Age Of Kings bounced back from a disappointing run in the Irish 2,000 Guineas to win the Jersey Stakes for Aidan O’Brien at Royal Ascot.

Down the field behind stablemate Paddington at the Curragh, he was the second string in this Group Three with Ryan Moore preferring the claims of The Antarctic, who never got involved.

Wayne Lordan was the man on board and he was never far from the early pace, set by Frankie Dettori on the favourite Covey.

With two furlongs to run Covey’s stride began to shorten and that left Age Of Kings in front and it became a question of what he had left in the tank.

Challengers emerged from out of the pack, the best of which was James Ferguson’s Zoology, while Streets Of Gold also made good late headway.

But Age Of Kings was able to hold on by a length and win at 22-1 to give O’Brien a fourth winner of the week.

Alex De Minaur reached his first final at Queen’s Club after a grass-court masterclass against Holger Rune at the cinch Championships.

The 24-year-old ‘Demon’ roared to a 6-3 7-6 (2) victory to become the first Australian to make the final since Lleyton Hewitt won his fourth title in 2006.

De Minaur, the boyfriend of Britain’s Katie Boulter, is a proven performer on the grass; he is a former Eastbourne champion and also reached the fourth round at Wimbledon last year.

Danish rising star Rune, by contrast, remains a work in progress on grass. His win over Maxime Cressy on Tuesday was the first of his career on the surface.

De Minaur broke the Rune serve in the very first game and repeated the trick in the ninth to wrap up the opening set.

Rune, 20, fashioned a first break point at the start of the second, but De Minaur slammed the door shut with two consecutive winners and an ace.

De Minaur had a break point for 5-3 to take a stranglehold on the match, but he netted a simple forehand to let his opponent off the hook.

However, he totally dominated the tie-break, dropping just two points, on his way to victory in an hour and 40 minutes.

De Minaur, who beat Andy Murray in the first round, said: “I play pretty decent on grass and I’m having an amazing week.

“That was my best match so far, so happy days. One more to go. It’s a pretty special tournament so let’s hope I can go one better tomorrow. I’ll do my best.”

The semi-final was played in sweltering heat and twice interrupted by spectators needing medical treatment in the stands.

“I want to make sure the people who seeked medical assistance are all right,” added De Minaur. “Keep hydrated, it’s a hot one out there!”

Snellen just held off the late lunge of favourite Pearls And Rubies to provide Champion Hurdle-winning trainer Gavin Cromwell with a second Royal Ascot winner.

Sent off at 12-1 having won on her only previous outing at Limerick, she was produced with a well-timed challenge by Gary Carroll.

With a furlong to run there were any amount still in with a chance, but Carroll’s mount took a length out of the field.

That should have put the race to bed but Snellen began to drift to her left, allowing Pearls And Rubies and Ryan Moore a chance to close the gap. Unfortunately for favourite-backers, though, there was still a head between them when the line came.

Golden Mind and 125-1 shot Oddyssey dead-heated for third.

Cromwell said: “She’s been nice from the word go and is just progressing all the time.

“Her dam won over a mile and a half so I think she’ll stay further. I haven’t thought about Classics, we’ll enjoy today first.”

Frankie Dettori will arrive for his final day at Royal Ascot in the grandest possible fashion as part of the royal procession.

The 52-year-old has bounced back from a disappointing first day when he went winless and picked up a nine-day suspension – which he is appealing – to enjoy some spectacular successes, including the Gold Cup aboard Courage Mon Ami.

Dettori and his wife, Catherine, are in carriage four with Jamie Snowden and his wife, Lucy.

His book of rides on Saturday sees Covey as favourite for the Jersey Stakes, Free Wind a short price in the Hardwicke, Kinross fancied in the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes and Knockbrex the market leader in the Golden Gates Handicap. He also rides Mums Tipple in the Wokingham.

Stefanos Tsitsipas has denied comments he made about Nick Kyrgios following last year’s heated Wimbledon battle were racist in nature.

The Greek has been criticised on social media for saying during the Netflix documentary series Break Point that Kyrgios’ approach to tennis was “uneducated” and that he brought an “NBA basketball attitude” to the sport.

Writing on his Facebook page, Tsitsipas said: “Today, I want to address a matter that has been weighing heavily on my heart; an unfortunate misunderstanding that has a distorted picture of my intentions.

“It has come to my attention that some individuals have misinterpreted my comments regarding Nick Kyrgios, labelling him as uneducated and accusing him of bringing a basketball mentality into tennis, insinuating racism where none exists.

“Let me take this opportunity to provide clarity and rectify any misconceptions that may have arisen.

“Firstly, I want to emphasise that I harbour no prejudice towards anyone based on their background, ethnicity, or interests. I deeply regret if my words were misinterpreted or caused offence, as that was never my intention.

“My previous remarks regarding Nick Kyrgios were not meant to undermine his intelligence or abilities. Instead, I simply intended to express my perspective on certain aspects of his playing style, drawing comparisons to the passion and intensity often associated with basketball.

“It was an attempt to highlight the dynamic and captivating nature of his approach to the game, not a criticism of his character or capabilities.”

The pair clashed in the third round at the All England Club, with Kyrgios engaged in a running dialogue with the umpire and calling for Tsitsipas to be defaulted after he swiped a ball into the crowd.

The Greek lost his cool and received a point penalty for recklessly hitting the ball before appearing to aim a shot straight at Kyrgios, who eventually won in four sets.

Kyrgios accepted Tsitsipas’ apology, writing on Twitter: “It was a very heated battle sometimes as players we go into these press conferences without digesting the match…. We’ve had some crazy battles and I know deep down you like my brand of tennis we are all good @steftsitsipas”

Rory McIlroy gave back the shots he made by holing in one on the eighth as he was left trailing the record-breaking halfway leaders at the Travelers Championship.

McIlroy aced the par three in the first round, but could only find the water second time around as he double bogeyed the hole en route to a six-under-par 64.

“I hit a pretty good shot, I just misjudged the wind a little bit and it came up short in the one place you couldn’t miss today,” said McIlroy, who is tied for 10th on eight-under-par – seven behind leaders Keegan Bradley and Denny McCarthy at TPC River Highlands in Connecticut.

“Other than that, it was a really good round of golf.”

McCarthy followed his opening round of 60 with a 65 to set a commanding clubhouse target which only Bradley, who fired a second round 63, could match – their 15-under-par total of 125 setting a tournament record.

“It’s nice, but golf tournaments aren’t 36 holes unfortunately,” said McCarthy. “I know there’s still a lot of golf left and I’m playing some really nice golf, so I’m looking forward to having fun this weekend.”

Chez Reavie, who won the title in 2019, moved within two of the lead with a 63 with Eric Cole a further two strokes back.

Defending champion Xander Schauffele and Viktor Hovland are among those in a large group alongside McIlroy on eight-under, one better than a group containing England’s Aaron Rai, Ireland’s former Open champion Shane Lowry and world number one Scottie Scheffler.

Matt Fitzpatrick was a shot further back while his successor as US Open champion Wyndham Clark shot a 67 to move to five under – Masters champion Jon Rahm and Tommy Fleetwood missing the cut.

Rookie sensation Elly De La Cruz became the first Reds player to hit for a cycle in 34 years and Cincinnati outslugged the Atlanta Braves 11-10 for their 12th straight victory.

De La Cruz led off the second inning with a double, hit a two-run homer in the third, had a run-scoring single in the fifth and completed the cycle with a triple in the sixth for his fourth RBI of the game.

The cycle is the seventh overall in Reds’ history and the first since Eric Davis on June 2, 1989. The 21-year-old De La Cruz achieved the feat in just his 15th game – the third fewest since 1900.

Cincinnati matched the 1939 and 1957 teams for the franchise’s longest single season winning streak since 1900.

Atlanta, which had an eight-game winning streak stopped, scored five runs in the first off Luke Weaver, with Travis d’Arnaud’s three-run homer the big blow.

Cincinnati got two runs back in the second inning on Jake Fraley’s home run and pulled within 5-4 an inning later on De La Cruz’s two-run blast.

Joey Votto’s first home run of the game in the fourth inning tied it, but the Braves went back on top in the fifth as Matt Olson’s homer scored Austin Riley.

The Reds went ahead for good with four runs in their half of the fifth. De La Cruz singled in a run and Votto delivered a three-run homer.

Atlanta got solo home runs from Ronald Acuna, Jr., Riley and Olson again in the eighth but was unable to push across the tying run in just its third loss in 18 games.

Ohtani hits MLB-best 25th home run in Angels’ loss

Shohei Ohtani extended his major league lead with his 25th home run and fell a triple shy of the cycle in the Los Angles Angels’ 7-4 loss to the Colorado Rockies.

Ohtani homered off starter Kyle Freeland in the fifth inning and Mike Trout followed with his 16th home run to give the Angels a 4-2 lead.

