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Fearnley misses out on Draper meeting in Indian Wells
The ferocity of Fearnley's forehand increased, finding more speed and depth to trouble Fonseca, while also stepping further into the court to attack the Brazilian's second serve.
The adjustments were illustrated by three whopping forehand winners - including one at 89mph - which secured a double break on his way to levelling the match.
Fearnley's momentum enabled him to move an early break up in the decider but Fonseca showed he possesses the mental strength, as well as the technical talent, needed to climb even higher in the rankings.
Fonseca reasserted his authority in the baseline exchanges, applying enough pressure on Fearnley's serve to draw out two double faults and break back for 3-3.
With plenty of vocal Brazilian fans behind him, Fonseca maintained the momentum as he underlined why he is being predicted to reach the very top.
Ruben Amorim has told his Manchester United players that they will have to be more ruthless in front of goal if they are to progress in the Europa League following their 1-1 draw with Real Sociedad.
United were held in San Sebastian after Joshua Zirkzee's opener was cancelled out by Mikel Oyarzabal's penalty.
Amorim's side had enough chances to win the game, but instead head back to Manchester for next week's second leg with the last-16 tie in the balance.
"We are creating chances but sometimes you don't see it in the xG [expected goals] because we manage not to shoot but the great opportunity is there and you can see it," said the United head coach.
"We have transitions, we have situations and sometimes we are missing something. That can change something, especially in these kinds of games where we need goals that can make a difference."
United's frustrations in front of goal was summed up by an altercation between Diogo Dalot and Rasmus Højlund.
Dalot had the chance to cross for Hojlund but decided instead to pass the pass backwards prompting a brief row between the two players.
"One thing for sure is they are really anxious to score goals and to win games," said Amorim.
"They are all doing their best but are not deciding the best way in their position.
"It was a clear position. Rasmus did really well, Dalot did really well. The decision was not the best. The important thing is to move on and not fighting. Let's move on to the next game."
A's hire ex-Raiders prez Badain for same position
LAS VEGAS -- Former Las Vegas Raiders President Marc Badain was hired Thursday for the same position with the Athletics.
Badain succeeds Dave Kaval, who announced his resignation on Dec. 27. Sandy Dean, who has been spearheading approval and construction of a new stadium in Las Vegas approved, had been the acting president.
"I'm honored to join the Athletics and help guide the team into a new era of success," Badain said in a statement. "Las Vegas is a city that celebrates innovation and excellence, and I'm excited to work alongside the team, the fans, and the community to create something extraordinary."
After leaving Oakland at the end of the 2024 season. the A's will play at least three seasons at a Triple-A ballpark in West Sacramento, California. They hope their Las Vegas stadium will open for the 2028 season.
Badain also was a key figure in the Raiders move in 2020 to Las Vegas, where they shared the Coliseum with the A's. He was the Raiders for 30 years before resigning in July 2021. Badain most recently was with the Oak View Group Las Vegas -- Arena and Entertainment, which is in the process of trying to build an arena that could become home to an NBA expansion franchise.
"His vast experience, particularly his work on the opening of Allegiant Stadium and overseeing the Raiders' move to Las Vegas, makes him a great addition to our team at this pivotal moment," A's manager partner John Fisher said in a statement.
Tyler Naquin, who hasn't played in the major leagues since 2023, is returning to the Cleveland Guardians, but he'll be a familiar face in a new place.
Naquin, who spent eight seasons in the majors as an outfielder, reached a minor-league deal with the Guardians on Thursday and is attempting to make the team as a pitcher.
The right-hander, who turns 34 on April 24, spent his first five seasons with the Guardians before leaving after the 2020 season. He hasn't appeared in a major league game since Oct. 1, 2023. He had only 8 at-bats with the Chicago White Sox that season.
Naquin, who has 32 career outfield assists, also played in the outfield with the Cincinnati Reds and New York Mets. He has a career .263 batting average with 61 homers, 237 RBIs, a .316 on-base percentage and .445 slugging percentage in 562 games.
Just over three months after winning the franchise's first NWSL Championship, the Orlando Pride enters 2025 in the unfamiliar position of league favorite.
"Everybody's gonna hunt after us, and we need to deal with this and find a way to keep doing our best to keep making history for this club," six-time world player of the year and Orlando forward Marta said on Thursday.
Orlando and the Washington Spirit kick off the 2025 NWSL slate on Friday in the NWSL Challenge Cup, a Community Shield type of event that doesn't count toward the standings but pits the previous year's NWSL Shield and NWSL Championship winners against each other for a preseason trophy.
Orlando won both trophies last year, making this year's Challenge Cup a rematch of November's final. The Pride won 1-0 behind a goal from forward Barbra Banda.
