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      Morocco Gave Everything in the World Cup Semifinal. It Needed a Little More Against France.

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      AL KHOR, Qatar — The drums kept on beating. The whistles kept on shrieking. Morocco’s players kept on coming, again and again, their legs burning and their lungs heaving, as they raged against the dying of the light. At the end, Morocco had run out of road. At no point, not for a second, did it run out of fight.The World Cup, then, will culminate in the sort of blockbuster final that both FIFA, its organizer, and Qatar, its host, have craved: Lionel Messi’s Argentina, seeking to deliver arguably the finest player of all time his crowning glory, against Kylian Mbappé, his heir apparent, and France, aiming to become the first nation in half a century to retain the most coveted prize in sports. Today, Gianni Infantino feels very smug indeed.Regardless of which team emerges triumphant on Sunday, though, which story line is reverse-engineered as destiny, on some level this will always be Morocco’s World Cup, the one that made it a trailblazer, a record-breaker, a watermark that will not fade. From this point on, a whole slew of achievements will all be the first since Morocco.It was here that Morocco became the first team from the Arab world to make a World Cup quarterfinal. Then, a few days later, it was here that it became the first African team to extend its run all the way to the semifinals.That it could go no further, beaten by France, 2-0, in a breathless, furious game at Al Bayt, neither erases nor diminishes those feats. It does not alter the fact that it was in Qatar where Morocco proved to a “whole generation” that it could produce “miracles,” as its redoubtable goalkeeper, Yassine Bounou, put it. It was in Qatar that Morocco, according to its coach, Walid Regragui, redefined the limits of “what was possible.”A Brief Guide to the 2022 World CupCard 1 of 9What is the World Cup? More

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      Théo Hernandez, France’s Goalscorer, Stepped Up After His Brother, Lucas, Fell

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      Most of the injuries that have befallen France, that sapped its team of world-class stars like N’Golo Kante and Paul Pogba, occurred before Les Bleus began playing in Qatar. But one, a torn knee ligament for Lucas Hernandez, came early in their first match against Australia.The man who replaced him at left-back just scored France’s first goal in its World Cup semifinal against Morocco. His name his Théo Hernandez, and he is Lucas’s younger brother.In the fifth minute, Théo Hernandez, who plays for A.C. Milan, corralled a loose ball near the goal post and showed tremendous poise and agility in getting on top of the ball with his left foot, sneaking it past the Moroccan goalkeeper, Bono.An absolute dream start for France 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/utpt5ysaTn— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) December 14, 2022
      Théo Hernandez committed the foul Saturday late against England that led to what could have been a tying penalty; Harry Kane missed it. But today, he made up for that mistake with a goal that might lift France into its second consecutive final. More

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      France Is the First Country in Over 20 Years to Qualify for Consecutive World Cup Finals

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      France’s quest to repeat as champion reached a climactic stage today when Les Bleus nipped Morocco, 2-0, on goals by Théo Hernandez and Randal Kolo Muani to advance to the World Cup final.In denying Morocco, the tournament darling, an implausible berth in the final match, France became the first nation in more than two decades to qualify for consecutive finals. The last was Brazil, which actually made three straight, from 1994-2002.A magnificent French team edged Croatia in 2018 to win the title, and though this squad is no less marvelous, only four of its starters from that year — Olivier Giroud, Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappé and Hugo Lloris — are likely to feature against Lionel Messi, Lionel Messi and Lionel Messi and Argentina on Sunday.Although nations have played in consecutive finals on five other occasions, only two — Brazil, in 1958 and 1962, and Italy, in 1934 and 1938 — have won both. The other instances include the Netherlands, in 1974 and 1978; West Germany, in 1982, 1986 and 1990; and Brazil, in 1994, 1998 and 2002. More

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      Tunisia’s World Cup exit was a wild ride. Denmark’s was a frustrating one.

