D2 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 , 2020
PRO BASKETBALL
Las Vegas gets top seed
in the WNBA playoffs
A’ja Wilson a nd Dearica
Hamby each scored 23 points,
and the Las Vegas Aces secured
the top seed in the WNBA p layoffs
with an 86-84 win over the Seattle
Storm on Sunday in Bradenton,
Fla.
Each team finished at 18-4, but
the Aces won both regular season
contests against the Storm. Both
squads entered the season finale
having secured double-byes into
the semifinals. Seattle was
without injured stars B reanna
Stewart a nd Sue Bird.
Jewell Loyd’s jump shot with
5:11 left put the Storm up 79-74.
Kayla McBride f ollowed with a
three-pointer 17 seconds later,
Hamby made a three-point play,
and Las Vegas led the rest of the
way.
Loyd led the Storm with
30 points....
Earlier, Arike Ogunbowale
scored 26 points, and her three-
point play with 12.4 seconds left
helped carry the Dallas Wings to
an 82-79 victory over the New
York Liberty.
Marina Mabrey s cored
24 points f or Dallas (8-14), which
was denied the final playoff spot
later in the day when Washington
beat Atlanta.
Jazmine Jones scored
21 points for N ew York (2-20).CYCLING
Tadej Pogacar beat yellow
jersey-holder Primoz Roglic in a
dramatic mountaintop finish to
Stage 15 a s the Tour de France
boiled down to t he fight between
its two star Slovenian riders.
Last year’s winner, Egan
Bernal, plummeted down the
standings, as did fellow
Colombian Nairo Quintana,
leaving Pogacar the only
challenger within 90 seconds of
Roglic in the overall standings.
With a final sprint, Pogacar
took his second stage win by a
bike length, staying with
Roglic on the long and
brutal Grand Colombier climb
despite Roglic having backing
from four teammates on his
ascent.
Pogacar and Roglic were given
the same time. Roglic leads
Pogacar by 40 seconds overall.
Two C olombians, Rigoberto
Uran a nd Miguel Angel Lopez,
sit t hird and fourth in the
standings.
B ernal fell t o 13th place in the
overall standings.SOCCER
D ominic Calvert-Lewin
produced the goal and James
Rodriguez provided the spark in
his debut as Everton opened its
English Premier League season
with a 1-0 win at Tottenham.
Calvert-Lewin rose above Eric
Dier and Toby Alderweireld to
meet Lucas Digne’s free kick and
power a header past Hugo Lloris
10 minutes into the second half.
It was the first time Tottenham
Coach Jose Mourinho — who has
previously managed Chelsea and
Manchester United — has lost his
opening match of a Premier
League season.
Elsewhere, Timothy Castagne
headed in a cross from Dennis
Praet i n the 56th minute to set
Leicester on its way to a 3-0
victory at promoted West
Bromwich Albion....
Neymar was among five
players sent off in stoppage time
as visiting Marseille beat bitter
rival Paris Saint-Germain for the
first time in nine years.
PSG star Neymar got a straight
red in Marseille’s 1-0 win
following an altercation with
center half Alvaro Gonzalez.
Florian Thauvin scored in the
31st minute of a tense game
featuring more than a dozen
yellow cards. It was Marseille’sfirst victory over PSG since
November 2011.
Elsewhere in the French
league, Serhou Guirassy scored
twice as Rennes posted a 4-2 win
at Nimes. Monaco scored a 2-1
win at home over Nantes, and
Lens won, 3 -2, a t Lorient....
In the Spanish league, Real
Betis won, 1-0, at Alavés thanks to
a stoppage-time goal from
substitute Cristian Tello, and
Villarreal was held to a 1-1 draw at
home against promoted Huesca.
Also, Manu Vallejo scored
twice to help Valencia earn a
4 -2 win over visiting Levante and
Real Sociedad salvaged a 1-1 d raw
at Valladolid....
Bayer Leverkusen routed
fourth-tier Eintracht
Norderstedt, 7-0, in the first
round of the German Cup.AUTO RACING
Formula One champion Lewis
Hamilton won a crash-marred
Tuscan Grand Prix in Mugello,
Italy, f or his 90th career victory.
He is just one win behind
Michael Schumacher’s record
and inching closer to matching
the German great’s record of
seven Formula One titles.
Hamilton can equal
Schumacher’s record at the
Russian Grand Prix in two weeks.DIGESTT wo crashes in the first seven
laps saw six drivers go out, and a
red flag suspended the race for
the first time after the second one.
A second red flag f ollowing
Lance Stroll’s heavy crash meant
another grid restart — on Lap 46
of 59 — and gave Valtteri Bottas
another chance to beat race
leader Hamilton if he made a
strong start from second.
