■CYCLING
Hoy unhurt after car crash
British Olympic cycling champion Sir Chris Hoy emerged unscathed after an accident in his £80,000 (US$127,560) Jaguar. Hoy’s new XKR sports car was involved in a collision with a Vauxhall Vectra as he was about to turn onto a main road on Thursday evening near the National Cycling Center in Manchester. A spokeswoman for Hoy said the cycling star was not hurt in the accident and is continuing with his training in preparation for the start of the season. “Chris was slowly edging forwards to turn right into a main road when the front of his car was hit from the right by a car that had overtaken the queue of stationary traffic by driving on the chevron area. The driver of the other car apologized to Chris and admitted it was his fault,” she said.
■TENNIS
Nadal, Djokovic double up
World No. 1 Rafael Nadal and second-ranked Novak Djokovic are playing doubles together at the ATP Masters Series Canada tournament that starts today, the first such 1-2 singles pairing since 1976. Not since Jimmy Connors was ranked first and Arthur Ashe was second when they played together 34 years ago at North Conway, New Hampshire, have the ATP’s top two singles players joined forces in doubles, according to the tour.
■TENNIS
Stosur pulls out of WTA
World No. 5 Samantha Stosur has pulled out of next week’s WTA tournament in Cincinnati, Ohio, with an arm injury that has bothered her since her first match at the Stanford Classic last week. It led to a hospital visit after her quarter-final loss to Italy’s Flavia Pennetta at the San Diego Open on Friday. A doctor advised her to rest her arm. “It’s like a really strong, heavy ache when it starts and I can’t get rid of it until I get off the court,” the Australian told reporters in San Diego. “I can’t work out what’s going on.” World No. 4 Venus Williams pulled out of Cincinnati on Friday with a knee injury. No. 2 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia is the top seed.
■SWIMMING
Cleri wins open water race
Valerio Cleri of Italy won the 25km open water race at the European swimming championships on Saturday. Cleri timed 5 hours, 16 minutes, 38.3 seconds, beating Bertrand Venturi of France by 16.4 seconds. Another Frenchman, Joanes Hedel, was third. The event was held on the north coast’s Lake Balaton, 130km south of Budapest. In Budapest, world champion Natalia Ischenko of Russia added the European title in the solo free event in synchronized swimming, scoring 98.900 points. Andrea Fuentes of Spain was second with 96.600 points, ahead of Ukraine’s Lolita Ananasova with 93.000. In the team free event, Ischenko helped Russia to gold, ahead of Spain and Ukraine.
■BASEBALL
Hunter suspended for tirade
Los Angeles Angels outfielder Torii Hunter has been suspended for four games after a tirade that included “making contact” with an umpire, Major League Baseball said on Saturday. Hunter was also fined an undisclosed amount for his outburst against umpire Ron Kulpa during the Angels’ 4-2 victory over the host Detroit Tigers on Friday. The outfielder began arguing with Kulpa after striking out in the eighth inning and after his ejection Hunter tossed a bag of baseballs onto the field.
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