BASEBALL
Tyler Dearden’s two-run single in the eighth inning lifted the Portland Sea Dogs to a 3-2 win over New Hampshire in an Eastern League game on Thursday in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Phillip Sikes reached on an error and Nick Yorke walked to start the eighth for Portland and both moved up on a sacrifice fly by Christian Koss. Then with two outs, Dearden’s line drive single to left scored both runs for the Sea Dogs, who finished with just four hits.
Brian Van Belle threw six scoreless innings for Portland, allowing three hits with four strikeouts and no walks. Skylar Arias (1-0) pitched one inning and got the win despite allowing both runs on a two-run homer in the seventh by Arelvis Martinez, which gave the Fisher Cats a 2-1 lead.
TENNIS
WTA IN CHINA: The women’s professional tennis tour will bring its events back to China later this year, announcing on Thursday the end of a boycott instituted in late 2021 over concerns about the safety of former player Peng Shuai after she accused a high-ranking government official there of sexual assault.
WTA Chairman and CEO Steve Simon said in an interview with The Associated Press that while what he sought was never delivered – a chance for someone from the tour to meet with Peng, along with a full and transparent investigation into the Grand Slam doubles champion’s accusations – the decision was made, with input from player and tournament representatives, to return to the country.
“The stance that we took at the time was appropriate. And we stand by that. But 16 months into this, we’re convinced that our requests will not be met. And to continue with the same strategy doesn’t make sense,” Simon said from St. Petersburg, Florida, where the WTA is based.
Although there have been no reports of Peng sightings in public since carefully orchestrated appearances during the Beijing Olympics in February 2022, Simon said the WTA has “received assurances from people who are close to her, that we’ve been in contact with, that she is safe and living with her family in Beijing.”
MONTE CARLO MASTERS: Playing in only his second match on clay this season after a one-month pause, top-ranked Novak Djokovic lost 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 against Lorenzo Musetti on Thursday at the Monte Carlo Masters.
A two-time champion at Monte Carlo, Djokovic lost his opening match on the French Cote d’Azur last year and exited the tournament in the third round in 2021. Djokovic got off to a strong start but lost control of the match in the second set when he was broken five times as both players struggled with accuracy in windy conditions.
The match was suspended by rain for about an hour with the score 6-4, 5-7, 1-1 and Djokovic up 40-30 on his serve. Musetti broke for a 4-3 lead and concluded on his fourth match point.
The 16th-seeded Musetti will take on Jannik Sinner in the quarterfinals. The seventh-seeded Sinner came from behind and saved a match point to get past No. 10-seeded Hubert Hurkacz 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-1.
GOLF
PGA: Viktor Hovland’s round of 7-under 64 at the rain-delayed RBC Heritage on Thursday gave him a first-round lead for a second straight week – and left Masters champion Jon Rahm eight shots behind and with plenty of work ahead to get into contention after his major victory.
Hovland was a stroke ahead of Brian Harman. Jimmy Walker and Aaron Rai were also at 6 under but had not completed their rounds when play was suspended because of darkness at 7:50 p.m. Six players will conclude their first rounds on Friday morning. The group at 66 included U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick, Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson, Justin Rose, Sungjae Im, Scott Stallings and Joel Dahmen.
Rahm finished at 1-over 72. He acknowledged the fatigue from Augusta National, and it didn’t help that his afternoon included a rain delay of nearly 90 minutes.
LPGA: Natthakritta Vongtaveelap eagled the par-5 fifth and closed with a chip-in birdie in fading light on the par-3 ninth for a 6-under 66 and a share of the first-round lead in the LPGA Tour’s LOTTE Championship in Honolulu.
HOCKEY
WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Aerin Frankel stopped 18 shots and the United States shut out Germany 3-0 in the women’s world hockey championship quarterfinals Thursday in Brampton, Ontario.
Amanda Kessel, Hannah Bilka and Abbey Murphy each scored a goal as the Americans booked a spot in the semifinal.
German goaltender Sandra Abstreiter made 49 saves in Germany’s smallest margin of defeat to the Americans ever.
• Sarah Nurse scored at 4:26 of overtime and Canada dodged its biggest women’s hockey upset, beating Sweden 3-2 on Thursday night in the world championship quarterfinals.
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