PARIS (AP) — Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka has defeated Zheng Qinwen in straight sets to reach the French Open semifinals for the second time. Sabalenka is chasing her first title at Roland-Garros. She overcame a shaky start and windy conditions to prevail 7-6, 6-3 and extend her record against the Olympic champion to 7-1. The score did not fully reflect the closeness of the match with so little separating the rivals. But Sabalenka demonstrated why she is the world No. 1, making the difference on big points, while Zheng struggled with her serve in tense moments.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton weren't expected to be starring in the leading roles on the NBA Finals stage. At least not by many. Gilgeous-Alexander was cut from his junior varsity team as a ninth grader and was traded from the Los Angeles Clippers after his rookie year. The major college programs didn’t notice Haliburton until his senior year of high school. He wasn’t a one-and-done at Iowa State, wasn’t a top-10 pick and got traded from Sacramento during his third year in the league. Now, Gilgeous-Alexander is the league MVP in Oklahoma City and Haliburton is a two-time All-Star with Indiana and an Olympic gold medalist heading into the NBA Finals.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Francisco Alvarez drove in his first run in four weeks with a double leading off the 10th inning, and the New York Mets overcame Shohei Ohtani’s 23rd homer and tying sacrifice fly for a 4-3 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Francisco Lindor hit a leadoff homer and a 10th-inning RBI single for the Mets, who opened this NLCS rematch with their eighth win in nine games. Ohtani hit a 424-foot solo shot off Max Kranick in the seventh, getting his fifth homer in seven games to tie Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh for the major league lead with 23.
Oklahoma City’s Mark Daigneault has the best record of any coach in the NBA this season. And he has the second-best record of any coach in his house. Daigneault is a coach, and a coach’s husband, too. His wife is Oklahoma assistant women’s gymnastics coach Ashley Kerr. She and the Sooners went 33-2 this season and won another national championship, their third in the last four years. So, as Daigneault chases his first NBA title, his wife has now been part of seven national championships over her career on the staffs at Florida and Oklahoma.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Tyrese Haliburton and Myles Turner beamed as they carried the Indiana Pacers shiny, new Eastern Conference championship trophy into their postgame news conferences Saturday night. Pascal Siakam needed help because he was also bringing the series MVP trophy. The Pacers have finally ended their 25-year NBA Finals drought. They enjoyed it with a fitting celebration for the team that plays in a state where basketball is treated like religion. These Pacers have managed to achieve the unthinkable after starting 10-15 and looking less like anything but a title contender. But now Indiana will try to exorcise the demons of its decades-long snake-bitten history when the Pacers take on the Oklahoma City .
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma’s run of four straight Women’s College World Series titles ended when Lauren Allred’s walk-off sacrifice fly gave Texas Tech a 3-2 victory in the semifinals. Coach Patty Gasso’s Sooners were down to their last strike in the top of the seventh inning when Abigale Dayton summoned a bit of magic, hitting a tying two-run homer against Red Raiders ace NiJaree Canady. But the Red Raiders responded quickly in the bottom half. Mihyia Davis singled with one out and Hailey Toney followed with a double. Allred hit a fly ball to right field and Sydney Barker’s throw to the plate was wide, allowing Davis to score easily.
PARIS (AP) — Coco Gauff has earned her fifth consecutive trip to the French Open quarterfinals with a straight-set victory but still is catching flak because she forgot to bring her rackets to an earlier match. The No. 2-seeded Gauff has been engaging in a bit of back-and-forth with another American and Roland-Garros quarterfinalist, Frances Tiafoe, over the equipment blunder. Gauff won the 2023 U.S. Open and was the runner-up in Paris in 2022. She beat No. 20 Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-0, 7-5 on Monday. Tiafoe teasingly called the 21-year-old Gauff “Mrs. Mature.”
PARIS (AP) — Top-ranked Jannik Sinner’s latest dominant performance at the French Open is a 6-1, 6-3, 6-4 victory over No. 17 Andrey Rublev. The result on Monday night put Sinner back in the quarterfinals in Paris and extended his Grand Slam winning streak to 18 matches. Sinner won the U.S. Open last September and the Australian Open this January. Now he’ll try to get to the semifinals at Roland-Garros for the second consecutive year and faces 62nd-ranked Alexander Bublik on Wednesday. Sinner hasn't lost a set through the fourth round and has dropped just 30 games.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s Aleksander Barkov thought the team meeting was over. He found it odd that the Panthers hadn’t been told they could leave. Turns out, there was a good reason. Two of them, actually. The Panthers hadn’t had an opportunity to spend any time at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital during their playoff run, so the team decided to bring some of the patients into the team facility for a visit instead. And the kids came bearing gifts for Barkov: the Selke Trophy as the league's top defensive forward, and the King Clancy trophy for leadership and humanitarian work.
BOSTON (AP) — It hasn’t taken Mike Trout long to regain his form after missing a month with a bruised left knee. Trout had three more hits on Monday night, including a 454-foot homer that was the longest at Fenway Park this year. The Los Angeles Angels beat the Boston Red Sox 7-6. It was Trout's second three-hit game in three starts since returning from the injured list on Friday. In all, the 11-time All-Star and three-time AL MVP is 8 for 14 since coming off the IL. It was only his second home run in 35 career games at Fenway Park.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Final L.A. Angels 7 Boston 6
Final Detroit 13 Chicago White Sox 1
Final Minnesota 10 Athletics 4
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Final Colorado 6 Miami 4
Final Milwaukee 3 Cincinnati 2
Final San Diego 1 San Francisco 0
Final N.Y. Mets 4 L.A. Dodgers 3