Australia’s Lucas Herbert gave up half of his lead on Saturday during the third round of LIV Golf Virginia, yet his 4-under-par 68 was good enough to move to 21 under and carry a three-shot edge into the final round.

Herbert, 30, enjoys some daylight between him and Sergio Garcia (18 under after a 65) as he chases his first LIV title.

“I think, if you’d given me a three-shot lead going into Sunday at the start of the week, I’d have taken it in a heartbeat,” Herbert said. “You’ve got to put that in context, I think.”

The context is that Herbert was the only player in the top seven (through 54 holes) who didn’t shoot a 65 or better on Saturday.

Spain’s Josele Ballester was particularly brilliant as he fired a 12 under 60 to set the course record at Trump National in Potomac Falls, Va. Had he birdied each of the last two holes — he missed a 25-foot birdie try on No. 10, his final hole — he would have tied LIV’s 18-hole record.

“It’s been the first time in a while or first time this year that I kind of entered the flow zone,” Ballester said. “It seemed like everything was going easy or somewhat easy. I executed really well in all areas of the game. Towards the end when I felt the adrenaline and the pressure a little more, I still executed and made some good shots and some good putts.”

Bryson DeChambeau shot a 12-under par 58 to set the record at the 2023 LIV Golf Greenbrier event.

Despite the best round of his life, the 22-year-old Ballester finds himself eight shots back of Herbert. He shares third place with DeChambeau (64), Zimbabwe’s Scott Vincent (62), and South Africa’s Dean Burmester (65).

Spain’s Jon Rahm (12 under after a 65), Belgium’s Thomas Detry (-11, 66) and Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell (-11, 66) are the only other golfers within 10 shots of Herbert.

Garcia, who scrambled for a par at No. 13 after removing his socks and shoes and sinking his feet into the mud to hit a shot out of the pond, understands it won’t be a two-man race for the title on Sunday.

“You can’t just think, oh, it’s just Lucas and I,” Garcia said. “Obviously if we play well, it will be him and I, but we still have to go out there and play well. There’s still 18 holes to go, and anything can happen out there.”

–Field Level Media

World No. 1 Jannik Sinner extended his ATP 1000 match winning streak to 29 on Saturday with a routine 6-3, 6-4 victory over Austria’s Sebastian Ofner at the Italian Open.

Sinner, who hails from Italy, fell in the 2025 finals of the tournament in Rome to Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz. The Italian is attempting to capture the “Career Golden Masters,” winning all nine ATP Masters events, a feat only achieved by Serbia’s Novak Djokovic since the series started in 1990.

“It is an amazing feel to be back,” Sinner said after the match. “The first match, the most important thing is not to lose. The level will eventually come day by day. Since day one, this has been a very special tournament for me. Every year when you come here, you reflect about the year a little bit, being Italian and in a year a lot of things can change. I am happy to be here.”

Sinner did not face a break point in the match against Ofner. He broke the Austrian’s serve in the fourth game of the first set and the opening game of the second set. His play on second serves was the difference as Sinner won 15 of 21 of his own second serves (71%) and captured nearly half (14 of 29) of Ofner’s second offerings.

Sinner will face unseeded Alexei Popyrin in the third round, as the Australian recovered from a poor second set to defeat No. 26 Czech Jakub Mensik, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4. Mensik made 33 unforced errors in the final match of the day.

In addition to Mensik, seven other seeded players fell on Saturday. No. 4 Felix Auger-Aliassime dropped a 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) decision to Argentine Mariano Navone, and No. 5 Ben Shelton fell to Georgian qualifier Nikoloz Basilashvili, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3.

Shelton was broken on back-to-back service games in the first set and only hit one of his dozen aces in the deciding set, during which he only produced five winners against 11 unforced errors.

“I was extremely tight from the beginning of the match,” Basilashvili said. “For me, it means a lot to have these kinds of matches, especially (against a) Top 10 player. Super happy and I am looking forward to the next match.”

The other seeded players to fall were No. 17 Cameron Norrie of Great Britain, who lost to Thiago Agustin Tirante of Argentina, 6-3, 7-5, No. 24 Argentine Tomas Martin Etcheverry, who dropped a 5-7, 6-2, 6-3 decision to Italian Mattia Bellucci, No. 27 Brazilian Joao Fonseca, who was edged by Serbia’s Hamad Medjedovic, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (1), and No. 28 Corentin Moutet of France, who was eliminated by Spanish qualifier Pablo Llamas Ruiz, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (4).

