■FOOTBALL
QB accused of assault
A civil lawsuit has been filed in Nevada against Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger by a woman who accuses him of sexually assaulting her in a Lake Tahoe hotel room last July. Roethlisberger’s lawyer, David Cornwell, said Roethlisberger denied the charge. According to the civil complaint filed last Friday in the Second Judicial District Court in Washoe County, Nevada, the woman accused Roethlisberger of assault while he was a guest at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe, where she is an employee. The suit is also for libel and slander and is filed against nine defendants, including Roethlisberger. The eight others are reportedly employees at Harrah’s whom the woman accused of defaming her after the assault. Roethlisberger was in Lake Tahoe last July for a celebrity golf tournament. The woman said she was working on the penthouse floor at Harrah’s where Roethlisberger was staying when he assaulted her in his hotel room. She is seeking damages of at least US$390,000.
■FOOTBALL
Anthony buys Miami share
Singer Marc Anthony is the latest music star to join forces with the Miami Dolphins, with the team announcing on Tuesday that he will become a minority owner. Singer Gloria Estefan and her husband, producer Emilio Estefan, also bought a small stake in the club last month. New Dolphins owner Stephen Ross also began a partnership in May with Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville enterprise, which includes Land Shark Lager. Buffett has yet to accept Ross’ invitation to become a minority owner, but the Dolphins’ stadium has been renamed Land Shark Stadium for this season. Buffett has also written a song for the team. Anthony is married to singer-actress Jennifer Lopez. He has sold more than 10 million albums and is also an actor.
■BASEBALL
MLB suspends Sveum
Milwaukee Brewers hitting coach Dale Sveum has been suspended for three games and fined for aggressive actions toward the umpires following Sunday’s game against the Reds in Cincinnati, MLB said on Tuesday. After home plate umpire Kevin Causey called out Craig Counsell on strikes to end a 5-3 Reds win, Sveum berated Causey on his way to the umpires’ dressing room, prompting crew chief Derryl Cousins to step in.
■ICE HOCKEY
Coyotes re-acquire Vrbata
Right wing Radim Vrbata has been re-acquired by the Phoenix Coyotes from the Tampa Bay Lightning in a trade for left wing Todd Fedoruk and defenseman David Hale, the NHL teams said on Tuesday. “He [Vrbata] had a career year for us in 2007-08 and is a talented forward who can help us offensively next season,” Coyotes general manager Don Maloney said on the team’s Web site.
■BASKETBALL
Burks shot, hospitalized
Former NBA and Euroleague guard Antonio Burks was in critical condition at a Memphis hospital on Tuesday after being shot a day earlier during a robbery. The 29-year-old, a former player for the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies, underwent surgery on Monday night after being shot in the lower part of his torso, authorities at the Memphis Regional Medical Center said. Police said Burks and four other men were in a backyard when robbed by three other men, who shot Burks and another man who was not identitifed but was also in critical condition. Burks spent two seasons with the Grizzlies, averaging 2.3 points and 1.3 rebounds in 81 games from 2004 through 2006.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier