MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Versatile Wallabies forward Lukhan Salakaia-Loto has signed a two-year deal with the Melbourne Rebels in Super Rugby Pacific after parting ways with English club Northampton.

The 26-year-old played most of his 30 tests as a loose forward but the Rebels said he would partner Josh Canham in the second row from the 2024 season.

“Lukhan will be a great addition on the field, bringing in valuable experience at the Super Rugby, English Championship and international test level,” Rebels director of rugby Nick Stiles said in a team statement on Thursday.

Salakaia-Loto played his last test in 2021 and was not included in Wallabies coach Eddie Jones’s initial squad this year, but the Rebels deal puts him back into the selection frame for the Rugby World Cup in France.

Wallabies selectors give preference to players with home-based contracts and can only pick three overseas-based players per international series or tournament due to a Rugby Australia policy intended to protect domestic competition.

Salakaia-Loto will reunite with former Queensland Reds team mates Alex Mafi and Taniela Tupou, and former Reds coach Stiles at the Rebels, who missed out on the current season’s playoffs which start on Friday.

Hooker Mafi switched to the Rebels after the 2022 season, while Wallabies prop Tupou will kick off his tenure at the Kevin Foote-coached club in 2024 after signing in February.

“I’m looking forward to reuniting with Maf (Mafi) and Nela (Tupou), who are basically my brothers,” said Salakaia-Loto.

“The opportunity to reconnect and play together for the same team once again is something I’m really excited for.”

(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)

By Shrivathsa Sridhar

PARIS (Reuters) -Alexander Zverev returned to the semi-finals of the French Open on Wednesday a year after leaving Roland Garros in a wheelchair, while defending champion Iga Swiatek also maintained her quest for a third title in four years.

Zverev had suffered a season-ending ankle injury in his last-four match against eventual champion Rafa Nadal on Court Philippe Chatrier in 2022 and had surgery, but complications later meant a return to pain-free action was delayed.

His comeback has gathered pace at Roland Garros and he beat unseeded Argentine Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-4 3-6 6-3 6-4 to book his place in the last four in Paris for a third time.

“It was the most difficult year of my life,” Zverev said of his 2022 season. “I love tennis with all my heart and it was taken away a year ago.

“I’m happy to be back.”

Zverev will run into Casper Ruud in the semi-finals after the 2022 runner-up beat error-prone sixth seed Holger Rune 6-1 6-2 3-6 6-3 in the night session.

“It’s going to be hopefully a fun one,” Ruud said of his next match. “I think it’s great to see Sascha back. “Both for him and me, this is our biggest result this year. We’ll try to play with shoulders down and just try to enjoy it.

“It’s been a tough year for Zverev and he has fought his way back, and is back in the semis. The beginning of this year for me has not been great, so it’s great to get a good result here.”

Twice champion Novak Djokovic meets top seed Carlos Alcaraz in the other semi-final on Friday.

Swiatek was tested by sixth seed Coco Gauff in a rematch of their 2022 title clash but the world number one was too good for the American and closed out a 6-4 6-2 victory.

“I’m pretty happy to be in the semi-final again,” Swiatek said. “It’s a great achievement no matter how the tournament is going to finish.

“A semi-final is a really great result. Especially coming into the tournament as a defending champion, it puts a lot of pressure on you. I’m really happy I can show consistency and just play good here every year.”

SHATTERED DREAMS

Seventh seed Ons Jabeur’s hopes of becoming the first African woman to win a Grand Slam singles title were left in tatters after she was beaten 3-6 7-6(5) 6-1 by Beatriz Haddad Maia in the quarter-finals.

Jabeur was bidding to reach her third Grand Slam semi-final in less than a year but Haddad Maia produced a superb display under pressure.

The world number 14 became the first Brazilian woman since Maria Bueno in 1968 to reach a major semi-final and the first female player from her country to book a last-four spot at Roland Garros in the Open Era.

“A tennis match is like a marathon. It’s not a 100 metre race,” Haddad Maia said. “I think one of my qualities is that I wait and I’m very patient and I never give up.

“So I wait for the moment because I know that my level is high. So even if I’m not playing well or even if I’m missing a few shots one moment, the tennis will appear, and I’ll have my opportunity to go for it.”

