■ TENNIS
Tsonga to play at Wimbledon
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who beat Lleyton Hewitt at Queen's, received a wild-card invitation on Friday to play at Wimbledon. The French qualifier beat the four-time champion 7-6 (5), 7-6 (2) on Wednesday in the second round before losing on Thursday to Croatian qualifier Marin Cilic 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. Cilic, who also received a wild card on Friday, was defeated by Andy Roddick 6-4, 7-6 (5). Britain's Katie O'Brien got the final wild card for the women's tournament. Wimbledon starts on June 25.
■ VOLLEYBALL
Brazil in seventh straight win
Olympic and world champions Brazil routed Canada 25-21, 25-20, 25-13 on Friday for their seventh straight win in the World League volleyball championship. Leading setter Ricardinho returned to the lineup and Brazil rested five Olympic starters for the Pool A match of the 16-team tournament. Brazil have already defeated Finland twice and South Korea four times in the round-robin tournament. Brazil and Canada were due to play again yesterday. Each team plays at home and away against all group members over six weeks, with the final round to be played July 11 to July 15 in Katowice, Poland.
■ RUGBY LEAGUE
Wigan rout the Dragons
Wigan ran in five tries in a 30-0 Super League defeat of Catalans Dragons on Friday in a dress rehearsal for next month's Challenge Cup semi-final between the two teams. Mark Calderwood, Chris Ashton, Pat Richards, Trent Barrett and Phil Bailey all crossed the line in a dominant performance by the home side which kept Wigan in fourth place. John Wilshere's two penalties inspired a priceless 5-2 victory for new Salford coach Shaun McRae from a dismal and low-scoring encounter with Harlequins at the Willows. Wilshere landed a penalty in either half and those scores, coupled with a 66th-minute drop goal from Luke Robinson, proved just enough to see off Harlequins.
■ SOCCER
Haitian teens return home
Five Haitian players in the Under-17 World Cup-bound national team who mysteriously disappeared during a stopover in New York returned home on Friday, the government said as it announced a probe into the embarrassing incident. Haitian Sports Minister Fritz Belisaire did not say whether the five teens, who were among 13 of the team's 18 players who went missing, were being punished or if they would be dropped from the team's roster for the U17 World Cup in South Korea. Five other players flew from Haiti to New York on Thursday to join the rest of the team, Haitian consul general Felix Augustin said. All arrived on Friday in South Korea to play a tournament ahead of the World Cup.
■ CYCLING
Colom wins fifth stage
Spain's Antonio Colom Mas won the fifth stage of the Dauphine Libere on Friday, while Astana teammate Andrey Kashechkin kept the overall lead. Colom pulled away from a 22-rider breakaway at the start of the climb up the Col du Corobin an hour before the finish of the 195km stage and held on to win, helped by teammate Alexandre Vinokourov who finished second. Colombia's Leonardo Duque of the Cofidis team came in third, 15 seconds behind, according to provisional results. Kashechkin was 3 minutes, 27 seconds behind for 27th place, while Thursday's fourth-stage winner Christophe Moreau was in 25th with the same time.
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
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite