Andy Murray’s final warm-up for Wimbledon ended in a straight sets defeat to world number six Holger Rune at the Hurlingham Club.

The two-time Wimbledon champion, who opted for some extra match play following his first-round exit at Queen’s Club last week, was beaten 6-4 6-4 at the Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic.

Murray moved well on court against his 20-year-old opponent but could not capitalise on his chances, notably four break points in the sixth game of a tight opening set.

A double fault from the 36-year-old gifted Rune the first break of the contest and he was ultimately unable to battle back after dropping serve in the first game of the second.

Murray had won 10 successive matches in claiming back-to-back grass-court titles in Surbiton and Nottingham before suffering an early exit at Queen’s at the hands of Alex De Minaur.

“It’s great obviously to play these sorts of matches a few days out from Wimbledon,” Murray said in his on-court interview after his defeat.

“He’s one of the top players in the world, so you get to see exactly where your game is at. There are things to work on but it keeps you very sharp.

“I would have liked to have done a little bit better but I can start from here and build on this.”

Two days before discovering his fate as an unseeded player in the Wimbledon draw, the Scot was given a serious workout on a warm afternoon in west London.

A fashion show provided the pre-match entertainment on the north bank of the river Thames and it was the energetic Rune who proved to be the more stylish on court.

Like many of the catwalk models, the Dane had his baseball cap on backwards and he exuded the confidence of a player who has recently won four ATP titles, including defeating Novak Djokovic in the 2022 Paris Masters final.

Former world number one Murray grew into the encounter and showed glimpses of his grand-slam winning best throughout with soft hands at the net, powerful groundstrokes and some delightful lobs.

However, Rune often had the edge when it mattered in an exhibition match lasting around an hour and 40 minutes.

Murray, currently ranked 39 by the ATP, was finally broken in the ninth game following one of a handful of double faults across the high-profile exhibition match.

Rune wasted little time in wrapping up the set and then swiftly backed it up with a further break en route to another impressive victory of his fledgling career which underlines his credentials as an outsider for glory at SW19 in the coming fortnight.

John ‘Shark’ Hanlon’s son, Paddy, rode his first winner under rules at just the second attempt when guiding Chef d’Etat to victory in the Richard Newland Racing National Hunt Flat Race at Worcester.

The young amateur – an experienced regular on the pony racing scene in Ireland – only picked up his licence a week ago and had his first ride at Leopardstown on June 22 when unplaced on his father’s Pahlavi.

The claims of Chef d’Etat were far more obvious, though, and he was sent off the 4-6 favourite to follow up his 33-1 debut win at Tramore.

On that occasion he was ridden by teenage American jockey Taylor Kingsley – but travel problems prevented her from taking the ride on this occasion, allowing young Hanlon to step into the breach.

Those who took the short odds never had too much to worry about, but the trainer was visibly relieved when the race was over.

“He gave it a peach, he stayed patient and stayed sitting and went down the inside, he gave it a lovely ride, so he did,” said Hanlon, who has enjoyed so much big-race success with bargain-buy Hewick in the last 14 months.

“He’s actually done a lot of pony racing, he won the Dingle Derby last year and that stands to him, pony racing means so much – around Ireland and England there should be a lot more of it.”

The winning rider told Sky Sports Racing: “He travelled beautifully for me, we got a gap up the rail and he got going. I feel so sorry for Taylor, she was supposed to ride but couldn’t get here.

“He travelled beautiful for me, when we turned in I knew we didn’t need to go quick straight away. He kept at it to the line to be fair and he’s a nice horse.”

He added: “This beats anything in pony racing and I’d just like to thank everyone involved for letting me ride.”

Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia have ended their feud in the wake of the proposed peace deal between golf’s rival factions.

The former Ryder Cup team-mates fell out following Garcia’s move to LIV Golf, with McIlroy emerging as the most vocal opponent to the Saudi-funded breakaway.

But even though McIlroy admitted earlier this month that he still “hates” LIV Golf, he and Garcia rekindled their friendship at the US Open in Los Angeles.