(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in ParisEditing by Toby Davis)

By Frank Pingue

(Reuters) – The announcement that the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf will merge under common ownership will go down as one of the most consequential moments in the sport’s history but there is plenty of uncertainty about how it will impact the game.

After over a year of discord, the rival circuits announced a shock truce on Tuesday that will see the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund – the primary financial backer of LIV Golf – be the exclusive investor of the new entity.

The agreement came as a slap in the face to many who opted to stand by their tours, most notably four-times major champion Rory McIlroy, rather than chase the staggering signing bonuses that LIV Golf used to lure others.

Meanwhile, the likes of Hall of Fame golfer Phil Mickelson and fellow major winners Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Cam Smith, who have made boatloads of money with LIV, can reapply for membership on the PGA Tour following the 2023 season.

But while they could one day find themselves members of the PGA Tour again, those who joined LIV Golf may get a frosty welcome from those competing on the U.S.-based circuit.

“There still has to be consequences to actions. The people that left the PGA Tour irreparably harmed this Tour, started litigation against it,” world number three McIlroy said on Wednesday. “Like, we can’t just welcome them back in. Like, that’s not going to happen.”

One thing that did not go unnoticed was the absence of LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman’s name from Tuesday’s press release, which is perhaps a sign that the former world number one’s days with the organisation are numbered.

Both McIlroy and 15-time major winner Tiger Woods, who has yet to comment on the merger, took aim at Norman last year when they said the Australian needed to step down from his CEO role in order to end the animosity between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour.

Norman told LIV staff during a conference call on Wednesday that the league will proceed as planned.

“LIV is and will continue to be a standalone enterprise,” he said, according to Sports Illustrated.

“Our business model will not change. We changed history and we’re not going anywhere.”

Another unknown is how the golf calendar will look under the framework of the merger or whether the LIV Golf League team-based competition will even exist after its 2023 season.

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, who was announced as CEO of the new unnamed organisation, gave no assurance on LIV Golf League’s future, saying only there is a commitment to make “a good-faith effort” look at the role team golf can play.

Monahan, who has taken a strong stance on those who joined LIV – which critics consider an attempt to “sportswash” Saudi Arabia’s record of human rights violations – also faces a rocky road ahead as some PGA Tour members called for his resignation.

“I recognize that people are going to call me a hypocrite,” Monahan said on Tuesday after a heated 75-minute meeting with players in Toronto.

“I accept those criticisms. But circumstances do change. I think that in looking at the big picture and looking at it this way, that’s what got us to this point.”

Despite the deal, it seems unlikely that European golfers who joined LIV and resigned from the DP World Tour, formerly known as the European Tour, will be eligible for the Sept. 29-Oct. 1 Ryder Cup in Rome.

The two criteria for being a member of the European Ryder Cup team are that a golfer is both European and a member of the DP World Tour.

Typically, a resigned player who wants to rejoin the DP World Tour for the 2023 season would have had to give their notification by May 1 of this year.

DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley said subsequent requests would require proof of an exceptional circumstance to be allowed, something he said would “be difficult and highly unlikely that that would happen.”

On the flipside, American players who joined LIV can still qualify for the U.S. team despite being banned from PGA Tour events given they are still members of the PGA of America, which along with Ryder Cup Europe, organises the biennial competition.

(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto, Additional reporting by Rory Carroll; Editing by Toby Davis and Stephen Coates)

By Frank Pingue

(Reuters) -The announcement that the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf will merge under common ownership will go down as one of the most consequential moments in the sport’s history but there is plenty of uncertainty about how it will impact the game.

After over a year of discord, the rival circuits announced a shock truce on Tuesday that will see the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund – the primary financial backer of LIV Golf – be the exclusive investor of the new entity.

The agreement came as a slap in the face to many who opted to stand by their tours, most notably four-times major champion Rory McIlroy, rather than chase the staggering signing bonuses that LIV Golf used to lure others.

Meanwhile, the likes of Hall of Fame golfer Phil Mickelson and fellow major winners Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Cam Smith, who have made boatloads of money with LIV, can reapply for membership on the PGA Tour following the 2023 season.

