The 2025 US Open heads into the semifinals, with an electrifying women’s singles match between the top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka and the No. 4 seeded Jessica Pegula set to battle for a spot in the finals at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Thursday.

The defending champion, Aryna Sabalenka, earned her spot in the semifinals of the year’s final tennis major with a hard-fought victory over Cristina Bucsa, prevailing with a score of 6-1, 6-4 in the fourth round. She is now set to face Jessica Pegula, who also had a convincing win over Ann Li, triumphing 6-1, 6-2, to progress to the next round.

Here is how to watch No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka face off against No. 4 seed Jessica Pegula in the US Open women’s semifinals match.

Sabalenka takes second set

One set to go for a berth in the US Open final as Sabalenka takes the second set 6-3. Unlike the first set, it was Pegula’s errors that allowed Sabalenka to seize control of the match, and now it comes down to this.

Sabalenka taking control in the second set

The world’s No. 1 player is starting to assert herself, and her forehand is doing damage, sending Pegula chasing after it to no avail. Sabalenka took the first three games of the set before Pegula held serve during the fourth game.

Pegula wins first set 6-4

Pegula is a set away from returning to the US Open final. She ended the first set against Sabalenka by winning four straight games, taking advantage of unforced errors by Sabalenka, allowing her to break her serve.

Service games start to betray both players

Both players finally got a break in the sixth and seventh game, with Pegula getting back in the match after Sabalenka double-faulted on her service game, and nearing the end of the first set, it is 4-3 in favor of Sabalenka.

Sabalenka and Pegula even early in the match

Both players have held serve during the early part of the match, and through four games it is 2-2. Sabalenka is trying to establish her forehand and cut down on unforced errors, while Pegula, despite double-faulting twice, is doing her job in returning it most of the time. Good pacing in the early going, as neither player has taken control.

Weather update for Sabalenka vs. Pegula

There is a chance of rain in the forecast tonight in New York, so the roof at Arthur Ashe Stadium will be closed. Earlier, winds were gusting up to 30 mph, making conditions difficult for those attending matches at Louis Armstrong Stadium

How to watch Aryna Sabalenka vs. Jessica Pegula

No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka will face off against Jessica Pegula in the US Open women’s semifinal match on Thursday.

Date: Thursday, September 4
Time: 7 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN

Watch the 2025 US Open on Fubo (free trial)

How to watch 2025 US Open: Dates, TV, streaming

Dates: Sunday, Aug. 24-Sunday, Sept. 7
Location: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center (New York)
TV channels: ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes (Spanish language)
Streaming: Fubo (free trial)

Inter Miami star Luis Suárez issued an apology on Thursday, Sept. 4, expressing regret for his actions following the Leagues Cup final which included spitting on a Seattle Sounders staffer.

MLS or the Leagues Cup disciplinary committee have yet to announce any punishment related to any players involved in the postgame scenes, after the Sounders beat Miami 3-0 to win the 2025 Leagues Cup.

Before Suárez was seen spitting on Seattle’s Head of Security Gene Ramirez, he forcefully put his hand around the back of the neck of 20-year-old Sounders defender Obed Vargas after the final whistle was blown.

Inter Miami midfielder Sergio Busquets also jabbed Vargas on the chin, causing both teams to engaged in a heated exchange before the postgame trophy celebration.

“First of all, I want to congratulate Seattle Sounders for the victory in the Leagues Cup. But, above all, I want to apologize for my behavior at the end of the game,” Suárez posted on his Instagram account.

“It was a moment of great tension and frustration, where as soon as the game ended, things happened that shouldn’t have happened. But that doesn’t justify the reaction I had. I was wrong and I sincerely regret it.

“It is not the image I want to give neither in front of my family, who suffers from my mistakes, nor in front of my club, which also does not deserve to be affected by something like that. I feel bad about what happened, and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to recognize it, and apologize to all those who felt bad for what I did.

“We know that there is still a long season ahead, and we will work together to achieve the successes that this club and all its fans deserve.”

Suárez has been deemed one of the world’s dirtiest players over the course of his career, infamous for biting opponents on three separate occasions – including in the 2014 World Cup – and was also suspended for racially abusing an opponent in 2011.

It’s tarnished the stellar career for one of the greatest strikers in the sport’s history, just four goals shy of 600 in his career.

Suárez bit Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini on the shoulder during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, which resulted in a four-month ban with Uruguay and FC Barcelona at the time.

He received a 10-game ban with Liverpool for biting the forearm of Chelsea fullback Branislav Ivanovic in 2013, and a seven-game ban for biting the shoulder of Eindoven’s Otman Bakkal while playing with Ajax in the Netherlands.

Suárez was also banned eight matches in 2011 after being found guilty for a racial slur toward Manchester United’s Patrick Evra.

Inter Miami returns to regular-season action on the road against Charlotte FC on Sept. 13, before hosting Seattle on Sept. 16.

Florida State and Clemson are seeking to leave the ACC due to financial reasons and view the SEC as a potential destination.
A legal settlement allows FSU and Clemson to leave the ACC after the 2030 season, but an earlier move to the SEC is possible.
Adding the two football powerhouses could help the SEC stay competitive with the Big Ten, which has recently gained an edge.

Let me take you back to 2024, and an offseason of discontent in the ACC. 

Florida State and Clemson so desperately wanted out of the cash-strapped conference, they were willing to pay nearly half a billion dollars to do it — if they could just find any takers. 

Hello, Greg Sankey? Clemson and Florida State on Line 1. It’s your move, again. 

What FSU did to SEC heavyweight Alabama last weekend, and what Clemson nearly did to LSU, should make clear what was obvious all along. To Sankey, the most powerful man in college sports and SEC commissioner, and anyone else in earshot.

Florida State and Clemson are SEC schools. They look the part, they play the part. Everything they do screams SEC big boy football.

Nearly 16 months ago, the SEC turned up its nose at the duo. The last thing it needed was to be blamed (again) for the contraction (not expansion) of the sport’s elite. 

But that’s all water rushing down the mighty Mississippi now, and directly into a sea of reality after this summer’s legal settlement between the ACC, FSU and Clemson. The ACC’s football heavyweights are leaving the conference on the negotiated date of after the 2030 season. Or sooner. 

If you’re the SEC, why not get ahead of the curve and make the move before something funky happens. Because when has something funky not happened in college football contraction? 

The Big East died. The Pac-12 died (it’s still dead, no matter what the Mountain West deserters think). The Big 12 became the American Conference, and the American became Conference USA, and Conference USA became Championship Subdivision football. 

California and Stanford now play in the ACC, and SMU paid $200 million to join the ACC — and dang near won the league out of the gate. But nothing, I mean nothing, says contraction quite like the 2,800 miles between Big Ten “rivals” Washington and Rutgers. 

Riveting. 

So if your Sankey, you pick up the phone when the Clemson and Florida State presidents call again (because at some point, they will), and reply with one simple yet resounding plan of action. The Tigers and Seminoles pay all exit fees and leave no monetary or legal strings attached to the ACC, and they’re welcome in the SEC.

Because the narrative that FSU and Clemson don’t bring “value” to the SEC has always been a strawman argument.

No one – I mean, no one – believes a team that has played in seven of the 11 College Football Playoffs (and won two by beating, you know, Alabama) doesn’t bring value to the SEC. No one believes Florida State, one of the top television properties in college sports (even during a 2-10 season), doesn’t add value to the SEC.

If ESPN paid pro rata for Texas and Oklahoma to join the SEC, they’ll certainly pay the same for Clemson and Florida State.

I’m going to give Sankey and the SEC presidents a pass on the ‘don’t bring value’ nonsense, because they didn’t want to take a blow torch to the ACC like the Big Ten did to the Pac-12. They’re lovers, everyone, not fighters. 

Or something like that.

Look, the 16 SEC presidents know the Seminoles and Tigers would be mega athletic and financial additions to the conference, on the level of Texas and Oklahoma. And truth be told, the SEC needs them in the football-driven world of college sports.

The bully on the block hasn’t won a national title since 2023, and was knocked to its knees in Tallahassee and Columbus, and nearly in Clemson, to begin this season.

Alabama has officially lost its mojo, LSU has lost its voodoo since 2019, and Texas has temporarily lost its inheritance (sorry, Arch, it’s too easy). Georgia has been very un-Georgia the last two seasons, and the next time Florida, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Tennessee or Oklahoma win a game of significance (not against each other) will be the first time in years.

I know this is difficult for the good folks at the SEC offices in Birmingham, Alabama, to hear, but the Big Ten has put space between itself and the SEC. On the field, and as a revenue-generating entity.

That was LSU coach Brian Kelly in May during the SEC spring meetings saying it loud and proud for all to hear: the SEC needs to play more non-conference games against the Big Ten. 

“They’re the champions now,” Kelly said. “We have to go beat them.”

More than anything, the SEC must be proactive and continue to reinvent. Because what’s elite one season could very easily be Mississippi State the next. 

The greatest dynasty in the history of the game could one day be the second coming of Mike Dubose, Mike Price, Dennis Franchione, Mike Shula — and do I really need to continue?

You think Kirby Smart, the game’s best coach, can continue to go 200 mph a day, season after season at Georgia, every single practice, meeting, game and recruiting visit? No one works harder than him, period. 

I don’t think I need to remind everyone what Georgia was before Smart: it went four decades between national titles.

You want crazy? Florida hasn’t won an SEC championship since 2008, and Tennessee since 1998.  

Point being: why limit yourself to what you have, when there’s an opportunity to make it better — and stay inside your geographical footprint?

For all we know, Clemson could lose coach Dabo Swinney and return to the days of Tommy West. Or Florida State could become Willie Taggart’s Seminoles. Or they could enter the league and do exactly what Texas did.

Play for the conference championship in their inaugural season.

Sankey has never been one to stand still, and is always looking to make the SEC better and stronger. His first big expansion move (Texas and Oklahoma) was a no-brainer, and came crawling to his door.

Florida State and Clemson will do the same. It’s only a matter of taking the call and providing the parameters. 

Because what’s elite one season could very easily be Mississippi State the next. 

Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB. 

Randy Moss is trying to spread awareness about the importance of men’s health by sharing more details about his battle with cancer.

The former NFL wide receiver and Pro Football Hall of Famer joined ‘Good Morning America’ on Sept. 4 to shine more light on the difficulties he faced overcoming bile duct cancer late last year and earlier this year.

First and foremost was the shock of the diagnosis. Even though Moss had been retired since 2012, he had continued to put in work to stay healthy. When he got the news he had cancer, it was jarring.

‘I just think that when you live your life a certain type of way of eating right, taking care of your health, and all of a sudden you get diagnosed with cancer … I was overwhelmed, like hit with a ton of bricks,’ Moss said.

The next challenge came with the treatment, which included a six-hour surgery to remove parts of several organs, chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

After coming home from his various procedures and treatments, Moss said he’d feel unable to get out of bed or leave his bedroom at all. It took some intervention from his wife, Lydia, to put his recovery process into perspective.

‘We needed him, and he needed us,’ she said. ‘I was kicking down them doors, I was opening up those blinds. I was like, ‘Even if I just have to sit here, I’m just going to sit here. Even if you’re angry, even you don’t want to talk, we’re going to be here.

‘And you don’t think about that until you’re faced with, ‘What if he isn’t going to be here?’ And that was really hard. It was really hard because that’s not something you just sit around and think about.’

After Moss got through his cancer battle and returned to his duties as an NFL analyst for ESPN, it wasn’t long before he had to step up and be a part of someone else’s support system.

Moss recounted getting a phone call from Deion Sanders asking for his help and advice as Sanders went through a cancer battle of his own.

It reminded Moss of his older brother, Eric, who suddenly died of heart failure in 2019 before the age of 50. Moss shared that he didn’t get a chance to spend much time with his brother before he died, but Sanders’ call ‘took me back to my brother.’

Sanders told Moss that he was struggling and was also unable to get out of bed or leave his bedroom most days. Moss told him he related to that hardship before sharing his biggest piece of advice: what his wife told him.

‘One thing that my wife told me is, ‘Man, get on out of here and let the family love you. They miss you.”

Moss said Sanders followed that advice, then thanked Moss via text after spending more time with his family.

‘That was more of a burden lifted up off of my chest, because of what I’ve been going through over the last couple of years, that I could finally be there for somebody,’ Moss said.

‘I think that there’s a lot of – when I say, ‘selfish men,’ I don’t mean it in a disrespectful way. We just (have) that macho: ‘I don’t need a doctor to tell me what’s going on with me.’

‘I think for me it’s just more that you don’t want to go see that doctor before it’s too late.’

