Off the wire Posse tops at Belmont Argentine upsets top seed
MOTOR SPORTS Hamilton on F1 pole
Defending Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton earned the pole position Saturday for today’s U.S. Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, where he’s hoping a late-season charge will help catch Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg in the title chase. Hamilton has won at the Circuit of the Americas three times in four years but never started from pole position. His final lap of 1 minute, 34.999 seconds pushed Rosberg into the No. 2 spot. Hamilton trails Rosberg by 33 points in the season championship with four races left. His three victories on this track came when he started No. 2. Rosberg had been on the pole at the U.S. Grand Prix the last two years. He can hold off Hamilton for the season title with a run of second-place finishes.
Enfinger wins at Talladega
Grant Enfinger grabbed his first career NASCAR victory — at his home track, no less — by holding off the pack to win the Truck Series race at Talladega Superspeedway. Enfinger, from Fairhope, used a plan with teammate Spencer Gallagher to move to the front and led a racehigh 45 laps to secure Saturday’s victory. Gallagher finished second, followed by Timothy Peters, Rico Abreu and Ben Kennedy. Talladega was an elimination race in the inaugural Chase playoffs, and Daniel Hemric and John Hunter Nemechek were both knocked out as the field was trimmed from eight drivers to six. Advancing to the next round were Kennedy, Matt Crafton, Peters, Johnny Sauter and Christopher Bell.
GOLF Lahiri jumps in front
India’s Anirban Lahiri shot a 7-under 65 on Saturday to take a four-stroke lead in the CIMB Classic in Malaysia. Coming off a playoff loss last week in the Asian Tour’s Macau Open, Lahiri had a 19-under 197 total after opening with consecutive 66s at TPC Kuala Lumpur. He had nine birdies and double bogey Saturday in the tournament sanctioned by the PGA Tour and the Asian Tour. Defending champion Justin Thomas had a 71 to drop into a tie for second with Scotland’s Russell Knox (68). Thomas started the back nine bogey-double bogey-bogey, parred the 13th and birdied the final five. Derek Fathauer (68), James Hahn (69) and Hideki Matsuyama (69) were 14 under. Ryan Moore, the 2013 and 2014 winner, was tied for 17th at 10 under after a 70. David
Lingmerth (Arkansas Razorbacks) moved up 11 spots to 60th place Saturday after a 4-under 68 put him at 1 under for the tournament.
Korda catches Lee
Jessica Korda caught Minjee Lee in the Blue Bay LPGA in Hainan, China. Ariya Jutanugarn made up even more ground to move into contention for her sixth victory of the season. Korda shot a 6-under 66 at Jian Lake to make up seven strokes on Lee for a share of the lead, and Jutanugarn had a 65 to cut her deficit from 10 to two shots and get into today’s final group. Korda had five birdies in a six-hole stretch and got up-and-down for another on the par-5 18th. Lee had a 73, also getting up-and-down for birdie on 18 to match Korda at 11-under 205. Lee began the day six strokes ahead after shooting 65-67 the first two rounds. The second-ranked Jutanugarn had the best round of the day on the course with difficult to hit valleys and plateaus on the large greens. Gaby Lopez (Arkansas Razorbacks) shot a 1-under 71 and sits 10 strokes behind the leaders in a tie for 17th place.
Two tied in Portugal
Denmark’s Anders Hansen shot a 9-under 62 for a share of the Portugal Masters lead with Finland’s Mikko Korhonen. Hansen had an 18-under 195 total at Oceanico Victoria. Korhonen had a 64. Ireland’s Padraig Harrington was a stroke back after a 67.
HORSE RACING
Royal Posse won the $300,000 Empire Classic, the richest of the eight stakes for New York breds on Saturday at Belmont Park in New York. The program, billed as Empire Showcase Day, was contested on a sloppy track. Royal Posse extended his winning streak to three with a 3½-length victory over 6/5 favorite Governor Malibu. The 5-year-old gelding paid $7.90 to win. The time was 1:52.15 for 1 1/8 miles. It was the second stakes victory of the day for the team of trainer Rudy Rodriguez and jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. They also took the $250,000 Maid Of The Mist for 2-year-old fillies with Bonita Springs. She won by 5¼ lengths, paying $4.40 to win.
TENNIS Del Potro, Sock in final
Olympic silver medalist Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina reached his second final of the year at the Stockholm Open after beating 2013 champion Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 6-4, 7-5 on Saturday. The wild card del Potro lost his serve for the first time all week, and again, but compensated with four breaks against second- seeded Dimitrov on the center court in the Swedish capital. In the other semifinal, sixth-seeded Jack Sock of the U.S. beat fourth-seeded
Alexander Zverev of Germany 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4), 6-4 in 2 hours, 49 minutes. Sock, after his first meeting with Zverev, was back in the final for a second consecutive year. Sock goes after his second career ATP title, and del Potro his 19th.
Unseeded Argentine Diego Schwartzman upset top-seeded David Goffin 7-5, 2-6, 7-5 to reach the European Open final in Belgium on Saturday. He gained some revenge after Goffin routed him in straight sets, dropping just six games, when Belgium beat Argentina in last year’s Davis Cup semifinals. Schwartzman will need to produce another upset in the final against third-seeded Richard Gasquet, who earlier staged an impressive comeback to beat Britain’s Kyle Edmund 3-6, 7-5, 6-2. Schwartzman dropped serve twice in the first set but broke Goffin for the third time to clinch it.
Kuznetsova retains title
Svetlana Kuznetsova secured the last spot at the WTA Finals in Singapore after defeating Daria Gavrilova of Australia 6-2, 6-1 Saturday to retain her Kremlin Cup title. The top-seeded Russian saved six of the seven break points she faced and converted six of her eight opportunities to beat the 38thranked Gavrilova in 72 minutes. The 22-year-old Gavrilova, who knocked out 2014 champion Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the quarterfinals, was seeking her first WTA title. Kuznetsova had already won 16. Kuznetsova, who was a fixture at the season-ending finals for much of her early 20s, hadn’t qualified since 2009 but she returns to take her place in the eight-player draw at the expense of Johanna Konta.
FOOTBALL Jets make moves
The New York Jets have placed linebacker Erin Henderson on the reserve/non-football injury/illness list and tight end Braedon Bowman on injured reserve, and have promoted linebackers Victor Ochi and Julian Stanford from the practice squad. Henderson led the Jets in total tackles the last two games, with 11 at Pittsburgh and seven at Arizona. The team didn’t announce the nature of Henderson’s ailment. He started four games this season. Bowman, a backup who played in three games, has a torn ACL in his right knee. Stanford played three games this season but was waived last month and then signed to the practice squad. The former Wagner star was originally signed to the practice squad last December. Ochi set a Stony Brook record with 32½ sacks and was originally signed by Baltimore as an undrafted free agent.