LONDON (AP) — Helped by some mid-match drama, the Wimbledon final between Linda Noskova and Karolina Muchova over the weekend was ESPN’s most-watched women’s championship match at the grass-court Grand Slam.

The all-Czech final, during which Noskova wasted five match points and a 5-2 lead in the second set before eventually winning 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 on Saturday, averaged 1.9 million viewers. That was an increase of 48% compared to last year’s women’s final: Iga Swiatek’s 6-0, 6-0 rout of Amanda Anisimova in 57 minutes.

ESPN began its coverage of Wimbledon in 2003 and has had exclusive rights since 2012.

Jannik Sinner’s four-set victory over Alexander Zverev in the men’s final on Sunday averaged 2.4 million viewers, down 16% from 2025, when Sinner defeated Carlos Alcaraz in four sets.

Overall, it ranked as ESPN’s second most-viewed Wimbledon, with an 18% year-over-year increase, averaging 853,000 viewers per day, the network said. This year’s numbers trailed only the 2019 edition – when Novak Djokovic beat Roger Federer in a memorable five-set final and Simona Halep beat Serena Williams for the women’s trophy.

Also this year, William’s return to Grand Slam tennis after nearly four years away earned ESPN its biggest audience for a Day 2 at Wimbledon, with an average of 1.8 million viewers — despite being played on a Tuesday afternoon in the U.S.

Italian TV

In Italy, where Sinner has become the country’s most popular athlete, the final in which he earned his fifth Grand Slam title was watched by an average of 4.2 million viewers and earned a 33.8% share, Sky Italia said.

Sinner’s victory over Alcaraz last year had an average viewership in Italy of 5.7 million.

The finals started at 11 a.m. ET in the U.S. and 5 p.m. in Italy.

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

SOUTHPORT, England (AP) — Patrick Reed was on the range at the Scottish Open, surrounded by PGA Tour players at a tournament co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour. The last time that happened was more than four years ago, and it's soon to change.

“I can't wait,” Reed said.

Two weeks after Brooks Koepka became the first player from LIV Golf to be welcomed back by the PGA Tour, Reed was in his hotel room at the Dubai Desert Classic on the European tour contemplating his four-shot lead and how the final day would play out.

LIV Golf had a shotgun start, meaning all 54 players were warming up at the same time before each went off to their assigned hole to begin the round.

“Being the last guy out, having the range full and then it slowly empties, walking to the tee with the lead ... having that feeling again, those emotions, the adrenaline, I felt like I wanted to get back to that,” Reed said. “That Saturday night was huge for me.”

And when he finished it off with a four-shot victory the next day, Reed firmly decided not to renew his contract with LIV Golf and start the long road back to the PGA Tour.

He lost in a playoff the next week in Bahrain. The week LIV Golf began its fifth season, Reed was winning again in the Qatar Masters. That put him atop the Race to Dubai on the European tour, and he's still leading the season race over Rory McIlroy.

The leading 10 players from the European tour not already exempt earn PGA Tour cards for 2027, and Reed is virtually a lock. He already has started the countdown, knowing when his one-year ban from playing LIV Golf will end — the week of the Tour Championship in late August.

He also would be eligible to be a pick for the Presidents Cup team — he last played for a U.S. team, his favorite events, in Australia in 2019 during darker times. Royal Melbourne was a week after Reed was penalized for improving his lie in the sand, and Aussies heckled him endlessly. His caddie was suspended for the final match after shoving a spectator who had been cursing Reed.

U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker also was at the Scottish Open. Reed said he never saw him and doubts he would be a serious candidate for the Presidents Cup team in Chicago in September unless he were to win the British Open this week.

“It's not really on my mind,” Reed said. “My biggest thing right now is continuing to play solid golf and let things take care of themselves. I know it would be hard to make that team since I haven't played anything in the United States. But hey, try to get yourself in the discussion.”

He is not in that big of a hurry.

Reed won the Masters in 2018 and received honorary life membership on the European tour, a courtesy once offered major champions. Reed took it seriously, playing seven regular European tour events in 2019 and he has kept a presence since then.

After deciding to leave LIV — and still banned by the PGA Tour — it became his best option. Now he has a chance to join Collin Morikawa as the only Americans to win the Race to Dubai.

Reed officially won't get a PGA Tour card until the European tour season ends Nov. 15. He would be eligible for sponsor exemptions in the fall, but Reed has a job to finish.

The first PGA Tour event where he can earn an exemption is Sept. 17-20 at a new event in Asheville, North Carolina. Reed will be in England that week for the European tour's flagship event at Wentworth. The French Open, Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland, all of them are opportunities to win the Race to Dubai — and deny McIlroy a record-tying eighth title.

A case can be made for Reed being the most global player in golf.

McIlroy has been brilliant in taking his Masters green jacket around the world to the Indian Open and Australian Open. He has sparked a renewed interest in national opens. But his appearances come with a hefty appearance fee said to be in the neighborhood of $2 million. It's been that way for top players dating to the era of Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, accounting for inflation.

