Hugh Watches Sports: 24th-30th August 2026

Welcome to this week’s edition of Hugh Watches Sports. In this post we will reflect on a big Premier League clash, a crucial tennis tournament in the lead-up to the US Open, the return of a legend to Real Madrid, a huge rugby match-up and the conclusion of the FedEx Cup. Let’s get into it.

FULHAM VS CHELSEA (FOOTBALL)

Two manager’s who occupied the dugout at Real Madrid last season went head-to-head on Monday night as Alvaro Arbeloa’s Fulham took on Xabi Alonso’s Chelsea. This was the final game in the opening round of matches in the new Premier League season and both side’s would be hoping to make a winning start to the campaign. Under the lights at Craven Cottage, Alonso’s away side made the perfect opening to proceedings when Joao Pedro scored after just thirty-one seconds. A long ball forward by Fulham was headed down into space by Maxence Lacroix where it was picked up by Cole Palmer whose first time pass set Pedro away and the Brazilian provided a cool finish to chip the ball over the dive of Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno and into the net. It was a record-breaking moment as Pedro’s goal was officially the quickest ever scored on matchday one of a Premier League season. Going down a goal so early stunned Fulham but they did begin to grow into the game as we reached the twenty-minute mark. With the home side gaining momentum, they found an equaliser courtesy of Josh King who played a one-two with Timothy Castagne before spotting Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez out of position and capitalising by driving a firm strike into the back of the Spaniard’s net. That got Fulham level but it was a real howler from Sanchez who is somehow beginning a fourth season as the Blues’ first choice goalkeeper. In a first half of momentum swings, Chelsea quickly looked to re-establish a lead with a delightful run down the right by Palmer who then found Pedro in the penalty area and his volley drifted narrowly wide of Leno’s near post. Then, moments later, some neat play between Pedro and Morgan Rogers set up the latter for a shot which was blocked but went straight to Reece James whose effort was then smartly stopped by Leno. On forty-one minutes, the Blues eventually got back in front when Palmer found Lacroix on the right of Fulham’s penalty area and the centre-back produced a great piece of skill before laying the ball across for Rogers to provide a cool finish. That marked the perfect start to Rogers’ Chelsea career as he scored on his debut and ensured that his side went into half time 2-1 up. After the interval, things got better for the visitors when a long ball over the top exposed Fulham’s high defensive line and allowed Pedro in behind where he held the ball up before laying it off for Palmer who slotted it through the legs of Leno for Chelsea’s third goal. With a two-goal lead, Chelsea should’ve been in control of the encounter although another error from Sanchez meant they couldn’t be comfortable. Five minutes after Palmer’s goal, a cross into Chelsea’s penalty area was well controlled by Castagne who then saw his shot parried by Sanchez straight into the path of Gonzalo Garcia to score his first goal for his new club. It was a great moment for the young Spaniard as his goal lifted the energy inside Craven Cottage and gave his side some belief that there was still potential to turn the game around. As the match continued, Chelsea tried to gain some control but failed meanwhile Fulham went in search of an equaliser. Their best opportunity for a third goal came in the seventy-eighth minute when Jorge Cuenca’s long pass drifted over Chelsea’s defence and was met by Antonee Robinson but his chip over Sanchez landed wide of the far post. In fact, the only time we saw the ball end up in the net during the remainder of the game was when Pedro scored for Chelsea but his goal was ruled out for offside. Overall, a highly-entertaining and eventful West London derby ended 3-2 to Chelsea as they made a winning start to life under Xabi Alonso. Looking ahead, both Fulham and Chelsea are in action in the Carabao Cup second round later this week on Thursday.

WINSTON-SALEM OPEN (TENNIS)

The Winston-Salem Open offered a last chance for players on the ATP Tour to fine-tune their game ahead of the US Open. This is an ATP250 tournament which has been on the calendar for many years and is always played in the week directly prior to the final grand slam of the season. Amongst the players in attendance this year were former US Open champion Daniil Medvedev, recent Wimbledon semi-finalist Arthur Fery and former world number three Stefanos Tsitsipas. With the top sixteen seed’s receiving a bye in round one, the big story from the opening round was Cruz Hewitt who recorded his second ATP Tour match win by defeating Sebastian Gorzny in three sets. In round two, top seed Medvedev got his campaign underway but it was a short one as he lost 7-5 6-3 against Martin Damn Jr. In contrast, second seed Luciano Darderi was able to kick off his tournament with a victory as he got past Mattia Bellucci 2-6 6-4 6-2. Elsewhere, Fery returned to the ATP Tour for the first time since Wimbledon with a 6-1 7-5 triumph over Hewitt. Moving into the last sixteen, second seed Darderi was thumped 6-1 6-0 by Botic Van De Zandschulp. Meanwhile Tsitsipas went down in straight sets against Aleksandar Kovacevic. Also in the third round, a former champion of this event Lorenzo Sonego exited the tournament after a 7-5 6-3 defeat to James Duckworth. As we reached the quarter final stage in Winston-Salem, Ignacio Buse was the highest ranked player left in the draw and he faced eighth seed Juan Manuel Cerundolo. After three close sets, Buse moved past Cerundolo to book his place in the semi finals. Elsewhere, fourth seed Fery saw off Kovacevic with a 3-6 7-5 6-3 victory. There was another three-setter quarter final in which Duckworth beat Fabian Marozsan to reach the last four. In the other last eight encounter, Benjamin Bonzi defeated Van De Zandschulp 7-6 6-4. On Friday in Winston-Salem, the semi finals were played with a huge opportunity for the four remaining players to get to an ATP Tour level final. Unfortunately one of the semi finals was decided by injury as Duckworth retired midway through the second set of his encounter against Fery. That saw the Brit progress into the first ATP Tour level final of his career. In the other last four match-up, Buse edged past Bonzi 6-2 4-6 6-1 to reach his second ATP Tour final and his first on a hard court. The Peruvian’s only prior tour-level final came earlier this year on the clay courts of Hamburg where he won the title. On Saturday evening Fery took on Buse for the trophy. After Buse sealed a close first set 6-3, he then cruised through the second to secure his second ATP Tour title with a 6-3 6-2 triumph over Fery. A routine victory in just seventy-seven minutes saw Buse become the youngest champion in tournament history at Winston-Salem. This tournament, coupled with the WTA250 event in Monterrey which was won by Diane Parry, concluded the build-up to the US Open. The fourth and final grand slam of the year begins on Sunday and I have written a preview for that which can be found via this link – https://hbopinions.wordpress.com/2026/08/29/2026-us-open-preview/

REAL MADRID VS REAL SOCIEDAD (FOOTBALL)

4843 days after he last sat in the Real Madrid manager’s seat, Jose Mourinho returned to the Bernabeu to take charge of Los Blancos once again. Following two season’s without winning a trophy, the world’s biggest club has welcomed back Mourinho with the aim of getting them back to winning ways domestically and in Europe. Having kicked off his second reign as manager with a 2-1 win away to Espanyol, Wednesday night saw Mourinho’s team play their first home game of the season. Their opposition would be Real Sociedad who finished tenth in La Liga last season and began this campaign with a 1-0 defeat against Real Betis last Friday. As the match got underway, it was the visitors who had the first big opportunity to score when Takefusa Kubo picked up the ball on the edge of the penalty area and played in Mikel Oyarzabal whose first-time low shot was well-saved by Thibaut Courtois. Ten minutes later, Real Sociedad goalkeeper Alex Remiro was called into action as he got down quickly to block Vinicius’ attempt after the Brazilian was set up by Kylian Mbappe. The first goal of the evening arrived in the fortieth minute and unsurprisingly it was superstar Mbappe who opened the scoring. A surging run through the middle of the pitch from Federico Valverde set Real Madrid on the attack before he passed the ball to Mbappe who took one touch to go across his defender and then buried the ball past Remiro. However the home side didn’t have things all their own way as Real Sociedad quickly got back on level terms four minutes later thanks to Luka Susic. It came from along pass out of defence by Sergio Gomez which set away Job Ochieng on the left wing one-on-one with Ibrahima Konate and the attacker cut inside to unleash a shot, which was blocked by Konate but the ball fell kindly into the path of Susic who directed his finish beyond Courtois from twelve yards out. That impressive response to going a goal down from the away side meant we headed into half time with the score at 1-1. Straight after the break, Real Madrid almost re-took the lead as Mbappe got on the end of a superb pass from Arda Guler inside the penalty area but was denied a second goal by the feet of Remiro. On sixty minutes, the home side got their reward for a positive start to the second half when a stunning quick exchange of passes between Valverde, Mbappe and Jude Bellingham tore through Real Sociedad’s defence and presented Mbappe with the chance to score his second goal which he duly did. It was a phenomenal move and a real moment of quality to put Los Blancos back into a winning position on the scoreboard. A one-goal lead soon became a two-goal one when Bellingham’s shot inside the penalty area was blocked but the Englishman quickly won the ball back and set up Vinicius to tap the ball into the net for Real Madrid’s third goal of the evening. It was magnificent play from Bellingham and his hard work allowed Vinicius to open his goal scoring account for the new season. Whilst the home side were fairly dominant in the second half, Real Sociedad still posed a threat and they almost narrowed their deficit in the seventy-fifth minute when Beñat Turrientes’ strike from outside the penalty area forced Courtois into making a good save to parry the ball away for a corner. After that though, Real Madrid’s control over proceedings resumed and soon got even greater as they added a fourth goal. A wonderful pass from Vinicius on the edge of the penalty area went between the leg’s of a Real Sociedad defender and straight to Mbappe who provided a lovely delicate chipped finish to complete his hat-trick. It was another sensational goal from Mourinho’s side who had responded very well to his half time team-talk. They nearly increased their advantage three minutes later when Valverde carried the ball into the penalty area but his shot was well-stopped by Remiro. Late on in the encounter, the home side had the ball in the net again as Brahim Diaz converted the rebound after Remiro had parried Carlos Espi’s shot, however the goal was disallowed after a VAR review due to an offside in the build-up. Ultimately that didn’t matter too much though as Real Madrid secured an impressive 4-1 victory over Real Sociedad to continue Mourinho’s winning return to the club. Moving forward, both teams have La Liga matches at the weekend as Real Madrid host Malaga, meanwhile Real Sociedad will face Espanyol.

SOUTH AFRICA VS NEW ZEALAND (RUGBY UNION)

Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Tour continued this weekend as South Africa and New Zealand went head-to-head for the second successive week. Seven days ago, New Zealand were victorious in the first test match of the four match series, winning 33-16 in Johannesburg. This weekend South Africa would be looking to bounce back and level the series score as Cape Town played host. In contrast, New Zealand would be aiming to pull off another win to pull into a 2-0 lead on the tour. As the match begun, the Springboks made the ideal start with a try inside the opening two minutes which was scored by Jesse Kriel and converted by Cheslin Kolbe. They held onto the lead until the fourteenth minute when a brilliant passing move saw New Zealand create space for Will Jordan to carry the ball into before he laid it off to Cam Roigard to score. That, coupled with a successful conversion from Ruben Love levelled the score at 7-7 after sixteen minutes. Next, South Africa re-took the lead thanks to a penalty scored by Kolbe. That gave the home side some momentum which they were keen to capitalise on although it was proving tough to break through the All Blacks resolute defence. In the twenty-first minute South Africa’s persistence paid off as Damian De Allende was able to force the ball over the try line. Then with Kolbe stepping up to efficiently add the extra two points, South Africa moved 17-7 ahead. Inevitably there was a response from New Zealand as a sweeping move which began with a line-out on the left and ended with a try scored by Damian McKenzie on the right narrowed the deficit between them and their hosts. As Love kicked the ball through the posts, the All Blacks trailed by three points at the thirty-minute mark. In the closing stages of the first half, a scrum deep in New Zealand’s territory was won by South Africa and despite the best efforts of a stubborn All Blacks defence, the Springboks were able to power the ball over the try line. It was Siya Kolisi who was the player that spotted and forced himself through a gap to score his team’s third try of the afternoon. With another successful conversion from Kolbe complete, South Africa were 24-14 up at half time following a thrilling opening forty minutes. Moving into the second half, indiscipline proved costly for New Zealand as Kolbe scored two penalties in the space of four minutes to increase South Africa’s lead. The first try of the half didn’t arrive until the sixty-sixth minute when Leroy Carter flew down the left wing to score for New Zealand. Although the resulting conversion attempt was missed which kept the All Blacks eleven points behind with just under fifteen minutes to go. On seventy-four minutes, another penalty awarded to South Africa and duly scored by Kolbe as good as ended New Zealand’s hopes of a comeback. Having said that, the All Blacks were able to register another try in the final moments when Ardie Savea forced the ball over the try line. That gave Love the opportunity to end his kicking day positively and he did just that to add two points to his side’s total. As the final seconds ticked down, there was a late yellow card dished out by the referee to Lood De Jager for a dangerous tackle. When the full time whistle sounded in Cape Town, South Africa clinched a 33-26 triumph to draw level in the series. For the second week running we had witnessed a highly-entertaining and competitive match between the two highest-ranked nation’s in the world. Next weekend, rugby’s greatest rivalry heads to the FNB Stadium for the third test match of the series where both team’s will be seeking to take a 2-1 lead.

PGA TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL ROUND (GOLF)

The 2026 FedEx Cup Champion was crowned this weekend at the PGA Tour Championship in Atlanta. This marked the third of three FedEx Cup playoff events which feature a progressive cut, leaving just the top thirty golfer’s on the tour to compete this weekend. Although sadly only twenty-nine golfer’s would tee off on Thursday as J.J. Spaun withdrew from the tournament due to an injury. After the opening three rounds played across Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Viktor Hovland sat at the top of the leaderboard on -15, one shot ahead of Ryan Gerard. Then there was a quartet of players on -12; Ludvig Aberg, Adam Scott, Scottie Scheffler and Chris Gotterup. Coming into Sunday’s final round, it was likely that the champion would come from one of those leading six, which featured two former champions in the shape of Hovland and Scheffler. As the final round of the weekend got underway in Atlanta, Scott and Aberg were paired together and both matched par across the front nine holes to remain on -12 at the halfway mark. Meanwhile, Gotterup hit a double bogey at the fourth hole but then made up for it with back-to-back birdies at the sixth and seventh to recover to -12 through his opening nine holes. Whilst that trio struggled to make progress on the leaderboard, Scheffler started off his round in fine form with birdies at the second and fourth holes. The world number one then dropped a shot at the seventh hole but immediately recovered it with a birdie at the eighth to move onto -14 at the halfway mark of his round and put pressure on Gerard and Hovland. In the leading pair, Gerard made a disastrous start with a double bogey at the first hole, whilst Hovland also dropped a shot at the opener. A birdie at the eighth saw Hovland return back onto -15 whereas Gerard couldn’t find a way to gain any shots through the remainder of the front nine. That meant with nine holes of the FedEx cup remaining, Hovland held a one shot lead over Scheffler, with Gerard dropping to join Scott, Aberg and Gotterup on -12. Elsehwere on the course, the highlight of the day came from Justin Rose who hit a hole-in-one at the ninth hole. Not only that but it was also a ‘slam dunk’ from Rose as the ball didn’t bounce or roll into the hole, it landed straight into it from his tee shot. Focusing back on the leaders as we moved onto the back nine, three bogey’s put an end to Scott’s hopes of challenging for the title. Similarly, two bogey’s for Gotterup saw him also slip down the leaderboard. With Aberg hitting one birdie but two bogey’s on the back nine, that left just three men potentially in contention for the win. Playing ahead of the final pairing, Scheffler continued his impressive round with birdies at the tenth and thirteenth holes, before dropping a shot at the fourteenth but then making up for it with a birdie at the sixteenth. Whilst those around him struggled, an excellent four-under-par final round saw Scheffler take the clubhouse lead on -16 and set a target for Gerard and Hovland to chase down. Back on the course, Gerard was having an underwhelming day as he couldn’t recover from his early double bogey and ended the round two over par. As for Hovland, he needed a birdie to join Scheffler on -16 however instead he saw his title hopes slip away with a bogey at the thirteenth hole compounded by another at the seventeenth to end his chances. With a total nobody could catch, Scheffler won the Tour Championship and became the 2026 FedEx Cup champion. It seemed fitting that the best player on the PGA Tour this year and the reigning world number one was the man to lift the trophy in Atlanta. This was his second FedEx Cup triumph after previously winning this event in 2024. That meant Scheffler became just the third player ever to win the FedEx Cup on multiple occasions after Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. That concluded the 2026 PGA Tour FedEx Cup playoffs as Scheffler clinched the title, three shots clear of second-placed Hovland.

2026 US Open Preview

It’s time for the fourth and final grand slam of the year as the world’s best tennis players arrive in New York for the US Open. After a season which has produced three new grand slam champion’s as well as an array of great stories, the US Open looks set to provide us with plenty to discuss across the next fortnight. Here is my guide to what has been happening in the build-up, plus who is best placed to challenge for the respective singles titles.

US OPEN BUILD-UP

Following grand slam’s on the clay at Roland Garros and the grass at Wimbledon, the US Open see’s the world’s top players return to playing on hard courts. So far since making the transition from grass, there have been a series of hard court tournaments in America where players have been looking to fine-tune their game. The US hard court season began in Washington where Alexandra Eala put together an incredible run including wins over Naomi Osaka and Jessica Pegula to clinch the women’s title. Meanwhile there was home success in the men’s draw as Taylor Fritz defeated Rafael Jodar in the final to lift the trophy in Washington. From there, attention then switched to Canada with a WTA1000 event in Toronto played alongside an ATP Masters 1000 in Montreal. In Toronto, Iga Swiatek returned to form to clinch her first title of the year, seeing off Elena Rybakina in the final. Across Canada, Ben Shelton successfully defended his title in Montreal by defeating Brandon Nakashima in an all-American battle for the trophy. Next, tennis quickly moved on to Cincinnati where the women and men came together for a joint WTA1000 and ATP Masters 1000 tournament. Just like Swiatek the previous week, Coco Gauff found her best tennis at the right time to win her first title of the year. The world number four beat compatriot Pegula in the final to clinch her second Cincinnati title. Elsewhere, the men’s draw saw a new ATP Masters 1000 champion crowned as Arthur Fils lifted the trophy after a three set victory over Frances Tiafoe in the final. As I write this there is are two ongoing tournaments as some players opt to try and play some extra matches ahead of their arrival in New York. They are an WTA250 event in Monterrey and an ATP250 tournament in Winston-Salem.

THE FIGHT FOR THE TITLE AND TO BE NUMBER ONE

Not only is the US Open title at stake across the next fortnight, but the world number one ranking may also be available. Coming into the tournament, Aryna Sabalenka is the world’s best player and has held that ranking for over two years although with 2000 points to defend having won last season’s US Open, she is under pressure. In fact, if Sabalenka doesn’t win the title this year then she would lose the world number one ranking. In pole position to take over top spot is Elena Rybakina who knows she will be the new world number one if she reaches the final in New York, regardless of Sabalenka’s end result. However, if Rybakina exits the tournament before the semi-final stage then that will open the door for Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff to potentially become the world number one. Although, in order for either American to do that they would need to win the title. Ultimately, Rybakina is best-placed going into the US Open to leave it as world number one as the other three contenders would all need to win the title in order to prevent her from reaching top spot. With all that in mind, let’s look at the current form of the four players and examine their likelihood of departing New York with a new trophy in their bag. In the case of Sabalenka, she is the two-time defending champion at the US Open and also made the final in 2023. However her form coming into this year’s event has been underwhelming by her high standards having not won a title since the Miami Open at the end of March. The top seed went out of both Toronto and Cincinnati at the round of sixteen stage so there are definitely question marks over where her game is at right now. Looking at the draw, she has a fairly kind opening week so that, coupled with the good memories of being back on the court where she has enjoyed a lot of success, may help her re-discover her best form across the next two weeks. At the opposite end of the draw sits second seed Rybakina, albeit there are concerns over her fitness after she pulled out of her quarter final in Cincinnati with an injury. If she is able to take to the court then expect to see her play quite freely given the pressure is on the other top players when it comes to the world number one scenario’s. As for third seed Pegula, she arrives in New York in great form with two final appearances in her last three events. The American is a former finalist at the US Open and this is probably the best she’s been playing since that run to the 2024 final. With a generally comfortable first week draw, she then faces a potentially brutal second week with a projected quarter final against Karolina Muchova followed by a potential semi final meeting with Sabalenka. Elsewhere, the most difficult draw for a top four seed was handed to Gauff who opens her campaign against Zeynep Sonmez, before a potential round three encounter with the in-form Sara Bejlek. Then Gauff could face either talented youngster Iga Jovic or Washington champion Alexandra Eala in the round of sixteen. A potentially good omen for Gauff though is that the only other time she won Cincinnati, she went on to win the US Open a few weeks later. Additionally, her success in Cincinnati shows she is playing excellently and full of confidence at the moment which will serve her well in New York. Meanwhile, some other names to look out for who will be hoping to challenge deep into the second week include Mirra Andreeva, Linda Noskova, Muchova, Iga Swiatek, Amanda Anisimova, Naomi Osaka and Eala.

ALCARAZ RETURNS IN A WIDE OPEN DRAW

This is potentially one of the most unpredictable men’s grand slams in years. For a long time we had the dominance of the big four in which one or more of them were always favourite to win heading into a slam. Then, in the last three season’s we’ve got used to it being either Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz who seemed destined to claim the title. However, with Sinner missing this US Open due to a knee injury and Alcaraz making his comeback from a long time out, the men’s draw feels very open. Given that his name is in the draw, Alcaraz instantly becomes the favourite but nobody really knows how fit he is to compete across two weeks of tennis. The Spaniard has been out since April with a wrist injury which has seen him miss both Roland Garros and Wimbledon, as well as the lead-up event’s to the US Open. Therefore, there are understandably doubts over how his wrist will respond to being back playing again. If he’s able to play healthily then he will definitely fancy his chances of defending the title which he won twelve months ago in New York. In the absence of Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev has climbed the rankings to world number two and will be the top seed at the US Open. In that time Zverev has also picked up his maiden grand slam triumph at Roland Garros. Despite a disappointing showing in Toronto and Cincinnati where he made respective round two and round four exit’s, Zverev has a relatively kind draw in New York so will be hoping to use the first week to play himself into form. As the only grand slam champion in the entire top half of the draw, it would be a surprise if Zverev didn’t at least make the final over the next fortnight. Elsewhere in the draw, Novak Djokovic will continue his search for a twenty-fifth grand slam title. Mostly due to his age, the four-time former US Open winner has struggled with injury at times this year. However he’s also shown that if he is fit then he certainly still has the level of tennis to win big matches. Most notably at the Australian Open when he beat Sinner in four sets. If Djokovic can stay healthy then he is definitely a contender to be lifting the trophy in two weeks time. A potential issue for Djokovic and Alcaraz is that they are in the bottom half of the draw, which appears significantly stronger than the top half. The bottom half includes Montreal champion Ben Shelton, former champion Daniil Medvedev and two in-form American’s in the shape of Frances Tiafoe and Brandon Nakashima. All four of them will fancy their chances of making the final, particularly if Djokovic or Alcaraz suffer defeat in the early rounds. Also in the bottom half of the draw is Cincinnati champion Arthur Fils who seems to be most likely of anyone to disrupt Sinner and Alcaraz’s dominance of the ATP Tour in the coming years. The young Frenchman is full of confidence and playing great tennis so he is certainly a contender to win the title based on current form. Meanwhile, in the top half, if it’s not to be Zverev who makes the final then the next highest seed is Felix Auger-Aliassime who made the semi finals at last year’s US Open. Albeit, the Canadian arrives in New York in poor form so will be hoping returning to the scene of his best grand slam result will help him re-discover his best tennis. Some other names to look out for in the men’s draw are Flavio Cobolli, Taylor Fritz, Rafael Jodar and Jakub Mensik. Finally in this preview, I feel it is appropriate to give a mention to Gael Monfils and Stan Wawrinka. This US Open will be the final grand slam in their career’s and they will both be remembered as legends of the sport. Over the years Monfils has been the great entertainer on the ATP Tour with some exciting and highly enjoyable style of tennis. Meanwhile Wawrinka will be remembered fondly for his incredible performances and how we won three grand slam title’s whilst playing in the era as the big four.

