Andy Murray’s main memories of the biggest moment of his life are of tension and fatigue.

“I remember it being unbelievably stressful and then at the end of it huge relief,” he says of the victory over Novak Djokovic that ended Great Britain’s 77-year wait for a men’s singles champion at Wimbledon.

The year before had ended with Murray choked by tears on Centre Court following defeat by Roger Federer in his first final.

Twelve months later and with a long-awaited first slam title under his belt in New York, Murray faced another of his major foes with history at his fingertips.

Ten years on, the feelings remain seared in his mind.

“I was unbelievably nervous before the final and I also remember feeling like my team were really nervous,” he tells the PA news agency.

“They were struggling to hide it. My physical trainer, when we were doing the pre-match warm-up, he was fumbling all of the balls during the reaction drills.”

Even ‘Old Stone Face’ Ivan Lendl, the coach who had helped turn Murray into a slam champion, was not immune to the tension.

“Ivan doesn’t usually talk loads but before the final he was chatting a lot and I just felt my team were feeling it as well,” adds Murray.

“After the match I was exhausted. Twenty or 30 minutes after we got off the court, I was sitting with my wife and I was wanting to sleep. That is not usually how you feel after a match, normally the adrenaline makes it hard to sleep but I was completely spent after the match.”

The history books show Murray won in straight sets, 6-4 7-5 6-4, yet even when he served for the match in a tortuous game that somehow encapsulated all his struggles, it still felt on a knife edge.

Three match points came and went, then there were three break point chances for Djokovic as the tension around Centre Court ramped up and up. Murray stood firm, saving each one confidently, before a fourth chance came the Scot’s way, and this time his opponent netted.

The reaction from Murray was of sheer wide-eyed joy mixed with disbelief before the enormity of it all caught up with him.

For his opponent, the memories are of course very different, although Djokovic could find happiness amid his disappointment for the rival just a week older than him against whom he had been competing since childhood.

“It was not a great result for me obviously in the end, painful to lose a grand slam final, especially the Wimbledon final,” says Djokovic, who has lost only twice at SW19 in the decade since.

“But I was happy for Andy because he deserved it. He was working so hard to get his hands on the Wimbledon title.

“I had to congratulate him because he was a better player that day and it was kind of a perfect scenario for Great Britain and for him as a British player to win at Wimbledon on Centre Court.”

Among the crowd living every twist and turn was an 11-year-old Jack Draper, who eight years later made his own Centre Court debut.

“Watching Andy win Wimbledon on Centre Court in 2013 was an experience that I will never forget,” says the British number four.

“I was only 11 at the time but, looking back, it was definitely a moment that made me more motivated than ever to become a professional tennis player – and compete on the biggest stages against the world’s best players.

“I was very lucky to have Andy as a role model and hope that in the future I can do the same for young players.”

The experience was not at all the same for Murray’s brother Jamie, who was notably absent among the family and friends supporting the Scot courtside.

“I watched the final on a laptop in Stuttgart with my wife,” says the doubles specialist, who had already moved on to his next tournament.

“Of course it would have been great to be there to see him win but reality was it definitely wasn’t a sure thing. He was playing Novak, he’d lost a bunch of finals to that point.

“I was just glad that he won. I didn’t really care that I missed it. Obviously it was a weird situation to find yourself watching the match. The stream wasn’t even particularly great.

“I know what it meant to him to finally get his hands on the trophy. I don’t even remember what it was like when I saw him. Everything had kind of died down by then. It was a bit lame but that’s just the way it was.”

The Wimbledon victory cemented Murray’s place as one of Britain’s sporting greats, and he followed it up three years later with a second title.

Jamie does not believe achieving his biggest goal changed his brother, saying: “He was still incredibly motivated to do the best he could on the court and try to win more grand slams, that his talent probably deserved.

“That was an amazing moment in tennis where these four guys were playing in the semis and finals of every big tournament. They hoovered up everything for so long. I know Andy only won three but he played in 11 grand slam finals, which is a crazy career when you think about it.”

As Novak Djokovic bids for more history, Wimbledon organisers will be keeping their fingers crossed that the focus remains on tennis.

Two coronavirus-dominated years were followed immediately by the fall-out from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Wimbledon going out on a limb by banning players from the country and its ally Belarus 12 months ago.

