Never meet your heroes. Casper Ruud was setting himself up for a fall when he described Rafael Nadal as "my idol for all my life" heading into Sunday's French Open final, and when that fall arrived it was spectacular.

Ruud versus Nadal on Court Philippe-Chatrier was a classic mismatch on paper, and on clay.

The fanboy stood no chance, swept away 6-3 6-3 6-0 as Nadal landed Roland Garros title number 14, an absurd feat of sporting staying power, becoming the oldest men's singles champion at the Paris grand slam, moving to 22 majors, two clear of Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.

If Ruud needs a little consolation, the great Federer, at the peak of his powers, only took four games off Nadal in the 2008 final.

This is not the 2008 Nadal though. This is Nadal at 36 years and two days old, a player who needed a doctor at his side during the past fortnight to allow him to step on court.

Nadal has a foot problem that is said to be incurable, but thankfully it is treatable.

"We played with no feeling on the foot," Nadal told Eurosport. "We played with an injection on the nerve so that the foot was asleep, so that's why I was able to play."

While the foot was sleeping, the rest of Nadal's body was picking up the slack.

Ruud was six years old in 2005 when Nadal won his first French Open, and 17 years later he had the best view in Court Philippe-Chatrier of the Spaniard again in full flow.

This was his first match against Nadal, although they have often practiced together at the Spaniard's academy in Mallorca, where Ruud has done much of his learning. Here was another lesson.

Nadal loves a mid-afternoon match with the roof open, and a warm day in the French capital only enhanced his sense that the place was feeling like home.

He was on top without being masterful in the opening set, simply doing enough against the first Norwegian man to reach a slam final.

Trumpets blared Y Viva Espana when he wrapped that one up, then delivered a fanfare as Nadal strolled back onto court for the start of the second set.

He receives the first-class treatment in Paris, with the king of Spain, Felipe VI, on hand to witness the king of clay scale his latest career height.

There was perhaps brief concern for his royal highness when Ruud broke Nadal's serve early in the second set to eke out a 3-1 lead, but he needn't have worried.

Ruud won a 19-shot rally to earn three break points, and that was followed by a double fault from the favourite.

Nadal later called that game "a disaster", but he should probably let it go.

Armed with a 3-1 lead in that second set, it was imperative that Ruud should build on that.

He didn't win another game.

When Nadal swatted away a forehand to bring up a break point in the second game of the third set, he had Ruud right where he wanted him, and a vicious backhand out of the Norwegian's reach secured a seventh successive game.

Number eight followed, and then a ninth as the clean winners flowed from Nadal's racket. The winners and the games kept coming.

The contest had moved into mercy-killing territory. Make it quick Rafa, as painless as possible, don't drag it out.

When he fizzed a backhand down the line on match point, way out of Ruud's reach, it was all over. Two hours and 18 minutes was all it took. With a little less of his familiar between-points faffing, Nadal might have had it done inside two hours.

He lifted the Coupe des Mousquetaires with the gusto of a man who had never held it before, and that in itself spoke volumes for this achievement.

Nadal's Roland Garros record now shows 112 wins and just three defeats, and this was a 63rd title on clay – a 92nd title overall. What a career.

Andres Gimeno, also from Spain, was 34 years, 10 months and one day old when he captured the 1972 French Open title, and until Sunday he was the oldest men's champion at this event.

Nadal spoke afterwards of his determination to keep playing, keep "fighting". He wants to wring every last ounce of strength from a body that is letting him know that retirement cannot be far away, and he is getting incredible bang for his buck just now.

Which is why we can now look at Wimbledon, and pose the question: can he do this again on grass?

And if at this point you are thinking, 'surely not', just remember what he has achieved in Melbourne and now in Paris this year, and ask yourself instead: why ever not?

Wales will appear at the World Cup for the first time in 64 years after Andriy Yarmolenko's own goal ensured a 1-0 qualifying play-off final win over Ukraine.

