SKIING

Katharina Liensberger ended Austria’s six-year wait for a women’s World Cup slalom victory on Saturday in Are, Sweden.

In the last race before the World Cup Finals, Liensberger overtook first-run leader Mikaela Shiffrin with a free-flowing final run, beating the American by 0.72 seconds. Shiffrin, who turned 26 on Saturday, was chasing her 70th career win. She led Liensberger by 0.19 after the opening run, but had lost her advantage by the second split of her final run.

“I knew Liensberger would be pushing very hard,” Shiffrin said. “I tried to push and kind of keep up with the pace, so I can take some good things from it.”

Discipline leader Petra Vlhova, who won Friday’s floodlit slalom on the same course, finished only in eighth following a big mistake in the Slovakian’s opening run. The result re-opened the fight for the season-long slalom title, as Vlhova had her lead over Liensberger reduced to 22 points, with Shiffrin 37 behind in third.

A race win is worth 100 points. The last race is next Saturday in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.

MEN’S WORLD CUP: Marco Odermatt won a men’s World Cup giant slalom on Saturday in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, to go top of the discipline standings with one race remaining.

The Swiss skier had a blistering final run as he improved from fourth position to win the race by more than a second. Odermatt overtook his main rival in the GS standings, Alexis Pinturault, and built a lead of 25 points. The Frenchman finished Saturday’s race in fourth.

One more GS is scheduled – at the season-ending finals in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, next week.

AUTO RACING

XFINITY: Austin Cindric used a dominant performance and a good restart with two laps left Saturday for his second straight victory at Phoenix Raceway.

Cindric won again on the track where he captured his first NASCAR Xfinity Series championship in November. He led 119 of 200 laps in the No. 22 Ford and was never far from the front of the field, but he had to survive a chaotic restart with a couple laps left for his second victory of the season.

Ty Gibbs, the 18-year-old who won in his first Xfinity start on the road course at Daytona last month, was second after starting 27th.

FORMULA ONE: Murray Walker, the voice of Formula One as a commentator on British television with a high-octane style, has died. He was 97.

The British Racing Drivers’ Club announced Walker’s death on Saturday but did not provide a cause.

Walker’s broadcasting career spanned more than 50 years, working for the BBC and ITV before he retired from commentating in 2001.

“His passion and love of the sport inspired millions of fans around the world,” F1 tweeted. “He will forever be a part of our history, and will be dearly missed.”

SOCCER

PREMIER LEAGUE: Sheffield United started preparing for life outside the Premier League by announcing the departure of manager Chris Wilder on Saturday with the team in last place and headed for relegation.

Wilder had been manager of his boyhood club for nearly five years, leading the Blades from the third division to the Premier League. They had been challenging for European spots last season, but they’ve won just four games in the current campaign. The decision for Wilder to leave was made “following discussions” and agreed to by mutual consent, the club said.

United started the season with a 17-game winless streak but at that time the club’s Saudi owner, Prince Abdullah Bin Mosaad Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, said the club was sticking with Wilder.

With 10 games remaining, the Blades are 12 points from safety ahead of a Sunday match at Leicester.

BUNDESLIGA: Robert Lewandowski scored again Saturday as Bayern Munich extended its Bundesliga lead with a 3-1 win at Werder Bremen.

Lewandowski took his season tally to 32 league goals and matched the record of scoring against 16 different teams within a season. He managed the same feat last season. Former Bayern great Gerd Müller and Bremen striker Aílton are the only others to manage it.

Lewandowski has so far only failed to score against Leipzig this season. The teams meet in Leipzig on April 3, when the Poland striker will be aiming to become the first player to score against every opponent in a season.

TENNIS

DUBAI CHAMPIONSHIPS: Garbiñe Muguruza ended her almost two-year wait for a title with a 7-6 (6), 6-3 win against Barbora Krejcikova in the final of the Dubai Championships on Saturday.

In her third attempt at a title this season, the former No. 1 hit seven aces and saved seven of the nine break points she faced to beat Czech doubles specialist Krejcikova. It’s the 27-year-old Spanish player’s first title since winning in Monterrey in April 2019. Muguruza lost the Qatar Open final last week to Petra Kvitova and the Yarra Valley Classic final last month to Ash Barty.

Overall, it’s Muguruza’s eighth career singles title, including two Grand Slam titles at Roland Garros in 2016 and Wimbledon in 2017.

QATAR OPEN: Nikoloz Basilashvili downed Roberto Bautista Agut 7-6 (5), 6-2 in the final of the Qatar Open for his fourth ATP title.

The Georgian earned the first two break points at 3-2 in the second set, and he took his chance before going on to close out the match in 90 minutes.

Basilashvili had only won two matches from his previous 16 going into the tournament, but he saved a match point to defeat Roger Federer in the quarterfinals.

OPEN 13: Top-seeded Daniil Medvedev will bid for his 10th career title when he meets unseeded Pierre-Hugues Herbert in an unusual-looking Open 13 final in Marseille, France.

Sunday’s decider pits two-time Grand Slam runner-up Medvedev against a player who owns all four majors in doubles but has never won a singles title, and is ranked 93rd. Medvedev, who climbs to No. 2 in the rankings next week, led 6-4, 3-0 against qualifier Matthew Ebden when the Australian retired through an unspecified injury on Saturday.

Boosted by his win over second-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas on Friday, Herbert brushed aside fourth-seeded Ugo Humbert 6-3, 6-2. He had nine aces and did not face a single break point in their all-French match.