The threat of further sanctions from the tours and a lack of support from the rest of the grand slams led Wimbledon to reverse its position this year, and Russian and Belarusian players will be permitted to return provided they remain neutral and are not funded by the regimes.

Organisers will have followed with some trepidation events at the Australian Open and French Open this year.

A ban on Russian flags in Melbourne did not stop a pro-Vladimir Putin demonstration taking place on the steps of Rod Laver Arena, which Djokovic’s father was – unwittingly, the family insisted – caught up in.

At Roland Garros, meanwhile, high-profile matches between Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian players saw the likes of Elina Svitolina booed for refusing to shake hands with opponents, while Aryna Sabalenka twice declined to do press conferences after being pushed on her political beliefs.

Similar behaviour from the crowd in the more genteel setting of SW19 appears unlikely but the prospect of the Princess of Wales presenting a trophy to a Russian or Belarusian player is very real.

Sabalenka will be among the favourites to win the women’s title while Russian duo Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev are both in the top 10 of the men’s rankings.

Another concern for organisers, meanwhile, will be the potential for environmental protesters to disrupt the tournament, with Wimbledon offering global exposure.

On the court, Djokovic will be heavily favoured to make it three straight slam victories having lost just twice at the All England Club in the last decade.

The Serbian, who has been overtaken again at the top of the rankings by Carlos Alcaraz, can equal Roger Federer’s men’s record tally of eight Wimbledon singles titles, while a 24th slam would draw him level with Margaret Court’s all-time mark, which has stood since 1975.

Having been struck down by cramp in their first slam meeting in Paris earlier this month, Alcaraz will be hoping for another shot at Djokovic, and he showed he is learning quickly on grass by claiming the title at Queen’s Club.

Last year’s finalist Nick Kyrgios has been hobbled by knee surgery this season and it is tough to think of realistic challengers to Djokovic.

Ten years on from his memorable victory over the Serbian to win his first Wimbledon title, it is stretching credulity to imagine Andy Murray could be in the mix again, but the Scot remains one of the few grass-court naturals and, if the draw is favourable, he will fully believe he can reach the second week at least.

British number one Cameron Norrie, meanwhile, will be hoping to emulate last year’s breakthrough run to the semi-finals.

The women’s draw is much more open, with former semi-finalist Sabalenka looking to overtake Iga Swiatek as world number one.

The Pole’s dominance on clay is not replicated on other surfaces, and defending champion Elena Rybakina should also be a strong contender having built impressively on her success.

New British number one Katie Boulter leads the domestic challenge in the absence of Emma Raducanu and is one of a number of home players who, draw permitting, is capable of causing upsets.

Wimbledon will miss the star presence of Rafael Nadal this year but several other high-profile names will be raring to go for the third major of 2023.

Defending champion Novak Djokovic will aim to extend his 28-match winning streak in SW19 and 2022 winner Elena Rybakina returns as one of the most prominent figures in the women’s game.

Here, the PA news agency looks at 10 players who will hope to light up the championships at the All England Club this summer.

Iga Swiatek

There is a degree of deja vu for the former Wimbledon junior champion who again arrives as world number one and fresh from winning at Roland Garros. The four-time grand-slam champion has been top of the WTA rankings since last April, but has made no secret of how “uncomfortable” she finds grass. After exiting in the third round in 2022, Swiatek will hope she can adjust to the lawn this time.

Elena Rybakina

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The unassuming Rybakina was the surprise package last year, keeping a calm head to win her first major at the age of 23. Victory occurred amid controversy given that while she represents Kazakhstan, she is Moscow-born and Russian state media celebrated her triumph. It has not affected Rybakina, who backed up her grass exploits by reaching the Australian Open final before winning Masters tournaments in Indian Wells and Rome to prove her credentials as part of a new big three in women’s tennis.

Aryna Sabalenka

Australian Open champion Sabalenka is the third member of the trio and will be out to make up for lost time following her enforced absence last year due to the ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes. It was a run to the semi-finals at the All England Club in 2021 that showed Sabalenka had the game to win a grand slam and the Belarusian ended her wait for major success in Melbourne back in January. She will be a formidable force in SW19.

Ons Jabeur

Jabeur’s love for the lawn is matched by her results on it. Last year’s finalist will be a fierce competitor in the battle to lift the Venus Rosewater Dish. The Tunisian’s style of play, with drop shots and deft touches aplenty, has earned grass-court titles in Birmingham and Berlin while in 2021 she made the last eight of the Championships, beating Garbine Muguruza and Swiatek.

