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LONDON — Defending champion Novak Djokovic battled back from two sets down to reach an 11th Wimbledon semifinal on Tuesday as mother-of-two Tatjana Maria booked her first Slam last-four spot after 15 years of trying.

Djokovic triumphed 5-7, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 over Italian 10th seed Jannik Sinner, coming from two sets down for the seventh time in his career.

The Serb will face Britain’s Cameron Norrie, who made it to the semis of a Slam for the first time by beating David Goffin of Belgium 3-6, 7-5, 2-6, 6-3, 7-5, for a place in Sunday’s final.

Maria, who defeated fellow unseeded German Jule Niemeier 4-6, 6-2, 7-5, awaits World No. 2 Ons Jabeur, who beat Marie Bouzkova 3-6, 6-1, 6-1, in her semifinal.

Djokovic, a 20-time major winner, said he had to give himself a talking to after going two sets down.

“The first two sets compared to the next three were like two different matches,” he said. “He was the better player for those first two sets.

“But at the end of the second set I took a toilet break, gave myself a little pep talk, tried to gather my thoughts.

“I broke early in the third set. I saw a little bit of doubt start to come into his movement. I have many years’ experience of playing on these courts and coping with the pressure.”

Djokovic is no stranger to Grand Slam adversity, having twice come back from two sets to love down as recently as last year’s French Open.

The second of those stunning recoveries came in the final against Stefanos Tsitsipas.

A break in the fourth game of the third set on Tuesday enabled him to cut his quarter-final deficit.

In control, the 35-year-old levelled the tie with a double break in the fourth set as Sinner took a worrying tumble on his ankle scrambling to the Centre Court net.

‘Goosebumps’

Djokovic carved out two more breaks in the decider, the second off the back of a stunning, cross-court backhand on the stretch to go to 5-2 before calmly serving it out.

“I played well but he raised his level. I think I can be proud of what I have done here,” said Sinner who had never won a grass-court match before Wimbledon.

Maria, 34, who saved two match points in the previous round against Jelena Ostapenko, made her Grand Slam debut in 2007 and had never progressed beyond the third round at a major before this year’s Wimbledon.

“I have goosebumps everywhere,” said the World No. 103, who returned from maternity leave just under a year ago.

“My two little girls, it’s a dream to live this with my family, to live this with my two girls. Almost one year ago I gave birth, it’s crazy.”

Maria was ranked outside the top 250 as recently as March.

Goffin defeated Frances Tiafoe of the United States in the longest match at this year’s Wimbledon — four hours and 36 minutes — to reach the quarter-finals for the second time.

The remaining men’s quarter-finals take place on Wednesday.

Rafael Nadal faces Taylor Fritz of the United States while Nick Kyrgios takes on Chile’s Cristian Garin.

World No. 2 Jabeur is the last of the top 15 women’s seeds standing.

The Tunisian player made the last eight in 2021 and is now looking to reach a first Grand Slam semifinal.

The 27-year-old coasted through the first three rounds before digging deep to save five set points in the opening set of her last-16 clash against Elise Mertens.

On Wednesday, Simona Halep, the 2019 champion, tackles Amanda Anisimova of the United States while Ajla Tomljanovic takes on big-serving Elena Rybakina.

WASHINGTON — J.T. Poston became the first wire-to-wire winner at the John Deere Classic in 30 years on Sunday to capture his second career US PGA Tour title and book his British Open debut.

The 29-year-old American fired a two-under par 69 to finish 72 holes on 21-under 263 at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois.

That delivered Poston a three-stroke triumph over Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo and South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who joined the American in booking berths at St. Andrews when the Open starts July 14.

“I can’t wait,” Poston said. “I’ve always wanted to play in one of those at any venue. For the first one to be at St. Andrews, I can’t draw it up any better.”

Poston was only the third Deere wire-to-wire winner, the first since South African David Frost in 1992, and just the second PGA wire-to-wire winner this season after Chile’s Joaquin Niemann at Riviera.

“It is hard, wire to wire, having the lead for that long,” Poston said. “It’s hard not to think about it.”

Poston birdied the first three holes, had two bogeys, then parred 10 consecutive holes before a birdie at the par-3 17th and a closing par.

“I got off to a good start, tried to give some back, but I kept my head in it and tried to stay focused,” Poston said.

“I was just trying to breathe. There were a little more nerves than the first three days and I was having to battle through them. It’s nice to know I can.”

Poston, who matched his PGA career low with a 62 on Thursday, took his only prior PGA victory at the 2019 Wyndham Championship.

“You just never know if you’re going to do it again and to do it this week is awesome,” Poston said, his voice breaking after 72 holes with a stoic expression.

