Aryna Sabalenka won her first Grand Slam title by coming back to beat Elena Rybakina 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the Australian Open women's final. Sabalenka used 17 aces to help overcome seven double-faults Saturday in her first championship match at a major tournament. The 24-year-old Sabalenka is f…
Novak Djokovic will carry a 27-match winning streak at the Australian Open into the final against Stefanos Tsitsipas. That unbeaten run was put on pause a year ago when Djokovic could not participate in the tournament because he was not vaccinated against COVID-19. That is just one of severa…
Aryna Sabalenka figures she'll feel some jitters when she steps out on court to face Elena Rybakina in the Australian Open final. Saturday's contest is Sabalenka's first title match in singles at a Grand Slam tournament. Rybakina is familiar with this stage: She won Wimbledon a little more t…
Novak Djokovic put aside some shaky early play to beat unseeded American Tommy Paul and reach the Australian Open final, where he will face Stefanos Tsitsipas on Sunday. The winner will move up to No. 1 in the ATP rankings.
Novak Djokovic has put aside some shaky early play to beat unseeded American Tommy Paul 7-5, 6-1, 6-2 and reach the Australian Open final. Djokovic will face Stefanos Tsitsipas for the title on Sunday. The winner will move up to No. 1 in the ATP rankings. Tsitsipas made it to his second Gran…
Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina plays in her second final in the past three Grand Slam tournaments when she meets No. 5 Aryana Sabalenka for the Australian Open championship. They are two of the hardest-hitting players in tennis. Saturday's contest is the first Grand Slam final of Sabalenk…
Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina has reached her second final in the past three Grand Slam tournaments by beating Victoria Azarenka at the Australian Open. Rybakina will take on No. 5 Aryna Sabalenka.
Novak Djokovic will face Tommy Paul in the Australian Open men's semifinals. The other semifinal Friday is between Stefanos Tsitsipas and Karen Khachanov. Djokovic is on a 26-match winning streak at Melbourne Park and has been particularly dominant in recent contests: He has won his past 11 sets and dropped only 27 games in that span. He is seeking a 10th Australian Open title and 22nd Grand Slam championship overall. He's also a combined 18-0 in semifinals and finals in Melbourne. Paul is participating in his first major semifinal. Tsitsipas was the runner-up to Djokovic at the 2021 French Open. Khachanov has never reached a Slam final.
Tommy Paul has reached his first Grand Slam semifinal and ended the surprising run of Ben Shelton by winning their all-American matchup Wednesday at the Australian Open. Paul is the first man from the United States to make it to the final four at Melbourne Park since Andy Roddick in 2009. He will face 21-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic in the semifinals Friday.
Victoria Azarenka continues her quest for a third Australian Open title a decade after her last championship at Melbourne Park when she plays Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in one of two women’s semifinals. No. 5-seeded Aryna Sabalenka plays unseeded Magda Linette in the other. Azarenka won the 2012 and 2013 titles in Australia but she has not been back to the final four since. Rybakina’s path included victories against 2022 runner-up Danielle Collins and No. 1 Iga Swiatek. Sabalenka is 9-0 so far in 2023 and won both previous contests against Linette.
Tommy Paul has reached his first Grand Slam semifinal and ended the surprising run of Ben Shelton by winning their all-American matchup 7-6 (6), 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 at the Australian Open. Paul is the first man from the United States to make it to the final four at Melbourne Park since Andy Roddick in 2009. Paul will face 21-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic in the semifinals Friday. Djokovic beat Andrey Rublev 6-1, 6-2, 6-4. Stefanos Tsitsipas and Karen Khachanov meet in the other men’s semifinal Friday. Aryna Sabalenka and Magda Linette advanced to the semifinals with victories. The other women's semifinal is Victoria Azarenka against Elena Rybakina.
Two days after advancing to her first Grand Slam tournament quarterfinal unseeded Magda Linette has gone one better and is into the Australian Open semis. The 30-year-old Linette beat Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 7-5 to add the former No. 1 to the list of top players she has beaten at Melbourne Park during this tournament.
The term "choke" is often used when describing a tennis player who misses what looks like an easy shot or loses a match at the Australian Open and other tournaments. The attention falls on one athlete when there are no teammates to cover for mistakes or provide help at key junctures in an individual sport. That means plenty of praise for the winners and accusations of "choking" lobbed at the losers. Sometimes it's used when a high-ranked player is defeated by someone much lower-ranked that they're "supposed" to beat. Or when someone throws away a big lead. It is not surprising that most players are not fans of the term.
