The Indiana Fever are gearing up to face Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky for the second time this season, but the rivalry will be one superstar short with Caitlin Clark sidelined by injury.

Clark said she will miss her fourth consecutive game due to a left quad strain that she suffered during the Fever’s 90-88 loss to the New York Liberty on May 24. The Fever have gone 1-2 in Clark’s absence and Indiana currently sits in seventh place at 3-4 on the season.

‘I’ve never been a patient person my entire life, so this is definitely testing me a little bit,’ Clark said Thursday. ‘I think it’s gonna be really good for me. I just tried to approach it in the best way I possibly can. I can’t change it, but yeah, I think my patience has definitely grown a lot.”

Here’s everything we know about Clark’s injury and her expected timeline to return:

Is Caitlin Clark playing today?

No. Clark said Thursday she would not play in the Fever’s matchup against the Sky on Saturday, marking the fourth consecutive game she’ll miss due to a left quad injury.

“I’ll miss this weekend’s game, but after that, it’s day-by-day,’ Clark said. ‘I feel like I’ve made a lot of progress, and I feel good. I’m not going to rush back if it’s not worth it. But after this weekend I’ll be reevaluated and we’ll have a better idea of when I’m returning.’

Caitlin Clark injury update

Clark suffered a left quad strain during the Fever’s 90-88 loss to the New York Liberty on May 24, but the reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year said she can’t pinpoint the specific play that caused her injury. She only knows it happened early on in the contest.

“Obviously, adrenaline covers up a lot of stuff when you’re in the heat of battle,” Clark said on Thursday. “And after the game, I had some pain, and then we got an MRI, and that kind of gave me the result that I didn’t want to see. But, you know, those types of things don’t lie.”

 The Fever initially announced that Clark would be sidelined for at least two weeks, meaning the earliest she could return to the lineup would be the Fever’s game on June 10 at the Atlanta Dream. Clark said there’s a ‘possibility’ for her to return then, but added that she won’t ‘rush back if it’s not worth it.’

Caitlin Clark stats

Clark leads the WNBA in assists per game to start the 2025 season. Here’s a look at the 2024 Rookie of the Year’s full stats (per game):

Minutes: 35
Points: 19
Rebounds: 6
Assists: 9.3
Steals: 1.3
Blocks: 1
Turnovers: 5
FG%: 40.3
3P%: 31.4
Games played: 4

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The 2025Women’s College World Series just wrapped up and softball fans still riding high from the Texas Longhorns’ national championship run are in luck. The inaugural Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) season gets underway on Saturday, meaning you don’t have to wait long for fierce competition among world-class athletes.

The AUSL officially kicks off on June 7 with an opening day matchup between the Talons and Bandits in Rosemont, Illinois, followed by a game between the Volts and Blaze in Wichita, Kansas. The Volts-Blaze game will be broadcast nationally on the MLB Network, marking the first pro softball game ever featured on the league’s network. It was made possible by some heavy hitters backing the league.

2025 SCHEDULE: How to watch Athletes Unlimited Softball League

Not only does the AUSL have the support of MLB, the women’s professional softball league will be shepherded by icons that have helped introduce the world to softball. Seven members of the 2004 gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic softball team are involved with the AUSL as coaches, general managers or advisors: Lisa Fernandez, Stacey Nuveman-Deniz, Cat Osterman, Kelly Kretschman, Jennie Finch, Jessica Mendoza and Natasha Watley.

Here’s everything you need to know about the AUSL’s debut on Saturday, from full team rosters, to players to watch and the opening week schedule:

AUSL opening week schedule

National TV/streaming networks for each game are shown below. Games are also being broadcast in select local markets; check your local listings or click here.

*All times Eastern

Saturday, June 7

Talons vs. Bandits, 3 p.m. (Rosemont, Illinois) | MLB.com, MLB.tv
Volts vs. Blaze, 7:30 p.m. (Wichita, Kansas) | MLB Network, MLB.tv

Sunday, June 8

Talons vs. Bandits, 2 p.m. (Rosemont, Illinois) | MLB.com, MLB.tv
Volts vs. Blaze, 5 p.m. (Wichita, Kansas) | MLB.com, MLB.tv

Monday, June 9

Volts vs. Blaze, 7 p.m. (Wichita, Kansas) | MLB.com, MLB.tv

Tuesday, June 10

Talons vs. Bandits, 8 p.m. (Rosemont, Illinois) | ESPN2

Thursday, June 12

Volts vs. Bandits, 7 p.m. (Sulphur, Louisiana) | ESPN2

Friday, June 13

Talons vs. Blaze, 6:30 p.m. (Chattanooga, Tennessee) | MLB.com, MLB.tv
Volts vs. Bandits, 9 p.m. (Sulphur, Louisiana) | MLB.com, MLB.tv

View the full season schedule here.

AUSL rosters

The AUSL’s inaugural season features four teams — Talons, Bandits, Blaze and Volts — playing a 24-game season across 10 metro areas, including Chicago, Austin and Salt Lake City. Here are the complete rosters:

Bandits full roster

Head coach: Stacey Nuveman Deniz
General Manager:  Jenny Dalton-Hill

Catcher Jordan Roberts (Florida)
Catcher Kelly Torres (Duke)
Infielder Sydney McKinney (Wichita State)
Infielder Delanie Wisz (UCLA)
Infielder Erin Coffel (Kentucky)
Infielder Skylar Wallace (Florida)
Utility player Cori McMillan (Virginia Tech)
Outfielder Morgan Zerkle (Marshall)
Outfielder Bubba Nickles-Camarena (UCLA)
Outfielder Bella Dayton (Texas)
Pitcher Taylor McQuillin (LHP, Arizona)
Pitcher Emiley Kennedy (LHP, Texas A&M)
Pitcher Odicci Alexander (RHP, James Madison)
Pitcher Sarah Willis (RHP, UCF)
Pitcher Lexi Kilfoyl (RHP, Oklahoma State)
Pitcher Devyn Netz (RHP, Arizona)

Player to Watch: The Bandits went for a ‘franchise pitcher’ with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2025 AUSL Draft in Lexi Kilfoyl. The Oklahoma State alum was named the Rookie of the Year in the 2024 Championship Season after finishing in second place on the leaderboard behind Bubba Nickles-Camarena, who is now her teammate on the Bandits teammate. Kilfoyl recorded a league-high 39 strikeouts and 59.2 innings pitched in 12 appearances.

Blaze full roster

Head coach: Alisa Goler 
General Manager: Dana Sorensen 

Catcher Taylor Edwards (Nebraska)
Catcher Kayla Kowalik (Kentucky)
Infielder Danielle Gibson Whorton (Arkansas)
Infielder Baylee Klingler (Washington)
Infielder Ana Gold (Duke)
Infielder Aubrey Leach (Tennessee)
Infielder Anissa Urtez (Utah)
Outfielder Aliyah Andrews (LSU)
Outfielder Ciara Briggs (LSU)
Outfielder Kalei Harding (Florida State)
Outfielder Korbe Otis (Florida)
Pitcher Emma Lemley (Virginia Tech)
Pitcher Brooke McCubbin (Clemson)
Pitcher Aleshia Ocasio (Florida)
Pitcher Keilani Ricketts (Oklahoma)
Pitcher Hope Trautwein-Valdespino (Oklahoma)

Player to Watch: Blaze has a veteran leader in Aleshia Ocasio, who is entering her eighth season of professional softball. Ocasio has played for Athlete’s Unlimited since its inception in 2020, winning the individual championship title in 2021 and finishing third in 2024. Last year, Ocasio recorded 22 strikeouts over 39 innings with a 2.51 earned run average in 11 appearances (six starts). Ocasio is also a two-way star and it remains to be seen if she will pick up the bat this season.

Talons full roster

Head coach: Howard Dobson
General Manager: Lisa Fernandez

Catcher Ally Shipman-Shrout (Alabama)
Catcher Sharlize Palacios (UCLA)
Infielder Bri Ellis (Arkansas)
Infielder Tori Vidales (Texas A&M)
Infielder Sydney Romero (Oklahoma)
Infielder Hannah Flippen (Utah)
Infielder Ali Aguilar (Washington)
Outfielder Sierra Sacco (Mississippi State)
Outfielder Caroline Jacobsen (Clemson)
Outfielder Jadelyn Allchin (UCLA)
Outfielder Victoria Hayward (Washington)
Pitcher Megan Faraimo (UCLA)
Pitcher Mariah Lopez (Utah)
Pitcher Raelin Chaffin (Mississippi State)
Pitcher Montana Fouts (Alabama)
Pitcher Lauren Derkowski (Michigan)

