Los Angeles Times - 29.08.2019

LATIMES.COM/SPORTS THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2019D3

Alabama middle line-
backer Dylan Moses sus-
tained a knee injury that re-
quires surgery.
Crimson Tide coach Nick
Saban said Wednesday that
Moses was injured in Tues-
day’s practice and is “out for
an indefinite period of time.”
Saban said the loss is “cer-
tainly a character check for
our team.”
Moses was likely the sec-
ond-ranked Crimson Tide’s
top defender after the loss of
a number of standouts to the
NFL, including inside line-
backer Mack Wilson. Ala-
bama opens the season Sat-
urday against Duke in At-
lanta.
Moses was a finalist last
season for the Butkus
Award given to the nation’s
top linebacker. He led the
team with 86 tackles.
The Tide had already lost
another projected starter at
inside linebacker, Joshua
McMillon, to a preseason
knee injury. That left fresh-

man Christian Harris top-

ping the depth chart going

into the season at an already

thin position.

Boise State and Florida

State expect to make a deci-

sion Thursday about their

season opener, which could

be affected by Hurricane Do-

rian.

The neutral-site game is

scheduled to be played Sat-

urday night in Jacksonville,

Fla.

Dorian gained hurricane

strength earlier Wednesday

and is forecast to become a

powerful storm in the next

few days.

Officials could consider

starting the game earlier

Saturday or canceling it al-

together.

NFL

Browns’ Hunt

must stay away

Kareem Hunt will have

to spend his NFL suspen-

sion isolated from his team.

The suspended Browns

running back, who must

serve an eight-game ban for

physical altercations, will

not be permitted inside the

team’s facility starting Sat-

urday at 4 p.m., league

spokesman Brian McCar-

thysaid in an email to the

Associated Press.

The team had asked

Commissioner Roger Good-

ell to allow Hunt to be

around his teammates, ar-

guing he could use the extra

support.

But to this point, Hunt

will not be able to interact

with his teammates or staff

inside the team’s building in

Berea, Ohio, until his puni-

shment ends in November.

The Buffalo Bills signed

kicker Stephen Hauschka

to a two-year contract exten-

sion. The new deal extends

his contract through the

2021 season. ... The Houston

Texans signed outside line-

backer Brennan Scarlett

to a one-year, $3.75-million

contract extension. The

signing will keep Scarlett

with the team through the

2020 season. He will make

$2.025 million this year after

signing in the offseason as a

restricted free agent. ...

Tough-luck Denver Broncos

tight end Jake Butt said he’s

opted to have arthroscopic

surgery on his troublesome

left knee, a procedure sched-

uled for Thursday that he

hopes will speed his return

to the field.

ETC.

MLS releases

playoff schedule

Major League Soccer re-

leased its postseason sched-

ule and it’s one that includes

long breaks before the first

and last game of the 14-team

tournament.

The top seven teams in

each conference will ad-

vance to the postseason

with the first-round

matchups determined

based on the final standings.

The conference champions

will get a first-round bye and

the No. 2 teams will play No.

7, No. 3 will meet No. 6 and

No. 4 will face No. 5, with the

lower seed playing at home.

The regular season ends

Oct. 6, two days before the

start of an eight-day FIFA

international break. So MLS

will wait until after the break

to begin the first round of the

single-elimination playoffs,

staging two games Oct. 19

and four Oct. 20.

The conference semifin-

als will be held Oct. 23-24.

The conference finals will be

played a week later, Oct. 29-

30.

After an 11-day pause, the

MLS Cup final will be played

Nov. 10, returning to ABC af-

ter an 11-year absence. Uni-

vision will also broadcast the

game in Spanish.

— Kevin Baxter

Buffalo Sabres defense-

man Matt Hunwick was ex-

pected to miss this season

because of a neck condition

that bothered the 12-year

veteran for much of last sea-

son. ... Goalie Cam Ward

signed a one-day contract

with the Carolina Hurri-

canes and is retiring as a

member of the team he

helped lead to a Stanley

Cup.

Kendall Coyne Schofield

and a majority of the world’s

top female hockey players

are set to hit the ice in their

ongoing push to establish a

single, economically viable

North American profes-

sional league.

The newly formed Profes-

sional Women’s Hockey

Players’ Assn. announced it

will hold a series of tourna-

ments starting in Toronto

on Sept. 20-22. Two more

events are also scheduled for

Hudson, N.H., on Oct. 4-6

and Chicago on Oct. 18-20.

Professional driver and

TV personality Jessi Combs

died in a crash while trying

to break her own land speed

record in the Alvord Desert

in southeast Oregon, ac-

cording to multiple reports.

She was 36.