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      As World Cup drama goes, it was a remarkable couple of minutes. A last stand by Tunisia. A late goal by France. A lead lost. A result overturned. And then a video review, and it all flipped back in a moment.And none of it mattered.Tunisia went out of the World Cup on Wednesday in the strangest of circumstances: victors over France, 1-0, when a late French equalizer was disallowed 12 minutes into second-half injury time, but already eliminated a few minutes earlier by Australia’s 1-0 victory against Denmark.The results of those two games, played out simultaneously in stadiums only six miles apart, settled the standings in Group D: France (6 points) edged out Australia (6) on goal difference, and left Tunisia (4) and Denmark (1) packing their bags.Australia’s moment was a rare soccer success for its men’s team: The first time it has advanced to the knockout round since 2006, which was the only previous time it survived the group stage.Its goal came in a blur: Breaking out after a Denmark attack fizzled, Mathew Leckie took a pass near the center circle, swept around a Danish defender and sent a low shot past Denmark’s diving goalkeeper, Kasper Schmeichel.Denmark sent on one attacking option after another to chase the goals it needed to secure its way out of the group, but none of them worked. The World Cup will be remembered as a major failure for the Danes, who reached the semifinals in the 2020 European Championship but managed only a single point — from a dreary scoreless draw — through three games in Qatar.The World Cup will be remembered as a major failure for Denmark.Paul Ellis/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesTunisia, meanwhile, had briefly thought it had punched its ticket to the second round on Wahbi Khazri’s slaloming goal in the 58th minute. But before its fans had finished celebrating, Leckie scored for Australia, and only a goal by the Danes could save the Tunisians. It never came.Tunisia’s exit was confirmed when Australia’s game went final, and its disappointment was doubled minutes later when an Antoine Griezmann goal appeared to rob it of even the consolation prize of a final victory.But after a pause and a video review, Griezmann’s goal was disallowed because he had been offside in the buildup. Suddenly the Tunisians’ lead had been restored. Their fans, crushed moments earlier by the news of their team’s World Cup exit, burst into cheers at the news that they would at least go out a winner.It wasn’t what any of them would have wanted. But after a five-minute emotional journey in which they had been eliminated, robbed of a win and then handed it back, that prize felt like a moral victory. More

