“I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t disappointed in the outcome but after reflecting on my journey, I now see that what God wanted me to experience is far greater than what I expected to happen,” Wilder wrote.
“We didn’t get the win but a wise man once said the victories are within the lessons. I’ve learned that sometimes you have to lose to win. Although I wanted the win I enjoyed seeing the fans win even more.
“Hopefully, WE proved that no matter how hard you get hit with trials and tribulations you can always pick yourself up to live and fight again for what you believe in.
“Last but not least I would like to congratulate @gypsyking101 for his victory and thank you for the great historical memories that will last forever.”
Former Formula 1 champion Mario Andretti praised IndyCar rookie Romain Grosjean after his first full season in the series, saying that he’s got a lot of people’s attention.
In 2020, Grosjean finally called time on a career that spanned 10 years in top flight (9 full seasons and partial 2009 season), and made the move into IndyCar with Dale Coyne Racing. And it seems that the Frenchman has done enough in his debut season in IndyCar to convince Michael Andretti to sign him on a two-year deal from 2022 onwards at Andretti Autosport.
Michael Andretti’s father, and 1978 F1 champion Mario, gave his opinion on Grosjean’s IndyCar debut, and thinks the the ex-F1 racer has a bright future there.
Andretti was speaking to RacingNews365.com, and explained why he believes Grosjean did well on his rookie season in IndyCar.
“IndyCar has been more of a spec series, it is a spec series, [and] it gives the individual a different feel coming from Formula 1,” he said. “In F1, unless you’re with one of the top three teams, you don’t have a chance in hell to be able to bring really good results.”
Andretti went on to say: “But you can see that Romain embraced it, because he feels that he has the same car as all the regulars who have been scoring. He feels competitive immediately and that gives you a big confidence boost.”
It goes without saying that Grosjean’s F1 career was a case of ‘what could have been’, joining the top flight halfway through the 2009 season with Renault F1 (replacing Nelson Piquet Jr.), but let go by the end of the year for lack of performance.
He later re-joined F1 in 2012 with Lotus F1 for 4 years, where he showed some flashes of that promised pace that put him on the F1 radar in the first place, but never consistently. Then there were those high profile crashes he had, which lead to a 0ne-race-ban for the 2015 Italian Grand Prix after his infamous first lap pileup at Spa that year.
He spent the years between 2016 till 2020 at Haas F1, having started with promise on his first year with the American outfit, but later went into a continuous decline, until he ended his F1 career with a fiery crash in Bahrain 2020, one which the Frenchman was lucky to walk away from.
Andretti senior, however, feels that despite his lackluster F1 career, Grosjean has what it takes to succeed in IndyCar.
“I’m not surprised at how well he went, because if you look back at Romain’s career, he’s a force to be reckoned with, no questions,” he admitted.
“Honestly, anywhere in the field you can have a chance of winning, in IndyCar.”
Andretti then said :”He’s got a lot of people’s attention, no question.
“He’ll be a player. I think he’s going to enjoy this chapter of his career,” he concluded.
On his first IndyCar season, Grosjean finished 15th overall in the drivers’ standings, scoring one pole position, six top ten finishes, and four top five finishes that included a career-best second in both races this season at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
Durant said he has not spoken to Irving since the Nets decided on Tuesday that their starting point guard will not practice or play with the team until he complies with New York City’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate for players. But Durant remains optimistic that the situation “will work out” eventually.
“Definitely want Kyrie to be around,” Durant told reporters on Thursday after the Nets completed their preseason with a 107-101 win over the Timberwolves. “I wish none of this stuff would happen, but this is the situation that we are in. Kyrie made his decision on what he wanted to do and he chose to do what he wanted to do, and the team did the same.
“It’s on me to just focus on me, and do my job, and let those two parties handle that situation. I want our whole team together, and I want us to be at full strength, but sometimes it don’t work out that way. But I am still positive that things will work out the best for both parties.”
Irving said Wednesday night on Instagram that while he still hopes to play this season for the Nets, he has chosen not to receive at least one COVID-19 vaccination shot as required by New York City to play in home games at Barclays Center and at Madison Square Garden, home of the Knicks.
Irving said he not pro-vaccine or anti-vaccine and that he respects both sides. He also reiterated that he is not at odds with the Nets organization or making a political statement.
Durant, who teamed up with Irving to come to Brooklyn in free agency in 2019, said he isn’t upset that he isn’t able to play with Irving as the Nets enter this season with championship expectations.
