IMPRESSIVE ALCARAZ WINS 4TH TITLE OF ’22

When Carlos Alcaraz played in his first Madrid Open as an 18-year-old, his goal was to gain experience and learn from the top players.

Only a year later, Alcaraz already feels he belongs among the best.

The Spanish teenage sensation capped another impressive week with a straightset victory over Alexander Zverev on Sunday to win the Madrid Open and become the second-youngest player to win two Masters 1000 titles.

His comfortable 6-3, 6-1 win over Zverev followed victories over his idol Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals and top-ranked Novak Djokovic in the semifinals.

“Last year I was going through these experiences for the first time, playing against the best players, playing in the Masters 1000, and I learned a lot,” Alcaraz said. “Now it’s different. I go onto the court knowing that I can win, with the confidence that I can win at any moment.”

Alcaraz became the youngest winner in Madrid, and the second youngest to win two Masters 1000 trophies after Nadal won in Monte Carlo and Rome in 2005 as an 18-yearold. Alcaraz had already become the youngest to enter the top 10 since Nadal did it in

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2005.

“It feels great to be able to beat these players,” the 19year-old Alcaraz said. “To beat two of the best players in history and then Zverev, the world No. 3. He is a great player. I would say this is the best week of my life.”

It was the seventh straight win over a top-10 player for Alcaraz, and his tour-leading fourth title of the year. He also has the most wins this season with 28, one more than Stefanos

Tsitsipas. Locally

The San Diego Legion (6-7) lost to the Houston Sabercats 34-24 at the SDSU Sports Deck in Major League Rugby action. The Legion trys were score by Peter Malcolm in the fourth minute and Ryan Matyas in the 58th minute.

Senior Nicole Siess hit a two-out RBI triple in the bottom of the seventh inning and then scored on a throwing error to give San Diego State a come-from-behind 4-3 victory over Utah State at home. The

Aztecs (35-13, 18-3 MW) claimed their seventh consecutive series with the win.

Julie Dunkle, 55, of Encinitas, captured the Ironman World Championship title in the women’s 55-59 age group in St. George, Utah, on Saturday. The event, which is historically held in Hawaii, came to Utah for the 2021 edition after a more than two-year wait due to COVID, and will return to Kailua-Kona Hawaii in October for the 2022 edition.

Austin Staats had two goals and three assists to lead the San Diego Seals to a firstround 9-8 NLL playoff victory over the visiting Philadelphia Wings on Saturday night. The Seals will now host the Colorado Mammoth at 7 p.m. on Friday for Game 1 of the West Conference finals.

Soccer

Manchester City will have to cope without injured defenders Ruben Dias (hamstring), Kyle Walker (ankle) and John Stones (hamstring) for the final three matches of the Premier League title runin. City manager Pep Guardiola said the trio was out for the rest of the season after Sunday’s 5-0 win over Newcastle that sent City three points ahead of Liverpool.

Mark Delgado drilled a shot just inside the left post from 35 yards out in the sixth minute and Jonathan Bond made it stand up to lead the visiting LA Galaxy to a 1-0 victory over Austin FC in MLS action. The victory vaults the Galaxy (7-3-1) over Austin (63-2) and into second place in the Western Conference.

Franco Escobar scored the tying goal for host LAFC in a 2-2 draw against the Philadelphia Union on Saturday night. LAFC is now 7-1-2 and the Union are 5-1-4.

Also

Liz Cambage had 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting and grabbed 11 rebounds, Brittney Sykes added 17 points and had five steals and the Los Angeles Sparks (2-0) beat the host Indiana Fever 87-77.

Makenzie Fischer scored four goals and Ryann Neushul added three more and Stanford (25-2) pulled away over the final three minutes to beat USC (20-4) 10-7 to win the Cardinal’s eighth NCAA women’s water polo championship in program history.

Top-seeded and No. 1-ranked USC (37-1) beat Florida State (33-11) 3-1 at Gulf Shores, Ala.,to win its second consecutive NCAA women’s beach volleyball championship.