Friday’s Sports In Brief – Yahoo Sports

TENNIS

NEW YORK (AP) — Before Jack Sock took on 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic in the third round, the 23-year-old American acknowledged that, as of a couple of years ago, simply making it that far would have made him, to use two of his words, ”satisfied” and ”excited.” Now Sock wants more.

Sock overwhelmed No. 7-seeded Cilic 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in a little more than 1 1/2 hours to reach the fourth round at Flushing Meadows for the first time. He will face No. 9 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France. Tsonga advanced with a 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4) victory over No. 23 Kevin Anderson.

Other men into the round of 16 included No. 1-seeded and defending champion Novak Djokovic, No. 4 Rafael Nadal, No. 10 Gael Monfils, No. 24 Lucas Pouille, and 2006 Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis.

Djokovic, who advanced when Mikhail Youzhny stopped because of a strained left hamstring while trailing 4-2, will face 84th-ranked Kyle Edmund of Britain. The 21-year-old Edmund got past 20th-seeded American John Isner 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (5).

In the women’s draw, No. 2 Angelique Kerber, No. 7 Roberta Vinci, No. 8 Madison Keys, No. 13 Johanna Konta and former No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki also advanced.

NFL

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) – The union for police officers who work San Francisco home games says its members may boycott policing the stadium if the 49ers don’t discipline Colin Kaepernick for refusing to stand during the national anthem and for his statements about law enforcement.

A letter from the Santa Clara Police Officers Association sent to the 49ers was obtained by KNTV-TV, the NBC affiliate in San Jose.

The quarterback has refused to stand for the anthem at the team’s preseason games, most recently taking a knee a game in San Diego on Thursday night, to some boos from the crowd. He has cited racial injustice and police brutality among the many reasons for his protest.

BOSTON (AP) – The NFL suspended New England Patriots defensive end Rob Ninkovich for the first four games of the regular season for violating the NFL’s policy on performance enhancing substances.

It is the latest blow to the Patriots, who will also be without quarterback Tom Brady the first four games as he serves a league-imposed suspension for his role in the ”Deflategate” case.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

HOUSTON (AP) – The Big 12 has narrowed the field of candidates for possible expansion to 11 schools, with Memphis and Temple among the latest to be cut from consideration, a person with direct knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press.

The Big 12 will not be making public any of its dealings with schools interested in joining the 10-team conference.

Big 12 officials are planning to start holding meetings in the Dallas area next week with BYU, Air Force, Central Florida, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Colorado State, Houston, Rice, SMU, South Florida and Tulane. The next meeting of Big 12 presidents and chancellors is in mid-October.

BASEBALL

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Yasiel Puig returned to the Los Angeles Dodgers, seemingly chastened by a monthlong demotion to the minors to work on his hitting and his attitude.

The former All-Star started in right field in the Dodgers’ 4-2 loss to San Diego after being called up earlier in the day from Triple-A Oklahoma City.

The 25-year-old Cuban hit .358 with five home runs and 14 RBIs in 24 games since being optioned to the minors on Aug. 2. He had been hitting just .260 with seven homers and 34 RBIs in 81 games with Los Angeles.

GOLF

NORTON, Mass. (AP) – Ryan Moore changed his schedule to pile up tournaments at the end of the year with hopes of getting into a rhythm going into the FedEx Cup playoffs.

He has no complaints with the results.

Moore backed up a good start to the playoffs with a 6-under 65 to share the first-round lead with James Hahn on a day when hardly anyone seemed too far away. After one round at the TPC Boston, 37 players were separated by three shots.

Phil Mickelson would be an exception. Mickelson, who leads the PGA Tour in adjusted scoring average and said he wanted to win the Vardon Trophy for the first time in his career, took two swipes out of high grass in a water hazard to no avail, finally took a drop and made a quadruple-bogey 8 on the sixth hole. That sent him to 75.

Jim Furyk, J.B. Holmes and Daniel Berger were in the group at 67, all of them to make an impression before Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III starts filling out the U.S. team with three picks in 10 days.