• Fiery Diamond League comments partially walked back

• On Hocker: ‘Cole and I talked it through after the race’

The double Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen has issued a part-apology for calling his rivals “losers” and a “bunch of cowards” after a spicy men’s 1500m Diamond League final on Friday.

However, Ingebrigtsen has continued to maintain that he was still right to accuse the Olympic 1500m champion Cole Hocker of cowardice – because he asked for a strong pace and swapped in his own pacemaker only to then hide behind others in the race.

• Potopova sends Anisimova out at Flushing Meadows

• You can mail Katy and follow us on TikTok and Bluesky

Last night Serena and Venus Williams – with their combined age of 456 - blew a five-point lead in the deciding tie-break as their return to the grand slam doubles stage ended in defeat, 6-3, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (7) against Chan Hao-ching and Maya Joint. Serena must be sick of the sight of Joint – given her singles comeback was also halted by the Australian in the Wimbledon first round this summer – but having come so close to victory in both matches, she may well be encouraged enough to continue. Serena and Venus chose not to do a post-match media conference last night – so it’s not clear what their next plans are.

A big cheer on Grandstand – despite the fact Zheng is facing an American – as she holds at the start of the second set. Anisimova is still a break down, 3-2, against Potapova, while Taylor Fritz – the pick of the American men in the first week - is warming up on Arthur Ashe against Francisco Cerundolo, the 24th seed from Argentina.

A new study offers more evidence that America’s biggest sport produces life-altering head trauma. The NFL will never turn itself off, so it’s on fans to do so

As a new NFL season begins this Wednesday, the danger of America’s most-watched sport has never been more clear.

A new and widely circulated study published in the British Medical Journal examined the donated brains of former NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021 and compared them with the overall number of players who died during that period. Of the 235 donated brains in that period, 215 had evidence of the degenerative brain condition chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). That group of 215 comprised 24.5% of the former players who died during that period in total. Given the finding, the study’s authors estimate that the prevalence of CTE among players who died in that period was at minimum 24.5% to a maximum of 97.7%, with the actual rate likely somewhere in between.

Nathan Kalman-Lamb is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of New Brunswick. Derek Silva is Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminology at King’s University College at Western University.

In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

• Knyba wins unanimous decision after dropping Ruiz

• Former champion struggles badly after 762-day layoff

• Ruiz, 36, insists another title run remains possible

Andy Ruiz Jr’s comeback bid was left in tatters on Friday night after the former unified heavyweight champion was knocked down and picked apart in a sobering unanimous-decision defeat to Damian Knyba in Newark, New Jersey.

Knyba won by scores of 117-110 and 114-113 twice, handing Ruiz the third defeat of his professional career and dealing a devastating blow to his hopes of becoming a two-time champion in boxing’s prestige division. The baffling pair of 114-113 cards flattered Ruiz considerably and bore little relation to the mostly one-way traffic that unfolded. (The Guardian had it 117-110.)

• American duo lose 6-3, 6-7(6), 7-6(7) to Maya Joint and Chan Hao-ching

• Serena and Venus crash out of women’s doubles in first round

In the end, after so much toil and admirable fight, defeat came swiftly for one of the greatest doubles teams to ever share a tennis court. Upon their return to prime time in New York, Venus and Serena Williams fought desperately to overturn the various deficits they found themselves in over three hours inside a thunderous Arthur Ashe Stadium.

They came close. The Williams sisters had clawed their way back into the match after trailing a 1-4 in their final set against Chan Hao-ching and Maya Joint, and they established a 5-0 lead in the third set tie-break. Just as they appeared to be on the verge of victory, they were brushed aside, losing 6-3, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (7) in the first round of the US Open.

• Australian returns on AU$4.9m contract after season on sidelines

• Former No 1 pick hopes to reignite basketball career with fourth club

Australian former No 1 overall draft pick Ben Simmons has taken a significant step towards resurrecting his NBA career, agreeing a one-year deal with the Sacramento Kings.

