SPORTS DIGEST

BASEBALL

The Arizona Diamondbacks discovered they had clinched a National League wild card spot in the middle of their game against the Miami Marlins. Thanks to losses by both the Milwaukee Brewers, who were beaten 5-0 by the Chicago Cubs, and the St Louis Cardinals, who lost 4-1 to the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Diamondbacks were assured a play-off berth. And an eventual 3-2 walk-off win over the Marlins meant they also clinched the right to play host to the wild card game on 4 October. The Colorado Rockies are sitting in the second wild card spot following an 8-4 victory over the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. They opened up a two-game lead over the Brewers heading into the final week of the regular season, with Pat Valaika and Charlie Blackmon scoring consecutive home runs in the ninth innings. The Los Angeles Dodgers, who clinched their fifth consecutive National League West division title on Friday, triumphed 3-1 over the San Francisco Giants. In the American League, the Minnesota Twins maintained their lead over the Los Angeles Angels for the second wild card spot, beating the Detroit Tigers 10-4 in a four-game sweep at Comerica Park. Jose Berrios gave up two runs on five hits and two walks with six strikeouts as he won for the first time since August 30. The Angels remain four and a half games behind the Twins following their 7-5 victory over the Houston Astros. MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL: Arizona Diamondbacks 3 Miami Marlins 2, Atlanta Braves 0 Philadelphia Phillies 2, Baltimore Orioles 9 Tampa Bay Rays 4, Chicago White Sox 8 Kansas City Royals 1, Cincinnati Reds 4 Boston Red Sox 5, Detroit Tigers 4 Minnesota Twins 10, Houston Astros 5 LA Angels 7, LA Dodgers 3 San Francisco Giants 1, Milwaukee Brewers 0 Chicago Cubs 5, NY Mets 2 Washington Nationals 3, Oakland Athletics 8 Texas Rangers 1, Pittsburgh Pirates 4 St Louis Cardinals 1, San Diego Padres 4 Colorado Rockies 8, Seattle Mariners 2 Cleveland Indians 4, Toronto Blue Jays 9 NY Yankees 5.

GOLF

OFFICIAL WORLD RANKING: 1 Dustin Johnson (USA) 11.94, 2 Jordan Spieth (USA) 10.46, 3 Hideki Matsuyama (Jap) 8.93, 4 Justin Thomas (USA) 8.54, 5 Jon Rahm (Spa) 7.87, 6 Rory Mcilroy (NIR) 6.58, 7 Jason Day (Aus) 6.58, 8 Rickie Fowler (USA) 6.54, 9 Henrik Stenson (Swe) 6.47, 10 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 6.37, 11 Brooks Koepka (USA) 6.03, 12 Matt Kuchar (USA) 5.64, 13 Justin Rose (Eng) 5.55, 14 Alex Noren (Swe) 5.5, 15 Paul Casey (Eng) 5.38, 16 Marc Leishman (Aus) 5.19, 17 Tommy Fleetwood (Eng) 4.48, 18 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 4.40, 19 Rafael Cabrera-bello (Spa) 4.29, 20 Patrick Reed (USA) 4.21. WOMENS WORLD RANKINGS: 1Soyeon Ryu (Kor) 8.71,2 Sung Hyun Park (Kor) 8.05,3 Lexi Thompson (USA) 8.05, 4 Anna Nordqvist (Swe) 7.04, 5 Ariya Jutanugarn (Tha) 7.02, 6 Shanshan Feng (Chn) 6.84, 7 In Gee Chun (Kor) 6.84, 8 Lydia Ko (Nzl) 6.68, 9 In Kyung Kim (Kor) 6.54,10 Inbee Park (Kor) 5.65.

GRIDIRON

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: Buffalo Bills 26 Denver Broncos 16, Carolina Panthers 13 New Orleans Saints 34, Chicago Bears 23 Pittsburgh Steelers 17 OT, Detroit Lions 26 Atlanta Falcons 30, Green Bay Packers 27 Cincinnati Bengals 24 OT, Indianapolis Colts 31 Cleveland Browns 28, Jacksonville Jaguars 44 Baltimore Ravens 7, LA Chargers 10 Kansas City Chiefs 24, Minnesota Vikings 34 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 17, New England Patriots 36 Houston Texans 33, NY Jets 20 Miami Dolphins 6, Philadelphia Eagles 27 NY Giants 24, Tennessee Titans 33 Seattle Seahawks 27, Washington Redskins 27 Oakland Raiders 10.

