Gauff routs Swiatek to reach Madrid Open final, Ruud beats Medvedev

MADRID >> Coco Gauff overpowered defending champion Iga Swiatek 6-1, 6-1 to reach the Madrid Open singles final for the first time Thursday.

Gauff broke Swiatek’s serve three times in the first set and twice in the second to cruise to a 64-minute semifinal victory over the second-ranked Swiatek at the clay-court tournament.

It was Gauff’s first win over Swiatek on clay.

“The mentality that I had in the whole match was aggressive,” the fourth-ranked Gauff said. “Maybe it wasn’t her best level today, but I think I forced her into some awkward positions.”

Swiatek had recovered from losing the first set 0-6 to Madison Keys on Wednesday.

“I couldn’t really get my level up,” the four-time French Open champion said. “Coco played good, but I think it’s on me that I didn’t really move well, I wasn’t ready to play back the shots with heaviness, and with that kind of game. It was pretty bad.”

The last time Swiatek won only two or fewer games in a match — on any surface — was a 6-0, 6-2 loss to Jelena Ostapenko in Birmingham in 2019.

“For me,” Gauff added, “it was just making sure my level stayed the same. In the second, I raised it.”

Gauff will face either top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka or Elina Svitolina in the final.

In the men’s quarterfinals, Casper Ruud advanced by defeating Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 7-5 to become the first player born in 1990 or later to reach 30 tour-level semifinals on clay.

Canada hires World Cup-winning coach to take over men’s national basketball team

Gordie Herbert played for Canada at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. And now he’s in position to coach Canada at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Canada Basketball brought Herbert — who coached Germany to a World Cup title in 2023 — home on Thursday, announcing that the British Columbia native will take over as its men’s national team coach in 2026. His first two major international events as Canada’s coach would be the 2027 World Cup in Qatar and the Olympics a year later.

Herbert is taking over for Brooklyn Nets coach Jordi Fernandez, who stepped down as Canada’s coach earlier this year after leading the country to a bronze medal at the 2023 World Cup and a fifth-place finish at last year’s Paris Olympics.

“I’m incredibly honored and excited for the opportunity to coach my home country,” Herbert said. “Canada Basketball has made tremendous progress in recent years, and the depth of talent in the program is as good as anywhere in the world.”

Okposo joins the NHL Players’ Association months after winning Stanley Cup, retiring

Kyle Okposo is joining the NHL Players’ Association as business development and player engagement adviser.

The NHLPA is announcing the hires of Okposo, chief commercial officer Steve Scebelo and communications and media relations manager Stephanie Maniago on Thursday.

Okposo retired in September after playing 17 seasons in the league and winning the Stanley Cup last June with the Florida Panthers. Okposo was a prominent member of the search committee formed in 2022 to find a new executive director that ended with U.S. Secretary of Labor and former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh landing the job in February 2023.

— The Associated Press

“I knew that I wanted to stay in the game,” Okposo told The Associated Press by phone this week. “I love it. It’s given me everything that I’ve had in my adult life, and I wanted to continue to stay in it and I think that this is the best route for me to go right now.”

The 37-year-old who played more than 1,000 regular-season and playoff games with the New York Islanders, Buffalo Sabres and Panthers from 2008-24 began considering working for the union when he participated in the executive director search. He and Walsh clearly hit it off to get Okposo in the fold after spending some time together at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February.

“I’m looking forward to learning a lot from him,” Okposo said. “He’s done a lot for the PA in a very short amount of time. We have plans to keep moving this thing forward, and Marty, I think he’s the right person to lead it.”

Okposo, who wanted to take some time to make sure he had the emotional energy to devote to a gig like this, wanted to be on the business side and expects his role to be fluid as he feels out his place at the NHLPA, working under Walsh and assistant Ron Hainsey. Walsh said Okposo’s experience as a player and an executive board member makes him a well-respected, trusted resource.

“Being freshly retired, I have relationships with a lot of different players and have some different ideas on how we can create excitement and engagement with the current members of the union,” Okposo said. “For me, just having the relationships with those guys and being able to talk to them like we’re in a locker room is going to be, I think, an asset to the PA.”

Scebelo comes from running his own sports and licensing consulting firm after spending more than a decade with the NFLPA, most recently serving as president of the union’s licensing program, NFL Players Inc.

“Some of thing that we were able to do at the NFLPA do lend themselves to this,” Scebelo said. “There could potentially be opportunities for the NHLPA to work with emerging companies — small or early-stage companies who may have some endemic ties to hockey as a sport that there could be investment opportunities that allow a players association to grow with that company as they grow.”

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl