For a moment, it looked as if Ben Shelton’s biggest strength could be his undoing.

The young American, who reached serve speeds of up to 149mph in his last match, fired 12 aces on Tuesday night and continually unsettled Frances Tiafoe with his power.

But he just couldn’t get his serves to stick over the course of two crucial tiebreak points in the third set, as two consecutive double faults turned a 6-5 advantage into a 7-6 hole.

Not for the only time on the night, though, the 20-year-old found a way to dig himself out, scraping himself to a tiebreak win and an eventual 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(7), 6-2 victory.

It had been 15 years since two black American men faced off at Arthur Ashe Stadium before Tiafoe and Shelton took center stage on Tuesday. 

The previous time a matchup of that description occurred, a 28-year-old James Blake outlasted a 19-year-old Donald Young in five sets, and there was a similar – if slightly less pronounced – gap in experience this time around.

Twenty year-old Shelton has been on the ATP Tour for less than a year, while 25-year-old Tiafoe turned pro back in 2015.

But on Tuesday, it was Shelton who looked like the veteran in what felt like a significant night for American tennis.

There have been distractions and misbehavior from fans at other matches this tournament, but not on this soupy night in Queens, as a crowd including Anna Wintour, Emma Watson and rapper Meek Mill seemed to fully grasp the magnitude of this meeting.

The stakes weren’t lost on the players, either, as Tiafoe nervously fired two double faults in the first game before recovering in a deuce to hold serve.

The next three games would follow that script as the players continued to hold serve, with Shelton’s cannon reaching 139mph to force an error from Tiafoe in a deuce and even the set at 2-2.

Then came the breakthrough.

Tiafoe initially escaped two break points in the next game, with the world no. 10 tallying 10 unforced errors in half as many games.

But after one of several attempted drop shots in the game landed out to force a second break point, Tiafoe could not recover from a third break attempt.

The excitable Shelton let out a yell, his box did the University of Florida’s signature ‘gator chomp’ celebration (he played there for two years), and the Atlanta native was on his way to a first-set win.

Tiafoe struggled to match his opponent’s stunning power, but the newcomer showed guile as well. 

A delicately hit backhand winner to take a 15-30 lead in the seventh game showed a player mastering his tools in real time, and helped balloon his lead to 5-2 with another break.

He served for the set in the next game.

Things almost went off the rails again for Tiafoe early in the next set, as he escaped a break at 1-1 to hold serve and regain the lead.

Shelton’s strength of service had, to this point, given his opponent precious little margin for error, and the onus was on his ‘brother’ Tiafoe, as he referred to him earlier in the week, to punch back.

He did so with the set at 3-2 him, forcing a serving Shelton into his sloppiest game of the night, and survived another break point the following game to take a comfy 5-2 set lead.

Two games later, it was Tiafoe’s turn to celebrate, as he fired an ace to clinch a 6-3 set win.

He nodded his head repeatedly as the crowd showed its appreciation for the 2022 semifinalist. 

If both of these players fed off the crowd at Ashe, though, it was Shelton who appeared more well-nourished for the rest of the match. 

There was no Shelton counterpart to the cries of ‘Let’s go ‘Foe,’ but the crowd appreciated the underdog’s clutch moments and he ultimately produced more of them than his elder.

If the first set was about Shelton’s power, the third was defined by his resilience as he and Tiafoe each broke each other three times in a truly wonky period of play.  

Tiafoe hit a beautiful cross court backhand winner to make it 15-30 in the first game of the set – perhaps his best shot of night – but it ultimately wasn’t a sign of things to come despite beginning the set up a break.

Shelton responded immediately the next game with a break – and a highlight-reel, cross-court winner – of his own to gain back control of the set and eventually take a 3-1 lead after breaking his opponent again.

After two more breaks from Tiafoe and yet another reply from Shelton, the final four games saw each player hold serve twice, with one turn of play in particular showing the young Shelton’s fearlessness.

At 4-4, Shelton found himself staring down a deuce after two straight double faults.  He missed on a fifth straight serve too on the next point, but had the gumption to fire a 119mph second serve to set up a winner and give himself a slender 5-4 lead.

