Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk qualified for the third round of the US Open, the last of the four major tennis tournaments, after defeating American Sloane Stephens in two unanswered sets, 6-1, 7-5.
On the other hand, Egyptian Mayar Sherif was eliminated from the tournament early, losing to Czech Nikola Bartonkova 1-6, 2-6 in the first round.
In the rest of the women's competitions, Italian Jazmine Paolini qualified for the third round by defeating her compatriot Lucrezia Stefanini 6-4, 6-1.
Among the men, American Ben Shelton, seeded ninth, reached the third round after defeating Polish Hubert Hurkacz 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (3/7), 7-5, in a confrontation between two players distinguished by strong serving.
Spaniard Dani Merida qualified for the third round for the first time in his career, after achieving one of the most prominent surprises of the tournament by eliminating Russian Andrey Rublev, seeded nineteenth, 6-7 (3-7), 6-2, 6-4, 6-4.
Merida gave a remarkable performance in his first participation in the main table for Flushing Meadows, securing his place among the best 32 players in the tournament.
American Alex Mikkelsen also defeated his compatriot Brandon Nakashima, who has excelled this summer, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.
Nakashima entered Flushing Meadows after reaching the final once and the semi-finals twice in important preliminary tournaments before the US Championship, achieving 12 victories against 3 defeats.
Spaniard Rafael Khodar, ranked 13th, joined the list of victims of the tournament by losing to Chinese Bo Yunchaoukhti, ranked 124th, 2-6, 1-6, 1-6.
Bo had participated in the main table of the tournament as a "lucky loser", after he benefited from a player withdrawing from the first round at the last minute.
The NBA issued harsh penalties against the Los Angeles Clippers by depriving it of five first-round draft picks and fining it $30 million, after investigations revealed serious violations of salary cap rules linked to the team's star, Kawhi Leonard.
The Clippers will lose a first-round pick in the league draft every year from 2029 through 2033, after the investigation concluded that the club helped Leonard circumvent salary cap rules through agreements with commercial sponsors associated with the team.
The league also decided to suspend Clippers owner Steve Ballmer from all league and club activities for a year, while the club's head of business operations, Jillian Zucker, was suspended for a year without pay, while head of basketball operations Lawrence Frank was suspended for six months.
A fine of $700,000 was imposed on Lynard.
League Commissioner Adam Silver said: “The collectively agreed-upon system for determining player wages represents an essential element in the competition in basketball supervised by the league, in the interest of the teams, the players, and ultimately the fans.”
“I am deeply disappointed in the blatant violations of our rules, as well as the Clippers’ corporate and leadership failures, that led to this conduct,” Silver added.
The league commissioner added, "The severity of the penalties reflects the seriousness of the violations committed."
The Italian club Genoa signed former international Stephane El Shaarawy on a free transfer after his contract with Roma expired last June, bringing him back to the club where he made his professional debut in 2008 when he was sixteen years old.
The club also announced its contract with Robinho Junior, the son of former Brazilian international Robinho.
Genoa said in a statement: Genoa Club announces the completion of the process of obtaining the sporting rights of Stephan El Shaarawy, who returns to his starting club again wearing the red and blue shirt, without revealing the duration of the contract.
El Shaarawy, 33 years old, began his career at the Genoa Academy and played his first match with them in the Italian League, before moving to Milan between 2011 and 2015, then French Monaco (2015-2016), and Roma in two periods between 2016 and 2019, then from 2021 until last June. He also had experience in China with Shanghai Shenhua between 2019. And 2021.
The Egyptian-origin striker, nicknamed “The Little Pharaoh,” scored 73 goals in the Italian League and 109 goals in various competitions during his career.
He also played 32 international matches, during which he scored 7 goals, and his last participation with the “Azzurri” was in June 2024.
El Shaarawy will meet in Genoa with his coach, Daniele De Rossi, his former colleague in Roma, who also previously coached him for a short period when he was coach of the capital club.
Genoa also signed Robinho Junior on loan with an option to buy. He is the son of former Brazilian star Robinho, who previously played for Real Madrid, Manchester City, and Milan.
Robinho Junior played 19 matches in the Brazilian League with Santos during the years 2025 and 2026, without being able to score any goal.
Last May, he found himself at the center of an incident that sparked widespread interest in Brazil, after his Santos teammate and Brazilian national team star Neymar slapped him after the latter did not accept being dribbled by the young player during one of the training sessions.
Neymar later quickly issued a public apology.
Genoa ranks sixteenth in the league after losing its first two matches this season, and will host Como on Friday in the opening of the third stage.
