Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 20, 2020, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A13 A 13SPORTS I SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2020 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM BRIEFS ROME — Canada’s Denis Shapovalov is through to the semifi nals of the Ital- ian Open. The No. 12 seed from Richmond Hill, Ont., edged No. 15 seed Grigor Dimitrov 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 in the quarterfi- nals Saturday to notch his first career win in three matches against the Bulgarian. “It’s amazing to beat a player like Grigor,” Shapovalov said. “He’s someone I’ve looked up to since I was a junior. I’m a really big fan of his game and the way he plays. I’ve had some difficult matches against him. “To get the win it’s a big step for me and a big step for my confidence to know I can beat a player of that category, of that level.” Shapovalov, ranked No. 14 in the world, won 80 per cent of his first service points and broke Dimitrov, a former world No. 3, five times at the ATP Masters 1000 clay-court event. The match lasted one hour, 53 min- utes. Shapovalov will play No. 8 seed Diego Schwartzman of Argentina today. The 28-year-old Schwartzman advanced with a stunning 6-2, 7-5 up- set of No. 2 Rafael Nadal, a clay-court master and nine-time champion at this tournament. It will be the first career meeting between Shapovalov and Schwartz- man, who opened the week ranked one spot below the Canadian at No. 15. The 21-year-old Shapovalov is look- ing to reach the final of a Masters 1000 tournament for the second time in his career. He lost to Novak Djokovic in the finals of the Paris Masters last November. Shapovalov’s only career ATP title came last October in Stockholm, a 250-level event. Shapovalov is on a roll recently. He’s coming of a run to the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open. “Definitely very happy with the result today and this week overall,” Shapovalov said. “I’ve had a lot of dif- ficult matches and dealing with jet lag and the body fatigue, it’s not easy. I’m really happy with the way I’ve been able to overcome that.” Meanwhile, less than two weeks after getting defaulted from the U.S. Open, Djokovic lost his cool again mid- way through a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 win over German qualifier Dominik Koepfer in the quarterfinals. When Djokovic was broken at love to even the second set at 3-3, he slammed his racket to the red clay in anger. With the frame broken and the strings all mangled, Djokovic was forced to get a new racket and received a warning from the chair umpire. “It’s not the first nor the last racket that I’ll break in my career,” Djokovic said. “I’ve done it before and I’ll prob- ably do it again. I don’t want to do it but when it comes, it happens. “That’s how, I guess, I release some- times my anger and it’s definitely not the best message out there, especially for the young tennis players looking at me, and I don’t encourage that — definitely.” The top-ranked Djokovic was thrown out of the U.S. Open for unin- tentionally hitting a line judge in the throat with a ball in a fit of anger. At the Foro Italico, Djokovic had already appeared frustrated during the game before he broke his racket, glaring toward the umpire following a couple of overrules and a point that was ordered to be replayed. Aiming for his fifth title in Rome, Djokovic’s semifinal opponent will be Casper Ruud, who eliminated local favourite Matteo Berrettini 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) in a match that lasted 2 hours, 57 minutes. In the women’s tournament, top- seeded Simona Halep reached the last four when Kazakh opponent Yulia Pu- tintseva retired midway through their match due to a lower back injury. Halep, who lost two straight finals in Rome to Elina Svitolina in 2017 and 2018, will need to beat two-time Grand Slam winner Garbiñe Muguruza to return to the championship match. Muguruza required more than two hours to eliminate U.S. Open runner- up Victoria Azarenka 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. — The Associated Press Denis Shapovalov: on a roll Shapovalov swings into semis in Rome PATRICK Reed loves the grind. His back nine Saturday — too much of a good thing. All the patience, scrambling and short game that put Reed in the lead at the U.S. Open disappeared over the back nine of the third round at Winged Foot. It was replaced by a two-hour barrage of missed fairways and terrible lies, all exacerbated by a putter that seemed to deteriorate by the minute. Reed made six bogeys and a double over the back nine and shot 8-over-par 43 to finish his day at 7-over 77. He fell from first place to a tie for 11th, and heads into today with a score of 3-over 213, eight shots