Elena Rybakina and Alexander Zverev won the US Open, and Rybakina is now number one

The US Open is the last of tennis's four biggest tournaments each year, played in New York. On Saturday Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan beat Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 in the women's final. It is her first US Open title and her third major overall, and the prize was 5.5 million dollars, the largest ever paid in the women's game. She also replaces Sabalenka as the world number one, ending a run of 99 weeks at the top; she had secured that simply by reaching the semifinals. On Sunday Alexander Zverev of Germany, the top seed, beat Ben Shelton of the United States 6-3, 7-6, 5-7, 6-2 in three hours and thirty-three minutes. It is Zverev's second major, after the French Open in June. Shelton was in his first major final, and American men have now gone since 2003 without winning one.

Rybakina was promoted to number one in the world before the final began, so Saturday was mainly the paperwork, plus five and a half million dollars.

PHOTO: PARTYNIA / CC BY 4.0 / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The United States won a fifth straight basketball World Cup from fourteen points behind

The women's basketball World Cup, the world championship for national teams, finished on Sunday in Berlin, Germany. The United States beat France 97-79 in the final. France led 31-17 early in the second quarter, and the Americans then outscored them 30-12 in the third. Breanna Stewart, who was named the tournament's best player, scored 22 points and took 10 rebounds, which are the loose balls collected after a missed shot. Caitlin Clark scored 12 from the bench. It is the fifth consecutive World Cup for the United States and their twelfth overall; they won their six games by an average of 26 points, without A'ja Wilson, the best player in the world, who withdrew before the tournament. France lost the Olympic final to the same team by one point two years ago.

France led by fourteen in the second quarter, which appears to be the point at which the Americans noticed the game had started.

PHOTO: JOHN MAC / CC BY-SA 2.0 / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Europe beat the United States 15-13 to win the Solheim Cup in the Netherlands

The Solheim Cup is a three-day team golf contest between the best women players from Europe and the United States, held every two years, and this one was at Bernardus Golf in the Netherlands. Each match is worth one point, and the two sides were level at 8-8 after Friday and Saturday. On Sunday the twelve players on each side played one-on-one, and Europe won those matches 7-5. Charley Hull of England won the first match of the day, Lottie Woad of England delivered the point that could not be overtaken, and Carlota Ciganda of Spain won the match that made the final score 15-13. Europe takes the trophy back after losing it in 2024.

Europe and America spent three days in a Dutch field settling who is better at golf, a question nobody outside the two teams had asked.

PHOTO: JUNTA DE ANDALUCÍA / CC BY-SA 2.0 / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The NFL season began with 100,021 people in Australia and 96 points in Carolina

The season opened on Wednesday night in Seattle, where the Seahawks, last year's champions, beat the New England Patriots 13-10. On Thursday night, which was Friday morning in Melbourne, the San Francisco 49ers beat the Los Angeles Rams 27-7 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the first regular-season game ever played in Australia, in front of 100,021 people. The 49ers had arrived a week early; the Rams arrived about twenty-four hours before kickoff and gave the ball away five times. On Sunday the Chicago Bears beat the Carolina Panthers 59-37 in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the 96 points between them are the most ever scored in an opening-week game. Chicago's quarterback Caleb Williams threw for 269 yards and was involved in four touchdowns, and the Bears had not scored 59 points since 1980. Sunday's late-afternoon and night games ended after this was filed.

The Rams spent twenty-four hours in Australia and lost 27-7, proving it is possible to run a business trip too efficiently.

PHOTO: ALL-PRO REELS / CC BY-SA 4.0 / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Kimi Antonelli won the first Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid after Lando Norris missed the pit lane

Formula 1 raced in Madrid, Spain, on Sunday for the first time in more than forty years, on a new street circuit. Lando Norris of McLaren started from the front and led by more than six seconds until the fifteenth lap, when another car broke down and the field was told to slow. That is the cheapest moment to stop for new tyres, and Antonelli, Max Verstappen and George Russell all did; Norris missed the entrance to the pit lane, had to stop once racing resumed, and then waited seven seconds for his tyres instead of about two. Antonelli, who is twenty and drives for Mercedes, won from Verstappen and Norris. It is his eighth win of the year and he leads the championship by 81 points with nine races left.

Antonelli has now won eight of the year's races, and the championship is beginning to look like a formality with better catering.

PHOTO: YU CHU CHIN / CC BY-SA 4.0 / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Milwaukee clinched a playoff place by winning 20-0

The Milwaukee Brewers have the best record in baseball, and on Friday night they secured a place in the playoffs, the postseason tournament for the best teams, by beating the Cincinnati Reds 20-0. Garrett Mitchell hit a grand slam, a home run with all three bases occupied and therefore worth four runs, and every player in Milwaukee's starting lineup got at least one hit. It is the largest margin of victory on a clinching day in the history of the sport; the old record was seventeen. The Brewers are also the first team ever to win two games in one season by twenty or more without conceding a run. This is their eighth playoff appearance in nine years, and they lead their division by ten games.

Baseball has no clock, so the Reds were required to stay for all nine innings of a 20-0 loss, like a meeting that could have been an email.

NO LICENSED PHOTO ON FILE. THE MASCOT WILL REPRESENT THE SPORT.

Manchester City beat Manchester United 1-0 with ten players for most of the game

The two Manchester clubs met at United's ground on Sunday for the 199th time. Phil Foden of City was sent off in the 23rd minute for reacting to a kick from United's captain Bruno Fernandes, which meant City played the remaining sixty-seven minutes with ten players against eleven. City still won, with a goal from Erling Haaland that was first ruled out for offside and then given after the video review. United, with the extra player for over an hour, managed three shots. On Saturday Arsenal beat Sunderland 2-0 and have won all four of their games so far; Liverpool drew 0-0 at home to Fulham and Chelsea drew 2-2 at Hull.

City won the derby with ten players, which suggests the eleventh had been mostly for show.

PHOTO: BRYAN BERLIN / CC BY-SA 4.0 / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Nothing happened. You're welcome.

Hockey is still between seasons. The main training camps open on Thursday and the first games are at the end of the month. The department has nothing to report and no intention of inventing anything.

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