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      in Tennis

      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

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      in Golf

      The Players to Watch at the Evian

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      Five golfers who have a good chance to win the tournament, including the defending champion.The premier female golfers in the world will tee off this Thursday at the Evian Resort Golf Club in France for the Amundi Evian Championship, the fourth of the LPGA Tour’s five majors in 2022.The year’s major winners include: Jennifer Kupcho (Chevron Championship), Minjee Lee (U.S. Women’s Open), and In Gee Chun (KMPG Women’s P.G.A. Championship). The final major, the AIG Women’s Open, will be held in early August.In last year’s Evian Championship, Minjee Lee outdueled Jeongeun Lee6 on the first playoff hole to capture her first major. Minjee Lee fired a 64 in the final round, rallying from seven shots back to take the title.Here’s who to watch this week:The 2021 Olympic champion Nelly Korda has had a difficult season so far, placing 30th at the KPMG Women’s P.G.A. Championship golf tournament last month.Scott Taetsch/USA Today Sports, via ReutersNelly KordaKorda, the former No. 1 and 2021 Olympic champion, has had a year that she would surely like to forget.In January, she got Covid-19, which kept her on the sidelines for a while during the off-season.Then, in March, she had surgery to remove a blood clot from her left arm. Korda didn’t return to the LPGA Tour until the U.S. Women’s Open in early June, where she finished in a tie for eighth. A couple of months before, she hadn’t been sure she would make it back in time for that tournament.Two weeks later, Korda, 23, lost in a playoff to Kupcho at the Meijer L.P.G.A. Classic. In each of her first three rounds, Korda shot five under or lower, but she cooled off during the final round, firing an even-par 72. She went on to tie for 30th at the KPMG Women’s P.G.A. Championship in late June. She is ranked No. 3.With two majors to go, Korda, whose older sister, Jessica, also plays on the LPGA Tour, still has a chance to make this year memorable in a different way.Minjee Lee, ranked no. 2, has been a force since making her professional debut in the Evian Championship in 2014. Terrance Williams/Associated PressMinjee LeeLee, ranked No. 2, seems to be a factor in just about every major these days.That was the case again at the KPMG last month, where she had a chance to nab her third major title in under a year.Trailing by six strokes going into the final round, she put pressure on the leaders. Lee, however, missed a pivotal 4-footer on 17, coming away with a bogey. She rebounded with a birdie at 18, but finished in a tie with Lexi Thompson, a shot behind In Gee Chun.Lee, 26, who made her professional debut at the Evian Championship in 2014 — she tied for 16th at that event — grew up in Perth, Australia. She took up the game at the age of 10, and, in 2012, she won the United States Girls’ Junior championship. Just two years later, she had risen to become the No. 1 amateur in the world.Lydia Ko struggled recently at the KPMG, but she’s still in top form. The New Zealander has finished fifth or better in four of her past five appearances.Matt Rourke/Associated PressLydia KoIt’s true: Ko had a disappointing showing recently at the KPMG, where she recorded rounds of 76 and 79 on the weekend to finish in a tie for 46th. But beyond that, Ko, a former No. 1, has been playing extremely well this season.Before the KMPG, the New Zealander had finished fifth or better in four of her past five appearances. In 12 starts, the KPMG was the only event in which she ended up placing lower than 25th.Ko, who won the Gainbridge L.P.G.A. in late January — edging Danielle Kang by a stroke — is still only 25 years old. That seems difficult to imagine, given how long she’s been around. Ko was the tour’s rookie of the year in 2014 and player of the year in 2015, the youngest ever in both cases. That 2015 season was capped by a win in the Evian Championship, her first major title.Like many top players, she’s had her struggles. After compiling 15 career victories through 2018, Ko didn’t win again until the 2021 Lotte Championship. During that dry spell, she fell to as low as 55th in the world rankings; she has now climbed to No. 4.A 19 year-old rookie, Thitikul captured her first tour victory at the JTBC Classic in March. Elsa/Getty ImagesAtthaya ThitikulFor Thitikul, a rookie this year, the future may arrive sooner than she thinks. It might even be here already.Only 19 years old, Thitikul of Thailand is now ranked No. 5 in the world. At the KPMG, she finished fourth, just two shots behind Chun. Earlier this year, Thitikul picked up her first tour victory at the JTBC Classic. It probably didn’t happen in quite the way she would have imagined — she made a bogey on the second playoff hole to defeat Nanna Koerstz Madsen — but a win is a win. With that victory, Thitikul became the youngest winner on the LPGA Tour since Brooke Henderson in 2016.“It’s just crazy in my mind right now,” Thitikul said afterward. “I cannot believe that I became an LPGA winner.”In 2017, when she captured the Ladies European Thailand Championship, Thitikul became the youngest to win on the Ladies European Tour. She was 14 years, four months and 19 days old at the time.Jennifer Kupcho went pro after a stellar run as an amateur. This year, she scored her first career victory at the Chevron Championship.Elsa/Getty ImagesJennifer KupchoIn June, Kupcho prevailed in a three-way playoff with Nelly Korda and Leona Maguire in the Meijer LPGA Classic.Kupcho, ranked No. 9, almost blew it that day, missing a short eagle putt on the first playoff hole that would have ended the competition right there. Some players might have been flustered after a failure like that. Not Kupcho. On the second playoff hole, she made another birdie, then pulled out the victory when Maguire missed a short putt that would have extended the match.Kupcho, who teamed with Lizette Salas to capture last week’s Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational, collected her first career win in April at the Chevron Championship. She had trouble on the back nine, but had started the day with a six-stroke advantage.Over the next two months, she clearly did not play her best, failing to break into the top 15 in any of her six events.Kupcho had a stellar career as an amateur, winning both the N.C.A.A. Player of the Year award in 2018 and the first Augusta National Women’s Amateur in 2019. She went pro later that year and, in 2021, joined the United States players as they faced off against the Europeans in the Solheim Cup. More

