SKIING
Significant icing at upper elevations on the Narrow Gauge trail forced race organizers to cancel the super-G races Friday in the U.S. Alpine Championship and NorAm Championship at Sugarloaf.
The four super-G races, which had already been pushed back a day, will not be rescheduled.
NorAm giant slalom races are scheduled this weekend – women on Saturday and men on Sunday. The U.S. championship resume Wednesday with the men’s and women’s slalom.
HOCKEY
ECHL: Todd Skirving’s goal with just over five minutes remaining gave the Newfoundland Growlers (35-17-3) a 4-3 win over the Maine Mariners (26-27-4) at Cross Insurance Arena.
Zach O’Brien, James Melindy and Jeremy McKenna also scored for Newfoundland. Maine got goals from Ian McKinnon, Alex Kile and Andrew Peski, and 30 saves from Jeremy Brodeur.
GOLF
PGA: Scottie Scheffler, Kevin Na, Will Zalatoris and Takumi Kanaya won their groups in playoffs, and Kevin Kisner, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Tyrrell Hatton and Corey Conners advanced to the round of 16 with 3-0 records at the Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas.
The third full day finally ended when Collin Morikawa drove the green on a par 4 to beat Jason Kokrak, 1 up, as he joined 15 others in the knockout stage that begins Saturday morning.
• Ben Martin shot his second straight 6-under 66 to double his lead to two strokes in the PGA Tour’s Corales Puntacana Championship in Puerto Rico.
Alex Smalley was second at 10 under after a 65.
EUROPEAN TOUR: Pablo Larrazábal had an eagle and three birdies on the back nine to erase a bad start at the Qatar Masters, allowing the Spaniard to take a one-shot lead into the weekend.
Larrazábal shot 1-under 71 at Doha Golf Club for a 36-hole total of 9-under 135. Chase Hanna (66), Wilco Nienaber (68) and Adrian Meronk (70) were all one shot behind.
TENNIS
MIAMI OPEN: Iga Swiatek will become the first Polish player to be ranked No. 1, clinching her ascension to the top spot with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland in the second round.
Ashleigh Barty, who announced her retirement this week, will be removed from the rankings after this tournament and Swiatek officially will move into the top spot no matter what happens the rest of the way in Miami.
More than half of the women who were seeded have been eliminated in the first two rounds, but 14th-seeded Coco Gauff got past Wang Qiang 7-5, 6-4, avenging a first-round loss in the Australian Open earlier this year.
Shelby Rogers of the U.S. had 15 aces and saved nine of the 10 break points to beat 10th-seeded Jelena Ostapenko, 6-3, 7-6 (0). No. 16 Jessica Pegula had little trouble beating 2018 champion Sloane Stephens, 6-1, 6-4.
In men’s second-round play, a pair of seeded American men were ousted. No. 16 Reilly Opelka retired from his match against Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo because of a shoulder injury, and Hugo Gaston knocked out No. 20 John Isner 7-6 (5), 6-4. Isner, the 2018 Miami champion, had 22 aces and was broken just once, but went 0 for 5 on his break chances.
No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev was tested but topped 166th-ranked Borna Coric 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
AUTO RACING
FORMULA ONE: The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix scheduled for Sunday was still on after nearly four hours of meetings about attacks on the kingdom by Yemen’s Houthis rebels.
The 20 drivers on the grid met several times in talks that stretched well past 2 a.m., discussing safety concerns after an attack on an oil depot located about seven miles from the F1 circuit.
The Houthis rebels acknowledged the attacks and Saudi Arabia state TV called it a “hostile operation.” The Jiddah oil depot erupted in flames when attacked during Friday’s first practice session. It caused a raging fire that rattled the drivers enough to hold extraordinary talks regarding F1’s presence in Saudi Arabia.
BADMINTON
PROBATION: Four Chinese badminton players are on probation for two years for failing to try their best to win a doubles match in 2018 in the Fuzhou Open quarterfinals in China.
Then world-ranked No. 2 pair Li Jun Hui and Liu Yu Chen were playing No. 17-ranked He Ji Ting and Tan Qiang. Danish players observing reported to the referee the match wasn’t being played seriously. The referee and tournament manager intervened during the second game when He and Tan led 21-15, 7-11.
The umpire and ref asked both teams to play their best. After the intervention, the match noticeably increased in intensity and speed and He and Tan won 21-15, 14-21, 21-19 but all four players were charged.
FIGURE SKATING
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Olympic ice dance champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron shattered their own rhythm dance world record to take the lead over two American teams in Montpellier, France.
With the backing of their home crowd, Papadakis and Cizeron scored 92.73 points to their program set to music by John Legend to beat their score from the Beijing Games by nearly two points. It also left Papadakis and Cizeron more than three points ahead of Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue heading into Saturday’s free dance.
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