But while they could one day find themselves members of the PGA Tour again, those who joined LIV Golf may get a frosty welcome from those competing on the U.S.-based circuit.

“There still has to be consequences to actions. The people that left the PGA Tour irreparably harmed this Tour, started litigation against it,” world number three McIlroy said on Wednesday. “Like, we can’t just welcome them back in. Like, that’s not going to happen.”

One thing that did not go unnoticed was the absence of LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman’s name from Tuesday’s press release, which is perhaps a sign that the former world number one’s days with the organisation are numbered.

Both McIlroy and 15-time major winner Tiger Woods, who has yet to comment on the merger, took aim at Norman last year when they said the Australian needed to step down from his CEO role in order to end the animosity between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour.

Norman told LIV staff during a conference call on Wednesday that the league will proceed as planned.

“LIV is and will continue to be a standalone enterprise,” he said, according to Sports Illustrated.

“Our business model will not change. We changed history and we’re not going anywhere.”

Another unknown is how the golf calendar will look under the framework of the merger or whether the LIV Golf League team-based competition will even exist after its 2023 season.

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, who was announced as CEO of the new unnamed organisation, gave no assurance on LIV Golf League’s future, saying only there is a commitment to make “a good-faith effort” look at the role team golf can play.

Monahan, who has taken a strong stance on those who joined LIV – which critics consider an attempt to “sportswash” Saudi Arabia’s record of human rights violations – also faces a rocky road ahead as some PGA Tour members called for his resignation.

“I recognize that people are going to call me a hypocrite,” Monahan said on Tuesday after a heated 75-minute meeting with players in Toronto.

“I accept those criticisms. But circumstances do change. I think that in looking at the big picture and looking at it this way, that’s what got us to this point.”

Despite the deal, it seems unlikely that European golfers who joined LIV and resigned from the DP World Tour, formerly known as the European Tour, will be eligible for the Sept. 29-Oct. 1 Ryder Cup in Rome.

The two criteria for being a member of the European Ryder Cup team are that a golfer is both European and a member of the DP World Tour.

Typically, a resigned player who wants to rejoin the DP World Tour for the 2023 season would have had to give their notification by May 1 of this year.

DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley said subsequent requests would require proof of an exceptional circumstance to be allowed, something he said would “be difficult and highly unlikely that that would happen.”

On the flipside, American players who joined LIV can still qualify for the U.S. team despite being banned from PGA Tour events given they are still members of the PGA of America, which along with Ryder Cup Europe, organises the biennial competition.

(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto, Additional reporting by Rory Carroll; Editing by Toby Davis and Stephen Coates)

By Rory Carroll

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Lionel Messi on Wednesday announced that he intends to join Major League Soccer side Inter Miami as a free agent after parting ways with French champions Paris St Germain and snubbing a lucrative contract offer in Saudi Arabia.

Messi, who played his final game for PSG over the weekend, was also linked with a return to Barcelona, but the Spanish club have had their hands tied due to LaLiga’s financial fair play rules.

“I made the decision that I’m going to go to Miami,” Messi said in an interview with Mundo Deportivo and Sport newspapers.

“I still haven’t closed it 100%. I’m still missing a few things, but we decided to go ahead. If Barcelona didn’t work out, I wanted to leave Europe, get out of the spotlight and think more about my family.”

Messi, who led Argentina to World Cup glory in Qatar in December and has earned a record seven Ballon d’Or awards, won the Ligue 1 title in his two seasons with PSG as well as the French Super Cup in 2022.

“After winning the World Cup and not being able to go to Barca, it was time to go to the U.S. league to experience football in a different way and enjoy the day-to-day,” Messi said.

“Obviously with the same responsibility and desire to want to win and to always do things well. But with more peace of mind.”

OWNERSHIP STAKE

The move is also a big win for MLS, which welcomed Messi while adding that work remained to finalise the details of the formal agreement.

“The (goat) is coming,” MLS tweeted, with a goat animal emoji standing in for the phrase “greatest of all time”.

“Millions of MLS fans all over the world welcome you, Leo.”

Messi had wanted to go to a club where he could eventually have an ownership stake, a source with knowledge of the negotiations told Reuters this week, and his contract is expected to pave the way for him to do so after he retires.

