GOLF

Europe picked up the pace at the Solheim Cup on Saturday in Casares, Spain, pulling even with the United States at 8-8 after splitting the morning foursome matches and winning the afternoon fourballs.

The contest will be decided by the 12 singles matches on Sunday, when Europe will try to win an unprecedented third straight Solheim Cup. The Europeans arrived as favorites but had to come from behind after the Americans took a 4-0 lead in Friday’s first session.

The U.S. kept its two-point lead from the first day after the teams split the morning session on Saturday, but Europe was in control during most of the afternoon and ended up winning it 3-1.

Ciganda, the only Spaniard on the European team, made a clutch birdie for a win on the 16th hole as she teamed with Linn Grant in the afternoon to defeat Danielle Kang and Lilia Vu, 2 and 1. Ciganda is the only player with a perfect record, winning three straight matches after sitting out the opening session.

EUROPEAN TOUR: Helped by a remarkable birdie putt from 67 feet, Scottish golfer Ewen Ferguson shot 4-under 67 in Saint-Quentin-en-Yveslines, France, to finish the third round of the French Open tied for the lead with Jordan Smith.

The highlight of Ferguson’s round came at the par-4 13th, and it drew him level with Smith at 13 under.

Smith immediately regained the lead with a birdie at No. 14 but three-putted for bogey at the last to shoot 70.

Ferguson and Smith were one shot ahead of Kazuki Higa of Japan (65) and two clear of Yannik Paul of Germany (67).

LIV: Sebastian Munoz quickly pulled away from a crowd at the top of the leaderboard, playing his opening five holes in 5-under par on his way to an 8-under 63 and a three-shot lead in LIV Golf-Chicago.

Munoz was at 13-under 129. Anirban Lahiri was in second after a bogey-free 66.

AUTO RACING

NASCAR: Bubba Wallace will start from the pole Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, the first race after he just made the cut to get into the second round of the Cup Series playoffs.

Wallace turned a lap of 188.337 mph in the final round of qualifying, finishing ahead of fellow playoff contenders and RFK Racing teammates Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski.

It’s the second career pole for Wallace, the 23XI Racing driver who entered the round of 12 in 12th place after the points were reset following the first three playoff races.

Buescher will start on the front row with Wallace after a final lap of 188.081 mph. Keselowski, the owner of Buescher’s No. 17 car, qualified third at 187.891 mph.

• John Hunter Nemechek moved into the round of eight of the Xfinity Series playoffs with a win at Texas, taking the final lead after front-running Justin Allgaier got moved up the track on the 195th of 200 laps.

It was the seventh win of the season for Nemechek – the fifth in the last 12 races in the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

FORMULA ONE: Championship leader Max Verstappen stormed to pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix, shrugging off a challenging weekend in Singapore a week ago with a dominant performance in qualifying at the Suzuka Circuit.

Looking to return to the top of the podium after missing out in Singapore, the Red Bull driver clocked a blazing lap of 1 minute, 28.877 seconds to finish .581 seconds ahead of McLaren rookie Oscar Piastri, whose teammate, Lando Norris, was third fastest.

SOCCER

ENGLAND: Manchester City midfielder Rodri was sent off for grabbing an opponent around the neck in a 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest that extended the defending champions’ perfect start to their Premier League title defense.

Phil Foden and Erling Haaland scored in the opening 14 minutes, but the second half was more of a defensive effort from City after Rodri was sent off inside a minute of the restart.

The Spain international responded to getting shoved by Morgan Gibbs-White near the corner flag by going chest to chest with the Forest playmaker and then placing both of his hands around his neck on two occasions. Gibbs-White went down after the second time and the referee showed a straight red card for violent conduct.

Rodri, the scorer of City’s winner in last season’s Champions League final and arguably the team’s most important player, will miss City’s next three games, including a trip to Arsenal on Oct. 8.

GERMANY: Harry Kane scored his first Bundesliga hat trick to move to seven goals in five games as Bayern Munich surged to a 7-0 win over Bochum.

SPAIN: Robert Lewandowski scored two late goals before João Cancelo snatched the 89th-minute winner to give Barcelona to a 3-2 comeback win at home against Celta Vigo.

TENNIS

CHINA: Local favorite Wang Xiyu won her first WTA title, beating top-seeded Magda Linette 6-0, 6-2 in the Guangzhou Open final.

• Sebastian Korda of the U.S. reached the quarterfinals at the Zhuhai Championships by beating Alexandre Muller, 6-1, 2-6, 6-3, and Andy Murray was eliminated in three sets by 63rd-ranked Aslan Karatsev.

• Top-seeded Alexander Zverev, No. 2 Lorenzo Musetti and No. 3 Grigor Dimitrov won their second-round matches in the Chengdu Open.