Bringing it all together, we are set for a thrilling fortnight of tennis in New York. There are plenty of stories to be written across the tournament as we follow the race to become the WTA world number one as well as crowning the last two grand slam champions of the year. As always at grand slams, I will be rounding up all the stories and results from the US Open across my Hugh Watches Sports post throughout the tournament.

Hugh Watches Sports: 17th-23rd August 2026

Welcome to this week’s Hugh Watches Sports post. In this edition we will look back on a massive tennis tournament, the start of the new Premier League and Serie A season’s, the return of Formula 1, a huge rugby match and one of the biggest events on the PGA Tour. Let’s get into it.

CINCINNATI OPEN (TENNIS)

The Cincinnati Open is always a crucial tournament in the lead-up to the final grand slam of the year. Taking place just two weeks prior to the US Open, Cincinnati attracts the majority of the world’s top players as they look to find their best form before heading to New York. In fact, nine of the top ten women’s players were in action including last year’s champion Iga Swiatek. Despite the top thirty-two seed’s receiving a bye in round one, there was still a former Cincinnati champion in action as Karolina Pliskova took on compatriot Sara Bejlek. Although it was a tough experience for the 2016 winner as she lost 6-0 6-2. Also in the first round, we saw Venus Williams in action as she was beaten 6-2 6-2 by Emiliana Arango. Moving into the second round, Swiatek began her title defence with a 6-3 6-0 triumph over Arango. Meanwhile, sixth seed Linda Noskova picked up her first singles match win as a Wimbledon champion when she saw off Katie Boulter in straight sets. Elsewhere, 2023 champion Coco Gauff opened her campaign with a tough 2-6 6-4 6-1 victory against Liudmila Samsonova. Perhaps the most dramatic match of round two came when eighth seed Elina Svitolina saved seven match points on route to defeating Tereza Valentova 3-6 7-6 6-0. Although that effort took its toll on the Ukrainian as she withdrew from the tournament before her scheduled round three clash with Xiyu Wang. Elsewhere in the draw during the third round, Swiatek fought off the challenge of Maria Sakkari in three sets to progress into the last sixteen. Meanwhile there were straight set victories for all of the top four seed’s Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina, Jessica Pegula and Gauff. On a busy Wednesday in Cincinnati, the entire fourth round was played. The big headline came right at the end of the day in the night session where Bejlek produced a stunning performance to defeat world number one Sabalenka 7-6 6-4. Also in the last sixteen, there were two battles between top-ten seed’s as Marta Kostyuk got past Mirra Andreeva in three sets, whilst Amanda Anisimova beat Noskova 6-1 6-4. Moving on to the quarter finals, Bejlek continued her incredible run with a hard-fought 3-6 6-4 7-6 victory against Madison Keys to reach the biggest semi final of her career. Meanwhile, Gauff comfortably defeated Kostyuk 6-2 6-2 to progress into her seventeenth WTA1000 semi final. In the bottom half of the draw, Pegula beat Anisimova 6-4 2-6 7-6 in a highly-competitive all-American encounter. Plus, Swiatek continued her title defence as Rybakina retired with an injury five games into their quarter final battle. On Saturday, the first semi final on court saw Pegula seal her spot in a WTA1000 final for the seventh time as she defeated Swiatek 7-5 4-6 6-4 in three tight sets. Then, Gauff produced an exceptional display to bring Bejlek’s great run in Cincinnati to an end. The American secured her place in an eighth WTA1000 final with a 6-4 6-1 triumph. That meant that for the first time since 1970 the women’s final in Cincinnati would be between two American’s. As the showpiece match commenced, Gauff made a phenomenal start and raced into a 5-0 lead. The fourth seed went on to claim the first set 6-2 and put herself in a great position to win a second Cincinnati title. In a much closer second set, Gauff edged it 6-4 to seal the trophy and her first title of the 2026 season. It was the perfect end to a sensational week for Gauff in a Cincinnati as she deservedly won this tournament for a second time. This success marked the fourth WTA1000 title of her career and sets her up very nicely for the upcoming US Open where she is a former champion.

In the men’s tournament, the draw was incredibly open due to the absence of 2025 champion Carlos Alcaraz and 2024 winner Jannik Sinner who are both currently injured. Normally one of those two would be the overwhelming favourite coming into an ATP Masters 1000 event but with neither of them in Cincinnati, it presented a big opportunity for everybody else. In the opening round there was a battle between two wildcard’s as Rinky Hijikata defeated Gael Monfils 2-6 7-6 6-3 in a highly-entertaining encounter. Meanwhile 2017 champion Grigor Dimitrov lost out in three sets against Sebastian Baez. Moving on to round two, the tournament’s thirty-two seed’s all entered the draw with top seed Alexander Zverev recording a 3-6 6-3 6-3 win over Cameron Norrie. Elsewhere, Novak Djokovic was in action for the first time since Wimbledon although he faced a tough draw against big-hitting Thiago Agustin Tirante. In a lengthy battle that was played in humid conditions, Tirante pulled off a huge victory to see off Djokovic in three sets. Also in round two, recently-crowned Montreal champion Ben Shelton made an immediate exit from Cincinnati as he was beaten 6-4 6-4 by qualifier Jaime Faria. In the third round, Zverev edged past Terence Atmane 7-6 7-6 to continue his tournament. Meanwhile, fourth seed Daniil Medvedev was beaten 6-7 7-6 6-1 by the in-form Brandon Nakashima. Round three was rounded out by a night session match-up between two exciting American’s in which France’s Tiafoe got past Learner Tien in three close sets. In the fourth round, Zverev found himself on the end of a defeat as Tommy Paul came back from match point down to beat the top seed 4-6 7-6 6-4. There was also a round four exit for the second seed Felix Auger-Aliassime as he went down 6-3 6-4 against Tiafoe. Elsewhere, Tirante’s fine form continued as he saw off fourteenth seed Jakub Mensik in three sets to reach the quarter finals of an ATP Masters 1000 event for the first time. In the last eight, Tirante’s memorable run in Cincinnati came to an end as he lost to twenty-first seed Arthur Fils. Elsewhere in the quarter finals, Flavio Cobolli booked his spot in a first ATP Masters 1000 semi final by defeating Paul 2-6 6-3 6-4. Meanwhile an all-American battle saw Nakashima come back from a break down in the third set to beat sixth seed Taylor Fritz 7-6 4-6 6-3. The semi final line-up was completed by Tiafoe who recorded a 7-6 7-5 victory over tenth seed Lorenzo Musetti. On Saturday in Cincinnati, Fils battled past Cobolli to progress into the first ATP Masters 1000 final of his career with a 6-3 6-4 win. Later on in the day, Tiafoe saved three set points before winning a close first set 7-5 against Nakashima. He then won the second set 6-3 to seal his place in a second ATP Masters 1000 final, both of which have come in Cincinnati. That set up a clash between two of the most exciting to watch players on the ATP Tour as Fils faced Tiafoe with them both searching for a maiden title at this level. As the final got underway, one break of serve was enough to settle the first set and it went the way of Fils as he claimed it 6-3. Next, Tiafoe responded brilliantly to win the second set 6-1 and force a decider. The match was being played at quite a pace with the opening two sets taking just fifty-four minutes. In the decider, an early break of serve for Fils broke Tiafoe’s resolve as the American began to tire. With firm control throughout the third set, Fils clinched the biggest title of his career with a 6-3 1-6 6-0 triumph. It was a well-deserved success for the young Frenchman who became the first player from his country to win an ATP Masters 1000 event since Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in 2014. With Cincinnati now completed, attention switches to the US Open which begins next Sunday where players will compete for the last available grand slam trophy of the calendar year.

ARSENAL VS COVENTRY CITY (FOOTBALL)

Two of last season’s league champions went head-to-head on Friday night to open the new Premier Leahue season. Back in May, Arsenal won the Premier League for the first time in over twenty years, meanwhile Coventry City lifted the EFL Championship trophy. That success saw Frank Lampard’s side promoted to England’s top division after twenty-five years outside of it. Over the summer, both teams had spent money to strengthen their squad’s which meant there were an array of new signings making their league debut’s under the lights at the Emirates Stadium. One of those was Arsenal’s Christos Tzolis who was involved in the game’s opening goal in the fifteenth minute. The Greek winger stole the ball off Milan Van Ewijk on the left hand side and laid it off for Riccardo Calafiori who found Kai Havertz on the edge of the penalty area and the German provided a clinical finish to put Arsenal ahead. It was the perfect start for the champions as they weathered the early enthusiasm of their visitors and then dented it with a goal. Now it was crucial for Coventry to try and establish themselves in the game without going behind further. Although they weren’t able to do that as a strong run through the middle of the pitch from Declan Rice set Arsenal on the attack with the Englishman then playing the ball out to Tzolis whose cross from the left was parried by Coventry goalkeeper Carl Rushworth straight into the path of Bukayo Saka who tucked the ball into the net for Arsenal’s second goal. It was a simple finish for Saka as he, after ending his World Cup by scoring a hat-trick, opened his goal scoring account for the new Premier League season. Despite finding themselves 2-0 down inside twenty-four minutes, Coventry responded positively. First, Ellis Simms did well to get past Arsenal defender Gabriel before he was fouled by the Brazilian, earning Gabriel a yellow card and winning Coventry a free-kick right on the edge of the penalty area. Later in the half, a volley from Loum Tchaouna beat Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya but looped just over the crossbar, landing on top of the net. That meant that as the half time whistle blew at the Emirates Stadium, the home side held a 2-0 lead over their newly-promoted visitors. Any hopes of an unlikely comeback from Coventry were all but ended early in the second half when Martin Odegaard added Arsenal’s third goal. A neat move involving Odegaard, Saka and Ben White ended with the latter cutting the ball back for Odegaard to shoot from ten yards out and, although he scuffed his effort, it found its way beyond Rushworth and into the back of the net. Just like the first half, Coventry weren’t deterred by conceding though and they actually had more possession and were the team on the front foot for the remainder of the match. That made for an enjoyable end-to-end game with Arsenal forcing Rushworth to make some smart saves, meanwhile Coventry also called Raya into action. The visitors best chance to score came in the eighty-sixth minute when Victor Torp’s cross from the left was headed towards goal by substitute Jack Rudoni but Raya was able to deny him what would’ve been Coventry’s first Premier League goal for a quarter of a century. Ultimately though, the opening game of the new league season ended in a comfortable 3-0 triumph for the defending champions. It was a strong start for Arsenal as they looked to send out a message to their competitors that they’re ready to defend their title. In contrast, Coventry’s return to the top division ended in defeat but they could take positives from their performance and be relieved that one of their toughest fixtures of the season was now out of the way.

DUTCH GRAND PRIX (FORMULA 1)

After a three-week summer break, Formula 1 returned this weekend with the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort. Coming into the twelfth round of the world championship, Kimi Antonelli leads the way at the top of the driver’s standings, ahead of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. In addition to the regular points scored in Sunday’s Grand Prix, Zandvoort was one of this season’s six sprint weekend’s, meaning there were extra points available for the driver’s and teams on Saturday. In the sprint race, Russell triumphed from pole position with Charles Leclerc finishing second and Lando Norris in third. Later on in the day, qualifying for the Grand Prix took place with Norris clinching pole position for the second consecutive race. He would be joined on the front row by Russell, with Antonelli and Oscar Piastri directly behind them. The third row of the grid belonged to the two Ferrari’s of Hamilton and Leclerc, ahead of home hero Max Verstappen who started in seventh. On race day, there was some rainfall around thirty minutes before the race start which turned out to have an influence on the opening lap. As much as the rain had stopped by the time the racing began, there were still some damp patches on the track. Following a clean start off the line where Norris kept hold of the lead, whilst Antonelli snuck past his teammate Russell for second place, there was a huge crash for Verstappen as he spun in a wet area of track and was sent into the barriers. Thankfully the four-time world champion quickly reported that he was okay after a heavy impact, but it was an unfortunate end to what may be his final Dutch Grand Prix, since Zandvoort is set to leave the F1 calendar next year. That incident understandably caused a red flag and the remaining twenty-one car’s returned to the pit lane. As the race was set to get going again, there was a second retirement from the race as Oliver Bearman stopped his Haas on the formation lap due to an engine problem. When racing finally did resume, we had another standing start although this time Norris had Antonelli alongside him on the front row. As the lights went out for the second time, Antonelli reacted better than Norris and he claimed the inside line at turn one to take the lead of the race. Behind them, Piastri produced a wonderful move to cruise past Russell and up into the top three. In the laps that followed, the race began to settle down with Antonelli leading the field from Norris, Piastri, Russell, Leclerc and Hamilton. That was until lap eighteen when Mercedes opted to pit Russell in an attempt to undercut Piastri and it worked as the McLaren driver’s pit stop on the next lap was slow, allowing Russell to get back ahead of the Australian. On lap twenty-one, the top three of Antonelli, Norris and Leclerc all made their first pit stop’s, which saw Hamilton go through into the race lead. Although that was only temporary as the seven-time world champion pitted on lap twenty-five, allowing Antonelli to re-take top spot on the leaderboard. Whilst the order at the front looked fairly consistent after the first round of pit stops, we witnessed some sensational racing further down the field as Nico Hulkenberg, Arvid Lindblad, Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda all squabbled over places nine to twelve with multiple changes in position across a thrilling four laps of wheel-to-wheel action. Eventually Hulkenberg was the driver to make ninth place his own and put some distance between himself and his rivals in that particular battle. On lap thirty-four, Leclerc found a way past Piastri to move up into fourth, before his teammate Hamilton also overtook the McLaren a lap later at turn one. Meanwhile, at the front, Norris was closing the gap between himself and Antonelli with the top two now comfortably ahead of Russell in third. Under pressure from Norris, Antonelli came into pit on lap forty hoping to pull off an undercut, although McLaren didn’t respond as Norris stayed out and built an advantage at the front. Seven laps later, Norris headed into the pits for his final change of tyre’s. Whilst Hamilton now held the lead, having not pitted for a second time yet, Norris was now behind Antonelli but on fresher tyres. In fact, within five laps, the top three of Hamilton, Antonelli and Norris were all within a second of each other on the track with the McLaren driver looking the fastest of the trio. On lap fifty-four, Norris made his move as he pulled off a magnificent overtake around the outside of turn one to sneak past Antonelli, before pulling alongside and past Hamilton on the run into turn eleven. The reigning world champion was now in the lead and he quickly set off down the road to increase his advantage over Hamilton and Antonelli. As we began the next lap, Antonelli overtook Hamilton to move into second place, however the drama wasn’t over as Esteban Ocon stopped on track, bringing out a virtual safety car. That prompted Antonelli, Hamilton, Leclerc and Piastri to head into the pit lane, giving them newer tyres for the remaining seventeen laps of the race. Those pit stops also saw Russell gain positions by staying on track as he now sat in second, albeit on harder and older tyres than those behind him. When racing resumed once again, it was now up to Antonelli on soft tyres to chase down Russell and Norris who remained on the hard compound. Despite being on a slower tyre, Norris actually managed to extend his lead at the front, whereas Antonelli quickly closed down the gap between himself and Russell. Team order’s given by Mercedes saw Russell let his teammate through on lap sixty-six which gave Antonelli six laps to close down an eleven-second deficit to Norris. Remarkably though, that gap grew bigger as Norris was putting in a stunning performance to solidify his position out in front. On lap seventy, a collision between the two Williams’ of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon left debris on the track which required a virtual safety car period. That proved very helpful for Russell as he tried to hold off the challenge of Hamilton in his rear view mirrors. With just over a lap to go, racing got back underway but Hamilton couldn’t find a way past his former teammate. As the chequered flag was waved, Norris secured back-to-back race victories with a sensational drive in Zandvoort. He was followed across the line by Antonelli, ahead of Russell, clinching a double podium for the Mercedes team. Behind them came Hamilton, Leclerc, Piastri, Liam Lawson, Hulkenberg, Fernando Alonso and Pierre Gasly in the top ten. Ultimately though the afternoon belonged to Norris who gained the perfect redemption after a DNF at this circuit twelve months ago to stand on the top step of the podium this year. That marked Norris’ thirteenth race win in Formula 1 and he became just the second driver after Antonelli to win consecutive races this season. In terms of the championship, Antonelli remains in top spot, meanwhile Russell moves into joint second as he is now tied with Hamilton on 183 points. Looking ahead, Formula 1 now takes a week off before returning in Monza on the 4th September.

SOUTH AFRICA VS NEW ZEALAND (RUGBY UNION)

A four-test match series between South Africa and New Zealand began on Saturday. Appropriately named the ‘Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Tour’, given the two nations are ranked as the top two on the planet, these four matches will see world champions South Africa host the All Blacks in the opening three games, before he fourth takes place in America. Coming into this first encounter, South Africa were slight favourites and they did win the most recent meeting between the two nations last September. As the opening match of the series kicked off at Ellis Park, the hosts got ahead inside the first four minutes thanks to a penalty scored by Cheslin Kolbe. However, they weren’t in front for long, as Will Jordan forced the ball over the try line to earn New Zealand five points. On thirteen minutes, South Africa scored their first try of the afternoon when Andre Esterhuizen spotted a gap in New Zealand’s defence and charged through it to run it for the try. With Kolbe then stepping up to send the resulting conversion attempt between the posts, the Springboks took a 10-5 lead. In a game which featured plenty of swings in momentum, the next scoring play came from the All Blacks as Tupou Vaa’i beat a player on the left wing before laying the ball off for Joshua Moorby to carry in for a try. It was a neat attacking move from the away side which, coupled with a successful conversion attempt from Ruben Love, saw them go 12-10 up. Inevitably, there was an immediate response from South Africa as they won a penalty in a scrum, which Kolbe kicked between the posts to post another three points on the scoreboard. That meant that at half time in the first test match between the world’s top two teams, South Africa were ahead by just one point. Moving into the second half, another penalty scored by Kolbe enabled the hosts to extended their advantage to 16-10. Then, almost straight from the kick-off, Fabian Holland charged down and blocked Grant Williams’ clearance before gathering the ball and carrying it over South Africa’s try line. That narrowed New Zealand’s deficit to one point and then they took the lead when Love directed the following conversion through the posts. Next came a sustained attack from the Springboks but they couldn’t break through New Zealand’s resolute defence who did well to keep them out. On fifty-seven minutes, New Zealand set away on an attack with Damian McKenzie charging into space and as much as he didn’t reach the try line, he did manage to win a scrum deep into South Africa territory. That proved crucial as from the resulting scrum, Luke Jacobson was able to force the ball over the try line to put the visitors further ahead. When Love then stepped up to add the extra two points with a successful conversion, New Zealand moved 25-16 up, giving them some breathing space on the scoreboard for the first time in the afternoon. With twenty minutes to go, the onus was now firmly on South Africa to fight back but they still couldn’t get through the resilient and well-organised defence of their opponents. Then, on seventy minutes, came a pivotal moment in the game as Marco Van Staden was sent to the sin bin for foul play. Furthermore, Cobus Reinach then joined him on the next play when he was also shown a yellow card, this time for a deliberate knock-on. With just thirteen players left on the pitch, South Africa’s chances of victory were rapidly diminishing. A seventy-fourth minute try from Jordan made certain of victory for New Zealand as they used their two-man advantage to create space for him to score a simple try down the left wing. The All Blacks added a further two points courtesy of Love’s conversion to add some extra gloss to a stunning victory. As the full time whistle blew in Johannesburg, New Zealand defeated South Africa 33-16 in the first test match of their tour. It was a phenomenal start to the series for the visitors and they will look to repeat their success next Saturday when the two side’s meet again.

BMW CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL ROUND (GOLF)

Week two of the FedEx Cup Playoffs on the PGA Tour took us to Missouri for the BMW Championship. Following victory for world number one Scottie Scheffler at last weekend’s St Jude Championship, the top fifty players on the PGA Tour moved on to compete in the second of three playoff tournaments. Not only are they fighting for the title at the BMW Championship but they’re also trying to clinch progression into next week’s Tour Championship, where only the top thirty players will be eligible to play. After the opening three rounds of play at the Bellerive Country Club, Wyndham Clark held a five shot lead at the top of the leaderboard. The American was seventeen under par for the tournament coming into Sunday. Behind him in joint second was both Rory McIlroy and Patrick Cantlay who began the final round on -12. They were just one shot ahead of Christopher Gotterup and Gary Woodland on -11, whilst Collin Morikawa was still potentially in contention on -10. As the top six teed off in the final three slot’s of the day, Morikawa and Woodland both opened with two birdies each through the first four holes. Although Morikawa was then tripped up by a costly double bogey at the sixth hole, meanwhile Woodland dropped a shot at the seventh before hitting a double bogey of his own at the ninth. Those came either side of a birdie at the eighth hole, meaning Woodland sat at -12 at the conclusion of his opening nine holes, a shot ahead of playing partner Morikawa, who also picked up a birdie at the eighth. Behind them on the course, Gotterup got off to a mixed start with a bogey at the first hole being balanced off by a birdie at the fourth. Similarly, Cantlay was also trying to find a balancing act between birdies and bogeys by going one under par on four of his front nine holes, but one over on three other’s. That saw him remain second on -13 at the halfway point of his round. In the final leading group, McIlroy gained a shot through his front nine to join Cantlay on -13, whereas Clark struggled and hit two bogey’s which dropped him back to -15. Elsewhere on the course, Morikawa hit three bogey’s on his back nine but recovered with a spectacular eagle at the seventeenth hole. Playing alongside him was Woodland who matched par all the way through to the end of the round to remain on -12. In the middle pairing of the leading trio, a birdie at the eleventh hole helped Gotterup improve to -12, meanwhile a double bogey on the same hole cost Cantlay in his quest to chase down Clark’s lead. Despite that set back, Cantlay recovered well and ended his round with consecutive birdies on the last three holes to take the clubhouse lead with a total of -14 for the tournament. Back on the course, a bogey for Clark at the tenth hole, coupled with a birdie for McIlroy at the eleventh, saw them go joint top on -14 with seven holes left to play. That was still the situation at the top of the leaderboard as we entered the final three holes. Needing a first birdie of the day to become the outright leader, Clark delivered one at the sixteenth hole to move back onto -15. However, it was the seventeenth hole where the tournament was as good as decided as Clark found the hole in four shots, whilst McIlroy needed six. That birdie for Clark, along with McIlroy’s bogey, enabled him to stretch his lead to three shots over his playing partner and two shots over Cantlay’s final score. As the tournament concluded at the eighteenth hole, Clark signed off in style with a third consecutive birdie to clinch the BMW Championship title. The American ended the tournament on -17 with a final round that matched par and handed him victory. It marked a third PGA Tour win of the season for Clark who will now head into the final event of the season next week full of confidence. Behind him on the final leaderboard came Cantlay three shots back, with McIlroy a shot further back in third and the trio of Gotterup, Morikawa and Woodland all tied fourth on -12. Next, the PGA Tour heads to Atlanta for the Tour Championships where the 2026 FedEx Cup champion will be crowned.

