The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Djokovic hits milestone win in his return to Indian Wells
Novak Djokovic made a winning return to the desert, beating Aleksandar Vukic 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 on Saturday in his first match at the BNP Paribas Open in five years.
The 24-time Grand Slam singles champion joined Rafael Nadal as the only players to win 400 matches in ATP Masters 1000 series events. The top-ranked Djokovic is a five-time champion at Indian Wells, tied with Roger Federer for most by a male, but hadn’t played in the event since 2019.
No. 5 Jessica Pegula was eliminated in the second round again Saturday, with Anna Blinkova of Russia beating her 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.
Naomi Osaka knocked out another seeded player, ousting No. 14 Liudmila Samsonova of Russia, 7-5, 6-3. The four-time Grand Slam champion, who returned to competition this year after giving birth, won the 2018 BNP Paribas title. She will next face No. 24 Elise Mertens.
No. 27 Victoria Azarenka, who won the event twice, was upset by Caroline Dolehide 7-5, 2-6, 6-3.
Djokovic avoided an upset by pulling away from the No. 69-ranked Vukic in the third set of his first match since falling to Jannik Sinner in the semifinals of the Australian Open.
Djokovic won Masters 1000 titles last year at Cincinnati and Paris, but couldn’t play in the first two of the year in Indian Wells and Miami, still prevented at the time from traveling to the U.S. as a foreigner who was not vaccinated against COVID-19.
He won in the desert in 2008 and 2011, then three straight times from 2014-16. The 36-year-old from Serbia is 400-86 in ATP Masters 1000 events. Nadal, who withdrew just before the event, has 406 wins in the nine tournaments at the level below the Grand Slams.
GOLF Scheffler leaves field, wins by 5 at Bay Hill
Scottie Scheffler became the No. 1 player in golf with his sublime tee-to-green game. He got hot with the putter Sunday in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and was simply unstoppable.
Scheffler made every important putt to build a three-shot lead at the turn and then poured it on with a game so complete he closed with a bogey-free,
6-under 66 — the lowest score by two shots at Bay Hill in the final round — while playing in the last group in Orlando, Fla.
He wound up winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational by five shots over Wyndam Clark , the largest margin at Bay Hill since Tiger Woods in 2012. And it came a week before Scheffler defends his title at The Players Championship, which had been his last official PGA Tour win.
HOCKEY Stars rout Kings
Radek Faksa and Jason Robertson scored 18 seconds apart in the second period, Joe Pavelski had a goal and an assist, and the Dallas Stars extended their winning streak to a seasonhigh five games by beating the Kings 4-1 late Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena.
Wyatt Johnston added a power-play goal nearly seven minutes into the third period. Pavelski added an empty-net goal.
Scott Wedgewood stopped 26 shots in his first game since Feb. 26. The win keeps Dallas atop the Central Division with 89 points, four ahead of Winnipeg and Colorado.
The Kings got off to a great start when Kevin Fiala scored 26 seconds into the game, but they weren’t able to sustain momentum.
Fiala has 10 points (five goals, five assists) in the last six games. The Kings were tied for third in the Pacific Division with Vegas at 75 points after the Golden Knights beat Detroit.
In what could be a possible first-round playoff matchup, the Stars have won seven of the last nine against the Kings and outscored
them 9-2 in the two meetings this season. They face each other again on March 16 in Dallas.
“They beat us handily both times. I thought we were ready for them. They shouldn’t have caught us off guard because they already gave us a licking (5-1 in Dallas on Jan. 16). Give them credit, they came in and outplayed us. In every area of the game,” Kings interim coach Jim Hiller said. “To beat a team like that, you’ve got to play a playoffstyle game. We didn’t have it in us.”
Kings forward Adrian Kempe returned to the lineup after missing five games due to an arm injury.
NFL Chiefs retain DT Jones
The Kansas City Chiefs and Chris Jones agreed on the framework of a five-year contract that includes $95 million guaranteed and keeps the All-pro defensive tackle off the free agent market, multiple sources reported. Details of the contract were still being finalized. Jones, who turns 30 in July, will become one of the highest-paid defensive players in NFL history, just behind the $34 million average annual salary being earned by San Francisco edge rusher Nick Bosa.
• The New England Patriots and new coach Jerod Mayo agreed to trade QB Mac jones Jones to the Jacksonville Jaguars for a sixth-round pick in next month’s NFL draft, according to multiple reports.
The move brings Jones home — he was born and raised in Jacksonville — and provides competition behind starter Trevor Lawrence.
Jones flamed out spectacularly last season and was eventually replaced by Bailey Zappe. Jones went 2-9 in 11 starts in 2023, throwing for 2,120 yards with 10 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.
.• Philadelphia Eagles six-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Fletcher Cox announced his retirement. Cox, a first-round pick in 2012, played all 12 of his seasons in Philadelphia and holds the franchise record for sacks (70) by a defensive tackle, trailing only Reggie White, Trent Cole, Clyde Simmons and Brandon Graham in career sacks.
SKIING Shiffrin clinches slalom title in return
All Mikaela Shiffrin had been really looking for in her first race back after a six-week injury layoff was “good skiing.” What she got, though, was even by the American star’s standards “an insane way to return.”
Shiffrin made a triumphant comeback to the World Cup in Are, Sweden, dominating the season’s penultimate slalom for career win 96 and locking up her record-equaling eighth season title in the discipline.
Racing for the first time since hurting her left knee in a downhill crash in Italy, the two-time Olympic champion posted the fastest times in both runs to beat Croatian prodigy Zrinka Ljutic by a stunning 1.24 seconds and third-placed Michelle Gisin of Switzerland by 1.34.
MIXED MARTIAL ARTS O’malley retains UFC bantamweight belt
Sean O’malley (19-1) emphatically defended his bantamweight belt Saturday night, unanimously outpointing Marlon Vera (23-91) in UFC 299 in Miami.
MOTORSPORTS Newgarden, Penske win Indycar opener
Team Penske silenced recent criticism aimed at series leadership by dominating the Indycar season-opening race with Josef Newgarden’s win from the pole Sunday on the downtown streets of St. Petersburg, Fla.
Pato O’ward of Arrow Mclaren Racing broke up the Penske rout with a second-place finish, but Penske’s Scott Mclaughlin and Will Power finished third and fourth.