British number one Johanna Konta has pulled out of the Nottingham Open, with the main draw due to start on Monday.

The 28-year-old announced her decision on social media, a day after she was defeated in her first ever French Open semi-final, by Czech teenager Marketa Vondrousova.

"It's one of my favourite events and the courts are wonderful," said Konta.

"I certainly look forward to seeing all the fantastic fans back there again next year."

Konta has appeared in the past two Nottingham Open finals, and last year was defeated by new French Open champion Ashleigh Barty.

The competition is one of the first events of the grass-court season, which culminates with Wimbledon, a tournament that begins on 1 July this year.

SPEED SPORT’s Jacob Seelman chats with Jason McDougal, who recaps his Indiana Midget Week to date and tells us why he thinks he is building momentum.

MONTREAL – Sebastian Vettel put an end to the qualifying domination of Mercedes by earning his first pole of the season Saturday at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

The Ferrari pilot earned his first pole of the season with his fast lap of 1:10.240 during Q3, which put him .206 of a second over defending race winner and reigning Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes.

Vettel’s Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc qualified third and was followed by an impressive run by the Renault of Daniel Ricciardo in fourth. Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly qualified fifth.

There were a pair of incidents during qualifying, the biggest of which saw Kevin Magnussen crash his Haas after contact with the Wall of Champions. Despite the crash, his fastest lap during Q2 earned Magnussen the 10th starting spot on Sunday.

The resulting red flag period to collect Magnussen’s car cost Max Verstappen a shot at a fast lap and prevented him from advancing to Q3.

The other incident saw Valtteri Bottas spin his Mercedes early in Q3, though he managed not to hit anything. He recovered to qualify sixth ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz Jr. and Magnussen.

BROOKLYN, Mich. – Reigning NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Tyler Reddick continued his strong season with a victory Saturday afternoon in the LTi Printing 250 at Michigan Int’l Speedway.

Reddick and his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet team utilized a fuel mileage gamble to earn their third victory of the season.

The California native was called down pit road for his final pit stop for fuel during the final caution period of the day, which came with 49 laps left after Chase Briscoe spun during a restart.

Christopher Bell and Cole Custer stayed on track during the caution period and the restarted on the front row while Reddick restarted in 10th.

The green flag waved for the final time with 44 laps left and Bell held the lead over Custer. Behind them Reddick was quickly moving his way back up through the field, taking over third with 40 laps left.

Once in third Reddick quickly gapped the cars behind him. Once he had a few seconds on his closest pursuers, he began to slow his lap times down in order to save fuel and guarantee he could make it to the finish if the caution flag didn’t wave again.

At the front of the field Custer dispatched Bell to take the lead with 31 laps remaining, but both drivers were still going to have to pit again for fuel. With no caution to aid them, Bell hit the pits with 11 laps left and Custer followed a lap later.

That gave the lead to Reddick, who continued to save fuel and easily crossed the finish line a little more than a second ahead of Noah Gragson to earn his third victory of the season and sixth of his career.

“I just didn’t want to burn a lot of fuel there,” Reddick admitted. “Our KCMG Chevrolet was really good, I just made some mistakes on pit road and we didn’t get the track position until the end there when Randall (Burnett, crew chief) made the call that he did.

“A great team effort. I didn’t do the thing I needed to do out on the race track, but man it was a great car and we just put ourselves in position to win.”

Gragson’s runner-up result was his best finish of the season in the JR Motorsports No. 9 Chevrolet.

Michael Annett finished third, his best finish since winning the season opener at Daytona Int’l Speedway in February. Paul Menard finished fourth after starting from the pole and leading a race-high 47 laps. Justin Allgaier completed the top-five.

Custer and Bell, both of whom pitted late in the race from the top-two positions, finished 12th and 13th respectively.

For complete results, advance to the next page.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – North Carolina teenager Ethan Mitchell put together a career night during Friday’s Indiana Midget Week stop at Bloomington Speedway.

The 17-year-old earned his first Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Time Award during qualifying at the high-banked, quarter-mile clay oval, then backed up that speed with a fifth-place finish during the feature after transferring his way into the field through the B-main.

For a driver who “barely has 20 starts in a midget” under his belt, it was a confidence-building breakthrough during one of the toughest and most grueling weeks in midget car racing.

