Ons Jabeur pushed Karolina Pliskova all the way in their delayed quarter-final match, but it was the Czech that came out on top.

After rain delayed the match on Friday, and start of play on Saturday, a tough battle ensued, but Pliskova reached her third semi-final of the season with a 7-6 (10-8), 7-6 (7-3), 7-5 win.

Pliskova edged the first set on the tie-break before Jabeur forced a decider with an equally impressive win in the second.

Despite going toe-to-toe once more in the third, Pliskova just did enough to hold off top-seed Jabeur, getting a vital break to set up a meeting with Diane Parry.

Meanwhile, Emma Raducanu advanced to her first semi-final since 2022 after receiving a walkover from Francesca Jones, but her match against Katie Boulter was suspended due to rain after the first set, which lasted an incredible 80 minutes.

In 's-Hertogenbosch, Bianca Andreescu will play in the Libema Open final after her straight-sets 6-4, 6-2 victory over Dalma Galfi on Friday, earning a place in her first final of the season.

Data Debrief: Jabeur unable to stop the break

Jabeur had the opportunity to win seven break points during the quarter-final, but had a measly 14 per cent conversion rate (1/7). Pliskova, meanwhile, won half of hers (2/4).

The Czech also won 94 per cent of her service games (17/18), just one more than Jabeur. It was the fine margins that won out in Nottingham.

Alex de Minaur will face Sebastian Korda in the final of the Libema Open in 's-Hertogenbosch after posting a straight-sets win over Ugo Humbert in the last four.

De Minaur – the top seed for the ATP 250 tournament in the Netherlands – needed one hour and 46 minutes to wrap up a 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 success over the world number 16, having thrown away a 4-0 first-set lead before holding his nerve in a tiebreak.

The second set was cagey as De Minaur did not give up a single break point and converted one of two he forced, some strong serving ensuring he held off his opponent.

He will face Korda in Sunday's final after the American ended Tallon Griekspoor's title defence at the semi-final stage earlier on Saturday, winning 6-2 6-4.

Meanwhile, Jack Draper will face Matteo Berrettini in the final of the BOSS Open in Stuttgart, having beaten Brandon Nakashima 6-3 6-3 in the semi-finals.

Former Wimbledon runner-up Berrettini came through an all-Italian clash with Lorenzo Musetti in just 67 minutes, winning 6-4 6-0.

Data Debrief: New high for De Minaur

De Minaur is into his 17th ATP Tour-level final, having an 8-8 record in his previous 16. It will be his third on grass, after beating Lorenzo Sonego in Eastbourne in 2021 and losing to Carlos Alcaraz at Queen's last year.

The victory also ensured he will rise to eighth in the world rankings – a new career-high position.

Naomi Osaka crashed out of the Libema Open despite fighting to a tie-break in the final set, with Bianca Andreescu progressing to the semi-finals after a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-3) win.

Osaka's match was interrupted by rain early on with her in the lead, but Andreescu came back out in top form to take the first set.

The Japanese raced through the second though, taking a 5-0 lead before holding off Andreescu's fightback to go into a decider.

Despite an impressive comeback to force a tie-break in the final set, Osaka became sloppy, with her mistakes contributing to the Canadian's path into the semi-final, where she will face Dalma Galfi.

Elsewhere, Alex de Minaur is through to the semi-finals after a comfortable straight-sets victory over Milos Raonic.

Despite a long break due to bad weather, the Australian eased into the next round with a 7-5, 6-2 victory on Friday.

He will face either Ugo Humbert or Gijs Brouwer in the next round.

Data Debrief: Osaka not close enough, De Minaur in cruise control

Despite winning more points (98 compared to 94), and winning more games (16 to 15), Osaka could not hold her nerve in the tie-break to reach the semi-finals.

Competing as the top seed for the first time in his tour-level career, De Minaur felt no pressure as he rallied in the second set to ensure Raonic would not find a way back into the match, winning his last five games in a row on his way to victory. 

