Werner’s Double a Step in the Right Direction, Says Tuchel

Football - Premier League - Southampton vs. Chelsea - St. Mary's Stadium, Southampton, Britain - April 9, 2022 Chelsea's Mason Mount celebrates scoring their sixth goal with Timo Werner. (Reuters)
Football - Premier League - Southampton vs. Chelsea - St. Mary's Stadium, Southampton, Britain - April 9, 2022 Chelsea's Mason Mount celebrates scoring their sixth goal with Timo Werner. (Reuters)
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Werner’s Double a Step in the Right Direction, Says Tuchel

Football - Premier League - Southampton vs. Chelsea - St. Mary's Stadium, Southampton, Britain - April 9, 2022 Chelsea's Mason Mount celebrates scoring their sixth goal with Timo Werner. (Reuters)
Football - Premier League - Southampton vs. Chelsea - St. Mary's Stadium, Southampton, Britain - April 9, 2022 Chelsea's Mason Mount celebrates scoring their sixth goal with Timo Werner. (Reuters)

Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel said Timo Werner's double in their 6-0 Premier League win over Southampton was a step in the right direction but that the German striker still has to adapt to the rough and tumble of English football.

Werner scored his first league goals in six months on Saturday, also hitting the woodwork three times.

"He took the chance ... and could have scored more, but of course these are the kind of performances that strikers need and we need from the strikers. It's a give and take," Tuchel said in comments published on the club's website on Monday.

"You sign up for Chelsea, you sign up for a top club, you have to live up to it and you have to accept the pressure that comes with it and you have to help yourself."

Tuchel said there was nothing wrong with Werner's attitude.

"His attitude has always been good but he still needs to learn to adapt through moments like this, because he used to play ... for a transition team before, and sometimes we have a lot of ball possession," he said.

"So he needs to adapt ... to the physicality of the league. It's still a process and the process is surely not finished, but it was a big step in the right direction."

Chelsea take on Real Madrid in the return leg of their Champions League quarter-final in Madrid on Tuesday before facing Crystal Palace in the FA Cup semi-finals.



Osaka Earns First Grass Win of the Season with Victory over Qualifier Danilovic

Japan's Naomi Osaka returns the ball to Russia's Ludmilla Samsonova during the Berlin WTA tennis tournament in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, June 17, 2025. (Andreas Gora/dpa via AP)
Japan's Naomi Osaka returns the ball to Russia's Ludmilla Samsonova during the Berlin WTA tennis tournament in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, June 17, 2025. (Andreas Gora/dpa via AP)
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Osaka Earns First Grass Win of the Season with Victory over Qualifier Danilovic

Japan's Naomi Osaka returns the ball to Russia's Ludmilla Samsonova during the Berlin WTA tennis tournament in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, June 17, 2025. (Andreas Gora/dpa via AP)
Japan's Naomi Osaka returns the ball to Russia's Ludmilla Samsonova during the Berlin WTA tennis tournament in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, June 17, 2025. (Andreas Gora/dpa via AP)

Four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka fired 16 aces past Serbian qualifier Olga Danilovic to earn a 7-6(6) 7-6(4) victory at the Bad Homburg Open on Monday for her first win on grass this season less than a week before the start of Wimbledon.

The 27-year-old Japanese player, who had lost in the first round at her last two tournaments -- the French Open and the Berlin Open -- had won her first title in May in almost two years following a maternity break.

Osaka, who had reached the third round of the Australian Open in January before retiring injured, has not had back-to-back wins on any surface since the Italian Open in May. She is currently ranked 56th in the world.

"It's my first grasscourt win of the year," Reuters quoted Osaka as saying. "I am excited about that. I am super excited to play here and be back for my next round."

Asked whether she was on track to improve her form on the surface, she said: "I hope so. I think I have potential but everyone is really good so I cannot take it for granted."

The pair held serve to take the first set into a tiebreak where Osaka snatched it on her second set point.

Osaka was 40-0 up on her opponent's serve at 2-2 in the second set but she could not bag the first break of either player in the match, with Danilovic holding serve with her eighth ace of the match.

Osaka, however, got the mini-break she needed in the tiebreak when she challenged a Danilovic first serve that was then ruled out, with the qualifier then double-faulting.

She held on to that slim advantage to earn a spot in the round of 16 where she will face fifth-seed Emma Navarro.

Russian eighth-seed Ekaterina Alexandrova also eased into the next round with a 6-1 6-2 win over Swiss Belinda Bencic.

Croatia's Donna Vekic made equally light work of sixth seed southpaw Diana Shnaider for a 6-3 6-3 victory.

Clara Tauson of Denmark needed to work harder and battle from a set down before snatching a 6-7(6) 6-3 6-3 against Poland's Magdalena Frech.