Jan Choinski has targeted a Wimbledon return next year but wants to get there in his own right.

German-born Choinski, the son of an English ballet dancer, was handed a debut wild card and rewarded tournament organisers with an impressive first-round win against world number 56 Dusan Lajovic.

But his fun ended on Thursday when his former doubles partner Hubert Hurkacz won a tight match 6-4 6-4 7-6 (3) on Court 18.

The 26-year-old, who changed his nationality to British in 2019 and is ranked 164th in the world, got the taste for SW19 and wants a 2024 repeat.

“I would be very happy coming back next year,” he said. “Maybe even without needing a wild card for the main draw, try my best to get my ranking to a position where I can enter the tournament by myself.”

Asked whether he has proven he can produce at the top level, he replied: “Yes, I think so. I mean, I played a very good first match.

“I kept it as close as possible. Also having chances to win a set off a guy (Hurkacz) that’s top 20, previously been top 10 in the world, played semi-finals here as well, ended Roger’s (Federer) career at Wimbledon.

“It doesn’t get much better than his level in terms of tennis and grass-court tennis.

“Keeping the match quite close and having my chances to take a set off him, as well, is just positive.

“I couldn’t thank the people more that gave me the opportunity to play in this tournament. I feel it has to do with a lot of trust, as well, trusting me that I’ve got the level to compete at this level. Yeah, just want to say huge thanks.

“I have learnt a lot during the past couple of days. I think just going to take out all the positive bits, and also super happy about winning my first grand slam match.”

Choinski was always up against it, saving break points early on, but Hurkacz, who made the 2021 semi-finals at SW19, kept knocking on the door and crucially made the breakthrough at 4-4 and then served the first set out.

The second set followed an identical pattern with a key break at 4-4 putting Hurkacz in firm control.

After saving several break points throughout the third set, Choinski’s moment came at 6-5 when he had three set points at 0-40 on Hurkacz’s serve, but he could not convert them.

With that his chance disappeared as the Pole dominated the tie-break to seal a straight-sets win and book his spot in the third round.

He added: “I felt like I was playing good tennis. The match was very competitive. We played over two hours. I think the first two sets were decided each by one break.

“I tried my best. You know, unlucky that I got broken twice at 4-4. Then in the third set when I had the three set points, I’m sad about not making those, but that’s tennis. That’s life.”

Lewis Hamilton has said he would welcome a protest from Just Stop Oil campaigners at this weekend’s British Grand Prix.

The climate activists targeted Wimbledon on Wednesday and have caused disruption at the Lord’s Ashes Test, the Premiership rugby final and the World Snooker Championship so far this year.

Asked ahead of Sunday’s race, if he would support a protest which did not involve people invading the track, Hamilton said: “Yes. I support peaceful protests.”

Five people invaded last year’s British Grand Prix after they stormed the Wellington Straight – the fastest point of the Northamptonshire track – before sitting down during the opening lap.

The contest had already been suspended following Alfa Romeo driver Zhou Guanyu’s high-speed crash, but a number of cars sped by the group before they were dragged away by marshals. The protesters were handed suspended jail sentences in March.

Silverstone has worked alongside Northamptonshire Police to beef up security ahead of this year’s event, with a record 480,000 people expected to attend over the weekend, and 150,000 fans in place for the race.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton added: “We are hoping we have learnt from the experience (of last year).

“We have 100 more marshals this weekend which will be supportive to make sure it doesn’t happen.

“From my perspective, and my teams’ perspective, we are focused on sustainability and we believe in what people (the protesters) are fighting for and we are making those changes as a sport.

“But safety is key. We don’t want to put them in harm’s way and we don’t want to put anyone else in harm’s way. If there was to be one (a protest) we hope it is not on track.”

Earlier this week, McLaren driver Lando Norris told Just Stop Oil campaigners that they would be “stupid and selfish” to put lives in danger by protesting

But Williams’ London-born Alex Albon believes an attack is likely. “There is a high chance of something happening this week,” he said.

“It is a concern because a pitch invasion is one thing but with cars and moving parts it gets a bit more dangerous to some extent.”

Aidan O’Brien has mapped out a three-race plan for his unbeaten juvenile River Tiber.

