A5
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2021
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WOMEN’S
BASKETBALL
Analysis | Australian Open tennis
Djokovic right to focus
on Federer, Nadal, Slams
Hamish Blair/AP
Serbia’s Novak Djokovic celebrates after defeating Russia’s Daniil Medvedev in the men’s singles final at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne,
Australia, on Sunday. It was the 33-year-old Serbian’s 18th major championship.
World’s No. 1 has his sights set on rivals and record books
BY HOWARD FENDRICH
AP Tennis Writer
I
t didn’t take long for Novak Djokovic to
make his intentions clear: All that matters
to him from here on out is catching Roger
Federer and Rafael Nadal in the Grand
Slam standings.
Forget about winning other, run-of-the-mill
tournaments or playing enough to retain the
No. 1 ranking.
There is one, primary goal for the 33-year-
old from Serbia. He wants to keep adding to
his 18 major championships — he reached that
number with No. 9 at the Australian Open on
Sunday — until he no longer trails Federer and
Nadal, who share the men’s record of 20.
“They’ve made history already. They made a
tremendous mark in our sport,” Djokovic said.
“Whether I think about winning more Slams
and breaking records? Of course, I do. And
most of my attention and my energy from this
day forward, until I retire from tennis, is going
to be directed (at) majors, trying to win more
major trophies.”
Which is perfectly fine. There is no need for
pretense. And there is absolutely no require-
ment that he show up to compete more often
than he really wants or in places other than
where he really wants. If all that matters to
Djokovic from a tennis standpoint is accumu-
lating Slams, and playing less frequently will also
protect his body — he had surgery on his right
elbow three years ago; his 2021 Australian Open
nearly was derailed by what he said was a torn
abdominal muscle — that is his prerogative.
It isn’t much different from what Federer
himself or 23-time major champion Serena
Williams, for that matter, have done for years.
“I think 99.9% of players — kids that get a
racket in their hands — start dreaming about
what they want to achieve. It’s a Grand Slam,
winning a major,” Djokovic explained after his
commanding performance in a 7-5, 6-2, 6-2
victory over Daniil Medvedev in the final at
Melbourne Park.
“I mean, I don’t feel like I’m old or tired or
anything like that,” he said. “But I know that bi-
ologically and realistically, things are different
than they were 10 years ago for me.”
Connected to that: His latest triumph at the
Australian Open came with the additional bo-
nus of assuring a stay atop the ATP rankings
until at least March 8.
See Djokovic / A6
MLB
NASCAR | CUP SERIES
Spring training
still a hot ticket
in sunny Arizona
Bell snags first Cup win in
another surprise for Gibbs
BY DAVID BRANDT
Associated Press
PHOENIX — Even during a pandemic,
the appetite to sit in the sun and watch Ma-
jor League Baseball spring training appears
robust.
The Arizona Diamondbacks sold out
their entire spring allotment of tickets in less
than 24 hours after they went on sale to the
public. Approximately 2,200 tickets were
sold for all 14 of the team’s home games,
with fans spread throughout the park in
pods of two, four or six seats and masks are
required except when eating or drinking.
That’s 20% of the stadium’s normal
11,000-person capacity.
“The fact that it sold out as fast as it did
— that fires me up,” Arizona manager Torey
Lovullo said. “We’ve been looking forward
to this day as much as them.”
The Colorado Rockies — who share the
Salt River Fields facility with the D-backs —
have also sold out of tickets to their home
games. The two teams open their spring
training schedule against each other next
Sunday. Spring training facilities across Ar-
izona and Florida have been making their
own decisions about how many fans — if
any — are allowed to attend games.
See MLB / A6
BY JENNA FRYER
AP Auto Racing Writer
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Give
him good cars and Christopher
Bell will win races. But in his sec-
ond race? With a new team? That
seemed unlikely.
Bell defied the odds Sunday and
earned his first career Cup series
victory — in just his second race
since Joe Gibbs Racing pulled him
back into its inner circle — to close
out an unpredictable week of racing
at Daytona International Speedway.
