Jessica Pegula admitted she was confident in beating a "prime" Iga Swiatek to reach her first grand slam semi-final at the US Open. 

Pegula, who had lost her previous six slam quarter-finals, came through in straight sets at Flushing Meadows to stun the world number one. 

She also became the fourth American in the Open Era to reach the women’s singles semi-final at the Canadian, Cincinnati and US Open in a calendar year after Rosemary Casals (1970), Serena Williams (2013-15) and Sloane Stephens (2017).

Pegula's triumph set up a meeting with Karolina Muchova for a place in the final after the Czech overcame illness to beat Beatriz Haddad Maia, also in straight sets. 

With Emma Navarro along with Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz advancing to the final four, it is the first time two Americans have reached the semi-finals in the women’s and men’s singles at the US Open since 2003, with Jennifer Caprati, Lindsay Davenport, Andy Roddick and Andre Agassi the first do so. 

It also marked Pegula's fourth victory over the Pole, with the latest win considered one of her best. 

"I've been [to the quarter-finals] so many freaking times but I kept losing," Pegula said. 

"Finally - finally - I can say I'm a semi-finalist. Thank you to the crowd, you carried me through that last game.

"To do it at prime time against the number one player in the world - it's crazy, but I knew I could do it."

England captain Jos Buttler will miss the three-match T20 series against Australia due to a calf problem.

Buttler has not played since the T20 World Cup semi-final defeat to India on June 27, sustaining the injury in training for The Hundred, forcing him to sit out of the entire competition.

He was due to be back for England's T20I series but has suffered a setback, which also makes him a doubt for the five one-day internationals that follow.

Phil Salt will lead the side for the first time in Buttler's absence, with Surrey all-rounder Jamie Overton called up to the squad as his replacement.

Should Buttler also miss the ODIs, which start on September 19, Harry Brook will be the stand-in captain, with Essex batter Jordan Cox added to the group as cover.

The T20I series is England's first white-ball assignment since the World Cup, with head coach Matthew Mott since leaving his role.

Marcus Trescothick will take charge of his first game on Wednesday as interim head coach, with Test coach Brendon McCullum set to take charge of the limited-overs sides in a combined role which will begin in January.

Alan Shearer believes Marcus Rashford should have left Manchester United if he wanted to reignite his England career.

Rashford enjoyed a stellar start to life under Erik ten Hag, netting 30 goals in all competitions during the Dutchman's first season in 2022-23.

However, he struggled to build on that momentum last campaign, scoring just eight goals and registering six assists in 43 appearances across all competitions, resulting in him being left out of Gareth Southgate's Euro 2024 squad.

So far this season, he has played in all four of United's matches but has failed to get a goal involvement so far, having had no shots and creating just three chances, meaning he has been unable to force himself into Lee Carsley's first Three Lions squad.

And former England forward Shearer believes a change in club may have been the spark Rashford needed to get back to his best form.

"In his current form, I don't see Marcus Rashford reviving his England career," Shearer told Betfair.

"I personally don't know his mentality, or what his approach is in terms of training, but there's only one way back, which is to train and have the right attitude.

"But looking from the outside, for me, he should have left Man United to reignite his career because he's gone very static for whatever reason, and it hasn't worked for him for a while now.

"Only Marcus can answer how much he wants to get back to scoring 30 goals a season."

Jannik Sinner is into the semi-finals of the US Open for the first time in his career after beating former champion Daniil Medvedev.

The world number one became the fourth active player to reach a semi-final at all four grand slams and will face Jack Draper for a place in the final.

Sinner claimed a statement 6-2 1-6 6-1 6-4 win over Medvedev, in a rematch of this year's Australian Open final, which the 23-year-old also won.

The momentum shifted throughout - after cruising through the first set, Sinner was then put on the back foot as Medvedev took the second, with the Italian finally gaining the upper hand in the third.

Though the final set was tight, Sinner found the edge with his fifth break of the match to set up what he expects to be a tough semi-final against high-flying Draper.

"We know each other very well, we are good friends off the court," Sinner said of Draper.

"It's going to be very tough - I'm just happy to be in the semis."

Data Debrief: Sinner becomes the outright favourite

Sinner is the lone major champion remaining in the draw as he chases a second grand slam title and his first at Flushing Meadows.