Ohtani has at least one extra-base hit in 10 straight road games, a franchise record and the longest such streak in the majors since 2009.

Colorado, which had lost eight in a row, went ahead in the eighth on Elias Diaz’s grand slam.

Conforto leads Giants past Diamondbacks in NL West matchup

Michael Conforto had three hits and four RBIs to lead the San Francisco Giants to an 8-5 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks in a battle between the top teams in the NL West.

Conforto had a two-run double in San Francisco’s three-run third inning and came through with another two-run double as part of a four-run fifth. Patrick Bailey capped the uprising with a two-run homer.

The Giants have won 11 of 12 to get within 2 ½ games of NL West-leading Arizona.

Allianz Premier 15s chief executive Belinda Moore believes that women’s sport is beginning to “stand alone” as interest continues to grow.

The RFU announced in June 2022 that up to £220m would be invested into the professional women’s game over 10 years and Moore was announced as CEO of the Premier 15s last October.

It comes as part of an exciting time of growth in women’s sport which will be seen this summer with England’s cricketers and netballers in action alongside the Lionesses, who will be aiming to build on last year’s Euro win at the World Cup.

There has also been success in rugby as the Red Roses reached the World Cup final last November before scooping a fifth successive Six Nations title in front of a record-breaking crowd of 58,498 at Twickenham in April, and Moore insists women’s sport is now providing entertainment in its own right.

“We all know what an amazing job the Lionesses did and the growth that’s come off the back of that,” she told the PA news agency.

“One of the things they proved very eloquently was that women’s sport now is starting to stand alone.

“It’s recognised for what it is, so it’s not regarded as men’s sport – there’s a women’s brand of football, a women’s brand of rugby and they’re really entertaining games in their own right.”

Women’s domestic rugby is set to take centre stage on Saturday when Exeter Chiefs face Gloucester-Hartpury in the Premier 15s final at the renamed “Queensholm” Stadium.

Neither team has previously won the competition and so far 8,000 tickets have been sold for the West Country clash.

“I’m hugely looking forward to Saturday, I think the two semi-finals set a really good benchmark for what we can expect this weekend,” Moore said.

“It’s been amazing to see the growth of women’s rugby, even in the short time since the World Cup last year and that crowd last year, and the crowd at Twickenham for the England-France game.

“They’ve sold over 7,000 tickets for this match this weekend, which is a huge uptake on last year.

“The great news is we can see the interest in the sport is growing and I’m looking forward to a cracking final at Queensholm, as they’ve aptly renamed it this weekend!”

Alongside plans to grow the Premier 15s competition, England are also set to host the World Cup in 2025.

Last year’s World Cup final saw hosts New Zealand beat the Red Roses in front of 42,579 in Auckland and Moore believes a home tournament is an ideal opportunity to keep generating interest.

She said: “The number of people who got up at daft o’clock in the morning, myself included, was a really big thing.

“It was a great one, the challenge always is when you play rugby of any description down on the southern hemisphere, it’s harder to get that wider attention in a busy, crowded sports market.

“So I think what you got primarily was rugby fans, which is brilliant, but what we also want to do is expand the game out to those who maybe don’t know it so well, sports fans or more general fans of women’s sport.

“The great news is we’ve got a strong base to build on, but we definitely need to build on it and 2025 I think will be that big springboard that puts women’s rugby in people’s living rooms at primetime and starts to change that narrative.”

Mel Reid moved to within a shot of the lead at the second women’s major of the year – nine months after quitting golf.

Ireland’s Leona Maguire fired four late birdies in a second round 68 to take the halfway lead at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in New Jersey, one clear of a group on four-under which includes England’s Reid after her 67.

She was joined by China’s Xiyu Lin and Norwegian rookie Celine Borge with first round leader Lee-Anne Pace of South Africa and Australia’s Minjee Lee, chasing her second major title after a second round 67.

For Reid, it is a big change from deciding to give up playing due to injury.

“I legit quit,” she said. “When I got my injury, I tried to play through it, which I kind of felt I had to. In September I literally told Carly (her wife), I’m going into the media, I’m not playing golf anymore.

“With things like that, if you just give me a bit of space, I do kind of work it out myself.

“I missed the competitiveness of it and I thought let’s give it one more go. I’ve just been really enjoying myself this year.”

Maguire birdied four of her final six holes as she took the halfway lead in a major for the first time.

“This is uncharted territory for me,” Maguire said. “Whatever happens this week, I’m sure I’ll learn a lot, and just sort of taking it one day at a time.

