Ash Barty is backed to show why she is world number one by beating Karolina Pliskova in the women’s singles final at Wimbledon. The 25-year-old’s game has always appeared a perfect fit for grass, ever since she won the junior title here a decade ago, aged just 15.
Conor McGregor bids to prove he is still a major force as an MMA fighter when facing Dustin Poirier for the third time at UFC 264. Notorious powered to a first-round win when they met back in 2014 but was stopped in the second in Abu Dhabi at the start of this year.
Tampa Bay will seek to complete a 4-1 Stanley Cup Final success on home ice at Amalie Arena. The Lightning were denied a clean sweep when edged out 3-2 in overtime in Canada but can have the compensation of lifting the trophy in front of their own fans.
With bwin offering each-way odds to eight places, we’re going for a bit of value with our Scottish Open tips. Jon Rahm heads the betting after giving us a 9/1 pay-out via his US Open success, but let’s take a punt on a trio of longer-priced hopefuls.
Milwaukee are just one game away from their first NBA Finals appearance since 1974 after taking a 3-2 lead over Atlanta. The Bucks are searching for their first title in 50 years, while the Hawks are also aiming to make franchise history by securing a finals debut.
Los Angeles Clippers kept the Western Conference Finals alive and kicking with a superb road-trip victory over Phoenix Suns to extend the series into a sixth game. Monty Williams’ side had lost only one of their seven post-season games at Phoenix Suns Arena.
Emotions will be running high when the British & Irish Lions visit South Africa this summer looking to avenge a narrow loss from 12 years ago. Since then, they have prevailed 2-1 in Australia and played out a thrilling tied series against the All Blacks in New Zealand.
Exeter are red-hot favourites to retain the Gallagher Premiership trophy but Harlequins may make them work hard for it at Twickenham. Quins showed a never-say-die spirit to overcome a 28-point deficit against Bristol in the semis and their style of play is suited to this home from home.
Max Verstappen struck a psychological blow when reeling in Lewis Hamilton last weekend and gets the nod again in our Styrian Grand Prix predictions. Mercedes had dominated the previous two runnings of the French Grand Prix but were outpaced all weekend by Red Bull this time.
With Zlatan Ibrahimovic having signed a contract extension at AC Milan which will see him play Champions League football at the age of 40, we’ve looked through the annals of modern sporting history and picked out six other star athletes who defied the ageing process.
After two classic semi-finals, we’re expecting the French Open decider between Novak Djokovic and Stefanos Tsitsipas to be a one-sided affair. The Serbian superstar looks pumped up as he targets a 19th grand slam title, whereas his Greek opponent will be competing in a maiden major final.
Barbora Krejcikova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova will both be appearing in their first grand slam final at this year’s French Open. Each player has had to come through some epic battles and another close contest is on the cards, with the pair ranked 32 and 33 in the WTA ratings.
With cricket’s greatest rivalry set to be resumed in Australia at the end of 2021, we’ve taken a look back over 139 years of The Ashes history. As one of sport’s oldest trophies, these regular battles with England have produced plenty of memorable moments.
With the ninth edition of the Women’s Rugby World Cup due to take place in New Zealand, we’ve taken a look at the numbers behind the previous tournaments. A delay until October and November 2022 is not expected to affect the excitement generated by this great spectacle.