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American Ben Shelton upset one seeded countryman and set up a quarterfinal showdown with another to open Day 7 of the men’s draw at the U.S. Open on Sunday in New York.
Shelton outlasted No. 14 seed Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the Round of 16. He advanced to face No. 10 Frances Tiafoe, who took care of Australian wild card Rinky Hijikata 6-4, 6-1, 6-4.
At 20 years old, Shelton is the youngest American quarterfinalist at Flushing Meadows since Andy Roddick in 2002. Roddick is also the last American man to win a Grand Slam title (2003 U.S. Open), representing a drought both Shelton and Tiafoe are vying to end.
“Being at home here in front of an American crowd, I have felt the love all week. I played another American today and we had a great battle,” Shelton said. “It is hard to believe I am playing on Arthur Ashe (Stadium) right now with the stands completely full.”
Shelton had a 16-6 advantage in aces and saved 11 of 14 break points against Paul. Shelton also converted six of eight opportunities to break Paul’s serve.
It was revenge for Shelton after Paul defeated him in the Australian Open quarterfinal in January.
“I learned to be mentally tough,” Shelton said. “When I was playing in Australia after a long week I was looking at my box saying ‘My legs are dead, I am tired, I can’t go anymore.’ I realized how important it is to believe in myself. That I can go the full way emotionally and physically and now I have that belief here.”
Tiafoe took care of Hijikata in two hours flat, earning a whopping 15-0 advantage in aces along the way.
He said the lack of success by American men on the global tennis scene was a “definitely unspoken” motivator for the new crop of talent.
“But I mean, it’s definitely a great thing we have, and I hope we just keep going for many years,” Tiafoe said. “We’re young, we’re stepping into (our) prime, so let’s keep going.”
In the two late matches Sunday, No. 9 seed Taylor Fritz will take on Dominic Stricker of Switzerland and No. 2 seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia will face Croatian qualifier Borna Gojo.
It’s been more than four years since the Chicago Fire lost a regular-season home match to a Western Conference opponent.
It’s been even longer since the Vancouver Whitecaps won three consecutive, all-competition road matches during a single season.
Both above the playoff line in their respective conferences, the Fire and visiting Whitecaps look to extend those streaks when they meet Wednesday night.
The Fire (8-9-8, 32 points) enter this mid-week match owning the ninth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. However, they’ve been outscored 6-1 while losing consecutive MLS matches to Orlando City and Los Angeles.
“We know that we have the ability to get to the playoffs, and we are focusing on this short-term objective,” Fire defender Carlos Teran told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Though the loss to Orlando came at home on Aug. 20, Chicago is unbeaten in 14 consecutive regular-season home matches against teams from the West – dating to a 4-2 defeat versus Seattle on March 16, 2019. The Fire are 2-1-3 all time at home against the Whitecaps.
Vancouver (9-8-7, 34 points), though, has a chance to post three straight overall road victories in the same season for the first time since June 2015. After winning in penalties at Tigres UANL in Leagues Cup play earlier this month, the Whitecaps, sitting seventh in the West, got two goals and an assist from Ryan Gauld en route to a 3-2 victory at Portland from Saturday.
“You could feel (Saturday) that the team’s in a good place,” said Gauld, whose nine goals are tied with Brian White for the team lead.
“You can see the fight and resilience in everyone.”
Gauld has recorded two two-goal performances in his last three MLS matches. Meanwhile, White has three goals with three assists in his last six league matches. White also scored in three straight MLS road matches.
Chicago forward and ex-Whitecap Kei Kamara remains one MLS regular-season goal shy of matching Landon Donovan (145) for second on the all-time list. Kamara has a team-leading five goals this season, but none since June 21 versus Portland.
Elizabeth Amirault had never heard of a Narx Score. But she said she learned last year the tool had been used to track her medication use.
During an August 2022 visit to a hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Amirault told a nurse practitioner she was in severe pain, she said. She received a puzzling response.
“Your Narx Score is so high, I can’t give you any narcotics,” she recalled the man saying, as she waited for an MRI before a hip replacement.
Tools like Narx Scores are used to help medical providers review controlled substance prescriptions. They influence, and can limit, the prescribing of painkillers, similar to a credit score influencing the terms of a loan. Narx Scores and an algorithm-generated overdose risk rating are produced by health care technology company Bamboo Health (formerly Appriss Health) in its NarxCare platform.
