U.S./World Sports category, Page 259

Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin are expected to race head-to-head for the NASCAR Cup title when the 10-week playoff series begin Sunday at Darlington Raceway. The duo heads to the South Carolina track with a combined 13 regular-season wins between them — each won a race in May at Darlington...

ATLANTA — Five days later, Dustin Johnson and Jon Rahm are still going at it. They dressed about the same Friday in the Tour Championship, matched birdies on five holes and wound up tied for the lead at East Lake. That required Rahm getting the better of Johnson again. Rahm,...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Forget the mint juleps in souvenir glasses, men in seersucker suits and women wearing hats exploding in a floral frenzy. The Kentucky Derby still has horses — Tiz the Law is the biggest favorite in 31 years — but just about everything else makes the 146th edition...

NEW YORK — Yes, Serena Williams won in straight sets again. And yes, she moved into an all-American showdown at the U.S. Open against Sloane Stephens. Still, this victory did not quite go according to plan. Her serve only so-so at times, her footwork a bit off, Williams got by...

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Ja Morant wants someone to give him a big assist after running away with the rookie of the year award. Tell him the name of the lone voter not to put him first. “I want to shoot a direct message to them and thank them...

ATLANTA — Dustin Johnson is the No. 1 seed and starts with a two-shot lead at the Tour Championship, not nearly enough to tempt him into looking too far ahead at a FedEx Cup title that already has slipped away from him once before. “It’s not like I’ve got a...

ATLANTA — It is not unusual for the PGA Tour postseason, particularly who wins the FedEx Cup, to go a long way toward who gets voted player of the year. That is particularly true this season with only one major championship in the books. The leading candidates for the Jack...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR decided it will not grant covid-19 relief during the playoffs, meaning a positive coronavirus test will end a driver’s championship bid. The playoffs begin Sunday at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina without a safety net for the 16 participants during the pandemic. It’s up to each...

Steve Nash was one of the NBA’s most entertaining point guards, the engineer of a high-scoring team that helped usher in a new era of basketball. Now the Brooklyn Nets want to see what he can do as a coach. The Nets hired Nash on Thursday, putting the Hall of...

MONT AIGOUAL, France — On paper at least, Stage 6 of the Tour de France looked interesting, with a steep ascent toward the end that the 117-year-old race was scaling for the first time and which seemed like it might tempt top contenders to test each other on the rugged,...

1921 — The United States defeats Japan in five straight matches to win the Davis Cup. 1932 — Ellsworth Vines wins the men’s singles title in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association championships with a three-set victory over France’s Henri Cochet. 1944 — Frank Parker wins the men’s singles title with...

NEW YORK — Under normal circumstances, Karolina Pliskova would not have been seeded No. 1 at the U.S. Open and so, while a second-round loss certainly would have been disappointing to her, and noticed by others, it wouldn’t have been as newsworthy. But what’s normal in 2020? With the women...

ATHENS, Ga. — Jamie Newman, the Wake Forest transfer who was projected to start at quarterback for No. 4 Georgia, is opting out of the season to prepare for the 2021 NFL Draft. Newman announced his decision on his Twitter account Wednesday. He said he decided to skip the season...

A most overused coaching cliche has never been so relevant as college football embarks on a season of covid-19: Take it one day at a time. With so much uncertainty, trying to figure how this will go is impossible. But there will be games, including a few this weekend, though...

ATLANTA — What started as the “Return to Golf” has yielded to “Crossing the Finish Line.” Twelve weeks after the PGA Tour ended its longest stoppage since World War II because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it marked progress with two slogans that brought equal measures of satisfaction and a sigh...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Maximum Security crossed the finish line first in the 2019 Kentucky Derby. What happened next set horse racing off on a yearlong odyssey of chaos: from a historic DQ to doping, from lawsuits to a pandemic, and now a Triple Crown turned upside down. Amidst the uncertainty,...