Halep wins, U.S. teen Anisimova’s run ends
COLLEGE BASKETBALL: Travis Fields Jr. and Ed Polite Jr. each scored 13 points to lift Radford to its first-ever NCAA tournament win, 71-61 over LIU Brooklyn in the First Four in Dayton, Ohio. The Highlanders will face No. 1 seed Villanova on Thursday in Pittsburgh . ... Top-ranked and top-seeded Virginia will be without F De’Andre Hunter, the ACC’s sixth man of the year, for the NCAA tournament because of a broken left wrist. The school announced that Hunter, a 6-foot-7 swingman, suffered the injury during the ACC tournament, but did not say how. He will miss 10 to 12 weeks.
NFL: WR Jordy Nelson — Aaron Rodgers’ favorite target — was released by the Packers. Nelson had 550 receptions and 69 TD catches in 10 seasons with the Packers. ... Veteran RB Adrian Peterson was released by the Cardinals. In six games, he gained 448 yards on 129 carries before being sidelined with a neck injury . ... QB Drew Brees, 39, agreed to a two-year, $50 million extension with the Saints, with $27 million guaranteed the first year . ... QB Case Keenum, the backup when the season began who guided the Vikings to the NFC North title and then into the conference championship game, is heading to Denver. The Broncos chose to bypass incumbents Trevor Siemian, Brock Osweiler and Paxton Lynch and go for Keenum, who can’t sign until Wednesday . ... Free-agent QB Kirk Cousins will visit with the Vikings on Wednesday. The Jets and Cardinals also made sense as fits for Cousins, who played consecutive seasons for the Redskins on franchise tags . ... The Jets will re-sign veteran QB Josh McCown . ... The Cardinals made a deal with former Vikings QB Sam Bradford . ... The Super Bowl champion Eagles lost two TEs, cutting veteran Brent Celek, then saw Trey Burton agree to a four-year, $32 million contract with the Bears . ... Five-time Pro Bowl DT Haloti Ngata and LB Corey Nelson agreed to one-year contracts with the Eagles . ... The Bears also will be signing Jaguars WR Allen Robinson and kicker Cody Parkey . ... The Titans and former Patriots CB Malcolm Butler agreed on a five-year deal worth more than $60 million . ... The Bills agreed to a deal with Panthers T Star Lotulelei and re-signed Kyle Williams, who contemplated retirement . ... The Chiefs will add WR Sammy Watkins and MLB Anthony Hitchens . ... WR Albert Wilson is closing in on a three-year, $24 million deal with the Dolphins. The Dolphins also cut LB Lawrence Timmons to clear $5.5 million in cap space . ... Jaguars LB Paul Posluszny, 33, the second-leading tackler in franchise history, retired after 11 seasons. Posluszny started his career in Buffalo before playing the final seven years in Jacksonville. The Jaguars are poised to sign All-Pro G Andrew Norwell to a five-year, $66.5 million contract . ... The Raiders agreed to a three-year contract with TE Derek Carrier.
SOCCER: Sevilla reached the Champions League quarterfinals for the first time after beating Manchester United 2-1 in Manchester, England, thanks to two second-half goals from substitute Wissam Ben Yedder. ... Roma overcame a poor first-half performance in Rome to beat Shakhtar Donetsk 1-0 and reach the quarterfinals of the Champions League on the away goals rule after a 2-2 aggregate score.
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Simona Halep is on track to retain her No. 1 world ranking after defeating Wang Qiang, of China, 7-5, 6-1 in the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open.
Halep improved to 17-1 this year and needs only to reach the final to stay at the top. If not, Caroline Wozniacki, who beat Halep in the Australian Open final, could replace her if the Dane wins the title. Halep and Wozniacki are the only former Indian Wells winners left in the women’s draw.
Next up for Halep is Petra Martic, of Croatia, who beat Marketa Vondrousova, of the Czech Republic, 6-3, 7-6 (4) on Tuesday.
American teenager Amanda Anisimova’s run of success ended in a 6-1, 7-6 (2) loss to No. 5 seed Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic.
Anisimova, a 16-year-old wild card, won her first three WTA Tour matches at Indian Wells, beating Pauline Parmentier, No. 23 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova without dropping a set.
“She’s 16, so she’s not scared,” Pliskova said of Anisimova. “You can see she’s hitting the ball without thinking. But everybody is playing like this when they are 16. I think this will change a little bit in the future, but for sure the game is good and not really any weakness. I think everything is pretty solid.”
Pliskova faces a quarterfinal against Naomi Osaka, who beat Maria Sakkari, of Greece, 6-1, 5-7, 6-1.
Halep attended 37-year-old Venus Williams’ straight-set victory over 36-year-old sister and new mother Serena on Monday night.
“I love the way that they are motivated and they are still playing at this age, Serena with the kid,” Halep said. “It’s a great thing what they do for sport, and it’s great that tennis has them. I have many things to learn from them. That’s why I’m trying just to go in to watch every time I can.”
On the men’s side, Gael Monfils retired in the second set with a back injury, trailing fellow Frenchman Pierre-Hughes Herbert 6-2, 3-1.
Monfils used an eightminute injury timeout in the second set to get his back worked on before returning to the court and getting broken in fourth game. He then walked to the net and ended the match.
Herbert moved on to a fourth-round matchup with Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany, who upset No. 2 seed Marin Cilic 6-4, 6-4.
Cilic won 19 of 23 points on his first serve, but failed to convert four break points against 31st-seeded Kohlschreiber, who snapped a 12-match skid against top-10 opponents.
Herbert remains in contention for the $1 million bonus offered to a player who sweeps the singles and doubles titles.
No. 6 Juan Martin del Potro, of Argentina, defeated No. 29 David Ferrer, of Spain, 6-4, 7-6 (3).
Del Potro’s countryman, Leonardo Mayer, beat Japanese qualifier Taro Daniel 6-4, 6-1.