World No. 1 Serena Williams, fresh from winning a record sixth Miami Masters title, is to seek her third trophy of the season at the WTA Family Circle Cup clay-court event.
Defending champion and top seed Williams, who like the other top-eight seeds received a first-round bye, was to play her first match yesterday against Italy’s Camila Giorgi, who eliminated Mandy Minella 6-4, 6-4 on Monday.
Williams, a 15-time Grand Slam singles champion, won at Charleston in 2008. The 31-year-old American won this year at Brisbane as well as Miami, where she downed World No. 2 Maria Sharapova of Russia in the final.
Photo: AFP
Danish second seed Caroline Wozniacki has won four clay titles in her career, including at Charleston in 2011.
Wozniacki was to open against Spain’s Silvia Soler-Espinosa, who outlasted Italy’s Francesca Schiavone 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (8/6) in the opening round.
Australia’s third-seeded Samantha Stosur, the 2010 Charleston champion, is also in the mix, playing her first event since pulling out of Indian Wells with a calf injury.
Stosur, of Brisbane, was to open against either New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic or Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova.
Other seeds in the field of 56 include Americans Sloane Stephens and Venus Williams, Czech Lucie Safarova, Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro and Germany’s Mona Barthel.
Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig beat Czech Andrea Hlavackova 6-4, 6-0 to book a second-round date with Venus Williams.
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
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB