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Novak Djokovic, the world’s top-ranked men’s tennis player, outlasted Andy Murray in the French Open final Sunday in Paris. In the process he caps a career Grand Slam and becomes the first man in two generations to hold all four major championships simultaneously.

The eventual champion got off to a slow start, dropping the opening set to Murray 3-6. But behind the strength of his forehand, the No. 1 seeded Djokovic roared back, winning the next three sets 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 en route to his first French Open title.

This major had been elusive for Djokovic. According to the Associated Press, this was his 12^th appearance at Roland Garros and the fourth time he advanced to the final.

The AP adds:

“When his victory was over, Djokovic took a racket to etch a heart in the red clay that had given him such heartache in the past and dropped down on his back.

Since losing the 2015 final in Paris, Djokovic has won 28 Grand Slam matches in a row, from Wimbledon and the U.S. Open last year, to the Australian Open in January, and now, at long last, the French Open.”

The last male player to have all four majors in their grasp at the same time was Rod Laver, who accomplished the feat in 1969.

With a French Open now in his pocket, Djokovic can now focus his attention on claiming one of the sports’ most elusive prizes – winning all four majors in a single calendar year.

According to USA TODAY:

“While Djokovic made more history on Sunday, he put himself halfway to the calendar Grand Slam, not done in men’s tennis since Laver in 1969. American Jim Courier was the last men’s player to get halfway to the Slam, having won the Australian and French Opens back-to-back in 1992.”

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Garbine Muguruza, 22, of Spain, won her first major title on Saturday by beating Serena Williams in two sets 7-5, 6-4 at the French Open.

“I can’t explain with words what this day means to me,” Muguruza said after the match.

Williams, 34, was playing for a record-equaling 22nd Grand Slam title.

Steffi Graf has 22 major singles championships.

The all-time record of 24 is held by Margaret Court.

Williams said after the match that Muguruz has a “bright future, obviously.”

Muguruza lost to Williams last year in the finals at Wimbledon.

The new French Open champ said she played very aggressively, and goes for shots “with no regrets.”

The men’s doubles final was also deciced on Saturday.

Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez of Spain beat Bob and Mike Bryan of the United States 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-3.

The battle for the men’s singles title will be played on Sunday.

No. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia will play No. 2 Andy Murray of Britain.

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Muhammad Ali, the man considered the greatest boxer of all time, died late Friday at a hospital in Phoenix at age 74. He was battling respiratory problems.

Ali inspired millions by standing up for his principles during the volatile 1960s and by always entertaining — in the boxing ring and in front of a microphone.

Cassius Clay (Ali’s given name) won a gold medal at the Rome Olympics in 1960. He wanted more: a professional heavyweight championship. He arrived in Miami in October to work with legendary trainer Angelo Dundee. Dundee, who died in 2012, recalled the first day Clay showed up.

“Bounding up the steps of the Fifth Street gym, and the steps were pretty rickety, you know, all wood. Bouncing up, he said, ‘Angelo, line up all your bums. I’m gonna beat ’em all,’ ” Dundee said.

‘King Of The World’

Clay was 18: bounding, fearless, leading with his mouth.

“I’m not only a fighter. I’m a poet; I’m a prophet; I’m the resurrector; I’m the savior of the boxing world. If it wasn’t for me, the game would be dead,” he said.

Young Clay made boxing an art form. He was an original, a heavyweight who didn’t move around the ring — he danced. He’d thrill the crowd with his quick scissor-step shuffle. On defense, he’d slip and slide, Dundee said, and then flick that jab.

“He had a jab that was like a snake,” he said.

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee; rumble, young man, rumble. Boxing reporters never had so much fun.

As the mouth roared, the victories started piling up, all of it prelude to a 1964 battle against the big, bad bear: heavyweight champion Sonny Liston.

Liston was a fearsome opponent. Nobody believed the young Ali had a shot. But after six rounds, Liston was done. He didn’t come out for the seventh, and Clay was the new champion.

“I am the king of the world! … I’m pretty! … I’m a bad man! I shook up the world!” he exclaimed.

But the 22-year-old was just getting started.

A Polarizing Figure

After the Liston fight, Ali revealed he was a member of the black separatist movement Nation of Islam. He wanted to be called Muhammad Ali, a name he said was given to him by the group’s leader, Elijah Muhammad.

“That’s my original name; that’s a black man name,” Ali said. “Cassius Clay was my slave name. I’m no longer a slave.”

Muhammad, the Nation of Islam leader, preached that integration and intermarriage were wrong and that white people were devils. It was an idea Ali defended in a 1971 TV interview.

Muhammad Ali is held back by referee Joe Walcott after knocking out Sonny Liston in the first round of their championship bout in Lewiston, Maine, on May 25, 1965. AP hide caption

toggle caption AP

“I’m gonna look at two or three white people who’re trying to do right and don’t see the other million trying to kill me? I’m not that big of a fool, and I’m not going to deny it,” he said. “I believe everything he [Muhammad] teach, and if the white people of a country are not the devil, then they should prove they’re not the devil.”

Ali became a polarizing figure in America. Many sportswriters vilified him. Black boxer Floyd Patterson said, “I don’t believe God put us here to hate one another. Cassius Clay is disgracing himself and the Negro race.”

To others, Ali became a loud and unapologetic symbol of black pride.

The Rev. Kwasi Thornell of Washington, D.C., was a teenager when Ali burst onto the scene.

“There was a great deal of excitement in seeing that because that was a boldness that many of us did not know,” says Thornell, who is African-American. “We were more encouraged by our parents to just go along with the system and not be bold and bodacious, as [Ali] was.”

Ali’s boldest move — and most controversial — came in 1967. At the height of the Vietnam War, he refused induction into the U.S. military, saying, “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong.”

“My intention is to box, to win a clean fight. But in war, the intention is to kill, kill, kill, kill and continue killing innocent people,” he said.

Some called him a traitor. For those in a growing anti-war movement, Ali was a hero who paid a significant price. He was convicted of draft evasion, and though he avoided jail time, he was stripped of his heavyweight title and banned from boxing at the age of 25, just as he was entering his prime. It would be more than three years before Ali returned to the ring.

Rivalry With Frazier

Following his exile, Ali squared off against Joe Frazier, who became heavyweight champion in Ali’s absence. The March 1971 showdown was billed as the fight of the century.

Frazier won, handing Ali his first professional loss. It was also the first of three epic bouts between the two men. Frazier, with his boxer’s mashed face and snorting-bull style in the ring, could never equal Ali’s finesse and skill as a fighter. Nor could he match Ali’s wit, which often turned cruel when the subject was Frazier.

“You’ll also see why I say he’s a gorilla,” Ali said. “You’ll see how ugly he is, and how pretty I am.”

It was theater to Ali. But in a 2007 interview, Ali biographer Thomas Hauser said the words and frequent taunts were like broken glass in Frazier’s stomach. It’s one of the reasons, Hauser said, that even late in life, Frazier harbored ill will toward Ali.

“Even though Muhammad said to me that if God ever called him to a holy war, he wanted Joe Frazier fighting beside him,” Hauser said.

Undoubtedly, sports announcer Howard Cosell would have done the holy war’s play-by-play, as he did for many of Ali’s fights. The two men had a symbiotic relationship. Their interview sessions were more like hilarious jousting matches, with Ali needling the pedantic former lawyer, always threatening to tear off Cosell’s obvious toupee.

When it came to boxing IQ, none was higher than Ali’s. In 1974, against the menacing George Foreman, Ali used a tactic called the “rope-a-dope.” He stayed on the ropes, covering up, letting Foreman punch himself out. Then Ali struck quickly, knocked out Foreman and became champion a second time.

Parkinson’s Diagnosis

A year later, “The Thrilla in Manila” was the final fight in the Ali-Frazier trilogy. It was an awesome and horrible slugfest that ended with Ali winning, but admitting afterward, “It was the closest to death that I could feel.”

“This is too painful. It’s too much work. I might have a heart attack or something. I wanna get out … while I’m on top,” he said.

It would have been the perfect time to stop. But Ali kept fighting six more years. In the early 1980s, he was diagnosed with pugilistic Parkinson’s syndrome.

His last big public moment came in 1996, when he lit the flame at the Atlanta Summer Olympics. Shaking, his face frozen by a Parkinson’s mask, this was a new generation’s image of the man called the greatest of all time. But the sadness was mixed with global love.

Ali was the rare and perhaps only person who could go anywhere — Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, a marketplace in Latin America — and people would stop and point and smile.

In his life, he traveled from a boxer’s cruelty to kindness. A man who stood up and shouted out for his principles ultimately embraced the quiet principle of spirituality. But in later years, his words muted by Parkinson’s, Ali was asked if he’d do it all over exactly the same, even if he knew in advance how he’d end up. The answer: You bet I would.

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With his wife expecting a baby in October, American road racer Tejay van Garderen has withdrawn from consideration for the Rio Summer Olympics, citing the Zika virus that’s been linked to birth defects.

From a statement released by USA Cycling on van Garderen’s behalf today:

“After thinking long and hard about the Olympic Games in Rio, I have decided to withdraw my name from consideration for selection in the U.S. team. Although the risks associated with the Zika Virus can be minimal and precautions can be taken, my wife Jessica is pregnant, and I don’t want to risk bringing anything back that could potentially have an effect.”

When asked whether van Garderen is the only American athlete to have withdrawn, a U.S. Olympic Committee official said the organization isn’t aware of any similar cases in which an American Olympic hopeful has opted out of competing in Rio.

A two-time winner of the USA Pro Challenge, van Garderen placed fifth in the Tour de France in 2014 and in 2012 — the same year he raced for the U.S. in the London Olympics. And as the highest-ranked American in the UCI’s most recent world rankings of road cyclists, he had been seen as a strong contender for the U.S. team, whose roster will be finalized this month.

In recent years, van Garderen, 27, has made something of a habit out of bringing his daughter onto the podium to help celebrate when he wins a stage race or other competition.

Back in March, the World Health Organization announced that a scientific consensus had determined “the Zika virus is connected with microcephaly — a condition in which babies are born with very small heads and brain damage,” as NPR’s Michaeleen Doucleff reported.

“If circumstances were different I would have loved to be selected again to represent the USA,” van Garderen said, “but my family takes priority and it’s a decision that I’m completely comfortable with. I hope that I’ll be in the position to race at the 2020 Olympic Games.”

Last month, WHO issued tips for athletes and visitors to Rio. The list ranges from protecting against mosquito bites to using condoms or abstaining from sex during and for eight weeks after a visit.

WHO also said, “Pregnant women continue to be advised not to travel to areas with ongoing Zika virus transmission. This includes Rio de Janeiro.”

But the agency also noted that the Rio Olympics will be held in August, during Brazil’s winter, meaning that the number of mosquitoes will be relatively low, reducing the risk of being bitten.

That fact was also touted Thursday by leaders of Rio’s Olympics effort who sought to reassure international visitors that it’ll be safe to visit Brazil for the games.

At a news conference, Rio 2016 Organizing Committee President Carlos Nuzman told reporters “there is not a public health risk with Zika,” according to the Around the Rings website.

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In the misty rain, surrounded by Rio de Janeiro’s green hills, police officer Eduardo Dias was buried last week. He was shot, purportedly by gang members, as he was leaving his post inside the favela, or shantytown, where he worked as a community cop.

The killing took place a few hundred feet from the Maracana Stadium, where the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics will be held on Aug. 5. As family members wept by the graveside, the pastor raised his hands.

“This rain is like our tears,” he said. “Not just ours, but coming also from the heavens for everything that we are going through. I have been asking God, until when, my Lord? Until when are we going to have to bury our good policemen? Until when will we have to keep burying our children?”

Brazil has been rattled by a terrible recession, multiple corruption scandals, a political meltdown and the Zika virus. And now Rio is suffering a security crisis.

Murders are up 15 percent from last year. Robbery is up 30 percent. Amid the economic and political turmoil, the state security budget has been cut by a third. The gangs are fighting for territory in advance of the Olympics, according to authorities.

While everyone is feeling the effects, the impact is greatest on Rio’s poorest communities, the favelas.

‘Disneyland’ Favela

To get a sense of how far things have slipped, I went back to Babilonia, a community I visited when I first arrived to Rio three years ago.

Babilonia, like many of Rio’s favelas, is located on a hillside with an amazing view of the water and the famed Copacabana beach. Babilonia became known as one of the so-called Disneyland favelas because they were shown to visiting dignitaries and the media as an example of how conditions had improved.

In the new and improved Babilonia, police walked around with their guns holstered. Residents were opening up businesses catering to tourists. They included restaurants, and hostels that were advertised on Airbnb. The drug gangs kept a low profile.

All this was part of a bold policing program called pacification, which placed permanent bases of community police, known as UPPs, in neighborhoods that had little or no state presence previously. Residents considered them long overdue and the state considered them necessary as Brazil prepared to host the World Cup in 2014 and this summer’s Olympics.

But unlike three years ago, the pacification police are now patrolling with their guns drawn. Police commander Paulo Berbat walks to the crest of the hill, where muddy paths disappear into the jungle.

He says six weeks ago, a rival gang from the neighboring favela tried to push in and take control from the group that controls the drugs and guns in Babilonia. Three drug dealers were killed in a firefight that sent fear through the community.

Too Scared To Speak

Rodrigo da Silva agreed to meet with me on the beach where he works. He owns a hostel in the favela that he advertises on Airbnb, but he also sells food on Copacabana to make ends meet.

He hoped the Summer Olympics would get him out of the hot sun. But so far, there have been few guests at his hostel. “Our business has decreased,” he says. “We had much higher expectations in terms of hosting people throughout the Olympics. If the situation had improved, maybe I wouldn’t still have to work here on the beach.”

Other members of the community had similar stories about a sharp drop in business due to the violence.

Aside from da Silva, favela residents refused to be interviewed, in marked contrast to three years ago. Several told me they had been directly threatened by the gangs, who said we were asking too many questions.

“If you talk too much, it ends badly,” da Silva says. “Here’s the deal: You do not mess with their business, don’t mess with their stuff — and they don’t mess with you.”

Olympic officials are promising the games will be safe for visitors and athletes. Brazil will be bringing in double the amount of security that the London Games had four years ago.

“What we need to push, and we will do so, is to have more security before the games, and more security after the games. We don’t want the games to be an island of success and perfection. We want the games to transform Rio, and to make Rio a safer city in the years to come,” says Mario Andrada, the communications director for Rio 2016.

But even if the Olympics go according to plan, the future of the pacification program is in doubt. Da Silva tells me he fears the worst.

“There will be more violence, more violence in all the communities because of the fights between the drug gangs, fights against the police,” he says. “In the end the ones who will pay for this will be the residents, as always.”

NPR has been collaborating with the the PBS NewsHour, which will also feature reporting by Lulu Garcia-Navarro on its program Tuesday evening.

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Stephen Curry knocked down yet another 3-pointer in the waning moments, pulled his jersey up into his mouth and yelled to the rafters in triumph once more.

A special, record-setting season saved for the defending champs, with a memorable comeback added to the long list of accomplishments.

Splash Brothers Curry and Klay Thompson carried the 73-win Warriors right back to the NBA Finals, as Golden State rallied from a 3-1 series deficit to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 96-88 on Monday night in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals.

Now, Curry and Co. are playing for another NBA title – just as they planned since Day 1 of training camp in September.

Bring on LeBron James again.

“You appreciate how tough it is to get back here,” Curry said. “You’ve got to be appreciative of this accomplishment, and look forward to getting four more wins.”

The MVP scored 36 points with seven 3-pointers to finish with an NBA-record 32 in a seven-game series, and also had eight assists. Thompson added 21 points and six 3s, two days after his record 11 3-pointers led a Game 6 comeback that sent the series home to raucous Oracle Arena for one more.

The Warriors became the 10th team to rally from a 3-1 deficit and win a postseason series. They return to the NBA Finals for a rematch with James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, who lost the 2015 title in six games as Golden State captured its first championship in 40 years.

Game 1 is Thursday night in Oakland.

“We survived by the skin of our teeth,” coach Steve Kerr said. “We were able to pull it out, and we’re moving on.”

His signature mouthpiece dangling out and the game ball cradled in his left hand, Curry pumped his right arm as yellow confetti fell through Oracle Arena once the final buzzer sounded.

With the Thunder trailing 90-86, Serge Ibaka fouled Curry on a 3-point try with 1:18 to go and the shot clock running out. Curry made all three free throws, then that 3-pointer to seal it.

“This is who he is. Having a clutch performance in a Game 7, that’s Steph Curry,” Kerr said.

And Golden State’s beloved “Strength In Numbers” catchphrase coined by Coach of the Year Kerr was needed in every way.

“No one ever had any doubt that we could get this done,” Draymond Green said. “People have seen teams down 3-1 before but they ain’t seen many. They’ve definitely never seen a 73-win team down 3-1.”

Andre Iguodala joined the starting lineup for just the second time all season and the 2015 NBA Finals MVP hung tough against Kevin Durant, who scored 27 points on 10-for-19 shooting. Shaun Livingston’s breakaway, one-handed dunk late in the third provided a big lift off the Warriors bench.

Oklahoma City won Game 1 108-102 at deafening Oracle Arena, so Golden State never envisioned this one coming easily. Russell Westbrook had 19 points, 13 assists and seven rebounds for the Thunder.

“It hurts losing, especially being up 3 games to 1,” Durant said.

It took a quarter and a half for Thompson to warm up after his 41-point performance in a 108-101 win Saturday at Oklahoma City that sent the series back to the East Bay.

He missed his initial seven shots before hitting a 3 6:02 before halftime, energizing the Warriors in their first Game 7 at home in 40 years.

Back-to-back 3-pointers by Thompson and Iguodala pulled the Warriors within 54-51 with 7:57 left in the third. They tied it on Curry’s 3 at 7:21 and he followed with another 3 to give his team the lead.

Curry and Thompson each topped the previous record for 3s in a seven-game series, 28 by Dennis Scott and Ray Allen. Curry hit one over 7-foot Steven Adams in the third, and Thompson wound up with 30 3s.

Iguodala replaced Harrison Barnes in the starting lineup and what a move by Kerr, who did the same thing last year in crunch time. Iguodala made a pretty bounce pass through the paint to Green for Golden State’s first basket, and his smothering defense on Durant kept the Thunder star without a shot until his 3 at the 5:45 mark in the first. Durant had just nine points on five shots in the first half.

But Oklahoma City dictated the tempo with snappy passes and the hard, aggressive rebounding that had been such a part of its success this season. The Thunder couldn’t sustain it.

“They won a world championship last year, and they’ve broken an NBA record, and people are already talking about it before the playoffs started, this may be the greatest team to ever lace them up in the history of the NBA,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said.

The Warriors, who fell behind 35-22, lost their last Game 7 at home: 94-86 to Phoenix in the Western Conference finals on May 16, 1976.

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The World Health Organization is trying to ease concerns about spreading Zika as a result of this summer’s Olympics in Rio de Janiero.

“Based on current assessment, cancelling or changing the location of the 2016 Olympics will not significantly alter the international spread of Zika virus,” a statement released Saturday reads.

This comes a day after more than 150 scientists released an open letter to the head of WHO calling for the games to be moved or postponed, citing new research. “We make this call despite the widespread fatalism that the Rio 2016 Games are inevitable or ‘too big to fail,'” the letter says. Here’s more:

“An unnecessary risk is posed when 500,000 foreign tourists from all countries attend the Games, potentially acquire the strain, and return home to places where it can become endemic. Should that happen to poor, as-yet unaffected places (e.g., most of South Asia and Africa) the suffering can be great. It is unethical to run the risk, just for Games that could proceed anyway, if postponed and/or moved.”

The Paralynpic Athlete, Marcelo Collet, on Tuesday in Salvador, Brazil. Felipe Oliveira/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Felipe Oliveira/Getty Images

It called on WHO to conduct a new assessment of its recommendations regarding Zika and the games, citing concerns about the medical consequences of the strain of the virus found in Brazil.

The Olympics are set to start in just 69 days and as The Guardian noted, the Olympic torch is already touring Brazil on its way to the opening ceremonies.

“The fire is already burning, but that is not a rationale not to do anything about the Olympics,” said Amir Attaran, a University of Ottawa professor and one of the letter’s four co-authors, told The Guardian. “It is not the time now to throw more gasoline on to the fire.”

Attaran recently published a commentary for the Harvard Public Health Review and spoke with All Things Considered about his controversial position. “[T]he odds are extremely high that somebody will take the disease elsewhere and seed a new outbreak,” he said.

As the WHO states, “based on the current assessment of Zika virus circulating in almost 60 countries globally and 39 countries in the Americas, there is no public health justification for postponing or cancelling the games.” It advises people coming for the games to follow public health advice, like guarding against mosquito bites and practicing safe sex.

The new letter from the scientists “will cause a fresh headache for Brazilian government officials and Olympic organisers, who have repeatedly insisted the Games can go ahead safely as long as athletes and visitors smother themselves in insect repellent to minimise the risks from the mosquito-borne disease,” as The Guardian reports.

Brazil’s president is facing impeachment proceedings and the country is in the middle of an economic recession.

According to Reuters, the International Olympic Committee says it was not consulted on the WHO’s response. The wire service adds that the IOC “has repeatedly said the virus would not pose a threat to the Games.”

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