Venus Williams

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A wild card for the 43-year-old veteran will continue the long tradition of a Williams sister featuring in the main draw at Wimbledon. You have to go back to 1996 for the last time neither Venus nor Serena were involved in the ladies’ singles. And Venus, a finalist at the All England Club in 2017, showed last week in Birmingham with two gutsy displays against top-50 players that she can still push the best and will be a star attraction in SW19.

Novak Djokovic

After titles at the Australian Open and Roland Garros, the calendar slam is on for defending champion Djokovic and who would bet against him? Djokovic has won the last four tournaments in SW19, is a seven-time Wimbledon winner and crucially will have no Rafael Nadal in his way this time. Djokovic dropped only one set in Melbourne, two at the French Open and the only thing left for him to achieve is winning each major in the same year, having achieved the non-calendar year slam across 2015 and 2016.

Carlos Alcaraz

One of the main rivals to Djokovic will be US Open champion Alcaraz. The all-action Spaniard won at Flushing Meadows in Djokovic’s absence before he lost to the Serbian while suffering with cramps at Roland Garros in May. Alcaraz has limited experience on grass and exited Wimbledon in the last 16 in 2022, but his impressive victory at Queen’s showed his potential and took him back to world number one. If he is to deny Djokovic, he will have to find a new level.

Holger Rune

With Jannik Sinner a potential injury doubt, Rune will hope to further push his cause as the star of the next generation. An impressive run to the Queen’s semi-finals showed his capability on grass after exiting in round one on his Wimbledon debut last year. Better known for his clay-court displays, having made the last eight at Roland Garros twice in the past 12 months, Rune will aim to keep his emotions in check and show his class in London.

Daniil Medvedev

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The Russian will be involved after last year’s ban on his compatriots and Belarusians. Despite being unable to compete in 2022, he still made two finals on grass and triumphed in Halle. Medvedev has never made it beyond the fourth round at the All England Club, but his 6ft 6in height and big serve make him a candidate for the title. He also stopped Djokovic achieving the calendar slam by beating him to win the US Open two years ago.

Cameron Norrie

Norrie’s big breakthrough at a major occurred at his home grand slam during a memorable run to the semi-finals in 2022. Djokovic stopped the British number one but the 27-year-old will have gained a huge amount of belief. The world number 13 should receive a favourable draw and continues to look more at ease on this surface, having made the Queen’s final two years ago. Backed again by the Wimbledon crowd, he will eye another unforgettable summer.

The tennis highlight of the British summer is upon us again with the 2023 edition of Wimbledon.

Here, the PA news agency picks out five talking points ahead of this year’s tournament.

Ukraine-Russian tensions to resume

This year’s Wimbledon Championships marks the 50th anniversary of a dispute which saw 81 male players boycott the tournament and changed tennis forever.

Top stars including defending champion Stan Smith, Rod Laver, John Newcombe, Arthur Ashe and Ken Rosewall stunned the sporting world by turning their backs on the most gilded event in tennis.

The build-up to the Championships was dominated by the ‘will they, won’t they’ saga, but the pervading opinion of the authorities was that there was no chance the players would sacrifice playing at Wimbledon. They were wrong.

“It was huge, huge,” recalls tennis historian Richard Evans. “It was the front-page lead in every newspaper in Britain for five days. The game would never be the same again.”

As with many more notable and bloodier conflicts in living memory, this one was sparked by a relatively minor dispute in eastern Europe.

But tensions between the warring factions – the players who had turned professional five years earlier, and the still amateur tennis federations administrating them – had been simmering for some time.

Those tensions boiled over when Yugoslavian player Nikki Pilic was banned by his country’s tennis federation – of which his uncle, General Dusan Kovac, was the president – for refusing to play in a Davis Cup match.

The recently formed players’ union, the ATP, duly threatened to boycott Wimbledon in support of one of its members, unless the ban was lifted.

“He came along at just the appropriate moment,” Evans said. “It was the classic situation of an amateur federation president demanding a player play Davis Cup when that player, who was a professional, had already signed a contract to appear in a doubles tournament in Montreal.

“His uncle got so angry he banned him for nine months. Then the International Lawn Tennis Federation (now the ITF) banned him for six weeks, knowing full well it would take him right into the middle of Wimbledon.”

