crashes

French Open winner Coco Gauff becomes just the third woman in the Open era to lose in the first round at Wimbledon.

Coco Gauff has become just the third woman in the Open era to lose in the first round at Wimbledon right after winning the championship at the French Open, eliminated 7-6 (3), 6-1 by the unseeded Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine.

The No. 2-ranked Gauff made mistake after mistake at No. 1 Court, finishing with just six winners and a total of 29 unforced errors, which included nine double-faults. She joined another highly-seeded American, No. 3 Jessica Pegula, in bowing out on Day 2 of the tournament on Tuesday.

“I was really on fire,” said Yastremska, who accumulated 16 winners. “Playing against Coco, it is something special.”

It was just a little more than three weeks ago that Gauff was celebrating her second Grand Slam title by getting past No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the final on the red clay of Roland-Garros. The 21-year-old American also took home the trophy from the 2023 US Open.

But even though Gauff’s big breakthrough came at the All England Club at age 15 in 2019, when she beat Venus Williams in her opening match and made it all the way to the fourth round, the grass-court tournament has proved to be her least successful major.

It is the only Grand Slam where Gauff has at least made the semifinals.

Indeed, she has yet to get past the fourth round and has now been sent home in the first round twice in the past three years.

The transition from clay to grass has proven tough for most players, and the last woman to win the French Open and Wimbledon in the same season was Serena Williams a decade ago.

Still, since the Open era began in 1968, only Justine Henin in 2005 and Francesca Schiavone in 2010 went from holding the trophy in Paris to exiting immediately in London.

Gauff was never quite at her best on Tuesday against Yastremska, who had lost all three of their previous matchups and is currently ranked 42nd. Yastremska’s best Grand Slam result was making it all the way to the semifinals on the Australian Open’s hard courts last year, although she entered this event with a record of only 10-11 in first-round matches at majors.

Gauff, by contrast, was 20-3 at that stage, including a loss to Sofia Kenin at Wimbledon in 2023.

Yastremska’s deepest run at Wimbledon was making the fourth round in 2019, although she did get to the final of the junior event in 2016.

She recently reached her first tournament final on grass at a smaller event in Nottingham, which she said gave her confidence heading to the All England Club.

“I love playing on grass. I feel that this year we are kind of friends,” Yastremska said with a laugh. “I hope the road will continue for me here.”

For “Grease” fans in Los Angeles, recent summer nights had a surprise in store. We’ll tell you more, tell you more.

John Travolta, who brought life to bad boy heartthrob Danny Zuko in the 1978 classic, crashed the Hollywood Bowl’s sing-along event Friday. He surprised not just the audience, but also fellow “Grease” alumni as he sauntered on stage in his character’s signature pompadour and leather jacket.

“No one knew, not even the cast,” Travolta, 71, recalled of the moment in an Instagram post shared Saturday.

The “Pulp Fiction” and “Hairspray” star on Instagram shared a closer look at his Danny Zuko-inspired styling and posted a video of him reuniting with co-stars Didi Conn, Barry Pearl, Michael Tucci, Kelly Ward and “Grease” filmmaker Randal Kleiser. Video from the sing-along shows audiences cheering and celebrating Travolta with a standing ovation. His surprise appearance came before the beginning of the sing-along, according to Entertainment Weekly.

“L.A.,” he says to fans before referencing a memorable line from the movie. “I thought you were going back to Australia!”

In that scene from “Grease,” Danny excitedly greets his summer sweetheart Sandy, before quickly playing it too cool and aloof, saving face for his T-Birds greaser squad. Olivia Newton-John indelibly played the role of Sandy. She died on Aug. 8, 2022, at age 73.

During Friday’s event, Travolta and his co-stars led fans in singing “A-womp-bop-a-looma-a-womp-bam-boom,” a line from the “Grease” finale number “We Go Together,” according to video from EW. He and his cast then left the stage and the sing-along began.

“Thank you for a great evening,” Travolta added in his Instagram post.

The tourism balloon carrying 21 people went up in flames in the early hours of Saturday, crashing in the city of Praia Grande

At least eight people have been killed and 13 injured when a hot air balloon they were on caught fire and crashed in Brazil’s southern state of Santa Catarina.

The tourism balloon carrying 21 people went up in flames in the early hours of Saturday, crashing in the city of Praia Grande on the Atlantic coast, according to Santa Catarina’s military fire brigade.

Footage shared by local news outlet G1 showed billows of smoke coming from the balloon as it plummeted dozens of metres toward the ground.

The survivors were transported to nearby hospitals, said firefighters.

“We are in mourning. A tragedy has happened. We will see how it unfolds, what happened, why it happened. But the important thing now is for the state structure to do what it can,” said Jorginho Mello, governor of Santa Catarina, in a video on X.

Mello said he had asked authorities to head to the municipality “to do as much as possible to rescue, to help, to take to hospital, to comfort the families”.

Praia Grande is a common destination for hot-air ballooning, a popular activity in some parts of Brazil’s south during June festivities that celebrate Catholic saints such as St John, whose feast day is on June 24.

Last Sunday, a balloon came down in Sao Paulo state, killing a 27-year-old woman and injuring 11 other people, G1 reported.