FRITZ NIPS NADAL AT ATP FINALS
Rafael Nadal’s bid to win one of the few titles missing from his glittering career started poorly as he was beaten in straight sets by eighth-seeded Taylor Fritz in their opening match at the ATP Finals on Sunday at Turin, Italy.
After a close-fought opening set, Fritz dominated the second as the American secured a 7-6 (3), 6-1 victory over the topseeded Nadal.
“It feels great. I felt like coming out first match, especially for my hopes of getting out of the group, it was going to be really important,” Fritz said. “I came out and played a great match, and I couldn’t be happier.”
Fritz, a San Diego native, strengthened his grip on the match when he broke Nadal’s serve in the fourth game of the second set.
Nadal fought valiantly to stay in the match and managed to save four break points in the sixth game but Fritz prevailed at the fifth time of asking to leave him serving for the match. He closed it out when the Spaniard sent a forehand long.
It was only Nadal’s second singles match since the U.S. Open as he has struggled with injuries and also became a father for the first time in October.
Earlier, third-seeded Casper Ruud, who lost in the semifinals last year, eased to a straight-set victory over tournament debutant Felix Auger-Aliassime in the other Green Group match.
The match was largely dominated by serving and a solitary break in the seventh game of the second set proved enough for the Norwegian player to secure a 7-6 (4), 6-4 win over the fifthseeded Canadian.
More tennis
Switzerland won the biggest prize in women’s team tennis for the first time after Belinda Bencic completed a near-perfect tournament by beating Australia’s Alja Tomljanovic in straight sets in the Billie Jean King Cup final. The win gave Switzerland an unassailable 2-0 lead after Jil Teichmann outlasted Australia’s Storm Sanders 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in the opening singles match.
College basketball
KJ Simpson had 23 points and 10 rebounds, both career highs for the sophomore, to lead Colorado (2-1) to an 78-66 upset victory over No. 11 Tennessee (1-1) at Nashville, Tenn.
UC San Diego women’s basketball (0-2) lost at
Northern Arizona (1-2), 8654. The Tritons were led by Sydney Brown with 19 points and seven rebounds.
Hockey
The San Diego Gulls scored three times in the second period to come away with a 4-1 AHL victory at the Ontario Reign. Rocco Grimaldi, Jacob Perreault and Luka Profaca scored in that second period before Nikolas Brouillard scored an empty-net goal in the game’s final minute to ice it.
Soccer
Mallory Pugh scored the go-ahead goal in the 56th minute and the U.S. women avoided a fourth straight loss with a 2-1 come-frombehind victory over Germany at Harrison, N.J.
Sophia Smith also scored for the top-ranked United States, which went into the match at Red Bull Stadium with its first three-game losing streak since 1993.
Erik ten Hag says the goal that sent Manchester United into the World Cup break on a high note is the symbol of the progress made by his team in recent months. In the last Premier League game before the tournament in Qatar substitute Alejandro Garnacho came off the bench to score a stoppage-time winner that secured a 2-1 victory at Fulham as United strengthened its grip on fifth place.
Only AC Milan will end the year fewer than 10 points behind runaway Serie A leader Napoli. An own-goal in stoppage time saw Milan snatch a 2-1 win at home to Fiorentina to remain eight points adrift of Napoli. Juventus beat Lazio 3-0 to move above the capital side into third.
Paris Saint-Germain’s stars came through their final game before the World Cup unscathed with France forward Kylian Mbappe opening the scoring in the unbeaten league leader’s 5-0 home win against Auxerre. Argentina star Lionel Messi, Brazil’s Neymar and Mbappe all started against Auxerre as PSG maintained its five-point lead over second-place Lens.
Also
MMA light heavyweight fighter Anthony “Rumble” Johnson died. He was 38. Bellator MMA announced Johnson’s death on social media on Sunday. A Bellator spokesman said Johnson had been ill for more than a year. Johnson had 17 knockouts and six decisions. His last fight was in May 2021.