Djokovic has nowhere to hide against relentless Sinner in Paris showdown
‘These kind of matchups and challenges in a way extract the best out of me,” said Novak Djokovic, smiling, as the clock ticked into the early hours of Thursday morning.Djokovic had demonstrated that sentiment in real time as he spectacularly rose to the occasion against the third-best player in the world, utilising the full breadth of his complete, unprecedented game to defeat Alexander Zverev and return to the semi-finals of the French Open, where he will face Jannik Sinner.“Playing best-of-five, late stages of a grand slam against No 1 in the world, you can’t get more motivated than that for me at this age,” said Djokovic.Although this performance had been preceded by a barren run of form on the ATP tour that included numerous early losses, the grand slam tournaments are now the sole source of Djokovic’s motivation.No matter how he performs elsewhere, the 38-year-old has continually shown he still steps up on the biggest stages.
Just as he excelled against Zverev in Paris, Djokovic was spectacular in January when he defeated Carlos Alcaraz at the Australian Open,His next task is the toughest of all,With two rounds to go here, no player in the men’s draw has come close to replicating the sustained level Sinner has demonstrated,The Italian has been ruthless, dismantling opponents with relentless efficiency and forcing them on to the back foot from the start,Against Alexander Bublik and Jiri Lehecka, Sinner’s opponents were reduced to passionately celebrating winning their first game of the match after being bamboozled from the start.
Three weeks ago, Sinner returned to a tennis court on home soil at the Italian Open following his three-month doping ban and immediately reached the final.After ending his rival’s run in that Rome final, Alcaraz warned that with such positive reinforcement from his comeback tournament and more time to fine-tune his game, Sinner would be at his most dangerous in Paris.He has still not dropped a set.“I know what to expect from Jannik,” said Djokovic.“He’s going to come out.
He’s going to play on a very high level, as he did basically every tournament that he played in the last year and a half,I don’t expect anything less from him,”The problem with facing Sinner these days is that there is nowhere to hide,His destructive forehand is complemented by arguably the best two-handed backhand in the game,His serve has significantly improved, becoming a key factor in his success, but he is also an elite returner, constantly putting opponents under pressure behind their own serves.
Although Sinner is one of the heaviest ball-strikers on the tour, the 23-year-old has also evolved into one of the best defenders.His opponents have been as ineffective at piercing his defence as they have been at absorbing the pace he generates.Sinner’s recent record against Djokovic, which is now tied at 4-4 overall, underlines his rise.After losing their first three meetings, including twice in the latter rounds of Wimbledon, Sinner has won their last three.His victory over Djokovic in the semi-finals of the 2024 Australian Open, en route to the first grand slam title of his career, was a seminal moment in Sinner’s development that provided him with the proof that he could beat anyone, anywhere.
Eighteen months later, Sinner is a better player than ever.Since August, he has won 46 of his 48 matches and only Alcaraz has defeated him.Although Djokovic can still compete at the highest level and disrupt Sinner’s rhythm, not even the Serb knows his ceiling at this point of his career and whether he can sustain the quality and physicality across possibly five sets against the best in the world.On FridayToday he will take a step into the unknown to see exactly what the moment extracts from him.
