respect

“Already what I did last year was amazing and to be a champion here, I thought I deserved a wildcard and to get a little bit of respect.”

In further comments to reporters, Maria added: “I did it last year. It was not five years ago.

“I was surprised when I got the message of [tournament director] Laura Robson saying all the wildcards would go to the British players, which I understand. But as a champion, it’s tough for me.

“It is something that should be normal. If you are champion of an event and you don’t get in the year after, I think automatically this should be considered.”

Maria, watched by her two daughters, beat four top-20 players en route to the title, becoming the oldest winner of a WTA 500 tournament.

She is ranked 52nd in the world – too low to earn direct entry for the 28-strong main draw but higher than each of the four British players awarded wildcards.

This year’s recipients were Katie Boulter (world number 73), Fran Jones (98), Harriet Dart (160), and Mika Stojsavljevic (261).

A spokesperson for the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) said: “The LTA owns and invests in staging these events for the benefit of the British game as a whole – so fans can see world class international players from around the world, and support our British players, but also so British players are afforded the playing opportunities to progress their careers and climb the rankings.

“We have seen British success at these events, and breakthrough wins, so there is clear value in giving British players these development opportunities.”

Steve Baik, who coached Chino Hills to an unbeaten basketball season in 2016 led by brothers Lonzo, LiAngelo and LaMelo Ball, is returning to high school basketball. Calabasas announced on Wednesday he will be its new basketball coach.

Baik, who left Chino Hills and then guided Fairfax to a City Section Open Division championship in 2019, has long been considered an outstanding coach. He recently has been living and helping develop high school and youth players in Tennessee. He will replace veteran coach Jon Palarz, who retired from coaching.

“He reached out to me,” Calabasas athletic director Thomas Cassidy said. “He’s in the process of moving back. In talking to him, he had a lot of respect for coach Palarz and felt it was a good place to come back and build a program and have success. He blew us away. I was hoping we could work it out. We were able to put it together.”

Now the question is whether LaVar Ball, the father of the Ball brothers who Baik worked with at Chino Hills in sometimes much-publicized ways, will make an appearance in the Calabasas gym.

Married at First Sight viewers said they ‘feel bad’ for one star after recent revelations

Married At First Sight viewers shared their concern after one of the brides accused her husband of being dishonest about a former partner.

The American version of the beloved reality programme is currently broadcasting on E4. Brand new episodes from its 19th series air weekdays at 8pm on the channel, and are also available to stream on Channel 4.

In a subtle departure from other iterations of the show, viewers follow just five couples from Austin, who have committed themselves to complete strangers. While some pairings are moving forward steadily, others are proving considerably more turbulent.

Wednesday’s (May 27) episode saw the couples mark a significant milestone. A full month had passed since they all walked down the aisle, meaning it was also one month since they first laid eyes on one another.

The couples organised a diverse array of activities to commemorate the occasion, with Pat and Rhonda rising early to watch a live space launch on their laptop. Meanwhile, Josh arranged to go skydiving with his wife Jalyn, reports OK!

Later, Josh struggled to rewrite his vows, revealing it had taken him four days to compose his original speech. The pair eventually made up, however tensions were soon to reach boiling point following an incident that occurred off camera.

As the episode drew to a close and the credits began rolling, a heated row between the two was broadcast. Jalyn revealed they had been socialising with some of Josh’s friends when the topic of ex-partners somehow arose.

Footage from a camera positioned within their apartment shows them arriving home in the middle of a heated debate. Josh tells her: “And it’s just like no. He didn’t say that Jayln and my ex are similar, he said that I similarly jumped into this like I jumped into it with my ex.

And then the way I explained it was like ‘Duh I jumped into this, I got married.’ So that’s where Peter said the similarities are. And that’s what brought up the whole ex thing. And I’m sure that’s what prompted the conversation between you and David. “

Josh and I were hanging out with his friends and we had a situation happen where we had a lot of talk Abou social media and what does it look like if your partner still has exes and what does that look like. And he was like I unfollowed her on Instagram and then I could feel something was off and it became evident that he didn’t

It is then revealed that Josh’s ex has seemingly DM’d him since getting married, prompting Jalyn to state: “I just don’t like that.” He insists that he is not hiding anything but she shares to the camera: “An unnecessary little lie, All I think of is turning into bigger lies. It definitely feels like a breach of trust or a lack of respect.”

