• The co-hosts start their campaign in Grand Prairie, Texas
• Andy Bull: USA is cricket’s bold new frontier once again

The question of whether cricket can crack America, as per the cliche, feels unlikely to be answered (not least on a subscription channel, Willow TV), although this T20 World Cup is not a one-off moonshot, rather one shoulder to the wheel of a broader push.

“The match referee Richie Richardson is older than me,” writes Gary Naylor. “How can he look that good?”

• Wilder knocked out by Zhang in likely final pro fight
• Dubois stops Hrgović by TKO for interim heavyweight title
• Liverpool’s Ball becomes WBA featherweight champion

Round 1

There’s the bell! Dubois, looking drier than you normally see fighters right before the first round, gets off to a positive start. He’s holding the center of the ring early and boxing behind a solid jab. Hrgović lands a crisp right cross. Then another. Oh boy. He’s punishing Dubois with the right hand, landing one after the other, turning his aggressive against him. Hrgović has landed no fewer than a half-dozen flush right hands in the first two minutes. Dubois holds on, showing indications of fatigue already.

• Daniil Medvedev beats Tomas Machac 7-6 (4), 7-5, 1-6, 6-4
• Alexander Zverev edges five-setter against Tallon Griekspoor

In Daniil Medvedev’s eight career appearances at the French Open, his performances have ranged from catastrophic to impressive with nothing in between. He continued to build his profile as a contender by returning to the fourth round of the French Open for the first time since 2021 with a hard-earned 7-6 (4), 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 win over Tomas Machac.

As Medvedev has learned to embrace clay-court tennis, still far from his favourite surface, he has compiled a unique record in Paris. The Russian has suffered five first-round losses, including on each of his first four appearances. Each time he has passed the third round, though, Medvedev has reached the second week.

• ‘We are not going to sleep!’ manager says of celebrations
• Jude Bellingham says: ‘Nights like tonight make it all worth it’

Carlo Ancelotti said that Real Madrid’s winning mentality helped them survive a major scare against Borussia Dortmund and claim a record 15th Champions League title.

The German side dominated the first half at Wembley and it required a string of fine saves from Thibaut Courtois, who has spent most of the season out injured, to keep them level at the break. Those missed chances came back to haunt Dortmund, with Dani Carvajal heading home from a Toni Kroos corner 16 minutes from time before Vinícius Júnior made sure of the victory – the ninth successive European Cup final Madrid have contested in which they have emerged victorious.

It is the competition that Real Madrid like to think they own and the reasons why were mapped out in graphic detail at Wembley. Yet again. Borussia Dortmund brought the punch of the underdog and they played with a stirring liberation in the first half, creating chances and, well, missing them. It was impossible to think they would not regret it.

Madrid reset at half-time and when they started to press, everybody knew they had seen this movie, especially the ending. If Vinícius Júnior was a symbol of Madrid’s travails in the first half – booked for a lunge at the Dortmund goalkeeper, Gregor Kobel; guilty of a lack of conviction, at times – he relocated his game to dazzling effect thereafter.

Epsom Classic has fallen behind other big meetings in the popularity stakes and the Jockey Club needs to act

If the Melbourne Cup is “the race that stops a nation”, the Derby is fast becoming the poor relation that passes one by. City of Troy’s troubled start in the 2,000 Guineas last month meant all eyes at Epsom Downs were trained on the stall occupied by the Aidan O’Brien-trained colt at the start of the 245th Derby but, outside an industry bubble that seems arrogantly complacent about dwindling public interest in what goes on within its interior, it is difficult to imagine much attention being paid to this impressive victory under Ryan Moore by the British population at large.

On this occasion, it was another O’Brien horse, Los Angeles, who played up at the start before finishing third behind his stablemate and Ambiente Friendly. In other stall-related shenanigans, the Richard Hannon-trained Voyage unceremoniously ejected his pilot as the starting gates opened under cloudy grey skies.

• Champions League final news, 8pm BST kick-off at Wembley
• Pitch invaders disrupt final | And you can also mail Scott

You’ll Never Walk Alone. It’s an anthem for Borussia Dortmund as well, and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s most terrace-friendly ditty is currently ringing around Wembley. Up in the posh seats, the aforementioned Kloppo sings and sways in the emotional style. A pfenning for all of the conflicting thoughts running through the head of the former Liverpool boss right now. He looks healthy and happy and about ten years younger. Premier League management is a job of work all right.

