SOCCER
Roma win to stay second
Edin Dzeko struck his 19th Serie A goal and Francesco Totti came off the bench with an assist as AS Roma kept their scudetto hopes alive with a 4-1 win over Torino on Sunday. Roma’s 18th win of the campaign saw Luciano Spalletti’s men leapfrog SSC Napoli, 3-1 winners at AC Chievo Verona, and return to second spot, seven points behind leaders Juventus. “We were great tonight,” Spalletti told Premium Sport. “After our win at Villarreal we risked struggling to get into this game, but instead we showed our true qualities.” “We were never going to cause an upset by winning here tonight because Roma are better than us and are undefeated at home all season,” Torino coach Sinisa Mihajlovic told Sky Sport. Marek Hamsik moved to within three strikes of Diego Maradona’s Napoli record of 115 goals in his side’s 3-1 win, while 20-year-old Brazil international Gabriel “Gabigol” Barbosa came off the bench to hit his maiden Serie A goal for Inter and secure a 1-0 win at Bologna. “I’m really happy, for my first goal and for this important win,” Barbosa said. “I hope it’s the start of something special.”
CRICKET
Afridi quits internationals
Flamboyant all-rounder Shahid Afridi says he has quit international cricket and is focusing on playing in the Pakistan Super League for the next two years. “I have said goodbye to international cricket,” Afridi told reporters in Sharjah on Sunday after his 28-ball 54 nearly pulled off a victory for the Peshawar Zalmi against the Karachi Kings. “I am playing for my fans and will continue to play this league for another two years, but it’s goodbye from international cricket. Now my foundation is important for me. I have played with seriousness and in a professional way for my country.” The 36-year-old played 98 Twenty20 internationals, scoring 1,405 runs at a strike rate of 150.75, while taking 97 wickets.
TENNIS
Chang crashes out in Dubai
Taiwanese qualifier Chang Kai-chen crashed out of the first round of the Dubai Tennis Championships on Sunday, falling to a 6-2, 6-4 defeat to Japan’s Naomi Osaka in 1 hour, 19 minutes, while Krystyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic came from a set down to upset 16th seed Roberta Vinci of Italy 3-6, 7-5, 6-3. The Czech world No. 58, who played under the watchful eye of her twin sister, second seed Karolina Pliskova, was facing defeat as Vinci served for the match at 6-3, 5-4, but Krystyna Pliskova won the next four games and then broke Vinci’s serve in the sixth game of the third set to secure the victory. “I was trying to fight the whole match, but sometimes you play bad games,” she said. “I tried to be more aggressive and she made some mistakes.”
GOLF
Johnson takes No. 1 ranking
Dustin Johnson of the US secured the world No. 1 ranking in style when he smoked the field for a five-stroke victory at the Genesis Open in southern California on Sunday. With the victory, Johnson jumped from third to first in the world rankings, supplanting Australian Jason Day, who finished tied for 64th. “I believe in myself. I think I’m a great player,” a delighted Johnson said after his runaway victory. “It was a long day, but played really great all day,” Johnson said after a marathon 36-hole day to make up for Friday’s near washout.
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