What came soon after was an epic, topsy-turvy tiebreak where Shelton ultimately held his nerve despite a couple of major wobbles.

The first-time Slam semifinalist fired off two straight aces to open up a 3-2 lead, before finding himself up 6-5 with a chance to serve for the set.

But he double-faulted his next two points, putting Tiafoe into the driver’s seat before he fired a cathartic winner down the line to even things up. 

He won the set two points later and didn’t look back in the fifth.

Shelton broke Tiafoe twice more, including in the first game of the set, and will now face Novak Djokovic on Friday in the semifinals.

Jeff Stewart continued to show off his bushy grey beard as he headed shopping on Bond Street in London on Thursday,

The Bill actor, 67, best known for playing PC Reg Hollis, looked worlds away from his clean cut image on the police detective drama in his latest outing.

He once again showed off his very bushy grey beard and longer locks as he was spotted strolling around central London and window shopping.

Jeff, who appeared on the ITV drama from 1984 to 2008, cut a casual figure in yellow shorts and a blue shirt, which he styled with an olive sleeveless jacket.

He kept comfortable in a pair of white trainers and framed his face with a pair of black square glasses. 

He has been seen out-and-about with his different look in recent months, after telling how he grew his hair to distance himself from his The Bill character.

Jeff shot to fame as PC Reg Hollis in the soap in which he appeared for nearly a thousand episodes. 

He starred alongside Graham Cole’s PC Tony Stamp and Mark Wingett’s character DC Jim Carver.

Though he didn’t appear in the pilot episode, he featured regularly from the first regular instalment onwards and appeared in a total of 872 episodes.

The star played Reg for 24 years, before the character was sadly axed in January 2008.

Speaking in 2011 about the decision, Jeff told The Sun: ‘I felt I had been badly let down.’

After hearing the plans from the show’s producers Jeff went back to his dressing room and still dazed by the news, attempted to take his own life.

As he began to black out, he changed his mind and rang the front desk for help. 

Luckily he was found in time and was rushed from the studios in Merton, South West London to hospital. 

‘I didn’t see a counsellor, it was evident I was OK and I never worried how it would affect my career.

‘I thought, “I have a choice, you can either stagnate or blossom”‘, he added.

Jeff has previously told how his bearded appearance has been a way to distance himself from the clean-shaven Reg, with whom he had become synonymous.

He said: ‘I didn’t cut my hair for three years. It was a thought-out, deliberate choice.

‘I thought, “I have to look as different as possible”.’

The Bill ran for a total of 26 years, with the popular series ending in 2010 after being axed – much to the dismay of staunch fans.

Though The Bill was his biggest role to date, Jeff has appeared in a number of other programmes including Crossroads, Doctor Who and Hi-De-Hi!.

He has also starred in independent films and won a Best Actor award for his role in Under Jakob’s Ladder at the Manhattan Film Festival in 2011.

Inter Miami 3-3 Cincinnati ( 5-4 on pens): Lionel Messi fairytale continues as The Herons book a spot in the US Open Cup final with ANOTHER penalty shootout win

• Inter Miami booked its spot in the US Open Cup final with a penalty shootout win
• 18-year-old Benjamin Cremaschi stepped up to slot the winning penalty home
• DailyMail.com provides all the latest international sports news

By Isabel Baldwin For Dailymail.Com

Updated: 00:37 EDT, 24 August 2023

Europe’s summer of wild weather continued overnight as a German airport was flooded by ferocious rain and northern Italy was lashed by a thunderstorm… while a 40C heat dome moved in over Italy, Spain and southern France.

The weather on the continent in recent months has been characterised by a north-south divide, with southern Europe suffering from extreme heat as northern and central Europe is battered by powerful storms and deadly flooding.

German authorities said on Thursday that heavy rain led to dozens of flight cancellations at Frankfurt airport, the country’s busiest and a major European hub.

The storm swept over southwest Germany late Wednesday, dumping huge quantities of water and reportedly unleashing over 25,000 bolts of lightning in about an hour. 