Ukraine marked their first competitive match back after Russia's invasion with a 3-1 play-off semi-final win over Scotland on Wednesday to tee up the winner-takes-all decider in Cardiff.

Oleksandr Petrakov's visitors controlled first-half proceedings but were made to pay when Gareth Bale, with the help of Yarmolenko's head, struck first after 34 minutes.

Wales were largely indebted to the heroics of Wayne Hennessey as Rob Page's team held on to book their spot in Qatar alongside England, United States and Iran in World Cup Group B.

A long-range Viktor Tsygankov drive forced an early save from Hennessey, who tipped over a deflected cross from the Ukraine winger from the resulting corner.

Oleksandr Petrakov's visitors, buoyed on by a vociferous away crowd, continued with their dominance as another smart Hennessey stop denied Roman Yaremchuk as he threatened with a drilled effort.

Hennessey kept out Oleksandr Zinchenko's curler and the Wales goalkeeper's plethora of first-half saves paid dividends, with Yarmolenko heading Bale's goal-bound free-kick past Georgi Bushchan.

Aaron Ramsey angled a glorious chance from Kieffer Moore's cutback wide, while Hennessey kicked away Tsygankov's close-range prod in an entertaining second-half opening.

Ruslan Malinovskiy fired a deflected strike wide as Ukraine searched for an equaliser, with Brennan Johnson hitting the post and Bushchan denying Bale at the other end during a frenetic finish.

Hennessey was again the hero as he produced a fantastic stop against Artem Dovbyk in the closing stages to send Wales to the World Cup.

Kalle Samooja carded a magnificent final round of 64 to claim his maiden DP World Tour title in the European Open at Green Eagle in Winsen.

The Finn saw off Dutchman Wil Besseling by two strokes after posting an astonishing eight under on Sunday to seize victory from behind.

The 34-year-old had looked to be comfortably out of the running at the end of the third day, after a score of 74 left him two over following par scores on Thursday and Friday.

But Samooja was able to take advantage of a frustrating day for previous leader Victor Perez, who came back down to earth after a sublime hole-in-one on Saturday.

Having made par across the first five holes, a run of five birdies in the next seven helped haul the Samooja into contention as his rivals faded.

Back-to-back birdies on the 16th and 17th helped seal the deal, and Samooja was left to celebrate his first tour triumph after an unlikely surge.

Rafael Nadal claimed the 14th French Open title of his astonishing career and vowed he would "keep fighting" to earn even more success.

There had been speculation during this Roland Garros fortnight that Nadal could retire if he landed the trophy, a record-extending 22nd men's singles grand slam.

Yet the 36-year-old, who has won two majors this year despite being hampered by a long-bothersome foot problem, is determined to play on until his body refuses.

He thrashed Casper Ruud 6-3 6-3 6-0, reigning in Paris once again, some 17 years after his first triumph. Watched by the king of Spain, Felipe VI, Nadal was again sensational on the red clay, becoming the oldest champion.

"For me personally, it is very difficult to describe the feelings that I have," Nadal said.

"I for sure never believed I'd be here at 36 being competitive again, playing in the most important court of my career once again. It means a lot of energy to try to keep going."

Nadal told the crowd: "It's unbelievable to play here with your support. I don't know what can happen in the future, but I'm going to keep fighting to try to keep going."

Addressing Ruud, Norway's first men's grand slam singles finalist, Nadal said: "I want to congratulate you for an amazing career you are having, and this two weeks is a very important step forward, so I am very, very happy for you and for all your family. I'm very happy for you and wish you all the very best for the future."

Nadal praised his family and support team for giving him strength when times have been tough. He looked in intense pain recently in Rome, but Nadal has come back to take his career to new heights.

"It's completely amazing the things that are happening this year," said Nadal, who won the Australian Open in January. "Without you, nothing of this will be possible without any doubt.