Hamilton held on, and Bottas is
55 points behind Hamilton in thetitle race. Red Bull’s Alexander
Albon placed third....
Colton Herta led an Andretti
Autosport sweep at Mid-Ohio
Sports Car Course in Lexington
and earned his first IndyCar
victory of the season.
Herta, 20, s tarted on the pole
and won for the third time in his
career. He led teammates
Alexander Rossi and Ryan
Hunter-Reay in the sweep.
— From news servicesTELEVISION AND RADIO
NFL
7 p.m. Pittsburgh at New York Giants » ESPN
10:15 p.m. Tennessee at Denver » ESPN
MLB
5 p.m. St. Louis at Milwaukee (Game 1) » MLB Network
7:30 p.m. Atlanta at Baltimore » MASN, WTEM (980 AM), WJZ (105.7 FM)
7:30 p.m. St. Louis at Milwaukee (Game 2) » MLB Network
8 p.m. Oakland at Seattle » Fox Sports 1
10:30 p.m. Los Angeles Dodgers at San Diego » MLB Network
STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS
8 p.m. Western Conference finals, Game 5: Dallas vs. Vegas » NBC Sports Network
SOCCER
12:55 p.m. English Premier League: Wolverhampton at Sheffield United »
NBC Sports Network
12:55 p.m. Turkish Super Lig: Istanbul Basaksehir at Hatayspor » beIN Sports
TENNIS
5 a.m. ATP/WTA: Italian Open, early-round play » Tennis Channel
SOFTBALL
8 p.m. Athletes Unlimited: Team Piancastelli vs. Team Osterman »
CBS Sports Network
AUSTRALIAN RULES FOOTBALL
5 a.m. Australian Football League: Collingwood vs. Gold Coast Suns » Fox Sports 2later in emotional remarks to his
team, which includes his father,
Alexander Zverev Sr., one of his
two tennis-coach parents. “And
one day we’re going to hold the
trophy together.”
But Thiem, a practice fiend
whose heavy shots tend to blare
through the court, had inched
forward across three seasons: a
three-set loss to Nadal in the 2018
French Open final, a four-set loss
to Nadal in the 2019 French Open
final and a five-set loss to Djok-
ovic in the 2020 Australian Open
final. “Honestly, I think it didn’t
help me at all,” Thiem said of the
background, “because I was so
tight at the beginning that maybe
it wasn’t even good that I played
in previous major finals. I wanted
this title so much.”
So he plotted and plodded his
way back. With Zverev serving at
5-2 in the second set, Thiem got a
first break and got going even
after he lost that set 6-4 and after
he lost his serve to trail 2-1 in the
third. He broke back for 2-2, broke
again for 6-4 as Zverev began to
lose his tactics and his mustard. It
was on, and then it was on and on
and on, agonizing and admirable.
[email protected]Nadal and Djokovic cleared out
en masse at last — Federer to
mend a knee, Nadal to acknowl-
edge a pandemic and Djokovic by
a bizarre, famous default the pre-
vious Sunday.
The way stood clear and
smooth, which tends to make
things cluttered and bumpy.
It didn’t seem that way early
on, when Zverev’s game crackled.
Having withstood a five-set semi-
final with Pablo Carreño Busta in
which Zverev trailed by two sets,
he decided to forgo that inconve-
nience. He won 20 of his first 23
service points, served and vol-
leyed with throwback might,
routed Thiem in a 30-minute blur
of a first set, smacked 16 winners
to Thiem’s four and left Thiem in
a two-set rubble of overcooked
attempts and meltdown blun-
ders.
Rather than a future No. 1
player, he resembled a current
No. 1 player, capable of beating
anyone who came to New York for
this unusual U.S. Open and any-
one who didn’t. The player in his
fourth Grand Slam final (Thiem)
looked like the player in his first
and vice versa. “We’re definitely
on the way,” Zverev would sayserves hit 140 mph saved a second
championship point at 5-6 when
his second serve wheezed barely
over the net at 68 mph, the first of
six shots that croaked to an end
when Thiem banged a forehand
long. Then Thiem closed a match
full of moments both players will
try to forget by forgetting about
his two lost championship points
and his other foibles. Looking like
a cramp and a crumple waiting to
happen, he summoned two last,
favorable points.
One, a set of screaming shots
capped with a bold backhand
pass, got him to 7-6.
The last, a 93-mph serve he
managed to direct into the pre-
scribed square and a forehand he
managed to push onto the pre-
scribed side of the court, wrung a
cross-court backhand wide from
Zverev. Ending this match on an
unforced error did seem poetic.