Dortmund have Jurgen Klopp, so Real need a celebrity fan of their own in attendance. Step forward Jay-Z, who is at Wembley to support his Roc Nation Sports client Vinicius Júnior. In other news, the Wembley turf is looking lush, so while Jay-Z has 99 problems … no, you deserve better than that. I’m sorry for even thinking about it.

With a vote on the technology looming, it’s debatable that the search for accuracy is worth the sacrifice of spontaneity

On Thursday, Premier League clubs will vote on Wolves’ proposal to scrap video assistant referees. The motion will almost certainly not achieve majority support, never mind secure the 14 votes out of 20 needed for it to pass. But what it may do is to shift the Overton window and lead to a serious review of VAR, an assessment of where it works and where it doesn’t. And that is something that is long overdue.

Consultation is unfashionable in the modern world. Politicians of all stripes act too often in effect by fiat, and that is as true in football as anything else. VAR was imposed for the 2018 World Cup with minimal research or conversation and accepted almost everywhere without anybody really investigating the consequences.

Campaign starts against Scotland with the Yorkshireman set to play an influential role in ensuring team hit all the right notes

But for a slip on the golf course, a cruel twist of fate that led to a cruel twist of a left ankle and a pretty sickening compound fracture, Jonny Bairstow might well be a fifth member of the England squad with two white-ball World Cup winners medals. As it is, the Yorkshireman goes into this T20 World Cup defence still looking to add to the 50-over title he was so central to back in 2019.

Slated to open in Australia two years ago, only for that incident on the tee to offer Alex Hales a route back in, Bairstow has now been repurposed as a firebrand No 4 after the peppy arrivals of Phil Salt and Will Jacks alongside Jos Buttler in the top three.

French Open match ended in an embrace, reflecting a wider trend in what was once a tensely competitive locker room

As Aryna Sabalenka and Paula Badosa stood by the player entrance to Court Philippe-Chatrier in anticipation of their French Open third-round match, they waited in perfect silence. There were no jokes exchanged and no small talk. This was business. The pair entered the court and put on a show, battling hard until the end.

Away from their numerous on-court battles, which have included three matches in the last three months, Sabalenka and Badosa refer to each other as best friends. It was not until the Tie Break Tens exhibition event before Indian Wells in 2022, while both players were ranked inside the top 10, that they connected. While they are hardly the first friends to compete on the court, their relationship seems reflective of the shifting dynamics in the WTA locker room.

• Playoff semi-final: Bath 31-23 Sale
• Annett’s late try helps secure Twickenham trip

Bath are into the Premiership final for the first time in nine years but they are not a team who give their supporters an easy ride. At times it was Sale who looked the side most likely to meet Northampton at Twickenham next Saturday, only for a 74th-minute try from Niall Annett and 16 points from the boot of Finn Russell to keep Bath on track for the promised land.

Maybe it was the nerves associated with such a big occasion but not until the closing couple of minutes could home fans remotely relax. It is 28 years since their favourites were last crowned champions of England and the huge outpouring of joy at the final whistle showed exactly what this result meant to everyone connected with the club.

• Trainer always had faith his Guineas flop could come good
• Well-backed Ambiente Friendly comes home as runner-up

It is one of the oldest dictums in racing that you should always forgive a good horse for one bad race, and it paid a rich dividend for favourite-backers at Epsom as Aidan O’Brien’s City Of Troy, beaten out of sight in the 2,000 Guineas last month, rediscovered his exceptional juvenile form to run out a convincing two-and-three-quarter-length winner of the 245th Derby.

“To be honest, it wasn’t very ­exciting,” Ryan Moore, City Of Troy’s jockey, said, but the punters who kept faith with the 3-1 shot after his flop at Newmarket would surely beg to ­differ. There was a very early drama as Voyage, the least experienced runner in the field, unshipped Pat Dobbs just after the start, and the loose horse soon worked his way to the front of the field.

Forces outside the capital drawn on for Borussia Dortmund v Real Madrid match and a Tommy Robinson march and counter-protest

More than 2,000 officers have been deployed across London, including more than 400 from outside the capital, to police the Champions League final, a protest by the far-right activist Tommy Robinson and a counter-demonstration.

