Auto Racing
Logano wins pole for Saturday night’s Cup race
RICHMOND, Va. – Joey Logano won the pole for the NASCAR Sprint Cup regular-season finale Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway.
Logano turned a lap a 126.470 mph to emerge from the final 12 drivers in the knockout qualifying format.
He edged Matt Kenseth, whose best lap came at 126.357 mph, and won his fifth pole of the season and the 13th of his career.
Cycling
Cavendish out of Tour of Britain after crash
LONDON – British sprint specialist Mark Cavendish has been forced out of the Tour of Britain after being hospitalized with a shoulder injury following a crash in Friday’s sixth stage.
Gougeard wins Vuelta stage 19, Dumoulin retains lead
AVILA, Spain – Alexis Gougeard of France broke away from the pack and stayed ahead to win the 19th stage of the Spanish Vuelta on Friday, while Tom Dumoulin extended his slender overall lead.
Gougeard was followed across the line in the medieval walled city of Avila by Nelson Oliveira, who finished second, and Maxime Monfort came third in the rolling 115-mile stage.
Golf
Lee has clubhouse lead in LPGA Evian 2nd round
EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France – South Korea’s Mi Hyang Lee shot a 4-under 67 on Friday to take a one-stroke lead in the Evian Championship, the last of the LPGA Tour’s five majors.
The 22-year-old Lee had a 9-under 133 total. She won the Mizuno Classic last year in Japan for her lone LPGA Tour title.
Tennis
Serena’s Slam bid ends on sour note in semis
NEW YORK – For Serena Williams’ first 26 matches this year at major tournaments, no deficit was too daunting, no opponent too troublesome, no victory too far from reach.
She was unbeaten and, seemingly, unbeatable, nearing the first Grand Slam in more than a quarter-century. All Williams needed was two more wins to pull off that rare feat. And yet, against an unseeded and unheralded opponent in the U.S. Open semifinals, she faltered. Her pursuit of history ended, oh so close.
“I don’t want to talk about how disappointing it is for me,” Williams said at the start of a briefer-than-usual news conference. “If you have any other questions, I’m open for that.”
In one of the most significant upsets in the history of tennis, Williams finally found a hole too big to climb out of, losing 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 on Friday at Flushing Meadows to 43rd-ranked Roberta Vinci of Italy.
Vinci had never before played in a Grand Slam semifinal; Williams owns 21 major titles. In four previous matchups, Vinci had never taken a set off Williams.
Djokovic, Federer easily reach U.S. Open final
NEW YORK – Roger Federer is 34. It’s been more than three years since he won a Grand Slam title. He’s been considered past his prime for quite some time.
And he might just be playing some of the top tennis of his career at the moment.
Federer moved into his first U.S. Open final since 2009 with the latest in a string of dominating performances, overwhelming longtime pal and Swiss Olympic and Davis Cup teammate Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 on Friday night.
Believe it or not, the other men’s match Friday was even less competitive: Novak Djokovic beat defending champion Marin Cilic 6-0, 6-1, 6-2, the most lopsided semifinal in New York in the Open era, which started in 1968.
Associated Press