Michael McDowell was the sur-
prise Daytona 500 winner and then
Bell earned an earlier-than-ex-
pected first trip to victory lane. It’s
just the third time in NASCAR his-
tory the first two races of the season
were won by first-time winners. It
was previously done in 1949 and
1950 — NASCAR’s first two sea-
sons.
More important, Bell and Mc-
Dowell have snagged coveted
berths in the 16-driver playoff field,
a troubling trend for mid-pack
teams that need all 26 regular-sea-
John Raoux/AP
Christopher Bell celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series
road course auto race at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday in Florida.
son races to point their way into the
championship picture. Race win-
ners earn automatic berths and the
remaining spots are decided by the
points standings.
“The dynamic has changed dra-
matically,” Brad Keselowski said.
“We’re very early in the season and
it’s now turned into a points race
for those last few spots. If you don’t
win, you’re in a lot of trouble be-
cause it’s not looking like you’re go-
ing to be able to get in the playoffs.”
See NASCAR / A6
Goodman leads
OSU to upset UCLA
Aleah Goodman scored
20 points, Taylor Jones
posted her fifth dou-
ble-double of the season
and Oregon State upset
eighth-ranked UCLA 71-
64 on Sunday to boost its
NCAA Tournament hopes.
UCLA was within two
late in the fourth quar-
ter, but Goodman hit a
3-pointer with 1:32 re-
maining to extend Ore-
gon State’s lead to 66-61.
Jones had 16 points and
11 rebounds as the Bea-
vers controlled the inside
with a 38-24 advantage in
points in the paint.
The game was tied at
57 with 5:57 remaining
but the Beavers (8-6, 6-6
Pac-12) outscored the
Bruins 14-7 the rest of the
way. Talia von Oelhoffen’s
jumper from beyond the
arc put Oregon State on
top for good.
Michaela Onyenwere
led UCLA (13-4, 11-4) with
21 points and Lauryn
Miller added 13. The Bru-
ins, who posted a 27-point
win over No. 13 Oregon
on Friday, shot a sea-
son-low 27.6% from the
field (21 of 76).
UCLA trailed 49-42 late
in the third quarter before
going on a 10-2 run over
the final 2:32 to take a
52-51 lead going into the
final 10 minutes. Onyenw-
ere and Natalie Chou each
had four points during
the rally and Charisma
Osbourne hit a jumper in
the lane with a second re-
maining to put the Bruins
on top for the first time
since early in the second
quarter.
Oregon State trailed 18-
13 at the end of the first
quarter, but took control
in the second outscoring
the Bruins by 10 to grab a
36-31 advantage at half-
time. The Beavers started
the second quarter with
an 11-2 run and led by
eight at various points in
the period.
Parrish nets 17, No.
13 Oregon tops USC
Sydney Parrish hit four
3-pointers and scored 17
points off the bench and
No. 13 Oregon ended a
three-game losing streak
with a 72-48 win over
USC on Sunday.
The Ducks, who lost
to three-straight Top 10
teams, matched their sea-
son high with 12 3-point-
ers on 28 attempts and
shot 48% overall (27-56),
their best shooting per-
formance after seven
games of shooting be-
tween 32 and 43%.
Erin Boley added
13 points and eight re-
bounds for Oregon (13-
7, 10-6 Pac-12 Confer-
ence), which has won
10 straight in the series.
Nyara Sabally and Se-
dona Prince both scored
11. Te-Hina Paopao had
eight assists and Parrish
four steals.
Alissa Pili scored 14
points for the Trojans (10-
10, 8-9), who shot just
33% (18 of 55).
Taylor Chavez and
Boley opened the game
with 3-pointers and the
Ducks never trailed. USC
tied the game at 14 but
Oregon scored the next
six. A 10-0 run in the mid-
dle of the second quarter,
featuring back-to-back
Sabally and Parrish 3’s,
made it 34-20 and the
lead was in double fig-
ures the rest of the way.
Oregon went 2-9 from
3-point range and was
just 6 of 16 overall in the
third quarter but limited
the Trojans to 10 points.
The Ducks are sched-
uled to play rival Oregon
State on home next Sun-
day to close the regular
season. USC wraps up at
No. 8 UCLA on Sunday.
— Associated Press