World number 99 Poston had three prior top-10 efforts this season, including a runner-up finish at last week’s Travelers Championship.

Poston, the solo leader since Friday’s third hole, led by three when the day began and built his lead to five strokes before it shrank to one over Grillo on the back nine.

But the South American missed a six-foot putt and made bogey at the par-3 12th to stumble two back while Poston hit the flagstick on a 67-foot birdie putt at 12 and tapped in for par to stay two ahead.

Poston found a greenside bunker at the par-4 13th but sank a clutch 10-foot par putt. Moments later, Grillo missed a 10-foot par putt at the 14th for bogey.

Bezuidenhout charged into the hunt late with three birdies in four hols, the last of them a tap-in at the par-5 17th.

But Poston sank a birdie putt at 17 from just outside five feet — his first birdie since the third — to stretch his lead back to three.

“It’s nice to get it behind me,” Poston said. “Sitting on a lead that long isn’t easy no matter how big it is. It was definitely a grind.”

Three-birdie start

Poston opened with three straight birdies, sinking putts from about three feet at the first and par-5 second holes plus a 23-footer at the par-3 third.

But Poston had back-to-back bogeys at the fifth, where he three-putted, and sixth, where he found a bunker and missed an 11-foot par putt.

Grillo, ranked 151st in the world, couldn’t take advantage and missed out on his second PGA title, the first coming in 2015.

“I knew I needed a solid week,” Grillo said. “I just needed to play well and go up the rankings and have a job for next year. That was more important for me than going to the Open. Now I get both, so that’s pretty special.”

LONDON — Novak Djokovic admits he can see a lot of Jannik Sinner in himself as the pair face off for a place in the Wimbledon semifinals on Tuesday.

Six-time defending champion Djokovic is in familiar territory, targeting an 11th semi-final at the All England Club and 43rd at the Slams.

Italian 20-year-old Sinner is yet to get past the quarter-finals of a major.

“I kind of see a little bit of myself in his game from the back of the court, playing flat backhand, constantly staying on the back of the line, trying to put pressure on opponents,” said Djokovic.

The Serb easily won the pair’s only previous meeting in straight sets on clay in Monte Carlo last year.

But beanpole Sinner impressively dismissed Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz in the last 16 on Sunday, saving all seven break points faced.

Before this Wimbledon, he had never won a grass court match.

Sinner has been breaking new ground since his teens.

In 2021, he became the youngest player in the year-end top 10 since Juan Martin del Potro in 2008.

Earlier in the year, still 19, he became the first teenager to win an ATP 500-level event in Washington.

He was also the first Italian finalist in the history of the Miami Masters last year.

Physical frailties, however, are never far away.

He had to retire from his fourth-round match against Andrey Rublev at the French Open last month with a knee injury.

In Miami, foot blisters forced a pull-out when facing Francisco Cerundolo while illness in Indian Wells meant he handed a walkover to Nick Kyrgios.

Italian landmark

By making the last eight at Wimbledon, Sinner follows in the footsteps of Matteo Berrettini, who was runner-up to Djokovic last year.

Berrettini was the first Italian man to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals since Davide Sanguinetti in 1998.

“It’s going to be a tough match against Novak, of course. I mean, he’s playing very, very good. I will try my best. That’s the minimum I can do,” said Sinner.

Djokovic will hope the Wimbledon schedulers are kind to him after he hit out at having to play the last match on Centre Court on Sunday.

His four-set win over Tim van Rijthoven ended just in time to avoid the 11pm local curfew.

Had the match gone on, Djokovic would have had to return on Monday.

“I don’t see a reason why there wouldn’t be an earlier start,” said Djokovic of a Centre Court programme that starts at 1:30pm.

“If you’re scheduled last on the Centre, you’re going to end up a match under the roof, which changes the conditions, the style of play, the way you move on the court. 

“It’s more slippery. The lights. It’s really an indoor tournament.”

In Tuesday’s other quarter-final, British ninth seed Cameron Norrie tackles David Goffin of Belgium.

Both men are attempting to make the semis of a Slam for the first time.

Norrie is the last British player left in singles.

Goffin defeated Frances Tiafoe of the United States in the longest match at this year’s Wimbledon — four hours and 36 minutes — to reach the quarter-finals for the second time.

Goffin missed Wimbledon in 2021 after suffering an ankle injury before a knee problem forced him to shut down his season after the US Open.

Before this year, his most recent match at Wimbledon was a sobering 2019 quarter-final defeat to Djokovic, who allowed him just six games.

