Alcaraz, Medvedev to meet for title at Indian Wells
Carlos Alcaraz defeated Jannik Sinner 7-6 (4), 6-3 on Saturday to advance to the BNP Paribas Open final against Daniil Medvedev at Indian Wells.
Medvedev beat Frances Tiafoe 7-5, 7-6 (4) on his eighth match point for his 19th consecutive match victory of the year.
Alcaraz needs to win the title today to regain the No. 1 ranking in the world from Novak Djokovic.
Alcaraz and Sinner had split their four previous meetings, with Alcaraz winning both matches on hard courts.
Medvedev, the fifth seed, has dominated Tiafoe, winning all five of their career meetings, including 12 of 13 sets in the process.
But the 14th-seeded American put up a valiant fight, saving seven match points in the second set before succumbing.
Tiafoe regularly charged the net to counter Medvedev's power baseline game. He saved three break points and stayed on serve until the 11th game of the first set. But Medvedev had a net-cord forehand winner to go up 6-5 and then served out the set.
Tiafoe saved three match points while serving down 5-3 in the second. Medvedev piled up four more match points while serving for the match leading 6-5, but couldn't cash in until the tiebreaker.
Medvedev had 30 winners and just nine unforced errors.
Medvedev's 19-match winning streak dates to his title run in Rotterdam in February. He then won tournaments in Doha and Dubai. Now, the 2021 U.S. Open champion and former world No. 1 is in position to add another one.
Medvedev has proven resilient during the 12-day tournament. He overcame a badly twisted ankle and a cut thumb in two straight matches to power through to the final.
Novak Djokovic withdrew from the Miami Open again because he still can't travel to the United States as a foreign citizen who is not vaccinated against COVID-19.
Djokovic is out of the field for the event that begins next week, a tournament spokesman said. The 35-year-old from Serbia won that event six times, most recently in 2016.
Djokovic is tied with Rafael Nadal — who is injured and also won't be in Miami — at 22 Grand Slam titles, the record for most won by a man. In 2023, Djokovic is 15-1 with two titles, including at the Australian Open in January.
But he will now have missed the first two Masters 1000 events of the season. He pulled out of the BNP Paribas Open because of his COVID-19 vaccination status.
In 2022, Djokovic also missed the trips to Indian Wells, Miami and the U.S. Open.
Back in April 2020, as the pandemic raged, Djokovic said he was opposed to needing to be vaccinated to travel. He later said he would not get inoculated even if it meant missing tournaments.
Edwards retains crown at UFC 286 in London
Leon Edwards retained his welterweight title, beating challenger Kamaru Usman at UFC 286 by majority decision in London.
Judges scored the trilogy fight at the O2 Arena 48-46, 48-46, 4747 in favor of the Jamaican-born Brit, who landed the cleaner blows as their third fight went the distance.
Edwards made an encouraging start, connecting with two heavy body kicks in the opening round.
The 31-year-old Edwards' greater speed unsettled Usman, but the challenger took Edwards down briefly in round two before both fighters traded some heavy blows.
Usman grappled Edwards to the floor again early in the third and the latter was docked a point for grabbing the fence.
A similar pattern unfolded in the fourth, which was just as tight, with Edwards looking to keep his distance as Usman tried to get in close.
Edwards evaded two more takedown attempts in the final round and caught Usman with an uppercut, but took a hit to the body as his title defense went down to the wire.
Edwards had ended Usman's long reign as champion with a kick to the Nigerian's head and neck in the fifth round in Salt Lake City in August in UFC 278.
This was their third meeting, more than seven years after the first fight won by Usman.
Lutz named new coach at Western Kentucky
Western Kentucky hired Steve Lutz as the Hilltoppers' men's coach, quickly completing a national search a week after Rick Stansbury stepped down.
Lutz guided Texas A&M-Corpus Christi past Southeast Missouri State 75-71 on Tuesday for its first-ever NCAA tournament victory — a First Four matchup of No. 16 seeds. The Islanders then fell 96-75 to overall No. 1 seed Alabama on Thursday.
