US WOMENS OPEN
Allisen Corpuz picked the right time and the right place for her first big win. She won the first U.S. Women's Open at Pebble Beach, shooting a final-round 69 for a three-shot victory. The 25-year-old from Hawaii is the first American in 20 years to make the U.S. Women's Open her first LPGA win. And she made it look easy. Corpuz was the only player to break par all four days at Pebble Beach. And she kept her emotions in check the whole way until wiping away tears on the 18th green. Charley Hull and Jiyai Shin finished second.
PGA TOUR
The Washington Post is reporting former AT&T Chairman Randall Stephenson has resigned from the PGA Tour policy board. His resignation letter cites serious concerns over the tour's proposed partnership with Saudi Arabia's national wealth fund. The PGA Tour confirmed the resignation in a memo to its members citing Stephenson's 12 years on the board. Stephenson says he intended to resign a week after the tour cut its deal with the Public Investment Fund. He says he waited when PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan took a monthlong leave for a health issue. The Saudi deal still requires board approval.
WIMBLEDON
Top-seeded Iga Swiatek saved two match points and came back to beat Belinda Bencic 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-3 to reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the first time. Sunday's victory extended Swiatek’s unbeaten run to 14 matches. That included a run to her fourth Grand Slam title at the French Open last month. Swiatek has won three championships at Roland Garros and one at the U.S. Open. But she never had been past the fourth round at the All England Club. Swiatek had a 37-match winning streak snapped during a third-round loss at Wimbledon a year ago. Bencic won the singles gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic will be back at Centre Court today to try to close out his fourth-round match against 17th-seeded Hubert Hurkacz. The seven-time champion won the first two sets in tiebreakers on Centre Court when play was suspended because it was too late. Djokovic’s Wimbledon winning streak is at 31 matches and counting and he’s 5-0 lifetime against Hurkacz. Hurkacz hadn’t dropped a set in three wins before facing Djokovic. The 23-time Grand Slam champion is trying to tie Roger Federer’s record of eight men’s titles at Wimbledon. No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz faces Matteo Berrettini for a spot in the quarterfinals. Defending champion Elina Rybakina takes on Beatriz Haddad Maia, and two-time champion Petra Kvitova faces 2022 runner-up Ons Jabeur.
Victoria Azarenka says it “wasn’t fair” that she was booed at Wimbledon after her loss to Ukrainian rival Elina Svitolina. Azarenka is from Belarus. She knew that Svitolina does not shake hands with Russian and Belarusian players because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, so she walked directly to the umpire to shake hands. She also seemed to give a slight wave to Svitolina, who won in a third-set tiebreaker. But boos rained down from the crowd at No. 1 Court as Azarenka gathered her equipment. Azarenka said she's not sure the crowd understood what was happening. She says she was trying to be respectful of Svitolina.
MLB
Masataka Yoshida scored the tying run with good baserunning and then homered to give Boston the lead in the eighth inning to help the Boston Red Sox beat the Oakland Athletics 4-3. Boston heads into the All-Star break on a five-game winning streak. J.P. Sears took a no-hitter into the fifth for Oakland despite allowing an unearned run in the first thanks to one of three A’s errors. Boston trailed 3-1 in the middle of the sixth before Adam Duvall hit a solo homer to lead off the bottom half. The Red Sox have won eight of their last nine games since falling a season-high 15 games back in the AL East. Brent Rooker had three hits for Oakland, including a 443-foot home run high off of the Green Monster light stanchion.
Yan Gomes hit a tying pinch-hit two-run single in the seventh inning following a fielding error by second baseman Gleyber Torres and Seiya Suzuki hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the eighth and the Chicago Cubs rallied for a 7-4 victory over the New York Yankees. Mike Tauchman opened the eighth with a single off Ron Marinaccio before Nico Hoerner and Ian Happ walked. Suzuki, who homered in the fifth for Chicago’s only hit off Domingo Germán, followed with a sacrifice fly off Clay Holmes and Tauchman easily scored when right fielder Giancarlo Stanton’s throw was slightly up the line. Hoerner scored the sixth run when Holmes threw a wild pitch over catcher Kyle Higashioka’s glove to the backstop and Tucker Barnhart added an RBI double in the ninth.
Bryan De La Cruz homered among his four hits as the Miami Marlins beat the Philadelphia Phillies 7-3. Jesús Sánchez and rookie Dane Myers also went deep for the Marlins, who reached the All-Star break with their best record in franchise history at 53-39. Marlins starter Jesús Luzardo (8-5) struck out nine and allowed four hits over 6 1/3 innings. The left-hander gave up two runs and was lifted after he plunked Bryson Stott, who had two of the hits against Luzardo. He took steps toward Stott during his walk to first and they briefly exchanged words. Every Marlins batter, except Luis Arraez, had a hit against Phillies starter Aaron Nola and two relievers. Arraez went 0-for-4 and his major league-leading batting average dropped to .383.
