Mikaela Shiffrin wins 13th straight slalom

By Nick ZaccardiNov 27, 2016, 3:15 PM EST

Mikaela Shiffrin won her 13th straight slalom race, including her 10th straight on the World Cup, matching a women’s record in Killington, Vt., on Sunday.

The youngest Olympic slalom champion prevailed by .73 of a second after two runs at the first World Cup stop on the East Coast since 1991. Slovakia’s Veronika Velez Zuzulova was second, followed by Swiss Wendy Holdener. Full results are here.

Shiffrin said she woke up Sunday with a bad feeling, despite the streak.

“To be honest, I didn’t have a lot of fun today,” she told media in Killington. “I was nervous. It’s not the way that I like to ski race. I like to ski when I’m free and having fun with it. … It’s tough to race in front of a home crowd.”

Shiffrin, who is 21 years old and now has 21 career World Cup slalom wins, matched the women’s World Cup consecutive slalom wins record. Swiss Vreni Schneider and Croatian Janica Kostelic each captured 10 straight World Cup slaloms.

On the men’s side, Swede Ingemar Stenmark won 15 straight World Cup giant slalom starts from 1978 to 1980.

Shiffrin’s streak dates to 2015 and also includes two national championships and one world championship. However, Shiffrin missed five slaloms in the middle of last season due to a right knee injury.

“I don’t feel like [the full streak] counts because I missed half the season last year,” Shiffrin said after her previous win Nov. 12 in Levi, Finland, where her prize was a reindeer she named Sven. “There were other winners. I think my streak starts after I came back from injury.”

Shiffrin won this season’s first two slaloms by and .67 and .73, respectively. Last season, four of her five victories were by more than two seconds.

“My best skiing, I’m not even close to that yet,” she said Sunday.

Shiffrin increased her lead in the World Cup overall standings to 157 points. Defending World Cup overall champion Lara Gut of Switzerland skipped the Killington slalom after skiing out of the giant slalom Saturday. Gut is best at downhill and super-G.

The women’s World Cup continues with two downhills and a super-G in Lake Louise, Alberta, next weekend, which is slated to feature Shiffrin but not the injured Lindsey Vonn.

VIDEO: Vonn details return timetable

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Correction: An earlier version of this post stated Vreni Schneider won 12 straight slaloms. She won 10 straight, her streak snapped by failing to finish a race.

Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz set French Open semifinal showdown

By OlympicTalkJun 6, 2023, 6:59 PM EDT

Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz will play in the French Open semifinals on Friday in the most anticipated match of the tournament.

Each man advanced with a quarterfinal win on Tuesday.

Djokovic, eyeing a record-breaking 23rd Grand Slam men’s singles title, rallied past 11th-seeded Russian Karen Khachanov 4-6, 7-6 (0), 6-2, 6-4. The Serb reached his 45th career major semifinal, one shy of Roger Federer‘s men’s record.

Later Tuesday, top seed Alcaraz crushed fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece 6-2, 6-1, 7-6 (5) to consolidate his status as the favorite in Friday’s showdown.

“This match, everyone wants to watch,” Alcaraz said. “I really wanted to play this match as well. I always say that if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best.”

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

Alcaraz, who at last year’s U.S. Open became the first male teen to win a major since Rafael Nadal in 2005, is at this event the youngest man to be the top seed at a major since Boris Becker at 1987 Wimbledon.

The Djokovic-Alcaraz semifinal will produce the clear favorite for Sunday’s final given left-handed 14-time French Open champion Nadal is out this year with a hip injury and No. 2 seed Daniil Medvedev lost in the first round. Djokovic and Nadal share the record 22 men’s major titles.

Djokovic and Alcaraz met once, with Alcaraz winning last year on clay in Madrid 6-7 (5), 7-5, 7-6 (5).

“[Alcaraz] brings a lot of intensity on the court,” Djokovic said, before breaking into a smile. “Reminds me of someone from his country that plays with a left hand.”

Alcaraz and Djokovic were set to be on opposite halves of the draw — and thus not able to meet until the final — until Medvedev won the last top-level clay event before the French Open to move ahead of Djokovic in the rankings. That meant Djokovic had a 50 percent chance to wind up in Alcaraz’s half, and that’s what the random draw spit out two weeks ago.

Earlier Tuesday in the first two women’s quarterfinals, No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus and 43rd-ranked Czech Karolina Muchova advanced to face off in Thursday’s semifinals.

Sabalenka, the Australian Open champion, swept Ukrainian Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-4 to complete her set of semifinals in all four Grand Slams. Sabalenka will take the No. 1 ranking from Iga Swiatek if Swiatek loses before the final, or if Sabalenka makes the final and Swiatek does not win the title.

Svitolina, a former world No. 3, returned to competition in April from childbirth.

Muchova took out 2021 French Open runner-up Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 7-5, 6-2, to make her second major semifinal after the 2021 Australian Open.

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2023 French Open men’s singles draw

By OlympicTalkJun 6, 2023, 5:16 PM EDT

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The French Open men’s singles draw is missing injured 14-time champion Rafael Nadal for the first time since 2004, leaving the Coupe des Mousquetaires ripe for the taking.

The tournament airs live on NBC Sports, Peacock and Tennis Channel through championship points in Paris.

Novak Djokovic is not only bidding for a third crown at Roland Garros, but also to lift a 23rd Grand Slam singles trophy to break his tie with Nadal for the most in men’s history.

FRENCH OPEN: Broadcast Schedule | Women’s Draw

But the No. 1 seed is Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, who won last year’s U.S. Open to become, at 19, the youngest man to win a major since Nadal’s first French Open title in 2005.

Now Alcaraz looks to become the second-youngest man to win at Roland Garros since 1989, after Nadal of course.

Alcaraz missed the Australian Open in January due to a right leg injury, but since went 30-3 with four titles. Notably, he has not faced Djokovic this year. They meet in Friday’s semifinals.

Russian Daniil Medvedev, the No. 2 seed, was upset in the first round by 172nd-ranked Brazilian qualifier Thiago Seyboth Wild. It marked the first time a men’s top-two seed lost in the first round of any major since 2003 Wimbledon (Ivo Karlovic d. Lleyton Hewitt).

All of the American men lost before the fourth round. The last U.S. man to make the French Open quarterfinals was Andre Agassi in 2003.

MORE: All you need to know for 2023 French Open

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2023 French Open Men’s Singles Draw

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