MotoGP 2017: Grand Prix of Spain

Marc Marquez recovered from a crash in qualifying to take an imperious win in the Aragon Grand Prix, retaking sole ownership of the MotoGP points lead in the process. From fifth on the grid, Marquez suffered a slow start but profited from pole man Maverick Vinales running wide at the end of the first lap to take fourth behind a fast-starting Jorge Lorenzo, Valentino Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso, with whom he arrived in Aragon level on points.

It soon became apparent that Marquez had superior pace to his rivals, although it took him until the sixth lap to find a way by Dovizioso, as Lorenzo maintained a small lead over Rossi out front. From there, Marquez quickly cruised up to the back of Rossi, and attempted an audacious double-overtake on him and Lorenzo at Turn 12 on the ninth lap.

This backfired, as he ran out wide and dropped back behind Dovizioso, but the following lap the Spaniard once again passed his main title rival. Two laps later, Rossi was powerless to defend against Marquez, slipping behind at the Turn 16/17 complex, and soon the Honda man was all over the back of long-time leader Lorenzo. What turned out to be the decisive move of the race came on lap 16, as Marquez slithered by Lorenzo's Ducati at Turn 12 and streaked to a fifth victory of the season by a margin of 0.879s.

After being passed by Marquez, Lorenzo was then reeled in by the second works Honda of Dani Pedrosa, who had already made short work of Vinales, Dovizioso and Rossi. Pedrosa made the move on Lorenzo with two laps to go to give the Repsol Honda squad its third one-two finish of the year. Lorenzo nonetheless claimed his first podium finish since May's Jerez race, and enjoyed his longest stint in the lead of a race since joining Ducati with a 15-lap spell out front.

Lewis Hamilton wins Singapore Grand Prix

It was action from the off in Singapore Grand Prix – the first night race in F1 history to be run in wet conditions. With the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen eliminated in a coming together at the start. Mercedes Lewis Hamilton came through for victory, extending his championship lead over Vetter from three to 28 points.

In a race that ran to the full two-hour limit thanks to three safety-car periods, Daniel Ricciardo made the Marina Bay podium for the fourth year in a row, as he took second place for Red Bull ahead of Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas. Carlos Sainz scored his best-ever result with fourth for Toro Rosso; Jolyon Palmer did the same as he finished sixth for Renault; and likewise Stoffel Vandoorne with seventh for McLaren. The remaining point’s places went to Force India’s Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon in fifth and tenth respectively, Williams’ Lance Stroll in eighth and Haas’s Romain Grosjean in ninth.

Vettel, Raikkonen and Verstappen have all been called to the stewards regarding their Lap-1 clash, in which the Red Bull driver appeared to get squeezed between the two red cars. Fernando Alonso made an amazing start for McLaren, briefly vaulting as high as third, but was then an innocent victim of the Turn-1 carnage, sustaining car damage that forced him to retire a few laps later.

Daniil Kvyat put his Toro Rosso into the Turn 7 wall amid tricky conditions on Lap 11, and Marcus Ericsson crashed his Sauber on the Anderson Bridge on Lap 38. The two other retirements – both with technical problems – were Nico Hulkenberg, who had at one point looked set for fourth for Renault, and Haas’s Kevin Magnussen.

US Open 2017

Rafael Nadal against Kevin Anderson in the US Open Final shaped up as quite a mismatch. His game at a high level at the end of an unusually easy path through a Grand Slam field, Nadal overwhelmed first time major finalist Anderson 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 to win his third championship at Flushing Meadows.

It is the No. 1-ranked Nadal’s second Grand Slam title of the year and 16th overall. Among men, only Roger Federer has more, with 19. Each of those two long-time rivals won two of the four majors in 2017, marking a return of both to the heights of their sport. Not only didn’t an injury-hampered Nadal win a Grand Slam tournament in 2015 or 2016—his first such shutouts since 2004, when he was still a teenager—but he didn’t even make it to a final in that span.

At No.32, Anderson was the lowest-ranked US Open men’s finalist since the ATP computer rankings began in 1973. The 31-year-old South African never had been past the quarterfinals at any major tournament in 33 previous appearances, so when he won his semifinal on Friday, he climbed into the stands to celebrate. There would be no such joy for him on this day. Nadal simply dominated every facet of the 2½-hour final.

Nadal added to his US Open triumphs in 2010 and 2013 and improved to 16-7 in Grand Slam finals. For the first time since 2013, he appeared in three in a single season, losing to Federer at the Australian Open in January and then beating Stan Wawrinka for his record 10th French Open trophy in June. Nadal’s career haul also includes two trophies from Wimbledon and one from the Australian Open. All of his big victories have come while being coached by his uncle, Toni, who is now stepping aside.

Sloane Stephens won Women’s single title. Jean Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau won Men’s doubles title. Chan Yung Jan and Martina Hingis won the Women’s double title. Martina Hingis and Jamie Murray won the Mixed doubles titles.

MotoGP 2017: Grand Prix of Italy

World Champion Marc Marquez of Spain won the San Marino MotoGP in slippery conditions to join Italy’s Andrea Dovizioso at the top of the world championship standings. Marquez, on a Honda, finished ahead of Italy’s Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci on a wet track with Dovizioso, also on a Ducati, finishing third.

Both Marquez and Dovizioso have 199 points in the world championship standings with five races left in the season. It was a 59th career win for Marquez, who started from third on the grid and took the lead from Petrucci on the final lap to secure his 33rd win the MotoGP category. The top three in the title race lined up on the front row but it was Ducati’s Jorge Lorenzo who got the best start from the second row. But Lorenzo was one of several riders to come off his bike in the slippery conditions along with fellow Spaniard Hector Barbera.

Petrucci battled with the reigning champion and Marquez finally pounced on the last lap to notch up a 25-point haul. Earlier, Swiss rider Dominique Agerter (Suter) won the San Moto2 Grand Prix ahead of Kalex duo Thomas Luthi of Switzerland and Malaysian Hafizh Syahrin, to claim his second career win. Italy’s Romano Fenati of Honda defied driving rain to claim his eighth career win in Moto3. In a race hampered by numerous falls and skids off the track, Fenati finished ahead of Spanish world champion leader Joan Mir and Italy’s Fabio Di Giannantonio, both also riding for Honda.

Caribbean Premier League 2017

Kevin Cooper late assault saw the Trinbago Knight Riders beat the St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots by three wickets in a thrilling final of the 2017 Caribbean Premier League. Batting first, the Patriots lost big hitters Chris Gayle and Evin Lewis to slump to 37/3 before Carlos Brathwaite’s 30 pushed the score to a gettable 135/6.

Sheldon Cottrell’s double strike in his opening over put the Knight Riders on the backfoot immediately before Mohammed Hafeez removed Colin Munro and Darren Bravo off successive overs. The Knight Riders run-chase was in tatters at 90/7, but Denesh Ramdin held the innings together with 26 off 31 balls and Cooper hit a flurry of boundaries late to clinch victory in front of a delirious partisan crowd at Tarouba.

The victory was sweet revenge for the Knight Riders, who had won eight of their 10 preliminary matches before a humiliating loss to St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in the first play-off on Tuesday. The Patriots, despite the loss, could hold their heads up high as their appearance in the 2017 finals comes after a 2016 season when they finished last with only two wins in 10 matches. Earlier, Dwayne Bravo’s decision to insert the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots paid immediate dividends when Javon Scantlebury claimed the wicket of Gayle (1) off the seventh ball of the innings. The Barbadian would dismiss Hafeez (5) cheaply and Sunil Narine would dispose of the dangerous Lewis (16) to reduce the Patriots to 37/3 in the 8th over.

Narine was at his miserly best conceding only eight runs, with 18 scoreless deliveries in four overs. Brandon King (19) and Devon Thomas had brisk but brief stays at the crease before Jonathan Carter (21) and Carlos Brathwaite combined for an important 6th wicket partnership of 49. Brathwaite hit 30 off 25 balls and added a further 21 with Mohammed Nabi, who blazed 18 off only five balls. The Patriots135/6 looked respectable on a slow surface at Tarouba. The visitors were back in the game immediately with a double strike by Sheldon Cottrell. The big Jamaican had Narine (3) caught and bowled and then disturbed Dwaye Bravo’s stumps second ball he faced for a duck.

At 90/7, Kevon Cooper joined Denesh Ramdin and the pair kept the scoreboard ticking over until the last ball of the 18th over when Cooper launched a massive six over deep cover. With 22 needed off the last two overs, Cooper hit another maximum off a Ben Hilfehaus no ball, struck the free hit for a boundary and pulled the penultimate delivery over midwicket for another four. Ramdin, who ended on 26 off 31 balls, knocked off the winning run off the last ball of the 19thover to complete a three-wicket victory with an over to spare. Cooper was 29 not out off 14 balls to celebrate his second victory in the Caribbean Premier League. He was also victorious in 2015 when the team won as the Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel.

Lewis Hamilton wins Italy Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton heads the 2017 driver’s championship for the first time this season after he led Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas to a dominant 1-2 finish in Formula 1 Gran Premio Heineken d’Italia 2017, humbling third-placed Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari on their home ground.

Daniel Ricciardo battled his way through from 16th on the grid to take fourth place for Red Bull, ahead of the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen, while Esteban Ocon won a race-long tussle with the Williams of Lance Stroll and Felipe Massa to secure sixth for Force India. Ocon’s team mate Sergio Perez was ninth and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who dropped to the back in an early clash with Massa, recovered to complete the top ten.

Hamilton dominated the race from the start, with Bottas riding shotgun from the third lap. The Finn made a poor start but redeemed himself by snatching back fourth place by passing Raikkonen’s Ferrari round the outside of the Parabolica at the end of the opening lap. As the Mercedes ran away and hid, Vettel had no answer for Ferrari and as Hamilton led Bottas home by 4.4s, after a minor scare when he thought his car lost power on the 43rd lap, the former points leader finished 36.3s behind him. Hamilton now has 228 points to Vettel’s 225, with Bottas still in touch on 197.

Kevin Magnussen was a disgruntled 11th for Haas, pushed out of 10th as he and Verstappen collided in the second chicane, and he had Daniil Kvyat’s Toro Rosso less than a second behind him. Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg likewise narrowly led Carlos Sainz’s sister car home for 13th. Romain Grosjean suffered front wing damage on the opening lap and trailed in 15th, ahead of final finisher Pascal Wehrlein who had a brush with Sauer team mate Marcus Ericsson.