Draper and Boulter have each produced career-best seasons in terms of winning tour titles and climbing the world rankings.
Draper, having become more physically robust this year, also reached the semi-finals of a Grand Slam for the first time at the US Open in September.
A demanding win over Machac – who world number 18 Draper beat in the fourth round of his New York run – was another example of the improvements he has made.
Using his first serve effectively, covering the court to outlast Machac in baseline rallies, and adding variety to plant doubt in his opponent’s mind were the keys to an impressive opening set.
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He also needed to show the gritty side of his game.
Fending off six break points for 27th-ranked Machac kept Draper in command and, although he succumbed to a seventh which decisively turned the second set, the British left-hander regrouped to dominate the decider.
“I felt it was more of a mental battle,” said Draper.
“My energy dropped a little bit and my decision-making became up and down.
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“At this level you can’t get away with spending too long in that situation. I’m proud how I dug in.”
Despite raising concerns recently about the demands placed on leading players, the seventh seed has looked sharp at the ATP 500 event.
Draper will face German top seed Alexander Zverev or Italian sixth seed Lorenzo Musetti in Saturday’s semi-finals.
“I’m improving all the time and my results are showing that,” added Draper, who is set to rise to another new career-high ranking whatever happens over the weekend.
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“I’m working hard to become more consistent. It’s showing.”
White Ribbon UK welcomes announcements today from the Home Office that begin to lay out the Government’s plan to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. This commitment can only be achieved with a focus on preventing violence before it starts, requiring culture change, promoting equality and challenging gender stereotypes to transform the harmful male cultures that lead to violence.
Anthea Sully, Chief Executive of White Ribbon UK said, “We welcome the plan that the Home Secretary has shared to halve violence against women and girls. Work that engages men and boys and prioritises Primary Prevention will be essential if this commitment is to be realised. Work that engages with men and boys is chronically underfunded, proper investment is urgently needed with statutory sources of funding made available for specialist organisations working on Primary Prevention initiatives.”
“We are pleased to see a ‘cross-government’ approach that provides the opportunity to bring together all areas of society to engage men and boys, including workplaces, sports organisations and the media, to create positive culture change and shift harmful attitudes that lead to violence against women and girls.”
Dana White reached out to a friend in a high place to address his latest grievance.
In recent weeks, White has made it no secret that he’s not happy with the current UFC rankings system, which is voted on by members of the media (though several of the outlets involved are obscure or appear to have been inactive for years). His aggravation peaked following Khalil Rountree’s valiant loss at UFC 307 to light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira, who knocked out Rountree in the fourth round after trailing on the scorecards.
White told TNT Sports that he and his team have gone as far as to reach out to Facebook founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for advice.
“We literally had meetings this week to work on it,” White said. “I actually talked to Mark Zuckerberg, too, about AI. So I’m totally going to fix the rankings. We’re going to make a lot of strong moves here coming in to ‘25.”
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It’s not clear whether White plans to use AI to completely replace the current rankings panel, or use some mixture of human voting and AI-generated input, to create a new system.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, following White’s most recent rankings rant, two fighter evaluations that he was most displeased with were changed in the latest update (h/t Eurosport).
Looks like some of the voters sh*t their pants Dana indeed stops the current rankings and starts AI on UFC rankings.
Dana White not happy with Max & Khalil’s ranking and without fighting one week later they move up in rankings. Are you that easily swayed?
White continued to use Rountree and Holloway as his most frustrating examples when it comes to the rankings.
“We’re working on it right now,” White said. “We’ve literally been working on it all last week and I will have some answers on that soon, but the rankings system drives me crazy. From the pound-for-pound to each division, there’s huge mistakes.
“First of all, Khalil Rountree, let’s start there. He fights the fight that he fought, if you look at Alex Pereira’s destroyed everybody that he’s faced. Going into the fourth round, Khalil was ahead on the scorecards and then he gets beat and he stays at No. 8. I’m not saying he should be in the top 3 or whatever, but he should definitely move up, for me. He might not be 2 or 3, but he’s definitely not 8.”
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“Then you look at Max Holloway,” White added. “It just changed this last Tuesday, but he knocked out—If you really think about it, he beat Justin Gaethje twice that night. He beat him on the scorecards and he knocked him out with one second left. How is he ranked 13 or something [at lightweight]? How is he ranked that low when he beat Gaethje?”
Zuckerberg, one of the wealthiest and most powerful figures in the world, is an avid fan of combat sports, having attended several UFC events as a guest of White’s. He has also participated in amateur grappling competitions.
McLaren has finally unleashed its long-awaited floor upgrade for its 2024 Formula 1 car, with what the team calls a “heavily revised” upgrade fitted for the Mexican Grand Prix.
After rivals Red Bull, Aston Martin, Ferrari and Mercedes all encountered issues with new floor developments earlier in the season, McLaren had held off introducing a second major new floor development after the one it successfully introduced in Miami.