He will also receive a cut of the revenue from Apple TV’s MLS Season Pass, which broadcasts the league’s games, and be able to maximize his existing sponsorship deal with Adidas.

MLS earns a flat fee of around $250 million per year from Apple until it reaches a certain threshold of subscriptions, after which point it will earn a share of the revenue from those subscriptions.

Messi’s move to MLS is expected to drive viewers to the Apple TV streaming platform given he is the world’s most recognisable soccer player.

The forward was also linked with a move to Saudi Arabian side Al-Hilal after he received a formal offer.

The Gulf country has been looking to bring the game’s biggest players to its league and was successful in convincing Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo to join Al Nassr soon after the World Cup. French striker Karim Benzema joined Al Ittihad this week.

“If it had been a question of money, I would have gone to Arabia or elsewhere where they offered me a lot of money,” Messi said.

Inter Miami are co-owned by former England captain David Beckham, who was one of the first major European stars to move to the United States to play in the MLS, winning the MLS Cup twice with Los Angeles Galaxy.

Messi will have his work cut out in Miami, however, with the club at rock bottom of the Eastern Conference standings – six points from ninth place, the final spot which would give them a chance of qualifying for the playoffs.

The team sacked coach Phil Neville last week after a dismal run of 10 defeats and five wins this season, a stark contrast to last season when they finished sixth and qualified for the MLS Cup playoffs.

PSG EXIT

Once the crown jewel of European football, Messi has effectively been let go by two super clubs in two years – for free.

At Barcelona, Messi has several records to his name at the club he did not want to leave, in a city he had called home since he was a teenager.

But Messi had no choice in the manner of his exit from Barcelona in 2021 as the club failed to make it financially feasible to retain his services.

His move away from PSG, however, is of his own volition as he felt the French club lacked a project for the future while fan unrest hastened his exit.

The highs after winning Argentina’s first World Cup in 36 years were quickly offset by the lows he experienced in Paris.

Even before he could rest on his World Cup laurels he found himself in the eye of a storm when, for the first time in his illustrious career, his club’s fans turned against him amid PSG’s troubling form.

Supporters of PSG, owned and funded by Qatar Sports Investments, have become accustomed to winning domestic titles in the past decade. They won their ninth title in 11 seasons last month.

But the holy grail – the Champions League – remains elusive after yet another meek exit in the last 16.

(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles, Rohith Nair in Bengaluru, Amy Tennery in New York and Janina Nuño Rios and Angelica Medina in Mexico City; Editing by Ed Osmond, Toby Davis and Jamie Freed)

By Rory Carroll

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Lionel Messi on Wednesday announced that he intends to join Major League Soccer side Inter Miami as a free agent after parting ways with French champions Paris St Germain and snubbing a lucrative contract offer in Saudi Arabia.

Messi, who played his final game for PSG over the weekend, was also linked with a return to Barcelona, but the Spanish club have had their hands tied due to LaLiga’s financial fair play rules.

“I made the decision that I’m going to go to Miami,” Messi said in an interview with Mundo Deportivo and Sport newspapers.

“I still haven’t closed it 100%. I’m still missing a few things, but we decided to go ahead. If Barcelona didn’t work out, I wanted to leave Europe, get out of the spotlight and think more about my family.”

Messi, who led Argentina to World Cup glory in Qatar in December and has earned a record seven Ballon d’Or awards, won the Ligue 1 title in his two seasons with PSG as well as the French Super Cup in 2022.

“After winning the World Cup and not being able to go to Barca, it was time to go to the U.S. league to experience football in a different way and enjoy the day-to-day,” Messi said.

“Obviously with the same responsibility and desire to want to win and to always do things well. But with more peace of mind.”

OWNERSHIP STAKE

The move is also a big win for MLS, which welcomed Messi while adding that work remained to finalise the details of the formal agreement.

“The (goat) is coming,” MLS tweeted, with a goat animal emoji standing in for the phrase “greatest of all time”.

“Millions of MLS fans all over the world welcome you, Leo.”