Asked in a press conference ahead of LIV’s event in Valderrama this week if the deal was good news, Garcia said: “I think so. I think it’s great.

“I think in my personal opinion I wish this would have happened a year and a half ago when we all started, and it would have been better for all of us. I really think so.

“To give you an example – it wasn’t because of the merger, but the US Open was a great event for me.

“I feel like I played well, but more than anything because I gained a friend back, a friend that I kind of felt like I lost in the last year or so. We talked and we had a great conversation, and I feel like I have that friend back and that to me means a lot.”

Speaking to reporters after the press conference, Garcia revealed that a friendly interaction at the US Open between his wife Angela and McIlroy had been the catalyst.

“I had been thinking about it for a while but I wasn’t totally sure,” Garcia said.

“But then I saw that reaction from him and it kind of gave me the incentive to get closer and we had a great chat.

“I think that at the end of the day, the important thing is that we got together and talked; we were two friends that wanted to get back to that spot.

“Like I said, no doubt it was the saddest part of all of this, these friendships turning sour.”

Desert Crown is back in light exercise following the setback which ruled him out of Royal Ascot.

Last year’s Derby winner has only been seen once in public since his famous Epsom win, when surprisingly beaten by Hukum at Sandown in the Brigadier Gerard Stakes.

He wowed gallop watchers when tuning up for the Prince of Wales’s Stakes and Frankie Dettori had been booked for the big day, but just over a week beforehand connections were dealt a blow.

Following a routine gallop he was giving off cause for concern and while no major damage has been discovered, Sir Michael Stoute’s colt was unable to go to Ascot.

Philip Robinson, owner Saeed Suhail’s assistant racing manager, said: “He’s started cantering, having been walking all last week, and is all is good.

“Nothing showed up on any scans or X-rays or anything, so it must have just been a bruise or something like that which just set him back 10 days.

“I’m not sure where he’ll run, I wouldn’t have thought Sir Michael will rush him back, he’ll just take his time and when he’s back in full work then he’ll make a plan.

“It was just one of those really unfortunate things that happens with horses, but they are athletes and these things happen.”

Rachael Blackmore has been made an honorary MBE for services to sport.

The 33-year-old won the 2021 Grand National on Minella Times and the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2022 on A Plus Tard, becoming the first female rider to win the two biggest prizes in National Hunt racing.

She was crowned leading rider at the Cheltenham Festival in 2021 and in the same year won the BBC Sports Personality’s World Sport Star of the Year award.

Blackmore is perhaps best known for her association with the Henry de Bromhead-trained mare Honeysuckle, who won 17 of her 19 races including two Champion Hurdles at Cheltenham.

Honorary MBEs recognise those from overseas who excel in their field in Britain.

Frankie Dettori was made an honorary MBE in 2001 for his services to racing.

Marco Botti is banking on his decision to skip the Gold Cup at Ascot paying dividends in the Al Shaqab Goodwood Cup for Giavellotto.

Promoted to third in the St Leger behind Eldar Eldarov last season, he beat that rival in the Yorkshire Cup last month, admittedly in receipt of 5lb.

Botti decided against going to Ascot feeling two miles is as far as his stable star wants to go, and an entry in the Irish St Leger suggests he may even be coming back in trip later in the season.

“Giavellotto is very well and the plan was always to go straight for the Goodwood Cup,” said Botti.

“The horse won well at York and then we were keen to give him more time rather than stepping up to the Gold Cup, as we think two miles is his best trip.

“He has matured a lot mentally from three to four and we expected him to improve this season, as most stayers do with age. He used to wear a hood and get quite warm before his races but that was not the case in the Yorkshire Cup.

“We were disappointed on his first run back in the Dubai Gold Cup but he was drawn wide and the race did not pan out for him, so it was nice to see him show what we thought he was capable of at York.

“You never know until you run at Goodwood whether they will handle the track, but he seems a well-balanced horse and the long straight will be in his favour.”

