Venus advances, Serena pulls out
Going small paid off big for Venus Williams.
Tuesday didn’t go as well for her sister Serena.
On a day when back problems forced the younger Williams to withdraw before her second-round match, Venus Williams reached the third round of the Western & Southern Open with a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (4) upset of defending champion Kiki Bertens.
Hours before her match was scheduled to begin, Serena Williams withdrew, citing the same back injury that forced her to retire from the Rogers Cup final on Sunday in Toronto.
The injury raises questions about Serena’s fitness ahead of the U.S. Open, which starts Aug. 26.
Top-seeded Novak Djokovic cruised into the third round of the Cincinnati tournament with a 7-5, 6-1 win over wild card Sam Querrey. Roger Federer, the third seed who was playing for the first time since Wimbledon, defeated wild card Juan Ignacio Londero 6-3, 6-4.
Coco Gauff will get a chance to try for an encore: The 15-year-old from Florida received a wild-card entry for the U.S. Open’s main draw.
Juan Martin del Potro, the 2009 U.S. Open champion, pulled out of the tournament because he is still recovering from surgery on his right kneecap.
Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner will miss the next three games after the WNBA suspended her for her role in a fight in the Dallas-Phoenix game over the weekend that resulted in six players getting ejected.
Wings forwards Kayla Thornton and Kristine Anigwe were suspended two games each for their roles. Phoenix guard Diana Taurasi and Dallas forward Kaela Davis were suspended a game apiece.
The Lakers signed 6foot-1 guard Demetrius Jackson, who has appeared in 26 NBA games since he was drafted 45th overall out of Notre Dame by the Boston Celtics in 2016.
Joseph Tsai, the billionaire co-founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, is close to signing a deal to buy the 51% of the Brooklyn Nets he does not already own from Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, the New York Post reported. The $2.35-billion transaction would mark the highest price paid for a sports franchise
Seeking The Soul, one of two starters with a Grade I victory in North America, opened as the tepid morning-line favorite at 3-1 for the Pacific Classic, the biggest race of the meet at Del Mar, on Saturday. The 6-year-old has raced 27 times at nine tracks, but this is the first time trainer Dallas Stewart has sent him west of Louisiana.
The winner earns an automatic berth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. — Jay Posner
Former major league managers Willie Randolph and Bryan Price will be part of the coaching staff for Team USA during a qualifying tournament for the 2020 Olympics.
Former Angels third baseman Doug DeCinces was sentenced to eight months of home detention and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine for his role in an insidertrading scheme, the Orange County Register reported.
DeCinces, who also played for the Baltimore Orioles, was convicted in 2017 of insider trading for a stock buy that earned him more than $1 million.
Prosecutors in Texas plan to seek the death penalty for professional MMA fighter Cedric Marks, who is accused in the deaths of two people whose bodies were found in a shallow grave in Oklahoma.