Atlanta United wins in playoffs

Josef Martinez scored two goals and Atlanta United picked up the first playoff-series win in franchise history, beating New York City FC 3-1 in the second leg of the MLS Eastern Conference semifinals.

Atlanta won the twogame series 4-1 on aggregate. The game drew a crowd of 70,526. Atlanta faces the New York Red Bulls in the East finals.

In other conference semifinals, the host Red Bulls beat the Columbus Crew 3-0 behind two late goals from Daniel Royer to advance 3-1 on aggregate, and host Sporting KC beat Real Salt Lake 4-2 to advance 5-3 on aggregate. KC’s Daniel Salloi scored two goals. Kansas City will face Portland.

Host Manchester City surged 12 points clear of Manchester United with a 3-1 derby win.

Lionel Messi scored twice on his return from a broken arm but Barcelona conceded four goals and was reduced to 10 men in a 4-3 home defeat to Real Betis in the Spanish league. Tennis: Six finals, six victories. The Czech Republic kept its perfect record in the Fed Cup finals by taking the trophy for the sixth time in eight years by defeating the defending champion United States.

Katerina Siniakova saved two match points before defeating Sofia Kenin 7-5, 5-7, 7-5 in the first reverse singles to give the Czechs an insurmountable 3-0 lead in the best-of-five final.

Roger Federer lost his opening match at the ATP Finals in London, 7-6 (4), 6-3 to Kei Nishikori. Earlier, Kevin Anderson made a confident start to his ATP Finals debut, beating Dominic Thiem 6-3, 7-6 (10). Basketball: Former BYU guard Jimmer Fredette scored 75 points in a Chinese Basketball Association game, the last 40 in the fourth quarter of the Shanghai Sharks’ 137-136 loss to the host Beikong Fly Dragons.