The Melbourne-born guard returns on a US$3.5m (AU$4.9m) contract after sitting ‌out the entire 2025-26 campaign while rehabilitating back and leg injuries that have hampered him in recent years.

• New pact includes terms for first-division USL Premier

• Base pay for Championship grows from $31k to $42k

• Agreement runs through the 2030 season

The United Soccer League and USL Players Association announced the ratification of a new collective bargaining agreement for two levels of the organization’s pyramid on Friday, with fresh terms taking effect immediately and running through 2030. The new pact include a second agreement for the second-division USL Championship as well as the first set of terms for the upcoming USL Premier, a first-division sanctioned league scheduled to lauch in 2028.

Among the headline items of the deals is the introduction of 12-month contracts for players, a codified first in the US lower divisions. The first USL CBAs worked to standardize 10-month contracts; before then, clubs varied in their commitments to players. Championship players will earn a base compensation (which includes housing) of $42,000 in 2026 – up from $31,000 – with that floor increasing annually over the term of the agreement. The USL Premier will also launch with 12-month contracts and a compensation floor of $67,500 in 2028 with annual increases worked into the CBA.

• ‘It’s tricky to handle when you’re trying to compete’

• Alcaraz into fourth round after straight sets victory

Aryna Sabalenka briefly stopped her match at the US Open to complain about the strong smell of cannabis on her court as she comfortably reached the fourth round in New York.

Sabalenka, the two-time defending champion, continued her attempts to rebuild her form as she overcame a challenging test from Kamilla Rakhimova before winning 6-3, 6-4.

• Seven-year tenure included both growth and tumult

• Internal and external candidates are on league’s radar

• Analysis: Cathy Engelbert’s defining wins and losses

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert is retiring at the end of the year, bringing to a close her seven-plus years at the helm of the league and a stewardship that has been transformative and at times tumultuous.

Engelbert is the second-longest tenured WNBA president or commissioner, and she helped negotiate a lucrative collective bargaining agreement this past spring that resulted in the league’s first set of million-dollar player salaries.

Jeering and heckling are increasingly commonplace, even at grand slams, as spectators try to influence matches

Midway through the first week of the US Open a couple of years ago, Jiri Lehecka’s attempts to find his form were disrupted by incessant taunting from a spectator close by. “There was a guy who sat just behind my bench on a smaller court, court four, and he was talking to me basically for the first three sets, like non-stop,” Lehecka says. “He was talking to me like: ‘You can’t do it. You are tired. He’s better than you are.’”

Lehecka maintained his composure and closed out the match, but even as he focused on navigating the intense stress of competition, he believed he understood this spectator’s motivations. The spectator, he thinks, was not there just to cheer for his favourite player: he was a bettor who had put money on Lehecka to lose. He had entered court four solely to influence the outcome of the match.

Defending champions Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka progressed alongside other top seeds in Friday’s third-round matches

Leylah Fernandez has broken Pegula early, taking a 2-0 lead in the first. You might recall that Fernandez was Emma Raducanu’s opponent in the 2021 US Open final; since losing that match, the Canadian has only gone past the third round at a slam once (the 2022 French Open, where she made the quarter-finals) but has won five WTA Tour titles and is a consistent presence in the world’s top 30. So which career path would you prefer: hers or Raducanu’s?

Sabalenka takes the first set 6-3, remaining dominant against an opponent who is playing decent stuff. Marta Kostyuk also claims the first set 6-3 over Alexandrova, while Sorana Cirstea has claimed the opener against Paolini by the same score. That feels like an upset, even though Cirstea is seeded higher – No 16 to Paolini’s 19.

