News
Novak Djokovic’s rumoured new coach Mouratoglou takes down Federer ahead of return
PATRICK MOURATOGLU will reportedly succeed Marian Vajda as Novak Djokovic’s coach in the near future.
Patrick Mouratoglou, who is widely expected to become Novak Djokovic’s new coach in the near future, has insisted that Roger Federer will never win another Grand Slam as a result of the Swiss icon’s ongoing injury problems. Mouratoglou is reportedly set to replace Marian Vajda on Djokovic’s coaching team over the coming weeks and will be hoping to lead the world No 1 to no shortage of further success in his new role.
Djokovic is just one Grand Slam title shy of Rafael Nadal’s all-time record, which was set by the Spaniard as he clinched his 21st gong in the absence of his rival at this year’s Australian Open. Federer is also just short of Nadal on the same number of titles as Djokovic but has not won any of the four major tournaments since his most recent triumph in Melbourne back in 2018.
The 40-year-old missed the vast majority of last year’s action with a chronic knee injury before the problem flared up again in August to put him back on the sidelines until at least this summer. Mouratoglou has since written off Federer’s hopes of winning more Grand Slams than Djokovic or Nadal by insisting that he will struggle to return to his very best form at this late stage in his career.
“The last Grand Slam title won by Roger Federer dates back to 2018,” Mouratoglou told Tennis World USA. “He has only played three majors in the past two seasons and has already announced that he will not attend Wimbledon this year. I see it hard that he can increase his Grand Slam tally.”
The 51-year-old, who has coached Serena Williams to 10 major titles over the last decade, went on to suggest that Djokovic will need to emerge victorious at Wimbledon to stand any chance of catching Nadal if the latter claims the spoils once again at this year’s French Open. He racked up four consecutive titles at Roland Garros between 2017 and 2020 before Djokovic managed to break his winning streak at the last time of asking.
“Before the Australian Open 2022, Nole was by far in pole position,” added Mouratoglou. “Rafa’s victory in Melbourne turned the tables on the table, forcing Djokovic to chase again.
“The next big tournament will be Roland Garros, which Nadal has won seven times in the past 10 years. If he were to establish himself in 2022, the pressure on Nole would increase dramatically. At that point, the Serbian would be forced to win Wimbledon.”
Belinda Bencic got off to a winning start at the Guadalajara Open on Monday in her first tournament with new coach Dmitry Tursunov. The Russian was spotted working with the Olympic champion just days after he and Emma Raducanu announced that they were no longer training together, with reports claiming that it was Tursunov who chose to walk away from the 19-year-old.
Raducanu split with her fourth coach in the space of 14 months last week as she and Tursunov announced that they were no longer working together after initially starting their partnership ahead of the North American hard-court swing in August. The pair enjoyed some success together, with the world No 70 reaching her first semi-final in over a year at the recent Korea Open.
Tursunov was also with the British No 1 when she defeated Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka back-to-back in Cincinnati, but it was reportedly the retired former world No 20 who opted to end his partnership with Raducanu. And it appeared that the Russian had already found a new charge when he was pictured working with Bencic days later in Mexico.
An Instagram story posted by the Guadalajara Open showed Tursunov watching on as the world No 14 practised ahead of the tournament last week, and Bencic has now won her first match since enlisting the 39-year-old as her coach. The 25-year-old managed to get revenge over Leylah Fernandez in the first round on Monday after losing to the Canadian at the French Open earlier this year.
And it appears the Tokyo gold medallist has already learned from her new coach, explaining that her game plan helped her get the win as she realised it was okay to play ugly tennis. Bencic continued: “I felt like I had a good game plan but it was tough to execute it with the conditions. I’m happy for the first match that I’m through. It doesn’t have to be pretty.”
With Tursunov already helping the Swiss player enjoy success, it will show Raducanu what she is missing after losing what appeared to be a suitable coach following her controversial choices to axe some of her former mentors in the past. For now, the Brit is working with fitness trainer Jez Green after injuries derailed parts of her season this year and saw her forced to retire a match on four separate occasions.
