Sue Barker says women's tennis needs more big rivalries to grow interest in the sport after further scheduling controversy at the French Open.

American player Jessica Pegula has called the situation "disappointing".

Former French Open winner Barker, 67, said it was a "tricky situation" for tournament director Amelie Mauresmo.

The night-session match is promoted as the highlight of the day, with only Aryna Sabalenka's fourth-round contest last Sunday against Sloane Stephens scheduled at night in this year's tournament.

Only one of the 10 night matches last year involved female players.

Former world number one Mauresmo argued the men's matches had more "appeal" and it was hard to find enough stars or compelling match-ups in the women's draw.

World number one Iga Swiatek found those comments "a little bit disappointing and surprising" and Mauresmo later apologised.

Saturday's final sees Poland's Swiatek defend her title against Czech outsider Karolina Muchova, ranked 43rd in the world.

"It's a slight dilemma for a tournament director with the men's game being best of five sets and the women's being best of three," former BBC presenter Barker told BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour.

"If you do schedule a match for the night session and it only lasts an hour, because some of the women's matches only last an hour, then the public isn't going to like it.

"It's a very difficult, tricky situation for Amelie [Mauresmo] to be in. And sadly, now with Serena [Williams] having gone, there aren't the big names in the women's game at the moment. They've got to build up.

"What we really need is a few really good players to be in the slam finals for a few years and build up that rivalry that we've seen with Roger [Federer] and Rafael [Nadal] and Novak [Djokovic] and Andy [Murray].

"People don't really know who those players are. Elena Rybakina, who won last year at Wimbledon, I don't think you would know her if she walked down the street.

"We need to have more established players in the same fame as Maria Sharapova and Serena and Venus Williams."

Unlike the Australian Open and US Open, which schedule two night-session matches every day, the French Open has just one.

In March, Women's Tennis Association (WTA) chief executive Steve Simon told BBC Sport having women's matches at night sessions at all tournaments is "very, very critical" in the fight for equal prize money all year round.

"I'm thrilled that now Wimbledon on centre court has three matches and they have two men's, one women's and then on another day they have two women's, one men's," added Barker, whose French Open title in 1976 was her only Grand Slam success.

"I sort of have sympathy for Amelie, I understand it. But at the end of the day we want equality across all the tournaments. That's what we've been fighting for and that's what we really need.

"But also the players have to provide it."

Wales have been dealt another World Cup blow by Cory Hill's withdrawal from coach Warren Gatland's training squad.

But the second row confirmed he has pulled out to take up a club contract.

He said: "I'm gutted to be leaving the squad, but an opportunity has come up and I need to take it for my family."

Hill becomes the fourth player to withdraw from Gatland's World Cup preliminary squad following the international retirements of Alun Wyn Jones, Justin Tipuric and Rhys Webb.

A Six Nations winner in 2019 and 2021, Hill insisted he has not retired from Test rugby and still harbours Wales ambitions, though will not travel to France later this year.

He said in a statement released by the WRU: "Wishing the boys all the best at the World Cup and I hope to be back in a Wales jersey in the future."

Hill won 32 caps for Wales but became ineligible when he moved to Japan to join Yokohama Canon Eagles in 2021 as he was short of the 60-cap requirement for players based overseas.

However, that limit has been lowered to 25 and Hill sparked interest among all four Welsh regions when he left Japan last month with an apparent desire to return to Wales and resurrect his international career.

That has now been derailed by a lucrative offer from elsewhere, with the signing club yet to be named.

It also means Gatland has now lost two of the original seven locks named in his preliminary squad, the other being Alun Wyn Jones.

Hill's former Cardiff team-mate, prop Rhys Carre, was also released from the squad for failing to reach performance targets.

The Columbus Blue Jackets are continuing to aggressively remodel their defense, acquiring Damon Severson from the New Jersey Devils in a sign-and-trade that gives the defenseman a new eight-year, $50 million contract, the teams announced Friday.

Severson, 28, signed the contract worth $6.25 million annually with the Devils, who then traded him to the Blue Jackets for a third-round pick (No. 80 overall) in this month's draft. New Jersey was the only team that could offer Severson, who was a pending free agent, an eight-year contract.

He was expected to be one of the more sought-after free agent defensemen this summer. But much like when the Los Angeles Kings inked Vladislav Gavrikov to a two-year deal earlier in the week, another big name is now off the market.

Severson was drafted 60th overall in 2012 and was the longest-serving Devils player, having played all nine years of his NHL career with New Jersey. He has 263 points in 647 games. Last season, he played 81 games and tallied 33 points in 19:57 per game -- the first time his average ice time dipped under 20 minutes in the past five seasons.

