Colombian pop star Shakira will perform her official song for the 2026 World Cup at the competition’s opening ceremony in Mexico.

Shakira will perform Dai Dai, along with Burna Boy, on Thursday, 11 June at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, before Mexico and South Africa play the first of the tournament’s 104 games (20:00 BST).

Dai Dai – an Italian phrase meaning “let’s go” or “come on”.

Colombian reggaeton star J Balvin and South African singer-songwriter Tyla will also perform at the show in Mexico.

Opening ceremonies will precede each of the first matches played in the host nations of USA, Canada and Mexico.

Canadian singer-songwriters Michael Buble and Alanis Morissette will headline the opening ceremony at BMO Field in Toronto before Canada take on Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday, 12 June (20:00 BST).

In the USA, pop star Katy Perry and rper Future will perform before the USA take on Paraguay at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on Friday, 12 June (Saturday, 02:00 BST).

Shakira, along with Madonna and K-pop boyband BTS, will also co-headline the Super Bowl-style half-time show at this summer’s World Cup final on 19 July.

Game 1 of the 2026 NBA Finals was a tactical defensive slugfest more emblematic of the 1990s, when the New York Knicks last made the Finals, than of 2026.

The Knicks’ 105.0 offensive rating in the game would have ranked 30th in this regular season, and the San Antonio Spurs‘ 96.0 offensive rating also would have ranked last, by a double-digit margin in their case. The two teams shot a combined 39% from the field and 28% from 3-point range.

Thanks to superior performances from their stars and a tremendous closing kick, the Knicks overcame a 14-point deficit to steal Game 1 on the road, winning 105-95. New York has now won 12 games in a row and needs just three more victories to claim its first championship in 53 years.

Let’s break down Game 1 from all angles, from its most important plays to the key indicators and matchups to watch in Game 2 (Friday, 8:30 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN p).

Quick links:
Schedule | Bracket | Takeaways
Sights, sounds | Playoff coverage

The most important plays of Game 1

The home team was in control for most of Game 1. San Antonio led by 14 points midway through the third quarter, 65-51, before New York came alive.

With Spurs backup center Luke Kornet in the game in place of Victor Wembanyama, Karl-Anthony Towns found a curling Mikal Bridges for a jumper. Then Towns dished to a cutting Landry Shamet — who benefited from no Wembanyama blockading the rim — for two more points. Towns then blew past Kornet for an and-1 layup on the next trip down the floor.

— KramClips (@KramClips) June 4, 2026

Spurs coach Mitch Johnson called a timeout and reinserted Wembanyama, but Towns’ hot hand didn’t evorate. He grabbed an offensive rebound over the young Frenchman for a putback layup, and on the next possession he showed why the Spurs have such difficult matchup choices in these Finals.

With Wembanyama nominally guarding Josh Hart — the Spurs’ preferred assignment because it allows the unanimous Defensive Player of the Year to roam the baseline in a free safety role — the Knicks’ offense struggled to create an opening. Wembanyama corralled a Jalen Brunson pick-and-roll, halted a Hart drive and deterred Shamet from venturing into the lane. The shot clock wound down, and Hart was forced to launch a semi-contested 3-pointer over Wembanyama’s outstretched left arm. That’s normally a great outcome for San Antonio.

And indeed, Hart’s shot missed. With Wembanyama now on the perimeter, though, Towns had precious room to work down low. He outmuscled Keldon Johnson for another offensive rebound, shook off the contact and scored another and-1 layup. A 14-point lead had dwindled to two in less than four minutes.

— KramClips (@KramClips) June 4, 2026

When Towns is at his best, he blends force at the basket with a reliable 3-pointer with a newly discovered playmaking spark. Spurs wings such as Johnson, Devin Vassell and Julian Champagnie aren’t big enough to stop him, and Kornet isn’t fast enough. That leaves Wembanyama as perhs the only Spur who can keep him off the scoreboard.

The Spurs used Wembanyama on Towns more than expected in Game 1, but they create the most defensive havoc when Wembanyama can serve as the league’s best backline helper rather than spacing out with a shooter. They want to match him with Hart. Yet, as Towns showed on this key play in the Knicks’ crucial third-quarter run, he might be too tricky a matchup for anyone else to handle.