The final between Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid takes place at Wembley on Saturday evening. And, earlier, a protest organised by Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, more commonly known as Tommy Robinson, set off from the Victoria area on Saturday, ending up in Parliament Square where speeches took place.

England’s qualification hopes for Euro 2025 are far from straightforward and Tuesday’s return game against France takes on greater significance

Disappointment emanated from the Lionesses after Friday’s 2-1 loss to France made the terrain ahead a lot tougher as the defending champions seek a place at Euro 2025. England slipped to third in Group A3 at the midway point of their qualifying campaign, behind France and Sweden, 3-0 victors in the Republic of Ireland.

Tricky away ties lie ahead, starting with France in Saint-Étienne on Tuesday. Only the top two qualify automatically for next summer’s tournament in Switzerland, with the playoffs a scenario England are keen to avoid. They have collected four points from their first three games and are five adrift of France and level with Sweden, who have a marginally better goal difference.

Post-season training in 2017 ended up being a session with the Royal Marines but England profited from it in the long run

You may remember the time Gareth Southgate took the England team to train with the Royal Marines back in 2017. Many now view it as a key moment, winning hearts and minds of players previously burdened by England’s past, enabling them to reach semi-finals and finals of major competitions for the first time in a generation.

However, Raheem Sterling didn’t see it that way when he turned up to England’s end-of-season training at St George’s Park in June 2017, only for the Royal Marines to burst in and tell him to surrender his phone and get on a bus to the commando training centre at Lympstone.

More teams, more games, a single league structure: this is how Europe’s top men’s club competition will look in 2024-25

When Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid conclude this season’s Champions League at Wembley on Saturday, the continent will wave goodbye to the current format. In 2024-25 a new system will be put in place that will bring more teams, more games and more money to be made.

• Sabalenka and Rybakina advance with third-round wins
• Zverev pushed and strangled partner, German court told
• Get in touch: send your thoughts to Tanya via email

Rybakina 1-0 Mertens* (*denotes next server)

Straight into the flow, long arms and legs fluidly together in the serve, starts with a win to love.

Final match for Saracens ended in defeat but his contribution was even more impressive after playing with a tear in his quad

Owen Farrell cut a lone figure as he walked round the perimeter of Franklin’s Gardens applauding fans, most of them backing Northampton. And, here’s the thing, they applauded him back.

A cacophony of boos had greeted his every contribution in the Premiership semi-final that had gone before, apart from the stunned silence for a couple of flashes of brilliance from the man that had conjured two tries for Saracens in the second half.

• Big race due off at 4.30pm BST on the famous Epsom Downs
• Greg Wood’s preview | And you can mail Tony about the race

Princess Elizabeth Stakes (2pm) preview

It has to be said that the Derby’s undercard is somewhat … well, underwhelming when set against many other big-race days, both here and around the world. That said, this Group Three is a fair race of its type, and features a favourite in Running Lion who has shown occasional glimpses of potential Group One-winning form at various points in her career. Her strike-rate, though, feels like it is not quite what it should be – she is winless in five starts since May 2023 – and personally I’d want to see a bit more before stepping in to back her at around 2-1. Instead, I’ll take her on with a 12-1 chance in David Loughnane’s Sparks Fly, a prolific handicapper last year with the potential for further progress at four and not much to find with the favourite on ratings, although it has to be said that drying ground is not necessarily ideal.

SELECTION: SPARKS FLY

• Defender available on a free may be first signing in Maresca era
• Trevoh Chalobah understood to be Manchester United target

Chelsea are confident of beating Newcastle to the signing of the Fulham centre-back Tosin Adarabioyo on a free transfer.

Newcastle were leading the race for the former Manchester City defender and have been working on a deal for several weeks. But they have not been able to see off a late move from Chelsea, who are working to complete what would be the first signing of the Enzo Maresca era after offering Adarabioyo a bigger financial package than Eddie Howe’s team.

The two teams in the opening T20 World Cup match have a long and curious history and lay claim to a sporting milestone

Back, back, back, before anyone had invented Twenty20, before the Ashes and back beyond, before basketball had even been invented, and when baseball was still a little kids’ game, the 11 best cricketers in Toronto travelled south across the border to play a two-day game against the 11 best cricketers in the US.