"Especially in the very tough moments that we went through in terms of injuries. If I don't have a great support from the team – family, everybody that has been next to me – nothing of this would be possible because I would be retired much before, so many, many thanks for everything."

As Nadal considers whether he could push for a calendar grand slam by targeting Wimbledon and the US Open, Ruud will reflect on a tough first grand slam final experience.

Ruud idolised Nadal from a young age and in recent years has trained at the Spaniard's Mallorca academy.

Runner-up Ruud said: "The first thing and the most important thing is to congratulate Rafa. It's your 14th time here, a 22nd all-around in grand slams. 

"We all know what a champion you are, and today I got to feel how it is to play you in a final, and it's not easy, and I'm not the first victim. I know there have been many before."

At that point, the crowd bellowed "Ruuuuudddd", the shout that sounds like a boo but is wholly affectionate. They have taken Ruud to their hearts, and once Nadal retires he may well have his own glory days on the Paris clay.

"To you, Rafa, your team, your family, you've taken me into your academy with open arms," Ruud added. "We all hope you will continue for some more time."

Aleix Espargaro has apologised to his team after his costly blunder at the Catalan Grand Prix handed Fabio Quartararo a further advantage in the MotoGP championship.

Quartararo was cruising to first place on Sunday as title rival Espargaro seemed set to finish second in Barcelona.

But Espargaro inexplicably started waving to the crowd as he began the final lap, incorrectly believing the race had finished and he had secured second on the podium.

That ended a four-podium race streak for Espargaro, who slipped to fifth, and he sits 22 points behind leader Quartararo in the standings.

The Aprilia rider was quick to apologise for his mistake after the race as he explained he had misread the circuit's timing tower when keeping an eye on the lap count.

"I'm sorry. That's the only thing that I can say, sorry to my team. It's completely my fault," Espargaro told reporters.

"My people [with the pit board] were the first ones [out of the last corner], so I had no time to watch the lap. Some laps I had no time to look at the laps [remaining] and the gap with [Jorge] Martin.

"I was pushing to the limit so I just watched the gap with Martin, +0.6, then I watched the tower and I saw 'L1'. So I did one lap and then I didn't remember that here in Barcelona the last lap is 'zero' not 'one'. And I closed the gas on the straight.

"So I'm very sorry for my team because I didn't have the speed of Fabio to win. But if I want to beat him in the championship I cannot do these mistakes. Today, I lost nine points, so I'm very sorry."

Espargaro also believes he could have maintained pace with Quartararo but had been too worried about concerns surrounding his tyre management.

"Yesterday between Michelin and my team, everybody put a lot of worry into my [mind] by saying that I use a lot of tyres, that I had to be gentle on the first laps and I was too gentle sincerely," Espargaro said.

"Because at the end of the race, when I overtook Martin, I had enough tyre to put 41.5s and go away.

"I think Fabio was not faster than me, but he was smarter, was able to push at the beginning, and then it's impossible to recover two, two-and-a-half seconds to Fabio.

"I think I could have gone with him at the beginning. But anyway, it's too late."

Joe Root admitted the England Test captaincy had started to negatively impact his personal life after starring in his first international without being skipper against New Zealand.

Root stepped down as red-ball skipper following series defeat to West Indies, leaving England with just one win in their last 17 Tests.

Ben Stokes was subsequently appointed to lead his country in the longest format, with New Zealand great Brendon McCullum charged with transforming England's fortunes in the five-day game.

The new leadership pair's country of birth posed England's first task of the new era, and it was the familiar face of Root who delivered at the crucial time in the first Test.

Root became only the second England batter to score 10,000 runs in the longest format with an unbeaten 115, guiding Stokes' side to chase 277 and take a 1-0 series lead in the three-match series.

Yorkshireman Root is also the 14th player to reach that milestone and achieved the feat at exactly the same age – 31 years and 157 days – as his former team-mate and captain Alastair Cook.

Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, much of Root's focus was on the impact of not having to stress about the captaincy in his first Test without skippering duties.