TORINO VS AC MILAN (FOOTBALL)

Italy’s premier division got underway this weekend to kick off what is sure to be another fascinating season of Serie A football. On Sunday evening, AC Milan began a new era under head coach Ruben Amorim when they travelled to Torino. Following an underwhelming end to their last campaign where they missed out on qualifying for the Champions League, Milan opted to change coach over the summer. That provided Amorim with a great opportunity to get back into work after his bizarre tenure at Manchester United came to an end in January. Turning our attention to their hosts, Torino also enter the season with a new head coach after a mid-table finish last May. The new man in charge for them is Ignacio Abate, who is a former Torino and Milan defender. As the new season commenced for these two teams, it was a highly tactical encounter with very few chances created in the early stages. The first note-worthy opportunity for either side to score came in the thirtieth minute when Samuel Chukwueze cut in from the right wing and fired a shot towards the near post but it was well-stopped by Torino goalkeeper Diego Mascardi. That proved to be the closest we came to a goal in an evenly-contested first half where both teams preferred to focus on defensive solidarity. After half time, the game finally began to open up, particularly after the introduction of Luka Modric and Adrien Rabiot off the Milan bench on fifty-five minutes. The two veteran midfielders provided a spark which helped Milan finally break down Torino’s defensive shape. In the sixty-fourth minute, Rabiot’s deflected cross bounced kindly at the feet of Alphadjo Cisse who excellently controlled the ball with his first touch before directing a half-volley into the roof of the net with his second. It was a moment of quality from the Milan attacker as his neat piece of skill and superb finish saw the visitors go 1-0 up. Three minutes later, Milan then doubled their lead and unsurprisingly the two kid fled maestro’s were involved once again. A pass from Modric found Chukwueze in space on the right hand side and his cross was met at the back post by Rabiot who volleyed the ball past Mascardi for 2-0. Two goals in the space of three minutes sparked the game into life as Torino then began to show some attacking intent of their own. First, Alieu Njie set off on a magnificent run down the left wing which ended with him finding some space in the penalty area and firing a shot which cannoned off the near post. That was followed by a great chance for Pietro Comuzzo as he connected with Kian Fitz-Jim’s exquisite pass but sent his volley sailing over Mike Maignan’s crossbar. As we entered stoppage time at the end of the match, Torino finally got themselves on the scoresheet as Che Adams pulled off an audacious finish to direct Gvidas Gineitis’ free-kick into the net. The Scottish striker met the low cross with his back to goal and hit a volley which looped beyon the reach of Maignan and into the top corner. It was extraordinary finish but it proved to only be a consolation as Milan held on to seal a 2-1 victory. Following a tight first half, the quality of Modric and Rabiot turned out to be game-changing for the visitors as two goals in quick succession ensured they made a winning start to the new Serie A season.

Hugh Watches Sports: 10th-16th August 2026

Welcome to the latest edition of Hugh Watches Sports. In this post we will reflect on two big tennis tournament’s, a European football final, the conclusion of the Formula E season, the start of the new EFL campaign, plus the opening weekend of action in the PGA Tour FedEx Cup Playoffs. Let’s get into it.

WTA TORONTO (TENNIS)

Across the past fortnight, Toronto played host to the first of two back-to-back WTA1000 event’s. This tournament, coupled with the upcoming one in Cincinnati, are the two biggest in the lead-up to the US Open and features the majority of the world’s top players. Unfortunately last year’s champion and home favourite Victoria Mboko was unable to defend her title due to an ongoing injury. Having said that, there were still Canadian’s in the draw for the crowd to cheer on. Two of those were Katherine Sebov and Kayla Cross who both took full advantage of being handed wildcard’s by recording respective round one wins over Aoi Ito and Katie Boulter. Moving into round two, the top thirty-two seed’s all entered the draw after receiving a bye in the opening round. The world number one Aryna Sabalenka got her campaign underway with a 6-3 6-3 victory against Moyuka Uchijima. Meanwhile, second seed Elena Rybakina overcame Daria Kasatkina in three tough sets to book her place in round three. There were also second round wins for Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff, although sixth seed Linda Noskova suffered a surprise loss to Caty McNally in her first match since winning Wimbledon. In terms of the Canadian wildcard’s, both Sebov and Cross went out in round two after respective defeats against Marta Kostyuk and Ann Li. As we reached the round of thirty-two in Toronto, Leylah Fernandez pulled off a huge win as she beat Roland Garros champion Mirra Andreeva 6-1 6-4 on home soil. Elsewhere, there were straight set triumph’s for Sabalenka, Rybakina, Pegula and Gauff. In round four, Sabalenka went out of the tournament as she was beaten 7-6 4-6 6-4 by Ekaterina Alexandrova in a tight encounter. There was also a fourth round exit for third seed Pegula who lost out to Diana Schnaider in two sets. Meanwhile, Fernandez’s run at her home tournament came to an end with a close straight sets defeat against eleventh seed Naomi Osaka. Elsewhere in round four, Rybakina came through a three set battle against Liudmila Samsonova 6-4 4-6 6-4. That saw her progress into the quarter finals where she staged an exceptional comeback to defeat Osaka 4-6 7-6 6-4 after having been a set and a break down. Elsewhere in the last eight, seventh seed Iga Swiatek secured her place in a twenty-third WTA1000 semi final with a dominant 6-2 6-1 win over Schnaider. In another quarter final, Elina Svitolina saw off Alexandrova in three sets. Meanwhile the other last eight encounter wasn’t played as Belinda Bencic was forced to withdraw from the tournament with a hip injury, handing Gauff a walkover into the last four. Moving into the semi finals, Swiatek got the better of Svitolina in three sets to book her place in a first final of the year. That was followed by an encounter between two top five players as Rybakina faced Gauff. After splitting the first two sets, Rybakina won the third 6-2 to reach the final of a WTA1000 event for the seventh time in her career. In the final, Swiatek produced a stunning performance to defeat Rybakina 6-2 6-3 and win her first title of the season. It was a superb return to form for Swiatek who completed the set of having now won all five of the biggest tournaments held in North America. She now heads to Cincinnati where she won the title twelve months ago.

PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN VS ASTON VILLA (FOOTBALL)

On Wednesday evening, UEFA’s first available silverware of the season was handed out as the Super Cup took place in Salzburg. This match brings together the winners of the previous season’s Champions League and Europa League to compete for the trophy. After successfully defending their champions league title in May, Paris Saint-Germain came into this game looking to win the UEFA Super Cup for a second successive year. Their opponents on this occasion would be Aston Villa who won the Europa League with a comfortable 3-0 triumph over Freiburg in the final. Heading into this match, neither team were at full strength with some players only just back in training after reaching the latter stages of the World Cup. As a result, Ousmane Dembele was only on the bench for PSG meanwhile Aston Villa opted to leave Emiliano Martinez, Ezri Konsa and Ollie Watkins out of their squad for the encounter. When the game kicked off in Salzburg, it was a tight opening twenty minutes with both teams looking to find some rhythm in possession. As we reached the twentieth minute, a PSG attack saw some wonderful footwork in the penalty area by Khvicha Kvaratskhelia who then laid the ball off for Desire Doue to shoot but his effort was parried away by Aston Villa goalkeeper Marco Bizot. Although the ball quickly came back towards Villa’s goal as Vitinha picked up possession and found Doue who passed the ball to Kvaratskhelia before the Georgian unleashed an unstoppable strike into the roof of Bizot’s net to give the Parisian’s the lead. It was an exceptional finish and a moment of real quality from one of the best forward players in the world which put PSG 1-0 up. Six minutes later, the English side almost equalised when talented young striker Brian Madjo played the ball out to John McGinn before making a run into the penalty area to connect with the Scotsman’s cross and send his header narrowly wide of the far post. Despite being just seventeen, Madjo continued to pose a threat to PSG and he went close again soon after when he showed great strength to shrug off Willian Pacho and get a shot away which beat goalkeeper Matvey Safonov but hit the post. In the closing stages of the first half, Madjo’s persistence was rewarded as he became the youngest player to ever score in the UEFA Super Cup. A cross from McGinn on the right hand side headed towards the back post where Madjo got the better of Pacho again and directed a volley beyond Safonov to level the score. After an exciting first half, in which Aston Villa had got better and better as the half went on, the two teams were tied at 1-1. Moving into the second half, the Europa League winners had a great chance to take the lead when a through ball from Emiliano Buendia caught out PSG’s high line and set away Madjo who held the ball up well before laying it off to McGinn who then cut inside and curled a shot towards goal which was well-saved by Safonov. On sixty minutes, having come on at half time, Dembele produced an excellent pass to find Doue in space in behind Aston Villa’s defence and the Frenchman provided a neat finish past Bizot to score. However, the linesman’s flag was raised as the ball went into the net and the goal was initially ruled out. After a VAR review, that decision was overturned and the goal was awarded as the review concluded that Doue was onside and therefore his calmly-taken effort saw PSG re-take the lead. Now the onus was on Aston Villa to find a second equaliser of the evening. They had a great chance on eighty-one minutes when Tammy Abraham set the ball out wide to Alisson whose cross was perfectly placed into the six-yard box but none of his teammates were able to get the crucial finishing touch which would’ve sent it into the goal. As the clock ticked beyond ninety minutes and into stoppage time, Villa’s search for a leveller continued with Ian Maatsen making progress down the left hand side and sending a cross into the penalty area which was met at the front post by Buendia but he couldn’t steer his header on target. Ultimately, as the final whistle blew in Salzburg, the evening belonged to PSG as they successfully defended their Super Cup trophy to win it in back-to-back season’s. In the end Doue’s goal was enough to seal a 2-1 victory for the French champions as they made the perfect start to their new campaign.

LONDON E-PRIX (FORMULA E)

This weekend saw the Formula E season reach its conclusion in London with a double-header of races to decide its champion. Coming into the weekend, nine driver’s still had a mathematical chance of winning the title. The man top of the standings on Friday was Jake Dennis who was two points ahead of Mitch Evans, with Pascal Wehrlein three points further back. Whilst there were mathematically eight drivers in contention for the championship at the start of the weekend, it was realistically going to be one of those three who likely clinched the title. In this piece, I’m going to focus on Sunday’s season finale but first let’s reflect on Saturday’s race. Round sixteen saw Wehrlein win the race from pole position, ahead of Dennis in second with Antonio Felix Da Costa completing the podium. Meanwhile, Evans finished the race in eighth. That meant heading into Sunday’s race, Wehrlein was now the championship leader, five points ahead of Dennis, with Evans trailing the Brit by six points. With that in mind, any result that saw Wehrlein finish ahead of his two championship rivals on Sunday would be enough for him to claim the title. Whereas Dennis needed to finish ahead of Wehrlein and score at least five more points than his rival. As for Evans, he would need to win the race and hope for Wehrlein to finish outside the top eight and Dennis outside the top six to be victorious. Taking that all into account, Wehrlein was the favourite to win a second Formula E World Championship at the start of the day and his odd’s of doing so only increased after qualifying. With Nyck De Vries claiming pole position, Wehrlein was tucked in behind him in third. Meanwhile, Evans started in fifth whilst Dennis began the race down in sixteenth. As the second race of the weekend commenced in London, De Vries made a good start to keep the lead with his teammate Edoardo Mortara in second and Wehrlein remaining in third. The order was settled through the first four laps before Da Costa was first to deploy one of his two bursts of attack mode which saw him move up from seventh to third, ahead of Wehrlein. Although Wehrlein got back in front of the Portuguese driver when he then took his attack mode boost. The big winner from the first round of attack mode deployment’s was Taylor Barnard who found himself up running in the top three at the end of lap nine, with just De Vries and Mortara ahead of him. On lap fourteen, an issue with his car forced Lucas De Grassi to retire from his final race in Formula E, which was a sad end to the career of a legend in this racing series. As we reached the closing ten laps of the season, there was drama when Wehrlein made an error which saw him overtaken by a number of car’s, including Dennis who was in attack mode, putting the German down to eleventh place. By the time Dennis’ attack mode ended he was up into seventh which saw him briefly move into top spot in the live driver’s championship with Wehrlein out of the point-scoring positions. As Wehrlein took his second attack mode boost in order to try and recover some positions, he was now running closely behind his title rival. On lap thirty-two there was a hugely dramatic moment as the two rivals came together along with Joel Eriksson at turn sixteen. Replays suggested that Wehrlein clipped the back of Eriksson’s car which made him spin and make contact with Dennis. It was a chaotic moment and despite all three being able to keep going in the race initially, Eriksson and Dennis were forced to pit and end their respective race’s due to damage. That ended Dennis’ title hopes and now only Evans could prevent Wehrlein from winning the championship. He currently sat in fourth place however didn’t show many signs of being able to overtake Mortara ahead of him. Whilst the TV coverage was focused on the battle between Wehrlein and Dennis, it totally missed that Barnard had snuck past both Mortara and De Vries to take the lead of the race. After holding off De Vries on the final lap, Barnard was first to pass the chequered flag as he claimed his first race victory in Formula E. In doing so, he became the you best ever Formula E race winner and would stand on the podium alongside De Vries and Mortara. Behind them came Evans in fourth which meant the driver’s championship was won by Wehrlein on a dramatic afternoon in London. It was a hectic end to what had been a superb year for the German in which he had won three of the seventeen race’s. This marked his second driver’s title in Formula E, after also triumphing in 2024. In addition to the driver’s championship, the team’s championship was also decided by the result of the final race in London as Evans’ fourth place proved enough for Jaguar to hold off Porsche and win it. Overall that brings an end to another thrilling Formula E season and there are a number of rule and car changes coming which will hopefully make next season even more exciting.

ATP MONTREAL (TENNIS)

Whilst the world’s best female players were competing in Toronto, there was also an ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Montreal happening simultaneously. Unfortunately the main story coming into the event was the absence of both Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz due to injury, which really opened up the draw. With the top thirty-two seeds all receiving a bye in round one, a lot of attention was on former grand slam semi finalist Jack Draper who continued his return from injury with a clash against Terence Atmane. After splitting the first two sets, Atmane took the third 6-2 to knock Draper out in the first round. Meanwhile, there was a former champion involved in round one as Pablo Carreno Busta went down 1-6 7-5 6-2 against Valentin Royer. As the top seed’s entered the tournament, almost half of them made immediate exit’s with fourteen of the thirty-two losing in the second round. They included the number one seed Alexander Zverev who was beaten 6-7 6-2 6-4 by Tallon Griekspoor. Elsewhere, fourth seed Daniil Medvedev went down in straight sets against Botic Van De Zandschulp, plus recently crowned Washington champion Taylor Fritz lost 7-5 6-3 to Thiago Agustin Tirante. In contrast to most of his fellow top players, defending champion Ben Shelton was able to make a winning start to his campaign in Montreal as he got past Jenson Brooksby in straight sets. Meanwhile the best match of the second round came when Juncheng Shang defeated Andrey Rublev 7-5 4-6 7-6 after having saved five match points. Moving into round three, the seed’s continued to struggle with third seed Alex De Minaur squandering a 5-2 lead and a match point in the second set before being beaten 5-7 7-6 6-1 by Cameron Norris. Elsewhere, the 2024 champion in Montreal Alexi Popyrin went out in two sets against Tirante. As we reached the last sixteen stage, there was just one top ten player left in the draw and that was the defending champion Shelton. The American came up against exciting youngster Joao Fonseca in the fourth round and produced an excellent display to secure a 6-3 7-6 victory and keep his title defence going. Meanwhile, Rafael Jodar was in fine form as he saw off Jiri Lehecka in straight sets to reach the quarter finals. In the last eight, Jodar took on Arthur Fils in a battle between two of the rising stars on the ATP Tour. After two tight sets, Jodar triumphed 7-6 6-3 to progress into an ATP Masters 1000 semi final for the first time in his career. Similarly, Learner Tien and Brandon Nakashima also reached a semi final at this level for the first time with respective wins over Daniel Merida and Luciano Darderi in the last eight. In the other quarter final clash, Shelton got past Jakub Mensik in straight sets. Reflecting on the quarter finals, it was the first time in ATP Masters 1000 history where all eight of the quarter finalists were born in the 2000’s, which seemed like a notable statistic. As we reached the semi final stage, Shelton was the heavy favourite to retain his title in Canada. He recorded a comfortable 6-2 6-3 victory to see off Tien and move into his second ATP Masters 1000 final. Meanwhile, Nakashima served sensationally on route to a 6-4 7-6 triumph over Jodar which saw him progress into the biggest final of his career. In the final, Shelton started well to claim the first set 6-3 before a tight second set ended up in a tie-break which Shelton won to complete a successful defence of his title. It was an exceptional achievement for the American as he became the first man since Rafael Nadal in 2018 and 2019 to win back-to-back title’s at this tournament. This marked the second ATP Masters 1000 success of his career and his seventh title on the ATP Tour. Just like the women on the WTA Tour, the men will now quickly head to Cincinnati for another huge tournament in the lead-up to this year’s US Open.

WATFORD VS SOUTHAMPTON (FOOTBALL)

After a turbulent end to last season where they reached the playoff final but were then kicked out of it and deducted four points for spying on opposition training session’s, Southampton came into the new campaign with a lot of intrigue surrounding them. On Sunday they travelled to Watford for the first match in their EFL Championship season, looking for a win to move onto -1 points. In the aftermath of ‘Spy-Gate’ there was doubt over the future of head coach Tonda Eckert but the club ultimately opted to stick by him and he remains in charge. In contrast, Watford do have a new manager for this season and that is Alessio Dionisi who is taking on his first job in English football. Therefore this match was one of the most fascinating of the opening weekend in the EFL with Southampton hoping for a good performance to shift some of the talk about ‘Spy-Gate’ and Watford playing their first league match under new management. As the game got underway, the first goal arrived in the twelfth minute when a mid judged clearance from Jack Stephens presented the ball to Iker Bravo in space about twenty-five yards out and the Watford attacker carried the ball into the penalty area before slotting a neat finish past Daniel Peretz. It was the ideal start for Watford as they excited their supporters and took the lead early on at Vicarage Road. As well as the goal, the opening phase of the encounter was notably feisty, with four yellow cards handed out inside the first eighteen minutes. Whilst Southampton had the majority of possession, it continued to be Watford who looked more likely to score and they went close to doubling their advantage on twenty-one minutes. Southampton’s failure to clear the ball properly from a set-piece resulted in a chance for Othmane Maamma but his shot was well-stopped at the near post by Southampton goalkeeper Peretz. In the twenty-ninth minute, Watford’s second goal came courtesy of a sensational run from Amin Nabizada who picked up the ball inside his own half and simply just kept on running with it until he reached the edge of the six yard box where he then slid the ball across Peretz and into the far bottom corner of the net. It was an excellent goal from the Watford winger but Southampton’s defending was extremely poor. As the first half came to a close, Watford were 2-0 up and looking comfortable meanwhile Southampton had failed to create any meaningful chances despite having a greater amount of possession than their hosts. After the interval, Southampton improved offensively and that was evident on fifty-six minutes when Cyle Larin scored to halve their deficit. The ball was carried forward by Cam Bragg who played a one-two with Larin on the edge of the penalty area before finding the Canadian again in some space and he poked a shot into the back of the net. The visitors then almost scored an equaliser two minutes later when Watford failed to clear the ball and it fell kindly for Larin who sent his volley towards goal which was superbly tipped around the post by goalkeeper Federico Ravaglia. Despite generally being the team in attack during the second half, Southampton also had to be wary of the threat of Watford on the counter-attack. On fifty-nine minutes, Bravo and Maamaa combined to put Bravo in behind the Southampton defence before an incredible recovery tackle from Ryan Manning snatched the opportunity away from the Watford attacker. From then on, the rest of the encounter saw Southampton continue to have more possession although they struggled to create chances and break through Watford’s resolute defence. In fact the best chance the visitors had to equalise came in stoppage time when Manning’s cross from the left was controlled brilliantly by Taylor Harwood-Bellis just inside the penalty area but he then failed to steer his effort on target and the chance went awry. That proved to be the final action in a highly entertaining game of football as Watford held on to clinch a 2-1 win and make a winning start to their Championship campaign. As for Southampton, they remain four points adrift at the bottom of the league table.