The Wootton Bassett colt looked something out the ordinary when scoring by 10 lengths on his racecourse debut at Navan in April and doubled up at Naas the following month.

Having completed his hat-trick in the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot, River Tiber heads ante-post lists for next year’s Qipco 2000 Guineas and looks set to step up in trip before the season is out.

For now, though, O’Brien is happy to stick to six furlongs, with the Keeneland Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh on August 12 next on his star two-year-old’s agenda.

“Everything is good and the plan at the moment is to go to the Heinz (Phoenix) at the Curragh,” said the Ballydoyle handler.

“He’s just having a little bit of an easy time, but that’s what we’re thinking at the moment, staying at six furlongs, and if everything went well then he could step up to seven in the National Stakes.

“If that went well, he could go on to the Dewhurst, so they are the three races that are on his programme at the moment. Obviously it can all change very quickly.”

O’Brien also provided an update on Luxembourg after connections decided against allowing him to join stablemate Paddington in the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown on Saturday.

He added: “He was only going to be a possible for the Eclipse if Paddington didn’t run, he is in the King George and he’ll be trained for that, I think.

“We’re looking at that for Auguste Rodin as well obviously and I would imagine if Auguste is going there Luxembourg might have to stand back again.

“We’ll wait and see, but at the moment he (Luxembourg) is on the King George programme.”

Stan Wawrinka will lock horns again with old rival Novak Djokovic in the third round at Wimbledon.

Wawrinka, 38, defeated 29th seed Tomas Etcheverry 6-3 4-6 6-4 6-2 to reach the last 32 at the All England Club for the first time since 2015.

The Swiss veteran has won only six of their 26 previous meetings but two of those came in grand slam finals, at the French Open in 2015 and the US Open the following year, while he has also beaten him at the Australian Open.

They have played only twice since, with Wawrinka facing a long road back after knee and foot surgeries, but he has finally returned to the top 100 and will take on Djokovic for the first time on grass.

“I will enjoy it if I don’t get killed,” he said with a smile. “I’m quite happy to have the chance to play against him on grass at least one time before I finish playing. It’s going to be a big challenge. Hopefully I can play a high level and be competitive.”

The match will be the oldest combined age for a men’s singles match at Wimbledon since Ken Rosewall faced Barry Phillips-Moore in 1974.

Djokovic, 36, is now on a 30-match winning streak at Wimbledon and will be a big favourite but he will be wary of the power of Wawrinka.

“He took away two grand slams from me,” said the seven-time Wimbledon champion.

“After several surgeries of his knees, he keeps going strong and trying to create some more history for himself and tennis. We cannot forget that he’s a three-time grand slam champion and Davis Cup winner and also Olympic gold. He had a fantastic career.

“One of the nicest one-handed backhands that I have ever played against, ever seen. Very powerful player. Very strong. Very complete. He can play equally well on all surfaces.”

Visually-impaired tennis fans are trialling headsets at Wimbledon that enable them to watch live action from in the stands.

The headsets, developed by UK company GiveVision and powered by Vodafone 5G, stream live footage from local TV cameras and enhance it to suit a user’s specific sight profile.

Sinead Grealy, a life-long tennis fan who once skipped school to queue for Wimbledon, has been taking part in the trial on Centre Court and Court One.

She told the PA news agency: “I can’t tell you how fantastic it is. I would need a thesaurus and know how to work it for all the superlatives.

“The technology is incredible. It takes my eyesight to better than it was. The first time I put it on I just went, ‘woah’. And then I went ‘woah’ again with the first adjustment because it’s so simple. I’m a technophobe and it’s so easy to use.

“I need it in my life, I will be buying it whenever it comes on the market. You don’t know how many people it’s going to help.

“I’ve got a very good chance of going 100 per cent blind. I don’t have to fear that, and that genuinely, in the quiet hours when I couldn’t sleep, kept me up at night, that I would never be able to go and enjoy live sport ever again. The scope this has is just beyond where I was even hoping it could go.”

GiveVision has also been working in sport with Premier League club Crystal Palace and hopes the technology can be rolled out across many more venues.