It was September 1844, seven years before the first America’s Cup, 16 before the first Open championship and 33 before the first Test match. Which means Canada v USA, the opening fixture of this year’s World Cup, isn’t just the oldest international match in this sport, but, historians believe, the oldest in any sport.

By harnessing brain power and speeding up ability to process information, players are being helped to fulfil their potential

Four years ago, Arsène Wenger was asked what he thought would be the next game-changer in football. His answer was neuroscience. “Why? Because we are at the end of the improvement of physical speed,” Wenger said. “In the last 10 years, the power and speed of individual players has improved, but now you have sprinters everywhere. The next step will be to improve the speed of our brains.”

Neuroscience is the study of the human nervous system, particularly the brain, and all the multitudinous connections and interactions that go on within it. It is a branch of science that, in the popular imagination, summons up images of electrodes and scanners and illuminated sections of the cerebellum. In football, it has also become a term to refer to a better understanding of the mental skills and qualities necessary to succeed in the game.

Once motherhood spelled the end of a sporting career. But more mums than ever are taking part in this year’s Olympics and Paralympics (the village even has a nursery for the first time). How do they do it?

Nekoda Smythe-Davis is a Commonwealth gold medal-winning judoka (judo expert) who has won silver and bronze at the World Championships and represented Great Britain at the 2016 Olympics.

• Thibaut Courtois will start for favourites in Wembley final
• Ancelotti: ‘You fear it can escape you. It’s a feeling we all have’

Carlo Ancelotti called the Champions League final the “most dangerous” game of the season on the eve of Real Madrid facing Borussia Dortmund as overwhelming favourites to win their sixth European Cup in a decade and the 15th in their history.

The Italian denied the competition was an “obsession” for the club, admitted there would be fear in the hours before kick-off and insisted their campaign should be defined as “successful whatever happens” at Wembley. “The obsession is to try to do your best, as we have all season; sometimes it doesn’t go the way you want,” he said.

Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer had a couple of tough questions for the United manager after the Cup final – and they did it well

When is the right time to ask a manager if they’re going to be fired? Is there ever a right time? If you’ve just masterminded an FA Cup win over arguably the best team in world football, should you just be able to enjoy your afternoon?

It’s been interesting to watch the fallout – if that’s not too strong a word – from Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer asking Erik ten Hag a couple of pretty direct questions about his future in the Wembley sun last Saturday.

The return of Jofra Archer and the emergence of batters Phil Salt and Will Jacks make Jos Buttler’s side serious contenders

England’s preparation for the T20 World Cup has not gone entirely to plan, thanks to rain in Leeds and Cardiff, but the glimpses we have seen have been very encouraging. In the two games against Pakistan that went ahead they looked like a team that has all bases covered. Jofra Archer’s return is huge: in this format he is high class, a real point of difference, and with him the team has quality and variety in its bowling attack.

Nearly 10 years after he was fast-tracked into the England side Archer is set to finally play for his adopted country in the Caribbean, where he was born and raised. I wonder how that will make him feel, but also whether he feels he has a debt to repay, having been very well supported by the ECB through his injuries and despite a lot of time out of the game. Like many England fans, I am just looking forward to watching him play.

The 500kg Microlino is part of a new set challenging the ever-increasing domination of huge cars

Driving through central London in a tiny Microlino electric car, barely visible between the hulking SUVs, it’s surprising to be the focus of so much attention. “Yes, Lego car!” shouts a scaffolder.

Made by Micro, the family-owned Swiss company behind the mini-micro kick scooters, and modelled on the bubble cars that had a brief heyday in the 1950s, the two-seater is only 2.5 metres long – marginally smaller than a Smart car. The most unusual feature is its one and only door (there is also a rear hatch for accessing the boot), which is at the front. The windscreen and bonnet swing open to let you in.

There is unease about how to strike a balance between tourist numbers and the need to protect natural resources

Along the beachfront on the Thai island of Samui, vendors are busy setting up tables covered with souvenirs and sunglasses. Staff stand outside massage shops and restaurants gesture to passersby, hoping to entice in tourists.

Soon, there could be even more customers passing through the area. The island is one of several locations that will feature in the third season of The White Lotus, a series so popular that its previous settings, Hawaii and Sicily, both saw surges in demand from travellers.

• England manager calls qualifying loss to France ‘frustrating’
• Goalkeeper Mary Earps will miss return fixture on Tuesday

Sarina Wiegman was left rueing a “really disappointing” and “unnecessary” defeat to France as England’s hopes of automatic qualification for Euro 2025 in Switzerland were left very much in the balance.

“I think our performance was good for most parts of the game,” said the Lionesses manager after her side succumbed 2-1, conceding two goals from corners. The result is really disappointing and I think unnecessary.”

• Wichanee Meechai holds two-shot lead at Lancaster CC
• World No 1 Korda misses cut after Thursday septuple-bogey
• Lexi Thompson says goodbye after 18th and final Open

Wichanee Meechai became the latest surprise in a US Women’s Open filled with them. She started Friday with four straight birdies and matched the low score of the week with a 3-under 67 for a two-shot lead going into a weekend that won’t include Nelly Korda.

Meechai is a 31-year-old Thai whose only victory recognized by the women’s world ranking was nine years ago on the Taiwan LPGA. She had never finished in the top 10 in her 20 previous appearances in the majors.

• Netflix fight scheduled for 20 June postponed to later date
• Tyson, 57, suffered health scare on flight to Los Angeles

Mike Tyson’s fight with Jake Paul has been postponed after the 57-year-old Tyson fell ill on a flight last weekend. Tyson and Paul said Friday that they will announce a new fight date next week. They were scheduled to meet on 20 July in Arlington, Texas.

Tyson became nauseous and dizzy during the final hour of a flight from Miami to Los Angeles last Sunday, and his plane was met by first responders who attended to the former heavyweight champion. Tyson’s camp attributed the episode to an ulcer problem.

• England 1-2 France (Mead 30; De Almeida 41, Katoto 68)
• England goalkeeper Mary Earps goes off injured early on

It’s not a disaster, yet, but a 2-1 defeat to France dealt a hefty blow to England’s hopes of avoiding the Euro 2025 playoffs, after Élisa de Almeida and Marie-Antoinette Katoto capitalised from corners to cancel out Beth Mead’s opener.

The loss means Sarina Wiegman’s side slipped to third in qualifying group A3, with tricky games in France and Sweden as well as a home tie against the Republic of Ireland to come. Only the top two sides will qualify automatically for next summer’s European Championship in Switzerland.

• Premiership semi-final: Northampton 22-20 Saracens
• Smith scores 17 points to end champions’ title defence

The champions are gone; the league leaders march on. It was a choke tackle at the end that finally finished Saracens off, initiated by none other than Courtney Lawes, playing his final match at Franklin’s Gardens. With it Northampton thwarted a last-gasp comeback by one of the country’s champion teams, so many of whom were also playing their last match.

So the English game says farewell, for now at least, to some of its most decorated players. Owen Farrell heads off to France without that last gong, so too the Vunipola brothers. Mark McCall revealed afterwards that ­Farrell had injured his quad on ­Monday and was a doubt for this right up to the warmup. Elliot Daly took on the ­kicking duties.

Coaches and teammates on how Birmingham’s ‘skinny teenager’ developed into one of the world’s best players before his first Champions League final

This week Jude Bellingham offered a glimpse into the mind of a phenomenon by quietly admitting he had envisaged these days, just maybe not so soon. Little did he know, at the start of his teens, that one week training on the outskirts of Barcelona and another at the foothills of the Black Forest would provide him with something of a peek into the future. Birmingham City recognised the boy who joined at seven from Stourbridge Juniors would benefit from fresh challenges, different plains. They wanted to take him out of his ever-evolving comfort zone, though that was somewhere he rarely stayed long.

Birmingham sent Bellingham on a kind of footballing school exchange, to Cornellà and Freiburg, teams in Spain and Germany with whom they had links, to give him a taste of European football. On Saturday Bellingham will play in the continent’s grandest club match, when Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, his current and former clubs, duel for the Champions League at Wembley. It is a long way from his colourful early days in Birmingham’s pre-academy that Mike Dodds, who coached Bellingham during his first and last training sessions at the club, well remembers.

The T20 World Cup starts in the US this weekend and, while the Caribbean is hosting more games, there is little doubt where the potential for growth lies

Spread across six Caribbean countries and the United States of America, where some folks believe sits gold in them thar hills, the men’s T20 World Cup that whirs into life in Dallas on Saturday night may well be cricket’s most ambitious global event to date.