ST JUDE CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL ROUND (GOLF)

The FedEx Cup Playoff’s kicked off this week with the St Jude Championship in Tennessee. Played across three tournaments, the playoff’s feature the world’s top seventy players from the regular PGA Tour season with twenty eliminated after each event. Whilst all seventy players competed in Tennessee, only the top fifty at the end of the weekend progressed to play at next week’s BMW Championship. Then, only the top thrifty finisher’s at that tournament will compete at the final playoff event which is the Tour Championship. Coming into Sunday’s final round at the St Jude Championship world number one Scottie Scheffler sat top of the leaderboard on -13, two shots clear of Sam Burns and Sungjae Im. Behind them, Tommy Fleetwood and Jake Knapp were tied in third on -8 and needing a monumental final round to challenge for the title. As play commenced on a hot and humid Sunday in Tennessee, Fleetwood and Knapp both remained at -8 through the front nine, failing to close the gap to Scheffler’s lead. Behind them on the course, Im dropped two shots with back-to-back bogeys at the fifth and sixth hole’s. Meanwhile, a disastrous start to the day for Burns saw him hit a double bogey at the third hole, followed by a bogey at the fifth. Whilst his main challenger’s struggled, Scheffler dropped a shot at the third hole but recovered well to birdie the fifth, before backing that up with a birdie at the sixth to increase his advantage on the leaderboard. As the earlier starter’s began to finish their round, Si Woo Kim took the clubhouse lead after a round of two under par on the final day moved him onto -9 for the tournament. Back on the course, four bogeys on the back nine cost Fleetwood any chance of challenging for the title, meanwhile a double bogey at the eleventh hole saw Knapp fall out of contention. Elsewhere, neither Im or Burns were able to close the gap between themselves and Scheffler. Despite a birdie at the thirteenth hole, two bogey’s on the back nine saw Im slip to -7, whereas Burns also saw two birdies cancelled out by three bogey’s to fall to -8. With everyone around him dropping shots, it was going to take an almighty meltdown from Scheffler to deny him the title. As expected from the world’s top golfer, there was no such meltdown as he played a solid back nine which included birdies at the eleventh, thirteenth and sixteenth holes to cruise to victory. It was the ideal end to a phenomenal week of golf from Scheffler as he clinched his second title of the year and twenty-first win on the PGA Tour. With a total of -17, he ended the St Jude Championship eight shots ahead of his nearest challenger who ended up being Kim, with Burns and Alex Noren finishing tied third. Looking ahead, the FedEx Cup Playoff’s continue next week with the BMW Championship in Missouri where, after his timely return to form in Tennessee, Scheffler will begin as a heavy favourite.

Hugh Watches Sports: 3rd-9th August 2026

Welcome to this week’s Hugh Watches Sports post. In this edition we will take in action from the Betfred Super League, the start of this season’s EFL Cup, a huge rugby international clash, a big golf tournament and a football match-up from Scotland’s top division. Let’s get into it.

ST HELENS VS HULL FC (RUGBY LEAGUE)

On Thursday evening, round twenty-two of the Betfred Super League kicked off with St Helens taking on Hull FC. After back-to-back defeats, Saints were looking to get back to winning ways as they hosted the team placed thirteenth in the league table. Similarly, Hull FC were also looking for a first win in a while having lost their last seven league matches. This encounter had potential ramifications for the playoffs too as St Helens started the day seventh in the league table and needing a win to boost their chances of ending the regular season inside the top six. As the game kicked off on a summer’s evening in the north of England, the home side begun perfectly with a try inside two minutes courtesy of Lewis Murphy. They caught the Hull FC defence cold and before they knew it, the visitors trailed 6-0 as Jackson Hastings kicked the ball between the posts for St Helens’ first conversion of the evening. Despite that early setback, Hull FC issued a swift response to get level six minutes later when they found Harvey Barron out wide and he carried the ball over the try line. That try, coupled with a successful conversion from Zak Hardaker put the score at 6-6. The next scoring play in the match came as a result of a high tackle from Tom Briscoe which saw St Helens awarded a penalty which was duly kicked through the posts by Hastings to give his side a two-point lead. Going behind seemed to give Hull FC a burst of energy as they went on the attack and after a succession of attacks, Lewis Martin was able to power through St Helens’ defence for a try. That saw the visitors move into the lead for the first time as they went 10-8 ahead, albeit Hardaker missed the follow-up conversion attempt. A hectic first half continued as St Helens got back in front eight minutes later when an impressive burst of pace from Jack Welsby saw him skip past Hull FC’s defensive line and run in for four points. Then Hastings stepped up to continue his perfect kicking record and add the conversion. There was still time for one more try in the opening forty minutes and it came with the last play of the half as Barron bundled the ball over the try line. Initially, the referee ruled no try on the pitch because he wasn’t sure if Barron was still in possession of the ball when he reached the try line, although, after a video ref replay, the try was given and Hull FC levelled the scoreline. When Hardaker then missed his conversion attempt, it felt fitting that a crazy first half ended equal at 14-14. Moving into the second half and it only took six minutes for the scoring to resume as Barron completed his hat-trick with another try from out wide on the right hand side. This time Hardaker made no mistake with his right boot as he directed the ball between the posts to put Hull FC 20-14 up. Two minutes later, things got even better for the visitors when Cade Cust forced the ball beyond the try line to extend their advantage. A superb start to the second half by Hull FC was completed when Hardaker’s conversion saw them move twelve points ahead of their hosts and into a great position to potentially pick up their second away win of the season. As St Helens struggled to come up with a response, Hull FC grew in confidence and they added two more points in the sixty-ninth minute thanks to Hardaker sending a penalty through the posts. On seventy-one minutes, St Helens finally found their way over the try line for the first time in the second half as Harry Robertson darted in to score. Although any hopes of the home side mounting a comeback quickly disappeared when James Bell intercepted a pass and carried the ball beyond the try line to extend Hull FC’s lead. That proved to be the final scoring play in a highly-entertaining rugby match as Hull FC ended a seven match losing streak with a 32-18 victory against St Helens. It was an excellent result for the visitors as they triumphed away at St Helens for the first time in nine years. They also move up the league table into twelfth with their sixth win of the campaign. As for St Helens, this loss could turn out to be detrimental in their quest to reach the playoffs as they remain outside the top six with just five matches to go in the regular season.

MIDDLESBROUGH VS WREXHAM (FOOTBALL)

Ahead of all three EFL league’s getting underway next weekend, the first round of the EFL Cup was the first fixture of the 2026/27 season for most of the club’s involved. On Friday night, Middlesbrough faced Wrexham in an all-Championship cup tie. Interestingly, these two side’s also faced each other on the final day of last season when they played out a 2-2 draw. That result confirmed that Wrexham missed out on a spot in the playoff’s, whilst Middlesbrough went on to lose to Hull City on the playoff final. Therefore, both teams would be looking to bounce back from a disappointing end to their respective season’s in May. As the encounter got going under the lights at the Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough almost made the ideal start with a huge chance to score in the sixth minute. A cross from Sebastian Berhalter was met in the penalty area by Adilson Malanda whose effort forced Wrexham goalkeeper Danny Ward to pull off a magnificent reaction save. There were some good opportunities created by both team’s in an entertaining first half with Wrexham’s best coming in the thirty-eighth minute when Nathan Broadhead’s pass found Sam Smith in space inside Middlesbrough’s penalty area but his shot was well-stopped by Sol Brynn. The team from Wales went close again moments later as the ball broke loose after a tackle on Broadhead and straight into the path of Oliver Rathbone whose strike drifted narrowly past Brynn’s far post. In the closing stages of the half, Will Lankshear sent a header towards goal in an attempt to put Middlesbrough ahead but it went over the crossbar and the cup tie was goalless at the break. After the interval, Middlesbrough stepped up their intensity as they went in search of an opener. On sixty-one minutes, a moment of brilliance provided the first goal of the evening as Jeremy Sarmiento’s cross towards the back post was headed down by Berhalter and then acrobatically volleyed into the far bottom corner of the net by Lankshear. It was an excellent move and finish from the hosts as Lankshear delighted the Middlesbrough fans with a goal on his debut for the club. The Englishman had a great chance to double his goal tally soon after as he was played in by a great pass from Kyle Joseph but he sent his effort over the crossbar. With an array of substitutions interrupting the flow of the game, plus players beginning to tire in their opening match of a new season, it proved difficult for Wrexham to build up any attacking momentum. In fact, Middlesbrough seemed more likely to score a second than their visitors did to find an equaliser. In the eighty-sixth minute, an exchange of passes between Joseph and Morgan Whittaker presented Whittaker with a shooting opportunity from about fifteen yards out with which he produced a good save from Ward to keep the score at 1-0. Overall, Middlesbrough made a winning start to the new campaign as the final whistle confirmed a 1-0 victory over Wrexham. That result sends them into the second round of the EFL Cup and sets them up nicely ahead of their Championship opener against Lincoln City next weekend. As for Wrexham, they exit the EFL Cup at the first round stage and they will now look to make a positive start to their league season next week when they face Cardiff City.

ARGENTINA VS SOUTH AFRICA (RUGBY UNION)

This weekend Buenos Aires hosted an international friendly between Argentina and South Africa. Following a feisty encounter against England last time out, Argentina would be without Tomas Albornoz for this match after he was banned for four matches as a result of ‘intimidatory behaviour’ during that clash. For Argentina this serves as a chance to bounce back from their defeat to England and test themselves against the world’s best international side. Meanwhile, for South Africa this was a warm-up game ahead of their participation in rugby’s greatest rivalry tour in which they will face New Zealand in four test matches, beginning later in August. The Springboks head into this encounter on a twelve match winning streak including a narrow 29-27 victory against Argentina last October. As their latest meeting kicked off, both teams got on the scoresheet in the opening five minutes thanks to early penalties. First, Santiago Carreras kicked Argentina in front, before Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu got South Africa back level. In the eighth minute, Argentina were searching for a gap in the Springboks defence to exploit and they found it after a series of passes, allowing Benjamin Grondona to burst through and dive over the try line. It was a special moment for Grondona as he scored his first international try. The following conversion attempt was sent through the posts by Carreras to give Argentina a 10-3 lead. After that, the match settled down a little with both defence’s mostly on top and managing to frustrate the opposition. Moments before half time, South Africa finally broke through the hosts’ stubborn defence when a nice piece of skill from Canan Moodie beat a defender before he found Aphelele Fassi who laid the ball off for Edwill Van Der Merwe to run down the right wing and in for a try. With Feinberg-Mngomezulu then stepping up to successfully kick the conversion between the posts, we headed into half time with the score at 10-10. After the break, it was a close and highly-competitive affair with Argentina keen to break up the game where possible in an attempt to prevent South Africa building up any momentum. On sixty-two minutes, a South Africa scrum inside Argentina’s territory proved decisive as the Springboks managed to force the ball beyond the try line with Cameron Hanekom the man to carry it over. It was a show of strength from the reigning world champions as they moved into the lead against a resolute Argentina side. After Handre Pollard provided the conversion to secure an extra two points, South Africa went 17-10 ahead. Now the onus was on Argentina to go forward and search for a potential equaliser. As much as they tried, they couldn’t break through the determined and solid South African defensive unit. However, when the home side were awarded a penalty right on the eighty-minute mark, it set up a dramatic ending to the match. It was now or never for Argentina as they opted to tap-and-go but despite a sustained attack, the ball was eventually dropped and won back by the Springboks to seal victory for the visitors. In an entertaining encounter, South Africa recorded a 17-10 triumph against Argentina to extend their winning run to thirteen matches. Next up, they will face New Zealand on the 22nd August in the first of four test matches. As for Argentina, their next scheduled fixture is in three weeks time against Australia.

WYNDHAM CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL ROUND (GOLF)

The final event of the PGA Tour regular season took place this week with the Wyndham Championship in North Carolina. Played at the Sedgefield Country Club, this tournament serves as the last event of the regular season before the FedEx Cup playoff’s begin next weekend. Therefore, it offers the final opportunity for players to add to their points tally for the season and confirm a FedEx Cup playoff place. After the first three rounds in North Carolina, we had joint leaders as Michael Brennan and Beau Hossler topped the leaderboard on -16. One shot behind them was Tom Kim, with Alex Noren and Alex Smalley a shot further back on -14 when play concluded on Saturday. That set us up nicely for Sunday with co-leaders Brennan and Hossler both likely requiring a victory to make certain of their spot in next week’s playoffs. As play got going on the final day, there were some eye-catching scorecards amongst the early starter’s. Most notably, Benjamin James shot -9 with nine birdies and not a single dropped shot to put himself in contention for the title on -18 for the week. As the leading pairs stepped up to the tee, a birdie at the fifth saw Noren close to -15, whilst Smalley remained at -14 through the front nine. Elsewhere, Kim improved his score with two birdies across his opening nine holes. Meanwhile Hossler made a magnificent start with a birdie at the third hole which he then backed up with an eagle at the fifth, albeit he went on to drop a shot with a bogey at the ninth, leaving him on -18 at the midway point. Alongside him, Brennan was having a sensational final round with five straight birdies from the fourth hole through to the eighth to take the outright lead on -21. Moving into the back nine, Noren slipped up with a costly double bogey at the eleventh hole which dropped him eight shots behind Brennan and as good as ended his title chances. Similarly, Kim also dropped two shots at the eleventh, before a bogey at the fourteenth saw him fall out of contention. Meanwhile, Smalley was also failing to make any gains as he hit one birdie and one bogey on the back nine to end his round level par and -14 for the tournament. It was becoming increasingly clear that the trophy would go to either Brennan or Hossler, or the clubhouse leader James if both of them had a disastrous final nine holes. A bogey at the eleventh saw Brennan drop a shot but he quickly made up for that with a birdie at the thirteenth. It was a similar tale for Hossler who dropped a shot at the twelfth hole but then recovered with birdies at the sixteenth and seventeenth to move to -19. As the pair stepped up to the tee at the eighteenth, Brennan was almost certain of victory and he sealed it in style with his seventh birdie of the day. After four superb days of golf in North Carolina, Brennan won the second PGA Tour title of his career with a score of -22 at the Wyndham Championship. In addition to lifting the trophy, this result also secured Brennan a place in the FedEx Cup playoffs. In contrast, by coming second, Hossler finished the regular season ranked outside of the top seventy and would therefore miss out on a playoff spot. Looking ahead, the FedEx Cup playoffs kick off next week on the PGA Tour with the St Jude Championship in Tennessee.

KILMARNOCK VS CELTIC (FOOTBALL)

Having got underway last weekend, the Scottish Premiership continued this week with champions Celtic travelling to Kilmarnock. In their season opener last Monday, Celtic beat Dundee 1-0 to pick up three points. In contrast, Kilmarnock were still looking for their first point of the season after losing 4-3 against St Johnstone in a thriller last Sunday. As the two teams arrived at Rugby Park for the second game of the season, Celtic were without their manager Martin O’Neill who was recovering at home after undoing a “small procedure in hospital” earlier this week. In his absence, Shaun Maloney was tasked with leading the team from the sidelines. As the football commenced at Rugby Park, it didn’t take long for Celtic to take the lead as Kasper Hogh put them in front with his first goal for the club. The Danish striker rose highest at the back post to head Arne Engles’ cross into the back of the net inside the first two minutes. Despite that early disappointment, Kilmarnock almost scored an immediate equaliser when Aaron Tshibola’s shot from inside the penalty area beat Celtic goalkeeper Villjami Sinisalo but was well-blocked on the goal line by Auston Trusty. The next big chance for either side came in the eighteenth minute as Celtic pushed forward with Kieran Tierney finding Engels who laid the ball across the penalty area for Benjamin Nygren to shoot but his effort was superbly pushed onto the crossbar by Kilmarnock goalkeeper Max Stryjek, who then got up quickly to make another spectacular save to keep out Hogh’s header on the rebound. As the half went on, Celtic pursuit of a second goal continued and the pressure on Kilmarnock’s defence intensified. The visitors eventually doubled their lead in the thirty-third minute courtesy of an excellent first-time finish from Hogh from twelve yards out. Things then got even better for Celtic and their new centre forward two minutes later when Nygren played the ball into Camilo Duran who chipped a cross towards the back post where it was met and headed into the net by Hogh. Having never scored for Celtic prior to this game, Hogh had now scored a first half hat-trick to firmly announce his arrival in Scottish football. Worryingly for Kilmarnock, there was still another forty-five minutes to go as they found themselves 3-0 down at half time. Moving into the second half, the hosts made a disastrous error with a classic example of what happens when ‘playing out from the back’ goes wrong. Just two minutes after the interval, goalkeeper Stryjek’s misplaced pass went straight to the feet of Nygren who took a touch to set himself before guiding the ball beyond Stryjek to put Celtic 4-0 up. A four goal lead almost instantly became a five goal one moments later as Duran’s curling shot from just inside the penalty area clipped the top of the crossbar before going out for a goal kick. On what had been a fairly miserable afternoon for them, the Kilmarnock fans did have something to cheer in the fifty-sixth minute as a rare attack ended with Michael Schjonning-Larsen sending a calm finish past the dive of Sinisalo and into the far corner of the Celtic net. That proved to be no more than a consolation goal for the hosts though as Celtic soon resumed their search to score a fifth. It almost arrived on seventy minutes when Sebastian Tounekti showed some good skill to beat his defender on the left hand side before crossing the ball onto the head of Hogh but his attempt hit the post and bounced away from goal. Five minutes later though, Celtic did add a fifth goal courtesy of substitute Luke McCowan who reacted fastest to a loose ball in the penalty area after a Celtic corner to hook the ball beyond Stryjek. That rounded out the scoring in a dominant victory for the reigning Scottish champions as they defeated Kilmarnock 5-1 in their first away fixture of the season. That result takes Celtic to the top of the league table on goal difference, ahead of St Mirren who are the only other side to have taken six points from their first two matches. Meanwhile, Kilmarnock sit bottom of the league table and they will hope to pick up their first points of the campaign when they take on Hibernian in two weeks time.

Hugh Watches Sports: 27th July-2nd August 2026

Welcome to the latest edition of Hugh Watches Sports. In this post we will look back on the start of tennis’ US hard court swing, the opening match of this season’s Scottish Premiership, a clash from the Betfred Super League and the final golf major of the calendar year. Let’s get into it.

MUBADALA DC OPEN (TENNIS)

With the US Open coming up at the end of August, the American hard court swing kicked off this week in Washington. This was an WTA500 and an ATP500 event with a number of the world’s top players in action. The women’s draw was headlined by American number one and 2019 champion Jessica Pegula, who, along with the rest of the top four seeds, received a bye in round one. Although there were still plenty of high profile players involved in the opening round including defending champions Leylah Fernandez as she saw off Magda Linette in straight sets. Elsewhere, Venus Williams began her hard court season with a 6-3 6-3 loss to Anastasia Potapova. Also in round one, former champions Luidmila Samsonova defeated sixth seed Madison Keys 3-6 6-4 6-4 in a thrilling encounter. Moving into the second round, Pegula began her campaign with a hard-fought. 3-6 6-3 6-0 triumph over Magdalena Frech. All of the other top four seed’s picked up opening match victories too with Elina Svitolina, Naomi Osaka and Diana Schnaider comfortably progressing into round three. Elsewhere in round two, Fernandez’s title defence was ended by Alexandra Eala in an excellent match in which Eala came back from 5-1 down in the second set to record a 6-2 7-6 victory. On Friday in Washington it was time for the quarter finals starting with top seed Pegula taking on fifth seed Anna Kalinskaya. Ultimately Pegula emerged victorious by a 6-3 7-5 to book her spot in the last four. Meanwhile, Schnaider and Osaka joined her in the semi finals with respective quarter final wins over Samsonova and Elisabetta Cocciaretto. Also in the last eight, Eala picked up another notable victory by seeing off second seed Svitolina in straight sets. In the semi finals, Pegula defeated Schnaider in two close sets to seal her place in her fourth final of the season. Then, Eala continued her incredible week with a 6-4 6-2 triumph over Osaka to reach the biggest final of her career. On Sunday, the final was initially delayed due to rain but when the tennis did finally get going, it didn’t disappoint. An high quality first set was won 6-4 by Pegula, before three games into the second set the rain returned. With no break in the rain for the remainder of the day, the final didn’t resume until Monday as the tournament was forced to add an extra day to its original schedule. Twenty-four hours after the match started, the second set continued. With a break in the tenth game, Eala took the second set 6-4 to force a decider. In the third set, Eala played superb tennis to secure her first WTA title with a 4-6 6-4 6-0 win against Pegula. It was an incredible achievement for one of the major young stars on the WTA Tour became the first player from the Philippines to ever win a WTA Tour title. Not only that but Eala had won the tournament in style with victories over the defending champion and the top two seed’s on route to lifting the trophy.

In the men’s draw, the top seed was Alex De Minaur who returned to Washington as the defending champion from twelve months ago. The Australian faced a tough test in the opening round as he came up against Stefanos Tsitsipas. In an error-dominated match which featured a number of shifts in momentum, De Minaur was eventually able to clinch a 6-4 3-6 6-3 win to reach round two. Elsewhere in the first round, fellow Australian Cruz Hewitt, son of Lleyton, recorded his first ever match win on the ATP Tour as he defeated qualifier Marcos Giron 6-3 6-4. Meanwhile, former champion Kei Nishikori was playing at this tournament for the last time before retiring and he kicked off his campaign with a 6-7 6-3 6-4 triumph over Juncheng Shang. The Japanese legend would face Rafael Jodar in the second round after the Spaniard saw off Arthur Fils in straight sets in round one. In their last sixteen encounter, youth beat experience as Jodar moved past Nishikori in two highly entertaining sets. Also in the second round, De Minaur’s title defence went on as he beat Hewitt 6-2 6-3. Moving into the quarter finals, Brandon Nakashima pulled off a huge win as he beat De Minaur 7-6 6-4 to reach the semi finals in Washington for the first time in his career. Whilst the top seed went out, the second seed also lost in the quarter finals as Ben Shelton went down in three sets against Alejandro Tabilo. Meanwhile in the other two last eight match-up’s, Taylor Fritz saved a match point on route to defeating Alex Michelsen 6-1 3-6 7-6, whilst Jodar beat Lorenzo Musetti 1-6 6-1 6-4. On Saturday in Washington, the first semi final was an all-American battle between Nakashima and Fritz. After three tight sets, Fritz clinched his place in the final with a 6-3 3-6 6-3 triumph. Later on, during the night session, Jodar and Tabilo also played out three closely-fought sets with Jodar sealing a 6-7 6-4 6-4 win to progress into the biggest final of his career. After originally being scheduled to take place on Sunday, the final was eventually pushed to Monday because of rain. When Fritz and Jodar finally arrived on the court, they played out a compelling opening set which Fritz won on a tie-break. With momentum on his side, the American then went up an early break in the second set to seize control of the final. After an excellent serving performance, Fritz secured his eleventh ATP Tour title with a 7-6 6-4 win over Jodar. This success marked Fritz’s first title in over a year and the second of his career at ATP500 level.

