Sports
Sabalenka falls as Rybakina powers into Cincinnati semi-final
Defending champion Aryna Sabalenka’s title defence came to an abrupt end in Cincinnati as Elena Rybakina produced a powerful performance to reach the semi-final.
The ninth seed Kazakh star dominated from the very start, using her big serve and clean hitting to overwhelm the defending champion and book her place in the last four.
She secured her seventh career win over a top-ranked player and set up a blockbuster clash with Poland’s Iga Swiatek in a showdown of Wimbledon champions.
Rybakina fired 11 aces throughout the match, earning an impressive 81% of points on her first serve, while saving all five break points she faced as she secured her fifth win over Sabalenka in 12 meetings.
“I’m happy with the serve. It was the key,” former world number three Rybakina said.
“We’re both big hitters. Today I served really well. If Aryna serves well, it’s completely different. Hopefully I continue like this.”
Earlier, third seed Swiatek advanced to her first WTA 1000 semi-final in 15 months, beating Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya 6-3 6-4.
Kalinskaya, who had defeated Swiatek in their only previous meeting, put up a spirited fight by saving four match points, before the six-times Grand Slam winner converted her fifth opportunity on serve to seal the victory.
“I just played my game,” Swiatek said. “For sure, it wasn’t easy. Just happy I was solid and had the intensity to apply pressure.”
Veronika Kudermetova breezed past Varvara Gracheva 6-1 6-2 to reach her first Cincinnati semi-final. The Russian seems to be back to the form that once carried her into the Top 10, earning her first WTA 1000 last-four spot since 2023.
She will next face either second seed Coco Gauff or seventh-seeded Italian Jasmine Paolini in the semis.
In the men’s draw, second seed Carlos Alcaraz survived a three-set battle against Russian ninth seed Andrey Rublev, claiming a 6-3 4-6 7-5 win to reach the last four.
The Spaniard was far from his best, committing 15 unforced errors and three double faults in the decider, but capitalising on his lone match point, courtesy of a Rublev double fault, to secure his 15th consecutive Masters 1000 win.
“Playing someone like Andrey, when you lose focus on two or three points, it can cost you the set or the match. I just stayed strong mentally and that’s what I’m most proud of,” Alcaraz said.
“It’s just accepting the moment, accepting that I am playing a third set, that it’s going to be a really tough battle, and I love that,” he added after setting up a showdown with either third seed Alex Zverev or American fifth seed Ben Shelton.
Five-times Grand Slam champion Alcaraz, winner of 37 of his last 39 matches, advanced to his 12th Masters 1000 semi, equalling the mark of Italian top seed Jannik Sinner, who faces Frenchman Terence Atmane in the other last-four clash.
Twenty men have been charged in a point-shaving scheme involving more than 39 college basketball players on more than 17 NCAA Division I teams, leading to more than 29 games being fixed, according to a federal indictment unsealed Thursday in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Fifteen of the defendants played college basketball during the 2023-24 and/or 2024-25 seasons, according to the indictment. Some have played this season. Two of the players named in the indictment, Cedquavious Hunter and Dyquavian Short, were sanctioned in November by the NCAA for fixing New Orleans games.
At least two of the defendants, Shane Hennen and Marves Fairley, were also charged in a federal indictment in the Eastern District of New York centered on gambling schemes in the NBA.
Former NBA player Antonio Blakeney was named but not charged in the indictment. The indictment describes Blakeney as being “charged elsewhere.”
The scheme, according to the indictment, began around September 2022 and initially was focused on fixing games in the Chinese Basketball Association. The group later targeted college basketball games, offering bribes to college players ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 to compromise games for betting purposes, according to the indictment.
“In placing these wagers on games they had fixed, the defendants defrauded sportsbooks, as well as individual sports bettors, who were all unaware that the defendants had corruptly manipulated the outcome of these games that should have been decided fairly, based on genuine competition and the best efforts of the players,” the indictment said.
Monday night’s game featuring hometown Miami and championship-starved Indiana is one of the toughest tickets in sports.
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Beloved by his Capitals teammates, backup goalie Charlie Lindgren only cares about one thing.
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20 charged in college hoops point-shaving plot
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