Today's sports news: what you need to know

Latest - There will be no defending champion at next week's Tour Championship after Tiger Woods failed to qualify for the season-ending event.

Only the top 30 players on the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup points list are eligible to play at the Atlanta event.

Woods needed to place about sixth at the BMW Championship on Sunday to qualify, but he tied for 37th at Medinah, a distant 18 strokes behind winner Justin Thomas.

Apart from his win at the Masters for his 15th major title, Woods had a relatively quiet season, which petered out without a whimper amid physical and emotional fatigue.

"The rest of the tournaments I didn't really play as well as I wanted to, but at the end of the day, I'm the one with the green jacket," he told reporters.

- Reuters

Dixon still in contention

Scott Dixon remains in contention to retain his IndyCar title.

A first lap crash and a premature finish truncated the Pocono 500 in Pennsylvania with Dixon holding to grab second.

A half a dozen cars were taken out just after the start and the race was stopped for an hour.

Lightning forced an early finish to the race after just 126 of the 200 laps with Australian Will Power finishing ahead of Dixon.

Defending series champion Dixon remains in fourth place overall, but is now just 52 points behind leader Josef Newgarden.

There are three rounds remaining.

Medvedev and Keys win in Cincinnati

Russian Daniil Medvedev has claimed his first ATP Masters title after a straight-sets win over David Goffin in the final in Cincinnati.

Ninth-seeded Medvedev followed up his semi-final win over Novak Djokovic by beating Goffin 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 in one hour 39 minutes to guarantee his place in the world's top five for the first time when the rankings are released tomorrow.

It was the second title of the year for Medvedev - who had lost finals on the past two weekends, to Nick Kyrgios in Washington and Rafa Nadal in Montreal - and sets him up nicely for the US Open starting on August 26.

American Madison Keys beat Svetlana Kusnetsova of Russia in straight sets to win the womens title.

- Reuters

Thomas claims another title

Justin Thomas has claimed his 10th PGA Tour victory with a three-shot win at the BMW Championship in Chicago.

Thomas closed with a final round 68 at Medinah to finish at 25-under-par with Patrick Cantlay (65) runner-up. Hideki Matsuyama's sizzling 63 earned him third place at 20 under.

Thomas now leads the FedEx Cup standings and is in the driver's seat to win the $23 million prize with a solid performance at the season ending Tour Championship.

In the past four PGA Tour seasons, only former world No.1 Dustin Johnson (11) has won more tournaments than Thomas.

The 26-year-old Thomas becomes just the fifth player since 1944 to win 10 PGA tour events including a major (2017 US PGA Championship) before the age of 27.

Only Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth have achieved that feat.

- AAP

Frank still waiting for a win

Chelsea manager Frank Lampard had to settle for a 1-1 draw against Leicester City in his first home match in charge on Sunday as a second-half header by Wilfred Ndidi cancelled out Mason Mount's early goal on his home debut.

Chelsea raced into a quick lead when the 20 year-old Mount, one of a crop of young players given their chance by Lampard, stole the ball from a dallying Ndidi and left Kasper Schmeichel with no chance with his shot in the seventh minute.

But Leicester grew into the game and equalised in the 67th minute when Ndidi atoned for his first-half error by heading home a James Maddison corner. Maddison, Jamie Vardy and Youri Tielemans spurned chances to win it for Leicester late on.

Chelsea have one point from two games, a point behind Leicester.

Meanwhile, John Lundstram's second-half goal gave Sheffield United a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace, in the first English Premier League football game at Bramall Lane for 12 years.

- Reuters

Black Sticks win

The New Zealand men's hockey team has beaten India 2-1 in their second game of the Tokyo Olympic Test series.

Indian converted a penalty corner after two minutes, while New Zealand didn't get onto the score sheet until the final quarter when Jacob Smith scored in the 47th minute and Sam Lane grabbed grabbing the winner in the final minute.

The Black Sticks beat Japan 4-3 in their opening game.

Next up the men will face Malaysia tomorrow night.

All Blacks return to provinces

Nine All Black squad members have been released to play for their provinces in this week's provincial rugby games.

Halfback Brad Weber will turn out for Hawke's Bay against Otago who have hooker Liam Coltman and first five Josh Ioane available.

Loosie Vaea Fifita will play for Wellington and centre Braydon Ennor for Canterbury for their match at Westpac Stadium.

Prop Atu Moli will play for Tasman and lock Jackson Hemopo for Manawatu for their match in Blenheim.

Wing Rieko Ioane is available for Auckland for their game against Bay of Plenty and loosie Luke Jacobson is available for Waikato for their game against Counties Manukau.

NZ boats in medal hunt in Enoshima

New Zealand's Sam Meech retained first in the Laser fleet, despite finishing 13th in yesterday's only race, while Peter Burling and Blair Tuke are second in the 49er and Alex Maloney and Molly Meech climbed into fourth in the 49erFX at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic test event.

The 49erFX fleet finished their second race going upwind on what was supposed to be a downwind and Meech had to watch a number of boats slip past him when he was forced to execute a 720-degree penalty turn right on the finish line.

Maloney and Meech enjoyed the best results of the NZ, finishing third and sixth in their two races today, and they are now within striking distance of the three leading crews.

Olympic champions Burling and Tuke carded a 13th (their discard) and ninth in the two races to slip from first to second.

Cole retires

Former England, Arsenal and Chelsea defender Ashley Cole, one of the most decorated players in English domestic football, has announced his retirement from the game, bringing an end to a colourful 20-year career.

The 38-year-old, who also had spells at AS Roma in Italy's Serie A and LA Galaxy in Major League Soccer, last represented Championship (second-tier) outfit Derby County before his contract expired at the end of last season.

The left back won three Premier League titles, seven FA Cups and a League Cup during his career. He also won the Champions League and UEFA Cup once each while at Chelsea.

- Reuters

Woodward has concerns about England

England's failure to experiment with different combinations in their 13-6 World Cup warm-up defeat by Wales yesterday could return to haunt them, former coach Clive Woodward has said.

Victory at Cardiff helped Wales top the world rankings and avenge their loss in the reverse fixture last Sunday as the Rugby World Cup looms.

"When the World Cup is done and dusted no one will remember or care about the result of these warm-up games," Woodward, who led England to World Cup glory in 2003, wrote in a column for the Daily Mail.

"But (coach) Eddie Jones might remember his failure to try out some of his options and it could come back to haunt him."

Woodward was disappointed with the decision not to deploy George Ford as a scrumhalf, having previously stated that the Leicester Tigers player would provide cover in the position at the World Cup in Japan.

- Reuters

Beale having surgery

Warriors centre Gerard Beale is facing surgery in Sydney after suffering a serious knee injury during his side's 42-6 NRL loss to Sydney Roosters.

The 29-year-old was taken from the SCG after eight minutes following a collision with Roosters prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves.

Warriors coach Stephen Kearney said he didn't get a chance to speak with Beale as he was immediately taken to hospital, with initial reports suggesting a fractured kneecap.

Beale, in his second season with the Warriors, also suffered a broken leg during the 2017 World Cup that sidelined him for nearly six months.

- AAP