HOUSTON -- The door to re-signing free agent Alex Bregman is "cracked" open for the Astros, but keeping the third baseman with the team might still be a long shot, general manager Dana Brown said Saturday.

Speaking at the team's fan fest, Brown talked at length about the possibility of re-signing Bregman, who has spent his entire nine-year career with the Astros.

"The interesting thing is, when we made some trades and some moves this offseason, we never realized that Bregman would still be on the market at this time," Brown said. "We've had some conversation and I could kind of leave it there, but we've had some conversations."

He added those conversations were positive before he was asked whether that means that the door for re-signing Bregman is still open.

"I would say it's cracked, right," Brown said. "The fact that he's still available, it just makes it interesting like, man, this guy is such a good player, he's done so many wonderful things here. And so, we'll stick with the cracked door and see what our conversations lead to."

If Houston brings Bregman back, it would create a crowded situation in the infield. They traded outfielder Kyle Tucker to the Chicago Cubs for infielder Isaac Paredes before signing free agent first baseman Christian Walker this offseason.

"Our group is pretty set," Brown said. "We made some moves and some trades and solidified our top five in our lineup, and so it's a long shot, but the fact that [Bregman's] a free agent, we'll have discussions about him like we have discussions about every other free agent."

The day that Walker was introduced in Houston, Brown said Walker would be the team's first baseman and that Paredes would play third. But Brown said Saturday that Bregman would play third base if he were to re-sign.

"I love watching Bregman play third base, so I can't imagine putting Bregman or having [manager Joe Espada] put Bregman in any other position other than third base," Brown said. "That's his home. He puts on clinics when he's playing third base, and he's just as special as anybody, Gold Glove there, and so I can't picture him playing anywhere else."

Bregman is a two-time All-Star who won a Gold Glove last season and a Silver Slugger Award in 2019 when he came in second in American League MVP voting.

Espada said he has kept in touch with Bregman, 30, throughout the offseason and that while he tries to give him space, he wants to make sure he understands that he wishes he would stay in Houston forever.

"I tell him all the time ... this is home," Espada said. "I understand the process. You sit down with your family, you're trying to do what's best for you, your family and your kids. But this is home, and this is his family."

While Bregman would remain at third base in Houston, it's unclear whether his return would force Jose Altuve to move from second, a position he has played his entire 14-year career.

Altuve was vocal at the end of last season about his desire for Bregman to remain with the team, but Espada wouldn't say whether he has spoken to him about the possibility of changing positions to facilitate that.

"If we get there, we'll have that conversation with him, but his willingness to do whatever it takes to win -- it's important to us," Espada said. "He's a cornerstone of this team. He's the heart of this organization. He understands that ... but if we get to that point, I'm sure that we'll have that conversation and we'll talk about how that's going to look moving forward."

Altuve said those conversations haven't happened but that he would be open to whatever the team needs.

"Alex, he's one of the best players in the whole league, but he's definitely one of the best players on the team, so we want him to stay," Altuve said. "So whatever I have to do for him to stay, I'm willing to do it."

Some believe that Altuve would need to move to the outfield if Bregman returns. He was asked about how difficult it would be to make the transition after never playing outfield at any level of his career.

"For Alex, nothing will be difficult," he said with a smile.

Altuve said he has gone through a range of emotions in the past few months as he has tried to figure out where Bregman would sign.

"I thought he's going to be back for sure," Altuve said. "Then I thought he's not coming back for sure. Now I'm like, OK, in the middle."

From a teenage prodigy to a tour stalwart with "gnarly" injuries, Madison Keys' road to Grand Slam glory has been long and complicated.

The newly-crowned Australian Open champion broke through on the WTA Tour when she was just 14 and was instantly tipped as a future major winner.

Now, a few weeks before her 30th birthday, the American has finally achieved her goal.

Keys capped an impressive run at Melbourne Park with a shock win over two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka in Saturday's final.