The ATP board, comprising Smith, Ashe and fellow American player Jim McManus, Britons Mark Cox and John Barrett, chief executive Jack Kramer and president Cliff Drysdale, met in the basement of the Westbury Hotel in Mayfair to vote on whether to boycott, the day before the Wimbledon draw was due to be made.

Drysdale had canvassed the opinions of players at the recent tournaments in Rome and Paris – and to his surprise, found the mood to be mutinous.

“The media were sitting on the hotel steps, about 12 of us, waiting for the decision,” Evans said. “By then Cliff had been to Westminster to talk to the minister of sport and there had also been an injunction. It was all happening.

“But eventually they came down on the Thursday night to break off. Then they slept on it. The Wimbledon draw was being made on the Friday morning and the players were there practising.”

Cox and Barrett – staying loyal to Wimbledon – and Smith voted not to boycott but Ashe, McManus and Kramer voted for.

Drysdale therefore had the casting vote and he abstained.

“Jack said afterwards ‘I nearly fell off my chair, what a politician the guy is’,” added Evans. “Because Cliff was in a terrible situation. He knew if he voted to boycott it would all be on him and if he voted not to boycott it would be the end of the association.

“John Newcombe had phoned Jack in the middle of the night and said ‘if you don’t boycott, I’m out’. It would have started a whole run and people would have left the association.

“But by abstaining the vote remained 3-3 and (under ATP rules) the motion was carried. The decision to boycott was phoned through to referee Captain Mike Gibson, who had just done the draw and had to rip it up because 81 players had quit on him.”

The rebel players were branded ‘money grabbers’ by the press, but there was far more to it than that.

“The media got it wrong,” said Evans. “The sports editors were faced with ‘who’s the bad guy, who’s the good guy?’. And the bad guy couldn’t be Wimbledon.

“Therefore the players had to be the bad guys, which was very difficult because Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Arthur Ashe, John Newcombe, they were hugely popular sporting stars.

“So they settled on poor old Jack Kramer and made him the bad guy. He was supposedly leading the players.

“But it wasn’t about money. It was about detaching themselves from the stranglehold of the LTA and the ILTF, as it was then. The players finally said ‘we are not going to put up with amateurs telling us, professionals, how to run our lives’.”

Wimbledon had to hastily put together a new field comprising mainly eastern Europeans, whose federations did not allow them to be ATP members, and young players – including a 17-year-old Bjorn Borg – who were not yet contracted.

Three ATP members broke ranks; British number one Roger Taylor, Romanian Ilie Nastase (a divisive figure at the best of times and who claimed his federation made him play), and Australian Ray Kelbie, because he said he could not afford not to play.

“Roger Taylor was in a terrible position, because he was the number one, the big man in British tennis,” Evans said.

“But his father was a Sheffield steelworker and union man. And he was telling his son ‘you can’t be a scab’. But the media and the public were saying ‘Roger, you’ve got to play’.

“Eventually he played, lost in the semi-finals and wasn’t very popular in the locker room for a long time.”

As a footnote to an extraordinary episode in world sport, the name that graces the champions’ wall inside Centre Court – and pub quizzes to this day – is Czech Jan Kodes, who beat Russia’s Alex Metreveli in three sets for the title.

Is British women’s tennis in the doldrums or on the up?

The doom and gloom surrounding the complete absence of British players from the women’s singles draw at the French Open has given way to a raft of positive results on grass.

Katie Boulter defeated Jodie Burrage to win her first WTA title in Nottingham in the first all-British tour final since the 1970s while there have also been encouraging performances from Harriet Dart, Heather Watson and Katie Swan.

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Boulter’s title has lifted her back into the top 100, which also doubles as the rough cut-off for entry into grand slams, but the 26-year-old believes a bigger-picture view is needed.

“I think we put a lot of emphasis on being ranked inside 100 and I’m not entirely sure if I personally agree with it,” she said.

“I think we need to continually look at the amount of players we have coming through and stay positive. Because, if we go down the negative route, we can always find something.

“Each and every one of these girls can be inside 100. I think we should be asking questions if we don’t have anyone who can be.

“These girls are getting wins against top-100 players but everyone’s individual and they have to work on what they need to do. I’ve got a lot of work to do inside or outside the top 100.”

It has been 40 years since Britain had anything approaching strength in depth, and the sport is far more global now than it was then.

