Isner advances in Paris Masters
John Isner stayed on track for the last spot at the ATP Finals by beating Juan Martin del Potro 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-4 in the Paris Masters quarterfinals.
The American was the runnerup last year and needs to win the tournament to reach the finals in London this month.
“I’ve given myself a pretty good shot to qualify,” Isner said. “But it’s going to be very tough.”
Meanwhile, top-ranked Rafael Nadal pulled out with a right knee injury and hopes to be fit to lead the London field.
The IAAF says it will create a world rankings system to help decide qualification for the Olympics and world championships.
Track and field’s governing body says Hungary-based analysts Elite Ltd. will help with “the build, management and maintenance of a new IAAF results and statistics database.”
The IAAF says the rankings will operate next year and be used to shape entries to the 2019 worlds in Doha, Qatar, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Details about how the rankings point system will work have not been finalized.
Kurt Busch earned the pole at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, going faster than anyone ever has gone in NASCAR Cup qualifying on a 11⁄2-mile track.
Busch averaged 200.915 mph on his only lap in the final round of qualifying. The Stewart-Haas driver was in one of the five cars that broke the 200-mph mark, with Denny Hamlin qualifying second and the highest of the remaining championship contenders.
J.J. Spaun shot a six-under 65 at breezy TPC Summerlin to take the lead in the suspended second round of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas . . . . Nicolas Colsaerts shot a second straight seven-under 64 to take a four-stroke lead after the second round of the Turkish Airlines Open in Antalya, Turkey.
Former NHL referee Kerry Fraser has been diagnosed with an incurable form of blood cancer. Fraser wrote on the NHL’s website that he has a rare blood disorder called essential thrombocythemia, known as ET.
Longtime Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs says he will step down by June 2018 as leader of a department hit by scandals in the basketball and softball programs.
Peru captain and striker Paolo Guerrero has been provisionally suspended by FIFA for 30 days after failing a doping test.
Guerrero tested positive on Oct. 5 after the World Cup qualifying match against Argentina, the Peruvian Football Federation added on Friday.
The federation did not disclose the banned substance.