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>Rockets development coach Irv Roland on Saturday disputed a report that Rockets guard Chris Paul booted Warriors star Stephen Curry off the court the night before the Rockets faced the Warriors in Game 6, saying there were no issues and that the two joked as Paul prepared to begin his usual workouts, adding that the entire exchange occurred a week earlier. The Athletic reported that Paul arrived at Toyota Center on Thursday only after he heard Curry was using the Toyota Center court for shooting drills on Thursday, and “kicked Curry off the Toyota Center court.” Roland, however, said they actually crossed paths on May 5, the night before Game 4, and that there were no issues with Curry’s time on the main floor, with Paul doing his usual lifting while Curry had the court before he and Rockets rookie Michael Frazier headed to the court for a workout. “I’ve been here three years and we go to shoot the night before games quite often,” Roland said. “Never in my three years has a player been on our main floor shooting the night before a game. When we saw him out there, I contacted our equipment manager (Tony Nila) because they’re the ones that coordinate shooting times. He told me ‘we gave him the court at 6:45.’ We asked him how long they had the court for. “When we finally went out there, Stephen cracked a joked with Chris. Chris said ‘let him shoot.’ It wasn’t like it was a confrontation. “Let him shoot. Let him finish what he’s doing.’ We didn’t kick him off the court. We didn’t even say anything. I wanted to know how long he was shooting because I had Chris with Michael Frazier and James Harden coming right after Chris. I wanted to know how long he was going to be before James left the house.” The exchange seemed amiable with Curry joking about Paul shooting without a shirt and Paul saying he has to show off the weight room work while he can. Roland said Paul never brought up how long Curry would shoot and that they had no issue with the timing, especially because the drills were so limited. “Nobody said anything to them,” Roland said. “It wasn’t like we were doing full-court drills or a whole team practice. Also, we wouldn’t do that just because there are nights we might need to go to Oracle and shoot. That’s why it’s coordinated in the first place.” According to the report in The Athletic, Curry referred to getting kicked off the court to teammate Draymond Green after the Warriors’ Game 6 win.<doc-sep>Chris Paul kicked Steph Curry off court night before Game 6 showdown originally appeared on nbcsportsbayarea.com Programming note: Watch the pregame edition of Warriors Outsiders on Tuesday afternoon at 4:30, streaming live on the MyTeams app. Chris Paul was fantastic in Game 6 of the Warriors-Rockets NBA playoff second-round series. The Rockets guard recorded 27 points on 11-of-19 shooting, with 11 rebounds and six assists. But it wasn't enough as Houston's season came to an end with a 118-113 loss. After the game, we learned an incredible story that certainly doesn't look good for CP3. Marcus Thompson of The Athletic has the details: On the eve of Friday's Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals, (Steph) Curry wanted to get some shots up at the Toyota Center. The Warriors do-it-all manager Eric Housen booked the court, from 7 to 8 p.m., so Curry could work on his shot. Somehow, Rockets guard Chris Paul got wind. He decided to go to the Toyota Center to get shots up, nixing Curry's reservations. The Warriors' point guard offered to stick to half a court but Paul wasn't having it. Curry was kicked off the Toyota Center court. This is ... ... unbelievable. Does it get any pettier than this? And it's why Curry yelled "Kick me off the court again, boy!" as he celebrated the Game 6 victory with Draymond Green just outside the Warriors' locker room. Steph Curry will always be taken for granted and he will always be underrated https://t.co/AEQRsb60ti — Drew Shiller (@DrewShiller) May 11, 2019 Paul is an incredible basketball player and one of the best point guards of all time. But it's hard to watch him play because of all of his antics and flopping. Really glad they didn't call a foul on Steph Curry for this Chris Paul flop, but Curry has to make this layup pic.twitter.com/RL9FT9VrQ2 — Drew Shiller (@DrewShiller) May 11, 2019 This is how Chris Paul gets his points. He flops around when the Rockets are in the bonus. It's embarrassing pic.twitter.com/j8wEHufafB — Drew Shiller (@DrewShiller) May 11, 2019 Hahaha. Chris Paul flops and then points at one of the refs who didn't call a foul pic.twitter.com/GkcyWv5TaN — Drew Shiller (@DrewShiller) May 11, 2019 [RELATED: Klay, Lacob discuss special moment from late in Game 6 win] So on second thought, it's actually believable that Paul would have done something like kick Curry off the court the night before a game. Follow @DrewShiller on Twitter and Instagram<doc-sep>
After Steph Curry and the Warriors eliminated the Rockets in shocking fashion Friday night, an amazing story came to light. It came from The Athletic's Marcus Thompson, who tells amazing stories all the time. But this one, in fact, was an all-timer. From Thompson: On the night before Friday's Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals, after arriving from the Bay Area, Curry wanted to get some shots up at Toyota Center. The Warriors' do-it-all manager, Eric Housen, booked the court from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. so Curry could work on his shot. Somehow, Rockets guard Chris Paul got wind. He decided to go to Toyota Center to get shots up, nixing Curry's reservations. The Warriors' point guard offered to stick to half a court, but Paul wasn't having it. Curry was kicked off the Toyota Center court. Is this incredible or what? I mean even for Chris Paul, who has an ocean of competitive pettiness swirling inside him, this is another level. Opposing players shoot in opposing gyms all the time. It's basically a time-honored NBA tradition, an absolute bare minimum display of professional hospitality. What Paul did was hilarious in one sense, a throwback to the Bill Laimbeer time of rivals actually hating one another rather than spending summers together frolicking on banana boats in the south of Spain. It was also dangerous. And man did it ever burn Paul and the Rockets. There are just some giants you don't wake up when they're in a basketball slumber, and Steph Curry is one of them. Dude was in the middle of the worst shooting stretch of his career. Sure, he had a little run at the end of Game 5, but all in all this guy was sleeping on the job. And Paul just walks up to him and pokes him with a pointy stick? Seriously? You thought it was a good idea to stoke the fire of one of the fieriest competitors in the world? It's true, too. Curry's competitiveness is legendary. Talk to anyone around the league and it's one of the first words that will come up about him. Competitor. This is a guy who has been internalizing disrespect and turning it into an Amazonian snake's venom from the time he was in high school. He was already motivated by all the people chirping about his struggles, saying he couldn't win without Kevin Durant and he's always been a postseason underachiever and blah blah blah. Dude was cooking hotter than a campfire, and Paul just willingly sprays gas on him? And don't think for a second that this is just some made-up media reach that this even bothered Curry, all in the name of a good story. Every slight bothers Curry. And he remembers every detail. Again from Thompson: Draymond Green stood outside the visiting locker room at the Toyota Center, greeting teammates as they came in. When Stephen Curry made his way through the crowd, he looked straight at Green — before they slapped hands and bumped chests — and screamed, "Kick me off the court again, boy!" And Green replied to Curry's taunt by screaming, "Kick him off! Kick him off!" You can hear it here: Yeah, Chris Paul done messed up. Curry went from zero halftime points to 33 second-half points, 21 in the fourth quarter, 16 in the final five minutes to add to his long list of playoff heroics, and in the end, the Warriors once again ripped out the Rockets' heart and fed it to them. And now Chris Paul will have the gym all to himself all summer long.