9:19 PM ET Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO — Fifth-seeded Joao Sousa was eliminated from the Rio Open on Thursday, adding to the list of favorites knocked out of the clay-court tournament in the early stages. Norwegian Casper Ruud topped Portugal’s Sousa 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in the round of 16. Top seeds Dominic Thiem of

5:16 PM ET ESPN Facebook Twitter Facebook Messenger Pinterest Email print Top seed Alison Van Uytvanck booked her spot in the Hungarian Ladies Open quarterifinals with a straight sets victory over Iga Swiatek Thursday. Belgian Van Uytvanck moved into the last eight with a comfortable 6-4, 7-5 win over Poland’s Swiatek, where she will face

3:01 PM ET Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Unseeded Belinda Bencic rallied to beat second-ranked Simona Halep 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 Thursday to reach the Dubai Championships semifinals. Bencic, who saved six match points in the previous round against Aryna Sabalenka, failed to capitalize on an early break in the first set but Halep

8:19 PM ET Associated Press Facebook Twitter Facebook Messenger Pinterest Email print RIO DE JANEIRO — Defending champion Diego Schwartzman retired from the Rio Open on Wednesday because of a right leg injury. The fourth-seeded Argentine athlete trailed Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas 6-1, 4-1 before stopping play. The first-round match began Tuesday and was interrupted by

8:28 PM ET Associated Press DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — Second-seeded John Isner advanced to the third round of the Delray Beach Open on Wednesday night, beating Lukas Lacko of Slovakia 6-4, 6-3. The American player set up a match against eighth-seeded Adrian Mannarino of France, a 6-2, 7-6 (3) winner over Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan

6:55 AM ET Roger Federer confirmed his participation for this year’s Madrid Open on Wednesday, marking his return to the European clay court season after two years away. The 20-times Grand Slam champion has not played this year since his Australian Open round of 16 defeat to Greek youngster Stefanos Tsitsipas in January. The US

5:15 AM ET The US organisation Athlete Ally, which aims to support the rights of LGBT sportspeople, has cut ties with tennis champion Martina Navratilova, saying comments she made in a British newspaper were transphobic. Navratilova — an 18-time Grand Slam winner — argued it was “cheating” to allow transgender women to compete in female

9:51 PM ET Associated Press DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — Defending champion Frances Tiafoe squandered an early lead and lost Tuesday to Britain’s Daniel Evans in the first round of the Delray Beach Open, 3-6, 7-6 (1), 7-5. Tiafoe, seeded No. 3, lost his third match in a row. He won the first five games on

7:30 PM ET Associated Press Facebook Twitter Facebook Messenger Pinterest Email print RIO DE JANEIRO — Heavy rain ensured there were no completed matches Monday at the Rio Open. Only two matches started, but neither got through the first set before the weather set in. Seventh-seeded Malek Jaziri was trailing Federico Delbonis 5-3, and eighth-seeded

12:15 PM ET Associated Press LONDON — Serena Williams has returned to the top 10 in the tennis rankings for the first time since taking a break to have her first child in September 2017. Williams dropped as low as 491st upon her return to competition in March 2018 but is up to No. 10