Six months after Jannik Sinner failed two drug tests, and 2 1/2 weeks after he was exonerated because he said trace amounts of an anabolic steroid entered his system unintentionally via a massage, the No. 1-ranked man in tennis will play in the U.S. Open semifinals.

His doping case, which raised questions from some players about whether Sinner was treated differently than others on account of his standing in the sport, has loomed over his run to the final four at Flushing Meadows, where the 23-year-old Italian will face No. 25 Jack Draper of Britain today. No. 12 Taylor Fritz plays No. 20 Frances Tiafoe in the other men’s semifinal, the first in New York between two Americans in 19 years.

Asked how he’s been able to stay focused on court with everything going on off it, Sinner said: “Obviously in the beginning ... (it) was a tough situation. But day by day, it went better. So I’m happy about that. Let’s see now, in the semis, what I can do.”

Draper, 22, and Fritz, 26, are participating in the semifinals at a major for the first time. Tiafoe, 26, made it to the semis two years ago before losing to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz.

Sinner, a 6-2, 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 winner over Daniil Medvedev on Wednesday night, has been to the semifinals at each of the four Slams once and is particularly strong on hard courts, where he is 33-2 with four titles in 2024.

• Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori won the U.S. Open mixed doubles title with a 7-6 (0), 7-5 victory Thursday over Taylor Townsend and Donald Young, who fell just short of a Grand Slam title in his final match before retiring.

Errani, who won a career Grand Slam in women’s doubles with fellow Italian Roberta Vinci, added her first career mixed doubles title to the Olympic gold medal in women’s doubles she won last month with Jasmine Paolini.

Brothers Fitzpatrick battle at the top of European Masters

Seeking a third victory at the European Masters, Matt Fitzpatrick was upstaged by his younger brother in a low-scoring first round at the picturesque Crans-sur-Sierre Golf Club in the Alps on Thursday.

Alex Fitzpatrick shot 7-under 63 and was tied for the lead with unheralded Spaniard Alfredo Garcia-Heredia, ranked No. 629, at the European tour event.

Matt Fitzpatrick shot 66 and was in a six-man group three strokes off the lead. Matt, the 2022 U.S. Open champion — at age 30, the older of the siblings by five years — won the tournament in 2017 and 2018 and is looking to become just the fourth player — after Seve Ballesteros, Harold Henning and Dai Rees — to win it three times.

U.S. multisport star Masters earns her eighth gold medal

Oksana Masters claimed another gold medal at a Paralympics by defending her title in para cycling’s H4-5 individual time trial.

The American multi-sport specialist clocked 23 minutes, 45.20 seconds to finish 6.24 seconds ahead of Chantal Haenen of the Netherlands and a whopping 1 minute, 27.87 seconds ahead of China’s Sun Bianbian.

It takes Masters’ career total to eight golds — and 18 medals overall — from both summer and winter Games.

Masters will also compete in a H5 road race as defending champion today, before she wraps up her Paris Games in the mixed H1-5 team relay on Saturday.

Masters was born in 1989 near Chernobyl in Ukraine, the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident, and has birth defects believed to be from the aftermath of the disaster.

She was adopted by an American mother when she was a child. She had her left leg amputated near the knee at 9 and the right one at the same spot five years later.

• Noelle Malkamaki of the U.S. broke her own world record in women’s shot put F46 by throwing a distance of 14.06 meters.

• Brian Bell had 31 points and 10 rebounds as the U.S. beat Canada 80-43 in wheelchair basketball setting up a gold-medal game against Britain on Saturday. Bell went 14-for-18 from the field.

• The Brazilian men’s blind football team, undefeated in 20 years of Paralympic competition. lost to rival Argentina 4-3 in a penalty shootout Thursday night.

Ugandan Olympian, burned in attack by partner, has died

Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei has died at a Kenyan hospital where she was being treated after 80% of her body was burned in an attack by her partner, a hospital official confirmed Thursday. She was 33.

Owen Menach, a spokesperson at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret city, said the long-distance runner died early Thursday, the morning after her organs failed. She had been fully sedated on admission.

Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.