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The Belarusian 16th seed was challenged by Japan’s Misaki Doi before progressing 6-7 (3-7) 6-4 6-1. MORE: Amazing photos | Introducing CiCi Bellis | Day 2 results | MJ watches Federer | Day 3 preview Azarenka, a two-time finalist at Flushing Meadows, has endured a frustrating season derailed by foot and knee injuries. As such, her match with Doi was just her ninth at tour or major level since the Australian Open and Azarenka said she fought her own mental demons to progress....

MORE GOLF: U.S. Open leaderboard | Best images All it takes is one look at Brooks Koepka’s final round scorecard to see that Oakmont is there for the taking on Sunday at the U.S. Open. The talented American bogeyed two of his first three holes Sunday, but rebounded with four straight birdies. He then added a birdie on the ninth hole and holed out for eagle on the par-4 10th hole to get to 1-over for the tournament and into the top 10....

MORE: Great U.S. Open photos | U.S. Open TV times Andrew Landry entered both Friday and Saturday with the lead, but after Saturday’s play, his 3-under-par total pushed him down to second, two strokes behind Shane Lowry. Neither player was able to finish before the sun went down Saturday. They wrapped up their third rounds in the morning (Lowry is 7-under with Landry and Dustin Johnson next at 3-under apiece), then start their fourth and final rounds later in the day....

Muchova beat Garbine Muguruza en route to the third round at Flushing Meadows last year and added Karolina Pliskova to her resume in reaching the Wimbledon quarterfinals this year. However, Williams never looked in danger of suffering a similar shock at Arthur Ashe Stadium, requiring only 75 minutes to wrap up a 6-3, 6-2 victory. Williams dropped a set against Caty McNally in the second round, but an ominous run of seven successive games helped her seal a win that sets up a clash with Petra Martic next....

Williams will be a heavy favorite given her 19-2 head-to-head record against Sharapova, though it will be the first time the rivals have gone up against each other in New York. The pair last competed against one another in the 2016 Australian Open quarterfinals, where Williams was victorious, with a last-16 match at the 2018 French Open a non-starter because of the Williams suffering a pectoral injury. Sharapova has not defeated Williams since 2004 and faces a monumental challenge against the American, who was beaten in the U....

At a Tuesday press conference, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković confirmed that the object that crashed in Zagreb last Thursday was a Soviet-made drone armed with an explosive. As a result, the U.S. will send two F-16 planes to the capital on Wednesday to “give support of Croatia’s security,” he said. Meanwhile, Ukraine continues to plead for protection of its own airspace from Russian forces. The decision comes because Croatia is a member of NATO, while Ukraine, which has been calling for military defense of its skies since the Russian invasion began, does not belong to the alliance....

The State Department is reexamining applications from more than 104,000 people after about 4,000 applications were found to be suspected of containing false information, according to a Reuters report. Over 500 Iraqis that have been accepted as refugees have already been implicated in the alleged fraud, Reuters said. They could now face deportation, according to a document sent to Congress, which says there is “no indication to date that any of these 500+ individuals have ties to terrorism....

The Super Bowl is on February 13, but the offseason beyond that has already kicked off. U.S. Representative Bobby L. Rush, a Democrat from Illinois, wrote a letter about hiring minority coaches in the NFL to fellow Illinois Democrat Rep. Jan Schakowski (D-Ill.), who’s Chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce. That committee oversees professional sports. Here’s what the letter stated. “While 70 percent of National Football League [NFL] players are Black, it is unacceptable and reprehensible that, after the recent firing of Houston Texans Head Coach David Culley and Miami Dolphins Head Coach Brian Flores, we are left with only one Black head coach in the NFL out of the 32 head coaching positions,” Rush wrote, according to NBC Sports....

The withdrawing unit is equivalent to one of five surge brigades in Iraq, Smith said, and is a first installment on Gen. David Petraeus ’s promise to Congress in September to withdraw the brigades by July, 2008. “The improved security situation in Iraq—brought about by the surge of operations, more capable Iraqi Security Forces and the courageous commitment by Iraqi citizens to oppose extremist violence—has made the redeployment of five combat brigades possible,” Smith said....

