Sports
Iva Jovic survives up-and-down Dubai opener
Jan 27, 2026; Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Iva Jovic of United States in action against Aryna Sabalenka in the quarterfinals of the womenís singles at the Australian Open at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne Park. Mandatory Credit: Mike Frey-Imagn Images No. 16 seed Iva Jovic came away with a roller-coaster 6-1, 1-6, 6-1 win over Uzbekistan’s Kamilla Rakhimova in the opening round of the Dubai Duty Free Championship in the United Arab Emirates on Monday.
Jovic, one of just three seeded competitors in action Monday, stunningly lost all three of her service games in a sloppy second set after coasting to an easy first-set victory by winning the first five games of the match.
She responded by winning the final five games of the third set while facing (and saving) just one break point. She overcame a 61% first-serve percentage thanks in part to Rakhimova’s 56% first-serve percentage and eight double faults.
In another match with a seeded competitor, No. 12 Clara Tauson of Denmark defeated Sofia Kenin 7-6 (4), 6-2.
After the first 10 games were on serve, Tauson was broken to fall behind 6-5 in the opening set but broke right back and rallied from a 2-0 deficit to claim the tiebreaker. The second set was less stressful as Tauson jumped out to a 2-0 lead and won the final three games to deny a comeback bid.
Tauson finished the win with 20 aces against five double faults, winning 90% of her first-serve points and converting three of her four break-point opportunities.
Emma Navarro, the other American seeded competitor in action Monday, opened with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Elena Gabriela Ruse of Romania. The No. 14 seed clinched each set with breaks, overcoming just one ace and six double faults.
The withdrawals continued to stack up in Dubai, with that tally now up to eight at the end of Monday’s competition. The new additions included Canada’s Mackenzie Mboko, who cracked the top 10 of the WTA rankings for the first time on Monday, citing a right elbow issue, and Czechia’s Barbora Krejcikova, who won her opener but pulled out with a left thigh injury ahead of her match with Amanda Anisimova.
That gave Anisimova, the No. 2 seed, a walkover to the third round where she’ll open her run against Indonesia’s Janice Tjen, who beat Canada’s Leylah Fernandez 7-6 (5), 6-4.
Third-seeded American Coco Gauff will open in the second round against Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya, who beat Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko 2-6, 6-1, 6-4.
No. 4 seed U.S. competitor Jessica Pegula will open against Varvara Gracheva of France, who outlasted Slovakia’s Rebecca Sramkova in a 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 win.
Also advancing to the second round on Monday were Sorana Cirstea and Jaqueline Cristian of Romania, Australia’s Daria Kasatkina, Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic, Russia’s Anastasia Zakharova, Croatia’s Antonia Ruzic and Spain’s Paula Badosa.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Are the Pittsburgh Pirates Finally Ready to Contend in 2026?
The Pittsburgh Pirates have been one of the worst teams in baseball over the last decade. They have the 5th-lowest winning percentage in baseball and have more 100-loss seasons (two) than winning seasons (one) over that period.
Bob Nutting is one of the worst owners in sports, and because of that, the Pirates are among the lowest spenders in the league. To go along with a cheap owner, they’ve been mostly incompetent from an organizational point of view, squandering the actual talent they’ve had come through PNC Park.
But it sort of feels like the Pirates are ready to be a real baseball team.
If you want to talk about the Pirates, it starts with Paul Skenes. He leads a rotation that should be one of the better position groups in the National League. Bubba Chandler should be right behind Skenes in the rotation, and many scouts feel he has number one pitcher upside to him. He had some struggles in his first few appearances at the major league level, but in his final three starts last season, he threw 16.2 innings, allowing only two runs.
Braxton Ashcraft and Mitch Keller will also be featured in a Pirates rotation that should keep the team competitive on the mound. In the bullpen, the Pirates added Gregory Soto to a group of relief pitchers needing some depth.
They’ll also lean on Dennis Santana, who had one of the best chase rates in baseball last season, Carmen Mlodzinski, who’s been quite consistent the last few years, and a lot of other arms that come with many questions. The bullpen never had much help on the offensive side of things the last few years, but the Pirates actually attempted to add some quality bats to their lineup.
O’Neil Cruz and Bryan Reynolds had career-worst seasons in the outfield last year for Pittsburgh, but I’m betting on them to bounce back with more protection around them.
The Pirates got aggressive this offseason, bringing in Brandon Lowe, Marcell Ozuna, Jhostynxon Garcia, and Ryan O’Hearn.
Lowe and O’Hearn are coming off solid All-Star seasons and should provide immediate help to the Pirates’ lineup. Ozuna is coming off a bit of a down season, but he had hit 79 homers over the prior two seasons. I like them taking a risk on Ozuna on a relatively cheap one-year deal, just to see if he can bounce back.
Lastly, Garcia had been excelling in the Boston farm system, but it was unlikely he was ever going to break through a crowded Red Sox outfield. Pittsburgh had to flip Johan Oviedo, but I still think this was a pretty savvy move for the Pirates.
The lineup will also feature infielder Spencer Horwitz, who, after struggling with injuries at the beginning of the season, finished the year strong and generated a team-leading 118 OPS+ last year for the Pirates.
However, the biggest question facing the Pirates is what they will do with Konnor Griffin. He’s seen as the best prospect in the sport, and if they’re actually serious about contending this year, he will start the season as the team’s shortstop.
Griffin is a 6’4” 19-year-old who’s built like a 10-year veteran. He murdered the ball at all three levels of minor league baseball he played in last season; he’s a plus defender and a plus athlete. He’s the no-doubt hitting prospect that the Pirates have been needing for so long now. Adding him to a lineup that could feature 5-6 above-average hitters, this team could be serious right now.
The Pirates are currently +800 to win the NL Central and +425 to make the playoffs. It might be time to trust the Pirates, because they’re going to be contenders in 2026.
Sports
Report: Seahawks unlikely to apply franchise tag to Kenneth Walker III
Feb 8, 2026; Santa Clara, CA, USA; Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III (9) carries the ball against the New England Patriots during the fourth quarter in Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images The Seattle Seahawks unlikely are to apply the franchise tag to Super Bowl LX MVP Kenneth Walker III, according to a report by ESPN.
Walker, who ran for 135 yards in Seattle’s 29-13 Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots, is not being prioritized as a retention piece, per ESPN. The Seahawks reportedly are prioritizing other pending free agents and likely will work on an extension for star receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
Walker, 25, would be given a one-year, $14.1 million contract if the franchise tag was applied to him. The former second-round pick is at the end of his four-year rookie contract which saw the Seahawks pay him a total of $8.4 million.
After rushing for 1,027 yards and five touchdowns in the regular season, Walker amassed 313 yards and four scores over the Seahawks’ three playoff games. He took over the majority of the reps in the wake of Zach Charbonnet’s season-ending knee injury sustained in Seattle’s divisional-round win over San Francisco.
Over four seasons with the Seahawks, Walker has rushed for 3,555 yards and 29 touchdowns while catching 133 passes for 1,005 yards and two more scores in 58 regular-season games (54 starts).
–Field Level Media
Sports
Super-vet and rookie combine for US in search of bobsleigh gold
Feb 16, 2026; Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy; Elana Meyers Taylor of the United States celebrates after winning the women’s bobsleigh monobob competition during the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games at Cortina Sliding Centre. Mandatory Credit: Michael Madrid-Imagn Images CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Medal-laden Elana Meyers Taylor is in her fifth Olympics while Jadin O’Brien had barely seen, let alone touched, a bobsleigh until late last year, but this week that unlikely U.S. pairing will be targeting gold in the Two-Woman event in Cortina.
Meyers Taylor, 41, arrived with two silver and two bronze medals from the Two-Woman event, starting in 2010.
She got another silver with the first running of Monobob four years ago and then, on Monday, finally topped the podium with a dramatic Monobob gold.
There is nothing she does not know about the sport.
The same cannot be said for O’Brien, who was competing at the USA Track & Field championships as a heptathlete last August with no thought of getting into a bobsleigh.
That was until Meyers Taylor, always on the lookout for the sort of powerful sprinters necessary for success, contacted her.
“It has been a whirlwind,” O’Brien, 23, told journalists in Cortina ahead of her event that begins on Friday.
“I finished my last track meet August 2nd and started training for bobsled August 4th. Ten days after that, I was in Lake Placid doing the rookie camp. Two weeks after, I made the World Cup team and now we are in Europe.
“I could never have predicted my life would turn out this way, but I’m incredibly grateful, and I’ve loved every second of it.”
Not quite every second.
SPECTACULAR CRASH
A month ago, O’Brien and Meyers Taylor were involved in a spectacular crash in St. Moritz, Switzerland that the veteran pilot described as one of the most violent she had ever seen.
“It was not easy getting back on the line to race in St. Moritz after that,” O’Brien said. “I was in a lot of pain, I couldn’t really move and we were both very, very beat up.
“But in a weird way I think it brought us together as a pair. I decided to put my body on the line for ‘E’ because I felt that I had the best chance of getting her in a top 10 finish. We did place in the top 10 and I think that was a testament to who we are as athletes and what we’re capable of doing together.
“Honestly, the sky is the limit for both of us.”
At the start of the Games, Meyers Taylor sat alongside O’Brien looking more like a proud parent than a teammate and said that though she was going all out for the gold that had proved just out of reach at four Olympics, her vast experience has given her something of a Zen approach.
“It would mean everything and it would mean nothing all at the same time,” the mother of two deaf sons said of the prospect of topping the podium.
“I wanted to approach this sport with joy and integrity. I am going to give it everything I’ve got and see what happens, but, at the end of the day, a gold medal is not going to change who I am.”
Unchanged or not, she now has that gold, saying the fact she wanted, rather than needed it helped her achieve it and now she will be pouring all her experience and energy into helping O’Brien get the same feeling.
One of the women trying to spoil that dream is teammate Kaillie Humphries, twice a gold medalist in the event for Canada but now representing the U.S. at the age of 40.
Germany remains the favorite, in the form of Laura Nolte and Deborah Levi, who were crowned World Cup champions last month after winning five of the seven races.
Nolte had looked nailed on for gold after three runs in the Monobob final but wobbled on her last run to drop to silver and will be desperate to make amends.
–Reuters, special to Field Level Media
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