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      in Golf

      Around the World, Golf Prodigies Get National Support, but Not in the U.S.

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      Country after country helps young men and women pay their way, but those players go it alone in America.Mone Inami, a professional golfer from Japan, won a silver medal for her country in last year’s Summer Olympics. Inami beat Lydia Ko, who has won 17 times on tour, including the Evian Championship in 2015.Both were golf prodigies, with Ko turning pro at age 17 in 2014. They were also products of national golf academies. (New Zealand in Ko’s case.)“I became a member of the Japanese national team” at age 15, Inami said through an interpreter. “I was then able to compete in golf matches overseas, which I hadn’t done before.”“One of my goals in my amateur days was to become a member of the national team,” she said. “After I was selected as a member of Team Japan and started to compete as a member, I developed a sense of being part of a team.”Inami is part of something many countries have developed that is supercharging their women’s golf programs and getting more players onto the professional circuit, and into events like the Amundi Evian Championship, which starts on Thursday in France.South Korea took the lead on this a decade ago, and many other countries have followed suit, including England, Scotland, Canada, most of Europe, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.One notable exception to this list is the United States, which lacks any national program for women’s — or men’s — golf. It’s something Mike Whan, the new chief executive of the United States Golf Association, hopes to change.“As commissioner of the L.P.G.A., I was floored that every player came out of a team program except in the U.S.,” Whan said in an interview before the Curtis Cup, which pits the best United States women amateurs against their British and Irish counterparts.“When Lydia Ko was 11 in New Zealand, she joined Team New Zealand,” he said. “They taught her stretching, nutrition, how to work with caddies. I love the global part of this game, but as the head of the U.S.G.A., if we don’t create a better pipeline for American golf, we’re not going to be able to compete.”Lydia Ko, shown in June at the Women’s PGA Championship golf tournament in Maryland, learned stretching, nutrition and how to work with caddies, among other skills, as a member of New Zealand’s national team.Terrance Williams/Associated PressHe pointed to the world rankings. South Korea has 33 players in the top 100, and 148 golfers in the top 500. The United States, with over six times the population, ranks third for top-rated female players. (Japan is in second place.)Whan said he would like to change this.“Imagine if I take the best 500 young golfers and set up a $40-million grant program to carry them through a national program,” he said. “When I think about advancing the game, this is part of it.”Whan announced ahead of the United States Open in June that the U.S.G.A. had hired Heather Daly-Donofrio, a former professional golfer who ran tour operations and communications for the L.P.G.A., to run the USA Development Program, which will aim to create a quasi-national team for boys and girls from 12 to 17. While there is no firm plan in place, the mere mention of national support is music to the ears of junior players, coaches and parents.“The No. 1 complaint I get from parents and players is why isn’t there a U.S. team?” said Spencer Graham III, founder and head coach at the Junior Golf Performance Academy in Naples, Fla. “Every other country has a federation supporting their best 12 or 20 players. But America can’t put one together? I don’t really understand it.”Graham coaches many highly ranked junior golfers from the United States, but also coaches the top female golfers from Canada and Morocco, who are supported by their national federations.