Off the wire
Glover leads by 1
Former U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover shot his second consecutive 7-under 64 on Friday to take a one-shot lead at the Web.com Tour Championship.
Glover, 38, who won the 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black, needs a high finish this weekend in Atlantic Beach, Fla., to ensure he will keep his PGA Tour card for the upcoming season. The last of his three PGA Tour victories was in 2011. Glover earned $17,212 in the first three Web. com Tour Finals events. The top 25 money winners in the four-tournament series earn PGA Tour cards, and the final card went for $40,625 last year. Glover was at 14-under 128. Denny McCarthy, who has already earned enough money to secure a return to the PGA Tour, was one shot back. Tour veteran Cameron Tringale, who has earned just $2,660 after missing two of the first three cuts, was 12 under after a 67. Four-time PGA Tour winner Aaron Baddeley was among those who missed the cut.
Fisher shoots 1st 59
English golfer Oliver Fisher shot the first round of 59 in the 46year history of the European Tour on Friday. Fisher made an eagle and 10 birdies on a par-71 course in the second round of the Portugal Masters at Vilamoura, Portugal, finishing the record-breaking round by two-putting for par from 40 feet at the last. There have officially been 10 sub-60 rounds on the U.S. PGA Tour, with one of them a 58, by Jim Furyk in 2016 at the Travelers Championship. The No. 287-ranked Fisher was sprayed with champagne on the 18th green after completing his round at Dom Pedro Victoria Golf Course. He birdied Nos. 10-12, then No. 15, before saving par with a 20-foot putt at the 16th. He tapped in for birdie from three feet at No. 17 and held his nerve down the last, hitting his tee shot down the middle of the fairway and safely finding the green with his approach. There have been 19 rounds of 60 on the European Tour. Eighteen players have done so, with Darren Clarke achieving it twice. The 59 left Fisher leading the tournament midway through the second round.
Edmund tops Sock
Britain’s Kyle Edmund regained command in a tiebreaker and beat American Jack Sock on Friday as Team Europe took a 2-0 lead in the Laver Cup. Edmund’s 6-4, 5-7, 10-6 victory followed Grigor Dimitrov’s 6-1, 6-4 win over Frances Tiafoe of Team World in the opener at the United Center in Chicago. Edmund broke Sock’s service to capture the first set 6-4. Sock, who came out to warm up wearing a Chicago Bulls jersey over his shirt, fought back and broke Edmund to go up 6-5 in the second set before serving it out as the crowd came alive. Edmund then raced to a 7-2 lead in the 10-point tiebreaker that is used in the Laver Cup when the first two sets are split.
Thiem, Wawrinka advance
Top-seeded Dominic Thiem and fit-again Stan Wawrinka won their quarterfinal matches at the St. Petersburg Open on Friday. Austrian player Thiem came through a tough encounter against Daniil Medvedev of Russia, firing 10 aces on his way to a 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (2) victory. His reward is a semifinal with
Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain, who won 7-6 (0), 6-3 against Marco Cecchinato. Experienced Swiss Wawrinka, aiming for his first title since sustaining a severe knee injury last year, next plays Martin
Klizan of Slovakia after beating last year’s St. Petersburg champion
Damir Dzumhur 6-3, 6-4.
Alexandrova moves up
Ekaterina Alexandrova broke top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko’s serve five times Friday to beat the defending champion 6-3, 6-2 in a rain-delayed match at the Korea Open in Seoul. Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champion, had reached the quarterfinals or better at six tournaments this year, including the Wimbledon semifinals. Alexandrova came into the match with a 1-7 career record in round-of-16 matches at WTA-level events. The postponement from Thursday meant Alexandrova had to play her quarterfinal match later Friday against sixth-seeded Hsieh Su-wei. Hsieh has won seven consecutive matches since winning last week’s Japan Women’s Open. In other quarterfinal matches, second-seeded Kiki Bertens beat Evgeniya Rodina 3-6, 6-3, 6-0 and Ajla Tomljanovic defeated Mandy Minella 6-2, 4-6, 7-5.
Osaka in semifinals
U.S. Open champion Naomi Osaka advanced to the semifinals of the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo by beating Barbora Strycova 6-3, 6-4 on Friday. The third-seeded Osaka converted all three of her break points and won 80 percent of points on her first serve. She will next face either Camila Giorgi or
Victoria Azarenka. Osaka became the first Japanese player to win a Grand Slam singles title when she upset 23-time major champion Serena Williams in New York. Also,
fourth-seeded Karolina Pliskova defeated Alison Riske 6-1, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (4). She will next play Donna Vekic, who beat second-seeded Caroline Garcia 6-3, 6-4.
FOOTBALL Titans QB a mystery
The Tennessee Titans still don’t know who will start at quarterback Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Marcus Mariota was limited all week with an arm injury and is questionable for the second consecutive game. Blaine
Gabbert started in place of Mariota in Tennessee’s 20-17 victory over the Houston Texans. Titans Coach Mike Vrabel said a decision could come today. The Titans will have left tackle Taylor Lewan back Sunday now that he’s been cleared from the league’s concussion protocol. Lewan had missed the Houston game after sustaining a hit from Miami Dolphins linebacker Andre
Branch in the season opener.
Safe Sport funds double
American Olympic sports organizations voted to nearly double their contribution, to $2 million a year, to the U.S. Center for Safe Sport, the 18-month-old organization that is still struggling to find funding and hire staff. The $1 million represents nearly a 25 percent increase for an organization that operates on an annual budget of $4.3 million. The Safe Sport Center now has 24 full-time employees. It has come under criticism for not processing cases quickly enough. CEO Shellie Pfohl said funding remains an issue, and also said the center has faced challenges in hiring investigators with backgrounds in looking into sex-abuse cases. When the Safe Sport Center opened in March 2017, it received 20 to 30 calls a month. Since the onset of the #MeToo movement and the gymnastics assault case involving Larry Nassar, that has increased to about 20 to 30 calls per week.
Lawyer: Russia deal bad
The Canadian lawyer who investigated the state-backed doping scheme by Russia when it hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics said the World Anti-Doping Agency rushed into accepting a bad deal by reinstating the country’s drug-testing program. Richard McLaren told The Associated Press he suspected there were “loopholes” in the deal which Russia could exploit to back out of its promises, including the pledge to give access to the Moscow lab sealed by federal investigators. McLaren said WADA also erred by failing to end Russian legal cases in three countries arising from his work. They include former Russian sports minister Vitaly
Mutko’s challenge to his life ban from the Olympics. The decision by WADA to reinstate Russia is a key step toward the country’s track and field team being welcomed back to international competitions such as the Olympics. McLaren was appointed by WADA in 2016 to verify claims by Russian whistleblower
Grigory Rodchenkov. The former Moscow laboratory director detailed Rodchenkov’s part in corrupting the 2014 Sochi Olympics to help the home team win more medals. In two investigation reports, McLaren confirmed a state-backed scheme to swap tainted urine samples for clean ones through a hole in the wall at the Sochi lab run by Rodchenkov.