Delle Donne scores 21 as Mystics beat Fever
Elena Delle Donne had 21 points and nine rebounds in her first season-opening game since 2018 and the host Washington Mystics beat the Indiana Fever 84-70 on Friday night to begin the WNBA season.
Delle Donne played just three games the previous two seasons because of COVID-19 concerns and back issues. The former league MVP was 8-for-16 from the floor in 30 minutes.
“I came out with a little bit of butterflies, but good ones,” Delle
Donne said. “I mean, shoot, I’m playing basketball again and this is fun.”
Natasha Cloud added 17 points and six assists for Washington. Ariel Atkins scored 15 points, Shatori Walker-Kimbrough had 10. Alysha Clark did not play.
Kelsey Mitchell led Indiana with 18 points. NaLyssa Smith, the second overall pick last month in the WNBA draft, had 13 points and 13 rebounds and No. 10 pick Queen Egbo had 10 points and six rebounds.
Smith and Egbo were two of the five top-10 selections in the game. Emily Engster, picked fourth, had four points and nine rebounds for Indiana and teammate Lexie Hull, a Stanford alum who selected sixth, was scoreless in eight minutes.
Washington rookie Shakira Austin, selected third, scored three points.
Tennis: In a clash of generations, 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz overcame an injury to defeat his idol, Rafael Nadal, 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 in the Madrid Open quarterfinals.
“It’s obvious there’s (a change in guard),“Nadal said. “He turned 19 yesterday, I’m almost 36 years old. If (the change) begins today or not, we will find out in the next months. I’m happy for him. He was better than me in several aspects of the game.”
Nadal also was loudly supported throughout the match, and the five-time champion received a huge ovation as he left the court.
Alcaraz was emotional afterward. “It means a lot to me to beat Rafa, to beat the best player in the history on clay,” he said. “This is the result of all the hard work I’ve done.”
The ninth-ranked Alcaraz is the youngest-ever semifinalist in Madrid. He will next face topranked Novak Djokovic, who eased past Hubert Hurkacz 6-3, 6-4.
Soccer: Lautaro Martinez may have saved Inter Milan’s title challenge, scoring twice to help the defending champion recover from two goals down to beat Empoli 4-2 at home and move to the top of Serie A — for 48 hours at least.
Inter was a point above city rival AC Milan, which plays at Hellas Verona on Sunday. There are two rounds remaining after this weekend.
Coronavirus: The Olympic Council of Asia said that this year’s Asian Games in China are being postponed because of concerns about the spreading omicron variant of the coronavirus in the country.
The OCA said it had not picked new dates but said they would be announced “in the near future” after talks with local organizers and the Chinese Olympic Committee.
Also in China, two Diamond League track meets were canceled because of coronavirusrelated restrictions and a substitute event in Poland was added to the calendar.