Recruiting ex-pros. Inflaming Ukraine-Russia tensions. Suing the SEC and being sued back. The school is adapting to a new reality – and also creating a new one

In 1893, a chemistry professor named Charles Coates arrived at Louisiana State University and wrote that, to his surprise, “there was practically no athletics in the student body: no football, no tennis, and only very little baseball in the spring.” A broad program of sports struck him as the kind of thing a school should have, particularly as US universities were beginning to tout intercollegiate athletics as critical to a balanced higher-ed experience and another way to justify the cost of entry. But 133 years on, sports aren’t merely the main attraction at LSU. They’re the school’s raison d’être, the blinkered obsession that consumes the university and its most prominent ambassadors.

Any doubt that the business of educating college students is just a nettlesome distraction from the business of college sports in Baton Rouge has been emphatically dispelled over the past 10 months. On the football side, the school has spent or committed roughly $162m to its last three head coaches: Ed Orgeron, the folksy national champion in 2019 who received a $17m buyout when he was fired two years later; Brian Kelly, the unloved underachiever who received a $54m buyout after being fired last October; and Lane Kiffin, the Kelly replacement whom it signed to a $91m deal a month later. Clemson, the opponent for LSU’s season opener at home on Saturday, are about to find out what all that money buys.

Have you been following the big stories in football, cricket, tennis, boxing, Formula One and cycling?

Seven years after springing one of the biggest upsets in boxing history, the Mexican Rocky is back with his old trainer for one final run at the heavyweight summit

Seven years ago, Andy Ruiz Jr became the first fighter of Mexican descent to win the world heavyweight championship in one of the biggest upsets boxing has ever seen, stopping the undefeated Anthony Joshua inside seven rounds at Madison Square Garden.

A replacement opponent summoned on five weeks’ notice who went off as an 11-1 underdog, Ruiz came off the canvas in the third to knock Joshua down four times before the referee finally waved it off. Hailed as the “Mexican Rocky”, he was lionized as a border-straddling hero in his hometown of Imperial, the dusty agricultural community framed by the mountain ranges and flat deserts of south-eastern California. He made the late-night rounds, took an audience with Mexico president Andrés Manuel López Obrador and signed a $10m guarantee when Joshua activated his rematch clause. The money, cars, fame and women arrived all at once.

The former Arsenal, Barcelona and France star says players shouldn’t underestimate their ability to change how football works

As Fifa continues to face scrutiny from some confederations and fans, Thierry Henry has encouraged players to use their voice as the political battle for control of international soccer unfolds. The former Arsenal and Barcelona forward turned pundit spoke with the Guardian on Tuesday alongside Kate Scott and Jamie Carragher as CBS and Paramount prepare for this season’s Champions League broadcasts.

“For me, the players have more power than they think they have,” Henry said when asked for his thoughts on the situation. “And if they want it to change, they can make it happen – especially nowadays.”

This is an extract from Soccer Desk, a newsletter from the Guardian US. Subscribe for free here.

• NFL reporter resigned after fallout from photo scandal

• Patriots coach, Russini were pictured at Arizona resort

• Investigation unable to find ‘exact nature’ of relationship

The Athletic’s internal investigation found that the relationship between former NFL reporter Dianna Russini and New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel was in “clear violation” of the newsroom’s standards.

The outlet, which is owned by the New York Times, released a report Thursday detailing the findings of a five-months-long investigation. Mike Semel, the Athletic’s editorial director for standards and quality, wrote that he was unable to find signs of clear bias in her coverage or determine the exact “nature of their relationship”, but said it gave the appearance of a conflict of interest.

Auger-Aliassime lost in the second round, as did Musetti against Australia’s Dane Sweeny, but Fritz, Swiatek and Andreeva won in straight sets and Osaka survived in three

It feels rather odd saying this, given that Osaka is a two-time former US Open champion, but she’s something of a wildcard contender this fortnight, having not won a title since 2021. But over the past year she’s been building momentum, after returning from her maternity leave in 2024, and there were plenty of green shoots on the grass at Wimbledon, where she beat Aryna Sabalenka en route to the quarter-finals. And Osaka has started strongly today, leading Siniakova 3-1 and serving at 40-15. Make that game, as the 13th seed’s pace is too much for the Czech to handle.

