Keeping up with Fran Jones: the tennis star refusing to let rare condition define her

During the first weeks of last year’s clay-court season, Francesca Jones found herself fighting through a breathless three-set tussle in Bogotá that was rapidly falling out of her control. Trailing 5-3 in the final set of her second-round match, an exhausted Jones began her service motion. As she tried to leap into the air and strike the ball, however, she staggered forwards and collapsed to the ground. Two points from defeat, she was steered off the court in a wheelchair.This was an extreme experience for Jones, but it was also painfully reflective of her career until that point

Henry Pollock: ‘I don’t look at a challenge and think what could go wrong? I’m just excited’

Strip away the peroxide hair, the TikTok dancing and the trademark try celebrations and the Northampton and England flanker has a white-hot ambition to be the bestNext Wednesday will be Henry Pollock’s 21st birthday. You slightly feel for his family and friends: what do you buy a guy with the Midas touch? Two tries on debut for England in Cardiff, a British & Irish Lions tour of Australia and a world breakthrough player of the year nomination would be prized accolades for anyone, let alone a bleach-blond tyro with nine Prem starts.A bottle of HP Sauce as an ironic gift, maybe? Sitting across the table in a snow-dusted Northampton is a young athlete who enjoys a bit of banter. But strip away the peripheral stuff – the hairstyle, the black headband, the TikTok dancing and the trademark try celebration – and most striking is his white-hot ambition. “I’m just a normal kid who has this amazing drive to want to be the best,” he says

Brendon McCullum keen to carry on with England but wants to ‘steer the ship’

At the end of a sorry Ashes loss capped off by news of Harry Brook’s ­involvement in a late-night ­incident two months earlier, ­Brendon ­McCullum set out his position as England head coach: if his wings are clipped and his ethos ­compromised then “maybe there is someone ­better” to do the role.The caveat is key here. ­McCullum is keen to continue and having held talks with Richard Thompson and Richard Gould, chair and chief ­executive respectively of the England and Wales Cricket Board, he appears set to – at least for the white-ball tour of Sri Lanka that begins in less than a fortnight.But an ECB review into the Ashes tour is already under way and will run in parallel to this, from which ­recommendations for the Test set-up will follow. While there is acceptance of mistakes in Australia – at 4-1, how could there not be? – McCullum has limits as regards imposed solutions

NFL playoff predictions: who will seize a wide-open Super Bowl race?

The postseason kicks off on Saturday. Our writers pick the dark horses, players to watch and make their tips for the NFL’s championship gameMelissa is right about the Lions (see below), but how about the Dallas Cowboys? Their defense was nauseating, and nobody wants a playoff weekend spoiled watching that. But their offense was electric. They finished fifth in the league in EPA/play in the regular season. And with Dak Prescott, a solid o-line and George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb, they had the potential to drop 30 points on any playoff group

Chess: Hastings Masters guards tradition and produces an English co-winner

Hastings is the grandfather of international chess tournaments, first staged in 1895 and then every year since 1920, with breaks for war and pandemics. Its vintage years were the 1930s, 50s and 70s, when world champions and challengers lined up to compete, while the badminton legend Sir George Thomas and the Bletchley Park codebreaker Hugh Alexander both shared first after defeating renowned opponents.Nowadays, Hastings has publicity problems, sandwiched as it is between the London Classic and Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee, and running simultaneously with the Magnus Carlsen show in the World Rapid/Blitz.Its traditional support from Hastings borough council has completely vanished, so that this year’s event lacked any player from the world’s top 200 grandmasters. Hastings had a £10,000 prize fund, compared with £50,000 for the London Classic and €1m for the World Rapid/Blitz in Qatar

Minnesota Timberwolves hold moment of silence for woman killed by ICE officer

The Minnesota Timberwolves held a moment of silence before Thursday night’s game to honor Renee Good, a 37-year-old woman who was fatally shot in her car by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer, an incident that has shaken Minneapolis and prompted renewed protests across the Twin Cities.Good was killed Wednesday morning following a brief confrontation with ICE officers on a south Minneapolis street roughly three miles from the Target Center. Federal authorities have said agents were attempting to carry out an enforcement action when the encounter escalated and an officer fired into Good’s vehicle. The shooting came amid a visible increase in ICE activity in the region as part of the Trump administration’s expanded immigration crackdown.The killing sparked protests throughout the day on Wednesday and into Thursday, with demonstrators gathering outside government buildings and marching through neighborhoods near where the shooting occurred