The airport said large quantities of water accumulated on the tarmac Wednesday evening and ground handling was suspended for more than two hours, German news agency dpa reported.

Footage from the airport showed the runway was under a deep level of water, while other clips from inside a nearby building showed the water pouring in through broken windows and gaps in the door.

The water level was at least two feet high when shown up against the glass. 

Frankfurt Airport said it was forced to axe 90 flights while 23 more were rerouted to land at other airports. Some passengers slept on camp beds while many spent the night at the airport hotel.

‘Today, the situation will probably stabilise again,’ a spokesman told AFP.

‘There are still passengers here who need to be booked onto new flights.’

The fire service in Germany’s financial capital said they launched over 500 operations from late Wednesday to early Thursday related to the storm.

There were more than 350 instances of water flooding into buildings and 17 fallen trees, they said, adding off-duty personnel were called in to help.

In another video clip, water could be seen rushing down the stairs and an escalator and into the city’s subway system. 

The storm also affected other areas, with Gelsenkirchen, in the region North Rhine-Westphalia, hard hit.

Streets, cellars and lower-lying residential areas were rapidly flooded, while trees toppled over, hitting vehicles, the fire service said.

Emergency service workers rescued people from vehicles at several highway underpasses.

In one area, parked vehicles became submerged and some streets were only passable with inflatable boats.

Experts say that climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of floods.

Elsewhere in Italy, a violent storm hit the province of Turin on Wednesday night, with fire crews being called to downed trees and widespread flooding.

Nighttime footage showed the sky being lit up by flashes of lighting as rain poured down onto streets below in sheets.

This came days after a mountain mudslide sent water, soil and debris pouring into a town in the same region on Sunday.

Witness video showed a huge wave of dirt, water and debris toppling a gate and residents running away as the muck rushed down a city street. Other videos showed thick mud coursing through the river banks that pass through town.

Authorities said all residents of Bardonecchia had been accounted for. 

As parts of Germany and Italy experience flooding, southern Europe is bracing itself for yet another heatwave after all-time temperature records tumbled earlier this year.

From Thursday, a powerful heatwave is forecast to expand across western Europe, as well as towards central parts of the continent.

The weather formation forecast for the region is known as a heat dome, which sees hot air expanding up into the atmosphere before being pushed down by high pressure, causing the air to warm as it is compressed towards ground level.

The phenomenon has been likened to having a lid on a cooking pot.

Last week, a heatwave saw temperatures reach towards 47C, with Valencia smashing its all time highest temperature on record.

In Turkey, meanwhile, the country recorded 50C+ for the first time.

In the coming days, temperatures in parts of southern France and southern Italy are forecast to reach the low-40C mark, while ground temperatures could reach as high as 50C in south-Spain, according to weather tracking platform Ventusky.

High temperatures in Europe have brought wildfires with them. 

On Tuesday a blaze ravaged homes and holiday campsites in a British tourist hotspot in France, forcing the evacuation of 3,000 people. 

The blazing wildfires ripped through 500 hectares of land and saw thousands of terrified tourists flee for their lives from their holiday homes and campsites in the popular holiday region of Pyrenees-Orientales, southern France.

Britons have told how panicked families who had quickly packed their belongings and fled campsites in the commune of Saint-Andre in their cars became trapped in traffic jams after they realised they were in fact heading towards the quickly expanding flames of the wildfire. 

Zak Dhabalia, 55, a retired British hedge fund manager who lives in the nearby village of Sorede and saw the flames come perilously close to his home, said it was an ‘extraordinary and terrifying experience for us all’.

Dhabalia, who lives with his French wife Sylvie Dhabalia, told MailOnline it was ‘terrifying’ to see how quickly the wildfire spread across the vineyards towards the campsites which were gutted by the flames, adding that he could hear gas canisters exploding at the site.

Harrowing photographs showed the extent of the damage caused by the wildfires, with the gutted remains of homes seen in Saint-Andre. Cars were incinerated and a campsite was destroyed by the blaze. 