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      in Basket

      Victor Wembanyama Has Always Done Things Differently

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      NANTERRE, France — On a rainy fall afternoon in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre, François Salaün sat outside a cafe in a suit taking drags from a vape pen. He once taught at a high school around the corner, where, three years ago, he taught a student named Victor Wembanyama, who had to duck to get into classrooms and knew an unusual array of facts about the world.Salaün recalled asking the students in his French class to write a short story about the realization of a dream. Some shared their hopes of becoming famous basketball players, but not Wembanyama, though he was well on his way to that dream.In fact, Wembanyama didn’t really follow the prompt at all. Instead, he and a friend wrote a tale titled “Alice et Jules,” about a married couple whose lives were upended when Jules drove while drunk, crashed, fell into a coma and woke up having lost contact with Alice. In the end, they reunited.Wembanyama liked to do things his way, and Salaün didn’t mind so much. He remembered Wembanyama as smart, polite and gifted in French literature. He said he also had a calming influence on the class.Victor Wembanyama dancing as he warms up before a French league game.James Hill for The New York TimesHis former teacher’s recollection surprised Wembanyama and resurfaced a memory: One day in class, Wembanyama had folded his lanky body in half, with his forehead resting on his desk, so he could stealthily play on his phone. Then Salaün asked the class a question.“I answered the question, like, out loud, while being on my phone, because I knew the answer,” Wembanyama said. “And I remember he was like, ‘Thank you, Victor, but what are you doing?’”Wembanyama started laughing as he finished telling the story. He had been a typical teenager on that day, at least for a moment. But at 7-foot-3, he has never really been typical, and perhaps he never will be. In eight months, he will almost certainly be the top pick in the N.B.A. draft as the most hyped teenager since LeBron James, who called him an “alien.” His play and potential have drawn comparisons to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hakeem Olajuwon, Kevin Durant and Giannis Antetokounmpo.When Wembanyama plays basketball, he does sometimes look otherworldly.Wembanyama dunking in the layup line before a French league game.His height — and his wingspan of about eight feet — often make it seem as though he’s in two places at once. He’s as smooth as a smaller player, but he barely has to leave the ground to block shots or grab rebounds.This month, dozens of scouts and N.B.A. team executives gathered in Las Vegas to watch his French professional team, Metropolitans 92, play two games against G League Ignite, the N.B.A.’s developmental team for top prospects. Wembanyama’s team lost the first game, but he scored 37 points, including seven 3-pointers, and blocked five shots. Two days later, Metropolitans 92 won the rematch; Wembanyama had 36 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 blocks.“I’ve always felt like I was on a different level,” Wembanyama said. “I was living a different life than everyone else in school, for example, even in elementary school. I was just thinking differently than everyone. I’ve always tried to be original in everything I do, and it’s really something that stays in my soul: Be original. Be one of a kind. It’s like, I can’t explain it. I think I was born with it.”The people who knew Wembanyama growing up sometimes affectionately joked that he was on his own planet.He was playing for a youth basketball team in his hometown, Le Chesnay, west of Paris, when Michaël Allard, a coach from a club in Nanterre, saw him in what the coach called “a beautiful coincidence.” Allard thought the 10-year-old Wembanyama was an assistant coach because of his height, though he soon took notice of more than that.“He’s competitive, he’s joyful and he wants to play all the time,” Allard said in French.In Nanterre, near the dormitory of the academy of Nanterre 92 basketball club on the outskirts of Paris.Michaël Allard, one of Wembanyama’s coaches at Nanterre 92.The Nanterre club has both youth and professional teams. When Wembanyama was 13, he won his first French championship. He’d always loved basketball, but that championship made him fall in love with winning.