■ Sailing
`Alinghi' wins third straight
Defending America's Cup champion Alinghi won its third straight fleet race on Friday to take a big lead at the top of the Louis Vuitton Act 13 standings. The Swiss yacht led from the start and easily won the fourth fleet race, a day after all racing was suspended due to poor weather. Alinghi leads the Act 13 standings with 45 points, nine more than US entry BMW Oracle Racing and Macalzone Latino of Italy, which finished 1 minute, 7 seconds behind Alinghi in second.
■ Basketball
McGrady, Yao sit out
Both Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming were inactive for the Rockets' NBA contest against the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday because of back problems. McGrady's absence comes just two days after the swingman managed to play just six minutes in the first quarter of Wednesday's 110-99 loss to Golden State with a stiff lower back. Yao, who is listed as day-to-day with a sore lower back, is unaware of how he suffered his injury after scoring nine points and grabbing 11 rebounds in 30 minutes against the Warriors.
■ Auto racing
Lewis turns fastest time
Formula One rookie Lewis Hamilton turned the tables on some of the bigger names by leading yesterday's practice before qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix. Hamilton, Formula One's first black driver, went around the Sepang International Circuit in his McLaren-Mercedes in 1 minute, 34.811 seconds to edge Felipe Massa, who led both of Friday's practices in a Ferrari, clocking in at 1:34.593. Massa won the last race of last year then looked sharp over the winter. Then he had a gearbox problem for the season opener in Australia last month and had to start from the rear of the grid.
■ Golf
Club to host Woods' tourney
The members of Congressional Country Club voted to host Tiger Woods' new tournament for the next two years. Club president Stuart Long said on Friday that more than 90 percent of the members said yes to the AT&T National, scheduled this year for July 5 to July 8. About 1,300 members voted using mail-in ballots over the past three weeks. The tournament, which will be run by the Tiger Woods Foundation, replaces the International outside Denver, which was canceled earlier this year because organizers couldn't find a sponsor. Woods announced his new tournament in February before he had a venue in place, but he and US PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem openly lobbied for Congressional to host the event.
■ Soccer
Porto routs Setubal
Adriano Louzada scored twice and Jorginho Souza, Helder Postiga and Anderson Oliveira added three more in FC Porto's 5-1 rout of Setubal in the Portuguese league on Friday. Porto extended its lead in the standings to four points over Benfica, which has a game in hand. Porto has 56 and Benfica 52 with six rounds left. Setubal remained 14th in the 16-team standings with 19 points from 24 matches. Jorginho headed in the first goal in the fourth minute. Adriano put in his first 10 minutes later, and in the 20th Helder Postiga made it 3-0 from a Ricardo Quaresma pass. Adriano returned to head in the fourth in the 35th after another arched pass from Quaresma, and Anderson Oliveira sealed the result in the 76th.
Japan’s Shohei Ohtani is the record-breaking baseball “superhuman” following in the footsteps of the legendary Babe Ruth who has also earned comparisons to US sporting greats Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. Not since Ruth a century ago has there been a baseball player capable of both pitching and hitting at the top level. The 30-year-old’s performances with the Los Angeles Dodgers have consolidated his position as a baseball legend in the making, and a national icon in his native Japan. He continues to find new ways to amaze, this year becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases
More than 180 years of horse racing came to an end in Singapore on Saturday, as the Singapore Turf Club hosted its final race day before its track is handed back to the Singaporean government to provide land for new homes. Under an overcast sky, the air-conditioned VIP boxes were full of enthusiasts, socialites and expats, while the grounds and betting halls below hosted mostly older-generation punters. The sun broke through for the last race, the last-ever Grand Singapore Gold Cup. The winner, South African jockey Muzi Yeni, echoed a feeling of loss shared by many on the day. “I’d
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
Francesco Bagnaia yesterday profited from a mistake by rookie Pedro Acosta to win the Japan MotoGP sprint and close the gap on overall championship leader, Jorge Martin. Spaniard Acosta crashed with four laps to go while leading the field at Motegi, allowing defending world champion Bagnaia to take first ahead of Enea Bastianini and Marc Marquez. Spain’s Martin finished fourth and saw his overall lead over Italian Bagnaia in the championship standings cut to 15 points. “I am very happy because with these conditions, it’s not very easy to win and gain points,” Bagnaia said after a sprint race that took place under
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