“Some of these parents pay $100,000 to $150,000 a year to travel,” he said of his American students. “And then you have the Korean or Canadian teams putting up that money for their players. I coach Sofia Essakali, who’s 13. She gets financial support from Morocco so her parents don’t have to play thousands of dollars for her to travel around.”Athletes like Ko, who turned pro at 17, gain access to better training and more chances to compete as members of a national golf team. They also have their expenses paid.Darren Carroll/PGA of America, via Getty ImagesThe support can come in several forms. Rebecca Hembrough, performance manager for the female program at England Golf, said that expenses like private coaching and competition travel were covered for team members. But the benefits extend beyond money. For an individual sport like golf, having a team matters.“When I played for Japan in the Olympic Games, it was like playing for Team Japan,” Inami said. “I wasn’t fazed by any of that. I was able to enjoy the matches. I was prepared.”Ryan Potter, associate head coach of Wake Forest University’s women’s golf team, said national teams allow training and preparation to start earlier, long before golfers get to college.“In the U.S., it’s a crapshoot,” he said. “You’re being taught by who may be close to you. You’re also the product of how much money you have to spend or are willing to spend. Can you afford it?”Peer support is key. Katie Cranston, a member of Team Canada, won the World Junior Golf Championship this year.“The Canadian Team was there, all dressed the same,” Graham said. “You could hear the Canadian players cheering for their team. You have the whole national squad cheering versus one parent clapping. It’s almost a disadvantage.”There’s also the frequency and variety of competition.In professional tournaments, golfers play their own ball, and they alone are responsible for shooting the lowest score they can. In team events like the Curtis Cup or the Solheim Cup, its professional equivalent, players spend several training days playing different formats of golf, like alternately hitting each others’ shot into the hole.Those types of games are something national academies stress, said Kevin Craggs, who was the national coach of the Scottish Ladies Golfing Association and is now the director of golf at IMG Academy, a private sports school in Bradenton, Fla.“At the Scottish national level we played a lot of match play,” he said, a format that is based on holes won, not the number of strokes on a scorecard. “It trains you to be aggressive. If I took a 4 and you took a 10 on a hole, you’re only 1 down. The score doesn’t matter.”Working with young, elite golfers in the United States now, he tries to keep it fun to maintain the passion young golfers have for the game. “In the U.S., many players don’t get exposed to the fun parts of the game,” Craggs said. “We have to make sport fun and learning fun, and then specialize later.”Inami said she had great memories of being on Team Japan as a teenager.“We used to have fun but still compete with each other,” she said. “It’s helped me continue to compete at professional level, having had that fun.”There are downsides, namely the excessive pressure. Certain national federations are also trying to push hard to get the players they backed into the professional ranks, even at the expense of playing college golf, Graham of the Junior Golf Performance Academy said.Martin Blake, media manager of Golf Australia, said the federation offered team members two options.“We encourage young female players to go through the college system, which Gabi Ruffels (University of Southern California) and Katherine Kirk (Pepperdine University) did,” he said. “Our elite amateurs are a mix of college and stay-at-home. Those who stay at home are funded to travel to international events like the U.S. Amateur.”Success, though, is a great way to inspire players to reach for major championships like the Evian. Hembrough of England Golf pointed out that recent professionals from its program include the L.P.G.A. stars Charley Hull, Georgia Hall and Bronte Law.“It’s building a legacy of success,” she said. More

