TENNIS

Defending champion Novak Djokovic has withdrawn from the Paris Masters, organizers said Wednesday.

The 37-year-old Djokovic played at the Six Kings Slam exhibition last week. Organizers did not give a reason for Djokovic’s withdrawal.

The former top-ranked player said in an Instagram post he is “sorry to everyone who was hoping to see me play there.”

“I have a lot of great memories winning seven titles there and hope to be back with you next year,” he added.

Djokovic has won a record seven titles at the Paris indoor tournament. His decision not to play could jeopardize his chances to qualify for the year-end ATP Finals featuring the top eight players in the race.

The 24-time Grand Slam champion currently holds the sixth spot in the race. Four players — Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev — have already secured their spot at the season’s final event from Nov. 10-17.

The Paris Masters starts next week.

BASKETBALL

WNBA: The Washington Mystics are parting ways with Coach Eric Thibault and GM Mike Thibault, the franchise announced.

Eric Thibault is the fifth WNBA coach to be let go this offseason, joining Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles. He took over for his father after the 2022 season. The younger Thibault spent 10 years as an assistant coach with the Mystics, including four as associate head coach.

The Mystics finished this season 14-26, just missing the playoffs. Washington started the year with 12 straight losses and dealt with injuries to Shakira Austin and Brittney Sykes. The team also underwent major changes this offseason with Elena Delle Donne sitting out and Natasha Cloud leaving for Phoenix.

Mike Thibault came to the franchise in 2012 as both the GM and coach, leading the team to its first title in 2019. The Mystics made eight postseason appearances and he earned the league’s WNBA Coach of the Year award in 2013. He has the most wins in WNBA history with 379.

HOCKEY

NHL: The Utah Hockey Club will be without a couple of defenseman for an extended period of time after Sean Durzi and John Marino each underwent surgery.

The team announced Durzi had his right shoulder repaired after being injured last week in Utah’s fourth game of the season and is expected to be out four to six months.

Marino had an operation on lower-back problems that had him sidelined throughout training camp, and he’s expected to miss three to four months.

• St. Louis Blues forward Robert Thomas will miss at least six weeks with a broken right ankle, the team announced.

The Blues put Thomas on injured reserve after he took a puck off the ankle early in the third period of their loss Tuesday night to still-unbeaten Winnipeg. General Manager Doug Armstrong said Thomas would be evaluated in six weeks.

SOCCER

NWSL: The Chicago Red Stars are getting a new name and logo.

The National Women’s Soccer League team will be known as the Chicago Stars Football Club after this season, it announced.

The team will continue to wear the Red Stars name and crest for the remainder of the season and through the playoffs..

The franchise has been known as the Red Stars since it started play in 2009. Chicago has clinched a playoff spot and is sixth in the league with 32 points and a 10-13-2 record. The Red Stars drew an NWSL-record 35,038 fans for a game at Wrigley Field in June.

TRACK & FIELD

OBIT: Geoff Capes, a British shot putter who was a three-time Olympian and won the World’s Strongest Man competition twice in the 1980s, has died. He was 75.

Capes’ death was announced by British Athletics without disclosing further details.

Capes represented Britain at the Olympics in 1972, 1976 and 1980. His best result was a fifth-place finish in Moscow in 1980.

He won gold in the shot put in the Commonwealth Games in 1974 and 1978, and set the British record with a throw of 21.68 meters in 1980. That remains the longest ratified throw by a Briton.

Capes, a former policeman, was crowned World’s Strongest Man in 1983 and 1985.

SKIING

SURGERY: Norwegian ski star Aleksander Aamodt Kilde will miss the entire 2024-25 season because his injured left shoulder requires surgery again, nine months after he crashed badly in a downhill in Switzerland.

The 32-year-old Kilde, a two-time Olympic medalist who has won 21 World Cup races and took the 2019-20 overall title, had surgery to repair a severe cut and nerve damage in his right calf, plus two torn ligaments in his shoulder, after a terrifying crash near the finish of a downhill in Wengen in January.

Kilde went back on skis in June, but his recovery suffered a setback the following month due to an infection in his shoulder “that caused some complications,” he said..

Kilde was among a slew of World Cup, Olympic and world champions to crash hard in a packed mid-season program, including his fiancée Mikaela Shiffrin.

The American hurt her left knee following a crash on the 2026 Olympic downhill course in Cortina d’Ampezzo, though the World Cup record holder and two-time Olympic champion returned to racing six weeks later.

The World Cup season starts this weekend with two giant slaloms in Soelden, Austria, with the women racing on Saturday and the men the following day.