Auto Racing
Hamilton extends his lead, wins constructors’ title
SOCHI, Russia – Lewis Hamilton cruised to victory in the inaugural Russian Grand Prix on Sunday, leading a 1-2 finish for Mercedes that clinched its first Formula One constructors’ title and stretched his lead in the championship.
Nico Rosberg placed second and now trails his teammate by 17 points in the drivers’ standings, with three races left.
Hamilton won his fourth consecutive race and his ninth of the season.
College Football
Bulldogs usurp Seminoles for historic No. 1 rank
Mississippi State is the new No. 1 in The Associated Press college football poll, replacing Florida State and making the fastest rise to the top spot in the history of the poll.
The Bulldogs received 45 first-place votes from the media panel Sunday. Mississippi State beat Auburn 38-23 on Saturday, its third consecutive victory against a top-10 team. The Bulldogs are the first team in the poll’s 78-year history to go from unranked to No. 1 in five weeks.
The defending champion Seminoles, No. 1 since the preseason, received 12 first-place votes and Ole Miss three.
Cycling
Wallays wins Paris classic; Farrar wins Beijing stage
TOURS, France – Jelle Wallays of Belgium outsprinted Thomas Voeckler to win the Paris-Tours classic Sunday.
BEIJING – Tyler Farrar of the United States won the 109-mile third stage of the Tour of Beijing on Sunday.
Golf
South Korean wins first PGA event of new season
NAPA, Calif. – Bae Sang-moon of South Korea built a big lead and was steady enough down the stretch to win the Frys.com Open in the first PGA Tour event of the new season.
VILAMOURA, Portugal – France’s Alexander Levy of France won the shortened Portugal Masters after the third and final round was washed out because of bad weather.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – China’s Shanshan Feng rallied to win the LPGA Malaysia on Sunday for her fourth LPGA Tour title.
CARY, N.C. – Kirk Triplett won the SAS Championship for his second victory of the year and fourth in three seasons on the Champions Tour.
NBA
‘Jones fracture’ forces the MVP to sit 6 to 8 weeks
OKLAHOMA CITY – Kevin Durant, the NBA’s leading scorer of this decade and the reigning MVP, likely will miss the first six to eight weeks of the season after fracturing a bone in his right foot; tests showed he had a “Jones fracture,” a broken bone at the base of his small toe.
Tennis
Federer shanghais his 4th tournament title this year
SHANGHAI – Roger Federer, the 17-time major winner, captured his fourth title of the year with a 7-6 (6), 7-6 (2) win over France’s Gilles Simon in Sunday’s final of the Shanghai Masters.
LINZ, Austria – Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic saved a match point before defeating Camila Giorgi of Italy 6-7 (4), 6-3, 7-6 (4) in the final of the Generali Ladies on Sunday, her second WTA title in as many months.
TIANJIN, China – Sixth-seeded American Alison Riske held on to defeat Belinda Bencic 6-3, 6-4 in the final of the Tianjin Open on Sunday for her first WTA Tour title.
OSAKA, Japan – Defending champion Sam Stosur won her third Japan Women’s Open title Sunday, defeating Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan 7-6 (9-7), 6-3; Stosur, seeded first, didn’t drop a set all week in capturing her first WTA title of the season.
Associated Press
