Tension at the tennis: inside the high-stakes world of racket stringing

Underneath Rod Laver Arena, a group of tennis specialists cut and twist and weave – intently focused on their preparation for the action on the blue court a few metres above their heads.In the lead-up to the Australian Open, these experts maintain a consistent workload, training their muscles and technique, ready to peak as if they were the athletes taking to the courts themselves.But they won’t step on the court – their unique domain is tennis rackets. Racket stringing, specifically, and as the Yonex string team leader, Jim Downes, has learned over his 30-year stringing career, “It’s a high demand job.”The world’s top tennis players are, unsurprisingly, “very particular” about how their rackets are strung, Downes says, referring to how tight or loose the strings that crisscross the frames are pulled

Canada cleared of US allegations they rigged skeleton qualifying for Winter Olympics

Canada’s skeleton team have been cleared of allegations they rigged a qualifying event for the Winter Olympics and denied rival athletes the chance to qualify for next month’s Games.USA’s Katie Uhlaender, a five-time Winter Olympian in skeleton, accused the Canadian team of deliberately pulling four of its six athletes from a race in Lake Placid, New York, last weekend in order to make it harder for athletes from other countries to qualify. The reduced field meant fewer qualifying points were available and Uhlaender, who won the event, did not secure her place at this year’s Milano Cortina Games in Italy. Uhlaender claims Joe Cecchini, the head coach of Canada’s skeleton team, told her he had come up with the scheme.However, the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation (IBSF) said it would take no action after investigating the allegations

The secret is out: how Australian Open helped usher in three-week slam festivals

Grand slam qualifying used to be an oasis for tennis hipsters but a game of one upmanship between the Australian and US Opens has set the standard for spectacular lead-in weeksDuring the early days of the US Open singles main draw last year, the tournament director, Stacey Allaster, was holding court with a small group of journalists in a suite overlooking Arthur Ashe Stadium. Much of the discussion centred on the revamped mixed doubles tournament, which had dominated the tennis discourse for days. With a smile, Allaster explained the amount of work that had gone into the event and cited the final attendance numbers for the week it was held. The US Open, she asserted, is now a three-week event.For many years, the traditional grand slam fortnight was preceded by a nondescript week of preparation

Each NFL playoff team’s fatal flaw: the Bills’ run defense to the Sam Darnold problem

The eight remaining teams all have elements of brilliance. But they also have weaknesses that could send them crashing out of the postseasonDefending the run has long been a sore spot for the Bills – they finished the season 25th in defensive rush success rate. Inside, they lack mass, and are too easily pushed around by teams committed to a smashmouth approach. Outside, they struggle with discipline and technique. Against Jacksonville last weekend, both fell apart

Raducanu stunned by wildcard Preston in Hobart after tough Australian Open draw

Emma Raducanu ended her preparations for the Australian Open with a miserable 6-2, 6-4 defeat by Taylah Preston, a 20-year-old Australian wildcard, in the quarter-finals of the Hobart international.As the top seed in Hobart, a small WTA 250 tournament, Raducanu had entered with a real opportunity to compete for an elusive second career WTA title since her win at the US Open more than four years ago. Instead, the challenging rainy conditions were seemingly all it took to unsettle the Briton, who put in a dismal performance on Thursday evening. Her defeat against Preston, the WTA No 204, is her fourth-worst defeat by ranking since 2021.On a day of frustrating rain delays, the players were only on court for about 10 minutes before they had to return to the locker room with Raducanu trailing 1-2

Sports piracy explodes in UK with 3.6bn illegal streams and rise of black-market bookmakers

The number of illegal streams of sports events in Britain has more than doubled to 3.6bn in the past three years according to a new report, which provides a stark illustration of the challenge facing broadcasters and leagues in combating piracy.The Campaign for Fairer Gambling’s national 2024-25 report also highlights that there is a symbiotic relationship between sports piracy and unlicensed gambling, with 89% of illegal streams in this country featuring adverts for black-market bookmakers.Illegal betting has exploded over the past four years with unlicensed operators earning £379m in the first half of 2025, giving them 9% of Britain’s £8.2bn online gambling marketplace, a huge increase on their 2% market share in 2022