Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece returns to Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia during the Miami Open tennis tournament, Saturday, March 27, 2021, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)MIAMI – For tennis up-and-comers like Stefanos Tsitsipas, the draw at the Miami Open began to look a lot less daunting even before the tournament began. “It’s a first test to see how it is playing without them,” Tsitsipas said after his third-round victory Saturday. 2-seeded Tsitsipas is among those with the best chance to take advantage, and he looked the part against Damir Dzumhur, winning 6-1, 6-4. “I created a lot of opportunities with my serve — I wasn’t rushing at all, finding the right angles and executing it perfectly,” Tsitsipas said. In women's play, top-ranked Ash Barty and three-time champion Victoria Azarenka advanced to a round of 16 showdown.

Damir Dzumhur's coach called Roland Garros organizers "inhuman on Tuesday, Sept. 22 for excluding the Bosnian player from the tournament, because the coach failed a coronavirus test. Whereas the three-week Tour reached Paris last Sunday having pulled off the coup of getting through the country's worsening epidemic without any virus positives among its 176 riders, the French Open isn't proving so lucky with its timing. Nobody likes to play with these conditions, no?” 12-time French Open champion Nadal said Friday about having so few spectators. Forget congratulated him for the cycling roadshow that drew smaller but still sizable and enthusiastic crowds, and looked forward to welcoming 5,000 spectators per day at Roland Garros. Vehicles that are disinfected after each trip ferry players to Roland Garros.

The directive comes amid concerns about an uptick in coronavirus cases in certain Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods with large Orthodox Jewish populations. New York City’s current overall infection rate remains low, but official figures indicate the affected neighborhoods accounted for 20% of the city’s coronavirus cases in recent weeks. ___BOSTON — An outbreak of coronavirus infections at a major Boston hospital has grown to 19 confirmed cases. ___DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa has reported a jump of 1,086 new coronavirus cases, the second consecutive day of new cases exceeding 1,000. There are currently nearly 985,000 worldwide coronavirus deaths.

The Outlaws returned last week in Iowa at Knoxville Raceway for a race run without fans. ___The NCAA is permitting athletes in all sports to participate in voluntary athletic activities on campus beginning June 1. Greg Abbott says he thinks college football will return on schedule with some level of fans in the stands. Once we get to college football season, our goal right now is to have college football season start as planned, with fans in stands, the Republican governor told Austin television station KXAN. ___The Southeastern Conference is allowing voluntary athletic activities to occur on each of its campuses starting June 8, at the discretion of each university.