Roger Federer expressed his hopes for former rivals Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray to "keep playing forever", insisting the ATP Tour is "better with them".

Federer called time on his glittering career in 2022, while the other three - who between them formed tennis' 'big four' - appear not to be far away from joining him in retirement.

Nadal, who will miss Wimbledon to focus on his "last Olympics", and Murray are expected to hang up their racquets this year, with the latter revealing in February that he does not "plan on playing much past this summer".

Meanwhile, 24-time major winner Djokovic is also likely be absent from the grass-court major, having undergone knee surgery following his withdrawal from the French Open last week. 

Now in their late 30s, all three players are certainly at the twilight of their remarkable careers.

But Federer, who says the quartet all now "get on super well" after years of rivalry, hopes they are not finished just yet.

"I really don't think there are any words of advice that I can give him," he told BBC Sport. "Retirement is so deeply personal. When you take that decision, everybody is in a completely different circumstance.

"We've gone through similar things, but I'm too far away to give advice. If [Andy] called me up, I'd be happy to answer some questions. He's had this massive hip issue and what he is doing is inspirational.

"I hope Andy, like Rafa and Novak, can keep playing forever, like a fan. The tour is better with them. I was watching Roland-Garros last week, and I was like: 'Wow, they're so good - I used to do that too!'

"It's tricky sometimes and there’s definitely moments when you don't like a certain opponent, but then you like him so much. It's important to remember this as a player - it is just tennis and, in the end, we can be normal.

"You see us being super friendly with each other after the rivalry, and we get on super well."

Emma Raducanu cruised into the quarter-finals of the Nottingham Open with a straight-sets victory over Daria Snigur on Thursday.

After making her return from injury in the previous round, Raducanu made light work of the match, winning 6-2, 6-2 as her preparation for Wimbledon continued.

Despite a bright start from Snigur, which saw her break the Briton's serve in the opening game, she could not hold off Raducanu's challenge as she reeled off six games in a row to win the first set.

With her confidence back, Raducanu secured two breaks in the second set to ease through and will face Francesca Jones or Ashlyn Krueger in the next round.

Data Debrief: Raducanu easing back to full threat

After a slightly shaky first round against Ena Shibahara, Raducanu looked a confident figure on the court as she dispatched Snigur.

Her serve proved a highlight as she served 11 aces in the second set, and had a 70 per cent win rate on her first serve throughout the match.

Top seed Jessica Pegula bowed out of the Libema Open following a three-set defeat by Aleksandra Krunic in s'Hertogenbosch.

The world number five was ousted 7-6 (7-3) 6-7 (3-7) 6-4 by the 2018 winner of this event, who claimed the fifth top-10 victory of her career and advanced to the quarter-finals.

Now ranked 400th in the world, Krunic recovered from an earlier break in the opening set to force a tie-break, in which she won five straight points to draw first blood.

The Serbian also cancelled out a break before heading into another tie-break, but Pegula reeled off five points on the spin this time to level.

The American was appearing in her first tournament since April, having missed the European clay-court season with a rib injury.

However, she saw two break-point opportunities go begging in the opening game of the deciding set, and Krunic crucially broke in game three before holding out for an impressive victory. 

Later on, Alex de Minaur booked his place in the quarter-finals of the competition after a straight-sets victory over Zizou Bergs. 

The world number nine had to work for his victory over the Belgian, overcoming his opponent 7-5 6-4 to earn his first triumph on a grass court this year. 

Bergs matched his opponent in the opening exchanges, but the Australian would eventually prevail, winning a break-point and following up without dropping a point in the final game. 

De Minaur would again endure a difficult set to confirm the victory as Bergs threatened to level the encounter, but the number one seed again showed his class, finishing the contest in style. 

De Minaur will face either Roberto Bautista Agut or Milos Raonic in the next round.

Data Debrief: Krunic rekindles special memories as de Minaur earns maiden grass win

Krunic will forever have an affinity with s-Hertogenbosch, where she won her only career WTA title six years ago.

And the 31-year-old claimed an impressive scalp here to reach her first WTA quarter-final since 2022 - and first on grass since that 2018 triumph.