Lutz was 47-23 in two seasons at TAMUCC, including going 2411 this season. His teams saw automatic NCAA tournament berths after twice winning the Southland Conference Tournament championship.
Lutz will be introduced as WKU's 16th head coach on Monday.
The 50-year-old Lutz spent four years as a Purdue assistant and helped recruit Boilermakers star junior center Zach Edey. He also assisted at Creighton, which reached the NCAA tournament four times, SMU and Stephen F. Austin.
Stansbury cited a need to focus on his health and family in resigning. He was 139-89 in seven seasons at WKU but failed to reach the NCAA tournament.
• Minnesota's women's team hired West Virginia head coach Dawn Plitzuweit to a six-year contract to take over its lagging program.
Plitzuweit, who replaces Lindsay Whalen, has 16 years of experience as a head coach with a career record of 356-141 at four schools. She spent just one season with the Mountaineers, who as a 10th seed lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament to No. 7 seed Arizona on Friday.
Prior to that, the 50-year-old native of West Bend, Wisconsin, took South Dakota to the NCAA tournament in four of her six seasons there.
Plitzuweit also spent four seasons at Northern Kentucky and five seasons at Grand Valley State, which won the NCAA Division II national title in 2006.
Whalen's departure was described by Minnesota athletic director Mark Coyle as a mutual decision, but it seemed like she wasn't ready to leave.
Whalen was hired five years ago with no previous coaching experience. But she is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and led her home-state Gophers to their only Final Four appearance as a player in 2004, going on to star for the Minnesota Lynx in the WNBA and for the U.S. national team in the Olympics.
Whalen went 71-76 with Minnesota, including a 32-58 record in Big Ten play and no NCAA tournament appearances.
Vlhova wins slalom finale, Shiffrin finishes in third
Slovakian skier Petra Vlhova used a frenetic finish on her final run to win the last women's World Cup slalom of the season in Soldeu, Andorra, while Mikaela Shiffrin placed third.
Vlhova trailed then-leader Leona Popovic by eight-hundredths of a second at the last split but gained time through the gates on the flat final sector to beat the Croatian prodigy by 0.43 seconds.
Shiffrin trailed Vlhova by 0.83 for her 17th podium result from 30 starts this season.
Shiffrin won six of the previous 10 slaloms this season and the American locked up the discipline title in January. She has also secured her fifth overall and second giant slalom globe.
Shiffrin will be after her 14th win of the season and 88th in total in today's giant slalom, the last race of the season, a week after setting the record for most career victories with 87.
• Swiss skier Marco Odermatt broke the 23-year-old men's record for most World Cup points in a single season after dominating the giant slalom at the World Cup Finals in Soldeu, Andorra.
Odermatt won the race by 2.11 seconds over second-place Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway.
The victory lifted Odermatt's tally to 2,042 points and past the previous mark of 2,000 set by Austrian great Hermann Maier in the 1999-2000 season.
Odermatt, who is the Olympic champion, matched another best mark with his 13th win of the season. No male skier has ever won more races in one campaign, and only Maier, Ingemar Stenmark and Marcel Hirscher achieved the feat in the past.
Odermatt had already successfully defended his overall title and secured the super-G and GS discipline globes.
Brown's Pichardo first woman to play in D1
Brown freshman Olivia Pichardo became the first woman to appear in a Division I baseball game when she pinch hit in a 10-1 loss to Bryant on Friday.
The left-handed batting utility player from Queens, New York, went to the plate with one out in the bottom of the ninth and grounded out to first on the first pitch.
Pichardo was an outfielder and pitcher on the USA Baseball Women's National Team that won three of five against Team Canada in its only games last summer. She walked on at Brown in the fall, and coach Grant Achilles told her she earned a roster spot in November.
Pichardo played club ball in the New York area and last year completed an internship in the New York Mets' amateur scouting department. She played basketball and volleyball at the Garden School before attending Brown.