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Carlos Alcaraz will start his US Open title defence against Russia’s Roman Safiullin in the first serious examination of his fitness following a long-term wrist injury.

Second seed Alcaraz, who won the men’s title in New York last year, has not played a competitive singles match for more than four months because of inflammation in his playing right wrist.

Despite his lack of action, the 23-year-old Spaniard is still considered by many as the favourite to triumph again – particularly because his great rival Jannik Sinner is not playing due to a knee injury.

The pair may have been a cut above the rest of the tour for the past two seasons, but Alcaraz coming back from a prolonged absence with such a delicate injury and beating the rest of the field – even though he is a generational talent – would be remarkable.

The seven-time major champion missed this season’s French Open and Wimbledon as a result of the issue, which did not require surgery, before making his return to court in the US Open mixed doubles alongside Serena Williams earlier this week.

Wearing a long compression sleeve on his right arm, Alcaraz did not look totally convincing in the exhibition-like event. Understandably, he appeared to be holding back on his serve and return as he eased himself back into matchplay.

There is no doubt that a Grand Slam singles bout played over five sets will be another step up physically. Safiullin, with a hefty serve and attacking groundstrokes, is not an ideal opponent to start against.

The 29-year-old Russian, who reached the Wimbledon fourth round last month before falling to Novak Djokovic, is likely to take time away from Alcaraz, test the Spaniard’s durability at the baseline and generally make him feel uncomfortable.

Predicting how Slam draws will pan out is always a fool’s errand, but if Alcaraz does get past Safiullin and goes as far as the fourth round, there are more potential opponents who appear daunting given the length of his absence.

If you analyse Alcaraz’s projected draw by the seedings, he could face rock solid American Tommy Paul or unpredictable Kazak Alexander Bublik in the last 16.

Athletic Frenchman Arthur Fils and huge-serving Ben Shelton are potential quarter-final opponents. Djokovic could lie in wait in the semi-finals.

Nobody outside of Alcaraz and his core team knows how his wrist is likely to stand up to the rigours of playing five-set matches in the heat of a Grand Slam tournament.

A challenging start at Flushing Meadows and a potentially intimidating second week will tell us.

A number of Welsh players have secured moves during the summer going into the 2026-27 season.

Goalkeeper Karl Darlow left Leeds United to join Manchester United while Harry Wilson, arguably the star performer of the Bellamy era, moved from Fulham to Leeds.

Liverpool youngster Lewis Koumas, who scored his first international goal against Ghana in June, is also expected to secure another loan switch away from Anfield having had spells with Birmingham City and Hull City last season.

“I’ve seen Lewis quite a lot in pre-season, he looks very, very good,” said Rush, who scored 28 times in 73 appearances for his country.

“Harry Wilson, he came on in the second half, he was a major influence for Leeds in beating Liverpool.

“We’re looking forward, but we’ve got to keep it as a team, it’s up to them to do that, but I can see us doing alright.”

Wales start their Nations League campaign against Portugal in Lisbon on 24 September and face Denmark in Copenhagen three days later.

Bellamy’s side then host Norway and Denmark at Cardiff City Stadium in October.

The final two matches of the campaign take place in November with Wales travelling to Norway before hosting Portugal.

England did not want to go through the play-offs but were given an unkind draw in the qualifying groups when they met world champions Spain.

It does mean, however, that Sarina Wiegman’s side are in a strong position for the play-offs and will fancy their chances with a kind trip to Greece in October.

They beat potential round two opponents Ukraine in both matches in the qualifying group stage, which will give them confidence too.

There is a tricky tie for Northern Ireland, who come up against a talented young squad from Portugal in round one. Portugal twice beat Northern Ireland in Euro 2025 qualifying.

Their task gets trickier if they make it through to round two with potential opponents Iceland proving to be difficult to break down in their matches against England this year.

Scotland are hoping to reach just their second Women’s World Cup finals having failed to qualify in 2023.

They performed well in this year’s qualifying group stages, including draws with Belgium that showed they can compete with Europe’s strongest teams.

They will need to produce their best in round two if they meet big-hitters Sweden, who have been semi-finalists in the past two Women’s World Cup finals.

Wales have never beaten a top-20 ranked nation in a competitive fixture and are likely to need to do so to qualify – and their away form needs improvement.

But Rhian Wilkinson’s side face familiar opponents in round one. They thrashed Albania 4-0 in their qualifying group so who says they can’t do it again?

Meanwhile, having performed superbly in qualifying, the Republic of Ireland have a tricky play-off route with established European opposition Belgium potentially waiting in round two.

First, Carly Ward’s side will have to navigate a 3,100-mile trip to Kazakhstan, against relatively unknown opposition.