Meet the US Open’s fascinating ambidextrous talent
Tiafoe v Shelton semi-final a legacy of departing Monfils
Semi-finals begin at 7pm ET. Email Ella your thoughts!

First set: Sabalenka 1-0 *Pegula (*denotes next server)

A strong start for Sabalenka, who wins the first game with ease. She gets an ace on the second point of the match and keeps the rallies short to hold.

More than a dozen ex-players are suing the University of Michigan, alleging coach and staff were aware of abuse

More than a dozen former hockey players are suing the University of Michigan, alleging their coach and other staff were aware of sexual hazing that included the forced shaving of their genitals and other abuse by teammates decades ago.

“The abuse was ritualized, meticulously planned and sadistic … Enduring sexual abuse was required to be a member of the Michigan men’s ice hockey team,” attorney Michael Pitt said in a sex discrimination lawsuit filed on Wednesday in federal court in Detroit.

Veteran Frenchman bowed out in New York but the clash of two black players in the last four of the men’s singles is testament to his effect

The early days of this year’s US Open can be told in a series of farewells to competitors who plan to end their careers this year. The most moving of them all came in the form of Gaël Monfils’s grand departure inside Louis Armstrong Stadium against the wildly talented 20-year-old Learner Tien. Tien was competing in front of his home crowd, one of the Americans capable of a deep run, but for much of his straight-sets defeat the Frenchman had the American crowd in the palm of his hands.

Beyond the massive popularity he has garnered among tennis fans, one of the most striking parts of Monfils’s long farewell was seeing how highly nearly all of his fellow professionals, particularly his fellow black players, regard him. Frances Tiafoe says he spent his youth looking up to Monfils. Arthur Fils considers Monfils his older brother. Naomi Osaka’s nickname for Monfils, one of her idols, is simply “the Goat”. They all hold Monfils in such great esteem, and for good reason.

• Hull will partner debutant Lottie Woad for Europe

• USA seeking to retain trophy they won in 2024

Galleries at the 20th Solheim Cup have been granted a blockbuster start with Nelly Korda and Charley Hull to face off in Friday morning’s foursomes. The meeting of Korda, the world No 1, and Hull, Europe’s star turn, should ensure an electric opening in the Netherlands as the USA seek to retain the trophy won in Virginia two years ago. Korda nudged out Hull at the US Women’s Open in June.

Hull will partner the Solheim Cup debutant Lottie Woad against the formidable USA pairing of Korda and Allisen Corpuz to begin the tournament. Nanna Koerstz Madsen and Céline Boutier will represent Europe in match two, where they will take on Alison Lee and Lauren Coughlin. Esther Henseleit and Leona Maguire have been selected for the hosts in the penultimate match, with Andrea Lee and Lindy Duncan in opposition. The foursomes will conclude with Europe’s Swedish duo of Maja Stark and Linn Grant facing Rose Zhang and Jennifer Kupcho.

The Englishman has gotten no shortage of recognition, but his contributions to the American game deserve an official title

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Next spring, when the US Soccer Hall of Fame welcomes its newest class, there will be pomp and circumstance. The hall, which sits in a corner of Toyota Stadium, home of Major League Soccer’s FC Dallas, will feature the enshrineds’ signature red jackets. There will be glad-handing and speeches from players and coaches, misty-eyed reflections on their upbringings and their careers.

Many involved will be American-born soccer legends, of course. Yet every once in a while, a player whose footprint extends well beyond the borders of the United States graces the stage. Such may be the case next year when the hall potentially welcomes English legend David Beckham into the fold.

Teo Davidov doesn’t hit backhands. He serves from both sides. The 16-year-old from Denver is treating the tennis world to a wildly unorthodox style – and proving it’s more than a parlor trick

Teo Davidov always has the upper hands. An amiable junior prodigy from Denver, the 16-year-old was the oddest sight at this year’s US Open, the only player in the tournament – man, woman or junior – who hits only forehands. To be clear: it’s not that he doesn’t have a backhand or can’t hit a backhand. He’s ambidextrous and so he doesn’t bother with them.

It’s nothing personal. “To be honest, I like the traditional backhand-forehand,” he says. “I like the classiness of it. I like hitting backhands myself just to play around, just for fun.” He hits those from both wings, too.

• Fiba World Cup: USA 108-56 Hungary

• Reese and Clark have been portrayed as fierce rivals

Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark’ s interactions are a subplot of the women’s Fiba World Cup, the WNBA season and if you spend enough time on social media, a divided United States. Clark and Reese have shown their relationship on the court is thriving, and they both excelled in USA’s 108-56 quarter-final win over Hungary on Thursday.

In Thursday’s game, the growing chemistry showed. The pair had a nifty pick-and-roll to end the first quarter that ended with a layup by Reese. The Atlanta Dream forward returned the favor hitting Clark on a fastbreak for an easy lay-up later in the game.

The man mentioned by Tiger Woods after his first Masters win paved the way for generations of Black golfers, reintegrating the US Open and challenging the PGA

How good a golfer was Ted Rhodes? At the 1948 US Open, he finished the first round just three shots behind the leader – and eventual winner – Ben Hogan. But there’s more to the story: Rhodes was the first Black competitor in the tournament in its modern era, during a time of widespread segregation in American sport.

Rhodes is the subject of a new book by sports historian Dan Taylor, Out of the Rough: Ted Rhodes and His Fight against Golf’s Color Barrier. The author aims to change what he sees as mainstream unfamiliarity with Rhodes, even among golf enthusiasts.

• Former manager says Chelsea should be stripped of title

• ‘The title should be for the team that was second’

Mauricio Pochettino says Chelsea should be stripped of their 2016-17 Premier League title for financial rule breaches and the honour retrospectively awarded to Tottenham, who he led to second place that season.

Chelsea were fined £10m by the Football Association in July and given a suspended two-window transfer ban for multiple violations of the rules during the Roman Abramovich era. They were also fined £10.75m by the Premier League in March.

Manager is excited by new US deal but might have returned to Spurs if the stars had aligned and does not rule out taking England job one day

If things had worked out differently, Mauricio Pochettino would have gone back to his beloved Tottenham over the summer. They had put in the call and it stirred him. Nothing was going to put him off – not even the possibility of the club being in the Championship.

Seriously, Mauricio? After a World Cup campaign with the United States and top jobs with Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain before that, he would have been willing to start a new chapter in the second tier of English football? “Yes, of course,” Pochettino says. “Tottenham … it’s the only club that always I am open to help. In whatever division.”

• New England Patriots 10-13 Seattle Seahawks

• Backup quarterback engineers late Seattle rally

• Sam Darnold exits opening drive with hip injury

Backup quarterback Drew Lock led two late scoring drives and the Seattle Seahawks intercepted Drake Maye three times in the fourth quarter to overcome an early injury to starter Sam Darnold and beat the New England Patriots 13-10 on Wednesday night in a Super Bowl rematch.

The Seahawks were held to just a field goal through three quarters as Lock and the offense struggled to move the ball after Darnold injured his hip on the opening drive. ESPN reports that he could return for Seattle’s Week 3 game against the Washington Commanders.

• American rallies from brink to defeat Andreeva

• Gauff survives 12 double faults in three-set escape

Coco Gauff has played far cleaner matches than on Wednesday afternoon. But few players today on the women’s tour have become better at finding answers on the fly when almost nothing is working for them.

The 22-year-old American’s serene march through the US Open women’s draw hit extreme turbulence early in her quarter-final clash with fifth-seeded Mirra Andreeva inside Arthur Ashe Stadium. She dropped the first four games before surrendering the opening set in 26 minutes, ending a streak of 20 consecutive sets won dating back nearly a month. She piled up 12 double faults and 42 unforced errors, the majority off a forehand in open revolt. She found herself one point from defeat not once but twice during a hairy second-set tiebreaker.