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      in Golf

      21 Under Par? Juli Inkster Did It at the Evian Championship.

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      She reflected on her dominant career, in which she won 31 tournaments and seven majors on the LPGA Tour.The Amundi Evian Championship in France, which starts on Thursday, wasn’t a major in 2003 when it was called the Evian Masters. It wouldn’t be awarded that distinction by the LPGA Tour until a full decade later, but was still an important victory for Juli Inkster, one of the best female golfers of all time.Inkster, 62, who won 31 tournaments on the tour, including seven majors, got off to a wonderful start that week with a six-under 66. After a 72 on the second day, she closed with rounds of 64 and 65, and finished 21 under par, establishing a tournament record at the time.She reflected recently on that triumph and her distinguished career. The following conversation has been edited and condensed.What are your memories of that week?I had the whole family and rented a house by the course. I got up early Monday and played a practice round, and then Tuesday we went river rafting.You went river rafting the day before the tournament?We all went. We had the best time. Brian, my husband, fell out of the boat and my caddie had to pick him up by the vest and throw him back in the boat. That was a little bit scary.What did you love about the Evian?They [Evian Resort Golf Club in Évian-les-Bains, France] do a really good job of hosting us. They put a lot of money in trying to make the golf course better. It’s on the side of a hill, so there’s not much you can do, but as far as beauty and scenery and things to do, we love it over there.Did you get the most out of your career?I definitely got the most out of it. I was never the best at anything. I was just good at a lot of things and I was a grinder. I pretty much had three careers: one before kids, one during kids and one when the kids were a little older and traveling with me. Between 1990 and 1995, my golf wasn’t very good because I was having kids, but after that, I really played well.What’s your No. 1 moment?Probably winning the United States Women’s Open. I didn’t win it until I was 38, so it took me a long time. But I won at 38 and 42. That was one I always wanted to win but was having trouble doing it. So it was a big relief to do that.What’s the current state of the LPGA Tour?It’s great. These big corporations really get behind the L.P.G.A. and believe in what we’re doing. We’re getting to play these iconic golf courses that we were never able to play before. The purses are getting bigger.Were you happy to be in your era, or wish you could play now?I really enjoyed playing in my era just because all of us went to college. We all played in college against each other, and we all turned pro. There was a lot of camaraderie out there. Now it’s more of a business. They have their coaches and their parents and their agents. They still do stuff together, but not like we used to.Do you think you would have been a better golfer with a team?I don’t know. I like doing my own thing. I don’t like having a lot of people around. I did it the way I wanted to do it.How do you feel about the tour moving the Chevron Championship out of Palm Springs next year?I hated to leave that area, but I think Chevron is going to take it to the next level. They are going to make it major-worthy. The golf course [at the Club at Carlton Woods] we’re going to is a great course. It’s in a really good area in Houston.Will you play in the United States Senior Women’s Open in August?Yes. It’s one I haven’t won. I finished second twice. I would love to win it. I’m not getting any younger. I’ve just got to have one of those Evian moments where everything comes together. Maybe I should go river rafting before. More