In the regular ‘Car Presentation Submissions’ document released by the FIA ahead of each F1 event, McLaren has revealed its revised floor along with two cooling tweaks typical for running in Mexico City’s thin air at high altitude.
“The floor design has been heavily revised, with geometric changes in all areas, resulting in an increase of aerodynamic load across all conditions,” reads McLaren’s explanation of the new floor in the FIA document.
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Motorsport.com understands from the team that this is indeed the moment McLaren has been waiting for to introduce its long-awaited floor upgrade, but it is not yet fully confirmed if it will race the part so critical to car performance in the new ground-effect era this weekend or if it is available for both MCL38s.
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The team had chosen not to add the new floor in its major upgrade package introduced at Austin, where it had a revised front wing and front suspension package, plus changes to its rear brake duct area and rear wing.
When asked if McLaren should have been more aggressive in adding the floor to its other new parts in Austin, team principal Andrea Stella said last weekend: “If we were in condition to produce them, release them in time to have them in Austin, we would have brought them in Austin.
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“The time of new parts and upgrades landing trackside is the natural time of designing, finalising and then producing the new parts.
“I have said before already though that we wanted to make sure that what we bring trackside is well-behaved and we are quite encouraged – and I have to say well done to our aerodynamic team – that the parts we brought [to Austin], they worked as expected.
“And hopefully also that will be the case for the parts coming for Mexico and Brazil.”
We’re on to Week 8, and I’ve got my eyes on a handful of games.
For those new to this space, if you are looking for a few wagers to get in on the NFL action, I have you covered. Nothing makes football better than having a few bucks on the games weekly.
I’m not going to overreact to the Eagles beating an awful Giants team last week. Yeah, they did what they needed to do, but the Giants OL/QB combo might be the worst in the league right now. It’s not like Jalen Hurts was great, and it had the earmarks of Saquon Barkley simply being motivated against the team that cast him aside. Cincinnati is getting healthier, and I think the best unit on the field is the Bengals offense. It’s a good time for the Bengals to not blow a lead on their home field and finally win one.
PICK: Bengals (-2.5) to win by more than 2.5 points
There might be a little overreaction here to the Tampa WR injuries. The Bucs are still gonna throw the ball. Maybe Cade Otton has a huge day. And remember, the backs are still capable. The Falcons laying points on the road against a team they should have lost to at home a couple of weeks back? What could possibly go wrong?
PICK: Buccaneers (+2.5) to lose by fewer than 2.5 points, or win outright
NFL Week 8 Super Six: Can the Seattle Seahawks pull off the UPSET against the Buffalo Bills?
We don’t know if DK Metcalf is going to play, but there are still plenty of weapons on a Seattle team that might be able to pull off the upset. But I do think with Kenneth Walker, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and others, the Seahawks should put up points on a Buffalo defense that has had a tendency to do such this year.
PICK: Seahawks team total Over 20.5 points scored
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Chris “The Bear” Fallica has covered sports for nearly three decades. While college football has been his focus, he also enjoys the NFL, Soccer, Golf, Tennis, MLB, NHL and Horse Racing, with an “occasional” wager on such events. Chris recently won the inaugural Circa Football Invitational and finished in the Top 10 of the Golden Nugget Football Contest. He’s a multiple-time qualifier for the NHC Handicapping Championship. Remember, “The less you bet, the more you lose when you win!” Follow him on Twitter @chrisfallica.
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BEN PAULING is gunning to join his old guv’nor Nicky Henderson in the big league.
The move to a swish, purpose built yard in Naunton — deep in the Cotswolds — has boosted Ben’s growing team no end.
With Cheltenham Festival and Aintree winners in the bag last season the mood at the stable is unsurprisingly buoyant as the jumps season gets going.
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And now Ben is ready to kick on and take the fight to Hendo, Paul Nicholls, Dan Skelton and, dare he say, even the sport’s all-conquering goliath Willie Mullins.
Ben, 41, said: “Last year was another career best for us but you always have to keep building. Keep kicking on.
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“I want to be one of the best trainers in this country. I want to be challenging for championships one day.
“I don’t want to be training 300 horses to do that, that’s not our model.
“We try to be about quality and I’d like to think I have learnt over the years to train good horses.”
Diva Luna, The Jukebox Man and Handstands fit that bill alright and they will lead Ben’s team of around 90 horses this winter.
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Welshman Ben Jones is the new No1 jockey at the yard and with owners like Harry Redknapp and Jeremy Clarkson on board, Naunton is never a quiet place.
Built from scratch on a golf course during the pandemic, Ben moved in to his new state-of-the-art yard three seasons ago and lives up the road with his family.
Wife Sophie keeps the show on the road in the office with daughters Tilia, 9, and Isabella, 7, cheering on from the sidelines.
Ben is proud as punch of Naunton Downs and so he should be with unique gallops hurtling through the middle of a golf course, huge new barns and an owners room resembling a high-end London restaurant.
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But does it feel like home yet?
“It does, definitely,” says Ben.