It certainly feels the most inclusive of any format, men or women. A record 20 teams start in four groups of five – no preliminary qualifier here – and first-timers USA, Canada and Uganda are among nine associate nations. Then there are the logistics, be it the zig-zagging travel – organisers liaising with seven separate governments – or the mind-bending 34,000-seat modular stadium on Long Island, New York that has been rapidly assembled like an Ikea flat-pack on steroids.

• Gauff’s record in Paris earns Evert and Capriati comparisons
• Swiatek beats Bouzkova, Jabeur and Vondrousova advance

After spending her earlier years setting rare milestones owing to her precocity, Coco Gauff now comes into the biggest tournaments armed with an even more important strength: experience.

As the third seed defeated Dayana Yastremska 6-2, 6-4 in a bruising battle on Friday, Gauff’s win sent her into the fourth round of Roland Garros for the fourth successive year, making her only the second American to do that in the open era at the age of 20, Jennifer Capriati being the first in 1993. Gauff was then asked about having won more matches in Paris at her age than Chris Evert.

Wembley underdogs have shed their youth-oriented, profit-hungry model to reach new heights with a tougher team

All week, and by small degrees, London has been turning yellow and black. Stickers on Tube escalators. Scarves tied to lampposts. A BVB-emblazoned padlock on the banks of the Thames at Westminster. Wide-eyed fans milling through the pubs of Soho, wincing at the beer prices. Trying to soak up every last available morsel of enjoyment from the experience before – you know – the actual football starts.

It’s a largely moot point whether Borussia Dortmund are the biggest final outsiders in the modern history of the Champions League. Perhaps Internazionale last season, perhaps Liverpool in 2005. Either way, given the opposition, their fifth-placed finish in the Bundesliga and the charmed passage they have enjoyed to the final, few give them a hope at Wembley on Saturday night.

• Punishment is 16 months; 13 are suspended for two years
• Durham player takes ‘full responsibility’ for placing bets

The Durham and England bowler ­Brydon Carse has been banned for three months, with a further 13 months suspended, after accepting charges of breaching cricket’s anti-corruption rules by placing 303 bets on a variety of cricket matches over a period of more than two years.

None of Carse’s bets, made between 2017 and 2019, were placed on games in which he was participating, but the sport’s betting integrity rules prohibit professional players, coaches and support staff from betting on any cricket played anywhere in the world. In a statement the Cricket Regulator, which was established last December to monitor compliance with the game’s regulations, said Carse had cooperated with its investigation and “demonstrated significant remorse for his actions”.

Interior ministry says 18-year-old Chechen suspected of planning ‘Islamist-inspired’ attack in Saint-Étienne

French security services have arrested a Chechen teenager suspected of plotting an “Islamist-inspired” attack on a football game during this summer’s Olympics, the interior ministry has said.

The domestic intelligence agency DGSI arrested an 18-year-old of Chechen origin in Saint-Étienne, in south-east France, the ministry said on Friday, calling it the “first foiled attack against the Olympic Games”.

The likely favourite boiled over at Newmarket and may have to give best to stablemate Los Angeles at Epsom

There will be no special measures to ensure that City Of Troy, the likely favourite, remains relaxed before the race as he attempts to bounce back from a dismal 2,000 Guineas run in the Derby at Epsom on Saturday, Aidan O’Brien, the colt’s trainer, said at the track on Friday.

O’Brien believes that City Of Troy, last year’s outstanding champion two-year-old colt, became upset in the stalls before the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket in early May, which raised his heart-rate towards its maximum much earlier than required and led to him fading steadily through the field after racing up with the pace to halfway.

• Alleged breaches of betting rules did not involve his own club
• Reading’s head of football operations has until 7 June to respond

Reading’s head of football operations, Mark Bowen, has been charged by the Football Association over breaches of its betting rules after allegedly placing 95 bets on football matches.

The alleged offences took place between 19 April 2022 and 14 January 2024 and were not connected to games involving the League One club, the FA said in a statement.

Marina Gibson wants women to be accepted to 140-year-old Flyfishers’ Club, of which the king is patron

After she remarked that it was about time that Britain’s leading flyfishing club admitted women, Marina Gibson received a rush of helpful suggestions from male anglers who felt protective of the club’s heritage.

