6:03 PM ET Associated Press PARIS — The number of fans allowed to attend the upcoming French Open was reduced to 5,000 per day on Thursday amid concerns over the coronavirus pandemic. The French Tennis Federation had initially planned for 11,500 spectators spread over three courts for the clay-court major, which starts Sept. 27 in
6:29 PM ET UFC champion Israel Adesanya is making some history ahead of his middleweight title defense next weekend. The undefeated Adesanya has signed a multiyear deal with Puma, the company announced Thursday. He will be the face of Puma’s Oceania division but will also be a part of its global marketing plans, sources say.
5:34 PM ET Steve KimESPN A junior welterweight battle between former title challenger Alex Saucedo and unbeaten Arnold Barboza Jr. has been finalized for Oct. 17, multiple sources told ESPN on Thursday. The fight is part of the undercard for the Vasiliy Lomachenko-Teofimo Lopez Jr. lightweight unification fight at the MGM Grand Conference Center in
7:00 AM ET Ben Baby Close ESPN Staff Writer ESPN Staff Writer Previously a college football writer for The Dallas Morning News University of North Texas graduate Jake Trotter Close ESPN Staff Writer Covers the Big 12 Joined ESPN.com in 2011 Graduate of Washington & Lee University Lincoln Riley could barely believe it. A budding
5:11 PM ET Victoria Azarenka produced a masterclass on centre court at the Italian Open to knock out third seed Sofia Kenin with a dominant 6-0 6-0 victory in the second round on Thursday. Azarenka, who lost the U.S. Open final in New York on Saturday and flew in to Rome to beat Venus Williams
7:20 AM ET I first started hearing versions of it from rival executives at the end of the 2014-15 season, when the Miami Heat traded two first-round picks for Goran Dragic on an expiring contract — and finished 37-45, one game short of the playoffs: If it wasn’t the Heat, we’d all be laughing at
12:10 PM ET Are you ready for some fussball? The 2020-21 German Bundesliga season kicks off on Friday with serial champions (and winners of the last eight titles) Bayern Munich hosting Schalke — watch live in U.S., 2.30 p.m. ET, ESPN — and with that, plenty of anticipation for what promises to be an exceptional
Race leader Annemiek van Vleuten has been ruled out of the rest of the Giro Rosa and will not defend her world title after breaking her wrist. The 37-year-old fell in the last 500 metres of stage seven on Thursday alongside Mitchelton-Scott team-mate Amanda Spratt of Australia and Dutch compatriot Marianne Vos. All three riders
3:12 PM ET The Padres‘ three-game series against the Mariners, originally scheduled to begin Friday in Seattle, has been moved to San Diego’s Petco Park due to air-quality issues in Washington. The Mariners will be the home team for all three games. The West Coast wildfires have caused air-quality woes in the Seattle area this
2:48 PM ET Despite Conor McGregor and the UFC’s insistence that the former two-division champion is retired from the fight game, both parties hinted at a potential comeback Thursday. “We’re actually working on some fun stuff for Conor at the beginning of next year,” UFC president Dana White told SportsCenter on Thursday. “He should be
8:20 AM ET Associated Press The Fed Cup is changing its name to honor tennis great Billie Jean King, the woman whose lifelong battle for equality and social justice laid the foundation for generations that followed. The Billie Jean King Cup will become the first major global team competition to be named after a woman,
2:32 PM ET ATP and WTA jointly announced on Friday that the 2020 Kremlin Cup tournaments in Moscow have been cancelled by a mandate from health officials in the Russian capital, where there has been a surge in coronavirus infections. However, the ATP’s St. Petersburg tournament – a more prestigious event scheduled to start in
7:00 AM ET Inspirational thought of the week: Remember how I’d walk in,What excitement there would be?Never less than 20 people,I had lots of friends, you see. I gave the party, I was the host.Everyone loved me, I was the most. But nothing lasts forever,And the deepest well runs dry.Just ’cause I’ve stopped rolling sevensDoesn’t
1:22 PM ET MAMARONECK, N.Y. — Tiger Woods‘ first round at the U.S. Open was a microcosm of the state of his golf game since he returned after the three-month shutdown because of the coronavirus — he had some rough moments, a few good moments and plenty of moments of inconsistency. There were stretches of
1:48 PM BST Georgian police have arrested the vice president of the country’s rugby union, Merab Beselia, over the shooting of player Ramaz Kharazishvili, who was shot in the leg at the sport’s governing body’s offices in the capital Tbilisi on Wednesday. Kharazishvili, 32, the former captain of the Georgian national Sevens team, underwent surgery
Michal Kwiatkowski led a superb Ineos Grenadiers one-two on stage 18 to help salvage their Tour de France as Primoz Roglic took a step closer to the title. Poland’s Kwiatkowski and team-mate Richard Carapaz crossed the line arm-in-arm after riding away from the rest of the field on a tough mountain stage. Roglic and his
10:00 AM ET What a time to be a New York Islanders fan. Normally when you hear that, it doesn’t portend good things. It means the Islanders were criminally mismanaged or were purchased by an actual criminal or were forced into a nomadic arena existence that hopefully doesn’t end with them in Quebec City. But
Prime Minister Narendra Modi turned 70 on Thursday and India captain Virat Kohli and batting legend Sachin Tendulkar led the wishes from the cricket fraternity. ”Wishing a very Happy birthday to our honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji,” Kohli tweeted. Tendulkar wrote a wish for PM Modi in Hindi and shared a picture with him