British success stories at the Dublin Racing Festival are few and far between – and virtually non-existent when it comes to Grade One contests. But in 2019 La Bague Au Roi broke the mould, as she lifted the roof off the Leopardstown grandstand.

Many had questioned the sanity of trainer Warren Greatrex when fresh from holding off the likes of Topofthegame and Santini in the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase, he suggested heading into the backyard of the Irish rather than trotting down the typical pathway of the Cheltenham Festival.

However, the Lambourn handler had a plan and whereas the undulations of Prestbury Park were never going to be La Bague Au Roi’s ideal cup of tea, the parkland on the outskirts of the Irish capital were seen as the ideal ballpark for the star mare to double her Grade One tally.

“She won the Kauto Star and it was just thinking outside the box really,” said Greatrex.

“We knew historically the ground wasn’t always too bad there and she never really coped with bottomless ground, so it was just the case of a little plan hatched after Kempton and the owners were very sporting and willing to give it a go.

“There was a lot of pressure and a lot of people were thinking I was mad to take an English mare over to a Grade One in Ireland. But I thought the track and ground would suit and Richard Johnson had won the Irish Gold Cup on Florida Pearl so he knew the track inside out.

“I never thought Cheltenham would be her gig, she was fancied the year after and ended up unseating Richard Johnson in the Plate when I thought she would have taken some beating.

“Sometimes thinking outside the box pays off and it pays off to be a little bit braver, which is what sport is all about I think.”

Crossing the Irish Sea unbeaten in three over fences, La Bague Au Roi had every right to be among the favourites for the Flogas Novice Chase.

And when top Irish novice Delta Work was pulled out of the contest by trainer Gordon Elliott, she became the odds-on 10-11 favourite for an away game, leaving her trainer with some last-minute jitters to contend with,

“Delta Work was pulled out in the morning which meant she was a very short-priced favourite. As a trainer you like to see that, but obviously the pressure is then even bigger,” said Greatrex.

“To go over there, which is pretty unusual for the English to go over with a fancied horse, you are sort of panicking. You believe in the horse, but you are panicking and thinking ‘Is this the right thing to do?’.”

If the nerves were beginning to get to Greatrex, then no one informed big-race pilot Johnson, who bounced La Bague Au Roi out in customary fashion and began to put the best of Ireland’s novice chasers to the sword.

Having dictated terms throughout the time came to stamp her authority when challenged by 33-1 outsider Kaiser Black after the last and she displayed toughness in abundance to repel her only danger close home.

It remains the only British triumph in a Grade One at the Dublin Racing Festival and for all the big-race victories Greatrex has won in his training career, it is a day that will live long in the memory.

“There’s a picture I have of her at the last and Richard asked her from miles away and she delivered,” continued Greatrex.

“When you see the picture it’s fairly scary how far she was standing off it and she was all heart and never gave up.

“The Leopardstown win was big. I believed in her and I have to say – and I’ve trained a few Grade Ones – that was one I really enjoyed because to go to Ireland and beat them at their own back door is pretty cool. That win was a big feather in our cap, I think”

La Bague Au Roi would return to Leopardstown the following year to finish a battling fifth in the Irish Gold Cup, but no one can ever take that glorious afternoon from 12 months previous away from her.

It was the final triumph in a 28-race career that yielded 14 victories across the space of six seasons and she is now under the watch of former Premier League and Ireland international footballer Kevin Doyle at his family’s Slaney River Stud in County Wexford.

Always keen to hear about one of his star pupils, Greatrex keeps in contact with those in Ireland who report she shows the same character in retirement as she did when one of the leading lights on the racecourse.

Greatrex added: “I’ve been told that in the paddock she is the boss and she was very much like that here. Everyone knew when she was about as she would walk around Lambourn like she owned it.

“She was an amazing mare and won two Grade Ones and I hope somewhere down the line I can train one of her offspring.

“She was just so straightforward, she never missed a day and you could read her like a book. The more annoying she became, you knew you were having her ready.

“She just went through the grades and was phenomenal. She was like a model to look at, she was tall and leggy, never carried too much condition, but she was just very easy to train and just a brilliant horse to train.

He went on: “You would never look at her at home and think she was exceptional, she went through the motions and wasn’t very fast, but she had a big heart.