While the men appear to be doing better – with four players in the top 100 and consistent performers in Andy Murray, Cameron Norrie and Dan Evans – there are actually six British women in the top 150 compared to five men.

And four of the top five women are aged 26 or under, whereas that is only the case for one man – 21-year-old Jack Draper, who will miss Wimbledon with the latest in a series of injuries.

The British women have mostly been rivals since their junior days and the hope, along with a strong return from injury for Emma Raducanu, must be that they can push each other up the rankings.

Boulter certainly sees it that way, saying: “It means everything for all of us. I think that’s why we’re such a good group of girls because we keep pushing each other on. I hope we can continually do that. I think there’s a lot more to come for all of us.”

Dart looked to have broken clear of her peers last year when she moved into the top 100 but this year had been a struggle prior to the grass season, with the 26-year-old plummeting down the rankings.

She has found form and confidence at home, reaching the quarter-finals in Nottingham – where tension at the net after she lost to Boulter took the headlines – and Birmingham.

Asked about the rivalry between the British women, Dart said: “We’re all on our different journeys. I’ve had a bit of a dip in form. Last year was a good year for me. I’m trying to regain that form.

“I don’t see myself in competition with anyone else, just myself. It definitely shows me that my level is there. I’ve just got to, week in, week out, keep putting it out there. The grass season is so short and the most important thing is the whole year.”

Dart is right not to focus too much on grass-court results because, while clay probably gives an overly negative impression of the state of the British game, the reverse is true for grass, which a lot of players from other countries are inexperienced and uncomfortable on.

The 26-year-old, meanwhile, revealed that she is still searching for a permanent coach after a trial with Frenchman Morgan Bourbon did not work out.

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Dart, who split from Nigel Sears last year, is working with Colin Beecher on the grass while his regular charge Kyle Edmund continues to recover from a wrist injury.

Edmund’s dreadful luck unfortunately shows no sign of improving, with the 28-year-old finally back on court after years of knee trouble only to suffer a separate problem just before the French Open.

Dart said: “I’ve been really fortunate that Colin has been able to have the time to do this grass-court season with me. It’s been really tough on Kyle with his injuries but I’m really grateful that he allowed him to come and work with me.

“I’m back to square one. For sure I’m looking for someone long term so I can get that consistency. It’s very challenging, to say the least.

“There’s not that many people out there, a lot of people are taken and are in long-term partnerships. But I’ll keep looking and you never know, sometimes post-Wimbledon people can become available.”

The St. Louis Cardinals gave up four runs in the first inning but rallied to beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-5, on Sunday to split the teams’ two-game series at London Stadium.

Former Cubs catcher Willson Contreras went 4 for 4 and scored two runs for St. Louis, while Paul Goldschmidt delivered the go-ahead RBI single that chased NL ERA leader Marcus Stroman in the fourth.

The Cubs later said that Stroman exited early due to a blister on his throwing hand. He was charged with six runs - three earned - on eight hits. 

St. Louis committed two errors in the first inning before recording an out, saddling starter Matthew Liberatore with four unearned runs, but five Cardinals relievers held the Chicago lineup in check the rest of the way.

The Cubs fell to 37-39 and missed a chance to get back to .500, while the Cardinals have won five of seven following a six-game losing streak.

Yankees rally to take series from AL West-leading Rangers

Harrison Bader delivered a go-ahead two-run double during an eighth-inning rally that lifted the New York Yankees to a 5-3 victory over the American League West-leading Texas Rangers.

The Yankees trailed 3-2 before scoring three times in the eighth to win the rubber match of the three-game series. DJ LeMahieu had a two-run double earlier for New York, which went 4-2 on its week-long homestand after returning to the Bronx on a season high-tying four-game losing streak.

New York also overcame ace Gerrit Cole's shortest outing of the season, a 4 2/3-inning stint in which he was tagged for three runs and nine hits.

Jonah Heim had a solo home run off Cole and finished 2 for 4. Leody Tavares also collected two hits and an RBI for Texas, which stranded 10 runners compared to just three for the Yankees. 

Rangers starter Nathan Eovaldi was in line for his 10th win of the season after yielding two runs and four hits over 5 2/3 innings and exiting with a one-run lead. 

Braves hang on to take two of three from Reds

Matt Olson hit a go-ahead three-run homer in the sixth inning and the Atlanta Braves staved off a comeback attempt from the Cincinnati Reds for a second straight day to hold on for a 7-6 win.