Zverev had wandered through
the fifth set with 12 winners and
21 unforced errors, making those
numbers 52 and 65 for the match.
Thiem had ambled through the
fifth with 14 winners and 17 un-
forced errors, bringing those
numbers to 43 and 55. Perhaps it
had to be this way after Federer,back at the 2014 U.S. Open, the
first male Grand Slam winner
born in the 1990 s in a sport
dominated by elders and the first
Austrian Grand Slam winner
since Thomas Muster bested Mi-
chael Chang in the 1995 French
Open final. You could forget that,
as Thiem would say later, “Yeah,
definitely, I achieved a life goal
and dream of myself, which I had
for many, many years.” No, in that
moment, Zverev walked around
the net to his friend and, in an
understandable breach of pan-
demic protocol, pulled Thiem’s
head to his shoulder. “We have a
longtime friendship, longtime ri-
valry,” Thiem said. “I think we
both tested negative maybe 40
times, and we just wanted to
share this moment.”
A New York audience, had
there been one, might have
cheered that, just as a New York
audience, had there been one,
might have sighed often at all the
highbrow frailty. A U.S. Open that
might not have happened had
happened, had finished and had
closed down in a pool of sweat. A
strange, exhausting year had a
strange, exhausting final.
It turned out that Thiem, who
developed a chummy rapport
with struggle by spending the
front part of his career banging
his head gamely against the hard-
est ceiling in tennis history — the
Big Three of Roger Federer, Rafa-
el Nadal and Novak Djokovic —
knew how to struggle just one iota
better. He proved the last man
falling after a fifth set in which
anybody with an advantage
quickly proved doomed.
Zverev served at 0-0, got bro-
ken at 15 and looked shaky,
whereupon Thiem served at 1-0,
got broken at 30 and looked
shaky. Then Thiem served at 3-4,
got broken at 30 and looked
shaky, whereupon Zverev served
for the match at 5-3, got broken at
30 and looked shaky. Soon Zverev
served at 5-5, got broken at 30 and
looked shaky, whereupon Thiem
served for the match at 6-5, got
broken at 30 and looked shaky.
They went winding into a
soupy, dizzy tiebreaker in which
the 6-foot-6 Zverev, whose serves
can thrill the senses with their
pop and pace, double-faulted
twice. Then this man whose top
U.S. OPEN FROM D1
Thiem tops Zverev for U.S. Open title
AL BELLO/GETTY IMAGES
Dominic Thiem rallied past Alexander Zverev in five sets f or his first victory in four Grand Slam finals.26 points, and she helped the
Dream build an early seven-
point lead. That’s when the Mys-
tics found some energy on the
defensive end, and they closed
the first quarter with a 13-2 run
to take a 27-22 lead.
Washington led 44-43 at half-
time, and the score remained
close heading into the fourth
quarter. Every time the Dream
seemed on the verge of taking
over, Atkins stepped up and kept
the Mystics in it. Atlanta cut
Washington’s lead to 73-71 with
under five minutes remaining,
but the duo of Hines-Allen and
Atkins powered a 12-5 run that
put the game away.
“I wanted to win the game,
and I knew normally when the
starters come out aggressive we
feed off of each other,” Atkins
said. “It was important that we
gave each other that energy to
feed off of.”
Atkins had a team-high
26 points for the Mystics, and
Hines-Allen finished with
16 points and 10 rebounds. Mees-
seman added 14 points and seven
assists, and Kiara Leslie matched
a career high with 11 points.
Betnijah Laney finished with
27 points to lead the Dream after
Carter fouled out.
The Mystics lost back-to-back
games against the Mercury in
late August, falling, 88-87, on
Aug. 23 and, 94-72, on Aug. 28.
Phoenix is without star big Britt-
ney Griner but still has a stacked
roster featuring Diana Taurasi,
Skylar Diggins-Smith and Bria
Hartley. The Mercury won seven
of eight before dropping its regu-
lar season finale Friday against
the Seattle Storm.
“That’s why we came here, to
make the playoffs and to get it
done,” Hines-Allen said. “It’s
kind of like a weight off your
shoulders, but we’re still not
done. We’re still going to go out
and compete and try to play our
hardest against Phoenix and
hopefully get an upset there.”
[email protected]few weeks when most teams
would have quit has paid off,”
Mystics Coach Mike Thibault
said. “It’s a great, great testament
to how they’ve hung in. It’s just a
wonderful feeling anytime you
win. But to do it how we’ve done
to get in, it’s a great feeling.”