She continues: “What is a mistake that you can work through and what is a red flag that you should leave for?” It didn’t take long for those watching along at home to share what they feel about the situation.

One fan said: “I hate the whole American ‘can’t ever speak to your ex again’ thing, ugh. And Josh shouldn’t have offered to cut contact with his ex, then not done it. I hope Josh gets the post nup, I don’t trust Jalyn.”

Another claimed: “Josh shouldn’t have said that he stopped following the ex when he didn’t and she shouldn’t have asked him to in the first place.”

While someone else noted: “Oh the ending where Josh still didn’t block his ex and seems like he’s still having conversations with her but then tells Jalyn that he doesn’t want a relationship with his ex, then why are you talking to her? I feel so bad for her.”

Married At First Sight USA continues tomorrow at 8pm on E4 and streaming on Channel 4

Rawalpindi, Pakistan – On a cold January morning, Anum Shakoor gallops across a field, wrapped in a black shawl that billows behind her as she charges forward, a 1.8-metre (6ft) lance gripped tightly in her hand.

The 30-year-old has already claimed her first peg. The second lies close ahead.

Her horse tears across the dry earth, kicking up a cloud of dust that hangs in the air as she charges forward. A few metres out, Shakoor lowers the lance, steadying her aim and bracing for impact.

She misses by 2.5cm (1 inch).

A collective gasp ripples through the crowded bleachers. Many onlookers shake their heads. Some look away.

Shakoor exhales and slows her horse to a walk. Around her are the desolate, windswept fields on the outskirts of Rawalpindi in northern Punjab province.

And there are men, most of them wearing turbans. Men with “dhol” (drums) hanging from their necks. And men whose fathers had ridden before them and their fathers before their fathers. The men who take pride in the ancient sport, some of whom perhaps are not ready to accept that women are now participating in an overwhelmingly male “neza baazi”, or tent pegging, a high-stakes sport in which horse riders gallop across a field to pierce a buried wooden target.

The field is lined with thousands of male spectators, gathered to watch the teams of riders charging one after the other at a small wooden peg buried in the ground, trying to pierce it cleanly and carry it forward on their lance.

The event is known as a “mela” in Punjabi, a carnival-like competition typically held on the outskirts of the garrison city.

The beat of drums intertwined with the sharp bursts of the shehnai (oboe), traditionally played in weddings, pierces the cold winter air. Salespeople call out to the crowds from bustling stalls selling cardamom tea and varieties of fried fritters.

Before the competition starts, riders mount their adorned horses, some of which are dressed in embroidered velvet gowns. Others have braided manes or brass bells ringing softly at their necks.

One of the 74 teams competing in this year’s mela is Shakoor’s Bint-e-Zahra Club, Pakistan’s first female-only tent-pegging club. It has three other riders: Eshal Ibrahim and Noor un Nisa Malik, both 16, and Sehrish Awan, a 32-year-old mother of two competing for the first time in a mela.

Shakoor says the club was formed in 2025 after she reached a “frustrating realisation” that female riders practised and played only in mixed clubs. “We wanted to give women riders a stage for training so they can form a community,” she says.

The women are an unusual sight at a competition that has almost entirely male riding teams, mainly male fans and even male musicians.

So when Bint-e-Zahra’s members prepare to make their run, the audience is in for a rare sight. Photographers, vloggers and locals rush to film them, surrounding them from all sides.

Ibrahim is accompanied by her mother, who trails closely behind her, keeping a careful eye on her teenage daughter.

“I cannot even take pictures of her in the crowd,” says Fatima Adeel, who accompanies Ibrahim to every mela. “I am in charge of her. I cannot leave a teenage girl alone in a sea of men.”

Shakoor agrees.

“Any woman who wants to come in this sport should be encouraged so she can gain the respect she deserves in the sport,” she says. “Our society cannot bear a woman’s lead in any field.”

