roserose56

Emma Raducanu has said her straight-sets defeat against Aryna Sabalenka in the third round of Wimbledon was "hard to take". The 22-year-old delivered an impressive performance against the world No. 1 on Centre Court, but was ultimately beaten 7-6(8-6) 6-4. However, the Brit said she will "take confidence" from her display, having previously felt she was "gulfs away" from the game's top players.

"It does give me confidence because I think the problem before was that I felt like I was gulfs away from the very top. "Having a match like that where I had chances in both sets, it does give me confidence. At the same time, it's very difficult to take right now."

Sabalenka said: "She played such incredible tennis and she pushed me really hard. To get this win, I had to fight for every point like crazy." The Belarusian later added: "She's fighting. She's playing much better. She's more consistent. I can see that mentally she's healthy. I think that's really important. Yeah, I'm pretty sure she's getting there."

Kyle Walker has left Manchester City on a permanent transfer, joining Burnley in a deal reportedly worth up to £5 million as Scott Parker's side return to the Premier League. The England international, who left City in January to join AC Milan on loan, has made a swift return to the English top flight, where he has made 410 appearances. The 35-year-old defender has earned 96 caps for England.

L’Equipe claim that Juventus have set the price tag for Timothy Weah at €15m after opening negotiations with Olympique Marseille.

The USMNT star had been effectively sold to Nottingham Forest in a double deal with Samuel Mbangula, but when both players turned down the move, those talks were abandoned.

Weah and his representative were openly furious about the fact they were not informed until late in the day about this discussion, so insisted on being more involved in any future transfer negotiations

The ending to the saga took many by surprise, and as confirmed by Uli Hoeneß, honorary president of Bayern, those at the Bundesliga champions were equally as shocked as those at Barcelona. Speaking to BR24, he spoke on the matter.

“When a club extends its own player, it’s nothing unusual. I would have done the same if I was Athletic Club. But we were all surprised that Nico Williams extended his contract. I had close contact with Hansi Flick, who’s currently in Tegernsee on holiday, and they were surprised too because they had more or less an agreement with him.

“I don’t understand what (Nico) wants, but in my opinion Athletic Club are just trying to get more money because next year he will cost more than €60m.”

Ben Shelton was just one game from victory at Wimbledon on Thursday when his match against Rinky Hijikata was suspended. Shelton was clearly angry at the decision to halt due to fading light, especially as the issue had been discussed at the start of the third set and then three games later. The pair will return on Friday to get their second-round match finished.