"It was tough to step down as captain but I'd thrown everything at it, every bit of myself into it and it had started to have an unhealthy effect on the rest of my life," he said.

"I couldn't leave it in the car or at the cricket ground. It wasn't fair on myself or my family and I want to enjoy my cricket. It's a role that needs so much energy and you can see that within Ben."

The century was also Root's first in the fourth innings of a Test match, and he was delighted to deliver for both England and Stokes.

"I had thrown everything at it [captaincy] and I was determined to help turn this team around. But I realised over that time at home that it would have to be in a different way," he told reporters.

"I'm very excited to do that now, to do everything I can to help Ben turn this team around and make it the force it should and can be.

"I'll do anything I can to help England win Test matches and be a side people enjoy watching and can be proud of.

"It got to the stage where it was time for someone else to lead. I threw absolutely everything at the role. I'm proud of the way that I tried to do that."

Meanwhile, former Australia Test captain Mark Taylor believes Root can surpass India legend Sachin Tendulkar's record 15,921 runs in red-ball internationals.

"Root has minimum five years left in him, so I think Tendulkar's record is very achievable," Taylor told Sky Sports.

"He is batting as well as I have ever seen him bat over the last 18 months to two years.

"He is in the prime of his career, so there is 15,000 runs-plus for him if he stays healthy."

Kane Williamson says New Zealand will ensure they move forward quickly and respond to their five-wicket loss to England in the first Test at Lord's.

The Black Caps were powerless to avoid defeat after their hosts completed the third-highest fourth-innings run chase at Lord's thanks to a magnificent Joe Root knock.

The former England captain, in his first game since handing the armband on to Ben Stokes, scored 115 not out and became the 14th player to break the 10,000 Test run barrier.

Speaking afterwards, Williamson said his side would learn lessons from their loss and mount a firm response, with the second Test starting next Friday at Trent Bridge.

"The game ebbed and flowed the whole time," he told Sky Sports. 

"I thought both teams fought hard, and we saw how difficult it was and how much it changed throughout.

"But [we] take nothing away from the quality of the English performance. It’s about moving on quickly and taking those learnings, moving into the next Test.

"We'll reflect on this and look forward to the next one."

On Root, Williamson added: "[It's] an incredible innings from an amazing player. It's truly an unbelievable achievement.

"You recognise the quality of the player and his longevity as a world-class player."

Tottenham forward Steven Bergwijn has confirmed his desire to find a new club, saying: "I want to leave Spurs now, that's for sure."

The Netherlands international has been linked with a move away from the Premier League side since the January transfer window, having struggled for game time since the arrival of Antonio Conte as head coach in November.

Bergwijn has started just one league game under the Italian, making a further 19 appearances from the bench, scoring three goals.

His most notable contribution during the season came when he was introduced in the 79th minute away at Leicester City with his team 2-1 down, before scoring twice in stoppage time to turn the game around.

The 24-year-old joined Spurs in January 2020 from PSV Eindhoven for a reported fee of £27million (€31.5m), and has made 83 appearances for the club in all competitions (38 starts), scoring eight goals.

Bergwijn, who scored for his country in Friday's 4-1 win at Belgium in the Nations League, told Dutch outlet AD he wants "clarity" on his future soon.

"I'm at Oranje now and then we'll have a look," he said. "It would be nice if there was clarity soon. I just have to go play.

"But I want to leave Spurs now, that's for sure."

Bergwijn also said he would be happy to join a team not competing in the Champions League, and revealed he was denied the opportunity to leave the north London club in January.

"That's not even top priority [playing in the Champions League]. Though it would be nice. What's important is that I'm going to play," he said.

"I wasn't allowed to leave Spurs in the winter and then I didn't have any problems. The last few months I was hardly looked after there. Now I want to play somewhere every week."

Bergwijn has been strongly linked with a move to Ajax, and admitted he could move back to his home country, especially with the World Cup looming at the end of the year.

