Amanda Anisimova, the No. 3 seed and reigning champion at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open 2026, was forced to retire due to illness in the third set of her opening match against Karolina Pliskova on Monday in Doha.

Anisimova fared well against her Czech opponent, splitting the first two sets 7-5, 6-7 (3), but trailed 4-1 in the third set when she packed it in.

“I was really happy to be back and excited to play,” Anisimova said in a statement afterward. “I got sick here, so I wasn’t feeling my best, but I thought it was a good match regardless. I feel we both played really well. Congrats to her, it’s good to see her back playing.”

Pliskova is also familiar with Qatar, winning there in 2017. She had seven aces and saved 6 of 10 break points on Monday.

“It feels great to be back,” Pliskova said in her on-court interview after missing a year with an ankle injury. “I missed (the fans) as well, last year. As you know, I won here, so I have great memories. Two years ago, I played the semifinals. So I just enjoy this place so much.”

Anisimova was not the only player to fall victim to illness in Qatar. Great Britain’s Emma Raducanu also retired in the third set of her opener Monday.

Raducanu was coming off a 6-0, 6-2 loss in the final of the Transylvania Open on Saturday, when she used a medical timeout and admitted afterward that she did not have her best effort. Her health was in question again Monday in her match against Colombia’s Camila Osorio; during a third-set timeout she saw a doctor who took her blood pressure, something that also occurred Saturday.

Osorio advanced out of the Round of 64, 2-6, 6-4, 2-0 (retired).

The Pliskova-Anisimova match was a Round of 32 affair, as was Russian No. 5 seed Mirra Andreeva’s 7-6 (0), 6-1 win over Poland’s Magda Linette. Andreeva saved 10 of 11 break points in the one-hour, 43-minute battle.

The rest of Monday’s matches were Round of 64 fixtures.

Czech ninth seed Linda Noskova breezed past Australian Maya Joint 6-4, 6-0 in 65 minutes. No. 12 Emma Navarro defeated Germany’s Tatjana Maria 7-5, 6-1, while Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic upset No. 11 Clara Tauson of Denmark, 6-4, 6-1.

Indonesia’s Janice Tjen stuffed Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-0, 6-1 in 69 minutes, while Russian Anna Kalinskaya prevailed 6-2, 6-1 over Span’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in 67 minutes. Other winners included China’s Xinyu Wang and Qinwen Zheng, Maria Sakkari of Greece, Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska and the Czech Republic’s Tereza Valentova.

–Field Level Media

MILAN — Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France continued one of figure skating’s most compelling revivals on Monday night, winning the rhythm dance at the Milan Cortina Olympics in only their fifth international event.

The duo, who teamed up last March, kept up their breakneck speed to the top of the ice dance world by scoring 90.18 points — their best ever — for their sleek fashion-runway-meets-ice-dance take on Madonna’s “Vogue.”

In a showdown that felt like the sharpening of a rivalry, they edged triple world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States, who delivered a high-octane rhythm dance powered by rock and roll swagger for 89.72 points.

Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier were third with 86.18.

The free dance is on Wednesday.

Cizeron had said last week that his partnership with Fournier Beaudry is “bonus time” for both skaters after they had believed their respective careers were over.

Cizeron’s former partner Gabriella Papadakis retired after the Beijing Olympics, while Fournier Beaudry’s partner Nikolaj Sorensen received a six-year suspension in 2024 for sexual maltreatment, although the suspension has been overturned on jurisdictional grounds.

After teaming up last spring, Fournier Beaudry, a Canadian, received her French citizenship in November to pave her way to the Olympics. They made an immediate impact on international ice, winning both their Grand Prix assignments before being edged by Chock and Bates at the Final in December.

–Reuters, special to Field Level Media

The last time the New York Knicks played a home game against the Indiana Pacers, both teams were on the verge of the NBA Finals.

More than nine months later, the Pacers are much further away from championship contention than the Knicks — even if New York’s ceiling remains uncertain despite a recent surge.

The Knicks will look to continue their solid play Tuesday night, when they host the Pacers in the second clash of the season between the longtime rivals.

Both teams were off Monday after playing road matinees on Super Bowl Sunday, when the Knicks cruised past the Boston Celtics 111-89 and the Pacers fell to the Toronto Raptors, 122-104.

The win was the ninth in the last 10 games for the Knicks, who moved into a tie with the Celtics for second place in the Eastern Conference, five games behind the Detroit Pistons before the Pistons’ game Monday night against the Charlotte Hornets.

It also continued a trend of dominant victories for New York. Seven of New York’s last nine wins have been by double digits, including five by at least 20 points and three by 30 points or more.

But the lone loss in the current stretch was a 118-80 loss to the Pistons on Friday night. Starters Karl-Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby sat out for the Knicks, as did new backup guard Jose Alvarado, who was acquired from the New Orleans Pelicans last Thursday.

Yet the Knicks had a full starting lineup in Detroit on Jan. 5, when the Pistons rolled to a 121-90 victory. The first loss to Detroit was one of the low points of a lengthy skid for New York, which went 2-9 from Dec. 31 through Jan. 19 while falling to the lottery-bound Sacramento Kings and Dallas Mavericks.

“Our group is resilient,” said Knicks head coach Mike Brown, who was hired after Tom Thibodeau was dismissed following a six-game loss to the Pacers in last season’s Eastern Conference finals — New York’s first trip to the conference finals since 2000.

“Sometimes things like (Friday) happen in Detroit. None of us like it. None of us want to go through it. Give Detroit a lot of credit, but we know it’s not who we are. We’ve played a lot better than that. We will.”

The Pacers’ hopes for the 2025-26 season likely ended in Game 7 of the NBA Finals last June 22, when star guard Tyrese Haliburton tore his right Achilles in the first quarter of a 103-91 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Indiana, which was seeking its first NBA title, has fallen to last place in the Eastern Conference without Halliburton, who will miss the season. The Pacers are 13-40 and on pace for the worst record in franchise history.

The loss Sunday may have been a particularly costly defeat for the Pacers, who have dropped four straight following a 7-5 stretch from Jan. 8-31. Second-year guard/forward Johnny Furphy suffered a right knee injury while landing awkwardly following a dunk in the third quarter. He was helped off the court before he took a wheelchair to the locker room.

MRI testing Monday reportedly revealed a torn ACL for the Australian native, who had recently shown considerable promise for the organization while starting 21 of his 35 regular-season appearances in his second season in the league.

The Pacers were already without Ivica Zubac and Kobe Brown, who have yet to play since they were acquired from the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday. Zubac, who was on paternity leave at the time of the trade, is playing through a left ankle injury suffered in December.

“It’s kind of yo-yo’d a little bit,” Carlisle said of Zubac’s injury before Friday’s 105-99 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. “My understanding from talking to him is that there’s still something there that’s not quite right. We’re not going to put him out there until he’s really ready.”

As eager as Zubac may be to get on the court, Carlisle said they’ll take their time with his return.

“He’s a guy that has played 94 or 95% of his games through his career and I’m presuming that’s because he’s always raring to go through things,” Carlisle said. “That’s not going to be an option here.”

–Field Level Media