MELBOURNE, Australia — On the court at Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday night, Victoria Azarenka — the athlete — displayed the same confident brand of take-the-ball-early, hard-hitting tennis that carried her to two Australian Open titles and the No. 1 ranking a decade ago.
CONCORD – As far as double-digit victories go, the Cream of Cabarrus second-ranked Cannon School boys basketball team may have had one of the most gut-wrenching, disconcerting ones of all time Friday.
These are the results from Friday’s high school basketball games involving teams from Cabarrus County, starting with teams listed in The Independent Tribune’s Cream of Cabarrus rankings:
CHINA GROVE – Junior center Jeremiah Howard’s double-double played a major role as the Concord boys basketball team powered past homestanding Carson, 63-39, Friday night.
CONCORD – The West Cabarrus girls basketball team put up a valiant fight but fell short of pulling off the upset as undefeated Lake Norman took a 69-53 win on the Wolverines’ home floor Friday night.
Grant Sherfield (30 points), Oklahoma crush No. 2 Alabama
ATLANTA — A recruiting analyst for the University of Georgia football team was not authorized to drive an SUV rented by the university at the time of a crash in which she and a football player died, athletic department officials said late Friday. After nearly two weeks of refusing to answer questions about the crash, the UGA Athletic Association released a brief statement in response to The ...
Georgia: Use of SUV in fatal crash wasn't authorized
PITTSBURGH — Maybe it's because I'm from Buffalo, but from this vantage point, conference championship games feel just as big and sometimes bigger than Super Bowls. That's especially true the first time around, which was Bills 51, Raiders 3, if I recall correctly. (And how could I forget?) One's entire football existence — as a player, fan or coach — is geared toward getting to the Super Bowl, ...
Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina has eliminated No. 1-ranked Iga Swiatek and 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko has defeated Coco Gauff in the Australian Open's fourth round on Sunday.
Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina has eliminated No. 1-ranked Iga Swiatek in straight sets to reach the Australian Open quarterfinals for the first time. The 22nd-seeded Rybakina used her big serving to unsettle Swiatek and got the better of their baseline exchanges to win 6-4, 6-4 in about …
It's been almost two full decades since this many U.S. men reached Week 2 at the Australian Open. And while that group in 2004 included a couple of Grand Slam champions in Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick, everything is all so new for the quartet there this time.
Andy Murray's exhausting run at the Australian Open is over in the third round after a loss to Roberto Bautista Agut. The 35-year-old Murray had won two marathons just to get to this point at Melbourne Park, where he is a five-time finalist. This match went about 3 1/2 hours and Bautista Agu…
MELBOURNE, Australia — Fifth-seeded Andrey Rublev advanced to the fourth round of the Australian Open for the third time in four years with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 win over Dan Evans on Saturday.
Tennis is abuzz with tongue-in-cheek talk about a “Netflix curse” during the Australian Open. There are folks drawing a line from the streaming service’s new docuseries about the sport to the recent rough times for Season 1 protagonists.
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Damar Hamlin released a video Saturday in which he says he’s thankful for the outpouring of support and vows to pay it back, marking the first time the Buffalo Bills safety has spoken publicly since he went into cardiac arrest and needed to be resuscitated on the field in Cincinnati on Jan. 2. Hamlin said now was “the right time” to speak after the Bills’ season ended and because he needed time to recover and gather his thoughts. The 5 1/2-minute video was posted on Hamlin's social media accounts.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The single most impactful player in the AFC Championship Game plays quarterback for the Chiefs. The biggest unknown in the AFC Championship Game is the quarterback for the Chiefs. You can see why the Vegas oddsmakers have had a tough time with this one. Patrick Mahomes will play through a high-ankle sprain, his true effectiveness to be determined. Even by his own admission. ...
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Football can be a beautiful game, replete with dazzling athletic feats of finesse, improvisation and grace. Sunday’s NFC Championship Game between the 49ers and Philadelphia Eagles won’t be that kind of football. No, the Niners and Birds are set to play a brutal, facemask-to-facemask, mud-and-blood contest in Philadelphia. A trip to the Super Bowl is on the line. If scars ...
PHILADELPHIA — Inside the practice bubble at the NovaCare Complex, taking up the entire wall behind one of the end zones, is a wide-angle photograph from what was, in all likelihood, the game that featured the loudest moment at Lincoln Financial Field. The photo is from the 2018 NFC championship game, and it spans to show the Eagles and Vikings on the field and most of the crowd in the stands. ...