CYCLING
Primoz Roglic safely negotiated the last truly mountainous stage of this year’s Tour de France, moving a big step closer to clinching the overall victory.
Polish rider Michal Kwiatkowski won Stage 18, up and down over a leg-burning succession of five Alpine ascents.
Roglic remained 57 seconds ahead of fellow Slovenian Tadej Pogacar in the overall standings.
BASKETBALL
WNBA: Crystal Dangerfield scored 15 of her 17 points in the second half and Minnesota beat Phoenix 80-79 on Thursday night to advance to the semifinals of the WNBA playoffs.
• A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces was chosen as the league’s MVP award.
Wilson averaged 20.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and two blocks. She received 43 of the 47 first-place votes in easily outpacing Breanna Stewart and Candace Parker.
The league also announced that Minnesota’s Crystal Dangerfield is the rookie of the year and Cheryl Reeve is the coach of the year.
NBA: The Sacramento Kings have former Houston Rockets executive Monte McNair as their new general manager.
TENNIS
BILLIE JEAN KING CUP: The Fed Cup is changing its name to honor tennis great Billie Jean King, the woman whose lifelong battle for equality and social justice laid the foundation for generations that followed.
The Billie Jean King Cup will become the first major global team competition to be named after a woman, the International Tennis Federation said.
“We feel it’s long overdue,” ITF President David Haggerty said. “All major team competitions, including Davis Cup, are named after men, and we think it’s really fitting that the women’s world cup of tennis would be named after someone as iconic as Billie Jean King, who changed the face of women’s sports.”
KREMLIN CUP: The Kremlin Cup, scheduled to start Oct. 19, has been canceled because of a rising number of coronavirus cases in Moscow.
TRACK AND FIELD
WORLD RECORD: Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis broke Sergey Bubka’s 26-year-old outdoor world record, clearing 20 feet, 2 inches at the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea meet in Rome.
Bubka’s old mark was 20 feet, 1 1/2 inches, set July 1994.
FOOTBALL
NFL: Los Angeles Chargers center Mike Pouncey has been placed on injured reserve and will miss the season because of a hip injury.
• The Minnesota Vikings placed starting right guard Pat Elflein on injured reserve, meaning the fourth-year player will miss at least three games.
• The Arizona Cardinals placed starting safety Jalen Thompson on injured reserve after he injured his ankle against the San Francisco 49ers in the season opener.
AUTO RACING
TRUCKS: Sam Mayer, 17, celebrated his recent promotion to JR Motorsports by scoring his first NASCAR national series victory, passing title contender and teammate Brett Moffitt at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Mayer was hired this week to race in the Xfinity Series next season for JR Motorsports. His win in his seventh career Truck Series start – fourth this year – was an upset in the opening race of the playoffs.
He’s the second youngest Truck Series winner behind Cole Custer, who was 16 when he won at New Hampshire in 2014.
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