Novak Djokovic believes a fight with a fan gave him the motivation to defeat Denis Kudla in their US Open match.

The Serb has been been hampered by a niggling shoulder injury which forced him to arrive late for his pre-match practice session and has reduced his chances of claiming his fourth title at Flushing Meadows.

After beginning his warm-up, the world No.1 appeared to become embroiled in a heated discussion with a match-goer.

Djokovic eventually breezed through the encounter, winning 6-3 6-4 6-2 to set-up a last 16 clash with Stan Wawrinka.

Have a look at the footage below…

“Just had a little chat,’ said  Djokovic in his post match press conference when asked about the incident.

“To have a drink,’ he added. “I liked the guy. I’m going to buy him a drink. “We’ll keep it between us. But he definitely helped me. He doesn’t even know, but he did help me.”

Pressed on what the fan said to him, Djokovic added: ‘Well, if you have the video, you’ll hear I guess. “As I said, I’m not going to talk about it. I think he did me a favor. Even maybe he didn’t want to do me a favor, he did me a favor, big favour.”

Source: TalkSport.com Tennis

Lewis Hamilton suffered a heavy crash in final practice for the Belgian Grand Prix.

The defending Formula 1 world champion and current championship leader lost control of his Mercedes at high speed before slamming head-on into the barriers.

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“I am in the wall, guys,” said Hamilton over the team radio. “Sorry.”

The British star emerged from the crash unscathed, but suffered extensive damage to the front of his battered car.

Mercedes mechanics will now face a race against time to get his car ready for qualifying, which begins at 2pm BST on Saturday, but the German team said they are hopeful everything will be fixed in time for Hamilton to compete.

A Mercedes spokesman said: “We will be replacing both front corners [suspension and wheel assemblies], nose, barge boards and floor.

“Barring nasty surprises, we can complete all of the work in time.”

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The main fear for Mercedes is possible damage to the gear box, as replacing it before the race would incur a five-place grid penalty.

Reacting to Hamilton’s crash, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff added: “Hopefully it’s not the engine or the gear box, and it doesn’t look too bad at the moment.

“I think if I would run around and panic like a headless chicken it wouldn’t be good for the guys fixing the car so we need to be calm.”

In Hamilton’s absence, Ferrari continued their domination of the weekend in Spa-Francorchamps, with Charles Leclerc fastest.

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The impressive 23-year-old man from Monaco finished nearly half-a-second clear of his team-mate Sebastian Vettel, while Valtteri Bottas was third for Mercedes, 0.497 seconds off the pace.

Ferrari have a golden opportunity for claim their first race win this year, with their one-two finish to practise making them favourites for pole position.

Source: TalkSport.com Motorsport

Formula 1 have released a record breaking 22-race schedule for the 2020 season where Vietnam and the Netherlands will make their debut.

The schedule will be submitted for approval at the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) World Motor Sport Council meeting on October 4.

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The F1’s 70th anniversary season starts in Melbourne, Australia on March 15 and ends in Abu Dhabi on November 29, with

Vietnam will become the 34th country to host a Grand Prix when Lewis Hamilton and co. race in Hanoi on April 5.

The Zandvoort circuit in has also been added to the schedule, which will see 21-year-old Max Verstappen race in his homeland.

However, Germany has been left off the calendar for failing to come to a financial agreement with F1 owners Liberty Media, which means Sebastian Vettel will be without a home race.

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Meanwhile, the Italy Grand Prix is subject to a contract signature.

The annual British Grand Prix will take place at Silverstone on July 19 after its contract was extended and also means there will be no clash with the Wimbledon men’s final or the Euro 2020 final at Wembley.

Hamilton is the bookmakers’ favourite to retain his F1 crown, while Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel follow closely behind.

A full list of the provincial 2020 F1 calendar is below…

Source: TalkSport.com Motorsport

Serena Williams triumphed over Maria Sharapova in a US Open first-round contest as one-sided as their 15-year rivalry.

Williams, the 23-time grand slam champion, has now won 20 of their 22 meetings following a thumping 6-1 6-1 victory.

It was the pair’s first encounter since January 2016, and was all the more eagerly-anticipated after Williams pulled out of a scheduled meeting at last year’s French Open through injury.

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Sharapova is nowhere near the player who beat Williams in the 2004 Wimbledon final – and also won their next match the same year – but despite the scoreline she did not play at all badly.

The Russian, 32, got a healthy 73 per cent of her first serves in. One fierce cross-court winner on the run even had Williams applauding.