De Minaur impressed once again, winning 86 per cent of his first serve points against the Belgian. 

Their meeting in s-Hertogenbosch was the first between the pair, with De Minaur able to overcome his quarter-final defeat to Alexander Zverev at the French Open. 

Rafael Nadal confirmed he will miss Wimbledon in order to focus on competing at his "last Olympics" in Paris.

The Royal Spanish Tennis Federation confirmed on Wednesday the 22-time major winner will feature in the men's singles and men's doubles events, which will be played on the clay courts of Roland-Garros.

Nadal, who will partner Carlos Alcaraz in the doubles, played what was expected to be his final French Open campaign last month, where he said he was unlikely to play at Wimbledon following his first-round exit to Alexander Zverev.

And the 38-year-old confirmed his decision on his social media channels, opting to continue his preparations on clay rather than switching from grass at the All England Club, where he is a two-time champion.

"It was announced yesterday that I will play at the Summer Olympics in Paris, my last Olympics," said Nadal, who will prepare for the Olympics by entering the ATP 250 event in Bastad earlier in July.

"With this goal, we believe that the best thing for my body is not to change surfaces, and to keep playing on clay until then. It's for this reason that I will miss playing at the Championships this year at Wimbledon.

"I am saddened not to be able to live this year the great atmosphere of that amazing event that will always be in my heart, and be with all the British fans that always gave me great support. I will miss you all."

Wimbledon have announced a record prize pot of £50million for the 2024 tournament, which begins next month.

Both singles champions will receive £2.7million each, after Carlos Alcaraz and Marketa Vondrousova pocketed £2.35million apiece after winning last year's events.

The total prize money is £5.3million higher than 12 months ago, while it has doubled from £25million in 2014.

First-round singles losers will take home £60,000 - a £5,000 increase on 2023 - while the prize fund for wheelchair events increases to £1million. 

There is also a 14.9 per cent increase in the qualifying competition for Wimbledon, which will run from July 1-14 at the All England Club.

Step aside Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz, tennis has a new world number one on the block in Jannik Sinner.

The 22-year-old, born in San Candido, ended a 51-year wait for Italy to boast the ATP's best player in the world rankings after moving to top spot this month.

Sinner overtook Djokovic at the summit of the men's game after his French Open performance, reaching the Roland-Garros final before falling in a five-set thriller to the battling Alcaraz.

Having already secured his first major at the Australian Open earlier this year, Sinner's remarkable rise continued in Paris – but how has the Italian managed to do so?

Here, we unpack the best of the Opta data to delve into Sinner's surge to world number one.

Major champion in Australia

Sinner was crowned a grand slam champion for the first time in his career back in January, defeating Daniil Medvedev in the final after overcoming a two-set deficit in Melbourne.

Sweeping aside Djokovic in the last four and Andrey Rublev in the quarter-finals, his route to glory was far from straightforward, too.

Aged 22 years and 165 days at the time of his Melbourne Park triumph, Sinner became the youngest-ever player to achieve successive ATP top-five wins in the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final of a major, surpassing Michael Stich – 22 years and 262 days at Wimbledon in 1991.

That Medvedev victory, at the time, also marked Sinner's fourth top-five scalp of 2024.

Since 1973, Sinner is the only fourth player aged under 23 to claim four such wins in the opening three months of a season, after Bjorn Borg (1978-79), Miloslav Mecir (1987) and Andy Murray (2007 and 2009).

Special 2023 sets tone for this year's success

Sinner enjoyed a remarkable campaign last year, winning his first Masters 1000 title at the Canadian Open and finishing the season by reaching the showpiece of the ATP Finals.

He finished with a win-loss record of 64-15 in 2023, breaking the Open Era record previously held by Corrado Barazzutti (55, 1978) for most ATP match wins by an Italian in a calendar year.

En route to the Indian Wells semi-final defeat to Alcaraz, Sinner also claimed a 19th consecutive ATP match win after overcoming Jiri Lehecka, breaking Adriano Panatta's record for the longest winning streak at ATP level of any Italian in the Open Era.