John Hopkins University’s COVID map reported 20,037,736 cases on Friday, which put the United States ahead of the next highest-infected country, India, by nearly 10 million positive cases. Overall, there have been over 83 million cases of COVID worldwide. Before New Year’s Eve celebrations, officials warned Americans to stay home and continue social distancing. Traditions like New York City’s Times Square’s ball drop were muted, as they were forced to forgo live audiences and the general holiday cheer associated with ringing in each new year....

In fact, it would appear that the Games are garnering a few followers of the four-legged variety, if a video retweeted by the official USA Water Polo account is to be believed. The footage shows a small black cat approaching their owner’s television screen while they are watching the U.S. men’s team going up against Italy in the water polo tournament. This particular cat is not content with remaining as simply a spectator though and instead makes several valiant attempts to get involved in the action....

Frank Molinaro received the final spot on the U.S. team Wednesday after wrestling’s world governing body announced several wrestlers tested positive for meldonium at recent European and Asian Olympic qualifying events. Two of them — Magomedmurad Gadzhiev of Poland and Andriy Kvyatkovskyy of Ukraine — were Olympic qualifiers in the 65 kg (143-pound) class. MORE: U.S. men’s basketball questions | Brazilian star’s warning Those results created a domino effect that netted the U....

Paraguay put their best foot forward from the first minute as they got the better of Mali’s defensive forces. The South Americans didn’t take too long to open their goal tally with the opener coming as early as in the 12th minute. It was number 7 Antonio Galeano who scored a volley to put Paraguay in the lead. Just five minutes following this, Paraguay doubled their scoreline as Leonardo Sanchez’s right-footed low shot stormed into the net....

The officials had to call a timeout after the delivery driver wandered onto the court with a McDonald’s in hand for a hungry spectator. The action was taking place in the corner of the court when the players were joined by the delivery driver, wearing a yellow jacket and emblazoned with Uber Eats. The commentators were dumbfounded as the official tried to wave the driver off the court, without much success, as he looked for the person who had ordered the takeout....

In Guillemot’s internal memo titled “Change Starts Today,” which was republished for the public on Ubisoft’s website, the CEO comments that it is not acceptable for anyone to feel harassed or disrespected at work, and assures that those who have spoken up were heard and “are helping drive necessary change.” Among the changes being made are hiring former Strategic Innovation Lab Projects Director Lidwine Sauer as Head of Workplace Culture, enacting company-wide “employee listening sessions” starting Monday, and releasing an anonymous survey for candid feedback....

Unfortunately, not all game events are made equal. Even in situations where interesting games are being covered, the format of a show can still drag the mood down. This is the main reason why Nintendo Directs are so appreciated these days, as they almost always maintain a good flow between announcements. Pacing and holding interest was much more shoddy in Nintendo’s earliest Directs, and many other companies discovered that it could be an issue once they adopted the format....

Rumor has it that multiple Ubisoft-published games would be added to the service later this year. While not confirmed news at the moment, it’d be interesting to see these games added to the service if the rumors turn out to be true. RELATED: Everything Microsoft Owns Now That the Bethesda Acquisition Is Complete Immortals Fenyx Rising Easily one of the best games of 2020, Immortals Fenyx Rising is one of the better Ubisoft open-world games in recent memory....

Pavel Djundik, a reporter for Wccftech, confirmed on Thursday that Ubisoft sent him a DMCA order to take down the list of games from the Nvidia GeForce Now datamine. That implies that Ubisoft saw something in the leak that it felt was within its rights to defend from being shared publicly, and was willing to use legal force to do so. In other words, it meant something Ubisoft-related within the leak very likely wasn’t just “speculative” or intended just for testing purposes....

That’s the premise of Watch Dogs, the forthcoming open-world game from Ubisoft that grants the player a frightening amount of control over the world around them - from traffic lights to cell phones, fuse boxes to ATMs, cars and security cameras - as they take on the role of Aiden Pearce, a hacker with a grudge, as well as a knack for clawing his way inside Chicago’s central operating system (ctOS) and making it work for him....

While rumors of a new console entry are circling the internet, Ubisoft has begun releasing details regarding Prince of Persia: The Dagger Of Time. Announced as a VR experience, the game involves a minimum of two players (with a maximum of 4) teaming up to find a way out of the Fortress of Time. Players will need to work together and solve puzzles by interacting with objects in their vicinity, climbing locations, and using time control mechanics to reach an end goal....