French Open pay protest to include interview refusals

The world's top tennis stars reportedly will voice their displeasure with the French Open prize pool by remaining silent.

Players selected to participate in Friday's opening press conferences at Roland Garros in Paris will walk out after 15 minutes to protest the 15% average allocation of revenues toward the prize money at the Grand Slams, newspapers L'Equipe and The Guardian reported Wednesday.

Other players in the ATP and WTA draws will refuse to conduct additional interviews with the French Open's primary media partners, TNT Sports and Eurosport, per the reports.

The French Open announced last month that the prize pool was increasing about 10% this year to $72.1 million.

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World No. 1 players Aryna Sabalenka and Jannik Sinner and others expressed their disappointment on May 4, arguing that the percentage of total revenue at Roland Garros had declined from 15.5% in 2024 to 14.9% in 2026.

"With estimated revenues of over 400 million euros for this year's tournament, prize money as a percentage of revenue will likely still be less than 15%, far short of the 22% that players have requested to bring the Grand Slams into line with the ATP and WTA Combined 1000 events," the players said.

Players are also seeking better representation, health options and pensions from the four Grand Slam events.

--Field Level Media

byNeo

in

May 20, 2026

French Open pay protest to include interview refusals

The world's top tennis stars reportedly will voice their displeasure with the French Open prize pool by remaining silent. Pla...

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Korn Ferry Tour makes each player's pace-of-play data public for the first time

Nicholas Infanti is the fastest player on the Korn Ferry Tour and Ian Gilligan is the slowest, according to pace-of-play data through the first 11 events of the season.

The PGA Tour’s top developmental circuit recently became the first professional tour to publicly reveal the Average Stroke Time (AST) of its players.

The data was posted on PGATour.comfollowing the conclusion of last week’s Colonial Life Charity Classic. This data shows how players rank relative to field averages, both for a given tournament and for season-long averages. It can give valuable context as to what part of the game a player needs to improve his pace and for rules officials to identify the true culprits of slow play and how they are trending. It's also a momentous day for those who have longed for the Tour to be more transparent, especially with pace of play.

Player's AST is listed for overall speed of players and are broken down into four categories: Off-the-Tee, Approach-the-Green, Around-the-Green and On-the-Green. Tour rules officials have had this information available for several years and talked to players individually about pace of play issues but it had never been previously made public. The initiative to publicize the data for Korn Ferry Tour players was formally approved by the PGA Tour Policy Board in November. It's unclear if or when similar data will be published for the PGA Tour but it would first have to go through a similar governance process.

“The publishing of the AST data on the Korn Ferry Tour is an opportunity to provide greater context around a player’s pace of play and the various factors that may impact it during any given tournament,” said Korn Ferry Tour president Alex Baldwin. “We are hopeful this data is not only additive for our players, but allows our fans to feel more connected to what occurs inside the ropes each and every week.

Mitchell Meissner — who serves on the Korn Ferry Tour Player Advisory Council — is currently ranked 17th in overall speed of play for the 2026 season, averaging nearly five seconds fewer than the average player to hit each shot during competition.

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“There was definitely some interest in comparing my timing data to the data of my buddies,” Meissner said. “I hope the fans will be surprised by how quickly the majority of us play, especially considering all the necessary decisions it takes to play one shot and the significant consequences at stake out here.”

Individual pace-of-play data for players season-long average has been available throughout the ShotLink era, and was used by rules officials to try to change habits. It sometimes served as a wake-up call for players unaware that they they were the problem. Peer pressure has been the most effective means of change. But now those slowpokes on the Korn Ferry Tour will face a potentially more powerful tool for change: public shaming. [There is some concern that it could impact a player's reputation and lead to players being branded as slow for their entire career.] The Korn Ferry Tour currently ranks 129 players who have played sufficient number of rounds for their data to be under consideration.