Head of operations Joanna Liddington explained: “It brings the image much closer to the user’s face, stimulates the photoreceptor cells in the retina and allows them to regain some of the sight they’ve lost, essentially.

“They can zoom in and out, change the brightness, have a look around and take in the atmosphere. They can manipulate it to fit their needs.”

The ability for visually impaired people to experience sport without being restricted to specific areas is one of the key benefits of the technology.

“With the headset, people can sit anywhere they want, be with their friends and family,” said Liddington.

“At the moment people with sight loss are severely under-represented. One in 30 people in the country have visual impairment and our experience with football is you have about five or six people at any given match.

“In Centre Court, you should have about 500 people, and of course we don’t see that because people don’t go because they can’t see what’s going on.

“There have been so many times I’ve seen people go, ‘Wow, this is amazing’. To see the difference it makes to people who are passionate fans of their sport, finally get to see their first goal, first bit of tennis.

“One of the guys we work with, who was born visually impaired, he said the best thing is, when there’s a foul, he can choose if it was a foul. ‘I can argue with my friends about it, I can be angry with the ref, my opinion and my voice finally matters’, and that’s the impact.”

Hubert Hurkacz showed no mercy to his former doubles partner Jan Choinski as he sent the Briton packing in the second round at Wimbledon.

German-born Choinski, the son of an English ballet dancer, partnered with the 17th seed up until 2016, but could not match him on Court 18 as Hurkacz won 6-4 6-4 7-6 (3).

Defeat brings to an end Choinski’s first appearance in SW19 having been given a wild card, leaving just four Britons remaining in the draw.

Still, it has been a few days to remember for the 27-year-old, ranked 164 in the world, as he enjoyed a maiden grand slam win on Monday when he beat world number 56 Dusan Lajovic.

Choinski was always up against it, saving break points early on, but Hurkacz, who made the 2021 semi-finals at SW19, kept knocking on the door and crucially made the breakthrough at 4-4 and then served the first set out.

The second set followed an identical pattern with a key break at 4-4 putting Hurkacz in firm control.

After saving several break points throughout the third set, Choinski’s moment came at 6-5 when he had three set points at 0-40 on Hurkacz’s serve, but he could not convert them.

With that his chance disappeared as the Pole dominated the tie-break to seal a straight-sets win and book his spot in the third round.

Mark Wood lit up Headingley with a burst of breakneck speed and Stuart Broad grabbed two crucial wickets as England began their must-win third Ashes Test in rousing style.

Four days on from Jonny Bairstow’s controversial stumping at Lord’s, which led to a four-day row about the spirit of cricket, England did their talking on the field.

Ben Stokes, whose side are 2-0 down with three to play, made a bold decision to send the tourists in to bat and was rewarded with some crucial breakthroughs as Australia reached 91 for four at lunch.

Broad topped and tailed the morning session, nicking off his old foe David Warner for the 16th time in Test cricket and pouncing just before lunch to see off the prolific Steve Smith for 22.

But it was the returning Wood who really whipped the capacity crowd up. He bowled wall-to-wall rockets, never dipping below 90mph and hitting a fiery ceiling at 96.5mph.

There was just one scoring shot off his first four overs, which went down as the second fastest spell in England since ball-tracking data began in 17 years ago, and he capped it off by scattering Usman Khawaja’s stumps for 13.

Chris Woakes, returning to the Test arena after 18 months, also chipped in with the wicket of Marnus Labuschagne for 21.

For Bairstow, the man at the centre of this week’s controversy, it was a disappointing morning. He put down a tough chance off Smith on four, but then shelled Travis Head on nine as Wood’s pace continued to break the game open. The umpire signalled a bye for the resulting single, but England would surely have gone to DRS and dismissed the dangerous Head, who will resume after lunch on 10.

Given the level of antagonism that met Australia’s actions at Lord’s on Sunday, it was no surprise to hear the capacity crowd welcome the opening pair with a chorus of boos – the loudest emanating from the reliably noisy Western Terrace.

Warner made a good start to shutting down the jeers, driving Broad’s first ball down the ground for four, but the left-hander was back in the pavilion before the over was complete. Flashing outside off stump he threaded a catch to Zak Crawley, who made no mistake at second slip to bring the fans to their feet.

