TENNIS

Serena Williams broke a three-year title drought when she beat fellow American Jessica Pegula 6-3, 6-4 on Sunday to win the singles final at the ASB Classic at Auckland, New Zealand.

Williams hadn’t won a title since the Australian Open singles in January 2017, and not since she became a mother to her daughter Olympia, who was court-side to see the victory.

The 23-time major winner donated her $43,000 winner’s check to the fundraising appeal for victims of Australian wildfires, joining many other tennis stars, such as Ash Barty, Nick Kygrios, Novak Djokovic and Maria Sharapova, who have pledged money to the already months-long fire emergency there.

ATP CUP: Novak Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal and then went back on court within an hour and won the deciding doubles encounter to secure Serbia’s victory over Spain in the inaugural ATP Cup final at Sydney.

Second-ranked Djokivic had a 6-2, 7-6 (4) win over top-ranked Nadal to level the final after Roberto Bautista Agut had given Spain a 1-0 lead by beating Dusan Lajovic 7-5, 6-1 in the first singles match.

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After extending his lead to 29-26 in career head-to-heads with Nadal, he combined with Victor Troicki in a 6-3, 6-4 win over Pablo Carreno Busta and Feliciano Lopez.

SOCCER

SPANISH SUPER CUP: Real Madrid beat Atletico Madrid in a penalty shootout to win the first edition of the new-look Spanish Super Cup that was held in Saudi Arabia despite criticism from human rights groups.

Madrid won the shootout 4-1 after the final ended 0-0 after extra time. Dani Carvajal, Rodrygo, Luka Modric and Sergio Ramos all converted their spot kicks for Madrid.

Atletico’s Saul Niguez missed his first penalty and Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois blocked the second attempt by Thomas Partey. Kieran Trippier converted for Atletico.

PREMIER LEAGUE: Sergio Aguero scored a hat trick, set two records and lifted Manchester City back to second with a 6-1 rout at Aston Villa.

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City’s Argentine striker is the highest-scoring foreign player in EPL history with 177 goals from 255 games, overtaking Thierry Henry’s mark of 175. It was also Aguero’s 12th hat trick in the EPL, breaking a tie with Alan Shearer.

GOLF

EUROPEAN TOUR: Branden Grace stormed home with a final-round 62 to win the South African Open by three shots over Louis Oosthuizen.

Oosthuizen, the overnight leader, produced a hole-in-one on No. 8 to send the crowd wild. Grace responded with four straight birdies, starting on No. 11, to go 9 under on the last day and finish 21 under overall.

Grace picked up eight birdies and an eagle on the day, and just one bogey, and ended up pulling away from Oosthuizen, who closed with a 3-under 68 to finish 18 under.

Oosthuizen aced the par-3 eighth but had only one other birdie in his final round.

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AUTO RACING

DAKAR RALLY: Portuguese motorbike rider Paulo Goncalves died after crashing in the Saudi Arabia desert. He was 40.

Goncalves fell and suffered cardiac arrest about halfway through the 339-mile seventh stage, south of the Saudi capital Riyadh. Australian rider Toby Price then Argentina’s Kevin Benavides stopped to help, and a medical helicopter arrived on the scene within eight minutes of being alerted, rally organizers said on their website.

He was flown to nearby Layla hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

LUGE

WORLD CUP: Julia Taubitz of Germany had the fastest time in both heats and won a women’s World Cup luge race at Altenberg, Germany, moving closer to Russia’s Tatyana Ivanova for the season-long points lead.

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Taubitz finished in 1 minute, 44.264 seconds. Ivanova was second in 1:44.436. She has 482 standings points at the season’s midway mark, two more than Taubitz with six races remaining.

Italy’s Andrea Voetter was third in 1:44.647.

BOBSLED

WORLD CUP: Francesco Friedrich of Germany drove to the win in a World Cup four-man bobsled race at La Plagne, France, marking the seventh time he has swept gold medals in both two- and four-man events in the same weekend.

Friedrich finished in 1 minute, 55.85 seconds. He extended his lead in the World Cup four-man season points standings over fellow German driver Johannes Lochner, who was second in 1:56.06. Lochner didn’t race in the two-man event Saturday.

BASEBALL

MAJORS: Veteran third baseman Todd Frazier and the Texas Rangers reached an agreement on a $5 million, one-year contract, filling a significant need for the team.

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