Giavellotto is one of 26 entries for the Goodwood race, which include the Gold Cup winner Courage Mon Ami.

His John and Thady Gosden-trained stablemate and Queen’s Vase winner Gregory, who is so far unbeaten, is another potential rival.

Subjectivist, Coltrane, Eldar Eldarov and Emily Dickinson are others given the option.

Sir Nick Faldo believes LIV Golf cannot survive the proposed deal between golf’s warring factions, but that Rory McIlroy can thrive following the shock outbreak of peace.

Earlier this month the PGA Tour announced it was creating a new commercial entity with the DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), which bankrolls the breakaway circuit.

The deal is subject to judicial scrutiny in the United States and details remain thin on the ground, but the “framework agreement” does state that LIV’s future will be determined by the new entity, whose board will be controlled by a PGA Tour majority.

Asked ahead of the British Masters if LIV can survive, tournament host and six-time major winner Faldo said: “I don’t think so, because nobody’s really interested.

“They’re not going to get the sponsorship that they want. They call it a team (event) and it’s not because it’s strokeplay.

“You see your mates on the putting green and say ‘play well’ and you see them in the scorers tent and say ‘What did you shoot?’ That’s it. A team is out there helping, shoulder to shoulder. That’s a true team.

“You have the ultimate team event, the Ryder Cup, you know the passion and the atmosphere of that. They’re not playing with the same passion and atmosphere as the Ryder Cup.

“It’s only half a dozen (players) that are really current, half of the field I don’t really know and half the field are there for the very nice last-placed money that you still get if you shoot 20 over.”

Unsurprisingly, LIV player and HyFlyers team captain Phil Mickelson has a different view and believes everything that the rebels were promised by LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman is coming to pass.

“I think that right now we have basically an agreement to have an agreement and everything over the last couple of years that we’ve been told by Greg and everybody on LIV has come to fruition, so we have a lot of confidence in what they have been saying to us because everything has been happening,” Mickelson said ahead of the LIV event in Valderrama.

Asked if he felt vindicated by developments, Mickelson added: “I would say I felt appreciation that we got to this point where we’re working together because it makes me confident with where the game of golf is headed in the future.

“We felt like it was going to be about two years roughly before we got to that point. It took a year and a half, or six months quicker than I thought it would be.”

McIlroy admitted he felt like a “sacrificial lamb” when the proposed deal was announced, the four-time major winner having emerged as the public face of the PGA Tour in its battle with LIV.

The following week he cancelled his pre-tournament press conference ahead of the US Open at Los Angeles Country Club, where he finished second to Wyndham Clark to extend his major championship drought.

“I’m pretty sure Rory’s suffered from being constantly asked, being a spokesman (for the PGA Tour),” Faldo said. “You want a clear head when you go and play golf, you want to be able to concentrate.

“I’d rather be playing well and fending off questions about why I finished second than why I finished 152nd. If you finish second it’s stewards’ inquiry and a dissection but he’s there, he’s playing that well every week.

“He’s playing beautifully so if he can just get those wedges a smidgen closer that changes everything. Putting under pressure to putting for birdie is a huge difference.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s seriously inspired at Hoylake. That’s where he won last time (the 2014 Open).

“There is scar tissue from nine years without a major and not too many players have come back from a long gap and then go on to reboot your career and win more, but I’m sure he would just love to be able to bowl up, go and practice and play with minimal off-course work and interference.

“You need that when you’re trying to play your best. You’ve got to have that all day long.”

Mick Appleby’s Big Evs is Goodwood-bound after a memorable victory at Royal Ascot.

The Blue Point colt had a second-placed debut run under his belt when he lined up at 20-1 in the Windsor Castle Stakes at Ascot last Wednesday, but under Jason Hart he was a decisive winner when defeating Aidan O’Brien’s 100-30 favourite Johannes Brahms by three lengths.

The Molecomb at Goodwood’s headline meeting is next on the agenda, a Group Three run over five furlongs, with a trip to the Knavesmire at York also pencilled in later in the season.