“Even when she ran in the Kauto Star, the way she fended them off, she was as tough as a boy and will live long in the memory. They only come around once every so often and she was a one-off I think.”

David Christie classes Ferns Lock as the best horse he will send to the Cheltenham Festival as he eyes up the St. James’s Place Festival Challenge Cup Open Hunters’ Chase.

Christie saw Winged Leader edged out by Billaway in 2022, while last year he saddled 9-4 favourite Vaucelet to finish seventh in the amateurs’ contest.

However, the exciting Ferns Lock has always looked a class above his contemporaries and having claimed Thurles’ Carey Glass Hunters Chase at a canter for the second year running, he is now poised to be unleashed at Prestbury Park on the final day of the Festival.

“It looks like Cheltenham is the way to go,” said Christie.

“I would probably be in agreement with Ruby Walsh and a few other people in that Aintree would maybe be more his cup of tea because he has so much class and speed, but saying that, you can’t really not go to Cheltenham.

“We’ve been patient and we may as well give it a go and see what it brings us.

“He’s a really exciting horse and has lots of pace. If you were to run him in handicaps or even Graded races then you would be wanting to run him over two and a half miles or even shorter. He’s exciting and his half-brother won a bumper for Ben Pauling at Newbury, so the family have that speed and class about them.”

Ferns Lock was high-up in the ante-post betting 12 months ago when Christie decided to take a patient approach with his young and inexperienced charge.

He swerved the Festival in favour of assignments closer to home then and although set to get his passport stamped this time around and as short as 5-2 with Sky Bet, his handler still has slight concerns about his maturity for a task as mammoth as National Hunt’s showpiece meeting.

“He’s a big horse, but he’s a very immature horse in his head and we probably in an ideal world would like to get another race into him before Cheltenham,” added Christie.

“We are wary with younger and immature horses that no matter how easy he won (at Thurles), he still has to run three miles and carry 12st on his back over fences on soft enough ground. So I’ll have to just leave it and train him for Cheltenham now but the worry is his immaturity a little bit.”

There is little doubt where Ferns Lock stands in Christie’s pecking order though, with the County Fermanagh trainer describing the seven-year-old as “just a better horse” than those he has travelled to Cheltenham in the past.

He said: “Winged Leader was just beaten there and Vaucelet loves really good ground and has won plenty of hunter chases. He was actually sick at Cheltenham and we didn’t realise until we got back home. He was beaten 10 lengths but he was sick and we didn’t know and then the travelling and that brought these things out.

“But even when you take that into account, this is still a better horse than Winged Leader and Vaucelet. He’s just a better horse. If you asked me to put them 1-2-3, then he would be the best.”

Preparing his string this winter in the west of Ireland has proved tricky for Christie, but if an upturn in the weather can revitalise Vaucelet, he could be handed a second bite of the Festival cherry, with former Willie Mullins inmate Ramillies another on track for the Cotswolds.

“It’s been such a horrendous year in terms of ground and weather and for someone like me who trains in one of the most westerly spots in Ireland, you can’t underestimate how difficult a year that makes it,” explained Christie.

“Vaucelet is a spring horse and as the days get longer and everything else, if there is a bit of a spark between now and Cheltenham, then I would definitely consider him.

“The other horse who will run, all being well, is the ex-Willie Mullins horse, Ramillies. He’s just turned nine and I’m basically keeping him fit point-to-pointing and doing very little with him at home – that is his work.

“He’s getting his confidence in the point-to-points and we will aim for Naas on February 10 and if all goes well there, then we will go to Cheltenham.”

He went on: “You can go with a couple of nice horses, but it is difficult to win at Cheltenham and you need so many things to go your way.

“There’s plenty of us in Ireland who have good horses, but you have to have plenty of respect for the likes of Will Biddick and Bradley Gibbs, who won it last year, because they are just good at what they do and they deserve what they get. It’s OK me saying I have a nice horse, but they do too and they know how to train as well.”

Galopin Des Champs remains on course to spearhead what is sure to be a formidable team for Willie Mullins into battle at this weekend’s Dublin Racing Festival.

The reigning Cheltenham Gold Cup hero bounced back to his best with a scintillating performance in Leopardstown’s Savills Chase over Christmas period and will be short odds to follow up with a successful defence of the Irish Gold Cup at the Foxrock circuit on Saturday.