Swiatek is serving for the first set at 5-3. And on her second set point, at her advantage, she takes it, when Podoroska prods a return wide. After starting with three holds to love, the set got closer, but the eighth seed found a way through and she’s skipping to the back of the court to start the second set. She looks up for this – and most importantly, more confident than she has done for so much of this year.

The league is awash with ultra-wealthy owners. Adam Silver is hoping a hefty punishment for the Clippers will send them a message about who is in charge

When Steve Ballmer bought the Los Angeles Clippers for $2bn in 2014, it was widely regarded as a coup for the NBA.

Not only is Ballmer one of the richest men in the world – worth an estimated $152.7bn – but his passion and enthusiasm for the sport stood in stark contrast to the team’s embattled former owner. Donald Sterling, who bought the Clippers for $12.5m in 1981, was forced to sell after being handed a lifetime ban by the NBA in response to a series of racist comments.

The founder of The Ringer and Grantland was famous for discovering and developing writers. Now he is promoting a technology eroding the creative industries

Bill Simmons may have stopped writing with any regularity in the mid-2010s – he claims his fingers don’t work – but that won’t stop him from reminding you of his greatest hits. On a recent podcast about Russell Westbrook’s retirement, he couldn’t stop quoting his old columns. He first referenced an article from the 2012 NBA finals, and wasn’t finished until 11 minutes into the podcast. His guest, The Ringer contributor Kirk Goldsberry, deserved an award for patience. But the biggest blight on the episode came later, in the form of a bizarre ad read.

“This episode,” Simmons announced, “is brought to you by ChatGPT, the Bill Simmons Podcast AI sponsor.” (Emphasis mine; his overenthusiastic delivery mandates the italics.) Simmons said that he had asked ChatGPT what Westbrook’s defining game was. “That was a pretty good answer,” he said of ChatGPT’s offerings, as if it were a precocious, loveable nephew, before encouraging his listeners to try the platform.

At this week’s world championship, the women’s record holder who once feared a 5K will try to top her own 144-hour distance – and beat the US men’s mark

While many teachers head back to school this week, middle-school math teacher Megan Eckert will be 5,000 miles from her classroom in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has a good reason to miss a few classes: she’ll be competing at the Global Organization of Multi-Day Ultramarathoners World Championship.

On Thursday, more than 100 runners will gather on a start line in Balatonfüred, Hungary, and attempt to run as many miles as they can in six days.

• Former Ivy League star wins US Open debut

• Shelton and Tiafoe advance to third round

• Pegula cruises past Kenin in 56 minutes

Michael Zheng spent years making the long trek from northern New Jersey, first by bus across the Hudson River to the Port Authority bus terminal and then nearly the full length of the No 7 subway line, all for the opportunity to train at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. On a rainswept Wednesday afternoon in Queens, the destination was the same but the purpose had changed entirely.

The 22-year-old American wildcard and two-time NCAA champion from nearby Columbia University brushed aside Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 to win his rain-delayed US Open debut, providing one of the more unlikely highlights on a busy day for the home contingent in New York.

[L'article Le gouvernement fédéral prolonge la suspension de la taxe sur l’essence a d'abord été publié dans InfoBref.]

• Olympic champion targets third Games in LA

• Michael Jordan narrates announcement video

• Chiles joins Lee and Carey on comeback trail

Jordan Chiles is returning for a run at her third Olympics, ⁠announcing Wednesday she intends to compete in the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

Chiles shared ⁠her decision ⁠in ​a video narrated by basketball legend Michael Jordan.

• Team circumvented salary cap rules to sign star

• Owner Steve Ballmer lands one-year ban

The NBA has handed down one of the biggest punishments in the history of the league to the Los Angeles Clippers after finding that the franchise circumvented salary cap rules when it courted Kawhi Leonard as a free agent.

The league has stripped the team of five first-round draft picks, giving the team no natural pick in the draft from 2029 through 2033.