Korn Ferry Tour pace of play data

Here are the top 10 fastest players on the Korn Ferry Tour in overall speed of play, as it relates to the average:

Avg. Stroke Time

Nicholas Infanti

Dylan Menante

Jack Maguire

Nick Gabrelcik

Robbie Higgins

Taylor Dickson

Brett Stegmaier

Norman Xiong

Logan McAllister

Here are the slowest players on the Korn Ferry Tour:

Avg. Stroke Time

Ian Gilligan

Joseph Bramlett

Augusto Nunez

Chris Korte

Chris Francoeur

Cristobal Del Solar

Yuta Sugiura

Alistair Docherty

And here's a look at this year's KFT winners and where they rank in pace:

Pace ranking

Taylor Dickson

James Nicholas

Alistair Docherty

Jeremy Gandon

Dylan Menante

Cole Sherwood

Adam Schupak is a senior writer covering the PGA Tour for Golfweek.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek:Korn Ferry Tour reveals pace-of-play data, fastest and slowest players

byNeo

in

May 20, 2026

Korn Ferry Tour makes each player's pace-of-play data public for the first time

Nicholas Infanti is the fastest player on the Korn Ferry Tour and Ian Gilligan is the slowest, according to pace-of-play data through t...

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Google rejects UK union recognition but offers talks via conciliation body

LONDON, May 20 (Reuters) - Google < GOOGL.O> said it had rejected a request from two British unions for voluntary recognition but ‌would negotiate with them via a state-backed conciliation service, ‌delaying a potential statutory process that could force recognition.

Under UK rules, the move opens ​a 20-working-day window, extendable by agreement, for talks on recognition. If talks fail, unions can seek statutory recognition via the country's independent Central Arbitration Committee.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Unite said earlier this month that ‌they had sent a ⁠formal letter to Google seeking voluntary recognition after an employee-organised vote showed support for unionisation at Google's AI ⁠unit DeepMind.

The company confirmed the receipt of that letter, which gave it 10 days under UK rules to respond by agreeing to voluntary recognition, ​rejecting the ​request or entering negotiations.

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"We've declined ​the unions' request for voluntary ‌recognition to bargain collectively on pay, hours and holiday, but we have offered to meet via ACAS, which is a standard next step," a Google spokesperson said via email on Wednesday. "We continue to value the constructive and direct dialogue that we have with our employees ‌about building a positive and successful workplace."

Britain's ​new employment rights legislation, which came into ​force last month, has ​simplified the union recognition process, lowering some of the ‌thresholds and procedural hurdles for ​unions.

Google has about 7,000 ​employees in the UK, including those at DeepMind.

Globally, big technology companies have been accused by workers' rights groups of discouraging ​unionisation through "union-busting" tactics, a ‌characterisation the firms reject, saying they favour direct dialogue with ​workers over formal collective bargaining.

(Reporting by Muvija M; Editing ​by Paul Sandle and Mark Porter)

byNeo

in

May 20, 2026

Google rejects UK union recognition but offers talks via conciliation body

LONDON, May 20 (Reuters) - Google < GOOGL.O> said it had rejected a request from two British unions for voluntary recognition but...

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US offers new relationship to Cuba in Rubio message

WASHINGTON, May 20 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered to forge a new relationship between the U.S. and Cuba on Wednesday in a video message ‌to the Cuban people, proposing $100 million in aid and blaming Cuba's leaders for shortages ‌of electricity, food and fuel.

"We in the U.S. are offering to help you not only alleviate the current crisis, but ​also to build a better future," Rubio said in a State Department message on Cuban Independence Day.

The Trump administration is expected to announce criminal charges against former Cuban president Raul Castro on Wednesday, in a move that would mark a step-up in Washington's pressure campaign against the Caribbean island's communist government.

In ‌his video address delivered in Spanish, ⁠Rubio blamed the country's current problems on greed and corruption in its leadership.

"The real reason you don't have electricity, fuel, or food is because those ⁠who control your country have plundered billions of dollars, but nothing has been used to help the people," Rubio said.

He said the United States is offering $100 million dollars in food and medicine to the ​Cuban people, ​but it must be distributed by the Catholic Church ​or other trusted charitable groups.