The Division I Football Bowl Subdivision Oversight Committee on Thursday, Sept. 4 recommended a move to a single 10-day transfer portal window, the NCAA announced. The proposal must be passed by the NCAA’s Division I Administrative Committee to become official. A vote is expected to take place before Oct. 1. If approved, the transfer portal would be open from Jan. 2 until Jan. 11, starting in 2026.

The transfer portal has been shortened in recent years as more players have decided to change schools. In 2024, the transfer portal window was decreased by the NCAA from 45 days to just 30 days across two different time periods. It first opened on Monday, Dec. 9 − the day after the College Football Playoff bracket and bowl games were announced − and close on Dec. 28. The portal was then open in the spring from April 16-25.

With a singular transfer portal window and the dates coming later in the football calendar, most teams will have wrapped up their postseasons when the window opens. In recent years, it’s been common that players to leave teams ahead of their bowl game, including departures from some schools in the College Football Playoff.

It was an issue for Marshall last season, as it pulled out of the Independence Bowl against Army due to ‘player unavailability due to activity in the transfer portal.’ The Thundering Herd had 29 scholarship players leave the program when coach Charles Huff left for the same position at Southern Mississippi.

With the new transfer portal window, only four non-playoff bowl games − Duke’s Mayo, Liberty, Armed Forces and Holiday − would not have be played, with all four games taking place Jan. 2. The College Football Playoff semifinals and national championship game would also would be left to play.

With the removal of the spring window, players will also likely have to stick with their program’s after the conclusion of spring practice. A notable move happened during the spring window in 2025 when quarterback Nico Iamaleava left Tennessee for UCLA following a reported NIL dispute.

Cleveland Browns quarterbacks Joe Flacco and Shedeur Sanders have placed a friendly wager between themselves for Saturday’s college football game between Delaware and Colorado.

Flacco, 40, played at Delaware, all the way back in 2007. Sanders, 23, played for his father Deion at Colorado in 2023 and 2024.

The Blue Hens visit the Buffaloes for a game at 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday on Fox.

Coach Deion Sanders revealed the bet on his Colorado Football Coaches’ Show Thursday. He said wasn’t supposed to say it, “but I will.”

“Joe and Shedeur have something on this game,” Deion Sanders said on the show.

Sanders didn’t reveal anything else about it, including what was wagered.

Flacco is set to start for Cleveland in the Browns’ season opener Sunday against Cincinnati. Shedeur is listed as the No. 3 quarterback on the roster after being drafted by the Browns in the fifth round in April.

Colorado is 0-1 after suffering a 27-20 loss last week against Georgia Tech. Delaware is 1-0 after beating Delaware State, 35-17.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

Changes have hit two popular platforms used for streaming NFL games hours before the start of the season, and fans are already mourning their losses.

NFL RedZone, a live channel known for its ‘seven hours of commercial-free football,’ is changing its format and will now include ads. Anchor Scott Hanson confirmed the news on ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ Sept. 3.

‘The business folks handle the business, and I have no say over elements that could or could not be in the show,’ Hanson said.

Later the same day, Streameast, a sports piracy network that offered live streams to sports fans looking to evade subscriptions, was shut down by authorities.

In collaboration with Egyptian officials, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, a coalition of more than 50 global entertainment companies and film studies, announced on Sept. 3 it had shut down Streameast. The illegal platform logged more than 1.6 billion visits across more than 80 domains in the past year, according to a news release.

The news about both RedZone and Streameast came just before the 2025-26 NFL season kicks off on Thursday, Sept. 4, sparking outrage from some fans on social media.

NFL RedZone commercials, Streameast shutdown is ‘absolute sacrilege,’ fans say

Many sports fans commiserated over the loss of commercial-free RedZone and Streameast on the same day.

Some RedZone viewers said they were planning to boycott the channel, which can be accessed through platforms like Disney+ and NFL+ Premium.

Others questioned how RedZone’s new format could be successful, given the show markets itself as the best way to see live action around the league.

‘How will Redzone channel even work with commercials? The whole point of it is live action updates,’ one fan posted on X. ‘If multiple big plays or touchdowns happen during commercials but there is good live action going on, how will they manage that? This literally ruins the channel.’

Fans questioned the timing of both announcements, which came just before the new season kicks off.

Melina Khan is a national trending reporter for USA TODAY. She can be reached at melina.khan@usatoday.com.