SILVERSTONE, United Kingdom — Carlos Sainz claimed his first Formula One victory in his 150th race on Sunday when he drove his Ferrari to a spectacular triumph in a furious and crash-hit British Grand Prix.

The 27-year-old Spaniard, starting from his maiden pole position, resisted a charging Sergio Perez of Red Bull, who recovered from 17th, to take the flag by 3.7 seconds in front of a record 142,000 crowd at the high-speed Silverstone circuit.

Home hero seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes took third, to claim a record 13th podium finish on home soil, an unprecedented total by any driver at a single event.

Drawing on his fresher tyres in the closing stages, Hamilton resisted and passed Charles Leclerc in the second Ferrari, who finished fourth ahead of two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Alpine and Lando Norris of McLaren.

World champion and series leader Max Verstappen finished seventh for Red Bull, recovering after picking up debris and suffering a puncture, ahead of a revitalised Mick Schumacher of Haas, four-time champion Sebastian Vettel of Aston Martin, who had started 18th and Kevin Magnussen in the second Haas.

“I don’t know what to say,” said a beaming Sainz. “It is amazing. My first win in Formula One on my 150th race and for Ferrari at Silverstone! It’s amazing.”

Perez was also delighted. “It was a great comeback,” he said.

“We never gave up and we kept pushing. We kept trying. It was epic in some of those final laps.”

Hamilton paid tribute to the crowd, saying Silverstone was unmatched around the world for the scale and depth of enthusiasm demonstrated at the British event, which on Sunday provided stunning entertainment.

“I gave it everything today,” said Hamilton. “I tried to chase, but the Red Bull and the Ferraris were too quick on the straights.”

Verstappen remained on top of the title race with 181 points ahead of Perez on 147 and Leclerc on 138 and Sainz on 127. 

After a long delay following a high-speed multi-car collision at the start of the race, which saw Zhou Guanyu make a remarkable escape after his car skidded upside down through a gravel trap, the contest re-started an hour later using the original grid order.

Three drivers were missing — Alfa Romeo’s Zhou, Williams’ Alex Albon and George Russell of Mercedes — as the lights went out and Sainz, in ferocious fighting mood, boldly resisted Verstappen to retain the lead from his maiden pole position.

Leclerc also made an aggressive start and banged wheels with Perez, who suffered front wing damage, and Verstappen before the order settled on lap five.

Hamilton, who had lost an early position to Norris, swept past him to the delight of his army of fans to regain fourth on lap six as Perez re-joined 17th at the back after a slow pit-stop.

In a frantic spell of action, Sainz ran off-track and across the grass at Becketts on lap 10, gifting Verstappen the initiative again, but two laps later the Dutchman slowed and pitted with a puncture.

Sainz led again as a 3.1 seconds stop for Verstappen, who reported he had hit debris, dropped him to sixth.

Amid this drama, Hamilton closed on Leclerc before, on lap 21, Sainz pitted from the lead, Leclerc taking over ahead of Hamilton with the Spaniard re-joining third ahead of Norris.

Clearly inspired, Hamilton pushed again as Verstappen pitted again before Leclerc pitted on lap 25. He returned in third, behind Sainz, while Hamilton stayed out on his “mediums” and revelled in leading a race for the first time this year.

Behind him, Ferrari told their drivers they were “free to fight” as Leclerc chased second-placed Sainz, who was 18 seconds adrift of Hamilton, but warned that a swap was needed. It duly came on lap 31 when Sainz let Leclerc by on Wellington Straight for second.

This left Hamilton 18.7 seconds ahead, before he pitted on lap 34 for “hards”, emerging third 3.4 seconds behind Sainz, but with tyres that were 13 laps fresher until a Safety Car intervention with 12 laps to go when Esteban Ocon’s Alpine came to a halt.

On the re-start, Perez surged past Hamilton and Sainz overtook Leclerc to lead again, but it was tense stuff and as the Spaniard pulled clear, the trio behind him scrapped and swapped places with ferocious abandon.

Perez muscled his way to second, Leclerc and Hamilton fought and both Alonso and Norris closed to within a second, setting up a furious finale.

SILVERSTONE, United Kingdom — Carlos Sainz grabbed his maiden pole position on Saturday when he outpaced world champion Max Verstappen, who survived a spin in an exciting rain-hit qualifying for the British Grand Prix.

The 27-year-old Spaniard clocked a best lap of one minute and 40.983 seconds to beat the Red Bull driver by 0.072 seconds in the closing minute of a tense session run in treacherous wet conditions.

His first pole came ahead of what will be his 150th Grand Prix start in Sunday’s race, just two weeks after he was a very close second to the Dutchman in a thrilling finish at the Canadian Grand Prix.