DUNDEE UNITED VS RANGERS (FOOTBALL)

After a long summer of World Cup football, it was time for the domestic league’s to start again. One of the first top divisions to begin was in Scotland where Dundee United hosted Rangers in the Scottish Premiership’s season opener. Last season Dundee United finished a respectable seventh in the league table. As for their visitors, Rangers ended the season in third which was disappointing compared to their pre-season expectations. Since then, there have been an array of changes at Ibrox in an aim to improve Rangers chances of challenging for the Premiership title this campaign. The biggest of which has been the appointment of Derek McInnes as manager, after impressing during his time at Hearts. Furthermore, Rangers also have a new club captain as Lawrence Shankland takes over the armband. In his first match as captain, Shankland almost made an instant impact when his neat flick inside the penalty area forced Dundee United goalkeeper Jack Walton into making a smart save. That proved to be the best opportunity that either side created in a closely-contested opening twenty-five minutes at Tannadice Park. In the twenty-ninth minute, Walton was called into action again as he got down well to stop Ryan Naderi’s header from finding the far bottom corner of his goal. As the game continued, Dundee United mounted an attack with Joshua Rawlins pass reaching Jesse Randall in space on the right hand side who guided a low cross into the penalty area which was directed into the bottom corner of the net by Lachlan Rose to give the home side the lead. The first goal of the new season had arrived and it was a well-worked move from Dundee United which was finished by Rose as he was left unmarked by the Rangers defence. With a lead and the home crowd now in buoyant mood, Dundee United carried their one-goal advantage into half time. After the break, Rangers came out in search of an equaliser with Thelo Aasgaard’s long-range effort forcing a spectacular diving save from Walton to palm it away. An attacking start to the second half paid off for the visitors on fifty-six minutes as the ball fell kindly for Aasgaard on the edge of the penalty area and he took one touch to beat a defender before burying the ball into Walton’s top corner with his second. It was an excellent finish from the Norweigan midfielder to get his side back on level terms with their hosts. Surprisingly, with momentum now in their favour, Rangers’ failed to create many chances and didn’t really look like scoring a second. In fact, the best opportunity to score in what was a very nervy ending to the game went the way of Dundee United. It came in the eighty-third minute, when Daniel Bennie’s excellent pass set Randall in one-on-one with the Rangers goalkeeper but his attempted chip was poorly executed and easily gathered by Ivor Pandur. Ultimately, a match which, as a spectator, appeared to still have a bit of a pre-season feel to it ended 1-1 as the points were shared at Tannadice Park. Interestingly, this marks the fourth season in a row where Rangers have failed to win their opening league match although they must now quickly switch focus to their midweek Europa League qualifying tie. As for Dundee United, their next game comes away to Hearts in the Scottish Premiership next Sunday.

CATALANS DRAGONS VS WAKEFIELD TRINITY (RUGBY LEAGUE)

Whilst rugby union’s summer break continues, I turned my attention to some rugby league action this weekend. On Saturday evening, Catalans Dragons came up against Wakefield Trinity in the latest round of fixtures in the Betfred Super League. Coming into this encounter, the Dragons sat eighth in the standings meanwhile Trinity started the day in third. Both team’s were coming off victories in their last fixtures, with Catalans beating Toulouse last weekend, whilst Wakefield comfortably defeated Castleford Tigers 52-14. In the reverse meeting between these two teams back in May, Trinity recorded a 58-10 triumph on home soil and they were widely expected to complete a double by securing victory in this match. As play got underway at the Stade Gilbert Brutus, Wakefield took an early lead courtesy of a try from Jake Trueman which was converted by Jack Sinfield. With four points for the try and an extra two for the successful conversion, Wakefield were 6-0 up after seven minutes. The visitors then extended their advantage in the fifteenth minute when Cameron Scott burst through the Catalans’ defence to run in for a try. The onus was now on the home side to try and find a way to get on the scoresheet and they finally did so eleven minutes later. A neat exchange of passes between Toby Sexton and Lewis Dodd worked a gap in Wakefield’s defensive line which allowed Sexton to power through and score Catalans’ first try of the evening. With Guillermo Aispuro-Bichet kicking the conversion between the posts, the home side narrowed the deficit to four points and that was how it stayed for the remainder of the first half. Moving into the second half, Caleb Uele dived over the try line which, coupled with a conversion from Sinfield, extended Wakefield’s lead. Although Catalans responded quickly with a try of their own when Matthieu Laguerre bundled himself and the ball over the try line. After the try was confirmed following a video review, Aispuro-Bichet added two more points for the home side with his second successful conversion attempt of the game. After a close start to the half, Wakefield established some authority on proceedings as we reached the midway point of it with two tries in six minutes. Both were scored by Isaiah Vagana to continue his impressive campaign, before the second was converted by Sinfield to put the visitors 26-12 ahead. With Wakefield now in control, they added another try in the closing stages as Scott scored his second of the game with an incredible run from inside his own half. With three minutes left on the clock, Sinfield’s conversion took Wakefield’s lead to twenty points. An otherwise well-contested game ended with a moment of indiscipline when Ugo Tison was shown a late yellow card for a tackle on Sinfield. Overall though, the evening belonged to Wakefield as they claimed a 32-12 win over Catalans to move up to second in the league table.

THE WOMEN’S OPEN FINAL ROUND (GOLF)

The final golf major of the year took place this week at the Royal Lytham and St Annes Golf Club in England. So far the previous four women’s major’s this year had produced two champions with Nelly Korda winning the Chevron Championship and the US Open, before Haeran Ryu was victorious at both the PGA and Evian Championship’s. Coming into the Women’s Open, Korda and Ryu were among the favourites to clinch another major title this weekend. However, after the first three rounds, Korda was at level par and seven shots off the lead which made her chances of claiming a third major title of the year slim. As for Ryu, she ended Saturday’s play amongst a group of five golfer’s who were tied in second place on -4, three shots behind the leader. The woman at the top of the leaderboard heading into the final round was Yealimi Noh on -7 who would be looking to clinch her maiden major title with a strong showing on Sunday. Three shots back, Ryu was joined by Esther Henseleit, Shiho Kuwaki, Lucy Li and Atthaya Thitikul who would all be hoping to take advantage of any slip-up’s from Noh during the final round. When the tee times were released, Ryu was paired with Kuwaki and they would tee off ahead of Thitikul and Li, before Henseleit and Noh were the final pairing to begin their round. As the final round got going, Ryu made a positive start with birdie at the first hole but then a bogey at the third and a double-bogey at the fifth proved costly. Meanwhile, her playing partner Kuwaki had a steady front nine with two birdies balanced out by two bogey’s as she remained at -4. Behind them, Thitikul faced some early struggles as she dropped three shots across the first three holes to slip down the leaderboard. In contrast, Li made an excellent start by beginning her round with back-to-back birdies, although a nightmare triple-bogey at the fifth hole undid all her earlier good work. By the halfway point of the round, Thitikul was on -1 and Li had fallen to -2, meaning they would both need to produce something special on the back nine to remain in contention for the title. In the final duo, both Noh and Henseleit dropped two shots across the opening nine hole’s, but Noh retained the lead. Despite not improving on her score, Noh was able to stay at the top of the leaderboard because nobody else had improved either. In fact, of the six leader’s, only Kuwaki was level par or better through the front nine. Amongst the earlier finisher’s, Korda took the clubhouse lead on -2 after going two under par on her final round to set a target for the leaders still on the course to either catch or remain ahead of. On the back nine, Ryu hit three further bogey’s to take her to -1 and end her chances of a third consecutive major triumph. However, a birdie at the thirteenth helped Kuwaki take over the clubhouse lead as she finished her round one under par for the day and -5 for the tournament. Following them on the course were Thitikul and Li, with Thitikul picking up one birdie on the back nine to finish on -2 whilst Li ended her round with four bogey’s across the last five holes to move down the leaderboard. Now all the attention was on the leading pair as Noh and Henseleit attempted to match or better Kuwaki’s -5. Back-to-back birdies at holes eleven and twelve saw Henseleit get to -4, meanwhile Noh dropped a shot at the twelfth which saw her join her playing partner on the same score. A birdie at the next hole put Noh back onto -5 but she then slipped up at the fourteenth to m drop back to -4. Similarly, Henseleit then gained a shot at the fifteenth before immediately dropping one at the sixteenth. As the pair stepped up to the final tee, they both were on -4, with Kuwaki set to be crowned the champion if neither could find a birdie. With the pressure on, Henseleit produced a stunning forty-five foot putt which dropped into the hole for a magnificent birdie to keep her title hopes alive. In contrast, Noh could only match par at the eighteenth, meaning she ended her tournament on -4. After seventy-two holes, Kuwaki and Henseleit both finished five under par and therefore we headed to a playoff to decide who would become a major champion at this year’s Women’s Open. The playoff procedure was simple, both women play the eighteenth hole over and over until one does it in less shots than the other. On their first attempt, both Kuwaki and Henseleit reached the hole in four shots, matching par, which meant they travelled back to the tee to play it again. On the second occasion, Henseleit’s tee shot was slightly wayward and bounced off a spectator’s foot, landing next to a bush. That meant she needed her second shot just to get back on the fairway, meanwhile two shots from Kuwaki was enough to get her onto the green. With Henseleit eventually finishing the hole in five shots, Kuwaki’s third set up a short range putt with which she could secure the title. With a routine putt into the hole, Kuwaki became a major champion for the first time as she defeated Henseleit in a tense play-off to claim the 2026 Women’s Open title. It was a fabulous moment for the Japanese golfer who overcame a three-shot deficit at the start of the day to earn herself the biggest win of her career.

ATP LOS CABOS (TENNIS)

As well as the tournament in Washington, there was also an ATP250 event in Los Cabos this week. The scenic destination on Mexico’s South coast offers a beautiful setting for tennis and the draw there included last year’s champion Denis Shapovalov. In round one, the Canadian kicked off his title defence with a 2-6 6-3 6-2 victory over Rinky Hijikata. Elsewhere, another former champion also made a winning start as Cameron Norrie got past Aleksandar Kovacevic in straight sets. That ended a six match losing streak for Norrie and marked his first ATP match win since April. Also in the first round, Bernard Tomic clinched an eye-catching 6-1 6-0 triumph in just forty-seven minutes against qualifier Alex Hernandez. Moving into round two, the top four seed’s all began their campaigns after receiving a bye in round one. However, three of them were on the end of upset’s as only Francisco Cerundolo was able to open with a victory. The top seed in Los Coabos was Jiri Lehecka but he made an immediate exit after being beaten in three sets by Coleman Wong. Elsewhere, second seed Luciano Darderi was forced to retire with an injury during his second round match against Dalibor Svrcina. Plus, fourth seed Karen Khachanov went down 6-2 6-4 against Tomic, handing the Australian his biggest win by ranking since 2018. That left the draw wide open going into the quarter finals on Thursday. In the last eight we saw the only remaining top four seed go out of the tournament as Cerundolo was defeated in three sets by Arthur Gea. Meanwhile, Wong backed up his victory over top seed Lehecka by seeing off Jenson Brooksby in straight sets. In the bottom half of the draw, Norrie produced a dominant display to beat atomic 6-1 6-0 in under an hour, whilst Shapovalov got past Svrcina 6-4 6-2 to continue his title defence. As we reached the semi finals, Gea won a tight first set in a tie-break before serving out the second to defeat Wong 7-6 6-3 and progress into the biggest final of his career. Later on, the second last four clash saw two former champions at this event go head-to-head as Norrie took on Shapovalov. After splitting the first two sets, it was Shapovalov who emerged victorious in the third to clinch a 6-3 5-7 6-4 triumph and move into the final for the second successive year. That set up a first career meeting between Gea and Shapovalov in Saturday’s final. With one break the difference in each set, Gea recorded a 6-3 6-4 victory over Shapovalov to win his maiden ATP Tour title. It was a fantastic performance from the French twenty-one year old as he became a champion on the ATP Tour for the first time after a phenomenal week in Los Cabos.

Hugh Watches Sports: 20th-26th July 2026

Welcome to this week’s Hugh Watches Sports post. In this edition we will reflect on two tennis tournaments, a pivotal weekend in the Formula E season, a big women’s golf event and the latest race from this years Formula 1 World Championship. Let’s get into it.

WTA PRAGUE (TENNIS)

The second hard court season of the year on the WTA Tour continued this week in Prague. After claiming the title in Athens last weekend, Barbora Krejcikova headed to her home tournament in excellent form. The Czech was the second seed in Prague, with the top seed being her compatriot Marie Bouzkova, who won this tournament in both 2022 and 2025. In the opening round, both Krejcikova and Bouzkova kicked off their campaign’s with straight set victories. Meanwhile, five other Czech’s also booked a place in round two on home soil. It has been a phenomenal few weeks for Czech tennis after Linda Noskova became a grand slam champion at Wimbledon and now they had a number of players winning matches in Prague. In round two, the top two seed’s once again both won in straight sets, meanwhile third seed Sara Bejlek put in a stunning performance to defeat Maria Timofeeva 6-1 6-1. In contrast, there was an early exit for the fourth seed Nikola Bartunkova as she went down 7-6 3-6 7-6 against Lanlana Tararudee. Moving on to the quarter finals in Prague, fifth seed Tereza Valentova caused an upset by beating Bouzkova 8-6 in a third set tie-break to win an epic encounter. Elsewhere, third seed Bejlek also suffered defeat on the last eight as she lost 6-3 6-4 to teenage sensation Lilli Tagger. In the other two quarter finals, Krejcikova got past Dominika Salkova in straight sets, whilst Daria Snigur defeated Tararudee 6-0 6-3. On Saturday, it was time for the semi finals with Valentova and Snigur first on court. After two close sets, Snigur advanced into the first WTA singles final of her career with a 7-6 6-3 triumph. Later on, Tagger produced a sensational display to beat Krejcikova 6-7 6-3 7-6 in a thrilling match. That set up an interesting final as Snigur battled Tagger with both players aiming to win the first WTA title of their career’s. In the final itself, Tagger won a tight first set in a tie-break before cruising through the second set to clinch the title in Prague. With a 7-6 6-2 victory, Tagger became the lowest ranked player to ever win the tournament. It was an incredible week for the eighteen year old as she won what is sure to be the first of many career singles title’s. With her success in Prague, Tagger will rise up the world rankings and make her debut in the top fifty.

TOKYO E-PRIX (FORMULA E)

With just four races left in the season, the battle to become this year’s Formula E champion intensified in Tokyo this weekend. Coming into round fourteen, Pascal Wehrlein sat at the top of the drivers standings with a narrow lead over Mitch Evans in second. There were a lot of points available in Tokyo though with back-to-back race’s with round fourteen on Saturday and round fifteen on Sunday. In this post, I’m going to focus on Saturday’s race but I will also round-up the result of round fifteen and what it means for the championship. After qualifying earlier in the day, Jake Dennis started Saturday evening’s race from pole position. He shared the front row with Edoardo Mortara, ahead of Antonio Felix Da Costa and Nico Mueller, whilst Taylor Barnard and Dan Ticktum occupied row three of the grid. At the race start, the top two got away cleanly but Mueller clipped the wall as he looked to make an overtake on Da Costa which left him with damage and saw him tumble down the order. Then the race began to settle into an established order with Dennis out in front, ahead of Mortara, Da Costa and Barnard. The first driver to deploy their attack mode was Sebastien Buemi who rocketed up into third on lap fifteen, before eventually finding a way past a stubborn Mortara two laps later to claim second position. On lap eighteen, as we reached the halfway mark, some drivers, including sixth placed Ticktum, opted to come into the pits for their mandatory stop. During their stop, they would receive a pit boost, giving them an extra 10% of energy for the remainder of the race. Meanwhile, on the track there was an incident which could have big ramifications for the championship as Da Costa and Wehrlein made contact with one another at turn eight. It came as Wehrlein was trying to make an overtake on Da Costa but ran out of room and the pair collided. Despite trying to carry on, Wehrlein came into the pits to retire from the race four laps later, meaning he wouldn’t be scoring any points and his rivals had a chance to overtake him in the drivers standings.On lap twenty-two, Dennis pitted from the lead, notably later than all of his main competitors’ at the front. That strategy call looked to have cost the Andretti driver as he re-entered the track behind Ticktum who was now the leading car of all those who had made their pit stop. By the time all the cars had completed their mandatory pit boost on, we only had eleven laps remaining and Ticktum was now at the front of the field, ahead of Mortara, Nick Cassidy, Dennis and Barnard. On lap twenty-nine, Dennis made the most of being in attack mode as he moved up past Cassidy and Mortara before making an overtake on Ticktum to re-gain the lead of the race. As we approached the final laps, with the threat of rain looming, Dennis looked set to be on his way towards a ninth race win in Formula E with Ticktum tucked in behind him in second. However, on the last lap, with Cassidy finding pace behind them in third, Ticktum was forced to increase his speed and closed up significantly on Dennis who was managing his car’s energy. As we headed into the penultimate corner, Ticktum made a move up the inside of Dennis and he pulled it off brilliantly to move into the lead, whilst Dennis had to quickly switch his attention to hold in off Cassidy. It was a dramatic end to proceedings as Ticktum was first to pass the chequered flag and picked up his second Formula E race victory. Behind him, Dennis held on to second place, ahead of Cassidy, Evans and Mortara. Whilst it was gutting for Dennis and Andretti, the strategy calls and decision-making of Ticktum and his Cupra Kiro team had thrust them into contention at the top of the leaderboard and delivered a race triumph in Tokyo. In terms of the championship, fourth place was enough to see Evans overtake Wehrlein for top spot, whilst Dennis’ points haul kept him third but helped him close the gap on his rivals. Twenty-four hours later, round fifteen of the season took place with Nyck De Vries emerging victorious in an eventful race. Although the story of the day was Dennis who finished third after starting in eighteenth. That rise up the leaderboard, along with the results of his title rivals, saw Dennis take the lead in the driver’s championship with just two races left to go.

ATP KITZBUHEL (TENNIS)

Whilst some players chose to play on hard courts following Wimbledon, others opted to return to clay courts for the next phase of their season. The ATP250 tournament in Kitzbuhel provided an opportunity for those who wanted to play on the clay this week. Among the field was top seed Alexander Bublik who won this event last year and returned to defend his title. Whilst Bublik received a bye in the first round as one of the top four seeds, there were still some seeded players in action including seventh seed Raphael Collignon who was beaten 6-3 6-2 by Daniel Altmaier. Meanwhile, eighth seed Juan Manuel Cerundolo also suffered an immediate exit after losing to Marco Trungelliti in straight sets. Elsewhere in the opening round, Jurij Rodionov got past Joel Schwaerzler in an all-Austrian clash. Moving into the second round, the top four seed’s began their week with mixed fortunes. In the top half of the draw, Bublik started his title defence with a 6-3 7-5 win over Facundo Diaz Acosta. Meanwhile, fourth seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry saw off Rodionov. However the top two seeds in the bottom half of the draw both lost. Firstly, second seed Valentin Vacherot went down in straight sets against Quentin Halys, before Arthur Rinderknech was beaten 7-6 2-6 6-4 by Sebastian Baez. In the quarter finals, Bublik continued his winning streak in Kitzbuhel with a 6-3 6-2 triumph over Alex Molcan. Elsewhere, Etcheverry got past Ignacio Buse in a battle between the fourth and fifth seed’s. Also in the last eight, Halys booked his place in his first ATP singles semi final of the year with a 7-5 6-3 victory against Mariano Navone. In the other quarter final, Yannick Hanfmann defeated Baez 6-3 6-2 to reach the semi finals of this tournament for the fourth time in his career. On Friday in Austria, it was time for the semi finals to kick off. In the top half of the draw, Bublik saw off Etcheverry in two sets to clinch his place in the final for the second successive year. Meanwhile the semi final in the bottom half was won by Halys as he beat Hanfmann 6-4 7-6 to book his spot in a second ATP singles final of his career. That meant that in the final we would see either Bublik successfully retain his title or Halys become a champion on the ATP Tour for the first time. As the final got underway, Halys made a stunning start by hitting four ace’s in a row to comfortably win his opening service game. They were the first of seventeen ace’s he hit as part of a phenomenal performance which saw the Frenchman defeat Bublik 6-4 7-6. This triumph marked a huge moment in the career of Halys as he won the first singles title of his career and became the first Frenchman to win in Kitzbuhel during tennis’ open era.

WOMEN’S SCOTTISH OPEN FINAL ROUND (GOLF)

Scotland hosted the world’s best female golfer’s this week as they looked to finalise their preparations for next weekend‘s Women’s Open Championship. The ISPS HANDA Women’s Scottish Open at Dundonald Links always attracts a high-quality field and this year was no different with world number one Nelly Korda among those in attendance. Twelve months ago, Lottie Woad was a surprise champion at this event as she became just the third woman ever to win an LPGA Tour title in her first professional start. That was the beginning of a superb rise up the world rankings for the Brit and she returned to Dundonald Links for her title defence as the world number five. Surprisingly though, Woad struggled through the first three days and was well out on contention coming into the final day at +6. Similarly, world number one Korda’s chances of challenging for the title were over by Sunday as she shot +5 across the first three rounds. At the top of the leaderboard heading into the final round was Jenny Shin on -12, who held a five shot advantage over second placed Pajaree Anannarukarn. Just behind them and looking to capitalise on any slip-up’s from the leading pair were Erika Hara and Esther Henseleit, who both began Sunday at -5 for the tournament. As play begun on day four in Scotland, Hara and Henseleit teed off ahead of the top two although neither were able to make a gain through the opening nine holes. In fact, Hara dropped two shots which saw her fall to -3, whilst Henseleit remained on -5 after balancing two bogey’s with two birdies through the front nine. Behind them on the course, Anannarukarn overcame an early double bogey on hole two by making four birdies, including one at the ninth. With two further single bogey’s included in her front nine, Anannarukarn arrived at the midway point of the final round still at -7. Although she was now only two shots behind Shin, who was having a difficult day with three consecutive bogey’s at the sixth, seventh and eighth holes. As we entered the last nine holes of the weekend, three more bogey’s ruled Hara out of contention, meanwhile Henseleit dropped a shot through her back nine to leave her on -4 for the tournament. Elsewhere on the course, Kim A Lim, who began the day on -3, was putting together an impressive round to thrust herself into contention for the title. Playing ahead of the leader’s, Kim hit birdies on four consecutive holes from the ninth to the twelfth, which promoted her onto -7 and put some pressure on Anannarukarn and Shin. As the leaders embarked on the back nine, Shin re-discovered her form with birdies at hole’s ten and twelve. In contrast, Anannarukarn was one over par on both of those holes which saw her drop to -5. With six holes to go it seemed as if there were only two women still in contention to claim the trophy with Shin on -11, whilst Kim finished her round on -7. The attention was now all on Shin to see if she could hold onto her advantage and despite bogey’s at the sixteenth and eighteenth, Shin secured her first LPGA title in over ten years. It was a remarkable achievement for South Korean who became the first woman in thirty years to go a full decade between win’s on the LPGA Tour. Whilst her final round total of three over par was not as impressive as her golf from the previous three days, Shin did enough to hold off her rivals and claim victory in Scotland. That sets her up perfectly going into next weekend’s fifth and final major of the year which I will report on in next week’s Hugh Watches Sports post.

HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX (FORMULA 1)

Formula 1 arrived in Budapest this week for the final race before the summer break. After winning in Belgium last weekend, Kimi Antonelli extended his lead in the drivers championship and would be looking to continue his fine form in Hungary. In contrast, his Mercedes teammate George Russell didn’t finish last week’s race so would be hoping to bounce back. Additionally, the Ferrari’s of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, plus the newly upgraded McLaren’s of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri would be hoping to challenge around the Hungaroring. In qualifying on Saturday, those McLaren upgrades worked very well as Norris became the first non-Mercedes driver to claim pole position for a Grand Prix this year. Initially, Hamilton qualified in second but received a three-place grid penalty for impeding Piastri during Q3. Elsewhere, there was also a three-place grid penalty for Antonelli as he was deemed to have not slowed down sufficiently enough under a yellow flag. With those penalties applied, the starting grid had Norris joined by Leclerc on the front row, with Piastri in third and Verstappen in fourth. Behind them would be Hamilton and Russell, with Antonelli and Isack Hadjar making up the fourth row. As the lights went out on race day, Norris held onto his lead into the first corner, whilst Piastri got ahead of Leclerc to make it a McLaren one-two. Then, when Norris ran slightly wide on the next corner, Piastri snuck past his teammate to take the lead. Meanwhile, Leclerc’s disappointing start continued as he was overtaken by Verstappen and Hamilton before the end of the first lap. However it was Russell who had the worst start of anyone on the grid as his car went into anti-stall which slowed down his get-away and put him down to twentieth. Following a frantic opening lap, the race began to settle down with Piastri out in front ahead of Norris, Verstappen, Hamilton, Leclerc and Antonelli. With tyre degradation high in Budapest, it wasnt long until we saw the first of the leading drivers head into the pit lane, with Hamilton coming in on lap thirteen to try and undercut Verstappen. When Verstappen then pitted a lap later and came back onto the track behind Hamilton, it seemed that the undercut had worked for Ferrari. However, a sensational overtake down the inside at turn one on lap sixteen saw Verstappen move back in front of Hamilton. Elsewhere on the circuit, Valterri Bottas came into the pits to retire his Cadillac due to concerns about overheating. On lap sixteen, the leader Piastri made his first pit stop along with Leclerc, before Norris came in a lap later. At that point, Antonelli was now the race leader, albeit he was yet to make a pit stop, with Piastri, Norris, Verstappen, Hamilton and Leclerc lined-up behind him. When the Italian eventually pit on lap twenty-two, Piastri re-took the lead and Antonelli re-emerged on the track in sixth place. With very few overtaking opportunities outside of the start/finish straight, the order remained relatively consistent up until the next round of pit stops which kicked off with Hamilton coming in on lap thirty. That prompted a response from McLaren as they pitted Piastri three laps later to make sure he remained ahead of the Ferrari which was going quickly on its new tyre’s. However, a big moment occurred in lap thirty-nine as Piastri came up behind Carlos Sainz, who was fighting for fifteenth with Lance Stroll. Despite blue flags being shown, Sainz didn’t realise Piastri was lapping him and the two car’s made contact as Piastri attempted to drive past. Thankfully it didn’t cause too much damage but it certainly cost Piastri a lot of time which shouldn’t be the case when dealing with lapped car’s. After a review from the stewards, Sainz was handed a five-second penalty for the incident. Meanwhile, Norris had been building a nice gap at the front of the field and that proved crucial as he came back onto the track ahead of Piastri when he made his second pit stop. At that point, the two McLaren’s sat third and fourth with Verstappen and Antonelli ahead of them, although after the second round of pit stops were completed, Norris became the race leader. On lap fifty-six there was more drama and even more bad luck for Piastri as he suffered a gearbox problem and was forced to stop on track and retire from the race. That resulted in a virtual safety car period whilst Piastri’s car was cleared from the side of the track, in which Norris and Hamilton opted to come into the pit lane and put on soft tyres for the last fourteen laps of the race. As we went racing again after the VSC, Norris was in the lead with Verstappen now up into second having not pitted for a third time and Antonelli into third, ahead of Hamilton. With soft tyre’s on his car, Norris showed his superior speed to build a comfortable advantage at the front, whilst we learnt that Hamilton had been given a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane which as good as ended his hopes of a podium finish. As the chequered flag came out in Hungary, Norris clinched back-to-back victories at this circuit and his first Grand Prix win of the season. Behind him came Verstappen who overcame an array of issue’s with his Red Bull throughout the weekend to clinch second. Completing the podium positions was Antonelli who, despite a sub-optimal weekend compared to his recent standards, managed to extend his championship lead by finishing ahead of his closest rivals Hamilton and Russell. On a day which ultimately belonged to world champion Norris, the seven non-podium point-scoring positions were occupied by Leclerc, Hamilton, Hadjar, Russell, Liam Lawson, Nico Hulkenberg and Arvid Lindblad. Looking ahead, Formula 1 now takes its summer break and the season will resume in the Netherlands at the end of August.

Hugh Watches Sports: 13th-19th July 2026

Welcome to the latest Hugh Watches Sports post. This week we will look back on the conclusion of the World Cup, the return of hard court tennis, the continuation of the rugby Nations Championship, this weekend’s Formula 1 race and the final round of golf’s Open Championship. Let’s get into it.

FRANCE VS SPAIN (FOOTBALL)

On Tuesday evening, the first of the World Cup semi finals saw France take on Spain. These two teams also met in the last four of the European Championships at their last major international tournament in 2024, with Spain winning 2-1 on that occasion. So far at this World Cup, France had been in fine form scoring sixteen goals on route to the semi final. In contrast, Spain’s success so far had been built on strong defensive foundations, conceding just one goal in their opening six matches. As the semi final kicked off in Dallas, it was a tight affair with both teams struggling to create any clear-cut chances. In the twentieth minute, a cross from the left hand side by Marc Cucurella was misjudged by France defender Lucas Digne and he caught Lamine Yamal with his attempted clearance, prompting the referee to point to the penalty spot. It was a clear foul and the penalty was confirmed after a two-minute VAR check, handing Mikel Oyarzabal an opportunity to open the scoring. The Spanish striker stepped up and did just that with an unstoppable finish which beat goalkeeper Mike Maignan even though he dived the right way. As France looked to respond, they couldn’t break down Spain’s stubborn defence and the Spanish side were comfortably winning the battle in midfield with Rodri and Fabian Ruiz playing starring roles. Later in the first half, both of them were involved in a superb passage of play which almost saw Spain double their lead as Rodri passed the ball to Yamal who played a neat one-two with Dani Olmo and then laid the ball across the penalty area for Ruiz to run onto but his shot drifted just wide of Maignan’s near post. In the closing moments of the half, France finally worked an attacking opportunity for themselves as Jules Kounde whipped in a stunning cross from the right hand side which flew across the six-yard box but no-one in a blue shirt was able to turn it towards goal. That meant France trailed 1-0 at half time and required a big improvement in their second half performance if they were to reach a third consecutive World Cup final. After the interval, the match resumed in a similar pattern with Spain mostly in control. In the fifty-eighth minute, the Spaniard’s deservedly added a second goal when a sustained attack ended with Pedro Porro finding Olmo on the edge of the penalty area who tapped the ball back into the path of Porro and he calmly buried his finish past Maignan. It was a superb goal from Spain and they now as good as had one foot already in the final even with over thirty minutes still to play. Things almost got even better for them four minutes later when Yamal got in behind Digne and bent a wonderful finish beyond Maignan and into the far corner of the net but then saw the offside flag raised, much to France’s relief. With a two-goal deficit to overturn, the pressure was now on France and their star-studded attack to provide some inspiration. On sixty-seven minutes, Mbappe finally found himself in a bit of space just outside of the penalty area and got a shot away but it deflected off Cucurella before rolling past the far post for a corner. That turned out to be as close as France would come as they continued to be frustrated by Spain’s well-organised defence. When a free-kick from Mbappe flew over the crossbar in the eighty-eighth minute, the belief of any possible comeback seemed to drain from France’s players. Ultimately, with an exceptional performance, Spain sealed their place in a second ever World Cup final courtesy of a 2-0 victory over France. That result marked Spain’s thirty-seventh consecutive match unbeaten, which equalled Italy’s previous recoed for the longest unbeaten streak in men’s international history. They will now have the chance to break that record in Sunday’s final. Twenty-four hours after Spain’s win in Dallas, England and Argentina contested the second semi final in Atlanta. In a close and very feisty affair, Argentina produced another late comeback to record a 2-1 victory with Lautaro Martinez scoring the winner in stoppage time. Therefore, Spain will compete for the trophy Argentina on Sunday, whilst France and England will play out the third place play-off on Saturday evening.

WTA ATHENS (TENNIS)

After the grass court season reached its conclusion at Wimbledon last weekend, hard court tournaments returned to the calendar this week. One of those saw the WTA Tour head to a brand new destination as Athens hosted a WTA250 event. Played at the same site where tennis was held during the 2004 Olympic Games, the Vanda Pharmaceuticals Athens Open’s draw was headlined by top seed Clara Tauson, two-time singles grand slam winner Barbora Krejcikova and Greek number one Maria Sakkari. In round one, Tauson kicked off her campaign with a 7-5 6-4 triumph over qualifier Nao Hibino. Meanwhile, second seed Ann Li was in fine form as she got past Maria Timofeeva dropping just three games in the process. Plus there were first round victories for Krejcikova and Sakkari. Whilst Sakkari was able to get through to round two, all four of the other Greek players in the draw all went out in the opening round in front of their home crowd. Moving into the second round, Sakkari defeated Harriet Dart in straight sets to book her spot in the semi finals. Elsewhere, Li was beaten 6-2 6-2 by Alina Korneeva in a surprise result which opened up the bottom half of the draw. On Friday in Athens, the quarter finals took place with Sakkari taking on Alycia Parks in the standout match on the schedule. After two close set’s, Sakkari emerged victorious by a 6-4 6-3 scoreline to keep her run going at her home tournament. Meanwhile, top seed Tauson reached the semi final with a 6-2 6-3 win against fifth seed Sara Bejlek. In the other two quarter final encounters, Krejcikova and Korneeva recorded respective triumph’s over Qinwen Zheng and Tereza Valentova. For Korneeva, that win made this a significant event for her as she reached her first semi final at WTA Tour level since 2024. In the last four she came up against home favourite Sakkari and it was the Greek who clinched her spot in the final with a 6-1 7-5 victory. In the other semi final, Tauson met Krejcikova in a battle between the first and third seed’s. After splitting the opening two sets, Krejcikova took the third to secure a 6-1 4-6 6-3 triumph and book a meeting with Sakkari in Sunday’s final. As the tournament reached its conclusion, the final kicked off with a superb first set which went all the way to a tie-break. That was won by Krejcikova who then went up a break in the second set to take control over the match. The Czech successfully served out the match to secure the title in Athens with a 7-6 6-3 victory against Sakkari. That marked the ninth singles title of Krejcikova’s career and her first since winning Wimbledon in 2024.

ARGENTINA VS ENGLAND (RUGBY UNION)

Round three of the Nations Championship concluded on Saturday evening with Argentina hosting England. After starting their campaign with a nine-point defeat to Scotland, Argentina bounced back with a 35-21 triumph over Wales last weekend. Similarly, England also lost their opening match against South Africa before recording a victory over Fiji seven days ago. This encounter had taken on some extra ‘needle’ during the build-up with tensions between the two nation’s raised by the fallout after the football World Cup semi final. As the match got underway, it was evident that the rugby team’s were not keen on each other either as the opening try of the match sparked a heated exchange. It came when Tommy Freeman opened the scoring and a melee ensued. When everything calmed down, Fin Smith missed the conversion attempt meaning England led by five points after four minutes of play. As the game continued, it remained feisty with very few clear-cut opportunities created for either side to score. The next try didn’t come until the twenty-third minute when a burst of pace from Immanuel Feyi-Waboso saw him pass a number of Argentina defenders before setting up Ben Earl to run in for England’s second try of the day. That was followed by a successful conversion from Smith, plus a man advantage for the away side as Mateo Carreras was shown a yellow card for a nasty tackle in the lead-up to the try. Despite being down to fourteen players, Argentina got on the scoreboard five minutes later courtesy of a penalty kicked through the posts by Tomas Albornoz. Although England responded almost immediately as Earl forced the ball over the try line after a scrum deep in Argentina territory. With Smith then stepping up to add the extra two points, England were 19-3 ahead and that is how it stayed going into half time. At the start of the second period, Argentina showed their intent by scoring within two minutes as the re-instated Carreras powered the ball over the try line. That was followed by a successful conversion from Albornoz to narrow their deficit to nine points. Momentum swung the way of the hosts across the next fifteen minutes as England went down to fourteen players due to a yellow card shown to Jack Van Poortvliet. Then, Alex Coles’ tackle saw him join his teammate in the sin bin and also handed Argentina penalty try. That moved them to within two points of England on the scoreboard however rather than continuing to score, they instead responded with indiscipline of their own as Joaquin Oviedo was sent to the sin bin in the sixtieth minute, before Santi Carreras joined him moments later. The match was rapidly descending into chaos but England didn’t mind as they held onto their lead. In fact, the visitors set about silencing the home crowd as they worked the ball out to Marcus Smith wide on the right who dived in to score. That try was backed up by Fin Smith sending the ball between the posts to put England nine points ahead. As they got back up to fifteen players, whilst Argentina continued to play with nine, England added their fifth try of the encounter thanks to a excellent run from Feyi-Waboso which ended with him getting his name on the scoresheet. Despite scoring two great tries, the theme of the game remained indiscipline and England got caught up in it with two more yellow cards late on. On seventy-three minutes, Henry Pollock was dismissed, before Emmanuel Iyogun was also shown a yellow card three minutes later. That presented Argentina with a two man advantage for the remainder of the encounter and they capitalised in the seventy-ninth minute with a try from Justo Piccardo. When Albornoz then sent the conversion between the posts, it set up a potentially epic ending as the score stood at 31-24 to the visitors, meaning one more converted try would see Argentina draw level. Fittingly with the way the match had played out, we ended with a moment of high drama as a sustained twenty-two phase attack from Argentina ended with them claiming Bautista Delguy had scored a try. After an unnecessarily long TMO review, it was confirmed that he did not ground the ball beyond the try line and therefore, as the eighty minute mark had passed, the game was over. After eighty minutes of hard-fought rugby and a whole lot of drama, England defeated Argentina 31-24. Almost inevitably given the nature of the match, there were protests from Argentina’s players towards the referee at the final whistle and it was sadly a scene we’d see more often associated with football than rugby, as some players crossed a line in behaviour which we rarely see crossed in terms of respect towards officials. Overall though, it was England who took the victory and some may say a bit of revenge on behalf of their nation’s footballers.

BELGIAN GRAND PRIX (FORMULA 1)

This weekend Formula 1 headed to the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit for round ten of the 2026 World Championship. At one of the most eagerly-anticipated and well-known tracks on the calendar, the Belgian Grand Prix served as the penultimate race before the summer break. After Charles Leclerc picked up his first win of the season at Silverstone a fortnight ago, Ferrari would be looking to build on that success with another strong weekend. Meanwhile, championship leader Kimi Antonelli would be hoping to get back to winning ways and extend his lead at the top of the driver’s standings. The Italian made the perfect start to his weekend by claiming pole position in qualifying on Saturday with a spectacular lap. Alongside him on the front row was Max Verstappen, whilst Lando Norris qualified in third, albeit he would start the race from thirteenth after taking a ten-place grid penalty for his car being fitted with a new power electronics unit. That penalty for Norris meant that George Russell would start from third on Sunday’s grid, with Leclerc in fourth and Lewis Hamilton in fifth. As the lights went out on race day, Antonelli made the best initial start and was first to reach turn one but then Verstappen sneaked past, although the Dutchman used too much of his battery boost and as that drained, Antonelli re-took the lead. Then Leclerc also got ahead of Verstappen but the big drama on lap one came behind them as Hamilton made contact with Russell which saw the Mercedes driver head into the gravel and out of the race. It was a horrible moment for Russell as he saw any opportunity of scoring points taken away from him. After being reviewed by the race stewards, Hamilton was rather harshly handed a five-second penalty for the incident even though it didn’t seem like there was much he could’ve done to avoid it. With Russell’s car needing to be recovered, we had an early safety car period which lasted until lap five. When racing resumed, Antonelli was at the front of the field followed by Leclerc, Verstappen, Oscar Piastri, Hamilton and Liam Lawson. Soon after the restart, Verstappen found his way past Leclerc and back up into second. On lap eight, Leclerc came under pressure from Piastri for third position but he squeezed the Australian going into turn five and there was contact between the two, which left Piastri with damage to his McLaren. That damage cost Piastri a lap later when Hamilton overtook him. On lap sixteen we saw our second retirement of the race as Sergio Perez joined Russell in stopping earlier than he’d have hoped. One lap later, the leader’s began to pit starting with Verstappen who went from second to sixth. That was then covered by Mercedes who pitted Antonelli from the lead to ensure he came back out ahead of Verstappen. On lap twenty, there was a temporary virtual safety car period as some debris on the track needed to be collected by a marshall. That presented the perfect opportunity for Ferrari and Piastri to make their pit stops. A quick stop for Leclerc saw him come back out into the race in second, ahead of Antonelli, whilst Hamilton re-emerged in sixth having served his penalty, behind Piastri who moved down to fifth after his stop. Out on the track, the new race leader was Norris who was yet to pit and had run a different strategy to those around him by starting on the more durable hard tyre. When the virtual safety car period ended, Norris led Leclerc, Antonelli, Verstappen, Piastri and Hamilton in the top six. However, with all those behind him on much fresher tyre’s, Norris soon found himself overtaken by both Leclerc and Antonelli before the end of lap twenty-six. Elsewhere, Lance Stroll became the third retiree from the race due to a clutch issue. On lap thirty, Norris finally made his pit stop but unfortunately it was a slow one as the McLaren pit crew lacked its usual efficiency and the reigning world champion dropped down to eighth. Despite driving well and showing good speed, Norris’ chances of pulling off an unlikely podium were now as good as over after losing too much time in the pit lane. Meanwhile, at the front, Antonelli was closing the gap between himself and Leclerc. It felt like only a matter of time before he inevitably got back into the lead and that happened on lap thirty-four as the Italian made a comfortable overtake in the first sector. From there, the race order was relatively settled with Hamilton sneaking past Piastri for fourth the highlight of a relatively calm final ten laps. When the chequered flag was waved, Antonelli was first to pass it as he sealed his sixth Grand Prix victory of the season and his first win at Spa. He was followed across the finish line by Leclerc and Verstappen who filled the other two podium place’s. Behind them in the other point-scoring positions came Hamilton, Piastri, Isack Hadjar, Norris, Gabriel Bortoleto, Arvid Lindblad and Franco Colapinto. Ultimately though, the afternoon belonged to Antonelli as he put in another impressive display and extended his lead at the top of the drivers world championship. Looking ahead, Formula 1 heads to Hungary next weekend for the final race before the summer break.

THE OPEN FINAL ROUND (GOLF)

The fourth and final men’s major of the year took place this week at the Royal Birkdale Golf Club. As the oldest of the four major’s and the place where the winner gets to carry the title of the ‘Champion Golfer of the year’, this is a huge weekend in the sporting calendar and I’m going to look back on what happened in Sunday’s crucial final round. At the end of play on Saturday, Sam Burns sat at the top of the leaderboard on -10, two shots ahead of Ryan Fox and Kim Si Woo. Elsewhere, defending champion and pre-tournament favourite Scottie Scheffler was on -4 for the week, whilst British home favourite Tommy Fleetwood remained in contention on -5. As the final round got going, Cameron Young shot up the leaderboard with five birdies in his opening nine holes to apply some early pressure on the leader’s who were last to tee off. There was also a positive start made by Scheffler as he birdied three of the first five holes to move onto -7. Meanwhile, Fleetwood gained two shots through his front nine which saw him join the world number one at seven under par. As the leading trio began their final round, Burns and Fox both picked up a birdie at the second hole, whilst Kim gained two shots by going under par at the fifth and sixth. The story of the opening nine holes though was a slip-up on three consecutive holes by Burns as he hit bogeys at the fourth, fifth and sixth to relinquish his lead. At the halfway mark of Sunday’s park, Kim was now at the head of the field on -10, whilst Burns, Fox and the charging Young all sat at -8, with Scheffler and Fleetwood tucked in behind them on -7. Having started earliest of the leaders, Young laid down a score to beat as he hit two birdies on the back nine along with a bogey at the eighteenth to end on -9. Further back on the course, three bogey’s cost Scheffler any chance of defending his title as he failed to improve on his score through the final nine holes and ended his round stuck at -7. It was a similar story for Fleetwood too who balanced two birdies with two bogey’s and fell out of title contention. Elsewhere, back-to-back bogey’s at the eleventh and twelfth hole’s saw Kim fall back to -8, level with Burns and one shot ahead of Fox who also dropped a shot at the eleventh. At this point, with the leaders approaching the final five holes, Young was top of the leaderboard and set to become an Open champion. However, keen to seize a huge opportunity, Fox put together two exceptional birdies on the next two holes to move to -9. Although a bogey at the fifteenth dropped him back behind Young’s score. Meanwhile, Burns was playing a consistent round of golf and hadn’t dropped a shot since the sixth hole but crucially he hadn’t gained one either and was stuck at -8. The sixteenth hole proved pivotal as Fox posted his fourth birdie of the day to draw level with Young on -9, whilst a bogey from Kim as good as ended his title challenge. As we arrived at the eighteenth hole, Fox needed a birdie to win or a par to force a playoff. Meanwhile Burns was still in contention if he could score a birdie and Fox didn’t make one. After some superb approach play, Fox found himself in position to putt for a birdie and he delivered the perfect shot to clinch his first major victory. It was a stunning moment for the New Zealander who became the 2026 Champion Golfer of the year with his fifth birdie of an impressive final round to move to -10 for the tournament. As Fox got his hands on the famous claret jug, he was now a major champion and had firmly announced himself on golf’s biggest stage. In fact, this was the first time he had finished in the top ten at a major which underlines just how remarkable his achievement was on the course at the Royal Birkdale. With Fox at the top of the final leaderboard, Young finished second on -9, with Burns third on -8, whilst Scheffler and Fleetwood shared fourth position a shot further back. That marks the end of the men’s golf major’s for this calendar year, although there is still plenty of golf to look forward to with the Women’s Open coming up in two weeks time.