Olson's 25th homer of the season, which snapped a 3-3 tie and matched him with Los Angeles Angels superstar Shohei Ohtani for the major league lead, helped Atlanta win the three-game series between National League division leaders and two of its hottest teams. The Braves have now won 17 of 20 and snapped Cincinnati's 12-game winning streak with a 7-6 victory on Saturday.

The Braves tacked on a needed insurance run in the top of the eighth to go up 7-4, but the Reds rallied and pulled within one on Matt McClain's two-run double with two out in the bottom of the inning.

McClain was left stranded, however, and Raisel Iglesias later got Kevin Newman to ground into a game-ending double play with two on in the ninth to record his 12th save.

McClain finished 4 for 5 with a home run, three doubles and five RBIs to become only the second Reds rookie since 1901 with four extra-base hits in a game, joining Chris Sabo in 1988.

Marcell Ozuna knocked in a pair of runs for Atlanta, while Charlie Morton earned the win after striking out seven while allowing three runs in five innings. 

Keegan Bradley claimed his sixth PGA Tour title with a three-shot victory in the Travelers Championship in Connecticut.

Bradley took a one-shot lead into the final round at TPC River Highlands and was never in real danger of being caught after making five birdies in his first 12 holes.

The 2011 US PGA Championship winner gave the chasing pack a glimmer of hope with three bogeys in four holes from the 13th, but eventually signed for a closing 68 to finish 23 under par.

Fellow American Zac Blair surged through the field with a final round of 62 to finish 20 under par alongside Brian Harman, who returned a second consecutive 64.

“This is for all the kids that grew up in New England, who got to sit through the winters and watch other people play golf,” said Bradley, who was born in Vermont, one of the six states which make up the New England region.

“I just am so proud to win this tournament. Travelers and everybody involved puts on a first-class tournament. It’s been like this for a decade and I’m so happy to be the winner here.

“I’m so lucky and thankful to be from this New England area. I just can’t believe it. This seems like a dream.”

World number one Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay and Chez Reavie shared fourth place on 19 under, with Rory McIlroy another shot back after a closing 64.

“I got off to a hot start, which was nice and what I felt like I needed,” McIlroy said after a round containing seven birdies and one bogey.

“Then hit a drive on nine that I didn’t think was that bad. Ended up against the boundary fence and made a bogey there which halted the momentum that I had.

“Bounced back well with a birdie on 11 but then missed a chance on 12, birdied 13. Then just couldn’t get anything to drop over those last few holes.

“I knew I was never going to win with the way Keegan was playing, but I felt like I probably needed a couple more birdies to finish top five.

“I’ll probably still sneak into the top 10 by the end of the day, but would’ve been nice to finish a little higher. Still, it’s another good week and solid performance after a long run, and looking forward to a couple of weeks off.”

McIlroy, who came into the week on the back of his second place in the US Open in Los Angeles, added: “Last Sunday feels like a month ago at this point.

“But coming off the disappointment of the US Open, coming straight here and sort of trying to refocus and forget about what happened in LA and tee it up here and play well, I thought was pretty good.

“I could have sort of went through the motions this week and mailed it in a little bit. I tried hard until the end and put in a decent performance.”

Jordan Staal will remain the captain of the Carolina Hurricanes for the foreseeable future.

The 34-year-old centerman and the Hurricanes agreed to a new four-year contract worth $11.6million, the team announced Sunday. If no deal had been reached, Staal would have become a free agent in less than a week.

Staal’s deal includes a full no-movement clause for the first three seasons.

“I’m ready to grind. I’m ready to play,” Staal told reporters during a conference call. "I feel really good about my game and feel like I can help the team for the rest of this contract. I’m going to do my best to my abilities.

“I’m excited about the deal and where this team is headed, the direction, and I’m just happy to be a part of it.”

Staal is entering his 18th NHL season and has been with the Hurricanes since 2012. He has worn the “C” on his chest since 2019.

“[Staal’s] leadership has been an integral part of our success, and the impact he has made on our organization cannot be overstated,” general manager Don Waddell said in a statement. "We could not be more excited to sign him for four more years.”

The Hurricanes won the Metropolitan Division last season with a record of 52-21-9. The franchise has secured a playoff spot in each of the last five seasons and is hoping Staal can help lead Carolina back to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 2006.

