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Weekend sport wrap

SBS World News Radio: Another weekend of sport has come to an end, with knockout stage action at Euro 2016 and there's more still to come as Wimbledon gets set to start.

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Weekend sport wrap Source: AAP

5 min read

Published

Updated

By Sunil Awasthi


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It's the world's oldest and most revered tennis tournament.

Events elsewhere in Britain have taken the lion's share of the world's attention in recent days, but plenty of eyes around the world will focus on London's SW 19 postcode for the next fortnight.

Wimbledon - that much-loved staple of the British summer - is set to begin.

Unsurprisingly, the players ranked world number one - Novak Djokovic in the gentlemen's, as they call it at this tournament, and Serena Williams in the ladies' - are favourites to take out the respective singles tournaments.

Djokovic has won the last four Grand Slam tournaments, dating back to Wimbledon last year, whilst Williams has won this tournament five times and she'll be aching to make it six after finishing runner-up in the two Grand Slam tournaments played so far in 2016.

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For the Australians, the talk is less aspirational, despite the country having three top 20 seeds for the first time in sixteen years.

Samantha Stosur has the likes of Sabine Lisicki, Lucie Safarova, and French Open champion Garbine Muguruza in her quarter of the draw.

Bernard Tomic faces Spain's Fernando Verdasco in the first round, whilst Nick Kyrgios opens against Czech Radek Stepanek, and is on track for a fourth round showdown with Britain's Andy Murray if he gets that far.

Heading into the tournament, Kyrgios is blending his usual confidence with a healthy dose of realism.

"I've had some great practice this morning on the match court. So I feel as if my preparation has been good as any time that I've come here. But saying that, I've got some tough matches coming up."

In rugby league, close wins for the Cronulla Sharks and Melbourne Storm have firmly installed them as the competition's top two teams, with at a drop off of at least four competition points to the rest of the field.

The AFL ladder, on the other hand, has a new leader, although, having won the competition the last three years running, there's nothing really new about Hawthorn's success.

They overcame a first half deficit to come back and beat lowly Gold Coast in Launceston.

Combined with with defeats for North Melbourne and Geelong this weekend, that put them in first place.

Hawthorn captain Luke Hodge has told Fox Footy his side's experience helped them get back to the top of the ladder.

"We've learnt not to panic. We've got a pretty senior group. So if (we're) not playing as good as what we want in the first half, all we do is a few simple tweaks here and there, and we can normally hit the scoreboard pretty quick."

In rugby union, England has completed a three-nil clean sweep of Australia with a 44 points to 40 victory in the third and final Test match in Sydney.

It's the first times the Wallabies have been beaten three games to zero in a home series since 1971.

Many are surprised at the result, but not the man who did so much to engineer it- England's new coach...Australian Eddie Jones.

"There were weaknesses in the Australian side that we identified so we thought we could get them in the various areas and we were able to do that to some extent. So, you know, the possibility of us winning 3-0 was always very strong. I'm sure people in England are maybe talking a little bit less about the pound devaluing and maybe more about the value of the England rugby side going up."

And about that pound devaluing ...

That, for those who haven't been paying attention, has been one of the chief immediate byproducts of the United Kingdom voting to leave the European Union.

But, whilst traders tremble and politicians panic, the Brexit could have a big impact on the sporting world as well.

In football, amongst other things, there are now big questions about the ability of British clubs to sign and retain foreign players, particularly those from those countries that are still European Union members.

Even the chairman of the English Football Association, Greg Dyke, says he doesn't know what's going to happen.

"In terms of football, yeah, it could make quite a big difference. Quite how different, we won't know until we know the terms we leave under. But clearly, if the free movement of labour changes, then English football clubs won't just be able to bring in any European footballer they want to. There will have to be a process."

And that could lead to some very interesting - and very nervous - days ahead.

 

 


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