"From a pretty young age, I felt like if I never won a Grand Slam then I wouldn't have lived up to what people thought I should have been," Keys said.

"That was a pretty heavy burden to carry around."

Keys' journey to the Melbourne title has not been easy.

In April 2009, aged 14 years and 48 days, she became the youngest player since Martina Hingis in 1994 to win a Tour-level match.

Six years later she reached the Australian Open semi-finals before going a step further at the 2017 US Open.

But Keys froze in her first major final. She won just three games against Sloane Stephens in a match she thought of "endlessly for the past eight years".

Although she has reached five other major semi-finals since, Keys has battled injury problems and dropped out of the world's top 50 in 2022

"I had to go through some tough things," said Keys, who will now rise to seventh in the world.

"It forced me to look at myself in the mirror and try to work on the internal pressure I was putting on myself.

"I finally got to the point where I was proud of myself and my career, with or without a Grand Slam.

"I feel like letting go of that kind of internal talk gave me the ability to go out and play some really good tennis."

Mohamed Salah moved up to seventh in the Premier League's all-time goalscoring chart with his 35th-minute strike during Liverpool's clash with Ipswich Town at Anfield on Sunday.

The Egypt international has been in inspired form for Arne Slot's table-topping side this season and netted his 176th goal in the division to move clear of Thierry Henry (175) and one behind Chelsea legend Frank Lampard (177).

• Liverpool vs. Ipswich Town - follow live on ESPN

DENTON, Texas -- Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders is in attendance for the East-West Shrine Bowl, but he won't participate in practice or the game.

Sanders met with teams Friday, including the Tennessee Titans, Cleveland Browns and New York Giants.

The Titans, who have the first overall pick, met with Sanders for 45 minutes. The meeting also included a surprise FaceTime call from Shedeur's father, Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders.

"He's really poised and had mature way about him," Titans coach Brian Callahan told ESPN. "You can tell he's been in the spotlight and knows how to handle it."

The Browns have the second pick in the draft, followed by the Giants.

Shedeur's older brother Shilo, a safety, is also in Texas for the game, which is Thursday. Colorado is also represented by wide receivers Will Sheppard, LaJohntay Wester, Jimmy Horn Jr. and cornerback Cam'Ron Silmon-Craig.

Shedeur Sanders will meet with reporters Saturday afternoon.

ESPN's Daniel Oyefusi contributed to this report.

Hewett was world number one when Oda emerged as wheelchair tennis' new star by winning his first major title at the 2023 French Open - just one month after turning 17.

The pair have met 19 times, with Oda winning on 10 occasions.

However, Hewett has proved the better player on hard courts and was emotional as he claimed his ninth win over Oda on the surface.

"I didn't expect me to start blubbering on the court, to be honest, but I'm probably harbouring a few feelings from the last couple of matches that we've played," said Hewett.

"It does knock you deep down, your belief and confidence in the big moments. For me to do it and prove to myself more than anyone that I can rise to the occasion against a player like him, it was very overwhelming."

Hewett compared his contests with Oda as wheelchair tennis' version of the Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal's rivalry.

"Tokito has come on tour and made us all just be better because we have to be," he said. "Otherwise, he will dominate.

"You have to be challenged. You have to be pushed to your limits. We have a good relationship, and I'm glad he's pushing me, and I'm sure I'll be pushing him, and he will say the exact same. It's a bit of a Federer-Nadal situation - wheelchair version."

Sabalenka was the pre-match favourite, having won 33 of her previous 34 matches on the Australian hard courts.

But Keys, a powerful baseliner, is one of the few players on the WTA Tour who has the weapons to damage Sabalenka.

The explosive match-up led to a gripping final where Keys won only one more point overall.

A stunning opening set, where she whacked 11 winners and had a rock-solid first serve, set the platform.

Keys was also helped by a nervy start from Sabalenka, whose once-unstable second serve returned to trouble her.

