Djokovic into Eastbourne semis
Novak Djokovic converted his fourth match point to beat Donald Young 6-2, 7-6 (9) Thursday and advance to the semifinals at the Eastbourne International in England, a grass-court warm-up event for Wimbledon.
Djokovic will next play Daniil Medvedev after the Russian player beat fourthseeded Steve Johnson 6-3, 2-6, 6-3.
Second-seeded Gael Monfils will play seventh-seeded Richard Gasquet in the other semifinal after they both won two matches — in the second round and then the quarterfinals — on Thursday.
In the women’s tournament, Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep, the top two seeded players, lost in the quarterfinals. The top-ranked Kerber was beaten 6-3, 6-4 by Johanna Konta, who was joined in the semifinals by fellow British player Heather Watson after her 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 win over Barbora Strycova.
Halep lost 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 to sixth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki, who next plays Watson. Konta plays third-seeded Karolina Pliskova, a 6-7 (7), 6-2, 6-4 winner over Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Andy Murray has pulled out of another exhibition match ahead of Wimbledon because of a sore hip.
The top-ranked Murray was scheduled to play at the Aspall Tennis Classic at the Hurlingham Club in London on Friday but says he needs to rest his hip. He withdrew from an exhibition match against Lucas Pouille on Tuesday with the same problem.
Wimbledon starts Monday and Murray is the defending champion.
WNBA: Ivory Latta made four three-pointers and matched Elena Delle Donne with 15 points to help the Washington Mystics beat the visiting New York Liberty 67-54. The Mystics made their first 19 free throws and finished 21-of-23 . ... Jasmine Thomas made 12 of 16 fieldgoal tries on the way to a career-high 29 points in the host Connecticut Sun’s 96-89 win over the Seattle Storm. Breanna Stewart had 22 points and 10 rebounds for the Storm.
NFL: The Justice Department is giving up the legal fight over the name of the Washington Redskins. In a letter to a federal appeals court, the department said last week’s Supreme Court decision in favor of an Asian American band calling itself the Slants means the NFL team will prevail in a legal battle to cancel the team’s trademarks because the name is disparaging to American Indians.