TENNIS
Pospisil out of Chennai Open
Vasek Pospisil of Canada was the only seed not to reach the Chennai Open second round when he lost to Aljaz Bedene of Britain 7-5, 7-6 (8/6) on Tuesday. Pospisil, seeded seventh, beat Bedene two months ago indoors in Valencia, Spain, but the closely ranked pair virtually went point for point outdoors in Chennai, India. The other two seeds in action, No. 5 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain and No. 6 Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, won three-setters. Russian teen Andrey Rublev, a wild card, beat local qualifier Somdev Devvarman 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 for a shot at two-time defending champion Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland. Also the top seed, Wawrinka is aiming for a fourth Chennai title. Second-seeded Kevin Anderson of South Africa also learned of his next opponent, 248th-ranked wild-card Ramkumar Ramanathan of India, who beat Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain 6-2, 6-0 for his second career win on the ATP Tour.
SOCCER
Dyke eyes England success
Football Association (FA) chairman Greg Dyke said: “We’ll all shoot ourselves” if Roy Hodgson’s team fall at the group stage of Euro 2016. England face Wales, Russia and Slovakia in the tournament in France from June 10, haunted by the memory of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, where they were eliminated at the group phase for the first time since 1958. Dyke stood by manager Hodgson after the debacle in Brazil, but said a repeat this year would mean heads would roll. “I think we’ll all shoot ourselves if we don’t get out of the group,” Dyke said. “We’ve got to get out of that group. If we don’t, that really is bad news for English football.” The 68-year-old former BBC director-general was speaking at the launch of a year of celebrations to commemorate the 50th anniversary of England’s 1966 World Cup success. “The FA is the richest FA in the world, the most income. The FA has to take some of the blame,” Dyke said.
SOCCER
Elect right man: Prince Ali
Suspended FIFA president Sepp Blatter and suspended UEFA president Michel Platini were “totally irresponsible” to agree a payment that has brought ignominy to world soccer, said Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, who hopes to take over the FIFA presidency next month. The Jordanian crown prince said the global governing body would be heading for a new “catastrophe” if it fails to elect the right candidate to succeed Blatter in the presidential election on Feb. 26. Eight-year bans against Blatter and Platini have left the pair in disgrace and fighting to save their names. Prince Ali said there is no way they could avoid trouble over a US$2 million payment approved by Blatter to Platini in 2011, adding that it is the sort of dark practice that must be rooted out. “In this day and age, to have an oral agreement is totally irresponsible,” he said.
FOOTBALL
Browns hire DePodesta
The Cleveland Browns hired MLB executive Paul DePodesta of as their chief strategy officer on Tuesday, taking an unconventional route to fix their NFL woes. DePodesta, 43, served as the vice president of player development and scouting for the New York Mets from 2010 and helped the franchise reach the World Series this past season. DePodesta previously had front office roles with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres. He gained further exposure as a key figure of Moneyball, a book-turned-movie that chronicled the Oakland Athletics and their method of using sabermetrics to target players.
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