Moreover, No. 15 Arthur Fils of France, who recently won in Barcelona, retired while trailing 4-0 to Andrea Pellegrino of Italy.

Seventh-seeded Daniil Medvedev of Russia advanced in a walkover versus Czech Tomas Machac. No. 10 Italian Flavio Cobolli defeated France’s Terence Atmane, 7-6 (1), 6-3, while No. 12 Andrey Rubrev of Russia ousted Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic, 6-4, 6-4.

No. 20 Frances Tiafoe came from behind to edge Peru’s Ignacio Buse, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-2, No. 21 Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina knocked off Chilean qualifier Cristian Garin, 7-6 (2), 6-4 and No. 30 Brandon Nakashima routed Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut, 6-4, 6-0.

In Saturday’s lone second-round match involving unseeded players, Spanish lucky loser Martin Landaluce swept Croatia’s Marin Cilic, 6-4, 6-4.

–Field Level Media

Victor Wembanyama is still years away from hitting his prime.

That’s a scary factoid with the San Antonio Spurs star already rating as one of the best players in the NBA at age 22.

Wembanyama is coming off a historic performance and he will look to deliver another big-time showing when the second-seeded Spurs face the sixth-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday in Game 4 of the Western Conference second-round series at Minneapolis.

San Antonio holds a 2-1 series lead thanks to the Frenchman’s terrific effort in Game 3.

Wembanyama recorded 39 points, 15 rebounds and five blocked shots in the 115-108 road victory on Friday. He became the fourth player in NBA history to produce at least 35 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks in a playoff game.

The others are Hall of Famers Shaquille O’Neal (three times), Hakeem Olajuwon (three times) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (twice). The NBA began tracking blocks at the start of the 1973-74 season.

“It’s good to be along with the big fellas,” Wembanyama said.

Wembanyama made 13 of 18 shots from the field in Game 3, which included three 3-pointers. He also hit 10 of 12 from the free-throw line.

“He really imposed himself on the game,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “He established himself dominating the paint and rim on both ends. When he does that, it kind of feels like everything opens up for himself and his teammates. Then he gets some shots on the perimeter. He gets some closeouts. He gets the gravity in terms of teams trying to be physical with him.”

Naturally, Wembanyama expects another big effort to be necessary in Game 4.

“I think we haven’t done anything yet,” Wembanyama said. “I think we showed some strength during (Friday’s) game, some relentlessness that we’ve got to prove. We’ve still got to prove to ourselves that we can sustain that. Sometimes it feels like being in a more hostile environment, a harder environment, forces us to step up our game and be on our criteria even more.”

San Antonio’s win on Friday broke a seven-game losing streak in Minneapolis that dated back to October 2022.

The Timberwolves look for their star, guard Anthony Edwards, to help produce a series-tying performance.

Edwards was plenty good in Game 3 with 32 points, 14 rebounds and six assists as he was finally unleashed to play a full game for the first time since suffering a hyperextended left knee that caused him to miss the final two games of the first-round series against the Denver Nuggets.

Edwards averaged just 15 points in the first two games of the San Antonio series while being limited to 25 and 24 minutes. Edwards played a game-high 40 minutes, 33 seconds on Friday.

“He needed that. We needed that,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said of Edwards’ stellar outing. “He’s battling back to find a game like this, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the result that went along with it.”

The Timberwolves shot just 38.4% from the field (38 of 99) and never led by more than four points despite being on their home floor.

“I feel like we had a bunch of great looks,” Edwards said. “And if we make our shots, we win the game.”

Jaden McDaniels (17 points) was just 5-of-22 shooting and Julius Randle (12 points) made only 3 of 12.

Some of the pair’s subpar shooting was due to Wembanyama’s presence. He altered several shots in addition to the ones he blocked.

“They got somebody who’s 7-6 on the floor, and he takes up a lot of space,” Edwards said. “So just trying to, you know, figure out ways to find an open man around him, because in the paint he was just everywhere.”

Wembanyama has averaged 5.0 blocks over seven games this postseason, including a postseason-record 12 in Game 1 of this series when the Timberwolves prevailed 104-102.

–Field Level Media