Bordering on Spain, the Pyrenees-Orientales region has been affected worse than any other French region by a devastating drought. 

Last week, firefighters battled another wildfire near the southwestern city of Bordeaux that forced around 8,000 people to flee their homes and holiday villas.

Authorities in Spain’s northern Basque Country region said France had stopped freight trucks from crossing the border at Irun due to the fire.

Elsewhere in Europe, Greece, Italy, Algeria and Tunisia combined lost more than 1,350 square kilometers (520 square miles) to blazes that affected 120,000 people in late July, according to European Union estimates.

Last week, a series of wildfires ripped through Portugal and neighbouring Spain as temperatures soared to over 44C, forcing the evacuation of thousands of holidaymakers from villages and campsites. 

The popular holiday island of Rhodes – known for its sparkling beeches and ancient Greek sites – was also ravaged by wildfires for 11 days last month. 

After thousands of people were evacuated during the height of travel season, Rhodes is weighing how the crisis will affect its vital tourism sector, which fuels most of its economy and some 20 per cent of Greece’s.

It’s the same for other Mediterranean destinations such as Italy and Spain, where the tourism sector is also being hit by heat waves and wildfires.

Climate scientists say heat waves are more intense, more frequent and longer because of climate change — and coupled with droughts have made wildfires harder to fight.

They say climate change will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.

‘Climate change kills,’ Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said last month during a visit to the Extremadura region, the site of three major blazes. ‘It kills people, it kills our ecosystems and biodiversity.’ 

Wildfires raging through Europe this summer have so far burned the second-largest area on record, even though the region is only halfway through its typical fire season, according to data from the European Union’s Joint Research Centre. 

Southern European countries such as Portugal and Greece experience fires most summers, but hotter temperatures are pushing severe wildfire risk north, with Germany, Slovenia and the Czech Republic among those hit this season. 

In stark contrast to the wildfires seen in France, Spain, Greece, Croatia and southern Italy in recent weeks, northern Italy and Scandinavia have been hit by devastating floods and storms.

In the Italian town of Bardonecchia, near Turin in the Val di Susa valley, a ‘tsunami of mud’ crashed through the streets on Sunday, sending people fleeing for their lives. 

Dramatic video shows the churning river of mud forming a huge wave as it burst its banks and slammed into a street following heavy rain.

Horrified residents and tourists were sent running for their lives as the ‘mud tsunami’ smashed through a gate and sent debris flying towards them on Sunday evening.

Further video shows a thick wall of mud thundering down the river banks that pass through the Alpine town, blanketing cars with debris.

Rescuers desperately searched for five people believed to have been missing following the mudslide but authorities later said all residents had been accounted for and there were no victims. 

Italy has been faced with a series of deadly floods and storms in recent months, with 13 people killed in May after a devastating flood tore through homes in the popular holiday region of Emilia-Romagna. 

Desperate families, including young children and the elderly, had to clamber on to their roofs in the tourist hotspot as they waited anxiously for rescuers to reach them in helicopters.  

In the city of Cesena locals were forced to swim through the submerged streets, past sunken cars and floating furniture, to reach higher ground.

Last month, severe storms also battered the north of Italy, killing two woman and a 16-year-old girl scout. 

The overnight storm on July 25 saw roofs torn off and hundreds of trees uprooted in Milan. Roads were blocked and cars were smashed by the debris.

Two women were killed in the northern Monza and Brescia provinces after being crushed by falling trees, while a teenager was seriously injured when he was hit by a falling branch in the Veneto region.

In the area around nearby Brescia, a 16-year-old girl on a scout camp was killed when a tree fell on her tent, according to Italian news agencies. Firefighters evacuated the other members of the camp, taking them to a sports hall nearby, ANSA said. 

Tourist attractions also bore the brunt of the bad weather, as the Sforza Castle was shut after some tiles were brought down and rain was heavy enough to penetrate the glass-vaulted Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Milan’s famed shopping arcade. 

Elsewhere in Europe, a 135mph tornado toppled a construction crane in Switzerland last month, killing one person, while ripping roofs off buildings. Storms also lashed France and Germany with torrential rain flooding streets in Berlin. 

