Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen won’t be repeating her surprising run to the Australian Open final in 2025 after a second-round upset loss to No. 97-ranked Laura Siegemund on Wednesday.

Zheng lost the 2024 championship match at Melbourne Park to Aryna Sabalenka and went on to win the Olympic gold medal in Paris and finish runner-up at the WTA Finals in a breakout season.

But her first tournament of the year ended in a 7-6 (3), 6-3 loss on John Cain Arena against 36-year-old Siegemund, who played aggressively from the first point and put Zheng off her game.

Sabalenka, the two-time defending champion, extended her run to 16 wins at Melbourne Park by winning the last five games to beat No. 54-ranked Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6-3, 7-5.

The score line didn’t indicate the difficulty of the match, with Bouzas Maneiro taking huge swipes at the ball in her Australian Open debut and dictating some of the points against the world No. 1-ranked player. Her serve let her down, with Sabalenka able to relieve some pressure on her own serve with five breaks.

Soccer

Klopp slams ‘useless’ Club World Cup >> Red Bull head of global soccer Jürgen Klopp slammed the Club World Cup on Tuesday, saying it is asking too much of overworked players.

Despite Red Bull-backed Salzburg’s inclusion in FIFA’s expanded 32-team tournament in the United States next summer, Klopp said he doesn’t like the competition.

“I think it’s useless. It doesn’t help if you have no summer break,” Klopp said, referring to players who played in the World Cup, European Championship, Copa America or other international competitions.

Pulisic injured in AC Milan’s match >> There are renewed injury concerns for Christian Pulisic after the United States international limped out of AC Milan’s match at Como on Tuesday.

Pulisic was forced off the pitch on the stroke of halftime, leaving Milan with 10 men for the final moments of the first period. He was replaced by Alejandro Jiménez for the second half.

Hockey

Canadiens’ Heineman hit by car >> Montreal Canadiens player Emil Heineman is expected to miss three to four weeks after being hit by a car while walking in downtown Salt Lake City a day before playing at the Utah Hockey Club.

The team announced that the 23-year-old Swedish forward was out with an upper-body injury after being involved in a pedestrian accident.

After learning of Heineman’s identity, police said he did not show any signs of serious injuries and was being attended to by team doctors. It was not immediately clear what his injury was.

Police identified all parties involved and said they could not release any additional details. The Utah Highway Patrol is investigating.

Baseball

Cubs trade infielder to Mariners >> The Seattle Mariners acquired infielder Miles Mastrobuoni from the Chicago Cubs for cash.

Mastrobuoni, 29, hit .194 with four RBIs in 50 games for Chicago last year. He can play second base, third, shortstop and the corner outfield spots.

Mastrobuoni was designated for assignment when Chicago acquired reliever Matt Festa.

WNBA

Liberty franchise Tag Stewart again >> New York’s Breanna Stewart was one of a handful of players given the franchise tag by their WNBA teams, meaning they can’t sign a contract directly with anyone else.

Other players receiving the franchise player designation include Kelsey Plum (Las Vegas), Satou Sabally (Dallas) and Gabby Williams (Seattle).

Teams have until next Monday — the day before players and teams can begin negotiating — to offer core designations to eligible players.

Skiing

Swiss Skier Rast wins World Cup Slalom race >> Swiss skier Camille Rast earned the second World Cup victory of her breakthrough season, leading teammate Wendy Holdener for a Swiss 1-2 finish at a night slalom.

The result pushed Rast back to the top of both the slalom and overall season standings.

With injured slalom stars Mikaela Shiffrin and Petra Vlhova missing, Rast had a frenetic final run to improve from eighth position and beat runner-up Holdener by 0.16 seconds.

Rast became the first skier other than Shiffrin or Vlhova to win the annual floodlit race since Frida Hansdotter triumphed in 2017, a year before the Swede won Olympic slalom gold.