“I’m kind of speechless over this one, to be honest with you,” Mitchell told SPEED SPORT. “To come out here and get a top five, it’s unreal. These guys are the best in the country and we’re just a small little family team trying to get our feet underneath us with this midget deal. To actually get a result that shows how much effort we’ve been putting in is phenomenal.

“We came here last year and made two laps before the race got rained out, so really, I’d never seen this place besides a glimpse until tonight,” Mitchell continued. “This place was basically brand-new for us, but I feel like we took to it pretty quickly. Things happen fast here, and that’s something that I grew up with racing outlaw karts at Millbridge (Speedway), so I feel like we were able to figure things out quick.”

Mitchell’s team was aided by a veteran member of the USAC pit area, who started his week fielding an entry for Brady Bacon but was able to offer additional support after Bacon moved back over to FMR Racing for the second half of the six-night stretch.

“The Four Piston guys helped us, and it was also a huge boost to have (No. 1st car owner) Daryl Saucier helping us with our program and the setup, since he wasn’t working on his car for the rest of the week,” Mitchell noted. “That was something huge for us all night long, was that Daryl was able to help us stay chasing the track and stay on top of what we needed all the way through the feature.

“I won’t lie, we were so excited after setting quick time that we didn’t change things for the heat race … which set us back a little bit, but we came back and had a good car on the bottom for the semi and transferred into a good spot for the feature,” he added. “Starting seventh helped us out a ton there.”

For Mitchell, whose car houses one of the few Honda motors in national midget racing, Indiana Midget Week began on choppy seas but has steadily progressed forward ever since the first night at Montpelier Motor Speedway.

“We started this week pretty rough, blowing up our first engine at Montpelier, but we got it changed in time for Gas City and found a rhythm that we’ve tuned on the last few nights,” he said. “We came from 17th to seventh in the semi Wednesday night and just missed the main, but tonight I feel like we finally honed in on everything and were better than ever. I’m glad it finally showed to everyone else watching.”

As he maneuvered his way through Friday night’s main event, Mitchell made sure to take a brief moment to soak in the magnitude of his strong run, knowing how tough it is to have those good days.

“It was crazy, sitting there under one of the red flags, and realizing that I’m passing cars and sitting fourth in a USAC midget feature,” Mitchell grinned. “I knew I was good on the bottom. Racing with those guys – Sunshine and Boat and Seavey – is just so much fun. It’s a lot more fun sitting up front than it is slogging around in the back and just trying to get through the night.

“My confidence is higher than it’s ever been now, and I’m looking forward to the last two nights.”

TOPEKA, Kan. – Steve Torrence and J.R. Todd claimed the top spot in their respective categories Saturday afternoon at the 31st annual Menard’s NHRA Heartland Nationals presented by Minities at Heartland Motorsports Park.

Top Fuel points leader Torrence’s second qualifying run of 3.760 seconds at 325.45 mph stood strong through Saturday’s qualifying efforts. He will start from the No. 1 position for the 21st time in his career as he looks for his fifth consecutive victory this season in his Capco Contractors dragster. Torrence will line up against Terry Totten for the first round of eliminations.

“I tell you what, probably all of the odds are against us,” Torrence said. “Richard Hogan (crew chief) and Bobby Lagana (crew chief) and that whole Capco group over there are doing awesome. My dad has come out and done really well. We’ve got a lot of pipeliners back home working really hard to keep us out here and, ‘thank you’ to them. It’s Topeka and I’ve never won here in Top Fuel and I’m hoping that we can get the monkey off our back and do some good here tomorrow.”

Billy Torrence’s pass of 3.765 seconds at 323.58 mph landed him the No. 2 spot in the Capco Contractors dragster and rookie Austin Prock is seeded No. 3.

Todd secured his first No. 1 qualifier of the season and 100th for Kalitta Motorsports with his pass of 3.924 seconds at 318.99 mph Friday evening in his DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car. He is chasing his second win on the season and first victory at Heartland Motorsports Park.

“That’s pretty awesome because I don’t have too many No. 1 qualifiers under my belt,” Todd said regarding clinching the 100th No. 1 for his team. “I’d say most of those came from Dougie (Kalitta, Mac Tools driver) who is the leader over there. That was a good run Friday night which we knew that Q2 was going to be your best round of the weekend. We have a really good car heading into race day tomorrow and no reason that we can’t turn on four win lights. That’s the plan for tomorrow.”

Tim Wilkerson’s run of 3.931 seconds at 318.54 mph locked-in the No. 2 position for Sunday and 16-time world champion John Force is third.