Reed said he occasionally gets appearance money but often plays “because I just want to play.”

He shot 59 in the Hong Kong Open when he won at the end of 2024 on the Asian Tour. He has two European tour titles this year, along with two World Golf Championships titles, the Masters for his lone major and six victories in regular PGA Tour events, the last won at Torrey Pines the year before he defected to LIV, where he won once.

He doesn't plan to stop his global travels. He wants to keep supporting the European tour. But there is a part of him that looks forward to coming home.

“Last year playing 32 events, 23 were overseas,” he said. “I always saw myself wanting to start and finish my career on the PGA Tour.”

In some ways, it will be like starting over. He played the third round of the Scottish Open with Kevin Roy, a 36-year-old whose rookie season was the year Reed left for LIV Golf.

“Nice guy, and he's waxing me right now,” Reed said during a fog delay. “That's why I'm excited, to see guys I'm used to playing with but seeing the new guys playing. It's crazy. The game keeps getting deeper and the fields are stronger. It's going to be awesome to see.”

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On The Fringe analyzes the biggest topics in golf during the season. AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Kyle Schwarber kept his bid for a Home Run Derby title in his home park alive when the Phillies' slugger and major league home run leader hit 10 in the first round and advanced with Boston's Willson Contreras, St. Louis' Jordan Walker and Tampa Bay's Junior Caminero to the next round Monday night.

Bryce Harper hit only eight home runs and was the final slugger of the round to try and advance. He provided a late jolt with Phillies fans at Citizens Bank Park going wild trying to will Harper into one more round.

Harper won in 2018 in Washington when he played for the Nationals.

Kansas City's Jac Caglianone and New York Yankees slugger Ben Rice also failed to advance.

Contreras and Walker each hit 13, and Caminero had 12.

Schwarber failed to launch one of his famed Schwarbombs until his sixth swing, then connected on his seventh, eighth and ninth in a four-homer stretch that harkened back to his four-homer game last season again Atlanta.

He could only watch as Harper failed to join him. Schwarber, then with the Chicago Cubs, made the finals in 2018 at Nationals Park before losing to Harper.

“Bittersweet,” Schwarber said after the first round Monday. “I wanted both of us to move on.”

MLB ditched the timed clock this season and returned to a swing format, with each hitter continuing to swing if he went deep on his final one.

Each player had 20 swings in the first round and the top four advanced. Hitters were seeded for the second round, where No. 1 faces 4 and 2 meets 3.

Each player takes 15 swings in the second round, with batters homering on their final swings continuing until not homering.

Schwarber and Harper — the first pair of teammates to participate in the Derby since 2018 — received roaring ovations when famed ring announcer Michael Buffer introduced them ahead of the competition.

As for the other six sluggers in the field, all wearing their home jerseys with red, white and blue uniform numbers?

Yeah, they were about booed out of the ballpark, with the loudest jeers saved for Rice. He gamely laughed as he walked out of his Liberty Bell entrance.

Harper — who said earlier Monday this would be his last Derby — waved his arms and exhorted the crowd to get louder as he walked to the home plate platform placed at second base. Harper about broke the ring ropes as he shook them like a pro wrestler, and the Philly crowd went bonkers for the star known as The Showman.

The ball-shagging kids in the outfield were even booed.

The Derby's public address announcer implored the fans to cheer during some quiet stretches when homers — non-Phillies edition — were hit.

The fans did get a rise when Caglianone smoked one into Ryan Howard territory into the third deck in right field. Contreras socked 'em into the rarified air of the left field upper deck. One homered cleared the last row of stands in that section and bounced off the concourse in front of a bar. His 490-footer was the longest of the first round.

Caminero — last year's runner-up to Seattle's Cal Raleigh — watched stunned as his final swing just hooked foul in left field and stuck his homer total at 12.

The longest Derby homer since Statcast started tracking in 2016 was 520 feet by Juan Soto in the mile-high air of Denver’s Coors Field in 2021.

This was the first Home Run Derby and All-Star Game held at Citizens Bank Park since it opened in 2004 and the first derby in Philadelphia since Barry Bonds outslugged Mark McGwire in 1996 to win an afternoon event in front of thousands of empty seats at Veterans Stadium.

This derby was sold out and aired on Netflix for the first time, with the streamer getting into the game this season with a three-event package. Netflix already aired the opening night game, and the third attraction is the Field of Dreams game between the Minnesota Twins and Philadelphia Phillies on Aug. 13.

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MONTREAL (AP) — Marina Mabrey scored 30 points, Nyara Sabally made the tiebreaking basket with 52 seconds left after Toronto blew a 20-point lead, and the Tempo beat the New York Liberty 93-91 on Sunday at the Bell Centre.

Mabrey had her second consecutive 30-point game and her fifth this season, including a 53-point performance — which tied the WNBA’s single-game record — in a 125-97 win over Los Angeles on June 25.

Breanna Stewart made a layup that tied it at 91-all with 1:30 to play, but Julie Allemand, who finished with 10 assists, found Sabally for the go-ahead layup as the Tempo snapped a four-game losing streak, the longest of their expansion season.

Sabrina Ionescu scored 28 points and Stewart added 22 for the Liberty (13-11), who have lost seven of their last nine. Jonquel Jones had 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Laura Juskaite had 18 points, Maria Conde scored 15 and Sabally had 13 for the Tempo (10-13), who led 74-54 late in the third quarter.

The Liberty ripped off a 16-4 run as Toronto committed five turnovers that trimmed their deficit to 84-80 when Ionescu made a layup with 5:36 to play.

The Tempo snapped a three-game skid in games which they led going into the final period. Toronto, which was outscored 27-13 in the final 10 minutes, has a minus-49 point differential in its last five fourth quarters.

The Tempo lost 108-95 against Dallas despite 34 points from Mabrey on Friday night, also at the Bell Centre in front of a WNBA regular-season record crowd of 20,996. Toronto also plays two home games at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, later this season.

New York's Betnijah Laney-Hamilton was ejected in the closing minutes for throwing a shoe at Mabrey. Laney-Hamilton and Mabrey were hit with double technical fouls after a scuffle in the third quarter.

Up next

Liberty: Play Tuesday at Dallas.

Tempo: Host Washington on Tuesday.

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

BALTIMORE (AP) — Leody Taveras homered and drove in three runs, Samuel Basallo added a solo shot and the Baltimore Orioles beat the Kansas City Royals 8-2 Sunday for a three-game sweep.

The game was interrupted in the seventh inning when several players from both teams converged around the plate after Kansas City's Lucas Erceg hit Blaze Alexander on the arm with a pitch. The off-target pitch came immediately after Erceg yielded Basallo's homer to make it 8-2.

Alexander shouted at Erceg, and Orioles manager Craig Albernaz quickly stepped in to restrain Alexander. Players from both dugouts and bullpens approached, but no punches were thrown, no one was shoved and no one was ejected.

Alexander had two hits and scored twice for the Orioles, who enter the All-Star break with their first four-game winning streak of the season.

Taveras hit a two-run homer in the second inning, a drive estimated at 448 feet. He also singled in the tiebreaking run during a five-run sixth that put Baltimore up 7-2.

Lane Thomas went 3 for 4 with an RBI for the Royals, who were swept for the eighth time this season, most in the majors. Kansas City's fifth straight defeat left the last-place team a season-high 21 games under .500 (38-59).

Baltimore's big sixth inning was fueled by a fly ball that Royals right fielder Jac Caglianone lost in the sun and a balk that forced in a run. Taveras made it 3-2 with an RBI single and Jeremiah Jackson had a pinch-hit RBI double before Taveras scored on a balk by Matt Strahm (3-3).

Orioles starter Shane Baz was lifted after throwing 104 pitches over 4 2/3 innings. He struck out nine and allowed one earned run.

Grant Wolfram (2-2), the second of five Baltimore relievers, got the win.

Up next

After the All-Star break, KC resumes play Friday night at home against San Diego. Baltimore follows the break with a matchup Friday night in Houston.

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AP MLB: MLB ' Latest News, Stats, and Scores

Cristopher Sánchez of the Philadelphia Phillies will start Tuesday night's All-Star Game in his home ballpark, taking the mound for the National League against Dylan Cease of the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Blue Jays announced Sunday that Cease will be the American League's starter. Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who is managing the NL, said Sanchez is his starter.

“I think he deserves it. He’s the hometown ballplayer and I think the city of Philly will enjoy watching him and supporting him,” Roberts said. “I had a conversation with him this morning. ... He was very grateful. In a time when guys are not wanting to participate, this guy in the Midsummer Classic for fans, I think this is a good thing. He’s very excited about pitching.”

Also Sunday, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said New York right-hander Cam Schlittler is not planning to pitch in the All-Star Game. Schlittler will still be at the game and there is no replacement planned for the AL roster.

Sanchez is 11-4 with a 2.62 ERA this season. He's third in the major leagues with 144 strikeouts. The left-hander's streak of 50 2/3 scoreless innings was a highlight of the major league season so far.

Milwaukee's Jacob Misiorowski, who leads the majors in ERA (1.62), WHIP (0.76) and strikeouts (167), was replaced on the All-Star team earlier in the week, when it appeared he would be starting for the Brewers on Sunday. Then Milwaukee scratched him from that start because of arm fatigue.

Cease is 6-4 with a 2.56 ERA for the Blue Jays. He nearly threw his second career no-hitter Wednesday against San Francisco, but it was broken up in the ninth inning.

Cease is the first Toronto pitcher to start the All-Star Game since Roy Halladay in 2009.

Schlittler was a candidate to start, boasting an AL-leading ERA of 2.05, but he pitched for the Yankees on Saturday.

“Just feels like on his recovery day to go back out there throwing 100 mph is something that I think he felt a little apprehensive about,” Boone told reporters before New York's game at Washington. “Certainly support that decision and obviously I think he understands what’s at stake here in the second half too for us and for him.”

Schlittler could start the opening game of the second half against the Dodgers on Friday at Yankee Stadium.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb