USD’S HOLMGREN WINS FIRST PRO TOURNEY
Before embarking on his professional career in earnest on Tuesday at the Rancho Santa Fe Open, the inaugural $15,000 Futures event on the SoCal Pro Circuit, August Holmgren acknowledged one of the most important mental and emotional adjustments he would have to make is learning to cope with the concept of dealing with defeat.
One week into professional life on the ITF World
Tennis Tour, that hasn’t happened yet.
Eight days removed from concluding his college tennis career with the University of San Diego in the NCAA Division I men’s singles national championship match, the 24year-old Denmark international won his first ITF pro singles title at Rancho Santa Fe Tennis Club, defeating Irvine resident and No. 2 seed Gage Brymer, 6-4, 6-4.
“The first thing I said on Tuesday was I want to win it all,” said Holmgren, who also won the men’s doubles championship on Saturday to complete a Rancho Santa Fe Open double. “I don’t think I expected to win both singles and doubles but every tournament, every match I play, I go in there with the expectation to win because that’s how I play the best.”
In Sunday’s women’s singles final, Talia Gibson, the No. 2 seed from Perth, Australia, rallied from 5-2 down in the final set and benefited from a double fault on match point to edge No. 4 seed Maria Kozyreva, 7-6 (4), 3-6, 7-6 (5) and claim her first ITF women’s singles title.
Holmgren received 15 ATP Tour ranking points and $2,160 of the $15,000 purse for his victory.
College softball
Holly Azevedo threw a twohit shutout and No. 5 UCLA beat No. 14 Florida 8-0 in six innings to reach the Women’s College World Series semifinals and eliminate the Gators. UCLA will play No. 1 seed Oklahoma today in the semifinals and will have to beat the defending champion Sooners twice to reach the best-ofthree championship series.
Estelle Czech allowed just one hit in 32⁄3 scoreless innings of relief, JJ Smith hit a threerun homer and Texas defeated
Arizona 5-2 to advance to the Women’s College World Series semifinals. Texas advanced to play Big 12 rival Oklahoma State in the semifinals today.
International soccer
Canada’s World Cup warmup match against Panama was canceled when the men’s team refused to play because of a labor dispute with the nation’s governing body that includes a demand the women’s national team get equal match fees.
U.S. national team forward Catarina Macario injured her the anterior cruciate ligament in a match with French club team Lyon and will miss World Cup qualifying next month.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored his world record-extending 116th and 117th goals for Portugal. Ronaldo had gone five games and nearly nine months without an international goal until Portugal routed Switzerland 4-0 in the Nations League.
Lionel Messi scored five goals for Argentina for the first time in a 5-0 rout of Estonia in a friendly match in Spain.
WNBA
Skylar Diggins-Smith scored a season-high 29 points on 10-of-16 shooting to lead the Phoenix Mercury (3-8) to an 8174 victory over the Los Angeles Sparks (5-7).
Jonquel Jones had 25 points, eight rebounds, six assists and three steals, and the Connecticut Sun (9-3) rallied to beat the Seattle Storm (5-5) 93-86.
Also
A Southern California auction house says a jersey worn by Kobe Bryant in his rookie season sold at auction for $2.73 million. SCP Auctions says the buyer wants to remain anonymous as does the seller.
Veryl Switzer, the trailblazing former Green Bay Packers half back who traded a career in the NFL for service as a lieutenant in the Air Force, died Saturday. He was 89.
American Devin Haney retained his WBC lightweight title and added three more from the weight class after a unanimous points decision over Australian George Kambosos. The 23-year-old American won three of the first four rounds and was well ahead at the halfway point of the 12round bout to become undisputed champion in the lightweight division.