World number one Iga Swiatek claimed her eighth WTA Tour title of the season, storming home to claim a three-set victory over Donna Vekic in the San Diego Open final on Sunday.

Swiatek improved her record in the United States to 24-1 this season with the victory in one hour and 47 minutes, getting past the Croatian qualifier 6-3 3-6 6-0.

The Pole previously won the US Open, along with the Indian Wells and Miami titles this season.

Top seed Swiatek secured her 64th win of the season, which is the most since Serena Williams won 78 in 2013.

Vekic ensured it was not easy for Swiatek, continuing her excellent week – knocking out Maria Sakkari, Karolina Pliskova, Aryna Sabalenka and Danielle Collins - with a strong second set.

The Croatian actually had to complete her semi-final earlier on Sunday after a rain-interrupted encounter with Collins, winning 6-4 4-6 7-6 (7-2) after resuming 4-2 down in the third set, before taking on Swiatek.

Swiatek's dominance was felt, winning 82 per cent of her second-serve points, ruthlessly converting four of six break points as well.

Vekic only generated one break point for the match but she took it, keeping the match alive in the second set where she was more aggressive.

The 2022 US Open and French Open champion responded emphatically in the final frame, capitalising on three of four break points and winning 24 of the 29 points for the set to triumph.

The Buffalo Bills claimed a statement win as John Allen threw three touchdown passes as they improved to 5-1 with a 24-20 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.

Allen, who completed 27 of 40 attempts for 329 yards with no interceptions, found Dawson Knox for the game-winning touchdown with 1:04 left in the fourth quarter at Arrowhead Stadium.

The Bills sealed the win when Von Miller broke a double team to apply pressure on Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes whose pass for Skyy Moore was picked by cornerback Taron Johnson with 0:41 remaining.

It ended a seesawing contest that had four lead changes, was tied at every change and was within one score throughout, with the AFC East-leading Bills moving ahead of the AFC West-leading Chiefs who fall to 4-2.

Mahomes made 25 of 40 attempts for 338 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions, with Bills rookie Kaiir Elam picking off a redzone pass in the first quarter. Chiefs wide receiver Travis Kelce made franchise history by reaching the record for consecutive games with a reception (132), finishing with eight receptions for 108 yards but no TDs.

JuJu Smith-Schuster, who had five receptions for 113 yards, spun past two defenders after receiving a Mahomes pass for the opening TD, before Allen found Gabe Davis to reply before half-time, with Harrison Butker's franchise-record 62-yard field goal tying it up at half-time.

Stefon Diggs, who had 10 receptions for 148 yards, added his sixth receiving touchdown this season when Allen found him for 17-yard score but the Chiefs responded again as Mahomes punched a pass to Mecole Hardman.

Butker put the Chiefs up 20-17 in the fourth quarter, but Allen found Knox in the endzone to flip the script.

Rams respond as Anderson thrown out by Panthers

The Los Angeles Rams ground their way to a 24-10 victory over the Carolina Panthers to snap their two-game skid and move to 3-3.

Scores were locked at 10-10 with 16 seconds remaining in the third quarter when wide receiver Ben Skowronek swept down the outside and into the endzone for his career-first TD.

Matthew Stafford shook off the Rams' offensive issues to complete 26 of 33 passes for 253 yards and one touchdown for Allen Robinson, while Darrell Henderson rushed a fourth-quarter TD to pad the win.

Amid the Panthers' own offensive struggles, interim coach Steve Wilks threw Robbie Anderson out of the game after a heated argument with position coach Joe Dailey.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is "just getting started" and "has the quality to make Napoli dream this season", according to team-mate Victor Osimhen.

Kvaratskhelia, who joined from Dinamo Batumi in July, has played an instrumental role in the Partenopei's blistering start to the season.

The Georgia international has scored seven goals and provided eight assists in all competitions as Luciano Spalletti's side have raced to the Serie A summit, while qualifying for the Champions League knockout stages with two matches to spare.

The 21-year-old registered his eighth direct goal involvement of the Serie A campaign by setting up substitute Osimhen for the winner as Napoli defeated Bologna 3-2 at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium on Sunday.

"I am really happy for him, he deserves everything he is getting now," Osimhen told DAZN of Kvaratskhelia. "He is just getting started, you guys have seen nothing yet.

"I believe he has the quality to make us dream this season, he has big confidence, and we are here to help support him. You can see he has been decisive for us."

Osimhen also hailed the "solidarity" of the Serie A leaders as they recorded their 10th successive victory across all competitions.

"This is what we call team spirit," he added. "We started well; Bologna are a good team, but we needed these points.

"Big kudos to the coach for the second-half talk; he gave us the zeal to go out for this game. I am happy for this victory. I love the solidarity in this team, which is the most important thing at this level."

Milan's never-say-die attitude was the key to victory as Sandro Tonali's late goal gave the reigning champions a 2-1 away victory over Hellas Verona in Serie A.

That is the view of head coach Stefano Pioli, whose team went ahead within nine minutes when Rafael Leao's cross was turned into his own net by Miguel Veloso, but Verona were level soon after when Koray Gunter's shot deflected in off Matteo Gabbia.

With time running out, it appeared Milan would take just a point from the game, until Tonali swept home to secure a fourth straight league win for Pioli's side with eight minutes remaining. 

Milan move up to third in Serie A, crucially remaining just three points behind early leaders Napoli as they look to secure a second successive league title.

"[It was a] difficult game, we started well," said Pioli.

"Then we made a few mistakes too many, conceding too many chances. But as usual, the team was able to endure it and our qualities made us win the game."

When asked how positive he was feeling about his side ahead of a busy spell of fixtures, Pioli replied: "We have managed for the first time to win three consecutive games in this championship.

"We are growing, maybe I could have changed something more at the beginning, but we know how important this phase of the season is, and starting with a victory is the best way to face this period.

"They induced some mistakes with the pressure, we made some mistakes.

"But winning these difficult games means that we are growing mentally and in awareness, and that we never give up. This is a quality that my team has inside and knows how to bring out in the important moments."

Sunday's victory followed a midweek 2-0 defeat to Chelsea in the Champions League, and Pioli acknowledged his team may have been struggling with fatigue despite the win over Verona.

"I know we can play better," Pioli added. "But the boys know it too.

"Character growth is important and allows us to overcome difficult obstacles like these.

"We hope to be able to recover some energy and even some players, an important period of competition awaits us. I'm not saying that they will be decisive for the whole season, but we are close."

Christophe Galtier and Marco Verratti insisted there are no problems in the Paris Saint-Germain dressing room, after fresh speculation linked Kylian Mbappe with a move away from the Ligue 1 giants.

Despite signing a new contract with PSG in May, newspaper claims from Spain in the past week suggested Mbappe wanted to get away from the Parc des Princes.

The France international, who has appeared far from content at times this season, denied after Sunday's 1-0 win over Marseille that he has asked to leave, and said he was in fact "very happy" in Paris.

Mbappe played the full 90 minutes of the Marseille game.

Head coach Galtier, who fumed at reporters on Friday after rumours of unrest within the squad, insisted the situation was under control.

"What's going on with Kylian? I said at a press conference that I was very honest, and I am very honest, even if some people make me look like I am not," the head coach told Amazon Prime Video.

"Nothing happens with Kylian. Obviously, I heard Kylian and heard not his discomfort, but the fact of really being in his preferred position, and that's also why we looked for a different system.

"But believe me that everything is going well in the dressing room. I have players who have a big character and strong personalities, but who are very great professionals."

Midfielder Verratti concurred with the PSG boss that there was no unrest in the ranks, after the reigning Ligue 1 champions ended a run of three successive draws across all competitions thanks to Neymar's strike in first-half stoppage time.

"Everything's fine," said Italy international Verratti, who became the first outfield player to appear 20 times in the Classique – a tally only bettered overall by former Marseille goalkeeper Steve Mandanda (30).

"Sometimes in Paris, a small thing passes for a big thing, but we are used to it. We do a little abstraction, we try to be focused on the field. We play every three days, we don't have time to think about these things.

"We knew it would be a battle [against Marseille]. It was a tough game, which comes after three draws; it was a game to win absolutely.

"We could also score a second goal. We had chances, and it would have been important not to suffer until the last minute. We managed to win, we are happy."

Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting earned plaudits from Bayern Munich boss Julian Nagelsmann after playing a starring role in Sunday's 5-0 demolition of Freiburg.

Facing a team who were unbeaten in their past 11 games, Bayern picked apart Freiburg as Choupo-Moting led the attack, finishing with one goal and one assist for his endeavour.

The former Mainz, Schalke and Paris Saint-Germain player featured for 66 minutes until Jamal Musiala was given a run-out.

It had been the 33-year-old Choupo-Moting's first game in the starting XI for Bayern this season. By the time he left the field, the Cameroon international had convinced coach Nagelsmann there could be plenty more starts for him this season.

"Choupo did very well, he brought his success in practice into the pitch and certainly he deserved to play a little bit earlier maybe at some stage," Nagelsmann said.

