Top U.S. swimmers entered in last Pro Series meet before Olympic Trials

By OlympicTalkMay 5, 2021, 5:42 PM EDT

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Olympic and world champions Lilly King, Regan Smith, Nathan Adrian, Allison Schmitt and Matt Grevers headline next week’s Tyr Pro Swim Series stop in Indianapolis, the last top-level meet before next month’s Olympic Trials.

The entry list is here.

NBC Sports and USASwimming.org air live coverage of finals sessions from May 12-15.

King, the Olympic and world champion and world-record holder in the 100m breast, leads Olympic Trials preview fields in both breaststrokes.

Training partner Annie Lazor, ranked second in the nation in the 100m breast and first in the 200m breast (just ahead of King), is also entered in essentially a home meet an hour north of their Bloomington base.

The Nos. 3 and 4 women in the 200m breast — Bethany Galat and Emily Escobedo — are also entered. King, Galat and Escobedo are separated by .61 of a second in best times since the start of 2019. After them is a clear divider in the race for two Olympic spots. The fifth-ranked 200m breaststroker is another 1.84 seconds behind.

Smith, who at age 17 broke the 100m and 200m backstroke world records in 2019, faces tests in that stroke, plus her complementary stroke, butterfly.

Smith takes on rising 18-year-old Phoebe Bacon in the 100m back. Bacon, from the same high school as Katie Ledecky, is ranked third in the U.S. in the 100m back since the start of 2019. The second-ranked 100m backstroker, former world-record holder Kathleen Baker, is entered in strictly the 200m individual medley in Indianapolis.

Smith is also a contender to make the Olympic team in both the 100m and 200m butterflies, should she enter them at Trials. In Indy, she’s entered along with 2019 World bronze medalist Kelsi Dahlia, who was the fastest American in the event in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, but in the last year teens Claire Curzan and Torri Huske have been the fastest. Curzan and Huske are not entered in Indy.

The 200m fly pits the top two American women — world silver medalist Hali Flickinger and Smith, who in 2020 clocked a personal-best time that would have won the 2019 World title.

The eye-catching men’s events are the 50m and 100m freestyles and the 100m breaststroke.

The 50m free features the Nos. 2-5 American men — Michael Andrew, Ryan Held, Zach Apple, plus Adrian, the five-time Olympic champion bidding to come back from testicular cancer to make a fourth Games.

But Adrian’s best chance at making it to Tokyo is in the 100m free, given it’s likely the top six at Trials qualify for the relay pool. Adrian is ranked eighth in the U.S. since the start of 2019. The Indy field includes four of the men ahead of him — Held, Apple, Blake Pieroni and Dean Farris.

The 100m breast pits the nation’s second- and third-ranked men, Michael Andrew and Cody Miller, who are separated by one tenth since the start of 2019.

Joseph Schooling, the 2016 Olympic 100m fly champion from Singapore, is also entered. Schooling failed to make it out of the heats at 2019 Worlds and ranks outside the world top 30 since the start of 2019.

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2023 French Open men’s singles draw, scores

By OlympicTalkJun 5, 2023, 4:59 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 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

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2023 French Open Men’s Singles Draw

Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek set French Open rematch

By OlympicTalkJun 5, 2023, 3:25 PM EDT

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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.

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2023 French Open Men’s Singles Draw

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