Appleby said: “I did quite fancy him because he worked well with Annaf (King’s Stand third) the Saturday before.”

“I was pretty confident he would finish in the first three but I didn’t think he would win like that. Obviously he is a very good horse.

“I had plenty of messages of congratulations afterwards which I was very appreciative of. It is what we do it for and Royal Ascot is where everyone wants to have winners.

“He is more than likely to now go for the Molecomb at Goodwood. I think that is the most obvious target for him and then we will go from there.”

At York the two-year-old could stick to five furlongs for the Nunthorpe, but there is also a chance he could step up a furlong and take on the Gimcrack Stakes instead.

Appleby said: “We’ve said we will possibly look at the Nunthorpe afterwards but Goodwood is next on the agenda. We did half think about going for the Gimcrack at York after Goodwood as well.

“Whether he will get six furlongs I don’t know, but it didn’t look like he was stopping at Ascot.

“At York I think he probably would get six furlongs, but we will get Goodwood done first then make a decision which route we take after that.

“The owner has had a few offers on the table for him but he is not interested in selling him which is good to see.”

Dermot Weld will give the Coolmore America ‘Justify’ Matron Stakes at Leopardstown “serious consideration” for his star filly Tahiyra.

The Aga Khan-owned three-year-old landed the third Group One success of her short career to date when successful in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot last week.

She is currently on a short break at her owner’s Gilltown Stud with a view to an autumn campaign, with the race on Irish Champions Festival taking place on September 9.

“The Matron Stakes would certainly be a race we would definitely consider,” said Weld on the Dublin track’s website.

“Tahiyra has come out of last week well and is going on a short break at the moment and no decision has been made about her autumn campaign, but obviously the Matron Stakes will be given very serious consideration.”

Weld has won the race twice before, with Dress To Thrill (2002) and Emulous (2011), and he could also run Homeless Songs this year.

“Emulous was a very good filly I trained for Juddmonte. She was a very good winner of it. She was a very consistent filly, a multiple Group-winning filly,” he said.

“And of course Dress To Thrill was an unbeaten three-year-old filly that I trained for Moyglare. She was very talented. She won the Matron Stakes, the Sun Chariot at Newmarket and then, with a brilliant ride by Pat Smullen, won the Grade One Matriarch Stakes in California, beating the champion turf mare of America, Golden Apples.”

Above The Curve, Inspiral, Just Beautiful, Laurel, Moon De Vega and Aidan O’Brien’s Statuette, who has not run yet this season, are also among the 46 entries.

Mick Appleby’s Big Evs is Goodwood-bound after a memorable victory at Royal Ascot.

The Blue Point colt had a second-placed debut run under his belt when he lined up at 20-1 in the Windsor Castle Stakes at Ascot last Wednesday, but under Jason Hart he was a decisive winner when defeating Aidan O’Brien’s 100-30 favourite Johannes Brahms by three lengths.

The Molecomb at Goodwood’s headline meeting is next on the agenda, a Group Three run over five furlongs, with a trip to the Knavesmire at York also pencilled in later in the season.

Appleby said: “I did quite fancy him because he worked well with Annaf (King’s Stand third) the Saturday before.”

“I was pretty confident he would finish in the first three but I didn’t think he would win like that. Obviously he is a very good horse.

“I had plenty of messages of congratulations afterwards which I was very appreciative of. It is what we do it for and Royal Ascot is where everyone wants to have winners.

“He is more than likely to now go for the Molecomb at Goodwood. I think that is the most obvious target for him and then we will go from there.”

At York the two-year-old could stick to five furlongs for the Nunthorpe, but there is also a chance he could step up a furlong and take on the Gimcrack Stakes instead.

Appleby said: “We’ve said we will possibly look at the Nunthorpe afterwards but Goodwood is next on the agenda. We did half think about going for the Gimcrack at York after Goodwood as well.

“Whether he will get six furlongs I don’t know, but it didn’t look like he was stopping at Ascot.