"I'm very happy to have him. We know we can rely on Choupo. He got a great goal. He's a great player all around. We're happy that we have him."

Choupo-Moting is hoping the standout display leads to more involvement, too. This was the first time he had played more than 21 minutes in a 2022-23 Bundesliga game.

The striker told DAZN: "I try to step on the gas every day in training and the boys see that. I know what I can do and that I can help the team.

"Julian knows that I see it that way and I told him so. It's nice that it worked out and of course I want to keep playing a lot and be successful with the team."

Bayern came into the game with just one win in their last six Bundesliga outings, four of which ended in draws.

Oliver Kahn, the club CEO, had demanded better results, and Bayern delivered on that request to move to second place in the Bundesliga, four points behind early shock leaders Union Berlin. They vaulted above Freiburg with the win.

Nagelsmann said: "I'm very happy with the result and the three points. There was definitely pressure before the game because Freiburg are successful and play good football and deserve to be near top of the table. The boys did a very good job and were very focused.

"In defence, we had one very dangerous situation in the first half where Freiburg didn't finish perfectly. I think we played nice football with great finishing. Big compliment to the team."

Bayern sit between Union and Freiburg now, with 10 rounds of games gone, in a top three that few would have predicted at the start of the season.

"Freiburg deserve to be there because they're playing very well," Nagelsmann said in his post-game press conference. "Union is one of the top teams in the league and they'll probably continue that over the next couple of weeks."

Bill Belichick celebrated his 324th career NFL win on Sunday as Bailey Zappe led the New England Patriots to a 38-15 victory at the Cleveland Browns.

This latest success moved Belichick into a tie for second for the most all-time coaching wins across the regular season and postseason.

The Patriots legend is now level with George Halas, trailing only Don Shula's 347.

The dominant defeat of the Browns was Belichick's 293rd regular season win, which has him third behind Halas (318) and Shula (328), while he leads all coaches with 31 playoff victories.

"I've got a ton of respect for coach Halas and the McCaskey family and what he did for professional football," Belichick said.

"The way that he and, since we're here, [first Browns coach] Paul Brown and others like them paved the way for us, as coaches, and paved the way for the National Football League to grow to what it is today. They laid down a lot of the building blocks."

Meanwhile, Zappe was as impressive in his second NFL start as he had been in his first, a 29-0 rout of the Detroit Lions last week.

The rookie fourth-rounder, who against the Lions became the fifth of five Patriot quarterbacks selected by Belichick outside the first round to win his first start, threw for 309 yards and two touchdowns in Cleveland, achieving a 118.4 passer rating.

Zappe is therefore the first rookie to win his first two career starts while recording a rating of at least 100 in both games since Hall of Famer Sonny Jurgensen in 1957.

Erik ten Hag defended his decision to substitute Cristiano Ronaldo during Manchester United's 0-0 draw with Newcastle United on Sunday, insisting he wants to keep the striker fresh for a packed fixture schedule.

Ronaldo, starting a Premier League for the first time since August 13, managed just a single shot before he was hauled off in the 72nd minute for Marcus Rashford.

The Portuguese superstar looked visibly annoyed as he walked off the pitch, and continued to shake his head in the dugout as United struggled to break down Eddie Howe's side.

United face Premier League matches against Tottenham and Chelsea over the next week, and Ten Hag said Ronaldo was brought off with a view to preserving him for those games.

"We have to recover as we have four games in 10 days and especially for the strikers, I want to keep them fresh," Ten Hag said.

"I want to keep them all fresh, we have to rotate because of some problems we have.

"[Anthony] Martial is not available in this moment, then Rashy [Rashford] was not well, so he did not have energy for the whole game.

"We had to plan to cover for the four games because we want to win or at least get a result in all four games."

The result was United's 76th Premier League goalless draw, 31 of which have come since Alex Ferguson's retirement in 2013 (41 per cent) – the most of any side in the competition since the start of the 2013-14 season.

Despite the disappointing result, Ten Hag was pleased with his side's display and believes they deserved to claim all three points.

"I'm disappointed with the result, but I'm happy with the performance," the Dutchman added.

"A lot of elements of the team, the way of playing, we transferred on the pitch. We have seen that.

"The pressing the whole game was good. The second half possession was better. We made an improvement after half-time.

"Then you saw we dominate that game in the second half by far and also in the end the physical, again the mentality, how we kept going.

"You saw the problems they had and that is one of the best physical teams in the league. They all had cramp and we didn't because we let them run because we were good on the ball and our pressing was good."

The result left the Red Devils fifth in the Premier League, three points behind fourth-placed Chelsea and still one ahead of Newcastle.

Sandro Tonali fired a late winner as Milan earned a 2-1 away victory over Hellas Verona to climb to third in Serie A and stay in touch with early leaders Napoli.

Stefano Pioli's visitors got themselves ahead early on when Rafael Leao's cross was diverted by Miguel Veloso into his own net, though the lead lasted just 10 minutes as Koray Gunter's shot came off Matteo Gabbia and nestled in the back of the net.

It looked as if Milan would have to settle for a draw until Tonali's cool finish in the 81st minute proved decisive.

Milan's fourth successive Serie A victory over Verona moves them up to third, just three points behind leaders Napoli as Pioli's men look to retain their title.

Kenny Pickett could not finish his second NFL start after going into concussion protocol, but the Pittsburgh Steelers ensured their quarterback could celebrate an unlikely first win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Pickett – the first QB off the board in the 2022 NFL Draft – started for the first time in last week's big defeat to the Buffalo Bills.

But the rookie bounced back in some style against Tom Brady, securing a narrow lead before exiting the game midway through the third quarter. The Steelers protected that advantage to win 20-18.

Pickett had thrown his first career touchdown pass to Najee Harris on Pittsburgh's first drive.

A sloppy end to the first half allowed the Bucs to close the gap, but they headed in at halftime without having scored a TD – a first for a Brady team against the Steelers.

Pittsburgh lifted their game again following the restart, trading field goals before a hit on Pickett saw him leave the game, and was then ruled out.

Mitch Trubisky picked up the baton, though, connecting with Chase Claypool for another TD before Brady and Leonard Fournette belatedly responded.

A successful two-point conversion would have tied the game with time left for the Bucs to win it, but Brady's attempt was batted away, and Trubisky saw out only a second Steelers win of the year.

Another New York defeat for Packers on return to Lambeau

The Green Bay Packers gave up a home game to play in London for the first time in franchise history last week, losing to the New York Giants. And a return to Lambeau Field did little to lift Aaron Rodgers and Co., who fell to 3-3 with a 27-10 home loss to the New York Jets.

In fact, the Packers crowd appeared to turn on their team when a blocked punt gifted the Jets – now 3-0 on the road to start a season for the first time since 2010 – a two-TD lead their opponents could not recover from.

The Giants built on their upset of the Packers by doing the same to the Baltimore Ravens. They had trailed Green Bay 20-10 at halftime in Week 5 and were this time down by the same score in the fourth quarter, recovering for a 24-20 win to move to 5-1.

The Atlanta Falcons lost in Week 5 but also had momentum to carry into a matchup with the San Francisco 49ers after a 15-point fourth quarter against the Bucs. Following five straight games decided by seven points or fewer, the Falcons coasted to a 28-14 success.

Ryan extends Jags' miserable road run in AFC South

The Jacksonville Jaguars have not won a road game against an AFC South rival since 2017, a losing sequence of 13 games heading into Sunday's trip to the Indianapolis Colts.

It appeared as though Trevor Lawrence was to lead the Jags to a long-awaited win when the Colts trailed by a point at the Jacksonville 33 with just 23 seconds to play.

But Matt Ryan, having earlier passed Dan Marino (61,361) to climb to seventh all-time for passing yards, completed a pivotal TD pass to Alec Pierce to prolong the Jags' misery.

Neymar's ninth goal of the season moved Paris Saint-Germain three points clear at the Ligue 1 summit following a 1-0 victory over 10-man Marseille.

The Brazil international's strike in first-half stoppage time was enough to settle the Classique as PSG registered 23 shots on goal in a deserved triumph at Parc des Princes.

Marseille had Samuel Gigot sent off for a dangerous challenge on Neymar as the visitors suffered their first away defeat of the season.

Meanwhile, Christophe Galtier's side stretched their unbeaten league run to 20 matches – their longest streak in the French top flight since going 21 games without defeat between May 2018 and January 2019.

Marseille had Pau Lopez to thank for keeping PSG at bay early in the first half as he denied Lionel Messi twice inside the opening four minutes, while also blocking Achraf Hakimi after Kylian Mbappe picked out the full-back less than 60 seconds later.

Lopez then demonstrated wonderful reflexes to tip over Mbappe's deflected 25-yard effort, before Messi's fierce free-kick rattled the crossbar.

But the hosts broke the deadlock just before the break. Marco Verratti robbed Amine Harit of possession before Vitinha and Mbappe combined to set up Neymar, whose first-time shot went in off the post.

Marseille came close to equalising early in the second half, with Jonathan Clauss latching onto Alexis Sanchez’s lofted throughball before drawing smart reflexes out of Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Verratti and Mbappe almost doubled the lead at the other end, but the visitors' hopes of salvaging a point were effectively dashed 18 minutes from time when Gigot was shown a straight red card for rashly taking out Neymar.

Messi was marginally off target with an attempted dink from Mbappe's throughball later on, but PSG held out to pull clear at the top of Ligue 1. 

New Zealand started their Rugby League World Cup campaign with a hard-fought 34-12 victory against Lebanon on Sunday.

The world's number one side were made to sweat on occasion at the Halliwell Jones Stadium in Warrington, and surprisingly fell behind to their Group C opponents inside the first minute when Josh Mansour raced onto a loose ball on the right to score.

The Kiwis were soon level when Kenneth Bromwich went over, before substitute Nelson Asofa-Solomona got his side ahead despite some excellent defensive work from Lebanon, with Peta Hiku adding another shortly after to give New Zealand an 18-6 lead at the break.

The Cedars would not go away, though, and scored their second try to halve the deficit shortly after the restart as Abbas Miski went over down the left side.

After a further scare, the Kiwis took charge as terrific work from Manu ended with Dylan Brown racing through to score, before Manu again showed his quality to get a try of his own before the hour.

Jordan Rapana then added another just after Lebanon's Adam Doueihi was sent off for dissent.

Jurgen Klopp admitted he deserved to be sent off against Manchester City, but the Liverpool manager also aired his disappointment at the officiating during his team's 1-0 win at Anfield.

Mohamed Salah scored the only goal of a frenetic game on Sunday, latching onto a long pass from Alisson with 14 minutes remaining to finish past Ederson.

It was City's first Premier League defeat of the season, but the visitors were left frustrated when Phil Foden's second-half strike with the score at 0-0 was chalked off after referee Anthony Taylor was asked to look at the pitchside monitor by the video assistant referee, which showed Erling Haaland pulling over Fabinho in the build-up.

City boss Pep Guardiola and Klopp both showed frustration at Taylor's decisions through the game, with the latter shown a red card after objecting to a challenge on Salah with five minutes remaining going unpunished.

"Yeah, it's about emotion of course... red card, my fault," Klopp conceded at his post-match press conference.

"I went over the top in the moment, I don't think I was disrespectful to anybody but when you look at the pictures back – I know myself for 55 years that the way I look in these moments is already worth a red card.

"I lost it in that moment and that is not OK, but I think a little bit as an excuse I would like to mention, how can you not whistle that foul [on Salah]? How on earth is it possible? And I wish I could get an explanation.

"I don't know what Pep said now in here, probably not a lot, probably very disappointed or frustrated or whatever. But during the game we agreed completely that Anthony Taylor just let the things run. Why would you do that? Both teams, it was not one, but I heard now that people said it was Anfield that made the VAR decision [to disallow Foden's goal].

"With a foul on Mo, Anfield had no chance to make any impact. It's a foul on Fabinho, I think we agree on that. Is it not enough to pull somebody down?

"So there was already the first moment where Pep and I were pretty animated, both, but actually for the same reason to be 100 per cent honest. For the same reason, we were not arguing with each other, not at all.

"Then [the red card] situation, I just had the perfect view, and the linesman, and you can imagine we are 1-0 up and we have a free-kick there or a counter-attack there. That is pretty much a 100 per cent difference and that was when I snapped and again, I am not proud of that, but it happened."

One negative for Klopp was seeing Diogo Jota injured late on. The Portugal international has only recently returned from injury, but his manager did not sound hopeful, saying: "Diogo, I wish I wouldn't have to talk about it.

"When I saw he goes down and there was not a lot of contact, you can see a little bit that somebody kicks his foot and maybe the muscle got overstretched, [playing for] 96 minutes, that's not good for the muscle. He felt it immediately and now we have to wait to see how bad it is."

Klopp already had to make changes to his line-up due to injuries, with Ibrahima Konate missing out and James Milner starting at right-back, meaning Joe Gomez moved back into the middle of the defence.

The 25-year-old helped to keep Haaland and company quiet, and Klopp praised his "outstanding talent", along with Milner's efforts.

"It's just great for Joey that he can show what a player he is," he said. "Outstanding, outstanding talent, a great player and can play different positions, obviously.

"Today was sensational, a mature performance together with Virgil [van Dijk] and the two full-backs.

"I'd like to mention – and it's fine, Joey deserves all the praise – but I am pretty sure before the game a lot of people thought, 'Oh, James Milner against Phil Foden.' The way James Milner played was absolutely unbelievable. Joey as well."