ARGENTINA VS SPAIN (FOOTBALL)

Following five and a half weeks of football across the United States of America, Mexico and Canada, Sunday’s final brought an end to another memorable World Cup. It was set up perfectly for a great game as the reigning world champions Argentina came up against the European champions Spain. On their route to the final, Argentina have been embracing the drama by winning two of their four knockout games in extra time, whilst the other two saw them pull of late comeback’s to defeat Egypt and England with stoppage time winning goals. Meanwhile Spain’s run through the tournament had been significantly less chaotic as they won all of their four knockout rounds inside ninety minutes and only conceded one goal. After the trophy was unveiled on the pitch by Carlos Alcaraz, the teams headed onto the pitch in New York ready to compete. In the early exchanges the best chance either side had to score fell the way of Lamine Yamal when he got on the end of Dani Olmo’s flick in the penalty area and sent his shot towards goal but was denied by Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez. From then on the match settled down with Spain having the majority of possession but struggling to do much with it in the final third. Their next best opportunity to score came in the thirty-eighth minute when Mikel Oyarzabal had a shot from the edge of the penalty area but his attempt was well gathered by Martinez. Overall, a fairly underwhelming first half, in which Argentina didn’t have a single touch inside the Spain penalty area, ended goalless. Next up came the Super-Bowl style half time show which turned out to be more entertaining than the football served up in the opening forty-five minutes. After a twenty-seven minute half time, the second half kicked off as Spain continued to search for an opening goal, whilst Argentina already seemed content with playing for penalties. In the sixty-seventh minute, Spain substitute Ferran Torres connected with Yamal’s cross inside the six yard box but sent his header straight into the arms of Martinez. The Argentina goalkeeper was called upon again ten minutes later to palm away Pau Curbarsi’s long range effort. As we reached the closing stages of the ninety minutes, Spain were increasing the pressure on Argentina’s defence but continued to be thwarted by Martinez with the Argentina stopper making another good save to deny Aymeric Laporte in the eighty-first minute. In stoppage time at the end of the second half, Enzo Fernandez jumped into a tackle on Curbarsi and was very late, which gave referee Slavko Vincic no option but to show him a second yellow card and then a red one. Despite heavily protests from the Argentinian players, the decision (which was very clearly correct) stood and they were down to ten players for the remainder of the final. Just three minutes later they were very lucky not to go down to nine players when Leandro Paredes tripped Torres just outside the penalty area. Having already been booked and made fouls since that booking, it seemed inevitable Paredes would receive a second yellow card but the referee opted to keep his cards in his pocket on this occasion. The resulting free-kick was taken by Yamal although once again Martinez flew across his goal to make a superb save. With no goals and very little quality on display, we were left requiring an extra thirty minutes to try and decide who would be crowned the world champions. As we entered extra time, Spain finally got the ball past Martinez when Nico Williams tapped a loose ball into the net after the Argentina goalkeeper had denied Mikel Merino a chance to shoot. However, the goal was disallowed for a very soft foul by Merino on Nicolas Otamendi in the build-up and the score remained 0-0. Not long after, Merino had a huge chance to score as Williams’ excellent cross presented him with a free header from eight yards out but he surprisingly guided his effort wide of Martinez’s far post. As we reached half time in extra time, the World Cup final was still goalless and heading towards a penalty shootout. Thirty-nine seconds after the break, the game’s first goal arrived as Pedro Porro’s cross was met at the back post by Williams who headed the ball down into the path of Torres to smash past Martinez and into the roof of the net. It was a goal that had been coming for a long time as Spain’s dominance was finally rewarded with a lead. Now the onus was on ten-player Argentina to show some sort of attacking intent and go in search of an equaliser. In the one-hundred and fourteenth minute, Lionel Messi’s attempt that drifted past the far post was Argentina’s first shot of the entire match. The closest they came to equalising was in the five added minutes of stoppage time when the ball fell kindly for Giuliano Simeone in the aftermath of a corner but he sent his shot sailing over the crossbar. When the final whistle blew in New York, Spain were the World Cup winners for the second time in their history. They did it with just one goal conceded across the entire tournament and a 1-0 triumph over Argentina in the final. This victory extended their unbeaten run to a record-breaking thirty-eight matches and also meant that they become the first nation to ever hold both the women’s and men’s World Cup trophies at the same time.

Hugh Watches Sports: 6th-12th July 2026

Welcome to this week’s edition of Hugh Watches Sports. In this post we will reflect on a trio of matches from the ongoing football World Cup, the conclusion of the third tennis grand slam of the year, a clash from the Nations Championship rugby and the final round of the latest golf major. Let’s get into it.

ARGENTINA VS EGYPT (FOOTBALL)

Defending champions Argentina continued their 2026 World Cup campaign on Tuesday as they took on Egypt in the round of sixteen. After topping Group J with three wins from three matches, Argentina won a thrilling encounter 3-2 against Cape Verde in the round of thirty-two to reach this stage. Meanwhile, a win and two draws saw Egypt progress from Group G in second place, before they saw off Australia on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the last round. As the clash got going in Atlanta, Egypt took a surprise early lead thanks to an exceptional header from Yasser Ibrahim eight yards out from goal. Although their lead looked under threat four minutes later when Nicolas Tagliafico was tripped in the penalty area by Haissem Hassan, prompting referee Francois Letexier to point to the penalty spot. That presented Lionel Messi with the chance to equalise but his penalty was saved by Mostafa Shobeir. Not long after that, Shobeir was called into action again as he produced an outstanding reaction stop to push Alexis MacAllister’s close range header away from his goal. The majority of the match was now being played in Egypt’s half as Argentina relentlessly pushed for an equaliser. On thirty-nine minutes, Shobeir was required once again as he made another magnificent save to stop Julian Alvarez’s effort at the end of a superb Argentinian move. As we reached half time in Atlanta, Egypt remained on track to pull off a notable world cup upset as they went into the interval 1-0 up against Argentina. Moving into the second half, a sensational counter-attacking move from Egypt sensed with Mostafa Ziko smashing the ball into the net. However, that goal was quickly taken away from them by VAR who, along with the referee, decided that there was a foul on Lisandro Martinez in the build-up, albeit that foul happened at the other end of the pitch and over ten seconds before they had scored. It was certainly an odd choice for the VAR to go back that far but unfortunately for Egypt it meant that the goal was disallowed and their lead remained at just 1-0. They were undeterred though and nine minutes later, Egypt scored again and this time it stood. It was a flowing counter attacking move which began with an Argentina corner and ended with Mohamed Salah finding Hassan who sent a low cross into the path of Ziko who drilled the ball past Emiliano Martinez and into the back of the net. It was an incredible moment for the Egyptian’s as they celebrated going 2-0 up against the reigning World Cup winners. Next came a barrage of attacking pressure from Argentina as they desperately searched for the goals they needed to keep their title defence alive. On seventy-nine minutes, they finally got a breakthrough when Cristian Romero headed Messi’s cross past Shobeir to reduce their deficit. Four minutes later, Argentina found themselves level when the ball fell kindly for Messi inside a chaotic penalty area and he sent the ball into the roof of the net from twelve yards out to score Argentina’s second. It was a dramatic finish to a superb game of football and there was still seven minutes plus stoppage time remaining for either side to potentially find a winner. As we entered the third minute of stoppage time, an incredible comeback was completed as Lautaro Martinez’s cross was met at the far post by Enzo Fernandez who directed his header into the far bottom corner of Shobeir’s net to win the game for Argentina. It was a phenomenal end to a thrilling encounter as Argentina came back from 2-0 down to defeat Egypt 3-2 and progress into the quarter finals. Their quest to win a second successive World Cup will now continue on Saturday when they take on Switzerland in the last eight.

WIMBLEDON WEEK TWO (TENNIS)

Following a busy first week in SW19, the tournament concluded this week with the last four rounds. At the start of the fourth round there were sixteen players left in the respective singles draw’s. The standout match in round four of the women’s draw saw world number one Aryna Sabalenka face Naomi Osaka. In a battle between two big-hitter’s it was Osaka who came out on top with a 6-2 7-6 win. Meanwhile, in the men’s fourth round, Novak Djokovic beat Roman Safiulin in four sets to record his 106th match win at Wimbledon, overtaking Roger Federer’s previous record of 105 men’s singles victories. Elsewhere the only remaining British player in the singles draw’s Arthur Fery continued his excellent run with a 7-5 3-6 4-6 6-4 7-6 triumph over Grigor Dimitrov on Centre Court. Plus there was some history made by Jan-Lennard Struff as he moved past Hubert Hurkacz in round four to become the oldest player to reach a first grand slam quarter final in the open era. Moving into the last eight, there was an all-American clash on Centre Court as Coco Gauff defeated Jessica Pegula 4-6 6-3 6-3 to book her place in the semi finals. She was joined in the last four by Karolina Muchova, Marta Kostyuk and Linda Noskova. In the men’s quarter finals, Fery’s dream run continued as he saw off Flavio Cobolli in straight sets to reach the first semi final of his career and become just the second ever wildcard to make the last four of the men’s singles at Wimbledon. Elsewhere, Djokovic was making more history as he defeated Felix Auger-Aliassime 7-6 3-6 6-3 6-7 7-6 in five hours and fifteen minutes, making it the longest quarter final ever played at Wimbledon. Meanwhile in the other two men’s quarter finals, top seed Jannik Sinner beat Struff in three sets, whilst Alexander Zverev moved past Taylor Fritz. On Thursday in London it was time for the women’s semi finals and they kicked off with an epic encounter between Gauff and Muchova. After splitting the first two sets, the third went to a tie-break in which Muchova saved a match point before winning it 12-10 to seal her spot in the final. That clinched a 6-2 1-6 7-6 victory for Muchova as she progressed into her second grand slam final and first at Wimbledon. Later in the day, Noskova defeated Kostyuk 6-4 6-4 to reach her first grand slam final. In doing so she became the youngest women’s singles finalist at Wimbledon since Eugenie Bouchard in 2014. Twenty-four hours later, the men’s semi finals took centre stage with the opening match seeing Fery take on Zverev. After winning a tight first set on a tie-break, Zverev cruised through the next two to defeat Fery 7-6 6-2 6-4 and become the thirteenth man in the open era to reach the final at all four grand slams. Following that on Centre Court was a clash between Sinner and Djokovic. With one of his best performances since a run to the title in Madrid back in early May, Sinner defeated a noticeably fatigued Djokovic 6-4 6-4 6-4 to reach the seventh grand slam final of his career. This weekend one of the highlights of the sporting calendar took place with the Wimbledon single’s finals crowning two champions. On Saturday, Muchova faced Noskova in an all-Czech grand slam final. After taking the first set 6-2, Noskova seemed in control of proceedings when she went up a break midway through the second set. However, the match turned around in three pivotal games as Muchova saved three championship points to hold serve for 3-5. Then, Muchova saved another championship point before breaking Noskova in a ten-minute epic game. In the next game, Muchova saved a fifth championship point on route to levelling the score at 5-5. The turnaround was completed in the next two games when Muchova broke Noskova’s serve again and then held serve to win the second set 7-5 and force a decider. In the third set, Noskova bounced back incredibly from the disappointment of seeing five match points come and go in the second set. After going up a break early in the decider, Noskova held on to her lead this time and served out the match to clinch her maiden grand slam title. That ended a sensational tournament for the young Czech who won her first Wimbledon title after having saved a match point in the third round on route. A day later, the top two seed’s in the men’s draw went head-to-head as Sinner faced Zverev for the title. The opening two sets both were dominated by the server and therefore required tie-break’s to decide the outcome. With Zverev winning the first set tie-break, Sinner won the second to level the match. The next two sets followed an almost identical pattern as one break in the middle of each set proved enough for Sinner to successfully defend his Wimbledon title and defeat Zverev 6-7 7-6 6-3 6-4. That marked Sinner’s second Wimbledon triumph and fifth grand slam success. After two weeks of tennis at one of the sport’s most iconic venue’s, Noskova and Sinner lifted the singles trophies.

FRANCE VS MOROCCO (FOOTBALL)

On Thursday evening, France came up against Morocco in the first of the quarter finals at this year’s World Cup. This was a rematch of the semi final in Qatar four years ago with France winning 2-0 on that occasion. So far at this World Cup, France’s record had been perfect with five wins from five matches, including a 1-0 success over Paraguay in the last round. In contrast, Morocco’s route to the quarter finals had been slightly more eventful with two wins and a draw enough to secure progression from Group C. Then, they needed penalties to get past the Netherlands in the round of thirty-two, before knocking out co-hosts Canada to book their place in the last eight. As this quarter final got underway, France almost went ahead inside the first five minutes when Ousmane Dembele’s cross was met at the back post by Dayot Upamecano whose header was well saved by Morocco goalkeeper Yassine Bounou. The opening exchanges were dominated by France and they were handed a huge opportunity to go ahead when they were awarded a penalty in the twenty-fifth minute. A quick move from France saw Michael Olise set away Mbappe and he was fouled by Noussair Mazraoui as he entered the penalty area to give the referee a fairly easy decision to point to the penalty spot. After picking himself up from the floor, Mbappe stepped up to take the penalty but he was denied by Bounou who dived to his left to make a big save and keep the score at 0-0. As the game continued, Bounou was soon called into action again as he got down quickly to tip Desire Doue’s attempt around the post. Despite having control over much of the opening forty-five minutes, France headed into half time with the game goalless. After the break, the pattern of the match resumed with France searching for a goal. First, Doue’s shot from the edge of the penalty area was gathered by Bounou, before moments later Mbappe sent a shot over the crossbar from close range. Eventually France’s goal arrived on the sixtieth minute courtesy of a moment of quality from Mbappe who picked up the ball right on the edge of the penalty area and sent a brilliant curling effort into the far corner of the net, leaving Bounou with no chance to make a save. Having waited an hour for their first goal, France quickly set about trying to score a second and they did so six minutes later with another superb finish. This time it was Dembele who beat Bounou after receiving the ball just inside the Morocco half, he drove towards goal before providing an excellent strike into the bottom corner of the goal to double France’s lead. On the balance of play they deserved that advantage and now the remaining twenty-four minutes looked to be an uphill task for Morocco who had barely threatened Mike Maignan’s goal. As the African side now looked to attack, they almost got back into the game courtesy of a France error as Upamecano mistimed his attempt to clear Chemsdine Talbi’s cross and the ball sailed narrowly over his own crossbar. The closest Morocco came to scoring was in the eighty-third minute when Azzedine Ounahi had a shot from about twenty-five yards out which forced Maignan to get down we’ll and palm the ball away. Ultimately though, the match belonged to France and they almost scored a third goal in the eighty-seventh minute when substitute Bradley Barcola forced Bounou into a good save at his near post. As the full time whistle blew in Boston, France booked their place in the World Cup semi finals with a 2-0 triumph over Morocco. They will fac Spain in the last four after the Spaniards got past Belgium in the other quarter final from this half of the draw.

SOUTH AFRICA VS SCOTLAND (RUGBY UNION)

After kicking off last Saturday, the Nations Championship continued this weekend with all twelve teams in action. In my chosen game to cover, South Africa hosted Scotland in Pretoria. The Springboks began their campaign with a resounding 45-21 triumph over England last week and were the favourites going into this encounter too. However, they had to be wary of the threat posed by Scotland who were also coming off a win last weekend when they defeated Argentina 47-38. As the encounter kicked off in Pretoria, it was a fairly even opening ten minutes with both teams looking to settle in to the match. However as we approached the fifteen minute mark, South Africa stepped up their attacking intensity and tested Scotland’s defence. A try which felt it had been coming for a while arrived in the sixteenth minute as Embrose Paiper burst through the Scotland back line with some fantastic footwork and opened the scoring. Next, Handre Pollard stepped up to kick the first conversion of the game and put South Africa 7-0 ahead. Now they had the lead, the Springboks quickly set about trying to extend it and they did so courtesy of a try from Evan Roos within two minutes of the restart. With Pollard once again adding the extra two points, the home side were fourteen points up after nineteen minutes. After holding out well defensively to halt the momentum across the next ten minutes, Scotland searched for a try of their own. After winning a penalty deep in South Africa’s territory, Scotland found a way through their hosts’ resolute defence with Matt Fagerson bundling the ball over the try line. That coupled with a successful conversion from Finn Russell saw them halve their deficit. In the final moments of the first half, Scotland got level on the scoreboard thanks to a sustained attack which ended with Sione Tuipulotu drawing three defenders and then playing the ball into the path of Kyle Rowe to carry beyond the try line for five points. With Russell then sending the conversion through the posts with the last action of the half, Scotland drew level with South Africa at the break. Immediately after the interval Scotland were handed a boost when South Africa’s Ben-Jason Dixon was shown a yellow card and sent to the sin bin for ten minutes. However, they couldn’t capitalise on having an extra player and the score remained at 14-14 as Dixon returned to the field. With South Africa back to fifteen players, they re-took the lead in the fifty-seventh minute with a twelve-phase attack that ended with Elrigh Louw powering in to score. Then, Pollard sent his conversion attempt between the posts to secure two extra points for the hosts. Similarly to the first half, South Africa backed up one try with another soon after as Damian Willemse dived to force the ball over the try line. Again, Pollard was on hand to add a further two points as South Africa re-established a fourteen point advantage on the scoreboard. A third unanswered try in the sixty-fifth minute extended the hosts’ lead with Zac Porthen adding his name to the list of scorers’ before Pollard’s conversion out South Africa 35-14 up. With a three-try lead and less than fifteen minutes to go, it seemed as if South Africa were now comfortably headed towards victory. Although Scotland had other ideas as two tries in four minutes got them back to within seven points of their hosts. The first came when Scott Cummings burst through a gap in South Africa’s defensive line and then laid the ball off for Josh Baylis to carry beyond the try line. Next Ben White powered himself snd the ball over the try line to score Scotland’s fourth try of the day. With both of those tries successfully converted by Russell, we were set for an exciting final ten minutes with the score reading 35-28 to South Africa. With momentum firmly on their side, Scotland piled pressure on South Africa’s defence in search of a potential equaliser. The Springboks are the world champions for a reason though and they held firm defensively before a well-placed kick from Pollard set Jesse Kriel in behind Scotland’s defence and he ran in for a try to end any chances of a Scotland comeback. A successful conversion attempt from Quan Horn then put the final touches on another triumph for South Africa. A highly enjoyable rugby match ended with South Africa defeating Scotland 42-28 to clinch back-to-back wins at the start of their Nations Championship campaign. The Springboks will now look to extend their unbeaten run when they play Wales in Durban next Saturday. As for Scotland, they will look to get back to winning ways next weekend as they come up against Fiji.

ENGLAND VS NORWAY (FOOTBALL)

In the third World Cup quarter final played this week, England took on Norway for a place in the last four. Following their progression from the group stages, England defeated DR Congo 2-1 in the round of thirty-two, before an incredible 3-2 victory over Mexico saw them reach the last eight. As for Norway, back-to-back 2-1 win’s have seen them overcome Ivory Coast and Brazil so far in the knockout rounds. In the build-up to this encounter, much of the media has focused on it being a battle between two of the best strikers in the world with Harry Kane captaining England, whilst Erling Haaland leads the line for Norway. So far both have been in great goal scoring form at this World Cup with Kane scoring six times and Haaland finding the net on seven occasions. In their quarter final, Haaland was the first to go close to scoring when he connected with Julian Ryerson’s cross but his header was caught by England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. That was a signal of Norway’s attacking intent as they looked to get ahead in Miami. On thirty-six minutes, they got in front thanks to a phenomenal curling effort from Andreas Schjelderup which flew past Pickford. It was an exceptional finish from the Norweigan who fooled England’s defence by shaping as if he was going to cross the ball but instead whipped it into the far top corner of Pickford’s net to put Norway ahead. Things nearly got better for them eight minutes later when Alexander Sorloth was set away on the counter-attack with Haaland up alongside him but he took too long to choose whether to pass or shoot and allowed England’s defenders to get back and make an interception. Whilst Norway were playing with confidence, England were yet to really find any rhythm in their play although they had plenty of players who were capable of producing a moment of brilliance. One of those players is Jude Bellingham and he stepped up in first half stoppage time to get on the end of Anthony Gordon’s pass and carry the ball into the penalty area before slotting a well-placed finish beyond Orjan Nyland and into the far bottom corner of the Norway goal. Moments later, England almost completed an quick-fire turnaround but Kane was narrowly offside when he chipped the ball over Nyland after Bellingham’s pass. That offside decision was the final action of the first half and we were level at 1-1 as the players headed into the changing rooms for half time. In the second half, Norway thought they’d gone 2-1 up in the fifty-fifth minute when Torbjorn Heggem tapped the ball into the net at the back post from a corner, however the goal was disallowed by VAR because of a push by Haaland on Elliot Anderson in the lead-up to it. As the match went on, it was a tight and nervy encounter with the next chance of note coming in the seventy-fifth minute when Pickford came and punched away a corner but only as far as Fredrik Aursnes whose cross was met by David Moller Wolfe and his header bounced off the crossbar. That was as close as either side came to a second goal in the latter stages of the match, meaning we were left needing a thirty minute period of extra time. After a brief team talk from their coaches, extra time got underway and England looked to be on the front foot. First, Kane connected with Bukayo Saka’s cross to head the ball towards goal and force Nyland to make an excellent save. Then, as England continued to attack, Morgan Rogers’ shot from outside the penalty area was parried by Nyland and Bellingham was first to react to the loose ball as he directed it into the net to put England ahead. It was the perfect start to extra time for England as Bellingham scored his second of the game and put them 2-1 up within three minutes of the restart. Later in extra time, England were initially awarded a penalty by referee Clement Turpin when Djed Spence went down under pressure from Oscar Bobb. Although, after a VAR review, the decision was overturned and play continued at 2-1. Next came a big surprise at half time in extra time as Haaland was substituted and would therefore play no further part in Norway’s efforts to ep find an equaliser. In the final fifteen minutes, England defended brilliantly and limited Norway to very few opportunities. The best of those came in the twenty-fourth minute of extra time when the ball fell kindly for Bobb inside the penalty area after a corner but his shot flew over the crossbar. Following one-hundred and twenty minutes of battle, England secured their spot in the semi finals with a 2-1 victory against Norway. They will take on 2022 World Cup winners Argentina in the last four after they also needed extra time to defeat Switzerland 3-1 in their quarter final.

