Djokovic into final against Tsitsipas in Rome
Thisis just what Novak Djokovic needed a week beforethe French Open.
The top-ranked Serb beat Casper Ruud, 6-4, 6-3, at the Italian Open on Saturday in Rometo reach his biggest final of the year.
Djokovic will attempt to extend his five-match winning streak over Stefanos Tsitsipas in Sunday’s final.
Tsitsipas reached his first Rome final by rallying past Alexander Zverev, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Inthe women’s semifinals, top-ranked Iga Swiatek routed Aryna Sabalenka, 6-2, 6-1, for her 27th consecutive win and will face another player on a run, Ons Jabeur, as she attemptsto defend her title. Jabeur beat Daria Kasatkina, 6-4,1-6, 7-5.
Soccer
Liverpool beat Chelsea in thefirst FA Cup final penalty shootout at Wembley to stay incontention for, potentially if unlikely, a quadruple of trophies.The showpiece ended 00after regulation and extra time before Liverpool prevailed again. The Reds were helpedby Chelsea midfielder Mason Mason’s penalty being saved in the 6-5 shootout win.
•Gyasi Zardes and Diego Rubio scored first-half goals on penalty kicks and the Colorado Rapids extended their home unbeaten streak to 22 matches with a 2-0 victory over Western Conference leading LAFC.
•Luciano Acosta scored the tie breaking goal in the 85th minute, and visiting FC Cincinnati took advantage of two glaring Chicago Fire mistakes
to match a franchise’ s single season record with their fourth victory in a row, winning2-1.
•Daniel Gazdag scored for thehost Philadelphia Union, who extended their unbeaten streak to four in a row following a 1-1 draw against the New York Red Bulls.
•Erik Godoy scored off a cornerkick in second-half stoppagetime to give the host Vancouver White caps a 3-3 tie with the San Jose Earthquakes.
•Tall es Magno and Valentin Ca stella nos scored goals a shost New York City FC extended their unbeaten streak to five games with a 2-0 victory againstthe Columbus Crew.
•Djordje Mihailovic continued his hot start to CF Montreal’s season with a goal in first-half injury time to help the visitors to a 2-0 win over Charlotte FC.
•Kyle Smith scored in the secondminute of second-half stoppagetime to lift visiting
Orlando City SC to a 1-0 win against Toronto FC.
Hockey
Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Finland picked up preliminaryround wins at the IIHF World Championships in Helsinki, Finland.
Women’s football
The Pittsburgh Passion jumped to a 28-0 lead before getting a 35-6 win over the Columbus Chaos in Columbus, Ohio.The Passion improved to3-1. Quarterback Alyssa George threw for two touch downs and ran for another.
College
The Oakland softball team beat Robert Morris, 5-4, in the Horizon League championship at Youngstown State.
•Former Duquesne foott ball coach Dan McCann died.He was 88. McCann coached the 1973 Dukes to a 100record and a national club football championship.
Baseball
The New York Boulders beat the Washington Wild Things,8-4, in Washington.
Football
The Canadian Football Leagueand the CFL Players’ Association broke off negotiations on a collective bargaining agreement, hours before beforethe current deal expired.