Messi had wanted to go to a club where he could eventually have an ownership stake, a source with knowledge of the negotiations told Reuters this week, and his contract is expected to pave the way for him to do so after he retires.

He will also receive a cut of the revenue from Apple TV’s MLS Season Pass, which broadcasts the league’s games, and be able to maximize his existing sponsorship deal with Adidas.

MLS earns a flat fee of around $250 million per year from Apple until it reaches a certain threshold of subscriptions, after which point it will earn a share of the revenue from those subscriptions.

Messi’s move to MLS is expected to drive viewers to the Apple TV streaming platform given he is the world’s most recognisable soccer player.

The forward was also linked with a move to Saudi Arabian side Al-Hilal after he received a formal offer.

The Gulf country has been looking to bring the game’s biggest players to its league and was successful in convincing Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo to join Al Nassr soon after the World Cup. French striker Karim Benzema joined Al Ittihad this week.

“If it had been a question of money, I would have gone to Arabia or elsewhere where they offered me a lot of money,” Messi said.

Inter Miami are co-owned by former England captain David Beckham, who was one of the first major European stars to move to the United States to play in the MLS, winning the MLS Cup twice with Los Angeles Galaxy.

Messi will have his work cut out in Miami, however, with the club at rock bottom of the Eastern Conference standings – six points from ninth place, the final spot which would give them a chance of qualifying for the playoffs.

The team sacked coach Phil Neville last week after a dismal run of 10 defeats and five wins this season, a stark contrast to last season when they finished sixth and qualified for the MLS Cup playoffs.

PSG EXIT

Once the crown jewel of European football, Messi has effectively been let go by two super clubs in two years – for free.

At Barcelona, Messi has several records to his name at the club he did not want to leave, in a city he had called home since he was a teenager.

But Messi had no choice in the manner of his exit from Barcelona in 2021 as the club failed to make it financially feasible to retain his services.

His move away from PSG, however, is of his own volition as he felt the French club lacked a project for the future while fan unrest hastened his exit.

The highs after winning Argentina’s first World Cup in 36 years were quickly offset by the lows he experienced in Paris.

Even before he could rest on his World Cup laurels he found himself in the eye of a storm when, for the first time in his illustrious career, his club’s fans turned against him amid PSG’s troubling form.

Supporters of PSG, owned and funded by Qatar Sports Investments, have become accustomed to winning domestic titles in the past decade. They won their ninth title in 11 seasons last month.

But the holy grail – the Champions League – remains elusive after yet another meek exit in the last 16.

(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles, Rohith Nair in Bengaluru, Amy Tennery in New York and Janina Nuño Rios and Angelica Medina in Mexico City; Editing by Ed Osmond, Toby Davis and Jamie Freed)

By Steve Keating

TORONTO (Reuters) – After being hit with a couple of LIV Golf bombshells, COVD-19 and even forest fires, it is doubtful that any PGA Tour event has endured more adversity than the Canadian Open.

The world’s third-oldest national open championship the Canadian Open is taking a double hit this week, pushed out of the golf spotlight on Tuesday by the shock announcement that the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi-backed LIV Golf had agreed to form one unified commercial entity ending a bitter year-long feud.

If that was not enough, forest fires raging in Northern Ontario and Quebec have left a blanket of smoky air wafting over Oakdale Golf and Country Club prompting some golfers and fans to take some added measures.

After the 2020 and 2021 tournaments were cancelled due to COVID-19 the Canadian Open made a long-awaited return last year only to be overshadowed by the PGA Tour and LIV Golf feud.

With Rory McIlroy back to defend the title he won in 2019, the Canadian Open was the first PGA Tour event to go head-to-head with LIV Golf, who were playing their inaugural event at Centurion Club outside London.

If that wasn’t enough of a distraction, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan took the opportunity to come to Canada and declare war on the rebel circuit, banning defectors.

The Canadian Open is also saddled with the added disadvantage of being sandwiched between last week’s mandatory stop at the Memorial Tournament and next week’s U.S. Open which is followed by yet another mandatory stop the Travelers Championship.

Top golfers rarely play five weeks consecutively and are required to be at mandatory events leaving the Canadian Open as the obvious one to sit out.

