Following is a summary of current sports news briefs.

Gymnastics-Biles says she should have quit before Tokyo Games

Four-times Olympic gold medallist Simone Biles told New York Magazine that she should have quit gymnastics “way before Tokyo,” where she suffered from a case of “twisties” that derailed her attempt at a record haul of six golds. The 24-year-old American dropped out of the opening event at the Summer Games, the team competition in July, after just one vault and later said she was struggling with the “twisties,” a serious mental block in which gymnasts lose their sense of orientation.

Barty returns to Australia to see family, no decision on rest of season

World number one Ash Barty has made no decision on the rest of her season despite pulling out of next month’s WTA 1000 tournament at Indian Wells to return to Australia to see her family, her team told Reuters on Tuesday. The Wimbledon champion last played at the U.S. Open where she was knocked out in the third round and following her withdrawal from Indian Wells speculation was rife that the 25-year-old has ended her 2021 campaign.

England World Cup winner Hunt dies at 83

England’s World Cup-winning striker Roger Hunt died at the age of 83 on Monday following a long illness, his former club said. Hunt, who scored three goals during England’s victorious World Cup campaign on home soil in 1966, was also Liverpool’s record scorer with 285 goals in 492 appearances until Ian Rush broke the record in 1992.

Tennis-Raducanu handed Indian Wells wildcard entry

U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu will play in her first tournament since stunning the tennis world at Flushing Meadows after being handed a wildcard for next month’s WTA 1000 tournament at Indian Wells, organisers said on Tuesday. The 18-year-old Briton became the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam earlier this month when she beat fellow teenager Leylah Fernandez of Canada in straight sets.

ATP roundup: Two seeds fall in Sofia

Both seeded players in action lost Monday during the opening round of the ATP Tour’s Sofia (Bulgaria) Open. Italy’s Gianluca Mager upset sixth-seeded Adrian Mannarino of France 6-3, 6-2, and France’s Benoit Paire knocked off seventh-seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain 6-4, 7-5.

MLB roundup: Mariners climb within 1 1/2 games of playoff spot

The Seattle Mariners continued their dominance of the visiting Oakland Athletics on Monday night, riding Mitch Haniger’s pair of three-run home runs to a 13-4 trouncing of their American League West rivals in the opener of a three-game series. Seattle pulled within 4 1/2 games of the first-place Houston Astros in the AL West while moving within 1 1/2 games of Boston in the chase for the second AL wild card. The A’s fell 3 1/2 games behind the Red Sox in the wild-card race.

NFL-New uniform, same Tom Brady: Super Bowl champ set for dramatic Foxborough return

Tom Brady walks into Gillette Stadium in a different uniform but in the familiar role as defending Super Bowl champion on Sunday, playing in New England for the first time as a Tampa Bay Buccaneer. The 44-year-old returns to the New England Patriots’ home turf for the first time since he left after two era-defining decades in which he picked up six of his seven Super Bowl titles before shattering hearts among the team’s fanatic base with his departure.

Usyk eyes heavyweight unification fight after Joshua rematch

Newly crowned world heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk expects a rematch against Anthony Joshua in February or March and has his sights on a title unification bout, his team said on Tuesday. The Ukrainian defeated Joshua in a boxing masterclass at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on Saturday in front of 67,000 fans, earning a unanimous points decision to take his British rival’s WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO belts.

Golf-Westwood would revert to four captain’s picks if chosen to lead Ryder Cup team

Lee Westwood said he would restore the number of captain’s picks to four and make other changes to the selection process if chosen to lead Europe’s Ryder Cup team in 2023. Europe were thrashed 19-9 by the United States at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin as the Americans reclaimed the trophy at the biennial competition.

Basketball-With an ‘underdog’ mentality, Connecticut’s Jones snares WNBA MVP honor

Connecticut Sun forward Jonquel Jones said an “underdog” mentality helped propel her to the top of her sport, after being named the winner of the WNBA’s Most Valuable Player award on Tuesday. Jones won the award in her fifth WNBA season after she received 48 of 49 first-place votes and 487 total points from a national panel of sportswriters and broadcasters, the league said, just four years after she was named Most Improved Player.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)