‘No concept of a player’

Several kilometres away, Ayesha Khan, 22, gallops on Sawa, the horse she has ridden since she was eight, for a practice run with her club.

She was 17 when her father encouraged her to try out for the women’s national team. A year later, she was the only woman selected for Pakistan’s under-21 mixed gender team and was sent to South Africa for a tournament to compete against a team that had four girls and one boy.

“I was hit with the realisation of how tent pegging is conditioned to appear masculine in Pakistan. But my father and brothers taught me riding when I was five. I used to be the only child riding a horse between adults,” Khan says, describing herself as “addicted” to riding.

Khan joined the women’s team in 2022 and quickly worked her way up to becoming its captain. That same year, she took the women’s team to Jordan, where it competed against 13 countries.

“We came third,” Khan recalls proudly. “Yet that was the only trip that the Pakistani women’s team competed in internationally. Before that trip, never. After that, never again.”

In 2024, the International Tent Pegging Federation organised an open international competition in Jordan. Pakistan sent a men-only team although the event was open to women. It was simply assumed that only men would want to go.

“In Pakistan, we don’t have the concept of a player,” Khan tells Al Jazeera. “We have the concept of male and female. Unless there is a women-only event, our federation exclusively sends male teams.”

But Khan persisted. At 20, she became the first Pakistani woman to compete against and beat 70 male riders at a mela. Today, she captains Pakistan’s only all-women tent pegging team.

How women entered the sport

The event near Rawalpindi that Shakoor attended was organised by Samiullah Barsa, a 27-year-old United States national of Pakistani origin, as part of his wedding celebrations.

“No wedding is complete without neza baazi,” says Barsa, who is dressed in a blazing red waistcoat and cowboy boots.

His family emigrated in the 1980s from the Punjab city of Gujrat to the US state of Ohio, where they own a stable and host annual melas. Last year, their mela drew more than 2,000 visitors, Barsa says.

Barsa recalls the first time he saw women compete in tent pegging. In 2015, he attended a mela at Kot Fateh Khan in Attock district, an hour from the capital, Islamabad, and the hometown of Malik Ata, fondly remembered as “Baba-e neza baazi” (the father of tent pegging).

Ata was a politician who came from an influential feudal family in Kot Fateh Khan. He was also a legendary equestrian who organised grand melas and invited hundreds of teams from across Pakistan to compete in various equestrian sports, including neza baazi.

At the first such grand mela, Ata invited the Australian women’s tent-pegging team, setting the stage for Pakistani women to embrace the sport.

In 2021, the Equestrian Federation of Pakistan, established by Ata, sponsored six girls to train under a South African coach. Khan was among those who made the journey to South Africa. She credits Ata for laying the roots of female participation in Pakistani tent pegging.

Barsa says Ata’s contribution to the sport cannot be denied and it was time for women to have their own teams.

“Everywhere along the world, women and men have separate competition. For instance, in football or in cricket, have you ever seen women competing against men?” he asks. “When female teams lose against male teams, they lose hope and don’t come forward.”

But has it been easy for women to pursue the sport?

Not really, both Khan and Shakoor say.

‘I never gave up’

Shakoor says there is tremendous social pressure on girls and women to conform to roles defined by the patriarchy.

“My mother has told me multiple times that I have to get married. But since I am part of such a manly sport, she worries how will I get good proposals. My sister did so too, but I never gave up,” she says.

“My brother stood up for me and told my mother that I am excelling in my passion. He asked her to let me live my life.”

Khan is relatively young, so marriage is not a concern for now. But she has heard relatives whisper to her mother: “It is probably just a phase. She should focus on her studies.”

Before going to a mela, Khan tries to find out details about the organisers. With the events often spanning two or three days, she also asks whether there are separate enclosures for women. Most riding fields have none or few restrooms or spaces for prayers for women.

In Pakistan, tent pegging is mainly played in northern Punjab, where villages and spacious fields stretch along the Ravi River, allowing the horses to freely run.

Khan says many girls have reached out to her wanting to pursue tent pegging. But most of them don’t have family support. And then there are financial and structural obstacles, which compound women’s lack of access to the sport.

“Not everyone has the privilege of owning a horse, especially women, who are already restricted by society,” Ibrahim says.

Even if you are able to own one, there is a significant cost attached to their upkeep. A horse’s monthly feed averages 30,000 to 35,000 Pakistani rupees ($107 to $125), which is nearly the monthly minimum wage in Punjab. Caretaker fees and rental charges more than double that amount.

“It’s a class thing. Everything related to horses is,” Khan says. A sporting horse costs about $1,500 in Pakistan.

Shakoor agrees. She says she was able to buy a horse after saving from her monthly salary as a manager for a global microfinance network. “You can’t put a price on passion,” she says, using a Punjabi saying.

She says she puts her horse before everything, even her own meals or health. “If I am sick, I do not care about my medicine,” she says. “But I lose sleep if my horse is sick.”

But the high cost of the sport also means many opportunities are lost. Shakoor says she has missed several tent-pegging events because she could not afford to haul her horse across cities for multiple days of competitions.

“Had I had any financial support through sponsorship, I would not have missed those events,” she says.

For Barsa’s event alone, Shakoor’s team spent more than 100,000 rupees ($358), which included the cost of transporting five horses, their feed and lodging.

Similarly, at the national tent pegging trials, every rider must bring their own horse, a rule that shuts out anyone who cannot afford transport, let alone own a horse.

Awan, the 32-year-old mother of two children, used to ride horses as a hobby and began visiting melas to observe how tent pegging was played. Intrigued by the sport, she reached out to Shakoor on Instagram, asking to become a member of Bint-e-Zahra.

In recent years, videos featuring female riders have gained millions of views on Instagram and TikTok, sometimes surpassing their male counterparts. Khan and Zoya Mir, the vice captain of the national tent pegging team, run joint TikTok and Instagram accounts, Equestrians In Green, where they post about their sporting victories.

Some videos show the women playing neza baazi in slow motion, picking up a peg mid-gallop or emerging from clouds of dust dressed in their club’s gear, often set to trendy music and paired with captions that challenge the stereotypical association of horse riding with men. Some of these videos have millions of views.

But the social media visibility also comes at a cost.

Khan recalls a viral video of women riders wearing turbans at a mela, causing a backlash from veteran male riders who claimed “women were polluting the sport.”

The turban, traditionally worn by men as a mark of their social position as well as a defining part of a horse rider’s identity, takes on an added significance in neza baazi. For some, women wearing it is seen as a challenge to a space long associated with male authority.

But the riders at the Rawalpindi mela push ahead despite the vitriol. They wear their turbans with pride – Awan tying hers over a red niqab that covers half of her face while Shakoor has hers pulled low, the way her mentor taught her.

Shakoor pulls up a photo from her Instagram account, which has more than 8,000 followers. Two riders wearing turbans pluck a peg side by side. The dip of their lances, the slight sway of their bodies, the moment of lift are all nearly identical.

“This is a picture of me with my mentor Chaudry Nazakat Hussain, my true inspiration,” she says. “He encouraged me to create Bint-e-Zahra.”

Last year, a mela held in Jathli in Rawalpindi’s Tehsil Gujjar Khan had 50 participating teams with nearly 200 riders – all male except Shakoor, Ibrahim and Malik. Representing the Bint-e-Zahra Club, Shakoor fought her way into the last seven in the team captains’ round, which is a recent addition in melas in which the captain of each club runs for a position.

Shakoor, the only woman among the final seven qualifying riders, did not secure a position but considers being included a feat nonetheless. “In the captains’ round, horses are assigned to riders randomly. This minimises odds of performing better. A sportsman is known for their skill, not their horse,” she says.

Of all the lessons the sport has taught her, Shakoor says the most valuable has been courage.

“This is a sport of the brave. If you don’t have the heart for it, it’s not for you,” she says. “Passion and dedication have no gender. … We don’t want to prove we are better than men. We only want equal respect.”

Losses by 6-0. 15-2. 10-1. How do you want to spin the Angels now, GM Perry Minasian? Are things still grand in Arteville?

Humiliations galore!

