Chelsea wins Premier title
The five-year drought is over. Chelsea is Premier League champion again — with three games to spare.
Chelsea’s players danced around the field after securing the title with a scrappy 1-0 victory against Crystal Palace Sunday that encapsulated the recent cautious pragmatism of Jose Mourinho’s team.
“Today was not a game to enjoy,” Mourinho said. “Today was the game to finish the job.”
But it was a trophy that was really won in the opening months of the season, with Chelsea having been atop the standings from the opening weekend. With only two losses in 35 games, Chelsea was rarely troubled in its pursuit of a fourth league title in 11 seasons — and the fifth in its 110-year history.
Fittingly, the titlewinning goal came from Eden Hazard, a week after the Belgium winger’s dynamic, individual displays were honored by his fellow professionals with the player of the year award.
More soccer
Red Bulls II captain Anthony Wallace scored in stoppage time and Andrew Jean-Baptiste prevented a late scoring chance, sending the Riverhounds to a 3-2 loss in USL action in Harrison, N.J. Rob Vincent scored twice for the Riverhounds (2-2-2).
Tennis
Second-seeded Simona Halep and Venus Williams both lost in the opening round of the Madrid Open, while topseeded Serena Williams had a trouble-free debut. Defending champion Maria Sharapova also advanced after beating Timea Bacsinszky, 6-2, 6-3. Halep, the 2014 French Open finalist, failed to convert two set points in the first set before losing, 7-6 (6), 6-3, to Alize Cornet of France. Serena Williams defeated American Madison Brengle, 6-0, 6-1 after breaking her six times to win in less than an hour. Venus Williams, however, lost to fellow former No. 1 Victoria Azarenka, 6-3, 7-5.
• Top-seeded Roger Federer claimed his 85th title with a 6-3, 7-6 (11) win over Pablo Cuevas in the final of the Istanbul Open. The 17-time Grand Slam winner fended off strong resistance from the thirdseeded Uruguayan, who saved four match points.
• Richard Gasquet of France won the Estoril Open final in Portugal in straight sets, beating Australian Nick Kyrgios, 6-3, 6-2. Fifth-seeded Gasquet, who broke seventh-seeded Kyrgios three times on the clay court, won in just over an hour for his 12th career title and second of the year after also winning at Montpellier.
• The BMW Open in final in Munich between Andy Murray and Philipp Kohlschreiber was postponed by rain midway through the first set and will be completed today. Play was halted with Kohlschreiber leading, 3-2. Organizers waited several hours for the rain to stop.
College softball
Oklahoma freshman Paige Parker tied the NCAA record for perfect games in a season with four Sunday in the Sooners’ 14-0, five-inning victory against Utah Valley. Parker struck out 12 of the 15 batters she faced, finishing one off her career high of 13 strikeouts. She needed just 64 pitches — 45 for strikes — to improve to 24-5.