“At York I think he probably would get six furlongs, but we will get Goodwood done first then make a decision which route we take after that.

“The owner has had a few offers on the table for him but he is not interested in selling him which is good to see.”

Damon Hill has praised Lewis Hamilton for the “admirable” way he “kept his chin up” after the controversy of Abu Dhabi – and believes the Mercedes man is “absolutely motivated” to win a record eighth world title.

Eighteen months have passed since Hamilton lost out to Max Verstappen at the contentious season finale, with his Dutch rival going on to take last year’s title too.

And Verstappen, 69 points clear in this season’s championship, is primed to complete his hat-trick.

Hamilton, 38, has not won a race since the penultimate round of the 2021 campaign – the longest losing streak of his career – but he heads to this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix following two consecutive podium finishes in his revamped Mercedes machine.

“It is admirable the way Lewis kept his chin up after what happened in Abu Dhabi,” Hill, the 1996 world champion, told the PA news agency.

“He got back on with the task in hand and he is driving better again this year than he has done before. He is starting to gel with that car now and he has solved some of the problems he faced.

“So I would be amazed if he doesn’t want to go out on a high by winning that eighth title, and he is absolutely motivated by that. He has got that longevity and he looks after himself.

“He needs a competitive car, half-a-chance, and someone like Lewis will rise up to that challenge and find more in himself. At the moment we are seeing a happier Hamilton, and a happy Hamilton is a fast Hamilton.”

The British driver’s future on the grid, however, remains a hot topic of speculation.

Hamilton has entered the final six months of his current £40million-a-season contract with Mercedes. But despite a string of recent discussions with team principal Toto Wolff, a conclusion to the saga is not understood to be imminent.

“The talk is that Lewis is finalising a much longer-term deal that goes beyond his racing career,” added Hill, 62.

“The car company itself is involved, so there is a bit more bureaucracy in this deal.”

Hamilton is already 93 points behind Verstappen in the standings after the Red Bull driver raced to his sixth victory from eight rounds to equal Ayrton Senna’s career tally of 41 wins last time out in Canada.

Following Verstappen’s triumph, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said his star driver must now be considered among Formula One’s all-time greats.

“Comparing different eras is quite difficult,” said Hill, who was speaking at his Halow Project charity event in Sandown following a world-first kart run on Zero synthetic fuel.

“They do many more races than they used to in the sport. But, nevertheless, in every era there are one or two drivers who are the cream of the crop, and you have to say Max is one of them, along with Lewis and Fernando (Alonso).

“I certainly see him having his own era called ‘the Max Verstappen era’ where he wins practically everything.

“If you appreciate great drivers and the job they do then it is great to watch. But I understand people want to see a race and not a demonstration and we have to be patient and hope the others catch him up pretty quickly.”

Elina Svitolina makes a startling admission about her trips home to Ukraine.

The former world number three is discussing visiting her troubled homeland and how it fits in with life as a new mother.

Her husband, fellow tennis player Gael Monfils, is, she reveals, “really worried” about her safety.

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But Svitolina told the PA news agency: “Of course it’s unsafe because the country’s in a state of war. I have to plan it really well with the safety measures and be careful always. But mentally I feel safer in Ukraine than anywhere else in the world.”

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine coincided with the early stages of Svitolina’s pregnancy – baby Skai was born in October – and she was absent from the match court for a year.

As one of Ukraine’s most high-profile sportspeople, the hiatus gave her an opportunity to dive fully into doing what she could to support her compatriots.

Alongside family snaps and pictures of her on-court exploits, Svitolina’s Instagram feed features images of her highlighting the heartbreaking damage caused to Ukraine and in meetings with president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

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Along with former Ukraine footballer Andriy Shevchenko, the 28-year-old is an ambassador for United24, the country’s official fundraising platform, while her own foundation, set up to support young tennis players, has widened its remit to provide relief for Ukrainian refugees.