behind leader Matthew Wolff, who shot 65 to catapult to first after trailing Reed by four coming into the round. “Well, I got all my bad shots out of the way,” Reed said when asked what he took from the round. “It was just one of those days. I couldn’t find a fair- way, and from there, trying to guess out of the rough all day, it was just hard. It was brutal.” Nine bad holes certainly won’t alter the narrative on Reed, the 2018 Mas- ters champion. He believes he’s built to succeed when courses are set up the way Winged Foot is this week — with narrow fairways, high rough and dif- ficult greens demanding the best from the best players. And when the course toughened up Friday — more than 2 1/2 shots harder than it played in the first round Thurs- day — Reed wasn’t all that surprised that he was at the top of the leader- board heading into the weekend. “I love the grind,” he said before leaving the course with the sun setting Friday, on the heels of a 4-under 66. But the unpredictable lies wore down Reed Saturday. “When you get in the really thick stuff, the ball seems to sit all the way to the bottom and then it’s just a hack out. My short game just could not save me today,” Reed said. Over the first 45 holes, he missed 23 of 35 fairways but averaged 1.44 putts per hole and was still tied for the lead at 5 under. Over the last nine holes, Reed missed seven of eight fairways, and averaged 1.77 putts. Over the first two rounds, he got up and down to save par 10 of 15 times. On Saturday he went: 1 for 9. Included in his back-nine putting nightmare were a “two-putt” on No. 13, where he hit one from the front of the green all the way to the back fringe, then needed two to get down from there. (The putt from the fringe didn’t count in the official stats as a putt.) There were lip-outs on par putts on 14 and 16. And a missed 8-foot at- tempt at a par save on 17 that left him with hand on chin, staring down in disbelief. “Just kind of one of those days that when I hit the quality good golf shot, it still ended up in a spot on the green that I had to be really defensive, couldn’t actually be aggressive with putting,” Reed said. No player has come from more than four behind to win a U.S. Open since 1998. Given what happened Saturday, the odds are against Reed material- izing as the one to end that streak. But he’s a grinder. — The Associated Press Back-nine horror show for Reed EDDIE PELLS CHARLES KRUPA / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS U.S. Open leader Matthew Wolff hacks a shot out of the punishing rough on the 17th hole Saturday. M AMARONECK, N.Y. — Matthew Wolff might be too young to realize he’s supposed to hit fair- ways to have a chance to win the U.S. Open. Or maybe he’s so good it doesn’t matter. Wolff hit only two fairways Saturday and still matched the lowest score ever at Winged Foot in a major, a 5-under 65 that gave the 21-year-old Californian a two-shot lead over Bryson DeCham- beau going into the final round. Whether it was the first cut or the nasty rough, Wolff kept giving those hips one last swivel before blast- ing away and giving himself birdie chances. He made enough of them to seize control, and then let so many oth- ers crumble. Patrick Reed, tied for the lead at the turn, couldn’t find the fairway and paid dearly with a 43 on the back nine. Reed had a three-shot lead after two holes. He walked off the 18th green with a 77 and was eight shots behind. Collin Morikawa won the PGA Championship last month in his first try at age 23. Wolff is playing his first U.S. Open at age 21. Is he next? “I’m probably going to be a little antsy. It’s the U.S. Open, and I have a lead,” Wolff said. “I’m going to try to keep my nerves as calm as they can be. I put myself in a really good spot. I did everything that I could do up until this point, and tomorrow I’m going to go out there, I promise you I’m going to try my best.” He was at 5-under 205. Not since Francis Ouimet in 1913 — also the last time the U.S. Open was played in September — has a player won the U.S. Open in his debut. DeChambeau could easily have gone the same route as Reed, missing left and right, gouging his way out of the grass. But after opening with two bogeys, he kept scrambling away — 15 straight holes with nothing worse than par. He rallied with two late birdies until missing a short par putt on the 18th for a 70. He will be in the final group for the first time in a major, another quiet af- fair with no spectators on the course. The U.S. Open began with 21 players under par. There were six going into the weekend. Now it’s down to three, with Louis Oosthuizen efficiently put- ting together a 68 to finish at 1-under 209. Hideki Matsuyama (70), Xander Schauffele (70) and Harris English (72) were at even-par 210. Another shot back was Rory McIlroy, who posted his 68 some three hours before the leaders finished. “It doesn’t take much around here... and all of a sudden you’re right in the thick of things,” McIlroy said. “No matter where I am at the end of the day, I feel like I’ve got a pretty good shot.” It all depends on Wolff, an NCAA champion at Oklahoma State who won on the PGA Tour in his third event as a pro last summer in the 3M Open in Minnesota. “If I don’t hit fairways tomorrow, I know I can play well,” Wolff said with a smile. “Even when I was in the rough, I had a bunch of good numbers and a bunch of good lies.” — The Associated Press California cool, Wolff takes detour to U.S. Open lead DOUG FERGUSON STARSHIP JUBILEE WINS WOODBINE MILE TORONTO — Starship Jubilee delivered trainer Kevin Attard another stunning Grade 1 turf victory. The champion seven-year-old mare came on down the stretch to capture the $1-million Ricoh Woodbine Mile on Saturday at Wood- bine Racetrack. Last year, Starship Jubilee earned Attard his first Grade 1 victory, that coming in the E.P. Taylor, a 1 1/4-mile turf race also at Woodbine. Starship Jubilee, Canada’s reigning horse of the year, also became just the third female horse to win the Mile. The others are Ventura (2009) and Tepin (2016). The race was also popular with bettors as the handle was just under $3.1 million, the highest ever. SILENCER SILENCED SALZBURG, Austria — Canadian Jeff (The Silencer) Smith lost 6-3 Saturday to eighth- seeded James (The Machine) Wade in the second round of the $511,760 Bwin World Series of Darts Finals. The 44-year-old from Hampton, N.B., turned heads Friday with a remarkable 6-5 comeback victory over Fallon Sherrock, who made history last December by becoming the first woman to win a game at the PDC World Championship. Smith won the first leg over Sherrock then lost the next five before rallying by taking the next five legs to advance. But there were no such heroics against Wade, the 2018 World Series of Darts Finals champion. Smith won 7,500 pounds ($12,795) for his efforts. ANDREESCU WON’T PLAY CANADA’S Bianca Andreescu will not play at this year’s French Open. Andreescu’s agent confirmed Saturday to The Canadian Press that the 2019 U.S. Open champion would not play in the third Grand Slam of the season, extending her absence from competitive tennis to nearly a calendar year. The 20-year old from Mississauga, Ont., hasn’t played a competitive match since suffering a knee injury last October at the WTA Finals in China. She also skipped the U.S. Open this month in New York, calling it a “difficult” decision. GARDENHIRE RESIGNS DETROIT — At 2 p.m., Ron Gardenhire was on his daily Zoom meeting with the media, answering questions like it was just another day. A couple of hours later, he informed Tigers general manager Al Avila that he was retiring — effective immediately. “It started out as a pretty routine thing, just talking to Al,” said Gardenhire, who was finishing up the third and final season of his three-year contract. “We talked about a few things and I just told him that I was going to retire.” Gardenhire’s last win with the Tigers — a 6-0 win over the Royals on Tuesday — was the 1,200th of his career. VERLANDER DONE HOUSTON Astros ace Justin Verlander will undergo Tommy John surgery and is expected to be out through the 2021 season, ending his bid to make a late return for a playoff push. The reigning AL Cy Young Award winner an- nounced the news Saturday on his Instagram account in a 1 1/2-minute video. “In my simulated game a couple days ago, I felt something in my elbow, and after looking at my MRI and conversing with some of the best doctors in the world, we’ve determined that Tommy John surgery is my best option,” Verlander said. The 37-year-old right-hander threw to hitters on Wednesday for the first time since he was injured in the team’s opener on July 24. He threw 50 pitches in the bullpen before throwing about 25 pitches to hitters in two simulated innings. MAN U DROPS OPENER MANCHESTER, England — Manchester United was well off the pace in its first Premier League game of the season Saturday, losing 3-1 at home to Crystal Palace in a match fea- turing a converted retaken penalty following an intervention by VAR. After a short and disjointed pre-season, United’s players were sluggish throughout as Wilfried Zaha’s two second-half goals earned Palace a win at Old Trafford for a second straight season. Zaha’s first goal came from the penalty spot after the referee ordered a spot kick to be retaken because of encroachment from United goalkeeper David de Gea before he saved an attempt by Jordan Ayew. De Gea didn’t have at least one foot on the goal line as Ayew struck his shot. That made it 2-0 in the 74th minute. — from the news services A_13_Sep-20-20_FP_01.indd A13 9/19/20 10:04 PM ;