Win an N.C.A.A. championship. After being sidelined by injuries for nearly two seasons, Ms. Bueckers, a 23-year-old point guard, led the Huskies to a blowout victory over the South Carolina Gamecocks, earning UConn its 12th N.C.A.A. women’s basketball title and becoming the school’s top point scorer in the women’s tournament in the process.For some, the win would be a star-making moment. But Ms. Bueckers (pronounced BECK-ers) — whom the Dallas Wings are expected to select first overall in the 2025 W.N.B.A. draft on Monday — was already a star by then, both on and off the court.In December, she became the first college athlete to have her own Nike player-edition shoe, the Paige Bueckers G.T. Hustle 3. She was also the first college athlete to sign a name, image and likeness deal with Gatorade. According to on3 and SponsorUnited, both of which track sponsorship and other deals for college athletes, Ms. Bueckers is the third most valuable woman in college sports, has the second largest social media following and the highest engagement from her followers.“It’s so surreal,” Ms. Bueckers said of UConn’s championship win in an interview on Wednesday. “It hasn’t really sunk in yet.” She was dressed in a lavender Nike sweatsuit, and her long vanilla-blond hair was neatly cascading down her back. Earlier that day, she had been interviewed on the “Today” show; later, Ms. Buckers would head to a taping of “The Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon.Ms. Bueckers finished this season with the distinction of becoming UConn’s top point scorer in the women’s N.C.A.A. tournament.Maddie Meyer/Getty ImagesMs. Bueckers with her namesake Nike shoe.NikeWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Golf

      The Masters: Bernhard Langer Returns to Say Goodbye

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      A pickleball injury sidelined him last year, but he is returning to a course he loves.Bernhard Langer, barring a miracle, won’t win the Masters Tournament this year, which gets underway on Thursday.Langer, 67, who was born in Germany and now lives in the United States, hasn’t made the cut at Augusta National Golf Club since 2020.But he’ll receive his share of attention as he plays for the last time on the course that has meant so much to him. Langer, who made his first appearance in 1982, won the tournament in 1985 and 1993. He planned to say farewell last year but couldn’t participate after tearing his Achilles’ tendon playing pickleball.Langer, who has won a record 47 tournaments on PGA Tour Champions, spoke recently about his affection for the Masters. The following conversation has been edited and condensed.Are you playing any pickleball these days?No. I haven’t played since my injury, and I was told not to but maybe when I’m retired I’ll try it again. I don’t know yet. I’ll see how my leg feels.What would be a successful week for your last time at Augusta?From a professional standpoint, if I could make the cut, that would be unbelievable, but it’s very unlikely. I’ve gotten shorter [with his drives off the tee], and the injury didn’t help. This golf course, it’s meant to be hit with short to medium irons into the greens, and I’m coming in with 3-irons and 3-woods [clubs that hit the ball much farther]. It’s extremely difficult to hit these small targets, and I can’t do that with long clubs.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Masters Helped Turn Ely Callaway Into a Golf Club Maker

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      He invented the Big Bertha driver, which changed the game of golf. Bobby Jones, a creator of the tournament, was a Callaway cousin.Ely Callaway, founder of the namesake golf club company, did something few golf enthusiasts could imagine doing. He declined an invitation from Bobby Jones to join the Augusta National Golf Club in 1957.Jones, a revered amateur golfer who won the Grand Slam in 1930 and was a co-founder of Augusta National with Clifford Roberts, was Callaway’s distant cousin and hero. Over the family’s mantel, long before the Masters achieved the major status it has today, hung a lithograph of Jones winning the Amateur Championship, also known as the British Amateur, and completing the Grand Slam. Across it was a personal handwritten inscription from Jones to Callaway and his first wife, Jeanne.Bobby Jones teeing off at St. Andrews in Scotland in 1928. Jones was Callaway’s distant cousin and hero.Getty ImagesNicholas Callaway said his father had practical reasons to turn down Jones.“Ely’s rationale later in life when he became the Callaway of Callaway Golf was that since Augusta was only open for a portion of the year, most of the year he would spend fielding calls from friends angling to get an invitation to play,” he said. His father’s posthumous memoir, “The Unconquerable Game: My Life in Golf & Business,” is being released this month.It worked out fine for him. “In the 1990s, he attended the Masters for many years and would get invited to play often in the days following the tournament,” his son said.The decision had to have been difficult. Something that comes across in Callaway’s memoir was the impact Jones had on him.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Tennis

      Australian Open: John Newcombe, Jimmy Connors and the 1975 Final

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      It was Newcombe’s home tournament, and for him, the No. 1-ranked Connors was the draw. Then the Australian won.John Newcombe never planned to play the 1975 Australian Open.At 30 years old, Newcombe was nearing retirement. He had played his home country’s major tournament almost every year since 1960, winning the championship in 1973 and reaching three other semifinals. He had also won Wimbledon three times and the U.S. Championships twice, as well as 16 Grand Slam doubles titles (he would add one more in 1976).This year’s Australian Open, which begins on Sunday in Melbourne, marks the 50th anniversary of one of the most important matches of Newcombe’s career.Newcombe was at home in Sydney when, in mid-December 1974, less than two weeks before the start of the ’75 Australian Open, he was informed by Tennis Australia, the tournament’s governing body, that Jimmy Connors, the defending champion, had entered the draw.Connors, 22 years old at the time and ranked No. 1 in the world, and Newcombe had been waging war with each other, on and off the court, since their first encounter in the quarterfinals of the 1973 U.S. Open. Newcombe won that match en route to the title.In his career, Newcombe won seven Grand Slam singles titles, including Wimbledon in 1970.GettyNewcombe was ranked No. 1 in 1970 and ’71, when rankings were determined by a group of journalists before the ATP established an official ranking system in 1973. He was also No. 1 briefly in 1974. Connors took over the top spot in ’74 when he won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. He missed out on a chance for the Grand Slam — winning all four majors in a calendar year — that season when he was barred by the International Tennis Federation from playing the French Open because he had committed to playing World Team Tennis in the United States.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Australian Open: Alex de Minaur’s Love for the Major

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      He played a memorable match there as a 17-year-old, when he came from behind and won.For all the milestone moments Alex de Minaur has had over his nearly 10-year pro tennis career, including nine ATP singles titles, there is one victory that stands out.It was the opening round of the 2017 Australian Open in de Minaur’s first main draw at his first major championship in his home country, when the then-17-year-old saved a match point in the fourth set before beating Gerald Melzer in five sets and almost four hours.In the opening round of the 2017 Australian Open, de Minaur, who was then just 17, beat his opponent in five sets and almost four hours. “It’s one of those moments that I had grown up dreaming about,” de Minaur recalled in an interview.Getty“I remember everything about that match,” said de Minaur during a phone interview shortly after he arrived in Sydney, Australia, his hometown, late last month to start his 2025 season playing for Australia in the United Cup. “Making my debut on show court three in front of a packed crowd. It was so hot, but there were so many people supporting me from the very first point to the last. It’s one of those moments that I had grown up dreaming about. To be able to win that last point and the whole release of emotions, of tension, fatigue that had built up through the whole match was a pretty surreal experience.”De Minaur, now 25, has become Australia’s great hope. Last season, in addition to notching wins over Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, he beat Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev, Taylor Fritz, Andrey Rublev, Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas, winning titles in Acapulco, Mexico, and the Dutch city of ’s-Hertogenbosch, and reaching a career-high No. 6 in July.But he also suffered excruciating losses, most notably to Rublev in the round of 16 at the Australian Open, the tournament de Minaur said he coveted most.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Golf