Staal had 17 goals and 17 assists in 81 games last season and remains among the top defensive forwards in the NHL. In 2022-23, he averaged 2:21 of short-handed ice time per game, while winning 55.7 percent of his faceoffs.

Staal has 275 goals and 370 assists in 1,173 career games.

St Louis Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol admitted featuring in Major League Baseball’s second London Series exceeded the expectations he had ahead of the trip.

Beating division rivals the Chicago Cubs 7-5 on Sunday to split the two-game series at London Stadium likely crept into his assessment, but it was the overall experience of the English event that most stood out.

With the Phillies and Mets set to cross the pond next June, MLB seems to have converted an enthusiastic ambassador within its own ranks ahead of the next editions in 2024 and 2026.

He said: “Coming into it I knew it would be a good experience but it’s a lot better than I anticipated, from being able to come into the city and get an idea of the culture and the people, and then the stadium, the game environment.

“It’s very festive I would say. A very, very positive experience.”

Saturday’s crowd of 54,662 had already broken the record for the biggest attendance for an MLB game this season, a tally exceeded on Sunday with 55,565 flocking to West Ham’s Premier League home.

That number would not fit inside most MLB stadia.

Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras said: “I enjoyed every single second out there. The experience was nothing but amazing. I think that’s the biggest crowd I’ve ever played in front of. The fans were amazing and I’m really thankful they came out to watch us play.”

MLB did its best to transform the Hammers’ venue into a bona fide big-league ballpark, complete with monstrous hot dogs, ‘donut burgers’ and a traditional sing-along to Take Me Out to The Ballgame during the seventh-inning stretch.

But converting curious Britons is key to the sport’s sustained success on these shores, so it was important to get the balance right for what – at least after unscientific surveys of accents inside London Stadium – seemed like a decent home crowd to complement those who travelled over.

Also essential to the league’s ambitions is ensuring that Great Britain is growing a new cohort of players at an exciting time for the country’s national teams.

Last year, the men’s baseball team played heavy hitters like the USA in the World Baseball Classic, the sport’s closest equivalent to the World Cup, after qualifying for the first time.

A women’s baseball team has formed and played in Europe, while GB softball – who narrowly missed out on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, are about to test themselves at their own World Cup qualifier in Dublin next month.

MLB’s Trafalgar Square takeover included one of those women in the home run derby, and was set up to draw the attention of those who might not have purchased a ticket this time round, while outreach programmes took place at schools and clubs around the country.

Cardinals outfielder Lars Nootbaar added: “It’s huge to grow the game. For a lot of us it was the first time in Europe.

“Any time you can come out here and try to grow the game a little bit, it’s big and hopefully they leave today and you inspire some kids to go out there and buy a glove, buy a bat and go in the backyard and play a little bit.”

Fred Wright ended his wait for a professional win in style as he became British men’s road champion in Saltburn hours after Pfeiffer Georgi claimed the women’s title for a second time.

The popular 24-year-old paid a heartfelt tribute to Bahrain Victorious team-mate Gino Mader, who died on June 16 following a crash at the Tour de Suisse, pointing to the sky as he crossed the line.

“There’s lot of emotions,” Wright said. “I’m thinking about a lot of things…I just wanted to enjoy the day because that’s what bike racing is about. I can’t stop getting emotional…

“(Gino) would have believed in me today, more than I would have believed in myself.”

Wright earned fans with have-a-go heroics that brought podium finishes from breakaways at the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana last year, but had somehow still been awaiting victory at the top level.

But after he left behind James Knox and Stevie Williams on the last of 10 laps of a punishing course – including more than 3,500 metres of ascent – there would be no near miss this time.

Knox and Williams are purer climbers than Wright, but the 24-year-old Londoner rode smartly, attacking on the descent to the foot of Saltburn Bank, the short but steep final climb which provided the finale with gradients reaching 22 per cent.

“I was really pleased with the way I rode it,” Wright said. “I probably had the best legs of my life out there. I knew that compared to them I had to edge it on the downhill and the flat so I used that to my advantage to use as little energy as possible. It was just all guns blazing to the finish.

“I still can’t believe I’ve got my first professional win, it’s a monkey off my back.”

Earlier, Georgi attacked on Saltburn Bank to distance Claire Steels and Anna Henderson, reclaiming the jersey she won in Lincoln in 2021 before finishing second to Alice Towers in Castle Douglas last year.