THE DAY IN SPORTS

Alabama loses linebacker to knee injury

staff and wire reports

NEW YORK — Nick Kyr-

giostried to walk back his

assertion the governing

body of the men’s tennis tour

is “pretty corrupt,” but the

Assn. of Tennis Profession-

als said Wednesday it is in-

vestigating his comments.

The 24-year-old Australian

could face a heavy fine or a

lengthy suspension.

Speaking early Wednes-

day, after he won his first-

round match against Ameri-

can Steve Johnson, Kyrgios

was asked about having

been fined $113,000 for misbe-

havior in a tournament at

Cincinnati.

“The ATP is pretty cor-

rupt anyway. I’m not fussed

about it at all,” he said.

In an effort to do damage

control, he issued a clarifica-

tion via Twitter, saying he

had chosen his words badly

while accusing the ATP of

having a double standard by

punishing him more harshly

than it punishes other play-

ers for similar infractions.

“To be clear I know I’m

not perfect and do not pre-

tend to be and I acknowl-

edge I’ve deserved fines and

sanctioning at times but I

expect consistency and fair-

ness with this across the

board, to date that’s not

happened,” he said.

That’s not likely to ap-

pease the ATP.

“The comments made by

Nick Kyrgios after his first-

round match in New York

will be assessed under the

Player Major Offense provi-

sion under ATP rules,” it

said in a statement. “A deter-

mination will be made by

Gayle David Bradshaw,

executive vice president,

rules and competition, fol-

lowing an investigation as

required by ATP rules.”

Kyrgios has been fined

more than $130,000 this year

for actions including cursing

at an umpire, smashing

rackets and making a vulgar

gesture. He was defaulted

out of a match in Rome for

swearing and throwing a

chair on the court.

Rainy-day people

Rain limited play to the

two courts with roofs.

At Louis Armstrong Sta-

dium, No. 2 women’s seed

Ashleigh Bartyof Australia

needed four match points

before closing out a 6-2, 7-6

(2) victory over feisty Ameri-

can Lauren Davis, whose

movement was hampered

by the wrap on her left knee.

Winning in straight sets was

progress for Barty, who

needed three sets to get out

of the first round.

“It was a little bit better.

There were parts of my game

that were better. There were

parts of my game that I still

want to clean up,” Barty

said.

No. 3 Karolina Pliskova

of the Czech Republic

served nine aces and capi-

talized on qualifierMariam

Bolkvadze’s six double

faults in a 6-1, 6-4 second-

round victory at Arthur

Ashe Stadium. Players com-

plained last year that closing

the roof amplified the noise

inside, and that’s still the

case.

“You cannot change

these things, so I just

thought I just got used to it

and it was fine,” Pliskova

said.

Two-time U.S. Open

champion Venus Williams

fended off five match points

before Elina Svitolinapre-

vailed 6-4, 6-4. The crowd fa-

vored Williams, 39, but she

couldn’t avert another early-

tournament exit. However,

she’s not ready to walk away

from the sport.

“Today was a great

match. It was well-contested

and it was great to have the

crowd behind me. It was just

a really magical atmos-

phere,” she said. “I did a lot

of things right today. A lot of

great things to build on.”

No. 10 seed Madison Keys

overcame a slow start to

earn a 6-4, 6-1 victory over

Zhu Linof China.

“I feel like after I got bro-

ken in the first set, I feel like I

played some really good ten-

nis,” said Keys, the runner-

up here in 2017.

Etc.

Bradley Klahnof Poway,

the 2010 NCAA men’s singles

champion while at Stanford,

fought off four match points

before No. 7 seed Kei

Nishikori of Japan com-

pleted a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 sec-

ond-round victory.

Dominik Klopferof Ger-

many beat American Reilly

Opelka6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (2).

No. 12 men’s seed Borna

Coricof Croatia (low-back

strain) withdrew from his

second-round match

against Grigor Dimitrovof

Bulgaria.

NICK KYRGIOSof Australia has been fined more than $130,000 this year for
boorish behavior on the court, including cursing at an umpire and vulgarity.

Clive BrunskillGetty Images

U.S. OPEN REPORT

Kyrgios tries damage

control after comments

By Helene Elliott

helps a lot.”

McNally wasn’t intimi-

dated by the occasion or the

cavernous stadium.

“I knew I was playing

against the greatest of all

time. I walked out there and

I had the chills,” she said.

“Just an unbelievable expe-

rience and something I’ll

never forget for the rest of

my life. ... I was super happy

just to get a set from her.

That’s something not many

people do.”

World No. 1 Novak

Djokovic went the minimum

to defeat Juan Ignacio Lon-

dero of Argentina 6-4, 7-6

(3), 6-1, but Djokovic didn’t

escape unscathed. He

needed a medical timeout

for treatment of pain in his

left shoulder that had ad-

versely affected his serve

and backhand, and he said

at several points he wasn’t

sure if he would be able to

finish the match. But he did,

erasing an 0-3 deficit after

going down two breaks in

the middle set.