Hedge fund orders London-based analysts back to office five days a week
Man Group has ordered its London-based analysts to return temporarily to the office five days a week, as the world’s biggest listed hedge fund seeks to recover from a period of poor performance amid Donald Trump’s tariff war.Quantitative analysts working at Man AHL, the company’s computer-run fund that aims to identify and follow momentum in markets, have been told they are expected to be in its offices daily until the end of July as part of an “all hands on deck” project.The edict applies to about 150 staff in London, just under 10% of the overall group’s 1,700 global employees, the Financial Times reported.“Man AHL has asked its staff in London to work in the office five days a week for a three-month period to support an ‘all hands on deck’ cross-team research project,” the company said. “While these cross-team initiatives are infrequent, experience has shown that a period of highly focused, in-person collaboration allows significant research progress to be made in a relatively short amount of time
UK house prices fall by more than expected amid economic uncertainty
UK house prices suffered a steeper than expected fall last month and the biggest quarterly drop in value in almost a year, as economic uncertainty continued to affect the property market.The average property price fell by 0.4% month on month in May to £296,648, a much steeper fall than the 0.1% decline City economists had expected.Figures published by Halifax on Friday showed that the cost of a typical UK property has fallen in three of the past four months, with the drop in May following a 0
Sports Direct pricing practices ‘may be breaking the law’, Which? says
Sports Direct could be breaking the law by misleading shoppers into thinking they are getting a good deal, a consumer body has claimed, after it looked at prices of items ranging from trainers to hoodies.Which? said it had reported the retailer to the Competition and Markets Authority after uncovering what it claimed were “some questionable and dodgy pricing tactics” on its website.The organisation said it had found products being sold on SportsDirect.com with recommended retail prices (RRPs) “that appear to be misleading”, as its researchers could not find the products sold at that RRP price anywhere else online.It meant people may be being misled “into thinking they are getting a better deal than they really are”
Bonuses banned for 10 English water bosses over sewage pollution
Bonuses for 10 water company executives in England, including the boss of Thames Water, will be banned with immediate effect over serious sewage pollution, as part of new powers brought in by the Labour government.The top executives of six water companies who have overseen the most serious pollution events will not receive performance rewards this year, the environment secretary, Steve Reed, said.The companies – Thames Water, Anglian Water, Southern Water, United Utilities, Wessex Water and Yorkshire Water – are responsible for the most serious category of sewage pollution into rivers and seas, all of which are, or have been, under criminal investigation by the Environment Agency.Under powers in Labour’s Water (Special Measures) Act 2025, the regulator, Ofwat, is now able to ban bonuses for water executives where a company fails to meet key standards on environmental and financial performance, or is convicted of a criminal offence.In the past 10 years, executives at the nine main water and sewerage companies have been paid £112m in bonuses while sewage pollution increased to a record last year of 2,487 events
Wise goes to the US. Will its founder’s supercharged voting rights follow? | Nils Pratley
Back in 2021, the arrival on the London stock market of Wise, a rapidly expanding money transfer company, generated a feelgood factor at a useful moment.It came a month after overhyped Deliveroo flopped on debut. And, since Wise was a pure fintech business, as opposed to a pizza delivery outfit with an app, there was reason to think the UK might be getting its act together in the sector that politicians swoon over. Shoreditch’s finest, and its Estonian founders, would show the way in UK fintech. Wise sported a £9bn valuation
British Gas owner strikes £20bn gas deal with Norway’s state energy company
The owner of British Gas has struck a £20bn deal with Norway’s state energy company to buy enough gas to meet nearly 10% of the UK’s needs for the next decade.Under the agreement, Centrica will buy around 5bn cubic meters of gas from Equinor – enough to supply 5m UK homes – every year from this winter until 2035 at the prevailing market rate.It is the latest long-term deal between the UK and Norway, which has been one of Britain’s largest sources of imported gas for the last 50 years. But in a nod to Britain’s net zero agenda, the latest agreement will include a clause that allows the UK to swap gas imports for emissions-free hydrogen from Equinor’s UK hydrogen plant.Equinor is working with Centrica and the energy company SSE on multiple low carbon hydrogen projects on the north bank of the Humber
‘Stress crisis’ in UK as 5m struggle with financial, health and housing insecurity
Less than 4% of exploited care workers helped by UK government scheme
Weight loss drugs linked to higher risk of eye damage in diabetic patients
Housing bosses press Rachel Reeves to unlock more funds for affordable homes
Millions in west do not know they have aggressive fatty liver disease, study says
I thought it was being gay that made my life so difficult. Then, at 50, I got an eye-opening diagnosis …