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      in Soccer

      Bad Planning and Errors Led to Champions League Chaos, Report Says

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      A French Senate inquiry faulted the authorities for blaming large crowds of supporters instead of owning up to their failures, after violence and confusion marred a final near Paris. PARIS — Faulty coordination, bad planning and multiple errors by French authorities were responsible for the chaos that marred this year’s Champions League soccer final just outside Paris, according to a parliamentary report published on Wednesday that criticized officials for blaming English fans instead of acknowledging their own failings.The scenes of confusion and violence at the May 28 final between Real Madrid and Liverpool were described as a “fiasco,” and with Paris scheduled to host the Summer Olympics in two years, the report urged French officials to dispel doubts over the country’s ability to host large-scale sporting events. The report found that the authorities were unprepared for the tens of thousands of Liverpool supporters who converged on the Stade de France, and in no uncertain terms, it rejected the French government’s initial insistence that the dangerous crush of fans had been caused on that evening by the presence of fans who had fake tickets, or none at all.“To us, it is clear that it isn’t because Liverpool supporters were accompanying their team that things went badly,” Laurent Lafon, a lawmaker who presides over one of the two Senate committees that ran the investigation, said at a news conference on Wednesday.Supporters were also mugged after the game by groups of petty criminals who took advantage of the chaos to try to enter the stadium and to harass fans. Few police officers were stationed to prevent crime, because most were focused on potential hooliganism or terrorist threats, the report noted. The poor planning meant that serious problems were nearly inevitable, the report said. “A series of dysfunctions” occurred “at every stage,” Mr. Lafon said, because soccer officials, the police and the transportation authorities were “in their own lane without any real coordination” — failing to anticipate that a large number of supporters would come and reacting sluggishly when crowds started to build up.Chaotic scenes of fans scaling stadium fencing and of families being sprayed with tear gas at the game — the biggest match in club soccer, watched by hundreds of millions around the world — seriously dented France’s credibility to hold similar high-profile events, like the 2023 Rugby World Cup and the Olympics.Liverpool fans lining up to enter the stadium. The planning for the match has raised questions about France’s ability to host big sporting events.Matthias Hangst/Getty ImagesThe senators urged President Emmanuel Macron’s government to recognize the mistakes, to tweak policing tactics, and to improve France’s strategy for securing large-scale sporting events.“We mustn’t let spread the idea that we can’t organize big sports events,” said François-Noël Buffet, another senator who led the inquiry, on Wednesday. “If the truth had been told right away, we wouldn’t be here two months afterward.”Gérald Darmanin, Mr. Macron’s tough-talking interior minister, had quickly blamed the chaos on 30,000 to 40,000 Liverpool supporters with fake tickets or no tickets at all — in the end, only about 2,500 forged tickets were scanned, the report said.Mr. Darmanin, who belatedly apologized for the organizational failures on that evening, said on Wednesday that the government would follow the report’s recommendations. Those ideas include improving real-time communication between the authorities for large-scale events, systematically planning alternative overflow routes to prevent crowd buildups, and to reduce bottlenecks by finding ways to encourage fans to arrive earlier.“Not only were there dysfunctions, but also errors of preparation,” Mr. Darmanin told lawmakers on Wednesday, adding that authorities would “draw all consequences” in preparing for future events.The report faulted the French authorities for their “dated perception of British fans, reminiscent of the hooligans of the 1980s,” that led them to overstate the threat of violent supporters and to underestimate the threat of petty criminality.“The political will to suggest that the presence of British fans was the sole cause of the chaotic situation at the Stade de France, perhaps in order to hide the poor organizational choices that were made, is in any case unacceptable,” the French senators wrote in a summary of their report.Video surveillance footage from the stadium was automatically deleted seven days after the game, per usual practice, because authorities failed to request copies — a decision that showed poor judgment and prevented them from accurately determining the number of ticketless fans, the senators said. Spirit of Shankly, one of the main Liverpool fan groups, welcomed the report, calling it a “clear message of support” for Liverpool supporters who attended the match. Many had accused the French police of using aggressive tactics, including tear gas, on the night of the game, and were outraged when French officials pinned the blame on them.Riot police took up positions in front of the Liverpool fans during the match. The report faulted French authorities for their “dated perception of British fans, reminiscent of the hooligans of the 1980s.” Matthias Hangst/Getty Images“Spirit of Shankly would like to thank the Senate both for welcoming the testimonies of fans and consequently vindicating them from any responsibility,” the group said in a statement on Wednesday, although it added that it still expected “a full apology from the French government.”The report, which was written after public hearings with government officials, local authorities and fan groups, acknowledged that several factors complicated crowd control that night, including a strike on one of the main commuter trains leading to the stadium, and larger-than-expected crowds of English supporters converging on the stadium.But the senators said the French authorities did not have adequate contingency plans in place and failed to adapt when the situation started to spiral out of control.Stadium employees were insufficiently trained to handle disgruntled or distressed fans, the report said, and the police and transportation authorities reacted far too slowly to redirect the flow of fans and avoid bottlenecks that were created when a pre-filtering system meant to prevent terror attacks was also used by stewards to check tickets.There were not enough signs and staffers in place to guide supporters, the report added, and there was no system in place to update supporters on what was going on — including on the fact that the game had been delayed, “which would have avoided stampedes to get inside.”A report commissioned by the government came to similar conclusions last month, and UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, is carrying out its own review. The French senators blamed UEFA for its ticketing policy, arguing in their report that it should make “unforgeable,” paperless tickets mandatory for major events like the Champions League final.Tariq Panja More

