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Victoria Mboko set for WTA Rankings breakthrough with Pan Pacific resurgence

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The past few months have been a struggle for Victoria Mboko as she battled to follow up her stunning Canadian Open title with good results, but she has finally found form again as she has now won back-to-back matches at the Pan Pacific Open.

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The teenager announced herself on the global tennis stage in Montreal in August when she beat two-time Grand Slam winner Coco Gauff, 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina and 2020 Australian Open winner Sofia Kenin en route to reaching the WTA 1000 final.

In the showpiece match, she faced former world No 1 Naomi Osaka and, after making a sluggish start to the match, she defeated the four-time major champion in three sets to win her maiden WTA Tour title, aged just 18.

Mboko surged into the top 30 of the WTA Rankings on the back of that run, but then struggled with a wrist injury and a loss of form as she lost her opening matches at the US Open, China Open, Wuhan Open and Ningbo Open.

Suddenly her Canadian Open title run felt like ages ago, but she finally got out of her slump as she won her first match in more than two months when she beat fellow Canadian Bianca Andreescu in the first round in Tokyo and she has now followed it up with a confident 6-1, 6-1 win over Eva Lys.

Top 20 Breakthrough

With her back-to-back wins, she has risen three places in the rankings to make her top-20 debut, currently sitting at No 20, and in the process reclaimed the title as Canadian No 1, but the race for the top spot is very much still alive with Leylah Fernandez also in the draw.

Fernandez surged five places to No 22 following her title run at the Japan Open last week and was her country’s top player in the rankings, but she has now dropped to No 2 on the back of Mboko’s revival.

But the battle could intensify in the coming days as the two are projected to meet in the quarter-final of the WTA 500 event, although Fernandez has a big hurdle to clear as she faces second seed Elena Rybakina in the round of 16.

If she gets past Rybakina, then there will be an all-Canadian match-up in the last eight.

The Battle Goes On

As things stand in the Live Rankings, Mboko sits on 1,913 points with Fernandez on 1,821 ahead of her next match, and there is good news for the former as the 2021 US Open runner-up won’t be able to move past her even if she wins her second-round match.

Fernandez will be on 1,869 points if she beats Rybakina and she will only move ahead of Mboko if she wins their quarter-final match.

So Mboko has the title of Canadian No 1 in her own hands as victory over Fernandez will help her to keep top spot for now.

 

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Paige Spiranac’s surprising NFL fandom confession triggers heated debate over loyalty, authenticity, and fan culture

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The 2026 NFL Draft starts Thursday night in Pittsburgh, and the spotlight isn’t only on prospects and front offices. Golf influencer Paige Spiranac has again found herself pulled into NFL conversation, this time for her open support of multiple teams.

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With the Steelers hosting the first round, her long-standing connection to Pittsburgh has resurfaced. But it’s not just about hometown ties. Her broader fandom, which stretches beyond one franchise, continues to draw mixed reactions at a time when fan loyalty is often treated as non-negotiable.

Paige Spiranac roots for 2 NFL teams: Who are they?

Paige Spiranac has never hidden where her loyalties lie, even if they don’t fit the usual mold. She has consistently pointed to her roots while leaving space for other allegiances.

“Both my parents are from Pittsburgh so I’ve been a Steelers ..fan since the day I was born. I also love the Bills. It’s a complicated relationship…Who’s your team?” she previously asked her followers. It’s a candid admission, one that reflects personal history more than calculated fandom.

Still, the reaction has been sharp. NFL culture tends to rew ..

 

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Quiet moments on the course can say a lot about what’s coming next.

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Sometimes the most important work happens when nobody is really watching.
Lexi Thompson was out on the 18th green, working through her putting during a practice round ahead of the Chevron Championship in Houston.

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It’s a simple scene, but it shows the kind of quiet preparation that goes into these big tournaments—getting the feel of the greens, adjusting to conditions, and building trust in every stroke.

These are the small details that can shape how a player starts when the pressure kicks in.

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Predicting what will happen to Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson if LIV Golf collapses

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It looks like LIV Golf is over.

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The Saudi Public Investment Fund has reportedly decided that this league simply isn’t worth the hole it’s burning in their pocket, and they’re pulling funds at the end of 2026.

That gives them less than a year to seek new investment. While CEO Scott O’Neil seems confident, it’s going to be extremely difficult to secure funding for a league that is operating at such eye-watering losses.

So this probably pulls the curtain closed on one of the most turbulent, frustrating, confusing, and ridiculous eras in golfing history. Hopefully, we can all return to some reality after the year is over.

But there is still so much uncertainty surrounding golf’s future thanks to this. Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed saw the signs early and jumped ship, but they did that with some leverage. So what on earth is going to happen to the rest of these players who didn’t take the olive branch when it was offered to them?

Feelings will be hurt, and careers will be ended. Let’s take a look.

Jon Rahm rejoins the PGA Tour

Koepka returned to the PGA Tour under the returning member program, which saw him pay $5 million to charity, accept that he’ll receive no FedEx Cup bonus money, and agree he cannot be a sponsor exemption for the 2026 signature events.

 

That same deal was offered to Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau. They didn’t accept it, but a similar offer will likely be handed out to them again.

 

If LIV Golf folds, Rahm will not hold the same leverage as Koepka did, but he is a bigger star at this stage of his career. Make no mistake, the PGA Tour will want him back immediately.

But Rahm does risk leaving himself without any options at all. Reed didn’t come straight back to the PGA Tour, so he’s spending a year on the DP World Tour first. You’d imagine Rahm would consider doing the same, but it might not be so easy for him.

Rahm is in a feud with the DP World Tour, as the only one of eight players to reject a deal which would have seen him retain his full-time membership. If Rahm agreed to play in six DP World Tour events this year, then he could have played on both LIV Golf and the tour. He did not agree.

For now, his membership is at risk. So, will it be possible for him to spend a season on the DP World Tour like Reed? Maybe not. That makes it all the more likely that Rahm will be back on the PGA Tour the moment LIV folds.

Bryson DeChambeau does YouTube full-time

With DeChambeau, I don’t think it’s as much of a done deal that he returns to the PGA Tour. Not immediately anyway.

He’s been negotiating his contract with LIV, which expires at the end of this season. During these negotiations, he’s made it very clear that he is completely willing to step away from full-time competition and be a full-time YouTuber.

DeChambeau’s channel has over two million subscribers, so he could feasibly do that with all of the money he’s making there.

He was annoyed to see LIV move to a four-day format, so he could commit himself fully to being the content king. It would be a wild thing to do, but it’s also exactly the kind of move you could see the two-time major winner making.

He could qualify for The Open Championship and the US Open, and earn enough points there to play The Masters and the PGA Championship. It’s possible.

He does seem to live for competition, so maybe YouTube won’t quite scratch the itch, but it is on the table for DeChambeau. At least for a year until his suspension expires. Out of Rahm and DeChambeau, the American is absolutely the least likely to take a deal.

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