And last week, heavy rains triggered landslides and flooding across southern Norway and Sweden, forcing communities to evacuate.

The Norwegian dam at the Braskereidfoss hydroelectric power plant, on the Glåma, Norway’s longest and most voluminous river, burst on Wednesday after days of rain. 

It caused devastating floods, with footage showing wooden cabins floating down overflowing rivers. One clip shows a mobile home crashing into a bridge on Norway’s Hemsilar river.

People were seen standing on the bridge as they watched caravans being swept away, crashing into the bridge and being crushed under the weight.

Baywatch bombshell Donna D’Errico, 55, continues her OnlyFans anniversary celebrations by showing off sculpted figure in bikini

By Sameer Suri For Dailymail.com

Published: 20:39 EDT, 15 August 2023 | Updated: 21:13 EDT, 15 August 2023

By Tyrell Feaster For Dailymail.Com

Published: 19:30 EDT, 11 August 2023 | Updated: 20:43 EDT, 11 August 2023

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Eamonn Holmes today branded Phillip Schofield ‘delusional’ after the under-fire host issued a statement insisting there had been ‘no toxicity’ at This Morning.

The daytime show was plunged into meltdown on Friday after Schofield admitted to lying about his relationship with a much younger colleague, with ITV losing millions of pounds in sponsorship deals.

In a bombshell intervention today, Schofield, 61, attacked those who had claimed there was toxicity behind the scenes at the programme, accusing them of holding grudges. 

Holmes – who previously helped present This Morning but now works for GB News – has since issued a scathing response to the statement and said that if Schofield was ‘looking for a fight’ he had ‘picked on the wrong person’. 

The 63-year-old tweeted: ‘Schofield has just put out a delusional statement. Like Holly he puts it on Insta Stories so if it goes wrong there is no record after 24 hrs. I’m reluctant to give the liar any more publicity but believe me Pip if u r looking for a fight , u have picked on the wrong person!’ 

Holmes has been critic of Schofield for a number of years, believing he would get his ‘comeuppance’ for the way he’s treated others – including wife Ruth Langsford.

He and Schofield were never close, but appreciated each other’s broadcasting styles and worked professionally alongside each other.

But all that changed in 2019, when Langsford filed an official complaint against Schofield after being cut off mid-link by the presenter as she was explaining what was coming up on the show during a mini-segment on This Morning.

Schofield said: ‘Guys, we’re going to have to jump in there and stop you I’m afraid because we’re a bit tight for time at this end. Thank you, Ruth.’

A clearly unimpressed Langsford responded: ‘Well I only had about two more words to say,’ and looked away from the camera.

Speaking about the incident in the Daily Mail’s Weekend magazine in February 2022, Holmes went public in his condemnation for Schofield, saying his wife is one of many people in the industry to be ‘snubbed’ by the presenter.

He said: ‘Phillip is renowned for snubbing people. He’s very passive-aggressive. 

‘It’s up to Ruth to say how she felt, but I was feeling hurt for her. No one would have snubbed me like that.’

He added. ‘I don’t go for presenters who think they have a special privilege or aura or influence.’

It comes as This Morning’s former resident doctor Dr Ranj Singh hit out at the show’s ‘toxic’ culture, claiming last night that he raised concerns about ‘bullying and discrimination’ two years ago when he worked there and afterwards felt like he was ‘managed out’ for whistleblowing. 

Schofield addressed the claims in a statement on Instagram today, writing: ‘Now I no longer work on This Morning I am free to say this. 

‘I hope you have noticed that it’s the same handful of people with a grudge against me or the show who seem to have the loudest voice.

‘This Morning IS the best show to work on, with the best people. In all the years I worked there there was no toxicity. You can listen to those persistently loud voices if you like. 

‘But the thousands of guests over the years, thousands of staff and crew, hundreds of presenters and contributors all know it, it IS a family of wonderful, talented, kind, hard working people.’  

In a statement yesterday, Dr Ranj said the ‘issues’ at This Morning go ‘far beyond’ the host.