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In a ‌response Wednesday morning, Cuba's embassy in the U.S. said Rubio had lied and that the United States was subjecting the island nation to cruelty.

"The reason the U.S. Secretary of State lies so repeatedly and unscrupulously when referring to Cuba and trying to justify the aggression to which he subjects the Cuban people is not ignorance or incompetence," the embassy said in a post on X. "He ‌knows full well that there is no excuse for ​such cruel and ruthless aggression."

President Donald Trump has been seeking ​regime change in Cuba, where communists ​have been in charge since Raul Castro's late brother Fidel Castro led a ‌revolution in 1959.

The charges against Castro, 94, ​are expected to be based ​on a 1996 incident in which Cuban jets shot down planes operated by a group of Cuban exiles, a U.S. Justice Department official told Reuters last week on the ​condition of anonymity.

The U.S. has ‌effectively imposed a blockade on the island by threatening sanctions on countries supplying it ​with fuel, triggering power outages and delivering blows to its already fragile economy.

(Reporting by ​Doina Chiacu, Katharine Jackson; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

byNeo

in

May 20, 2026

US offers new relationship to Cuba in Rubio message

WASHINGTON, May 20 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered to forge a new relationship between the U.S. and Cuba on Wed...

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What NBA game had the most overtimes in history? How Thunder-Spurs OT stacks up

The first game of theWestern Conference Finalswas one for the books as theOklahoma City Thunderand theSan Antonio Spurswent totwo overtimes before the visitors claimed the win.

Game 1 looks to be just a snippet of what this long-awaited series will bring to the table, but can it break the record for the longest NBA Playoff game on record? It's possible.

The May 18 game between the Thunder and Spurs lasted 58 minutes, but the longest playoff game in history is a tie between two matchups, both lasting two overtimes for a total of 68 minutes of play. While the first one was 73 years ago, between the Boston Celtics and the Syracuse Nationals, now thePhiladelphia 76ers.

Most recently, in 2019, thePortland Trail Blazersand theDenver Nuggetsalso went to four overtimes.

Here's what happened in the longest NBA Playoff games in history.

What are the longest NBA Playoff games in history?

The Guinness World Record book lists two games as tied for the most overtime games in NBA Playoffs.

On March 21, 1953, in Game 2 of the Eastern Division Semifinals, the Boston Celtics defeated the Syracuse Nationals (now Philadelphia 76ers) 111-105 in four overtimes for a total of 68 minutes played.

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The Nationals and the Celtics held that record for 66 years, when it was tied by the Denver Nuggets and the Portland Trail Blazers.

On May 3, 2019, in Game 3 of the Western Conference Semifinals, the Trail Blazers took down the Nuggets 140-137. Nuggets star Nikola Jokić played 65 of the 68 minutes. Jokić holds the record for the longest time played in a single playoff game and ranks second overall.

What is the longest NBA game of all time?

The longest NBA game of all time was a six-overtime 75-73 win for the Indianapolis Olympians (folded 1953) over the Rochester Royals (nowSacramento Kings), played in 1951.

The Thunder's direct ancestors, the Seattle SuperSonics, rank second in the list after losing to theMilwaukee Bucks155-154 in five overtimes in 1989. Former SuperSonic Dale Ellis holds the record for the most minutes played in a single NBA game, with 69 minutes.

The Syracuse Nationals and the Anderson Packers (folded in 1951) are tied for second with five overtime games in 1949.

Isa Almeida is a trending reporter for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Isa? She can be reached at ialmeida@oklahoman.com or on X/Twitter at @ialmeidasports. Support Isa's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing adigital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman:What's the record for most overtimes during an NBA game? How Thunder-Spurs OT compares

byNeo

in

May 19, 2026

What NBA game had the most overtimes in history? How Thunder-Spurs OT stacks up

The first game of theWestern Conference Finalswas one for the books as theOklahoma City Thunderand theSan Antonio Spurswent totwo overt...

Read More