The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Top-seeded men headline Australian Open quarters
Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz will meet Olympic gold medalist Alexander Zverev in the Australian Open quarterfinals and Daniil Medvedev is also back in a last eight that is stacked with the top six seeds.
While the men’s competition is playing fairly true to the rankings, the women’s really is a tale of two halves.
No. 12-seeded Zheng Qinwen, a quarterfinalist at last year’s U.S. Open, is the highest-ranked player left in the top half of the bracket, where all four women who won Monday reached the last eight at Melbourne Park for the first time.
She’ll next play No. 75-ranked Anna Kalinskaya. No. 50 Linda Noskova, who beat top-ranked Iga Swiatek in the third round, will meet No. 93 Dayana Yastremska.
There’s still three Grand Slam winners in the other half of the bracket. No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, the defending champion, will take on 2021 French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova and U.S. Open winner Coco Gauff will play Marta Kostyuk in quarterfinals on Tuesday.
The first of the men’s quarterfinals — 10-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic vs. No. 12 Taylor Fritz and No. 4 Jannik Sinner vs. No. 5 Andrey Rublev — were set on Sunday, well before Alcaraz completed a Grand Slam set by reaching the last eight in Australia for the first time.
BASEBALL Newest Hall of Fame class to be announced
Adrián Beltré, Joe Mauer and Todd Helton appeared on track to gain entry to baseball’s Hall of Fame when results are announced Tuesday, while Billy Wagner was likely to be right around the needed 75% threshold and Gary Sheffield was projected to fall short.
Just 270 players are in the Hall, 1.3% of the approximately 20,500 who
have appeared in the major leagues, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. There are another 40 executives/pioneers, 23 managers and 10 umpires enshrined, raising the membership total to 343.
Anyone elected will be inducted into the Hall on July 21 along with manager Jim Leyland, voted in last month by the contemporary era committee for managers, executives and umpires.
• Chicago Cubs Hall of Fame second baseman Ryne Sandberg, 64, has been diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer, he said Monday in a release put out by the Baseball Hall of Fame that said he has started treatment.
“I am surrounded by my loving wife Margaret, our incredibly supportive family, the best medical care team, and our dear friends,” Sandberg said. “We will continue to be positive, strong, and fight to beat this. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time for me and my family.”
HORSE RACING Baffert horse favorite in Pegasus World Cup
Bob Baffert is the only trainer to win the Pegasus World Cup Invitational twice. And oddsmakers say he’s got a chance to win it for a third time this coming weekend.
Preakness winner National Treasure — trained by Baffert — has been installed as the 9-5 favorite for Saturday’s $3 million Pegasus over 1 1/8 miles of
dirt at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla. The 4-year-old has won only one of his last nine starts, but the show he put on to win the Preakness eight months ago and a strong second-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt evidently set him apart from the other Pegasus invitees.
Baffert won the inaugural Pegasus in 2017 with Arrogate and the 2020 version with Mucho Gusto. National Treasure drew the No. 7 post in the expected field of 12.
“It’s nice to have a horse of that caliber in a race of that caliber,” Baffert said. “I’m pretty lucky. National Treasure, he’s been pretty good all year.”
Baffert has had enormous success in the Pegasus overall; out of his five starters in the seven previous runnings of Gulfstream’s richest race, he’s had the two winners and two others finish second. And National Treasure’s recent works suggest he’ll be ready Saturday.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL Niumatalolo hired to coach San Jose State
San Jose State hired former Navy coach and UCLA assistant Ken Niumatalolo to replace Brent Brennan as the Spartans head football coach.
Athletic director Jeff Konya announced the hiring on Sunday, saying Niumatalolo is the “right fit” for San Jose State and can make the Spartans consistent contenders in the Mountain West.
Niumatalolo is the winningest coach in Navy history, going 109-83 in 15 seasons before being fired after the 2022 game against Army. During his time with the Midshipmen, Navy ran the triple-option offense. Niumatalolo has said that if he got another chance to be a head coach, he would likely move away from the run-heavy scheme.
Niumatalolo spent last season at UCLA in an offfield role for Bruins coach Chip Kelly, but was elevated to tight ends coach after the season.
SOCCER Scoring star Sinclair re-signs with Thorns
Christine Sinclair, the world’s top international goal scorer among both women and men, will play one more season for her club team, the Portland Thorns.
The team announced Monday it had signed the free agent forward to a one-year deal. Sinclair, 40, is one of just three active players in the National Women’s Soccer League who have played for the same team since the league launched in 2013.
Sinclair leads the Thorns with 62 goals — third most in league history — in 176 appearances over 11 seasons.
HOCKEY Edmonton signs veteran winger Perry
The Edmonton Oilers agreed to terms Monday with Corey Perry on a contract for the remainder of the season, adding the veteran winger to the hottest team in the NHL nearly two months since the Chicago Blackhawks terminated his contract for unacceptable conduct.
Perry, 38, is getting a deal for a pro-rated league minimum $775,000 plus performance bonuses. General manager Ken Holland said the organization is aiming for Perry to make his debut Saturday against Nashville.
Neither the team nor Perry revealed details of exactly what occurred to lead to his termination from the Blackhawks.