National Sports

Sports briefs

Clark accepts

the pressure

BERLIN (AP) -- Caitlin Clark has been the epicenter of women’s basketball for the past five years with huge expectations for her to seemingly single-handedly elevate the sport. The driving force behind the growth of women’s basketball talked hoops with The Associated Press.

The enormous pressure on Clark to perform is real. She understands it and accepts it. Clark has had an historic impact on the game without winning a title. Clark wasn’t able to do it in college, hasn’t done in it the WNBA yet or at the highest level on the international stage.

She has a chance at the women’s FIBA World Championship to fill that void in her impressive résumé.

Gauff rallies

at US Open

NEW YORK (AP) -- Coco Gauff fought off a couple match points in a tiebreaker and beat Mirra Andreeva 2-6, 7-6 (7), 6-2 to set up a U.S. Open semifinal matchup against new No. 1 Elena Rybakina.

Gauff overcame a horrible start to give herself a chance at a second U.S. Open title. She won the tournament in 2023, when she had to overcome a similar rough beginning against Aryna Sabalenka in the final. Andreeva, the French Open champion, won the first seven points and took the first set in 26 minutes.

Rybakina edged Zheng Qinwen 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, guaranteeing she will become No. 1 in the WTA rankings.

Matches are

running late

NEW YORK (AP) -- Ben Shelton’s five-set thriller to beat reigning champion Carlos Alcaraz in the U.S. Open quarterfinals ended at 3:33 a.m. Wednesday. That added to the list of early-morning finishes that had already stirred frustration and concerns about the schedule at the Grand Slam event.

The tournament had already set a record with three post-2 a.m. finishes over the first six days. Shelton’s second-round win ended at 2:07 a.m. Then came the quarterfinal match against Alcaraz, with Arthur Ashe Stadium roughly a third full when it finally ended.

Australia

hosts the NFL

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- The longest road trip in NFL history has brought the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams to Australia’s sports capital for a season opener in front of more than 100,000 football-hungry fans packed into the Southern Hemisphere’s largest stadium.

These NFC West rivals are playing Australia’s first NFL game, and the starkly differing ways in which they approached this challenge have attracted almost as much attention as the two star-studded rosters preparing to put on a show. Both teams say there’s no right way to do it, but San Francisco has been in Melbourne for a week, while the Rams arrived roughly 28 hours before kickoff.

NCAA won’t

overturn win

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) -- The Mid-American Conference wants Western Michigan recognized as the winner over Michigan after a controversial game. The NCAA said Tuesday the result stands, citing no protocol for overturning outcomes.

Michigan won 13-12 on a Hail Mary pass after officials added a second to the clock. The MAC argues the prescribed replay protocol wasn’t followed, which led to Michigan’s win.

The NCAA’s rules state the team with the most points at the end is the winner. The controversy has sparked debate in college football circles.

Yin returns

for US golf

DEN BOSCH, Netherlands (AP) -- Angel Yin believes she’s ready to play the Solheim Cup and so does her captain. Yin has been a big question mark for the Americans heading into this week’s matches against Team Europe in the Netherlands after missing two months with severe stomach issues.

She only returned for the final event before the Solheim Cup and she shot 81-76 to miss the cut in last place in the field. The 27-year-old Californian qualified automatically on the points list at No. 2 and would typically be a go-to player for captain Angela Stanford.

Yin thinks she can still be despite her less-than-ideal preparation that has seen her lose 35 pounds. She says she has had “honest talks with myself in the mirror.”

Heisman hopefuls

collide Saturday

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Arch Manning’s 2025 Heisman Trophy campaign started and ended with a rocky season-opening loss at Ohio State.

Over in the Buckeyes’ huddle, Julian Sayin’s first career start launched a standout season that found him, not Manning, among the Heisman finalists last December. They face off again Saturday when No. 1 Ohio State meets the No. 4 Longhorns in Austin. The rematch could very well set the narrative for both players and teams for the rest of the season.

Rivalry full

of hisotry

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) -- The Kansas Jayhawks and Missouri Tigers will reignite their historic college football rivalry on Friday night. The Border War dates back to 1891, with roots in the Civil War era.

The Jayhawks and their athletic director, Travis Goff, recently posted images celebrating the Jayhawks’ abolitionist history on social media, sparking responses from Missouri fans that underscored just how divisive the game has become. The rivalry paused in 2012 when Missouri joined the SEC but resumed last year with the Tigers winning in Columbia.

Ryder Cup

criteria set

(AP) -- The U.S. team is changing its qualifying criteria for the Ryder Cup. The Americans are using a system based entirely on points for the 2027 matches in Ireland. Qualifying starts at The American Express in California and ends with the BMW Championship in New Jersey.

The top six players in points automatically qualify, and Jim Furyk will make six captain’s picks after the Tour Championship. Unlike previous systems, points are no longer based on PGA Tour earnings. Instead, winners of majors receive 3,000 points, with varying points for other events. Players cannot earn points from opposite-field events.