Jim Fredrick
Manhattan Beach

Really? The Angels cannot hit, cannot pitch and certainly cannot field. Their hitting coach, pitching coach and manager Kurt Suzuki‘s terrible management are much higher on the list of what’s wrong with this miserable team this year. So sad.

Michael Reuben
Anaheim Hills

The recent emergence of shirt-waving fans at Angel Stadium urging ownership to “sell the team” is an opportunity for reflection. With the long ago departure of the controversial former Clippers owner Donald Sterling, is Arte Moreno now truly the worst owner in sports? Sterling was truly detestable in his time, but at least he fielded a highly competitive and exciting Lob City squad led by legendary coach Doc Rivers. For the 2026 Angels, the dog days have already begun — before Memorial Day weekend.

Rob Fleishman
Placentia

Going into Memorial Day weekend, the Dodgers are in first place and the Angels are in last place. Plus the Angels’ shirtless fans in the stands are screaming at owner Arte Moreno to “Sell The Team!” The more things change, the more they stay the same. Ho hum.

Chris Sorce
Fountain Valley

The Lakers understand the daunting challenge they’re about to face against the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference semifinals.

Lakers coach JJ Redick referenced the great Chicago Bulls teams that won back-to-back championships in 1996 and ’97 and the Golden State Warriors teams that won titles in 2015 and ’17 when talking about the Thunder after practice Sunday.

“The Thunder is one of the greatest teams ever in NBA history,” Redick said. “It’s just the reality. They’re that good. I think our guys recognize that and respect that, and we know what kind of task we have in front of us.”

The Thunder had the best record in the regular season at 64-18. They were ranked first in defensive field-goal percentage (43.7%), first in defensive rating (106.5), first in net rating (43.7) and second in points given up per game (107.9).

They have the league’s reigning most valuable player in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is the leading candidate to repeat as MVP. He was second in scoring this season (31.1 points per game) and leads the postseason in scoring (33.8).

The Thunder just swept the Phoenix Suns in their first-round series. The Lakers eliminated the Houston Rockets in six games.

This season the Thunder beat the Lakers by an average of 29.2 points per game in sweeping the four-game set. So the Lakers are facing long odds to win this series, but they say they aren’t intimidated heading into Game 1 on Tuesday night.

“You can respect the team but you can’t fear them,” forward Jake LaRavia said. “You can’t come into the game fearing the opponent and then you’re just gonna come in and get punked. So, we respect how good this team is, but our goal is to win — win the games and win the series. So, our mindset stays the same.”

The Thunder have a reputation as a stingy defensive team — they were called for the seventh-fewest fouls per game (19) this season.

“They’re top five in every category that’s disruptive-base: steals, blocks, turnovers forced, all that stuff. And they don’t foul,” Redick said. “They somehow do all of that without fouling, which is one of the most remarkable things, I think, in NBA history.”

Gilgeous-Alexander is famous for drawing fouls. He took nine free throws per game this season, third-most in the league.

“Nobody’s been able to stop him all season,” Redick said. “So, you can hope and pray.”

Oklahoma City star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander drives against the Lakers during a Thunder win on April 2.

(Cooper Neill / Getty Images)

The Lakers had their own weapon at the free-throw line, but it’s unclear when Luka Doncic might return from injury. The All-Star point guard hasn’t played since sustaining a Grade 2 left hamstring strain against the Thunder on April 2.

Doncic was coming off a magical month, becoming the only player in history other than Michael Jordan to score 600 points in March.

Redick had no update on Doncic’s status — he remains out indefinitely.

But the Lakers got by the Rockets with LeBron James leading the way. He averaged 23.2 points, 8.3 assists and 7.2 rebounds in the six games. And star guard Austin Reaves, who also was injured in the April 2 game against the Thunder, returned to help beat the Rockets.

Still, few think the Lakers, who advanced past the first round for the first time since 2023, can get by the deep and talented Thunder.

“You could say nobody thought we were going to get past Houston, but everybody in this building believed,” Reaves said. “It’s the same mindset going into this. We obviously know the team that we’re about to face and how good they are and the problems that they can create for 48 minutes. So, we’ll have to lock in every single day, film, whatever it could be, to continue to get better and and pay attention to all the little details like they do.”