“I cried that day,” Wembanyama said. “That was my first big title, so I was so happy.”In middle school, Wembanyama began teaching himself English, knowing that to play in the N.B.A. he would need proficiency beyond the little he’d learned in school. He watched videos from American accounts on Instagram, along with English-language television shows.As he entered his teenage years, scouts and the news media began flocking to see him.“It was when he was 14 that I said to myself, ‘This one, he has to go to the N.B.A.,’” said Frédéric Donnadieu, speaking in French. Donnadieu was Wembanyama’s first coach at Nanterre and is now the president of the club.Wembanyama’s parents, Felix Wembanyama and Elodie de Fautereau, tried to keep his life as normal as possible.They made sure he kept up with his schoolwork. If he got bad grades, the coaches made him sit at the wooden scorer’s table in the gym and do his homework instead of practicing with his friends.“That annoyed him more than anything else,” said Amine El Hajraoui, a coach at Nanterre.Amine El Hajraoui of the Nanterre basketball club at their home stadium, where Wembanyama spent his formative years, showing the trophies won by the teams that he played for in their academy.Though Wembanyama’s parents asked for him not to have any special treatment, that was sometimes unavoidable.He moved to Nanterre at 14 to live in the dormitory where the club housed its players. It was a simple building with bright brick accents about a 15-minute walk from school, where Wembanyama slept on a bed that had been specially made in northern France to fit him.The Nanterre club’s training facility was next door to Wembanyama’s high school, where it installed a fridge for easy access to the five meals a day that a caterer prepared, according to recommendations from nutritionists, to help the growing Wembanyama fill out his frame. His coach had an office on the school’s campus. The principal helped manage his schedule. A group of 25 people were responsible for his physical and mental development.At home, basketball was not the first subject discussed, though Wembanyama’s mother had played and coached the game. His parents shielded him from some of the ever-increasing news media requests for interviews. They worried about thrusting him onto a set path too soon, afraid of the effect that might have on his growth as a person.“If one day he said to himself that he wanted to stop playing basketball because he was tired of it, that he said to himself, ‘I want to go out, to have fun,’ what would he have done?” said Donnadieu, his former coach. “Today it’s interesting, because his story is beautiful. But when he was 15, sometimes it was too much.”Michaël Bur, who coached Wembanyama in Nanterre, used to do a simple exercise with his players. He’d ask them to choose a meaningful word that started with the same letter as their first name. As usual, Wembanyama took the assignment in a different direction.“He said, ‘You know, Coach, my name is Victor,’” Bur recalled in French. “I said, ‘Well, yes.’ He said, ‘What letter does it start with?’ And I said, ‘the letter V,’ and he said: ‘V in Roman numerals means 5. My name is Victor because I can play all five positions.’ And I thought that was extraordinary for a 16-year-old.”Wembanyama standing in the center of the huddle with his teammates before a French league game in September.Wembanyama understood and embraced his uniqueness. But he also recognized that being part of a team meant needing to relate to his teammates.“Everybody is talking about him being a unicorn, being so different on the basketball court, but in real life he’s just a normal kid, having fun with friends,” said Maxime Raynaud, who transferred to Nanterre in Wembanyama’s final year there.In October 2020, Raynaud and Wembanyama were training one afternoon when two older French pros arrived — Vincent Poirier and Rudy Gobert. Gobert played for the N.B.A.’s Utah Jazz at the time and had won the league’s Defensive Player of the Year Award twice. The teenagers started trash-talking.