He said: ‘I was on the show for 10 years and I genuinely loved and valued working there.

‘However, over time, I grew increasingly worried about how things were behind-the-scenes and how people, including myself, were being treated.

‘I didn’t know the truth about what was going on with Phillip, but I do know the issues with TM (This Morning) go far beyond him.

‘It takes more than one person to create a culture.’

Dr Ranj said he raised his concerns with senior executives at ITV as he had been heavily involved in ‘diversity, anti-bullying and mental health projects’ across the channel.

‘I then found myself being used less and less,’ he continued.

‘I even took my concerns directly to the top of ITV: the culture at This Morning had become toxic, no longer aligned with ITV values, and I felt like because I whistle-blew I was managed out.

‘But as history and experience have taught us, things like bullying and discrimination are very hard to prove, particularly in hindsight and when the ‘people in power’ control the narrative.

‘As we’ve seen, no review or investigation is foolproof.’

The doctor said he was assured that things would be addressed and changes made but he has not worked on the show since, adding it ‘still hurts’ two years on from lodging complaints.

In a blow to ITV, This Morning’s biggest sponsor Arnold Clark has announced it will not be renewing its existing multi-million-pound deal with the channel in autumn as planned.

The car dealer’s multi-year deal with This Morning began in September 2021, but the car dealer has confirmed it will not be renewed when the contract ends later this year.

A source told The Sun: ‘There is a lot of speculation about This Morning’s future and some staff are ­concerned about their jobs.

‘Phil’s admission of deceit has plunged ITV into a crisis which it has never been faced with before.

‘It is widely known internally that they have lost over £2million in sponsorship deals since Phil’s affair became public.

‘Arnold Clark, who are the main sponsors of This Morning, are also reconsidering their position.

‘Brands do not feel ITV is a safe bet at the moment.’

Another source told The Mirror: ‘The next few weeks will be a desperate bid to save the show – and the jobs of the execs. 

‘Fingers are being pointed at the top brass, even though he admitted he lied to all of them.

‘The show’s wholesome image is clearly tarnished, but bullish ITV execs are not going to just throw the baby out with the bath water.

‘They are determined to prove that the brand is stronger than any single presenter, and that they can give it a fresh start after Schofield.’

This Morning has been surrounded by chaos since Schofield was forced to admit in a statement to the Daily Mail on Friday that he had lied about his relationship with the younger man to ITV, his lawyers, his talent agency and his co-star of 14 years.

Last night the scandal showed no signs of easing with new photos emerging of a smiling Schofield with his former lover and Willoughby in 2018 as they left a This Morning Live event. 

And the Mail revealed that while ITV insists that it held an investigation into the men’s relationship when rumours began to circulate in 2020, the host’s former lover said he had never been quizzed over the matter.

Holly Willoughby is understood to be battling to maintain her presenting role on the show and hopes to ride out the scandal.

She has currently been off-air since Schofield’s sudden departure, however, this was due to planned holiday for the school half term break. 

The presenter of 14-years is expected to make a return to the programme on Monday, June 5.

But Willoughby is facing calls for her to also leave the show, with former culture secretary Nadine Dorries who claimed the much-loved presenter ‘has questions to answer’.

Since Schofield dramatically left the programme earlier this month, photos of the long-time host have been removed from ITV studios in White City.

A large framed picture of Schofield which hung in the TV Centre in London where the show is filmed was also removed. 

Some have called for the mid-morning show to be cancelled all together, with the editor who launched it 36 years ago calling for it to ‘die with dignity’ yesterday evening.

Dianne Nelmes said the show had become ‘tired’ and was now ‘shipwrecked on scandal’.

She added: ‘The situation is very sad. Whatever has gone on, Phillip has been a stalwart presenter of the show.

‘I don’t think that Holly can hold this show on her own, not even with Alison Hammond which is said to be the favoured outcome. I don’t think Holly can handle it. Phil will be missed.’

An ITV Spokesperson said: ‘This Morning’s current show sponsorship runs until the Autumn and no sponsors have pulled out of ITV.’