U.S. tops champs at hockey worlds
The United States overcame defending champion Finland 4-1 to open the ice hockey world championship on Friday.
Alex Tuch scored two goals and Drew O'connor had a goal and two assists to lead the U.S. Cutter Ganthier also scored and goaltender Casey Desmith stopped 23 shots in Tampere, Finland.
In the Latvian capital of Riga, the Czech Republic beat Slovakia 3-2.
Last year's runner-up, Canada, faced Latvia in its opener late Friday, while Sweden played Germany in Tampere.
Finland and Latvia are staging the tournament after the hosting rights were stripped from Russia because of the war in Ukraine.
Montreal's Felix Auger-aliassime was ousted Friday from the Italian Open after dropping a second-round match 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 to Australian Alexei Popyrin in Rome.
Auger-aliassime had a bye in the first round of the clay-court tournament, while Popyrin beat his compatriot Christopher O'connell after coming through the qualifying rounds.
Popyrin, ranked 77th in the world, continued his momentum by upsetting No. 10 Auger-aliassime in an exhausting three hour 17-minute battle.
Ottawa's Gabriela Dabrowski, Canada's top doubles player, also experienced an early exit in Rome. Dabrowski and Brazilian partner Luisa Stefani, the tournament's sixth-seeded team, were beaten 2-6, 6-2, 10-8 by American Bethanie Mattek-sands and Czechia's Marie Bouzkova.
With a massive 82 per cent of the votes, Erling Haaland was named England's footballer of the year on Friday in recognition of his record-breaking first season at Manchester City.
The Norwegian striker's goals have put City in contention for a treble of titles: the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup.
Haaland's remarkable debut English season has already seen him set a new
league scoring record of 35 goals in a single campaign.
Chelsea striker Sam Kerr won her second successive women's footballer of the year, becoming the first to do so since the award was introduced in 2018. Canadian Alphonso Davies has been voted to the Bundesliga team of the season.
The 22-year-old from Edmonton, who plays for Bayern Munich, was clocked at 36.53 kilometres per hour this season, the second-fastest time in the German top tier.
Davies had a goal and four assists for Bayern in a season cut short by a thigh injury suffered April 23.