Gibson could set up her own flyfishing organisation for women, one man suggested. Another pointed out that she could join the Women’s Institute if she really wanted to be part of a club, or visit the Flyfishers’ Club in the evening (but not at lunchtime) if she was lucky enough to be invited in by one of the 600 men who are members. Others emailed asking her to explain why she wanted to join in the first place.

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Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid are preparing to battle it out in the pinnacle of European football on Saturday night at Wembley, in front of 25,000 sponsors supping on pints of Gazprom and a handful of supporters from each club. This will be the end of Big Cup as we know it. After decades of appeasing the suits without causing too much harm to the competition, it seems Uefa has finally reached an end game when it comes to all that is logical with football.

If we are talking about the re-saleable variety in managers as action figures (yesterday’s Football Daily letters) then Roy Hodgson has a huge amount of incarnations. There’s Gentleman Roy for his general demeanour, Adventurer Roy for his varied career, Sailor Roy for his approach to scouting opponents, Bus Driver Roy for his approach to tactics and Maverick Roy for when he occasionally surprises. You could also have a Sidekick Ray toy as another potential revenue stream” – Andy Gill.

• Tennis star’s defence tells Berlin court claims are ‘unfounded’
• Trial begins after Zverev contested fine for domestic assault

A Berlin court has begun hearing an appeal by the German tennis player Alexander Zverev against a fine imposed on him for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend, an accusation which he denies.

As the world No 4 competes at the French Open in Paris, his lawyers are fighting his case in court, after he was fined €450,000 (£384,000, $489,000) in October for allegedly trying to strangle Brenda Patea, his then partner and the mother of his three-year-old daughter, Mayla.

Carriers including easyJet and Ryanair face being banned from charging for carry-on luggage

Budget airlines including easyJet and Ryanair have been hit with fines totalling €150m (£128m) by the Spanish government for policies that include charging passengers extra for cabin luggage.

In the biggest sanction issued by the Spanish government’s ministry of social rights and consumer affairs, the carriers easyJet, Ryanair, Vueling and Volotea have been penalised after an investigation launched last summer.

• Defence says Richards is Keane’s ‘puppy’ and did not see assault
• Scott Law has pleaded not guilty to headbutting pundit

The former Manchester City defender Micah Richards told a court he “grappled” with a man accused of head-butting his punditry partner Roy Keane inside Arsenal’s football stadium.

Scott Law, 43, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of common assault against Keane relating to an incident on 3 September last year after Arsenal’s 3-1 victory over Manchester United. The former Manchester United midfielder, who was working as a pundit for Sky Sports, was allegedly head-butted through doors at the Emirates Stadium by Law, of Waltham Abbey, Essex.

He is backed by the FA and has three strong tournament runs behind him but could this be his last tilt at international glory?

When the Gareth Southgate interview from L’Équipe bounced back to England on 14 May, it prompted a few phone calls between newspaper desks and their reporters. The England manager, preparing for Euro 2024 and under contract with the Football Association until December, had been asked the obligatory, inevitable question. Would this summer be his last shot at tournament glory with the team? Now we picked over his answer. Was there anything new in it?

The first thing to say was that even though it was most assuredly Southgate – speaking at the FA’s international media day – it did not sound completely like him. “If we don’t win, there is indeed a good chance that I won’t stay in office.” It was just the turn of phrase. Then again, here we had an Englishman speaking in English, being translated into French and back again into English.

• Organisers bring in booze ban to curb rowdy spectators
• Get in touch: email Luke with your Roland Garros thoughts

Samsonova 3-4 *Cocciaretto (*denotes next server)

Better, much better from Samsonova. There is still an unforced error – she’s up to 12 now, to just one for her opponent in the match. But she’s also struck four aces to none, and one of those brings her to within a game at 4-3, still a break down.

• Buildup to Borussia Dortmund v Real Madrid, and more
• Get in touch! Contact Dominic with your thoughts on email

Saturday’s Champions League final will be refereed by Slavko Vinčić. Some fun facts about the the 44-year-old Slovenian: He’s a father of two and has taken charge of five Champions League matches this season, showing a combined tally of 19 cards. Three of those came in Dortmund’s quarter-final 4-2 win over Atletico Madrid, Julian Ryerson the only player in the German side to receive a caution.

While Kieran ­McKenna chose to stay put at Ipswich, there has been change at their fierce local rivals Norwich. The Canaries have appointed the Nordsjælland manager Johannes Hoff Thorup as head coach.