Erik Jones wins Xfinity race
FORT WORTH, Texas — Erik Jones cruised to a Texas Motor Speedway season sweep in the NASCAR Xfinity Series on Saturday night, holding off fellow Cup Series driver Ryan Blaney as the championship spots remained up for grabs with one race left to set the field for the final four. Jones led 137 of 200 laps on the 1.5-mile oval after earning the pole position in qualifying a couple of hours before the race. Elliott Sadler was the top finisher among the playoff contenders, taking fourth, one spot ahead of fellow playoff driver Cole Custer. Sadler moved from third to first in the point standings, five ahead of William Byron, who took ninth. Justin Allgaier, the points leader coming in, finished 11th and dropped to third in points.
Tennis
› ZHUHAI, China —
Julia Goerges will take on CoCo Vandeweghe in the WTA Elite Trophy final today. Vandeweghe advanced with a convincing 6-3, 6-3 win over rising star Ashleigh Barty on Saturday, while Goerges held serve throughout in her 6-3, 6-3 victory over seventh-seeded Anastasija Sevastova. Vandeweghe is looking for her first WTA title of the year. After this tournament, she will travel to Minsk to be part of the U.S. team at the Fed Cup final against Belarus. Goerges has won eight straight matches, including the Kremlin Cup title in Moscow last month. The tournament in Zhuhai features the leading players on the women’s tour who didn’t qualify for the WTA Finals in Singapore last week. The 12-player draw was divided into four groups of three, with the winner of each group advancing to the semifinals.
› PARIS — Qualifier Filip Krajinovic reached the Paris Masters final after upsetting John Isner 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (5) on Saturday. Isner was also playing for a berth in the elite eight-man ATP Finals, and that bid ended, too. Krajinovic slid onto his back and sobbed, his arms raised, after sealing victory on his first match point. He then knelt and kissed the court. He will play for his first career title against Jack Sock, who comfortably beat Julien Benneteau 7-5, 6-2. Sock has never won a Masters title and can qualify for the season-ending ATP Finals in London if he does so here. Sock dropped his serve twice but broke Benneteau five times. Sock will go for his third title of the year and fourth of his career. Benneteau is retiring.
HOrse raCing
› DEL MAR, Calif. — There’s a new king in horse racing, and it’s Gun Runner. The 4-year-old colt won the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic by 2 1/4 lengths Saturday, sending rival Arrogate to a third straight career-ending defeat at Del Mar. Gun Runner ran 1 1/4 miles in 2:01.29 and paid $6.80, $4.40 and $3.20. Collected returned $5.60 and $4, while West Coast was another 1 1/4 lengths back in third and paid $3.60. “At the quarter pole, it was just a two-horse race between me and Collected,” said Florent Geroux, Gun Runner’s jockey. “We just went on, and the best horse won the race.” Arrogate finished in a dead-heat for fifth with Gunnevera, done in once again at the seaside track north of San Diego. It was the scene of two losses during the summer. Arrogate hasn’t been the same horse since his dominant wins in the $12 million Pegasus World Cup and the $10 million Dubai World Cup earlier this year that made him the sport’s richest thoroughbred with more than $17 million in earnings. The Dubai race was the last time Gun Runner lost. Since then, he has emerged stronger than ever with four consecutive victories. “He’s better today than he’s ever been,” said trainer Steve Asmussen, who won the Classic for the first time since 2007 with Curlin.