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      Bad Planning and Errors, Not Fans, Led to Champions League Chaos, Report Says

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      A French Senate inquiry faulted the authorities for blaming large crowds of supporters instead of owning up to their failures, after violence and confusion marred the match near Paris. PARIS — Faulty coordination, bad planning and multiple errors by French authorities were responsible for the chaos that marred this year’s Champions League soccer final just outside Paris, according to a parliamentary report published on Wednesday that criticized officials for blaming English fans instead of acknowledging their own failings.The scenes of confusion and violence at the May 28 final between Real Madrid and Liverpool were described as a “fiasco,” and with Paris scheduled to host the Summer Olympics in two years, the report urged French officials to dispel doubts over the country’s ability to host large-scale sporting events. The report found that the authorities were unprepared for the tens of thousands of Liverpool supporters who converged on the Stade de France, and in no uncertain terms, it rejected the French government’s initial insistence that the dangerous crush of fans had been caused on that evening by the presence of fans who had fake tickets, or none at all.“To us, it is clear that it isn’t because Liverpool supporters were accompanying their team that things went badly,” Laurent Lafon, a lawmaker who presides over one of the two Senate committees that ran the investigation, said at a news conference on Wednesday.Supporters were also mugged after the game by groups of petty criminals who took advantage of the chaos to try to enter the stadium and to harass fans. Few police officers were stationed to prevent crime, because most were focused on potential hooliganism or terrorist threats, the report noted. The poor planning meant that serious problems were nearly inevitable, the report said. “A series of dysfunctions” occurred “at every stage,” Mr. Lafon said, because soccer officials, the police and the transportation authorities were “in their own lane without any real coordination” — failing to anticipate that a large number of supporters would come and reacting sluggishly when crowds started to build up.Chaotic scenes of fans scaling stadium fencing and of families being sprayed with tear gas at the game — the biggest match in club soccer, watched by hundreds of millions around the world — seriously dented France’s credibility to hold similar high-profile events, like the 2023 Rugby World Cup and the Olympics.Liverpool fans lining up to enter the stadium. The planning for the match has raised questions about France’s ability to host big sporting events.Matthias Hangst/Getty ImagesThe senators urged President Emmanuel Macron’s government to recognize the mistakes, to tweak policing tactics, and to improve France’s strategy for securing large-scale sporting events.“We mustn’t let spread the idea that we can’t organize big sports events,” said François-Noël Buffet, another senator who led the inquiry, on Wednesday. “If the truth had been told right away, we wouldn’t be here two months afterward.”Gérald Darmanin, Mr. Macron’s tough-talking interior minister, had quickly blamed the chaos on 30,000 to 40,000 Liverpool supporters with fake tickets or no tickets at all — in the end, only about 2,500 forged tickets were scanned, the report said.Mr. Darmanin, who belatedly apologized for the organizational failures on that evening, said on Wednesday that the government would follow the report’s recommendations. Those ideas include improving real-time communication between the authorities for large-scale events, systematically planning alternative overflow routes to prevent crowd buildups, and to reduce bottlenecks by finding ways to encourage fans to arrive earlier.“Not only were there dysfunctions, but also errors of preparation,” Mr. Darmanin told lawmakers on Wednesday, adding that authorities would “draw all consequences” in preparing for future events.The report faulted the French authorities for their “dated perception of British fans, reminiscent of the hooligans of the 1980s,” that led them to overstate the threat of violent supporters and to underestimate the threat of petty criminality.“The political will to suggest that the presence of British fans was the sole cause of the chaotic situation at the Stade de France, perhaps in order to hide the poor organizational choices that were made, is in any case unacceptable,” the French senators wrote in a summary of their report.Video surveillance footage from the stadium was automatically deleted seven days after the game, per usual practice, because authorities failed to request copies — a decision that showed poor judgment and prevented them from accurately determining the number of ticketless fans, the senators said. Spirit of Shankly, one of the main Liverpool fan groups, welcomed the report, calling it a “clear message of support” for Liverpool supporters who attended the match. Many had accused the French police of using aggressive tactics, including tear gas, on the night of the game, and were outraged when French officials pinned the blame on them.Riot police took up positions in front of the Liverpool fans during the match. The report faulted French authorities for their “dated perception of British fans, reminiscent of the hooligans of the 1980s.” Matthias Hangst/Getty Images“Spirit of Shankly would like to thank the Senate both for welcoming the testimonies of fans and consequently vindicating them from any responsibility,” the group said in a statement on Wednesday, although it added that it still expected “a full apology from the French government.”The report, which was written after public hearings with government officials, local authorities and fan groups, acknowledged that several factors complicated crowd control that night, including a strike on one of the main commuter trains leading to the stadium, and larger-than-expected crowds of English supporters converging on the stadium.But the senators said the French authorities did not have adequate contingency plans in place and failed to adapt when the situation started to spiral out of control.Stadium employees were insufficiently trained to handle disgruntled or distressed fans, the report said, and the police and transportation authorities reacted far too slowly to redirect the flow of fans and avoid bottlenecks that were created when a pre-filtering system meant to prevent terror attacks was also used by stewards to check tickets.There were not enough signs and staffers in place to guide supporters, the report added, and there was no system in place to update supporters on what was going on — including on the fact that the game had been delayed, “which would have avoided stampedes to get inside.”A report commissioned by the government came to similar conclusions last month, and UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, is carrying out its own review. The French senators blamed UEFA for its ticketing policy, arguing in their report that it should make “unforgeable,” paperless tickets mandatory for major events like the Champions League final.Tariq Panja More

