Teenager Mirra Andreeva became the youngest player to reach the Dubai Championships final after beating Elena Rybakina 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

Andreeva, 17, trailed 3-1 in the third set before winning the last five games to reach her second tour final. She won in Romania last July.

Clara Tauson, the Dane who knocked out world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, beat Karolina Muchova 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-3 in the other semifinal.

The 38th-ranked Tauson already has a title this year, in Auckland, and leads the tour in match wins, with 15.

Andreeva is the youngest player in the top 100, and her run this week has put her on the brink of a maiden appearance in the top 10.

Andrey Rublev edged Félix Auger-Aliassime 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (5) to reach another Qatar Open final in Doha.

He will face Jack Draper in the decider today.

The 10th-ranked Rublev needed four match points to close out No. 23 Auger-Aliassime for the sixth time in seven matchups.

Rublev lost the 2018 final in Doha but won in 2020.

In his 27th career final and first since August, he will play No. 16 Draper, who will appear in his fifth. Draper beat No. 25 Jiri Lehecka 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3 in the semifinals.

NFL

The Jacksonville Jaguars hired Rams executive James Gladstone as their general manager, reuniting him with new coach Liam Coen.

Gladstone held the position of director of scouting strategy in L.A. since 2019, working alongside Rams GM Les Snead during the draft process. He’s been with the Rams since 2016 and was viewed as a key member of the scouting department.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Eric Dixon scored 23 points, Jhamir Brickus had 15 of his 21 points in Villanova’s dominating first half and the Wildcats beat No. 16 Marquette 81-66 in Philadelphia. Jordan Dumont added 15 points to help Villanova (16-12, 9-8 Big East) snap a two-game losing streak overall and eight-game skid versus Marquette (20-7, 11-5).

NO. 14 MICHIGAN STATE 75, NO. 12 MICHIGAN 62: Jase Richardson scored 21 points and Tre Holloman had 18, leading the Spartans (22-5, 13-3) over the Wolverines (20-6, 12-3) in Ann Arbor to take sole possession of first place in the Big Ten.

BOXING

Joseph Parker came to Saudi Arabia to try to win the IBF heavyweight title from Daniel Dubois.

Instead, Parker has turned his attention to Congolese heavyweight Martin Bakole after Dubois withdrew from today’s fight after falling ill.

A last-minute replacement, Bakole missed Friday’s weigh-in because he was still en route to Riyadh from Kinshasa in Congo.

Bakole chronicled his journey Friday on Instagram. He took a flight from Kinshasa to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

“One more flight,” he wrote before the next leg to the Saudi capital, where he was expected to land well past midnight local time.

Even though there’s no shot at a world title today, the Parker-Bakole winner would be in line to fight Oleksandr Usyk for the Ukrainian’s WBO belt.

Parker (35-3, 23 KOs) is a former WBO champ. The New Zealander won the belt in December 2016 when he beat Andy Ruiz and lost it to Anthony Joshua 15 months later. Bakole is 21-1 with 16 KOs.

SOCCER

The Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed an appeal by former Spanish soccer boss Luis Rubiales against a three-year ban from the sport imposed by FIFA for kissing Spain player Jenni Hermoso after the 2023 Women’s World Cup final.

The decision by a panel at sport’s highest court in Lausanne, Switzerland, came a day after Rubiales was found guilty of sexually assaulting Hermoso, ordered to pay more than $10,400 in fines and was prohibited from getting within 200 meters of Hermoso or communicating with her for a year.

SKIING

Federica Brignone overcame a recent illness to win the first World Cup giant slalom after taking gold at the Alpine skiing world championships, while Mikaela Shiffrin finished 25th in the American’s first race in the discipline in nearly 12 weeks.

Brignone beat runner-up Alice Robinson of New Zealand by 0.40 seconds in Sestriere, Italy, eight days after they also finished 1-2 in the GS at the worlds.

Shiffrin, who trailed by 2.89 seconds in 18th after the opening run, finished 4.65 seconds off the lead.

“Big step today was that ... I pushed out of the gate. That’s a big step from not racing at all,” Shiffrin said. “But sometimes, when you’re used to being in the position to fight for top 10s, top 5s, podiums, it doesn’t feel like such a big step as it actually is.”

The American holder of a record 99 World Cup wins hadn’t raced in giant slalom since suffering severe trauma to her oblique muscles and a deep puncture wound in a GS crash in Killington, Vt., in November.

FIGURE SKATING

Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan won the pairs event at the Four Continents figure skating competition in Seoul, South Korea, recapturing the title they first took home two years ago.

The 2023 world champions led after the short program and then produced a season-best score of 142.59 in the free skate to finish first with 217.32 points.

Reigning world champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps of Canada were fourth after the short program but surged into second place with a season-best 141.26 points for a total of 210.92.

Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea of the U.S. were second after the short program but dropped to fourth after several errors.

Local favorite Kim Chae-yeon was first after the women’s short program.