“I feel bad for (sponsor) RBC and the Canadian Open,” said McIlroy, who will bid to join Sam Snead, Lee Trevino, Tommy Armour and Leo Diegel as a three-time Canadian champion. “To think about what went on this time last year and then the bombshell that was dropped.

“I feel bad because being such a great partner and having this stuff sort of dropped on you two years in a row is very unfair.”

Despite the many challenges Golf Canada says tickets are nearly soldout with close to 120,000 spectators expected over the four rounds starting on Thursday.

A huge boost to the tournament’s profile could be provided by a strong Canadian contingent who will try to deliver the first home grown champion since Pat Fletcher in 1954.

“I can’t help but feel sad for the Canadian Open,” said Canada’s Adam Hadwin. “Once again, this news drops Tuesday of what is our National Open, a very important event for golf in Canada.

“Now once again we’re overshadowed most likely for the entire week.

“My hope is that we end up with if not myself two or three other Canadians in contention or Rory (McIlroy), with Justin Rose or other top players that are here and we can put the emphasis back on the event.”

(Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto. Editing by Toby Davis)

By Michael Kahn

PRAGUE (Reuters) – Jarrod Bowen ensured the biggest game of his career had a fairytale finish as he snatched a 90th-minute winner to kick off a “crazy” party as West Ham United clinched their first major European trophy in 58 years.

A tense Europa Conference League final against Fiorentina at Prague’s Eden Arena looked like it was heading to extra time when Bowen latched onto a through ball and then outpaced the defenders before firing into the net to secure a 2-1 win.

The forward said he had been primed and ready for one final chance when it came and the celebrations looked set to last long into the night.

“I’m so buzzing. We’re just going to go mad I think. I’m not going to put a filter on it. I’m not going to give a responsible answer. This party tonight is going to be crazy,” he told reporters.

“There was one more chance and we won it,” he added to BT Sport.

“We had a dream, we haven’t had the best season, myself included, but to give these fans this moment, I’m over the moon. Never (have I felt like this in my life). This is the biggest game of my career. The emotion, there was time for one more chance. I’m just so happy.”

The winning goal, after Fiorentina had dominated possession for large portions of the game, sent West Ham manager David Moyes racing down the touchline in celebration.

“The minute Jarrod went through I was edging down the touchline; if there was anybody who was going to score it was going to be Jarrod,” said Moyes, whose jubilation had the hallmarks of some of Jose Mourinho’s exuberant celebrations.

“I couldn’t do the full Mourinho because I can’t slide on my knees and the grass was a bit dry, and I didn’t want to fall on my belly.”

West Ham captain Declan Rice, who has been linked with a move away from the club in the close season, lauded Moyes as one of the club’s best-ever managers.

“There has been times this year when he’s been tested,” Rice told BT Sport. “If you actually look at his time at this club, he’s saved us twice, got us into Europe two years in a row and now he’s won this. I think he’s up there as West Ham’s best ever manager now.”

Rice joins the likes of West Ham’s other trophy-winning skippers including club greats such as Bobby Moore and Billy Bonds, something the midfielder said was a huge honour.

“To be even in that conversation is crazy. The last six years I’ve played my heart out for this club. We’ve not had it easy. To win this now, is just another level. To be in that category now, I don’t want to say too much as I don’t want to get too excited.”

West Ham took the lead in the second half with a Said Benrahma penalty only for Fiorentina to equalise five minutes later. West Ham had looked to be holding on for extra time before Bowen’s heroics.

“Everyone is happy; let’s party,” West Ham Defender Kurt Zouma told BT Sport: “We were confident we would win. We had a good feeling. It is time to celebrate now.”

(Reporting by Michael Kahn and Robert Muller, Editing by Toby Davis)

By Shrivathsa Sridhar

PARIS (Reuters) -Alexander Zverev returned to the semi-finals of the French Open on Wednesday a year after leaving Roland Garros in a wheelchair, while defending champion Iga Swiatek also maintained her quest for a third title in four years.

Zverev had suffered a season-ending ankle injury in his last-four match against eventual champion Rafa Nadal on Court Philippe Chatrier in 2022 and had surgery, but complications later meant a return to pain-free action was delayed.