      DP World Tour Championship: Five Players to Watch

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      The tournament will also determine the winner of the Race to Dubai.The DP World Tour Championship, which starts on Thursday at the Jumeirah Golf Estates in the United Arab Emirates, isn’t lacking in familiar names. The contenders include the major champions Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Adam Scott and Shane Lowry.A winner will also be crowned in the season-long Race to Dubai. It will either be McIlroy, who enjoys a substantial lead, or Thriston Lawrence. Others pointed to receive the extra payout that goes to the top 10 in the final standings — first place will receive $2 million — include Billy Horschel, Tommy Fleetwood and Robert MacIntyre.Here are five to keep an eye on:The Italian golfer Matteo Manassero, now 31, seems to have turned things around after a decade-long slump.Warren Little/Getty ImagesMatteo ManasseroManassero, 31, was supposed to be the next big thing in professional golf.Consider what he accomplished as a 16-year-old amateur in 2009:Youngest winner ever of the British Amateur.The low amateur in the British Open at Turnberry in Scotland, finishing just four strokes behind Stewart Cink and Tom Watson.The No. 1-ranked amateur in the world.Bottom line: The future for the star from Northern Italy was limitless.Correction: Definitely limitless.He turned pro in 2010 and picked up his first tour victory that October, followed by one triumph apiece in 2011, 2012 and 2013. But after that, he didn’t win on the DP World Tour for the next 11 years.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Tennis

      In Tennis, Alexander Zverev’s Many Trials

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      He has not won a Grand Slam, but has taken an Olympic gold. He’s ranked No. 2, but has been fined over his temper on the court. He also has settled domestic abuse charges.Mischa Zverev knows his little brother better than anyone.A decade older than Alexander, who is also known as Sascha, Mischa has served as part-sibling, part-parent throughout Alexander’s life and tennis career.When Sascha was 6, Mischa took him along while he was playing satellite tournaments in Australia, hitting with him after his matches and letting him ride on his shoulders on the way home from the beach. Now the little brother is ranked No. 2 in the world, reached the French and U.S. Open finals, won an Olympic gold medal and is about to play in his seventh ATP Finals. He also won his seventh ATP Masters 1000 event last week at the Rolex Paris Masters.He has had his off-court travails over the last several years, including now-settled charges of domestic abuse and an on-court outburst during a loss in 2022, for which he was fined and placed on probation by the ATP.“I do know what I did, I do know what I didn’t do,” he said this spring before the charges were settled. “That’s, at the end of the day, what’s going to come out, and I have to trust in that.”Zverev, 27, won the ATP Finals in 2018 with back-to-back wins over Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, and then again in 2021 when he beat Daniil Medvedev in the final. The indoor tournament, which begins on Sunday in Turin, Italy, suits his style.“There’s no wind, no sun, nothing to distract me too much,” Zverev said in September. “I like having to play at 100 percent from the first match on. And it helps to have past success at a tournament. That’s something you can keep in the back of your mind.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      WTA Finals: The High-Energy Jasmine Paolini Has Broken Through

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      The player from Italy reached the finals this year at the French Open and Wimbledon. Now she has qualified for the WTA Finals for the first time.Jasmine Paolini was laughing, something she does loudly and often.Paolini had just explained that the WTA Finals she most vividly remembered watching on television was one featuring Dominika Cibulkova, who captured the title in 2016. She didn’t know why she picked that one over victories by more well-known winners like Serena Williams and Ashleigh Barty.“It was unbelievable,” Paolini, of Italy, said of Cibulkova’s win over top-seeded Angelique Kerber by phone from Shanghai in late September. Then she let out a guffaw so alluring that others often can’t help joining in.Paolini uses the words “unbelievable” and “crazy” a lot, but mostly to describe her own journey this year. At 28, she has qualified for her first WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. She and her compatriot Sara Errani have also qualified in doubles, making Paolini the only competitor in both singles and doubles.“It’s a very elite club,” Paolini said. “It’s really our reward for the season, so it is great to qualify.”Paolini began the year ranked No. 29. Four years ago, she was a little-known sprite barely ranked in the top 100. But a WTA 1000 title in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in February followed by surprise runner-up finishes to Iga Swiatek at the French Open and to Barbora Krejcikova at Wimbledon thrust her into the spotlight. Now she’s ranked No. 4.During her matches, Paolini is known to shout “Forza,” which translates to “Let’s go” in English.Matthew Stockman/Getty ImagesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More