But Sharapova could barely lay a glove on Williams, who turns 38 this month and remains tantalisingly within touching distance of Margaret Court’s record of 24 major titles.

Victory was wrapped up when a Sharapova return floated long after only 59 minutes.

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Elsewhere, Johanna Konta had some A-list backing as she battled into round two.

Avengers star Tom Hiddleston, currently starring in Betrayal on Broadway, was in the British number one’s box following a chance meeting in New York.

And after two hours the end game arrived for Russian Daria Kasatkina as Konta progressed 6-1 4-6 6-2.

Konta is already Britain’s sole representative in the women’s singles after Harriet Dart bowed out.

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Londoner Dart, who came through three rounds of qualifying to reach the main draw for the first time, lost 6-3 6-1 to Romanian Ana Bogdan.

Dan Evans became the first British male through after a four-set win over Adrian Mannarino of France.

The British number two, who reached the third round on his last visit to Flushing Meadows three years ago, triumphed 6-4 6-3 2-6 6-3 in a shade over three hours.

Cameron Norrie followed Evans onto Court 10 but could not follow his fellow Brit into round two.

The 24-year-old saved two match points before taking French qualifier Gregoire Barrere into a fifth set, and then twice served for the match.

But Barrere forced a tie-break and Norrie bowed out after a gruelling four-hour marathon, 7-6 (4) 6-4 4-6 6-7 (5) 7-6 (2).

Source: TalkSport.com Tennis

Jamie Chadwick has already written herself into the history books twice at the tender age of 21.

Aged 15, the Bath-born racing driver was the first woman, as well as the youngest person ever, to win the British GT Championship.

She reinforced her status as one of motorsport’s rising stars and also made history for a second time in her fledgling career earlier this month when she became the first ever person to win the inaugural W Series – the first all-female single seater series – at Brands Hatch.

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But for Chadwick, there’s a quiet determination to go one step further, which, in the process, would not just make her a history-maker for a third time should she pull it off, but a role model for women across the world.

Her target now is to become the first female to compete in Formula One in over 40 years and you sense it may just be a matter of time before that happens, given her recent W Series glory as well as her relationship with Williams, for whom she is a development driver.

However, Chadwick doesn’t want to make it on to the F1 grid to be purely a gimmick. Instead, all she wants is equality and to be handed a drive in motorsport’s most renowned series because of her talent.

Speaking exclusively to talkSPORT, she said: “It [making it to F1] would be unbelievable. It’s the ultimate goal. It’s every young driver’s dream.

“That dream becomes a little bit more of a closer reality with the relationship I have with Williams. I really want to achieve it for myself. I really want to be there on merit and because I deserve to be and fingers crossed that happens soon.

“[Working with Williams] has been unbelievable for me. Getting that kind of experience with an F1 team has been awesome. For it to be Williams, a British team who have so much history, has been extra special and I’ve learnt a lot from them so far.

“Now I’ve done the job that I needed to this year by securing the W Series Championship, I’m hoping that I can go to them with a bit more of an argument to do some more stuff for them next year.”

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F1 has a reputation for being a male dominated sport and you have to look back to Italian Lella Lombardi in 1976 to find the last women to compete in the worldwide series.

The sport’s former chief executive, Bernie Ecclestone, was widely criticised back in 2016 when he claimed women were physically unable to drive an F1 car and that a female driver ‘would not be taken seriously’ should they be handed a drive.

However, the Championship is very much in a new era under the ownership of Liberty Media and Chadwick believes there’s a real desire from within for that 43-year wait to come to an end.

“The sport’s obviously heavily male dominated but in my view, I don’t think there’s a reason for that,” she explained.

“I think the sport is desperate to see a female succeed. The sport does want a female racing driver but they’ve got to be there on merit.

“Some of the most influential people in motorsport are women. For example, my team boss at Williams is Claire Williams.

“We’re starting to see more and more. It’s a numbers game and we just need more women to rise to the top in all degrees of the sport and hopefully, that will end this male dominance that we’ve got.”

Despite her achievements, a career in motorsport never really crossed the 21-year-old’s mind until she was a teenager, though.

A talented skier and hockey player growing up, Chadwick admits she fell into racing by ‘accident.’

Her family didn’t have any background in the industry and it was only when her brother took up Go-Karting that she decided to put on a crash helmet for the first time.

“I had my first go and fell in love with it quite quickly,” she says. “One thing led to another and I progressed into car racing at 14. It’s been a whirlwind ever since. As soon as I took my hand in motorsport, I realised that was the one I wanted to pursue more than other sports.”