Following six winners across three meetings in Britain and Ireland on Saturday, a Sunday treble at Naas and two more victories at Punchestown on Monday, the champion trainer is firing on all cylinders ahead of a high-profile meeting he traditionally dominates.

And with Galopin Des Champs set to be joined by the likes of State Man, El Fabiolo and a whole host of promising novices, another Mullins bonanza could be in store.

“Everything is going well and at the moment everything is on song, unless something works bad during the week,” he said.

“He (Galopin Des Champs) is all set for it and he’s going to work tomorrow or the next day.

“We’re happy, there is no reason that we’re not happy at the moment – we’re very happy with him.

“They are getting enough rain up there. I think they got plenty today and there is more forecast, it was probably needed.”

Steve Borthwick insists England’s battle-hardened players are ready for the Guinness Six Nations as a result of facing greater club demands than any of their rivals.

Borthwick’s 36-man squad have comfortably racked up the highest number of minutes played since the World Cup due to their Gallagher Premiership and European commitments.

But while they will enter the Six Nations depleted by a greater workload – they have accumulated over two hours of game time more per player than next highest France – Borthwick believes they have benefited from the competitiveness of English clubs.

Six Premiership teams have reached the knockout phase of the Investec Champions Cup while the domestic league itself is more compelling that ever following its reduction in  teams.

“The players are match-hardened, so that’s a great benefit. Generally I will try to look at the positive side and I have a group of players that are match-hardened. They are ready to go,” Borthwick said.

“The other thing is the nature of the Premiership. All of the games are counting so the leverage of all these games is huge.

“And there have been teams fighting in Europe to get qualification, fighting to find a way to win which, again, is a real positive.

“Everything we’re getting is saying all the clubs are running more than they were 12 months ago, so that’s a real positive.”

England may enter Saturday’s opener against Italy in a fitter state than they were at the equivalent stage in 2023, but Premiership duty will not have equipped them for breakdown and contact area demands of a Six Nations.

And Borthwick has also told his players that there is a minimum requirement every time they pull on a Red Rose jersey.

“The Six Nations is a real contest. It’s breakdown contest game so we need to ensure that we’ve got that running right as well as the level of repeatability around the contact area,” Borthwick said.

“We are going to improve as a rugby team. We will get tactically and technically better, and we will get fitter.

“The supporters also need to see that this team fights all the time, is competitive all the time and plays at the intensity required in an England team.

“That is the base standard and if you have that, you can add the technical and tactical elements that will then follow.”

Argentinian coach Gonzalo Quesada took charge of Italy after the World Cup, replacing Kieran Crowley, and Borthwick insists England will have to think on their feet to contain a repurposed Azzurri.

“Under Kieran Crowley Italy played a phased attack game,” he said.

“They beat Australia, pushed South Africa, beat Wales in Cardiff and in the first game of the Championship last year they went very close to beating France. This is a very dangerous team.

“Quesada played a very different style to that at the Jaguares and at Stade Francais, much more of a blend of forward dominance with competitive kicking, lower phase count.

“They are two contrasting styles so the interesting question for Italy is what can they put together in that first game? We’ll have to be ready to recognise what style they are bringing very early in the game.”

Baaeed has sired his first foal with a new arrival at Haras de la Perelle in Normandy.

The Shadwell-owned superstar was trained to six successive Group One victories by William Haggas, landing the Lockinge, Queen Anne, Sussex Stakes and Juddmonte International in his four-year-old season before meeting with the only defeat of his career in the Champion Stakes.

He subsequently retired to Beech House Stud in Newmarket, having earned over £2.5million in prize-money and stands there for a current fee of £80,000.

His first foal is a bay filly out of Mejthaam, a well-related Exceed And Excel mare who is a half sister to Alflaila – also owned by Shadwell and trained by Owen Burrows to three Group-race successes so far.

William Rimaud, manager of Haras de la Perelle, said of the new arrival: “We are delighted with her.

“She is a strong, good-sized foal, full of energy and has a great temperament.

“She is doing everything right. It is very exciting to have had the first foal of the brilliant champion Baaeed.”

Harry Fry will not shirk a Cheltenham Festival rematch with Lossiemouth despite seeing his own star mare Love Envoi come off clear second best in their clash in Saturday’s Unibet Hurdle.

