BASKETBALL
NBA to mark Lunar New Year
The NBA will reach out to its Chinese fan-base with a weeklong series of events to coincide with Lunar New Year celebrations. The Year of the Dragon will be marked by the showing of 21 NBA games on Chinese television stations as well as a variety of Chinese-themed events in both the US and China. “Chinese New Year is a fun time of year and we wanted to join in the festivities,” NBA spokeswoman Heidi Ueberroth said. The event begins with the televising of three games on Chinese-language TV on Saturday, including the Los Angeles Lakers at Orlando on Guangdong TV. On Sunday, the Washington Wizards will host a variety of Lunar New Year events during their game against the Boston Celtics.
BASEBALL
Phillies, Hamels agree
The Philadelphia Phillies avoided arbitration with Cole Hamels by agreeing to a one-year, US$15 million contract with the two-time All-Star pitcher, the MLB team said on Tuesday. The left-hander posted a 14-9 record with Philadelphia last season, which marked the fifth consecutive campaign he has won at least 10 games. Hamels, 28, had a 2.79 earned run average in 31 starts during the regular season last year and also won Game 3 of the NL Division Series against the eventual World Series champion St Louis Cardinals.
BASEBALL
Brewers sign Japan’s Aoki
Three-time Japanese batting champion Norichika Aoki signed a two-year contract with the Milwaukee Brewers, the MLB club announced on Tuesday. The Brewers paid Aoki’s Japanese club, the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, a US$2.5 million fee for the right to negotiate with the 30-year-old outfielder. The left-handed slugger has played his entire eight-year career with the Swallows, batting .329 and belting 84 home runs in 985 games. “He never asked about [playing time], he’s just confident that he can come over and show us his skill set,” general manager Doug Melvin said. “He’s met a lot of challenges in Japan. He’s won batting titles, he’s won Gold Gloves, he’s been an All-Star.” Aoki was Japan’s batting champion in 2005 (.344), 2007 (.346) and 2010 (.358). He also represented Japan at two World Baseball Classic tournaments.
SNOOKER
Robertson into final eight
Australia’s 2010 world snooker champion Neil Robertson booked his place in the last eight of the Masters in London on Tuesday, beating Northern Irishman Mark Allen 6-3. For Robertson — who swept to victory with four frames in a row when he trailed 3-2 — it was sweet revenge after being beaten by Allen in the quarter-finals of this tournament last year. The man who replaced Robertson as world champion, Scottish cuesman John Higgins, also reached the quarter-finals as he prevailed 6-2 over Englishman Matthew Stevens.
GYMNASTICS
UK rhythmic team ousted
Britain have fallen short of the required qualifying score and will not be able to compete in the rhythmic gymnastics group event at the London Olympics. Britain’s rhythmic group needed to score 45.223 at the test event at the O2 arena, which also served as a second Olympic qualifier. However, the team fell .273 short on Tuesday, finishing with a score of 44.950. Britain appealed, but it was rejected by the International Gymnastics Federation. Frankie Jones had already given the host nation a spot in individual rhythmic gymnastics, qualifying at last year’s world championships.
SOCCER
Newcastle sign Cisse
Newcastle United have signed Senegal striker Papiss Cisse from bottom of the table Bundesliga team SC Freiburg on a five-and-a-half year deal, the Premier League club said on Tuesday. Although the fee was undisclosed, it is likely to be the biggest of this month’s transfer window so far, with local media reporting that it is about £10 million (US$15.35 million). The 26-year-old must wait to make his debut, as he is on international duty at the African Nations Cup.
TENNIS
Bogomolov makes waves
Alex Bogomolov Jr is all of a sudden a man in demand, but it isn’t his tennis that’s attracting all the attention at the Australian Open. After a mainly mediocre career, the 28-year-old put together the best results of his life last season, rising from outside the top 100 to No. 33 in the rankings, to be voted by his peers as the most improved player last year. In November, he announced that he wanted to play for Russia, the country of his birth, instead of the US, where he has lived and trained since 1992. He then sparked a mini-drama on the eve of the Australian Open when he tweeted: “A players strike here at the Australian Open?? YES SIR!!”
OLYMPICS
Close shave for eBay athlete
A shaving company has come to the rescue of a British athlete who put himself up for auction on eBay to secure sponsorship for the London Olympics, only to find the winning bidder was a hoax. Top sprinter James Ellington thought he had raised £32,550 through the Web site after receiving 71 bids from 45 interested parties in an auction that closed last month. “Going on eBay gave me amazing exposure, but unfortunately the winning bidder wasn’t genuine,” the 26-year-old Londoner said in a statement on Tuesday. “Thankfully Will King, the CEO of King of Shaves, stepped in and ‘shaved’ my life. I couldn’t be happier the deal has been sorted. Now I can focus on winning a medal for Great Britain.” Ellington, a 100m and 200m runner, competed in last year’s world championships in Daegu, South Korea, but lost out on Olympic funding after enduring four years of injury problems. Desperate to be in the running for his home Games, he had set a target of raising £30,000 to provide him with enough to train and pay for travel, accommodation, kit and nutritional support. In return, he had promised to wear the sponsor’s branded kit at every possible opportunity until after the Games, which start on July 27.
CYCLING
Cavendish starts on Feb. 5
World road race champion Mark Cavendish is scheduled to begin this year’s season at the Tour of Qatar, staged between Feb. 5 and 10, his Sky team announced on Tuesday. The Manx Missile, a winner of two stages at the event in 2009, is set to be joined in an eight-man squad by Davide Apollonio, Michael Barry, Juan Antonio Flecha, Jeremy Hunt, Ian Stannard and Christian Knees, as well as Bernhard Eisel, who followed Cavendish to the British outfit in October. Cavendish will also take part in the Tour of Oman, scheduled to take place from Feb. 14 to 19. Meanwhile, triple Olympic gold medallist Bradley Wiggins plans to get his campaign underway at the Tour of the Algarve, held in Portugal from Feb. 15 to 19. Chris Froome, who finished second at last year’s Vuelta a Espana, equaling the highest-placed finish for a British rider in a major Tour, is scheduled to start his year at the Tour of Majorca, slated to take place from Feb. 5 to 9.
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