Not only has it been a whirlwind few years for Chadwick, but it’s been a crazy few days for the 21-year-old as well.

Her feet have barely touched the ground since she sealed the W Series title last week, bagging £400,000 in prize money in the process.

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The Bath racer had been on the podium in each of the previous five rounds, winning twice in Germany and Italy respectively, meaning she took a 13-point lead into the final race at Brands Hatch.

However, the finale didn’t quite go to plan for the Brit, as despite qualifying on pole, she ended up crossing the chequered flag in fourth at her home race.

A third-place finish for her nearest rival Beitkse Visser wasn’t enough to close the gap though, meaning Chadwick became the first ever W Series champion since its inception.

An ever perfectionist, Chadwick admitted she would have liked to have secured the Championship in better circumstances, but the 21-year-old was quick to say that she’ll remember the celebrations for the rest of her life.

“I’ve got a whirlwind of emotions and it hasn’t quite sunk in yet,” she explained.

“Honestly, I couldn’t be happier and it’s what we’ve worked so hard for all year. To finally have that title and accolade official is a dream come true.

“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t the goal to go out from the off to win the title. I didn’t realise how tough it was going to be. All year, it might have looked like we had control over it at times, but behind the scenes it wasn’t that easy.”

On whether she could enjoy any of the race, she added: “I think the way I described it after the race was the worst 30 minutes of my life followed by the best 30 minutes of my life.

“I did enjoy bits of the race. I mean it wasn’t the race I wanted and it was stressful and tricky.

“Ultimately, when that chequered flag fell, there was a little bit of mixed emotions as the race wasn’t great, but the feeling of just winning the Championship was unbelievable. To celebrate with my family, my friends and the home crowd was unbelievable.”

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A well-deserved break is now on the cards as she tries to come to terms with her achievements this season.

While competing in F1 is the ultimate ambition, Chadwick hasn’t ruled out a second campaign in the W Series, although she is also open to the idea of branching out into other competitions as well, much like her idol Fernando Alonso.

“I’m open to a lot of things at the moment,” she explained.

“Motorsport is a fantastic place for a young driver to be at the moment. I’m really lucky that I’ve also got a relationship with Aston Martin and they’ve got a really cool hyper car project coming to Le Mans next year. That’s something I’d really love to get involved with.

“Formula E is exciting. There’s a lot to be interested at the moment and there’s DTM obviously, too.

“Formula One is the ultimate goal but there’s a lot more to be excited about as a young driver.”

Source: TalkSport.com Motorsport

Andy Murray’s dabble with doubles ended in defeat as the two-time Wimbledon champion was beaten by brother Jamie in the quarter-finals of the Cincinnati Masters.

The siblings were facing each other for only the second time in their professional careers, and Andy and Feliciano Lopez went down 6-7 (5) 7-5 10-4 to Jamie and fellow Briton Neal Skupski.

“It was tough, not the most enjoyable match. The atmosphere kind of felt a bit flat on the court which I think is in some ways normal in those sorts of matches,” Andy Murray told reporters.

“But it was fine, and I’m happy Jamie got through. You want to go out there and compete and play as well as you can, but you’re not getting the same enjoyment out of serving an ace or hitting a great return as you might be in other matches.

“Obviously we tried to do our best but it wasn’t enough today.”
The defeat all but spells the end of Andy Murray’s sojourn into doubles on the day he announced he would not play the men’s or mixed events at the US Open later this month.

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Having taken up doubles to feel his way back into top-level tennis following career-saving hip surgery, the 32-year-old Scot won the Queen’s Club title with Lopez and enjoyed a run to the last 16 at Wimbledon in the mixed doubles with Serena Williams.

The former world number one will now concentrate on resuming his singles career at next week’s ATP event in Winston-Salem, after losing on his return to singles 6-4 6-4 to Richard Gasquet in Cincinnati on Monday.

Just a couple of weeks after playing together in the doubles at the Citi Open, the Murray brothers faced off for the first time since their only previous meeting, in Montreal in 2015, where Jamie and John Peers beat Andy and Leander Paes.

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Skupski, possibly feeling some pressure playing in such vaunted company, dropped his opening service game with a double fault to give Andy Murray and Lopez an early advantage.

But then Andy Murray’s serve was broken for 4-4, with Lopez enduring a horror show as he dumped two simple volleys into the net and sent an overhead long.

Lopez got his act together in the tie-break and a Skupski volley floated wide to hand the Queen’s champions the first set.