Manny Machado homered twice off Max Scherzer and drove in five runs for the San Diego Padres, who got six dominant innings from Joe Musgrove to beat the New York Mets 6-2 and take two of three in a series between high-priced, yet underwhelming, teams. The teams came in buried in fourth place in their respective divisions with identical 42-47 records. The Padres head into the All-Star break with five wins in six games, while the Mets have lost two straight following a season-best six-game winning streak.
Meanwhile, the Home Run Derby will kick off the All-Star break tonight at 8 p.m. with the All-Star game tomorrow night at 8 in Seattle.
Major League Baseball has made the games faster, the bases bigger and defense a little bit harder. Now, if it could only do something about those stubborn strikeouts. There’s little doubt that MLB’s expansive new rules package this season has been a success, particularly when it comes to speeding up the action. But the sport is also hunting for a little more offense these days and the league-wide output of 2023 looks similar to 2022 in several areas. One of the biggest reasons is that strikeouts are still near an all-time high, with each team averaging about 8.6 per game.
The Pittsburgh Pirates selected hard-throwing LSU right-handed pitcher Paul Skenes with the top pick in baseball’s amateur draft. Skenes went 12-3 as a pitcher, with 209 strikeouts in 122 innings in helping lead the Tigers to the College World Series championship. The pick was announced by Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr., the top pick of the 1987 draft by the Seattle Mariners. For the second time in three years, the Pirates held the top overall selection after selecting catcher Henry Davis at the top of the 2021 draft. Davis made his major league debut last month for Pittsburgh. LSU teammate Dylan Crews went No. 2 to Washington with high school outfielder Max Clark being selected third by Detroit.
Elsewhere, the Mets took shortstop Colin Houck from Georgia’s Parkview High School and pitcher Brandon Sproat from Florida. The Yankees drew shortstop George Lombard Jr. out of Gulliver Prep School. The Red Sox took Virginia catcher Kyle Teel and Christian Brothers College High School shortstop Nazzan Zanetello. The Phillies took shortstop Aidan Miller out of J.W. Mitchell High School in Florida. The draft continues at 2 p.m. today.
NBA
Victor Wembanyama was yelling in celebration, punching the air, even got a Band-Aid on his right cheek because of some physicality. For his second act in Las Vegas, Wembanyama showed some fire. The No. 1 pick in this year’s draft looked much more like himself in his second game of Summer League on Sunday. He finished with 27 points and 12 rebounds, but the Spurs lost 85-80 to the Portland Trail Blazers.
WNBA
DeWanna Bonner took over in the fourth quarter, scoring 13 of her 29 points, and the Connecticut Sun pulled away from the Washington Mystics 92-84. The Sun trailed by one entering the fourth quarter but rode their All-Stars Bonner and Alyssa Thomas down the stretch as they combined for 12 of the last 13 Sun points. Thomas finished with 22 points and the Sun made a season-high 3-pointers. Tianna Hawkins matched her career-high with 24 points on 10-of-12 shooting for the Mystics (10-8), who got All-Star Elena Delle Donne back after missing two games with a sprained ankle only to lose her again when she reaggravated her left ankle late in the first half.
NCAA
Uncertainty continues to swirl around the Northwestern football program after allegations of hazing led to the suspension of coach Pat Fitzgerald this week. One day after the suspension, The Daily Northwestern published a story that detailed some of the allegations while claiming that Fitzgerald “may have known that hazing took place.” That led university president Michael Schill to write an open letter to the community acknowledging he may have erred in the level of punishment handed down and that he planned to speak to university leaders to determine his next steps. Meanwhile, football practice begins in just a few weeks with the season opener Sept. 3 at Rutgers quickly approaching.
CONCACAF GOLD CUP
Matt Turner stopped two penalty kicks, and the United States beat Canada 3-2 in a shootout after a 2-2 draw for a berth in a CONCACAF Gold Cup semifinal against Panama. In a game scoreless until the 88th minute, the U.S. tied the score on Scott Kennedy’s 115th minute own goal, six minutes after Jacob Shaffelburg put Canada ahead. Brandon Vázquez gave the U.S. a 1-0 lead but Steven Vitória made it 1-1 in the third minute of stoppage time with a penalty kick after a hand ball on Miles Robinson.
Gabby Thomas held off Sha’Carri Richardson with the best time in the world this year to win the women’s 200 meters at the U.S. track and field championships. Thomas caught up to Richardson rounding the curve and powered to the finish in 21.60 seconds. The 26-year-old Thomas skipped the 100 to conserve her energy for the 200. She finished eighth at nationals last season as she dealt with a hamstring injury. Richardson accomplished what she wanted to at nationals. She qualified in both sprint events for worlds next month in Budapest, Hungary. Richardson won the 100 on Friday. In the men’s 200, Erriyon Knighton held off Kenny Bednarek for the win.
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