The Mystics have now
reached the playoffs four years
in a row and in seven of the past
eight seasons. Washington
reached the WNBA Finals the
past two seasons, winning the
title in 2019, but simply reach-
ing the postseason in 2020 is an
accomplishment. The season
was shortened to 22 games be-
cause of the novel coronavirus
pandemic, with every game be-
ing played at IMG Academy. The
Mystics played the entire year
without reigning MVP Elena
Delle Donne, former MVP Tina
Charles, Natasha Cloud and
LaToya Sanders for health and
personal reasons. Aerial Powers
left the bubble with a hamstring
injury after she was leading the
league in scoring. A 3-0 start to
the season was quickly forgotten
when the Mystics dropped their
next seven.
But Washington was still tech-
nically in the playoff hunt as the
calendar flipped to September,
and its 5-1 closing stretch was
good enough to extend the sea-
son at least one more game.
“I’m just so proud of the team,
the way they fought the past few
weeks and the past few games,”
forward Emma Meesseman said.
“We found our identity, so to
have this as a result, it’s just
amazing that we were able to
fight for something and have a
goal that we were able to reach.”
The Mystics got out to a slow
start Sunday and looked tired
initially after winning Saturday
afternoon just to stay in the hunt.
Atlanta’s Chennedy Carter was a
one-woman show for much of
the first half on her way to
finishing the game withMYSTICS FROM D1Mystics will face Mercury
in a single-game playoff
ASSOCIATED PRESSS tewart Cink won the season-
opening Safeway Open on Sunday
for his first victory since the 2009
British Open.
Cink closed with a 7-under-par
65 — rebounding from a bogey on
the 17th with a birdie on the 18th
— for a two-stroke victory over
Harry Higgs in Napa, Calif.
Making it more special? Cink
won with son Reagan alongside as
his caddie and w ife Lisa — i n her
fifth year of cancer remission —
watching from beyond the ropes.
“I definitely had a lot of emo-
tions out there today,” Cink said. “I
just was overcome at a few times
with a feeling of gratitude and just
feeling like how fortunate I am to
be in the position that I’m in. It all
just kind of poured together into
feeling like, ‘Wow, this is really
special.’ ”
Cink, 47, is the oldest PGA Tour
winner since Phil Mickelson at 48
at Pebble Beach in February 2019.
Cink’s last victory came at the
expense of then-59-year-old Tom
Watson at Turnberry, with Cink
winning a four-hole playoff.
Cink did it the old fashioned
way Sunday, with a short game
that repeatedly put him in great
shape on the greens. He one-putt-
ed 10 times and had eight birdies
to finish at 21-under 267.
Higgs shot a 68.
l LPGA TOUR: Mirim Lee
chipped in three times, the last
one for an eagle on the final hole
that got her into a three-way play-
off at the Inspiration that she won
on the first extra hole with a birdie.
It was another wild finish in the
major at Mission Hills in Rancho
Mirage, Calif., that moved from
the first weekend of April to the
100-degree heat of September, andno one was more surprised than
the 29-year-old Lee.
“I must be a little crazy for
winning,” Lee said through an in-
terpreter.
She was never in the lead at any
point until she calmly holed a
five-foot birdie putt on the 18th to
beat Nelly Korda and Brooke Hen-
derson, who each had the lead on
the back nine.
Lee pitched in from long range
for par on the 16th, dropped a shot
on the next hole and appeared to
be out of it until her chip from
behind the 18th green rammed
against the pin and dropped for an
eagle and a 5-under 67.
l PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS:
Miguel Angel Jimenez completed
a wire-to-wire victory in the San-
ford International, the tour’s first
event with fans since it returned
from a break for the novel corona-
virus pandemic.Jimenez closed with a 5-under
65 at Minehaha Country Club in
Sioux Falls, S.D., to beat Steve
Flesch by a stroke.
l EUROPEAN TOUR: George
Coetzee shot a 5-under 66 to win
the Portugal Masters by two
strokes in Vilamoura.Scheffler out of U.S. Open
Scottie Scheffler became the
second player forced to withdraw
from a major championship be-
cause of the coronavirus with a
positive test result that knocks
him out of the U.S. Open this week
at Winged Foot.
Scheffler was replaced in the
field by Branden Grace, who was
the first alternate based on the
Aug. 23 world ranking. Oddly
enough, Grace had to withdraw
from the PGA Championship last
month when he tested positive for
the virus.GOLF ROUNDUP
Cink takes Safeway Open for first win since 2 009
NED DISHMAN/NBA ENTERTAINMENT/GETTY IMAGES
“I’m just so proud of the team, the way they fought the past few
weeks and the past few games,” forward Emma Meesseman said.