SPORTS HEADLINES

Titleholder Swiatek to face No. 1 Sabalenka in semis after 26th straight win at Roland-Garros

PARIS (AP) — Four-time champion Iga Swiatek has posted a 26th succesive win at Roland-Garros and set up a French Open semifinal clash against top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka. Swiatek defeated Elina Svitolina 6-1, 7-5. The consecutive wins record on the Parisian red clay is Chris Evert’s 29. Sabalenka defeated Zheng Qinwen in straight sets to reach the semifinals for the second time. Sabalenka is chasing her first title at Roland-Garros. She overcame a shaky start and windy conditions to prevail 7-6, 6-3 and extend her record against the Olympic champion to 7-1.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Tyrese Haliburton took roads less traveled to stardom in the NBA Finals

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton weren’t expected to be starring in the leading roles on the NBA Finals stage. At least not by many. Gilgeous-Alexander was cut from his junior varsity team as a ninth grader and was traded from the Los Angeles Clippers after his rookie year. The major college programs didn’t notice Haliburton until his senior year of high school. He wasn’t a one-and-done at Iowa State, wasn’t a top-10 pick and got traded from Sacramento during his third year in the league. Now, Gilgeous-Alexander is the league MVP in Oklahoma City and Haliburton is a two-time All-Star with Indiana and an Olympic gold medalist heading into the NBA Finals.

Alvarez delivers 10th-inning RBI double and Mets overcome Ohtani’s heroics for 4-3 win over Dodgers

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Francisco Alvarez drove in his first run in four weeks with a double leading off the 10th inning, and the New York Mets overcame Shohei Ohtani’s 23rd homer and tying sacrifice fly for a 4-3 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Francisco Lindor hit a leadoff homer and a 10th-inning RBI single for the Mets, who opened this NLCS rematch with their eighth win in nine games. Ohtani hit a 424-foot solo shot off Max Kranick in the seventh, getting his fifth homer in seven games to tie Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh for the major league lead with 23.

Texas Tech ends Oklahoma’s 4-year run as Women’s College World Series champ with walk-off 3-2 win

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma’s run of four straight Women’s College World Series titles ended when Lauren Allred’s walk-off sacrifice fly gave Texas Tech a 3-2 victory in the semifinals. Coach Patty Gasso’s Sooners were down to their last strike in the top of the seventh inning when Abigale Dayton summoned a bit of magic, hitting a tying two-run homer against Red Raiders ace NiJaree Canady. But the Red Raiders responded quickly in the bottom half. Mihyia Davis singled with one out and Hailey Toney followed with a double. Allred hit a fly ball to right field and Sydney Barker’s throw to the plate was wide, allowing Davis to score easily.

French Open: Novak Djokovic is certainly no dark horse to quarterfinal foe Alexander Zverev

PARIS (AP) — Novak Djokovic will take on Alexander Zverev in the French Open quarterfinals. It’s their 14th head-to-head meeting as pros. Djokovic leads 8-5. The other men’s quarterfinal Wednesday on the top half of the draw will be No. 1 Jannik Sinner against 62nd-ranked Alexander Bublik. As much success as Djokovic has enjoyed over the years, he still found himself worrying about what is going on with his game. That’s because he went through a three-match losing streak, including two on red clay as the French Open approached. But he is 8-0 since, including a title at the Geneva Open and four straight-set wins in Paris.

Trout bounces back from injury with 3 more hits and his 2nd career homer at Fenway Park

BOSTON (AP) — It hasn’t taken Mike Trout long to regain his form after missing a month with a bruised left knee. Trout had three more hits on Monday night, including a 454-foot homer that was the longest at Fenway Park this year. The Los Angeles Angels beat the Boston Red Sox 7-6. It was Trout’s second three-hit game in three starts since returning from the injured list on Friday. In all, the 11-time All-Star and three-time AL MVP is 8 for 14 since coming off the IL. It was only his second home run in 35 career games at Fenway Park.

OKC’s Mark Daigneault knows what it takes to win championships. His wife has won a ton of them

Oklahoma City’s Mark Daigneault has the best record of any coach in the NBA this season. And he has the second-best record of any coach in his house. Daigneault is a coach, and a coach’s husband, too. His wife is Oklahoma assistant women’s gymnastics coach Ashley Kerr. She and the Sooners went 33-2 this season and won another national championship, their third in the last four years. So, as Daigneault chases his first NBA title, his wife has now been part of seven national championships over her career on the staffs at Florida and Oklahoma.

Pacers’ 25-year Finals drought is over. Now they’re looking to overcome their snake-bitten history

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Tyrese Haliburton and Myles Turner beamed as they carried the Indiana Pacers shiny, new Eastern Conference championship trophy into their postgame news conferences Saturday night. Pascal Siakam needed help because he was also bringing the series MVP trophy. The Pacers have finally ended their 25-year NBA Finals drought. They enjoyed it with a fitting celebration for the team that plays in a state where basketball is treated like religion. These Pacers have managed to achieve the unthinkable after starting 10-15 and looking less like anything but a title contender. But now Indiana will try to exorcise the demons of its decades-long snake-bitten history when the Pacers take on the Oklahoma City .

French Open: Coco Gauff reaches quarterfinals and jokes with Frances Tiafoe about forgetting rackets

PARIS (AP) — Coco Gauff has earned her fifth consecutive trip to the French Open quarterfinals with a straight-set victory but still is catching flak because she forgot to bring her rackets to an earlier match. The No. 2-seeded Gauff has been engaging in a bit of back-and-forth with another American and Roland-Garros quarterfinalist, Frances Tiafoe, over the equipment blunder. Gauff won the 2023 U.S. Open and was the runner-up in Paris in 2022. She beat No. 20 Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-0, 7-5 on Monday. Tiafoe teasingly called the 21-year-old Gauff “Mrs. Mature.”

French Open: No. 1 Jannik Sinner dominates Andrey Rublev to reach the quarterfinals

PARIS (AP) — Top-ranked Jannik Sinner’s latest dominant performance at the French Open is a 6-1, 6-3, 6-4 victory over No. 17 Andrey Rublev. The result on Monday night put Sinner back in the quarterfinals in Paris and extended his Grand Slam winning streak to 18 matches. Sinner won the U.S. Open last September and the Australian Open this January. Now he’ll try to get to the semifinals at Roland-Garros for the second consecutive year and faces 62nd-ranked Alexander Bublik on Wednesday. Sinner hasn’t lost a set through the fourth round and has dropped just 30 games.