• Distance tops US men’s mark by more than 30 miles

• Eckert also beat women’s world record she set last year

While some teachers spent the second week of September easing into their school routines, Megan Eckert was making more ultrarunning history.

The New Mexico middle school math teacher shattered the six-day women’s world record and the American men’s record by running 636.482 miles, completing her feat on Wednesday morning in Balatonfüred, Hungary.

Coco Gauff saved two match points to set up a semi-final against Elena Rybakina, who secured the world No 1 ranking with her three-set win over Zheng Qinwen

Rybakina has won four of her five meetings with Zheng, including two three-set victories this year. But Zheng was earlier in her comeback from elbow surgery then, the 2024 Olympic champion is a totally different proposition now, carrying the momentum of seven successive match wins in New York having come through qualifying - and the belief she can turn around any deficit after coming from 5-0 down in sets against both Madison Keys in the third round and Iga Swiatek in the last 16.

Here come Zheng and Rybakina, Zheng stepping on to court wearing headphones, not that there’s much noise to drown out yet at 11.35am New York time. Both already look extremely focused with their game faces on.

The 23-year-old’s epic win over Carlos Alcaraz means there is a real chance of an American man winning the US Open for the first time since 2003

In yet another graveyard shift at the US Open, Ben Shelton showed he can hang around late, ousting defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in five sets in a quarter-final that started on Tuesday night and finished on Wednesday morning. When Shelton fired the final ball out wide for his seventh ace of the night, the clock on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court read 3.33am. It was the latest-ever finish at the Open and the fifth-latest finish in grand slam history.

After embracing Alcaraz at the net, he pumped his fists and greeted his coach’s box with a primal scream. Parents have a name for this: the zoomies. Then Shelton looked to the stands and gestured at his mother and his girlfriend, soccer star Trinity Rodman. In his on-court interview, he asked that his sister, Emma, be given the day off. She had spent the entire night and much of the early morning watching her little brother play.

Through the loss of one franchise, name controversies and stadium changes, Legacy supporters have created an environment of advocacy and belonging

More than two years of work had led to this moment for the Boston Independent Supporters’ Association (ISA). Even before Boston’s new NWSL team had a name, a mascot or a roster, there were fans organizing, ready and waiting to embrace the franchise.

On 14 March 2026, it finally paid off. The Boston ISA members marched into Gillette Stadium for the Legacy’s opening match, following behind the marching band from Boston Public Schools and holding their “Up the Swans” scarves over their heads. The group arrived at their seats in the supporters’ section behind the north goal and unfurled the tifo they had spent many hours diligently painting.

Sports is the rare topic in which the president has succeeded in shifting the conversation to his preferred terms

Lately, it seems Donald Trump’s scope of interests has narrowed to a few things: remaking downtown Washington DC in his gaudy image; wars he thinks he can win quickly and easily, even though he can’t.

Also, golf. Always golf. Ever golf.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is the author of The Long Game: U.S. Men’s Soccer and Its Savage, Four-Decade Journey to the Top, or Thereabouts, which is out now. He teaches at Marist University.

• Winner claims 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (7) victory

• Epic quarter-final ends after 3.30am in New York

As the official 10th day of play in New York moved deeper into the remote hours of the new morning, every passing game imbued Carlos Alcaraz with greater despair. From his focused start, Alcaraz’s intensity had flatlined and he could barely put a ball in court. He lost nine consecutive games against Ben Shelton and seemed to have nothing left.

Instead, the defending champion improbably dragged himself back into a contest that soon developed into one of the most remarkable matches of the year. The latest attempt by Alcaraz, the second seed, at orchestrating a monumental comeback was denied by a brave, defiant Shelton, the eighth seed, who refused to be shaken by his legendary rival or the looming prospect of securing the greatest win of career.

