Sparks beaten at home
The Sparks blew a 10-point halftime lead Sunday and lost their home opener, 60-54, to the Seattle Storm at Staples Center.
Abby Bishop scored 13 of her career-high 18 points in the second half for Seattle. She scored consecutive baskets to put the Storm (2-2) up, 53-50, with 4 minutes 18 seconds left in the game — its first lead since the opening minutes.
Jewell Loyd added Seattle’s final six points and finished four for 10 from the field after entering the game averaging 5.0 points on five-for-31 shooting.
Jantel Lavender led the Sparks (0-2) with 12 points and nine rebounds. Erin Phillips and Alana Beard each added 10 points.
The Sparks led, 34-24, at halftime and 46-42 after three periods, but managed only eight points in the fourth.
They were again without Candace Parker, Kristi Toliver and Nneka Ogwumike, who all missed the season-opening 86-61 loss at Seattle on June 6. win over Gael Monfils, ended the first set tiebreaker with an ace — his ninth. Nadal saved the only break point he faced.
Playing with evident confidence against the eighth-seeded Troicki, Nadal converted his first opportunity to go 3-1 up in the second set and he served out the win in 1 hour 27 minutes.
“I’m really, really happy. It’s my second win this year and it gives me a lot of confidence,” said Nadal, after his 66th career victory and fourth on grass.
Frenchman Nicolas Mahut won his third career title after beating second-seeded David Goffin, 7-6 (1), 6-1, at the Topshelf Open, while fifth-seeded Camila Giorgi of Italy won the women’s final in ’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. Giorgi clinched her first career title with a 7-5, 6-3 win against Swiss teenager Belinda Bencic.
Neymar scored a goal and set up the injury-time winner by Douglas Costa, helping Brazil open its Copa America participation with a 2-1 win over Peru in Temuco, Chile.
Costa found the net from close range after receiving a perfect pass from Neymar two minutes into second-half injury time, calmly sending a low shot past the Peruvian goalkeeper.
Peru surprised early with a goal by midfielder Christian Cueva less than three minutes into the match after Brazil goalkeeper Jefferson made a mistake trying to clear the ball inside the area. Neymar equalized two minutes later with a header from near the penalty spot.
Colombia got off to a disappointing start in the Copa America, losing, 1-0, to Venezuela in Rancagua, Chile. Salomon Rondon, Venezuela’s biggest threat in the match, headed the winner past keeper David Ospina and into the far corner in the 60th minute.
Wayne Rooney closed to within one goal of England’s alltime scoring record, while Vicente del Bosque reached his 100th game in charge of Spain with a victory in European Championship qualifying.
Rooney moved to the brink of matching Bobby Charlton’s England scoring milestone of 49 goals by clinching a 3-2 victory over host Slovenia.
In Belarus, David Silva gave Spain a harder-than-expected 1-0 win to ensure Del Bosque could celebrate his 100th match in charge of the two-time defending champions.
Slovakia remained with England as the only sides to have won all six group qualifiers after beating visiting Macedonia, 2-1, to stay top of Group C, three points ahead of Spain.
Russia, meanwhile, slumped to a 1-0 home loss to Austria and has an uphill climb to earn automatic qualification for the 2016 finals in France as one of the top two teams in each group.