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      40,000 Fake Tickets at the Champions League Final? Actually, It Was 2,589.

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      The French authorities blamed tens of thousands of counterfeit tickets for the chaos before Saturday’s Champions League final. The official count was far lower.One of the main claims pushed by French officials to explain the chaotic crowd scenes that created a dangerous crush of fans outside last weekend’s Champions League final near Paris has been that tens of thousands of people arrived at the match bearing fake tickets.France’s interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, has claimed as many as 70 percent of tickets presented at the Stade de France in St.-Denis were fake. He told a news conference Monday that the “root cause” of the chaos was roughly 30,000 to 40,000 English fans bearing counterfeit tickets — or no tickets — who jammed the entrances.But according to official numbers reviewed by The New York Times, the exact number of fake tickets intercepted by stewards manning the entrance gates was far lower: 2,589, to be exact.That figure is almost three times the usual number of forgeries at the Champions League final, a game widely considered to be European soccer’s equivalent of the Super Bowl, but significantly lower than the figure used by Darmanin, who had as of Wednesday not provided details of the source of his estimate.Darmanin and France’s sports minister, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, who has made similar claims about fake tickets, have faced growing criticism over the handling of the game. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, on Wednesday called for “full transparency” in an investigation of the match-day scenes and their causes. At an appearance in front of a committee of the French senate later Wednesday, Darmanin admitted, “Clearly things could have been organized better.”“It is evident,” he added, “that this celebration of sport was ruined.”France’s interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, faced testy questioning from lawmakers on Wednesday.Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesIn what became a testy appearance in front of the committee, Darmanin and Oudéa-Castéra came under sustained pressure over the organizational failures. In response, they largely repeated the language that has enraged Liverpool, its fans and members of the British government.At one point, Oudéa-Castéra told lawmakers that Liverpool supporters carried a “very specific risk” in the view of the French authorities, without elaborating what she meant.Darmanin, meanwhile, insisted the counterfeit ticket numbers were of an unprecedented scale, claiming at one point there were so many that stadium security guards thought their tools to validate them were faulty.The hearing lasted longer than an hour, ending with little clarity and a doubling down by the officials on their previous claims, again without evidence to support their conclusions.That prompted one lawmaker to ask: “Since Saturday, we have blamed Liverpool fans and the club, striking workers and locals for the chaos. What allows you to make these declarations without a thorough investigation?”Not all attendees had the same experience at the final. While most of Real Madrid’s fans arrived with electronic tickets, Liverpool requested paper ones for its official allocation of 23,000 tickets. Those tickets came embedded with two main security features: one that needed to be confirmed with a chemical pen and a second that was a laser engraving of the Champions League trophy.Those holding tickets without the two security features were to be denied access by stewards at an initial checkpoint far from the stadium’s bar code readers. But that system collapsed under a deluge of fans: To relieve the growing crush of people, officials abandoned those first checks and allowed the crowds to move closer to the stadium.The debacle has led to chorus of criticism of the security at the match, in which Real Madrid defeated Liverpool, 1-0, to claim its record 14th European title. Liverpool police who attended in supporting roles labeled the situation outside the gates “shocking.” The club, its fans and a European