That difference between Towns and Chet Holmgren — who did not make the Spurs pay for guarding him with a wing — is why the Knicks won Game 1 in the Finals (and the Oklahoma City Thunder didn’t win Game 7 of the Western Conference finals).

Towns’ final stat line of 18 points, 12 rebounds and four assists doesn’t cture his holistic impact Wednesday night. He wasn’t solely a one-way player; if anything, he excelled even more on the defensive end, where he held up better than expected against Wembanyama.

The Knicks almost exclusively defended Wembanyama with centers (Towns and Mitchell Robinson), rather than mixing in coverage from a physical wing such as Hart or OG Anunoby. And that proach worked. Wembanyama drew several fouls on Towns, but he shot just 2-for-13 from the field when Towns was his primary defender, according to GeniusIQ . He had nine points and five turnovers against Towns.

Overall, Wembanyama finished Game 1 with his most turnovers (six) and missed shots (15) in any game this postseason. He’ll need to solve Towns’ challenge — on both ends — going forward.

Three key Game 1 lessons

1. Hart continues to struggle with his jumper in this postseason — he’s now down to 29% on 3-pointers — but he remains the Knicks’ most important glue guy, and he has a clear place in this series. Although he ended Game 1 with just three points, he contributed 15 rebounds, six assists and four steals, and he was a game-high plus-22.

Larry Bird is the only other player in NBA Finals history with at least 15 rebounds, six assists and four steals in a game. And Hart is the first player to lead a Finals game outright in all three categories, per ESPN Research.

It’s no coincidence that the Spurs won the first half (when Hart played just seven minutes due to foul trouble) but lost the second half (when Hart played 20 minutes) convincingly.

2. De’Aaron Fox made a couple of huge plays to end the first half: He swiped the ball from Brunson, converted a fast-break dunk and made a nifty kickout pass to Julian Champagnie for a corner 3.

But Fox was otherwise invisible in Game 1. His seven points was the fewest for any Spurs starter, and he recorded as many turnovers (three) as made field goals. (So did Wembanyama, with six of each.) Immediately after Brunson made a go-ahead 3-pointer in the final minutes, Fox missed an open pull-up jumper that would have tied the score.

Put another way, one lefty All-Star point guard made his clutch shot, and one lefty All-Star point guard didn’t. Sometimes, the sport is that simple.

Meanwhile, another dynamic lefty point guard — Spurs rookie Dylan Harper — was arguably San Antonio’s best player Wednesday. The 20-year-old backup was aggressive and fearless in his first Finals game, scoring 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting; he was the only Spur who made at least half of his shot attempts.

Fox is a veteran with a solid end-of-game reputation — who can forget that he was the inaugural Clutch Player of the Year winner in 2023, two years before Brunson claimed that award? — but it was still a surprise that Harper wasn’t in Mitch Johnson’s closing group. That dynamic is worth watching if a g between the two players’ performances persists.

3. “Our transition defense was terrible in the first half,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said to sideline reporter Lisa Salters at halftime.

He wasn’t wrong. According to ESPN Research, the Spurs had 16 transition plays in the first half, which was tied for the most by any team in a Finals half in the era (since 2013-14). They scored 21 points on those plays.

Given how much the Spurs struggled to score in the half court in Game 1, they needed to run to generate offense. But New York has allowed the second-fewest fast-break points in the playoffs, behind only Toronto. (San Antonio ranks third.) The Spurs need to identify more opportunities to push the pace throughout Game 2.

Notes and loose ends looking ahead to Game 2

• One encouraging sign for San Antonio is that its offensive process wasn’t as dire as its offensive results. According to GeniusIQ, the two teams were just about equal in quantified shot probability, which estimates a team’s “expected” effective field goal percentage based on factors like shooter identity and defender location.

The Spurs underperformed their expected effective field goal percentage by 10.1%, their second-worst mark in any game this season, and their worst in the postseason. The Knicks also underperformed, but by a less outlier-y 5.1%.