“It’s so special,” Georgi, now a two-time national champion at the age of 22, told the PA news agency.

“It still hasn’t sunk in. After I won the jersey in Lincoln, I really wanted it back because it’s such an honour and it gave me a lot of confidence in the peloton turning up with the stripes.

“I’m really happy to get it back. It’s hard to win it once and it’s really hard to win it twice because I think everyone looks at you a bit more. Coming into Lincoln I was maybe a bit more unknown but this time I had more pressure that I kind of put on myself.”

Both races were hugely attritional. Of the 101 riders who started the women’s race, it was clear with more than two of the seven laps remaining that only seven were contenders for victory.

Steels kept attacking, but when Georgi tried a move of her own on the penultimate ascent of Saltburn Bank she saw she could distance her 36-year-old rival, and she repeated the move on the final lap to take the win.

“I was doubting myself that I was the strongest so I thought I needed to test where I was,” she said. “After that I got the confidence that I could actually win it.”

While the women raced in heat and humidity, the skies began to break midway through the men’s race with sunshine giving way to showers, and showers giving way to torrential rain and thunder at the start of the penultimate lap.

That was about the time that Bahrain-Victorious announced their eight-man squad for the Tour, with no surprise that Wright was in it.

“I’ll go to the Tour with a lot of confidence,” he said. “I’ve won the national championships, I’m happy at the moment, and I’m going to keep trying.”

Fred Wright ended his wait for a professional win in style as he became British men’s road champion in Saltburn hours after Pfeiffer Georgi claimed the women’s title for a second time.

The popular 24-year-old paid a heartfelt tribute to Bahrain Victorious team-mate Gino Mader, who died on June 16 following a crash at the Tour de Suisse, pointing to the sky as he crossed the line.

“There’s lot of emotions,” Wright said. “I’m thinking about a lot of things…I just wanted to enjoy the day because that’s what bike racing is about. I can’t stop getting emotional…

“(Gino) would have believed in me today, more than I would have believed in myself.”

Wright earned fans with have-a-go heroics that brought podium finishes from breakaways at the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana last year, but had somehow still been awaiting victory at the top level.

But after he left behind James Knox and Stevie Williams on the last of 10 laps of a punishing course – including more than 3,500 metres of ascent – there would be no near miss this time.

Knox and Williams are purer climbers than Wright, but the 24-year-old Londoner rode smartly, attacking on the descent to the foot of Saltburn Bank, the short but steep final climb which provided the finale with gradients reaching 22 per cent.

“I was really pleased with the way I rode it,” Wright said. “I probably had the best legs of my life out there. I knew that compared to them I had to edge it on the downhill and the flat so I used that to my advantage to use as little energy as possible. It was just all guns blazing to the finish.

“I still can’t believe I’ve got my first professional win, it’s a monkey off my back.”

Earlier, Georgi attacked on Saltburn Bank to distance Claire Steels and Anna Henderson, reclaiming the jersey she won in Lincoln in 2021 before finishing second to Alice Towers in Castle Douglas last year.

“It’s so special,” Georgi, now a two-time national champion at the age of 22, told the PA news agency.

“It still hasn’t sunk in. After I won the jersey in Lincoln, I really wanted it back because it’s such an honour and it gave me a lot of confidence in the peloton turning up with the stripes.

“I’m really happy to get it back. It’s hard to win it once and it’s really hard to win it twice because I think everyone looks at you a bit more. Coming into Lincoln I was maybe a bit more unknown but this time I had more pressure that I kind of put on myself.”

Both races were hugely attritional. Of the 101 riders who started the women’s race, it was clear with more than two of the seven laps remaining that only seven were contenders for victory.

Steels kept attacking, but when Georgi tried a move of her own on the penultimate ascent of Saltburn Bank she saw she could distance her 36-year-old rival, and she repeated the move on the final lap to take the win.

“I was doubting myself that I was the strongest so I thought I needed to test where I was,” she said. “After that I got the confidence that I could actually win it.”

While the women raced in heat and humidity, the skies began to break midway through the men’s race with sunshine giving way to showers, and showers giving way to torrential rain and thunder at the start of the penultimate lap.

That was about the time that Bahrain-Victorious announced their eight-man squad for the Tour, with no surprise that Wright was in it.

“I’ll go to the Tour with a lot of confidence,” he said. “I’ve won the national championships, I’m happy at the moment, and I’m going to keep trying.”