In a topsy-turvy session that saw positions shuffled rapidly in the changing conditions, Charles Leclerc was third in the second Ferrari ahead of Sergio Perez of Red Bull and home hero seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes.

After promising to fight for the front row, it was a disappointment for the local fans as Hamilton failed to extend his run of eight British front row starts.

Lando Norris was sixth for McLaren ahead of two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Alpine, George Russell in the second Mercedes, Zhou Guanyu of Alfa Romeo and Williams’ Nicholas Latifi.

“I put together a lap that I thought was nothing special, but it was on the board to see how it was — and it was pole position which came as a bit of a surprise!” said Sainz.

“I was struggling a lot with the standing water. There was a lot more standing water on the racing line and it was very easy to have snaps and lose the lap.”

He added, as a joke, that as a Spaniard he was unaccustomed to racing in the wet British conditions.

Verstappen, who was briefly booed by a section of the crowd, said: “It was tricky — raining and drying, so you had to be on the track at the right time. The car was working well, but it was a bit of a lottery.”

Leclerc, winner of six poles this year, said: “I’m happy for Carlos. He did a great job. I spun on the last lap, the lap when you need to put everything together — and I didn’t. So I didn’t deserve to be on pole.”

Wet and windy

The session began in wet and windy conditions with sufficient rain to persuade the teams to run on intermediate wet tyres, Leclerc swiftly setting the pace for Ferrari.

An early spin by Valtteri Bottas briefly brought out the yellow flags before the steady rain began to ease off and the circuit began to dry rapidly.

To the delight of the massed ranks of British fans, Russell was on top, before Verstappen emerged to demonstrate his current supremacy in all conditions.

The opening session ended with another nightmare for the Silverstone-based Aston Martin team, whose headquarters are within a short walk of the circuit.

Both four-time champion Sebastian Vettel, in 18th, and Lance Stroll, 20th, were eliminated along with the two Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen, 17th, and Mick Schumacher 19th and 16th-placed Alex Albon in his heavily-revised Williams.

At the top, Verstappen led the way ahead of Leclerc and Russell.

The rain continued in Q2 with high plumes of spray making vision difficult as Hamilton struggled.

Briefly, Chinese driver Zhou went top for Alfa Romeo for a few early seconds before Alonso, Perez and the Red Bulls established the normal order and Hamilton slotted into second.

This left Nicholas Latifi clinging on in 10th place and a possible appearance in the top-ten shootout for Williams, equalling his previous best at last year’s wet Belgian Grand Prix where he was classified ninth.

It was then Verstappen again ahead of Leclerc, Russell, Sainz and Hamilton, who was seeking to add to his haul of seven Silverstone poles and five in the last eight years.

As Q3 began, the rain eased with a warning that it would return, but the track remained slippery — proved when Verstappen spun and recovered on Hangar Straight, to gasps from the crowd.

With six minutes remaining, Alonso went top to be usurped swiftly by Leclerc and then Verstappen while Hamilton rose to second as the track began to dry with three minutes remaining.

It set up a thrilling finale as the drivers delayed to exploit the conditions with an ‘as late-as-possible’ lap — a scenario in which Sainz revelled with a pole-grabbing finale.

LONDON — Wimbledon head of courts Neil Stubley is on a mission to champion grass-court tennis around the world by harnessing modern technology to recreate the unique conditions of the All England Club.

Players only get the chance to compete on the surface for a few weeks each year, with clay and hard-court tournaments dominating international tours.

But Stubley, whose role is to keep the lush turf of Wimbledon in tip-top shape, is involved in trials in Britain and Australia using synthetic fibres alongside grass to improve court surfaces.

“One of the biggest challenges for grass tennis is that you need quite a heavy clay soil because what you need to do is be able to dry it out and get the ball bounce,” he said.

“In the UK we’ve naturally got quite a lot of clay soil within our soil make-up, whereas in other parts of the world some countries are very much dominated by chalk or sand so they find it a lot harder to find the sort of soils that we naturally find in the UK.”

Stubley said using grass-stitching with sandier soils helps make the structure of the playing surface more stable and resilient.

“You can actually have a more free-draining surface but you can still get the hardness on the surface as well so then you can go to places like Australia that have got very silty, sandy soils and create good grass courts, so that’s part of our research.”

Stubley said the first aim was to make sure the new courts worked for tennis, reproducing the characteristics of a grass court.

The head of courts and horticulture, who has worked at Wimbledon for nearly three decades, is passionate about promoting grass-court tennis.

“We want to champion global grass tennis, not just for the Championships but hopefully you can potentially have tournaments in any country in the world, depending on whether it’s a warm-season or a cool-season grass,” he said.