Better shooting luck for the Spurs in Game 2 would go a long way toward evening the Finals.

• The Spurs attempted to defend Brunson with rookie Carter Bryant for a stretch in the second quarter. Bryant is the sort of big, physical wing who can slow Brunson in theory.

But in practice, Brunson torched the rookie with repeated drives to the basket. He shot 3-for-4 with Bryant as his primary defender, and Bryant didn’t get off the bench in the second half.

Add in an ineffective stint from Harrison Barnes and just eight minutes for Sixth Man of the Year Keldon Johnson, his fewest in any playoff game, and the Spurs are looking thin at the forward positions.

• Beyond that abbreviated stretch with Bryant, however, the Spurs made Brunson work for every one of his 30 points in Game 1. He wasn’t very efficient, with 31 field goal attempts, and his quantified shot probability was just 48%, per GeniusIQ — his lowest mark in any game this postseason.

Such is life against the Spurs’ defense. Out of the 15 games that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander played in these playoffs, the bottom six in shot quality all came against San Antonio last round.

Brunson has demonstrated, time and again, his ability to make tough shots. But the shot diet in Game 1 was difficult even for him.

• One of the main battlegrounds in this series is the Knicks’ relentless rim attacks versus the Spurs’ dominant rim defense. Entering the Finals, New York led all playoff offenses with 54.8 points in the paint per 100 possessions, while the Spurs led all playoff defenses by allowing just 40.9.

The Knicks won that battle in Game 1, with 50 points in the paint, and that stat continues to be predictive of San Antonio’s results this spring. The Spurs are now 3-6 in the playoffs when they allow at least 40 points in the paint, versus 9-1 when they hold teams below 40.

Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva reached her first Grand Slam final with a dominant victory over Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk at the French Open.

A beaten semi-finalist in 2024, Andreeva was hugely impressive throughout her 6-1 6-3 victory and will await compatriot Diana Shnaider, the 25th seed, or Polish qualifier Maja Chwalinska in Saturday’s final.

The 19-year-old is the fourth-youngest woman to reach the Roland Garros showpiece in the past 30 years, after Martina Hingis, Kim Clijsters and Coco Gauff.

Should she prevail, Andreeva would become the third-youngest first-time Grand Slam champion this century, after Maria Sharova and Emma Raducanu.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine provided an unavoidable backdrop to the contest, with Kostyuk regularly denouncing the war since it began in February 2022 – and being highly critical of athletes from Russia who have failed to do so.

In keeping with the stance taken by Ukrainian players over the past four years, Kostyuk did not pose for a pre-match photo with Andreeva, and the players did not shake hands afterwards.

SAN ANTONIO — There wasn’t a sense of panic from the New York Knicks when Jalen Brunson limped gingerly to the locker room late in the first quarter of Wednesday night’s Game 1 of the NBA Finals after the Spurs‘ Harrison Barnes landed on his right knee.

Nor was there panic when San Antonio, looking fresher and more explosive, built a 14-point third-quarter lead. Perhs it’s because the Knicks have been on this magic carpet ride for weeks, having won every postseason game since Game 3 of the first round in Atlanta, a loss that seemingly woke them up and created a playoff monster that has dominated ever since.

Brunson worked himself into Game 1 following a rough start, scoring 13 of his game-high 30 points in the fourth quarter to help the Knicks steal home-court advantage with a 105-95 victory at Frost Bank Center.

It was the Knicks’ 12th straight playoff win, and it had a familiar formula: fall behind, get within striking distance and then clear the way for Brunson to close.

“Jalen, he was the MVP in the second half. He was huge for us,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “He did what MVP candidates are supposed to do. He carried us home. We put the ball in his hands, and he got it done for us down the stretch.”

Brown has routinely been calling Brunson an MVP candidate, railing against this season’s voting, which didn’t see him garner even a fifth-place vote. Eight players received votes, including the back-to-back winner, Oklahoma City‘s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, whom the Spurs eliminated in the Western Conference finals.

For San Antonio, guarding Brunson in the fourth quarter proved to be an impossible task, especially since the Knicks don’t seem the least bit uncomfortable on the Finals stage.