Formula 1 star Lando Norris has issued a strong warning to his rivals Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. Norris has announced himself as one of Formula 1’s hottest prospects since making his burst into the sport in 2019 as a 19-year-old for McLaren.
Since then the British driver has become one of the most recognised and respected faces in the paddock despite only being 22 years old. Since his debut Norris has found himself on the podium six times. In 2021, the McLaren man claimed his maiden pole in Russia, but was unable to covnert his weekend into a victory.
This campaign Norris and his McLaren team have sturggled to stamp their authority on the grid, with the 22-year-old having just one podium finish to his name at Imola in April. Despite the sticky patch in 2022, Norris has warned his Formula 1 rivals that he and McLaren will be out challenging for victories in the not too distant future.
Targetting 2024, the Brit said, as quoted by motorsportweek.com: “I would say even between 2022 to 2023 I’m not expecting realistically a win or a couple of wins. For me my confidence is in 2024 and 2025, and until then I
“There’s still times where you could achieve a win, even with Daniel [Ricciardo] last year achieving a win, and me almost having pole in Austria, having pole in Russia, almost winning Russia – those things can come along the way.
“Even when [Esteban] Ocon wins and [Pierre] Gasly wins, those moments can come, but until genuinely being in a position where I can say ‘There’s now more excuses and we want to win genuinely rather than with a bit of luck because certain things happen’, that time is in 2024 and 2025.”
Calling for patience, he went on: “Until then it’s a patience game, which is not the nicest thing because I do get frustrated, like this year we’re not as competitive as what we want to be.So is the whole team, like James [Key] and everyone understands we should have taken a step forward this year and if anything we are a little bit back from where we were.”
Formula 1
Lewis Hamilton landed Red Bull with ‘£1.6m bill’ as FIA mull penalty for budget cap breach p breach
An incident involving Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen last season reportedly landed Red Bull with a hefty £1.6million bill, which naturally contributed to their ‘minor’ budget cap breach. Christian Horner and co are still waiting to discover their punishment after the FIA released their verdict earlier this week.
Speculation has circulated on how Red Bull managed to exceed the £114m spending cap imposed by the FIA last season. They were found to be in ‘minor’ breach of the limit, which could mean anything up to £5.7m.
Reports put their overspend at just under the £2m mark and Hamilton’s crash with Verstappen at Silverstone in 2021 certainly won’t have helped Red Bull’s efforts to stay under the permitted amount.
In a frantic opening lap, the Brit sparked fury in the Red Bull camp by trying an audacious move up the inside of Verstappen at Copse Corner, only to make contact with the Dutchman and send him flying into the barriers at high speed.
He was sent to hospital for precautionary checks as Hamilton was handed a time penalty for his role in the collision, but the Mercedes ace went on to win the race anyway and close the gap on his rival, who started the race as the clear Championship leader.
According to Crash.net, the Red Bull write-off would have cost the team in the region of £1.6m. Reports suggest that Red Bull’s alleged breach is also due to differences of interpretation regarding sick pay and catering.
“What I can say is I remember last year in Silverstone we had our last upgrade and fortunately it was great and we could fight with it,” Hamilton told Sky Sports. “But then we would see Red Bull every weekend or every other weekend bringing upgrades. They had, I think, at least four more upgrades from that point.
“If we spent £300,000 on a new floor, or adapted a wing, it would have changed the outcome of the championship naturally because we would have been in better competition in the next race if you add it on. So, I hope that that’s not the case. I do believe Mohammed [Ben Sulayem, FIA president] and the FIA will do what is right with whatever they find out.”
Christian Horner has admitted Max Verstappen surprised him and his Red Bull team with his tactics in his Abu Dhabi epic with Lewis Hamilton last season. Verstappen overtook Hamilton on the last lap to win the 2021 Formula One Drivers’ Championship in contentious circumstances.