Player to Watch: Bri Ellis is carrying a hot bat into the AUSL’s inaugural season. Ellis was named the 2025 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, the most prestigious honor in college softball, after a historic senior season where she set Arkansas’ single-season program record for home runs (26) and RBIs (72). Ellis and the Razorbacks fell short of the Women’s College World Series, but she was drafted second overall in the 2025 AUSL College Draft. Can’t go without mentioning pitcher Montana Fouts, who is reuniting with her collegiate catcher Ally Shipman-Shrout.

Volts full roster

Head Coach: Kelly Kretschman
General Manager: Cat Osterman

Catcher Michaela Edenfield (Florida State)
Catcher Mary Iakopo (Texas)
Infielder Sis Bates (Washington)
Infielder Tiare Jennings (Oklahoma)
Infielder Sierra Romero (Michigan)
Infielder Kelsey Stewart-Hunter (Florida)
Infielder Jessi Warren (Florida State)
Utility player Danieca Coffey (LSU)
Utility player Ali Newland (LSU)
Outfielder McKenzie Clark (Clemson)
Outfielder Amanda Lorenz (Florida)
Pitcher Rachel Garcia (UCLA)
Pitcher Payton Gottshall (Tennessee)
Pitcher Sam Landry (Oklahoma)
Pitcher Mariah Mazón (Oregon State)
Pitcher Miranda Stoddard (Arizona)

Player to Watch: Two-way star Rachel Garcia has won at every level. She led the UCLA Bruins to a national championship in 2019, picked up a silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic with Team USA and was crowned the 2023 AUX Season championship. Is an AUSL championship next? Kretschman said the team was built to ‘compliment’ Garcia, who was drafted No. 4 overall by the Volts in the AUSL Inaugural Draft. 

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.

A federal judge has granted final approval of a settlement of three antitrust cases addressing the compensation of college athletes Friday, ending a protracted legal debate and ushering in an extraordinary era that will allow NCAA member schools to directly pay their athletes and provide a $2.8 billion damages pool for former and current athletes.

According to the approval issued by U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken in Oakland, California, schools will be able to compensate their athletes for the use of their name, image and likeness across all sports through an expected initial annual allotment of $20 million-$23 million per school, according to estimates. The changes are set to go into effect July 1.

In a 76-page opinion, Wilken ruled that recent changes the principals had made to the settlement’s inclusion of roster limits were sufficient. And, following through on what she had said weeks ago, she overruled a wide range of other objections that had been raised to the settlement, including those connected to Title IX and the rights of future athletes over the 10-year run of the settlement agreement.

‘We could not be more excited for the hundreds of thousands of athletes who will now get to enjoy the tens of billions of dollars in new compensation and benefits that the settlement will provide,’ Steve Berman, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, told USA TODAY Sports. ‘It is a historic day for college sports and the rights of athletes.’

The total allotment for schools’ NIL payments to athletes will be guided by a cap of 22% of the combined total of certain revenues of Power Five conference schools. The dollar amount is set to grow annually, and plaintiffs’ economic expert Dan Rascher estimated that these payments will total at least $19.4 billion over the 10-year settlement.

The agreement resolves lawsuits involving the NCAA, the Power Five conferences and lawyers for the plaintiffs by providing a deal that also includes the damages pool, most of which is to be paid over 10 years to compensate current and former athletes who were unable to participate in NIL contracts. Athletes whose college careers began between 2016 and Sept. 15, 2024, are eligible for compensation.

The damages money will come from the NCAA, which the largest share will come from the association’s central office via new revenue, cost savings and reserve funds. The remainder will come from reductions in NCAA distributions to Division I members, with roughly a quarter coming from members of the Power Five conferences.