In the past 20 years, 11 grand slams have seen one former major winner reach the men's singles semis. That player has gone on to win the event nine times, with Rafael Nadal (French Open, 2005) and Andy Murray (US Open, 2012) the exceptions.

Since 1990, Sinner (23 years, 19 days) is the second-youngest player to reach the semis at the Australian Open, Indian Wells, Miami and the US Open in a calendar year, after Nadal (22y 93d) in 2008.

Jessica Pegula advanced to her first-ever major semi-final, stunning Iga Swiatek in straight sets at the US Open on Wednesday.

The home favourite became the fourth American to reach the semi-finals of this year's tournament after Emma Navarro, Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe.  

Pegula took advantage of the world number one's off-night, cruising through 6-2 6-4 in just under 90 minutes on Arthur Ashe Stadium.

There was little let-up for Swiatek, who lost her serve twice in quick succession at the start of the match as Pegula raced into a commanding lead, and the sixth seed recovered well after going behind in the second set to pull back in front.

And Pegula, who made just one double fault, and 22 unforced errors compared to Swiatek's 41, believes that was the difference in the quarter-final.

"I thought I played a really clean match, served pretty well, returned well," Pegula said.

"I feel like I didn't really do anything that bad and was able to kind of jump on her really early, and I think frustrate her.

"I was able to keep my level even when she picked it up in the second set."

Pegula will face Karolina Muchova for a place in the final. 

Data Debrief: Righting wrongs

Going into Wednesday's match, history was not exactly on Pegula's side as she held a 0-6 record in her previous grand slam quarter-finals. 

However, a quick start ensured that she claimed her 21st WTA top 10 win of her career - in the past four decades, only two US players have claimed more without reaching a women's singles final at a grand slam, though she will be hoping to avoid staying on that list.

Pegula is also the fourth American in the Open Era to reach the women's singles semi-finals at the Canadian, Cincinnati and US Open in a calendar year after Rosemary Casals (1970), Serena Williams (2013-15) and Sloane Stephens (2017).

Third baseman Matt Chapman and the San Francisco Giants agreed to a six-year, $151 million contract on Wednesday night.

Chapman, 31, will earn $25 million each season from 2025 to 2030 and additionally will receive a $1 million signing bonus in 2025.

He joined the Giants as a free agent in March, agreeing to a contract guaranteeing $54 million over three seasons. That deal gave him the right to opt out after 2024 and 2025. It included a $2 million signing bonus and a $16 million salary for 2024.

Chapman is hitting .247 and leads the Giants with 22 homers, 69 RBIs, 90 runs and 33 doubles. He is a four-time Gold Glove winner and has a .241 career average with 177 homers and 495 RBIs for Oakland (2017-21), Toronto (2022-23) and the Giants.

An All-Star in 2019, Chapman hit a career-high 36 home runs for Oakland and finished sixth in the American League MVP voting. He was traded to Toronto in March 2022.

Shota Imanaga threw seven no-hit innings and two relievers finished a combined no-hitter in the Chicago Cubs’ 12-0 rout of the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night.

Imanaga struck out seven and walked two over seven innings. He threw 66 of 95 pitches for strikes.

The left-hander, who threw a season-high 103 pitches against St. Louis on June 15, needed 25 pitches to get through the second inning.

Nate Pearson pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning and Porter Hodge a perfect ninth in the Cubs’ 18th no-hitter, the first since Zach Davies, Ryan Tepera, Andrew Chafin and Craig Kimbrel combined to hold Los Angeles hitless at Dodger Stadium on June 24, 2021.

This was the fourth no-hitter this season after complete-game efforts by Houston’s Ronel Blanco against Toronto on April 1, San Diego’s Dylan Cease at Washington on July 25 and San Francisco’s Blake Snell at Cincinnati on April 2.

Dansby Swanson and Pete Crow-Armstrong each had three hits, including a home run, and three RBIs for the Cubs, who collected 17 hits to win for the seventh time in nine games. Cody Bellinger also homered and Nico Hoerner added three hits.

Domingo Germán, who pitched a perfect game last year for the Yankees against Oakland, allowed seven runs and nine hits in three innings.

Winker’s slam powers streaking Mets

Jesse Winker hit a first-inning grand slam and the Mets’ bullpen pitched five scoreless innings in their seventh straight victory, 8-3 over the reeling Boston Red Sox.

The Mets completed a three-game sweep of Boston and have won 14 of their last 19 games to pull within a half-game of Atlanta for the third NL wild-card spot.