"Yeah, it's personal," Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury said on Thursday about the rematch. "I want to win everything, and this is the first trophy. [Spirit head coach Jonatan Giráldez] has talked to us a lot about that. We're here to win."
"It's a good and big opportunity that we have right now to win a title," Giráldez said. "We only have to play a game, try to be better than them and create more chances and be close to win this title. We know that the game is going to be probably different compared with the last final."
Washington and Orlando were the two best teams in the regular season in 2024. The Pride went unbeaten through the first 23 games of the regular season, setting a new NWSL record. They also set a new points record (60). Washington finished second, tying Orlando for a new league record with 18 wins.
Orlando had not previously won a trophy since launching in 2016, and frequently finished seasons at or near the bottom of the table. That dire history motivated the Pride last year, but they enter 2025 as the team everyone is chasing.
"There's no difference going into this this year," Pride head coach Seb Hines said. "We're shifting into this championship mentality now, which is changing the verbiage from 'underdog' to now 'championship.' But we have to stay consistent with everything that we do."
Both Orlando and Washington largely retained their 2024 rosters while strengthening certain positions this offseason.
The Spirit signed Japan international midfielder Narumi Miura and recently acquired standout Mexican defender Rebeca Bernal via transfer from Monterrey.
The Pride just removed Brazilian defender Rafaelle and Zambian midfielder Grace Chanda from the season-ending injury list after they missed most of and all last year, respectively. Both players are available for Friday's clash.
Giráldez was coy about the potential availability of United States forward Trinity Rodman, who played through a back injury in last year's final and missed the last four U.S. women's national team training camps to focus on rehabbing to full strength.
Rodman recently said that she is in a "really good place" with her back issues.
Giráldez also did not elaborate on the status of U.S. midfielder and 2024 NWSL Rookie of the Year Croix Bethune, who missed the final three months of last season with a torn meniscus suffered while throwing out a first pitch at an MLB game.
Marta, who turned 39 last month, is back to start her ninth campaign with the Pride after signing a new two-year contract in the offseason. Last year was her best in Orlando since her inaugural season with the Pride in 2017, and earned her a renewed place with Brazil as the team won an Olympic silver medal.
She said on Thursday that she is happy to be back in Orlando.
"It's exciting to know that everybody is gonna look to us and then try to make it difficult for us," Marta said. "But for me, it's the best feeling, because you're good at what you do, so just go and play, go and have fun. Go and get people excited to see you on the field. And it's what I'm looking for."
The NWSL's regular season kicks off on March 14.
The Kansas City Current host the Portland Thorns on March 15 on ABC and ESPN+ (12:45 p.m. ET), and opening weekend continues on March 16 as Los Angeles' Angel City FC hosts San Diego Wave FC on ESPN2 and ESPN+ (6:50 p.m. ET).
Auburn women fire Harris after early SEC exit
AUBURN, Ala. -- Auburn fired women's basketball coach Johnnie Harris on Thursday, one day after the Tigers lost to Florida 60-50 in the first round of the Southeastern Conference tournament.
Harris went 58-63 in four seasons. Auburn earned its first NCAA tournament appearance since 2019 last season, but the Tigers followed that up by going 12-18 overall and 3-13 in SEC competition this year.
Auburn's SEC tournament defeat marked its seventh consecutive loss. The Tigers finished the regular season in a four-way tie for last place in the SEC with Missouri, Texas A&M and Arkansas.
"I have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for Johnnie," Auburn athletic director John Cohen said in a statement. "Having worked with her for more than a decade at two institutions, I know Johnnie is an exceptional person with a great basketball mind. I thank Johnnie for the way she represented Auburn and for her contributions to our women's basketball program. While these decisions are never easy, the program must move in a new direction."
Harris had been an associate head coach on Vic Schaefer's Mississippi State staff from 2012-20, while Cohen was Mississippi State's athletic director from 2016-22. Harris followed Schaefer to Texas and was associate head coach there in 2020-21 before taking over Auburn's program.
She went 10-18 in her debut season at Auburn, which had gone 5-19 the year before her arrival. Auburn went 16-15 in 2022-23 -- the Tigers' first winning season since 2018-19 -- and 20-12 in 2023-24 before backsliding this season.
Auburn's 2023-24 team posted its highest win total since 2019 and went 8-8 in SEC play, the first time since 2019 the Tigers finished .500 or better in league competition. That team lost to Arizona 69-59 in the First Four round of the NCAA tournament.
Jaguars trading WR Kirk to Texans, source says
The Jacksonville Jaguars are trading wide receiver Christian Kirk to the Houston Texans for a 2026 seventh-round pick, a source told ESPN's Adam Schefter on Thursday.
