■ Soccer
West Ham advances
Dean Ashton scored in both halves to lead West Ham over Manchester City 2-1 on Monday for a berth in the FA Cup semifinals, its first since 1991. Ashton put West Ham ahead 1-0 in the 41st minute, scoring on a shot past the near post and behind David James. He made it 2-0 in the 69th, chipping home a close-range shot. The goal came 13 minutes after Man City was reduced to 10 men after winger Sun Jihai was red-carded for swinging his arm at a West Ham player. Ashton's first goal was the only attempt for either side in the first half. The second half was better played, but the edge went to counterattacking West Ham after City was down a man. City's brightest moment was Kiki Musampa's score on an 18m volley in the 85th. City was trying to reach its first semifinal in 25 years, but was playing without three players injured in a weekend loss to Wigan -- Georgios Samaras, Trevor Sinclair and Claudio Reyna. The match was the first of four quarterfinals this week. Birmingham faced Liverpool yesterday, Chelsea plays Newcastle today and Charlton meets Middlesbrough tomorrow.
■ Tennis
Mauresmo now No. 1
Australian Open champion Amelie Mauresmo will start this week's NASDAQ-100 Open in the US as the top-ranked woman in the world, again. Mauresmo replaced Kim Clijsters atop the WTA Tour rankings on Monday, regaining the No. 1 position she held for five weeks in September-October 2004. She and Clijsters missed last week's Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, which was won by Maria Sharapova. Clijsters won the Indian Wells title last year, but the Belgian has been out injured and fell to No. 2 in the rankings after losing her points from that win. Justine Henin-Hardenne was third in the rankings, followed by Sharapova and Lindsay Davenport. Mary Pierce, Nadia Petrova, Elena Dementieva, Patty Schnyder and Venus Williams round out the top 10. All but the injured Davenport are entered in the NASDAQ-100 Open starting on Wednesday in Key Biscayne, Florida. Clijsters is the defending champion. Mauresmo, the first and only French man or woman to be No. 1, leads the WTA Tour this year with three titles, including her first Grand Slam. She has 3,511 points, and Clijsters 3,290. In the previous rankings on March 6, Mauresmo trailed by only 28 points.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB