^{OKLAHOMA CITY: Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton sank the game-winning basket in the final second to give the Pacers a stunning 111-110 fightback victory over Oklahoma City in Thursday’s opening game of the NBA Finals.}

^{Haliburton, who had 14 points and 10 rebounds, gave the Pacers their only lead of the game on a dramatic 21-foot jump shot with 0.3 of a second remaining to deliver a shocker after Indiana had trailed by 15 points with 9:42 remaining.}

^{“We got the stop and coach trusts us in those moments to not call a timeout, trusts me in those moments, guys trust me and just trying to make a play,” Haliburton said of the last shot.
“Basketball is fun, man, winning is fun,” he added in an on-court interview. “That’s a great win for us.”
With a game-closing 14-2 run, the Pacers seized a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series with game two on Sunday at Oklahoma City.
Pascal Siakam led the Pacers with 19 points while reserve Obi Toppin added 17, Myles Turner had 15 and Haliburton and Andrew Nembhard each added 14.
“It was a total team effort, we had so many guys chip in. Obi was huge off the bench, Myles in the fourth, Andrew Nembhard in the fourth — so many guys stepped up and just really proud of this group,” Haliburton said.
The finish evoked memories of the first game in the Eastern Conference finals, when a Haliburton shot at the buzzer bounced high and went in to force over-time as the Pacers stunned New York on the way to a series victory.
The Pacers seek the first NBA crown in their 58-year history while the Thunder, who took a title in 1979 as Seattle, have not won a crown since moving to Oklahoma City in 2008.
Indiana overcame 24 turnovers and a 38-point performance by Oklahoma City’s NBA Most Valuable Player and top season scorer Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
A 12-2 run pulled Indiana within 98-94 with 6:16 remaining in the fourth quarter, with Turner and Toppin each making two three-pointers in the spurt.
The Thunder, with the NBA’s best regular-season record, clung to the lead as Gilgeous-Alexander made a driving layup and added two free throws for a 106-98 edge with 3:24 remaining.
Aaron Nesmith and Nembhard sank back-to-back three-pointers to lift Indiana within 108-105 with 1:59 remaining and after a layup by Gilgeous-Alexander, Nembhard made two free throws and Siakam scored off a rebound to lift the Pacers within 110-109.}

^{Nesmith rebounded a Gilgeous-Alexander miss to set up Haliburton’s game-winning shot.
“We just had to figure out how to win in so many different ways all year,” Haliburton said. “There’s so many weird different ways... we’re a resilient group... We keep believing and we stay together.”
Gilgeous-Alexander scored 12 points in the first quarter and the Thunder forced nine turnovers on the way to a 29-20 lead.
Oklahoma City surged to a 57-45 half-time lead with 19 points from “SGA” while the Thunder, playoff leaders at forcing turnovers, got 18 from Indiana in the first half.
The Pacers pulled within 85-76 entering the fourth quarter but a Jalen Williams slam dunk produced the Thunder’s biggest lead at 94-79 with 9:42 remaining, setting up the intense finish.
Oklahoma City lost its only prior NBA Finals appearance in 2012 to Miami while the Pacers dropped their only prior NBA Finals trip in 2000 to the Los Angeles Lakers.}
 

PARIS: Aryna Sabalenka ended Iga Swiatek’s French Open reign with a devastating third-set performance on Thursday to tee up a Roland Garros final against Coco Gauff after the American knocked out French hero Lois Boisson.
The Belarusian snapped Swiatek’s French Open winning streak at 26 matches with a 7-6 (7/1), 4-6, 6-0 success to reach her first final in the clay-court Grand Slam.
“Iga is the toughest opponent, especially on the clay and at Roland Garros,” said Sabalenka after becoming the first player to defeat Swiatek in a deciding set at the French Open.
“I’m proud that I was able to get this win.”
World number two Gauff ended the dream run of 361st-ranked wildcard Boisson with a 6-1, 6-2 victory in the second semifinal on Court Philippe Chatrier.
Gauff and Sabalenka are level at 5-5 in their head-to-head record and have won one each of their two meetings at major tournaments.
Sabalenka edged a topsy-turvy first set that featured eight breaks of serve in a tie-break, before Swiatek hit back to level the match.
The finale turned out to be a complete anti-climax, as Swiatek made 12 unforced errors in the third set and won only six points.
“I’m glad that I found my serve. It was a bit easier with the serve,” added the 27-year-old Sabalenka. “What can I say, 6-0 — it couldn’t be much more perfect than that!“
Sabalenka is targeting a fourth Grand Slam title and first not on hard courts, after winning last year’s US Open and the Australian Open back-to-back in 2023 and 2024.
Swiatek has still not reached a WTA final since lifting the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen 12 months ago.
She showed signs of a revival on the Paris clay where she has dominated since winning as a teenager in 2020, but her game deserted her in the deciding set as she slipped to only the third French Open defeat of her career.
“I love playing here, so for sure I’m happy that I was fortunate enough to play so many great tournaments here,” Swiatek said.
Sabalenka has now won their last two meetings, and five of 13 in total.
This was the first time the pair, the dominant players in women’s tennis of the past few years, have gone head-to-head at a Grand Slam tournament since Swiatek’s win in the 2022 US Open semifinals en route to the title.
Sabalenka will be the favorite to lift the trophy when she takes on Gauff, to whom she lost in the 2023 US Open final.
Swiatek, who was bidding to become the first woman to win four successive French Opens in over a century, will drop to seventh in the world rankings next week.
Boisson had got the better of third seed Jessica Pegula and world number six Mirra Andreeva in the previous two rounds but the test provided by Gauff proved to be a step too far.
The home crowd were silenced by a ruthless opening set from the second seed.
Boisson briefly raised the French fans from their slumber by breaking back in the second set, only to immediately surrender it straight back.
Gauff clinically finished the job after just 69 minutes on court to book her spot in a second French Open final.
“When you guys were chanting her name, I was thinking my name,” Gauff told the crowd in her on-court interview.
“Obviously there’s still a lot of work to do, but for now I’ll enjoy this one and then prepare for the final tomorrow.”
The 21-year-old suffered an emotional defeat by Swiatek in the 2022 final, but will believe she can finally win the tournament in which she has made at least the quarter-finals in five straight editions.
Boisson had been hoping to become only the second Frenchwoman to win the title in the Open era after Mary Pierce, but went out in a blaze of 33 unforced errors.
“Of course I’m really disappointed today, because obviously I wanted to go further than this semifinal, but I’m just going to take the time to digest this,” said the 22-year-old.
She will climb into the world’s top 70 next week and has added 690,000 euros ($789,536) to her previous career prize money of $148,009.