Such systems are designed to fight the nation’s opioid epidemic, which has led to an alarming number of overdose deaths. The platforms draw on data about prescriptions for controlled substances that states collect to identify patterns of potential problems involving patients and physicians. State and federal health agencies, law enforcement officials, and health care providers have enlisted these tools, but the mechanics behind the formulas used are generally not shared with the public.
Artificial intelligence is working its way into more parts of American life. As AI spreads within the health care landscape, it brings familiar concerns of bias and accuracy and whether government regulation can keep up with rapidly advancing technology.
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The use of systems to analyze opioid-prescribing data has sparked questions over whether they have undergone enough independent testing outside of the companies that developed them, making it hard to know how they work.
Lacking the ability to see inside these systems leaves only clues to their potential impact. Some patients say they have been cut off from needed care. Some doctors say their ability to practice medicine has been unfairly threatened. Researchers warn that such technology — despite its benefits — can have unforeseen consequences if it improperly flags patients or doctors.
“We need to see what’s going on to make sure we’re not doing more harm than good,” said Jason Gibbons, a health economist at the Colorado School of Public Health at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus. “We’re concerned that it’s not working as intended, and it’s harming patients.”
Amirault, 34, said she has dealt for years with chronic pain from health conditions such as sciatica, degenerative disc disease, and avascular necrosis, which results from restricted blood supply to the bones.
The opioid Percocet offers her some relief. She’d been denied the medication before, but never had been told anything about a Narx Score, she said.
In a chronic pain support group on Facebook, she found others posting about NarxCare, which scores patients based on their supposed risk of prescription drug misuse. She’s convinced her ratings negatively influenced her care.
“Apparently being sick and having a bunch of surgeries and different doctors, all of that goes against me,” Amirault said.
Database-driven tracking has been linked to a decline in opioid prescriptions, but evidence is mixed on its impact on curbing the epidemic. Overdose deaths continue to plague the country, and patients like Amirault have said the monitoring systems leave them feeling stigmatized as well as cut off from pain relief.
The last state to adopt a program, Missouri, is still getting it up and running.
More than 40 states and territories use the technology from Bamboo Health to run PDMPs. That data can be fed into NarxCare, a separate suite of tools to help medical professionals make decisions. Hundreds of health care facilities and five of the top six major pharmacy retailers also use NarxCare, the company said.
The platform generates three Narx Scores based on a patient’s prescription activity involving narcotics, sedatives, and stimulants. A peer-reviewed study showed the “Narx Score metric could serve as a useful initial universal prescription opioid-risk screener.”
NarxCare’s algorithm-generated “Overdose Risk Score” draws on a patient’s medication information from PDMPs — such as the number of doctors writing prescriptions, the number of pharmacies used, and drug dosage — to help medical providers assess a patient’s risk of opioid overdose.
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Bamboo Health did not share the specific formula behind the algorithm or address questions about the accuracy of its Overdose Risk Score but said it continues to review and validate the algorithm behind it, based on current overdose trends.
Guidance from the CDC advised clinicians to consult PDMP data before prescribing pain medications. But the agency warned that “special attention should be paid to ensure that PDMP information is not used in a way that is harmful to patients.”
This prescription-drug data has led patients to be dismissed from clinician practices, the CDC said, which could leave patients at risk of being untreated or undertreated for pain. The agency further warned that risk scores may be generated by “proprietary algorithms that are not publicly available” and could lead to biased results.
Bamboo Health said that NarxCare can show providers all of a patient’s scores on one screen, but that these tools should never replace decisions made by physicians.
Some patients say the tools have had an outsize impact on their treatment.
Bev Schechtman, 47, who lives in North Carolina, said she has occasionally used opioids to manage pain flare-ups from Crohn’s disease. As vice president of the Doctor Patient Forum, a chronic pain patient advocacy group, she said she has heard from others reporting medication access problems, many of which she worries are caused by red flags from databases.
“There’s a lot of patients cut off without medication,” according to Schechtman, who said some have turned to illicit sources when they can’t get their prescriptions. “Some patients say to us, ‘It’s either suicide or the streets.’”
The stakes are high for pain patients. Research shows rapid dose changes can increase the risk of withdrawal, depression, anxiety, and even suicide.