The intensity stepped up several notches when Wood made his belated introduction to the series, having been held back until now due to concerns over his match fitness.

He put the batters on instant alert with his fiery speeds, changing the whole feeling around the ground. He sent down three consecutive maidens before finally conceding a run off his 23rd ball. But his prize was just around the corner, with a fast, full and swinging delivery pounding into Khawaja’s middle and leg stumps.

Bairstow could not hang on to a tough inside edge off Smith, playing his 100th Test, but Woakes kept the momentum going when he angled one in at Labuschagne’s off stump and took a thick outside edge that carried to Joe Root.

Wood returned for a second blast and should have had Head immediately, only for Bairstow to spill a catch down the leg side.

However, Broad relieved England’s frustrations just before lunch, nipping one in and finding Smith’s inside edge, giving Bairstow a chance to hold on and putting England in control.

England Under-21s are in Saturday’s Euro 2023 final against Spain as they look to win the tournament for the first time in 39 years.

The Young Lions beat Israel in Wednesday’s semi-final to reach their first final since 2009.

Here the PA news agency looks at some of the focal points ahead of the final.

History makers

It has been 39 years since the Under-21s last won the European Championship.

Then, it was back-to-back victories in 1982 and 1984 but the drought has not ended since. A 4-0 final thumping by Germany in 2009 is the closest they have got.

Lee Carsley’s side can make history in Batumi on Saturday.

Unbeatable England

England go into the final having scored 10 and conceded none. They have not been troubled at the back with James Trafford, close to a £15million switch to Burnley from Manchester City, unbeaten.

The final is a different matter and Spain will provide a sterner test on Saturday. They have scored 50 goals across qualifying and the tournament after thumping Ukraine 5-1 in their semi-final, but there will be a confidence and belief among the squad they can remain unbroken.

A long season

For most, including semi-final scorers Morgan Gibbs-White and Cole Palmer, their season started over 330 days ago.

The new Premier League campaign is just five weeks away and while the squad did manage to get a break before linking up they will be tired, both mentally and physically.

It all adds to the debate about player welfare and how much football players can manage.

A balanced squad

For a long time now the squad has seemed more than the sum of its parts.

Previous Under-21 campaigns have ended with disappointment with teams containing Phil Foden, James Maddison, Jordan Pickford, Tammy Abraham and Harry Kane.

This class have gelled and, while they are all talented players, they have arguably gone under the radar compared to their predecessors.

Spain’s dangerman

England will have to stop Braga’s Abel Ruiz, who will be out for revenge having lost the Under-17 World Cup final to the Young Lions in 2017.

The striker has three goals and two assists for Spain in the tournament and scored the Euros’ fastest-ever strike when he netted after 20 seconds against Croatia.

The 23-year-old also has two senior caps and came through the ranks at Barcelona before a 2020 move to Braga.

Mark Wood made a dramatic entry to the Ashes series with the second-fastest spell on record in Test matches in England.

The England bowler’s opening four-over burst brought him one wicket for just two runs but the more impressive statistics came from the speed gun, with Wood firing down his first ball at 91 miles per hour and at one point topping 96mph in a spell during which he never dipped below 90.

England’s official Twitter account marked his first over as the fastest ever at Headingley – a record that remarkably lasted only until his second.

By the time he had finished his short spell – a pre-planned move as England protect his fitness – he had averaged almost 93mph with only one of his own spells at Lord’s in 2021 recording a higher average speed in CricViz’s database, which goes back to 2006.

Wood combined his pace with swing and an aggressive length which had Marnus Labuschagne playing and missing or defending off the splice of the bat in an opening maiden, albeit with four leg byes off the fourth ball.

The first ball of Wood’s next over beat Labuschagne’s outside edge and the next was fended uncertainly off the shoulder of the bat before the third flashed through at 96.5mph, the quickest ball of Wood’s spell.

The fourth ball of the third over, banged in short, cleared both Labuschagne and wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow by a distance on its way for four byes – the fact it escaped being called wide helping Wood to a third straight maiden.