‘Approving the agreement reached by the NCAA, the defendant conferences and student-athletes in the settlement opens a pathway to begin stabilizing college sports,’ NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a statement. ‘This new framework that enables schools to provide direct financial benefits to student-athletes and establishes clear and specific rules to regulate third-party NIL agreements marks a huge step forward for college sports. ’

Less than two hours after Wilken released her ruling, the conferences announced the establishment of an entity called the College Sports Commission that will be responsible for the implementing, overseeing and enforcing schools’ compliance with the settlement. ‘The Commission will investigate any potential violations of these rules, make determinations regarding potential rules violations and penalties, provide notice and opportunity to be heard, participate in the arbitration process and ultimately administer penalties for violations of these rules,’ the announcement said.

Bryan Seeley was named the Chief Executive Officer of the commission. He most recently served as an executive vice president of legal & operations with Major League Baseball. Seeley was also an assistant U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C.

During the process of the settlement approval, there was a wide range of objections to Wilken made in-person and in writing. It is expected there will be some of those objectors appealing her approval. An appeal must be made within 30 days of the decision.

In another profound shift for college sports, for schools that choose to pay their athletes for the NIL, the settlement eliminates the current system of team-by-team scholarship limits to implement roster caps on NCAA sports. This will give schools the opportunity to expand the total number of scholarships they can provide but could force some sports to trim their traditional roster sizes.

Citing Rascher’s estimates, Wilken wrote that the elimination of scholarship limits could result in more than 115,000 additional scholarships being made available to Division I athletes.

The inclusion of the roster limits was the target of several objectors to the agreement, who cited the potential for thousands of walk-on athletes and current high school recruits to lose their place on Division I teams. Wilken delayed final approval of the settlement on April 23 due to concerns about how impact on those people.

The principals revised the settlement in early May to address the issue. They wrote that they had agreed to a setup under which schools would have the option to exempt from the limits any athlete who was on a roster in 2024-25 and who has been or would have been removed for 2025-26 because of the limits for the remainder of their college careers. It also would let schools similarly accommodate any high school senior who was ‘recruited to be, or was assured they would be’ on a Division I school’s roster for the 2025-26 school year. These athletes are to be identified by the schools as ‘Designated Student-Athletes.’

However, this did not remove the roster limits from the settlement. And this did not require schools to keep all of their current athletes on their rosters — or to exceed the roster limits at any point. It just gave them the option to do so if they carried a ‘Designated Student-Athlete.’

The objectors argued that this did not solve the problem Wilken had raised. “A settlement like this one, which vests (the schools) with ‘discretion’ to provide relief – or not – is no settlement at all,” wrote a group represented by Chicago-based attorney Steve Molo.

However, Wilken ended up siding with the principals.

In her ruling, she wrote the modifications ‘negate any harm that the roster limits could have caused to (athletes) who were or will be impacted by the immediate implementation of the roster limits to be eligible for roster spots without the roster limits provisions posing an obstacle.’

She added that the ‘modifications to exempt Designated Student-Athletes from roster limits will make those athletes more valuable to teams than they otherwise would be, because they will be able to participate on a team without counting against the roster limits.’

Molo and Laura Reathaford, another attorney who represented an objection connected to roster limits, were not immediately available for comment.

Simone Biles is the GOAT in every sense of the word.

The seven-time Olympic champion stood up for transgender athletes Friday night, taking to X to chastise Riley Gaines for the relentless verbal abuse she directs at transgender girls and women.

“You’re truly sick, all of this campaigning because you lost a race. Straight up sore loser,” Biles wrote. “You should be uplifting the trans community and perhaps finding a way to make sports more inclusive OR creating a new avenue where trans feel safe in sports. Maybe a transgender category in ALL SPORTS!!

“But instead… You bully them…” Biles continued. “One thing for sure is no one in sports is safe with you around!!!!!”

Biles then added in a second post, “Bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male.”

Gaines replied that Biles’ post was “so disappointing.” Which is just further proof that Gaines needs to get out of her right-wing bubble a bit more.

Anyone who is even slightly familiar with Biles knows she is an ally. Of her teammates. Of her competitors. Of sexual abuse survivors. And unabashedly of the LGBTQ community.

She also has little use for anyone who punches down on others, which is Gaines’ specialty.

Gaines has used her tie for fifth place with Lia Thomas, a transgender woman, in the 200-yard freestyle at the 2022 NCAA championships to become a MAGA media darling. But her grifting has done real harm to the transgender community, which is already at an elevated risk for suicide and self-harm.