“I don’t want to say calmness, but I think we know what we have to do,” Brunson said. “I think we are a pretty together group. Be able to trust each other and still have each other’s back and know that we just have to keep chipping away, chipping away. It’s just a credit to the mentality that we have as a team.”

First, it was Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns, who became assertive on offense as Brunson struggled in the first three quarters. Keeping Spurs star Victor Wembanyama, the unanimous Defensive Player of the Year, occupied is a high objective for the Knicks, and Wembanyama hasn’t seen anyone as diverse as Towns on offense.

“For me, when I go out there, I try to be aggressive in playmaking,” Towns said. “Early in the game, just you never know what actually the defense is going to give you. You don’t know what is going to unfold, but I just wanted to be aggressive, especially early in the game.”

Towns scored 10 of his 18 points in the third, and the Knicks actually pulled even by the end of the quarter. OG Anunoby kept New York afloat with a torrid start to the fourth quarter, when the Spurs athleticism and speed was threatening to overtake the Knicks.

That left just enough time for Brunson to find his matchups and work his magic. The Knicks attacked the basket when Wembanyama sat for stretches and had him perhs overthinking at times.

Brunson and the Knicks have been through plenty of stressful nights. In Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals against Cleveland, they trailed by 22 in the fourth quarter before roaring back, sending the game into overtime and essentially ending any idea of a threat in the series.

There were the multiple 20-point comebacks against the Boston Celtics in last year’s second-round series, as the Knicks took a surprising 2-0 road advantage before winning the series in six.

Brunson didn’t solely engineer every comeback, but he has often been in the center of it. Game 1 of the NBA Finals was no exception.

“I think most importantly, knowing we’re on the road, and knowing my teammates have my back, I think that’s the biggest thing in an environment like this,” Brunson said. “The trust they have in me and the trust I have in them, it’s got us to this point. I mean, I’m very thankful for them every single night we go out there together.”

It took 31 shots for Brunson to score 30 points, but the lack of efficiency will get lost in the moment created by Brunson and these Knicks.

“He’s a gamer, man,” Brown said. “In the biggest moments, he shows up, and that’s what MVPs are supposed to do. We put the ball in his hands and said we are going to live and die with him. And he got it done for us, and that’s hpened time after time after time. He got to his spots and he made plays.”

The Knicks can head into Game 2 with confidence, knowing they stole the opener after shooting just 41% from the field and 31% from 3-point range. Most important, they held the Spurs to just 2-for-19 shooting from 3-point range after halftime, making the New York comeback possible.

“It’s a position we obviously don’t want to be in, but it’s always a next-play mentality,” Brunson said. “We continue to find a way and just kind of keep chipping away. We knew one play was not going to bring us all the way back, but we just kept chipping away.”

Berrettini’s only previous retirement from a Grand Slam match was at the 2023 US Open.

He also made an early exit from the 2021 ATP Tour Finals because of an abdominal injury, while last season he had to pull out midway through matches in Madrid and Rome in the run-up to the French Open.

But the former world number six, who had missed the previous four French Opens because of injury problems, is determined to take the positives from reaching a seventh Grand Slam quarter-final in his first outing at Roland Garros since 2021.

Now ranked 105th, he added: “I have to take the good stuff that I did in this tournament, because a few weeks ago or a few days ago, it would have been crazy to think about me in the quarter-finals, and so I’ll try to go back home with a smile on my face.

“It’s going to be tough but that’s how I like to proach these two weeks, and of course I’m dispointed, I’m sad, but I’m also proud of the way I fought through this tournament.”

Speaking on court after his win, Arnaldi said: “You never wish for someone to end the tournament like this.

“He did an amazing tournament. I am sorry for him and I hope he recovers because soon it is the grass and he is going to be very tough to play.”

Arnaldi, ranked 104th in the world, is the lowest-ranked male player to reach a French Open singles semi-final since Filip Dewulf did so in 1997 when ranked 122nd.

He will play another Italian, 10th seed Flavio Cobolli, on Friday for a place in Sunday’s final.