■ Basketball
Lakers expect Kobe Bryant
Embattled NBA star Kobe Bryant is expected to be in attendance when the Los Angeles Lakers' veterans report to training camp in Hawaii in early October, a team spokesman said Tuesday. "It is our understanding that he will be there and he will participate," spokesman John Black said by telephone from Los Angeles. Black said the team has not heard otherwise from Bryant or his agent and is preparing for camp accordingly. The 24-year-old guard is charged with sexual assaulting a 19-year-old woman at a Colorado, hotel on June 30. Bryant has said the two had consensual sex. The NBA star is due to return to Colorado for a preliminary hearing Oct. 9. The Lakers, who last held training camp in Hawaii in 2001, open camp on Sept. 30. Veterans including Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal and newcomers Karl Malone and Gary Payton are scheduled to report Oct. 2. The Lakers play Golden State in exhibition games on Oct. 7 and 8 before returning to Los Angeles on Oct. 9.
■ Panam games
Cuban athletes defect
Three Cuban athletes have defected to the Dominican Republic, where they were competing in the Pan American Games, an official said Tuesday. The defections occurred during the international competition, which started Aug. 1 and ended Sunday, said General Fernando Cruz, director of the Dominican intelligence agency. Cruz refused to give further details on the defections. To diminish the potential for further defections, Dominican officials doubled security during the baseball final Aug. 12 between the US and Cuba. Soldiers in camouflage stood around the Cuban dugout during batting practice and guarded much of the section where Cuba's delegation was seated. Some gates that had previously been open during the tournament were locked and guarded. Defections by Cuban athletes are not rare. Two Cuban gymnasts participating in the World Championships defected Tuesday in California.
■ Athletics
Carl Lewis enters plea
Nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis pleaded innocent Tuesday to a charge of drunken driving. Attorney Mark Rafferty appeared at the Metropolitan Branch Courthouse to enter the plea on behalf of his client to one count of driving under the influence. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for Sept. 16. The charge stemmed from an early morning crash on April 21 involving Lewis' 2004 Maserati. Lewis allegedly lost control of the car and struck a sound wall on the side of the Harbor Freeway in South Los Angles, said city attorney spokesman Frank Mateljan. Lewis was arrested by the California Highway Patrol after allegedly failing field sobriety tests. A breath test administered at a police station allegedly showed a blood-alcohol reading of .08 percent, the level at which a driver is considered intoxicated in California.
■ Tennis
Paes undergoes treatment
Leander Paes, one of the world's best doubles tennis players, is being treated for a brain lesion and will miss the upcoming US Open. Paes, 30, suffered severe headaches late last week. He checked himself into an emergency room near his Orlando home Sunday, and a scan showed a lesion in the left occipital region of the brain. He was transferred to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Orlando on Tuesday, hospital spokeswoman Michelle Lynch said. Tests are being conducted to determine the lesion's cause, with the results expected within a few days.
Nottingham Forest FC are to go into the Europa League play-off round after a 4-0 win over Ferencvaros TC on Thursday, while Celtic FC secured their place in the knockout phase with a victory over FC Utrecht. Aston Villa FC finished second in the league phase after recovering from two goals down to beat FC Red Bull Salzburg 3-2 with their spot in the last 16 already assured. Forest stood an outside chance of climbing into the top eight going into the final round of matches, but needed to beat Robbie Keane’s Ferencvaros and rely on other results going their way. Sean Dyche’s
HEATED RIVALRY: The pair had met 14 times previously, with Sabalenka winning eight of the encounters and entering the final as the favorite to take the title Elena Rybakina took revenge over world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka to win a nail-biting Australian Open final yesterday and clinch her second Grand Slam title. The big-serving Kazakh fifth seed held her nerve to pull through 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne in 2 hours, 18 minutes. It was payback after the Belarusian Sabalenka won the 2023 final between two of the hardest hitters in women’s tennis. The ice-cool Rybakina, 26, who was born in Moscow, adds her Melbourne triumph to her Wimbledon win in 2022. It was more disappointment in a major final for Sabalenka, who won the US Open
Denver superstar Nikola Jokic returned from a 16-game injury absence to post a 31-point, 12-rebound double-double on Friday and propel the Nuggets to a 122-109 NBA victory over the Los Angeles Clippers. Three-time NBA Most Valuable Player Jokic had not played since suffering a bone bruise in the left knee he hyperextended in a game against Miami on Dec. 29 last year. The Serbian big man did not miss a beat. He led all scorers, connecting on eight of 11 shots from the field, and also handed out five assists with three steals while playing just 24 minutes, 32 seconds as the
BATTERED AND BRUISED: Alcaraz suffered a cramp in the third set, but was allowed treatment despite Zverev’s protests, and continued on to win in five-and-a-half hours An ailing Carlos Alcaraz battled past Alexander Zverev yesterday in five epic sets to reach his first Australian Open final and move within a match of becoming the youngest man to complete a career Grand Slam. The world No. 1 outlasted the German third seed 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (3/7), 6-7 (4/7), 7-5 over a titanic 5 hours, 27 minutes in hot conditions to head to tomorrow’s title match. He only narrowly avoided crashing out after a huge fright at 4-4 in the third set when he pulled up in pain with what appeared to be cramp. He was allowed to have treatment
RSS