TENNIS
Jarkko Nieminen advances
Finnish veteran Jarkko Nieminen beat eighth-seeded Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 to reach the second round of the Open Sud de France on Tuesday. The 33-year-old Nieminen broke his opponent’s serve three times and next meets either Japan’s Tatsuma Ito or Steve Darcis of Belgium. Meanwhile, Kenny de Schepper, one of several Frenchmen to reach the second round, had 10 aces in a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win against Turkey’s Marsel Ilhan and next faces top-seeded Gael Monfils of France, the defending champion. Edouard Roger-Vasselin, Paul-Henri Mathieu and wild-card Lucas Pouille also advanced. Roger-Vasselin served 14 aces as he beat Germany’s Andreas Beck 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; Mathieu downed qualifier Taro Daniel of Japan 6-3, 6-7 (7/5), 6-1, while Pouille beat Russian Alexander Kudryavtsev 6-4, 7-6 (7/4).
TENNIS
Lajovic wins in Ecuador
Seventh-seeded Dusan Lajovic of Serbia has reached the second round of the Ecuador Open, defeating Luca Vanni of Italy 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 on Tuesday. In a match between unseeded players, Alejandro Falla of Colombia beat Brazilian Joao Souza 6-7 (7/3), 6-1, 6-4 to advance. The four top-seeded players — Feliciano Lopez, Santiago Giraldo, Fernando Verdasco and Martin Klizan — have byes into the second round. The Quito event is the first in a month of ATP and WTA clay-court tournaments across Latin America, all pointing toward the French Open in May.
BOXING
Carl Froch vacates title
Carl Froch has vacated his IBF super middleweight title because of an elbow injury, giving fellow British boxer James DeGale a chance to claim it. The 37-year-old Froch was hurt in training, ending hopes of meeting Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in Las Vegas on March 28. Froch (33-2, 24 KO) said: “It’s been a frustrating couple of weeks with terms agreed for the Chavez fight, only for me to be unable to proceed in camp due to injury.” He won the belt in 2012 and successfully defended it four times, most recently in May last year by stopping George Groves at Wembley in London. He retains the WBA crown, which he won in 2013 against Mikkel Kessler. Froch still hopes to line up Chavez this year. DeGale (24-1, 14 KO) was the IBF’s mandatory challenger and is in negotiations for a fight in London in April.
SOCCER
Algeria to keep Gourcuff
Frenchman Christian Gourcuff is set to remain as Algeria coach despite their quarter-final elimination from the Africa Cup of Nations, the Algerian Football Federation (FAF) confirmed on Tuesday. “FAF president Mohamed Raouraoua has renewed his confidence in The Greens’ [Algeria] coach Christian Gourcuff,” an FAF spokesman said. The former Lorient boss signed a contract in August last year and the decision to renew his contract was taken just after their elimination by Ivory Coast from the tournament in Africa. “There will be changes within the Greens. Some players are entering their 30s and are preparing to leave the team,” Gourcuff said. “We’ll have to call up other younger players. We already have a core of young and good players around which the future national team will be built. We’ll only need to reinforce certain areas by other elements for upcoming deadlines, notably the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations and the 2018 World Cup.”
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