AMUNDI EVIAN CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL ROUND (GOLF)

The penultimate major on the women’s golf calendar took place this week in France. At the Evian Resort Golf Club, the 2026 Amundi Evian Championship saw the world’s best golfers compete for the fourth available major title this season. So far this year we’ve seen success for world number one Nelly Korda at the Chevron Championship and the US Women’s Open, whilst Haeran Ryu took home the trophy at the PGA Championship. Coming into this event, Korda was the favourite however she missed the cut after the first two days which meant she was not involved by the time we got to Sunday’s final round. It was a big surprise as the world number one missed a cut for the first time since June 2024 although it also presented a great opportunity for those left in the tournament. At the end of Saturday’s third round, Ryu topped the leaderboard after a record-breaking day on which she shot -11 and achieved the lowest ever round of 60 in women’s or men’s major history. That staggering round put her in pole position going into Sunday at -19 for the week overall. Her closest challenger on Sunday morning was Akie Iwai who trailed by three shots on -16. There was then a four shot gap back to joint-third Mao Saigo and Brooke Henderson who both remained in contention after going -12 through the first three rounds. Ultimately though, the destiny of the trophy was very much in the hands of Ryu when the top four teed off on Sunday. A relatively understated opening nine saw the leader drop one shot at the eighth which left her on -18 at the halfway mark. Elsewhere on the course, Iwai made a shaky start with a bogey at the first hole and a double bogey at the third but recovered well with birdies at the sixth and ninth. Meanwhile, Saigo made up for a bogey at the first with three straight birdies to improve to -14 by halfway. Although the story of the front nine was Henderson who kicked off her round in stunning form with a birdie and two eagle’s including a hole in one at the eighth. That saw the Canadian within one shot of Ryu as we headed into the final nine holes of the weekend. On the back nine, Ryu remained steady and matched par up through the next eight holes, keeping her at -18 heading to the last tee. Meanwhile, Iwai scored two birdies to join her on that score. Similarly, Henderson shot two birdies between holes nine and eighteen although they were cancelled out by two bogeys, leaving her a shot behind Ryu and Iwai when she reached the final hole. Elsewhere, Saigo saw her title challenge fall away with bogeys at the tenth, thirteenth and seventeenth, making it a three-way race for the trophy. At the final hole, Henderson began with an exceptional drive down the fairway, whilst Ryu and Iwai found the rough with their tee shot’s. First to find the hole was Henderson who clinched her third eagle of the day to move to -19. That left Ryu and Iwai needing a birdie to force a playoff and whilst Iwai could only make par, Ryu produced some magic to score her first birdie of the round. That set us up for a playoff to decide the 2026 Amundi Evian Championship winner between this event’s 2022 champion Henderson and recent PGA Championship champion Ryu. Back at the start of the par-five eighteenth hole, this time Ryu found the fairway with her tee shot, meanwhile Henderson sent her ball into the rough. It took Henderson four shots to get her ball onto the green, meanwhile Ryu got there in three shots, presenting herself with the chance to putt for the title. After seventeen previous holes without a birdie today, Ryu tapped the ball into the hole to secure a second consecutive birdie at the eighteenth and become a major champion for the second time. It was a sensational moment for Ryu who won her second major immediately after her first to further establish herself among the top golfer’s in the world. A historic third round performance on Saturday had set up Ryu for success and she delivered it on Sunday with some clutch play when it mattered to see off Henderson in a playoff. Now attention quickly turns to the fifth and final major of the year where Ryu will be aiming to win a third major in a row at the Women’s Open which begins at the end of July.

Hugh Watches Sports: 29th June-5th July 2026

Welcome to the latest Hugh Watches Sports post. In this edition we will look back on two matches from the football World Cup, the start of Wimbledon, a big international rugby clash and the most recent round’s in the Formula E and Formula 1 World Championship’s. Let’s get into it.

ENGLAND VS DR CONGO (FOOTBALL)

Atlanta hosted a huge World Cup round of thirty-two clash on Wednesday as England took on DR Congo. With seven points from a possible nine, England topped Group L as they continued their quest to lift the World Cup for the first time since 1966. Meanwhile, DR Congo reached the last thirty-two as one of the best third-placed teams after taking four points from their three group games. Impressively one of those points came in their opener against Portugal which demonstrated that they were more than capable of matching and frustrating Europe’s top teams. As the game got going in Atlanta, DR Congo made the perfect start as they went ahead on seven minutes courtesy of a terrific strike from Brian Cipenga. A ball into the penalty area from Chancel Mbemba found its way to the far post where Cipenga was unmarked and he provided an excellent finish by drilling the ball past Jordan Pickford at his near post. It was an incredible moment for DR Congo who now had a lead to hold on to as they looked to progress to the round of sixteen. In contrast, it was a wake-up call for England after a slow start. Towards the end of the first half, following a speech from manager Thomas Tuchel during the hydration break, England finally began to find some rhythm going forward. On thirty minutes, Declan Rice’s cross was met by Jude Bellingham who sent his header towards goal but was superbly denied by a save from DR Congo goalkeeper Lionel Mpasi. Next, Marcus Rashford came close to scoring when his shot from eight yards out was spectacularly blocked on the line by Aaron Wan-Bissaka. Despite England now beginning to dominate proceedings, DR Congo still posed a threat on the counter attack and it almost saw them double their lead in the forty-first minute when Wan-Bissaka’s cross from the right beat the England defence and found Yoane Wissa whose attempt hit the post. Moments later, England had a strong appeal for a penalty up the other end of the pitch when Harry Kane beat Mpasi to Bellingham’s pass and then went down after contact from the DR Congo goalkeeper but the referee instead awarded DR Congo a free-kick. It was an odd decision given that there was definitely contact made by Mpasi on Kane after the England captain had tapped the ball past him, however VAR then confirmed the on-field decision and the game continued. There was still time for England to create two more big chances before the first half finished. First, Bellingham’s header from the penalty spot looked defined for the far bottom corner until Mpasi pulled off an exceptional save to tip it away. Then, the DR Congo goalkeeper was called upon again to make another magnificent stop to deny Kane’s volley from the edge of the six-yard box. At half time, we were on for a famous World Cup upset as DR Congo led England 1-0. After the interval, the pattern of the game remained similar as England pushed for an equaliser. On fifty-three minutes, Mpasi produced another sensational stop when Bellingham’s strike deflected off Wan-Bissaka and was heading for the roof of the net before a strong hand from Mpasi palmed it away. It took until the seventy-fifth minute but England’s persistence finally paid off when Rice’s over-hit cross was collected by Anthony Gordon who chipped the ball back into the penalty area where it was met and headed into the net by Kane. It was a moment of huge relief for England as they finally managed to beat Mpasi and were now back on level terms going into the final fifteen minutes in Atlanta. With momentum firmly on their side, England went in search of a winner whilst also still having to remain conscious of DR Congo’s counter-attacking threat. In the eighty-sixth minute, Elliot Anderson’s pass set away Bellingham whose shot was parried by Mpasi. The ball fell kindly into the path of Gordon on the edge of the penalty area and he cut inside before laying the ball off for Kane who took one touch to turn, another to set himself and then unleashed an unstoppable effort into the roof of Mpasi’s goal. It was a sensational finish from England’s talisman as he stepped up to rescue his team with two goals in the space of eleven minutes which had taken them from 1-0 down to 2-1 up. That turned out to be the decisive moment of a thrilling match in Atlanta as England progressed into the round of sixteen at the World Cup with a 2-1 win over DR Congo.

WIMBLEDON WEEK ONE (TENNIS)

One of the highlights of the sporting calendar got underway this week with the opening three rounds of Wimbledon. This marks the third grand slam of the tennis year and one of the big stories was the return of a legend. For the first time since 2022, Serena Williams was in the ladies singles draw at Wimbledon and she headlined Tuesday’s order of play. The twenty-three time grand slam champion took on Maya Joint in round one and it turned out to be a thrilling encounter which Joint won 6-3 6-7 6-3 to end Williams’ tournament. Despite the defeat, it was a joy to see Williams back on court and she has hinted that her comeback will continue during the upcoming US swing. Elsewhere in the women’s draw, the bottom half became wide open on Saturday as the three highest seed’s in it all went out in round three. First up, defending champion Iga Swiatek was beaten in straight sets by Alexandra Eala. Next, second seed Elena Rybakina lost 7-6 6-1 to Elise Mertens, before fifth seed Amanda Anisimova went down in three sets against fellow American Madison Keys. That leaves Linda Noskova as the only top ten seed remaining in that half of the draw. Meanwhile, in the top half of the draw, world number one Aryna Sabalenka remains the favourite having not dropped a set on route to the fourth round. Whilst fellow top ten players Jessica Pegula, Coco Gauff and Karolina Muchova have also progressed through the opening week. Elsewhere, reflecting on week one in the men’s singles, world number one Jannik Sinner has been far from his best but has managed to get through the first week. The Italian started his title defence by needing five sets to get past Miomir Kecmanovic, before improving in his round two win over Nuno Borges and then seeing off Jenson Brooksby in the third round. Looking ahead, it appears that we are closing in on a semi final battle between Sinner and Novak Djokovic, after the Serbian also came through week one at SW19. Despite dropping two sets across his opening three matches, Djokovic has been playing well and crucially looks to still be in good shape physically coming into the second week. His third round win over Arthur Rinderknech was particularly significant as it marked Djokovic’s 105th men’s singles win at Wimbledon, matching Roger Federer’s record. Whilst the two favourites remain on course for a semi final meeting in the top half of the draw, the bottom half seems a little more open. The Stuttgart champion and fourth seed Ben Shelton suffered a shock round one exit in five sets to Otto Virtanen. Then, the champion from Halle France Tiafoe went out in the third round against Alexander Bublik in one of the most entertaining encounters of the first week. Meanwhile, second seed Alexander Zverev has taken full advantage of a particularly kind draw to progress into round four. He remains the highest seed in the bottom half, with sixth seed Taylor Fritz also comfortably into the second week. Also in that half is wildcard Grigor Dimitrov who has been finding some excellent form on the grass and will fancy his chances of making a run to a first grand slam final at Wimbledon. Following a busy opening week to the third grand slam of the season, there are still plenty more stories to unfold across the coming week including the crowning of two singles champions. I will round up the remaining four rounds in next week’s Hugh Watches Sports post.

SHANGHAI E-PRIX (FORMULA E)

After starting in Sanya last time out, Formula E’s five-race run in Asia continued with a double header in Shanghai this weekend. The race for round twelve of the season took place on Saturday ahead of round thirteen on Sunday. In this post, I will be mostly focusing on Saturday’s race although we will touch on what happened in Sunday’s race at the end. Following qualifying earlier in the day, Pascal Wehrlein began the race in pole position, ahead of Mitch Evans and Jake Dennis. With the threat of rain imminent, the race start took on even greater importance and Wehrlein got off the line well to keep his lead. Behind him, Dennis made an excellent, swooping move around the outside of Evans at turn one to move up into second. As the race began to settle down, Dennis made a neat move up the inside of Wehrlein to go to the top of the leaderboard on lap four, however the German bounced back quickly to re-take the lead three laps later. As those two battled at the front, a strong start from Antonio Felix Da Costa had seen him move up into third after beginning the race in sixth. With the rain now falling in Shanghai, the next shift in positions came about courtesy of strategy as the drivers chose when to head into the pit’s and take their pit boost, which tops up their energy for the remainder of the race. On lap sixteen, Wehrlein pitted from the lead along with Da Costa in third. At that point, Dennis opted to stay on track and therefore went through into the race lead. A lap later, Dennis pitted and it was now all eyes on Wehrlein to see if he could get back ahead before Dennis exited the pit lane. With a solid out-lap, Wehrlein did indeed re-take the lead as he and Da Costa both got ahead of Dennis whilst the Brit was in the pit’s. Elsewhere on the track, having started at the back, Edoardo Mortara chose to deploy his six minutes of attack mode earlier than his rivals and used it to pull of a string of overtakes and move up into third. On lap nineteen, the safety car was deployed due to an increase in the intensity of the rain, which was deemed to be making the track dangerous in places. Thankfully, the conditions slightly improved and we were able to get going again on lap twenty-two as Wehrlein headed the field with Da Costa and Mortara in second and third, although Mortara’s attack mode had come to an end and he was now under threat from those behind. On lap twenty-five, despite some excellent initial defence from Mortara, he was passed by Dennis who was among those to take their attack mode boost in the aftermath of the safety car period ending. By the end of the following lap, Mortara found himself down in seventh after also being overtaken by Felipe Drugovich, Nyck De Vries and Jean-Eric Vergne. Meanwhile, out in front, Wehrlein was having a comfortable drive with a two second lead over Da Costa. As we reached the thirtieth and final lap, Wehrlein was first to reach the chequered flag and claim his second race win of the season. Following him came Da Costa and Dennis to complete the podium positions, with Drugovich and De Vries rounding out the top five. It was a controlled and impressive performance from Wehrlein in Shanghai as he won from pole position to clinch his tenth race victory in Formula E. That triumph puts him up into second in the drivers standings, trailing leader Mitch Evans by just three points going into round thirteen of the season on Sunday. Speaking of Sunday, the second race of the weekend in Shanghai was won by Lucas Di Grassi. The Brazilian clinched his first race win in Formula E since 2022 with a thrilling final lap overtake after having started the race from eighteenth on the grid.

AUSTRALIA VS IRELAND (RUGBY UNION)

The inaugural Nations Championship kicked off this Saturday with six matches. This competition has been designed to fill the autumn and winter international fixture list and features twelve teams, six from the northern hemisphere and six from the southern hemisphere. It contains six match-days, before a ‘finals weekend’ where a champion will be crowned. The first three of those will take place in the southern hemisphere in July, before the next three take place across the northern hemisphere in November. The match from the opening week which I’ve chosen to report on was the battle between Australia and Ireland in Sydney. Interestingly, Australia had won all of the last three meetings between the teams and they quickly went ahead in this encounter with a try from Dylan Pietsch three minutes in. Although Ireland provided a swift response as they got on the scoreboard courtesy of a Cian Prendergast try, which was converted by Sam Prendergast to give the visitors a 7-5 lead. Next came a well-worked attack from Australia as they found Jock Campbell in space on the right and he charged beyond the try line to put them back in front. In an end-to-end encounter, Ireland then re-took the lead when Josh Van Der Flier bundled through the Australian defence after a tap-go penalty from five yards out. With Prendergast then missing the posts with his attempted conversion, Ireland were 12-10 up at the midway point of the first half. The next ten minutes saw the home side take control with back-to-back tries as they piled pressure on Ireland’s defence. First, Josh Canham powered the ball over the try line at the end of a sustained Australian attack. Then, Max Jorgensen intercepted a pass just inside his own half and charged forward before setting up Ryan Lonergan to run in for Australia’s fourth try of the day. With both of those tries successfully converted by Carter Gordon, making up for his two earlier missed conversions, the Australian’s were 24-12 ahead going into the closing stages of the half. Just before the whistle went for half time, Ireland managed to narrow their deficit to their hosts thanks to a some quick passing which saw Jamison Gibson-Park burst through Australia’s defensive line and in to score a try. With Prendergast then stepping up to send the conversion attempt between the posts, the half time score was 24-19 to Australia. Moving into the second half, Ireland returned to the pitch determined to get back into the lead and they did so courtesy of a try from Hugo Keenan, converted by Prendergast. A game of many momentum switches continued when Australia scored the next try in the fifty-second minute. Some quick thinking from scrum half Tate McDermott caught out Ireland as he took a tap and go penalty immediately on the referee’s whistle to push himself and the ball beyond the try line. That was followed by Gordon kicking the conversion attempt through the posts to put Australia five points ahead of their visitors on the scoreboard. There was almost an immediate response from Ireland as they scored four minutes later but the try was disallowed after a TMO review. As the visitors continued to push forward, Australia held out well defensively and they still led as we entered the final five minutes of the encounter. The pressure from Ireland was relentless though and they gained a great opportunity to score in the seventy-sixth minute when they were awarded a penalty and Australia’s Lachlan Shaw was shown a yellow card. From the resulting penalty, Tom Clarkson powered over the try line to finally break Australia’s defensive resistance and level the score at 31-31. Next came a moment of huge pressure as Prendergast stepped up for a conversion which would almost certainly seal victory for his side. The Irish fly-half directed the ball between the posts to give the visitors a two-point advantage with just three minutes left to play in Sydney. Ultimately, that turned out to be the winning moment in a compelling match as Ireland began their Nations Championship campaign with a 33-31 victory against Australia. Looking ahead, both of these teams are in action in this competition next weekend as Australia host France, whilst Ireland will take on Japan.

BRAZIL VS NORWAY (FOOTBALL)

This weekend saw the round of sixteen begin at the World Cup as the road to the final intensified. On Sunday evening, Brazil faced Norway in New York with a spot in the quarter finals the reward for the winner. So far at the tournament, Brazil topped their group before edging past Japan with a stoppage time winner in the last thirty-two. As for Norway, they progressed from Group I as the runners-up with two wins and a defeat to their name. In the last round, they defeated Ivory Coast 2-1 thanks to a winning goal from Erling Haaland. Interestingly, this match-up would be a reunion for Haaland with Brazil’s Gabriel against whom he has enjoyed a fairly intense rivalry in recent battle’s between Manchester City and Arsenal. As the World Cup tie got underway, Norway thought they had an early lead when Patrick Berg smashed the ball past Alisson but the goal was disallowed for an offside in the build-up. In the tenth minute, Brazil had an appeal for a penalty when Matheus Cunha got to a loose ball ahead of the sliding challenge of Kristoffer Ajer before he was bought down by the Norway defender. After the referee initially gave a goal kick, he overturned his decision after a VAR review and awarded Brazil a penalty. Up stepped Bruno Guimaraes to take it but he was denied by a smart save from Norway goalkeeper Orjan Nyland. In the next phase of the match, Brazil enjoyed most of the possession however they struggled to create many clear-cut chances. In fact, the next player to go close to scoring was Norway captain Martin Odegaard whose shot went into the side netting at the end of a counter attacking move in the thirty-fifth minute. Five minutes later, Odegaard was involved in the other penalty area as he was caught in possession by Vinicius Junior who then beat a defender and forced Nyland into making a strong save at his near post. In stoppage time at the end of the first half, the ball fell kindly for Odegaard on the edge of the penalty area and his attempt was stopped well by Brazil goalkeeper Alisson. After a goalless first half, Brazil turned to Endrick on fifty-seven minutes in the hope he could provide a goal and he almost did so immediately when he was played through on goal by a lovely pass from Vinicius but his flick past Nyland narrowly drifted past the far post. The first goal of the game finally arrived in the seventy-ninth minute and it came from a familiar source as Andreas Schjelderup’s cross was headed into the net by Haaland. It was a trademark finish from the Norwegian striker who beat his favourite adversary Gabriel in the air before guiding his header beyond Alisson. With just ten minutes to go, the onus was now on Brazil to push forward for an equaliser but that left them open defensively. That openness was exploited when Schjelderup got forward and laid the ball off to Haaland just outside the penalty area who drilled a magnificent strike straight into the bottom corner of Alisson’s net to double Norway’s advantage. As we entered stoppage time at the end of the ninety minutes, there was still time for some more action as Brazil were handed a penalty when Leo Ostigard caught Casemiro as they challenged for the ball in the air. After Guimaraes miss earlier in the encounter, this time it was Neymar who stepped up to take the penalty and he made no mistake as he scored a consolation goal for Brazil. Despite a late surge from Brazil, they couldn’t prevent Norway clinching victory. It was a historic moment for Norway as their 2-1 win saw them reach the World Cup quarter finals for the first time ever. They will now face England in the last eight on Sunday.

BRITISH GRAND PRIX (FORMULA 1)

Formula 1 returned to one of its most recognisable circuits on Sunday as Silverstone hosted the ninth race of the season. In the last two years, this race has been won by a British driver on home soil with Lewis Hamilton taking victory in 2024, before Lando Norris triumphed twelve months ago. With Hamilton recently winning in Barcelona and fellow Brit George Russell in a very quick Mercedes, there was certainly a chance of that streak continuing. However, championship leader Kimi Antonelli had other ideas and was determined to get back to winning ways after two winless weekend’s. In addition to the usual schedule, Silverstone was playing host to one of F1’s six sprint races. That meant that the competitive session started as early as Friday evening when Hamilton claimed pole position for the sprint. Then, on Saturday afternoon, Antonelli won the sprint race from second on the grid, with Hamilton ending up in second and Norris finishing third. Later in the day the drivers were back on track for qualifying and this time Antonelli put together the fastest lap to clinch pole position. He would be joined on the front row of the grid for Sunday’s race by Charles Leclerc, ahead of Hamilton and Russell on row two. On race day, the Ferrari’s proved to be quicker off the line as both Leclerc and Hamilton got ahead of Antonelli on the run into turn one. Further back, Oscar Piastri dropped from eighth down to the back of the field after contact with Liam Lawson at the start damaged his front wing and forced him to make an early pit stop. As the race continued, we learnt that Hamilton had been handed a five-second time penalty for moving before the race start, but for now he remained in second place. On lap eleven though, he slipped to third as Antonelli made a neat move up the inside of Hamilton. Behind them, Max Verstappen made an overtake around the outside of Russell to go into fourth, although he then immediately relinquished that position by heading into the pits on lap eighteen. The next of the front runner’s to pit were Hamilton and Russell who both came in on lap twenty-four with Russell getting in front of his ex-teammate whilst Hamilton served his five-second penalty. Out in front, Leclerc was establishing a healthy lead and he made his first pit stop on lap twenty-six and re-emerged onto the track in second, just behind Antonelli who was yet to pit. The next phase of the race was highlighted by some great racing between Verstappen, Russell and Hamilton as they battled over third place. Unfortunately though that trio was broken up when Russell picked up a slow puncture and had to make a second pit stop. The Brit came back out onto the track in seventh, behind Norris and Isack Hadjar who were fighting for sixth. On lap thirty-five, Antonelli made his first pit stop from the lead and he came back on track in second, trailing Leclerc by seven seconds. Three laps later, Nico Hulkenberg was forced to stop out on track due to an issue with his Audi, creating a virtual safety car period, in which both Norris and Hadjar pitted which allowed Russell through and back into the top five. When racing resumed on lap thirty-nine, Leclerc was in the lead ahead of Antonelli, Hamilton, Verstappen and Russell. Next came a dramatic moment as Antonelli reported he had an issue and headed into the pits, however the issue remained even after he headed back on track, causing him to tumble down the leaderboard. It turned out the wheel shield on his front left tyre had detached and that was causing him difficulty when trying to turn the car. Having now identified the issue, Mercedes called in Antonelli to pit again so it could be fixed. When the Italian re-emerged onto the track he was now in tenth place and had picked up a five-second penalty for track limits to add further misery to his afternoon. As we closed in on the end of a frantic race, there was still more drama to come as Verstappen lost control of his Red Bull and spun into the gravel on lap forty-eight. That left him stuck and forced him to retire from the race, bringing out a safety car. With the safety car on track significantly reducing the time it takes to make a pit stop, a number of drivers including Leclerc and Hamilton opted to come into the pit lane, although Russell chose to stay out on track and sneaked in front of Hamilton whilst he was in the pits. Unfortunately, the race ended behind the safety car as we run out of laps before race control deemed it safe enough to go racing again. That meant that as the chequered flag was waved, Leclerc sealed his first race win since the 2024 US Grand Prix. It was a stunning drive from Leclerc who almost certainly would’ve won the race anyway regardless of whether the safety car had come out or not. He picked up his first triumph at Silverstone and became the fourth man to stand on the top step of the podium this season. Behind him came Russell who finished in a podium position for the first time at his home race. Next across the line and claiming the final spot on the podium was Hamilton as he secured a fifteenth podium finish at Silverstone. Rounding out the points finisher’s on a chaotic afternoon were Norris, Hadjar, Lawson, Arvid Lindblad, Gabriel Bortoleto, Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly. Despite finishing in ninth, Antonelli’s five-second penalty saw him slip to sixteenth and he didn’t gain any points. Next up, Formula 1 heads to Belgium in two weeks time for round ten of the season, where Antonelli will be looking to bounce back, whilst Ferrari will hope to continue their recent success.