Italy’s Dominik Paris gets third-career Kitzbuehel downhill win

By Nate ClarkJan 25, 2019, 7:40 AM EST

Severe weather conditions forced event organizers to rejigger the race schedule in Kitzbuehel this weekend. Heavy snowfall and the subsequent use of water to ice the infamous downhill course, affectionately referred to as the “Super Bowl of Skiing,” created a track which gave skiers fits in training runs.

For example, Austria’s Matthias Mayer was the fastest skier on the hill in Tuesday’s training, but dropped to 35th on Thursday.

The name that kept coming up as the potential victor for Friday, according to FIS-ski.com, was Italy’s Dominik Paris. This time, the experts got it right.

Paris is the only active skier to win multiple downhill races in Kitzbuehel, winning the race in 2013 and 2017. In training runs this week, Paris ranked third and fourth.

On Friday, Paris did tame the mountain. It was a back-and-forth battle with the clock down the course for Paris. He held a slim lead early in his run, then slipped behind the pace set by then-current leader, Switzerland’s Beat Feuz. But Paris found the speed he needed in the end, crossing the finish line .20 hundredths of a second ahead of Feuz.

Joining Paris and Feuz on the podium in third, racing on home snow, was Austria’s Otmar Striedinger. Wearing bib #27, Striedinger entered the day ranked 24th in downhill World Cup points.

Full results are here.

The U.S.’ Bryce Bennett, coming off three-straight top five downhill finishes, including last week’s event in Wengen, finished 14th. Travis Ganong, also skiing for the U.S., finished 19th.

Last week’s two-time winner in the downhill and Alpine combined, Austria’s Vincent Kriechmayr, posted one of the most impressive DNFs of the day in Kitzbuehel. To his credit, Kriechmayr was able to cross the finish line, but not without fishtailing out of control at two separate sections of the course. Both times, he was able to recover and avoid becoming the red net’s latest victim.

Ski racing starts early on Saturday for stateside fans. The first run of men’s slalom gets underway at 3:30 a.m. ET from Kitzbuehel, with the second run starting at 6:30 a.m. ET. However, those times could change with winter weather expected to impact the mountain over the weekend. Watch the racing live from Kitzbuehel on NBC Sports Gold.

The women’s World Cup tour will run its first race of the weekend, the Super-G, from the picturesque Bavarian region of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, GaPa for short, starting at 4:00 a.m. ET, Saturday morning.

On Thursday, the U.S.’ Lindsey Vonn announced she would not be racing in GaPa. Last week in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Vonn had made her return to World Cup racing after being sidelined since Novermber with an injured left knee.

After skiing out in the Super-G on Sunday in Cortina, Vonn announced on Instagram she was battling new and severe nerve pain in one of her knees. Vonn believes the most recent injury was caused by a jump she took during a Super-G training run in Cortina. She hopes to return to racing before the end of the season.

Watch the women’s World Cup live on TV on Olympic Channel or stream it on NBC Sports Gold.

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Novak Djokovic breaks record he shared with Rafael Nadal at French Open

Associated PressJun 4, 2023, 11:18 AM EDT

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Novak Djokovic broke a tie with rival Rafael Nadal by reaching the French Open quarterfinals for the record 17th time, never truly in trouble during a 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Juan Pablo Varillas on Sunday.

Djokovic is closing on bettering Nadal in a more prestigious category: Grand Slam singles championships. Both currently sit at 22. For Djokovic, that total includes two at Roland Garros, in 2016 and 2021, and he can become the first man to own at least three trophies from each major tournament.

Nadal is a 14-time champion in Paris but is missing this time because of a hip injury; he had arthroscopic surgery Friday night.

Against the 94th-ranked Varillas, who had never won a Slam match until this event and then took three in a row in five sets, Djokovic was, not surprisingly, at his dominant best at Court Philippe Chatrier on a warm, sunny day.

The 36-year-old from Serbia finished with more than twice as many winners, 35-15, and fewer unforced errors. He went 15 for 17 on trips to the net. He put in 80% of his first serves. He converted 6 of 12 break points while dropping his serve only once.

All in all, a no-drama showing in under two hours from Djokovic, who hasn’t ceded a set yet through four matches. He’s had his less-than-amiable back-and-forths with some spectators over the past week in Paris, but when this one ended, Djokovic gestured as though to hug everyone as he heard some chants of his two-syllable nickname, “No-le!”

In his 55th career major quarterfinal — Roger Federer, who retired with 58, is the only man to reach more — and 14th in a row at Roland Garros, the No. 3-seeded Djokovic will face No. 11 Karen Khachanov on Tuesday.

Khachanov, who is 1-8 against Djokovic, made it this far at a Slam for the fifth time by defeating Lorenzo Sonego 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7), 6-1.

The other men’s fourth-round matches Sunday were No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz vs. No. 17 Lorenzo Musetti, and No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Sebastian Ofner.

Two unseeded women moved into quarterfinals and will play each other next: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the 2021 runner-up at Roland Garros, and Karolina Muchova.

Pavlyuchenkova, who missed last year’s tournament as part of a lengthy absence with a knee injury, got past a third consecutive seeded opponent, No. 28 Elise Mertens, by a 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-3 score.

Muchova was a 6-4, 6-4 winner against Elina Avanesyan, who lost in qualifying but got into the main draw when another player withdrew.

The other women’s matches scheduled for later: No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka vs. 2017 U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens, and No. 9 Daria Kasatkina vs. Elina Svitolina.

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

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French Open doubles team disqualified after tennis ball hits ball girl

Associated PressJun 4, 2023, 9:57 AM EDT

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French Open doubles player Miyu Kato and her partner were forced to forfeit a match when Kato accidentally hit a ball girl in the neck with a ball after a point on Sunday.

In the second set on Court 14 at Roland Garros, Kato took a swing with her racket and the ball flew toward the ball kid, who was not looking in the player’s direction while heading off the court.

At first, chair umpire Alexandre Juge only issued a warning to Kato. But after tournament referee Remy Azemar and Grand Slam supervisor Wayne McEwen went to Court 14 to look into what happened, Kato and her partner, Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia, were disqualified.

That made Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic and Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain the winners of the match.

“It’s just a bad situation for everyone,” Bouzkova said. “But it’s kind of something that, I guess, is taken by the rules, as it is, even though it’s very unfortunate for them. … At the end of the day, it was the referee’s decision.”

Bouzkova said she did not see the ball hit the ball girl, but “she was crying for like 15 minutes.”

She said one of the officials said the ball “has to do some kind of harm to the person affected” and that “at first, (Juge) didn’t see that.”

Bouzkova said she and Sorribes Tormo told Juge “to look into it more and ask our opponents what they think happened.”

During Coco Gauff’s 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-1 singles victory over Mirra Andreeva on Saturday, Andreev swatted a ball into the Court Suzanne Lenglen stands after dropping a point in the first set. Andreev was given a warning by the chair umpire for unsportsmanlike conduct but no further penalty.

“I heard about that. Didn’t see it,” Bouzkova said. “I guess it just depends on the circumstances and the given situation as it happens. … It is difficult, for sure.

In the quarterfinals, Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo will face Ellen Perez of Australia and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States.

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

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a tough scene in Paris. Doubles partners Kato/Sutjiadi just got defaulted as Kato hit a ball girl accidentally at 6-7(1), 3-1.#RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/A7BIshh1CX

— Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) June 4, 2023

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