Some doctors who treat chronic pain patients say they, too, have been flagged by data systems and then lost their license to practice and were prosecuted.
Lesly Pompy, a pain medicine and addiction specialist in Monroe, Michigan, believes such systems were involved in a legal case against him.
His medical office was raided by a mix of local and federal law enforcement agencies in 2016 because of his patterns in prescribing pain medicine. A year after the raid, Pompy’s medical license was suspended. In 2018, he was indicted on charges of illegally distributing opioid pain medication and health care fraud.
“I knew I was taking care of patients in good faith,” he said. A federal jury in January acquitted him of all charges. He said he’s working to have his license restored.
One firm, Qlarant, a Maryland-based technology company, said it has developed algorithms “to identify questionable behavior patterns and interactions for controlled substances, and for opioids in particular,” involving medical providers.
The company, in an online brochure, said its “extensive government work” includes partnerships with state and federal enforcement entities such as the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General, the FBI, and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
In a promotional video, the company said its algorithms can “analyze a wide variety of data sources,” including court records, insurance claims, drug monitoring data, property records, and incarceration data to flag providers.
William Mapp, the company’s chief technology officer, stressed the final decision about what to do with that information is left up to people — not the algorithms.
Mapp said that “Qlarant’s algorithms are considered proprietary and our intellectual property” and that they have not been independently peer-reviewed.
“We do know that there’s going to be some percentage of error, and we try to let our customers know,” Mapp said. “It sucks when we get it wrong. But we’re constantly trying to get to that point where there are fewer things that are wrong.”
Prosecutions against doctors through the use of prescribing data have attracted the attention of the American Medical Association.
“These unknown and unreviewed algorithms have resulted in physicians having their prescribing privileges immediately suspended without due process or review by a state licensing board — often harming patients in pain because of delays and denials of care,” said Bobby Mukkamala, chair of the AMA’s Substance Use and Pain Care Task Force.
Even critics of drug-tracking systems and algorithms say there is a place for data and artificial intelligence systems in reducing the harms of the opioid crisis.
“It’s just a matter of making sure that the technology is working as intended,” said health economist Gibbons.
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.
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August 30, 2023
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Europe’s six automatic qualifiers for the 2023 Ryder Cup are set, with Matt Fitzpatrick and Robert MacIntyre securing the final two spots on Sunday.
They join Tyrrell Hatton, Viktor Hovland, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm as the first players in for Team Europe and captain Luke Donald.
The Ryder Cup will be contested Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club near Rome. The United States is the defending champion but has not won in Europe since 1993.
Fitzpatrick qualified via the world points list after his third-place finish Sunday in the Omega European Masters in Switzerland. MacIntyre went the route of the European points list and qualified despite a 55th-place finish.
Fitzpatrick, an Englishman who won the 2022 U.S. Open, will be making his first Ryder Cup appearance on European soil. He played in the United States in 2016 and 2021.
MacIntyre, from Scotland, is a Ryder Cup rookie.
“There are many major milestones in every Ryder Cup journey but there is no question that finalizing the automatic qualifiers for Team Europe is most definitely one of them,” Donald said.
“These six players have been standout performers throughout the qualification period and I am delighted to welcome each and every one of them officially to the 2023 team.”
The team is led by Northern Ireland’s McIlroy, the World No. 2 who will be making his seventh straight Ryder Cup appearance. Rahm, the World No. 3 from Spain, won the Masters Tournament this year and is a veteran of two World Cup teams.
Hovland, the FedEx Cup champion, became the first Norwegian to play in the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits, Wis., in 2021. Hatton will be making his third straight Ryder Cup appearance.
Donald is scheduled to announce his six captain’s picks Monday morning.
U.S. captain Zach Johnson unveiled his six captain’s picks earlier this week.
The team he takes to Italy consists of the automatic qualfiers — World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman, Patrick Cantlay, Max Homa and Xander Schauffele — plus his picks. They are Sam Burns, Rickie Fowler, Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas.
It might look like a new era at Wake Forest, but the Demon Deacons want to keep up their regular production of churning out solid seasons.
Their latest campaign begins with Thursday night’s game against visiting Elon in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Gone is quarterback Sam Hartman, taking his extra season of eligibility at Notre Dame, so the Demon Deacons are stocked differently but plenty confident they have the right pieces.
