TENNIS

Marin Cilic made a winning start at Queen’s Club in London on Monday, beating Fernando Verdasco of Spain 6-3, 6-4 in the Wimbledon warm-up tournament.

Another big-name winner was three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka, who took apart Cameron Norrie of Britain 6-2, 6-3.

Sam Querrey eased past British wild card Jay Clarke 6-3, 6-3 but fellow American Jack Sock, the sixth seed, lost to Daniil Medvedev 7-5, 6-3.

Also, Gilles Muller, a semifinalist last year, beat Denis Shapovalov of Canada 7-6 (7), 7-6 (6).

The majority of the big guns kick off their campaigns on Tuesday; Novak Djokovic, Milos Raonic, and defending champion Feliciano Lopez are in action. Andy Murray makes his long-awaited return after an 11-month absence through injury when he takes on Nick Kyrgios.

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GERRY WEBER OPEN: Seeded players Dominic Thiem, Roberto Bautista Agut and Kei Nishikori all came through their first-round matches at Halle, Germany.

The third-seeded Thiem hit 19 aces as he defeated Russian qualifier Mikhail Youzhny 7-6 (5), 6-2 for a second-round meeting with Yuichi Sugita.

The fourth-seeded Bautista Agut had little difficulty in beating Jan-Lennard Struff 6-4, 6-1, and the seventh-seeded Nishikori opened his grass-court campaign by beating qualifier Matthias Bachinger 6-3, 7-6 (3).

BIRMINGHAM OPEN: Karolina Pliskova left spectators puzzling yet again why her powerful game has never translated to grass-court glory when she lost in the first round at Birmingham, England.

The 6-foot-1 Czech with the superbly steep serve was outplayed by 19th-ranked Magdalena Rybarikova 6-2, 6-3.

FOOTBALL

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NFL: The Minnesota Vikings will induct former head coach Dennis Green into their Ring of Honor this season.

The Vikings announced Monday they’ll hold a halftime ceremony with Green’s family during their Sept. 23 game against Buffalo. Green died at age 67 in 2016.

His record over 10 seasons was 101-70, including eight trips to the playoffs. Only Bud Grant has more wins in franchise history.

SOCCER

NEW ZEALAND: New Zealand Football confirmed it had received a letter signed by a number of New Zealand players complaining about the methods and tactics employed by Austria-born coach Andreas Heraf.

The complaints follow the New Zealand team’s recent 3-1 loss at home to Japan. Heraf angered his players, and fans of the Football Ferns national team, by taking an entirely defensive game plan into the rare home international.

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Heraf then further angered his players with comments defending his approach.

He said there was “a big difference in quality” between the New Zealand and Japanese players and that New Zealand “will never have that quality” to compete with top teams like Japan.

COLLEGES

BASEBALL: Florida State announced that head coach Mike Martin will retire at the end of the 2019 season.

Martin, who has led the Seminoles since 1980, became college baseball’s wins leader in May. He has a 1,987-713-4 record, a .736 win percentage.

Florida State has reached the NCAA tournament and won at least 40 games in all 39 seasons he has managed.

– News service report


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