There is no scientific evidence that transgender women athletes have a physical advantage over cisgender women athletes, but that hasn’t stopped Gaines from claiming they do. She insists they are “robbing” cisgender women of places on the podium, and she doesn’t care if it’s a 12- or 22-year-old that she’s putting in harm’s way in this overheated climate where ignorance and violence are celebrated equally.

Gaines has publicly lobbied for Biles and Caitlin Clark to support her in her hate which, again, is a laughable idea to anyone who has followed Biles’ illustrious career.

Biles is the most decorated gymnast of all time, man or woman, with 11 medals at the Olympics — seven of them gold — and 30 at the world championships. She has five skills named after her, two each on vault and floor exercise and one on balance beam. She has taken the idea that women’s gymnastics was a sport reserved for the young and turned it on its head, still dominating in her late 20s.

That has not spared Biles from the venom of keyboard warriors like Gaines, however. She was criticized for withdrawing during the team finals at the Tokyo Olympics because of a case of “the twisties,” never minding that not knowing where she was in the air meant she very well could have landed on her neck instead of her feet. She’s taken heat for her hair, her marriage, even her self-confidence.

But you don’t accomplish what Biles has without being fearless, and her admonishment of Gaines on Friday night was yet another example.

Gaines had inserted herself into the conversation about the Class 4A softball championship in Minnesota, claiming Champlin Park had “hijacked” the title because its star pitcher is a transgender young woman. Never mind that there are nine players on a softball team and Champlin Park won the title game 6-0.

Or that her teammates “love having her out there. She’s a great kid and a great teammate.”

Gaines has never let facts get in her way, so she posted three times about it in a two-hour span. Made sure to mention the name of the transgender athlete, as well, while purposely misgendering her.

That was enough for Biles. That high school junior in Minnesota and all the other transgender women Gaines demonizes might not have platforms large enough to counter her vitriol, but Biles does. And she was happy to put it to good use.

Most of us could never do what Biles does as a gymnast. But we can do what she does as a human: Be kind. Defend the most marginalized.

And when you get the opportunity to stick up to a bully, do it at full throat.

In a world of Riley Gaineses, be a Simone Biles.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.

OKLAHOMA CITY — As Game 1 of the NBA Finals began at Paycom Center, discerning fans on social media asked: “Why aren’t there NBA Finals logos on the court?”

For the most part – there are two exceptions – the NBA has not placed Finals logos on the court since the 2014 Finals.

Some fans clamored to see a court that matched the magnitude of the event – meaning they didn’t want to see a court that was no different than a regular-season game. It was pointed out that the league’s NBA Cup court has logos on it for the in-season tournament.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver took note of the comments and explained.

“I saw it on social media, as you did,” Silver told a small group of reporters at an NBA Cares event at the Boys and Girls Club of Oklahoma County on Friday, June 6. “I saw the contrast with the (NBA) Cup. In the case of the Cup, of course, we have the opportunity to plan well in advance and to design a specific neutral court for a Cup championship game, and the teams design their own Cup courts. It actually takes a significant amount of time to create new courts in terms of how they’re painted, et cetera.”

The logos on the Thunder court were painted a while ago, and there are Finals logos on the basket stanchions at the Thunder’s arena.

He said the league will revisit the topic.

Why aren’t there NBA Finals logos or Finals trophy logos on the court?

Silver also explained that beyond the time required to paint the logos, there is a perceived safety issue.

“One of the reasons we moved away from the logos on the courts is – whether it was perception or reality – there was a sense that maybe the logos added some slipperiness to the court, and it was a change sort of on the court that was coming just at the time of the Finals,’ Silver said.

“And again, maybe it’s for superstitious reasons or just a sense from teams that we shouldn’t be changing things around such important competition. That’s largely why we stopped putting the logos on the court. But when I saw that suggestion on social media, maybe there’s a way around it. I hadn’t thought all that much about it until I saw it.”

Silver seemed to like the idea of at least seeing what can be done to make the court look special.

‘I’m nostalgic as well for certain things. And also, I think for a media-driven culture, whether it’s people watching live or seeing those images on social media, it’s nice when you’re looking back on highlights and they stand out because you see that trophy logo or some other indication that it’s a special event. So we’ll look at it.’

What do other pro sports leagues do with logos at big events?

For Super Bowl 59 in February, the NFL had its standard logo at midfield and had its Super Bowl logos on both sides of the 50-yard line.

The NHL regularly has its Stanley Cup logo on the ice.

MLB had its World Series logos on the field in 2024, but outside of the third- and first-base lines.

The WNBA did not have a Finals logo on the court in 2024.

Follow NBA reporter Jeff Zillgitt on social media @JeffZillgitt

Boxer Keyshawn Davis lost his WBO world lightweight title without even stepping into the ring.

The belt was stripped from him Friday, June 6 after he stepped on the scale.

Davis weighed in at 139.3 pounds, 4.3 pounds over the maximum weight of 135 pounds for his lightweight title defense set for Saturday, June 7 against Edwin De Los Santos, who weighed in at 134.7 pounds.

That led to the cancellation of the 12-round bout, which would have been Davis’ first title defense, in his hometown of Norfolk, Virginia.

Top Rank Boxing, the promoter, announced the cancellation of the fight Friday night on X.

But the event will go on, with a lightweight bout between Abdullah Mason (18-0, 16 KOs) and Jeremia Nakathila (26-4, 21 KOs) to serve as the main event, according to Top Rank Boxing.

Davis (13-0, 9 KOs) had an hour to try to make weight but said he did not intend to try.

“Outgrew the weight,’’ he said during an interview with Top Rank Boxing. “I’ve been making the weight for over four years now. I just outgrew the weight. I tried. I was up late last night trying to make that weight. I woke up early.’’

Bob Arum, the CEO of Top Rank Boxing, which promotes Davis, cast doubt on the fighter’s efforts to make weight.

“You can tell if a guy is trying to make weight and just can’t,’’ Arum told Dan Rafael of Fight Freaks Unite. “You can see that he’s dehydrated. That wasn’t the case with Keyshawn. He never really tried to make 135. That’s my view of what happened.”

Davis indicated he still wanted to fight, as did De Los Santos (16-2, 14 KOs), who would have been the only fighter eligible to win the WBO title. But negotiations apparently fell through.

Davis, an Olympic silver medalist at the Tokyo Games in 2021, won the WBO title in February with a fourth-round TKO of Denys Berinchyk. He said he plans to move up in weight and fight at 140 pounds.

Novak Djokovic keeps trying, but there’s only so much he can do to stave off the generational change in men’s tennis. 

With each passing Grand Slam, it looks more and more like a two-person sport.

Djokovic’s bid for a 25th major title ended Friday in the French Open semifinals, with No. 1-ranked Jannik Sinner delivering a baseline clinic that would have made prime Djokovic proud. 

Sinner’s 6-4, 7-5, 7-6 (7-3) victory in three sets up a final Sunday against No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz that has been a long time coming with one of tennis’ four big trophies on the line. Djokovic had his era, but it’s pretty clear that those two now own the sport. 

Alcaraz, the defending champion at Roland Garros, is seeking a fifth Grand Slam title just a month past his 22nd birthday. Sinner, 23, has been so dominant in this tournament – and nearly everywhere else in the world over the last couple years – that a victory Sunday would put him on the precipice of holding all four major titles at the same time, something Djokovic achieved across 2015 and 2016.

Though this marks the first time Sinner and Alcaraz have played in a Slam final, it feels like the new normal. Not only have they conquered the 38-year old Djokovic, whose last major was the 2023 US Open, they have zipped past the likes of Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev and a handful of others who were regularly advancing deep at the Grand Slam but don’t seem like true threats anymore.  

As tennis waits for the likes of Jack Draper, Ben Shelton, Arthur Fils and Joao Fonseca to round out their skills into a Grand Slam-winning package, Alcaraz and Sinner have established enough separation over their peers to become the defining rivalry of the 2020s.

Sunday might be the first, but it won’t be the last. 

What makes this such a delicious French final, though, is the dynamic between the two of them. 

Since losing last year’s Wimbledon quarterfinal to Medvedev, Sinner is 49-1 against everyone except Alcaraz. His record against Alcaraz during that span? Zero for two. 

It’s a fascinating place in their rivalry, which began in the juniors when Alcaraz was just 15. Even though Sinner is considered the best player in the world — and with good reason given his record and consistency — Alcaraz has a 7-4 lead in the head-to-head matchup as pros.

And given the long runway for their shared dominance of the sport, it feels like we’re still in the early stages of figuring out exactly what that record means. 

Ever since Sinner ascended to No. 1, he has been machine-like; a prime Djokovic archetype whose consistency, shot discipline and power make it almost impossible for opponents to find a hole in his arsenal. 

Alcaraz has been more volatile: Brilliant when engaged and motivated, but often a bit immature and unfocused when he gives into his natural pull toward creativity and unnecessary flair. It has led to some perplexing losses over the last year, and even moments in matches where he’ll allow inferior players to challenge him. 

But against Sinner, undoubtedly because he respects his ability so much, Alcaraz tends more toward the meat and potatoes. We saw that play out just a few weeks ago in the final of the Italian Open, where Alcaraz abandoned the showmanship and powered to a 7-6, 6-1 victory in Sinner’s home country. 

Given the level Sinner has played at in Paris, though, reaching the final without dropping a set, it would be hard to consider Alcaraz a huge favorite even if he is more naturally suited to the clay. 

When they played in the French semifinals last year, Sinner looked like he was on the verge of victory before Alcaraz made the final push and won 6-3 in the fifth set. Their previous meeting in a Grand Slam also went the distance: A 6-3, 6-7, 6-7, 7-5, 6-3 Alcaraz win at the US Open in 2022 that lasted more than five hours and is widely considered to be the best tennis match of the decade. 

Though Djokovic competed well enough that you could see him maybe sneaking in one more Wimbledon title if everything breaks his way, Fridays match was an undeniable statement that he is now a level below Sinner. He’s not completely out of the way as a contender, but it’s going to take something extraordinary for anyone to disrupt Alcaraz and Sinner meeting in a bunch of Grand Slam finals over the next couple years. 

Tennis always moves on, and this is now their era. If they can consistently reproduce the high level of tennis and drama Sunday that they’ve drawn out of each other in their biggest matches so far, saying goodbye to the legends of the last 20 years won’t seem as sad. 

So close for four years, the Texas Longhorns finally broke through to win the Women’s College World Series for the first time.

Texas had lost in the championship series in 2022 and 2024, but in 2025 the Longhorns (56-12) set a school record for victories, beat the four-time defending champions and toppled Texas Tech in the best-of-three championship series.

Celebrate the Longhorns’ historic NCAA softball championship with a beautifully designed commemorative page print from USA TODAY. Featuring a bold headline and a striking image of the Horns celebrating on the field at Devon Park in Oklahoma City, this keepsake captures the moment perfectly.

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In 2022 and 2024, the Longhorns lost in the championship series to Oklahoma, winner of the prior four titles. In 2025, after beating Florida 3-0 in the WCWS opener, they upended the Sooners 4-2 in the winner’s bracket. Then Texas reached the championship series for the third time in four years with a 2-0 victory over Tennessee.

Against Texas Tech, the Longhorns rallied in the bottom of the sixth inning to win 2-1 in Game 1. They lost 4-3 in Game 2 with the tying run on third base.

In Game 3 on June 6, the Longhorns left no doubt who would rule college softball. They scored five runs in the bottom of the first inning against NiJaree Canady, the million-dollar transfer from Stanford who had thrown every pitch for the Red Raiders during the WCWS. She didn’t return for the second inning. Mia Scott’s grand slam in the fourth inning made it 10-0 Texas.

The Red Raiders stayed alive with three runs in the top of the fifth and scored again in the seventh. After a final groundout, with a 10-4 victory secured, the Longhorns stormed the field, celebrated madly and hoisted the trophy. Pitcher Teagan Kavan was selected the most outstanding player.

Own a piece of Longhorns history today! Every Texas fan needs this page print on a wall.

Buy our Texas championship page print

Contact Gene Myers at gmyers@gannett.com. Follow him on X@GeneMyers. After nearly a quarter-century as sports editor at the Detroit Free Press, Myers unretired to coordinate book and poster projects across the USA TODAY Network. Explore more books and page prints from the USA TODAY Network, including titles on the Florida Gators’ NCAA basketball championship and the Philadelphia Eagles’ victory in Super Bowl 59.