Ukraine’s Svitolina lauds US support

Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina said she had received an outpouring of support from Americans following President Donald Trump’s extraordinary clash with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House last month. Svitolina thanked Americans for their “unwavering support” and “compassion” in a social media post on Sunday after beating Danielle Collins in the third round at Indian Wells. After defeating another American in Jessica Pegula 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 on Tuesday, Svitolina said she’s received solid support at the tournament in the California desert. “Since that meeting in the Oval Office, I got a lot of messages of support from the American people and a lot of people here when I arrived at the tournament, giving love and support to Ukrainians back at home,” she added. “Also the massive support that I got considering I played three American girls back-to-back. It’s amazing.” The U.S. on Tuesday agreed to resume military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine after Kyiv said that it was ready to support Washington’s proposal for a 30-day ceasefire with Russia.

Scheffler takes aim at Players 3-peat

The Players Championship has four decades of history at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, suggesting it doesn’t favor a particular style of golf . And then Scottie Scheffler came along. In one of his more remarkable performances in an astonishing 2024 season, Scheffler nearly withdrew in the second round with a neck injury, made three late birdies Saturday to at least stay in range, then overcame a five-shot deficit to win with a 64. He became the first back-to-back winner of the PGA Tour’s premier tournament, which means next to nothing to the world’s No. 1 player as he goes for three in a row. “What does last year’s tournament have to do with this year?” he said Tuesday. “... Not much, right? ... It’s great to have won the last two years, but can I rely on some of those experiences when I step up on the first tee and give myself a little bit of confidence? Yes.” That’s how he feels about all of last year, when he won nine times — seven on the PGA Tour, including the Masters and The Players, the Olympic gold medal outside Paris and the Hero World Challenge holiday event in the Bahamas.

Real Madrid into UCL quarterfinals

Real Madrid beat Atlético Madrid in a Champions League penalty shootout — again — to keep its title defense alive Wednesday and advance to the quarterfinals. Defender Antonio Rüdiger, left, scored the decisive spot-kick in a 4-2 shootout win after two Atlético players missed. Madrid also beat Atlético in a shootout to win the 2016 final. Madrid moves on to the quarterfinals to face Arsenal, which also advanced Wednesday along with Aston Villa and Borussia Dortmund. The quarterfinals lineup was completed with Madrid’s win in a tense derby that had ended 2-2 on aggregate score. Atletico led 1-0 after 90 minutes and extra time in its Metropolitano Stadium to cancel out Madrid’s 2-1 advantage from the first leg last week. Kylian Mbappé and Jude Bellingham stepped up to score Madrid’s first two spot-kicks, and Fede Valverde also scored. The other quarterfinal pairings are: Paris Saint-Germain vs. Aston Villa, Barcelona vs. Borussia Dortmund, and Bayern Munich vs. Inter Milan. First legs are April 8-9 and return games are one week later. —News services