Off the wire
TENNIS Venus advances
Venus Williams needed three match points and more than three hours to defeat Jelena Ostapenko
7-5, 6-7 (3), 7-5 at the WTA Finals in Singapore on Tuesday. The match, lasting 3 hours, 13 minutes, featured 20 service breaks, with neither player finding much confidence on their service games. Williams, 37, dropped her serve nine times, while the 20-year-old French Open champion conceded serve 11 times. By contrast,
Karolina Pliskova capitalized on a fourth match point to easily beat
Garbine Muguruza 6-2, 6-2. Pliskova, at 2-0 in the round-robin, is guaranteed a place in the semifinals. The second semifinalist from the White Group will be decided by Thursday’s match between Williams and Muguruza, who both are at 1-1 in their group.
Federer tops Tiafoe
Top-seeded Roger Federer eased past United States teenager Frances Tiafoe 6-1, 6-3 in the first round of the Swiss Indoors at Basel, Switzerland, on Tuesday. Federer never faced a break point in the 61-minute match and won every point when his first service landed safely. A seven-time champion at his hometown event, Federer clinched the victory when the 76th-ranked American put a backhand volley into the net. Federer next plays Benoit Paire of France. Earlier Tuesday, Paire beat the 43rdranked American Steve Johnson
6-3, 7-6 (4). Second-seeded Marin
Cilic also advanced to the second round, winning the first set 6-3 before opponent Florian Mayer of Germany retired injured. David
Goffin, the third-seeded Belgian, beat qualifier Peter Gojowczyk of Germany 6-2, 7-5, and fifth-seeded Jack Sock of the U.S. rallied for a 3-6, 7-6 (7), 7-5 victory against
Vasek Pospisil of Canada. The only seeded player to lose Tuesday was Mischa Zverev of Germany. The eighth-seeded Zverev went down 7-5, 7-5 to Leonardo Mayer of Argentina.
BASKETBALL Leonard still out
The waiting for Kawhi Leonard’s season debut continues. San Antonio’s All-Star forward did not travel with the Spurs to Miami and will not play today against the Heat. Leonard has not played this season because of a right quadriceps injury, and there’s no known timetable for his return. The Spurs said Joffrey Lauvergne (sprained right ankle) and Tony Parker (left quadriceps) are also out. Lauvergne was hurt Monday against Toronto and Parker — hurt in last season’s playoffs — remains out indefinitely. Heat center Hassan Whiteside
(bruised left knee) will miss his third consecutive game. Heat guards Goran Dragic (right thigh) and Dion Waiters (left ankle) did not practice Tuesday. Dragic plans to play today and Waiters’ status for the Spurs game is questionable.
SOCCER Sarachan interim coach
Dave Sarachan, the top assistant to Bruce Arena, will be the interim coach for the United States when the Americans play an exhibition at European champion Portugal on Nov. 14.
Arena quit Oct. 13, three days after the Americans lost 2-1 at 99th-ranked Trinidad and Tobago and failed to qualify for next year’s
World Cup. The rest of Arena’s staff will remain on for next month’s game.
The U.S. doesn’t have a competitive match until the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup and is expected to overhaul its program during the more than five years it has to prepare for the 2022 World Cup. U.S. Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati hasn’t said whether he intends to run for a fourth four-year term in February. The U.S. is expected to have a training camp in January followed by an exhibition game or two. The Americans could play a pair of matches during the March FIFA dates. Sarachan, 63, was a forward for Rochester, played with several indoor teams and became an assistant to Arena at the University of Virginia from 1984-1987. After a decade as head coach at Cornell, his alma mater, Sarachan rejoined Arena as an assistant at D.C. United (1997-1999) and the U.S. national team (1999-2002). Sarachan coached the Chicago Fire of the MLS from 2002-2007, then worked with Arena at the LA Galaxy from 2008-2016 before joining him on the national team late last year.
HOCKEY Panthers claim Niemi
The Florida Panthers claimed goaltender Antti Niemi on Tuesday, one day after he was waived by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Claiming Niemi adds a goaltender to Florida’s mix and could signal a worse prognosis for the injured Roberto Luongo than initially believed. Luongo injured his right hand on Friday against Pittsburgh and was placed on injured reserve Saturday, sidelining him for at least a week. Panthers Coach Bob Boughner has described Luongo as “day-to-day” multiple times and said he would be re-evaluated daily. In Luongo’s absence, James Reimer has served as the No. 1 goaltender with Harri Sateri coming up from AHL affiliate Springfield to be the backup. Niemi played in three games this season as Pittsburgh’s No. 2 goalie behind Matt Murray and struggled in road games at Chicago and at Tampa Bay (twice). He has a 7.50 goals against average and a .797 save percentage. Both numbers are the worst in the NHL. Niemi’s slow start comes on the heels of the worst year in his career last season in Dallas, when he started 30 games and posted a 3.30 GAA and .892 save percentage. The 34-year-old Finn’s best season was in 2012-13 with San Jose, when he finished third in Vezina Trophy voting.
GOLF Shot clock on Tour
The European Tour is taking pace of play to a new level next year with the Shot Clock Masters in Austria, the first tournament at the professional level to use a shot clock. The clock will be set at 50 seconds for the first player hitting a shot and 40 seconds for the others in the group. Any player going past the limit will get a one-shot penalty, which will be reflected by a red card by their name on the leaderboard. Each player will be allowed to call two timeouts during a round, giving them twice the amount of time they are allotted for that shot. “Not only will it help us combat slow play and reduce round times, it is also further evidence of our desire to embrace innovation,” said Keith Pelley, chief executive for the European Tour. The Shot Clock Masters in Austria will be June 7-10 at Diamond Country Club, which is one week before the U.S. Open and likely won’t include the top players. The tour hopes the shot clock will shave 45 minutes off a round of golf.
Women at Pebble Beach
The women are finally getting their day at Pebble Beach. The USGA said Tuesday the U.S. Women’s Open will be held at Pebble Beach in 2023, making good on a decade-old pledge to hold the biggest event in women’s golf on one of the most famous courses in America. The USGA also said Pebble Beach will host the U.S. Open for the seventh time in 2027, giving California four U.S. Opens in a nine-year stretch starting in 2019. Pebble Beach has hosted the U.S. Women’s Amateur twice, but never the Women’s Open. Former USGA president Walter Driver said in 2004 that Pebble Beach had expressed interest in hosting the Women’s Open. Three years later, former USGA executive director David Fay all but guaranteed the Women’s Open going to Pebble Beach. “We know the year — it’s 2014 — but we have not finalized the date,” Fay said in 2007. Instead, the U.S. Open and Women’s Open were staged in consecutive weeks at Pinehurst No. 2 that year. Pebble Beach will be the ninth course that has hosted both the men’s and women’s U.S. Open.