“We tried for years to buy somewhere but nothing is cheap anymore. We even looked in Lambourn.
“Then we ended up with this and it cost less than a four-bed semi up the road. Sure, it took a lot of work but it was our dream to build and design something from scratch.
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“The girls are blissfully rocking along in their own little worlds and we try and do as much as we can with them. They’re great fun and a good tonic.
“Sophie’s quite involved in the yard, she oversees a lot of it. She comes racing with me quite a lot and I think that’s quite a good way of doing it.
“If I had too much involvement from Sophie then sometimes it’d fry me.
“That’s because I’m a strong-willed person when it comes to the decisions I make. But we do it really well together and it seems to be working out.”
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Ben was always destined to work in the game. The son of a Cotswolds’ farmer, he rode in point-to-points before he nearly lost an eye in a dust-up with some barbed wire working on the farm. Ouch.
After going to uni Ben worked briefly in sales but the ‘orses soon came calling.
He said: “Farming lasted all of about five minutes.
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“It wasn’t for me. I loved the countryside, I loved the outdoors but farming was never something to make me tick. I was always an adrenaline junkie.
“Riding was taken away from me after I injured my eye but I was never going to be a jockey . . . look at me!
“But racing got under my skin and I’ve always adored horses. They are beautiful creatures and I was keen to know how to can get the best out of one.
“I did some work in sales and did some breaking and pre-training. But then I went to Nicky’s and that was that really.”
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Ben worked his way up the ladder with maestro Nicky at Seven Barrows.
They were some of the most formative years of Ben’s life — even if he admits the partying was nearly as important.
Ben said: “I owe a huge, huge amount of thanks to Nicky and Corky Browne, his head lad.
“But all the team at Seven Barrows were just absolutely brilliant. I learned so much from everyone.
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“It was the six and a half years of my life which were definitely the most alcoholic — but probably the most educational as well!
“I loved it and I did learn how to train a good horse there.
“Nicky is one of the reasons why we’re sitting where we are now. We hopefully have an ability to train good horses.
“Everyone’s got a different personality but if you learn from a master, which Nicky is, you know, why change it?
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“He always had a pupil assistant and a first assistant. They were nearly always someone like myself who wanted to train — incredibly hungry, very keen to learn, willing to work every hour.
“We did it for f**k-all money. Most of us liked to party because he was like that.
“And he used to get cross at us for various bits and bobs — like if the party had gone on too long!
“But secretly Nicky knew that when he worked in the banks in London he used to sleep on the desk most of the day because he’d come straight to work.
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“So there was always that sort of like bit of a jovial relationship with us.
“When I turned up they had not had a winner at Cheltenham for two years.
“I arrived in January and in March they managed to win the Champion Hurdle with Punjabi. Not that I’m not saying it was anything to do with me!
“But everyone was focused on Binocular and he was favourite for the Supreme and got beat — he was always over-rated.
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“He was third or fourth and Punjabi then won the Champion Hurdle and I was bloody thrilled.
“I said, ‘come on let’s get to the pub’. Only three people came from the yard as Binocular had got beat. I was like, ‘what the hell is wrong with you guys?’
“But it had gone stale. That summer I said to Nicky; ‘We’ve got to get rid of ten people. They’ve been here forever, I promise you they’re awful. They don’t want to be here. They just grunt and groan’.
“And we had a massive turnaround.
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“Within six months we had the best parties in Lambourn! The whole place was kicking off.
“We basically had our own pub.
“Nicky said he hated it — but he secretly loved it too.”
Hendo had a tortuous campaign last year with a mystery bug wiping out his team on the eve of Cheltenham.
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But he roared back just weeks later to get back in the winners enclosure at Aintree with the likes of Jonbon.
And Ben knew his old gaffer would bounce back.
He said: “What Nicky did when his horses were sick last season was just absolute genius.
“He just reset the whole thing and didn’t panic for one day.
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“The best piece of advice ever given to me was from Corky — he said ‘never pull two levers at once because you never know which one works, just pull one lever at a time.’
“There is no one better at training a good horse than Nicky. Hopefully that has rubbed off on me.”
Ben has certainly had plenty of reasons to say cheers in the last few years.
After Shakem Up’arry’s Cheltenham Festival win last year Ben ensured the whole yard celebrated in style at the local — The Farmers Arms.
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Owner Harry Redknapp missed out on the first few rounds as, despite his breakthrough Cheltenham win, he insisted on going to Worcester Cricket Club where was booked as an after-dinner speaker.
But Harry managed to get back to the boozer before last orders and ended up having to kip at Ben’s house.
With a restaurant on site in Naunton at the adjoining golf club, there should be many more parties to come.
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Check out these photos from the UFC 308 ceremonial weigh-ins and fighter faceoffs, ahead of the pay-per-view event taking place at Etihad Arena on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi (Photos by Farah Hannoun, MMA Junkie)
Be sure to visit the MMA Junkie Instagram page and YouTube channel to discuss this and more content with fans of mixed martial arts.
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