New York had just four hits after Winker’s first-inning slam against Tanner Houck, but relievers Alex Young, Huascar Brazobán and Danny Young induced inning-ending double plays in the fifth, sixth and seventh before Phil Maton retired Masataka Yoshida on a liner to strand runners at the corners in the eighth.

Francisco Lindor led off the game with a single and added a double in the fifth inning, extending his hitting streak to 15 games, tying the career high he set with Cleveland in 2018. He has also reached base in a career-best 33 straight games, the longest active streak in the majors.

Jarren Duran had two hits and an RBI for Boston, which lost its fifth in a row to drop to .500 for the first time since June.

Pham’s first homer with Royals the difference

Tommy Pham hit his first home run for Kansas City, a tiebreaking, three-run drive in a four-run fourth inning, and the Royals stopped a season-high, seven-game losing streak with a 4-1 win over the Cleveland Guardians.

Seth Lugo allowed one run and five hits in seven innings. He is one win behind Detroit’s Tarik Skubal and Atlanta’s Chris Sale, who are tied for the major league lead. Lugo is 11-1 with a 1.40 ERA in 15 starts with four days’ rest.

Kansas City closed within one percentage point of Minnesota for the second AL wild card spot. The Royals and Twins are both 4 1/2 games behind AL Central-leading Cleveland.

During the seven-game skid, the Royals had scored three runs or fewer in six straight games, the team’s longest such streak since Aug. 15-21, 2022. The Royals had scored two runs or fewer in five straight, their longest span since June 7-13, 2018.

Mike Pennel expects Aaron Rodgers to be "back with a vengeance" this season but struggles to split the 40-year-old from Patrick Mahomes, having played with both quarterbacks. 

Rodgers joined the New York Jets from the Green Bay Packers in a blockbuster trade last year, only to rupture his Achilles in Week 1 and miss the remainder of the 2023 season.

With Rodgers now fully fit, the Jets are expected to be a major force in the AFC when the 2024 campaign gets under way this week, as they look to halt a miserable run of eight losing seasons in a row.

Kansas City Chiefs tackle Pennel spent three years alongside Rodgers in Green Bay, playing 37 games through the 2014, 2015 and 2016 seasons.

Asked if he feels Rodgers has something to prove this year, he told Stats Perform: "Absolutely. I think that's why Aaron still does it. He's a highly competitive person as well. 

"He wanted to succeed and with how the Jets were set up last year, it was very, very, very unfortunate how the season began and turned out because they were going to be a formidable team in the AFC. 

"I know he's going to come back with a vengeance and he's prepared himself to do so. He has a lot in the tank. 

"He learned from [former Packers and Jets quarterback] Brett Favre. So we've at least got about five more years of Rodgers, right?"

Pennel has plenty of experience of playing with generational QB talents, having also teamed up with three-time Super Bowl winner Mahomes through two separate spells in Kansas City, the first spanning the 2019 and 2020 seasons before he returned to the team last October.

Rodgers has thrown for 59,055 yards and 475 touchdowns in 231 games through his 19 years in the NFL.

Mahomes, meanwhile, has already accumulated 28,424 yards and 219 touchdown passes through seven years with the Chiefs, and just six as their starter.

Mahomes' 2023 figures of 4,183 passing yards and 27 touchdown throws were his second-worst since becoming the Chiefs' starter in 2018, after the 2019 campaign (4,031 yards, 26 touchdown throws), yet he still came up trumps when it mattered to lead the team to Super Bowl LVIII glory.

Pennel believes Mahomes' mobility sets him out from all other quarterbacks, but he struggles to split him from Rodgers, who he sees as having a huge influence on others to play the position.

"I think Aaron Rogers, he has crazy arm talent, you know, he was the innovator of the no-look pass and coming out of the gap on scramble and things like that," he said.

"Pat's just a killer, man. I'm telling you about his mobility, but gosh, I mean, I feel like he's like the Ricky Bobby of the NFL!

"He's got the first or his last, you know what I mean? He has a different switch."

Jack Draper swatted Alex de Minaur aside in straight sets to reach his maiden grand slam semi-final at the US Open on Wednesday.

World number 25 Draper has enjoyed a breakout tournament at Flushing Meadows, not dropping a set en route to becoming Britain's first US Open quarter-finalist since Andy Murray in 2016, and he carried that form into the last four.