It is hard to argue with his position at the top, too.

Sinner became only the fifth player before turning 23 to defeat the men's world number three times in a calendar year, having overcome Alcaraz and Djokovic (twice) in a remarkable 2023 season.

The Italian also helped his country lift the Davis Cup, though major individual honours were always around the corner for the excellent right-hander.

The best in the world

Australian Open successes and a fine 2023 campaign brought Sinner to his crowning moment in June as he became the first Italian to reach world number one since the ATP rankings started in 1973.

Sinner is one of four players in the past two decades to hold the ATP's number-one ranking before the age of 23, along with Roger Federer, Nadal and Alcaraz.

Since 2000, Sinner is also just the third male player taller than 188 centimetres to reach the summit of tennis before turning 23, along with Andy Roddick and Marat Safin.

Naomi Osaka will play Bianca Andreescu in the Libema Open quarter-finals after a commanding straight-sets victory over Suzan Lamens.

The four-time major winner took just 54 minutes to wrap up a 6-2 6-2 win over her Dutch opponent in t'Hertogenbosch.

Osaka looked sharp as she sought her second WTA quarter-final appearance of the season, having also reached that stage in Doha four months ago.

The Japanese hit 21 winners to 13 unforced errors, while converting four out of five break points against the world number 140.

Next up for Osaka is a showdown with 2019 US Open champion Andreescu in the last eight.

Data Debrief: Osaka storms into first grass-court quarter-final in six years

It was a dominant display by Osaka, who hit nine aces and won 15 of her 17 points on first serve (88.2 per cent).

The four-time major winner subsequently advanced to her first WTA quarter-final on grass since the 2018 Nottingham Open.

Rafael Nadal will partner Carlos Alcaraz in the men's doubles at the Paris Olympics, the Royal Spanish Tennis Federation has confirmed.

The Spanish duo - who will also participate in the singles competition - will team up for the tournament at Roland-Garros, which begins on July 27.

Both players have fond memories of the venue with Nadal a record 14-time French Open champion, while Alcaraz landed his maiden clay-court major crown last weekend.

Nadal is expected to call time on his glittering career this year.

A gold medallist in 2008 (singles) and 2016 (doubles), the 22-time major winner is unlikely to appear at Wimbledon and will instead focus on the Olympics where, if fit, he had hoped to partner Alcaraz.

Spain's national team coach confirmed he had got his wish, saying: "One pair, which I think everyone knows and was hoping for, is Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal. Rafa and Carlos will be playing together in Paris."

Alcaraz, who will make his debut at the Games, became the youngest player in the Open Era to win the singles title at three different grand slams when he triumphed over Alexander Zverev at Roland-Garros on Sunday.

Andy Murray cast doubt over his participation at the Olympic Games in Paris next month, saying he is "not 100 per cent sure what the situation is".

Murray is a two-time Olympic champion, having won men's singles gold medals in 2012 - the year he also won a silver medal in the mixed doubles alongside Laura Robson - and 2016.

The three-time grand slam winner is eligible to compete in the singles in Paris, where two places are reserved for former Olympic or major champions.

Although, he appears set to miss out on the doubles, regardless, with Great Britain set to send Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski.

The tournament could prove to be the final one in the career of Murray, who revealed in February that he does not "plan on playing much past this summer".

He suffered a third successive first-round defeat in Stuttgart, having also fallen at that stage in the French Open, which will see him drop out of the world's top 100 for the first time in two years.

And Murray is uncertain if he will feature at the quadrennial event.

"I need to see what happens with the Olympics," he told reporters after losing to Marcos Giron in Stuttgart. 

"I'm not 100 per cent sure what the situation is there with the doubles yet and whether or not I will play if I just get in the singles. I don't know.

"My body didn't feel great playing on the clay in the last month or so. I had quite a few issues with my back, so I don't know if I would go just for singles. I need to wait a little bit and see on that."