"Damon is a versatile defenseman who has great vision, moves the puck extremely well, has good size and can play heavy minutes at both ends of the ice," Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said in a statement. "We are excited to have him join the Blue Jackets as he will be a very important part of our blueline for many years to come."

Now under contract through the 2030-31 season, Severson joins a revamped Blue Jackets defense corps. Columbus acquired Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov on Tuesday in a three-team trade, and they join star blueliner Zach Werenski, who was limited to 13 games due to injury last season, and promising rookie David Jiricek, who was drafted sixth overall in 2022.

The team is expected to name Mike Babcock as its next head coach by next month after firing Brad Larsen in April following a 62-85-16 record over two seasons.

The pick the Devils acquired is well-traveled: It was originally owned by Calgary, who traded it to Seattle in March 2022; the Kraken then traded it to the Blue Jackets in a deal that sent forward Oliver Bjorkstrand to Seattle in July.

Al Ahli are willing to offer Riyad Mahrez a contract worth €100 million plus bonuses to leave Manchester City, a source close to negotiations has told ESPN.

A delegation including the Saudi Arabia club president Waleed Muaath has been in London this week discussing the possibility of deals with several players including Mahrez.

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The Algeria forward has two years remaining on his existing agreement with City but sources have suggested he has become frustrated with a lack of playing time under Pep Guardiola this season.

Mahrez made 22 Premier League starts in the 2022-23 campaign but has been on the bench for much of his side's Champions League knockout matches. His last European start came against RB Leipzig on Feb. 22.

Al Ahli are therefore hopeful of pulling off a transfer coup and convincing Mahrez to move to the Middle East. Karim Benzema signed for Al Ittihad on Monday, joining Cristiano Ronaldo in the Saudi Pro League while N'Golo Kante is set to become another high-profile addition to the league.

The source involved said Al Ahli have indicated they would offer Mahrez €50m+ bonuses per season on a two-year contract with the option of a third year.

Mahrez is thought to be open to moving to Saudi Arabia but it is unclear at this stage whether City would allow the player to leave and if so, the fee they would command. The situation is likely to be addressed after Saturday's Champions League final against Inter Milan.

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- This city straddling Europe and Asia (you can literally drive across the bridge from one continent to the other) is a fitting venue for a UEFA Champions League final. It's the European Cup, yes, but the finalists are two Asian-owned teams (Manchester City majority owned by Abu Dhabi; Internazionale by Chinese investors) with a global appeal and this city, founded nearly three millennia ago, is used to being both a nexus and melting pot. When you exist in the place where people, religions and creeds collide and ferment, change is a constant ... which might be why Istanbul has changed its name three times.

Even today, it's a crossroads. Look out over the Bosphorus Strait and you might see ships carrying Ukrainian grain escorted by Turkish warships. If you had Marvel superhero eyesight you could stand on the banks and see Ukraine and Russia in the distance. Turn West, and it's the European Union; South, and it's Egypt and the African continent; East, and it's Syria, then Iraq and Iran and then, the Gulf.

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It's no surprise that the national carrier, Turkish Airlines, boasts that it flies to more destinations than anyone else. Other than Australia and the Americas, nothing seems particularly far away.

Maybe that's why so many foreign players have made a home here. Newly crowned champions Galatasaray, whose red and yellow pennants festoon many of the city's streets, count Juan Mata, Mauro Icardi, Dries Mertens and Bafetimbi Gomis in their ranks. Rivals Fenerbache have Michy Batshuayi, Enner Valencia and Joshua King. Besiktas, whose imposing stadium overlooks the Bosphorus, as well as the Dolmabahce Palace, from which the Sultan ruled over the Ottoman Empire, boast Nathan Redmond, Dele Alli and Vincent Aboubakar, the man who lost his job at Al Nassr when Cristiano Ronaldo rocked up.

Football-wise it's also the city of last hurrahs. Inter should enjoy a fair amount of neutral support at the Ataturk Stadium on Saturday night and they have no shortage of old-timers and guys looking for a second chance: ex-Premier League veterans like Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Edin Dzeko and Matteo Darmian; Premier League strugglers like striker Romelu Lukaku (on loan from Chelsea); two-time cancer-beater, turned unwanted free agent, turned defensive stalwart, Francesco Acerbi; and goalkeeper Andre Onana, who served a nine-month doping ban after inadvertently taking his wife's medication.

Plus, neutrals generally love an underdog. And Man City are very much favourites. They stand 90 minutes away from hitting the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League trifecta (or, treble, as they call it in England), a feat achieved by only seven clubs in the history of the game.

Inter finished third in Italy's Serie A, a whopping 18 points off Napoli at the top of the table (though they did win the Italian Cup.) City have won five of the last six Premier League titles; Inter have won one league title in the past 13 years.

