■BRAZIL
Gremio sack Silas
Former Brazil midfielder Silas has been sacked as coach of Gremio after his side slumped to a 2-1 loss to a 10-man Fluminense side in the championship on Sunday. Rio de Janeiro-based ‘Flu’ had midfielder Bob sent off just past the hour for a second booking after scoring early goals through fullback Mariano and striker Emerson. A late goal to Gremio’s Andre Lima was not enough to save Silas, who became the 22nd coaching change of the season among the 20 top-flight clubs. Silas leaves the team from Porto Alegre in 18th place after a fifth defeat in 13 games. He denied media reports that he had planned to quit Gremio to take the vacancy at Sao Paulo after Ricardo Gomes was sacked mid-week. “I’d like to clear up a lie that prejudiced today’s outcome saying I’d already said goodbye to the players,” Silas told reporters. “Sao Paulo have not invited me to go there. Whoever has worked with me these last seven months knows the sort of person I am.”
■MEXICO
Queretaro crash to defeat
Modest Queretaro, who had made a good start to the Apertura Championship, were brought down to earth in a 6-0 defeat at Morelia on Sunday. Striker Miguel Sabah, denied a place in Mexico’s World Cup squad by injury, scored a hat-trick as Morelia ran rings around Queretaro, who had won their opening two games. Morelia, with a perfect record of two wins and no goals conceded, have a game in hand and are second, one point behind Puebla in Group Three, one of three groups into which the championship is divided. Santos Laguna lead Group One with a maximum nine points after Saturday’s 3-0 away win over Pachuca that took their goal tally to 11. Guadalajara, who are at home to Internacional of Brazil in the first leg of the Libertadores Cup final tomorrow, won 1-0 at San Luis and are fourth in Group One. Pachuca are joint top of Group Two with America, both on four points. Title holders Toluca, held 1-1 at Chiapas on Saturday, have yet to win after three matches.
■RUSSIA
Champs down Tomsk
Reigning champions Rubin Kazan sealed a hard-fought 2-1 win against visiting Tomsk on Sunday to stay in the title chase behind league leaders Zenit St Petersburg. Zenit still sit top with 39 points and a game in hand, seven points ahead of Rubin with CSKA Moscow third on 30 points, also with a game in hand. Midfielder Alexander Ryazantsev put the hosts ahead after 35 minutes, sending the ball home with a header from Vitaly Kaleshin’s cross. However, the visitors leveled just two minutes later through forward Artem Dzyba, who found the net with a close-range header from a freekick. After the break Rubin stepped up a gear pinning the guests back and in the 64th minute defender Alexander Orekhov scored the winner with a header from a freekick.
■NETHERLANDS
Ajax surrender lead to draw
Ajax, missing suspended Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez, surrendered a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 with Groningen on Sunday in their Dutch league opener. Mounir El Hamdaoui scored both of Ajax’s goals but Martin Jol’s men were pegged back through Tim Matavz and then Niclas Pedersen in the 87th minute. Fellow title favorites Feyenoord came from a goal down to defeat Utrecht 3-1. Ricky van Wolfswinkel put Utrecht ahead in the 11th minute before Feyenoord leveled when Alje Schut put through his own goal on 52 minutes. Luigi Bruins and Leroy Fer wrapped up the three points for Feyenord.
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