Thiel to host tennis tournament

Thiel College will host a tennis tournament on July 12-13 on its campus in Greenville, Pa.

There are four singles divisions, boys and girls 18 and under and boys and girls 16 and under. Competitors must be a USTA member.

Junior memberships are free for those under 19 years of age, and while spots are available, they are limited.

The tournament is a level 6 USTA-sanctioned event.

Registration is open. For more information, contact Anthony Kobak via email at akobak@thiel.edu or by phone at 3303981808.

Ex-Cowboy Tom Rafferty dies

WINDSOR, Colo. — Tom Rafferty, an offensive lineman who won a Super Bowl and played with two Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterbacks in Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman over 14 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys, has died. He was 70.

Rafferty died Thursday in Windsor, Colorado, where he had been hospitalized since early May following a stroke, his daughter, Rachel Powers, told The Dallas Morning News.

A year after getting drafted out of Penn State, Rafferty’s first season as a starter was at right guard in 1977, which ended with the Cowboys’ 27-10 victory over Denver in Super Bowl 12. He played the same position a year later when the Cowboys lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers 35-31 in the title game.

After a move to center, Rafferty threw one of the key blocks on Tony Dorsett’s record 99-yard touchdown run in a 31-27 loss at Minnesota on Jan. 3, 1983. Dallas had 10 men on the field for that famous play.

Rafferty’s final season was Aikman’s rookie year in 1989, when he started eight games at center for a 1-15 team.

Rafferty is one of 12 Dallas players to spend at least 14 seasons with the franchise. He was teammates with seven players on that list.

French Open: Sinner beat Djokovic

PARIS — After beating top-ranked Novak Djokovic 6-4, 7-5, 7-6 (3) in the French Open semifinals on Friday, Jannik Sinner must find a way past defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in the final.

Sinner has not dropped a set en route to his first final at Roland-Garros, but Alcaraz has won their last four meetings and leads him 7-4 overall. Sinner is aiming for his fourth major title and Alcaraz his fifth.

Djokovic is the men’s record 24-time Grand Slam champion but could not counter Sinner’s relentless accuracy and pounding forehands on Court Philippe-Chatrier.

Sinner became the second Italian man to reach the final at Roland-Garros in the Open era, which began in 1968, after Adriano Panatta, the 1976 champion.

Earlier, Alcaraz led 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-0, 2-0 against Lorenzo Musetti when the eighth-seeded Italian retired with a leg injury.

Djokovic fought back in the third set but wilted in the tiebreaker, somehow missing an easy smash at the net to trail 3-0 and then lost on the second match point he faced when his forehand hit the net.

Djokovic was emotional and said it might have been his last ever match at Roland-Garros. He kissed his hand after the defeat, then put it on the clay, as if saying farewell to the stadium.

Sinner’s tennis legacy here, and elsewhere, is still growing.

He extended his winning streak in Grand Slam tournaments to 20 matches, after winning the U.S. Open and the Australian Open.

Djokovic was bidding for a record-extending 38th Grand Slam final, and eighth in Paris, where he was won three times. But he spent much of the semifinal camped behind the baseline, sliding at full stretch and grunting loudly while Sinner sent him scurrying left and right like a windscreen wiper.

Sinner was becoming the Roland-Garros showman Djokovic so often was on the main court, where he won three of his major titles.

One improvised flick-of-the-wrist drop shot from back of the court was majestic, too good even for Djokovic to get back.

Djokovic had a brief massage on his upper right thigh during the changeover at 6-5 down. Serving for the second set for a second time, Sinner clinched it when Djokovic could not return his strong serve.

Djokovic took a medical time out immediately and received massage treatment on the same leg for a few minutes.

He looked sharper in the third set, but Sinner held his nerve.

Champ takes lead at Canadian

CALEDON, Ontario — Masters champion Rory McIlroy tumbled out of the RBC Canadian Open on Friday with his worst round in nearly a year, with Cameron Champ taking a two-stroke lead into the weekend in the final event before the U.S. Open.

McIlroy shot an 8-under 78, making a mess of the fifth hole with a quadruple-bogey 8 in his highest score since also shooting 78 last year in the first round of the British Open. He had a double bogey on No. 11, four bogeys and two birdies.

At 9 over, the two-time Canadian Open winner was 21 strokes behind Champ on the rain-softened North Course at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley.

Champ had four birdies in a 68 in the morning a day after opening with a 62. He was at 12 under, playing the first 36 holes without a bogey.

The three-time PGA Tour winner got one of the last spots in the field after being the eighth alternate Friday when the commitments closed.

Andrew Putnam was second after a bogey-free 62 on the course hosting the event for the first time. He won the 2018 Barracuda Championship for his lone tour title.

Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark, tied for the first-round lead with Cristobal Del Solar after a 61, had a 70 drop into a tie for third at 9 under with Canadians Richard Lee (64) and Nick Taylor (65) and France’s Victor Perez (65).

Taylor won the 2023 event at Oakdale.

Del Solar was 8 under after a 71. Shane Lowry (68) also was 8 under with Ryan Fox (66), Jake Knapp (69), Sam Burns (66) and Matteo Manassero (65).