The latter is already a Festival winner having claimed the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle in 2022 and last season gave the retiring Honeysuckle a real run for her money in the Mares’ Hurdle itself.

Fry admitted to being disappointed with Love Envoi’s performance when filling the runner-up spot in the rescheduled Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Sandown last month, but was much more encouraged by her display on Cheltenham Trials day, albeit she was no match for the impressive Lossiemouth.

“Obviously the winner was in a different league, but we were pleased with the run,” he said.

“She travelled and jumped with her usual fluency and it was good to see that she was much sharper for her reappearance.

“The Mares’ Hurdle has always been the plan, we were runner-up in the race last year and we’ve got six weeks to look forward to going back there.

“Obviously Lossiemouth is going to be very hard to beat on the form she showed on Saturday, but it’s a horse race at the end of the day and you’ve got to be in it to win it.”

Love Envoi is a general 14-1 shot for the Mares’ Hurdle, with the Willie Mullins-trained Lossiemouth odds-on to record her second Festival win following last year’s Triumph Hurdle success.

Such was the impression she made on her comeback, plenty have suggested Lossiemouth should be heading for the Champion Hurdle, a notion Fry is unsurprisingly fully behind.

He quipped: “I don’t know what they’re thinking, I think it’s a no-brainer to go for the Champion Hurdle. If anything is going to give Constitution Hill a race it must be her, surely!

“I can understand where they’re coming from (going for the Mares’ Hurdle), but they’ve all got to get there and in six weeks anything can happen.

“We know the trip on Saturday is short of our best and we prefer slower ground as well. Hopefully we get conditions in our favour and the more testing it is the better, basically.”

Glasgow wing Kyle Rowe has declared himself ready to step into the Scotland starting line-up in the absence of the injured Darcy Graham for Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations opener away to Wales.

The 25-year-old has scored seven tries so far in his first season since returning to Warriors following the demise of previous club London Irish last summer, including three in his last two outings before meeting up with Gregor Townsend’s squad.

Edinburgh wing Graham will miss at least the first two matches of the championship, in Cardiff and at home to France, with a quad issue.

Townsend must decide whether to replace Scotland’s joint second-highest try-scorer of all time with Rowe, who has one injury-stunted cap to his name, his Glasgow team-mate Kyle Steyn, who has just returned after three months out, or the uncapped Sale flyer Arron Reed.

“You never want to see anyone getting injured, but Darcy’s injury has given me an opportunity to potentially get a starting spot,” said Rowe. “If not, I’m just looking to get better as a player and person over this period. My main goal is to try and get as many games in the Six Nations as possible.

“Glasgow and Scotland are pretty similar in terms of attack and defence so it’s a pretty seamless transition from one set-up to another.

“I feel like what I’ve done over the course of the first half of the season has put me in good stead for potential selection.

“It’s about taking the confidence I’ve got in my game at the minute and bringing it to Scotland.”

The Scotland squad are currently training in Spain before travelling to Wales on Thursday, and Rowe acknowledges he faces a stiff challenge in the days ahead as he bids to prove he deserves the chance to add to his solitary cap.

“The back three is such a competitive area, even with Darcy being out,” he said. “We’ve got Duhan (van der Merwe), Blair (Kinghorn), Kyle, myself, Arron and Ross McCann, who are all capable of playing at the top level.

“All of the players in the back-line can score tries, so we’re pretty dangerous. We all go into training looking to prove to the coaches we can train and play at this level, so we’ll see what happens.”

Rowe’s Scotland debut away to Argentina in July 2022 lasted just 10 minutes after he damaged his ACL and part of his MCL, sidelining him for the entirety of last season.

“It was one of the worst injuries I could get,” he said. “It was very mixed emotions for me that day. It was a very proud moment for myself and my family and then to basically have that all taken away from me was pretty devastating.

“Not everybody does their ACL but you get those big injuries from time to time and it was devastating that my big injury had to come during my first cap for Scotland.”

After recovering from injury, Rowe was included in Scotland’s pre-World Cup training squad last summer before being cut from the final 33 for the showpiece in France.

“If I had come back a little bit quicker, I might have had an outside chance. but during the summer when I was coming into training I knew in my heart and my head that it was only a slim chance and it was a long shot that I was going to go to the World Cup,” he said.