“As soon as we turned from messing around talking about playing to actually playing two on two, there’s something that switches in his head and he just turns into a kill mode,” Raynaud said of Wembanyama.Video of the games went viral. Gobert, 30, who is 7-foot-1, chuckled recently at how excited people were to see Wembanyama shooting over him. Wembanyama, at 16, was already taller than Gobert.“In this era of social media, everything gets magnified,” Gobert said. “And you know, those young kids, it’s a lot of added pressure on them. I think what strikes me the most about him is his maturity.”After Wembanyama graduated from high school in 2021, he left Nanterre’s professional team, Nanterre 92, for ASVEL, a club based in a suburb of Lyon, France, and owned by the former N.B.A. star Tony Parker, who is French. Then, in July, Wembanyama chose to go home: Metropolitans 92 is based in Levallois-Perret, close to where his parents live.Fans in the city have sold out the 2,800-seat arena for the first three games of the team’s season.Wembanyama defending his team’s basket.A excited crowd watching Wembanyama and Metropolitans 92.“We come to see Victor Wembanyama, of course, before he goes to the U.S.,” said Jeremy Guiselin, 27, speaking in French before a game in late September. “It’s the last moment for us to see him before he becomes a superstar, before he becomes No. 1 in the draft, and before he becomes a bit unattainable.”A group of team employees meets once a month to discuss how to best help Wembanyama add strength to his still-lanky frame. They know opponents will use physical play as a weapon against him.“I told him that I’m not going to specifically try to get him the first position of the draft,” said Vincent Collet, the coach of Metropolitans 92 and the French national team. “We want to get prepared for the next goal, which is to dominate in the N.B.A.”There is a part of Wembanyama that will be sad to see this phase of his life end. He has spent his whole life in France, most of it around Paris.“I’m going to miss France, for sure,” he said. “But I’ve worked all my life for this, so I’m really just thankful and grateful.”Wembanyama and his teammates listened to coach Vincent Collet during the French league basketball match.In two exhibition games in Las Vegas, Wembanyama went toe-to-toe with the Ignite’s Scoot Henderson, who is expected to be drafted second overall behind Wembanyama next year. Henderson held his own before leaving with an injury early in the second game, but there was no question who everyone had been there to see.Amid all the commotion, Wembanyama still finds ways to unplug.The night between the games in Las Vegas, he sat on a tufted leather couch in the team hotel — his knees sticking up several inches past a coffee table — and spoke excitedly about his favorite fantasy and sci-fi stories. He said he was “the biggest” fan of “Star Wars” and shared books he’d been reading lately.“I’ve just finished the second book of, what’s the name? I read it in French,” Wembanyama said. He looked through his phone to remember the translation.Wembanyama dunking during a French league match between Metropolitans 92 and Le Portel.“‘The Royal Assassin,’” he said. “You know about it?“I read my first book in English a few months ago,” he added. “It was ‘Eragon.’ You know about it?”Every night before bed, Wembanyama sets an alarm on his phone then puts it away. He goes through his bedtime routine, then gets under the covers and reads.“I could read nonfiction, but the way I read is mostly to not think about anything I just did during the day,” Wembanyama said. “Not thinking about anything I’m going to do in the morning. Just disconnect from the world. And so fantasy is really what helps me the most in doing that. I just get absorbed by a book and just fly in another dimension.”He recently began reading the “Game of Thrones” novels, called “Le Trone de Fer” in French, a phrase that translates to “The Iron Throne.”“So far it might be the best thing I’ve ever read,” he said.He has already seen the television series, and his favorite character is Tyrion Lannister, played by Peter Dinklage.“He’s just so complex,” Wembanyama said. “And the way he just settles into the story.”As he spoke about how much he loved the TV series, he was reminded about its ending, which was widely panned.“Ahhh, it’s OK,” Wembanyama said, smiling and shrugging his shoulders. “This is not about the way it ends. It’s about the journey.”Léontine Gallois More

