The clay of Roland Garros is supposed to be mysterious, an ochre deathbed for the innocent and the ill-prepared. However, at least two players at this French Open have surprisingly divergent views on it.

Naomi Osaka, one of the sport’s unusual thinkers, says it is not clay at all – “not clay-clay” anyway, as she put it after bundling Zarina Dyas out in the second round on Wednesday.

Ken Bates, the Chelsea chairman when a number of youth-team footballers claim they were racially abused by their own coaches, has been accused of making “truly shameful” comments after criticising the alleged victims for wanting to keep their identities secret and questioning why they did not report it when they were children.

Bates suggested the reason for “all these ancient coming-outs so many years later” was because “the sniff of money is in the air” and said those in question should have found other clubs if the racism they allegedly encountered at Stamford Bridge, from the age of 11 onwards, was so upsetting.

Jimmy Anderson has offered a bullish defence of England’s Test side, insisting there is “no problem” despite a run of seven defeats in 10 matches, but that confidence was deflated somewhat late on Wednesday night with the news Ben Stokes is an injury doubt with a hamstring problem.

The all-rounder has a tight left hamstring and will be assessed on Thursday before a decision is made on whether he needs a scan. Sam Curran has been drafted into the squad for Friday’s second Test as cover in what is the 19-year-old Surrey all-rounder’s first Test call-up.

There’s a rule of thumb around talking down the product, a “doing a Ratner” kind of thing, and by God does it apply to sport. Such is the competitive nature of the business, and of the individuals involved, that saying anything remotely critical about an activity in general or a performance more specifically is about as likely as watching a free-to-air Test match.

So the aftermath of the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday was quite something to behold. “This is probably the most boring race ever,” was Fernando Alonso’s considered opinion. “Extremely boring.” Lewis Hamilton began his remarks more cautiously – “It was a super-unexciting race for everyone” – but when a fan hollered his own opinion that it was the “most boring race ever”, Hamilton put his foot down.

On a day of rapidly swirling weather and fortunes, Novak Djokovic emerged from a second perfunctory win against a qualifier to stay in the conversation about who is good enough to stop Rafael Nadal winning his 11th French Open. He could get to the quarter‑finals; once there, he might even find another gear or two, which was his trademark in his pomp.

Certainly the former champion is in shape comparable to that of younger contenders in Alexander Zverev, who took five sets to defeat the world No 60 Dusan Lajovic, and Grigor Dimitrov, who survived a tempestuous battle over four hours and 19 minutes against the American Jared Donaldson, who was reduced at one point to serving under-arm.

The FDNY said on Twitter there was a fire inside a stadium display case and it was “under control” just after 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Browns legend Joe Thomas makes his own NBA Finals jersey bet

The 34-year-old forward will continue with America but call it quits on the international level after this summer’s tournament in Russia

The Real Madrid superstar failed to score in the Champions League final but was able to dominate the post-match reaction after hinting at a transfer

The Wales international has hinted at a summer move, with a fellow countryman and ex-Blancos boss questioning the effort he has put in over five years