The FIA have since admitted a ‘human error’ helped Verstappen triumph over Hamilton after race director Michael Masi allowed the lapped cars in between the two drivers to overtake the safety car. Those lapped drivers behind Verstappen were not able to unlap themselves, however.
On fresh tyres, Verstappen was able to get past Hamilton in their last-lap shootout for the title and claim his first ever world championship. Red Bull team principal Horner admitted the team were surprised, as was Hamilton, by the Dutchman’s overtake.
Speaking on the Diary of a CEO podcast, Horner explained: “We went into Abu Dhabi equal on points, with Max being ahead by virtue of race victories. Mercedes had gone there with barristers because they were convinced that Max was just going to drive into Lewis on the first lap, and they’d be arguing it out with the stewards.
“But we qualified on pole, and then for the majority of that race, we felt that decisions went against us at the beginning of the race because Max had made a pass, and Lewis had cut the chicane, but he wasn’t told to give the position back.
“And everything we tried in that race… it felt like it was slipping away, so what was going through my mind was like, ‘how am I going to pick the guys up? You know, afterwards, what am I going to say to Max after such an intense season like this? What am I going to say to them?’
“And then suddenly, it just shows that anything can happen in life, a window of opportunity presented itself with one of the backmarkers crashing. And you know, we had to be on our feet. We took risks, we made the pitstop, we bolted on the new set of tires, and Mercedes went defensive and conservative.
“And that gave us a window of opportunity to challenge for one racing lap. And with a fresh set of tires and Max Verstappen in your car, he was going to go for it. So then he pulled the move off at a corner that we completely unexpected, and I think Lewis totally unexpected it because he left the door open trying to get a good exit onto the straight. It was like, ‘oh my God’, and then you’re going down the street.
Lewis Hamilton has been congratulated for winning last year’s world title, despite the FIA not yet reaching a decision on how to punish Red Bull over their alleged cost cap breach. Rich Energy, who had a short-lived partnership with Haas and a brush with other F1 teams, addressed the Brit on social media while calling for the sport’s governing body to take action.
Rich Energy, owned by controversial CEO William Storey, attempted to buy Sahara Force India in 2018 before negotiating with Williams and eventually striking a partnership with Haas. It proved to be shortlived, however, as the sponsorship came to a sour end with Haas’ 2019 F1 car compared to a milk float.
While Storey has openly discussed aspirations to once again become involved in F1, Rich Energy have weighed in on the current cost cap saga. Red Bull are alleged to be in ‘minor’ breach of last season’s £114million budget cap, which could mean an overspend of up to £5.7m.
The FIA are yet to decide which penalties Red Bull will face but there has been talk, however unlikely, of a points deduction leading to Hamilton being handed last year’s world title.
The Brit and Max Verstappen could hardly be separated as the Red Bull ace edged his first Championship in stunning fashion via a final-lap Abu Dhabi shootout. With decisive action yet to be taken, Rich Energy appear to have jumped the gun by congratulating Hamilton and Mercedes on social media.
“An easy decision for the FIA now,” read the Tweet. “It is imperative that the integrity of the great sport of Formula One is maintained. Congratulations Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes AMG on a well-deserved world title in 2021.”
The message was posted along with a video of F1 chief Ross Brawn who, back in 2019, said: “If you fraudulently breach the financial regulations, you will be losing your Championship.” Red Bull boss Christian Horner insists that his team’s finances were above board and believes that the breach will be due to misinterpretation on a number of items.
Some feel as though spending over the limit last year will have given Red Bull a headstart going into the current season. Verstappen has dominated throughout, sealing his second title in Japan on Sunday while Hamilton called on the FIA to do the right thing by explaining the advantage brought by further car improvements.
Emma Raducanu shown what she’s missing as ex-coach makes winning start with new player
Lando Norris fires Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen warning – ‘I do get frustrated’