“So we have guys that maybe haven’t played a lot, but they’ve been in our program for three, four, five years, and now they’re having their opportunity to play,” said coach Dave Clawson, who’s beginning his 10th season at Wake Forest. “There’s still a maturity of our team. We’re not as experienced, but we’ll get that experience.”
Mitch Griffis will be the starting quarterback for Wake Forest. Griffis also started the 2022 opener when Hartman dealt with a medical condition.
“I (like) how comfortable he is leading, directing,” Clawson said. “That experience he had last year starting that first game I think that gives him a lot of confidence.”
The Demon Deacons, who were 8-5 last season despite losing four of their last five regular-season games, will begin the season without receiver Donavon Greene, who’s out with a knee injury sustained on the first day of practice. Receivers such as Taylor Morin and Jahmal Banks should keep things moving.
“That’s a deep position for us,” Clawson said.
Wake Forest, which is 7-2 in openers under Clawson, has qualified for a bowl game for seven consecutive seasons.
Elon (8-4) is coming off a season that ended in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. The Phoenix are breaking in a different quarterback after Matthew McKay’s one season.
Elon will go with graduate transfer Matthew Downing, who has played in games for Georgia, TCU and Louisiana Tech.
“We knew he would bring maturity and experience,” Elon coach Tony Trisciani said. “He has got arm talent. He can throw some different balls.”
Trisciani enters his fifth season as head coach of the Phoenix with a 20-20 record.
Wake Forest is 11-0-1 all-time vs. Elon, winning the most recent matchup 49-7 in 2019. Elon has never posted a double-digit point total against the Demon Deacons.
“We want to hang around,” Trisciani said. “We want to be there at halftime, want to be there in the third quarter, and be there in the fourth quarter.”
Kansas standout quarterback Jalon Daniels is expected to start Friday night against Missouri State despite dealing with a back injury during fall camp.
The preseason Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year hasn’t had a lot of practice work leading up to the season opener.
“We just released the two-deep, and that’s kind of where we’re at right now and where we’re going,” Jayhawks coach Lance Leipold said Monday. “He hasn’t practiced a lot, but he went through everything today, and yeah, we’re planning on playing everyone who is available.”
Jason Bean is listed as the backup quarterback on the depth chart.
Daniels passed for 2,014 yards, 18 touchdowns and just four interceptions last season. He also rushed for 425 yards and seven scores.
Leipold said he isn’t concerned about playing Daniels against an FCS program like Missouri State.
“That’s the balancing act we have to do here,” Leipold said. “We’re getting him as much work as we can, as many different ways as we can. He’s been getting work; he’s been doing things. To make it sound like he’s never practiced the last two weeks is not accurate, either. We’re confident.
“Unfortunately for him, it’s something he’s gone through before, getting little reps and where he is at, but I think we’re in a good spot with him.”
The agent for Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Derek Barnett is seeking trade partners, ESPN reported Monday.
Barnett, who tore his ACL in Week 1 of the 2022 season, now finds himself behind a slew of young and talented defensive linemen in Philly and is looking for an opportunity for more playing time, per the report.
The Eagles, however, are planning to keep Barnett, per ESPN.
Barnett has been a full participant in training camp.
Barnett, 27, has 21.5 sacks in 65 games (45 starts) in six seasons with the Eagles, who selected him No. 14 overall in the 2017 draft.
The Eagles restructured Barnett’s contract earlier this summer, and he’s set to make $3.5 million this season.
Barnett is listed behind starter Josh Sweat at right defensive end. Brandon Graham is the Eagles’ starting DE on the other side. The Eagles also have Haason Reddick and rookie Nolan Smith.
The Indianapolis Colts are reportedly cutting wideout Breshad Perriman, a former first-round draft pick.
Multiple outlets reported Monday on the impending release of Perriman, who signed with the Colts in June.
Perriman, who turns 30 on Sept. 10, caught four passes for 34 yards during the preseason.
The Baltimore Ravens selected Perriman with the 26th pick in the 2015 NFL Draft.
He has 145 receptions for 2,343 yards and 16 touchdowns in 80 games (25 starts) with the Ravens (2016-17), Cleveland Browns (2018), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2019, 2021-22) and New York Jets (2020).
NFL teams have until 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday to reduce their rosters to 53 players.
