HOCKEY
Cameron Askew scored a short-handed goal with 6:55 remaining that broke a 2-2 tie, lifting the Maine Mariners to a 5-3 ECHL win over the Newfoundland Growlers Wednesday at Cross Insurance Arena and ending a four-game losing streak.
Reid Stefanson had a goal and two assists for the Mariners. Fedor Gordeev, Chase Zieky and Patrick Shea added a goal apiece, with Zieky and Shea scoring into an empty net in the final three minutes, sandwiched around a Newfoundland goal. Shea clinched the victory with 17 seconds left.
Mariners goalie Michael DiPietro finished with 26 saves.
TENNIS
U.S. OPEN: Former chair umpire Jake Garner will be the new tournament referee for the U.S. Open as of this year’s tournament, responsible for making the draws, preparing the daily match schedule and overseeing all officiating.
Garner was a chair umpire from 2006-18, overseeing 18 Grand Slam finals, and served as the U.S. Open’s chief umpire from 2019-21. Last year, he was an assistant tournament referee under Wayne McKewen, who was the referee in 2021 and 2022.
ATX OPEN: Katie Volynets saved a match point and grabbed the last seven games to come back and beat third-seeded Anastasia Potapova 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 at Austin, Texas, to reach her first WTA quarterfinal.
Now Volynets will face Peyton Stearns — who won the NCAA singles championship for the University of Texas last year — for a spot in the semifinals at the inaugural edition of the hard-court tournament. Stearns got past Mirjam Bjorklund 6-3, 7-5 in a match between two wild-card recipients.
The highest-seeded woman left in the field, No. 4 Sloane Stephens, beat qualifier Heather Watson 6-4, 6-4. Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion, will meet 88th-ranked Varvara Gracheva in the quarterfinals. It’s a rematch of a contest won by Stephens last week in Merida, Mexico.
Gracheva, who eliminated top-seeded Magda Linette in the first round in Austin, advanced by defeating Anna Blinkova 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-1 in an all-Russian matchup.
SOCCER
OBIT: Just Fontaine, the French soccer great who scored a record 13 goals at the 1958 World Cup, has died. He was 89.
Fontaine’s former club Reims and the French soccer federation confirmed his death.
Fontaine took six games to achieve his feat at the 1958 tournament in Sweden, shortly after winning a French league and French Cup double with Reims and leading the league with 34 goals.
The highest scorer at a World Cup tournament is now acknowledged with the Golden Boot award. Fontaine set the record when FIFA did not present a specific award for the tournament’s top scorer.
MLS: Midfielder James Sands returned to New York City FC from Glasgow Rangers and agreed to a five-year contract.
The 22-year-old from Rye went on loan to Rangers in January 2022 in a deal that gave the Scottish club an option to buy. He made 41 appearances for Rangers in all competitions, helping win the Scottish Cup and reach the Europa League final.
Sands made his professional debut with NYC in 2017 and helped the team win the 2021 Major League Soccer title.
AUTO RACING
FORMULA ONE: The team principal of AlphaTauri denied the group would be put up for sale following a report that energy-drink giant Red Bull might seek to offload the less successful of its two Formula One teams.
German magazine Auto Motor und Sport reported last week that Red Bull would consider selling AlphaTauri, which has developed drivers for the championship-winning Red Bull team, or move its headquarters from Faenza, Italy, to Britain.
“I had some very good meetings with Oliver Mintzlaff, who confirmed that the shareholders will not sell Scuderia AlphaTauri, and that Red Bull will continue supporting the team in the future,” team principal Franz Tost said in a statement. “All these rumors have no foundation, and the team has to remain focused for the start of the season to perform better than last year.”
GOLF
PGA: The PGA Tour is moving toward an elite schedule in 2024 with 16 designated events — half of them with no more than 80-man fields and no cuts — along with a chance for players on the outside to play their way in.
Still to be finalized are what events get the $20 million prize funds and details for how players can earn a spot in the field.
Players were apprised of the changes in a memo from PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan in which he wrote, “There is no doubt in my mind that we made decisions that will transform and set the future.”
The Associated Press obtained a copy of the memo, which also indicated the Player Impact Program bonus pool will be cut in half to $50 million to 10 players (instead of 20 players), with the other $50 million going to bonus pools for the FedEx Cup and the Comcast Business Tour Top 10 for leading players in the regular season.
The part likely to cause the most divide among players is the no-cut policy for the designated events (except for the four majors and The Players Championship). One criticism of Saudi-funded LIV Golf has been its 54-hole events do not have a cut.
Eight of the 16 designated events — the exceptions are the majors, The Players and three FedEx Cup playoff events — are guaranteed to have the best players for the entire week.
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