The opening set featured three straight breaks of serve early on but it was Draper who edged that battle, dictating the tempo from deep and winning 84% of points behind his first serve as he took the opener 6-4.

De Minaur struggled to handle the 22-year-old's heavy groundstrokes as he gave up another early break in the second set, only to hit back to level things up at 4-4.

Draper, though, held his nerve after going 5-4 down, holding to love then immediately breaking to surge into a two-set lead.

He only improved from there and dominated the third set, producing one highlight-reel winner from his left hand after being forced to improvise with a series of lobs from deep.

Breaks in games five and seven brought up a chance to serve for the match, and Draper produced four outstanding points in succession to clinch his place in the last four, where he will face Jannik Sinner or Daniil Medvedev.

Data Debrief: Draper dominates again

For a player who had never previously gone beyond round two at any grand slam, the manner of Draper's progression at Flushing Meadows has been astonishing.

He has only dropped 36 games at the tournament thus far. In the last 40 years (since 1985), only Novak Djokovic (27 in 2016, 32 in 2012 and 33 in 2013) and Ivan Lendl (34 in 1987) have ever reached the men's semi-finals at the US Open while losing fewer games. 

Karolina Muchova reached the US Open semi-finals for a second straight year by beating Beatriz Haddad Maia in straight sets at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Muchova, who was felled in the last four by eventual champion Coco Gauff last year, missed the first two grand slams of 2024 after undergoing wrist surgery, before going out in the first round at Wimbledon.

The 2023 French Open runner-up made a blistering start to Wednesday's quarter-final, though, breaking at the first two attempts and needing just over half an hour to clinch the opener 6-1.

She then appeared to struggle with illness in the second set and was broken to love immediately after registering another break of her own, with two double faults thrown in along the way.

The world number 55 rallied magnificently, though, converting the second of two break points to immediately restore her advantage at 4-3 before receiving treatment courtside. 

Haddad Maia sought treatment herself after appearing to be in distress during the very next game, but the stop-start nature of the contest did not affect Muchova, who sealed her 6-1 6-4 victory with a huge ace.

She will face either world number one Iga Swiatek or home favourite Jessica Pegula for a place in the final on Friday, with their quarter-final clash taking place later on Wednesday.

Data Debrief: Muchova's New York upturn

A trip to Flushing Meadows has proven to be just the tonic for Muchova following a difficult start to the year.

In fact, she is the first woman to reach the semi-finals of the US Open having arrived at the tournament without a single grand slam victory all season since 2020, when Jennifer Brady achieved the feat.

She is also just the second Czech player to reach the last four while winning all five of her matches in straight sets in the Open Era, after Jana Novotna, who did so in 1994 and 1998.

Liverpool may struggle to recover when Mohamed Salah finally calls time on his stint on Merseyside, says fellow Reds attacker Luis Diaz.

Salah has entered the final year of his contract with Liverpool, for whom he has scored 214 goals in all competitions since arriving from Roma in 2017.

With Saudi Pro League clubs and Paris Saint-Germain having been linked with the Egyptian, he is yet to agree fresh terms with Liverpool, and his comments after Sunday's 3-0 win at Manchester United cast further doubt on his future.

In his post-match interview with Sky Sports, Salah said he was keen to enjoy 2024-25 in case it proves to be his "last year" at Anfield.

Salah said "nobody" at Liverpool has talked to him about a new contract and suggested his future will be dictated by the club.

Diaz, who scored twice from Salah assists at Old Trafford last time out, says Liverpool will suffer whenever the 32-year-old does seek pastures new.

"It would be hard for us," the Colombia winger told Telemundo. "It would be hard for Liverpool. 

"It's going to hurt us a lot. He still has a year to think about it, it's not easy. He always gives his very best. 

"He has done it from the start. It would be very hard to lose a key player like him. It's his decision and we respect that, but I hope he doesn't leave."

Salah joined Diaz on the scoresheet on Sunday, netting his 10th goal in nine appearances at Old Trafford in all competitions.

He is just the second player to score 10 or more goals at a single away venue for Premier League clubs since 1992-93, after Alan Shearer, who scored 10 at Elland Road.

Salah has now either scored (11) or assisted (six) 17 of Liverpool's last 23 Premier League goals against United, recording more goal involvements versus the Red Devils than any other player in the competition's history.