"That could be, yes," he said when asked about the possibility. "It's about my situation now, that has to be different."

Joe Root has become just the 14th player in Test match history to break the 10,000 run barrier after his unbeaten century steered England to victory against New Zealand.

The former captain, in his first game since stepping back from the role, hit 115 not out to give new skipper Ben Stokes a five-wicket win over the Black Caps at Lord's on Sunday.

In the process, the Yorkshire batsman joined Sir Alastair Cook as only the second England player to bring up the milestone mark.

In a remarkable coincidence, both Root and Cook reached the 10,000 figure at the exact same age - 31 years and 157 days.

They are not the only impressive numbers posted by the former in his record-breaking day at the crease, however...

1987 - the year the first player posted 10,000 runs in Test cricket, when Sunil Gavaskar achieved the figure for India.

218 - the number of innings it has taken Root to join the 10,000 run club in Test cricket.

118 - the number of matches it has taken Root to achieve it.

85 - the number of runs Root needs to move to 13th in the all-time Test runs rankings, currently trailing Pakistan's Younis Khan (10,099).

26 - the number of Test centuries scored by Root, a figure exceeded only for England by Cook, with 33.

2 - the number of other players to break the 10,000 mark while scoring a ton - Australia's Steve Waugh (Jan 2003) and India's Rahul Dravid (Mar 2008).

1 - this is the first Test century Root has scored in the final innings of a match, and therefore also his highest score in the same period of play.

Fabio Quartararo extended his MotoGP championship lead with victory in Sunday's Catalan Grand Prix as title rival Aleix Espargaro made a staggering and costly mistake.

Quartararo was a comfortable winner, and Espargaro looked nailed on for second place as he began the final lap, but the Spaniard thought the race was over and began waving to the crowd in Barcelona.

He was celebrating what he believed to be a podium finish, having started on pole position, but by slowing down he lost momentum and could not recover once he realised his clanger, trailing home in fifth.

Espargaro would have had good cause to celebrate second place, given he suffered abandonments in six of his previous seven appearances in this race, finishing only once when he was 12th in 2020.

The devastated Espargaro was later seen with his head in his hands by the side of the track and in the Aprilia garage. Nine points had slipped away, potentially crucial come the end of the season, with Quartararo boosting his championship lead to 22 points.

Quartararo and Espargaro were first and second at halfway, with a gap of around four seconds between the pair.

Espargaro slipped a place as Jorge Martin jumped to second, but the Aprilia man soon edged back ahead of the Pramac rider.

That looked set to be the 1-2-3 until Esparagaro's miscalculation allowed Martin to snatch second place, with Johann Zarco finishing third and Joan Mir fourth.

There had also been early drama, with Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), winner of two of the last three races this season, crashing out on the first corner along with Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda) and Alex Rins (Suzuki Ecstar) after a shunt.

Enea Bastianini (Gresini), third in the championship, a place ahead of Bagnaia, also tumbled out of the race, with Quartararo's grip on first place tightening even before Espargaro's hapless error.

TOP 10

1. Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha)
2. Jorge Martin (Pramac Racing) +6.473 seconds
3. Johann Zarco (Pramac Racing) +8.385s
4. Joan Mir (Suzuki Ecstar) +11.481s
5. Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing) +14.395
6. Luca Marini (Mooney VR46) +15.430
7. Maverick Vinales (Aprilia Racing) +15.975
8. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM) +21.436
9. Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM) +26.800
10. Alex Marquez (LCR Honda) +30.460

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

Riders
1. Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha) 147
2. Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing) 125
3. Enea Bastianini (Gresini Racing) 94
4. Johann Zarco (Pramac Racing) 91
5. Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) 81

Teams
1. Aprilia Racing 171
2. Monster Energy Yamaha 169
3. Ducati Lenovo 146
4. Pramac Racing 142
5. Suzuki Ecstar 138