Ukraine’s Svitolina lauds US support

Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina said she had received an outpouring of support from Americans following President Donald Trump’s extraordinary clash with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House last month. Svitolina thanked Americans for their “unwavering support” and “compassion” in a social media post on Sunday after beating Danielle Collins in the third round at Indian Wells. After defeating another American in Jessica Pegula 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 on Tuesday, Svitolina said she’s received solid support at the tournament in the California desert. “Since that meeting in the Oval Office, I got a lot of messages of support from the American people and a lot of people here when I arrived at the tournament, giving love and support to Ukrainians back at home,” she added. “Also the massive support that I got considering I played three American girls back-to-back. It’s amazing.” The U.S. on Tuesday agreed to resume military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine after Kyiv said that it was ready to support Washington’s proposal for a 30-day ceasefire with Russia.

Scheffler takes aim at Players 3-peat

The Players Championship has four decades of history at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, suggesting it doesn’t favor a particular style of golf . And then Scottie Scheffler came along. In one of his more remarkable performances in an astonishing 2024 season, Scheffler nearly withdrew in the second round with a neck injury, made three late birdies Saturday to at least stay in range, then overcame a five-shot deficit to win with a 64. He became the first back-to-back winner of the PGA Tour’s premier tournament, which means next to nothing to the world’s No. 1 player as he goes for three in a row. “What does last year’s tournament have to do with this year?” he said Tuesday. “... Not much, right? ... It’s great to have won the last two years, but can I rely on some of those experiences when I step up on the first tee and give myself a little bit of confidence? Yes.” That’s how he feels about all of last year, when he won nine times — seven on the PGA Tour, including the Masters and The Players, the Olympic gold medal outside Paris and the Hero World Challenge holiday event in the Bahamas.

Dortmund returns to UCL quarters

Borussia Dortmund reached the Champions League quarterfinals by beating Lille 2-1, overcoming an early deficit Wednesday to set up a final-eight matchup against Barcelona. Dortmund, the 2024 runner-up, advanced 3-2 on aggregate after last week’s 1-1 draw in the round-of-16 first leg in Germany. The winner by Maximilian Beier in the 65th minute came shortly after teammate Emre Can had equalized from the penalty spot. Can converted in the 54th after former Dortmund player Thomas Meunier took down Serhou Guirassy inside the area. It was Dortmund’s fourth victory in nine overall matches under new manager Niko Kovac, above. Lille has never reached the quarterfinals. In other second leg games Wednesday which ended too late for this edition, defending champ Real Madrid visited rival Atlético Madrid, Arsenal hosted PSV Eindhoven and Aston Villa took on visitor Club Brugge. On Tuesday, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan and Paris Saint-Germain, in addition to aforementioned Barcelona, advanced. —News services