In Brief: Murray into French Open SF against ‘15 champ
Tennis: Andy Murray alternated between brilliant and bad for the better part of two sets Wednesday before righting things to reach his fourth French Open semifinal in Paris, beating No. 9 Richard Gasquet 5-7, 7-6 (3), 6-0, 6-2 at Court Philippe Chatrier.
Murray, a two-time major title winner, will take on defending champion Stan Wawrinka, who easily eliminated 55th-ranked Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-2, 6-1, 7-6 (7).
The quarterfinals in the top half of the men’s draw were finally established: No. 1 Novak Djokovic against No. 7 Tomas Berdych, and No. 12 David Goffin against No. 13 Dominic Thiem. All the rain tightened the schedule to the point that players could have to compete several days in a row to get to the final, instead of enjoying a major’s usual off-days.
After his 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 7-5 victory over No. 14 Roberto Bautista Agut, which was suspended in the third set Tuesday, Djokovic continued his charm offensive with the fans.
Earlier, in women’s fourth-round matches, No. 9 Venus Williams came up short in a bid to get to the quarterfinals, dropping eight games in a row during a 6-2, 6-4 loss to No. 8 Timea Bacsinszky. Her sister, No. 1 Serena, defeated 18th-seeded Elina Svitolina 6-1, 6-1. Serena looked like a 21-time Grand Slam champion facing a 21-year-old who has only reached one major quarterfinal, and now faces unseeded Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan.
Bacsinszky will play 58th-ranked Kiki Bertens, whose first Grand Slam quarterfinal came via a 7-6 (4), 6-3 victory over No. 15 Madison Keys.
Kizer’s career high lifts Fever over Storm
WNBA: Lynetta Kizer scored 20 points, Tiffany Mitchell added 19 – both career highs – and the Indiana Fever beat the Seattle Storm 85-75 in Indianapolis.
Indiana led by 22 points with 1:04 left in the third quarter but Seattle went on a 9-0 run, spanning the break, to pull to 72-59 with 8:14 remaining. The Fever answered with the next seven points as the Storm did not score again until the 4:37 mark.
Marissa Coleman added 11 points for Indiana (3-3), which is ranked No. 6 in the AP WNBA power poll. Briann January (Lewis and Clark High) came off the bench in her first game of the season and scored four points in 16 minutes.
Vandersloot gives spark off the bench: Elena Delle Donne scored 18 points and Cappie Pondexter added 16 to lead the Sky to a win over the Mystics, in Washinton D.C.
Courtney Vandersloot (Gonzaga), who led the WNBA in assists last season, added 10 points and eight assists off the bench in her second game back after missing three games with an ankle injury. Jamierra Faulkner, who has started since Vandersloot was injured, had seven assists as Chicago had 27 helpers on 32 baskets.
The Sky (3-4), ranked seventh in the AP power poll, have won two straight after three consecutive losses. They play the Mystics (2-5), ninth in the poll, in Chicago on Friday.
Lucas out for rest of season: Indiana Fever guard Maggie Lucas will miss the rest of the season after tearing the ACL in her right knee.
Lucas was injured at the end of the third quarter Friday against Minnesota. At that point, she had a team-high 12 points.
The three-year pro averaged 7.8 points in four games this season after scoring 5.7 points last year when Indiana lost in the WNBA Finals.
Sounders wipe away 3-game losing streak
mls: Jordan Morris and Joevin Jones scored 4 minutes apart late in the second half and Seattle beat D.C. United in Seattle, to end a three-game losing streak.
The Sounders (5-6-1) had only scored 10 goals in 11 games, including one goal in three losses since a 2-0 win on May 7. D.C. United has not scored against Seattle in their last six meetings, going 0-5-1.
Morris, who scored his fifth goal in the 79th minute, had a give-and-go with Jones. Jones fed Morris in the middle, who sent it back out left to Jones for a hard shot that diving DC keeper Bill Hamid got his left hand on, deflecting the ball back out front. A D.C. defender tried to head it away but it went to Morris, who sent a hard shot into the net before Hamid could scramble back into position.
Union extend conference lead: Chris Pontius had a goal and an assist and the Philadelphia Union beat the Columbus Crew 3-2 in Chester, Pennsylvania, to extend their Eastern Conference lead.
Philadelphia (6-3-5) is unbeaten in its last eight games – with three wins and five draws – to tie a franchise mark.
Pontius tied it at 1 in the 21st minute. He trapped a long cross, took four touches along the 18-yard box and scored through traffic.
In the second half, Pontius connected with Vincent Nogueira in the 57th for a 2-1 lead. Pontius’ cross went over a crowd in front of goal and Nogueira’s shot from distance deflected into the back of the net.
Timbers get first shutout: Liam Ridgewell scored early and the Portland Timbers earned their first shutout of the season with a 1-0 victory over the San Jose Earthquake in Portland, despite playing short-handed the entire second half.
Dairon Asprilla was sent off with a red card at the end of the first half and the Timbers played with 10 men the rest of the way.
The loss snapped a three-game undefeated streak for the Earthquakes, who were without coach Dominic Kinnear because of a minor car accident.
NASCAR suspends 3 Sprint crew chiefs
Miscellany: NASCAR has suspended three Sprint Cup Series crew chiefs for infractions at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Greg Biffle crew chief Brian Pattie was fined $50,000 and suspended for all the activities through June 15. Biffle also was docked 15 driver points because the Roush Fenway Racing Ford had a body design that was either not submitted to NASCAR for approval or did not comply with the approved body designs.
IOC acts on doping crisis: Olympic leaders took action on two fronts, ramping up efforts to keep drug cheats out of the upcoming Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and recommending the inclusion of baseball, softball and four other sports for the 2020 Tokyo Games.
The IOC executive board agreed to double its budget for pre-games drug testing to $500,000, to target athletes from Russia, Kenya and Mexico, and to extend retesting of stored doping samples to include medal winners from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
Oregon wins golf title: Sulman Raza made a 7-foot birdie putt on the third extra hole to outlast Taylor Funk and give Oregon its first NCAA men’s golf title, 3-2 over short-handed Texas in Eugene, Oregon.
Raza rallied in regulation and finished off Funk – the son of PGA Tour Champions player Fred Funk – with the birdie on the par-4 10th on the 21st hole.