Berlin
Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz won the last session of the Laver Cup in Berlin on Sunday to take the trophy home for Team Europe.
This marks the fifth time Team Europe has won the Laver Cup, an annual tournament created by chairman Tony Godsick and tennis icon Roger Federer in 2017. The tournament pits Team Europe against Team World and takes six of the best men’s tennis players from Europe and six from the rest of the world to the international stage. This year, Europe was represented by Carlos Alcaraz, Grigor Dmitrov, Danil Medvedev, Casper Ruud, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zvrev, while Team World included Francisco Cerundolo, Taylor Fritz, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Ben Shelton, Alejandro Tabilo and Frances Tiafoe.
The captains Björn Borg for Europe and John McEnroe for the world — both captains since 2017 — are both stepping down with the conclusion of this year’s games. They will be replaced by Yannick Noah and Andre Agassi, respectively.
On day one, Europe won two singles matches 6-1, 6-4 and 7-6, 7-6, while the world took one singles match home 6-4, 6-4. Fritz and Shelton of Team World took the first doubles match win Friday 7-6, 6-4.
Day two started with three singles matches, two of which went to Team World 3-6, 6-4, 10-5, and 6-4, 7-5 and one went to Europe 6-4, 6-4. The day-two doubles match was another win for Shelton, this time partnered with Tabilo, who took it 6-1, 6-2 for Team World.
On the third day, Team World won a singles match 6-7, 7-5 and 10-7. Europe won the doubles match 6-2 and 7-6, and the last two singles matches 6-7, 7-5 and 10-5 and 6-2, 7-5 on the same day.
London
On Tuesday, the English Cricket Board announced women’s cricketers will have the same starting salaries as men starting next year. Pay parity will start at the “rookie” level, typically a player’s first contract, which is a minimum of £20,000, according to the BBC, and will rise to £28,000 when the player reaches the “senior pro” level.
The 2023 Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket report found “discrimination, including sexism, was ‘widespread’ in English cricket and that women received an ‘embarrassingly small amount compared to men.’” Furthermore, it stated the England women’s team received a quarter of the match fees the men’s team do for white-ball games, and it dropped to 15% for Tests, which are played over multiple days.
“Increasingly, every decision we take is about making cricket as attractive a sport for young girls as it is for boys,” said Director of Women’s Professional Game Beth Barrett-Wild, in a statement on the ECB website. “We know we still have a lot of work to do in this space. But we are moving at pace, and the news today represents another significant building block in the journey to gender equity in the game.”
The gender pay gap in sports is stark but is slowly starting to change. The U.S. Women’s national soccer team earned parity with their male counterparts in 2022 after an arduous fight in the courts. The U.S. Open has had the same prize money for both the men’s and women’s categories since 1973, while the Australian Grand Slam instituted the change in 2001 and the other Grand Slams — the French Open and Wimbledon — followed suit in 2007.
Prague
The International Federation of Sport Climbing World Cup was hosted in Prague, Czechia from Sept. 19-22, for the Bouldering category. The annual tournament started in April and highlights three disciplines — bouldering, lead and speed. This past week was the competition’s eighth and penultimate round.
Team USA sent seven climbers for this season’s fourth bouldering round. In her first event since the Paris 2024 Olympics, 23-year-old Natalia Grossman won the women’s gold, ranking first in her group in both the qualification and semifinal rounds. It is her second World Cup gold medal of the season and 11th overall.
She is also tied for first in the women’s Boulder rankings with Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret with 2000 points. Team USA came fourth in the Boulder World Cup rankings at 5,746.99 points, behind Japan in first with 13,486.66 points. 18-year-old Adam Shahar of Team USA made his first-ever semifinal World Cup round in his third World Cup appearance.
The organizers of the event are donating 100,000 CZK — with 67,000 made from ticket revenue — to a charity that is helping the victims of Czechia’s recent floods.
“Interest in sport climbing continues to grow,” said the chairman of the Czech Mountaineering Association, Jan Bloudek. “More and more people understand the sport. This gives us even more motivation for the future. I think it’s highly likely that we’ll once again bring the world’s best climbers to Prague.”
The IFSC World Cup concludes in Seoul, Korea with all disciplines featured from Oct. 1-6.
Contact Sidney Snider at [email protected].
