Weekend sports wrap

SBS World News Radio: It's been another busy weekend in sport, with Le Tour treating spectators and terrorising riders, NRL, AFL and rugby union, as well as a little tennis tournament in Wimbledon now at its halfway point.

Weekend sports wrapWeekend sports wrap

Weekend sports wrap

Wimbledon is nothing if not traditional.

And with the middle Sunday of the tournament still designated as a rest day after all these years, it offers the ideal chance to reflect on what we have seen so far and what is to come.

Both the men's and women's singles, officially known as the gentlemen's and ladies' singles, are down to their final 16 participants.

The men's draw has the four major players, and eight of the top 10 seeds for the tournament, still in contention.

Foremost among them is the number one seed and local hope, Britain's Andy Murray.

His second week at the All-England club starts on Monday against unseeded Frenchman Benoit Paire.

As big a concern as any for Murray as the more serious end of the tournament begins is the condition of Wimbledon's grass courts, which has players slipping and falling.

"The court is not, I don't think, in as a good a condition as previous years. There's quite a few spots on the court, just behind the baseline and just in front of the baseline, where there's quite big lumps of grass, almost like little divots, there which I don't remember really being the case. I don't know if it's anything to do with the weather that they've had over the last few weeks -- it's been pretty hot, pretty extreme."

In the women's singles, there has not been a British winner since Virginia Wade in 1977.

But there is legitimate hope that wait could end this year, in the form of sixth-seed Johanna Konta.

If she wins her fourth-round match on Monday night, she sets up an intriguing quarter-final against either second-seed Simona Halep of Romania or Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.

Azarenka, coming back from the birth of her first child, is unseeeded but still a huge factor in the tournament.

Konta says she is still getting used to it all but plans to be there unitl the end.

"I'm just here happy to have actually have made it into the second week, happy to have come through three battles this week. Again, very much taking it one match at a time but definitely working towards being involved for a full two weeks."

In the AFL, the fairytale of 2016 is fast threatening to turn into the nightmare of 2017 for the Western Bulldogs.

Last year's champions have lost four of their last five matches.

That rotten run was capped off on Friday night, when competition leader Adelaide kicked 11 goals in the second half to beat the Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs kicked just one goal in the same timespan.

Coach Luke Beveridge say his team is better than recent performances suggest.

"To fall away so poorly is not good enough. So, yeah, I am and we are ... we're all gutted, because, obviously, you don't like to sit in the front row and witness that. We feel like we're made of a bit more substance."

That substance had best materialise soon, because the Bulldogs now sit in 11th place with seven games to play.

Meanwhile, Greater Western Sydney had victory snatched away late by Hawthorn, their match in Launceston ending in a draw.

That allowed Adelaide to pass the Giants into the top spot on the ladder.

It is the Giants' second drawn match in a row, which had not happened to a team since 1921.

The third rugby-union Test between the British and Irish Lions and New Zealand in Auckland controversially ended in a draw, too, at 15 points each.

And so did the series, at one win apiece plus the draw.

It is a rather unsatisfying way to end a series that occurs only once every 12 years.

And whilst acknowledging the benefits for the sport as a whole from the showdown, New Zealand coach Steve Hansen was not thrilled.

"We've ended up with a hand on the trophy each, which is a little bit like kissing your sister -- there's not a lot in it for anybody. But, at the same time, I think it's been a wonderful advertisement for rugby."

The next British and Irish Lions tour is to South Africa in 2021.

New Zealand starts its defence of The Rugby Championship against Australia in Sydney on August 19.

 






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