“I didn’t hold any grudges or anything about not getting selected, I knew it was a long shot.

“I’m back in the squad now which is really good so I’m just looking to build on what I’ve done in the first part of the season and get a game for Scotland.”

Mick Appleby has delivered a positive winter bulletin on star sprinter Big Evs, as connections prepare to map out the three-year-old campaign for the Breeders’ Cup hero.

The speedy son of Blue Point was one of the standout sprinting juveniles of the 2023 season, winning four of his six starts and ending the year with success at Santa Anita in November.

That big-race verdict had connections dreaming of what the colt could achieve this year and having strengthened up during his time off, he is now reported to be in rude health as he begins building up to peak fitness ahead of the new term.

Appleby has his eye on a May return, but suitable ground appears to be crucial with the Oakham handler hesitant to start his stable standard bearer off in testing conditions.

“He’s doing well and back in training now. He’s wintered well and grown and filled out more – he looks a bit stronger now,” said Appleby.

“I’m going to have a sit down with his owner soon and map out a campaign for him. We would probably look at getting out May time I think, it’s just working out what there is for him early season really.

“It will all depend on what the ground will be like really more than anything – we don’t want it too soft, even though he handled it at Glorious Goodwood when he won on bottomless ground.

“We will play it by ear with him and he’s getting fitter, so we’ll crack on with him and see when he’s ready.”

Appleby is also preparing high-class operators Roberto Escobarr and Annaf for international duty in Saudi Arabia next month, where both will seek valuable prizes at the Saudi Cup meeting.

A three-time winner when trained by William Haggas, Roberto Escobarr claimed the Italian St Leger on stable debut for his new handler in November and after a tune-up run at Newcastle on New Year’s Day is now hoping for a bit of luck to ensure he makes the line-up for the $2.5million Red Sea Turf Handicap.

“Roberto Escobarr ran well at Newcastle and he’s possibly going out to Saudi for the Red Sea Handicap,” added Appleby.

“He needs three to come out at the moment, so hopefully he gets in and we’ve got Annaf going out there as well for the turf sprint. He’s in the dirt race as well but he’ll run on the turf.

“There’s a bit to look forward to with two nice horses and it’ll break the winter up a bit.”

Monty Williams believes the Detroit Pistons proved they care for the team after a morale-boosting win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Pistons have endured a dismal campaign, only snapping a 28-game losing streak at the end of December.

Detroit have since won a further three games, with their most recent victory coming on Sunday, in a 120-104 defeat of the Western Conference-leading Thunder, who were on a five-game winning spin.

Jalen Duren starred with 22 points and a career-best 21 rebounds for the Pistons, and while they remain rooted to the bottom of the Eastern Conference with the league's worst record (6-40), Detroit are showing they care, says Williams.

"I just think our guys care," he said. "We had every reason to make excuses, a back-to-back against the best team in the West, and our guys just competed."

Making the Pistons' win even more impressive was the fact that Cade Cunningham, their leading scorer, was out due to a lingering knee issue.

Cunningham played in a defeat to the Washington Wizards on Saturday, but Williams did not want to risk his star player.

"We felt like, on a back-to-back, if there was any level of concern, we didn't feel good putting him out there," Williams said.

Thunder coach Mark Daigneault, meanwhile, reflected on a poor all-round showing from his team.

"I thought it was an energy thing in both directions," Daigneault said.

"They played with great energy, beat us to balls, played with intensity, and as the game wore on, we couldn't drum up that same energy. They obviously deserved to win today."

Patrick Neville is not giving up his Gold Cup dream with The Real Whacker after seeing his stable star fill the runner-up spot in Saturday’s Cotswold Chase.

The eight-year-old won his first three starts over fences at Cheltenham last season, completing his hat-trick with a rousing victory over Gerri Colombe in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase.

He made an inauspicious start to the current campaign after pulling up in the Paddy Power Gold Cup, but did return with a minor injury, and a fourth-placed finish in the King George at Kempton on Boxing Day was a step in the right direction.

Neville was hoping a return to Cheltenham might result in a first victory of the campaign over the weekend and while he dropped to the rear of the field on the approach the final fence, there was much to like about the way he stayed on up the hill to finish best of the rest behind Capodanno.

“He’s come back in good form, he’s fresh and well,” said the North Yorkshire-based Irishman.