Some scintillating rallies enthralled an increasingly full Grandstand Court as the second set went with serve until, at 5-5, Lopez double-faulted on deciding point and Skupski served out to level the match.

In the match tie-break Lopez, who appeared to have tweaked a muscle in his serving arm, double-faulted twice to gift Jamie Murray and Skupski five match points.

Defeat was confirmed when Andy Murray netted a forehand as his brief dalliance with doubles came to an end.

Source: TalkSport.com Tennis

Andy Murray has confirmed he will not play singles at this year’s US Open.

There were suggestions the three-time Grand Slam winner would play at Flushing Meadows following his return to singles action in Cincinnati.

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However, the Briton revealed after his straight sets defeat to Richard Gasquet that he will not take part at the final major of 2019 as he’s not ready play five-set matches.

Instead, Murray intends to play in both the doubles and mixed doubles, just as he did at Wimbledon last month.

He made his singles return after a seven-month absence as the former world number one shook off a little ring rust against the Frenchman.

The 32-year-old Briton’s first-round showdown against Gasquet at the Western and Southern Open resulted in a 6-4 6-4 reverse, but the outcome was only part of the story, with Murray attempting to revive his career after hip surgery.

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Now pain-free and having returned to competitive action in doubles earlier this year, the Scot started slowly as he struggled to find a first serve and had to contend with Gasquet’s determination to test his mobility at every opportunity.

In the event, Murray lost the match but showed flashes of his best form as he warmed to his task.

The twice Wimbledon and Olympic champion, who feared in January that his career could be over, surrendered his service in the opening game and came within a point of a 3-0 deficit before rallying to lead 3-2.

However, Gasquet tested him to the full, including with a series of drop shots, before taking the first set 6-4.

The second set started in much the same fashion – the Frenchman establishing a 2-0 lead – but Murray repeatedly threatened to break while holding his own service with increasing confidence, before eventually succumbing 6-4 once again.

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Source: TalkSport.com Tennis

Lewis Hamilton won the Hungarian Grand Prix when he passed Max Verstappen with three laps to go.

The defending world champion extended his lead over Valtteri Bottas at the top of the standings to 61 points as the drivers head into the summer break.

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Hamilton was within one second of Verstappen when he was called in for a second pit stop – Mercedes hoping that a switch to fresh tyres would provide the British star with a chance to usurp the Belgium driver.

The strategy move by Formula 1‘s all-conquering team proved inspired.

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Hamilton left the pit lane 21 seconds behind Verstappen with 21 laps remaining, the Briton lighting up the time sheets before catching the back of the Red Bull.

The 33-year-old then made the move on lap 67 to take the win.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel finished third ahead of his team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Mick Schumacher claimed the first victory of his Formula Two career at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday.

Schumacher, the son of seven-time world champion Michael, held off Japan’s Nobuharu Matsushita in a nail-biting finale.

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It marked the maiden triumph of Schumacher’s career in Formula One’s feeder championship.

The 20-year-old started from pole in the reverse-grid race, having finished eighth in Saturday’s feature event. He led all 28 laps, crossing the line 1.4 seconds clear.

Schumacher’s father won four times at the Hungaroring venue, the last back in 2004, during a career which yielded a record 91 F1 victories.

The German’s long-standing manager Sabine Kehm, who is guiding Mick’s career, joined the celebrations on the pit wall.

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Max Verstappen held off the challenge from Mercedes pair Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas to secure the first pole position of his career for Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

Just six days after his sublime drive to victory in the rain at Hockenheim, Verstappen thrilled his travelling orange army once more with another imperious display.

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The 21-year-old lit up the time sheets with a Hungaroring track record, finishing just 0.016 seconds ahead of Bottas with reigning Formula 1 champion Hamilton in third, two tenths back.

Verstappen crossed the line first, his lap greeted with huge cheers from the main grandstand, and despite late improvements by both Bottas and Hamilton, the Mercedes duo were unable to usurp the flying Dutchman.

The Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel line up fourth and fifth with Verstappen’s team-mate Pierre Gasly sixth.

Leclerc hit the wall in Q1 after losing control of his Ferrari at the final corner. But swift repairs by his team allowed the Monegasque to carry on.

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“The car has felt good all weekend and it was flying in qualifying,” said Verstappen, moments after capturing pole.

“I am very happy about today. There is still a race to do and that is the most important thing.”

Hamilton, who holds a 63-point lead over Verstappen in the standings, said: “We always target first, but it got away from me.