A source had told Schefter on Wednesday that the Jaguars planned to release Kirk when the new league year begins next Wednesday. But they have instead found a trade partner within their own division.
The seventh-round pick headed to Jacksonville originally belonged to the Rams, the source told Schefter.
The Texans have uncertainty at the wide receiver position beyond No. 1 receiver Nico Collins. Stefon Diggs is a free agent and Tank Dell's availability for the 2025 season is in question after a serious knee injury suffered last December. Dell underwent a second surgery on Wednesday, this time to repair a torn ACL, after earlier having surgery to repair other torn ligaments.
Kirk, who is entering the final year of his four-year contract, was scheduled to have the Jaguars' highest cap number in 2025 at $24.4 million and be paid a $15.5 million salary.
Kirk signed the four-year, $72 million deal in 2022 and immediately set career highs in catches (84), receiving yards (1,108) and touchdown receptions (eight) that season.
But he missed 14 games over the past two seasons because of an abdominal injury and broken collarbone, finishing with a combined 84 catches for 1,166 yards and four TDs in 20 games over that stretch.
Kirk, 28, spent the first four seasons of his career with the Arizona Cardinals, who selected him in the second round of the 2018 draft, catching 236 passes for 2,902 yards and 17 touchdowns.
ESPN's Michael DiRocco contributed to this report.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. Through the first quarter of the new century in an ever-evolving domestic sports car landscape, one IMSA class has stayed relatively consistent: the Michelin Pilot Challenge Grand Sport class.
A hotbed for pony cars, home-built specials and, most recently as of 2017 to present day, SRO GT4 homologated thoroughbreds, GS often provides some of IMSAs best racing on any given weekend.
The March 14 Alan Jay Automotive Network 120 at Sebring Intl Raceway marks the 250th race since for the class since it came under Grand-Am sanction in 2001. That total covers 249 previous GS and GSI class races through the 2025 Michelin Pilot Challenge season-opening BMW M Endurance Challenge at Daytona Intl Speedway.
Reflecting on the road to 250 GS races, some of Michelin Pilot Challenges most frequent GS winners weighed in on the class and what its meant to the North American sports car landscape.
Ive always felt for most of my career, GS tends to be better than GT in terms of battles the field has for close racing, said Billy Johnson, the 2016 GS champion and co-leader in all-time Michelin Pilot Challenge wins with 24 total, 20 in GS.
Its the perfect example of human evolution, added Matt Plumb, a two-time GS champion (2013, 2024) and the man tied with Johnson on 24 Michelin Pilot Challenge wins, although hes got 21 in GS. Everything has progressed to be so specialized and technical. Its light years ahead of where it was even 10 years ago in 2015.
The GS format has always had a minimum drive time, and a pit stop. That consistency levels the playing field between pro/am and pro/pro teams, noted Will Turner, whose Turner Motorsport team is the all-time winningest GS team with 29 victories.
As a GT4 category, there isnt another one globally the way GS operates in IMSA. Proper pit stops. Proper strategy. Its a proper race. Its old school, reflected Robin Liddell, a 17-time GS winner and 2015 GS champion.
This quartet of longtime GS stalwarts encapsulate just some of the evolution thats happened in the class over 25 years and the first 249 races. The consistent theme thats emerged is the GS of today has shifted from a build-your-own battler to a buy-from-manufacturer model. What hasnt changed is the competitiveness, depth and door-to-door action.
When we first started in 05, we built new cars for Grand-Am, said Turner, who like many GS competitors started in World Challenge. I still remember in the shop building everything from the cages, to where wed put the fuel cells, even coming up with splitter designs at the front. Then wed need to run to the Turner parts side of things to find parts for the race car! It was that easy, for us, having the parts store related to the race team.
KohR Motorsports team principal/driver Dean Martin, an engineer by background, added, Your job here is to figure out what someone is doing better and then evolve your own attention to detail to beat them. I say a lot that more races are won back in the shop than at the track. If you dont prep right, youre going to struggle.
Many memorable races stand out. For the Plumb brothers, Matt and older brother Hugh, it meant showing up in Daytona with only their helmets and no rides in 2002.
I essentially thought to myself, Im either going to quit racing or make this happen, Matt Plumb said. I started doing some coaching and I wandered down to Daytona just to check out the sports car thing and that ultimately led to a pivot into closed top racing.
Hugh Plumb added, Showing up two days before the race, hoping to get a ride, those were the days where that could happen. It sounds hysterical now, but the fascination of getting a ride at Daytona seemed like this really cool thing.
For Johnson, it included winning historic races for the Roush family as part of a dynamic run of form from 2009 to 2013, when he won 10 GS races in a five-year span.