“I said at the start of the season we were aiming for one day – the Gold Cup has been the plan all the time and it still is.

“I was reading somewhere that he put two bad runs behind him, but on his first run he struck into himself, so there was an excuse for that, and I thought the King George run was a very good run.

“We took a lot out of his run on Saturday. Bypassing the second-last fence didn’t help us and he got a little bit outpaced turning in, but it was his first time in a proper battle, which he realised, and I liked the way he stayed on from the last.”

The Real Whacker is a best priced 66-1 for the Gold Cup with bet365, who make last year’s winner Galopin Des Champs the evens favourite and his old rival Fastorslow second in the market at 9-2.

Neville added: “Of course you’d have big respect for Galopin, but after that it’s wide open.

“You can’t beat course form, we know our horse loves the track and with a clear run now, we’re happy to take him on, no problem.

“He comes alive for the spring – he’s a spring horse and not a winter horse. We’d be hoping for a bit nicer ground as the ground on Saturday was dead and on better ground he should improve again.

“I think with that good run under his belt, with that bit more experience, I think he can improve and we’re happy with where we are.”

Charles Byrnes’ Blazing Khal is being aimed at a repeat William Hill Boyne Hurdle triumph as he makes another comeback after injury.

The gelding, now an eight-year-old, has always demonstrated plenty of ability but his career has been paused more than once by recurring issues.

An unbeaten novice hurdler who won two Grade Two Cheltenham contests in 2021, the horse then never fulfilled his potential in that sphere after missing the big spring festivals due to injury.

He was off the track for a total of 428 days as a result, but his comeback was a winning one when he landed the Boyne Hurdle at Navan last February in an impressive three-length success.

Blazing Khal then headed to the Stayers’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival where he finished sixth of 11 runners ahead of another enforced lay-off.

However, Byrnes has been bringing his charge back into work since summer last year and, all being well, intends to stage another comeback next month.

An entry has been made for the Stayers’ Hurdle at the Festival but Navan would have to go particularly well for that to become an option, although Aintree and the Punchestown Festival are both on the radar for later in the season.

“He’s doing OK, we haven’t had a great run with him but he’s doing well at the moment,” said Byrnes.

“We’re hoping to run him back in the Boyne Hurdle, the race he won last year, that’s the plan at the minute.

“We’ve had him in since July, he’s been stop-start but that’s how it is. We’ve no big expectations this time around; if it happens, it happens.

“He’s got an entry in the Stayers’ Hurdle but he’d have to really show himself off in the Boyne Hurdle to consider going – Aintree and Punchestown would be possibilities but with the way he is, we will take it day by day.

“It’s been different niggles with him but we’re staying positive.”

Jannik Sinner became tennis’ newest grand slam champion at the Australian Open while Aryna Sabalenka successfully defended her title.

The year’s first grand slam brought plenty of long matches and late nights and set the tone for an intriguing season to come.

Here, the PA news agency picks out five things we learned at Melbourne Park.

Changing of the guard

The shifting sands of the sport have moved extremely slowly over the last decade, but there is no doubt change is here – and more is on the way. No one will be writing off Novak Djokovic after one off-colour tournament – he still reached the semi-finals despite being nowhere near his best – but power is moving towards the youngest generation, led by Carlos Alcaraz and now Sinner. Rafael Nadal’s comeback adds extra intrigue heading towards the French Open.

Sabalenka setting the standard

Iga Swiatek remains world number one but not by much and, based on the last five slams, Sabalenka can lay claim to be the best across all surfaces. While Swiatek will be favoured to sweep all before her on clay again, she has work to do to prove she can be a consistent force on hard courts and grass. Sabalenka was awesome in Melbourne, never dropping a set and maintaining a sense of emotional calm that the rest of the locker room would have observed with some trepidation.

New Norrie

Cameron Norrie has been Britain’s Mr Dependable over the last three years, using his physical and mental prowess to battle his way into the top 10. But in Melbourne the 28-year-old showed a whole new attacking side to his game that was a joy to watch. Norrie pulled off the best slam victory of his career over Casper Ruud in the third round and pushed Alexander Zverev all the way to a deciding tie-break before bowing out. If he continues on the same path, he can put himself right in the mix at the biggest tournaments.