His comeback has gathered pace at Roland Garros and he beat unseeded Argentine Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-4 3-6 6-3 6-4 to book his place in the last four in Paris for a third time.

“It was the most difficult year of my life,” Zverev said of his 2022 season. “I love tennis with all my heart and it was taken away a year ago.

“I’m happy to be back.”

Zverev will run into Casper Ruud in the semi-finals after the 2022 runner-up beat error-prone sixth seed Holger Rune 6-1 6-2 3-6 6-3 in the night session.

“It’s going to be hopefully a fun one,” Ruud said of his next match. “I think it’s great to see Sascha back. “Both for him and me, this is our biggest result this year. We’ll try to play with shoulders down and just try to enjoy it.

“It’s been a tough year for Zverev and he has fought his way back, and is back in the semis. The beginning of this year for me has not been great, so it’s great to get a good result here.”

Twice champion Novak Djokovic meets top seed Carlos Alcaraz in the other semi-final on Friday.

Swiatek was tested by sixth seed Coco Gauff in a rematch of their 2022 title clash but the world number one was too good for the American and closed out a 6-4 6-2 victory.

“I’m pretty happy to be in the semi-final again,” Swiatek said. “It’s a great achievement no matter how the tournament is going to finish.

“A semi-final is a really great result. Especially coming into the tournament as a defending champion, it puts a lot of pressure on you. I’m really happy I can show consistency and just play good here every year.”

SHATTERED DREAMS

Seventh seed Ons Jabeur’s hopes of becoming the first African woman to win a Grand Slam singles title were left in tatters after she was beaten 3-6 7-6(5) 6-1 by Beatriz Haddad Maia in the quarter-finals.

Jabeur was bidding to reach her third Grand Slam semi-final in less than a year but Haddad Maia produced a superb display under pressure.

The world number 14 became the first Brazilian woman since Maria Bueno in 1968 to reach a major semi-final and the first female player from her country to book a last-four spot at Roland Garros in the Open Era.

“A tennis match is like a marathon. It’s not a 100 metre race,” Haddad Maia said. “I think one of my qualities is that I wait and I’m very patient and I never give up.

“So I wait for the moment because I know that my level is high. So even if I’m not playing well or even if I’m missing a few shots one moment, the tennis will appear, and I’ll have my opportunity to go for it.”

(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in ParisEditing by Toby Davis)

By Karolos Grohmann

PARIS (Reuters) – Sixth seed Holger Rune’s poor start in his French Open quarter-final defeat to Norway’s Casper Ruud on Wednesday proved costly with the Dane littering the court with unforced errors for more than an hour.

The 20-year-old had hoped to make it to his first Grand Slam semi but instead ended up playing catch-up as Ruud cruised through the first two sets in just 68 minutes.

In a repeat of last year’s quarter-final in Paris, it was Ruud who emerged victorious once more with a 6-1 6-2 3-6 6-3 victory to set up a semi-final against Germany’s Alexander Zverev.

“I wasn’t there the first two sets, but you cannot allow yourself to do that when you play a player like Casper, and any player at the top of the game, because it’s too long of a way back,” Rune said.

“I think I started very, very bad, unfortunately. I didn’t find my level at all the first two sets.”

“It’s tough. Like the first two sets, I didn’t really get the chance to see how well he played because I missed so many shots. In the third and fourth set I started to play better, and I thought he still played good.”

Rune made 30 unforced errors in those two sets and hardly put any pressure on his opponent.

“I didn’t feel good. I didn’t play well. But that’s life sometimes. You cannot always find your best level,” said the Dane.

“I tried everything I could to get some rhythm and try to get back on track. Managed to come back in the third, but it’s late, you know, when you waste two sets like this.”

Rune upped his game in the third set, putting more power into his shots and stretching Ruud who briefly struggled for answers.

But the 24-year-old Ruud bounced back in the fourth and despite Rune fending off four match points, he was beaten on the fifth as the Norwegian took revenge for last month’s defeat to his Scandinavian rival in Rome.

“We have another Grand Slam (Wimbledon) around the corner, so I hope to be stronger there,” Rune said. “I’m happy that the clay season is over now. I’m ready to move on. Just focused on the grass now.”

(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Toby Davis)