The chant rang out in cavernous Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday at the U.S. Open before Coco Gauff's first service game of her first match of her first Grand Slam tournament as a defending champion: "Here we go, Coco! Here we go!"

Coming to Flushing Meadows off a series of early exits at other events, Gauff already was down 1-0 to Varvara Gracheva, having dropped the match's initial game at love by making four groundstroke errors. What followed was a tough, tight game, featuring 14 points across eight minutes and three break chances for Gracheva.

Novak Djokovic began his bid for a record 25th Grand Slam title and tied Roger Federer with his 89th match win at the U.S. Open by defeating qualifier Radu Albot of Moldova 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 on Monday night.

The second-seeded Djokovic, again wearing a gray sleeve over his surgically repaired right knee, was competing for the first time since claiming an Olympic gold medal three weeks ago at the Paris Games, the last significant achievement that was missing from his resume.

The new Champions League format this season will see more teams playing more games for more prize money.

On Thursday, UEFA makes the draw in Monaco for the match schedule of the new single-standings league phase that replaces the traditional group stage.

Being the follow-up act to the Paris Olympics is no easy task, but the Paralympic Games that begin Wednesday promise to offer up their own fair share of memorable sporting moments.

This is an event that highlights the human ability to overcome hardships and disabilities, so the word "insurmountable" isn't one you're likely to hear in Paris over the next two weeks as around 4,400 athletes with a wide range of life-impacting impairments compete for medals in 549 events across 22 sports.

Spanish champions Real Madrid earned a 3-0 win over Real Valladolid in La Liga on Sunday as Kylian Mbappe made his Santiago Bernabeu bow without finding the net.

Atletico Madrid comfortably beat last season's surprise package Girona by the same scoreline later on in the capital.

Barcelona loaned out French defender Clément Lenglet for the third straight year on Monday, and sent Brazil teenager Vitor Roque to Real Betis after just a half-season.

Lenglet has gone this time to La Liga rival Atletico Madrid which said it signed the 29-year-old center-back "until the end of this season."

Endrick needed only 10 minutes to make an impression in his debut with Real Madrid.

The Brazil teenager replaced Kylian Mbappé late in the match and scored deep into stoppage time to seal Madrid's 3-0 win over Valladolid on Sunday.

German veteran Thomas Müller has set a Bayern Munich club record for Bundesliga appearances.

The 34-year-old Müller made his 474th league appearance for Bayern on Sunday, going on as a substitute in the second half of Bayern's 3-2 win at Wolfsburg.

Ons Jabeur, the 2022 U.S. Open women's runner-up, withdrew from this year's tournament Thursday because of a shoulder injury.

Jabeur was to be the No. 17 seed in the tournament that begins Monday. The U.S. Tennis Association said Elise Mertens, the next-highest player eligible to be seeded, will become the No. 33 seed.

Valentina Petrillo fell in love with athletics as a 7-year-old while watching Italian sprinter Pietro Mennea win gold in the 200 meters at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

"I said I wanted to be like him," said Petrillo, a transgender woman who was raised as a boy. "I wanted to put on the blue (Italy) shirt, I wanted to go to the Olympics. But — and there was a but — I wanted to do it as a woman because I didn't feel like a man, I didn't feel like myself."