GOLF
Lee Westwood isn’t interested in comparing himself with the player who rose to No. 1 in the world a decade ago. All he knows is he’s playing some of his best golf, and he gets another chance to see if it can hold up against the best field.
Westwood had all the shots Friday in a bogey-free round at The Players Championship, with two birdies at the start and a nifty pitch to a troublesome pin on the par-5 ninth to close with a another birdie and a 6-under 66.
That gave him a one-shot lead over Matt Fitzpatrick (68) going into the weekend on the Stadium Course at the TPC Sawgrass, with U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau not too far behind.
Westwood, who turns 48 next month, played well enough to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week at Bay Hill except that DeChambeau was one shot better in a fascinating duel of generations on a course that favors power.
He was at 9-under 135 and will be part of the All-England final pairing Saturday.
Sergio Garcia was another shot back after a 72 that looked like it was a lot worse with so many putts the Spaniard missed, including a 23-inch par putt on the 15th hole that followed a 5-foot par putt he missed on the 14th.
When the second round was suspended by darkness, 16 players were within five shots of the lead.
DeChambeau was in the group three shots behind after a 69 that began with a double bogey from the trees and a muffed chip out of the rough from behind the green. He was bogey-free the rest of the way on a course that doesn’t let him swing for the fences because of water and cross bunkers and other brands of trouble.
SKIING
WOMEN’S WORLD CUP: Petra Vlhova is back on course to become the first Slovakian to win skiing’s overall World Cup title.
Vlhova defended her first-run advantage in a slalom on Friday to claim her 20th career victory. She moved 64 points ahead of Swiss rival Lara Gut-Behrami — who does not race slaloms — in the overall standings.
Vlhova finished 0.20 seconds ahead of recently crowned world champion Katharina Liensberger and 0.64 ahead of Mikaela Shiffrin.
ROAD RACING
DOPING: A female runner became the first athlete in Kenya to be convicted of a doping offense in a criminal court on Friday.
Distance runner Florence Jepkosgei Chepsoi, who finished second at the 2019 Jakarta Marathon, was sentenced to one year of community service after she was found guilty of presenting false documents and lying to the Kenyan anti-doping agency at a hearing. She changed her plea to guilty having initially pleaded not guilty when she was first charged in court last year.
Kenya criminalized doping offenses in 2016 in the midst of a stream of drug scandals among its world-renowned distance runners. The East African nation updated its anti-doping laws late last year.
Chepsoi was initially charged with doping by the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya in 2017 after testing positive for the banned steroid prednisolone at a race in China. When she appeared before a tribunal, she presented documents she claimed were from a hospital as part of her defense. ADAK found the documents were forgeries and Chepsoi had never been treated at the hospital, leading the anti-doping body to push for her to be prosecuted in a criminal court.
TENNIS
OPEN 13: Stefanos Tsitsipas’ bid to win a third straight Open 13 fizzled out when he lost to doubles specialist Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-2 in the quarterfinals on Friday in Marseille, France.
Herbert has a career Grand Slam in doubles but in singles is ranked 93rd, compared to fifth for the Australian Open semifinalist Tsitsipas. Herbert dropped his serve twice but broke Tsitsipas five times for the best win in a singles career in which he’s lost more than half of his matches.
A French finalist is guaranteed, too, since Herbert plays fourth-seeded Ugo Humbert. He won 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (4) against Arthur Rinderknech, a qualifier ranked 138th. Earlier, second-seeded Daniil Medvedev made light work of reaching the semis in brushing aside fifth-seeded Jannik Sinner 6-2, 6-4.
QATAR OPEN: Roberto Bautista Agut ended Andrey Rublev’s Qatar Open title defense in the semifinals by upsetting the Russian 6-3, 6-3 on Friday.
Rublev was also aiming for back-to-back titles after winning the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam on Sunday. The Russian was in the unusual position of playing a semifinal without having spent a minute on court in the singles tournament following a bye and two walkovers, though he had been playing doubles. Rublev served eight aces but still had his serve broken four times by Bautista Agut.
The 13th-ranked Bautista Agut will face Nikoloz Basilashvili for the title in Saturday’s final after the Georgian beat Taylor Fritz 7-6 (3), 6-1.
DUBAI CHAMPIONSHIPS: Garbiñe Muguruza reached her third final of the season after needing seven match points to beat Elise Mertens 6-4, 7-6 (5) in the semifinals of the Dubai Championships on Friday.
Muguruza will play Barbora Krejcikova in Saturday’s final as the Spanish player seeks her first title since April 2019. She lost the Qatar Open final last week to Petra Kvitova and the Yarra Valley Classic final last month to Ash Barty.
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