“We’re doing a lot of research in southern hemisphere grasses, Bermuda grasses and the like, so we can actually end up having a product where we can have the right root zone and the right grasses on top to give us the same characteristics of a court at Wimbledon.”

Football lesson

Stubley said tennis was learning from football, which has used grass-stitching for a number of years.

He said other sports including cricket were interested in the technology as it could lead to longer seasons.

“We’ve got some trial courts that we’ve built [in Britain],” said Stubley.

“We’re just getting players and members to play on it, get feedback, doing that same data collection that we would do with STRI (sports turf consultancy), with hardness, ball bounce, ball height, speed, the ball coming through.

“If we can have a more free-draining soil, could we actually extend the grass-court season by four to six weeks and make it more appealing for the general public to play grass-court tennis?”

But Stubley does not see any immediate use for grass-stitching on Wimbledon’s courts.

“The stich system probably for the betterment of world grass-court tennis,” he said. “I think the Championships are a standalone. 

“We kind of get to the point where we can have better-quality courts around the world. It’s more about getting juniors more used to grass so it’s not so alien to them when they come on the main tour.”

But Stubley said Wimbledon itself, which from this year permanently loses its middle Sunday rest day, meaning more constant wear and tear, has benefited from technological advances over the years.

This has included painstakingly trialling and selecting the best type of ryegrass and a better understanding of the use of nutrients and chemicals.

Steam-sterilising the courts at high temperatures helps control weeds, pests and fungi, meaning there is less reliance on fungicides.

“It’s just a combination of those sorts of things that’s put us in a position now where we just feel confident that that extra day won’t have a direct impact on the quality of the turf,” he said.

LONDON — Defending champion Novak Djokovic reached the Wimbledon third round for the 16th time on Wednesday as potential semifinal opponent Casper Ruud crashed out.

Top seed Djokovic brushed aside 79th-ranked Thanasi Kokkinakis of Australia 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 and will face Serbian compatriot Miomir Kecmanovic for a last-16 place.

Third seed and French Open runner-up Casper Ruud was knocked out of Wimbledon in the second round on Wednesday, going down in four sets to Ugo Humbert of France.

Ruud, bidding to become the first Norwegian player since 1962 to reach the last 32 at Wimbledon, lost 3-6, 6-2, 7-5, 6-4.

Humbert, ranked 112, had never won a match at the All England Club before this week. He will face Belgian David Goffin for a place in the last 16.

“I’m very happy with my performance. I started very well, solid from the back of the court,” said Djokovic, who is looking to join Pete Sampras as a seven-time Wimbledon champion.

“I made him work for every point and worked him around the court,” added the 20-time major winner.

Kokkinakis had likened Djokovic to a “brick wall” before the match.

“It was one-way traffic. I got chopped today,” said the 26-year-old Australian after his Centre Court torment.

In the women’s event, second seed Anett Kontaveit lost 6-4, 6-0 to Germany’s Julie Niemeier as the Estonian endured another Grand Slam to forget.

Kontaveit has made the quarter-finals of a major just once in 29 attempts.

Ninth seed and 2017 champion Garbine Muguruza also exited in her delayed first-round clash, losing 6-4, 6-0 to Belgium’s Greet Minnen.

‘Amazing support’

Lesia Tsurenko came out on top in three sets over Ukrainian compatriot Anhelina Kalinina to make the third round for the second time.

Tsurenko, ranked at 101, proudly wore a ribbon in the colours of Ukraine on her shirt.

“It was a big court. Two Ukrainian players but a lot of people were watching us. We felt amazing support,” said Tsurenko after her 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 win.

“Today on the way from hotel to the club, we got a driver,” she added. “She has taken two people from Ukraine into her house. 

“I think it’s amazing when people help Ukrainians so much.”

Raducanu crashes out

US Open champion Emma Raducanu crashed out, losing her second-round match against Caroline Garcia 6-3, 6-3 to the disappointment of the British home crowd.

The 10th seed, who was troubled by a side strain in the run-up to the Grand Slam, was broken five times in the match on Centre Court by her French opponent, ranked 55 in the world.

Raducanu, 19, was on the back foot early in the contest after being broken in her first service game and won just 45 per cent of points on her first serve.

Garcia, fresh from winning on grass at Bad Homberg, hit 25 winners in an impressive display.

“Emma is a huge player and in her home tournament and she proved she can do very well on the big stage,” said Garcia.

“I really enjoyed playing on Centre Court, it was my first time and very special.”

Raducanu has struggled with a string of minor injuries since her sensational win at Flushing Meadows last year.

She has also come under scrutiny over her failure to settle on a long-term coach.