SKIING

Sophia Laukli of Yarmouth earned her first World Cup cross-country skiing victory Sunday, powering her way up a difficult Alpine climb to win the final stage of the Tour de Ski in Val de Fiemme, Italy.

Laukli, 23, completed the 10-kilometer mass start freestyle race with a time of 38 minutes, 16.5 seconds. Heidi Weng of Norway was the runner-up, 17.1 seconds back.

Laukli’s previous best World Cup finish was third in the same race last January, on a course that ends with a long climb marked by gradients as steep as 28%. Laukli placed fifth in her first attempt at the punishing climb in 2022.

Laukli’s teammate, World Cup points leader Jessie Diggins, was the overall Tour de Ski champion for the second time.

ALPINE WORLD CUP: Slovakian skier Petra Vlhova held on to her first-run lead to win a slalom in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, after Mikaela Shiffrin failed to finish the opening leg.

Racing in falling snow, Vlhova finished 0.72 seconds ahead of runner-up Lena Duerr of Germany.

Shiffrin’s teammate, AJ Hurt, posted the fastest time in the second run as the American earned her first career World Cup podium in third place, 0.87 behind Vlhova. Another American, Paula Moltzan, finished fifth.

• Manuel Feller denied the young Norwegian team another win in Adelboden, Switzerland, and extended Austria’s unbeaten run in slalom this season.

Feller rose from fifth after the first run to be 0.02 seconds faster than Atle Lie McGrath of Norway. Then first-run leader, Alexander Steen Olsen of Norway, fell within seconds of starting a potentially decisive run in fast-fading light and falling snow.

HOCKEY

ECHL: Alex Kile tied the game on a power play with 2:51 remaining, then got the winning goal with 27 seconds left as the Maine Mariners rallied for a 4-2 win over the Worcester Railers at Cross Insurance Arena.

Curtis Hall added an empty-net goal just before the final buzzer. Hall also assisted on Owen Pederson’s opening goal in the first period.

It was the third straight two-goal game for Kile, who is second in the ECHL with 20 goals in 29 games.

Mariners goalie Brad Arvanitis made 34 saves.

GOLF

PGA: Chris Kirk hit a 5-iron to 2 feet for birdie on the 17th hole and closed with an 8-under 65 for a one-shot victory in The Sentry at Kapalua, Hawaii.

Sahith Theegala and Jordan Spieth each caught up to him Kirk on the back nine, but Theegala missed a 10-foot birdie chance on the par-5 closing hole. Spieth bogeyed the 16th after his tee shot plugged under the lip of a bunker and wound up two shots behind Kirk, who finished at 29-under 263 and earned $3.6 million from the $20 million purse – the first of eight signature events in the new PGA Tour model of big purses and elite fields.

BASKETBALL

NBA: Golden State Warriors guard Chris Paul will have surgery next week to repair a fracture in his left hand and is expected to be out four-to-six weeks after the operation, according to multiple reports.

Paul, 38, was injured Friday in a collision with Detroit’s Jaden Ivey. Paul has now had 11 hand injuries in his 19-year career, five to his non-shooting hand and six to his right.

BASEBALL

MAJOR LEAGUES: Sean Manaea became the latest pitcher to join the revamped rotation of the New York Mets, agreeing to a $28 million, two-year contract, a person familiar with the agreement told The Associated Press.

A 31-year-old left-hander, Manaea was 7-6 with a 4.44 ERA in his only season with the Giants, making 10 starts and 27 relief appearances.

TENNIS

UNITED CUP: Alexander Zverev saved two match points in a remarkable comeback to win his singles tie in an epic three-setter, then helped clinch the United Cup final for Germany against Poland in the deciding mixed doubles match in Sydney.

Zverev rallied to beat Hubert Hurkacz, 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (8-6), 6-4, then partnered with Laura Siegemund to win the mixed doubles in a super tiebreaker, 6-4, 5-7, 10-4, against Iga Swiatek and Hurkacz.

AUCKLAND CLASSIC: Top-seeded Coco Gauff retained her title at the WTA Auckland Classic in New Zealand, beating second-seeded Elina Svitolina, 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-3.

BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL: Elena Rybakina claimed her sixth career title with a 6-0, 6-3 rout of top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka in Australia, and second-seeded Grigor Dimitrov beat top-seeded Holger Rune 7-6 (5), 6-4 in a tightly-fought men’s final for his first tour title in six years.

SOCCER

FA CUP: In a heavyweight third-round matchup in the FA Cup, Arsenal’s increasingly alarming problems in front of goal were exposed in a 2-0 loss to Liverpool.

An end-to-end contest was settled by two late goals – an own-goal by Arsenal defender Jakub Kiwior in the 80th minute and a fierce strike by Luis Diaz in the fourth minute of stoppage time.

Arsenal has now lost four of its last seven matches in all competitions, including its last three in a row.

• Manchester City advanced to the final 32 with a 5-0 win over second-tier Huddersfield in a match notable for the return from a hamstring injury of Kevin De Bruyne after nearly five months out.

• Fourth-tier Wrexham made its Hollywood owners – Rob Reynolds and Rob McElhenney – happy by winning 1-0 at Shrewsbury, a local rival from a division higher in English soccer’s pyramid.

• American striker Daryl Dike scored his team’s third goal in the 27th minute of second-tier West Bromwich Albion’s 4-1 win over fifth-tier Aldershot. It was Dike’s first match since tearing his right Achilles last April.

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