GOLF
Legend Wright dies aged 85
Hall of Famer Mickey Wright, the only LPGA golfer to hold all major titles at the same time, died on Monday, the LPGA said. The American was 85. Wright won 82 tournaments, second only to compatriot Kathy Whitworth (88), and claimed 13 majors in a career that stretched from 1955 until retirement in 1969 because of foot problems. “She was the best I’ve ever seen, man or woman,” Whitworth once told ESPN. “I’ve had the privilege of playing with Sam Snead and Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer and all of them … nobody hit it like Mickey, just nobody. She had 82 wins, but she would have won over 100 with no trouble if she had stayed on tour.” Ben Hogan said that Wright had the finest golf swing he ever saw. LPGA commissioner Mike Whan echoed that sentiment on Monday. “We are deeply saddened to learn about the passing of Mickey Wright,” Whan said in a statement. “We lost a legend, but we may also have lost the best swing in golf history today.” Wright, who began playing golf at age 12, was inducted into the Hall of Fame of Women’s Golf in 1964 and the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame when it was created in 1967. She became a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1976. She had 13 victories in 1963, which remains the LPGA Tour record, and the next season won 11 times, which was tied by Swede Annika Sorenstam for the second-most victories in a season.
MIXED MARTIAL ARTS
Show to go on in Singapore
ONE Championship said that its event in Singapore on Friday next week is to go ahead behind closed doors due to concerns about an outbreak of COVID-19. Singapore’s tally of 77 cases is one of the highest outside of China. Fans who had purchased tickets for the event at the 12,000-capacity Singapore Indoor Stadium would receive refunds, it said on Facebook. The virus has already forced ONE Championship to relocate its April 10 event from Chongqing, China, to Jakarta.
SOCCER
Rebic lifts AC Milan to win
AC Milan on Monday closed in on the European places in Serie A after Ante Rebic fired them to a 1-0 win over Torino. Rebic swept home Samu Castillejo’s low pullback in the 25th minute to draw Milan level on 35 points with Hellas Verona, who currently occupy the final UEFA Europa League spot on goal-difference. Rebic’s winning goal was his sixth in seven games in all competitions, a run that comes after failing to score at all in the first half of the season. The Croatian’s strike helped the hosts bounce back from last week’s derby disappointment against Inter to continue a positive run under coach Stefano Pioli that also saw them unlucky not to beat Juventus in the Coppa Italia semi-final first leg last week. They have lost just once since the turn of the year — to title-chasing Inter — and are playing well enough to aim for European soccer next season. However, the UEFA Champions League will likely be beyond them thanks to the 10-point gap between them and fourth-placed Atalanta BC. Meanwhile, Torino are inching closer to the relegation zone after their fifth straight defeat, a slump that shows little sign of ending. They are just five points from the drop, despite bringing in Moreno Longo to replace Walter Mazzarri earlier this month.
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