Emma Raducanu felt like she was playing "two v one" as the Briton criticised umpire Ana Carvalho following her Nottingham Open first-round victory over Ena Shibahara.

The former US Open champion, who opted to miss the French Open to focus on preparing for the grass-court season, overcame the Japanese 6-1 6-4 in her first match since losing to Maria Lourdes Carla at the Madrid Open in April.

It was also Raducanu's first win on surface since the 2022 Wimbledon Championships, having missed last year's grass-court season after undergoing wrist and ankle surgery that, at one point, left her confined to a mobility scooter.

Although, the 21-year-old was left unhappy with several questionable decisions by umpire Carvalho, suggesting some of the calls were deliberately made in order to extend the contest.

It comes just 24 hours after fellow Briton Harriet Dart slammed "pretty appalling" officiating during her defeat to Katie Boulter in Nottingham, where electronic line-calling technology is not in use.

Nevertheless, Raducanu was pleased to eventually prevail and book her place in the second round.

"I feel like I was playing two v one on court, it was insane," said Raducanu. "I would have used probably at least four challenges!

"I think a lot of the time they go both ways. Today, I felt they were all against me, but it just makes me feel better that I managed to beat her and the umpire as well.

"It is difficult when there is no challenge, but it is something everyone has to deal with. You can be fortunate in some ways. Maybe it was just trying to make the match more competitive.

"It's something I had to deal with and overcome. I am very pleased with the attitude I came out with from the get-go and also having to deal with the adversity.

"I haven't played in a match for a while. Playing someone who comes through qualifying and is used to the conditions, I am very pleased to have won that match."

The world number 209 was also thrilled to get a win under her belt on home soil, and set up a last-16 clash with Ukrainian Daria Snigur, who defeated second seed Marta Kostyuk.

"An element of me forgot what it was like to play at home and have that support behind me, and it is amazing," she added. "It's a great feeling.

"I am very lucky to have great support wherever I play, but it's not quite like coming and playing in the UK. It's something that me and all the Brits cherish and look forward to every year."

Andy Murray suffered a third successive first-round defeat, as he was beaten in straight sets by Marcos Giron at the BOSS Open.

The three-time major champion fell at the first hurdle for the seventh time this season, with Giron prevailing 6-3 6-4 after 75 minutes in Stuttgart.

Giron, who was runner-up to compatriot Tommy Paul in Dallas in February, broke in game six as he won nine out of 10 points, before going on to take the opening set.

Murray - a Stuttgart finalist in 2022 - looked to respond as he won eight of the opening nine points at the start of the second.

However, he saw two break points go begging as Giron held before breaking to 15 in game three.

It proved decisive for the American, who clinched victory with a love hold to set up a last-16 clash with Jack Draper.

Data Debrief: Murray set to drop out of world's top 100

Giron hit seven aces and won 80 per cent (33 out of 41) of his first-serve points on the way to claiming his first ATP win over a current or former world number one.

The 999th singles match of Murray's career ended in an 11th defeat of 2024. Having not won a completed match since beating Tomas Etcheverry at the Miami Open, the 37-year-old will drop out of the world's top 100 next week for the first time since January 2022.

Ons Jabeur eased past Camila Osorio in straight sets to progress to the next round of the Nottingham Open. 

The three-time grand slam champion returned to the East Midlands for the first team since 2014, and got her grass court season off to a winning start with a 6-2 6-3 win over the Colombian. 

It was the perfect start for the world number 10, who earned a break point in the opening game before going on to win the first set, but the Tunisian was made to work to secure her triumph. 

Osorio matched Jabeur early on, but the top seed at the tournament showcased her class to come through the encounter, building on her quarter-final run at the French Open as her preparations for Wimbledon continue. 

Jabeur will face Linda Fruhvirtova in the next round of the competition. 

Data Debrief: Top seed Jabeur through to next round

The world number 10 was at her clinical best, winning 84 per cent of her first serve points. 

Jabeur's win saw her unbeaten record continue against Osorio, having last prevailed at Roland-Garros in May. 

 

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