“It’s something I’ve been

carrying for quite a while

now,” he said. “I’m hoping

that with proper medical

help and treatments, I’ll be

able to get myself in a better

state than I was today in a

few days.”

It’s the ultimate compli-

ment to 38-year-old Federer

that the pulse of tennis

fandom still pauses when he

loses a set. Losing the first

set in two consecutive

matches stopped that pulse

for a couple of beats.

“I have been in that

position many times where

you go through a little phase

where you don’t start so well

and everybody asks you

right away, ‘What are you

going to do?’ ” he said.

“You’re like, ‘I don’t know.’ ”

There’s something reas-

suring about hearing a

20-time Grand Slam tour-

nament champion say he

doesn’t have all the answers

after he’d played his 100th

match at the U.S. Open. But

he had enough answers

against Dzumhur to earn a

3-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 victory,

though he was irked he had

to follow his four-set opener

against Sumit Nagal of

India with another four-set

exertion.

“I don’t think there is,

per se, a secret to a good

start other than warming

up well, being well-prepared

mentally, not underestimat-

ing your opponent. I did all

of that. You know me, I will

always do that,” Federer

said. “So when it happens

like this in back-to-back

matches it’s just a bit frus-

trating more than anything,

especially when the level is

that low and there is that

many errors and the energy

is not kind of there. Can only

do better, which is a great

thing moving forward.”

Federer no longer seems

so invincible. He couldn’t

hold off Dominic Thiem in

the final at Indian Wells in

March and followed that by

losing in the quarterfinals at

Rome and Madrid, and

squandering two match

points against Djokovic in

the Wimbledon final. In his

last tournament before

Flushing Meadows, at Cin-

cinnati, he lost to Sergey

Rublev in the round of 32.

Maybe he merely found it

difficult Wednesday to get

psyched against a player

whose year is made when

Federer says hello to him,

but Federer will have to

better conserve his energy

to get deeper into this tour-

nament without stopping

any more pulses.

“I knew what Nagal was

going to give me. I knew

what Dzumhur was going to

give me. But I didn’t expect

to hit 15 to 20 unforced er-

rors, which is basically the

entire set just sort of do-

nated,” said Federer, who

committed 17 of his 45 un-

forced errors Wednesday in

the first set. “But look, they

came out and they were well

prepared and got me to do

that. But I clearly have to

play better from the get-go.”

That’s two tests passed

for Federer, Williams and

Djokovic, with more to go.

Federer and Williams falter early but recover in time

[Elliott,from D1]

NOVAK DJOKOVICworked through a shoulder problem to beat Juan Ignacio

Londero in the second round. He needed a medical timeout for treatment of pain.

Justin LaneEPA/Shutterstock
MEN’S SINGLES
Grigor Dimitrov, Bulgaria, def. Borna Coric (12), Cro-
atia, walkover.
Kei Nishikori (7), Japan, def. Bradley Klahn, U.S.,
6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.
Roger Federer (3), Switzerland, def. Damir Dzumhur,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4.
Novak Djokovic (1), Serbia, def. Juan Ignacio Lon-
dero, Argentina, 6-4, 7-6 (3), 6-1.
Dominik Koepfer, Germany, def. Reilly Opelka, U.S.,
6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (2).

WOMEN’S SINGLES
Karolina Pliskova (3), Czech Republic, def. Mariam
Bolkvadze, Georgia, 6-1, 6-4.
Elina Svitolina (5), Ukraine, def. Venus Williams,
U.S., 6-4, 6-4.
Madison Keys (10), U.S., def. Zhu Lin, China, 6-4,
6-1.
Ashleigh Barty (2), Australia, def. Lauren Davis, U.S.,
6-2, 7-6 (2).
Serena Williams (8), U.S., def. Caty McNally, U.S.,
5-7, 6-3, 6-1.

U.S. OPEN

RESULTS

Featured

matches

Today’s top matches at the

U.S. Open:

MEN

8 No. 2 Rafael Nadal vs.

Thanasi Kokkinakis

8 No. 5 Daniil Medvedev vs.

Hugo Dellen

8 No. 6 Alexander Zverev vs.

Frances Tiafoe

8 No. 13 Gael Monfils vs.

Marius Copil

WOMEN

8 No. 1 Naomi Osaka vs.

Magda Linette

8 No. 4 Simona Halep vs.

Taylor Townsend

8 No. 6 Petra Kvitova vs.

Andrea Petkovic

8 No. 7 Kiki Bertens vs.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova