Mo Farah compares Eliud Kipchoge to Anthony Joshua, taps London Marathon

By OlympicTalkNov 20, 2018, 11:13 AM EST

Getty Images

In the settled dust of the fall major marathon season, an argument can be made that Mo Farah is the world’s best marathoner in the non-Eliud Kipchoge division.

Farah, who swept the 5000m and 10,000m on the track at the last two Olympics and switched full-time to road running this year, took third at the London Marathon on April 22 and won the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 7.

The 35-year-old Brit announced Tuesday that he’s entering next April’s London Marathon, which Kipchoge has raced and won three straight times (not counting his 2017 absence for Nike’s sub-two-hour marathon attempt). Kipchoge, who distanced Farah by two minutes in April, has not announced his spring marathon plans, but it would be a surprise if he doesn’t defend his London title.

Farah anticipated the showdown in his post-Chicago victory news conference last month, conceding that Kipchoge is the better marathoner (currently, Farah noted) but that he was not afraid of not only racing Kipchoge, but also trying to test the Kenyan world-record holder.

Kipchoge, who is 19 months younger than Farah, has won nine straight marathons, the longest streak at the highest level of the event in at least 50 years. His world record — 2:01:39 set in Berlin on Sept. 16 — is 78 seconds clear of the second-fastest man in history.

“Do I think I can beat him? Yes,” Farah said in conjunction with his London Marathon announcement, according to the Standard. “Right now, he’s beyond anyone else. In that way, I’d compare him to Anthony Joshua, in that he’s the top of the heavyweight boxing division, but it only takes one great fight to knock him down.”

Farah compared himself to another undefeated British heavyweight, Tyson Fury. “You don’t know what you’re going to get. On the day, when it matters, I feel I can put on the best show,” he said, according to the report.

While Joshua and Fury have never fought, Farah and Kipchoge were in the same track race 14 times between 2006 and 2012, with Farah winning three of the last four as he emerged as the world’s best distance runner in 2011 and 2012.

Farah’s plan beyond the London Marathon isn’t as set as once thought. He has said he might go back on his 2017 retirement from track racing and attempt to race the 10,000m at the world championships in Doha on Sept. 27. Even race on the track at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The last British man to win the London Marathon was Eamonn Martin in 1993.

“My aim is to win the London Marathon one day,” Farah said. “I don’t know when it’s going to be.”

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

MORE: U.S. marathon rankings for 2018

Follow @nbcolympictalk

2023 French Open men’s singles draw, scores

By OlympicTalkJun 5, 2023, 4:59 PM EDT

Getty

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 could meet in the 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

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Follow @nbcolympictalk

2023 French Open Men’s Singles Draw

Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek set French Open rematch

By OlympicTalkJun 5, 2023, 3:25 PM EDT

Getty

Coco Gauff swept into the French Open quarterfinals, where she plays Iga Swiatek in a rematch of last year’s final.

Gauff, the sixth seed, beat 100th-ranked Slovakian Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 7-5, 6-2 in the fourth round. She next plays the top seed Swiatek, who later Monday advanced after 66th-ranked Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko retired down 5-1 after taking a medical timeout due to illness.

Gauff earned a 37th consecutive win over a player ranked outside the top 50, dating to February 2022. She hasn’t faced a player in the world top 60 in four matches at Roland Garros, but the degree of difficulty ratchets up in Wednesday’s quarterfinals.

Swiatek won all 12 sets she’s played against Gauff, who at 19 is the only teenager in the top 49 in the world. Gauff said last week that there’s no point in revisiting last year’s final — a 6-1, 6-3 affair — but said Monday that she should rewatch that match because they haven’t met on clay since.

“I don’t want to make the final my biggest accomplishment,” she said. “Since last year I have been wanting to play her, especially at this tournament. I figured that it was going to happen, because I figured I was going to do well, and she was going to do well.

“The way my career has gone so far, if I see a level, and if I’m not quite there at that level, I know I have to improve, and I feel like you don’t really know what you have to improve on until you see that level.”

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

Also Monday, No. 7 seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia dispatched 36th-ranked American Bernarda Pera 6-3, 6-1, breaking all eight of Pera’s service games.

Jabeur, runner-up at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open last year, has now reached the quarterfinals of all four majors.

Jabeur next faces 14th-seeded Beatriz Haddad Maia, who won 6-7 (3), 6-3, 7-5 over Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo, who played on a protected ranking of 68. Haddad Maia became the second Brazilian woman to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal in the Open Era (since 1968) after Maria Bueno, who won seven majors from 1959-1966.

Pera, a 28 year-old born in Croatia, was the oldest U.S. singles player to make the fourth round of a major for the first time since Jill Craybas at 2005 Wimbledon. Her defeat left Gauff as the lone American singles player remaining out of the 35 entered in the main draws.

The last American to win a major singles title was Sofia Kenin at the 2020 Australian Open. The 11-major drought matches the longest in history (since 1877) for American men and women combined.

In the men’s draw, 2022 French Open runner-up Casper Ruud reached the quarterfinals by beating 35th-ranked Chilean Nicolas Jarry 7-6 (3), 7-5, 7-5. He’ll next play sixth seed Holger Rune of Denmark, a 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (7) winner over 23rd seed Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina.

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Follow @nbcolympictalk

2023 French Open Men’s Singles Draw

More: Olympics

More: Olympics