The new season kicks off on Wednesday night. Our writers have their say on the MVP, rookies to watch and the disasters waiting to happen

Quarterbacks living under center. The NFL has developed into a shotgun league, where most quarterbacks take the majority of their snaps three to seven yards away from the center. But the increase in efficiency when it comes to snaps taken right behind the center should have coaches directing their quarterbacks to do more of it. Matthew Stafford, Caleb Williams, and Sam Darnold led the way in 2025, and others will follow. DF

• Shelton sees off Alcaraz in latest ever US Open finish

• Tiafoe breaks Michelsen’s heart with epic comeback

First set: Shelton 3-2 Alcaraz* (*denotes next server)

An even breezier service game from Shelton, who holds to love. During the changeover, the cameras pan to a few of the celebrities in the audience. There’s Kevin Hart taking it in from a suite. And, of course, there’s USA and Washington Spirit forward Trinity Rodman, Shelton’s girlfriend, watching from his player box. We’ve also heard Simone Biles is in the building somewhere.

• No 11 seed rallies for 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (6) win

• Tiafoe into third US Open semi-final in five years

• American will play Alcaraz or Shelton in last four

At the end of more than four and a half hours of escalating drama inside the world’s biggest tennis stadium, a devastated Alex Michelsen fell into Frances Tiafoe’s arms just outside the tramlines, sobbing uncontrollably. Tiafoe took his younger countryman in an embrace and held him there for 23 seconds, the victor consoling the vanquished in the aftermath of an extraordinary comeback that had carried him, somehow, into the US Open semi-finals.

Only a couple of hours earlier, the 28-year-old Tiafoe had been two sets down and two points from elimination in the third set, with Michelsen within touching distance of the biggest victory of his young career. Instead, Tiafoe roared back from the brink to win a quarter-final that will be long remembered in New York, outlasting Michelsen 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (6) on Tuesday afternoon to reach the last four at Flushing Meadows for the third time in five years. Now he will face Ben Shelton on Friday after the American ousted defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in another epic five-set marathon that ended at 3.33am on Wednesday morning.

• Saudi investors stopped backing LIV this year

• Rahm, DeChambeau and Smith among the creditors

LIV Golf, the breakaway tour that spent billions of dollars luring top players away from the PGA and triggered bitter divisions within the sport, has filed for bankruptcy protection in the US.

The filing at a New Jersey court indicates LIV, which abruptly lost its deep-pocketed Saudi investors earlier this year, intends to restructure and return in a new form.

• Derek Phillips suffered cardiac arrest at football game

• Temperatures reached 94F in Iowa City on Saturday

• University has not said whether heat caused collapse

A University of Iowa marching band member has been taken off life support after collapsing during extreme heat at the Hawkeyes’ season-opening football game on Saturday, his family said.

Derek Phillips, a third-year student from Dubuque, Iowa, suffered a sudden cardiac arrest shortly before the band was scheduled to perform its half-time show against Northern Illinois at Kinnick Stadium, according to a message posted to his Instagram account by his family.

Summer spending across the league’s 30 clubs has ballooned. Here are three takeaways from the league’s transfer window

With the shadow of the 2026 World Cup hanging over the league and a potential set of rule changes looming, Major League Soccer’s summer transfer window was one defined by uncertainty, diverse strategies and record spending. It was the fourth transfer window since MLS allowed clubs to purchase players from other clubs using traditional transfer fees rather than general allocation money (GAM), the intraleague currency system. The new rule, which is now being used more frequently, has helped account for rapid growth in league expenditure, as has increased GAM allotted to each club.

These trends have been seen broadly over the last two seasons, but this past window took it to a new level, smashing the previous record for summer spending. This summer, MLS teams spent 65% more year-over-year, with a total of nearly $190m spent, accounting for 45% of the 2026 total. The above factors combined to create one of the most consequential transfer windows in MLS history, which may give a glimpse into the league’s future trajectory.