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      in Tennis

      Kader Nouni: The Umpire Known as the ‘Barry White of Tennis’

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      Kader Nouni, called the “Barry White of tennis,” used to worry that his deep baritone distracted from the job, but now he’s comfortable in the umpire chair.Trailing 5-4 in the second set of her first-round match in this year’s U.S. Open, Venus Williams hit a forehand winner down the line to bring the game to 40-40. The chair umpire, Kader Nouni, let out a booming “deuce” that reverberated throughout Arthur Ashe Stadium.Some spectators snickered; others tried to imitate his deep, baritone voice.Nouni, who has been a part of the WTA for more than a decade, is used to the comments.When he was 16, Nouni called a girlfriend at her home and her father picked up the phone, he recalled during a recent interview at Bryant Park in Manhattan. The girl’s father handed the phone to his daughter, but the next day, Nouni’s girlfriend told him that her father didn’t believe they were the same age.“Because of your voice,” Nouni remembered her saying. “That’s how it all started.”These days, Nouni, a 46-year-old Frenchman, has become well known among those who follow tennis closely, and even casual fans are drawn to his resonant and melodic voice.Fabrice Chouquet, a senior vice president of competition and on-site operations for the WTA, said Nouni’s “unique style and booming voice have endeared him to players and fans alike.”Amanda Gaston, a tennis fan from Xenia, Ohio, attended a few matches under Nouni’s call in August at the nearby Western and Southern Open. She described Nouni as the “Barry White of tennis.”“When he’s in the chair, I immediately know it’s him,” Gaston said. “It’s a very distinctive, deep tone that you can immediately recognize.”Cliff Jenkins of Cincinnati said he and a friend try to imitate Nouni when he’s in the chair. “He’s got the velvet baritone voice — easy, effortless and full of richness,” Jenkins said.Such praise of his timbre used to worry Nouni — that he would be known more for his voice than his work, he said.“We always say that a good official is someone that we don’t talk about,” Nouni said. “I always wanted to be good and wanted people to speak more about being a good official.”These days, as a gold badge umpire, the highest level for tennis officials, Nouni feels he has proved himself in the business, and comments about his voice don’t bother him as much.“If they want to keep talking about my voice, I have no problem anymore with that,” he said.Several feet above the court in a lone chair, an umpire keeps score and enforces the rules of the game, but the job also extends to quieting boisterous crowds and regulating a player’s temperament on the court. That’s where a voice like Nouni’s is an effective tool in what he believes is one of the main keys to officiating — communication.“If you don’t know how to sell the call, it won’t help,” he said. “There’s always this pressure of input from the players. If they’re not happy with your calls, they’re going to get mad. If the crowd is unhappy with your calls, they’re going to get mad.”Before he was an umpire, Nouni’s first work in the sport was at a tennis club when he was 9 years old, doing such jobs as stringing rackets. Nouni and his brother wanted to play tennis, but lessons and court time were expensive for their mother, who raised them on her own in the southern French city of Perpignan after Nouni’s father died when he was 2.“It was not easy,” he said. “To be able to play tennis, we had to work.”When Nouni was 12, a tournament organizer was looking for officials for a local competition, and Nouni was asked if he wanted to work as an umpire for adult matches. He obliged, not realizing it would become his job for decades.“When you’re 12 years old and you have to deal with adults, and they have to listen to you, it’s kind of funny,” Nouni said.For a while, umpiring matches in local tournaments was just a summer job. But when Nouni was 16, he was invited to call matches at the national championship in Paris. The tournament was special for Nouni because he and the other teenage officials slept at the Roland Garros complex, and they were allowed to play on the clay courts when official matches weren’t taking place. For Nouni, who had lived with his family in public housing, staying at the home of the French Open was a remarkable experience.“We didn’t have much money,” Nouni said. “For me, being there at the French Open, even only for the summer, was fantastic.”Nouni’s performance during that tournament led to his selection as a line judge for the 1992 French Open. Since then, Nouni has been an umpire for dozens of Grand Slams and other tournaments around the world, including in the 2018 Wimbledon women’s singles final, where he was the chair umpire. Nouni has also been the chair umpire for five French Open women’s finals, in 2007, 2009, 2013, 2014 and 2021.Kader Nouni conducting the toss at the start of the women’s semifinal match between Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova at Wimbledon in 2015.Suzanne Plunkett/POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesWith so many memorable matches under his call, Nouni finds it difficult to single out one, but he always remembers his firsts — his first time in New York for the U.S. Open, his first time at the Olympics and his first time on Centre Court at Wimbledon.“Those moments are great,” Nouni said. “To be in the middle of the action, it’s priceless.”The job comes with downsides like being yelled at by players on occasion, often in high-profile matches, and especially in tournaments without the automated line calls of the U.S. Open. During a match at the 2012 Australian Open, David Nalbandian told Nouni to “shut up” after Nouni called a serve by John Isner as an ace, overruling the fault call from a line judge.“Let’s play,” Nouni said into the microphone, trying to regain control of the match.The match was delayed when Nalbandian called a tournament supervisor to the court. Nouni’s call stood, and after losing the match, Nalbandian told reporters that Nouni was not qualified to umpire.Nouni said tough calls can be difficult to let go, but he uses them as learning experiences.“You don’t think about it every day, but it’s somewhere, it’s part of you,” he said. “You don’t think about the best calls.”On the tour, Nouni usually calls two matches a day during the first week of a tournament, and he has other duties such as evaluating other umpires.“The first week is work, work, work, work,” Nouni said.But traveling around the world for the tour has given him the chance to see sights and explore. (A trip to Central Park and a Broadway show were on his to-do list while in New York.) The travel has also introduced him to people in many different cities.“I’ve been in the business for a while, so now I have my friends all around the world,” Nouni said.While the tour means a lot of travel days, Nouni said he does not plan to leave tennis soon.“You cannot do this job if you don’t like it,” Nouni said. “Impossible. You don’t survive. I think I will stop when I feel like it’s time to stop, and I’m not enjoying it anymore.”When that time comes, Nouni said jokingly, perhaps his voice would give him a shot at a different career.“Maybe Disney comes at me and asks me to do some voice-over for them.” More