“We still get to do [what] we love to do every day,” Durant said. “… This is not the ideal situation coming into the season. But some of this, it’s out of our control. So, what we can do is come in and focus on our jobs every single day. What is being mad going to do? We are not going to change his mind, know what I’m saying? We’ll let him figure out what he needs to do and the team figure out what they need to do.”
Durant later told reporters that “I can’t be too mad at somebody making a decision for themselves.”
“Who am I to get upset at that? Just focus on what we got in this locker room,” he said. “When [Irving] is ready, I am sure he will talk to [team owner] Joe [Tsai] and [general manager] Sean [Marks] and they’ll figure it out and they’ll tell us. Until then we are going to keep grinding.”
CARY, N.C. — Lee Janzen made a 20-foot birdie putt on the first hole of a playoff with Miguel Angel Jimenez on Sunday to win the PGA Tour Champions’ SAS Championship.
The 57-year-old Janzen also birdied the par-4 18th in regulation in a closing 5-under 67 in the regular-season finale. The two-time U.S. Open champion won the 2015 ACE Group Classic for his only other senior title.
Jimenez finished with a 69 to match Janzen at 12-under 204 at Prestonwood Country Club. The 57-year-old Spanish player has 10 senior victories. He hit his approach over the green in the playoff and chipped to a foot before Janzen rolled in the winner.
The ATP Masters 1000 event in Indian Wells will be won by a player ranked outside the top 25 for the first time since 2010 with Cameron Norrie and Nikoloz Basilashvili the surprise finalists.
Sunday’s clash in the California desert will be Norrie’s sixth final of a breakthrough year and first at a Masters 1000 event, after he dismantled Grigor Dimitrov 6-2 6-4.
Basilashvili accounted for Taylor Fritz 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 in their semi-final.
The event has been filled with upsets with 25th-ranked Norrie and world No.36 Basilashvili providing their fair share along the way.
The last man outside the Top 25 to win Indian Wells was Ivan Ljubicic – ranked 26th in 2010.
San Diego-native Fritz was trying to reach the final and have a shot at becoming the tournament’s first American winner since Andre Agassi in 2001.
Instead, the 23-year-old fell to 0-5 in 2021 semi-finals.
Big-hitting Georgian Basilashivili – who defeated second-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas last round – proved too much to handle for Fritz.
“His backhand, he definitely hits harder than anybody on tour,” Fritz said.
“The way that it comes through the court so hard and flat and deep, nothing you can really do.
“If I wanted to be more aggressive, I would have been opening myself up for a lot more mistakes just trying to hit big off of such a big ball.”
Norrie, who won his first ATP title at the Los Cabos Open earlier this year and ensured he would be Britain’s No.1 by thumping Diego Schwartzman in the quarter-finals, cruised to victory over an out-of-sorts Dimitrov.
“I’ve made a conscious decision to be more aggressive in the bigger moments and taking it to the guys,” Norrie said after advancing to the biggest final of his career.
With his semi-final win, Norrie will break into the top 20 for the first time when rankings are updated on Monday.
Norrie beat Basilashvili comfortably earlier this year in their only other meeting on tour, and the 26-year-old left-hander will be the favourite on Sunday.
Dan Lawrence heads off for the Ashes next month knowing that England’s next generation of batters cannot retain their Test places on potential alone. However, he believes that a combination of Australia’s run-laden wickets, and a year spent watching Joe Root’s masterclasses at close quarters, can only augur well for his and his team-mates’ chances of success.
In a stop-start first year in England’s Test side, Lawrence’s performances to date epitomise the issues in the team’s junior ranks, with his three well-compiled half-centuries offset by four ducks and a current average of 27.23 that he concedes is “very frustrating”. He has hardly been alone in underachieving, however. While Root has racked up six centuries in a formidable year, Rory Burns’ hundred against New Zealand in June remains England’s only other three-figure score in 12 Tests.
“It does get to a stage where we just need to score runs,” Lawrence said during a #Funds4Runs event in Leyton. “That is your currency, and it gets to a stage where being inexperienced might not be an excuse that you can keep on using. We need to score runs, and if we do that we’ll stay in the team and if we don’t, then we don’t unfortunately.”