Two double faults in the opening game allowed Keys to break, while another set up a second break point in the fifth game which Sabalenka handed over with a sliced forehand into the net.

Keys continued to play lights out, thumping clean winners from the back of the court and also showing deft touches.

A bemused Sabalenka could only smile when Keys pulled out an ice-cold drop-shot on the way to holding for 5-1.

However, Sabalenka was furious with herself after a fourth double fault handed over another set point, which Keys took with a backhand winner.

"She played super aggressive. It seemed like everything was going her way," said Sabalenka.

"I was just trying to put the ball back. I couldn't really play my aggressive tennis and didn't feel my serve that well."

Who can blame squash administrators during the boom years in Australia for not engaging the wider community for long-term sustainability? 

Squash courts and player participation have since fallen by the wayside and the next few years will be critical as Australia prepares for squashs hopeful Olympic stay before Brisbane 2032.

At Squash Queensland, where Shantel Netzler is CEO, the body was long connecting with the community before the Olympic announcements. 

Netzler took over the role in 2021 from Colette Sultana, a Maltese national player, and says success is down to working smart as squash fights for attention. It is a competitive sporting market and its about working smart and building on our strengths, she says.

Netzler, a mother-of-four, was the first Samoan woman to be appointed on to the Queensland Rugby Union Community Advisory Panel and the Brisbane Junior Rugby Union Board.

She also realises, with her children all playing sports year-round such as basketball, volleyball and rugby, that squash isnt a sport offered in schools in Queensland. But we are working hard to change that, she adds.

The strength of squash is to make sure it is part of a larger ecosystem.

Netzler came in originally as a part-timer due to the state of the game and is now full-time and leaning hard on government relations which she says is one of the states strengths in the last 12 months.

Squash Queensland has engaged with 12 out of 77 councils, with their players stretching right from Weipa down to the Gold Coast. 

Beforehand, there was no engagement with the wider sporting community due to the strength of squash, she admits.

The strength is our community clubs, not just pennant players. People have changed their lifestyle since Covid, we have two working parents compared to the 1970s and 1980s.

Netzler is at pains to partner with other sports and clearly knows the value of community partnering with basketball and rugby clubs, which have prime real estate in Brisbane and are open to having squash courts in their facilities.

Coming from a rugby background into the sport, Im very much from the community and what it takes to run a successful club, she admits.

She points to how three-year-olds have watched squash on Bluey [a cartoon character and one of the most watched programmes in the US] an episode which is based on a club in Queensland and was somewhat a coup for the sport given the young eyeballs watching.

It is leveraging those cross-promotional opportunities and taking the court out into the council and school events, says Netzler.

As soon as you put a racket in someones hands and let them go, its not about the coaching, its allowing them to have a go and they dont want to come off. It doesnt have to be so complex.

What Ive loved about my engagement this year is seeing their eyes light up. A lot of the people I have spoken to have had some affinity with squash in the past, its bringing those good feelings back into the game, be it as a fan or getting back onto court.

Admittedly, people still tell her that they dont know where their nearest court is, but Squash Queensland is seemingly on the right lines to changing perceptions.

And Netzler is well versed to deal with the task at hand after running the largest rugby association and an 8,000-strong junior competition in Brisbane. 

Although she wont get into the specifics of the current Right Ball campaign, which Squash Mad has been running, she is eager to engage in making sure kids who try out squash arent put off.

If you look at every successful sport, they have modified rules and learning, its about getting more engaged in the sport, she says.

Ive seen some matches with one hit, one serve and wheres the enjoyment in that? Its about competence, confidence and being able to enjoy the game.

With around 100,000 playing squash nationally, she estimates around 12-20,000 are on her patch and wants to add numbers through outdoor squash activation and school squash.

She says: I am really excited about Brisbane 2023 and being able to leave a legacy. 

With the Australian Open in March, rolling out the biggest governance project in Queensland and being able to unlock the most funding for the sport in 20 years, we are only scratching the surface and being able to deliver some real outcomes for our members.