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      In Comebacks, Serena Williams Showed ‘You Can Never Underestimate Her’

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      Big moments on the biggest stages cemented Williams’s reputation as the queen of comebacks.During the 2012 U.S. Open final, Serena Williams was so close to losing that the idea of a comeback seemed out of the question.Her opponent, Victoria Azarenka, had gone up 5-3 in the final set, giving her numerous ways to put Williams away.“I was preparing my runners-up speech,” Williams said.Instead, she delivered what became a signature comeback of her career, breaking Azarenka’s serve twice and winning the championship without losing another game.The significance of that victory went beyond the title itself, as it turned around a year in which she had lost in the first round of the French Open. And as Williams comes close to retiring, that win illustrates how many fans will remember her tennis career — Williams coming back time and again under difficult circumstances.Here are some of the moments that helped Williams build that reputation.Australian Open, 2007Dean Treml/Agence France-Presse – Getty ImagesAfter struggling with a knee injury for much of 2006, Williams went into the 2007 Australian Open unseeded and ranked No. 81. But she went on to win the tournament, defeating Maria Sharapova.“She goes months without playing a match, loses in a tuneup and then runs the table,” Jon Wertheim, a Tennis Channel commentator and author, said.Pam Shriver, an ESPN tennis analyst, said that Williams entered the Australian Open that year in poor shape, but that by the end of the tournament, “she almost looked like a different player.”“That was one of the most memorable comebacks that I can remember that resulted in a major championship,” Shriver said.After the match, Sharapova said to the crowd in Rod Laver Arena that “you can never underestimate her as an opponent.”“I don’t think many of you expected her to be in the final, but I definitely did,” Sharapova said.2011 Health ScareChris Trotman/Getty ImagesIn February 2011, Williams was hospitalized with a pulmonary embolism. Williams recovered in time to play Wimbledon, and later revealed the seriousness of her health scare.“I was literally on my deathbed at one point,” Williams said at the time. The circumstances, she said, changed her perspective, and she went into Wimbledon that year with “nothing to lose.”Serena Williams’s Farewell to TennisThe U.S. Open could be the tennis star’s last professional tournament after a long career of breaking boundaries and obliterating expectations.Decades of Greatness: Over 27 years, Serena Williams dominated generation after generation of opponents and changed the way women’s tennis is played, winning 23 Grand Slam singles titles and cementing her reputation as the queen of comebacks.Is She the GOAT?: Proclaiming Williams the greatest women’s tennis player of all time is not a straightforward debate, our columnist writes.An Enduring Influence: From former and current players’ memories of a young Williams to the new fans she drew to tennis, Williams left a lasting impression.Her Fashion: Since she turned professional in 1995, Williams has used her clothes as a statement of self and a weapon of change.Williams made it to the round of 16. Then, she won her next two tournaments, the Bank of the West Classic in California and the Rogers Cup in Canada. She finished her year by reaching the U.S. Open final, where she lost to Samantha Stosur.“That comeback was unbelievable,” Shriver said. “No matter the score, no matter whatever, she still thought she could win.”2012 Summer RunDoug Mills/The New York TimesWilliams was eliminated from the 2012 Australian Open in the round of 16, and she was upset at that year’s French Open, where she was knocked out in the first round.“When she lost in the French Open in the first round, the career buzzards came circling,” Wertheim said. “There were plenty of times her career was supposed to be over, and she came back. The obvious one is 2012.”Williams responded to the losses by training under a new coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, who went on to work with her for the next decade.And after that French Open, Williams went on a streak. She won Wimbledon before taking the gold medals in women’s singles and doubles at the London Olympics, and then she delivered her win against Azarenka at the U.S. Open, “playing some of the most inspiring tennis of her career,” Wertheim said.French Open, 2015Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesAt the French Open in 2015, Williams lost the first set of three consecutive matches. Each time, she came back to win in three sets.“Opponents were points away from eliminating her, and Serena simply refused to go off the court anything other than the winner,” Wertheim said.Williams went on to win the semifinal while dealing with a bout of the flu.The day after the semifinal, still sick, Williams said she briefly thought about withdrawing from the final.“Out of 10 — a 10 being like take me to the hospital — I went from like a 6 to a 12 in a matter of two hours,” she said at the time. “I was just miserable. I was literally in my bed shaking, and I was just shaking, and I just started thinking positive.”Williams won the final for her 20th major singles title.Pregnancy ComebackClive Mason/Getty ImagesIn 2017, Williams surprised the tennis world when she shared that she had won that year’s Australian Open while she was close to two months pregnant.Williams missed the rest of the 2017 tennis season, and had another major health scare after she gave birth to her daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian. Williams was bedridden for her six weeks after she had blood clots in her lungs. Severe coughing caused her cesarean section wound to open. And doctors found a large hematoma, a collection of blood outside the blood vessels, in her abdomen.She returned to tennis in 2018, when she reached the Wimbledon final (where she lost to Angelique Kerber) and the U.S. Open final (where she lost to Naomi Osaka). The following year, she reached the Wimbledon final (losing to Simona Halep) and the U.S. Open final again (losing to Bianca Andreescu).“To have a child in the north half of your 30s and reach four major finals is an extraordinary feat that hasn’t gotten the full due,” Wertheim said.The Farewell ComebackHiroko Masuike/The New York TimesWilliams was forced to withdraw early in her first-round Wimbledon match last year because of an injury. She was given a standing ovation as she walked off the court in tears, as many began to wonder whether it would be the last time Williams would appear at the All England Club.She returned to Centre Court at Wimbledon this year but was defeated in the first round. She continued to struggle after that, losing early in the tournaments she has entered. At the National Bank Open in Toronto, Coco Gauff said that she was moved by how Williams has continued playing and “giving it her all.”“There’s nothing else she needs to give us in the game,” Gauff told reporters. “I just love that.”Williams will attempt one more comeback at this year’s U.S. Open. Along with her singles draw, she will also play in the women’s doubles tournament, partnered with her sister Venus. While we wait to see how this comeback takes shape, one certainty, Shriver said, is that Williams will be playing with the support of her fans.“The crowd is going to be crazy,” Shriver said. “I think the noise on a Serena win will be some of the loudest noise we’ve ever heard at the U.S. Open.” More