Nevertheless, Lawrence’s initial displays – including a matchwinning half-century on debut in Galle and 96 runs on a spinners’ deck in Ahmedabad – have given him confidence that he is “more than good enough” to succeed in the long term. And, after starring on England Lions’ tour of Australia two winters ago, he believes he has plenty of good memories to fall back on when the Ashes action gets underway in just under two months’ time.
“It’s had a quite a big impact on my career,” Lawrence admitted, after finishing as the Lions’ stand-out performer in the first-class leg of their tour in February and March 2020. He scored 493 runs at 98.60 in six innings, with the second of his two hundreds coming at the MCG against Australia A, as England’s second XI won their first unofficial Test Down Under after seven blank campaigns.
“I was really desperate that winter to get my name out there and be relentless, and score runs every week, and thankfully I did.
“It was a great opportunity, to not only experience some of the best grounds in Australia, but to learn how to score runs there, and how to develop and adapt my game. I know it’s different to what the Ashes is going to be, but it is nice to have something in the bank, knowing that I have got the capability to score big runs consistently out there.”
And when it comes to being relentless, Lawrence knows that he and his team-mates have been granted a ringside seat this year for one of the most impressive feats of run-harvesting in England’s Test history. So far in 2021, Root has amassed 1455 runs at 66.13, with four scores in excess of 180, and almost 1000 runs more than the next most effective England batter (Burns, with 479).
“It was an absolute privilege to watch him from the dressing room all summer, and in the winter as well,” Lawrence said. “He’s obviously a bloke at the peak of his powers, batting as well as anyone has done for years and years.
“He’s a very chilled-out, relaxed guy,” Lawrence added. “He puts in loads of hours of training, and is really relentless when he gets in, and I think that’s something that I’m trying to learn. Whenever you get a chance on decent wickets, cash in, really try and do that, because he’s obviously very, very, very good at that.”
Lawrence is one of a number of first-time Ashes tourists in England’s batting unit – among them Burns, Haseeb Hameed, Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley, whom he described as “one of the most talented players I’ve ever seen”.
“I think we’ll look at ourselves honestly, we didn’t perform as well as we would have liked, and that’s not rocket science, that’s just obvious to see,” Lawrence said. “We didn’t score as many runs we wanted, but there really is good potential obviously.
“I’ve had some performances … Sri Lanka on debut, a couple of decent knocks in India in tough conditions, and then a decent one at home [against New Zealand], but it’s been a little bit too few and far between for my liking.
“I’ve definitely got confidence, having played a few Tests now, that I’m more than good enough to succeed at that level, which is brilliant. I’d just like to be a little bit more consistent and obviously that will come with time, and put all my effort into being the best cricketer I can be. I’m sure if I do that, then I can be successful for a good amount of time.”
Dan Lawrence was speaking at the LV= Insurance “In With Heart” Tour, showcasing recipients of #Funds4Runs grants, a £1 million joint initiative between the ECB and LV= Insurance to support grassroots cricket.
Andrew Miller is UK editor of ESPNcricinfo. @miller_cricket
“He’s had three thrilling fights with Wilder. If he wanted to hang them up now, I don’t think anyone would blame him.
“But knowing Tyson how I know him, he will want to sign off his career by beating AJ. But again, it wouldn’t surprise me either if it doesn’t materialise anytime soon and we see the end of Tyson in the ring. And he can hold his head up proud if that happens.”
With Anthony Joshua activating the immediate rematch clause, Usyk will be forced to wait to challenge Fury for the undisputed titles.
But the Ukrainian has been backed by his promoter Alex Krassyuk to dethrone Fury should they meet in the ring down the line.
Australia’s Min Woo Lee has teamed up with three other European Tour players to set a Guinness World Record for the time to complete a hole on a golf course.
Lee joined Sean Crocker, Nicolai Hojgaard and Wilco Nienaber in taking up the challenge to break the record of 27.88 seconds set by an American team in 2018.
Professionals usually take 10 to 15 minutes to complete a hole on a golf course.
The hole chosen was the fourth at Valderrama Golf Club in Spain which is 501 yards long.
After several failed attempts over more than two hours and many howls of frustration, Nienaber launched a 361-yard drive on to the fairway where Crocker waited for the ball to come to a stop.
His 140-yard approach shot landed within four feet of the hole and Lee sank the putt as Hojgaard lifted the flag.
The quartet had a nervous wait as the judges reviewed the footage and when the official time was announced – 24.75 seconds – it sparked wild celebrations.
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