City's coach, Pep Guardiola, has won 11 league titles and two Champions Leagues and is widely regarded as one of the greatest tactical innovators and man managers in recent history. As a player, he was the midfield general of Johan Cruyff's legendary Barcelona "Dream Team" of the 1990s. Inter's coach, Simone Inzaghi, has won zero league titles and zero Champions Leagues and many thought he was going to be fired in March. As a player, he was overshadowed by his more extroverted and intense (but less-gifted) brother, Pippo. (To this day, the understated Simone has to remind folks "not to mistake my politeness for stupidity.")

Both teams have tall centre-forwards. City's is the 22-year-old goal-machine Erling Haaland, who has scored 52 in 52 games this season. Inter's is 37-year-old Edin Dzeko, an aging free agent signing who went three-and-a-half months without scoring and played for City for five years from 2011-2016.

City are owned by members of the Abu Dhabi royal family, who have spent lavishly since their takeover in 2008. So lavishly that UEFA punished them for breaching Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules in 2014 and actually banned them for two years for false accounting in 2020 (a ban that was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which found that some charges were not proven and others were outside the statute of limitations). They now face similar charges, this time from the Premier League, but continue to maintain their innocence (and, in fact, say they "welcome" the chance to clear their name.)

Inter are owned by the once-mighty Suning Corporation who, in 2021, had to sell nearly a quarter of their shares to the Chinese government after running into liquidity problems. Before that, they too had been found in breach of FFP and between that sanction and Suning's liquidity issues they've been run on a relative shoestring budget since then, with the owners issuing bonds to cover debts.

City are undefeated in the Champions League, having dispatched RB Leipzig, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid in the knockout phase. Inter, who lost twice in the group stage, had a distinctly more downhill run to the final, getting past FC Porto (though, in their own Inter way, they nearly threw it away), Benfica and crosstown rivals AC Milan.

I could go on, but you get the point.

It's very much a case of the nouveau riche (though, after 15 years, you wonder if City will lose the "nouveau" bit and just be "riche") against the fallen giants. Inter, lest we forget, have been European champions three times and won a treble of their own in 2010. So bruised are Inter that the black and blue of their shirts feels especially appropriate.

In the buildup to the final, Inter laid relatively low, chucking out the usual platitudes about "belief" and that anything can happen in a one-off game. They know they're playing with house money. Nobody expected them to be here.

City, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy putting even more pressure upon themselves with Guardiola saying that "something would be missing" if the club, for all their domestic success, failed to win the Champions League. Having stumbled in their only other Champions League final appearance -- two years ago against Chelsea -- it was a curious thing to hear, however honest it may have been. But then, he seems to revel in the pressure.

And yet, it's football. None of the above will matter once they cross the line on to the pitch. FFP, paychecks, transfer fees, European pedigree, reputations ... all of that will disappear when referee Szymon Marciniak blows his whistle. It will be 11 vs. 11 and the men on the pitch will have to prove it all over again.

The script is yet to be written. And while the Ataturk is unlikely to witness the unthinkable drama of 2005 and Liverpool's comeback from 3-0 down against Milan, the truth is we can't say for sure. It will be in the hands of the players, the coaches and the match officials. And the Gods of Football, of course. They'll have their say too.

United States forward Catarina Macario has joined Chelsea on a free transfer from Lyon, the club announced on Friday.

Macario, who has 17 caps for the USWNT, arrives at the Women's Super League side on a three-year deal.

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"Cat is one of the most intelligent, creative attacking players in the world," Chelsea boss Emma Hayes said in a statement.

"She brings a great deal of flair, European experience, and an unbelievable winning mentality. I think our fans will really love her."

Macario will not play any part in the 2023 Women's World Cup this summer with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament that has kept her out for over a year.

The forward enjoyed an outstanding collegiate career at Stamford before turning professional and moving to women's football powerhouses Lyon in 2021.

Macario since helped the club to win both the French title and Women's Champions League.

'I can't wait to get started here," Macario said. "I'm really happy to sign for Chelsea and I hope to represent the jersey well over the next few years."

Holders United States will head into next month's Women's World Cup as the top-ranked team, with no changes in the top five in the latest FIFA rankings published on Friday.

The U.S., who have held the top spot since June 2017, continue to lead ahead of Germany, Sweden, European champions England and France, respectively.

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Spain and Brazil, ranked sixth and eighth, swapped places with Canada (seventh) and the Netherlands (ninth) in the only changes in the top 20.

Spain equalled their best-ever ranking after high-scoring wins over Norway and China in April while Copa America Femenina champions Brazil earned an impressive victory over Germany.

World Cup co-hosts Australia and New Zealand are 10th and 26th. Debutants Zambia will be the lowest-ranked team in the tournament at 77th.

The World Cup runs from July 20 to Aug. 20.