Roger Federer is back in the Miami Open semifinals, the No. 4 seed winning the first eight games of his match and eventually ousting sixth-seeded Kevin Anderson 6-0, 6-4 on Thursday night in Miami Gardens.

Federer won a marathon ninth game of the final set to break Anderson for a 5-4 lead, then served it out at love.

Denis Shapovalov needed more than two hours to dispatch Frances Tiafoe 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-2 in Thursday’s other quarterfinal.

In the women’s event, 12th-seeded Barty endured three rain delays before ousting 21st-seeded Anett Kontaveit 6-3, 6-3 to reach the final, where she’ll face either second-seeded Simona Halep or fifth-seeded Karolina Pliskova, who were scheduled to play late Thursday night.

GOLF

LPGA: Chella Choi birdied the final three holes for a 7-under 65 and the first-round lead Thursday in the Kia Classic at Carlsbad, California.

Choi had a bogey-free round at Aviara Golf Club in the final event before the major ANA Inspiration next week in Rancho Mirage. Stephanie Meadow was two strokes back at 67.

PGA: Joel Dahmen birdied five of his last six holes Thursday for a 6-under 66 and a share of the first-round lead in the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship at Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo had a 79, tied for for 128th, ahead of only two players.

EUROPEAN: Julian Suri and Stephen Gallacher shared the lead at the Indian Open after opening rounds of 5-under-par 67 at New Delhi.

OLYMPICS

BOXING: A Russian official has offered to pay the International Boxing Association’s $16 million debt if the International Olympic Committee keeps the sport in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Umar Kremlev, an AIBA executive committee member, made the offer in a letter to senior IOC officials overseeing an investigation into the embattled Lausanne, Switzerland-based boxing body.

The Russian boxing federation released extracts Thursday at the same time the International Olympic Committee executive board discussed the ongoing AIBA inquiry. Issues include elected AIBA president Gafur Rakhimov, who American authorities say is an international heroin trafficker.

HORSE RACING

SANTA ANITA DEATHS: The California Horse Racing Board voted Thursday to severely limit the use of whips on horses in racing statewide and approved medication changes on a smaller scale following the deaths of 22 horses at Santa Anita Park.

The board votes came during a passionate meeting in which a group that represents jockeys argued that the whips were not connected to the horse deaths and that any drastic changes should be delayed for more study.

Board members rejected that idea, with two saying they personally witnessed whips being overused on some of the horses that died at Santa Anita and that if horse racing is to survive, changes are necessary.

– News service report