SOCCER
Nashville midfielder Hany Mukhtar has been named Major League Soccer’s Most Valuable Player after leading the league with 23 goals and 11 assists.
The 27-year-old German’s combined goals and assists were the fifth most for a season in league history.
He was especially productive in the final 22 games of the season with 21 goals and seven assists. He had eight goals and four assists in August.
Nashville finished fifth in the Eastern Conference standings and lost 1-0 to the LA Galaxy in the first round of the playoffs.
Mukhtar, who joined Nashville in 2020, is the first German-born player to win the league’s Landon Donovan MLS MVP award. No American has been voted MVP since Chicago Fire forward Mike Magee in 2013.
The MVP is voted on by players, club technical staffs and the media. Mukhtar finished with 48.03% of the votes, followed by Austin’s Sebastian Driussi with 16.8%. Philadelphia goalkeeper Andre Blake finished third with 7.87%.
The Philadelphia Union and LAFC play Saturday in the MLS Cup final in Los Angeles.
SOCCER
WORLD CUP: Kyle Walker and Kalvin Phillips should recover from their injuries in time to be available to England for the World Cup, Manchester City Manager Pep Guardiola said.
England Coach Gareth Southgate will announce his squad next week and is unlikely to see Walker or Phillips return to action before naming his 26-man group for the tournament that starts on Nov. 20.
Walker underwent a groin operation last month, and Phillips had surgery on his shoulder in September. Both played a key role in England’s run to the European Championship final last year.
Guardiola said Phillips was ahead of Walker in his recovery but was still doing only “partial” and “non-contact” training sessions.”
AUTO RACING
INDYCAR: The tit-for-tat war between Zak Brown and Chip Ganassi took another turn when Arrow McLaren SP announced it had signed both a Ganassi sponsor and Tony Kanaan to drive the Indianapolis 500.
Kanaan spent four seasons driving for Chip Ganassi Racing and the last two Indianapolis 500s. The 2003 winner finished third this past May at Indy.
Kanaan will be sponsored by NTT DATA for his 22nd Indy 500, and the technology and business solutions provider will also be the primary sponsor for Felix Rosenqvist for 10 races on the No. 6 Chevrolet.
NTT Data had been a Ganassi sponsor since 2013 and was the primary sponsor for 2020 champion Alex Palou, who spent most of the IndyCar season locked in a battle to move from Ganassi to McLaren in 2023.
TENNIS
PARIS MASTERS: Defending champion Novak Djokovic started his chase for a record-extending 39th Masters title by beating Maxime Cressy of the United States 7-6 (1), 6-4 in the second round at Paris.
Cressy saved three break points in the eighth game but then hit two double-faults in the tiebreaker, which Djokovic won with an ace.
Cressy also double-faulted at 4-4 in the second set to hand two break points to Djokovic, who broke with a forehand return winner. The Serb converted his first match point with a backhand volley.
Andrey Rublev and Hubert Hurkacz stayed in contention for the two remaining spots at the ATP Finals.
Rublev cruised past John Isner 6-2, 6-3 in the second round and Hurkacz edged wild-card entry Adrian Mannarino 7-6 (5), 6-4 in the first round.
WTA FINALS: No. 1 Iga Swiatek extended her winning streak against opponents ranked in the top 10 to 13 matches and opened her bid for her first WTA Finals title with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Daria Kasatkina in round-robin play at Fort Worth, Texas.
Swiatek has asserted herself as a dominant force in women’s tennis this season, claiming two Grand Slam titles and eight tournament trophies in all. Her 65-8 match record leads the tour, too. That includes a 5-0 mark against Kasatkina this year.
GYMNASTICS
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: The U.S. women’s gymnastics team won its record sixth straight world gymnastics team titley, taking the lead in the first rotation to win going away at Liverpool, England.
The American team of Shilese Jones, Jade Carey, Leanne Wong, Jordan Chiles and Skye Blakely posted an all-around score of 166.564, more than three points clear of host Britain in second at 163.363.
Canada finished in the top three for the first time at the world championships, with 27-year-old Ellie Black’s rock-solid beam routine in the final rotation helping the Canadians surge to a team total of 160.563, nearly a full point better than Brazil.
The U.S., Britain and Canada automatically qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
HORSE RACING
MELBOURNE CUP: French-bred six-year-old Gold Trip won the 162nd running of the Melbourne Cup ahead of Emissary and High Emocean over 3,200 meters in Australia’s most famous horse race.
One of five runners for co-trainers Ciaron Maher and David Eustace in the race, Gold Trip was ridden by Mark Zahra and won by a length and a half.
More than 80,000 spectators packed Flemington race track under mostly rainy and cloudy conditions. It was the first time the grandstand held unlimited fans since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
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