At Miller Motorsports Park in 09, I was battling Bill Auberlen the last 10 laps, changing the lead two-three times a lap, Johnson recalled. I came out on top there and that gave Jack Roush Jr. his first professional race win.
Then at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 10, we won again, and that was Jacks fathers 400th victory as a team owner across NASCAR, drag racing and sports car racing. Theyd made challenge coins with 400 on the back. Other teams tried to achieve that win for Jack Roush Sr., but we got it done. Jack came back through the field after a tech issue and we won the race anyway. Those were good memories.
For Turner, it was his first win in a GS-only race nearly 20 years ago in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic with Bill Auberlen and Justin Marks.
Our team was in its infancy; we werent all professional race crew. It felt going in like a fun vacation as well as a race, Turner laughed. Beyond the win, I remember two things. One, how many fans we had in the Dominican Republic. It was so fan-heavy that when Justin and Bill won, they had to do a human chain around them to get them from the car to the podium!
The second was how good the race was. It was a low-grip, makeshift track and very hot, dry and dusty, but it was so good for the fans to see it from everywhere. To win our first one there was nuts. Justin was a baby back then, and even Bill had hair!
Liddells last laps fourth-to-first charge in the rain at Road America 2019, passing two cars in Canada Corner and then leader Kuno Wittmer just before the start/finish line, stands as a GS all-timer.
As I came onto the frontstraight I was pretty happy about finishing second but the next thing I saw was the leader slowing and pulling over in front of me. I just kept my foot in it, drove onto the grass and squeezed past just before the line, Liddell reflected.
The battle between Plumb and Johnson has carried through three decades of GS, even if both drivers havent always overlapped in the series. Whats clear is that both have a huge amount of respect for each other, and a desire to beat the other one.
Its been awesome throughout our careers, Johnson said. Our rivalry has gone back so many years, even as I was out of the series for several years. That one period from 09 to 12, it felt like if I didnt win, Matt won, or vice versa. That speaks to the depth of the field. I think a common denominator is us winning throughout different generations of cars and formats of racing.
Plumb added, I think I said it to him at Daytona, but Im glad that he is the one who Im competing against for this win (record). Because I do respect the hell out of him. Knowing hes in front or behind me, hes got just enough sense to race him where it works out for both of us. No matter when youre around him, he races you the same. Im happy to share that record with him, but Ill still do anything to kick his rear end.
Winning is hard in GS. Turner, BMWs longest serving customer team, has made more than 600 starts and estimated its made more than 370 of those in GS, running at least two cars most years.
Behind Turners 29 wins, among active GS teams, KohR is the second-winningest team with nine GS wins, with its predecessor Rehagen Racing adding five more wins. Rebel Rock Racing has eight, BGB Motorsports six, RS1 and Team TGM five apiece, CarBahn four and Winward Racing three.
Jeff Lapcevich and John Shreiner won the first GS race on February 4, 2001 in a Ford Mustang Cobra R at Daytona. Nearly 24 years later, Michael Cooper and Moisey Uretsky won the 249th GS race in Daytona in their No. 44 Accelerating Performance McLaren Artura GT4, to become the 149th and 150th drivers to win a GS race.
ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis Blues No. 1 defenseman Colton Parayko is expected to miss the rest of the regular season after injuring his left knee in the team's shootout victory at the Los Angeles Kings.
President of hockey operations and general manager Doug Armstrong said Thursday that Parayko will undergo a scope on the injured knee and be evaluated in six weeks. The Blues play their final regular-season game two days short of the six-week mark.
Parayko, 31, plays more ice time than anyone else on the Blues, averaging nearly 24 minutes over 62 games and recording 35 points. His absence is a blow to their hopes of making the playoffs and comes after beating LA put them one point back of the second and final wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
Manchester United took the lead through Joshua Zirkzee but were held to a 1-1 draw at Real Sociedad in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie on Thursday.
United had the only real chance of the first half against Sociedad when Bruno Fernandes had a goal-bound shot blocked and Zirkzee's follow-up effort was saved.
Alejandro Garnacho hit a shot into the side netting but 12 minutes into the second half he pulled a pass back to the unmarked Zirkzee on the edge of the area and the Dutch forward drove a first-time shot past keeper Alex Remiro.
Sociedad pushed for an equaliser with Brais Mendez bending a shot just wide of the post and they were awarded a penalty for a handball by Fernandes which Mikel Oyarzabal converted to level the tie with 20 minutes remaining.
As the hosts grew in confidence, Mendez forced United keeper Andre Onana into a fine save and substitute Orri Oskarsson put a close-range effort wide but United hung on to remain the only unbeaten side in the competition this season.
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