Raducanu back on track

Emma Raducanu may only have made the second round of her comeback slam before a tight loss to Wang Yafan but the signs were very encouraging. The 21-year-old played with conviction, looked good physically barring an unfortunate stomach bug and, most encouragingly, appeared happy and excited to be back on tour. It will take Raducanu time to find her level but there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic, especially if she sticks with new coach Nick Cavaday for a sustained period.

Late night addiction

Tournament director Craig Tiley’s claim that extending the event to 15 days would somehow fix the problem of matches going late into the night was always farcical, and so it proved. Even only having two matches in the day session did not guarantee the night session began on time, and Daniil Medvedev’s second-round clash with Emil Ruusuvuori did not finish until 3.39am. Until tennis accepts that matches are becoming ever longer and schedules accordingly, nothing will change.

“Special” Jannik Sinner is ready to lead tennis’ youth revolution alongside Carlos Alcaraz, according to his coach Darren Cahill.

Sinner’s comeback victory against Daniil Medvedev in the Australian Open final gave him a first grand slam title and appears a sign of things to come.

The 22-year-old has followed in the wake of Carlos Alcaraz, who is two years younger, and between them they have now won three of the last six slams, with Novak Djokovic winning the rest.

The Serbian will be 37 in May and, while writing him off would be extremely premature, there is no doubt the hierarchy is changing.

Cahill said: “I think this sport at the moment has a few superstars. I think Carlos is very similar to Jannik in both the way they play with the excitement level they bring to the game, and their personalities and their likability.

“Both guys are incredibly alike off the court. They both like each other. They have a friendly rivalry. They both light it up when they play each other. I don’t think any of their matches have ever been boring.

“I think we have some really good personalities in the game at the moment, and it’s important they keep winning. It’s important they do what Jannik was able to do, and that’s to show a side of this young generation that are going to fight until the very end.”

He continued: “They really want to make a name for themselves, and Jannik did that. Carlos has done that already a couple of times, the match he played at Wimbledon to beat Novak was just a special performance.

“Our job now is just to make sure that we keep him pumped up. It’s a long year, and it’s important to enjoy the moment, but when we get back onto the tennis court, we will try to keep him in that good mindset and try to keep him winning.”

Alcaraz became a slam champion as a teenager in New York before stunning Djokovic in five sets at Wimbledon last summer.

Sinner’s path has been more gradual and Cahill, who previously worked with the likes of Lleyton Hewitt, Andre Agassi and Simona Halep, has no doubt Alcaraz’s success has inspired his man.

“Hell, yeah, absolutely,” he said with a smile. “There’s no question seeing the young players come through and having success drives each and every one of them. Not just Jannik. They all desire it.

“Carlos has trailblazed for a lot of young players. We’re thankful for that. He’s a delight to watch play, and a delight to watch him on court. We aspire to be as good as him and hopefully one day be better than him but, at the moment we’re chasing Carlos, and we’ll continue to do that.”

Sinner, who hails from the north of Italy and was a champion skier as a child, split from long-term coach Riccardo Piatti in the summer of 2022 and hired renowned Australian Cahill and countryman Simone Vagnozzi.

The combination is certainly working, and Cahill added: “We believe in Jannik, we always have. He’s a special young kid. Even the way he hits the ball, it just sounds special.

“When you hit the ball the way he does, when you want to improve the way he does, when you move the way he does, he’s going to have success at some point.

“Our job as coaches is to try to fast track that as quickly as possible and get him to where he wants to go quickly so he can have a long window at the top of the game.

“He’s been doing well. He’s absorbing everything and trying new things on the court, and he just wants to get better. I’m sure after this sinks in he won’t settle. He’ll never settle.”

Sinner is popular with his peers, who have long known the explosive power contained in his wiry frame.

Speaking on Eurosport, Australian star Nick Kyrgios said: “Jannik is an incredibly nice guy in the locker room. You always see him super professional, but he’s like a sponge.

“Ever since he came on tour that first match he played against Steve Johnson in Rome, the locker room was watching and thinking, ‘Who is this skinny guy who has the crowd in the palm of his hand?’. We could already see the ball-striking.

“This is going to be such a big leapfrog to him, I think we’re going to see him win plenty more slams in the next couple of years. Now he’s got this one, he’s going to be unstoppable.”