10:48 AM ET Associated Press MADRID — Two-time Madrid Open champion Simona Halep and second-ranked Paula Badosa will meet for the first time in the tournament’s second round after opening with victories on Thursday. Halep beat Zhang Shuai 6-2, 6-3; Badosa defeated Veronika Kudermetova 6-3, 6-0. Halep won consecutive Madrid titles in 2016 and 2017
12:00 PM ET Jurgen Klopp has signed a contract extension at Liverpool that will see him remain at the club until 2026. Klopp’s deal was set to expire in 2024, with the expectation that he would take a sabbatical, but he has committed to a new contract. Klopp’s assistants Pepijn Lijnders and Peter Krawietz have
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Dutch cyclist Amy Pieters has regained consciousness and can “communicate slightly non-verbally” four months after a crash in training. Pieters, 30, suffered severe brain damage after falling during a training camp in Alicante in December. After undergoing surgery, she was put into an induced coma and transferred to a Netherlands hospital in January. In a
8:00 AM ET As the Tampa Bay Lightning celebrated their second straight Stanley Cup championship last summer, my eyes were drawn to one player: defenseman David Savard. He had played 597 NHL regular-season games and 37 more in the playoffs before the Columbus Blue Jackets traded him to the Lightning at the deadline. He walked
10:11 PM ET Jamal CollierESPN MILWAUKEE — The Bucks lost forward Khris Middleton to a sprained MCL and responded with three consecutive victories over the Chicago Bulls, advancing to the second round of the NBA playoffs with a 116-100 win in Game 5 on Wednesday. The Bucks will play the Celtics in the second round;
8:00 AM ET Rob Font and Marlon Vera are mired in a deep lineup of contenders in the UFC men’s bantamweight division, each looking to separate himself from the pack. They have a chance to do so on Saturday when they meet in the main event of UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas. Font (19-5)
6:54 AM ET WBC heavyweight world champion Tyson Fury has confirmed he will not return to the ring, saying he has not got “anything more to give” and that “no amount of money” would lure him back. Fury (32-0-1, 23 KOs) defeated Dillian Whyte in a sixth-round stoppage in front of a sell-out crowd at
7:00 AM ET The 2022 NFL draft begins Thursday, with the final boards stacked and mock drafts being finished up before the clock starts ticking (8 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN App). While there are many names on Mel Kiper Jr.’s big board that are familiar to recruiting fans, such as former No. 1 overall prospect Kayvon
7:48 AM ET MANCHESTER, Conn. — Katie Taylor wasn’t sure about any of this, other than that something needed to change. Something in her life had to be new. Before she became the best pound-for-pound female boxer in the world or the undisputed lightweight champion, she had been a woman in the Dublin, Ireland, airport
Both Formula 1 race directors have tested positive for Covid-19 ahead of next weekend’s Miami Grand Prix. According to US immigration rules, Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas would be unable to travel to the race if they do not return a negative test in time. The FIA says it will not “disclose medical information regarding
11:37 PM ET ESPN News Services NEW YORK — Giancarlo Stanton became the seventh-fastest player to reach 350 career home runs, launching a 417-foot drive to help the New York Yankees top the Baltimore Orioles 5-2 Wednesday night. Stanton reached the milestone in 1,341 games. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the only players to
7:34 PM ET TEMPE, Ariz. — The Arizona Cardinals picked up quarterback Kyler Murray‘s fifth-year option on Wednesday, fulfilling the pledge general manager Steve Keim made earlier this year at the NFL combine. Murray, who was taken first overall in 2019, was set to enter the final year of his rookie contract, making him eligible
Gujarat Titans spinner Rashid Khan said on Wednesday that he told his batting partner Rahul Tewatia during the final overs of their chase against Sunrisers Hyderabad not to panic if they face a dot ball or two and instead focus on hitting the next ball and finishing the match. Half-century by Wriddhiman Saha (68) and
6:54 PM ET Villarreal coach Unai Emery was relieved that his side will go into the second leg of their Champions League semifinal with Liverpool with only a 2-0 deficit after their defensive gameplan backfired at Anfield. Liverpool had looked frustrated in the first half as Villarreal manned the barricades but the hosts got their
12:45 AM ET Kendra AndrewsESPN SAN FRANCISCO — Stephen Curry dribbled through nearly the entire Denver Nuggets team before putting up the perfect tear-drop layup to put the Warriors up with 30 seconds left in the game Wednesday night. As he came down the court, he looked at the audience and clasped his hands under
11:40 PM ET It’s official: Vegas will miss the NHL postseason for the first time in franchise history. The Golden Knights’ second-half collapse to this season left them with wafer-thin playoff hopes, and those were snuffed out entirely on Wednesday in a 4-3 shootout loss to host Chicago. To stay alive, Vegas would have had
8:03 PM ET IRVING, Texas — One day after the NCAA announced president Mark Emmert will step down by 2023, several high-ranking leaders throughout college athletics on Wednesday agreed it’s the right time to find a new leader, but the position is as ambiguous as the future of the organization itself. “It’s a unicorn,” Pac-12