TENNIS

ATP CHAMPIONS RANKINGS 2017: 1 Rafael Nadal (Spa) 9465 pts, 2 Roger Federer (Swi) 7505 pts, 3 Andy Murray (Gbr) 6790 pts, 4 Alexander Zverev (Ger) 4310 pts, 5 Marin Cilic (Cro) 4155 pts, 6 Novak Djokovic (Ser) 4125 pts, 7 Dominic Thiem (Aut) 3925 pts, 8 Grigor Dimitrov (Bul) 3575 pts, 9 Stan Wawrinka (Swi) 3540 pts, 10 Pablo Carreno-busta (Spa) 2855 pts, 11 Milos Raonic (Can) 2825 pts, 12 David Goffin (Bel) 2650 pts, 13 Roberto Bautista Agut (Spa) 2525 pts, 14 Kei Nishikori (Jpn) 2475 pts, 15 Kevin Anderson (Rsa) 2470 pts, 16 Sam Querrey (USA) 2445 pts, 17 John Isner (USA) 2425 pts, 18 Jo-wilfried Tsonga (Fra) 2375 pts, 19 Tomas Berdych (Cze) 2355 pts, 20 Nick Kyrgios (Aus) 2245 pts, 21 Jack Sock (USA) 2175 pts, 22 Gilles Muller (Lux) 1920 pts, 23 Lucas Pouille (Fra) 1825 pts, 24 Juan Martin Del Potro (Arg) 1820 pts, 25 Albert Ramosvinolas (Spa) 1815.00 pts, 26 Mischa Zverev (Ger) 1664 pts, 27 Fabio Fognini (Ita) 1650 pts, 28 David Ferrer (Spa) 1615 pts, 29 Diego Sebastian Schwartzman (Arg) 1545 pts, 30 Richard Gasquet (Fra) 1470 pts, 31 Adrian Mannarino (Fra) 1335 pts, 32 Karen Khachanov (Rus) 1330 pts, 33 Pablo Cuevas (Uru) 1325 pts, 34 Philipp Kohlschreiber (Ger) 1305 pts, 35 Feliciano Lopez (Spa) 1295 pts, 36 Gael Monfils (Fra) 1285 pts, 37 Andrey Rublev (Rus) 1221 pts, 38 Benoit Paire (Fra) 1190 pts, 39 Paolo Lorenzi (Ita) 1190 pts, 40 Damir Dzumhur (Bih) 1121 pts, 41 Robin Haase (Ned) 1120 pts, 42 Fernando Verdasco (Spa) 1115 pts, 43 Yuichi Sugita (Jpn) 1045 pts, 44 Gilles Simon (Fra) 1005 pts, 45 Steve Johnson (USA) 1000 pts, 46 Kyle Edmund (Gbr) 992 pts, 47 Jan-lennard Struff (Ger) 968 pts, 48 Viktor Troicki (Ser) 965 pts, 49 Ivo Karlovic (Cro) 955 pts, 50 Aljaz Bedene (Gbr) 943 pts. WTA RANKINGS: 1 Garbine Muguruza (Spa) 6030 pts, 2 Simona Halep (Rom) 5965 pts, 3 Elina Svitolina (Ukr) 5640 pts, 4 Karolina Pliskova (Cze) 5520 pts, 5 Venus Williams (USA) 4756 pts, 6 Caroline Wozniacki (Den) 4640 pts, 7 Johanna Konta (Gbr) 4520 pts, 8 Svetlana Kuznetsova (Rus) 4410 pts, 9 Dominika Cibulkova (Svk) 3770 pts, 10 Jelena Ostapenko (Lat) 3502 pts, 11 Agnieszka Radwanska (Pol) 3460 pts, 12 Madison Keys (USA) 3403 pts, 13 Petra Kvitova (Cze) 3310 pts, 14 Angelique Kerber (Ger) 3156 pts, 15 Kristina Mladenovic (Fra) 3095 pts, 16 Coco Vandeweghe (USA) 2764 pts, 17 Sloane Stephens (USA) 2711 pts, 18 Anastasija Sevastova (Lat) 2295 pts, 19 Elena Vesnina (Rus) 2140 pts, 20 Caroline Garcia (Fra) 2135 pts, 21 Daria Gavrilova (Aus) 2135 pts, 22 Serena Williams (USA) 2030 pts, 23 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Rus) 1945 pts, 24 Shuai Peng (Chn) 1860 pts, 25 Barbora Zahlavova Strycova (Cze) 1785 pts, 26 Julia Goerges (Ger) 1740 pts, 27 Magdalena Rybarikova (Svk) 1707 pts, 28 Lucie Safarova (Cze) 1690 pts, 29 Kiki Bertens (Ned) 1670 pts, 30 Shuai Zhang (Chn) 1635 pts, 31 Anett Kontaveit (Est) 1630 pts, 32 Daria Kasatkina (Rus) 1625 pts, 33 Mirjana Lucic-baroni (Cro) 1615 pts, 34 Timea Bacsinszky (Swi) 1588 pts, 35 Ekaterina Makarova (Rus) 1475 pts, 36 Carla Suarez Navarro (Spa) 1470 pts, 37 Ashleigh Barty (Aus) 1450 pts, 38 Lesia Tsurenko (Ukr) 1395 pts, 39 Ana Konjuh (Cro) 1385 pts, 40 Elise Mertens (Bel) 1338 pts, 41 Catherine Cartan Bellis (USA) 1285 pts, 42 Kristyna Pliskova (Cze) 1253 pts, 43 Alize Cornet (Fra) 1252 pts, 44 Naomi Osaka (Jpn) 1225 pts, 45 Lauren Davis (USA) 1219 pts, 46 Donna Vekic (Cro) 1210 pts, 47 Samantha Stosur (Aus) 1176 pts, 48 Yulia Putintseva (Kaz) 1145 pts, 49 Alison Riske (USA) 1140 pts, 50 Katerina Siniakova (Cze) 1125 pts. Selected other: 78 Heather Watson (Gbr) 791 pts. WTA TOUR TASHKENT OPEN (Uzbekistan) Rd 1: (5) Marketa Vondrousova (Cze) bt Misa Eguchi (Jpn) 6-1 6-1, Stefanie Voegele (Swi) bt Sabina Sharipova (Uzb) 6-1 6-3, Pauline Parmentier (Fra) bt Risa Ozaki (Jpn) 6-2 6-4, Kateryna Kozlova (Ukr) bt Akgul Amanmuradova (Uzb) 6-1 6-0, Kateryna Bondarenko (Ukr) bt Anna Blinkova (Rus) 6-3 6-2, (8) Ekaterina Alexandrova (Rus) bt Lizette Cabrera (Aus) 7-6 (7-2) 6-2, Denisa Allertova (Cze) bt Jana Fett (Cro) 6-2 3-6 6-3, Vera Zvonareva (Rus) bt (4) Irina-camelia Begu (Rom) 2-6 6-2 6-4.