Labuschagne was again repeatedly beaten and, despite countering Wood’s speed by abandoning his habit of batting out of his crease, saw multiple balls crash off high on his bat.

A wider ball in the next over allowed Usman Khawaja to carve the first two runs off Wood’s bowling but he responded in style by beating him on the inside edge at 94.6mph to take out leg stump while almost bowling himself off his feet.

Captain Ben Stokes, Wood’s county team-mate at Durham, resisted the temptation to give him a fifth over despite Steve Smith coming out to bat. Smith has been dismissed twice in the series by Josh Tongue, England’s next-quickest bowler at an average of 84.9mph, with Wood’s opening spell quicker by a margin of 8mph.

He did return for two overs before the lunch interval, this time up the hill at the Football Stand End, with his average pace dipping just below 90mph – though he had Travis Head dropped by Bairstow off a 91mph leg-side delivery.

Al Kazeem may not have been owner-breeder John Deer’s first Group One winner, but there is little doubt he is the finest to graduate from his Oakgrove Stud.

He won 10 times during an intermittent 23-race career, but it is 10 years since the strapping son of Dubawi was arguably at his peak and went on an imperious winning run, collecting a trio of Group One prizes.

This Saturday marks a decade since the final act of that successful streak as having downed Camelot in the Tattersalls Gold Cup and then bravely landed the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot, Al Kazeem was sent off the 15-8 favourite to bring up a big-race hat-trick in the Coral-Eclipse – a mission he completed in fine style.

It was a victory that was not without the odd moment of worry as Al Kazeem hung right-handed just as a dominant charge to the line seemed inevitable. But despite the protestation he badly hampered eventual third Mukhadram, there was no denying the clear-cut nature of the two-length triumph.

“It was a brilliant year, fantastic really,” said Deer. “It was one of those times where you just can’t believe it. You breed a lot of horses and they are good, but nothing like what it takes to win a Group One. So when it happens it is very special.

“I had already won Group Ones with Patavellian and Avonbridge, so I had a flavour of it, but Al Kazeem was different, he was very special.

“He was a gorgeous looking horse who was very strong. I was pleased with the way he got on with Roger Charlton and we had some very exciting days with him.”

It is not just Deer who holds fond memories of Al Kazeem, but also Roger Charlton who trained the bay both before and after his brief interlude at stud.

The Beckhampton handler, who now trains in conjunction with his son Harry, has great memories of that 2013 season and was delighted that Al Kazeem could provide him with the Eclipse victory he always craved adding to his CV.

“He was on a roll that year wasn’t he,” said Charlton.

“It was a very rewarding effort to beat Camelot in the Tattersalls Gold Cup, then his performance at Royal Ascot in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes was good. There was a little bit of controversy in the Eclipse as to whether he interfered with Mukhadram but he battled on up the hill there.

“It was very pleasing and like most people the Eclipse was a race I always wanted to win. It’s a special race and it is normally at the time of the year where the best horses can go there if they want.”

He went on: “If I remember rightly it was always the plan to go there as long as he was OK after Ascot. He was a very tough and very sound horse and he was very suited to going right-handed rather than left-handed.

“As I remember it, he was well on top at the end and he was a pretty classy horse in those days.

“He came back from a broken pelvis to do what he did and as we all know he then went off to stud and then came back to win another Group One so he was a pretty special horse and he would rate pretty highly on my list anyway.”

A third key component of the Al Kazeem story is his big-race pilot James Doyle who partnered the son of Dubawi for all of his major moments on course.

Now one of the leading riders in the weighing room, Doyle was stable jockey to Charlton at the time and had only the one really recognisable success to his name when winning the  Dubai Duty Free aboard Cityscape.

However, Al Kazeem would soon change that and helped put Doyle firmly in the spotlight.

“Cityscape was the catalyst when he won the Dubai Duty Free in a course-record time and then it moved on to Al Kazeem,” said Charlton.

“I do slightly remember going to the Curragh with James for the Tattersalls Gold Cup where we were taking on Camelot who was nearly a Triple Crown winner.