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      in Soccer

      France’s Corinne Diacre Is Not Interested in Your Opinion

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      Coach Corinne Diacre set a high bar for France at the Euros. But tying one’s fate to results works only when they’re good.ROTHERHAM, England — Corinne Diacre punched the air, allowed herself a cursory smile of satisfaction, and then turned on her heel. She managed to dodge the first couple of staff members rushing past her on their way to join the celebrations on the field after France’s quarterfinal victory, only to find her path blocked by Gilles Fouache.Fouache, France’s assistant goalkeeping coach, is not an easy obstacle to avoid: broad-shouldered and shaven-headed and with the air of a kindly bouncer. Diacre, a redoubtable central defender in her playing days, quickly recognized there was no way past. Fouache swept his manager up in a brief bear hug, and then she sent him on his way, too.Once she had done so, her smile melted away. She sought out her Dutch counterpart, offered some words of congratulation and condolence, and then made her way to her players. A handful received a pat on the back. Others were offered only some immediate performance feedback. She had come to Euro 2022 on business, not pleasure.By some measures, that victory against the Netherlands last weekend was enough to ensure Diacre had done her job. France had never previously made it past the quarterfinals of a European Championship; Eve Périsset’s penalty, deep into extra time, finally ended the hoodoo.Diacre, though, arrived in England with slightly higher expectations, and so did her country. France, after all, is home to two of the most powerful women’s soccer clubs, the reigning European champion Lyon and its great rival, Paris St.-Germain. Diacre had an unrivaled pipeline of talent from which to create a squad.To her, and to French soccer, it felt reasonable to declare reaching the final the team’s “stated ambition.” On Wednesday night, it failed to meet it. France might only have fallen narrowly to Germany, by 2-1 in their semifinal in Milton Keynes, England, but it fell nonetheless. And that, unfortunately, gives Diacre a problem.Corinne Diacre and France have never reached the final of a major tournament.Molly Darlington/ReutersA couple of weeks after Diacre, 47, and her players arrived in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, the small town in rural Leicestershire where France’s national team has taken up residence for this tournament — that it chose a spot with a distinctly French name is, apparently, coincidental — a journalist from a French magazine contacted the team’s press officer to ask why no local junior team had yet been invited to watch a training session.Such outreach initiatives are a staple of major tournaments, a fairly simple public-relations maneuver designed to thank the community for its hospitality. France, by contrast, had made no contact with amateur sides in Ashby. The team, the journalist was told, was not in England to make friends.It is a tunnel vision that is characteristic of Diacre’s management style. She veers between distant and acerbic with the news media, despite employing a P.R. “teacher”; she has admitted that communication is not her strong suit. She makes no secret of the fact that she does not enjoy the public-facing aspects of her job.With her players, too, she has not always fostered the most conducive relationships. One of her first moves after taking charge of her nation’s team five years ago was to strip Wendie Renard, France’s totemic defender, of the captaincy.Wendie Renard, surrounded by celebrating rivals once again.Carl Recine/ReutersSince then, she has contrived to alienate a number of players from Lyon, the country’s dominant women’s team, to such an extent that Sarah Bouhaddi, the goalkeeper, claimed she had inculcated a “very, very negative environment.” Bouhaddi has subsequently said she will not play for her country while Diacre is in charge.Another veteran, Gaëtane Thiney, was dropped for criticizing Diacre’s tactics, and a third, Amandine Henry, was dropped after she had described the French squad during the 2019 World Cup as “complete and utter chaos.” The call in which Diacre broke the news lasted, Henry said, “14 or 15 seconds; I will remember it all my life.” More remarkable still was that Henry had inherited the captaincy from Renard; her banishment meant that Renard was restored to the post.Diacre’s biggest gamble of all, though, may well have been her squad for this tournament. Diacre was already without both Kheira Hamraoui and Aminata Diallo, a legacy of the assault scandal that has roiled French soccer for much of the last year, but she also chose to omit both Henry and Eugénie Le Sommer, France’s career goal-scoring leader.The manager defended the moves, citing the need to protect and preserve the “mentality” of her squad. Early results bore her out. There was no sign, in France’s month or so in England, of club enmities poisoning the atmosphere among the players. The longstanding divide between the Lyonnaises and the Parisians seemed to have evaporated.Besides, it was not as if Diacre did not have players of impeccable quality to replace them. The depth of talent at her command was such that she could juggle her team for each of France’s first four games of the tournament with no apparent diminution of quality.France became the first team to put a ball in Germany’s net at the Euros, but its score was officially credited as a German own goal.Rui Vieira/Associated PressThe issue, though, was that making those calls turned Diacre into a martyr of outcome. Had France met her aspirations, and reached Sunday’s final against England, she would have been vindicated; leaving Henry and Le Sommer at home would have seemed like a masterstroke, proof of her bold conviction.That France did not means it is all but impossible not to wonder whether the outcome might have been different had two of the key players on the best club team in the women’s game been on the field, or even on the substitutes’ bench, available to call on in an emergency.In truth, the border between those realities is slender, and blurred. It hinges on a moment, an instant: Had France remained attentive when Svenja Huth picked up the ball on the edge of the penalty area, rather than assuming it had drifted out of play, then perhaps it would still be in the tournament, and Diacre’s call would have paid off.It is the manager, though, who made that bargain, who made it plain that the gauge of success and failure was what she did, not how she did it. France came to Euro 2022 with a destination in mind. Now that it has fallen short, it cannot claim credit for the journey. More