HOCKEY

Liam Coughlin scored in the sixth round of a shootout and the Worcester Railers were successful on 5 of 6 attempts as they earned a 3-2 win Wednesday night against the Maine Mariners in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Conner Bleakley, Matthew Santos, Jason Horvath, Patrick Shea all scored in the shootout for Maine before a final attempt by Cam Askew missed the net.

Maine’s Keltie Jeri-Leon opened the scoring in the first period. Worcester took the lead on goals by Zach Malatesta and Coughlin, but Andrew Romano tied it early in the third.

TENNIS

DAVIS CUP: Novak Djokovic won his singles and doubles matches Wednesday to lead Serbia into the semifinals of the Davis Cup Finals with a 2-1 win over Kazakhstan in Madrid.

The top-ranked Djokovic had to win his match after Mikhail Kukushkin defeated Miomir Kecmanovic in the opening singles match. The decisive doubles match later Wednesday pits Djokovic and Nikola Cacic against Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov.

Serbia will face Croatia, which got past Italy on Monday.

KONTA RETIRES: British tennis player Johanna Konta announced her retirement, saying: “I just ran out of steam.”

Konta, 30, reached a high in the rankings of No. 4 and was a four-time title winner on the WTA.

She became the first British woman to reach the Wimbledon semifinals in 39 years when she got to that stage in 2017. She was also a semifinalist at the Australian Open (2016) and French Open (2019).

BASKETBALL

WNBA: A diversity report has awarded the WNBA high grades again when it comes to racial- and gender-hiring practices.

The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at Central Florida issued an A-plus to the WNBA for the league’s overall, racial and gender grades for the 2021 season. The letter grades matched the previous season’s report and marked the 17th straight year that the league earned at least an A in all three categories.

The numerical score for overall (97.6) and racial (98.3) both increased from last year, while the gender score (96.8) fell slightly. The study notes that the gender decline of 1.2 points was at least partially attributed to a change in grade calculation.

The league earned an A-plus for race in numerous categories, including team owners, head coaches, assistant coaches, team professional staff and the league headquarters. The lowest racial-hiring grade was a B for vice presidents.

SOCCER

MLS: Nashville’s Walker Zimmerman is Major League Soccer’s Defender of the Year for the second straight season.

Zimmerman, who also plays for the U.S. national team, is the third player overall and first in more than a decade to earn the award in consecutive years.

Nashville’s defense allowed less than a goal per game this season, tied for best in the league. Nashville also shared the league lead with 13 shutouts.