Former boxer Vitali Klitschko made the switch from sport to politics and has a prominent role in Ukraine as mayor of Kyiv, but Svitolina is content with using her sporting profile to help her country.

“I’ve been quite interested in politics, and especially this time when I was pregnant, I have lots of friends who have different positions in Ukrainian politics and many friends as well who know a lot about it,” she said.

“But I never really wanted to go that way. I just want to be aware what is happening in my country, to learn and to understand how we can help at different levels for the people.

“I’m really happy with the position I have right now, using my platform, using my voice in every possible way through sports. This is my way and I feel I’m in the right place, and I want to use it as much as possible to help people.”

Next week sees Svitolina return to Wimbledon, where her best performance was a run to the semi-finals in 2019.

Svitolina’s ranking was not high enough to earn her direct entry into the championships but the All England Club awarded her a wild card.

She will hope to make a similar impression to her emotional French Open return, where she followed up a WTA Tour title in Strasbourg by reaching the quarter-finals to propel her back into the top 100.

“For sure it was a great step forward for me,” said Svitolina, who only returned to the tour in April.

“I played really well in Strasbourg, Roland Garros was a great run for me, so I’m really happy I could find again this fighting spirit, playing well under pressure. Hopefully I can build on that. I’m really motivated to go back on the practice court and find again my good game and my good mindset.”

Svitolina will hope, also, that the Wimbledon crowd are more generous should she face a Russian or Belarusian player after she was booed in Paris for sticking to the Ukrainian position of not shaking hands with opponents from the two aggressor nations.

She knows she has work to do on grass, which is not such a natural surface for her, and her first match in Birmingham last week ended in a one-sided loss to Czech teenager Linda Fruhvirtova.

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Svitolina now has to juggle training with life as a mother and managing the conflicting feelings of spending time away from Skai.

“It’s not easy, especially a performance like (against Fruhvirtova), it makes you feel not great,” she says.

“But me and Gael decided it’s going to be a better way for her as well to not travel so much because it’s very draining travelling, different zones. She will be coming to London if we both play there so it will be nice to spend some time together.

“I think the hardest thing is for sure being away from the baby. Also finding the mindset again, playing matches. Physically I feel I’m there and I’m hitting fine but the mindset of being in the match and being focused from the start until the end, this has been the most challenging to me.”

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Always on her mind as well will be Ukraine and Svitolina is already thinking of when she might be able to return to her home city of Odesa.

“I’m looking to go back home in the near future,” she says. “I don’t know exactly when, maybe in a few months, maybe half a year. Obviously the tennis season is packed with tournaments but, as soon as I have the opportunity, I will definitely plan to go there.

“I want to see my grandmother, who is there, my dad was there as well for a couple of weeks. And just to see my friends, to go back to my home. I really miss my country and especially what is now happening, lots of damage to a lot of the cities that mean a lot to me.”

Royal Ascot winner Waipiro will continue his career in Hong Kong, trainer Ed Walker has announced.

The three-year-old has made huge strides in four starts this term, winning a Newmarket novice in April before going on to finish second in the Lingfield Derby Trial and a respectable sixth in the Epsom Classic itself.

Dropped back to 10 furlongs for the Group Three Hampton Court Stakes last week, Waipiro posted his best performance to date when triumphing by a cosy two and a half lengths from Exoplanet.

A half-brother to Waikuku, a multiple Group One winner in Hong Kong, Waipiro will not run again for Walker and will be campaigned towards the Hong Kong Derby in March for owners the Siu family.

Walker told Racing TV: “The reason I have horses for the Siu family, and they are such great supporters, is for that reason, to produce horses for Hong Kong.

“He’s the perfect horse for the Hong Kong Derby. Mr Siu tries to buy one or two horses for the Hong Kong Derby every year and why would you not take Waipiro and try to buy another one.

“Every owner in Hong Kong wanting a European horse for the Derby would want Waipiro. He’s the perfect horse – loves fast ground, has a high cruising speed, huge talent, 10 furlongs, he’s the right horse for the job.”