“I think this golf course demands that. I think you can’t think more than one shot ahead, let alone a hole or a round ahead.”

Northern Ireland’s Stephanie Meadow shot a second round 68 to be in a group on one-under with only 15 players under par on the Lower Course at Baltusrol.

World number nine Lexi Thompson birdied her last four holes to sneak inside the cut at four-over-par, but England’s Georgia Hall, Charley Hull, Bronte Law and Laura Davies all missed out, alongside world number two Nelly Korda, number four Lilia Vi and number six Atthaya Thitikul.

Harriet Dart is confident her game is heading in the right direction after her run at the Rothesay Classic in Birmingham was ended by a narrow quarter-final loss to Anastasia Potapova.

Dart defeated top-30 player Anhelina Kalinina for the second week in a row to reach the last eight but was unable to capitalise on a good start against fourth seed Potapova, losing out 4-6 6-3 6-4.

It has been a difficult season for Dart, who has plummeted out of the top 100 after a breakthrough year in 2022, but the 26-year-old has found her form on grass and this was a second consecutive quarter-final appearance following on from Nottingham last week.

“I thought it was a really high-level match,” said Dart, who has been awarded a wild card for Eastbourne next week.

“I don’t think I served particularly very well but managed to find a way to get ahead with the first set. I definitely had a lot of chances. But overall a positive week.

“Of course I wanted to do better today and to keep going but it’s important just to keep building week in, week out to be able to compete with the best players in the world.

“And to also be realistic. This is grass, it’s a unique surface. I really enjoy these couple of weeks and just to try and use this momentum for the rest of the season.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Harriet Dart (@harriet_dart)

“Today I played someone who’s 21 in the world and lost 6-4 in the third, and I think there’s a lot of areas I can improve on, so it’s heading in the right direction.”

Dart struggled with her serve throughout the match but managed to win the opening set despite five double faults, producing some fine shots from the back of the court, and she made the first move in the second set with a break for 2-1.

But Potapova, ranked 21st, began to punish Dart’s second serve and the Russian turned the match around with a run of four games in a row, cutting down on the errors that had blighted her game.

Dart recovered from 3-1 down in the deciding set to level at 3-3 but Potapova’s heavy groundstrokes were taking their toll and the Russian broke again before serving out the victory.

Potapova next faces second seed Jelena Ostapenko, who mounted an impressive comeback from a set and 4-0 down to defeat Magdalena Frech 4-6 7-5 6-2.

The Latvian played until after 8pm on Thursday night in her victory over Venus Williams and was back on court on Friday lunchtime to take on Pole Frech.

Ostapenko needed treatment for a left calf problem and at one stage looked like she might not finish the match but she managed to turn things around in the second set before taking the decider.

“It was very little time to recover from yesterday because we finished very late,” she said.

“I was struggling as well with my left calf. I was thinking at some point maybe I should not continue but there is a fighter inside of me so I want to play until I cannot walk or something.

“After winning the second set I felt like I was playing better and my footwork was there. I’m really glad to manage to win this match.”

Top seed Barbora Krejcikova is through to the last four for the first time at a grass-court event having beaten teenage compatriot Linda Fruhvirtova 6-3 6-2, and the Czech will take on China’s Zhu Lin, who was a 4-6 6-3 6-2 winner over Rebecca Marino.

Rob Burrow’s daughters Macy and Maya played a starring role ahead of Leeds Rhinos’ Betfred Super League clash against Huddersfield Giants at Headingley on Friday.

The duo led a dance performance and also teamed up to conduct the pre-match interviews with respective coaches Rohan Smith and Ian Watson as part of a ‘Burrow Family Takeover’ in the Rhinos’ annual MND Awareness game.

Smith dodged Macy’s cutting question about his favourite player by responding: “I think my favourite player is your dad”, while Maya nudged Watson into revealing he was “a bit nervous” given the magnitude of the match.

Burrow’s four-year-old son Jackson also had a crucial job as he presented a special Rob Burrow/MND Association match ball to referee Ben Thaler.

Burrow was set to pick the man of the match after what Smith described as a “mini Grand Final”, with both clubs clinging onto increasingly tenuous hopes of landing a play-off place.

The Rhinos wore their special Doddie Weir celebration shirt for the fixture, from which 20 per cent of all gate receipts would be donated to the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation set up by the late Scotland rugby union forward who died last year of motor neurone disease, the same condition afflicting Burrow.