The Telegraph Two of the surprise packages of this clay-court season have been British – initially Dan Evans, who made a deep run in Monte Carlo, and more lately Cameron Norrie, who played his second final in three weeks on Sunday. Unfortunately, Norrie wasn’t able to land a maiden ATP title in Lyon. But then he was up against Stefanos Tsitsipas, who has been the dominant force of 2021 outside the slams, and now stands at No 1 in the table of most rankings points gained since January 1. Nevertheless, it had been a hugely creditable effort for Norrie to go this far, especially when you consider that he took out top seed Dominic Thiem on Thursday, and then trounced big-hitting Russian Karen Khachanov in Saturday’s semi-final, losing only two games in the process. Norrie has come to clay late in his career, but it feels like this is developing into his favourite surface. He has one of the heaviest left-handed forehands in the game, loaded with top-spin, and uses it like a miniature version of Rafael Nadal. The result has been a tally of 14 wins and only four losses since he began his European clay-court swing in Barcelona. So while the French Open, which starts next Sunday, has traditionally been a graveyard of British hopes, there are reasons to hope that this year’s event could deliver some more positive results. Norrie’s previous final in Estoril had been a nervewracking affair which he eventually lost on a deciding-set tie-break to the more experienced Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Sunday was more straightforward for Tsitsipas, who needed only 69 minutes to hammer home a 6-3, 6-3 victory. It was Tsitsipas’ second title of the clay-court sequence, after he won Monte Carlo in mid-April, taking out Evans in the semi-final along the way. He has become a serious contender to upset the establishment – specifically Nadal and Novak Djokovic – at Roland Garros over the next few weeks. “I felt in good shape from the beginning of the tournament,” said Tsitsipas afterwards. “I am proud of today’s match, I knew it would be a difficult one against Cameron, who has been showing great tennis this week. He has been winning against good players and showing what the left hand can do on clay. “It was not an easy match today. I had to handle the nerves and I am proud of my performance and the way I stayed focused towards my goal.” On this year’s results, meanwhile, both Evans and Norrie stand among the world’s 20 most successful men. Evans is at No 16 and Norrie No 14. The next challenge for them both is to convert that ATP Tour form into a deep run at a major.<doc-sep>After moving up earlier in the second round to pick defensive back JoeJuan Williams, the New England Patriots now moved down: the reigning world champions made a trade with the Seattle Seahawks involving the 64th overall selection. The details of the move are as following: Patriots get: #77 + #118 Seahawks get: #64 Quick-hit analysis: New England apparently felt that no player was worth picking at the 64th spot relative to a trade down. Seattle, meanwhile, opted to stop the fall of wide receiver D.K. Metcalf and selected him with the Patriots’ former pick.<doc-sep>The NFL draft is complete, undrafted free agents are being signed, and the next wave of free agency is approaching for the Seattle Seahawks. While it’s way, way too early to know anything about Seattle’s final 2019 squad, we are going to take our first stab at predicting which 53 players are going to survive training camp and crack the Week 1 roster. Quarterback (2) Russell Wilson, Paxton Lynch Wilson obviously isn’t going anywhere after signing a monstrous four-year, $140 million dollar contract to make him the highest paid player in the NFL. Lynch is my pick as the backup quarterback, mostly because coach Pete Carroll has made it very clear how much he likes him and what he can do. Seattle will have at least one other quarterback in training camp, probably South Dakota State’s Taryn Christion who the Seahawks reportedly agreed to bring in as an undrafted free agent. However, I’m still predicting Lynch will have the backup job come September.<doc-sep>The Seattle Seahawks have acquired a Super Bowl champion tight end! ESPN’s Field Yates reported on Monday that the Seahawks have traded a conditional 2020 seventh-round pick for Jacob Hollister, formerly of the New England Patriots. Seattle did not draft a TE in the 2019 NFL Draft, and there are still question marks about depth given the awful knee injury Will Dissly suffered last season. Also on the depth chart are Ed Dickson, Tyrone Swoopes, and Nick Vannett, whom is in the final year of his rookie deal. Hollister is actually a Pacific Northwest native who grew up in Oregon. He went undrafted out of the University of Wyoming, but the Patriots signed him as a UDFA in 2017. Hollister earned a spot as the team’s third-string TE behind Rob Gronkowski and Dwayne Allen, but saw limited action on offense, playing just 145 snaps through two seasons, compared to 285 on special teams. The 25-year-old has caught 8 passes for 94 yards to date, but ended 2018 on injured reserve due to hamstring and chest injuries. This meant he was unable to play in the Super Bowl 53, which the Patriots won by defeating the vaunted Los Angeles Rams offense by a score of 13-3 (three, tres, trois). Hey, it’s a conditional 2020 seventh-round pick for depth. There’s not a whole lot to analyze here over “good trade/bad trade.” It’s a trade, and Hollister is Seattle-bound.<doc-sep>
Day 2 of the 2019 NFL draft was a busy one for the Seattle Seahawks, as they made three trades — one back and two up — and landed three players: safety Marquise Blair, wide receiver D.K. Metcalf and linebacker Cody Barton. Blair and Barton played at Utah, marking two of the four selections from the Pac-12 for general manager John Schneider and company. “We got the two Utes,” Schneider said on Friday evening. “[Utah] actually had a really good defense . . . Coach [Kyle] Whittingham is really demanding. [Blair and Barton] are coming out of a system where they are both well-disciplined guys when they come out.” Blair is the big prize, as he could immediately step in and start at strong safety, pushing Bradley McDougald over to free safety and allowing Blair to take on a role as a thumper. Barton is a versatile linebacker who can defend receivers and tight ends and is expected to be a big contributor on the special teams as well. “He’s really smart and handled a lot of the communications,” coach Pete Carroll said. “That versatility is really important to us. And we know that he’s an incredibly gifted special teams player as well. He’ll have a chance to learn under terrifically experienced guys. He’ll be a great asset to us. We see him being a part of a lot of stuff right off the bat. We’re really excited about that.” While Utah doesn’t run a defense similar to Seattle’s, the Seahawks did like what they saw out of the defense from the Pac-12 runner-ups. “The stuff they do does carry over,” Carroll continued. “They have enough versatility in their scheme that we can see guys do a lot of stuff.” Shoring up the depth on defense was a big goal for Seattle heading into the draft, and with Barton and Blair, Seattle got two big pieces to help do that.