supporters group all called for investigations even as the game was underway. And in the days since, British government officials have demanded answers from their French counterparts and European soccer’s governing body, UEFA, for the treatment of thousands of Liverpool supporters.Thousands of fans were trapped for hours in tight crowds before the final, causing a delay to the match’s kickoff. Thomas Coex/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesSupporters faced multiple issues, including dangerous crushes, after being corralled into narrow spaces, and the final was delayed more than 30 minutes as the French riot police used tear gas and pepper spray on fans after appearing to lose control of the situation. At the same time, hundreds of local youths tried to force their way into the stadium, either through the turnstiles or by climbing over security fences. Officials estimated as many as 4,000 ticketless people may have succeeded.Part of the explanation into why Liverpool supporters found themselves trapped in such a small space has now turned to transportation problems on the day of the game, including a strike by workers that affected one of the major rail links to the stadium.UEFA and local officials have compared travel data from Saturday’s game to figures from the French Cup final held at the Stade de France on May 7. They found that one of the stations closest to the Stade de France had four times as many fans travel through its gates Saturday than had used the station during the French Cup final. That, they believe, contributed to the dangerous bottleneck of supporters.It may be months before a complete picture of what occurred at the stadium emerges. On Tuesday, UEFA, reeling from chaotic scenes at last year’s European Championship final in London as well as the recent Europa League final in Seville, Spain, appointed a former education minister of Portugal, Tiago Brandão Rodrigues, to lead an independent inquiry into the failures around the Champions League final.The claims made by the French government’s representatives, though, continue to infuriate Liverpool and its ownership. The club’s chairman, Tom Werner, said as much in a caustic letter to Oudéa-Castéra, the French sports minister.He wrote, he said, “out of utter disbelief that a minister of the French government, a position of enormous responsibility and influence, could make a series of unproven pronouncements on a matter of such significance before a proper, formal, independent investigation process has even taken place.”He decried the “loose data and unverified assertions” presented to reporters Monday before an investigation had taken place.“The fact that your public position went against this objective is a concern in itself,” he added. “That you did so without any recourse to ourselves or our supporters is an even greater one. All voices should count in this process, and they should count equally and fairly.”As well as assailing Oudéa-Castéra for her claims, Werner also demanded a public apology. By late Tuesday, Oudéa-Castéra’s tone — though not her claims about fake tickets — had changed.“The issue of the false tickets does not change this: Liverpool is one of the greatest clubs ever,” she wrote on Twitter. “And on Saturday there were supporters with valid tickets that spent a terrible evening or were not able to watch the game. We are sorry for that.”Liverpool continues to be inundated with video evidence shot on cellphones by its supporters. The images, many of which have also been uploaded to social media, are sometimes harrowing, showing children and older fans dealing with the effects of tear gas fired — sometimes indiscriminately — by the riot police.Fans of Real Madrid faced similar problems on their side of the stadium. Since the final, several supporters have come forward to say they were attacked or robbed on their way in and out of the stadium.Amando Sánchez, 51, who traveled to Paris in a group of 14, mainly family members, said his 87-year-old father and an older brother missed the game as a result of chaos at the entry gates. Another brother, Sánchez said, fought off an effort to steal his ticket as he prepared to present it at a stadium turnstile.“Really no one was in charge,” Sánchez said in an interview Wednesday. More