TENNIS TUNE-UP ...
The build-up to Wimbledon continues apace, with the women in action at Eastbourne (from Monday, British Eurosport, BBC), where six of the world’s top 10 prepare for the slam in SW19. Caroline Wozniacki and the reigning Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova, are joined in the draw by the defending champion, Madison Keys at the tournament that was first held in 1974. Elsewhere, the BBC celebrate Arthur Ashe in More Than A Champion (BBC2, Friday, 9pm), a documentary looking back at the great player on the 40th anniversary of his win at Wimbledon, with his story told by brother Johnnie and Ilie Nastase. They also begin the first of three programmes remembering some of the truly great finals with the absolute classic between Goran Ivanisevic and Pat Rafter (BBC2, Saturday, 9am) in 2001 – the year Ivanisevic, a three-times beaten finalist and past his best, entered as a wildcard.
CHAMPIONS DRAW ...
Uefa make the draw for the first and second qualifying rounds of the Champions League on Monday, (streaming at uefa.com, 11am) where Celtic (alongside Wales’s The New Saints and Northern Ireland’s Crusaders in the first round draw) will discover who they face in their first match set for 14 or 15 July. Victory over two legs will put them into the third round against clubs such as Ajax, Monaco and Shaktar Donestk before the play-off round, where Manchester United will begin their campaign, which is drawn on 22 August. It is followed by the Europa League draws, where West Ham and Aberdeen will be chosen among the first round qualifiers and Inverness in the second round.
ENGLAND’S BIG BASH ...
The rollercoaster ride of following England continues on Tuesday when they play a single T20 match with New Zealand at Old Trafford (Sky Sports 2, 6pm, Radio 5 Live), their final international before the Ashes begin on 8 July. After a disastrous World Cup, the short-form team has been transformed, not least in their record 350-run chase to beat New Zealand in the fourth ODI (the joint fourth-highest of all time). They had already bettered their best aggregate scoring rate in a five match series by the end of that match with 1,425 over the previous high of 1,399. It is a far cry from Test cricket but going in with a win after such a turnaround in one-day form will not hurt one bit. The Ashes are also considered in a live Flinters and Vaughan roadshow, looking back on cricket’s greatest competition (Thursday, 8pm, Five Live).
MOTORS MAGIC ...
Increasingly popular, the Goodwood Festival of Speed is once again sold out for the Friday and Saturday. Unsurprisingly this year with another stellar lineup, including Nico Rosberg, Felipe Massa, Anthony Davidson, Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner in action. They are joined by Sir Stirling Moss celebrating his 1955 victory at the Mille Miglia in a Mercedes SLR 300 – and the show will feature seven of the last eight of the cars still in existence. Tickets are available for the Friday but fear not if you cannot make it, the entire event is streamed at goodwood.com/fos, with highlights on MotorsTV (Saturday, 12pm/Sunday 8.30am and Sky F1, Sunday 3pm).
ATHLETICS TEAM TEST ...
Dina Asher-Smith, one of Britain’s brightest sprinting talents competes again onSunday on the second day of the European Team Athletics Championship in Cheboksary, Russia (BBC2, 12.30pm). She has had quite a year, breaking Britain’s 100m record by running an 11.02sec in May and then two weeks later a 22.30 for the 200m, putting her at top of the European rankings. The sprinter, who is 19, runs the latter on Sunday in a chance to test herself against the best – Ukraine’s Nataliya Pohrebnyak, having run 22.98 this season and Russia’s Yekaterina Smirnova, who has recorded 23.04.
