Leanne Smith leads U.S. with seven golds at world para swimming championships

By OlympicTalkJun 18, 2022, 6:06 PM EDT

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Leanne Smith won a meet-leading seven gold medals at the world para swimming championships, sparking a U.S. team that finished second in the standings with 24 gold medals overall.

Smith, who earned one silver medal in her Paralympic debut in Tokyo, had the best medal haul for a U.S. swimmer at a world championships since Jessica Long took seven golds and two silvers in 2010, according to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

Full meet results are here.

Smith, 34, took four months off swimming after the Paralympics last year, according to TeamUSA.org.

“To really reevaluate where I was in the sport,” she said, according to the report. “I wasn’t the happiest with how I swam in Tokyo, so it was important for me to really take the time to reevaluate mentally, emotionally how I felt about the sport.”

Smith, diagnosed with a rare neurological muscle disease called dystonia in January 2012, began swimming in 2013. On the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira this week, she won golds in all of her events spanning the backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle, individual medley and a relay.

Other top American performers included Robert Griswold, who took three golds and six medals total. In Tokyo, Griswold won two golds.

McKenzie Coan, a six-time Paralympic medalist between Rio and Tokyo, added five more medals this week, including three golds.

Long, who ranks second in U.S. history with 29 Paralympic medals, didn’t compete this week, missing a worlds for the first time since 2002.

“I have had to remind myself that sometimes we all need a break,” Long, 30, posted on social media last week. “I haven’t taken a break since I made my first Paralympic team in 2004. I needed to take my break now. I can’t wait to take on this rest time and rejuvenate as I try to book my ticket to Paris in 2024.”

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🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇@Leanne_Smith88 🇺🇸 grabs her seventh gold medal at #Madeira2022 after breaking the WR in the women’s 100m freestyle S3 and setting 1:27.62 as the new fastest mark.

🥈E. Challis 🇬🇧
🥉P. Benitez 🇲🇽

📺 Watch live: https://t.co/WG42XNgbMW #ParaSwimming @Paralympics pic.twitter.com/ULfsOB1IPX

— #ParaSwimming (@Para_swimming) June 18, 2022

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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