“James ran round the course and then won on Al Kazeem and then on the way home I asked him ‘how many times have you ridden at the Curragh?’ and he said only once, as an apprentice over five furlongs. So he had never actually ridden over the trip there at that stage and it just shows how young and inexperienced he was in those days.”

Deer added: “I felt very lucky because he was such a young jockey, but lucky because he was such a good jockey. He was brilliant on the horse really and it kind of shows how lucky I was now doesn’t it, with the way he has developed and his career has progressed.”

After an unsuccessful first attempt at stud duties following the 2013 season, Al Kazeem would return to the track to add a second Tattersalls Gold Cup during his swansong season of 2015.

He now stands at Deer’s Oakgrove Stud in Wales where he is very much part of the family and his legacy lives on having provided the owner-breeder with another Royal Ascot champion in the form of Wokingham hero Saint Lawrence.

Deer said: “He was special in as much as in he coped with being a stallion and when he came back into training you got the impression he had forgotten all about it. He knew his job of racing and settled in and did beautifully.

“It’s lovely to have him back, that is really special. I sold him to the Queen and he wasn’t exactly out of my life because I did have some nominations to him, but to have him back at the stud is really special and everybody loves the horse, it’s amazing. He is a bit of a star and I watch him sometimes being taken out to his paddock and he is full of himself.”

Britain’s Daniel Dubois will fight world heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk in Poland next month, it has been announced.

Ukrainian Usyk, 36, will put all his WBA (Super), IBF and WBO titles on the line against mandatory WBA challenger Dubois, 26, at the Tarczynski Arena in Wroclaw on August 26.

Former undisputed cruiserweight champion Usyk snatched the titles off Anthony Joshua in London in September 2021 and won the rematch in August last year in Saudi Arabia.

Dubois will be Usyk’s second defence of his world heavyweight belts with the match-up announced on Twitter by Frank Warren’s Queensbury Promotions.

Usyk, whose scheduled showdown with WBC champion Tyson Fury at Wembley in April fell through due to contractual disputes, said simply on Instagram: “See you 26 august”.

Londoner Dubois, nicknamed ‘Dynamite’, has won 19 of his 20 fights since turning professional in 2017, 18 by knockout, with one defeat, against fellow British heavyweight Joe Joyce in 2020.

Dubois suffered a fractured orbital bone and nerve damage to his left eye when stopped in the 10th round by Joyce, but has beaten four opponents since.

In his latest triumph, on the undercard of Fury’s third fight against Derek Chisora at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last September, Dubois recovered from three first-round knockdowns to defeat South Africa’s Kevin Lerena.

An Animal Rising activist has been spared jail after running on to the track at the Betfred Derby a minute before the horses galloped past.

Ben Newman, 32, was filmed running on to the course at Epsom as the premier Classic began on June 3.

After pleading guilty at Guildford Crown Court on Thursday to causing public nuisance, he was criticised by the judge for “endangering” the lives of police
and security guards who managed to drag him off the track just before the horses ran past.

Newman was sentenced to 18 weeks imprisonment suspended for two years and fined a total of £1,356.

The protest happened after the Jockey Club, which owns Epsom Downs, was granted an injunction banning the Animal Rising group, which Newman was a part of, from intervening in the event.

He was produced from custody and appeared in court dressed in a grey sweatshirt.

He was one of 31 people arrested on the day of the race, including 12 on the racecourse grounds.

Footage played at court showed Newman running on to the track as police and security guards darted after him before wrestling him to the ground and dragging
him to one side.

About a minute later, the horses sprinted past, prosecutor Wendy Cottee told the court.

She said: “The Derby was due to start at 3.30pm. Horses were let out just after that.

“This defendant then ran across the track. The horses were around a minute away.

“He was apprehended and taken off the track.

“The defendant admits that the public were angry with him – several were jeering at him.”

On Wednesday, Home Secretary Suella Braverman held a summit at Downing Street with police and sports bodies including the Lawn Tennis Association, the Premier
League and the England and Wales Cricket Board to discuss plans to step up security at summer sporting events.

That afternoon, Just Stop Oil protesters threw orange confetti and jigsaw pieces on to court 18 at Wimbledon, stopping play twice.

It came after members of the group invaded the pitch at Lord’s last week during the second Ashes test.